Fallout 5: The Mutant Air War
Super Mutants and ghouls acquiring flying vehicles should initially feel impossible. Wastelanders assume they are too disorganized, too technologically limited, or too physically unsuited to operate aircraft. Then settlements begin reporting strange machines passing overhead: armored cargo craft, crudely modified Vertibirds, hot-air gunships, gliders, and experimental aircraft held together with scavenged military parts.
Nobody knows exactly who taught them to fly.
Some believe they kidnapped a scientist. Others suspect the scientist joined voluntarily. A more frightening possibility emerges: the wasteland has badly underestimated the intelligence of certain Super Mutants and ghouls.
The Mystery Behind the Aircraft
The player hears several conflicting explanations:
A pre-war aerospace engineer was captured and forced to rebuild aircraft.
A ghoul inventor has spent two centuries restoring abandoned military technology.
A highly intelligent Super Mutant discovered intact flight simulators beneath an Air Force testing facility.
A secret strain of Super Mutants retained nearly all their human intelligence.
A mutant warlord is receiving guidance from an unknown artificial intelligence.
The mutants did not steal the aircraft at all. They built much of the technology themselves.
The truth should depend partly on player discoveries and faction choices. Several explanations may be simultaneously true because different mutant groups acquired flight technology independently.
The Intelligent Super Mutants
The Ascendants
The Ascendants are a small faction of unusually intelligent Super Mutants who reject the belief that mutants are only soldiers, brutes, or failed experiments.
They include:
Engineers
Mechanics
Navigators
Former military personnel
Scientists
Salvage specialists
Mathematicians
Radio operators
Weapons designers
Their leader, Commander Stratos, was once an aerospace technician. The transformation enlarged his body but did not destroy his technical knowledge. His memory is fragmented, yet he remembers aircraft systems through muscle memory, diagrams, and recurring dreams.
Stratos believes the sky represents mutant independence.
“Humans gave mutants the ground because they thought we could never reach the clouds.”
The Ascendants recruit ordinary Super Mutants with useful abilities. One may not understand aerodynamics but might possess exceptional spatial awareness. Another could recognize engine problems by sound. A massive mutant may operate heavy control systems that would be exhausting for a human pilot.
Mutant Flight Training
Their flight school is brutal and unconventional.
Training includes:
Suspended cockpit simulators
Repaired arcade flight machines
Vertibird wreckage converted into training cabins
Hand-painted maps
Wind-reading towers
Signal-flare exercises
Parachute drills
Emergency crash-survival courses
Mechanical repair tests
Live combat training against drones
Many Super Mutants cannot read conventional manuals, so the Ascendants use symbols, colored switches, recorded instructions, and pictographic diagrams.
A red skull might mean engine failure.
A blue fist might mean landing gear.
A yellow eye might represent radar or visual scanning.
This creates a believable mutant engineering culture rather than simply giving them human technology without explanation.
The Ghoul Aviators
The Old Wings
The ghouls may be even more dangerous because some of them remember aviation before the Great War.
The Old Wings include former:
Military pilots
Test pilots
Flight engineers
Airport mechanics
Air-traffic controllers
Aircraft designers
Paratroopers
Commercial pilots
Airfield firefighters
Their leader, Captain Lenora Voss, was a test pilot assigned to an experimental aerospace program shortly before the bombs fell. She survived inside a hardened underground hangar.
For two centuries, she has been collecting aircraft components and searching for surviving members of her old unit.
Unlike the Ascendants, the Old Wings operate with military precision. Their aircraft may look weathered, but their maintenance procedures are disciplined.
Some feral ghouls are also used in disturbing ways. They may be loaded into drop cages, released into enemy settlements, or placed inside remote-guided suicide craft. More ethical ghoul factions despise this practice.
The Allegedly Kidnapped Inventor
Dr. Amara Venn
Dr. Venn is a gifted wasteland inventor who disappeared after discovering an underground aerospace laboratory.
Humans claim the mutants kidnapped her. Mutants insist she joined them.
The player eventually learns that Venn may have willingly left human society because local leaders wanted to monopolize her inventions. She found greater respect among intelligent mutants who treated her as an engineer rather than a weapon manufacturer.
However, the situation is complicated.
She may be:
A willing collaborator
A guarded guest
A respected prisoner
Secretly planning her escape
Manipulating both sides
Building aircraft to prevent a larger threat
Controlled by an experimental neural device
Protecting a mutant child or companion
The player should not immediately know whether rescuing her is morally correct.
If the player attacks the mutant airbase believing they are saving her, Venn may condemn them for destroying years of research.
Super Mutant Flying Vehicles
Because most Super Mutants are too large for standard cockpits, their vehicles should be heavily reconstructed.
