Penelope Hornwright | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Penelope Hornwright is a character featured in Fallout 76.
Background[]
Daughter of Daniel Hornwright, the CEO of Hornwright Industrial Mining Company, Penelope was in many ways her father's daughter. A graduate of Vault-Tec University class of 2070, Summa Cum Laude, with a degree in Business Administration and Geological Science, Penelope was shaped not just by her education, but also by her internships at her father's Hornwright Industrial Mining Company in summer 2068 and Atomic Mining Services' Automation Department in Summer 2069. In her own words, she desired to be a critical part of guiding the mining industry into the 22nd century by spearheading the embrace of modern, cost-effective technologies.[1]
She was immediately placed at the head of Hornwright's operations department after her graduation and pursued a ruthless policy of automation at all costs like her father, though with a lot more grace. Although employees could count on her favor, such as Yvette Wiesman, head of administration, the rank-and-file employees were usually used to their fullest with little regard for their well-being. She supported her father's automation policies, after all, and was as determined as he was, stopping only when it came to actually, physically hurting people, as was the case during the October 2077 rioting, when she was ordered to hire strike breakers to deal with the rioting miners. Daniel realized that she detested the job and rather than force her to toughen up, he commissioned a fleet of robots to deal with the miners - arguably an even worse solution to the problem.[2]
However, when it came to cleaning up the damage, she showed a tenacity worthy of her father. After The Rockhound was recovered by the National Guard, she instituted 24 hour shifts, demanding that the workers accelerate the repairs to improve the company's bottom line. Worse, she was also responsible for perverting the original purpose of the air purifiers supplied by the Clear Skies Alliance, turning them into ash forges capable of extracting heavy minerals from the polluted air. The fact that setting the old coal veins on fire filled the air with mineral-rich particulate that could be harvested that way, leading to even worse ecological devastation than before the purifiers' deployment led to a rebellion in the tech department, with the lead researcher on the project quitting in disgust after sabotaging his work station.[2]
The only situation in which Penelope was different than her father was family and loved ones. When her mother succumbed to cancer in 2077, Penelope moved on quickly, realizing that the alternative was slowly withering away, eaten alive by the cancerous cells. Her father, on the other hand, unraveled and succumbed to paranoia and obsessions centering on the Motherlode project. She still cared for Daniel, and was even ready to reveal to him the greatest secret of all: She was actually in love with Bryce Garrahan, operations manager of the rival Garrahan Mining Company, with whom she planned her future. The two have known each other since they were children and, in truly Shakespearean fashion, fell in love despite the divide between their wealthy families.[3][4]
Appearances[]
Penelope Hornwright appears only in Fallout 76.