ARES Radio Station

ARES: Once upon a time, there was an organization known as the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, a group of volunteers who would assist with communications during national emergencies. The Fall was one such emergency. The Service would help many refugees in the wake of the annihilation of civilization, and alert each other of the dangers that came out of the the apocalypse. Many communities owed their survival to the work of the Service in the weeks following the Fall.

Staying in communication with each other as the years passed, they would pass their gear and techniques down to their children and their children's children. But across the Wasteland, many of these groups would eventually vanish, their signals vanishing into the ether as desperate last transmissions talked of bandits, raiders, mutants, plagues and worse overwhelming them. But in the Homeland, they managed to hold on, operating out of their headquarters at the peak of the mountains containing their massive broadcast array. It eventually became known as the Array, and was the hub of their operations.

Known as ARES now, they style themselves as the guiding light of communication in the wasteland, controlling radios in settlements across the forests, mountains and plains of the Homeland. They make mutually beneficial arrangements with settlements across the Homeland. Provide donations of supplies and material to ARES, and they'll set up one of their Radio Operators in their town with a ham radio set, and provide communications, music and information. The Radio Operators profess a strict code of neutrality. They'll provide communication for communities they reside in, but won't take sides in fights or conflicts.

Rumors that ARES leadership is in communication with other surviving ARES groups outside the Homeland have never been confirmed

Face: Rider is the smooth talking leader of ARES, who took control after an internal election a year ago. He resides in The Array, and has been pursuing a more aggressive philosophy towns telecommunications, sending out more and more radio operators to increase the radius of their communications. He rarely leaves the Array itself, but is quite well known among the Homeland, as he makes a point of providing news broadcasts at infrequent intervals with a unique style.

Surpluses

• Leadership: Rider and his immediate staff are well liked among the ARES members, and are believed to have a good eye for the future of ARES. Most of his people will obey him without question.
• Communication: The control of the Array and their network of Ham radio operators means that ARES is always in touch with their people and anything that happens near one of them gets propagated through the faction rapidly.
• Trade: They recently made a deal with the People for a cut of the profits from Harmony Wharf.

Needs

• Recruits: Rider's philosophy of rapidly expanding new stations have left ARES thin on the ground. They need more people to train as both radio operators, perform maintenance on the Array and to serve as security.
• Energy: Rider's expansion has caused the Array to be in more and more constant use. Their generators and power supplies are running low, and they've begun looking for new methods to keep it running.
• Transportation: The group recently sold most of their vehicles to the People in exchange for trade concessions and goods.

Alliance Move When a Radio Operator provides communication for a family that aids them in one of their goals, ARES gains 1-Treaty on them.