Big MT

The Big Mountain Research and Development Center, alternately known as Big MT and the Big Empty, was a privately owned pre-War defense contractor and research center located in the Southwest Commonwealth.

Origins
The Big MT Research and Development Center was originally built inside a cavern system underneath a mountain peak (hence the name) to create the technology of tomorrow without restraints, either moral or technical. It welcomed some of the most gifted pre-War scientists, who plumbed the depths of many experimental technological fields. The research conducted within was as groundbreaking as it was unethical, conducted in part on living humans (both American volunteers and Chinese-American detainees). Big MT even included a concentration camp of its very own, safeguarded by lucrative contracts with the US military, such as the Saturnite-plated, atomic-cannon-toting giant robotic scorpion. However, due to budget cuts in the later years of its operation, Big MT had to improvise alternate means of funding and research. The executives began to strike deals with third parties, exchanging experimental technology for money and other privileges. To cut costs in research, they even began assassinating American citizens (Project Burke) and illegally exhuming their remains (Project Hare).

Due to a failed experiment conducted before the War, the mountain above the center was vaporized, leaving behind a giant crater and the exposed central dome of Big MT. This catastrophe did little to phase the researchers, and the efforts in pushing the boundaries of science continued unabated. The new land exposed by the explosion was adapted for scientific purposes: new facilities were established, both above- and below-ground, including an artillery test field and a test town.

Under the guidance of its six gifted directors (Gail Richardson, later known as Borous, the other known only as Mobius, Dala, 0, 8, as well as Klein, the administrator of Big MT, their original names long lost), the facility gave birth to new technologies, such as the Saturnite alloy, next generation hazmat suits, cyberdogs, intelligent armor, holograms, Securitrons, and many more. At the same time, many new horrors were also born in the laboratories of the Big MT: Cazadores, Nightstalkers, mutagenic plants, ambulatory corpses, unknown toxins, and other fearsome creations. Creations of both types were sold to private parties in exchange for certain favors: Frederick Sinclair obtained various experimental technologies (including even the prototype matter conversion machines) in return for allowing Big MT to use the Sierra Madre as a proving grounds, a decision that backfired catastrophically when the experimental technologies turned on the casino inhabitants, dooming them. Such an event was not unprecedented either: the town of Hopeville was wiped off the map by a disastrous meteorological experiment in another such exchange.

The Great War
The Great War didn't stop the research efforts; it merely put them on a different rail. The scientific team abandoned their mortal shells, transforming into think tanks, post-human cybernetic organisms that could continue their work at Big MT indefinitely. With no bodies to stand in the way, their research continued, becoming more sinister and debauched as the years went by. Mobius, tired of his endless and horrible experimentation, erected a radar-guided repulsive field around the perimeter of Big MT to prevent the disembodied brains from escaping into the wasteland and destroying what little remained of humanity with their experimentation. He also hacked the databanks of his colleagues, erasing most of their pre-War memories and replacing them with mangled, disjointed versions and an unshakable belief in the non-existence of the world outside.

The Big MT fell silent, its researchers dead, gone, or demented. The sheer size of the crater served as its best camouflage: most wastelanders assumed the ragged edges to be remnants of a massive nuclear explosion and avoided it altogether. The unfortunate few who wandered in disappeared forever, apprehended by robots and lobotomized by the Think Tank to act as organic automata, maintaining the decaying facility and protecting it against scavengers. Over the years, it became known in the wasteland as The Big Empty, a place where nothing exists. Its size and aura of mystery blocked the establishment of trade routes and reliable supply caravans between the Boneyard and New Vegas, a fact that proved crucial to the Legion's survival immediately following the First Battle of Hoover Dam, as the NCR was unable to reinforce its army quickly enough.

The Visitors
The facility's security was far from perfect, though. Some were able to elude the think tanks and survive its horrors. The most notable of these were Elijah, Ulysses, and Christine Royce. Elijah came to the Big Empty in search of weapons that would allow him to destroy the NCR and everyone who would oppose him in the creation of the new wasteland order, his order. Elijah scoured the facility for technologies that would be of use to him in his endeavor; after learning of the Sierra Madre from Ulysses, he started gathering equipment that would allow him to crack the casino, the most important and sinister of these were the concentration camp detainment collars. He also took a unusable holorifle prototype, perfected afterward thanks to the holograms of the Sierra Madre. Ulysses came to this graveyard in search of knowledge, to learn what makes and breaks nations, what would allow him to reawaken America, the Old World. Christine Royce followed Elijah, tasked to kill him for the crimes committed against the Brotherhood of Steel.

