@@SpacedudeProductions complete all the quests for Reillys rangers and you can pick the armor as a reward. It's custom combat armor with some bonuses on it
IMO Bethesda missed out of making two bomb ass dlc one for a fleshed out enclave choice and being the quintessential bad mf that blew megaton off the map or the vanilla campaign with some more flare. The second dlc being the talon company, maybe even climbing the ranks and establishing your own contracts on npcs.
If the leader of a Talon ambush dies before he can talk to you, rhe other two will turn into passive followers because they're still scripted to follow you. As long as you don't fast travel you can have talon mercs of your own.
I always figured it had to be the Enclave funding both the Regulators and Talom company. It has to be a group that Chaos benefits and the Enclave would.
not to mention, the Enclave could conceivably print infinite caps. Making the funding of the Talon company and similar outfits a non-issue. Not many entities would be able to fund that many hits AND actually benefit from it. It seems the NCR is on top of counterfeiting out West per a quest. It could also be the Institute, as there was clearly some indicators they existed in FO3 with the synth you have a quest based around.
@@plantainsame2049 the quest in fallout nv where you specifically stop counterfeit cap production says otherwise. And it would likely have to be an entity that is largely unknown to the public for it to not be easily found out. If Talon Company was getting caps from an entity that was known to the average wastelander, the word would likely get out due to simple recognition. But the Enclave and Institute have been operating covertly for most of their existence and would have much greater ability to produce and use funds without it throwing up red flags.
@@plantainsame2049 they wouldnt be distributing them widely amongst the wastes. Just to specific mercanary groups. It wouldnt cause inflation at thay scale.
I think it's a real shame the factions in Fallout 3 were not more fleshed out. I felt exploration was a strong spot for F3, but so many of the groups and people you encounter feel half finished. Imagine a game where you could contract for Reily's Rangers or the Talons.
It is more or less came to a problem with karma and factions not working well together and it would have probably delayed the game at least it happened in New Vegas but some of the cut stories really had me wishing for factions instead of good or bad karma
When I was a kid i enjoyed these plot holes because it made F3 look like a really esoteric place where while the wasteland struggled to survive there were all of these "greater picture" things going on that you as the lone wanderer weren't able to even grasp
that's good and all but the lore for fallout has gone down the shitter in recent years bc Bethesda is greedy and needs to push out games instead of making a quality product
My theory on these sobs is that they were secretly hired by The Enclave to serve as a boogeyman that they could make a show of fighting against to try and ingratiate themselves to the people of The Capital Wasteland.
The Enclave have a history of employing local assets, makes sense to me. Talon Company could be tasked to deal with threats identified by Enclave Eyebots, to prevent anyone from forming a stable local government that might be able to resist the Enclaves long term plans.
Talon Company and Reilly’s Rangers are my favorite parts of this game. I love the concept of Mercenaries and honestly you should have had the option to join either in replacement of the Contract Killer and Lawbringer perks. If not have the game centered entirely around them
I swear I actually remember an obscure note or terminal entry somewhere that confirms Tenpenny being behind Talon, but it's been a WHILE since I played Fallout 3
@@qualicumjack3906 true but I figure they're getting funds from more than one source. I thought of Tenpenny as a big investor but not the sole investor.
My theory is that The Slavers, Tenpenny, and The Enclave (specifically, JHE) are all working together through Burke and Littlehorn to fund and administer Talon Co.; all three groups benefit from a lawless Capitol Wasteland; all three groups have other things keeping them busy; why not pay somebody else to handle ‘the rabble’...?; once The Enclave has Project Purity, they probably wouldn’t have a problem with rubbing Talon out, as they’d only be in their way at that point, and they wouldn’t need a bunch of dirty muties, hanging around, shooting those guns, and wearing all that armor they probably arranged for them to have...
I want to see more Talon company in future fallout games. I was often more scared of Talon company then of Deathclaws. What I find interesting about Talon company is that they are at War with the Super mutants but only engage BoS when their in the way. They are also actually engaged in a armed conflict with the enclave. This video covers a lot but I don't know if it's going to be made canon.
I think it’d be cool, but the squads would have to be toned down imo. Take the Legion/NCR hit squads: they were like almost constant in FNV, and the Talon squads were that way in F3.
I hate the legion assassins, word gets quickly around the legion, I killed vulpes, all of his guards, and all of his dogs, then put them on the fire, and some on the pikes, I left but I wasn’t strong enough, so I just used the power of fast travel and save scumming
@@Dank-gb6jn they won’t have eyes when I fill em with buckshot though, or just use that furry little annoyance’s ripper, after he fell like a sack a bricks thrown out of a jet engine
I believe it is the Encleve (President Eden) that funds them, not only for caps but provides military equipment and training, for them since the Encleve has access not only to pre-war military equipment, which they do not use and have access to to finance them, have these mercenaries hunt down possible enemies of the encleve in an eventual takeover and use them as a flesh shield against the enemies of the encleve to take places without sacrificing soldiers and encleve members
There really should have been more regulator/talon company conflicts. Would have been cool if they had a random chance to show up and help you when the hitmen attack, or be there already attacking them before you even get to the area.
It'd make sense with some fleshing out. If the fall of the Enclave is canon from FO3 and Talon was funded and trained by Eden, then its most likely that Talon had an inner tiff after the Enclave fell apart. The less raider like TCMs decided to just keep doing merc work for the highest bidder, changing name and look for honor's sake, and moving to the Commonwealth, with the more raider like TCMs remaining in DC sticking to their ways and using their old training to work as a organized raider group until the BoS see them as a larger threat to DC and the works of Project Purity. Even further, the break would be a good reason why Talon has no presence in Boston. If the Gunners and Talon are one in the same, and broke off from one another especially for a morality reasoning like raiding and not raiding, the Gunners may have such anger for their old friends in Talon that they war over territory between Boston and DC, and because Talon is more raider like, they could be using chems frequently, thus making them less effective fighters, keeping them penned in DC. Yes, I've thought about this a lot.
So my thought is that, yes, Burke is the one who conducts business with Talon, but the money/caps/whatever he uses to pay them isn't directly his. Tenpenny gives him the currency and Mr. Burke is a liaison between him and Talon. EDIT: 31:47 this dialog shows my point.