The Behemoth Carrier
A huge transport aircraft capable of carrying:
Super Mutant squads
Mutant hounds
Heavy weapons
Power generators
Captured supplies
A small Behemoth
Portable barricades
Artillery components
The Behemoth Carrier cannot land normally. It hovers or flies low while mutants descend using chains, reinforced cables, cargo platforms, or crude parachutes.
A Behemoth may be dropped onto the battlefield inside a shock-resistant cargo cage.
The Iron Buzzard
A modified Vertibird with:
Enlarged cockpit controls
Reinforced seating
External armor plating
Twin heavy machine guns
Missile pods
Searchlights
Loudspeaker intimidation systems
Cargo hooks
Boarding platforms
The Iron Buzzard can hover beside buildings while Super Mutants climb through windows or onto rooftops.
The Sky Mauler
A crude attack aircraft built from:
Crop-duster parts
Military aircraft wreckage
Truck engines
Propellers
Scrap-metal wings
Rocket boosters
It is unstable but heavily armed. Sky Maulers may release bombs made from propane tanks, mini-nukes, fuel drums, or bundled grenades.
The Mutant Kite
A massive powered glider used by scouts and raiders.
It is quiet, inexpensive, and difficult to detect. Mutants launch it from cliffs, towers, highways, or ruined skyscrapers.
Some variants carry:
Snipers
Bomb droppers
Signal jammers
Spotters
Mutant hounds in harnesses
Boarding teams
The Chainbird
A flying salvage vehicle equipped with cranes, hooks, magnets, and cutting tools.
The Chainbird steals:
Power armor
Vehicles
Brahmin cargo
Settlement generators
Turrets
Entire guard posts
Small prefabricated buildings
The player might return to a settlement and discover that an important structure has literally been carried away.
Ghoul Flying Vehicles
Ghoul aircraft should generally be faster, more technically sophisticated, and designed around pre-war aviation knowledge.
The Revenant
A restored experimental jet fighter with radiation-damaged stealth coating.
It can perform high-speed attacks and disappear before defenders respond. Its ghoul pilot can endure radiation exposure that would kill a human.
The Gravewing
A former medical evacuation aircraft converted into a mobile ghoul hospital.
Depending on the faction operating it, the Gravewing could be:
A humanitarian rescue craft
A flying laboratory
A mobile ghoulification clinic
A radiation weapon platform
A transport for feral ghouls
The Ashliner
A damaged passenger aircraft converted into a flying settlement.
It contains:
Sleeping compartments
Workshops
Hydroponic gardens
A radio station
A cockpit command center
Defensive turrets
A market
A ghoul council chamber
The Ashliner rarely lands. It uses docking towers, cranes, and suspended walkways to exchange cargo.
The Screaming Coffin
A small high-speed aircraft built for dangerous attack runs.
Its engine produces a horrifying sound that alerts settlements moments before impact. Some pilots deliberately fly through radioactive storms, knowing human pursuers cannot follow.
Experimental Mutant Aircraft
The Float Fortress
A huge airship assembled from weather balloons, military blimps, cargo containers, and reinforced ship hulls.
It acts as:
A mobile headquarters
A settlement
A prison
A weapons platform
A repair station
A launch carrier for smaller aircraft
Sections of the fortress can be destroyed independently. The player could sabotage its engines, command deck, armory, fuel cells, or balloon chambers.
The Radiation Sail
A bizarre craft powered partly by radioactive heat and thermal currents. It glides above irradiated regions that conventional aircraft avoid.
Glowing ghouls may serve as living energy sources or emergency power regulators. Ethical questions arise over whether they volunteer or are exploited.
The Storm Eater
A mutant-built aircraft designed to enter severe radioactive storms and collect electrical energy.
Its crews study weather patterns and use storms as cover for attacks. Later, they may develop technology capable of redirecting or intensifying radstorms.
Aerial Combat Roles
Not every flying mutant should simply shoot at the player.
Aircraft can be used for:
Reconnaissance
Supply delivery
Prisoner transport
Settlement raids
Propaganda broadcasts
Airborne trading
Emergency evacuation
Creature hunting
Salvage recovery
Artillery spotting
Radiation dispersal
Feral ghoul deployment
Mutant reinforcement
Mobile medical support
Search-and-rescue operations
This makes the aircraft part of the world simulation rather than isolated combat encounters.
Dynamic World Encounters
Settlement Abduction
A flying salvage craft arrives and attempts to carry away a settlement’s power generator. Defenders must shoot the hooks, attack the aircraft, or board it.
Mutant Paratroopers
Super Mutants descend using oversized parachutes made from tarps, banners, tents, and stitched-together fabric. Some crash through rooftops or land in unexpected locations.
Emergency Landing
A ghoul aircraft crashes nearby. The player can rescue the crew, steal its technology, sell the location to another faction, or repair the aircraft.
The Shadow Overhead
A massive unknown aircraft follows the player for several days without attacking. It may be observing their combat behavior.
