Damonta is a town in eastern Arizona, built among the ruins of the Davis Monthan AFB. [1] It comes under attack from hostile robots shortly before Ranger Team Echo arrives to attempt to install a repeater to the town's radio tower.
Note that once the Rangers enter Damonta, they cannot leave, or it will be automatically destroyed by the game.
Background[ | ]
Pre-War[ | ]
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is named for Lieutenants Samuel H. Davis and Oscar Monthan, two natives of Tucson, Arizona and pilots during World War I, who died in separate military aircraft accidents in the years following the war. In 1925, a year after Monthan had passed and four years after Davis died, Tucson's City Council purchased 1,280 acres of land southeast of town to locate the city's municipal airport. Construction was completed in 1927 and the world famous aviator Charles Lindbergh formally dedicated the site in honor of the two deceased airmen. This site would later become the heart of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
While primarily a civilian air base for years, in 1940 with the war effort ramping up for World War II, the War Department officially established an Army Air Force base in Tucson. Davis-Monthan soon became home to newly assigned units such as the 1st Bombardment Wing and 31st Air Base Group. The base was officially named Davis-Monthan Field. As the war progressed it was used for training and deployment of B-17 Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers, key to the war effort.
Following the war, Davis-Monthan continued operating both as a storage for Army Air Force planes – Tucson's dry climate making it an ideal location for preservation – as well as a base of operations for bombers. In 1948 it was officially redesignated the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. In 1953 the first jets came to D-M, in the form of four Lockheed T-33 Shooting Stars, right after completion of a new runway able to serve these jets. Stratojets and fighter intercepter jets followed. All training was focused on eventual missions against the US's prime antagonist, the USSR.
In the 1960s D-M was officially selected as the site of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) wing, as well as the announcement of 18 sites around Tucson being selected for the construction of Titan II Missile Silos. From 1961-1962 construction on the appropriate bunker facilities, blast lock doors and the required electronics were completed. In the 1970s Davis-Monthan continued to be used as a training site for worldwide deployment. In 1975 jurisdiction of D-M was officially transferred from Strategic Air Command to Tactical Air Command.
In 1981 the 836th Air Division activated, and activity in D-M was slowly but surely ramped up. Still primarily a training base, the activity of bomber training was increased to prepare for the seemingly inevitable conflict with the USSR. With many air force units at the ready as well as its ICBM facilities, Davis-Monthan will not doubt play a major part in whatever challenges the US will face in the future.
Post-War[ | ]
Established in the ruins of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Damonta is one of the most prosperous settlements in the known wasteland. The secret of their economy lies in the vast airplane graveyard where numerous aircraft were mothballed, stored, and/or scrapped before the nuclear holocaust. By attracting scavengers and merchants from all over the wasteland, it has built up a powerful industry and a very high standard of living. The caveat is that Damonta is sealed away under a cover of radioactive clouds, making scavenging and living a permanent winter occupation. There is also the little problem of a small robotic army being scrapped here at Damonta. Although ostensibly dead for years and perfectly safe, they are a continuous, unnerving presence.[1]
By the time the Desert Rangers arrive in Damonta in order to request use of its radio tower to set up a triangulation to track down the source of a signal, the town has been overrun by the previous dormant robots which had suddenly become active earlier that day and had begun massacring the town's inhabitants. Only a handful of people such as Werewolf Wally, Red Baychowski, and - depending in the player's actions in the Canyon of Titan - Clyde, had survived the robots' initial assault. The Rangers find the robots in the process of clearing out the remaining survivors as well as having set up numerous automated turrets and traps for anyone who would come into Damonta.
Werewolf Wally would request that the Rangers would first deal with the robots and their source before getting access to his radio station's tower. Team Echo could additionally help out several of the survivors such as the Nguyens, and Doc and Jill (if they survived the Canyon of Titan).
While clearing out Damonta of the robots, the Rangers eventually come across an old hangar that had been turned into a medical laboratory by a steel monk named Tinker. Tinker is responsible for activating the decommissioned robots of Damonta and sending them after the population, making use of the chaos to kidnap people like Lexicanum and Binh and perform cybernetic modification surgery on them. By the time the Rangers confront Tinker, she had already finished work on Lexicanum and was busy operating on Binh, replacing her organic heart with a cybernetic one that was tied into the network Tinker had set up between her and the robots.
Depending on the situation, and whether Binh survives, the Rangers ultimately put down Tinker, largely ending the robot menace in Damonta.
Layout[ | ]
Characters[ | ]
Buildings[ | ]
Jet View Motel
Fly-By Nightclub
KPOW radio station
Quests[ | ]
- Help Jill find her cows
- Help Red Baychowski
- Help Hector and Carla find their daughter, Binh
- Investigate the source of the Damonta's robot infestation
- Search Silent Springs for survivors
References[ | ]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kickstarter update: "Ahoy there, weary traveler! This is Werewolf Wally, howlin' at you from radio station KPOW in heart of downtown Damonta! Are you tired? Hungry? Lost in the trackless reaches of the wastes? Then listen to this message from the Damonta Chamber of Commerce, and point your tired tootsies toward the friendliest little town in Arizona.
Damonta has everything a weary traveler could wish for, motel, bar, garage, diner, fresh water, scenic attractions, the best oldies station in Arizona, and the biggest scavenging center in the west!
Our little town grew up in the ruins of an old military facility known as the DAvis-MONThAn Air Force Base - hence the name - and that base is the secret of our vibrant economy. Its big old airplane graveyard is a magnet for scavengers and scrap-metal merchants from all over, and the tech we've taken from all those old planes, robots and buildings has given the town the highest standard of living in Arizona. Ever heard of air conditioning, folks? Well, we got it, and you won't believe how good it feels.
Trade here in Damonta is a winter occupation, as radiation clouds seal off the town from most of its neighbors in the hot summer months, but even in the summer there is plenty to do here in the garden spot of the east. Scavenging goes on year round, there's always a shin-dig happening at the Fly-By Nightclub, and locals and tourists alike often visit the airplane graveyard just to look at the soaring skeletons of those old war-birds and the rusting hulks of those scary-looking robots.
Heh heh. Don't worry, folks, they're perfectly safe. Haven't moved in years.
And "perfectly safe" pretty much sums up all of Damonta, too. If you're here for trade, tourism, or just looking to settle down, remember, Damonta is the place to be! Tell 'em Werewolf Wally sent you! Till next time…"
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