Think Tank (faction)

"BE WARNED, INTRUDER! YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MIGHTY THINK TANK OF BIG MT, THE COLLECTIVE GENIUSES OF... WE..."

- Klein

The Think Tank was the main faction in the Big MT in 2281, created by the pre-War Big MT executives after the Great War and their transformation into think tanks.

Early years
At first, they were the six executives of Big MT, named together "Think Tank" executives including Gail Richardson (later known as Borous), Mobius, Dala, 0, 8, and Klein, the administrator of Big MT, their original names long lost. They were responsible for the gestion, decision making and management of all experiments in Big MT, each in their respective domains under the direction of Klein.

After the Great War, a new project started, with the purpose of preserving the Big MT executives by transforming them into a special brain bot called Think Tank, allowing them to continue their work indefinitely. They were "reprogrammed" to forget a part of their personality and their name, giving them a new one and enforcing a recursion loop in their perception programming. With that, the Think Tank was created and with nobody to stand in their way, their research continued in Big MT, becoming more sinister and debauched as the years went by.

Later, all of the Big MT researchers died, most likely due to the escape of the cazadores and the nightstalkers. Only the Think Tank group remained in Big MT. Mobius, tired of their endless and horrible experimentation and thinking that "the world isn't ready for that kind of too-far-thing-taking" and that the other think tanks had lost what remained of their humanity, erected a radar fence - a kind of radar-guided repulsive field around the perimeter of Big MT to prevent the disembodied brains from escaping into the wasteland, which would destroy what little remained of their humanity with their new prepared experimentation into a new "fertile testing ground".

Mobius' exile
After a severe dispute with Klein, Mobius removed the chips of all personalities of The Sink; his room and personal laboratory, and against his will, hacked the databanks of his colleagues, reprogramming their chronometers, geometers and cartography programs to make them lose the sense of time and history. He also generated a belief that Big Mt. was the only location left in the planet, he was exiled for crimes too heinous to remain in recorded memory and that the robo-scorpions there consumed intelligence. Due to that, the scientists at the Big Mt. were too afraid to leave the central dome. In the process, however he also damaged some of their memories and knowledge, creating a mangled, disjointed version of themselves. Disgusted to have done this to his friends, he also erased some parts of his memory, like this event and his pre-War creation, the robo-scorpion. These acts were considered heinous crimes by the other Think Tanks. Mobius was then exiled, and all the memories related to this incident were deleted from the Think Thank's minds.

Afterwards, Mobius moved to the X-42 robo-warfare facility (now renamed the "Forbidden Zone") and began to "re-create" the robo-scorpion after seeing some radscorpions coming into Big MT, with all features of the pre-War model such as energy bolts blaster in the tail, eyes and bullhorns systems connected to him. Having now his proper army and thinking that without something to distract them the radar fence would not be sufficient, he began to send repetitive threat broadcasts to instill and install fear and prompting them to focus on retrieving technologies to attack Mobius. After that, the Big MT fell silent, the remaining think thanks stuck in The Think Tank dome, forced to continue their work only in this small area due to the fear installed by Mobius, continuously spying them.

The Visitors
Big MT was more or less abandoned. Although the facility's security was almost perfect, three people were able to elude the Think Thank and survive its horrors - Elijah, Ulysses and Christine Royce. At some point during his journey, Elijah spoke with the Think Thank, making them question the way of things. The five think tanks began to doubt that their world could be larger than they perceived and installed new ideas in their mind. Ulysses too spoke with the think tanks, particularly Dr. Klein. Ulysses asked a lot about history and asked a dangerous question: "what makes a nation, and what breaks them". Showing them the Old World flag, the think tanks eventually remembered many past events, especially that there is a world beyond the Big Empty, a world with ideas and possibilities for experimentation. Dr. Klein, regarding the question too dangerous and reminding him of too many events, deleted it from his memory.

Some time after, Elijah was apprehended by Dr. 0 and Dr. 8, but he hacked them both within minutes, permanently damaging 8's voice module and sowing destruction in his wake: he rode out of Big MT on a cargo train, crashing the remaining trains in tunnels leading out of the facility. These events were all observed by Mobius. Due to his inability to act on anything, he became afraid of the future actions of the Think Tank. Some time after the three left permanently, the Think Tank installed a pacification field in The Think Tank central area. Later, the Courier was teleported to Big MT by a crashed satellite in the Mojave Drive-in. He was taken to The Sink to become a lobotomite, but because he suffered a cranial injury in just the right place, the Sink Auto-Doc changed its programming to fix the problem and improved the brain removing procedure, also removing the Courier's spine and heart and replacing them with synthetic organs. The Courier's brain procedural data would give the Think Tank the knowledge to modify their cranial selves into a host to slip past the radar fence to leave Big MT. However, after the Think Thank extracted it, they fell to bickering amongst themselves. Mobius saw this as an opportunity to steal The Courier's brain and its knowledge, leaving it in the Forbidden Zone. Wanting to gain his brain back and escape, the Courier was obliged to help the Think Tank against Mobius by retrieving three pieces of technology.

Society
The Think Tank's goal is to leave the remains of the Big MT for the wasteland, a new "fertile testing ground" prepared for their new experimentation. Ideologically, they want to know everything and don't hesitate to betray anyone to perform new experiences, however, they remain more or less welded together, generally following the view of Klein.

Relations with the outside
They are hostile towards anyone who tries to approach and enter in Big MT, and have no respect for humanity, directly lobotomizing the visitors to create new lobotomites. However, despite their inhumanity, they are rather friendly and fully answer those who come to meet them.

Technology
Before Dr. Mobius' exile, they controlled all the technology in Big MT. Afterwards, they lost control over what happens on the surface They still possess powerful technology in their headquarters, such as the K9000 cyberdog gun and sonic emitters. Also, their headquarters has technological equipment that allows them to continue their experiments to a certain degree.

Appearances
The Think Tank faction appear only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.

Behind the scenes

 * The name Think Tank and the characteristic of the group is a reference to the Think Tank of Star Trek, a cooperative of technologically-advanced alien intellectuals.