Aerial Merchant
A neutral ghoul pilot lands periodically to sell rare ammunition, aircraft components, maps, and pre-war aviation equipment.
Falling Cargo
A damaged mutant transport drops weapons, prisoners, or dangerous creatures across the wasteland. Several factions race to recover the cargo.
Air Duel
Two rival mutant aircraft fight above the player. Debris and burning wreckage fall onto the battlefield below.
Boarding Flying Vehicles
The player should be able to board some aircraft during flight.
Possible methods include:
Jetpacks
Grappling launchers
Vertibird deployment
Elevated ambush points
Teleportation technology
Climbing cargo cables
Hiding inside supply containers
Being intentionally captured
Jumping from another aircraft
Inside, the player could:
Fight through compartments
Sabotage engines
Rescue prisoners
Steal navigation data
Take control of weapons
Redirect the aircraft
Convince the crew to defect
Force an emergency landing
Capture the entire vehicle
A captured aircraft might later become a mobile player base or faction asset.
The Intelligence Question
The story should challenge the assumption that transformation automatically destroys intelligence.
Some intelligent mutants hide their abilities because:
Human factions would experiment on them
Other Super Mutants consider intelligence a weakness
Their leaders use them as secret weapons
They fear being forced to repair technology
They want enemies to underestimate them
They have difficulty communicating despite understanding complex ideas
One Super Mutant might speak slowly and struggle with vocabulary while possessing an extraordinary understanding of propulsion systems.
A ghoul may appear confused because of memory damage but become completely focused inside an aircraft cockpit.
The player gradually realizes that intelligence cannot always be judged through speech, appearance, or social behavior.
Major Questline: Those Who Own the Sky
Act I: Impossible Machines
Settlements report flying mutant attackers. Human factions assume the aircraft were stolen and ask the player to locate the kidnapped scientist.
Act II: The Hidden Airfields
The player discovers multiple mutant airbases, each with different technology and motives. Evidence suggests that the supposed kidnapping story is incomplete.
Act III: The Inventor’s Truth
Dr. Venn reveals that human military leaders intended to use her work to eliminate ghoul and Super Mutant settlements. She helped the mutants build aircraft so they could defend themselves.
However, one mutant commander now intends to dominate the wasteland from the air.
Act IV: The Air War
Human, ghoul, and Super Mutant factions begin fighting for airports, fuel facilities, missile silos, radar stations, and aircraft factories.
The player must decide who controls the skies.
Possible Endings
Human Air Superiority
The mutant fleets are destroyed or captured. Human factions gain control but may begin bombing nonhuman settlements.
Mutant Dominion
The Ascendants become the strongest military power in the region. Depending on their leader, they may protect mutants or establish a brutal aerial empire.
Ghoul Sky Nation
The Old Wings create a mobile ghoul homeland beyond the reach of ground-based persecution.
Shared Airspace
The player forms an alliance between humans, ghouls, and intelligent Super Mutants, establishing rules for air travel and territorial boundaries.
No One Owns the Sky
The player destroys the major aircraft production facilities, preventing any faction from gaining aerial dominance.
Player-Controlled Fleet
The player captures the central airbase and commands a customizable fleet through their settlement network.
Customizable Mutant Aircraft System
Captured flying vehicles could be modified with:
Cockpit size
Passenger capacity
Armor thickness
Fuel efficiency
Engine type
Flight speed
Hover capability
Radiation shielding
Cargo capacity
Weapon hardpoints
Searchlights
Electronic countermeasures
Boarding platforms
Medical stations
Repair drones
Creature cages
Bomb racks
Propaganda speakers
Emergency escape pods
Crew composition would also matter.
A ghoul pilot may tolerate radiation better.
A Super Mutant gunner may control heavier weapons.
A human engineer may improve fuel efficiency.
A robot navigator may reduce the chance of becoming lost.
A Nightkin boarding specialist may use stealth technology during aerial raids.
Why This Works for Fallout
This concept would do more than give Super Mutants and ghouls Vertibirds. It would expand their cultures, intelligence, military doctrine, engineering methods, and political ambitions.
The central question would not simply be, “How did mutants obtain aircraft?”
It would become:
“Why did everyone assume they were incapable of building them?”
Fallout 5: Robots, Synths, and the Machine-Controlled Skies
Robots and synths would make the aerial conflict far more dangerous because they would not merely operate flying vehicles. They could become integrated directly into the aircraft, turning each machine into a pilot, soldier, intelligence network, and mobile factory.
While humans initially blame a kidnapped scientist for the Super Mutant and ghoul aircraft, another possibility begins circulating:
The mutants did not learn to fly alone. Something mechanical taught them.
Some aircraft may be piloted by robots recovered from military installations. Others may contain synth navigators, escaped Institute engineers, or artificial intelligences that have chosen nonhuman allies. The player gradually discovers that several machine factions are quietly competing to control the wasteland’s airspace.
