Vault 19

Vault 19 is one of the Vault-Tec Vaults.

This is where Samuel Cooke has taken the escaped convicts from NCR Correctional Facility. Philip Lem and Samuel Cooke are sick of each other, and both issue the quest Why Can't We Be Friends.

This vault is located between Bonnie Springs and Whittaker Farmstead. It is surprisingly intact for a post-war Vault, being nearly untouched by anything apart from normal degredation from age and water/air contact.

Vault Experiment
The purpose of Vault 19 in the Vault Experiment was a "social experiment". This involved the segregation of the vault dwellers into two different coloured sections, with limited contact. They were segregated into two groups, marked as Red and Blue. Sulphur from the cave system below the vault began to leak in through the ventilation system, which led the inhabitants to become paranoid and abandon the vault.

Subliminal messaging may also have been a factor as the journal of a child points out that they (and other children) could hear a really high pitched noise (and possibily voices) that the adults could not hear.

Those selected for the vault had pre-existing paranoia, as many of the messages left on computer terminals are consistently paranoid, the vault overseer's computer has corrupted data concerning "...fake medical records. Paranoia must be induced through non-violent and non-chemical means for the experiment to be considered a success.", and the clinic has several patient files on the floor concerning their being brought in by police along with the specifics of several vault dwellers conditions.

Vault 19 is also unique in having two Overseer's Offices and Overseers, which were oddly placed directly adjacent to each other. One for the red group, and one for the blue.

Vault 19
This contains the small Vault entry tunnel and Vault door, as well as the two Overseer's offices. On the left from the entrance is the cafeteria, with a first aid box under the counter and two vending machines in a corner. Continuing in a clockwise path around the first area of the local map, one will find two restrooms, both with first aid boxes on the wall near the sinks, and the clinic. This is a two room affair with a large supply of chems and doctor's bags, along with a few patient logs and a copy of Today's Physician.

Vault 19: Blue Sector
This can only be accessed with a blue sector keycard, which Philip Lem will give to the player if he/she offers to help him. Alternatively, one may wait for one of the convicts to open the door, and take the keycard from a desk in one of the rooms. It is a horseshoe shaped hallway with many rooms on the sides filled with convicts, with a great deal of bottle caps and Vault 19 Jumpsuits in the dressers. At the end of the hallway is the elevator to the fire Gecko infested living quarters.

Vault 19: Red Sector
This section can only be accessed with a Red Sector Keycard, which will be given to the player when he/she offers to help Cooke(Note that this will not effect Philip Lem or vise versa, it only opens up a new objective.). This is a small "L" shaped hallway, and is much smaller than the Blue Sector, with similar loot in the dressers and lockers.

Blue Sector
This area can be accessed through elevators on either the red or blue sectors, or the sulfur caves. Assuming that the Courier comes down from Blue sector, the room on the left in the collapsed hallway opens onto an apartment and one or more Fire Geckos and a large hole in the ceiling. Further down the elevator hall is a small room with double beds, a floor safe, two dressers and a single Vault 19 Jumpsuit on one of the dressers. Strangely, this jumpsuit will not disappear when picked up. This room also has the star bottle cap on the desk near the terminal. Finally here is a large room with many beds and lockers at the end of the hallway. The atrium must be opened with a blue sector keycard. The Atrium itself contains more fire Geckos and the entrance to the Sulfur caves on the floor. The upper level can be reached by crouching under the doorway, but there is little of value there. There is one first aid box behind the bar.

Red Sector
This is one again smaller than the blue sector, with only one collapsed room and the elevator. This is guarded by one Fire Gecko.

Sulfur Caves
This Level of the Vault is the most damaged by far, and is comprised mainly of yellow caves made entirely of sulfur, and the Vault's reactor level. The cave itself is a maze, with the objective for Lem on the first left if coming from the Vault. The hole in the wall ahead opens onto the Vault's reactor room, and from there is a hallway with access to the systems room, which has no loot, and the upper area including a hard locked elevator to the left Overseer's tunnel. The password to this computer may be gained from the terminal in the office itself. Otherwise there is a small break room with two vending machines and stairs down into the Nightstalker portion of the caves. This area also has a ladder to the Mojave Wasteland.

Notable Loot

 * There is a bit of medical supplies in the clinic including 2 Doctor's Bag, and some Stimpaks.
 * Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap in the abandoned living quarters of the blue sector, next to a terminal inside the second dorm on a desk.
 * There are bottle caps in almost all of the dressers and footlockers scattered about the Vault.
 * There are 2 C-4 plastic explosive in this vault. One underneath a couch on the red side, and one in between Filing Cabinets in the Infirmary (dem).

Appearances
Vault 19 appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Trivia

 * The division of color-coded sectors in Vault 19 and the perceived threats between their inhabitants is possibly a reference to the table-top role-playing game, Paranoia. The game had a similar premise of post-apocalyptic survivors shut up inside of a vast, underground city whose inhabitants and various sectors were color-coded according to security clearance. While the player-characters were ostensibly working together as agents of a Big Brother-esque artificial intelligence know only as "The Computer", they were clandestinely pitted against each other through lies and half-truths fed to them by the competing secret societies to which they owed their true loyalty. This is thematically similar to how an atmosphere of paranoia and distrust was cultivated in Vault 19. In more general terms, Paranoia also shared with the Fallout series a dark, tongue-in-cheek humor and many Cold War references.


 * The names could also more simply be a reference to the web series Red vs. Blue Where two small army squads fight in the game Halo


 * Alternately, and most likely, "red" and "blue" could have simply been chosen because they are usually the colors used to represent differing sides in everything from board games to to politics to international affairs. This naming scheme has been used to cover everything from the cold war ("red" representing the communist soviets and "blue" representing America) to US political parties (with red representing Republicans and Blue representing Democrats).  the Red Versus Blue machinema series uses this naming scheme because of this reason as well.