Fallout’s Secret Chinese Invasion of America

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[00:00:04]Greetings to the oppressed masses from the peace-loving peoples of China.

[00:00:09]>> China and the US government have been at each other's throats for a long time, which then built up into a full-blown war. But what I find interesting about Fallout is that China decided to create a large spanning spy network right under the US's nose. A whole Chinese invasion that was being secretly planned inside America's borders. We get to find the remains of these stories and learn just how complex it really got. It wasn't like just a one-off secret hideout or spy here and there. We're talking insane networks that spread [music] across the US. Entire corporations and factories either working with China [music] or working directly under them. We tried to seek out every little Chinese espionage event that we could find throughout the series, and I'm sure some of them might [music] surprise you. Clearly, they had a lot planned. If you enjoy Fallout, you've definitely arrived at the right place. Consider subbing. Thanks for watching and enjoy the vid.

[00:01:06]DC was obviously the center of the United States government before the apocalypse. This was the place where a bunch of major military figures and leaders called home and also worked.

[00:01:15][music] Clearly, it was a hotbed of valuable intelligence. Other countries that weren't on friendly terms with the United States, or more importantly their enemies, would of course want to have a pulse on the network here.

[00:01:27]>> [music] >> China specifically would gain a lot of information on US government operations.

[00:01:31]If only they had some way of collecting the intel and then sending it back to the Republic. And that's exactly what they did. That's why in the Capital Wasteland there is so much Chinese spy and espionage work going on that we stumble into. If you were to have a spy anywhere, it would be this place. And they had a lot more than just some spies. All around this wasteland, there are pieces of a bigger puzzle that tell us that the Chinese operatives weren't just placed in random locations. There was a larger operation going on behind the scenes. Chinese radio signals, dead agents, secret rooms, mobile commands, and even companies that were secretly working with the Chinese government.

[00:02:10]There was a lot to put to plan in the DC area.

[00:02:15]>> Greetings to the oppressed masses from the peace-loving peoples of China. All peace-loving peoples must join together to stop the war of aggression being waged by the Wall Street gang. Why do you continue to send your boys to die for your capitalist masters? Your boys are dying on the Alaska front and offer nothing.

[00:02:35]Bring them home before it's too late.

[00:02:37]The gang of Wall Street fat cats [music] and their Washington warmonger puppets have plunged the world into war to line their own Do you think your readers will keep you safe if the bombs [music] fall?

[00:02:50]You will die while the Wall Street gang and their hangers-on live like kings in >> Yes, you did hear that right. And yes, it's definitely as insane as it sounds.

[00:03:02]Before we get into the whole lore side of this, I do want to say that the accent on this radio does not do a good job at representing [music] a Chinese accent at all. But this is what we have to work with for some reason. And yes, it is in the game. This is the People's Republic of America radio, a station that is being broadcasted to the good people of DC and still to this day the people of the Capital Wasteland. The only way you get to hear this little propaganda show is if you go to South Arlington, mostly around the Mama Dolce's food processing plant. Sometimes you can pick it up in the Arlington Cemetery, [music] but it has to be in specific locations. This radio has seemingly been running since before the bombs and during the war. Because as you heard, they're talking about the Anchorage Reclamation, which was the whole Battle of Anchorage event that went down. And she also talks about Wall Street. Like I said, this is some blatant propaganda from the Chinese government straight into American earholes. Usually, one of the first pillars to undermining a government and starting an espionage campaign. Though, it seems kind of backwards to just be announcing yourself to the world so openly. Like, did the American government not second-think this radio signal and decide to track it down and do something about it? It's a pretty easy layup. Like I said, we have no clue when this actually started broadcasting.

[00:04:17]We just have to go off the evidence that we have. But, maybe it started up pretty close to when the bombs were about to fall, and the government didn't really have time to look into it or care enough at that point. Regardless, it's still going on to this day, just looping over and over again. It might be worse than listening to President Eden's spew.

[00:04:37]This is broadcast tower KT8, and it's emitting a signal called Sierra Romeo.

[00:04:42]There are lots of these towers found throughout the Capital Wasteland, so it doesn't seem too nefarious or even surprising picking it up. But, it will lead you down a rabbit hole. If you go to the tower and activate it, you'll start picking up some Morse code.

