Atomic General 25: I did not want to address reviews until much later (i.e. after settling the question of who will 'win' between the Lone Wanderer and the Sole Survivor). However your statement of "(that'd be the equivalent of helping the prewar Chinese because america pulled shady shit. Just because your side sucks, doesn't mean the other isn't much worse)!" bothers me.

We are living in a post-truth, pseudo-intellectual time. Politics is decided by imagined tribalism adhered to by the masses just to allow the rulers of society to continue to profit while keeping those masses too embroiled in team loyalty to actually stop their exploitation. We have untold information at our fingertips and yet the mighty political forces are creationists and history revisionists and racists on one side and anti-vaxxers and healing crystal practitioners and astrologers let alone the directly contradictory ideas of "Only the police should have guns" with "Cops shoot unarmed citizens for reasons ranging from trivial to evil" on the other.

Fallout is fiction. Pre-Great War China is something alluded to in the games, because most of the pre-Great War culture is told through the actions of United States residents.

In reality, where the term 'pre-war' refers to 'before WWII', it's another matter. Pre-war China was another victim of an expansionist Meiji Era Japan (read about the Rape of Nanking and stop when it gives you nightmares) that the United States of America _did_ side with and continues to do so to this day (as that regime is now the democratic government in Tai-Wan, having been pushed out by the Moaist revolution). I hope the context of your review is an appropriate one _and_ is viewed that way.

1

The Director wondered, "Are we sure we need to be creating automatons that are this...?"

"Effective?", Dr. Cruz of Robotics finished.

The synth, a Mark II.1 as they were being called, pressed against the sensor over his head. It indicated it could lift at least the back end of an APC.

"With the increase in strength, battlefield obstacles become opportunities: particularly when in support of the human imagination of Minutemen infantry. With the additional under-biological armors coupled with some structural improvements in the exterior, worn armor I predict the combat effectiveness of the Mark II.1 to be nearly triple that of the Mark II. And with only an increase of 13% in materials."

"And somehow...", Dr. Binet marveled, "...somehow, a 7% drop in production time."

"That's only by adding in branch prediction pipelining for micro component flaws in manufacturing.", Isabel Cruz brushed off.

The Director furrowed her brow. "And none of these synths will ever be sentient like the Mark IIIs?"

"Oh, I'm on to that neurological nodal semi-AI, semi-AI from my time with robo-brains as the Mechanist.", Dr. Cruz replied. A shiny, nearly surgical-grade clean Sparks beeped in mid-air beside her. "Yep, yep."

The Director looked to Dr. Binet. "It's what she's been calling the collective of biological components integrated through a synth component into a functioning emergent property software: half artificial intelligence, half actual intelligence as it were."

"And with an exponential resistance to hacking.", Dr. Cruz added.

"A Mark II synth could be hacked? Like a pre-war protectron?", the Director demanded.

"I don't believe it.", Dr. Binet answered. "But she insists it could be done. Any technique Dr. Cruz has in mind hasn't been tested. Due to the Brotherhood of Steel, readying a pacification droid was a higher priority."

The Director nodded. "And fielding them?"

"Oh, the biological components are only improvements on surface cleaning and temperature distribution. The superior sensors for radial/"

"I mean on a time frame capacity?", the Director interrupted the former Mechanist.

The other woman was stumped for a moment. "I though I sent those projections up with our representative to the council."

The Director turned to the synth that was exhibiting even more strength in its testing. Then she turned to Dr. Binet.

Dr. Binet just shrugged and threw up his hands in defeat.

"Alright. Get to it.", the Director ordered her. "Alan?"

Isabel Cruz threw a jaunty salute and had Sparks float after her.

Dr. Binet conferenced with the Director over the unspoken question. "Honestly, the only reason she's not running my department is because she doesn't know how to be a person. She lacks the social graces of the worst examples in Synth Retention. We've had to treat her for over exhaustion twice because she can't manage her own health/work balance. So right now, I'm just a glorified secretary translating her insights into actual plans that the rest of the department can act upon. And keeping her fed, bathed, and on some kind of sleep schedule."

The man shrugged again. "She's the Mechanist."

2

"How my newest department head faring?", the Director inquired.

Dr. Cabot spun to her. "Oh, um...we're faring? Edward's taking a well deserved vacation at the family mansion due to the Institute's policies on ghoulified people. The Insti...my department (?) is recovering materials from the cave site. The tools and extrapolations are already here. But there are parts we truly don't understand and I forbade the use of the Molecular Relay on anything we can't explain. If it can propel a space ship to the point it's a starship, the quantum effects alone could have any number of physics model defying reprucussions.

"But it's not like we haven't made any progress. The simpler technologies, like the hard light shielding and the micro-particle accelerator weaponry...at least, I suspect that they're weapons - oh, and the xeon microwave drive: we're prepared to start design on not just mimicked but re-engineered components. With current veribird technology, power armor environmental suiting and the Institutes advances on keeping a functioning ecology cut off from the surrounding environment we could actually build something that could explore our entire solar system in a single mission. Except for the Oort Cloud of course."

Refusing to lose authority, the Director agreed. "Of course.

"How are you planning on powering the thing?"

Dr. Cabot laughed. "That's the easy part. Coupling the efficiencies we've discovered with FUSION CORE technology, gathering enough xeon will be the issue. We could switch to another noble gas but that'll affect the frequency which would affect the heat shielding which would affect the components which/"

"I get it, Dr.", she interrupted.

"Plus, I heard good news.", Jack offered. "There was an event that shed the radiation from the Glowing Sea. So now there won't be interruptive rad storms to affect Starship City, right?"

"There isn't going to be any Starship City until I can secure it.", the Director told him. "That fortunate even that you mentioned was a direct attack on the Commonwealth as a whole. Until I can end the Brotherhood of Steel, I can't so much as allow the other communities to contribute to a school that they're capable of supporting let alone the Institute.

"So don't slack. By the time we're able to start building a launch pad, you might have worked out that zero energy and warp drive stuff."