The VPA-7 Corporate Security Power Armor is a model of mechanized protection developed by Vault-Tec in collaboration with West-Tek. It was created before the Great War but is still produced in small quantities by Vault-Tec following atomic armageddon.
Background[]
The Vault-Tec and West-Tek companies, while competing at times, were not opposed to working together for mutual profits. For example, West-Tek provided a strain of the Forced Evolutionary Virus for one of the Societal Preservation Program's vault experiments. Vault-Tec's Series 1000 shelters were sometimes purchased by West-Tek for their important facilities, ensuring that their top executives and researchers had a chance at survival following the inevitable atomic war. They would combine their development efforts in the creation of several prototype models of power armor, suits not designed for the military but rather for the commercial market.
The VPA-7, the most successful of the prototypes, would enter the market just two years before the Great War in 2075. As they required specialized teams, equipment, and parts to maintain, as well as trained users to operate, many corporations would see them as a waste of money. Despite this, its creators would make several orders of the product for themselves. The two corporations would use them to great effect in combating protests and riots before the War, but rumours persisted that their entire creation may have been orchestrated to provide their creators with reliable and cheaper suits of power armor following a nuclear war.
Regardless of the truth of these allegations, Vault-Tec North would indeed use the VPA-7 after the Great War to great effect in protecting their facilities and expanding operations. The resources acquired from the company towns they established after the War has allowed them to field and reliably maintain a few dozen of them, while also manufacturing several after the War.
Design[]
The deteriorating situation in the United States leading up to the Great War caused considerable social unrest, including riots, corporate sabotage, and direct attacks on companies. The VPA-7 model was created with purpose of defending corporate assets against rioters and saboteurs. While bulky and cumbersome they were relatively cheap to produce, additionally their filtration systems allowed users to employ chemical weapons against foes without the fear of harming security personnel in VPA-7 suits. Users were often equipped with chemical weapons produced by West-Tek and HalluciGen for this reason.