[00:05:08]We'll get to what it's saying in a bit, but let's venture to where the actual signal is coming from and who's sending it. You'll follow it to a drainage pipe a little northeast of the tower. Very suspicious for a radio signal to be coming from inside a place like this.

[00:05:21]When you get down there and come to the first chamber, there's an encrypted terminal. If you try to use the terminal, you need a valid key to unlock whatever that unlocks. So, now we know that someone was definitely trying to hide something important down here.

[00:05:34]Luckily for us, they might not be the brightest spies in the sewer because somebody just left the key on the [music] desk. We can use it to get past the encryption, and it unlocks a secret hatch. In this room is where we get some of our questions answered. Of course, you find the source of the Sierra Romeo broadcast on a ham radio that's still turned on. But more important than that, there are two dead Chinese spies. We know this obviously because of the outfits that they're wearing and their names. They even had a nice little Chinese Army Spec Ops manual that they must have been using to help them out.

[00:06:04]This place appears to be a hidden Chinese radio post or even a spy safe house or something. They were probably using the drainage chamber for secret communication even before the bombs. The ham radio would let them send and receive messages, which leads me back to the Morse code. Apparently, it spells this out, which basically means calling all stations, calling all stations, this is Sierra Romeo, over. Not super compelling, I grant you that. I wish the message actually gave us some information. But here's the thing about that. Spy networks are infamous for relying on coded messaging and signals.

[00:06:38][music] It's how they would do radio check-ins and call signs. SR is probably the station ID, which means Sierra Romeo is probably the call sign for the specific outpost. Maybe they were trying to reach out to the other outposts to see if they were still active in the area. And from the dead bodies, we know that these for one aren't skeletons. In fact, they're ghouls. Are these ghouls connected [music] to Mama Dolce's? Did they have a mission to make their way here and to call out to see if other remnants had made it? Or did these two also survive the bombs and become ghouls and ended up stuck here trying to reach out to anyone? I guess we'll never know.

[00:07:16]When you have a spy network going on in such a large area, it means that you're going to have to be mobile at certain points. Sometimes you're going to need to move equipment in range of your targets. And how do you do that without alerting everyone of your presence?

[00:07:28]Well, you hide yourself in plain sight, just like this seemingly regular truck.

[00:07:33]Nothing crazy about that, hauling basic cargo as you'd expect. But that's not what's going on here. Inside this truck's trailer is what looks like a secret little communication area, potentially a mobile command outpost where Chinese spies could move around and send out signals or communicate in specific areas. I find it interesting that we find the remains of this truck just a little north of the United States Army Armory, the Wheaton Armory. If this was a Chinese mobile command base, then maybe they were scouting out the Armory and collecting intelligence. But, take all of this with a grain of salt because the only evidence we have of this trailer being associated with the Chinese government is the Chinese Army Spec Ops manual sitting on one of the desks. It's not a lot of evidence, but I still think it makes a whole lot of sense.

[00:08:19]When you're exploring the Capital Wasteland, you'll run into these random encounters here and there. But, one specifically is tied to China's efforts, and that's the dead Chinese commando.

[00:08:28]It's another ghoulified man, which might mean he's been wandering for some time.

[00:08:32]We don't know if he's connected to the wider Mama Dolce operation. In fact, we don't know very much at all about this person except for one key thing. When you're near him, you'll pick up a Chinese radio beacon. When you listen to it, the voice is in Chinese and the subtitles would have you believe the person is saying, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday." over and over again, which might have you assume that this person might have been a downed Chinese pilot and they got stuck wandering the American wastes. But, apparently the audio actually translates to "To win every battle." which is said twice and then loops.

[00:09:13]Whoever this person is, they clearly had some sort of connection back to the Republic. I don't know if they ended up trapped here after crashing. Maybe they were a prisoner of war, or maybe it's just another Mama Dolce's Chinese remnant. But, I'm sure they didn't have the United States government's best interest at heart.

[00:09:30]Old Olney is not a place that you want to end up. It's a breeding ground for death claws, and you're likely to get munched. That's why you head to the underground section. I'm not saying it's any better in the sewers, but at least you're not out in the open. But what's down here is important to our investigation. This place is full of a bunch of rooms that were turned into a small settlement by a bunch of ghouls that were trying to live here. The ghouls obviously chose the worst place imaginable to make a home, and they were ultimately killed and pushed out. But what's more important here for us is a small locked sub basement storeroom.

