Think Tank (faction)

The Think Tank is the main faction in Big MT in 2281, created by the pre-War Big MT executives after the Great War and their transformation into think tanks.

Early years
At first, they were the six executives of Big MT. Collectively named "Think Tank," the executives include doctors Borous, Mobius, Dala, 0, 8 and Klein, who was the administrator of Big MT. Their original names are long lost. They were responsible for the decision making and management of all experiments in Big MT, each in their respective domains under the direction of Klein.

After the Great War, a new project started, with the purpose of preserving the Big MT executives by transforming them into a special brain bot called think tank, allowing them to continue their work indefinitely. They were "reprogrammed" to forget a part of their personality and their name, giving them a new one and creating a recursion loop in their perception programming. With that, the Think Tank was created. With nobody to stand in their way, their research continued, becoming more sinister and debauched as the years went by.

Later, all of the Big MT researchers died, with some killed due to the escape of the cazadores and the night stalkers. Only the Think Tank group remained in Big MT. Mobius, tired of their endless and horrible experimentation and thinking that "the world isn't ready for that kind of too-far-thing-taking" and that the other members had lost what remained of their humanity, erected a radar fence; a kind of radar-guided repulsive field around the perimeter of Big MT to prevent the disembodied brains from escaping into the wasteland, which would destroy what little remained of their humanity with their new prepared experimentation into a new "fertile testing ground."

Mobius' exile
After a severe dispute with Mobius, Klein removed the chips of all the personalities of The Sink, Mobius's room and his personal laboratory. Against the will of his former colleagues, Mobius hacked the databanks of his colleagues, reprogramming their chronometers, geometers and cartography programs to make them lose their sense of time and history. He also generated a belief that Big MT was the only location left on the planet. In the process, however, he also damaged some of their memories and knowledge, creating a mangled, disjointed version of themselves. Disgusted to have done this to his friends, he also erased some parts of his memory, such as this event and his pre-War creation, the robo-scorpion. He then left, and all the memories related to the incident were deleted from the Think Tank's minds.

Afterwards, Mobius moved to the X-42 robo-warfare facility (which he renamed the "Forbidden Zone") and was inspired after seeing some radscorpions coming into Big MT. He decided to improve the creatures, making a massive army of robo-scorpions. Many of the features added to the robots were specifically designed to intimidate the Think Tank, like the speakers and the "intelligence draining lasers." Having now built his proper army, Mobius believed that without something to distract the Think Tank, the radar fence would not be sufficient to contain them, he began to send repetitive threat broadcasts (while tripping on Psycho) to instill fear and prompt them to waste their energies focusing on retrieving the technologies to attack him.

The Visitors
Big MT was more or less abandoned. Although the facility's security was almost impenetrable, three people (prior to the Courier) were able to elude the Think Tank and survive Big MT's horrors: Elijah, Ulysses and Christine Royce. At some point during his journey, Elijah spoke with the Think Tank, making them question the way of things with his requests for technology that could "destroy a nation with force." The five Think Tanks began to speculate that their world could be larger than they perceived.

Some time after, Elijah was apprehended by 0|Dr. 0 and 8|Dr. 8, but he hacked them both within minutes, permanently damaging 8's voice module and sowing destruction in his wake, using 0 to wreck the Think Tank's trains. Elijah's familiarity with pre-War technology rendered the Think Tank's attempts to recapture or contain him unsuccessful. At the Little Yangtze internment camp, Elijah set up shop and acquired bomb collar technology, while disposing of the sentry robots sent after him with his "souped up" laser weaponry, which was most likely Elijah's advanced LAER. After detecting the presence of Christine Royce and neutralizing her, he went on the move again, at one point setting up camp at Elijah's Watch. When he had found all he felt he needed, including information pertaining to the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort and the treasure trove of technology to be found there, he rode out of Big MT on a cargo train, crashing the remaining trains in tunnels leading out of the facility. These events were all observed by Mobius. Due to his inability to intervene, he became afraid of the future actions of the Think Tank; if they ever conceived a means of circumventing the radar fence and unleashing themselves on whatever remnant of America survived.

Ulysses too spoke with the Think Tank, particularly Dr. Klein, asking many questions. He faced what he thought was certain doom at their hands, and in anger asked Klein: "Who are you, that do not know your history?" The Old World flag on his triggered recollections in the Think Tanks, overriding the memory wipes that Dr. Mobius had executed. The scientists realized that there was indeed a world beyond Big MT that had survived nuclear cataclysm, a world brimming with possibilities for experimentation. Dr. Klein, regarding the question as too dangerous and that it reminded him of too many events, deleted it from his memory logs. His colleagues followed suit. However, in their conversation with Ulysses, they had given him much knowledge regarding Big MT itself, and the methods he could employ to convey his intended message to the Courier.

Some time after the three left for good, the Think Tank installed a pacification field in The Think Tank central area, to make sure they could never be attacked again. Later, the Courier was teleported to Big MT by a crashed satellite in the Mojave Drive-in. They were taken to The Sink to become a lobotomite, but because the Courier had suffered a cranial injury in just the right place, courtesy of Benny, the Sink Auto-Doc was forced to alter its programming to fix the problem. In the process this improved the brain removing procedure in all the necessary ways for the Courier to retain not only motor function, but also powers of cognition, after the lobotomy. Dr. Dala also removed the Courier's spine and heart and replaced them with synthetic organs. The Courier's brain thus contained procedural data that would give the Think Tank the knowledge to modify their cranial containers into hosts that can slip past the radar fence to leave Big MT.

However, after the Think Tank extracted it, they fell to bickering among themselves. Mobius saw this as an opportunity to steal the Courier's brain and its knowledge, sequestering it safely in the Forbidden Zone. To recover the missing brain and escape, the Courier was obliged to help the Think Tank against Mobius, at least for a time.

Society
The Think Tank's goal is to leave the remains of Big MT for the wasteland, a new "fertile testing ground" prepared for their new experimentation. Ideologically, they want to know everything and don't hesitate to betray anyone to perform new experiments. However, they remain more or less welded together, generally following the view of Klein. This is not always the case, however, as Dr. 0 genuinely expresses how he feels towards Klein in the non-violent ending of the main quest.

Relations with the outside
They are hostile towards anyone who tries to approach and enter Big MT. Big MT's automated processes cause most hapless visitors to become lobotomites and function as part of Big MT's security.

The Think Tank have been reprogrammed by Dr. Mobius to lose all awareness of the outside world, and apart from a minor disruption caused by Ulysses, this programming has taken firm hold. They do not acknowledge any of the factions and communities in the game, since they are unable to recognize those entities' existence.

Technology
Before Dr. Mobius' exile, they controlled all the technology in Big MT. Afterwards, they lost control over what happens on the surface. They still possess powerful technology in their headquarters, such as the K9000 cyberdog gun and sonic emitters. Also, their headquarters has technological equipment that allows them to continue their experiments to a certain degree.

Appearances
The Think Tank faction appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.

Behind the scenes

 * The names of the members of the Think Tank shares and refers to an endless loop or infinity. The references are the Klein bottle for Klein, Mandala for Dala, Ouroboros for Borous and the Mobius strip for Mobius. 0 and 8's names also visually share the same symbolism.
 * The Think Tank is heavily inspired, if not directly based off of, the scientists from the 1995 film 12 Monkeys. Both are a team of six scientists, one of them being female, who work on dangerous experiments. They wear similar outfits to the Think Tank as shown in the intro slide to Old World Blues. Both are insanely brilliant and brilliantly insane, though neither is great at what they do. Additionally, the Think Tanks themselves appear to be inspired by a robot used by the scientists in the film.