It's not too hard to fill in their blanks and out do Bethesda these days.

Where did the gunners come from, and who paid them (probably a huge sum) to be hostile to everyone in the commonwealth, even going as far as city-killing aggression? Where did their plasma weapons and assaultrons (both of which are better than institute lasers and synths) come from? It's probably not the institute, the Gunners are set to be hostile to them too. They aren't conquering, and they aren't looking for employers in the Commonwealth, or people to sell loot to in the Commonwealth -- they're gong for genocide, mindless aggression.
What kind of group has a city-killing, genocidal agenda, and would have enough money to hire an army, plasma weapons, and robotics that we've never seen before?

I'm not exactly sure what you're requesting.

Would you like for me to write a story involving the Gunners that somehow pokes fun at Bethesda?

I'll try to reword.

Who is paying the gunners to kill everyone indiscriminately?

It's not the institute, because an institute player would have found out and been able to affect the gunner's hostility.

Bethesda didn't bother to come up with a truly definitive answer, so it's left to us to guess.

Who could supply them with a huge plasma arsenal, robotics seen nowhere else in the US, and has a completely genocidal agenda?

Oh. I see. I almost want to write up a goofy semi-serious story about the origin of the Gunners, now!

No, more like a serious story that Bethesda didn't really give us.

Just some answers to some questions about the motivations of the gunners.

I bet a story that tells more about motivations would make for decent sequel material in the right hands (it's not in the right hands, of course).

Judging from the locations the gunners are found at (They're always in strategic/sniping, military, high tech and supply filled locations, such as Quincy, Mass Fusion, the overpass and S Boston checkpoint). They seem to operate the same as raiders by attacking settlements like Quincy, but also differ by taking contracts such as one in the museum of witchcraft. Additionally, the gunners employ high grade military equipment such as army barricades, Plasma weapons, vertibirds (which are a rare encounter), t45/t51 power Armor. They also use tactics and are much stronger than your common raider or mercenary. Taking this into consideration, here is my short story of the gunners.

After the destruction of Raven Rock and the subsequent defeat at Adams Airforce base thereafter, what remained of the enclave sought refuge in the surrounding states using the last vertibirds they had. One band of survivors, lead by Junior officer Wesley, managed to pilot themselves down to Boston knowing that they could utilize what remained of the high tech companies, such as arc jet and mass fusion, that were based there.

However, once arriving in the commonwealth, re-initiating contact with enclave high command was of utmost importance to the band of remnants. Junior Officer Wesley attempted this by commandeering the radio transmitter located at GNN Plaza. However, what remained of the enclave had either been KIA or gone radio silent. With no orders from C.O and a dwindling supply of food, Junior Officer Wesley used the equipment, tactics, soldiers and radio system to field large groups of mercenaries aided by robotics to scavenge for supplies, raid settlements and take contracts to earn caps. He called it the gunners, and they are as bloody ruthless as the name suggests.

While the Gunners have opened up to wastelanders joining their company, unlike their enclave forefathers, parts of the enclave’s xenophobic culture still remains. Anyone considered to be an outsider who comes to close to their bases and outpost will be shot on sight. Wesly, now known as Captain Wes, spends his days in GNN overlooking gunner wasteland operations from the recording room. However, Wes is later killed by the sole survivor for unknown reasons, which fractures the gunners command system somewhat. With that said, the gunners are still able to maintain cohesive operations, even after the Captain Wes died, due to the experience they gained from the fracturing of Enclave High Command.

Yeah, that's my thoughts. They're either somehow connected to the Enclave, or are from a part of the world and a mighty faction/nation/city not yet mentioned in the lore. Their incredible weaponry, organization, and armor, along with their willingness to obliterate whole cities and mercenary nature/motivations, indicates to me that they're from somewhere outside the commonwealth, or at least have somewhere to retreat to after they finish murdering everyone. It's not likely that they previously had a home in the commonwealth, because they appear to want to destroy it.

The advanced weaponry could still be just salvaged guns, as the urban plasma rifle was deployed pre war and the gunners don't seem to field any X-01 (Maybe thats just due to it being deconstructed to build the Advanced power armor). The gunners could possibly be the children from Vault 75 or survivors from Federal surveillance center K-21B as it was stocked and had an evac plan if war broke out (There is Power armor in the facility, indicating soldiers also staffed the base). There are many military installations across the commonwealth. They could have possibly just been remnants from there instead. I wish Bethesda would expand the gunners lore instead of making them more raider-like meatbags

On the west coast, energy weapons were so rare they were thought to be almost mythological until the Enclave came along.
But yeah, I wish they had a story. They're too big, and way too special to be just basically raider meatbags. They could have been a full faction with real characters and defined motivations.
"Kill all civilization" does not seem to be a normal mercenary contract. If they are native to the commonwealth, do they really want it stripped of all non-gunner life? What good would their money be, unless they're from somewhere else, and will return home once the commonwealth is dead?

