r/fo4 • u/Icy_Water_1 • 1d ago
Question Would the Sole Survivor be able to convince any of the faction leaders that the Zetans are a tangible threat and get them to devote resources to fighting them?
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u/Original_Face_4372 1d ago
The Brotherhood would be easily convinced to wage war against them, with them being non-human and posessing technology worth aquiring. The Institute might actually be aware of them and the threat they can pose and take appropriate measures.
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u/psycho_candy0 23h ago
I almost would cook up a completely baseless fan theory that the institute not only knew about them, but infiltrated them. I mean ffs they made gorillas, making some monster wouldn't be hard. I'd even pose they infiltrated and sabotaged their hybrid experiment making them turn against their creators. Maybe introducing the fev into them making them more like super mutants and making the whole thing look like just a failed experiment on inhabitants of a dangerous world
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u/I_eat_mud_ 19h ago
The gorillas were a first of their kind tho, it's heavily implied they are still very early in making non-human synths. Also, they likely know very little about how Zetans act and what their culture is or if their technology would even pick up they're synthetic in the first place. Even if they had a synth, it'd very likely be found out almost immediately.
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u/cabinguy11 19h ago
Being anti-Zetan feels like a pretty natural fit for an organization as xenophobic as the BOS. Probably even more so than The Institute and synths.
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u/Original_Face_4372 19h ago
Yeah, I honestly can't Imagine maxon reacting in any other way to the discovery of the Zetans than to order the BOS to wipe them out.
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u/theblueshots Mr. Serious Serum 1d ago edited 21h ago
Based on the show, the brotherhood either knows that they exist and don’t care or have seen enough shit that finding alien bodies doesn’t phase them at all.
Of course, they are a threat. Anybody who’s played part three knows this.
Hell, even the alien turrets in Nuka World are devastating. Lol.
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u/NotASynth499 Idiot Savant 1d ago
Counterpoint: this BOS chapter is dumb enough to not notice a frozen alien in front of them.
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u/22lpierson 1d ago
I mean they were playing with a live plasma grenade they are idiots so I doubt they even knew it was an alien
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u/psycho_candy0 23h ago
They'd probly just think its some kind of stunted mutant and write it off. Maybe the scribes will give a shit at some point but the bookworms like to wait until most everything else is dead before even adding it on the list of sites to comb through.
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u/tendopolis 23h ago
I feel like a ton of people who have seen zetans don't realize they are aliens. Radiation has fucked up so many creatures. There are crazy experiments done to people in countless places turning them into super mutants or other abominations. I can easily imagine a competent BOS leader looking at a zetan and saying, "damn, wonder what happened to that guy"
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u/hhmCameron 23h ago
One of the ghouls in sim settlements 2 cosplays as an alien using a white flight suit and a white flight helmet
That is my favorite story line .. Hopefully I and avoid hoarding game cc, creations, mods...) thus ss2 play through... (i have had to abandon so many games due to hoarding game cc, creations, mods...)
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u/Laser_3 23h ago
The BoS is somewhat aware of them since both the citadel and fort independence have alien power cells.
The Appalachian BoS may also be aware of them due to the invaders in Appalachia, but they also might not be due to the Earth Defense Force’s interference (Homer hijacks the BoS’s uplink network for telemetry and can cut dodge off to run daily ops with aliens to keep them a secret from the BoS) and memory wipes (happens in an encounter; clearly doesn’t work on the player, but unclear what it’d do to others).
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u/Crumboa 18h ago edited 16h ago
The BoS chapter in the show is noticeably very very stupid. The only thing they have in common with the brotherhood is the name and armor. They're shown not really giving a shit about technology as they blow up the car and other things for fun.
Probably just showing how Quintius is nothing more than a power hungry brute that seeks to take control of the brotherhood and doesn't actually give a rats ass about what they're supposed to be doing
EDIT: Downvote me all you want Quintius, but your plan is stupid
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u/TiberianLyncas 1d ago
I feel like Tinker Tom would believe the SS. I think the Institute might have information on Zetans. Other than that though, I doubt it.
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u/Sheokarth 23h ago
Well, lets sum them up.