I thought of the Gunners during this video and you didn’t disappoint me! I admit that in my own little personal headcanon for my game, my personal modded version/alternate reality, I’d decided that Littlehorn was the one responsible for the “white knight” contract on my Sophie. I did this because Littlehorn becomes available only after the contract killer evil karma perk. The Talon Company are ruthless mercenaries in large numbers and Littlehorn will have problems with a good karma Lone Wanderer going around doing good things and making people less vulnerable to chaos. But now I have to admit that I really like your take on Tenpenny and Burke because that note really does imply a relationship far deeper than that of client and mercenary group. And I like the idea of Burke manipulating things in the oblivious Tenpenny name. But because I role play and write far into the theorycraft/fan fiction direction I’ll just say this video inspired me to deepen my own lore. Fitting into my current lore that Littlehorn put out the “white knight” contract, I’m going to write that Burke is also a Littlehorn employee. One of their highest ranking operatives using the oblivious nature and vast wealth of Tenpenny to further their evil goals. The part where the “Littlehorn and Associates” corporation is a major funding backer for the Talon company-giving them the funds and equipment needed to operate on the level they do-is what gives Burke the power to threaten and bully the mercenaries sent out as hitmen. Sure he’s a client, but he’s a high level manager of Littlehorn and thus can’t be messed with. I’ve got this whole other story with Littlehorn being a surviving corporation from before the Great War, the Regulators ect, but thanks again for the Burke link. I find the Gunners similarly disappointing in FO4 though. Okay FO3 had a serious and deep seated lore problem where there was a horrible lack of terminal entries, notes and other lore details that FO4 vastly improved on. I’ll forever regret that the huge potential lore tidbits from the pentagon, congress building and White House itself was missed and wasted due to FO3’s lack of lore detail and storytelling. But the Gunners didn’t get this improvement between games! Bethesda had the opportunity to make the new version of the Talons (which let’s face it, the Gunners are) much more interesting with rich lore that could have been tied in so many places, but didn’t. Incidentally they really dropped the ball in Greentech Genetics as it looks like they totally forgot to put any terminals or notes about what the company was about. My best guess is that it worked on genetically modified plants or crops. Nor did Bethesda seem to put any thought into who had hired them to capture a Gen3 synth. It wasn’t the Institute because they just use Coursers with Gen 1/2 backup if required. It leaves us asking who else would pay the Gunners to capture and bring them a Gen3 synth. But we just don’t know about the Gunners. We know they’re amoral mercenaries who follow a very prewar military inspired dress code and ranked discipline structure, that besides taking on job, also seemingly interested in taking and holding various different locations within the Commonwealth but not really much else. I have my own theory that I’ve turned into personal headcanon and I know I’m not the only one who has thought of it. I think that they’re either grown up vault dwellers from Vault 75 (I think that’s the one in Malden where the kids were being grown to be super soldiers) or descendants of the kids that eventually broke out and escaped Vault Tec’s control. After a few generations the genetic enhancement through human selective “breeding” did produce kids that were genuinely a little bit tougher than the average human, especially compared to the average wastelander. They took the training from the Vault and styled themselves as a successor to the old US military. And they survived, they spread out and took many locations within the Commonwealth and beyond. But time passes, generations change and they unwittingly corrupted themselves and their DNA by freely recruiting local wastelanders-anyone with skill or knowledge from scavver to raider. They started out with good intentions but the wasteland wore them down similar to the former Minutemen of Libertalia. After a generation or two of interbreeding with normal wastelanders the Gunners have lost much of the advantage Vault 75 bred into them, but the original descendants can still be pretty tough while locally born and recruited… not so much. I think this because of the way they behave, the way the Forged make a point of just how tough they are and how tough the ones they lured to their ranks are with all passing the trials. And how they seem fascinated with occupying Vaults like 95 and medical facilities like prewar hospitals. It’s not much, but it’s better than a weird mercenary group from potentially anywhere, including outside the Commonwealth that follow military cosplay and hold random places and attack many people on sight. It would have been nice to be able to have them neutral, or at least some of them and maybe even able to hire them. Maybe to clear out a few certain locations. Ah well.
I always found the Talon Company as well as the Gunners interesting for a few reasons. With all of the main factions you know their motivations and what they want to accomplish, but with the gunners/talon their intentions weren't really clear beyond doing jobs for caps. Also compared to other factions made up of normal ppl like the raiders, mintuemen, etc. they seem to be very well organized. I always felt that these types of factions could play a larger role in the wasteland and have potential for being a major faction and i feel like Bethesda is just waisting them as enimies for when you are mid to almost late game.
and mercenary work seems to be sought after in the wasteland. you know how to shoot? you can restrain yourself from randomly robbing people but have no problem doing it in general? might as well get paid for it.
@@HappyBeezerStudios Bethesda should have implemented where the player can go on bounty quests for the Gunners or do something similar to the Dark Brotherhood or Guilds in the Elder Scrolls
Hearing "Talon Company!" and immediately diving for cover is engrained into me at this point. Honestly though, I always thought their armor was cool and stole off their bodies until I could get Rielly's Rangers version
I once did a play through where I avoided Megaton entirely. I was attacked by Talon company the first time I left a building. I think they had the letter from Mr. Burke, but it was a long time ago.
I always assumed that talon company had been started by Eden, they do seize control of military bases, are heavily armed and armored, usually. So he could have reached out remotely to aid them into entering these facilities. Hell, if Eden were to allude to things found in the DC ruins, they might be then inclined to go there. Look at the Enclave in Fallout 2. They hired a group to get them things they needed while selling off some weapons and the like to make them stronger and better able to get them the requested materials. All the while, absolutely intending to kill them off with the airborne virus. Eden helping to establish them just would make sense, especially since there was a certain degree of belief that fallout 3 was originally going to be a psudo remake of the first two. As for why super mutants overrun the DC ruins, i assume it is likely due to the high levels of radiation found there, especially in certain locations where it is especially high. They are essentially immune to it and it probably reminds them of Vault 87 and considering they are looking for more FEV, the green stuff, they probably attribute high radiation with their search. As far as say, littlehorn, not everyone can even enter their shack. You have to be chosen by making the choice yourself first. You let the evil into your own heart, as it were. As for who they are and how they can afford this endeavor, well. They are likely literally just the devil. A devil anyway. Burke dresses a lot like them and i think there is a reason for ir. Sort of a company uniform. Burke wants good people dead because he can wreap the rewards others could not as a result of the carnage. Material wealth from the death of good people, hence why he is sk quick to hire hitmen, to want megaton gone. Why he would be so quick to kill Lucas Simms on his way out. Littlehorn, they want that good people would die and others to become corrupted. They don't pay you to kill just anyone, they are directly opposed to good people and only reward their deaths. Meaning, they want the apread to occure. I actually think it would be funny to find that they had a connection to Eden too, as if Littlehorn had directly inspired Eden to become what he is. Eden wants everyone dead, good and evil. That little flower on his console, if only we could prove if it were left there by Littlehorn or an associate. It would also be amusing if we could prove that Kellog was involved in their creation. Him and the institute. Their icon is a skull faced thing snatching up a baby. What if the 10 year gap began after Shaun's abduction and this was an homage to how he started things off to a certain degree and they emulated that like the White Legs did with Ulysses.
One thing i think a lot of people are not considering is that you can pay mercs in more than caps. Armor, ammo, weapons, food, water, there are plenty of resources that are practically gold now. So they could be paid in ways that doesn't cause inflation. And it would go to back why they are argueably one of the better equiped factions.
Yea, I’m willing to bet talon company is more concerned with being paid in water and food then money. Armies back before industrialization would have to raid local areas for food and water just to keep their forces fed and hydrated, it was a common point in war. Seeing how industry all but doesn’t exist (with the exception of the NCR) any sizable military force would absolutely need to be paid with supplies, strong arm then from local areas, or raid for them. Which makes sense as to why the gunners/talon company are so raider like
Ok this might be a random tangent but something just hit me rewatching this. How did Allistair Tenpenny GET to the Capital Wasteland in the first place?! Like if he’s really actually British and clearly not a ghoul…. How and why did he end up there? Has this ever been covered? If not then RadKing I need answers!!!
Boats, Moriarty is straight Irish plus in both 3 and 4's DLC you ride functioning boats to get to the DLC locations meaning there is knowledge of how to fix, pilot and navigate a boat post-war, hell The Boomers in NV open up a different option in plane travel it's just that intercontinental travel is rare and cumbersome due to fuel being an issue, even if the boats and planes run off of nuclear power like the cars and trucks
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games bruh, a riverboat/steamboat ain't near the same as a boat made for crossing a whole ass ocean. Don't need to be rude to them about it.
One of my favorite playthrough of Fallout 3 resolved using both the Talon Company Power Armor mod (a repainted and Talon marked t45) and the friendly Talon mod (you get a Perk making all Talon operatives friendly), and having my Lone Wanderer start off as good karma, then diving bad karma (after the Enclave kill James) and become a special Talon agent. Really made the Contract Killer Perk way more enjoyable
I remember playing Fallout 3 many years ago and stumbled across a deceased member of the Talon company on the floor of a bathroom in the Capitol building in downtown DC. She was just laying there on the ground but at the time couldn't really identify the cause of death since I'm not a detective type person who solves cases.
So if I had to make guesses on who's backing Talon Company, my three candidates would be as follows: - Tenpenny and Burke: Tenpenny clearly has funds given he has a police force for the tower, he's clearly a petty person who likes to do whatever he wants given he wanted Megaton destroyed. His money would be a good convincer to keep sending out Talon hit-squads if you foil his plan by disabling the nuke in Megaton. - Eulogy Jones (and other slavers): Given how much money the slavers probably make, Eulogy Jones would have plenty of reason to pay Talon to keep the pressure on the wasteland. Also, every kill made by Talon means less slaves, but also means they could theoretically charge more per slave since there's less slaves to go around (dark, I know, but that's supply and demand). - Ashur: I feel like Ashur could be a big funder of Talon Company, and it links back to the slavers' point. Given that he could probably make a lot of money selling his steel, he could probably use that capital to fund Talon as a surrogate invasion to harass the Capital Wasteland and ensure that the slavers can do their work to capture more slaves to sell to The Pitt. That might also be why Talon attacks the Brotherhood even if it's a lopsided fight; Ashur clearly has no love for the Brotherhood, and he'd probably enjoy seeing Talon put more pressure on the people that abandoned him.
