Sentinel Site Prescott,^[1] simply called Sentinel Site in the game, is a location in the Glowing Sea region of the Commonwealth in 2287.

The facility is one of the few places in the Glowing Sea hardened against radiation, so the player character can safely remove radiation protection gear while inside.

Background

A pyramid structure surrounded by irradiated sludge, Sentinel Site Prescott was officially a nuclear munitions disposal facility.^[2] However, in reality, it was a missile silo that stockpiled Mark 28 nuclear warheads for the U.S. military, and performed experiments focused on combining them with existing ballistic missiles.^[3]

With a seemingly inexhaustible stock of these warheads,^[4] the facility performed at least 23 test launches, with one final launch in progress on the morning of the Great War. The personnel of the 132nd Engineering Corps stationed at the site soon detected multiple inbounds in their direction, with Captain Mitch Dunleavy recording their final moments before they saw the inbounds splinter into multiple targets and realized the "big one" was about to hit them.^[1] In the aftermath of the Great War, the nuclear launch failed to complete in the system, causing the facility to remain under lockdown, trapping the staff inside and dooming any survivors to death from radiation, thirst and starvation. Many were turned into feral ghouls who remain sealed beneath the ground over 200 years later.^{[Non-game 1]}

By 2287, the site had been infiltrated by Brother Henri of the Children of Atom, who was sent to guard the site's stockpile of nuclear warheads against anyone and everyone until the time of the Children's "Great Divide."^[5] The Brotherhood of Steel would also come to learn about this stockpile, and seek to claim it to provide ammunition for their most powerful weapon, Liberty Prime.^[6]

Layout

The exterior of the main bunker is a concrete pyramid, with a blast door entrance on the northeast side; four separate ventilation towers also rise to the northeast. Through the entrance is a large room resembling a missile silo featuring a network of catwalks. Descending the catwalk to the left leads to the first control room. On a desk on the room's lower level is the sentinel site blast door override holotape, which will open the blast doors in the facility when loaded in the doors' related terminals. The blast door near the desk opens to reveal a small observation room, where a terminal may be accessed for a pre-War launch report. Continuing down the catwalk, a second similar observation room and terminal are in the control room on the next level down. Finally, a terminal that may be used to abort the launch sequence is on the lowest level. The nearby elevator may be used to return to the catwalk by the entrance on the top level.

At ground level, the northeast section of the main silo area features three unused nuclear warheads in metal crates and a fourth on a megaloader. They will not detonate from gunfire or explosions, but be prepared for a few mole rats, as well as a horde of feral ghouls in a tunnel nearby to the southeast. Two barracks rooms with bunk beds are along the southeast side of the middle of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, a pair of blast doors are ahead, while a button to call a cargo elevator is to the right. The elevator platform hosts a leveled glowing one and a steamer trunk. The elevator ascends to an exit in one of the exterior ventilation towers.

Up the short set of stairs to the left of the blast doors is a control room containing Brother Henri and Atom's Wrath if Liberty Reprimed is active. The terminal in this room requires Henri's password to access, and may be used to open the blast doors to the bomb storage area, an expansive room filled with nuclear warheads. The room contains moderate to severe radiation, peaking at 28 rads per second near the back.

Notable loot

• Astoundingly Awesome Tales issue #10 - In the first control room, on a console.
• Sentinel site blast door override - One copy is in the first control room, on a desk. Two more copies are loaded in the terminals in the small observation rooms.
• Three Vault-Tec lunchboxes in the tunnel:
  • One in the first barracks, under a bunk.
  • One in the small excavated space accessible via a hole in the wall of the long room opposite the barracks, on the ground. Ghouls crawl out of the hole when you pass.
  • One in the flooded room, behind the crated warhead in the northeast corner.
• Captain Dunleavy's holotape - In the control room with Brother Henri and Atom's Wrath, on a console.
• Henri's terminal password - Held by Brother Henri. Gives access to his terminal.
• Henri's instructions - Held by Brother Henri.
• Mini nuke - In the bomb storage room, in a crate lying on its side next to the signal pulser placement location.

Related quests

• Liberty Reprimed

Notes

• If wearing a suit of power armor equipped with a jet pack, do not attempt to jump up through the hatch in the elevator; doing so will cause the player character to clip into a pile of debris and become trapped.
• If the quest Liberty Reprimed has not yet started, the room where the Mark 28 nukes are stored will not be accessible; there will be a shelf blocking the door.

Companion comments

• When at this location, companions make comments, which are activated at four locations: the exterior entrance, the gantry just inside the main entrance, the warhead storage room entrance, and a fourth location.^{[clarification needed]}

Appearances

The Sentinel site appears only in Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes

• The exterior design of the Sentinel site mimics that of the real world Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, the location of the former United States Anti-Ballistic Missile Radar and missile installation in Nekoma, North Dakota. The facility was built as part of the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile program, itself a scaled-back version of a previous program dubbed Sentinel.
  • The original Sentinel Program was designed to place nuclear-tipped interceptor missiles in the suburbs around major cities, protecting them from incoming ballistic threats. The project was scrapped due to public backlash, but one site was partially constructed near Sharpner's Pond in North Andover, MA.

Gallery

Aerial view of the bunker in clear weather

Bunker

Ventilation towers

Ventilation towers

Ventilation towers

The bunker's entrance

Bunker' blast door

Silo

Silo

Elevator without electricity, initially, at the right of the building's entrance

A look down the elevator shaft that leads straight to ground level

First control room

Astoundingly Awesome Tales issue #10

Sentinel site blast door override holotape

First observation room with a terminal containing sentinel site blast door override holotape

Second observation room with a terminal containing sentinel site blast door override

Launch control terminal

Chemistry station

Bomb on the megaloader

Tunnel entrance

Barracks

Barracks

Vault-Tec lunchbox

Vault-Tec lunchbox

Bomb storage entrance

Cargo elevator platform

Entrance to the bomb storage control room

Brother Henri and Atom's Wrath in the bomb storage control room

Bomb storage control room

Captain Dunleavy's holotape

Bomb storage entrance (with the blast door opened)

Bomb storage room

Mini nuke

Vault-Tec lunchbox

References

Non-game