Minutemen: After 5 minutes of the Sole survivor talking to a hand puppet, The Minutemen General is fully convinced to employ as many men and resources as the Sole Survivor wants.
Institute: If they brought the alien blaster, They´d be very interested in studying their tech and would move hell and high water to acquire more of it. Especially if the Sole Survivor leads them.
Railroad: They barely have enough resources to save synths. Tinker Tom would be practically vibrating at the thought of there being actual proof of aliens and would think they are another arm of the Institute, But ultimately Desdamona would figure them to be a fringe worry.
Brotherhood: They would be very willing to fight the Aliens, and to gather what tech they could from them. However, They wouldn´t get operational priority the same way as the threats of the Wasteland and other factions. They are just too hard to pin down. They would jump at the chance if they saw means to do it.
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u/swiss_sanchez 1d ago
I mean... you could take your faction follower and show them the downed Zetan ship and pilot, they could then at least vouch for the aliens' existence. Getting them to believe the events of Mothership Zeta would be a challenge, since I doubt the SS played that one.
Plus I wouldn't fancy the Institute getting hold of Zetan tech 😬
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u/Melodic-Plankton-712 19h ago
did you take that lil fker out in the cave or did you spare him?
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u/swiss_sanchez 18h ago
Well he shoots on sight, so yeah, do unto others before they do unto you.
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u/Shgon_Dunstan 1d ago
… Them and what space force?
The zetans aren’t a “threat”. They have big ass guns pointed down that could easily wipe out what is left of humanity, and have had them the whole damn time. If they wanted to use them, humanity would just be gone.
They ain’t by any means “friendly”, but they seem more interested in using earth as a free range testing ground, then in anything else.🤷♂️
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u/AstartesFanboy 10h ago
Depends what happens after three when you get control of one and shoot down the other vessel in earths orbit, if that was it or if there’s more
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u/Shgon_Dunstan 9h ago
Barring there being more, and them deciding to respond to said act of hostility by eradicating humanity, that doesn’t exactly make them any more of a threat.
Hell, the people frozen on the thing shows they’ve been hanging around earth for hundreds of years. If they wanted to blast the planet, they would have just blasted the planet. They’ve literally just been sitting there as humans have invented nukes, had armed conflict on the moon, and even gathered up some of their own ships and people in Area 51 for study. None of which prompted said rain of death from above.
Like, they totally ain’t friendly, but if they were a threat, there’s been nothing stopping them from acting long before the present day.🤷♂️
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u/CastleImpenetrable 1d ago
No, because while the Zetans are dangerous, there's not much of a force to fight. It would be like convincing the US government to fight IRL aliens in space.
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u/Melodic-Plankton-712 19h ago
bro the zetans can nuke earth if they wanted to
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u/CastleImpenetrable 19h ago
I never said that they weren't dangerous, but that there's little to fight in the context of the world. Outside of the one downed ship, convincing the factions to dedicate major resources to fighting them would be the equivalent of sending them on a wild goose chase.
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u/Melodic-Plankton-712 18h ago
There is no chance post-war to fight them, the only organization that can take on them is probably the Institute? Everyone else is living like it's the dark ages all over again.
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u/d_adrian_arts 1d ago
Elder Maxson! I found alien life!
What do you suggest we do about that, Knight?
Let's shoot them.
Outstanding, Paladin.
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u/Virus-900 23h ago
They could prove the existence of aliens with the body, and that they have advanced weaponry. That alone might be enough to get some people to prepare for them.
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u/drifters74 23h ago
Advanced weapons that the wastelanders can't replicate or repair if they found some some
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u/Icy_Water_1 23h ago
The wastelanders aren't able to replicate it but they can repair and modify zetan tech.
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u/Effie4Emperor 23h ago
People don't clean corpses out of houses next door to them that they have been living in for decades, I think it would be a lift to get folks to unite against nearly anything
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u/DickCaughtlnFan 23h ago
How would any fallout faction "target" them. They are in spacecraft. You are on the earth with only limited vertibird access.
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u/Glad-Drummer-7621 22h ago
Well the BOS will see their hypertech and go “oh fuck no they don’t get to be here we’ve enough issues without some dipshits from space causing issues or worse finishing the Great War and nailing the coffin of humanity.”
