>>64272236
>due to the water table all Vaults were either above ground and covered by planting to disguise them as hills or are located underwater
That's not a bad idea actually. You could have one that was buried under a landfill. Later on the Vaultdwellers and other towns folk can mine the hill for prewar artifacts and stuff.
>in general I like the idea that there isn't one Enclave, there are several that each consider themselves the true continuity of the US government
I've always really liked this idea. If you draw from Ancient history, like the Bronze Age Collapse, there is a this neat moment where regional governors manage to hold on to power during the collapse and later on their titles as regional governor/administrator would become the word for King or Emperor. These petty kings would later fight against themselves as the one true successor to the Mycenaean Empire.
I imagine it would be the same in the US. Where the title of Governor means King or President. The actual title of President is reserved for the one who eventually manages to unify a significant portion of the US. Sort of like how the title of Emperor was treated after Rome fell.
You can also have other parts of the US government survive. It's not unreasonable to have it happen either. There are parts of an imperial apparatus are still around after the collapse of an empire.
The Catholic Church is one example and you could argue the British Banking system is another.
For a fictional example, Comstar from Battle tech is built on the old Starleague FTL communication administration and infrastructure.