@@iami3rian394 Nope they're organized with a sort of military heirarchy (although they get it wrong) and radio comms between their outposts and the main base back at the GNN building. They take places like Quincy and the spots on the overpasses because they have a tactical use, raiders just do it for funsies.
I stand corrected. What's the purpose of having a "faction" like that completely undefined? Hell, even the super mutants have more backstory... and I mean the 3D ones.
My most memorable Talon Company moment was just after I left the vault. I was headed straight for that barn with the hunting rifle when I got stopped by them. Luckily not my first play through, but never had I wished to return to the vault more.
I believe this was pointed out in the previous upload by someone else, but some evidence to support the connection between Talon Company and The Enclave is that the literal symbol of the mercenary company is a predatory bird's talon. And considering one of the symbols of the US government/military was the Bald Eagle we might infer they are the unofficial arm of The Enclave or just Eden himself as you suggest. Great video RadKing, it's too bad as others point out that Talon Company wasn't fleshed out more.
These are my favorite kinds of videos from you! The more speculation, the better as far as I'm concerned. I love the way you gather evidence to support your theories and connect the dots. It's so much more interesting than just going over the same canon lore over and over.
I really wish Fallout 3 was more developed. In my current playthrough, I decided to avoid the main quest at all costs this time, as in every previous playthrough I've done, I jumped in at some later stage of the main quest and never "experienced" it as it was meant to be followed. So instead I went around collecting skill books, unlocking and hacking everything I could, building my XP and maxing out my stats in preparation for Almost Perfect at level 30... and I got all the way to level 29 from just roaming around and doing the occasional quest before... I ran out of things to do that weren't the main quest. That's right. There's so little actual _questing_ in Fallout 3, that the majority of what you do is dungeon diving. Very little of the map is quest-related. So I took a step back, thought about it, and checked the Fallout wiki to make sure I wasn't misremembering.... and nope, there are almost no real quest lines outside of the main quest. Several one-offs - Tenpenny Tower, Arefu, Reilly's Raiders, Big Town, Canterbury Commons, as a few examples - but none of them go any deeper than that one task. Fallout 3 is a deceptively minuscule game. Compare it to any of the Elder Scrolls games and it's like... where's the content? Hell, New Vegas has more than double the number of named side quests, and it didn't have nearly as much development time. What were Bethesda's writers doing the whole time F3 was in development?
It's the Enclave. Little horn, Mister Burke, and Commander Jabsco all work for Eden. As Raven rock can manufacture arms and armor to equip and maintain a group like talon Co. Little horn is a "shell company " as Jabsco and Burke are Enclave "infiltration Specialist". The whole point is to sow chaos in the waste and have the Enclave be the heroes who come in and not only "clean up" the water but the waste as well. With Talon attracting the best raiders the waste has and Jabsco with locations and load out for all Talon units "mop up operations" for this as Eden puts it. Little more than a band of raiders. Is easy peasy
While I have nothing to back this up, Mr. Burke does come off like I imagine a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agentcy, Fallout's version of the CIA) Agent would be like. So maybe he's some successor to such an institution and indeed apart of the Enclave. Of course it's all fan speculation that will never truly be answered. Maybe the Enclave approved of Tenpenny Tower as the most hopeful post apocolyptic settlement.
Mr Burke is Martian and Mars used to be controlled by the Enclave by proxy (Enclave as the suzerain of Mars and Mars as the vassal) and he's on earth in the CW specifically to prevent the Enclave or any other earth based faction from gaining the strength to threaten Mars. Ghoul scientist in the satcom array is Martian too but they abandoned her because of her ghoulification but she still carries out her mission as a madwoman.
Enclave is too orderly to subscribe to the chaos the Talon Company enforces. They also wouldn't have interest in specifically having the head of the lone wanderer. Their philosophy isn't to keep the wasteland a hole, but to remake the United States. It's not them. Powerful slavers are the most likely candidate in this video.
As a mercenary group, I don't think TC have a specific benefactor or financier, but I would argue that Burke is a higher up in TC considering the contract of extermination nd how it's worded. Although that does raise the question of why Burke, taking the megaton contact from Tenpenny hires a complete stranger instead of sending a company of mercs to elimathe settlement. They sound very much like the Blackwood company form the Oblivion fighters guild quest line, so it's a bit of a shame they weren't fleshed out more.
This is a great video, ive always figured they were a wild card hired by mostly Tenpenny but ALSO the enclave. The reason why the enclave is out killing the is just a regular turncoat event that the player never sees. Do you plan on doing a video for the REGULATORS too?
My personal idea of Talon Company is that over time they became the Gunners, and both versions don't have a main contractor. Instead, they get their dough through the contracts. Especially from Littlehorn. I think he IS paying them hefty sums from other deals, and that just lets them stay afloat.
I always wanted to join the TC or even a Riley’s Rangers type group. We’re long overdue to be able to join a merc faction. Bethesda really dropped the ball with the Gunners as well.
Taken form Reddit Talon Company: Origins, Motives, Structure and Support In-universe: the mysterious Daniel Littlehorn. Or perhaps the Enclave, though this is never shown or even hinted at. Out-of-universe: Bethesda wanted to include a cartoonishly evil counterpart to the Regulators. If anyone benefits from Talon Company's work, it's never shown in the game; they're clearly mercenaries associated with Littlehorn, but who he is, and how he benefits from their attacks, is never shown at all. Who has both the money and the motive to fund TC? Mercs aren't cheap, especially not those as heavily armed and well equipped as TC, and they don't really do anything other than try to take the Capitol Building and kill any Lone Wanderer who's said to be a helpful person. It's possible that the Enclave is behind them. They (somehow) have an incredible amount of resources, and by destabilizing the Wasteland, they can convince more people of the need for the Enclave's protection. But there is simply no evidence for this. Much as I wish there were an in-universe explanation, Bethesda just wanted to let players profit from being gratuitously evil if they felt like it. Might have merit in terms of making the game fun for a wider audience, but in-universe, it makes no sense.
As I said in the last video you uploaded to me the talon company always seemed liked to be funded by enclave. As they are literally called talon company and what's the Us state bird a eagle and what are it's tools it uses to get stuff done with a talon. Plus the armor is black oddly just the main color of enclave soldiers plus they never seem to be fighting enclave soldiers or at places their intrested in.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games Your wrong on so many level only predatory bird have talons any other bird they have claws as they don't reach over the 3 inch mark.
Edit: I thought Burke was the last I posted before the end! 😂😂 Although I agree with most of your breakdown, the one group you miss and I think is a more accurate faction has to be the Republic Of Dave, as the only true leader of the Capital wasteland. All hail Dave!
Please keep up with the speculative parts, especially with lore that's minimal. I personally think it makes for very interesting content and discussion topics. :) Love the channel man, keep up the Rad work!
Gauss rifle is an easy explanation. You scrounge ammo you can't/ dont make yourself. As an example, the US M-3/M-3a1 Grease-gun of WW2 fame could use a conversion kit to fire 9mm ammo instead of the .45acp it normally fired.
Mr Burke feels a lot like Mr Morden from Babylon 5. A large and powerful group has his back, but want anonymity. Mr Morden would ask people, “what do you want?”, to get at least one of the powers to work with him. Mr Burke could be fulfilling a similar role, ensnaring Tenpenny to be the bigger group’s proxy. He might a different arrangement with Talon Company with them being how things get done. I think John Henry Eden is behind it and Colonel Autumn doesn’t know about it. JHE wanted a group under his direct control and didn’t trust the Colonel.
26:43 it could also mean that the talon company has outlived its usefulness now that the enclave is entering the scene, and are being eliminated to tie up some loose ends. it's a good bait too, first make it seem like they're a danger to everyone, then come into view and wipe them out to win publicity. basically solving a problem you created to gain free goodwill with those affected by it.