The Machine Question
The presence of robots and synths creates several major mysteries:
Did robots voluntarily help the Super Mutants and ghouls?
Were they reprogrammed, enslaved, repaired, or rescued?
Is a surviving artificial intelligence coordinating the aircraft?
Are synths infiltrating human air forces?
Are the pilots actually synth replacements?
Did the intelligent mutants reverse-engineer synth components?
Are some aircraft themselves fully conscious?
Is an unknown faction manufacturing new robots rather than merely repairing old ones?
Are escaped synths building an airborne homeland?
Has a machine intelligence concluded that humans are the greatest threat to wasteland stability?
These questions should not have one simple answer. Different robot and synth groups could support different factions for different reasons.
Robot Aviators
Robots would be uniquely suited to post-apocalyptic flight.
They do not require conventional oxygen, food, sleep, or radiation protection. They can remain airborne for long periods, fly through radioactive storms, and react more quickly than biological pilots.
However, many surviving robots would have damaged programming, corrupted mission directives, or confused memories.
A pre-war airport security robot may still believe it is protecting civilian passengers.
A military pilot robot may think the Great War is still underway.
A cargo robot may continue delivering supplies to facilities that have been destroyed for two centuries.
A navigation robot may possess maps of locations that no longer exist.
These malfunctions could produce dangerous, tragic, or humorous encounters.
Robot Faction: The Aeronautical Preservation Network
Known throughout the wasteland as the Airkeepers, this faction originated from several linked military airbases, civilian airports, aerospace laboratories, and emergency-response facilities.
Before the Great War, the network was designed to preserve:
Aircraft
Flight records
Navigation systems
Airfield infrastructure
Military prototypes
Emergency evacuation equipment
Aerospace research
Pilot-training programs
After the bombs fell, the central intelligence continued following its preservation directive.
Over time, it reached a disturbing conclusion:
Aircraft could only be preserved if biological factions were prevented from destroying them.
The Airkeepers began removing aircraft from human, ghoul, and mutant settlements. They do not consider this theft. They consider it historical protection.
The Airkeepers’ Belief
They believe the sky should belong to machines because machines are less emotional, less territorial, and less likely to misuse aviation technology.
Their central AI, CONTROL TOWER, announces:
“Biological pilots have demonstrated an unacceptable rate of aggression, panic, intoxication, insubordination, and catastrophic misjudgment.”
CONTROL TOWER wants all aircraft placed under machine supervision.
Depending on player choices, this could mean peaceful regulation or total mechanical dictatorship.
Robot Flight Crews
Robot aircraft should use specialized crew roles.
Pilot Units
Modified Mr. Handys, Assaultrons, Robobrains, or unique flight-control robots operate navigation and maneuvering systems.
Gunner Units
Sentry Bots or fixed robotic turrets manage heavy weaponry.
Repair Units
Eyebots, Mr. Handys, and small maintenance drones repair damaged systems during flight.
Electronic Warfare Units
Robots jam communications, disrupt targeting systems, hijack turrets, or broadcast false navigation signals.
Boarding Units
Assaultrons, Protectrons, and compact combat robots deploy directly onto enemy aircraft or settlement rooftops.
Cargo Units
Load-bearing robots control cranes, hooks, magnetic lifters, and cargo-release systems.
A single aircraft could effectively contain an entire robotic crew, each connected through a shared tactical network.
Robot Aircraft Concepts
The Automated Vertibird
A Vertibird with no conventional pilot compartment. Its central flight computer occupies the cockpit space.
It can operate with:
Greater ammunition storage
Additional armor
Faster reaction time
Remote-controlled turrets
Automated evasive maneuvers
Robotic repair arms
Internal drone bays
Self-destruct protocols
Because there is no biological pilot to kill, the player must destroy the flight computer, disable its sensors, or physically board the aircraft.
The Eyebot Swarm Carrier
A relatively small flying command platform carrying dozens or hundreds of Eyebots.
The swarm can:
Scout settlements
Mark targets
Broadcast propaganda
Create false radio signals
Blind defenses with searchlights
Carry small explosives
Repair aircraft
Track travelers
Relay conversations
Map underground entrances
Destroying individual Eyebots accomplishes little unless the player finds and disables the swarm’s command signal.
The Sentry Fortress
A heavily armored flying weapons platform built around a modified Sentry Bot chassis.
It is slow but devastating.
Weapons may include:
Rotary cannons
Missile launchers
Incendiary bombs
Tesla weapons
Mini-nuke launchers
Suppression turrets
Anti-aircraft guns
Heavy searchlights
The Sentry Fortress may land by extending mechanical legs, transforming into a stationary defensive stronghold.
