Number 5 – Vault 12
Vault 12 was a huge facility, able to support over a thousand residents.
It was also one of the best stocked of all the vaults, with an abundance of amenities,
both recreational and practical.
Unfortunately for the inhabitants though, the door was never closed fully.
This unfortunately meant that the whole vault was exposed to radiation from the outside
world.
Vault 12 was also forced into by outsiders after they realised the door wasn’t sealed,
leading to extensive overpopulation.
Despite being relatively unaffected by the explosive blasts themselves, the residents
of the vault succumbed to the creeping radiation, turning them into ghouls.
Ultimately, this led to the founding of the ghoul-town Necropolis.
Number 4 – Vault 87
Vault 87 was an important part of the Enclave’s experiments.
After entering the vault, the inhabitants were forced into airtight chambers and exposed
to the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
The virus transformed the inhabitants into a number of horrific creatures, most notably
the Super Mutants and Centaurs.
These Super Mutants became extremely aggressive.
The virus ensured that the Super Mutants were totally infertile, with no means to add expand
their species beyond exposing others to the virus.
Number 3 – Vault 108
Vault 108 had a number of bizarre oddities that took place within its walls.
Most notably, the vault contained a cloning facility.
However, there was also an elaborate experiment that led to a total collapse of the vault’s
population.
The first Overseer of Vault 108 went into the vault knowing that he was expected to
die within 40 months of entering the facility.
The experiment was researching conflict for leadership, and as such no authority positions
were assigned to the general residents of the vault.
On top of this, the power supply was intended to fail after 240 months, no entertainment
was given, and there was an excessively stocked armoury.
The cloning experiments also quickly got out of hand, with each clone having an extremely
violent temperament towards non-clones.
By the time the player reaches the vault, only clones are left alive inside.
Eerily, each clone can only say one word.
Gaaaary?
Number 2 – Vault 77
While many of the other vault experiments involved overpopulation and crowding, Vault
77 was inhabited by just one man.
For months, the man bashed on the vault door, assuming that more vault dwellers were on
their way.
Soon, he discovered that he had been left a crate of puppets, which he later gave names
and personalities.
Becoming quite mad due to the prolonged isolation, he invented a whole life based around the
puppets, even becoming embroiled in a murder mystery involving the ‘death’ of one puppet.
Eventually, the Vault 77 dweller managed to escape, and entered the wilderness.
After being captured by slavers, he managed to kill both of them while wearing a ‘vault
boy’ puppet, earning him the ‘Puppet Man’ nickname.
Number 1 – Vault 11
Vault 11 was a well-stocked, sizable facility, with no drugs being pumped through the air
or deadly plants that could infect everyone.
Instead, it was part of a horrifying experiment that pitted the choices of mortality and morality
against each other.
Upon arriving at the vault, the inhabitants were told that they must sacrifice one vault
dweller to the computer each year, or everyone would be killed.
The decision process was settled by a democratic voting system, and for many years people lived
relatively comfortably, beyond the burden of the human sacrifices.
The voting also led to the formation of several blocs, whose members would influence the elections
heavily.
The most powerful bloc, named the Justice Bloc, one year threatened a resident named
Katherine Stone into performing sexual favours for their members.
In exchange, they wouldn’t vote for her husband, Nathan Stone, to be sacrificed.
Although she complied, they voted for Nathan Stone anyway.
In retaliation, Katherine Stone began murdering members of the Justice Bloc, confessed to
her crimes, and got elected as both the Sacrifice and Overseer of the vault.
The five survivors decided to commit suicide together, by defying the computer and refusing
to sacrifice any one person.
It was then that they made the horrifying discovery that this was exactly what the computer
wanted, and they’d been living a sickening lie.
It emerged that in the case of defiance, the computer would congratulate Vault 11′s populace
on their selflessness and allow them to leave the vault if they wished.
Four of the five survivors decided to commit suicide anyway.
The remaining Vault 11 survivor’s identity has never been revealed.