
Įarly in Alphonse's tenure as overseer around 2258-2259, James and his child, later known as the Lone Wanderer, came to the Vault seeking shelter and arrived in front of Vault 101. Under his rule, the Vault changed into a police state with a strict policy of isolationism. The overseer who preceded Alphonse Almodovar vanished after another expedition to the Capital Wasteland failed.Īlphonse Almodovar became the new overseer of Vault 101 sometime before 2258. Agnes Taylor returned to Vault 101 around 2258. Lewis and Agnes Taylor, two members of the survey team remained in Megaton to serve as contacts between the two settlements and to further survey the surrounding environments. They studied the giant ant they killed and decided to revise their survey plans in light of what they have learned. The survey team returned to Vault 101 on February 10th and analyzed their samples to see if the outside world was still dangerously irradiated or able to sustain life. They finally went to the outside world around Vault 101, going up to Megaton sometime before February 10, 2241. Together, they began planning for their journey and theorizing types of mutations they might encounter.

Sometime before 2241, an unnamed Vault 101 overseer strongly favored outside contact and assembled a survey team led by Anne Palmer. The Vault dwellers were sealed within according to the Vault 101 mantra, "we are born in the Vault, we live in the Vault, and we die in the Vault." The second Vault 101 overseer led Vault 101 dwellers by the same isolationist doctrine, but also attempted to convince senior Vault dwellers to become complicit in the Vault experiments. The first Vault 101 overseer died of natural causes in 2127, having prepared a subordinate to continue the Vault experiment. This was accomplished through regular fake radio transmissions (recorded before the Great War), increasing the idea among Vault 101's residents that the only hope of survival was within the Vault. Just after the Great War in 2077, the first Vault 101 overseer, in order to prevent anyone from leaving the Vault, created the illusion that the outside world was an uninhabitable nuclear-ravaged wasteland with absolutely no hope of existence outside of the Vault.

Vault 101 was supplied with most of the equipment it would need to function indefinitely, such as seen with spare parts for the water processor, but the Vault did not receive a G.E.C.K., a device that would only be useful for surface dwellers.

One of the main objectives of Vault 101 security has been the containment of these pests. However, Vault 101 has been opened numerous times, violating its original mandate, and became infested by radroaches during these events, making the Vault susceptible to additional large infestations as time went by. The original and underlying purpose of the Vault 101 Vault experiment was to stay closed indefinitely, in order to study the role of the overseer when a Vault never opened. The Vault 76 overseer was originally selected to be its first overseer, but she refused the position in order to stay in Appalachia. The Vault was constructed sometime in the 2060s along with the other Vaults in Washington, D.C.
