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List: Vaults from the Fallout series and their experiments.
"Here at Vault-Tec, your safety is our number one priority."
The concept of doomsday scenario dual-purpose shelters was explored by Harlan Ellison ("A Boy and His Dog," "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream") and developed by the Fallout series creator Black Isle Studios/Interplay. The idea has roots in military satire of Heinlein, Heller, Vonnegut ("Slaughterhouse-Five").
The "A Boy and His Dog" (1975) vault
"While watching old vintage stag films at a local outdoor cinema, Vic (A Boy and His Dog protagonist) meets a scheming and seductive teenage girl from "Downunder." It turns out they had sent her above ground to "recruit" surface dwellers. Downunder has an artificial biosphere, complete with forests and a city, which is named Topeka after the ruins of the destroyed city that it lies beneath. The entire city is ruled by a triumvirate known as "the Committee", who have shaped Topeka into a bizarre caricature of pre-nuclear war America, with all residents wearing whiteface and clothes that harken back to the rural United States prior to World War II. Vic has been brought to Topeka to help fertilize the female population, he is elated to learn of his "stud" value. His joy is short-lived, however, when he is informed that Topeka meets its need for exogamous reproduction by electroejaculation and artificial insemination, which will deny him the pleasure of sex that he seeks. Anybody who refuses to comply with or otherwise defies the Committee is sent off to a mysterious place called "the farm" and never seen again. Vic is informed that after his semen has been used to impregnate 35 women, he, too, will be sent to "the farm."
Vault 87
Vault 87's assigned experiment was the Evolutionary Experimentation Program, a military experiment which involved the use of a modified strain of Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) onto the Vault 87 residents. The test subjects were locked into test chambers and exposed to the FEV, where the scientists would observe the changes the test subjects would go through. After their infection, the subjects underwent physical and mental changes over a period of about two weeks. Their form became genderless, more muscular, and their skin toughened. However, a great number of them died. Due to the large number of deaths, the vault overseer ordered the medical personnel to list the test subjects as "unexplained" deaths as a cover-up.
Vaults 75, 81, 95, 111, 114
(114)
"The vault was intended to test the stress of living in impoverished, disenfranchised conditions by those previously accustomed to extreme wealth and power. Residents were to be exclusively politicians and Boston's wealthy elite, with the exception of the overseer. Construction was never completed."
(95)
"Populated solely with drug addicts, with the exception of a single Vault-Tec employee undercover. The vault residents would elect an overseer regularly and hold therapy sessions as part of a rehab program. Five years later, Vault-Tec purposely reintroduces the addictive drugs in order to see if the, so-called, rehabilitated addicts would voluntarily return to their abusive behaviors."
(81)
"The vault was dedicated to researching diseases and antibodies, with an emphasis on potential mutations in heavy radiation. The vault's residents were isolated from the sealed scientific section of the vault and used as test subjects in Stage III clinical trials of the science staff. The vault was not to be evacuated unless by a direct order from Vault-Tec. Residents were considered expendable and their incineration through pre-installed flame nozzles was at the discretion of the overseer. Unexpectedly, the original overseer disabled the equipment the scientists were to use to expose the residents to diseases."
Vault 15
"The vault was intended to stay closed for 50 years and include people of radically diverse ideologies."
Vault 19
"The vault was segregated into two groups, Red and Blue. The groups lived in separate sections of the vault and were governed by two overseers. Subliminal messages were routinely sent over to each side, causing mistrust among the inhabitants, and eventually a civil war between the two groups ended up in the complete collapse of the vault."
Vault 21
"The vault was designed to study the evolution of a society where all conflict was resolved through pure chance, i.e. gambling. The vault was taken over by Robert House after winning a game of blackjack where the wager was the entire vault."
Vault 53
"Most of the equipment was designed to break down every few months. While repairable, the breakdowns were intended to stress the inhabitants unduly."
Vault 101 the "City of Ember" (2008) vault
"The vault was created to evaluate the performance of an omnipotent, dictatorial overseer in a closed community, adopting a policy of "isolationism." Supplied with equipment that was needed to function for many years, this vault was never intended to open to the outside world. The Overseer continued to receive periodic information from the outside world, while those not in the know were told that things had gotten so bad that whoever was sending transmissions was no longer able to do so; reinforcing the thought that leaving the Vault was sheer suicide. The final piece of this grand experiment only truly began when the Vault Dwellers living in blissful ignorance finally realized the world outside could be accessed, and there was a possibility of life above ground."
Vault 118
"The vault was intended to encompass two wings under one overseer, each one to house exclusively members of the highest class of society (Hollywood actors, business tycoons, scientists, artists, etc.) or the lower classes. The elite residents would be placed socially and legally above the much larger poor population, who were kept in uncomfortable quarters. The second wing for the poor residents was never finished and while the vault was used as a fallout shelter by the elite, the vault experiment never started. The ultra-wealthy implanted their brains into robobrains to outlast the Great War, leaving the overseer as the only human in the vault, who eventually committed suicide."
Vault 106
"As an experiment, the overseer instructed the vault to be filled with colorless psychoactive drugs into the air filtration system exactly 10 days after the door was sealed. The drugs caused hallucinations which led to all of the vault residents' insanity."
Vault 34
"The armory was deliberately provided with an overabundance of weapons and ammunition, in addition to not being provided with a proper locking mechanism. The presence of weapons, as well as lack of population control measures, led to failure in the 23rd century. Social unrest caused several groups to demand access to weapons. A group that became the Boomers left the vault several decades before its failure.[25][26] Eventually, a riot damaged the vault's reactor, leading to flooding and radiation that caused ghoulification for many dwellers.[27][28]"
Vault 84
"Elections held every year to exile one citizen for being a "traitor."
Vault 11 the "I Am Mother" (2019) shelter
"In this vault, inhabitants were told by the vault computer that they must sacrifice one of their fellow vault dwellers each year by the process of overseer election, and that, should they refuse, all the dwellers will be killed. Eventually, one overseer made the selection process random instead of a vote and a huge riot ensued. The survivors of the riot decided to face the punishment for not selecting a person to sacrifice: Death. However, they were merely congratulated for not killing anybody, told they are "a shining example to humanity," and that the vault door has been unlocked. All except one person committed suicide."
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