I wish you get to hire a mercenary for Talon Company Merc as an evil karma and Reilly's Rangers as good/neutral karma. And also more story and quests of both of the mercenary factions
I love your Legion video idea you mentioned in the beginning! I'd love to see what you think about that as well as your thoughts on the feasibility of a Minutemen Commonwealth!!
A friend of mine did some research trying to figure out what Burke is about. He found there was a serial killer named Burke. I think John Burke. I don't if Betheseba modeled the in game Burke after him but the idea that in game Burke is a psychopathic murderer is clear. Tenpenny is just someone with no apathy and a lot of bigotry. Burke, however, really seems to enjoy his work. My headcannon is that Burke just saw an opportunity that appealed to him in being Tenpenny's right hand man and 'suggesting' problems that Tenpenny orders him to go take care of, like nuking Megaton because 'its an eyesore'.
Here’s a thought: maybe the Institute is aware that runaway Synths are headed to the DC area, and even Dr. Zimmer isn’t fully aware of this. Talon Company’s work would help in at least a few ways: 1) Hunting down runaway Synths with less protection; 2) Attacking Railroad members, as they are all do-gooders, and it serves 1, above; 3) The Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcasts are distracted from their attempts to recover pre-war tech, allowing the Institute to maintain a tech advantage over others; and 4) The Institute may consider the Vault 87 Super Mutants to be an abomination, worthy only of extermination for research.
I believe Burke and Littlehorn may both be part of some shadowy group that sanctions the kind of hits Talon Company would take. Littlehorn simply outsources part of the workload onto a very amoral Lone Wanderer, but the goal is still the same: remove good individuals from the wasteland. It also makes a lot more sense for Littlehorn to be part of the 'we' that Burke refers to in his contract on the Lone Wanderer. It does not make a lot of sense for the Talons to be scared of Alistair Tenpenny. The old man might be ordering Burke to do things, and has the money to issue hits, but all his evil acts stem from boredom and annoyance with petty things. Not exactly someone hardened mercenaries would be afraid of. But Littlehorn? A guy who has to hire a team of secretaries to assist him in issueing bounties? Who speaks of it as though he is philosophically convinced he serves a purpose by having good people whacked? There is a lot of overlap between Talon Company, Burke and Littlehorn in their desire to purge the wasteland of heroes. To what end, we don't know. But even though the slavers and Enclave may not be the ones behind this conglomerate of assassinations, they certainly could be their customers, with Burke and Littlehorn the middlemen.
Didn’t see the first video that got taken down due to community standards and didn’t think much about the disclaimer at the start of the video. So I was not expecting pictures of puppies censoring the gore just a moment later. The answer to why the video got taken down got immediately answered though. Lmao
i think the enclave funded them using middlemen to then when the company caused major chaos the enclave would come to clean it to try and end up like heroes to the wastelanders
@@Rad_King I mean personally, I'd listen to a video where it's just discussing your ideas, maybe organized by different topics like factions, relation to other games, a main plotline, etc. Just something like "A fan's fictional Fallout 5". I dunno, I just know I would watch it.
I'm playing through fallout 3 now and I'd completely forgotten about talon company. I saw one coming towards me and thought it was a trader before getting the old "we're going to get you because you didn't kick that puppy that one time" monologue. Got some nice armour though.
One other thing I find interesting: the bounty on you says that the person who put on the hit on you wants the head "for a change," which would imply that Talon usually has some other way to confirm kills. We know that Littlehorn & Associates usually uses ears to confirm kills, so a whole head would constitute a change of pace for them. This would seem to imply that, if nothing else, Talon and Littlehorn work together so frequently that whoever took out the contract felt the need to specify that this situation was different from their usual fare
It would be cool if when we raid fort banister we could search through a terminal and find the name and location of said entity that wants the players head could be a unmarked quest or a main quest.
One thing ive noticed is that if you finish the "power of the Atom" quest and you either ignore or confront Mr Burke, there's a chance you can get "Hitmen" sent after you. Ive had them spawn just as I was leaving Megaton, they can be a tough fight but a rewarding one at that (ione of the fastest ways you can get combat armour). Not sure if "Hitmen" are just reskinned Talon Company or their own special group, they sure looked and acted like Talon Company.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
As I said last time: Who are they? Free combat armor.
You’re not wrong
They keep my ranger armor in top condition lol
THEY ARE MORE MEAT FOR THR BICYCLE
@@irishmoney4291 ranger armor in fallout 3?
@@SpacedudeProductions complete all the quests for Reillys rangers and you can pick the armor as a reward. It's custom combat armor with some bonuses on it
I think it would’ve been cool to join Talon. You could *technically* join the Enclave, but that never felt fleshed out in my opinion.
I spend most of the game wearing their armor, it's pretty good and there is enough of it to keep it in good repair.
IMO Bethesda missed out of making two bomb ass dlc one for a fleshed out enclave choice and being the quintessential bad mf that blew megaton off the map or the vanilla campaign with some more flare. The second dlc being the talon company, maybe even climbing the ranks and establishing your own contracts on npcs.
I’ve never even considered the option, it would definitely be interesting.
If the leader of a Talon ambush dies before he can talk to you, rhe other two will turn into passive followers because they're still scripted to follow you. As long as you don't fast travel you can have talon mercs of your own.
If it was a real fallout game and not Bethesda you could have..
I always figured it had to be the Enclave funding both the Regulators and Talom company. It has to be a group that Chaos benefits and the Enclave would.
not to mention, the Enclave could conceivably print infinite caps. Making the funding of the Talon company and similar outfits a non-issue. Not many entities would be able to fund that many hits AND actually benefit from it. It seems the NCR is on top of counterfeiting out West per a quest. It could also be the Institute, as there was clearly some indicators they existed in FO3 with the synth you have a quest based around.
@@ENTERESTEDTREE well anyone could conceivably print infinite caps that would hike up inflation
@@plantainsame2049 the quest in fallout nv where you specifically stop counterfeit cap production says otherwise. And it would likely have to be an entity that is largely unknown to the public for it to not be easily found out. If Talon Company was getting caps from an entity that was known to the average wastelander, the word would likely get out due to simple recognition. But the Enclave and Institute have been operating covertly for most of their existence and would have much greater ability to produce and use funds without it throwing up red flags.
@@ENTERESTEDTREE that Quest shows why you can't print bottle caps inflation
@@plantainsame2049 they wouldnt be distributing them widely amongst the wastes. Just to specific mercanary groups. It wouldnt cause inflation at thay scale.
I think it's a real shame the factions in Fallout 3 were not more fleshed out. I felt exploration was a strong spot for F3, but so many of the groups and people you encounter feel half finished. Imagine a game where you could contract for Reily's Rangers or the Talons.
they weren't fleshed out in fallout 3 or 4. I wonder why...
@@JoshuaKevinPerry BETHESDA
But it just works
@@JoshuaKevinPerry because Bethesda is utter garbage and only cares about Skyrim.
It is more or less came to a problem with karma and factions not working well together and it would have probably delayed the game at least it happened in New Vegas but some of the cut stories really had me wishing for factions instead of good or bad karma
When I was a kid i enjoyed these plot holes because it made F3 look like a really esoteric place where while the wasteland struggled to survive there were all of these "greater picture" things going on that you as the lone wanderer weren't able to even grasp
that's good and all but the lore for fallout has gone down the shitter in recent years bc Bethesda is greedy and needs to push out games instead of making a quality product
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games You're a little angry guy aren't ya?
@@ye11owman29
Reject f4 & 76 lore, embrase fanfiction
@@ye11owman29 they all are, allow them to cry, im hurt as well
Hey radio, I also had the same feeling when first encountering them and Daniel Littlehorn and such.
My theory on these sobs is that they were secretly hired by The Enclave to serve as a boogeyman that they could make a show of fighting against to try and ingratiate themselves to the people of The Capital Wasteland.
The Enclave have a history of employing local assets, makes sense to me.
Talon Company could be tasked to deal with threats identified by Enclave Eyebots, to prevent anyone from forming a stable local government that might be able to resist the Enclaves long term plans.
Definitely possible! The Enclave are good candidates.
Makes sense
They also had good gear and weapons. Not AS good but better than most tbh.