[00:10:01][music] If you get into there, you'll find two more dead Chinese spies next to a ham radio. They've even got Chinese weapons down here. Just like the Sierra Romeo room, these guys must have been another listening outpost hiding all the way down here and most likely trying to communicate with their comrades.

[00:10:17]Unfortunately, there is no signal that we can listen to. So we have no idea the exact nature of this location or what they were doing. But it's just another piece of the puzzle showing us just how large and spanning the spying network went in the DC area, which leads us to their main base of operations. We've kind of spoke on it throughout the whole section, >> [music] >> and that's of course Mama Dolce's food processing plant.

[00:10:42]The Republic people of China salute your braveries. Find established cover operation of Mama Dolce food creation factory. Priority to rendezvous with selected team in covert operations of local area. Job and wage are secured for each within cover operation. Required to inform when first stage of operation is completed. This message is found on a terminal in a Mama Dolce's food processing plant. Mama Dolce's was one of the best food processing plant chains in America, but it turns out these plants were actually a front for Chinese intelligence and espionage in the DC area and other places like Appalachia, which we'll get into later in this video. This was probably the hub and base of operations for all those other little outposts that we talked about in this section. In pre-war times, the outposts would probably relay information back and forth and the Mama Dolce's crew would send it back to the Republic. The Republic would then send the information back to the Dolce's crew with either tasks or missions that they were to accomplish, just like the message I read on the terminal, which was issued to Agent Huang. The food plant ran like an actual food plant.

[00:11:47]They had jobs and wages, even had HR personnel. The whole thing looked official and that was the point. They didn't want the US government to discover their operations. Though if that were the case, I don't know why they would use a crazy propaganda radio broadcasting near the factory, but I guess it is what it is. These operatives actually produce the food items in the factory, which made it possible to keep a reliable revenue stream going. That way they could fund their operations and missions independently from the Republic, if need be. This helped them sever another connection which could have led to them being caught, but this didn't last very long. Their quarterly analysis shows that quarter one had some strong growth, but in quarter two it reads, "Projections show diminished returns due to the increased cost of domestic shipping. Recommend increased quotient of byproduct used of the regional affiliates and lumber milling companies. Seek alternative revenue streams where possible." This was a problem for them. The cost cutting into the revenue was putting the underlying operations at risk. Apparently, that didn't matter because not only is the plant still here, but a bunch of members of that Chinese operation are still alive and kicking. At some point in time after the bombs, a lot of these Chinese spies ended up being gulified. And now a few of them are still taking refuge in this factory. It seems like they're still loyal to the Republic [music] of China. They wear their uniform still, and when you fight them, they shout at you a bunch of anti-American propaganda, like die, American. So, they're still holding on pretty strong to their beliefs, even though the war is over and realistically the US government doesn't really exist, at least not how they used to. They want to remain hidden here, and as far as we can tell, not very many of them has spread out beyond the factory, unless we include those potential outposts. But even those guys were sent out in pairs on specific missions, not to form outside alliances or settlements. So, what we do know is that China was able to set up a secret command base in the heart of the US government, and they were making progress on their goals. Who knows how much information got leaked back to Chairman Cheng in the Republic, but this isn't where it ends. Like I said, there were other Mama Dolce factories spread throughout the US, and if this factory was succeeding in a way, just how far would the other ones go?

[00:13:59]>> Some secrets of our China base lore is actually stuffed away in the Hoover Dam itself. We briefly covered this armor from a video about a year ago, and it was crazy to see that myself, as well as most players, walked right past it on our first playthroughs without even realizing what we were looking at. Deep inside the dam, there's a lore room containing Chinese stealth armor. Now, this immediately raises the question, why is Chinese military equipment sitting inside one of the most important strategic locations entire American Southwest? Officially, the armor was developed during the Sino-American War as China's response to American power armor. Instead of building giant hulking walking tanks like the US, the Chinese focused on stealth and infiltration. The armor was designed for elite operatives and Crimson Dragoons, basically allowing Chinese soldiers to sneak behind enemy lines and operate like ghosts. Let's just marinate in that for a second, [music] because it heavily implies Chinese infiltrators may have actually made it into the dam before the Great War.

