A charismatic, fast-talking young woman, Piper hails from a small village deep within the Commonwealth. Her father was part of a local militia, until he wound up dead one day. His captain, Mayburn, claimed it was an accident - but she knew better. Following her own inquiries, she learned that the captain sold out to the raiders, so that the town would be easy pickings. After the mayor of her little town refused to confront the guard captain, Piper plastered the town with posters about Mayburn's dereliction of duty - and eventually, the townsfolk had enough of the captain and threw him out. Just in time, in fact, to dig in and prepare for the attack by Mayburn's raider pals. They never saw it coming.

Afterwards, she started saving up money and eventually saved enough to move to Diamond City with her sister, Nat. There, she started the Publick Occurrences newspaper, digging up the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was. Of course, her work didn't come without its dangers. Looking for the truth, Piper was almost sacrificed to Atom (getting out of it by claiming to see a divine revelation of His glory and becoming an Acolyte), poisoned (after revealing a caravan racket driving food prices up), to getting shot at.