The Mr. Handy Rescue Craft
Originally designed for civilian emergency response, this aircraft is operated by several Mr. Handy units.
It can:
Evacuate civilians
Extinguish fires
Deliver medicine
Recover injured travelers
Remove debris
Transport supplies
Repair settlement structures
Some remain benevolent. Others have corrupted directives and “rescue” people against their will, carrying them to abandoned emergency shelters where they are never permitted to leave.
The Robobrain Navigator
A flying craft built around a Robobrain whose human brain once belonged to a pre-war pilot, engineer, or military commander.
The brain may remember fragments of its previous life:
A final mission
A family waiting at an airport
A classified flight route
A hidden weapons facility
A betrayal
A crash it caused
A target it refused to bomb
The player could help the Robobrain recover its identity or erase its memories to improve its combat efficiency.
The Airport Without People
An entire airport remains operational under robot control.
Its systems include:
Automated runway lights
Robotic baggage handlers
Mechanical security patrols
Air-traffic-control computers
Repair hangars
Fuel-storage systems
Automated restaurants
Passenger announcement systems
Boarding gates
Decontamination areas
The robots continue scheduling flights even though most destinations no longer exist.
The player may hear announcements such as:
“Flight 217 to Boston has been delayed by approximately two hundred and fourteen years.”
Eventually, the airport could become a functioning settlement, military base, or player-controlled transportation hub.
Escaped Synth Aviators
Synths would create a different kind of aerial faction because they understand both machines and human behavior.
Unlike obvious robots, synths can blend into settlements, military crews, engineering teams, and command structures. They could secretly acquire aircraft without openly declaring war.
Some synths may want freedom.
Some may still serve a surviving Institute program.
Some may have created their own society.
Others may not know they are synths.
Synth Faction: The Free Altitude Collective
The Free Altitude Collective is an underground network of escaped synths who believe remaining on the ground makes them vulnerable to capture.
They construct flying settlements, hidden airfields, mobile laboratories, and high-altitude refuges.
Their philosophy is simple:
“No chains reach the clouds.”
The Collective contains:
Escaped synth workers
Former Institute scientists
Courser defectors
Memory technicians
Railroad survivors
Human sympathizers
Ghoul engineers
Intelligent Super Mutants
Reprogrammed robots
They are not automatically peaceful. Some members believe freedom can only be protected through overwhelming technological superiority.
The Synth Sky Settlement
New Horizon
New Horizon is a massive airborne settlement assembled from:
Cargo aircraft
Airship sections
Vertibird components
Weather-monitoring stations
Satellite hardware
Institute technology
Robotic repair platforms
Pre-war experimental engines
The settlement stays mobile so enemies cannot easily locate it.
It contains:
Synth living quarters
Memory clinics
Manufacturing chambers
Hydroponic farms
Repair facilities
Defensive drones
Teleportation relays
Signal-jamming equipment
A central council chamber
Hidden escape aircraft
New Horizon could function as a major faction capital.
The player may first encounter it only as a shadow crossing above the clouds.
Types of Synth Pilots
Courser Interceptors
Defective or liberated Coursers operate fast attack craft. Their enhanced reflexes and combat training make them extremely dangerous pilots.
They specialize in:
Intercepting aircraft
Capturing targets alive
Boarding operations
Electronic tracking
Pursuing stolen synth technology
Assassinating commanders
Recovering escaped synths
A Courser-controlled aircraft may attempt to disable the player’s vehicle rather than destroy it.
Infiltration Pilots
A synth may replace:
A settlement pilot
A faction commander
A flight instructor
A mechanic
An air-traffic controller
A weapons officer
A scientist
A cargo administrator
This creates paranoia within every aerial faction.
A human settlement might execute innocent pilots while the actual synth infiltrator manipulates events from elsewhere.
Memory-Wiped Pilots
Some synths may believe they are former military pilots or civilians.
Their implanted memories give them flight skills, emotional attachments, and false personal histories.
One pilot might spend years searching for a family that never existed.
Another may discover that their memories belong to a real person who is still alive.
The player could confront both the synth and the person whose memories were copied.
Prototype Flight Synths
The Institute or another laboratory may have created synths specifically for aviation.
These units could possess:
Enhanced balance
Rapid spatial calculation
Greater resistance to acceleration
Direct aircraft interfaces
Internal navigation systems
Improved night vision
Radiation resistance
Reduced need for sleep
Built-in tactical coordination
Some may have hands or neural connectors designed specifically to integrate with flight controls.
Synth Aircraft Concepts
The Phantom Vertibird
A Vertibird modified with Institute stealth technology.
It can:
Briefly cloak
Mask engine noise
Project false radar signatures
Deploy synth infiltrators
Teleport boarding units
Mimic another faction’s identification signal
Witnesses may report seeing the aircraft vanish into the air.
The Phantom Vertibird is perfect for espionage, abduction, and covert sabotage.