[00:15:00]There's even an engineer terminal mentioning that NCR workers found a suit made from unknown material hidden inside the facility after taking control of Hoover Dam. This means, for all we know, Chinese operatives could have been hiding underneath one of America's most important power stations the entire time. The exact operation of how these suits ended up here is never fully explained in canon, but that's what makes this lore so interesting. The war gets a lot of publicity from the likes of what happened in Anchorage, but it was happening quietly, too, through espionage and sleeper agents already embedded inside America before the bombs ever went off.

[00:15:39]Little Yangtze is like an ogre. It has layers. But, let's stop and think about what was actually happening here.

[00:15:45]Looking from the outside of the gate, it looks like another ruined prison camp hidden inside Big MT, but the deeper lore behind it is a bit disturbing. The US government used places like this to imprison Chinese and even Chinese-American citizens during the Sino-American War because people were terrified of spies and infiltration, [music] much like the US did in World War II with the Japanese internment camps. But, Big MT took it way further than just imprisonment. The think tank literally referred to the prisoners as a human farm because they were being used for experimentation. So, although you might expect this place to be filled with sleeper agents or Chinese infiltrators, it was actually more of a testing ground. And this wasn't just testing medicine, either. We're talking about brain extraction, robo-brain research, explosive collar experiments like the [ __ ] we see in Sierra Madre, all kinds of just horrific stuff. The prisoners were basically trapped inside a scientific nightmare with no way out of this new reality of theirs. Eventually, the guards started fitting collars on them that would explode if they crossed the perimeter fence, which many of us have experienced ourselves in the game.

[00:16:49]And then, the Great War happened, and nobody freed them. The prisoners were simply just abandoned there. Over time, many became ghouls still trapped inside the camp over 200 years later with functioning bomb collars around their necks. And then, somehow Elijah shows up and makes the place even worse by using the prisoners as test subjects while reverse engineering the collar technology for the Sierra Madre. Oh, and fun fact, the two ghoul enemies found here, numbers 34 and 27, well, it's an Easter egg to The Count of Monte Cristo, where Dantes has the number 34 and his cellmate has number 27. Kind of cool.

[00:17:24]Anyway, we thought it deserved a spot in the video because although you might think this was a place to house prisoners of war accused of spying on America, it was really a camp whose function was a lot more horrific than that.

[00:17:39]>> This engine ah, this submarine, my beautiful boat. Speak harsh words of me if you must, but my Yangtze, speak of her with respect.

[00:17:53]>> Here and right underneath Boston Harbor is pure raw Chinese invasion lore.

[00:17:58]Chances are a lot of us completely missed it because unless you watched a YouTube video on it or unless we swim out into the ocean, the game never even marks it on your map. And yeah, the ocean is radioactive. Sitting underwater is the Yangtze 31, a stranded Chinese nuclear ballistic missile submarine commanded [music] Captain Zhao. And yes, this thing is directly tied to the bombs that hit Boston. When the Great War began, the captain followed his orders and launched the submarine's nuclear payload towards the United States.

[00:18:27]According to his own dialogue, all but one of the missiles successfully launched before the Yangtze struck a sea mine trying to escape. The reactor started leaking radiation and the crew slowly turned into feral ghouls. Thus, the submarine became permanently trapped in Boston Harbor for over 200 years, which means while the Commonwealth was rebuilding itself into this irradiated [ __ ] for lack of a better term, there was this complete Chinese nuclear submarine just sitting beneath the water the entire time. What makes the captain here so interesting is that he isn't portrayed like some cartoon villain that you'd expect. In fact, come to think of it, even though the Chinese helped facilitate the end of the world, most of the time the villains we face are native to our homeland here in the states. But back to the captain, by the time we meet him, he feels tired. The war is over and for all any of us knows, China might be gone. Obviously, America is a bit destroyed and he spent two whole centuries trapped in [music] a rusting submarine surrounded by the remains of his crew. So, I think it's safe to say that at that point, anyone would be tired. In fact, all this time trapped in your own thoughts, it's refreshing to find that the captain outright expresses guilt for what happened. He talked about seeing Boston destroyed after arriving in the harbor and realizing the scale of what they had done. And considering the Yangtze likely launched the missile responsible for creating the glowing sea, that guilt makes a lot of sense.

