Talon Company

Talon Company is a mysterious mercenary army active in the Capital Wasteland in 2277.

Background
Little is known of their history. In 2277, they are working for an unknown third party, with simple orders - keep the Capital Wasteland a lawless, disorganized place. They have a particularly nasty record, which includes slaughtering an entire settlement (complete with women and children) between 2275 and 2276. As a mercenary army, the Talons have absolutely no reservations about their targets. A job is a job: in exchange for the right sum of money, they are ready to kill anyone without giving it a second thought, which includes raiding and killing entire villages. They can be hired by anyone who has the caps.

Organization
As a military outfit, Talon Company uses a well defined, hierarchical chain of command, with a single Commander leading Talon Company forces from a central, reinforced location. In 2277, this man was Jabsco, issuing orders from his headquarters in the bunkers of Fort Bannister. The Company has entrenched positions throughout the metropolitan D.C. area, though these are sometimes lost to the supermutant infestation, as is the case with Takoma Park.

Talon Company mercenaries are almost exclusively male. Bodies of female Talon mercs can however be encountered in the bathroom in the Hall of Columns in the Capitol Building, in the Metro Central, and the Corvega factory. A live female Talon merc can be encountered in the Fort Bannister bunker, and another can be in the first fire team that ambushes the player.

Interactions with the player character
Because they are hostile to almost anyone but themselves, they are always hostile towards the Lone Wanderer if encountered, but they will generally not hunt them without meeting either requirements:


 * 1) If the Lone Wanderer has good Karma, even for relatively innocuous reasons (such as giving water to the beggars or finding a home for Bryan Wilks), a sizable bounty may be taken out on their head. At the first encounter, a Talon merc will approach the player character and address them as "the little saint from the Vault," then express their intent to kill the Lone Wanderer. There are two dialogue options, but neither will dissuade them, and the shooting begins. Encounters with Talon Company after that will simply have them attacking, without verbal preamble.
 * 2) Disarming the bomb in Megaton or warning Lucas Simms about Mister Burke (thereby foiling his plan to destroy the town) will also have them tracking the Lone Wanderer down, though they will register as hitmen rather than Talon mercs. They will simply attack, even at the initial encounter.

In the Capital Wasteland area, Talon Company's central base of operations is Fort Bannister, where their leader Commander Jabsco resides, although they do have other outposts as well, such as a camp for traveling mercenaries west of Grayditch. They are also engaged in a large battle with the super mutants in and around the Capitol Building, Takoma Park and the Clifftop Shacks. One can sometimes come across a fire team of three mercs, patrolling through the wasteland or in various towns. If they have a contract for one's death, they may also be ambushed by them after either fast traveling or zoning to a new location. They seem especially fond of certain subway entrances, including the ones in Grayditch, next to Rivet City, the flooded metro and south of Wilhelm's Wharf.

Killing these fire teams provides a good supply of armor and ammunition, as they each wear a customized variant of combat armor and tend to have more advanced weaponry as one levels up. If one would prefer to avoid tangling with the Talon Company, while also avoiding the Regulators, they should keep a neutral Karma level. At good Karma, they should search metro entrances for Talon Company groups and run away if they see them; at the first encounter, the Talons will not attack until they have spoken. If the player character's karma drops to neutral before a Talon merc is able to speak to them, Talon mercs will stop appearing at potential ambush sites, and will not return until the Karma hits Good again.

Talon Company mercenaries are almost exclusively male. Bodies of female Talon mercs can however be encountered in the bathroom in the Hall of Columns in the Capitol Building, in the Metro Central and the Corvega factory.

In addition to conventional infantry, Talon Company controls several reprogrammed military Mister Gutsies and sentry bots, which they use sparingly to guard some of their outposts in the D.C. Ruins.

Talon mercenaries that are known as hitmen (hired by Mr. Burke in revenge for the Lone Wanderer's actions in Megaton) have a different set of characteristics that make them stand out from the average Talon Company patrol. Their characteristics consist of light armament, same in appearance (all three mercs are the same character build), and very pale skin. And, looting their bodies reveals a different message.