They only really seem to attack if a settlement is brimming with supplies and that is poorly defended. Another theory is that they are Talon company who salvaged what remained of the enclave, Talon company and the gunners are very similar. It also would explain why macreedy was a part of them in the commonwealth as he could have joined up with T.C in D.C. The massive amounts of energy weapons and combat armor could just inconsistency on bethesda's part (Like the quantum X-01 and a lot of fo76's lore), as they rarely field power armor or any other kinds of military technology which would have been found in the prewar caches they had to have found their supplies in.

I like to think that Mr House was the original employer and they were a large group he assembled in New Vegas to travel to the east coast and seek out the platinum chip, along they way they decided to mutiny or they realised they could make there own way and be their own bosses.

I could write a little backstory as a small mod and leave notes or terminal entries with orders

Can we write Jackal, Viper and Scorpion gang stories to shame Obsidian next?

Didn't the Jackals originate from vault 15? If I remember correctly the Jackals, Vipers and Scorps use to be big gangs from the vault before the NCR culled them.

IIHawkerII wrote:

Can we write Jackal, Viper and Scorpion gang stories to shame Obsidian next?

They all already have backstories.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Scorpions_(gang)

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Jackals

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Vipers

Not saying it's Shakespeare, but it's something as opposed to the Gunners nothing. Just saying.

They have stories, but they're offered nowhere in NV.
Which in my opinion is a tad more insulting than just leaving them as 'Raiders'.
We know they have more to them, but functionally they're just meat to put through the grinder.

IIHawkerII wrote:

They have stories, but they're offered nowhere in NV.
Which in my opinion is a tad more insulting than just leaving them as 'Raiders'.
We know they have more to them, but functionally they're just meat to put through the grinder.

But that's like saying we don't really have the backstory of the Super Mutants in FNV or the Enclave in Fallout 3, which is true for the most part. Neither game goes to lengths to explain it. But it is there in the extended litany of the series. And tbf, an expansive world like Fallout should have a wide and diverse history that makes you want to learn more about it.

Personally, I'd say if you don't care about the lore, you probably wouldn't care who you're shooting at anyway, so I get that calling them raiders is fine. But if you do give the tribes a name, it's nice to feel like the people developing this world actually took the time to add some cohesion to the world. Also the Jackals, Vipers and Scorpion gangs all have references in game explaining about them.

The Scorpions are explained as a start up gang in Westside that push drugs but are generally considered a joke by the fiends, and the Jackals and Vipers are both explained to be remnants of tribes push to the brink of extinction by the NCR and survive on the fringes as scavengers, so your main point here that that information is referenced nowhere in the game isn't even true. They are also referenced in the official game guide and the Fallout Bible.

So yeah, these 3 minor factions actually have way more backstory than the gunners who are a fairly major antagonistic force in Fallout 4.

I think I read on a terminal in NV that they did come from vault 15.

The thing that makes the gunners different is that there is no explanation how they got rare plasma firearms, militarily barricades and vertibirds. Maybe I missed a terminal in the game, but from my knowledge the gunners backstory is quite bland. The aesthetic the gunners have is nice, Bethesda did a good job designing them as a faction, but left out some core details.

My thought or theory has always been that the Gunners, or maybe what started it, are the dwellers that broke out of Vault 75. As a refresher, Vault 75 is located under Malden High School, and is under the control of the gunners. If you read the story within the vault, it was designed to train kids to be excellent soldiers or scientists. The more sinister side is they were doing this to farm strong genetic material for the improvement of the human genome, presumably to prepare humans better for space travel.

Unfortunately for the ones doing the experiments, things turned deadly when the young dwellers staged a breakout. It doesn't explicitly say it anywhere, but I've always felt that the birth place of the gunners is from Vault 75. As to their advanced technology, their training and expertise would have allowed them to clear and gain footholds in former military locations, which you usually find them in. That would give them access to military tech and uniforms. Before the arrival of the BOS, the Gunners were the dominant power in the Commonwealth when you think about it. The Institute is hiding underground, the railroad only concerned with synths, and the minutemen are pretty much defunct.

I'm not really a fan of the Enclave theory, maybe they could have a few in their ranks, but that's just too easy of a story line or cliche.

