Vault 15

"Underground Troubles" (Fallout)

"City of the Dead"

Vault 15 is a location in New California in 2241.

Background
Like many of the vaults, it was part of Vault-Tec's grand social experiment. The Fallout Bible (by Fallout 2/Van Buren) says the experiment in this vault entailed that it was to stay closed for fifty years, populated by vault dwellers of extremely diverse ideologies and cultures. The situation caused by the experiment led to a great schism, during which four groups ultimately left the vault to brave the wastes during the spring of 2141. Three of these groups became roving gangs of raiders: the Jackals, the Vipers, and the Khans in the winter of the same year. The fourth group settled down a few miles west of the vault and founded the village of Shady Sands in the spring of 2142.

While the three gangs harassed the village and each other over the years, Vault 15 itself gradually fell into disrepair. By the time the Vault Dweller came across it in his search for a replacement water chip for Vault 13, it was already ransacked and had also undergone complete power failure, several cave-ins, water damage, and other catastrophes. The intervening years has not done anything to improve the vault, but they have brought new occupants. When the Vault Dweller massacred the Khans in 2161, a sole survivor named Darion was overcome with guilt because he alone had survived when the rest of the gang died. Darion then spent the next 8 decades of his life rebuilding his petty tribe to the once great gang that scoured the wastes, also out of revenge against Tandi and the Vault Dweller. The result was the New Khans. A small settlement of squatters has made its home at the entrance to Vault 15. The squatters forge a precarious existence there by the sufferance of the gang.

Shortly after, the squatters allowed Darion and the rest of the New Khans to move into the vault itself on the condition that they repair the vault's systems in order to help provide the squatters with food, water, and other amenities. At first, this setup was advantageous enough that the squatters rejected all efforts by the NCR to annex them or even gain simple access to the vault.

Then, the Chosen One came along. President Tandi hired them to infiltrate Vault 15 - or at least get the squatters to allow NCR access - to retrieve computer parts and other equipment vital to the NCR's continued expansion. While accomplishing this quest, he discovered the truth behind Darion's operation; he and his men were actually a band of raiders calling themselves the New Khans, using the vault as a base of operations towards Darion's goal of revenge against Tandi and everything the Vault Dweller stood for. Also, the food and water that he had been providing the squatters with didn't come from the vault's systems after all, but the spoils from raids the New Khans had been running along the wastes between NCR and Vault City.

After Darion was killed by the descendant of the man he had sworn vengeance against nearly eighty years earlier, that very same man brokered a deal with the squatters, who accepted the NCR's assistance. With the support the Chosen One secured from the New California Republic, the Vault 15 squatters soon became self-sufficient and productive members of society. The Chosen One's help with Vault 15 launched the New California Republic's push to civilize its neighbors. Though there were many more obstacles to overcome, the NCR now had a foothold into the northern wastes.

Pre-War advertising

 * Source: Vault locations v34.129 holodisk

Surface (Fallout)
A small building sitting in the middle of an empty space. This entrance will be guarded by a radscorpion if you are unlucky.

The squat (Fallout 2)
A grouping of tents, small buildings and some trees up against the side of a cliff. There are squatters wandering the area.

Eastern entrance (Fallout 2)
Raiders built a lift to have an easy access to the vault, bypassing the squatter residents and built a shack for its protection. This shack is the place where Chrissy is kept.

Entrance (Fallout)
This area has the same layout as Vault 13's entrance. On the first corridor you will find a mole rat. At the end of this area you will need a rope to go further down into the vault.

Entrance (Fallout 2)
This area has almost the same layout as Vault 12's entrance, except that the outside section is a cavern instead of a sewer, and the main entrance elevator with a tunnel leading to it is present. This is completely different from what the Vault Dweller saw there in 2162. After you repair the power generator on level 2, you need to deal with a force field to proceed.

Living quarters (Fallout)
This area has a layout much like Vault 13. Here most people will get their first armor. You will again need a rope to go down further at the end of this area. In the 3rd room counting from the left, you can find a locker with a rope in it.

Living quarters (Fallout 2)
This area has no rubble. There is also (with a good repair skill and a tool) a generator that can be repaired, this turns on the lights and the console to activate the level 1 force field. Also worth noting is the fact that all three levels are connected by a single elevator, which is different than the two shafts seen in Fallout. The presence of a wall locker in one of the rooms bears a resemblance to Vault 12.

Command Center (Fallout)
Much of this level is buried under tons of rock and rubble, including the command and control center. The rest of the vault's equipment has been ruined or destroyed. There are a lot of pig rats, rats, and one mole rat.

Command Center (Fallout 2)
The command center is in control of Darion, the leader of the New Khans. Though most of the computers have been destroyed, there are a few of them that work... barely.

2141

 * Aradesh
 * Katrina
 * Jonathan Faust
 * Asp Faust
 * Garl Death-Hand's father
 * Garl Death-Hand

2161

 * Rats
 * Mole rats
 * Pig rats

Fallout

 * Find the Water Chip

Fallout 2

 * Give Spy Holodisk to authority in NCR
 * Kill Darion
 * Rescue Chrissy
 * Complete Deal with NCR

Appearances
Vault 15 appears in Fallout and Fallout 2 and is mentioned in the Fallout Bible.

Bugs

 * Fallout may sometimes crash if one chooses to travel to the location.
 * Certain raiders in the vault are bugged. Some have incorrect ammo or ammo in their item slots which confuses the AI and prevents them from using their weapons correctly. Notably, Darion will not use his flamer and will run away from the player once combat has started.