Rockets' Red Glare

Rockets' Red Glare is a Railroad main quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout 4.

Detailed walkthrough
After receiving the items from Deacon, board the Vertibird. There will be a rather comedic voiceover banter between Deacon and Tinker Tom as the latter flies the Vertibird to the Prydwen. After initially only getting the aircraft to spin-Tom proceeds towards the Prydwen. There is nothing much to do here except watch the Commonwealth scenery go by and occasionally pick away at targets with the onboard Minigun. Eventually the Vertibird will dock with the flight deck of the Prydwen. From this point there are three options for accomplishing the task:


 * Infiltration : Deacon gives you a BOS uniform prior to boarding the vertibird. If worn when landing, the inhabitants of the Prydwen will not be hostile on arrival, however if the player encounters any leaders of the Brotherhood they will challenge the player's purpose. This requires the player to pass difficult dialogue persuasion checks to avoid turning the Brotherhood NPCs hostile. There is also a "double infiltration with Deacon" technique.  If Deacon is the player's companion he will not give the player the BoS uniform, but will instead wear it on himself as a disguise and will sit in a different part of the Vertibird.  If the player has both Deacon as a companion and equips a BoS uniform before boarding the Vertibird, then Deacon will participate in the infiltration on the Prydwen.  At least one BoS uniform should be available inside the police station or the front approach.  Deacon reacts favorably to ("loves") most of the choices during the first persuasion check on the Prydwen. This is the most peaceful option and can be completed without taking any damage whatsoever. However, with this method you will never encounter Elder Maxson and therefore cannot obtain Maxson's battlecoat or Final Judgment.


 * Stealth : With the use of several Stealth Boys, it is theoretically possible to sneak all the way through the Prydwen without being challenged or directly attacked, though the Brotherhood NPCs will still become hostile at some point during the mission.


 * Assault : If the Brotherhood uniform is not worn, all Brotherhood personnel in the area will immediately be hostile after disembarking from the vertibird and throughout the mission.

Regardless of the approach, it is recommended that the player equip armor and/or Power armor with high Energy Weapons resistance as most of the Brotherhood personnel will be armed with Laser weaponry. There will also be several adversaries wearing Brotherhood T-60 power armor.

If the player is not using the Brotherhood uniform, there will be a large amount of incoming fire at the start since the Brotherhood personnel on the ground will also open fire along with the people on the flight deck. There is usually at least one knight in power armor on the flight deck as well. Fire from the ground can be avoided by moving to the port side of the deck (opposite the vertibird) as the deck itself will block the sight of most enemies on the ground.

Go through the door at the end of the deck to enter the Command Deck. There will be less NPCs here and none in power armor. With a careful approach it may be possible to eliminate/avoid all of them without alerting them to your presence. The next target is a ladder/hatch to the Main Deck.

There is a power armored guard at the top of the ladder who will have to be dealt with almost immediately if the NPCs are hostile. This section of the Prydwen has the bulk of the Brotherhood personnel, so if they are hostile toward the player there will be a lot of incoming fire and at least three power armored opponents. If the player is infiltrating and their cover is not blown, this is also the most likely place to encounter NPCs that will interrogate them about their purpose. If the player fights their way in or out, it will result in the deaths of several prominent Brotherhood NPCs, which may yield unique or powerful loot, so it may be worth it to fight and gather items as most of them will be unobtainable after the completion of this mission (see the Prydwen entry for a full list of personnel and loot on the airship).

In either case, the player needs to make their way up two levels by using the stairways at the sides of the catwalks. The third level should be a central walkway that goes between three large oval structures. These are the gas bags. Each one has a red operating console in the center on the port side of the railing. Walking up and activating each one will set the charges.

Once one has placed the charges, one can choose to continue with the undercover operation and exit the Prydwen without hostilities if one succeed in avoiding detection or raising insurmountable supicions by any Brotherhood NPCs. If the Brotherhood turn hostile then run or fight your way back to the hatch to the Command Deck. If the Brotherhood has turned hostile and, unless he was somehow encountered elsewhere, when the player emerges onto the Command Deck, Elder Maxson will be waiting along with some other opponents. He will be armed with Final Judgment and may have others with him using Gatling Lasers, so the player needs to find cover or kill them quickly. Proceed to the flight deck.

No new NPCs should have spawned on the flight deck if they were eliminated earlier, however if the player snuck in then they will now be hostile. Fight, sneak, or run past them to the vertibird. Once the player activates the option to get onto the vertibird, Tinker Tom will begin taking off. More NPCs will spawn on the ground at this point and the amount of incoming fire will increase by quite a bit. The vertibird cannot be shot down but the player can still take damage from the incoming fire, so returning fire with the mounted minigun is recommended.

After the vertibird undocks and flies away for a minute or so, Tinker Tom will announce that they are far enough away and will ignite the charges. The resulting detonation should eliminate all remaining hostile Brotherhood NPCs from the area. Tinker Tom will fly to the area of Nordhagen Beach and tell the player to disembark so he can stash the Vertibird.

Finishing the quest requires speaking to Desdemona, who has returned to Railroad HQ. Once you speak with her, The Nuclear Option will begin.

Bugs

 * Sometimes, after boarding the Vertbird, it will fly off straight to the south-east without stop, bringing you off map. Seems to be linked to the "Escape the Prydwen" quest flag, wasn't 'checked off' during bug when encountered.
 * When attempting to get back onto the Vertibird to escape the Prydwen after planting the explosives, occasionally the animation will not trigger and it will become impossible to select the Vertibird to board it. Unknown how to fix it (entering and exiting the Prydwen fixed it once, after which it led into the above problem, but did not work after reloading).
 * Using a weapon with the legendary 'Kneecapper' effect against the attacking Vertibird will instantly destroy both of the flyer's turbines but at the same time make it impossible to destroy completely. The Vertibird will then tumble around erratically for some moments before resuming its attack indefinitely, thus preventing the mission from progressing to the next stage. Use any other available weapon to avoid this bug.
 * When dropping off the player towards the end of the quest after the Prydwen explodes, Tinker Tom may be shot down by remaining Brotherhood Scribes. This will cause The Nuclear Option (Railroad) to fail and Desdemona will only repeat the line "Don't wait too long. The Brotherhood could be back in here any minute", making the quest impossible to complete. This can be fixed by reloading an older save and killing remaining Brotherhood members before they can shoot down Tom.
 * A glitch may occur if Deacon is wearing power armour where he won't board the Vertibird. To fix this load a previous save where you are not on the Vertibird and travel away from the location. When you travel back he should be on the Vertibird.
 * Companions might die during this quest.
 * Companions may hate you randomly during the animation of the Prydwen crashing.
 * When speaking with a Brotherhood squire during this quest, dialogue will not load properly leading to long pauses of the SS and squire looking at each other with occasional dialogue options out of context being presented.
 * Between setting the charges and finishing the quest, companions may become unresponsive and either not talk or say general NPC things.