Germantown police HQ

Germantown police headquarters is the remains of the Germantown police headquarters that is under the control of super mutants. It is used as a base of operations from which they raid Big Town, a holding place/processing location for their captured prey, and maintain control over posts such as Hallowed Moors Cemetery which sports a strong garrison of super mutants.

Background
Before the Great War, Germantown was a town in the state of Maryland. There are also a few terminals detailing the final 911 calls before the Great War. These include a fire, a breaking and entering in which the burglar takes the phone from the caller (a woman) and informs the call center that his wife forgot to take her pills, and a man who tells strange stories about his shoes growing wings and other strange happenings. Before, during, and after the Great War the place was used by the National Guard overseeing the area in case of an attack by the Chinese, and, after the bombs fell, it was used for the subsequent basic treatment of patients affected by radiation sickness from the Nuclear Bombs which had just been dropped en mass on Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area. This is mentioned by a terminal outside the main building by one of the doctor's who expressed her sorrow for those in the National Guards who had to look after the evacuations of survivors from the Downtown D.C area.

Exterior
On the outside, you will find a maze leading to a camp ground. At night, this becomes a small battle field, but during the day it would be rare to face any super mutants except during the quest Big Trouble in Big Town. In the tents are beds which can be used and some super mutant gore bags, and sometimes bottle caps. There is also a Very Hard locked door to the ground level that could save some time if you're looking to quickly complete the quest Big Trouble in Big Town.

Interior
As you enter the jail, there is an impound terminal (unless you have a high Lockpick skill and picked the ground floor door). There will also be a mine and two super mutants to the hall on the left next to the fire hydrant, talking about plans for Big Town. They don't leave so they will either need to be coerced or killed. In the room are some empty filing cabinets and a rigged shotgun that you need a Repair level of 45 to activate. There is also a first aid box in the back right that leads out into the hall. Across from the fire hydrant, there is a door leading to a lab room with a mine, as well as an ammunition box. In another room there is a terminal that has an easy hack level, which disengages the lock to a safe right next to it. You'll also see a room at the end of a hall with a pool table featuring mutilated dead bodies and gore bags.

Continue down the hall and there will be a door leading to the ground floor. There is a mine near the bottom of the stairs, if you're quick enough you should be able to disarm it. After passing the mine, there should be more super mutants out in the hall. When the hallway is cleared, you'll see a room to your right and another hallway to your left. In the room to the right, there is a mine in the middle, a radroach, and some 911 terminals. If you walk to the end of the room you'll see a door to the hall. The first room to your right should have tables. There will be ammunition in the desk covered by dirt, other than that it will just be ruined books. Exit the room and go to your right, which will lead you down the hall mentioned earlier. There will be a room with a radroach and a leveled super mutant waiting for you. This one will have the Germantown jailer's key.

There will be a room out into the hall with two radroaches and a mine. You will find Red in the room with the cell doors, near a computer that requires a 100 lockpick skill to hack. There is a door leading out to Germantown at the end of the hall. Go to a hall with another fire hydrant and there will be a closet with two gore bags and stairs leading to the basement. The first room on your left doesn't have much but the second has an average lock. The room has some ammunition and a 10mm submachine gun, as well as a Fat Man. There will be a room with gore bags hanging from the ceiling. In the back is a first aid box and a gun case as well as a doorway leading to a room with a radroach and shelves. You'll hear voices coming from the kitchen. If you are in the room with shelves you can go to a hall and to your right will be a super mutant shooting at you as well as a radroach. The refrigerators have a good amount of food. Shorty will be tied up in the middle of the room. There is also a closet with a gore bag and a Nuka-Cola.

Top floor

 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine: Located on the top floor of the Germantown PD in a briefing room to the north in the middle of the building. The book is on the conference table beside the first aid box. Setting off the land mine in front of the table may cause the book to be thrown away from its original position.
 * A holotape with a password (to the computer in the ground floor near Red's cell). The holotape is on a desk with a computer on it, and with a safe to its left. A mine is on the floor near the desk.

Ground floor

 * Lying, Congressional Style: Located on the ground floor of the Germantown PD, on top of a small desk in a room with three rows of short tables pushed together. The desk is in the southwest corner of the room.
 * Pre-War book: Located on the ground floor of the Germantown PD, it can be found on a desk near Red's cell.
 * Flying bananas can't talk: A note on the ground floor in a locked cell beside Red's cell.
 * There is a storage closet packed with medicine, weapons, and ammunition in a locked room near the door to the Germantown PD exterior. The lock difficulty is level-dependent.

Basement

 * Tumblers Today: In the average locked room to the left of the firing range.
 * Fat Man: In the same closet as the Tumblers Today book, near firing range.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum: Inside a small room past the kitchen where you find Shorty. On the ground next to a metal box immediately to your left upon entering.

Surrounding area

 * Duck and Cover!: Near the Monorail train wreckage which is occupied by raiders. Go East uphill until you pass the tracks with corpses hanging from them, then take a left after the traincar that is on its side. It will be near the metal buckets in front of the bathtub.

Related quests

 * Big Trouble in Big Town -

Appearances
Germantown police HQ appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * "And that's how you get to llama school" is a reference to a song from the MTV sock-puppet talk show Sifl and Olly.

Bugs

 * On the top floor in the southeast section, around the corner from the door to the ground floor, at the intersection of two hallways near a firehose box, is a very glitched skeleton. Various parts may be shaking violently, sometimes stuck in the wall, or floating and spinning in the hallway. Grabbing the object momentarily stills it, but it can't be moved. Letting go of it, either intentionally or by stepping away, returns the skull to its previous state.
 * In the basement/kitchen area, a super mutant master or, with Broken Steel installed, a super mutant overlord may be incorrectly labeled as a regular super mutant in V.A.T.S..