I still believe it is the Republic of Dave
IMO that doesn't work, because there are already slavers, raiders, and mutants of all kind to fight against
Talon Company and Reilly’s Rangers are my favorite parts of this game. I love the concept of Mercenaries and honestly you should have had the option to join either in replacement of the Contract Killer and Lawbringer perks. If not have the game centered entirely around them
Absolutely
You actually can join Reilly's Rangers, just not the Regulators.
@@alpacalover0 no shit
@@duplicarus yep. You get the best armor in the game and a side quest that pays you for locations discovered when you do.
@@brettlovell8761 I… I know thanks. I’m just saying the Mercenary factions could have been more
I always figured Tenpenny was a likely possibility, he's got the funds
I swear I actually remember an obscure note or terminal entry somewhere that confirms Tenpenny being behind Talon, but it's been a WHILE since I played Fallout 3
I always felt like he had the funds but didn’t show much drive or initiative.
@@Rad_King His interests were pretty specific. I never got the idea his ambitions ever extended beyond ghouls and Tenpenny Tower.
But if Tenpenny dies, Talon continues to operate indefinitely
@@qualicumjack3906 true but I figure they're getting funds from more than one source. I thought of Tenpenny as a big investor but not the sole investor.
Oh, no! Pixelated puppies!!! The horror of it all
It’s the puppies that make it not age restricted…duh
@@imafuturecorpse2443 this is what we call "sarcasm"
😱
@@imafuturecorpse2443 *whoosh*
@@imafuturecorpse2443 wooooooosh
I remember finding their HQ, makes sense it wasn't a marked location
My theory is that The Slavers, Tenpenny, and The Enclave (specifically, JHE) are all working together through Burke and Littlehorn to fund and administer Talon Co.; all three groups benefit from a lawless Capitol Wasteland; all three groups have other things keeping them busy; why not pay somebody else to handle ‘the rabble’...?; once The Enclave has Project Purity, they probably wouldn’t have a problem with rubbing Talon out, as they’d only be in their way at that point, and they wouldn’t need a bunch of dirty muties, hanging around, shooting those guns, and wearing all that armor they probably arranged for them to have...
Exactly. I'm not sure why the video concludes that the guy running a hyper-expensive safe haven wouldn't benefit from a chaotic wasteland
Can't believe TH-cam sent Talon Company to kill the original upload, damn this wasteland, good thing RadKing has the Puppies! perk.
Damn shame this got flagged, but at least a reupload gives me a good reason to watch it again.
Yeah my first one (yay?)
I want to see more Talon company in future fallout games.
I was often more scared of Talon company then of Deathclaws.
What I find interesting about Talon company is that they are at War with the Super mutants but only engage BoS when their in the way. They are also actually engaged in a armed conflict with the enclave.
This video covers a lot but I don't know if it's going to be made canon.
I think it’d be cool, but the squads would have to be toned down imo. Take the Legion/NCR hit squads: they were like almost constant in FNV, and the Talon squads were that way in F3.
I hate the legion assassins, word gets quickly around the legion, I killed vulpes, all of his guards, and all of his dogs, then put them on the fire, and some on the pikes, I left but I wasn’t strong enough, so I just used the power of fast travel and save scumming
@@secondBAR ahh but the Legion has eyes everywhere. Got to give them credit where it’s due.
@@Dank-gb6jn they won’t have eyes when I fill em with buckshot though, or just use that furry little annoyance’s ripper, after he fell like a sack a bricks thrown out of a jet engine
yeah the Talon should have never engaged the player on sight, and instead should have warned us to stay out of their way.
One of the greatest sources of combat armor in the game.
Pixelated puppies, the perfect protection from TH-cam Punishments
No way they can withstand puppy power.
I believe it is the Encleve (President Eden) that funds them, not only for caps but provides military equipment and training, for them since the Encleve has access not only to pre-war military equipment, which they do not use and have access to to finance them, have these mercenaries hunt down possible enemies of the encleve in an eventual takeover and use them as a flesh shield against the enemies of the encleve to take places without sacrificing soldiers and encleve members
Love to see how far you came form a few years ago man, Keep up the good work and praise to atom!
Thank you!!
There really should have been more regulator/talon company conflicts. Would have been cool if they had a random chance to show up and help you when the hitmen attack, or be there already attacking them before you even get to the area.
my fan theory is that Talon Company was a proto gunners, like that the gunners and the Talon Company came from the same group
It'd make sense with some fleshing out. If the fall of the Enclave is canon from FO3 and Talon was funded and trained by Eden, then its most likely that Talon had an inner tiff after the Enclave fell apart. The less raider like TCMs decided to just keep doing merc work for the highest bidder, changing name and look for honor's sake, and moving to the Commonwealth, with the more raider like TCMs remaining in DC sticking to their ways and using their old training to work as a organized raider group until the BoS see them as a larger threat to DC and the works of Project Purity. Even further, the break would be a good reason why Talon has no presence in Boston. If the Gunners and Talon are one in the same, and broke off from one another especially for a morality reasoning like raiding and not raiding, the Gunners may have such anger for their old friends in Talon that they war over territory between Boston and DC, and because Talon is more raider like, they could be using chems frequently, thus making them less effective fighters, keeping them penned in DC.
Yes, I've thought about this a lot.
So my thought is that, yes, Burke is the one who conducts business with Talon, but the money/caps/whatever he uses to pay them isn't directly his. Tenpenny gives him the currency and Mr. Burke is a liaison between him and Talon.
EDIT: 31:47 this dialog shows my point.
I wonder if the Talon Company and the Gunners competitors as both are groups of mercenaries?
Gang war time.
I thought of the Gunners during this video and you didn’t disappoint me!
I admit that in my own little personal headcanon for my game, my personal modded version/alternate reality, I’d decided that Littlehorn was the one responsible for the “white knight” contract on my Sophie. I did this because Littlehorn becomes available only after the contract killer evil karma perk. The Talon Company are ruthless mercenaries in large numbers and Littlehorn will have problems with a good karma Lone Wanderer going around doing good things and making people less vulnerable to chaos.
But now I have to admit that I really like your take on Tenpenny and Burke because that note really does imply a relationship far deeper than that of client and mercenary group. And I like the idea of Burke manipulating things in the oblivious Tenpenny name.
But because I role play and write far into the theorycraft/fan fiction direction I’ll just say this video inspired me to deepen my own lore. Fitting into my current lore that Littlehorn put out the “white knight” contract, I’m going to write that Burke is also a Littlehorn employee. One of their highest ranking operatives using the oblivious nature and vast wealth of Tenpenny to further their evil goals.
The part where the “Littlehorn and Associates” corporation is a major funding backer for the Talon company-giving them the funds and equipment needed to operate on the level they do-is what gives Burke the power to threaten and bully the mercenaries sent out as hitmen. Sure he’s a client, but he’s a high level manager of Littlehorn and thus can’t be messed with.
I’ve got this whole other story with Littlehorn being a surviving corporation from before the Great War, the Regulators ect, but thanks again for the Burke link.
I find the Gunners similarly disappointing in FO4 though. Okay FO3 had a serious and deep seated lore problem where there was a horrible lack of terminal entries, notes and other lore details that FO4 vastly improved on. I’ll forever regret that the huge potential lore tidbits from the pentagon, congress building and White House itself was missed and wasted due to FO3’s lack of lore detail and storytelling. But the Gunners didn’t get this improvement between games! Bethesda had the opportunity to make the new version of the Talons (which let’s face it, the Gunners are) much more interesting with rich lore that could have been tied in so many places, but didn’t.
Incidentally they really dropped the ball in Greentech Genetics as it looks like they totally forgot to put any terminals or notes about what the company was about. My best guess is that it worked on genetically modified plants or crops. Nor did Bethesda seem to put any thought into who had hired them to capture a Gen3 synth. It wasn’t the Institute because they just use Coursers with Gen 1/2 backup if required. It leaves us asking who else would pay the Gunners to capture and bring them a Gen3 synth.
But we just don’t know about the Gunners. We know they’re amoral mercenaries who follow a very prewar military inspired dress code and ranked discipline structure, that besides taking on job, also seemingly interested in taking and holding various different locations within the Commonwealth but not really much else.
