Fawkes

Fawkes is an intelligent and sophisticated super mutant, a rare breed in the Capital Wasteland. Fawkes can be found in Vault 87 in Isolation Room 05 as Subject D624. It is noted on the Chief Physician's Terminal (in the room across from Fawkes') that Subject D624 was, before the experimentation, a female. It should also be known that all Super Mutants, or Meta-Humans, display an asexual phenotype after their transformation. Fawkes is clad in a tattered Vault Suit, and wields either a Super Sledge or a Gatling Laser.

Fawkes begs the Vault 101 Dweller to release her from her cell, which she has resided in for as long as memory permits. She also reveals that she was able to attain literacy and a civilized personality by gleaning as much information she could from the vault's immense database. Fawkes has an intimate knowledge of the vault, for which she credits with her possible former life as a human resident of the very same vault she is imprisoned in.

In exchange for her release, Fawkes retrieves the Garden of Eden Creation Kit device from a radioactive section of the vault, and bids the Vault 101 Dweller farewell. After the Vault 101 Dweller is incapacitated and taken to Raven Rock, the base of The Enclave, Fawkes aids in the escape, and devastates the Enclave soldiers with an incredibly powerful gatling laser.

Depending on the player's karma, Fawkes may agree to accompany the Vault 101 Dweller on future travels. If your karma is too low, she is found wandering around the entrance to The Underworld.

Fawkes, thanks to the inherited thick skin natural to Super Mutants (or, as she prefers, 'Meta-Humans'), is extremely resilient. Coupled with her powerful Gatling Laser, Fawkes is a very useful ally. However, the player cannot equip Fawkes with clothing, somewhat limiting her effectiveness in combat. In spite of this, Fawkes can still be instructed on which weapon to arm herself with (super sledge, gatling laser, or a gun (possibly only Big?) that Fawkes has ammunition for), and on which tactics to utilize in battle (stay close or hang back). Despite Fawkes' drawbacks, she's still possibly the most powerful follower in the game, as she can take several direct missile hits before dying. Also, her gatling laser seems to have infinite ammo.

One major issue is that she often gets stuck due to her size, and in small areas can even block off the player entirely if she gets stuck.

When the Vault 101 Dweller is faced with the climactic decision at the conclusion of the game, Fawkes politely declines to enter the radioactive room in lieu of the player, stating that is the player's destiny, not hers.

Appearances
Fawkes appears in Fallout 3.

Related quests

 * Finding the Garden of Eden

Behind the scenes
Her name is a reference to Guy Fawkes, a 16th century English Catholic famed for his involvement in an assassination attempt known as the Gunpowder Plot. Their goal was to assassinate the protestant King James I of England including most of his government and install his catholic daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, as Queen. The plot was eventually foiled and Guy Fawkes was executed. Fawkes the Mutant says she found the name in an historic entry in her computer and used it because Guy Fawkes was "a man who was willing to fight and die for what he believed in."

Additionally, her name references the character "V" of V for Vendetta. Both characters identify with Guy Fawkes, are subjected to experimentation that has granted them superhuman abilities, and have been imprisoned in room 5 (or V in Roman Numerals). The fact that Fawkes was originally a female might be a reference to Evey Hammond, V's young female ward who becomes the new V after his death, adopting many if not all of his mannerisms.

Bugs

 * If you already have Dogmeat as a companion, hiring Fawkes on the Xbox 360 will make Dogmeat disappear. (I'm still working on how to get around this.)

It is possible that Dogmeat will "come back" to you eventually. After him disappearing, several days later in game, I received a message stating "Dogmeat is waiting outside Vault 101" and he was, and after telling him to follow me, he did and I had no further issues with the combination of Dogmeat and Fawkes.


 * If you have a vault or science theme active at your Megaton house, do NOT go to bed with Fawkes following you. If you do, you will become trapped, as she will block the door exiting your bedroom. To get her to move out of the way, ask her to stop following you (fire her).  She will begin to walk out of the house to make her way towards underworld; simply catch her before she gets to your door and re-hire her.  Problem solved. (On the PS3, she doesn't seem to leave even if you fire her. She just stands there and you remain stuck. Even if you sleep, she just won't go. And she is very hard to kill. One must go back to a previous save.) (On the Xbox 360 at least, you can just shove Fawkes out of the way.  Make sure to push her out the door, as pushing her into a wall does not help you.) PC users can simply use the toggle collision (tcl) code in the console to clip past Fawkes.