Brotherhood Outcasts

The Brotherhood Outcasts were a rebel faction of Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel in the Capital Wasteland. Formed in 2276, they opposed the reformist policies of Elder Lyons and considered themselves loyalists, upholding the true mission of the Brotherhood. The group was dissolved in 2283 after Elder Arthur Maxson negotiated their return to the fold.

Background
The Brotherhood Outcasts were a contingent of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers who split from Elder Lyons' group at the Citadel in 2276. The Outcasts attributed their departure to their belief that Elder Lyons had lost sight of the Brotherhood's true mission, and the reason for their presence in the Capital Wasteland; the discovery and acquisition of advanced pre-War technology. Their secondary objective was to keep dangerous technologies out of the hands of raiders, tribals, and everyone else without the aptitude necessary to safely utilize them.

The group did not plan on separating originally. Future founders of the Outcasts were merely dissatisfied with Lyons' focus on protecting the wastes by killing super mutants, seeing it as an ineffectual waste of men and resources that would ultimately destroy the Brotherhood. The situation gradually worsened, finally tipping when Elder Lyons ignored their repeated requests to recover tech from Fort Independence, a pre-War military research facility. Rallying behind Paladin Henry Casdin, the dissenters abandoned Lyons' command and left the Citadel, taking a large part of its weapons and equipment stockpiles with them. Lyons lost more men that day than he ever did fighting the mutants. The loss of men and materiel had a significant negative impact on the combat performance of Lyons' chapter, greatly reducing its ability to project power throughout the Capital Wasteland.

Under Casdin's command, they seized Fort Independence, where they pushed back the indigenous raider groups and adapted the former military base for use as their headquarters. Termed "Outcasts" by their angered former brothers and sisters, the renegade soldiers adopted the name as a badge of honor, painting their armor red and black to distinguish themselves from the organization they no longer served. They have also reorganized their rank system and decentralized their operations, to make tech retrieval and long range patrols easier to organize.

A year after the split, the Outcasts organized a system of regular patrols, scouring the wasteland for technology, and began to excavate several locations, including the Virtual Strategic Simulations facility, in order to fulfill the original mission objectives. Their focus on retrieving technology meant they had a number of obsessions, including procurement of alien weapons from locations in the Capital Wasteland, such as possible crashed U.F.O. and pre-war government installations.

In their eyes, they remained the true Brotherhood of Steel, and considered Lyons guilty of abandoning the principles the Brotherhood stands for. Ultimately, they planned to regroup with loyalist chapters in the west, but remained stuck protecting Fort Independence and their considerable stockpile of powerful technology. While Lyons struck their names from the Codex, the Outcasts believed that their actions would be vindicated when they regrouped with the Western Brotherhood.

Ultimately, in 2278, Elder Owyn Lyons had died, and by 2283, Arthur Maxson – only 16 years old at the time – was able to broker a peace with the Outcasts and re-integrated them into the Brotherhood of Steel. With the bolstered numbers, Maxson expanded the new Brotherhood up north, into the Commonwealth.

Organization
The Brotherhood Outcasts outfit themselves in repainted T-45d power armor, having adopted a new color scheme following their exodus from the Citadel. To compensate for their limited numbers, the Outcasts have supplemented their forces with a number of reprogrammed Robobrains, sentry bots, and Protectrons, all adorned with the Outcasts’ colors.

In addition to stockpiling viable/dangerous technology salvaged from the ruins of the Capital Wasteland, the Outcasts analyze and reverse-engineer their findings, leaving work logs throughout their headquarters.

Based out of Fort Independence, the Outcasts maintain at least one other outpost in the Washington, D.C. area. While the Brotherhood of Steel patrols the central ruins of D.C., Outcast patrols are commonly encountered throughout the greater Capital Wasteland. Outcast patrols typically involve three Brotherhood Outcasts (often comprised of one armed with a ranged weapon, one armed with a melee weapon, and one armed with a heavy weapon) or, more commonly, one or two Outcasts and an Outcast Protectron or Robobrain. There are three "ranks" of Brotherhood Outcast, which appear according to the player's level, with higher-level Outcasts possessing more hit points and better weapons. Outcast patrols are neutral if not quite friendly towards the Lone Wanderer, and will fight against hostile enemies such as raiders, the Enclave, creatures, and rogue robots.