[00:19:47]There's also this really dark atmosphere inside the submarine itself. Skeletons are still scattered around the ship while the remaining crew wander the halls as feral ghouls. And despite everything, Zhao still refuses to kill them because in his mind, they're still his crew. What's interesting, too, is how much this location reinforces the idea that the Chinese infiltration of America wasn't just spies in trench coats. Fallout 4 implies China had stealth submarines positioned [music] near the US coastline before the bombs even dropped. This means the invasion wasn't always going to look like soldiers storming beaches. Sometimes, it was espionage. And other times, it was submarines waiting in waters off the coast for launch orders.

[00:20:27]The only thing I don't like is the fact that Zhao was actually a part of a larger story that never made it into the game. Some of you may be familiar with the infamous Vault 120, which was a deep sea vault that was part of the cut quest 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Now, obviously, us players never got the chance to explore that. But considering Zhao is still the first human character from pre-war China to ever pop up in a Fallout game, it makes you wonder how much deeper, no pun intended, the secret Chinese lore could have gone.

[00:20:57]>> We're back in the Capital Wasteland.

[00:20:59]Surprise, surprise. But last time I brought up all of the Chinese operations that one could assume was connected to Mama Dolce's. But there was another Chinese operation going on that was disconnected from that, and they had their own agenda. This was LOB Enterprises. You would [music] find their office building in Falls Church.

[00:21:16]Just like Mama Dolce's, it didn't really stand out. You wouldn't know that this was some secret Chinese ally. When you go inside, it seems like every other office space that you've ever been in.

[00:21:25]It's just filled with terminals and desks. People here were working classic 9-5's, and just like Mama Dolce's, they even had an HR department. Though, unlike Mama Dolce's, this company was not directly under the Chinese Republic.

[00:21:38]Instead, they were working directly with them on certain special projects. LOB was a weapons manufacturer. Their main goal was to create military tech for the Chinese government, all while they're doing it in America. They pretended to be a classic business. [music] They stayed out of trouble and tried to keep their secret operation under wraps.

[00:21:55]But, in reality, the weapons that they were developing were planned to be used for open war within the United States borders. [music] Their ultimate project was called the Zhu Rong. It would become their main focal point, and they were dedicated to manufacturing one of the craziest weapons that we've seen to date, all for China, a fire weapon. And even though development took some time, the weapon did eventually come to light. It was called the Zhu Rong V418 Chinese pistol.

[00:22:20]Under the guise of an American corporation, these people were handing the Chinese government weapons capable of serious damage, making America's greatest adversary even more dangerous.

[00:22:30]This took some serious undercover work to maintain the front and to not get caught by the feds. But, all good things must come to an end. And with an operation this large and complex, you're bound to make mistakes, leaving crumbs behind for others to follow. There was another pre-war company called Happy Liberty Imports. They represented themselves as a respectable corporation.

[00:22:51]But, wouldn't you know it, they too were another front for the Chinese government, operating in the US out in the open. We don't have much info on them besides their current dealings with LOB Enterprises. And this is where they messed up. Happy Liberty was supposed [music] to deliver special shipments to operatives that were posing as American businessmen. They delivered a shipment labeled HP-4110C straight to the CEO of LOB Enterprises.

[00:23:17]This shipment was actually a unique version of the Jurong B418 Chinese pistol. The Feds must have been eyeballing Happy Liberty Imports because after that exchange, LOB came under federal scrutiny and now they were being watched. LOB went into a panic mode >> [music] >> and required that all of their employees carry some form of weapon at all times.

[00:23:37]And in case the Feds ever try to break the doors down and raid the offices, the employees were trained to deal with that confrontation. On one of the terminals it says, "As standard policy, all employees are required to carry low-grade military-class weaponry at all times. In the event of a hostile takeover, your desk can be used as a makeshift barricade. Position the desk between yourself and your opponent, then crouch behind the desk while firing any weapon approved on form B432." This is where [ __ ] hit the fan. Another message was sent out to every employee in the office. It said, "They're here. Man the doors. The Feds are here." The building was under attack by federal agents.

[00:24:14]Well, kind of. They actually used a bunch of military robots to infiltrate the offices and secure the facility.