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u/SonofaBuckDangHole 20h ago
Well as leader of institute I can do as I please! Sure there’s the board but they’re nerds
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u/LittlePiggy20 23h ago
I think, after the mothership zeta DLC, the Zetans got really humbled and decided to stop going after the earth in any meaningful way.
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u/floxasfornia 23h ago
I’m playing fallout 76 now as well and they just did an event for a couple weeks with an alien attack at the top of every hour!
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u/Substantial_War_6415 23h ago
Wow. Was there any lore before FO4?
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u/Humble_Ad7025 23h ago
Yes, zetans have been in every fallout game since its inception, they might not have been called zetans until fallout 3 though
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u/Substantial_War_6415 22h ago
Thx 👍🏾
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u/Humble_Ad7025 22h ago
You should (I say that in a suggestive way and not a command) watch theepicnate’s videos on them, he goes into great detail, there’s also synonymous’ videos about them, their lore is somewhat crazy.
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u/dragonboysam 23h ago
I think the bos could convinced to fight them but probably wouldn't understand just how big of a threat they are.
I think the institute would need hard evidence like a corpse/ufo which could be done and they might even already know about them... Or the actions that they are doing but might not know it's aliens seeing as that's a massive leep.
I don't think the rail road would be able to do anything until a different faction starts fighting but might be convinced depends on some factors.
And finally we lead the minute men so they don't really need convincing.
As for all the other groups it's hard to say, most of them probably wouldn't be worth contacting aside from getting them to support the main forces and or stop killing people.
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u/PredatorAvPFan 22h ago
If the Sole Survivor dragged the alien corpse and it’s gun to them and forced them to look at it then yeah probably
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u/Fayraz8729 21h ago
No dude, because they aren’t an immediate threat like literally everything else in the wasteland. People are barely farming enough to sustain themselves in a pseudo feudal system and you want to start a war with a galactic power?
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u/Icy_Water_1 21h ago
Do you think the Zetans are just gonna leave people alone because they're farmers?
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u/Fayraz8729 21h ago
Do you think that a coalition of a tri state area can really do anything? Neither the enclave nor the institute could be bothered, and as for extraterrestrial threat Zetans are chump change to Ug-qoloth which is a lovecraftian god who’s spreading his influence
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u/wizardofyz 21h ago
I'd wager the brotherhood, institute, and enclave are aware of them. They'd probably acknowledge them as more an intangible threat like the weather than something that could be fought. The minutemen probably wouldn't want to start a panic. The railroad would be indifferent or unable. The nukaworld raiders would lose their shit for a little bit, but then get bored and probably try to overthrow the over boss for being crazy.
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u/tokobot19 20h ago
Literally the Brotherhood, on grounds of getting to Zetan tech before anyone else does and misuses it
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u/HollowPhoenix Curie's a Cutie 13h ago
One glance at Zetan tech, and the Brotherhood will be frothing at the mouth, running for their Fat Man stockpiles and Liberty Prime activation codes.
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u/hollowboyFTW 5h ago
No, because it isn't that sort of game.
The Sole Survivor cannot really convince anyone of anything, no matter how high your INT or CHA or how strong your bargaining position.
e.g. the Forged and the Gunners were able to make a truce. The Forged and the Dunwich Raiders trade. Bunker Hill and various Raiders make deals.
...but the player cannot enter into any sort of negotiation with these groups.
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u/escapedpsycho 20h ago
One of the many annoying things about the game is you can't tell any of the factions about the Zetan ship. There should have been an option to form a union between the factions. You might get some semblance of a functioning government then. Even the Cabot House doctor. The guy literally asks the Sole Survivor if they believe in aliens. And there's no option to be like "Yep, I killed one and took his gun. See? Hey you want to see it's ship?"
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u/polairepolari 1d ago
The BoS already tried and failed to recover a ufo and it is explicitly an interest of theirs. It might have been under different command, and while they followed different priorities, but if anything the motivation of making sure no one else gets their hands on that alien technology would be even stronger now in their current form.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Citadel_terminal_entries#Report_on_U.F.O._codenamed_%22Palandine%22
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u/raven_writer_ 22h ago
Well, there's a corpse to prove they exist. I don't see any way tompeove they're a bigger threat.