I have my own theory that I’ve turned into personal headcanon and I know I’m not the only one who has thought of it. I think that they’re either grown up vault dwellers from Vault 75 (I think that’s the one in Malden where the kids were being grown to be super soldiers) or descendants of the kids that eventually broke out and escaped Vault Tec’s control.
After a few generations the genetic enhancement through human selective “breeding” did produce kids that were genuinely a little bit tougher than the average human, especially compared to the average wastelander. They took the training from the Vault and styled themselves as a successor to the old US military. And they survived, they spread out and took many locations within the Commonwealth and beyond. But time passes, generations change and they unwittingly corrupted themselves and their DNA by freely recruiting local wastelanders-anyone with skill or knowledge from scavver to raider. They started out with good intentions but the wasteland wore them down similar to the former Minutemen of Libertalia. After a generation or two of interbreeding with normal wastelanders the Gunners have lost much of the advantage Vault 75 bred into them, but the original descendants can still be pretty tough while locally born and recruited… not so much.
I think this because of the way they behave, the way the Forged make a point of just how tough they are and how tough the ones they lured to their ranks are with all passing the trials. And how they seem fascinated with occupying Vaults like 95 and medical facilities like prewar hospitals.
It’s not much, but it’s better than a weird mercenary group from potentially anywhere, including outside the Commonwealth that follow military cosplay and hold random places and attack many people on sight. It would have been nice to be able to have them neutral, or at least some of them and maybe even able to hire them. Maybe to clear out a few certain locations. Ah well.
I always found the Talon Company as well as the Gunners interesting for a few reasons. With all of the main factions you know their motivations and what they want to accomplish, but with the gunners/talon their intentions weren't really clear beyond doing jobs for caps. Also compared to other factions made up of normal ppl like the raiders, mintuemen, etc. they seem to be very well organized. I always felt that these types of factions could play a larger role in the wasteland and have potential for being a major faction and i feel like Bethesda is just waisting them as enimies for when you are mid to almost late game.
and mercenary work seems to be sought after in the wasteland. you know how to shoot? you can restrain yourself from randomly robbing people but have no problem doing it in general? might as well get paid for it.
@@HappyBeezerStudios Bethesda should have implemented where the player can go on bounty quests for the Gunners or do something similar to the Dark Brotherhood or Guilds in the Elder Scrolls
Hearing "Talon Company!" and immediately diving for cover is engrained into me at this point. Honestly though, I always thought their armor was cool and stole off their bodies until I could get Rielly's Rangers version
I once did a play through where I avoided Megaton entirely. I was attacked by Talon company the first time I left a building. I think they had the letter from Mr. Burke, but it was a long time ago.
For the algorithm, my friend.
It was good enough, I'll even (actually) watch it again, rather than just let it play on the background.
Aw, thanks!
I always assumed that talon company had been started by Eden, they do seize control of military bases, are heavily armed and armored, usually. So he could have reached out remotely to aid them into entering these facilities. Hell, if Eden were to allude to things found in the DC ruins, they might be then inclined to go there.
Look at the Enclave in Fallout 2. They hired a group to get them things they needed while selling off some weapons and the like to make them stronger and better able to get them the requested materials. All the while, absolutely intending to kill them off with the airborne virus. Eden helping to establish them just would make sense, especially since there was a certain degree of belief that fallout 3 was originally going to be a psudo remake of the first two.
As for why super mutants overrun the DC ruins, i assume it is likely due to the high levels of radiation found there, especially in certain locations where it is especially high. They are essentially immune to it and it probably reminds them of Vault 87 and considering they are looking for more FEV, the green stuff, they probably attribute high radiation with their search.
As far as say, littlehorn, not everyone can even enter their shack. You have to be chosen by making the choice yourself first. You let the evil into your own heart, as it were. As for who they are and how they can afford this endeavor, well. They are likely literally just the devil. A devil anyway. Burke dresses a lot like them and i think there is a reason for ir. Sort of a company uniform. Burke wants good people dead because he can wreap the rewards others could not as a result of the carnage. Material wealth from the death of good people, hence why he is sk quick to hire hitmen, to want megaton gone. Why he would be so quick to kill Lucas Simms on his way out.
Littlehorn, they want that good people would die and others to become corrupted. They don't pay you to kill just anyone, they are directly opposed to good people and only reward their deaths. Meaning, they want the apread to occure. I actually think it would be funny to find that they had a connection to Eden too, as if Littlehorn had directly inspired Eden to become what he is. Eden wants everyone dead, good and evil. That little flower on his console, if only we could prove if it were left there by Littlehorn or an associate.
It would also be amusing if we could prove that Kellog was involved in their creation. Him and the institute. Their icon is a skull faced thing snatching up a baby. What if the 10 year gap began after Shaun's abduction and this was an homage to how he started things off to a certain degree and they emulated that like the White Legs did with Ulysses.
One thing i think a lot of people are not considering is that you can pay mercs in more than caps. Armor, ammo, weapons, food, water, there are plenty of resources that are practically gold now. So they could be paid in ways that doesn't cause inflation. And it would go to back why they are argueably one of the better equiped factions.
Yea, I’m willing to bet talon company is more concerned with being paid in water and food then money. Armies back before industrialization would have to raid local areas for food and water just to keep their forces fed and hydrated, it was a common point in war. Seeing how industry all but doesn’t exist (with the exception of the NCR) any sizable military force would absolutely need to be paid with supplies, strong arm then from local areas, or raid for them. Which makes sense as to why the gunners/talon company are so raider like
Ok this might be a random tangent but something just hit me rewatching this.
How did Allistair Tenpenny GET to the Capital Wasteland in the first place?! Like if he’s really actually British and clearly not a ghoul…. How and why did he end up there?
Has this ever been covered? If not then RadKing I need answers!!!
Boats, Moriarty is straight Irish plus in both 3 and 4's DLC you ride functioning boats to get to the DLC locations meaning there is knowledge of how to fix, pilot and navigate a boat post-war, hell The Boomers in NV open up a different option in plane travel it's just that intercontinental travel is rare and cumbersome due to fuel being an issue, even if the boats and planes run off of nuclear power like the cars and trucks
@@gearsfan6669 there's also the fact that actual sea monsters will probably exist because of radiation further hindering boat travel
@@gearsfan6669 makes sense. I just didn’t think they had any boats capable of cross Atlantic travel at this point.
I think it's a speech impediment.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games bruh, a riverboat/steamboat ain't near the same as a boat made for crossing a whole ass ocean. Don't need to be rude to them about it.
Not me that's for sure, I barely got money for purified water and food much less an entire mercenary outfit.
That’s exactly what someone who bankrolls talon company would say.
It's settled guys. Catapilamila is behind talon. What a plot twist
One of my favorite playthrough of Fallout 3 resolved using both the Talon Company Power Armor mod (a repainted and Talon marked t45) and the friendly Talon mod (you get a Perk making all Talon operatives friendly), and having my Lone Wanderer start off as good karma, then diving bad karma (after the Enclave kill James) and become a special Talon agent. Really made the Contract Killer Perk way more enjoyable
I remember playing Fallout 3 many years ago and stumbled across a deceased member of the Talon company on the floor of a bathroom in the Capitol building in downtown DC. She was just laying there on the ground but at the time couldn't really identify the cause of death since I'm not a detective type person who solves cases.
So if I had to make guesses on who's backing Talon Company, my three candidates would be as follows:
- Tenpenny and Burke: Tenpenny clearly has funds given he has a police force for the tower, he's clearly a petty person who likes to do whatever he wants given he wanted Megaton destroyed. His money would be a good convincer to keep sending out Talon hit-squads if you foil his plan by disabling the nuke in Megaton.
- Eulogy Jones (and other slavers): Given how much money the slavers probably make, Eulogy Jones would have plenty of reason to pay Talon to keep the pressure on the wasteland. Also, every kill made by Talon means less slaves, but also means they could theoretically charge more per slave since there's less slaves to go around (dark, I know, but that's supply and demand).