[00:24:19]Maybe the Feds had their own insider knowledge and possible spy network to know [music] that the employees of LOB would be armed and dangerous or they just weren't taking any chances with Chinese apologists and allies. The entire thing was invaded by the US military and while that was all occurring, >> [music] >> the Great War began and the nukes started falling from the skies. The raid was frozen in time. Everyone either died or ran for the hills. The robots are still there though.

[00:24:46]All that is to say, sometimes these Chinese fronts aren't as leak-tight as the Chinese government would hope. If not for those bombs, the US government would have got some solid information on current Chinese operations within the US borders, which could have led to a butterfly effect where multiple companies all associated with China and aiding or working with them in some way would have been outed. Could Happy Liberty have possibly been connected to Mama Dolce's or someone else that would then lead back to Mama Dolce's causing this huge underground network of Chinese spies to be caught. I guess we'll never find out.

[00:25:21]I think one of the best or most successful [music] Chinese operations in the US was an accidental one. The Shi Huang Ti was a pre-war Chinese submarine. [music] The sub was clearly operating in US waters. For what, we don't have too much knowledge on. But the more important part about it is that it ended up beached in San Francisco a little bit after the bombs had destroyed [music] everything. The crew on board decided to leave the submarine and make their way into the city. San Fran at the time had disgusting levels of radiation. But for some reason this crew didn't underestimate it. [music] Whereas the Mama Dolce's crew became ghouls, the Shi Huang Ti crew struggled through the city, but eventually found a place to call home. And that was what used to be called Chinatown. After they had established themselves, their work began. They went back to the submarine and started to dismantle all of its subsystems. They had an idea for this technology and they started calling themselves the Shi. At some point in time they were able to move the submarine's mainframe back into a place they called the Steel Palace, which was now their headquarters. The Steel Palace was created using those systems and metal from the submarine. They installed the mainframe and it was called the Emperor. The Shi were incredibly intelligent and resourceful [music] and later on they became one of the strongest research and development crews found in the wasteland. And they didn't care about all of the politics going on around them. The Shi kind of kept their Chinese ancestors' ideologies and had instilled them into their new culture.

[00:26:43]They shunned any outsiders and maintained a bunch of their ancestors' customs like clothing and language.

[00:26:48]China had unknowingly caused an American invasion. This crew had established themselves on American soil and are now one of the larger factions on the West Coast. Their leader is the Shi Emperor, but because that's basically a computer, they rely on their head advisor, Ken Lee. Under his lead, the Shi have become an insane fighting force. Everything they believe in is to protect themselves in San Francisco from the outside world.

[00:27:12]And it wasn't just the culture and customs they inherited from their grandfathers and grandmothers. The Shi have created a network of spies and they all operate within the city to make sure nothing happens without their knowledge.

[00:27:24]If you're not part of their group, that's okay. You can still live under them. You're just expected to pull your weight within the community. And for them, that means you'll be protected by the Shi Guard. They're one of the most advanced factions in the entire wasteland, probably even surpassing the Brotherhood of Steel. Unlike almost every other faction, the Shi are capable of creating high-tech weapons, which they use to arm their soldiers and to sell. Their most powerful knowledge is the fact that they're able to restore pre-war T-51 power [music] armor. They can get it back up and running and capable for use, selling it to merchants that they trust. Their science and research is also pretty incredible.

[00:28:00]They're nearing a breakthrough in rediscovering nuclear power and being able to use it. They're also looking into space travel, but I'm assuming that's pretty far off. Back when Fallout 2 was taking place, they were only a year off of being able to mass-produce Vertibirds. So, I would assume that they're already doing that and now have the power to fly. Basically, the Shi are badasses. And in a weird way, China now [music] has a foothold in America. Not in the way they expected, even if the Republic is still around, but the roots and culture of the Chinese people is still well and alive and doing pretty damn well, might I add.

[00:28:37]>> The Switchboard is one of those spots on the map that is super low-key in what it implies. And we get a sense that the war may have started very differently than we initially thought. Hidden underneath the Commonwealth, this old Defense Intelligence Agency bunker contains DEFCON logs suggesting China was possibly the first to launch nukes. And here's where it goes a little bit deeper. The system shuts down at 9:47 a.m. The exact same frozen time shown on clocks all across Fallout from the Commonwealth to the Capital Wasteland.

