Mariposa Military Base

Mariposa Military Base was a top-secret United States military facility built to house Forced Evolutionary Virus research previously conducted at West Tek, located somewhere in the area of the Mariposa unincorporated community in California. The name Mariposa means "butterfly" in Spanish.

Pre-war history
The construction of Mariposa started in October 2076 when large progress was made in FEV research, and the government preferred to move the project to a location under military supervision. On January 7, 2077, Major Barnett ordered transfer of all FEV research to the newly-constructed Mariposa Base, despite objections by the research team. Along with the scientists, a military team commanded by colonel Robert Spindel, which previously monitored the experiments at West Tek was sent to Mariposa. Spindel's second-in-command was captain Roger Maxson. The FEV project was moved to Mariposa and tested on human subjects. The vats were giant tanks filled with liquid FEV. As part of the research project, human subjects were dipped inside them and then examined to learn how to control and harness the process. The experiments on humans were kept secret even from Spindel and his soldiers.

Wartime events
On October 10, Maxson and his men dicovered to their horror, that the scientists at Mariposa were using military prisoners as test subjects in their experiments with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Morale in the base broke down, and Spindel suffered a mental breakdown, eventually commiting a suicide 5 days later. Maxson's men turned to him for leadership.

After interrogating Robert Anderson, the chief scientist, and learning about the extent of their actions, Maxson executed him, and the other scientists soon followed. Maxson, now in control of the entire base, declared himself to be in full desertion from the army via radio on October 20. Strangely, he got no response, as the rest of the army was busy fighting the Chinese threat. Three days later, the bombs were launched, and the Great War ended two hours after it started.

The Mariposa Military Base survived, the soldiers within protected from the radiation and FEV flooding the wasteland. Two days later at Mariposa, a scout in Power Armor (Platner) was sent out to get specific readings on the atmosphere. He reported no significant radiation in the area surrounding the facility. After burying the scientists in the wastes outside of Mariposa, the soldiers sealed the military base, then headed out into the desert, taking supplies and weapon schematics with them. Captain Maxson led his men and families to the government bunker at Lost Hills, eventually forming the Brotherhood of Steel.

Master's Army
The Vats were later found by a bunch of explorers seeking to find the source of mutated animals which seemed to originate from the area. Dr. Richard Grey, was one of the explorers, and after falling into the Vats, became the Master. Richard grew to be a powerful mutant, he was vastly intelligent, and not dumb like many other mutants (indeed, the FEV was supposed to make subjects more intelligent, but failed to do so on various occasions). He soon learned he could assimilate other minds into his own, and started preying on different creatures. He soon devised the idea of the Unity. He knew he was perfect and wanted to unify the entire wasteland so everyone could bask in his glory.

He knew, of course, there would be resistance, and so used the Vats to create the mutant army. The Military base became the main base of the mutant army, and the super mutants were dipped and created there.

In 2162, a man known as the Vault Dweller managed to destroy the Vats, and the Mariposa base collapsed.

Enclave's excavations
In 2236, the Enclave discovered the remnants of the Mariposa Base. Soon, assault squads combed the desert for slaves they could use to mine the military base and get to the Vats. One of the squads included soldier Frank Horrigan. Enclave construction crews, as well as human and super mutant slaves began excavations. In September they uncovered FEV, and mutations began to occur in the human workers. Frank Horrigan comes into contact with the virus and is sent to the Enclave labs for study.

In 2237, having obtained the FEV data, the Enclave abandoned the site after more mutations occured, causing 2nd Generation super mutants to arise - the Enclave left a single squad behind to wipe out the super mutants, but the mutants, using armaments they have cached in the base during excavation, reduced the squad to ashes after suffering heavy casualties. The remaining 1st and 2nd Generation super mutant slaves decided to remain in the Base, and the group forms a new community under the leadership of Melchior, whose magician talents had allowed them to hide the weapons.

Appearances in games
The Mariposa Military Base appears in Fallout and Fallout 2.

Behind the scenes
According to Chris Taylor, Mariposa Military Base is based on Fort Ord. That's an old military base that has been shut down near Monterey Bay. It was called Base Omega in early design documents.

Fallout

 * FEV Experiment Disk
 * FEV Research
 * West Tech Records

Fallout 2

 * Military Base Outside
 * Military Base Level 1
 * Military Base Level 2
 * Military Base Level 3
 * Military Base Level 4