- Ashur: I feel like Ashur could be a big funder of Talon Company, and it links back to the slavers' point. Given that he could probably make a lot of money selling his steel, he could probably use that capital to fund Talon as a surrogate invasion to harass the Capital Wasteland and ensure that the slavers can do their work to capture more slaves to sell to The Pitt. That might also be why Talon attacks the Brotherhood even if it's a lopsided fight; Ashur clearly has no love for the Brotherhood, and he'd probably enjoy seeing Talon put more pressure on the people that abandoned him.
glad you talked about them, they needed to be fleshed out same with the Gunners in Fallout 4
I'm not sure gunners are one coherent group, are they? I figured they were many small groups, a la raiders, just with training and equipment, right?
@@iami3rian394 the gunners are one coherent Group. Their main Base is the GNN plaza
@@iami3rian394 Nope they're organized with a sort of military heirarchy (although they get it wrong) and radio comms between their outposts and the main base back at the GNN building. They take places like Quincy and the spots on the overpasses because they have a tactical use, raiders just do it for funsies.
I stand corrected.
What's the purpose of having a "faction" like that completely undefined? Hell, even the super mutants have more backstory... and I mean the 3D ones.
@@iami3rian394 things to fight/ shoot at. Same as the Silverhand in Skyrim
My most memorable Talon Company moment was just after I left the vault. I was headed straight for that barn with the hunting rifle when I got stopped by them. Luckily not my first play through, but never had I wished to return to the vault more.
Maybe the Overseer really had it out for me?
New theory, the overseer funds them!
I believe this was pointed out in the previous upload by someone else, but some evidence to support the connection between Talon Company and The Enclave is that the literal symbol of the mercenary company is a predatory bird's talon. And considering one of the symbols of the US government/military was the Bald Eagle we might infer they are the unofficial arm of The Enclave or just Eden himself as you suggest. Great video RadKing, it's too bad as others point out that Talon Company wasn't fleshed out more.
These are my favorite kinds of videos from you! The more speculation, the better as far as I'm concerned. I love the way you gather evidence to support your theories and connect the dots. It's so much more interesting than just going over the same canon lore over and over.
fairly comprehensive video, shame the OG got Drive-By'd by Google for BS reasons
There’s always a first I guess?
I always assumed the Super Mutants were in the capital proper was to look for more FEV due to it being a creation of the prewar American government.
Weren't they already being made there?
I really wish Fallout 3 was more developed. In my current playthrough, I decided to avoid the main quest at all costs this time, as in every previous playthrough I've done, I jumped in at some later stage of the main quest and never "experienced" it as it was meant to be followed. So instead I went around collecting skill books, unlocking and hacking everything I could, building my XP and maxing out my stats in preparation for Almost Perfect at level 30... and I got all the way to level 29 from just roaming around and doing the occasional quest before... I ran out of things to do that weren't the main quest.
That's right. There's so little actual _questing_ in Fallout 3, that the majority of what you do is dungeon diving. Very little of the map is quest-related.
So I took a step back, thought about it, and checked the Fallout wiki to make sure I wasn't misremembering.... and nope, there are almost no real quest lines outside of the main quest. Several one-offs - Tenpenny Tower, Arefu, Reilly's Raiders, Big Town, Canterbury Commons, as a few examples - but none of them go any deeper than that one task. Fallout 3 is a deceptively minuscule game. Compare it to any of the Elder Scrolls games and it's like... where's the content?
Hell, New Vegas has more than double the number of named side quests, and it didn't have nearly as much development time. What were Bethesda's writers doing the whole time F3 was in development?
Must appease Al Gore's rhythm.
Edit: I'd love to hear your speculation!
😂
Oh man. It's the same video as last time yet...I'm compelled to watch it again. Is this atoms influence?
Definitely is. And you really shouldn’t disobey…
I would add Vault Tec (or what ever is left of them) to the list and rank them in the top 3
It's the Enclave. Little horn, Mister Burke, and Commander Jabsco all work for Eden. As Raven rock can manufacture arms and armor to equip and maintain a group like talon Co. Little horn is a "shell company " as Jabsco and Burke are Enclave "infiltration Specialist". The whole point is to sow chaos in the waste and have the Enclave be the heroes who come in and not only "clean up" the water but the waste as well. With Talon attracting the best raiders the waste has and Jabsco with locations and load out for all Talon units "mop up operations" for this as Eden puts it. Little more than a band of raiders. Is easy peasy
While I have nothing to back this up, Mr. Burke does come off like I imagine a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agentcy, Fallout's version of the CIA) Agent would be like. So maybe he's some successor to such an institution and indeed apart of the Enclave. Of course it's all fan speculation that will never truly be answered. Maybe the Enclave approved of Tenpenny Tower as the most hopeful post apocolyptic settlement.
Agreed . The Romans always enjoyed using tribals to fight tribals.
Mr Burke is Martian and Mars used to be controlled by the Enclave by proxy (Enclave as the suzerain of Mars and Mars as the vassal) and he's on earth in the CW specifically to prevent the Enclave or any other earth based faction from gaining the strength to threaten Mars. Ghoul scientist in the satcom array is Martian too but they abandoned her because of her ghoulification but she still carries out her mission as a madwoman.
Enclave is too orderly to subscribe to the chaos the Talon Company enforces. They also wouldn't have interest in specifically having the head of the lone wanderer.
Their philosophy isn't to keep the wasteland a hole, but to remake the United States. It's not them. Powerful slavers are the most likely candidate in this video.
As a mercenary group, I don't think TC have a specific benefactor or financier, but I would argue that Burke is a higher up in TC considering the contract of extermination nd how it's worded.
Although that does raise the question of why Burke, taking the megaton contact from Tenpenny hires a complete stranger instead of sending a company of mercs to elimathe settlement.
They sound very much like the Blackwood company form the Oblivion fighters guild quest line, so it's a bit of a shame they weren't fleshed out more.
This is a great video, ive always figured they were a wild card hired by mostly Tenpenny but ALSO the enclave. The reason why the enclave is out killing the is just a regular turncoat event that the player never sees.
Do you plan on doing a video for the REGULATORS too?
Everytime you somehow weave a rhyme into your intro it always gets a smile. Love your videos
My personal idea of Talon Company is that over time they became the Gunners, and both versions don't have a main contractor. Instead, they get their dough through the contracts. Especially from Littlehorn. I think he IS paying them hefty sums from other deals, and that just lets them stay afloat.
I always wanted to join the TC or even a Riley’s Rangers type group. We’re long overdue to be able to join a merc faction. Bethesda really dropped the ball with the Gunners as well.
Taken form Reddit
Talon Company: Origins, Motives, Structure and Support
In-universe: the mysterious Daniel Littlehorn. Or perhaps the Enclave, though this is never shown or even hinted at.
Out-of-universe: Bethesda wanted to include a cartoonishly evil counterpart to the Regulators.
If anyone benefits from Talon Company's work, it's never shown in the game; they're clearly mercenaries associated with Littlehorn, but who he is, and how he benefits from their attacks, is never shown at all. Who has both the money and the motive to fund TC? Mercs aren't cheap, especially not those as heavily armed and well equipped as TC, and they don't really do anything other than try to take the Capitol Building and kill any Lone Wanderer who's said to be a helpful person.
It's possible that the Enclave is behind them. They (somehow) have an incredible amount of resources, and by destabilizing the Wasteland, they can convince more people of the need for the Enclave's protection.
But there is simply no evidence for this. Much as I wish there were an in-universe explanation, Bethesda just wanted to let players profit from being gratuitously evil if they felt like it. Might have merit in terms of making the game fun for a wider audience, but in-universe, it makes no sense.
It's Moira Brown who funds the talon company. She wants an "extra challenge" for the player so her wasteland survival guide is more substantial.
As I said in the last video you uploaded to me the talon company always seemed liked to be funded by enclave. As they are literally called talon company and what's the Us state bird a eagle and what are it's tools it uses to get stuff done with a talon. Plus the armor is black oddly just the main color of enclave soldiers plus they never seem to be fighting enclave soldiers or at places their intrested in.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games Your wrong on so many level only predatory bird have talons any other bird they have claws as they don't reach over the 3 inch mark.
I remember your comment!
@@Rad_King The mighty Radking remembers his fellow humble follower of atom 🙏
Edit: I thought Burke was the last
I posted before the end! 😂😂
Although I agree with most of your breakdown, the one group you miss and I think is a more accurate faction has to be the Republic Of Dave, as the only true leader of the Capital wasteland. All hail Dave!
