Fort Bannister

Fort Bannister is a pre-War military installation in the Capital Wasteland, north of Evergreen Mills. When the Great War came in 2077, it was one of the highest profile targets in the area, suffering a number of direct nuclear hits, which obliterated much of its surface facilities, leaving a gaping crater and concrete ruins behind. The nuclear detonation did not destroy the bunker's underground installations, however, which was likely the main reason it was secured by Talon Company mercenaries and used as their primary base.

An interesting thing to note is that missile silo doors reside within a ruined building. As the building has a roughly circular pattern of destruction centered on the silo doors, one can gather that the building itself collapsed when a missile plowed through it at the beginning of the Great War.

The bunker itself is extensive and is accessible from the ammunition storage, a manhole inside a lone Commander's Tent, a bunker entrance just above the Commander's Tent, and a metal door down some steps just to the right when entering Fort Bannister through the South gates.

Enemies
The underground levels of the fort are crawling with Talon Company Mercs who are all very heavily armed. If your combat skills are high enough to clear the place out, the area contains a staggering amount of valuable hardware to scavenge. The mercenaries here have a wide range of armaments, including Assault Rifles, Chinese Assault Rifles, Combat Shotguns, Laser Rifles, Flamers, Missile Launchers and 10mm SMGs.

In the Commanding Officer's Quarters are Commander Jabsco (leader of the Talon Company), a Mister Gutsy (though the Mister Gutsy model may be found in a dormant state, and likely activated once you attack Jabsco. This robot can be attacked with a Sneak Attack Critical like any other deactivated robot), and two Automated Turrets. However, the first of these turrets (the one upstairs) can be either deactivated or frenzied via a locked terminal just outside the Commander's personal quarters.

The Commander himself starts off with a Missile Launcher, but once he runs out of ammo for that, he will either attack with his Occam's Razor, pull out his Chinese Pistol, or rush downstairs and grab any weapon in the nearby safe. Be warned that the commander also has a very high amount of Hit points. In fact he is the fifth most powerful enemy in Fallout 3, coming in after Wernher, Giant Ant Queens, General Jingwei, and Super Mutant Behemoths. This can make dealing with the commander problematic.

There is also a chance that once you attack the commander, more Talon Company Mercs will spawn behind you. He will actually call out for assistance when the conditions for reinforcement, whatever they are, have been met.

In Commander Jabsco's personal quarters, there are also four generators which will explode when shot or sufficiently damaged by explosives.

Characters with sufficient sneak skill can pickpocket Jabsco of all his ammunition and either also take his key to the safe downstairs or loot the safe itself (being mindful that walking in front of the downstairs turret is almost certain to draw its fire) and then remove the targetting parameters from the upstairs turret. This will cause the turret to attack Jabsco, and he will not attack it in melee. He will instead choose to flee, typically running for the room's one exit. The player can use this to their advantage, if desired, by using mines to disable or kill Commander Jabsco "silently." Tiny exploding presents can also be left for Commander Jabsco's lilliputian reinforcements, who are usally triggered by this method. Two bottlecap mines placed near a generator were effective in killing Jabsco in 10 of 10 attempts. If you want to guarantee triggering the two special tiny bodyguards, you can make a special effort to wound Jabsco with a smaller attack (1 bottlecap, plasma or frag mine for example) before killing him with a big explosion.

It should be noted that although the frenzied turret will track and "attack" Commander Jabsco, it rarely fires at him when he has a melee weapon armed. However, if he has no missiles and is forced to use his woeful chinese pistol (feel free to reverse pickpocket an even more inferior/ill-repaired method with reverse pickpocketing) the turret will do substantial damage to him.



Enclave
After The Waters of Life quest, an Enclave Research Outpost (Crater Camp:Sector 762) can be found near the massive crater, with a Field Research Terminal containing their objective in the area (gathering samples). The camp is occupied by three Enclave Soldiers, one Enclave Officer, and one Enclave Scientist. There is also an Enclave turret. There are three Enclave crates of which one you can store gear (Eye level crate behind computer terminal). In the crater there are eight Alien Power Cell cartridges underneath the over turned truck. There is a constant low level of radiation (+1-2) in the crater so be careful not to get caught out if you are scouting for extended periods of time.

