Vault 87 is one of the most difficult locations to access in Fallout 3. However, the Lone Wanderer has no choice but to find a way in, as this vault contains an item necessary for furthering the main quest: the G.E.C.K.
That aside, this Fallout 3 vault has a long, gruesome history of scientific experimentation. The scientists within the facility were tasked by Vault-Tec with conducting heinous experiments on the unsuspecting residents. These scientific projects involved administering the Forced Evolutionary Virus into human test subjects; unsurprisingly, things didn’t go well.
The Evolutionary Experimentation Program of Fallout 3
Vault 87 was built with both civilian living quarters and a medical wing. The latter was an extensive facility, complete with lab cubicles and workstations for the scientists who were assigned to the vault. This was unlike the other vaults in Fallout 3, in-line with the experiments Vault-Tec had planned for Vault 87.
Vault-Tec partnered with the US military to explore the effects of the Forced Evolutionary Virus, or FEV, on human subjects. To do this, they installed equipment like stasis chambers and plasma containment fields. They also assigned a scientist named Wayne Merrick to oversee what would be known as the Evolutionary Experimentation Program (EEP). Cut Fallout 3 content describes Merrick as “one of the brightest minds in the field of accelerated evolution,” which is likely why he was chosen for the job.
After Vault 87 was fully equipped with the necessary research tools, Vault-Tec let inhabitants in. None of them knew they were to become test subjects in the EEP, which isn’t surprising given Vault-Tec’s history. One by one, Merrick and his team picked off the residents and began experimenting on them. To cover this up, the vault’s medical records staff were told that residents chosen as test subjects were to be marked as having “unexplained or undefined deaths.”
When Fallout 3’s Lone Wanderer arrives in Vault 87, medical records list a total of 87 unexplained or undefined deaths. Only six others were marked with natural or accidental deaths. This was how far Merrick and his team went before things took a turn for the worst.
Growing Paranoia Among Vault 87’s Residents
Sometime during Merrick’s string of experiments on Fallout’s FEV, the remaining residents began to grow uneasy due to all the deaths. A man named Peter Stevens had his son, Jason, taken away, and checking the medical records reveals that he was one of the EEP’s test subjects. However, Peter did not know this.
His mental state began to devolve and, in his terminal entries, he writes that he doesn’t see the point of existing anymore. Eventually, the medical staff gave him pills to help him calm down, but Peter refused to ingest them. He reportedly started hearing Jason’s laughter, but insisted it wasn’t just his imagination. He was probably hearing the children living nearby in Little Lamplight, another location in Fallout 3, but it’s unclear what happened to Peter after this.
With the general uneasiness also came suspicion toward Merrick and his team. Daniel Koster, the Maintenance Chief of Vault 87, was in charge of maintaining the facility’s machinery, such as the water purifier and radiation purging chambers. At one point, Merrick called on him to fix what he referred to as the EEP Chamber. In his terminal records, Koster admits he wasn’t sure what the device was for, but managed to repair it anyway.
Following this repair job, Koster would leave one final entry in his service log terminal explaining that there’s something wrong in the medical wing having to do with the EEP. He then writes that his wife, Mercia, had been diagnosed with some sort of disease, ultimately leading to her death. This was the final straw for Koster, and he set out to get answers from the vault staff. The medical records list Mercia as having died from cancer, though perhaps this was a ploy from vault staff to try and get Koster off their backs.
Countless Failed Experiments
Unfortunately, Koster’s fate in Fallout 3 is unclear, though it wouldn’t be farfetched to believe that he was apprehended and made into another test subject. All the experiments followed the same pattern. Three days after administering the FEV, both male and female subjects were “transforming to an almost asexual state," becoming more similar in muscular structure, perhaps to “level the playing field.”
A few days later, a test subject might expire from a massive loss of brain function, which prevented them from sustaining the body’s basic needs. According to Merrick, this was what usually happened when they administered FEV strains. On day 10, the subjects’ skin morphed to become thicker and more resilient, which Merrick notes “could prove useful in combat situations” - something confirmed with the super mutants of Fallout 3. Finally, on day 14, the subjects would grow too hostile and anxious, so Merrick would have them disposed of. He writes that the physical changes were not worth their resulting mental devolutions.
Merrick underwent this 14-day procedure again and again, changing aspects to see if the subjects improved in their mental capabilities. This went on until the angry subjects managed to overpower vault security and take over Vault 87, which resulted in the super mutants of Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland coming to prominence. They began kidnapping wastelanders and taking them to the vault to make more super mutants, at least until they ran out of the FEV strains - or the “green stuff,” as they called it.
By the time the Lone Wanderer arrives at Vault 87, the main entrance is a cesspool of radiation, forcing them to take the underground entrance through Little Lamplight. Once there, the player can take care of the super mutants once and for all. However, it’s sad to know these super mutants probably never wanted to become what they were, merely test subjects for the nefarious Vault-Tec.
Fallout 3 is available now on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
