The Fallout saga hasn’t always had the colorful and friendly tone of Fallout 76. Being able to play with friends and other players in Appalachia has taken a lot of the iron out of the lonely and almost terrifying experience we’ve seen in other games in the installment like Fallout 3. other side, Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4 tend towards humor at times, but they don’t even come close to abandoning their essence.
You may not know it, but Fallout has a really cloudy lore, much more than many fans admit when we tell curious details. Timothy Cainco-creator of the first Fallout, recently revealed that the activities carried out in the vaults had a very clear purpose: “Creating a generational starship that would take Earth’s best and brightest in the event of nuclear war did make sense.”, clarified in a video.
Although it may seem transcendental, it is a trivial detail which doesn’t even begin to overshadow everything we know about the refuges of Vault-Tec Corporation in the Fallout series. Believe me when I say that it is murkier than anyone can imagine.
What are the Refuges and what were they used for?
the shelters of Vault-Tec Corporation are a series of underground facilities spread across the country that were built to protect the American population during the nuclear holocaust caused by the Big war, a large-scale conflict that mainly pitted the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. The war ended on October 23, 2077, when the warring parties exchanged nuclear bombs for two hours.
This is the official information that civilians received when they were interviewed, listed and invited to go to the nearest shelter as soon as the bomb alarms sounded. We could see this event at the beginning of Fallout 4. The reality, which we discovered throughout all the games, is that the United States Government and Vault-Tec Corporation had an agreement that the vaults were controlled experiments.
Each shelter (122 in total: 7 for survival and the rest to experiment, according to reports) was dedicated to a very specific experiment. The joint results were to reveal how American citizens behaved in adverse situations… and in some extreme cases to the point of madness. Now we know that focused on build a civilization in space. Some of its features are:
- Self-sealing armored door to proof of nuclear explosions and radiation.
- Purification systems (water and air) and radiation-proof ventilation. His special lighting system that simulated certain properties of the sun. They also had security systems and local authorities.
- Rooms, clinics, laboratories, schools, dining rooms, gyms and other common areas.
- Capacity for a maximum of 1000 people.
- Hydro-agriculture farms.
- And more…
In other words: they were mini towns self-sufficient underground. They used to be run by an individual who may or may not have been aware of the experiments. Sometimes the experiment became self-sustaining because it ended up becoming the shelter’s own traditionthus creating a new culture. It is better for you to stomach because you might not be prepared for what I am going to tell you.
The heinous experiments of the Vault-Tec Corporation Vaults
A large number of the 112 existing shelters are known to us through documents, tapes and security terminals. We do not have all the information we would like. However, from the first installment to Fallout 76 we have been able to visit other shelters (besides our original one) to know their stories… and today I wish I hadn’t entered many of them.
LIFESTYLE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
He Refugio 3 we can find it in the Mojave Desert of Fallout New Vegas. Its members received constant training to be prepared to colonize the desert after 10 years. He Refugio 39 in Abilene, Texas he based his government on a republic. The experiment tried to discern if this system of government really worked. Within the list of shelters, these are the most normal.
He Refugio 6, located on Mount St. Helens, Washington. According to confusing reports, the experiment was based on see ing how people behaved under a medieval style of government: the Overseer was the love and lord of the entire refuge as a feudal lord. He Refugio 101
And speaking of lifestyles, the experiment of the Refugio 8 to Northern California in Fallout 2 was based on seeing if 200 people could sustain 1950s American life in order to establish it in colonization.
The experiment of Refugio 11 In the Mojave Desert of Fallout New Vegas, the tradition ended up being converted: they were ordered to offer an individual to be sacrificed from time to time to ensure general survival. He was elected democratically and he was killed in private. It was intended to check the capacity for sacrifice and if the common good was above. The doors would only open when they stopped…they never stopped.
On the other hand, the Shelters 13 and 15 They were thought to be closed for 200 and 50 years respectively. The experiment failed in both, especially in 15: people of different political, religious and cultural beliefs were brought together… and the inevitable happened. From there came several bands of looters.
He Refugio 29 in Colorado it only admitted children under the age of 15. Her parents were assigned to other shelters. The idea was to study how these individuals could take responsibility and organize themselves. Needless to say, a “Peter Pan Society” was formed, to call it somehow.
Los Shelters 68 and 69 they had a single female and 999 males and a single male and 999 females respectively. He Refugio 77 It was only populated by a man and a box full of stuffed animals. We do not have official information about the experiments in these shelters, but it is not difficult to see where the shots are going.
And speaking of organizing, the Refugio 51 of Appalachia in Fallout 76 was a meta-experiment: the supervisor of this shelter was a supercomputer who had to determine how best to choose a suitable candidate from the inhabitants. He determined that the best way was a battle to the death. In other words: a battle royale.
SCIENCE: TECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGY
Los Shelters 12
He Refugio 42 he experimented with the limits and adaptive capabilities of human sight. His bulbs were no more than 40 watts. There were no well lit areas. Scientists only thought about how it would affect physical evolution and not how it might change human behavior. Suffice it to say that we are not prepared to live in permanent darkness.
He Refugio 75 in Fallout 4 The Commonwealth conducted experiments on children (no older than 18) to study and improve the human genome. Young men who were not athletic and intelligent were discarded: killed and cremated, or left outside the shelter. Yes, something similar to the Spartans.
The prize for Murkier refuge is taken by 112 in Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland: the inhabitants live connected to a joint server that allows them to live in Tranquility Lane, an idyllic virtual world. We discover that the matter is murkier than we imagined when we see the real bodies of the inhabitants and find out who is in charge of the place. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers.
DRUGS AND ADDICTIONS
Los Shelters 19 and 21, both in the Mojave Desert of Fallout New Vegas, experimented with drugs and addiction. The inhabitants of the first received doses of experimental drugs that caused paranoia. The inhabitants of the second were compulsive gamblers and ended up finding the solution to all their disputes and problems in the chance of a dice.
He Refugio 95 in Fallout 4’s The Commonwealth is one of the cruelest of all. All its inhabitants were drug addicts. There was an infiltrator with the order to open a huge drug cache after five years of living together, when everyone was off the hook. The experiment wanted to determine what would happen: everyone killed each other and the survivor died of an overdose.
These are some of the experiments more prominent and murky in Vault-Tec Corporation Vaults. We still have havens to discover, whose stories have probably ended in disgrace. Very few have managed to overcome their experiments and the few that have have been at the cost of doing truly terrifying things.
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