Vault-Tec

In the Fallout universe, the Vault-Tec Corporation was a company contracted by the United States Government in the years leading up to the Great War to produce a series of underground fallout shelters in the event that War did indeed go nuclear.

These fallout shelters, colloquially referred to as "Vaults" were designed and spread across the country, had a far more devious purpose than protecting the human race from nuclear annihilation. They were, in fact, secret experiments designed by the United States Government to test the effects of various factors on humans.

Fallout 3, shows several of these Vaults located around the Washington D. C. area. Inhabitants of Vault 87 were exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV), which caused rapid mutations, and was responsible for creating the East Coast breed of Super Mutants. Vault 92, claiming to be a shelter to preserve artistic talents was, in actuality, a program designed to see if white noise could be used to brainwash people into becomind super-soldiers. Vault 101, where the game begins, was designed with a "never leave" policy in mind, and to study the effects of an omnipotent dictator controlling every aspect of daily life.

In Fallout: New Vegas, Vault 3 is seen to be one of the few "control vaults" where no experiments take place. The inhabitants, however, were eventually overrun by the Raiders now operating out of the Vault. Vault 21, found on the Vegas Strip, was designed with the purpose of solving all problems through gambling; since the end of the War, it has been converted into a Resort on the New Vegas Strip.