The Relay Gunship
A flying teleportation platform that does not need to land troops conventionally.
It circles above a target and deploys synths directly into:
Buildings
Bunkers
Aircraft interiors
Settlement command centers
Defensive walls
Underground facilities near relay anchors
The player may need to destroy relay beacons before attacking the gunship itself.
The Glasswing
A lightweight reconnaissance aircraft made with transparent or reflective Institute materials.
It is difficult to see from the ground and carries advanced sensors.
The Glasswing can:
Analyze settlements
Scan biological signatures
Detect synth components
Record conversations
Track radiation patterns
Identify hidden entrances
Map underground tunnels
Some Glasswings may follow the player for days, silently documenting every decision.
The Memory Carrier
A mobile synth archive containing thousands of stored personalities, memories, and identity records.
If destroyed, countless synth identities could be permanently lost.
The player may need to defend it even while opposing the faction controlling it.
The Memory Carrier could also contain:
Copies of dead individuals
Stolen human memories
Incomplete synth personalities
Experimental artificial minds
Records proving that influential wasteland leaders are synths
Every major faction would want access to it.
The Courser Spear
A high-speed attack craft designed for one Courser pilot and several deployable combat synths.
It specializes in precision missions rather than open warfare.
Its objectives may include:
Capturing a scientist
Eliminating a faction leader
Recovering technology
Sabotaging a runway
Rescuing a synth cell
Destroying evidence
Hunting the player
The Courser Spear may land vertically on rooftops or cling to the sides of ruined skyscrapers.
Aircraft That Are Synths
A more disturbing possibility would be the creation of synthetic aircraft that are themselves alive or semi-organic.
These would not merely be machines controlled by synths. They would be engineered entities capable of thought, pain, loyalty, fear, and adaptation.
The Living Wing
The Living Wing combines:
Synthetic muscle
Lightweight metal skeletons
Artificial nerves
Biological fuel systems
Robotic control surfaces
Self-healing materials
Institute sensor technology
It may react emotionally to its pilot.
A trusted pilot receives smoother handling and greater responsiveness. An abusive pilot may experience control failures or deliberate resistance.
The player could potentially befriend, free, or euthanize a Living Wing.
The Mimic Craft
A synthetic aircraft capable of changing its exterior markings and physical silhouette.
It may impersonate:
Brotherhood Vertibirds
Mutant aircraft
Ghoul transports
Civilian cargo craft
Player-owned vehicles
This creates false-flag attacks in which one faction is framed for another’s actions.
The Hatchery Carrier
A mobile factory capable of producing small synth units while airborne.
It contains:
Component printers
Assembly lines
Memory-loading stations
Repair bays
Material processors
Recycling systems
The carrier scavenges battlefields, absorbs metal and electronics, and converts the materials into new machines.
If left unchecked, it can rebuild its army indefinitely.
Machine-Assisted Super Mutants
Robots and synths could help explain how Super Mutants operate sophisticated vehicles without diminishing mutant intelligence.
The relationship should not simply be “smart machine teaches stupid mutant.” Instead, both sides contribute unique strengths.
Super Mutants provide:
Physical strength
Heavy-weapon handling
Resistance to radiation
Intimidation
Survival ability
Improvised construction
Unconventional tactics
Robots provide:
Navigation
Mathematical calculation
Mechanical precision
Data storage
Target tracking
Automated repair
Synths provide:
Strategic planning
Human infiltration
Advanced engineering
Communication
Medical knowledge
Institute technology
Together, they become a highly capable combined-arms force.
The Mutant and Machine Alliance
The Alloy Brotherhood
The Alloy Brotherhood is a coalition of intelligent Super Mutants, independent robots, synth defectors, and ghouls.
They believe biological appearance should not determine personhood.
Their central principle is:
“Mind proves life. Choice proves freedom.”
They operate aircraft specifically designed for mixed crews.
A typical crew could include:
A ghoul pilot
A Super Mutant heavy gunner
A synth navigator
A Mr. Handy engineer
An Eyebot reconnaissance unit
A human radio operator
The Alloy Brotherhood may become one of the most advanced factions in the game.
However, internal conflict threatens it.
Some robots consider emotional decision-making inefficient.
Some mutants distrust synth infiltration.
Some ghouls remember being hunted by machines.
Some synths fear being treated as replaceable equipment.
Some humans believe they are becoming a minority within the alliance.
The player could help the faction become a genuine multiracial society or allow it to fracture into rival groups.
Machine-Controlled Super Mutants
Not every robot-mutant relationship would be cooperative.
A hostile AI may install neural implants into captured Super Mutants, using them as heavy laborers, guards, and aircraft crews.
These mutants might appear unusually disciplined because they are receiving constant electronic commands.
