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If anyone finds this note, stay the hell away from this place. If the feral ghouls don't get you, the robots will. There's radiation everywhere. I think they used to make nukes here, or maybe they just kept them, I don't know.Tara's final words

Fort Constantine is a large military base containing atomic bomb storage and launch facility in the northwest Capital Wasteland, between the SatCom Array NW-05a and SatCom Array NN-03d. By 2277, it is heavily guarded by a wide variety of robots, including sentry bots, Mister Gutsies, Robobrains and Protectrons, inside and out.

Background[]

Fort Constantine is a military base built by the US Army in 2043.[citation needed] It was used to store and launch nuclear bombs,[1] as well as hide a top secret power armor that was under development at the time.[2]

In 2257, Allistair Tenpenny hired 5 mercenaries — Mister Crowley, Dave, Dukov, Jeff Strayer and Tara Fields — to retrieve a rare weapon from the fort. The mercs completed the mission, though lost two of their members doing so.[3] In the bunker, Tara was believed to have been killed by a group of feral ghouls (though was actually killed by a Robobrain)[Non-game 1] and Crowley was locked in the same room, surviving due to being a ghoul himself, thus not attracting the attention of the ferals.[4] Crowley discovered a suit of T-51b power armor in Fort Constantine, and became obsessed with retrieving it.[5] The rest of the group, knowing Tara was dead and thinking Crowley was as well, went their separate ways.[4]

Years later, Mister Crowley, now living in Underworld, waited for someone like the Lone Wanderer to find all the other surviving mercs (except for Jeff Strayer, whose son, Ted Strayer, holds the key required by Crowley) and shoot them in the head, then return the keys.[6]

Layout[]

The area contains three buildings:

  • CO quarters house to the northwest.
  • Personnel offices building to the west.
  • Bomb storage building to the north.

The doors to the bomb storage (warhead storage) are both locked with a Very Hard lock, but the bomb storage basement can be alternatively accessed through an underground path in the cellar of the CO quarters. (The floor plan picture for the launch control bunker has been mislabeled. The north door connects to the CO quarters, while the southern one leads to the bomb storage section.) The Fort Constantine bunker door can be opened only with Ted Strayer's special key and cannot be lockpicked. Also, the only access to the T-51b power armor is through this pathway, as the door can't be opened from the other side in the bomb storage, because Tara holds the key. However, the cellar grants access to the launch control bunker, eventually leading to the basement of the bomb storage. The door to the bomb storage requires Dukov's special key. In here is Tara's corpse, (which holds the warhead storage key), two Very Hard-locked doors and a door (can be accessed only with Dave's special key) on the opposite side which finally leads to a room with the T-51b power armor.

The CO quarters contain the Fort Constantine launch codes stored in a small safe in the cellar next to the Big Guns bobblehead. These can be used to launch the ICBM from the Fort Constantine launch control terminal in the launch control bunker. After attempting to launch the ICBM, the launch terminal reports an error and mentions that the missile's tracking system is damaged and the navigation data is corrupted. The alarms will sound and the doors will shut, but only for a few seconds and open again afterwards, or they can be opened manually (they do not lock).

Notable loot[]

CO quarters[]

Personnel offices[]

FC offices
  • Grognak the Barbarian in a Hard-locked storage room on the ground floor in the east, near the back entrance.

Launch Control bunker[]

  • Duck and Cover! in the office on the desk with the Fort Constantine launch control terminal.
  • Big Book of Science in the office on a desk near a broken terminal.
  • A pre-War book and a Stealth Boy on a desk in the living quarters, next to a radio (which might be on. This will make it easier to find the correct desk with the items on it as there are two radios in this area).

Bomb storage[]

FC bomb storage
  • The unique T-51b power armor, inside a stasis field. The stasis field must be deactivated using the terminal mounted on the console before the armor can be taken.
    • Note: can't be accessed without the three special keys mentioned above.
  • A Fat Man, two mini nukes and a D.C Journal of Internal Medicine skill book on a table right beside the T-51b power armor stasis field. Another mini nuke on a table just right around the corner after entering.
  • Another mini nuke on the desk in the room at the top of the bunker stairs, near the locked storage room.
  • A Guns and Bullets skill book is behind a Very Hard-locked door. This door must be lockpicked.
  • A rake behind a Very Hard-locked door.

