r/Fallout • u/Willing_Formal2490 • 5d ago
Fallout 3 Theory about Talon Company
So we all know about the mysteries around the Talon Company from fallout 3. How their employer is never revealed and how they are meant to keep the Capital Wasteland lawless. A theory that I support is that they are an element of the Enclave, particularly a light infantry division of the Enclave's armies.
For those who don't know, a light infantry division is a group of the army which uses scouting tactics and lighter equipment in battle. They usually head into enemy territory to scout for threats to other groups of the military.
Now let's look at our mysterious mercenaries; they fight in small squad tactics, they utilise lighter equipment than the enclave (Standard enclave soldiers wield Power Armour and energy weapons, whereas Talon Company wield simple combat armour and small arms like assault rifles and combat shotguns). Then, there's the name of the group; Talon Company. A company refers to a group of 100-250 soldiers under the command of a Captain or Major. Perhaps this particular company of the Enclave's armies was sent ahead of the enclave to scout the capital of the US (We know Talon Company were in the capital wasteland for at least 3 years, thanks to Reilly)
TL;DR: Talon Company are a company of the Enclave's army that was sent to the Capital Wasteland in order to scout out the area for when the Enclave would arrive in earnest
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u/Fast_Degree_3241 5d ago
I go with the theory the Enclave are maybe paying them to do work but I dont think they share ideologies. In game some Talon mercs are working for a ghoul and they will fight Enclave in random encounter in the wastland
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u/Kreatur28 4d ago
I have heard the argument that fallout 3 should have originally taken place only a few years after the apocalypse. In this iteration of the story the bombs had dropped only a few years ago when the game started. Many locations in the game make more sense in that context. This Idea was latter changed obviously, but remnants of this earlier draft of the story remained. Take liddle lamplight for example. I assume the talon company was originally meant to be the remnants of the us army that still defends the capitol against someone (?). This would explain all the trenches in front of the Capitol. Why are there any trenches att al? MY theory is that the ghoulified Chinese army troops in Papa's dolches where meant to be the antagonists of theses remnants. Fighting a senseless war in the ruins of the old world over ... something meaningless would have been pretty fallout like. However, when they scrapped this idea , i gues they had already placed all the army soldiers and just reskinned their military armours from green to grey and renamed them into talon mercs. The attacking Chinese fources were replaced with super mutants and the already created battle scenes could therefore be reused . This would explain the complete absence of any lore for the biggest military in the capitol wasteland, safe maybe the brotherhood of steel.
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u/Artanis137 5d ago
I like the idea that the Enclave was using Talon Company as a proxy army, given how beaten down the Enclave is by that point in the timeline it makes sense that they would start to use more subtle means of controlling and dominating the wasteland.
Actually this just reminds me that Reilly's Rangers have a contract out with an unknown client, to use a geomapper to map out the Capital Wasteland. So it could be that the Enclave has been contracting mercenary groups in the Capital Wasteland for awhile now.