Big MT

The Big Mountain Research and Development Center (written Big MT), known to wastelanders as the Big Empty, was a privately owned pre-War defense contractor and research center located in the Southwest Commonwealth.

Origins
Big MT research base was originally built inside a cavern system underneath a mountain peak (hence the name) to create the technology of tomorrow without restraints, moral or technical. It welcomed some of the most gifted pre-War scientists, who together and without technical and moral restraint. The research conducted within was groundbreaking, but at the same time highly unethical, the most heinous of which were tests conducted on living humans (both American volunteers and Chinese prisoners). Big MT even included a concentration camp of its very own. Yet lucrative contracts with the US military (such as the Saturnite-plated, atomic-cannon toting giant robotic scorpion) guaranteed impunity. However, due to budget cuts in the later years of operation, Big MT had to improvise to compensate. The executives began to strike deals with third parties exchanging experimental technology for money and other privileges. To cut costs in research, they even began assasinating American citizens (Project Burke) and illegally exhuming their remains (Project Hare).

Due to a failed experiment conducted before the War, the mountain above the center was vaporized, leaving behind a giant crater and the exposed central dome of Big MT. This catastrophe did not phase the researchers and the efforts in pushing back the boundaries of technology continued unabated. The new land exposed by the explosion was adapted for scientific purposes: new facilities were established, both above and underground, including an artillery test field and a test town.

Under the guidance of its six gifted directors (known now only as Mobius, Dala, 0, 8 and Borous as well as Klein, the administrator of Big MT, their original names long lost) the facility gave birth to new technologies, such as the Saturnite alloy, next generation hazmat suits, cyberdogs, intelligent armor, holograms, Securitrons and many more. At the same time, many new horrors were also born in the laboratories of the Big MT: Cazadors, Nightstalkers, mutagenic plants, walking dead armor, unknown toxins and other fearsome creations. Creations of both types were at times sold to private parties in exchange for certain favors: Frederick Sinclair obtained various experimental technologies (including even the prototype matter conversion machines) in return for allowing Big MT to use Sierra Madre as proving grounds, a decision that backfired when the experimental technologies turned on the casino inhabitants, dooming them. Such an event was not unprecedented either: the Hopeville incident being an example of a disastrous meteorological experiment as a result of such a loan.

The Great War
The Great War didn't stop the research efforts; it merely put them on a different rail. The scientific team abandoned their mortal shells, transforming into think tanks, post-human cybernetic organisms, allowing the six to continue their work at Big MT indefinitely. With no bodies to stand in the way, their research continued, becoming more sinister and debauched as the years went by. Mobius, tired of his endless and horrible experimentation, erected a radar guided repulsive field perimeter around the Big MT to prevent the disembodied brains from escaping into the wasteland and destroying what little remained of humanity with their experimentation. He also hacked their data banks, erasing most of their pre-War memories, replacing them with a mangled, disjointed versions and a firm belief in the non-existence of the world outside.

The Big MT fell silent, its researchers dead, gone or turned into demented and/or insane robotic monstrosities. The sheer size of the crater acted as its best camouflage; most wastelanders assumed the ragged edges to be remnants of a massive nuclear explosion and avoided it altogether. The unfortunate few who wander in disappear forever, apprehended by robots and lobotmized by the think tank to act as little more than organic automata, maintaining the decaying facility and protecting it against scavengers. Over the years, it became known in the wasteland as the Big Empty, a place where nothing exists, its sheer size blocking the establishment of trade routes and reliable supply caravans (a fact that proved crucial to the Legion's survival during the First Battle of Hoover Dam, as NCR was unable to route supplies through Big Empty to reinforce its army.

The Visitors
Yet the security of the base was not perfect. Some were able to elude the think tanks and survive its horrors. The most notable of these are Elijah, Ulysses and Christine Royce. Elijah came to the Big Empty in search of weapons that would allow him to destroy the NCR and everyone who'd oppose him in the creation of the new wasteland order, his order. Elijah scoured the facility for technologies that would be of use to him in his endeavour; after learning of the Sierra Madre from Ulysses, he started gathering equipment that would allow him to crack the casino, the most important and sinister of tools he used being the concentration camp prisoner collars. Ulysses came to this graveyard in search of knowledge; to learn what makes and breaks nations, to learn what would allow him to reawaken America, the Old World. Christine Royce came to kill Elijah for the crimes committed against the people of the wasteland.

Of the three, Christine was the only one who did not escape unscathed; captured by Big Empty security following a disastrous skirmish at Little Yangtze. She was subjected to horrific experiments which resulted in permanent damage to her brain, destroying her ability to read and write fluently. She was saved from certain death by Ulysses. The courier nursed her back to health and managed to coax the answers he wanted out of Doctor Klein. Elijah was the only one who left the think tank a parting gift; after being apprehended by the think tank doctors 0 and 8, he hacked them both within minutes, permanently damaging Doctor 8 and left destruction in his wake: he rode out of the Big MT on a cargo train, crashing the remaining trains in tunnels leading out of the facility, leaving it behind in favour of his new goal: the Sierra Madre. The Courier arrives at Big MT some time after the three left it permanently, kidnapped by the think tank to serve as a new lobotomite. However, the extraction process goes awry and they will be forced to unlock the remains secrets of the facility for get out of Big MT.

Creatures
Originally meant as a beacon of new hope for humanity, Big MT eventually created a vast number of horrifying, unique creatures and machines, several of whom have made Mojave Wasteland their home and killing grounds. The Big MT "legacy" includes:


 * Cazadores - hybrid insect creatures that broke out of the facility. Creation of Dr. Borous.
 * Nightstalkers - hybrid dog/snake creatures that broke out of the facility. Creation of Dr. Borous.
 * Spore carriers - human victims controlled by plant pollen. Delivered to Vault 22.
 * Ghost people - mutated products of The Cloud in the Sierra Madre, another "test field" of Big MT.
 * Lobotomites - countless lobotomized victims of Big MT's experiment. Used to clean Big MT.
 * Y-17 trauma override harnesses - robotic suits holding long-dead bodies inside.
 * Robo-scorpions - Robotic guardians inspired by radscorpions. Creation of Dr. Mobius.

Appearances
The Big Empty is mentioned in the Fallout: New Vegas add-ons Dead Money and Honest Hearts, and appears in the add-on Old World Blues.

It was to appear in Van Buren, but in later development was merged with the Leavenworth prison into the Tibbets Prison facility. Tibbets would occasionally still be referred to as the Big Empty by developers in design documents.

Behind the scenes

 * The Big Empty is one of two known facilities to have done research on electrical weapons. The other was the Secret Vault, Vault-Tec's private vault.
 * There are three geographic features called "Big Mountain" in the southwest: Arizona's Black Mesa, a peak in Nevada's Black Rock Range, and Big Mountain Ridge, in Los Angeles County, California.