Liberty Prime

Liberty Prime is a U.S. Army pacification robot. He is put back into service by the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel after they find him in the basement of The Citadel. (This is, presumably, the "technological marvel" mentioned in the Brotherhood's faction profile.) He was originally designed to aid American troops in the liberation of Alaska from communist China. However, he was not completed on schedule, and America was forced to fight a long bloody battle using their other secret weapon, the more successful and reasonably-scaled Power Armor.

He requires a massive amount of power to operate, as the Brotherhood of Steel was long unable to power him properly even with the advanced tech discovered inside the Pentagon. His large backpack holds a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Mini Nukes, which he can remove and hurl at enemies like a quarterback throwing a pass. He is also equipped with twin head-mounted lasers, much more powerful than a standard Laser Rifle. His massive size and strength count as weapons too: he is endowed with strength befitting a forty foot tall robot, and can rip anything in his path to shreds... if he doesn't step on it first. He also appears to have an Energy Shield, as he can sustain massive amounts of damage and short out energy barrier fields by forcefully walking into them. Finally, to inspire his allies and demoralize foes, he constantly spouts anti-Communist phrases.

Through the computer terminal at the foot of the Liberty Prime, it is revealed that the project was commissioned by General Constantine Chase, and is a joint effort between the U.S. Army, General Atomics, and RobCo.

Visual Appearance
Liberty Prime is a massive, forty foot tall robot war machine stored in the basement below the Citadel. It is humanoid in shape, and somewhat resembles The Iron Giant but possessing the head (and laser vision) of Gort from the 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Appearances
Liberty Prime appears only in Fallout 3. He is first seen in the lab underneath the Citadel, in his inactive state. During the game's climax, he acts as a juggernaut of oblivion, smashing, zapping, and nuke-lobbing his way through any and all opposition between the Citadel and the Jefferson Memorial, where he remains until the end of the game.

Trivia

 * Liberty Prime's name is a reference to Optimus Prime, of Transformers fame, as their voices sound remarkably similar, and Optimus Prime's most common motto is "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings", similar to Liberty's patriotic battle cries of pro-Democracy. Liberty Prime's battle dialogue is often quite humorous, even given the desperate circumstances. For example, while shooting down multiple Enclave Vertibirds like a human would swat at flies, Prime declares in his booming voice that "Death is a preferable alternative to Communism!"


 * It is possible to listen to him speak before he's fully on-line. At his feet in the Citadel lab there is a terminal and accessing this terminal allows you to run a voice test. It is best heard by adjusting the volume on your game, turning "Master" and "Voice" all the way up, then maybe even upping your TV or Computer's volume


 * The nukes he throws, despite being quite a bit larger then the Mini Nuke, have the same blast. This may be because Bethesda wanted to limit the amount of damage he could do to the player, or it could be explained canonically as advances made in the miniaturization of nuclear weapons since Liberty Prime's pre-war construction.


 * Although a robot originally created to 'liberate' Alaska from the Chinese, Liberty Prime was designed by a joint team of Soviet and American scientists before the Great War.

Bugs
It is possible that Liberty Prime will have path issues on the first large bridge you cross, and get "stuck" requiring you to reload a save. Sometimes these path issues can be resolved by destroying the junked cars on the bridge.