Germantown Police HQ is a former 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 as a strategic location to maintain control over posts such as Hallowed Moors Cemetery which sport 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 doctors who expressed her sorrow for those in the National Guard who had to look after the evacuations of survivors from the Downtown D.C area.
Layout
Exterior
The outside area is consisted of a pre-War camp, where people sought refuge during the Great War. At night, there will be super mutants here 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 that may contain 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
Super mutants just around the corner on the top floor
As the Lone Wanderer enters 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. Be mindful of the rigged shotgun in the room (requires Repair 45 to activate). There is also a first aid box in the back right that leads out into the hall. At the end of the hall there is a room with a pool table featuring mutilated dead bodies and gore bags.
View at the jail on the ground floor
Further down the hall there is 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 may be more super mutants out in the hall. There is a room to your right and another hallway to your left. In the room to the right, there is a mine in the middle, and some 911 terminals that provide recorded pre-War 911 calls only. 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 super mutant (depending on level) waiting for you. This one will have the Germantown jailer's key.
You will find Red in the room with the cell doors, directly beside the Lockdown Computer. This terminal requires either a Science skill of 100 or the Password for Lockdown Computer Holotape (see Notes below). There is a door leading outside at the end of the hall.
In the room across the hall from where you find Red in her cell, you'll find the Very Hard locked Police Station Terminal and a door across from it. Again, a Science skill of 100 or Lockpick skill of 75 or higher is required to gain access. Beyond the door is 3 First Aid Boxes, several weapons, assorted ammunition, grenades, and chems, along with 3 Cherry Bombs.
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.
Notable loot
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.
- Password for lockdown computer, a holotape with a password (to the computer in the ground floor near Red's cell) is located in a room to south in the middle of the building. 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, 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, roughly in the center of the local map.
- Pre-War book: One on a desk near Red's cell, in the northwestern corner of the local map.
- Flying bananas can't talk: A note on the ground floor in a locked cell beside Red's cell.
Basement
- Tumblers Today: In the average locked room to the left of the firing range, in the northeastern corner of the local map.
- Fat Man: In the same closet as the Tumblers Today book, near firing range.
- Nuka-Cola Quantum: Inside a small room in the southwestern corner of the local map, past the kitchen where you find Shorty, on the ground next to a metal box immediately to the 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
Notes
- On the ground floor inside of the building, there is a large, boarded-up door with light shining through it. It is locked and requires a key to unlock. If you examine the area in the G.E.C.K editor, you'll see that the door leads to nowhere and there is no key that unlocks it. It is the front entrance to the Germantown Police HQ; the outside is barricaded and therefore inaccessible.
- If you have Broken Steel installed, one or two super mutant overlords will spawn here but are only equipped with lighter weapons and they are labeled as "Super Mutant" rather than "Super Mutant Overlord" in V.A.T.S.
Appearances
Germantown Police HQ appears only in Fallout 3.
Behind the scenes
"And that's how you get to llama school", a quote stated in one of the 911 calls, is a reference to a song from the MTV sock-puppet talk show Sifl and Olly.
Bugs
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.. [verified]- In the basement: kitchen area, a super mutant will have Shorty captured, and will begin a scripted conversation with one-another, however after killing the super mutant, both Shorty, and the super mutant will continue their conversation, even while dead. [verified]
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