There is a long and storied article detailing the fate of Fallout 4 during the development process, half way through it was scrapped and redone. As is obvious in a lot of aspects of the game, a lot of things didn't get fleshed out.

Faction: Gunners
Headquarters Building: UNKNOWN
Leader: UNKNOWN
Strongholds:
- GNR Plaza (Norwood)
- Hub City Auto Wreckers (Saugus)
- Mass Bay Medical Center (Boston)
- Mass Fusion Headquarters (Boston)
- Mass Pike Interchange (Weston)
- Postal Square (Boston)
- Vault 75 (Malden)
- Vault 95 (Boston)
Faction Status: ACTIVE
Area of Operations: UNKNOWN, Reports have placed sightings in:
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- New York State

While we are unsure of who directly controls the Gunners, or where they are form, we have been able to get some information that gives us a possible insight to who they are, however this is speculation until confirmed, but fits with the area's we have had reports of direct "Gunner" forces from roving traders.

In the DoD Mainframe there is reference to a company called "Stillman" another record states that the US Government has used "Stillman" as a force in different countries from at minimum 1960 for as yet unknown reasons, we believe that information to either be on a different system that is either still offline, corrupted or non-salvageable.

"Stillman" had its Headquarters in Glens Falls, New York State and was also believed to have manufacturing facilities nearby, and possibly as well in Pittsfield, Massachusetts which where for the production of "off the grid weaponry" to not link to the US for involvement, we've heard reports of a group of Raiders in or around the Pittsfield area being more heavily armed than other groups, though some trader stories do state the Enclave logo having been seen around there as well. [1]

From what we can gather about the composition of the Gunners is that the upper ranks are very closed, they appear to be people who's education surpasses the standards in the wasteland, possibly being on-par with larger settlements or even our own educational standards, with the majority being either recruited locals or random Tribals or Raiders who have joined up for a better life. [2]

Gunners all wear the same basic outfits and carry an assortment of weaponry that we've found to be listed on the DoD systems as "Russian Origin" these seem to match with anecdotal papers and reports found elsewhere in Washington DC that the Russians sold a lot of their stuff to "Third World Countries" and would help such a group as "Stillman" to operate without US involvement.

While we don't have much information, it seems that the Gunners are on a borderline of being a Cult based around the military, we have talked to two former members that have been forthcoming with information, however their experiences lead us to believe that there are more fanatical groups within the Gunners than they where part of, or at least they where left out (Note: Gunners have a tattoo above their left eye, one of the two we talked to did not, the other has had surgery to remove said tattoo after asylum with [REDACTED].)

Gunners have also been known to use T-45 and T-51 Power Armour, one report states having seen Gunners wearing APA-01 dropping out of a jet powered Vertibird [3] and conducting a “shock troop” raid on a facility, killing the previous owners and “taking everything not bolted down, then blowing up the rest” according to one trader.

There has been reason to believe that Talon Company previously of the Capital Wasteland is either an off-shoot or undercover arm of the Gunners, or members of it have gone to that group after their defeat by [REDACTED] in Washington DC.

[1] Two trader stories have the Gunner Logo over the Enclave logo, and one seen wearing T-51 Power Armour with Enclave markings walking with a group of Gunners while they where hiding.

[2] One of the two we have had an interview with was from [REDACTED] in Washington DC and joined the Gunners as a steady income rather than standard mercenary work.
Trader reports of having had siblings or childhood friends being within the Gunners.

[3] Data salvaged from Adams AFB have reports on engineering works to create a jet powered Vertibird to replace the prop one, as well as a 4 engined variant for heavy lifting, the data there shows them to be in their infancy.

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I’ve added a bit to tie to Enclave as of the Enclave possibly wanting to use a “plausible deniable asset” from 2050 onwards, and especially after the fall, but I’ve not tied them hard to the Enclave, as it could also be salvaged material as well, which is more my thoughts.

If I was to expand this more, the Gunners are a sort of “Blackwater meets Scientology” group just for a laugh and it being a bit of an interesting twist on how to “rise the ranks” as it where.

Also, remember what Deb says when asking for your help to clear out the Nat Guard training facility.

Just like with Talons, there really isn't any backstory, because bethesda isn't capable of coming up with one. They are generic baddies you shoot, same way as east coast supermutants have been reduced to nothing more than rad-orks. In a realistic scenario, after the collapse of a major government, every region should come up with some sort of militia or a merc group, no matter what part of the globe, there is no shortage of people who are willing to kill others for easy profit, like raiders. Gunners and Talons are just more organized raiders, in that sense