Fallout 3 plot

The Player Character is a young inhabitant of Vault 101. The Vault has supposedly been sealed for the last 200 years and no one has ever left it. Until it turn's out that your father has disappeared from it without any explanation. The Vault Overseer believes that you knew about the escape and sends his people to subdue you. You are left with no choice but to leave the Vault and set off on a journey to locate your father and find out why he left.

Rust, decay, and creeping vegetation infest monuments from before the Great War. Amidst the ruins of Downtown DC the Capitol, the Jefferson Memorial and the battered remains of the Washington Monument still stand in the desolate area is known as the Capital Wasteland. The central hub of civilization in the ruins of the former capital is Rivet City, based in the remains of an aircraft carrier carried far inland and beached by a catastrophic tsunami whose waters have long since receded. Other settlements include the towns of Megaton, Arefu, Tenpenny Towers and Paradise Falls. Movement between the towns is possible through the Washington Metro tunnels and crossing the desolate nuclear wasteland.

The Brotherhood of Steel community is stationed in the Citadel built in the ruins of the pre-War Pentagon where they attempt to preserve as much pre-war technology as possible. The mysterious Mister Burke and his employer, Allistair Tenpenny send the player on a mission of sabotage and destruction in the town of Megaton. But it is Super mutants, who since emerging from their refuges, have waged an unceasing war against humans to invade their territory and take live captives, and the Enclave - the self-styled inheritors of the power of the United States government - under the leadership of their new President John Henry Eden, are the player's biggest foes in the game.

As you search for your father (eventually through either a DJ known as Three Dog in Galaxy News Radio or directly speaking to a scientist in Rivet City) you find that he went to the Jefferson Memorial and the abandoned water purification plant located there. His aim was to complete Project Purity which was intended to purify huge amounts of water for the entire wasteland. However when you reach the Jefferson Memorial you find a holotape of his detailing that he went in search of brilliant scientist called Doctor Braun who worked for Vault-Tec. Doctor Braun invented the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) a device meant to terraform the world after a nuclear holocaust. Doctor Braun apparently went to Vault 112.

You find and enter Vault 112 you find the inhabitants have all gone into virtual reality simulators and are trapped in Tranquility Lane. Upon entering this place you talk to Betty, who asks you to cruelly make another child cry. Upon doing so she begins to speak with a startlingly male voice allowing you to ask a single question which she says she will answer to the best of her ability. She then asks you to ruin the marriage of two of the people living in Tranquility Lane. Alternatively you can enter an abandoned house and by activating a set pattern of items in a melodic tune activate a fail-safe computer terminal. On the computer you can then read the records of Stanislaus Braun, how he has been playing cruel games with the residents of the Vault, sadistically torturing them and then changing the simulation when it got "boring". Also on the computer is a fail-safe program that would initiates a simulation of a Chinese invasion (borrowed from the government at his request) which will physically kill the residents of the vault because the "safety protocol" is off. However, Braun cannot deactivate his own safety and therefore cannot commit suicide, leaving him alone with no one else to torture, as they are permanently dead. Once you do this he reveals your father has been inside the simulation as a dog next to him. You are then free to leave by a door next to him (yes, it just appears floating). Now that you used the fail-safe program he has no power over you. Your father then emerges out of a stasis pod and tells you that he went to Braun because he wanted to confirm that the G.E.C.K could be used for Project Purity.

Once your father is free, he asks you to help him reinitialize Project Purity. He travels to Rivet City to find the scientists that formerly worked on the project with him and convince them to return to the project. Once he does, you go to Project Purity's headquarters and help fix up the place, upon which you are attacked by the Enclave. Upon your return to the control room you find your father locked inside the control booth talking to an Enclave Colonel who states that the Enclave is taking over Project Purity. Your father then floods the control booth with radiation to buy you some time and kill the Colonel. However he dies in the process. You must then aid the escape of the remaining scientists through the Taft Tunnel to the Citadel. Upon leaving the tunnels and entering the safety of the Citadel you are introduced to Elder Lyons (leader of the Capitol Wasteland's detachment of the Brotherhood of Steel ) who grants you access to the Citadel. He also gives you permission to learn how to wear Power Armor and trade with the Brotherhood. You can then look through the archives and find out which Vaults were equipped with a G.E.C.K. You learn the location of Vault 87 (which has the only G.E.C.K. in the area) and several other Vaults.

You must then go to Little Lamplight due to the fact that the normal entrance to Vault 87 is completely and utterly irradiated. You can convince Mayor Macready to let you into Little Lamplight (a town populated by children) either through the Child at Heart perk or by freeing some children who are being held captive in Paradise Falls.

Inside Vault 87 you can find Fawkes, a highly intelligent super-mutant who gained intelligence by having access to the vault computers. He was trapped in the room by the other super mutants who view him as a freak. He prefers to be called a meta-human. Upon questioning he offers to retrieve the G.E.C.K. for you if you can free him. If you choose not to there is also a room with a radiation suit and rad-away that was used by scientists to monitor the room with the G.E.C.K when radiation flooded into it. Upon having Fawkes retrieve the G.E.C.K or doing it yourself, you can head back to Little Lamplight, however you are stunned by a grenade and captured by Enclave soldiers.

Upon awakening you find yourself in Raven Rock, a Enclave stronghold in the extreme northwest of the map, there Colonel Autumn questions you and asks you for the activation code to Project Purity. However President John Henry Eden orders him to come and talk to him. When the Colonel leaves the President instructs you to go and meet him. The President orders the Enclave soldiers not to harm you (an order then promptly recalled by Autumn). You are forced to fight through Raven Rock to Eden's office. You find that he is an advanced model of the ZAX Supercomputer and is actually an amalgam of all of America's former Presidents. He tells you that the only way to get humanity to function properly in the wasteland is through water. He asks you to take a modified Forced Evolutionary Virus vial which kills all mutated humans because non-humans are obviously destabilizing the wasteland to the point of making it a misery to exist there. You can then choose to destroy President Eden either through a speech check or Intelligence check or find his self-destruct code and tell it to him. If you ask why the Colonel cannot carry the F.E.V vial for him he tells you that the Colonel does not agree with his plans. You can then leave Raven Rock and find Fawkes outside, who came a little late to rescue you. You must then head back to Elder Lyons in the Citadel.

You meet Elder Lyons down in the lab. When you arive, you find a heated discussion between Scribe Rothchild, Elder Lyons, and Sarah Lyons. Rothchild is complaining that Liberty Prime is not ready for action, while Sarah is arguing that there isn't any time for another plan. Eventually, it ends with Lyons giving up and allowing Sarah, and Lyon's Pride, to go to the Jefferson Memorial with Liberty Prime. Once the you get to Project Purity, you confront Colonel Autumn one last time, and decide his fate. Then, you are faced with a choice; to go into the irradiated chamber of Project Purity and sacrifice yourself, or make Sarah Lyons go in you place. A small choice should you decide to enter the chamber is whether to put the modified F.E.V. vial into Project Purity or not.