Vault

A vault is a type of survival shelter designed to protect individuals from nuclear war. Leaders who managed vaults are known as overseers.

Background


Tensions between America and China during the Resource Wars in 2052 created mass paranoia of nuclear weapons being used against other countries. To help calm the public, two years later in 2054, the Vault-Tec Corporation cooperated with the United States government and planned to build 122 Vaults across the country as well as in newly annexed Canada. This was part of "Project: Safehouse" which was also known as the Societal Preservation Program.

The first vault was constructed beneath Los Angeles, and was intended to demonstrate the viability of such a facility. Unlike subsequent installations, this demonstration vault was not part of the ulterior experiment behind Project: Safehouse. By 2063, most of the vaults had finished construction, with the exceptions of Vault 114, Vault 118 and Vault 88. Vault 112 is the last known vault to be completed, construction having concluded in June 2074. The company sponsored an exhibit at the Museum of Technology in the capital, designed to promote their shelters and explain their functionality.

In actuality, the American government and Vault-Tec conspired for much darker purposes; many of the vaults were psychological or physical experiments to research human behavior, among many other reasons. While there existed control vaults to genuinely help people survive the Great War, many others simply did not exist for this purpose. In these experiment vaults, people were often psychologically and physically tortured, resulting in many victims.

While Vault-Tec attempted to mass produce 122 vaults, not all of them were completed by the time the Great War occurred on October 23, 2077. Only a minuscule fraction of the American population survived. The vaults also sealed without many of their intended inhabitants. 

Doors
External

A vault was designed to provide protection from nuclear fallout, constructed with blast doors. The doors had a projected 2% failure rate in case of a direct hit by an atomic bomb. Different variants included the Seal-N-Safe model No. 343 that measured four feet in thickness, constructed with steel, and contained twelve cogs, used in the demonstration vault. Specific access codes are necessary to operate some doors, while other panels require connection to a Pip-Boy to access the door controls. The Vault City doors are built with power couplings.

Other variants have nine cogs instead of twelve, opening to a retractable catwalk leading into the vault. The external door reads the vault's number, along with a warning that tampering may lead to loss of life, and an additional warning to stand 10 meters back during the initial purge bell. The door is labeled as pressurized, and not to approach until all clear. To the left of the number, a Societal Preservation Program label is found.

The Vault 94 door controls were linked to the vault's external radiation sensors, causing it to automatically close once radiation outside reached levels consistent with a nuclear event. The Vault-Tec Security Manual outlined complete operating instructions, but specific procedures unique to Vault 94 superseded general paragraphs. The Vault 94 Community Council was charged with answering inquires regarding access except in cases of emergency, in which case the vault door controls were overridden by the vault's Emergency Management System.

Interior

The interior doors are labeled with warnings stating they utilize hydraulic locks, the pressure scale varying between 3300 and 9900 lbs of pressure. The doors vary in function and color, some swinging open and others sliding. Select vaults utilized hidden doors, some are utilized in Enclave facilities such as the Whitespring bunker and a large vault door is on display in the lobby of Morgantown's Vault-Tec University.

The doors have a power box that glows green when unlocked and red when locked. A caution zone is marked by yellow lines on the floor. Others are painted with a vertical band with a stop sign and the words "No Access - Authorized Personnel Only." There are downward pointing arrows above and below the text. Maintenance room doors swing open as opposed to sliding. On one side of the door, there are two circular indicators that display OPEN and STAND BACK when opening.

Appearances
Vaults appear in all Fallout games to date.

Behind the scenes

 * Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason D. Anderson first came up with the idea of vaults housing dark experiments during the initial development stages of Fallout 2, with the more "wacky" experiments being developed after the three left Interplay.
 * Vaults are mentioned Fallout Bible.
 * According to Chris Taylor, the Los Angeles vault was built as a demonstration model for the federal government, and was close to Vault-Tec's headquarters.

Fallout 3

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Fallout 4

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Fallout 76

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