That sudden loss of identity would enrage almost anyone. Maybe with enough therapy a person could come to terms with their new body, but most of the poor creatures suffered from another side effect - reduced cognitive capability.
Despite the virus' potential to increase intelligence in some people, most of the super mutants on the East Coast were just plain stupid.
In fact, many of their brains were too small to perform even basic autonomic functions like breathing. let alone engage in the sort of philosophical introspection that would make them at peace with themselves and the world around them.
For those that survived, there were some positive trade offs. Their strength increased tremendously, as did their size. Even the "small" ones are nearly ten feet tall. In the Capital Wasteland these beasts continue growing throughout their existence. Wanderers have reported fighting super mutants that are fifteen feet tall, and foolhardy adventures have pumped hundreds of bullets from assault rifles into mutant overlords without bringing them down.
Scouts from the Brotherhood of Steel even claim to have fought super mutants that are twenty feet tall and can survive a direct hit from a mini nuke.
Fortunately it takes a long time for a super mutant to grow to that size. Unfortunately, super mutants can live indefinitely unless they meet a violent death, and if the Capital Wasteland subspecies of mutant is not exterminated they will continue to grow in size and power.
The only factor that keeps them in check is that they are infertile and cannot reproduce - at least not the way that they did when they were still human. The first mutants created in that horrid vault might not have been as intelligent as the humans who created them, but they had strength and righteous fury on their side.
The mutants turned on their creators and transformed them into the next generation of super mutants, and in time the vault was nothing but mutants, alone, undying and just intelligent enough to know that they had been betrayed by humanity.
Forcibly stripped of their humanity, robbed of their ability to reason, and transformed into massive brutes they were an angry hoard trapped inside a vault. Rage and boredom are an unstable mixture and eventually that vault burst.
Hundreds of super mutants emerged into a wasteland where their enhanced physical abilities made them better suited to survive than the humans around them. The disorganized humans had only one advantage, and that was their numerical superiority.
Out-numbered and unable to breed, the mutants were still cunning enough to understand that they had to boost their ranks by kidnapping humans and exposing them to the virus.
Further West, things were more complicated. California and the West Coast had their share of trouble with super mutants, but those mutants... they didn't just suddenly pop out of a vault and rampage like mindless savages. The mutants of the wasteland's core region were the result of a misguided plan to set the world right.
The stockpile of FEV in Maryland was only a fraction of what the government had produced before the war. In a secret base in Mariposa California they hid vats of the virus and conducted experiments in the final months before the war.
Mariposa... Spanish for "butterfly". Maybe putting the base there was someone's idea of a joke. Humans could be dipped in the virus and metamorphosize like beautiful butterflies emerging from their cocoons. Of course, what emerged from these vats were hideous killing machines. These were just as strong and ugly as their Eastern cousins, but they were a bit smarter. Smart enough to have a plan to annihilate humanity and rule the world.
Mutated creatures weren't uncommon, so the first hints of a new threat went unnoticed. They worked with a network of un-mutated humans who masqueraded as a new religion. These Children of the Cathedral seemed like a benevolent group or at least just another harmless cult, but they were serving as scouts for the mysterious mind behind the mutant army.
Chapter 2. Super Mutants and Nightkin
Start from the beginning
