C-23 Megaton

The C-23 Megaton is the undetonated nuclear weapon sitting at the center of Megaton. The fate of the bomb and the whole settlement is determined in one of the adventures of the Lone Wanderer.

Background
A classic gravity bomb design, the C-23 features a hardy, oval shell with a California Parachute square tail assembly, cutting edge electronics, and a nuclear heart. The precise origin of the weapon is unclear - it is an American design, one of many manufactured before the War (many of its brothers sit in Fort Constantine), but how or why it ended up in the Megaton crater is not known. What is known is that the Children of the Atom cult sprang up around it some time after the War, eventually helping erect the settlement around the bomb.

While many Megaton inhabitants consider it little more than a curiosity, it is actually still capable of detonating. In fact, Allistair Tenpenny and Mister Burke plan to hire a mercenary to plant a pulse detonator to turn the junk town into a real nuclear crater, for reasons unknown. On the other hand, Regulator Lucas Simms, the town's sheriff, is looking for another mercenary to disarm it.

Characteristics
The C-23 sits in the center of the town, surrounded by a shallow pool of irradiated water. It is used as a place of worship by Confessor Cromwell, who won't react either to rigging it with a fusion pulse charge or disarming the bomb. A copy of the weapon will also appear during the hallicunation sequence in Point Lookout's Sacred Bog, as the coda to the entire experience.

Behind the scenes

 * The Megaton bomb is modeled after the "Fat Man" bomb, one of the world's first two functional nuclear weapons which were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Appearances

 * The Megaton atomic bomb appears in Fallout 3.