While few regret the decision to leave Lyons' Brotherhood, some can openly be heard to miss living in the Citadel. Expression of these thoughts, as well as plans to desert, are considered treasonous offences, sometimes punishable by execution.

Outcast patrols
Most Outcast patrols can be found near vaults or high value military assets. They are always located where one would expect to recover valuable pre-War technology or useful salvage materials. Outcast patrols will spawn near the listed locations at preset spawn points and are not random encounters. The locations include Forts Bannister, Constantine and Independence, Wheaton Armory, the National Guard depot, the scrapyard, Smith Casey's Garage, SatCom Array NN-03d and Vaults 92, 87, 101, and 108.

Ranks
When the Outcasts were formed they did not keep their traditional Brotherhood ranks, instead creating a new hierarchy with differently named ranks. The known ranks are:
 * Defender - the most common rank that is encountered. Defenders appear to be the rank-and-file soldiers of the Outcasts.
 * Protector - the leadership or upper echelon officers of the Outcasts. The only known protectors are McGraw and Henry Casdin.
 * Specialist - the scientists and engineers of the Outcasts, essentially the counterpart of a Brotherhood scribe.

Relations with the outside
The Outcasts have a low opinion of the inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland, typically resulting in them mocking outsiders. They do not trust them, but are not directly hostile to anyone, as long as they remain peaceful. They will, however, engage any and all threats to themselves and others. Furthermore, they are known to offer mutually beneficial deals to wastelanders, exchanging technology for valuable supplies, ammunition and explosives.

While Elder Lyons professes that he both understands and accepts the reasons for the Outcasts' departure, the view is not shared by many of his soldiers and as such, the Outcasts are considered enemies by Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel, and vice versa. They will shoot each other on sight.

Interactions with the player character
Initially, the Outcasts treat the Lone Wanderer like any other local, mocking them as an intellectual inferior. However, the player can express interest in participating in the tech exchange deal, as an outcast collection agent. Should the player deliver enough tech, the Outcasts consider them a friend, and they will be permitted to roam the interior of Fort Independence freely, although they are not given a key - the door to the Fort needs to be picked open or opened with an appropriate key.

The Outcasts also play a major role in Operation: Anchorage, in which a group of Outcasts in the Outcast Outpost under the command of Protector McGraw is trying to acquire advanced military tools, and the only way to enter the locked room containing these relics is by completing a military simulation only accessible by someone wearing a Neural-Interface Device (i.e., Pip-Boy).

Technology
The Outcasts typically use technology comparable to that of the Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel, relying on stockpiles of equipment they confiscated when they abandoned the Citadel.

Brotherhood Outcast soldiers are formidable opponents. They have superior protection, weaponry, and skills to virtually every faction encountered in the Capital Wasteland, including raiders, Talon Company mercs, and most indigenous fauna the Wasteland has to offer. Outcasts generally, though not always, operate in patrols. A typical patrol consists of three soldiers, or two soldiers and one robot (a Protectron, sentry bot, or Robobrain). Outcast patrols are generally weaker than their Enclave counterparts, however, and frequently lose to them in direct combat unless the Outcast squad is making use of heavy weapons.

Outcast patrols generally use the following weapons:
 * Equipment

In addition to having human members, the Outcasts make extensive use of Protectrons, sentry bots and Robobrains to round-out their small numbers. Some of the sentry bots are particularly powerful, equipped with Gatling lasers. All of the above can be easily spotted by their red-and-black-flecked paint job, mimicking the armor of their Outcast masters.

The Outcasts also had access to Sentinel power armors which were used during the Brotherhood Civil War, but those were later inherited by the East Coast Brotherhood chapter when the Outcasts merged with them after the war.

Appearances
Brotherhood Outcasts appear in Fallout 3, its add-on Operation: Anchorage, and the Fallout 4 Creation Club quest Malevolent Malfunction. They are mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and the Fallout 76 update Nuclear Winter.

Bugs

 * After delivering enough technology to Protector Casdin the player will be granted "trusted" status and added to the OutcastAllyFaction faction. Although Casdin indicates this will put the player on friendly terms with most members of the Outcasts, the optional "friendly" dialogue is set to check if the player is a member of the OutcastFaction Faction, rather than the OutcastAllyFaction Faction. This results in most "friendly" Outcast greetings and dialogue not being heard.
 * Sometimes, when finding a patrol, the sound of a Gatling gun being fired is heard but is never actually being used.