Eeeyy great minds think alike 😂
Please keep up with the speculative parts, especially with lore that's minimal. I personally think it makes for very interesting content and discussion topics. :)
Love the channel man, keep up the Rad work!
I remember really liking this video gonna watch it again just because!
You’re a stud
Gauss rifle is an easy explanation. You scrounge ammo you can't/ dont make yourself.
As an example, the US M-3/M-3a1 Grease-gun of WW2 fame could use a conversion kit to fire 9mm ammo instead of the .45acp it normally fired.
I shall do my duty to Atom and rewatch this sermon of his chosen!
As Atom commands!
Mr Burke feels a lot like Mr Morden from Babylon 5. A large and powerful group has his back, but want anonymity. Mr Morden would ask people, “what do you want?”, to get at least one of the powers to work with him. Mr Burke could be fulfilling a similar role, ensnaring Tenpenny to be the bigger group’s proxy. He might a different arrangement with Talon Company with them being how things get done. I think John Henry Eden is behind it and Colonel Autumn doesn’t know about it. JHE wanted a group under his direct control and didn’t trust the Colonel.
26:43 it could also mean that the talon company has outlived its usefulness now that the enclave is entering the scene, and are being eliminated to tie up some loose ends. it's a good bait too, first make it seem like they're a danger to everyone, then come into view and wipe them out to win publicity. basically solving a problem you created to gain free goodwill with those affected by it.
"Community guidelines" is just corporate slang for TYRANNY.
“Please don’t post pictures of your own shit under posts you disagree with”
TRYANNY!
"PUPPIIIIIEESS" - Jerry 'The King' Lawler
😆
I assumed it was multiple parties hiring out Talon Company.
Totally possible
I wish you get to hire a mercenary for Talon Company Merc as an evil karma and Reilly's Rangers as good/neutral karma. And also more story and quests of both of the mercenary factions
*Sees re-upload* eh... I could watch this again.
especially about the Talon company bc to me they are very mysterious
😅 the real hero over here
No gonna' lie.... I kinda like the surprise puppies every now and then.
I love your Legion video idea you mentioned in the beginning! I'd love to see what you think about that as well as your thoughts on the feasibility of a Minutemen Commonwealth!!
I'd gladly watch any radking vid twice, tbf I already do that soo
What a champion.
I definitely think the gunners and talons are branches of a larger group maybe stretching to the west coast mercs that threaten the super mutants
You call them Talon Company, after the first encounter, *I* call them walking chunks of XP!
I’m so excited to see more re-uploaded videos! Nice job
A friend of mine did some research trying to figure out what Burke is about. He found there was a serial killer named Burke. I think John Burke. I don't if Betheseba modeled the in game Burke after him but the idea that in game Burke is a psychopathic murderer is clear. Tenpenny is just someone with no apathy and a lot of bigotry. Burke, however, really seems to enjoy his work.
My headcannon is that Burke just saw an opportunity that appealed to him in being Tenpenny's right hand man and 'suggesting' problems that Tenpenny orders him to go take care of, like nuking Megaton because 'its an eyesore'.
Here’s a thought: maybe the Institute is aware that runaway Synths are headed to the DC area, and even Dr. Zimmer isn’t fully aware of this. Talon Company’s work would help in at least a few ways:
1) Hunting down runaway Synths with less protection;
2) Attacking Railroad members, as they are all do-gooders, and it serves 1, above;
3) The Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcasts are distracted from their attempts to recover pre-war tech, allowing the Institute to maintain a tech advantage over others; and
4) The Institute may consider the Vault 87 Super Mutants to be an abomination, worthy only of extermination for research.
The institute never crossed my mind as an option.
@@Rad_King If YT takes off your video a second time, you can definitely add the institute in.
Fallout 3 predicting the future with that white night reference
I believe Burke and Littlehorn may both be part of some shadowy group that sanctions the kind of hits Talon Company would take. Littlehorn simply outsources part of the workload onto a very amoral Lone Wanderer, but the goal is still the same: remove good individuals from the wasteland.
It also makes a lot more sense for Littlehorn to be part of the 'we' that Burke refers to in his contract on the Lone Wanderer. It does not make a lot of sense for the Talons to be scared of Alistair Tenpenny. The old man might be ordering Burke to do things, and has the money to issue hits, but all his evil acts stem from boredom and annoyance with petty things. Not exactly someone hardened mercenaries would be afraid of. But Littlehorn? A guy who has to hire a team of secretaries to assist him in issueing bounties? Who speaks of it as though he is philosophically convinced he serves a purpose by having good people whacked?
There is a lot of overlap between Talon Company, Burke and Littlehorn in their desire to purge the wasteland of heroes. To what end, we don't know. But even though the slavers and Enclave may not be the ones behind this conglomerate of assassinations, they certainly could be their customers, with Burke and Littlehorn the middlemen.
Shoutout to the merc at 15:46 who boomerangs around after briefly shifting between dimensions
No good deed goes unpunished.
-Talon Company, probably
Didn’t see the first video that got taken down due to community standards and didn’t think much about the disclaimer at the start of the video. So I was not expecting pictures of puppies censoring the gore just a moment later. The answer to why the video got taken down got immediately answered though. Lmao
The request for the head would make sense for someone who knows the lone wanderer which would add more creedence to Mr Burke being the benefactor.
All these dog pictures got me like
🎶 In the arms of an angel🎶🔥
I was about to ask if anyone noticed that lol 😂
wait, i thought EC pack stood for "electron charge pack", didnt realise that was a topic up for debate.
I'll gladly rewatch a video! God knows I rewatch the old ones plenty enough lol
The hero I don’t deserve.
Good vid, worth a second re-watch. For the puppies if nothing else
Thank you good sir
Talon company when they hear about the Sole survivor:
i feel like they’re gonna play a big role in fallout 5
I loved the video and I wish it didn't have to be edited, but it is what it is. have a good one mr radking sir.
I can't wait for the remakes, I have no doubt that they'll add more layers to the lore
Puppy jump scare at 5:28
i think the enclave funded them using middlemen to then when the company caused major chaos the enclave would come to clean it to try and end up like heroes to the wastelanders
Id love to hear this New York Fallout concept, it sounds really cool!
I would have to think how best to show such a thing
@@Rad_King I mean personally, I'd listen to a video where it's just discussing your ideas, maybe organized by different topics like factions, relation to other games, a main plotline, etc. Just something like "A fan's fictional Fallout 5". I dunno, I just know I would watch it.
I'm playing through fallout 3 now and I'd completely forgotten about talon company. I saw one coming towards me and thought it was a trader before getting the old "we're going to get you because you didn't kick that puppy that one time" monologue. Got some nice armour though.
One other thing I find interesting: the bounty on you says that the person who put on the hit on you wants the head "for a change," which would imply that Talon usually has some other way to confirm kills. We know that Littlehorn & Associates usually uses ears to confirm kills, so a whole head would constitute a change of pace for them. This would seem to imply that, if nothing else, Talon and Littlehorn work together so frequently that whoever took out the contract felt the need to specify that this situation was different from their usual fare
I hope to see a similar video about the Gunners eventually!
It would be cool if when we raid fort banister we could search through a terminal and find the name and location of said entity that wants the players head could be a unmarked quest or a main quest.
33:10 I knew for sure who you were going to say lol I was not disappointed.
8:24 there are no amount of drugs that can make that fall survivable.. lol
Radking: Most people will play the "good" guy first playthrough.
Me, on my first-ever run: Caps and a penthouse sweet?
Megaton: BOOM!
Lol
One thing ive noticed is that if you finish the "power of the Atom" quest and you either ignore or confront Mr Burke, there's a chance you can get "Hitmen" sent after you. Ive had them spawn just as I was leaving Megaton, they can be a tough fight but a rewarding one at that (ione of the fastest ways you can get combat armour).
Not sure if "Hitmen" are just reskinned Talon Company or their own special group, they sure looked and acted like Talon Company.
Who: Raiders in combat armour
Financier: Todd Howard
Great video, shame you had to reupload it. Still amazing!
Thank you!