National Guard Depot

Located along the northern edge of Downtown DC, the National Guard Depot is a high-security compound that used to be the headquarters for the Washington militia. Over the 200 years, the building has partially collapsed and any useful components had been destroyed. For some odd reason, it is also heavily radiated, making extended trips inside hazardous at best.

Unfortunately, the destruction didn't include robots and a large number of Robobrains, Protectrons and even a single Mark I Security Robot guard the location from any intruders, supported by several turrets. The only section of the building that hasn't been touched by nuclear devastation or scavengers is the ammo bunker, where the depot's emergency supplies were stored.

Quite obviously, the location is a nod to the Glow.

Location
The National Guard Depot is located at the eastern edge of the map, just on the outskirts of the DC area, north-east of the Friendship Heights Metro Station (DC area: lighter green area in right bottom corner of Pip-Boy map). You will pass the cavern with the Mirelurk King if you strike out from Friendship Heights.

The amount of robots inside can potentially pose a challenge for certain characters, and unless you are equipped properly for the fight it can be quite wasteful on your ammo. Luckily a large supply of Pulse Grenades can be found inside which will make fighting the robots a breeze (however you won't find them until about halfway through, in an ammo box in an office cubicle). The depot is also protected by turrets which can either be destroyed, or you can hack nearby terminals (average difficulty) to disable them, or delete the targeting data resulting in the turrets shooting at everything, including robots and other turrets. There is at least one gas pipe in the beginning that can be used to your benefit tricking robots into the mist and blowing it all up. Furthermore, and somewhat of an annoyance, there are large areas of radiation that covers certain parts of the depot.

National Guard Armory:

The armory is only accessible after traversing the National Guard Depot, then the National Guard Training Wing, then National Guard Depot Offices, then exiting from the offices to the National Guard Depot. There you will find an electrical switch which opens the utility door to the armory; the switch is on the leftmost wall straight ahead when you exit the Offices.

In the National Guard Armory you will find the Small Guns Vault Boy Bobblehead (which will increase your Small Arms skill permanently by 10) on a shelf next to the terminal for the bunker access. In addition you will find a Minigun, a Missile Launcher, four Assault Rifles, two 10mm SMGs, two 10mm Pistols and lots of ammo and supplies. Unfortunately, all items are in poor condition, making the profit almost non-existent when compared to the cost of Stimpaks and RadAways used in gaining access to the ammo bunker.

The armorys bunker is opened by finding all 5 of the Keller Family Transcripts located throughout the wasteland. Inside the bunker is the Experimental MIRV Fatman.

Appearances
appears only in Fallout 3.