Fallout Advent Calendar - Day 03
Better Gift-Giving… Underground!
Day 3 had me opening a square section, a dark blue background with a white Christmas Tree on it. The design would actually be a really nice Christmas card! And inside…
Contact your Overseer to claim your own OFFICIAL VAULT-TEC Gift Tags!
You need to know who you’re giving your gift to right? Why not use these Giving Incredibly Friendly Treats (G.I.F.T.) Tags!
I’ll be using these on the Fallout Wasteland Warfare models I have ordered for myself for Christmas!
Who are Vault-Tec?
Vault-Tec are a company who create Nuclear Fallout Shelters across the United States of America to keep the people who were allocated placements safe from the radioactive fallout from the nuclear strikes that were feared to be coming imminently from China. A pretty noble thing, right? Well, that’s the face they presented to the public, when in reality they were experimenting on the majority of the Vault Dwellers. A handful of Vaults were referred to as “Control Vaults” - these would be Vaults that were not experimenting on their Dwellers. Some of the experiments conducted were things like Vault 111’s Cryogenic freezing chambers to see the effects on freezing on unwitting Dwellers. Vault 106 would experiment with psychoactive drugs being released in the air filtration system. Vault 34 would have a massively stocked armoury, and the entertainment facilities would be included at the cost of living spaces.
What Do I think of Vault-Tec?
Vault-Tec are a horrific company within Fallout (one of many), and what pushes Vault-Tec to the top of the scummy pile is that they willingly experimented on those they were pretending to save. Although some of the Overseers would have noble goals, such as the Overseers of Vault 111, who disregarded the initial plan of opening the Vault up after the allotted time due to them believing the radiation levels would still be too high - an act that would help to turn members of the Vault’s Security and Science team against them- and Vault 81, who did all they could to prevent the hidden Vault area being able to experiment on the main Vault by firstly not informing those scientists of the early alert, then holding off for as long as they could for progressing the viral release experiment, leading to them breaking the contamination vector system, and ceasing all contact with the scientists, leaving them to their fate in the hidden sector, while still horrible, they could not allow the experiment to take place. However some of the Vaults would not even get a chance to disregard the experiments, due to issues beyond their control, such as Vault doors not sealing correctly by design, or key life support systems being designed to fail after a set amount of years. One of the most disgusting acts by Vault-Tec was the experiment that was performed in Vault 95. The Dwellers were all addicted to drugs or alcohol and would be forced to quit their vices as part of being in the Vault. Inside the Vault, terminals tell of how the Dwellers would have regular meetings to discuss their recovery and they were doing amazing. However, there was a sleeper agent for Vault-Tec who would open a secret area with a stash of alcohol and drugs that would be discovered by the other residents for the next stage of the experiment to take place, to see how easy it would be for addicts to relapse. More terminal entries document the fall of the Vault, as people lost their minds as they sunk back into their addictions, violently getting their fix - all to Vault-Tec’s plan.
When I first played Fallout 3 (My introduction to the series) I was exploring the Capital Wasteland and stumbled upon several Vaults through exploration and following the main storyline. Upon finding the Vault-Tec Headquarters in the ruins of Washington DC, and finding the locations of the local Vaults, my distrust of the company from what I had experienced up to take point, I didn’t believe that was a full list of the Vaults in the area. I would be wrong to think that, but from what I learned about the company and their experiments, that doubt was planted and grew and grew. A testament to the storytelling in Fallout 3, for sure.