Of the three, Christine was the only one who did not escape unscathed. Captured by Big Empty security following a disastrous skirmish at Little Yangtze, she was subjected to horrific experiments that permanently damaged her brain, destroying her ability to read and write fluently. She was saved from certain death by Ulysses, who nursed her back to health, coaxed the answers he wanted out of Dr. Klein, and left Big MT. Elijah was the only one who left the Think Tank a parting gift. After being apprehended by Dr. 0 and Dr. 8, he hacked them both within minutes, permanently damaging 8's voice module and sewing 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. Some time after the three left permanently, the Courier arrives at Big MT, kidnapped by the Think Tank to serve as a new lobotomite. The extraction process goes awry, leaving the Courier to unlock the remaining secrets of the facility in order to recover their brain and escape.

Layout
Big MT is dominated by the central dome of the Think Tank, which is connected to outlying facilities by numerous walkways, pipes, and conduits.

To the north lies the rail line that passes into Big MT via the Big MT North Tunnel before splitting into two lines that run toward the east and west tunnels. Near the north tunnel is the Forbidden Zone Dome, the lair of Dr. Mobius. Other notable facilities include the Signal Hills transmitter, the Saturnite Alloy Research Facility, the X-22 Botanical Garden, and the X-17 Meteorological Station. Just north of the western train tunnel are the Little Yangtze concentration camp and the Construction Site.

To the east, along the eastern rail spur, lie several notable facilities, including the X-8 Research Center, the X-7b "Boom Town" Target Zone, the Securitron De-Construction Plant, the Hazmat Testing Ground, and the Waste disintegration platform.

The western portion of the crater is dominated by the X-66 Hexcrete Archipelago, a collection of hexagonal concrete structures that vary in size from small platforms to towering monoliths. Among the hexcrete structures are several facilities, including the X-13 Testing Facility, the Z-43 Innovative Toxins Plant, the Z-38 lightwave dynamics Research building, and the X-7a "Left Field" Artillery Launch.

In the southern portion of the crater is Higgs Village, which contains the former homes of the Think Tank within a large, hangar-like structure. It is flanked by the X-12 Research Center and Y-17 Medical Facility.

This is not an exhaustive list of locations within Big MT, but notes some prominent facilities visible from the balcony of The Sink, Dr. Mobius's former apartment, located atop the central dome. For a complete list of locations, see Locations in Old World Blues.

Creatures
Originally meant as a beacon of new hope for humanity, Big MT eventually created a vast number of horrifying, unique creatures and machines, several of whom have made the Mojave Wasteland their home and killing grounds. Big MT's "legacy" includes:


 * Cazadores - hybrid insect creations of Dr. Borous that broke out of the facility.
 * Nightstalkers - rattlesnake/coyote hybrid creatures, also created by Dr. Borous, that broke out of the facility and developed the ability to reproduce, despite their creator's assurances of sterility.
 * Spore carriers - human victims mutated by plant pollen. Similar, if not identical, to plants that infected Vault 22.
 * Ghost People - mutated products of The Cloud who stalk the Sierra Madre, another "test field" of Big MT.
 * Lobotomites - countless lobotomized victims of Big MT's experiments who serve as guards and janitors, after a fashion.
 * Y-17 trauma override harnesses - robotic suits encasing long-dead bodies they were designed to save.
 * Robo-scorpions - Robotic guardians inspired by radscorpions, created by Dr. Mobius.

Appearances
The Big Empty is mentioned in the Fallout: New Vegas add-ons Dead Money and Honest Hearts, and appears in the add-on Old World Blues.

It was to appear in Van Buren, but in later development was merged with the Leavenworth Prison into the Tibbets Prison facility. Tibbets would occasionally still be referred to as the Big Empty by developers in design documents.

Behind the scenes

 * The Big Empty is one of two known facilities to have done research on electrical weapons. The other was the Secret Vault, Vault-Tec's private vault.
 * Despite being one of the defense contractors in the employ of the United States, many of their advanced technology (like K9000 cyberdog gun, hologram, LAER, proton axe, sonic emitter, transportation prototype etc.) were never used by the Enclave, the descendant of the pre-War United States government and the U.S. Army.
 * There are three geographic features called "Big Mountain" in the southwestern US: Arizona's Black Mesa, a peak in Nevada's Black Rock Range, and Big Mountain Ridge, in Los Angeles County, California.