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u/Powerful_Mortgage787 Remove your Fusion Cores 22h ago
Actually it would be very easy to convince any and all of the factions of the "Zetan threat". The Railroad? float any semi-plausible conspiracy that Zetan science help the Institute create Synths to "take over the world". and the Railroad is onboard to squash that. Similar tactic for the BOS... added bonus is "Zetan science and technology" in hands that aren't the BOS? yeah... onboard before the sentence is finished. The Minutemen? I'm the General and the settlements are in danger... Preston would "make it on my F'N map" before anyone could ask "Why is that Brahmin on the roof?".
Institute path? even easier... "Hey LOOK!! Science stuff!". and you'd have Coursers standing in line for 'Father'..
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u/PhantomNitride 19h ago
Brotherhood & Minutemen.
- Many of the minutemen seem willing to follow him almost unquestioning
- The Brotherhood would probably start hunting them after seeing the crashes ship, and also lock Nate/Nora up if they don't cough up the Blaster (assuming you hunted down the alien after finding the ship).
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u/ResisterImpedant 14h ago
Any of them that were around for the events of Fallout 3, especially if they were onboard the Zetan ship, would call out every weapon they could get their hands on if they found out.
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u/Double-Tension-1208 13h ago
They are made out of Mars bars so probably not, a Vertibird could kill them without crashing into the ground
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u/shadow_mind 11h ago
I would think they could get the brotherhood on their side for the usual dangerous tech and non human arguments. The fo4 brotherhood has the outcasts from 3 back in the fold so they do know about Zetan tech. (The outcasts were the only other (pre-dlc) source of an alien blaster and rounds since they had some locked up in their base)
The minutemen would go for it since it’s the general’s orders.
The institute would likely do it for ‘research’ if they have the crash on their spy cams and the blaster in action afterwards.
I don’t think the railroad would go for it.
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u/HenshinBoi 11h ago
I feel like at least one BoS Scribe would be hoarding data on these aliens, but everyone else thinks he's a kook so they don't humor any of it.
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u/Hipertor Fallout 4 life 11h ago
Damn! Now I came up wit a whole sidequest around it for each faction!
Name: They are out there
Institute Version: As the new head of the Institute, the Sole Survivor tells the head of divisions about his enconter with the Zetan. He can try and convince Advanced Systems to reverse engeneer the zetan gun, explaining that they can try to ether just replicate the technology to upgrade Coursers' arsenal or just to improve the regular institute weaponry, or both. This would remove the zetan gun and its ammo from your inventory, but later you would receive all of it back and also an exemplar of the new weponry and its ammo. Coursers would then start to spawn with the new weaponry too.
On the top of that, she SS would also try and convince the division heads that reverse engeneering the spaceship would be benefitial to build space expansions for the Institute, away from the radiation from the surface; or simply that the ship might have more useful technology to study, like a new power source or more efficient computers. This would involve the Advanced Systems division working with the Robotics division to create a fake settlement around the ship crash site, in orther to hide it from curious eyes and beein able to study and/or disassemble the vessel, using Gen-3's synths as the settler population and sending the scientists in those cleansuits to supervise the synths or do what they can't. This would eventually unlock a new fast travel option, similar to the vertibirds, but faster (being "abducted" and dropped by your private UFO, now looking like it was designed by the Institute) and would make some Institute computeres and machinery have new designs, because now they were updated to be better with alien tech. Maybe also uncloking the alien epoxy from Fallout 3 on the Institute shop to help those who play with power armor. Also a new radiant quest could be added, with attacks to that fake settlement by gunners the BOS (if they are not destroyed yeat) or high level raiders.
Finally, Bio Science division would be convinced to study the alien body, and whatever substances they found on the ship. Leading to unlocking the alien biogel from from Fallout 3, coming with the random side-effects it has in FO3
BOS version (similar to the Institute version, with a few differences): The Sole Survivor tells Elder Maxon and the Proctors about his encounter. In this case, he/she has to convince their peers not to destroy everything, but to use the tech (difficult speech check, maybe also requiring high intelligence?).