With the addition of Broken Steel, one can find a group of Brotherhood of Steel knights outside Fort Bannister who are trying to retrieve a water caravan that the Talon Company has stolen. There will also be a captured Brotherhood paladin, Jensen, in the tents in Fort Bannister. After releasing him, he will express his gratitude and then proceed into the base to get revenge, quickly followed by his fellow knights. The Brotherhood will then quickly kill all mercenaries inside the base including Commander Jabsco. This will make proceeding through the fort much easier than going through it alone.

On the highway leading to the Citadel, east of the Nuka-Cola plant, and south of the Red Racer factory, two Talon mercs are fighting with 2 or 3 raiders over a crate containing 4 Aqua Pura barrels. One of the Talon Company mercenaries has a flamer.

Outside the Capitol Building, there will be a large contingent of Talon Company mercs with varying robots fighting the occupying super mutants. They focus on the super mutants and will not usually attack the player character unless attacked first or they win the battle. If not interfered with, they will usually be killed.

When first exiting a store called "Lucky's," which is located southwest of Tenpenny Tower near the southern edge of the game map, a group will appear and attack the Lone Wanderer.

Weapons and tactics
Members of roving Talon Company fire teams typically have either police batons, combat shotguns, laser rifles or Chinese assault rifles as their primary armament, with no more than one of each encountered per fire team (exceptions: combat shotgun and police baton). Talon Company personnel in set encounters may also have other weapons, such as sniper rifles and missile launchers. Combat knives, .32 pistols and pulse grenades are often carried as backup weapons. On rare occasions they may all be carrying Chinese assault rifles (or maybe one R91 assault rifle instead) making them even more dangerous than usual (seems more likely to happen at the sewer waystation or sniper shack).

In random encounters, fire team tactics are simple: depending on the weapon type, the mercenary will close to within effective range (if necessary) and engage. At typical encounter distances, this means that riflemen will open fire from where they are, ones who use shotguns will close part of the distance and then open fire, and hand-to-hand fighters will charge at the target.

When they have been contracted to assassinate the Lone Wanderer, the main locations for their ambushes are at the Northwest Seneca Metro Station near Arefu, Anacostia Crossing near Rivet City, Lucky's just near Tenpenny Tower and Warrington station, and the player character can randomly run into them near Megaton or out in the wasteland (this is the same for the Regulators). They also appear frequently at the Jury Street Metro Station, the Super Duper Mart and near the Reilly's Rangers location, avoiding them is almost impossible. Thankfully, such ambushes will only occur once every location, and their bodies may even remain there if not searched. Talon Company mercenaries also appear to be cowardly, like raiders, they will flee if the tide of the battle is turning against them.

Members

 * Commander Jabsco (leader)
 * Lag-Bolt (also raider)
 * Talon Company bosses
 * Burke's Hitmen
 * Thompson
 * Various unnamed Talon Company mercenaries

Locations

 * Fort Bannister and the surrounding countryside (headquarters)
 * The Mall (under siege by the Vault 87 super mutants)
 * Metro Central (lost to the Vault 87 super mutants)
 * Pennsylvania Avenue (under siege by the Vault 87 super mutants)
 * SatCom Array NW-05a
 * Seward Square (under siege by the Vault 87 super mutants)
 * Takoma Park (under siege by the Vault 87 super mutants)
 * Talon Company camp
 * Talon Company recon camp

Behind the scenes
In early previews, Pete Hines was said to have stated that "the humans going up against the mutant occupiers were mercenaries working for the Talon Corporation," referring to them as a corporation rather than a company.

Bugs

 * On rare occasions, Talon Company mercenaries may spawn with two different skin colors, with a black body and a white head, or vice versa. PC users can fix this…
 * In some cases, you will be approached by an ambush party, and one or all of them may initiate dialogue, but will remain friendly until attacked.
 * During the random encounter with Talon Company that occurs in a number of places if the player has Good or Very Good Karma, the three Talon Company mercs seem to have a proximity alarm that automatically triggers a "CAUTION" status when the player gets to within a certain distance of them (usually around ten meters). This happens irrespective of stealth considerations, such as a Sneak skill of 100, wearing the Chinese stealth armor, or using a Stealth Boy.