Broken Steel
With the Broken Steel add-on installed, you should find several Aqua Pura pack brahmin near the tents. When searching the tents, you should also find Brotherhood Paladin Jensen tied up. He tells you that the Brotherhood is tired of having their Aqua Pura stolen by Talon Company, and intends to get some payback - Jensen is the scout for the operation.

If you free him, he'll charge down into the fort, quickly getting himself killed by the awaiting turret and the missile-launching Talon Company merc. Soon there after, two to four more Brotherhood of Steel Knights and Paladins will run in after him. Unfortunately, the hordes of Talon Company mercs throughout the base usually prove too much for them and they are quickly killed. Alternatively, it is also possible that the Knights will defeat the mercs and occupy Fort Bannister. It will become another BoS outpost soon after. One way to ensure a Brotherhood victory is to simply wipe out the Talon Mercs before freeing Jensen.

If you killed Commander Jabsco prior to activating the Purifier, then neither Paladin Jensen, the assaulting Paladins, nor any Aqua Pura barrels are likely to appear at Fort Bannister.

Notable loot

 * The unique Combat Knife called Occam's Razor and unique Combat Helmet called Talon Combat Helmet are carried by the Talon Company leader, Commander Jabsco.
 * There are 96 Alien Power Cells in a large radioactive crater to the east of the Fort itself and due south of VAPL-58 Power Station (screenshot). There is an overturned military truck in the crater, as well as several barrels of waste. The Alien Power Cells are beneath the truck, made to look as if they spilled out of the bed. Also in the crater, less than 10 meters to the south east of the truck, is a locked safe (weapon + ammo) and a locked personal footlocker (low armor), both of Easy difficulty.
 * A copy of Nikola Tesla and You can be found on a ledge between the stairs in the missile launch room, near an Ammunition Box visible from the stairs. (It's one of the non-evident ones: Enter the commanding Officer's quarters from the wastelands, when you enter the missile silo, walk till you bump in an ammo box on the ground to your left, at the sand bag defense of the mercs you encounter after entering the stairwell. From here face west, then slightly left and down: you'll see another ammo box on the stairs' roof and a ham radio, one floor below. The book is between those). Save before entering the missile launch room. The book may have flown due to the missile launchers. You can reach it with an easy well timed jump, just go back up the stairwell and jump down.
 * A copy of Guns and Bullets is found on top of a gun cabinet (.32 or Chinese Pistol and some .32 or 10mm Ammo inside the cabinet) inside the easternmost room of the Bunker Area of Fort Bannister.
 * In an Average locked room at the bottom of the concrete stairs in Fort Bannister Main (which can be entered from the outside area through either of two (very easy) locked doors - one is directly west of the entrance to Fort Bannister Bunker), there is a copy of Big Book of Science, a Fat Man, and one Mini Nuke. Just follow the metal steps up to the top, and continue through the doorway to the concrete stairs behind a door (average lock).
 * A Nuka-Cola Quantum behind a footlocker under the stairs in the southern most room of the Commanding Officer's Quarters. (where you fight Commander Jabsco)

Appearances
Fort Bannister only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * Sometimes when in the Fort if you target an object and slowly move your targeting reticule away from the object you'll see Drink restore health and 16 rads/sec.
 * Sometimes the Mercs that spawn behind you during the fight with the Commander will appear to be much shorter than normal adults.
 * It is possible that when entering or leaving the Fort Bannister Main (west of the south gate), that your right analog stick will become unable to move your character's view. Making it harder to V.A.T.S. and kill the mercs inside.
 * If the player kills everyone inside the fort while the Brotherhood are still hiding, there is a chance the Brotherhood will instead make the tents a base, rather than the fort.
 * The Mister Gutsy stationed in front of the door to the Fort Bannister Bunker, near to where you fight Commander Jabsco, will come back to life (though visually he appears dead) when you come back through the door. He may attack if you are close enough, but he has only a few hitpoints which makes him an easy kill and source of scrap metal. Careful though, as the game might freeze up.

Форт Баннистер