The rest follows as with the Institute, convincing the proctors to incorporate alien tech to their guns (maybe even making new laser rifles with red bolts, sold by Proctor Teagan) and improving vertibirds with the UFO tech, that would also create a BOS outpost around the crash site and having the same kind of radiant quest (maybe one of the upgrades would be making it so vertibirds can now drop you on places that aren't marked locations). Senior Scribe Neriah would also have the Zetan corpse near the super mutant one and the Gen-1 one. The alien epoxy and biogel would also be unlocked, the epoxy sold by Proctor Teagan and the biogels by Knight-Captain Cade.
If this is done before starting the Liberty Prime thing, maybe this could skip the part they need Dr. Lee or someone else, adapting the power source from the UFO to use in Liberty Prime.
Name: Help from Heavens
The Railroad version (the simplest version): Telling Desdemona, Tinker Tom and Dr. Carrington would convince them to set up a fake settlement around the crashed UFO and removing the zetan gun from your inventory for a few in-game days. In this case, the zetan gun would unlock a new option for the synths mutiny: improved institute laser rifles. For the UFO, Tinker Tom would be able to make it actually usable for the Survivor, working like the Instute version, but still looking trashed by the crash. The biogels and epoxy would also be avaible for purchase from Dr. Carrington and Tinker Tom, respectively.
The Minutemen version (the last impactful): The Sole Survivor would just straght up and tell Sturges to have the gun for a few days, This would result on new, improved laser muskets (blue beams or a bolt similar to the Gauss rifle). Minutemen called with the flare would now spawn with that and Ronnie Shawn would start selling them too. This could be done before or after any other version of the quest, since the Minutemen and Sturges are always around.
If no other faction were sent to the UFO crash site, The Sole Survivor would also be able to send Sturges to the crash site and then an actual settlement would be built there. It's very close to Oberland Station, but hey, it's the Minutemen. The final result would also be a repaired but still damaged version of the UFO as another fast travel alternative. In this case, no version of the biogel or the epoxy would be unlocked anywhere.
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u/HarveyMidnight 11h ago
I would think so. It was a longstanding theory that the Zetans may have been responsible for staging a first nuclear strike and provoking the war. Even if that's not true... there's a good chance the Sole Survivor might come across this theory and believe it.
The Minutemen, I am sure, would happily take up arms against an alien invasion. Heck, they'd use the "alien menace" angle to drive up rrecruitment. You may feel safe enough from Raider attacks... but are you safe from a saucer invasion?
Seems like the BOS would definitely be interested in stopping the Zetans. Their whole mission is to find and isolate the runaway tech that led to the apocalypse. Because mankind just cannot handle it. Of course they'd want to stop alien wmd's from falling into human hands.
The Institute is, in fact, focused on protecting humanity. On their own terms, with a hard belief that the ends justify the means. But protecting, nonetheless.
I''m team Railroad in most of my playthroughs... I would think that the Institute would be willing to take on the fight against Zetans. They already have an existing covert infrastructure, and maybe they'd even see such a conflict as a way to forge ties between synths and humans. "The synths are fighting for this world, just like all of us. Let's save each other."
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u/Rich-Release-3882 10h ago
when the only evidence you have is a random encounter with 1 that dies relatively quickly and 2 guns (1 from nuka world hurb quest) which canonically dont seem very strong, no not really.
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u/felipesene The Institute 10h ago
Probably not before eliminating the other factions, people prioritize the threat they can see first
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u/wagner56 8h ago
only if you build a big flying saucers (outa junk) and populate it with clones of the zetan-type turret enemy things from galaxy quest or found in the warehouse dacet to hubologists saucer
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u/Alternative-Ad5974 6h ago
Maybe Brotherhood would buy it because of the lone wanderer, who were abducted by aliens
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u/guitarguywh89 Minutemen 23h ago
By the end of the game they should all do whatever the hell I tell them too
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u/TheMuspelheimr Minutemen General SILVER SHROUD!!! 1d ago
Since there's only one actual Zetan in the entire game and they go down like a chump, probably not.