2020 Stream Play-Through of Fallout 3: Main Story pt.2
- wanderingwonderbread
- Sep 2, 2020
- 8 min read
*THIS BLOG CONTAINS ALL THE SPOILERS*
Vault 112:
After you learn in the Jefferson Memorial that your father has gone to Vault 112 your next step is to go look for him at the vault. Upon your arrival to Vault 112, you are greeted by a robobrain letting you know you are only 202.3 late. The robobrain directs you to climb in to an empty pod.
Before we delve in to the vault fun, I’ll give some Vault 112 history. 112 was one of the last vaults to be constructed and finished in 2074. The experiment was to have eighty-five residents be indefinitely suspended in a virtual reality simulator pod where they can live out their lives in simulated utopias. As with all vaults, its residents didn’t know they were entering in to an experiment, especially a utopian virtual world where their bodies are stored in little pods forever. The poor residents of Vault 112 had no idea how sadistic their Vault Overseer, Dr. Braun really was. From the moment they entered their pods he had absolute complete control over how they would live the rest of their lives in their simulations, they had no means to escape the simulation or the pods.
So now that you know a little of the vault’s history and intent, let us dive right in to what we encountered while looking for our father. Before I got in to a pod I wandered around the vault looking for any signs of our father and/or other people. This is when you notice the room with all the pods in it actually has people inside. Once you find the empty pod and climb in you are instantly put in to a virtual world for the quest line called “Tranquility Lane.” For this simulation you are back to being a child and everyone you meet in Tranquility Lane speaks to you like you are a child, especially when asking everyone “have you seen my dad?” You get responses that are basically like “Aw, honey he’ll turn up soon, don’t worry!”
THEN you meet “sweet, innocent” Betty. Now Betty is no ordinary girl. She instantly reveals how much of a sadistic, psychopath she really is. She demands you go make poor little Timmy cry. For no other reason than it is funny to her. This is a new quest for you. You have to decide if you are going to make Timmy cry or not. Before I tell you the option I took let me tell you the other tasks she would have given you if you did go through with making Timmy cry. Next would have been breaking up the Rockwell’s marriage, then killing Mrs. Henderson, and then finally killing all the residents in Tranquility Lane.
I chose not to partake in crazy Betty’s plans because it was very against my good-guy run I was doing. If I ever decide to replay and do an evil run, this would probably be the most sadistically, fun set of quests. So when you decide to not go along with Betty’s plans you have to go find the fail-safe which will permanently end the simulation and Vault-tech’s experiment. To find the fail-safe you have to explore the abandoned house in Tranquility Lane. Once inside if you start interacting with various items you realize there is a little puzzle where you have to interact with specific items in a certain order to complete the puzzle and a secret area is revealed to you. You then can use the console that appears to read up on the experiments that have been going on there. You find out that Betty is actually Dr. Braun, the Vault 112 Overseer. He got bored of all the other simulations over the years and has been torturing the residents for decades. Now he wants to use you to help torture and kill the residents for his own personal amusement. The downside is that the fail-safe will also kill the residents in real life. Even though this may seem evil, you actually gain karma by ending their 200 years of suffering at the hands of Braun.
Regardless if you choose the fail-safe or going through Braun’s “fun” tasks, you complete your main goal which is to find and rescue your father. You learn that the adorable German Shepard that was hanging out on Tranquility Lane was actually your father and turned in to a dog by Braun. Once you both escape from Tranquility Lane you reunite and catch up on everything that has happened since escaping the vault. He thought you would be better off, safer in the vault. He lets you know his next stop is to head to Rivet City. You have the option to leave with him now, or meet him there later.
The Waters of Life-Rivet City:
Your Time in Rivet City is very short. You go to meet your father in Rivet City’s Science Lab. You listen to your father convince Dr. Li that Project Purity needs to be reactivated, that he thinks he knows how to make it work. He tells you and all the scientists to meet him over at the Jefferson Memorial.
The Waters of Life-Jefferson Memorial:
Once you all arrive at the Jefferson Memorial you are told that they can’t proceed inside until all the super mutants are killed. So you have to go through the building and clear out the super mutants and make the area safe for the scientists to get to work. If you had already cleared out the memorial on a previous visit then you will just find them all in the rotunda working. Your dad will give you a series of maintenance tasks that need to be complete before they can get Project Purity up and running. It’s been many years since the memorial had been in use and it has fallen in to disrepair.