Related quests[]

Notes[]

  • After delivering the keys to Mister Crowley and traveling to the fort within three days of doing so, he can be found in the basement extension of the bomb storage shelter wearing the T-51b armor and smoking. Interacting with him will only give dialogue options as if he were in Underworld. He can still be killed and the armor taken, along with the keys and many other items without any Karma loss. The stasis field will be deactivated and Tara's body will only be named "raider."
  • The armor R&D terminal which controls the stasis field reads "Medical Armor Prototype" in its prompt, suggesting that the prototype medic power armor was originally meant to be the reward.
  • The text on the door in the CO quarters basement shows up as red; however, opening it does not result in any loss of Karma.
  • The bed in the CO quarters is tagged as owned, despite there being nobody living in the area.
  • On the road just outside the main gate is an Outcast patrol spawn point. There is also a separate squad of three Brotherhood Outcasts that are usually always present outside the fort, in addition to those that may appear from the spawn point. The static squad is on patrol west of the main gate past the spawn point.
  • An Enclave camp is located to the east. Completing The Waters of Life quest will increase the amount of Enclave soldiers there.

Appearances[]

Fort Constantine appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes[]

The launch codes found in Fort Constantine are "00000000," a reference to the American nuclear launch codes which were created in 1961 during the Cold War and weren't changed to legitimate codes until 1977.[Non-game 2]

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 It is possible to find a bugged Enclave soldier in the vicinity of Fort Constantine, generally located between the fort and the Outcast shack. This particular soldier appears and respawns well before the Enclave arrive in-game, regardless of whether Broken Steel is installed.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes, accessing the Pip-Boy inside Fort Constantine will trigger the bug where only half of the Pip-Boy screen displays. This can be remedied by returning to the Capital Wasteland and equipping a different weapon.[verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes, the door cannot be opened with the keys which will cause Mister Crowley to run at the wall where the sentry bot is located.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 In some games, Crowley will not show after 3 days of waiting. The bomb storage door will be perma-locked, making it impossible to get every bobblehead.[verification needed]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Fort Constantine terminal entries; Fort Constantine Launch Control
  2. Fort Constantine terminal entries; armor R&D terminal
  3. The Lone Wanderer:"Do you remember a Mister Crowley?"
    Allistair Tenpenny: "The Ghoul? He's dead. Died twenty years ago. Good riddance too. I hate those shufflers."
    The Lone Wanderer: "How did he die?"
    Allistair Tenpenny: "Who cares? I hired some mercenaries to get me some equipment from Fort Constantine. He was one of them. Of the five, only three survived. You'll have to ask one of them if you want the gory details."
    (Allistair Tenpenny's dialogue)
  4. 4.0 4.1 The Lone Wanderer: "Mister President, do you know a Ghoul named Mister Crowley?"
    Dave: "There's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Before the people elected me President, I worked with a mercenary named Mister Crowley. We were part of an expedition to Fort Constantine."
    The Lone Wanderer: "What happened in the Fort, Mister President?"
    Dave: "Two of us died, including Crowley. The rest achieved the mission goals and were paid."
    The Lone Wanderer: "How did Mister Crowley die, Mister President?"
    Dave: "When the Feral Ghouls killed Tara, Dukov realized that he would get more of the commission. He decided to kill off the rest of us too. He locked Crowley into a room with Feral Ghouls, and that was the last we saw of him. Strayer and I didn't trust Dukov after that. The three of us finished the mission together, but with guns drawn."
    The Lone Wanderer: "Crowley is alive, Mr. President. I'm supposed to bring back proof of your death."
    Dave: "Alive? I always wondered. He was locked in with a bunch of Feral Ghouls. They won't attack Ghouls, you see. Would you consider taking him a personal item, like this key, and just telling him you killed me?"
    (Dave's dialogue)
  5. Mister Crowley: "You did me a great favor with those keys. How do you like my new armor? Those keys led me right to it."
    (Mister Crowley's dialogue)
  6. The Lone Wanderer: "Hey, anything for some extra caps."
    Mister Crowley: "Excellent! Take this sniper rifle. You'll need it. Here's a list of the guys and their last known locations. Word will get around if Tenpenny is killed, but I'll need proof for the others. Bring me back something personal from each of them as proof. Like a key or ring or something."
    (Mister Crowley's dialogue)

Non-game

  1. Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition p.99: "Tara Fields (deceased)
    Tara was one of five mercenaries hired by Allistair Tenpenny to infiltrate Fort Constantine and retrieve an experimental suit of armor. Reports were that she was mauled by Ghouls, but in reality, she reached the last chamber but lacked the key to unlock the door. She was shot by a Robobrain, and her body remains here to this day."
    (Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition Wasteland Census)
  2. Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark (Episode #1: The Case of the Missing “Permissive Action Links”) - Bruce G. Blair, Ph.D. (archived)
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