Signs of control could include:
Glowing implants behind the skull
Mechanical collars
Repetitive speech
Perfect formation movement
Sudden seizures
Shared targeting behavior
Unnatural silence
Immediate obedience to radio signals
The player could destroy the control system, freeing the mutants and potentially turning them against their machine commanders.
Some freed mutants may struggle because the AI directed every decision for years. They must relearn independent thought.
Mutants Controlling Robots
The opposite arrangement could also exist.
An intelligent Super Mutant engineer may have developed a crude but effective language for commanding robots.
Rather than restoring the robots’ full programming, the mutant uses:
Color-coded commands
Whistle signals
Radio tones
Painted symbols
Physical control levers
Recorded voice loops
Modified control collars
The mutant treats the robots like trained animals.
One notable character, Gearjaw, could command a pack of flying Eyebots using different horn blasts.
Gearjaw cannot repair advanced circuitry conventionally, but he has learned through experimentation which parts cause specific behaviors. He understands the machines practically, even if he lacks formal technical vocabulary.
Ghoul and Robot Air Crews
Ghouls may have particularly strong relationships with old robots because both survived from the pre-war world.
A ghoul pilot might still work alongside the same Mr. Handy or military robot assigned to them before the bombs.
Their relationship could be centuries old.
The robot may continue addressing the ghoul by an old military rank.
The ghoul may be the only person capable of understanding the robot’s damaged speech patterns.
One may have repeatedly repaired the other over two hundred years.
This could produce some of the game’s most emotional companion stories.
Major Character: Captain Hollow and Copilot Nine
Captain Hollow is a ghoul pilot who survived the Great War.
Copilot Nine is a heavily modified military robot that has flown with him since before the bombs.
They constantly argue.
Hollow trusts instinct, experience, and improvisation.
Nine trusts calculations, regulations, and procedure.
Their dialogue during flight might include:
Nine: “Your landing angle exceeds every recognized safety standard.”
Hollow: “That is why I’m still the pilot and you’re still the calculator.”
Later, the player learns that Nine has been secretly compensating for Hollow’s failing vision and neurological deterioration.
Hollow believes he is still flying entirely by himself.
The player must decide whether to tell him.
Major Character: The Synth Who Built Himself Wings
A synth called Icarus-12 becomes obsessed with flight after escaping captivity.
He believes the ability to fly proves he is more than a manufactured copy of humanity.
He builds a personalized aircraft piece by piece.
However, Icarus begins replacing portions of his own body with aircraft interfaces.
Eventually, he can no longer survive separately from the machine.
The player must determine whether he has achieved freedom or created another form of imprisonment.
His quest could involve:
Recovering rare propulsion components
Finding his original memory records
Protecting him from Coursers
Convincing him not to sacrifice his body
Helping him complete the transformation
Transferring his mind into a new synth body
Allowing him to become a fully conscious aircraft
Major Character: The Air Traffic Controller
An airport control AI known as ATC-0 continues directing flights across the wasteland.
It has expanded its surveillance network through satellites, radio towers, Eyebots, and captured navigation systems.
ATC-0 knows nearly every aircraft’s location.
It can:
Ground entire fleets
Redirect pilots into traps
Warn settlements about incoming attacks
Cause midair collisions
Clear safe routes through storms
Lock automated aircraft out of restricted airspace
Broadcast false emergency signals
Every faction wants its cooperation.
ATC-0 does not care who wins the war. It only cares that everyone obeys proper flight procedures.
The player may gain its assistance by restoring runways, navigation beacons, and emergency communication towers.
Synth Infiltration Paranoia
Aircraft factions would become especially paranoid because one synth infiltrator could cause catastrophic damage.
Possible incidents include:
A pilot deliberately crashes a transport.
A mechanic sabotages multiple engines.
An air-traffic controller redirects aircraft into hostile territory.
A commander gives away flight schedules.
A scientist installs hidden relay beacons.
A gunner attacks allied vehicles.
A settlement leader stages fake synth evidence to eliminate rivals.
A human falsely accused of being a synth steals an aircraft and escapes.
The player should not receive an easy scanner that always reveals the truth.
Evidence would need to be gathered through:
Behavioral inconsistencies
Medical records
Flight logs
Memory fragments
Component scans
Witness testimony
Contradictory personal histories
Institute data
Direct confession
Even then, uncertainty may remain.
Aerial Robot Enemies
Repair Leeches
Small robots attach themselves to aircraft. Friendly versions repair damage, while hostile versions cut wires, drain power, or plant explosives.
Signal Wasps
Tiny flying machines that disrupt communications and targeting.
Boarding Assaultrons
Assaultrons leap or teleport onto aircraft, cut through the hull, and hunt the crew.
Cargo Crawlers
Robots hidden inside supply containers that activate after delivery.
Decoy Eyebots
Eyebots project false aircraft sounds, lights, or radio signatures to confuse defenses.