While you are completing the last task of draining the intake pipes you will get a cut scene of an Enclave Virtibird flying in. You have to fight your way through many Enclave soldiers to get back to the rotunda. When you arrive you see that you and Dr. Li are locked outside of the main area while your father and some other scientists are locked inside with Colonel Autumn and some Enclave Soldiers. Autumn and his goons are there to take control of the memorial and Project Purity. They want your father to assist the Enclave in the project (so they can take the credit for providing clean water to the Wasteland).
“By the authority of the President, this facility is now under United States government control. The person in charge is to step forward immediately, and turn over all materials related to this project.” -Colonel Autumn
Your father refuses to turn over any work to the Enclave stating they have no rights over a private project. This infuriates Autumn and he kills a scientist. Your father pretends to want to cooperate and offers to boot up the system. While he is doing so he types in a code that overloads the purifier and floods the room they are trapped in with radiation. Autumn seems to have been prepared for something like this happening and injects himself what appears to be Rad-X. Sadly your father dies, sacrificing his life for Project Purity.
Now you find that you have to fight your way out of the memorial while protecting the useless scientists to safety. Dr. Li shows you a secret tunnel that will eventually lead you to the Citadel (the Brotherhood of Steel’s stronghold). Even though it is a secret tunnel, it intertwines with some open areas that the Enclave happens to be patrolling so you have to kill them along the way. You will also come across various ghouls (many of them being Reavers if you have the Broken Steel DLC like I did) to take care of as well.
One of the most annoying things that happens along the way is that Garza starts complaining of his heart and needs to rest. Dr. Li will not move forward until Garza’s situation is handled. You have some options here on how to fix the situation. You can give Garza five stimpacks, convince Dr. Li to just leave him behind, drug Garza with some Buffout, or you can straight kill him. I just gave over the stimpacks so he can feel better until you reach the Citadel where he can get some proper medical attention from the Brotherhood. Though it was tempting to just put him out of his misery… I was being a good guy and did not want to lose karma. Once Garza is feeling better you can continue leading the scientists to safety.
You eventually come to an escape hatch that puts you very close to the large Citadel gates where the Brotherhood reside. You’ll see Dr. Li arguing with the Paladin to be allowed to enter the Citadel but the Paladin doesn’t budge. Eventually she gets pissed and starts yelling in to the intercom, directing her rage at Owyn Lyons. Once she does this, the gates open immediately. Lyons will be waiting to confront Dr. Li once you get inside. Lyons will ask about what happened over at the memorial and how the Enclave have taken over the memorial and ruined the project. She requests his help.
Now that the scientists are safely inside the Citadel walls, they are no longer your problem and you can go about your business. Your next quest begins the moment the gates to the Citadel opened.
*Fun Fact: When you complete ‘The Waters of Life’ quests you will start seeing Enclave propaganda being posted around. Their propaganda can be found on some pre-war buildings, billboards and over structures around the Capital Wasteland… You will also start running in to Enclave soldiers more while you are exploring the Wasteland.
Picking Up the Trail:
You can now talk to Lyons about getting permission to have the training to wear power armor! If you like power armor this is your chance! I’m just not a fan of it. It’s cool and I know it gives great protection but I really prefer wearing my own stuff I have found around the Wasteland. The armor will cover up your sweet clothes. Obviously I am making this choice strictly for aesthetics and not for strategic reasons.
The first task in your quest is to find Scribe Rothchild and ask for access to the pre-war computer to try getting more information on the G.E.C.K. The pre-war computer is an old Vault-Tec computer down in the Citadel’s archives area. You can read up on the various Capital Wasteland Vaults here. This is where you discover the G.E.C.K. was issued to Vault 87. You now can ask Scribe Rothchild for more information on Vault 87. Up until this point, this was the only vault you were not able to just go wander in to. The surrounding area of the main entrance to Vault 87 is highly irritated and inaccessible. Once you complete this part of the task you are now able to talk to either Mayor MacCready or Joseph in Lamplight Caverns to gain access to a back entrance.
This is where I am going to end this post. We will continue in the next post talking about the lovely Vault 87 and the quest ‘Finding the Garden of Eden’. Make sure to subscribe to continue next time!
*What did you do in Tranquility Lane? Did you join in Braun's fun or use the fail-safe?
*How did you treat Garza's health condition?
*Any thoughts or questions?
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***The awesome Fallout Bread Boy featured image was made for my Twitch Subscribers by MissCupOfTeaDraws
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