Fort Constantine

Fort Constantine is a large military base and ICBM launch facility in the northwest Capital Wasteland, between the SatCom Array NW-05a and SatCom Array NN-03d. It is heavily guarded by a variety of robots, including sentry bots, Mister Gutsies, robobrains, and protectons, inside and out.

Background
Fort Constantine is (or rather, was) one of the most important military installations in the vicinity of the District of Columbia. Together with Fort Bannister and Wheaton Armory, it allowed the United States military to deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead from this region of the United States. Unlike the other two bases, however, Fort Constantine never finished its launch cycle: the ICBM still rests in its cradle like it did in 2077. The other notable feature of Fort Constantine is that it contains a sizable stockpile of nuclear bombs in its bomb storage building.

In the 23rd century, Allistair Tenpenny hired 5 mercenaries — Mister Crowley, Dave, Dukov, Jeff Strayer, and Tara Fields — to retrieve a rare weapon from the Fort. It is unknown what weapon Tenpenny was after, but the mercs completed the mission goals and were paid. In the bunker, Tara was killed by a group of feral ghouls and Crowley was locked in the same room; this was where he supposedly later found the T-51b power armor, leading to his obsession over it. The rest of the group, knowing Tara was dead and thinking Crowley was dead as well, went their separate ways.

Years later, Mr. Crowley, now living in Underworld (it is unknown how he escaped Fort Constantine), wants the player character 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.

Layout
The area contains three buildings:
 * CO quarters hut 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 (very hard), but the bomb storage basement can be alternatively accessed through an underground path in the cellar of the CO quarters. Unfortunately, the Fort Constantine bunker door can only be opened 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 you can't open the door 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 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 locked (very hard) doors, and a door (can only be accessed 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 in 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 on you, but only for a few seconds and the doors will open again afterwards or you can open them (they won't lock).

CO quarters

 * Bobblehead - Big Guns in the basement in an open safe.
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual and a Stealth Boy right next to the safe in the basement.
 * 2 pre-War books, one on a shelf near the entrance and one on the table or floor beside the queen sized bed.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum in the kitchen in the broken refrigerator.
 * Guns and Bullets on the queen sized bed as you enter the bedroom. (See bugs if not appearing.)
 * Fort Constantine launch codes in the safe.
 * 10mm pistol is found in the back compartment of the toilet.



Personnel offices

 * Grognak the Barbarian on the ground floor in a locked (hard) room, near the back entrance.
 * Stealth Boy, in a gun closet in one of the offices of the third floor (same room with the turret control terminal).

Launch Control bunker

 * Duck and Cover! in the office near the desk with the Fort Constantine Launch Control terminal (on a chair by the filing cabinets, right by the desk).
 * 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 (This radio 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

 * 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 be accessed without Ted's Strayer's special key and the other keys in the quest You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head.
 * A Fat Man, 2 mini nukes and a D.C Journal of Internal Medicine skill book on a table right beside the T-51b power armor stasis field.
 * A Guns and Bullets skill book is behind a Very Hard locked door. This door must be lockpicked, which means that it can't be opened with any of the keys you get on the You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head quest.

Related quests

 * You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head

Appearances
Fort Constantine appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * The launch codes found in Fort Constantine are "00000000", a reference to the United States nuclear launch codes which were created in 1961 during the Cold War and weren't changed to legitimate codes until the year 1977.

Bugs

 * When entering the CO quarters some companions may become stuck, to avoid this, make them wait outside then rejoin when you come out.
 * 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.
 * The Guns and Bullets skill book located in the CO quarters on the queen sized bed seems to have a significant clipping issue for players. It is located on the bed by the back entrance, but it isn't always visible. PC users can acquire the book using the 'tcl' no-clip console command. Console users may be able to retrieve it by re-loading a save inside the CO quarters until it appears and is obtainable.
 * When using any of the bomb storage doors to exit the facility, it is possible for the game to freeze and crash. This can be avoided, if necessary, by retracing one's steps through the facility. You will be able to click on the door to open before it crash by keeping the left stick backward and the right stick left or right when you load your saved game.
 * When exiting Fawkes may die for no obvious reason.
 * Sometimes accessing the PipBoy inside Fort Constantine will trigger the bug where only half of the PipBoy screen displays. This can be remedied by returning to the Capital Wasteland and equipping a different weapon.