Sonic generator

Sonic generators (also known as sonic attractors or sonar arrays ) are devices used by the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel to lure a scorchbeast into a kill zone to be more easily dispatched.

Background
After the emergence of the Scorched Plague around 2083, the rapidly exponentially growing threat forced the Brotherhood to make it their mission to eliminate the disease. Its spread via infected people and creatures were minuscule compared to its spread by the gigantic flying bat mutants known as scorchbeasts.

To this end, they focused their main efforts on killing the scorchbeasts. Eventually, the threat began to be too much for the Brotherhood to handle, and by 2093, they had consolidated their forces to Fort Defiance and the Thunder Mountain power plant. Needing to eliminate the threat, the Brotherhood debated using the automated nuclear silos of the region against them. This was forbidden by Elder Roger Maxson however, forcing the chapter to rely on more conventional means.

To combat the beasts, the Brotherhood would lure them into a kill zone known as a "protected zone" where the mutants would be dispatched by overwhelming firepower from ground forces and automated surface to air missile batteries. This effort, however, was not enough to defend them from the threat, both because of the beasts' breeding cycle and over-reliance on their extremely limited manpower and electrical power from the Thunder Mountain power plant. With both Thunder Mountain and Fort Defiance falling to the Scorched Plague in August 2095, these devices, along with all other Brotherhood materiel, would lie abandoned, until the Vault 76 Dweller emerged on October 23, 2102.

Operation
Due to scorchbeasts being fundamentally mutated bats, they are constantly using ultrasound location to tell where they are. For normal bats, echolocation is quite limited, with their ultrasound being absorbed by the atmosphere. For them, detection beyond 20 to 30 meters is not practical. Scorchbeasts, however, emit much more powerful ultrasound vibrations with an unparalleled range. Usually, this is to their advantage. This advantage was turned against them with the creation of the sonic generator.

These generators, worked on by Scribes Hailey Takano and Grant McNamara, were installed at Fort Defiance and Mosstown. They were intended to be used with a large scale detection network focused on the 103.4 kHz frequency. The detection network was to be used to find the source of "a single colony." It used a sonic scanning module, though its range was limited.

When operational, the sonic generators were so loud that ear protection was needed at all times within a 90-meter radius. Standing within a three meter radius was not recommend for any length of time, and the generators themselves took a minute to fully cycle on. If there were no scorchbeast swarms in range, the Perimeter Defense System would automatically turn itself off. Should emergency maintenance be needed during a firefight, Scribe Grant would have given the instructions on how to do it. When a scorchbeast threat would enter the "protected zone," automated SAMS and personnel would attack the creature.

Related quests

 * Line in the Sand

Locations

 * Fort Defiance
 * Mosstown

Behind the scenes
The sonic generator was created by art intern Cole Larson, who was in charge of designing, modeling, and texturing both the complete and destroyed versions in 3ds Max and Substance Painter.