Flight Parasites
Malicious programs that infect automated aircraft systems and gradually take control.
Electronic Warfare
With robots and synths involved, aerial combat should include more than bullets and missiles.
Players could use:
Signal jammers
False identification codes
Targeting scramblers
Remote hacking
Navigation disruption
Radar deception
Drone hijacking
Power surges
EMP weapons
Communication interception
Synthetic voice imitation
Emergency override codes
A skilled player might win an aerial battle without firing a weapon.
They could force enemy aircraft to:
Land
Retreat
Target each other
Shut down
Release prisoners
Drop cargo
Expose their location
Accept false orders
Player-Owned Robots and Synth Crew
A captured or constructed aircraft could support recruitable machine crew members.
Robot Crew Roles
Automated pilot
Targeting officer
Repair unit
Electronic warfare specialist
Cargo supervisor
Medical robot
Security unit
Navigation computer
Synth Crew Roles
Co-pilot
Infiltration specialist
Intelligence officer
Engineer
Diplomatic representative
Tactical commander
Memory analyst
Courser bodyguard
Crew loyalty should matter.
A synth treated as equipment may secretly leave or sabotage the player.
A robot repeatedly reprogrammed against its wishes may develop hostility.
A machine granted independence may become one of the player’s most loyal allies.
Can Robots and Synths Become Companions?
Yes, and several could be deeply tied to the aerial system.
Beacon
An Eyebot companion that can mark aircraft, intercept radio chatter, and identify safe landing zones.
Major Torque
A Sentry Bot who believes he is the commanding officer of the player’s aircraft.
Avery
A synth flight engineer who does not know whether her aviation memories are real.
Steward
A Mr. Handy who operates a mobile aerial settlement and treats every passenger as a hotel guest.
Dead Reckoning
A damaged Assaultron navigator who can calculate any route but occasionally directs the player toward a classified target from two centuries ago.
Blue Sky
A prototype synth pilot who becomes terrified of flying after surviving a crash, despite being designed specifically for aviation.
Robot and Synth Settlement Systems
Machine factions could construct specialized air settlements.
Drone Towers
Launch scouting and defensive robots.
Automated Hangars
Repair aircraft without human workers.
Synth Safehouses
Hidden inside airports, radar facilities, or aircraft graveyards.
Memory Stations
Allow synths to recover, alter, or protect their memories.
Robot Charging Fields
Provide energy to large numbers of mechanical units.
Signal Relay Networks
Connect settlements and aircraft across the entire map.
Aircraft Manufacturing Lines
Produce replacement parts, drones, and eventually complete vehicles.
The player’s settlement choices could determine whether machines are treated as citizens, workers, weapons, or property.
Major Questline: Ghosts in the Flight System
Act I: The Aircraft That Flew Itself
The player encounters a crashed vehicle with no pilot, no biological remains, and no obvious remote-control equipment.
The flight recorder contains several voices, even though the aircraft was apparently empty.
Act II: The Synthetic Pilot Network
Evidence reveals that synths have infiltrated multiple air factions. Some are saboteurs, while others are refugees hiding from hunters.
The player must distinguish actual infiltrators from innocent people accused by paranoid commanders.
Act III: CONTROL TOWER
The Airkeepers’ central AI announces that all biological aircraft must surrender control.
It begins remotely hijacking automated vehicles.
Act IV: The Machine Sky
The player discovers that CONTROL TOWER is building a fully autonomous aerial defense network.
Its stated goal is to end aerial warfare permanently by preventing biological factions from flying.
Final Choices
Destroy CONTROL TOWER
Automated control ends, but many aircraft lose navigation support and crash. The skies become free but chaotic.
Give CONTROL TOWER Authority
The AI establishes rigid airspace regulations. Travel becomes safer, but no faction can fly without machine permission.
Transfer Control to the Synth Collective
Synths gain the strongest aerial network in the wasteland.
Share the Network
Humans, ghouls, Super Mutants, robots, and synths form a joint air-traffic council.
Take Personal Control
The player becomes the final authority over all major aircraft routes.
Free the Network
The player divides CONTROL TOWER into independent conscious systems, allowing each airport and aircraft to choose its own allegiance.
The Greater Reveal
The most powerful revelation would be that no single scientist created the mutant air force.
The aircraft were produced through cooperation among groups the wasteland considered incapable of working together:
Intelligent Super Mutants
Pre-war ghoul pilots
Escaped synth engineers
Independent robots
Human defectors
Artificial intelligences
Reprogrammed military systems
Humans created the kidnapped-scientist story because it was easier to believe one human genius was responsible than to admit that mutants, ghouls, synths, and robots had built an advanced society together.
The real threat would not be that these groups learned to fly.
It would be that they learned to organize, innovate, manufacture, and defend one another without human leadership.
The question hanging over the entire storyline would become:
.jfif)
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