West Tek Research Center (Fallout 76)

The West Tek research center is a location in the Savage Divide region of Appalachia.

Background
The West Tek Research Center was founded in August 2075 in order to focus on the Greenhouse Initiative, the last extension of the Pan-Immunity Virion project. The project focused on applying new mutations to create edible plants and vegetation that could greatly increase food production and combat the shortages that led to the food riots throughout the country. The company used Huntersville as a testing ground, after West Tek and the government saved it through a rural development grant. The added commerce and traffic from the research center led to an economic boom in the small town.

West Tek money started flowing to the local farmers in exchange for testing rights thereafter but funding stopped in February 2076, just as the Greenhouse Initiative was shuttered and assets were transferred to the Forced Evolutionary Virus initiative. The change voided most if not all of the contracts at the research center, with Dr. Wilfred Dumont, then head of research, scrambling to find a solution for the now-jobless researchers.

The company then began human experimentation as part of the super mutant project. Due to the nature of the virus and its unpredictability, the facility's objective was to identify and isolate viable FEV strains. The most important of these was the introduction of one of the FEV strains to the water supply of nearby Huntersville, to observe the effects of long-term low-level exposure. The experiment began in February 2076, leading to an outbreak of what seemed like a rare strain of flu at first. The village was isolated and put under company guard, with any test subjects that attempted to leave the area hunted down and eliminated. Anyone who reached out to West Tek for help was isolated in the research center for further observation and study.

By August, the inhabitants of Huntersville were isolated in their homes by West Tek researchers, with armed guards in full hazmat gear deployed to keep them contained. This proved to be insufficient, necessitating military intervention. In November, authorization was granted for the 12th Mountain Division to be deployed to Huntersville and enforce the quarantine, citing concerns about a possible pandemic outbreak. The hazmat-equipped soldiers augmented the security while West Tek researchers continued their experiments on the population, even as the mutating humans started to turn violent around September. Sergeant Jake Bianchi attempted to reveal the human experiments taking place at Huntersville in early November but was subsequently court-martialed and replaced with Orlando Garrett.

Experiments continued at West Tek, attempting to isolate an FEV strain that could create sustainable mutations. On January 13, 2077, one strain came close to a sustainable form, despite the subject's death within 13 minutes. Further attempts produced a variety of results, including a subject whose organic tissues were replaced with various forms of retinal tissue on April 30, one killed 12 days into the mutation by its canines piercing the medulla oblongata on July 12, and one subject committing suicide immediately after being transferred to a holding cell on September 5. Beside experiments, the facility's personnel also started work on a neutralizing agent for FEV in May. Intense experiments with a variety of compounds eventually produced a working sample in June, capable of rendering FEV completely inert. The center also cultivated thousands of gallons to neutralize the FEV stored in tanks on-site.

In October 2077, the experimental strains FEVS-006443 produced what would eventually become the snallygaster on October 14, with the researchers planning to observe once introduced to Huntersville. The experiment on October 23, 2077, the day of the Great War, created a massive, headless creature, later known as the Grafton Monster that was sedated and transported off-site for further research. The nuclear war interrupted the process and allowed it to escape. Shortly after, the surviving employees remained behind for a week while their superiors attempted to make contact with headquarters and failing that, with the US Army units at Huntersville. After six days passed with no response by either the army or West Tek, the technicians dumped the neutralizing agent into the vats on October 30, 2077, verified that it was rendered inert, and abandoned the facility.

The facility was left abandoned until it was rediscovered by Enclave scouts seeking for a way to inflate the DEFCON rating in Appalachia. Although the FEV was rendered inert, the facility contained enough leftover data and systems to allow the Enclave to breed super mutants and unleash them. By 2102, both the research center and Huntersville became major strongholds of the super mutants.

By 2104, the underground facility was taken over by a former West Tek employee, Edgar Blackburn, and the three scientists Jain, Farha and Nellie Wright.

Exterior
The facility is expansive, nestled in a secluded area surrounded by rocks. The primary mutant encampment is in the front, with a cooking station next to a holding cell for humans, ringed by a number of towers. Around the back is the rear entrance to the FEV vats, together with a small adjacent storage building and a catwalk leading to the rooftop. There is another cooking station on the roof, together with an art studio.

Interior
The front entrance leads to the lobby together with reception terminals and two doorways. The northwestern one leads to the research center (requiring the access holotape, found in the southeastern part of the facility, in the old Greenhouse Initiative laboratories), connecting to a vat chamber that leads to the mothballed labs and the vats chamber. The southern one connects to the locker room and security office. In the security office are two functional Protectrons that can be released, while the decontamination arch can be activated via the same terminal. The locker room contains a locked safe.

To the southeast lies the aforementioned mothballed Greenhouse Initiative laboratory. The experimental cultivars can be harvested for carrots, tatos, and razorgrain with additional loot upstairs. The offices contain the access holotape for the research wing in the southeastern office (together with a safe and terminal), with a chemistry station and a magazine spawn point in the adjacent room. The northwestern balcony connects to the vat control room.

The vats themselves occupy the western portion of the facility and have two levels. The FEV goo is inert - the player character will not turn into a super mutant - but can be collected. There is a tinker's workbench on the bottom level and the area's steamer trunk in the locked maintenance room near the exit doors to the back (which is where the player character is deposited if they enter through the back).

The research wing is in the northern part of the building and spans two levels. The bottom level contains the various experimentation laboratories, including (clockwise from the upper left) the specimen containment, testing labs, advanced mutations lab, admin desk, and the main specimen lab. The upper floor contains the holding cells, together with the decontamination laboratory.

Loot

 * Subject K-117M interview - Holotape, on a cart in the autopsy room, behind a Picklock level 2 door in the research wing.
 * Subject K-120F personal recording - Holotape, on a sink inside one of the upper level cells.
 * West Tek research wing access code - Multiple copies of this holotape key are spread throughout the facility.
 * Serum Z - Quest item, in one of the upper level rooms of the Research Center, during Past Expiration.
 * Potential Vault-Tec bobblehead - In the locked room near the entrance to the FEV tank storage area, near the steamer trunk.
 * Potential magazine - In the Greenhouse Initiative labs, on the large laboratory table with the dark work surface and two microscopes with display cases attached to them. The labs are located off the larger lab room with the hole in the wall, on the eastern side of the upstairs balcony level.
 * Damaged hazmat suit - Two can be found in the changing room with yellow curtains.
 * Several flasks of toxic goo can be found throughout the laboratory section, as well as harvested directly from the vats in infinite supply.
 * Perfectly preserved pie - On the rooftop, it is the only one that can be found without a Port-A-Diner.

Appearances
The West Tek research center appears only