Fort Bannister

Fort Bannister is a pre-war military installation north of Evergreen Mills. When the Great War came in 2077, it was one of the highest profile targets in the area, suffering a number of direct nuclear hits, which obliterated much of its surface facilities, leaving a gaping crater and concrete ruins behind. The nuclear detonation did not destroy the bunker's underground installations, however, which was likely the main reason it was secured by Talon Company mercenaries and used as their primary base. Fort Bannister may possibly be named after Benjamin Bannister, a real-life freed African slave, architect and planner of Washington, D.C.

An interesting thing to note is that missile silo doors reside within a ruined building. As the building has a roughly circular pattern of destruction centered on the silo doors, one can gather that the building itself collapsed when a missile plowed through at the beginning of the Great War.

The bunker itself is extensive and is accessible from the ammunition storage, a manhole inside a lone Commander's Tent, a bunker entrance just above the Commander's Tent, and a metal door down some steps just to the right when entering Fort Bannister through the South gates.

Enemies
The underground levels of the fort are crawling with Talon Company Mercs who are all very heavily armed. If your combat skills are high enough to clear the place out, the area contains a staggering amount of valuable hardware to scavenge. The mercenaries here have a wide range of armaments, including assault rifles, Chinese Assault Rifles, Combat Shotguns, Laser Rifles, flamers, Missile Launchers and 10mm SMGs.

In the Commanding Officer's Quarters are Commander Jabsco (leader of the Talon Company), Mister Gutsy (though the Mister Gutsy model may be found in a dormant state, and likely activated once you attack Jabsco), and two Automated Turrets. However the first of these turrets can be either deactivated or frenzied via a locked terminal just outside the Commander's personal quarters.

The Commander himself starts off with a Missile Launcher, but once he runs out of ammo for that, he will either attack with his Occam's Razor, pull out his Chinese Pistol, or rush downstairs and grab any weapon in the nearby safe. Be warned that the commander also has a very high amount of Hit points. In fact he is the fourth most powerful creature in Fallout 3, coming in after Giant Ant Queens, General Jingwei, and Super Mutant Behemoths. This can make dealing with the commander problematic.

There is also a chance that once you attack the commander, more mercenaries will spawn behind you.

In V.A.T.S., 4 shots in a row (may require Agility of 8-9 to get 4 shots) from the Alien Blaster (with Energy Weapons skill at 85, Luck at 9) is enough to kill Jabsco and no mercs have time to spawn behind you.

Alternatively, if you can sneak up on him (I did it with Sneak=65 but I'm sure a stealth boy would do the trick as well if yours is not very high) you can score a sneak critical headshot to soften him up, and proceed to take him down with pretty minimal effort. Just peek slowly around the corner and immediately enter VATS as soon as you have a clear line of fire. I popped him with 2 shots from Lincoln's Repeater and that was that (the sneak critical knocked off over 2/3 of his health, and then I got lucky and scored a critical on the second shot as well). I should mention that my small guns was about 75 at the time, and I had just taken some Psycho in preparation for what I thought was going to be a tough battle. Dealing with Mr. Gutsy once Jabsco is out of commission is trivial. Either frenzy the turrets on him if you have Science >50, or feed him a missile to the face and watch the pretty fireworks.

Alternatively, reverse pickpocketing an explosive into the Commander's inventory works very well, often killing him without you ever taking damage.



Note: If possible, avoid fast traveling to this location as you may arrive surrounded by a handful of mercs and either a Protectron, Robobrain or Mister Gutsy, as well as a guard dog. Giant soldier ants have been known to spawn outside Fort Bannister in the nearby concrete ruins. It's advisable that the player, regardless of level should approach Fort Banister with extreme caution.

Enclave
After The Waters of Life quest, an Enclave research outpost can be found near the massive crater, with a mobile terminal containing their objective in the area (gathering samples).

Notable Loot

 * The unique Combat Knife called Occam's Razor and unique Combat Helmet called Talon Combat Helmet are carried by the Talon Company leader, Commander Jabsco.


 * There are 96 Alien Power Cells in a large radioactive crater to the east of the Fort itself and due south of VAPL-58 Power Station ([[Media:Crater_east_of_fort_bannister.png|screenshot]]). There is an overturned military truck in the crater, as well as several barrels of waste. The Alien Power Cells are beneath the truck, as if they spilled out of the bed. Also in the crater, less than 10 meters to the south east of the truck, are a locked safe ( weapon + ammo ) and a locked personal footlocker ( low armor ), both of easy difficulty.


 * A copy of Nikola Tesla and You can be found on a ledge between the stairs in the missile launch room, near an Ammunition Box visible from the stairs.(It's one of the non-evident ones : Enter the commanding Officer's quarters from the wastelands, when you enter the missile silo, walk till you bump in an ammo box on the ground to your left, at the sand bag defence of the mercs you encounter after entering the stairwell. From here face west, then slightly left and down : you'll see another ammo box on the stairs' roof and a ham radio, one floor below. The book is between those). **Save before entering the missle launch room. The book may have flown due to the missle launchers**. You can reach it with an easy well timed jump, just go back up the stairwell and jump down.


 * A copy of Guns and Bullets is found on top of a gun cabinet (.32 or chinese pistol and some .32 or 10mm ammo inside the cabinet) inside the easternmost room of the Bunker Area of Fort Bannister.


 * In an Average locked room at the bottom of the concrete stairs in Fort Bannister Main (which can be entered from the outside area through two (very easy) locked doors - one is directly west of the entrance to Fort Bannister Bunker), there is a copy of Big Book of Science, a Fat Man, and one Mini Nuke.


 * A Nuka-Cola Quantum behind a footlocker under the stairs in the southern most room (and behind a footlocker) of the Commanding Officer's Quarters.

Appearances
Fort Bannister only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * Sometimes when in the Fort if you target an object and slowly move your targeting reticle away from the object you'll see Drink restore health and 16 rads / sec. It's just like drinking from a toilet if you can manage to hit the button fast enough.  Ewww.  I first noticed it in the room that looks like they did experiments on dead wastlanders on the dead body of the Talon Merc with the Flamer after I killed him.  The dead body of the Wastelander laying face first on the table, and the First Aid Box and toolbox on the shelf right before the room.  Of course you might have to look at the toilets first before it actually works