[00:29:07]Later, the Railroad turned this place into their HQ before the Institute wiped almost everybody out. So, while we mostly remember it for fighting since alongside Deacon, the deeper lore hints that this bunker may have witnessed the literal beginning of the apocalypse.

[00:29:24]>> You see the future?

[00:29:25]>> That is this unit's primary goal.

[00:29:28]>> So, prior to the war, the Defense Intelligence Agency genuinely believed China may have developed stealth submarines capable of sitting off the American coastline completely undetected. It's a neurotic thought, sure, but also completely believable and valid. Imagine nuclear submarines silently floating somewhere in the Pacific while nobody even knows they exist. Sounds like Yangtze 31. What makes this interesting is that the government almost ignored it entirely.

[00:29:55]PAM, the same predictive AI later used by the Railroad, calculated there was a 91% chance China was experimenting with large-scale stealth submarine technology. But the US general overseeing the report basically called the whole thing ridiculous and buried the investigation because he couldn't believe China could hide something that massive from American intelligence. The scary part is they were right. By the time the Great War happened, Chinese stealth submarines were real, and some are already positioned near the US coastline ready to launch nuclear strikes.

[00:30:25]>> Franny, it's me.

[00:30:27]I'm at the Grand.

[00:30:29]In our old suite.

[00:30:30]48-51-30.

[00:30:33]That's the key to the safe room they installed in case of in case of the bombs. Franny, I need you to come quick. I I don't know when they'll be coming for me, so I prepped the boat in case we need to make a rapid exit.

[00:30:46]>> But I I can't be a part of this.

[00:30:48]Nuclear war?

[00:30:50]I I won't do it. And I'm not going to let anyone else use my submarine to blow up the damn world.

[00:30:55]>> Please, Franny.

[00:30:57]I need you here.

[00:30:58]If this is the end, let's spend it together.

[00:31:02]>> I have to tread lightly on this one because there is what I'd call strong spy evidence when it comes to Franny Richardson. So, let me elaborate.

[00:31:10]>> [music] >> One of the deeper Chinese espionage stories actually happens all the way out on Mount Desert Island. Before the war, Captain Arnold commanded the USS Democracy, this massive nuclear submarine docked at a naval base off the coast of Maine. Officially, he was preparing for operations against China, but behind the scenes, well, the dude had fallen in love with a woman named Franny Richardson. The problem is Franny was likely a Chinese operative. Her entire goal was to get the submarine's launch key, which would have allowed access to the Democracy's nuclear missiles. She almost pulled it off, too.

[00:31:42]When the Great War finally started, Captain Arnold abandoned his post and met her at a hotel safe house instead of returning to the submarine. At gunpoint, she forced him to reveal where the key was hidden, even shooting off one of his toes in the process. But the story doesn't end there because right after the captain gave her the [music] information, he shot Franny in the back and killed her before she could escape with the key. And because of this [ __ ] show, the USS Democracy never launched, which means one failed espionage operation may have completely changed how the war [music] unfolded on the East Coast. But what do you think? Was Franny a spy, or is that a crazy conclusion to jump to?

[00:32:20]Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned Chinese infiltration story? Well, let's start here. Fact, Mama Dolce's food processing is not an ordinary food factory. If you look at the logo and smoke stacks, it all looks so damn patriotic, almost too patriotic. It's giving this all-American business aesthetic with an overwhelming amount of America everywhere. Not to mention the terminal logs lean heavy into this, too.

[00:32:46]And then it's presented under the usual canned food production we'd expect to see. Meanwhile, underneath the building was a hidden Chinese intelligence base conducting espionage operations on American soil.

[00:32:57]>> [music] >> This wasn't some tiny operation, either.

[00:33:00]The facility had secret research labs, stealth technology experiments, launch bays, and entire robotics producing liberator drones. Which means while Americans were upstairs eating canned [ __ ] Chinese operatives were literally hiding beneath their feet running covert military operations. This entire thing was tied to something called Operation Trinitite. Originally, the Chinese believed Appalachia secretly housed these massive industrial factory cities connected to America's nuclear arsenal and automated missile silos. So, the whole point of Operation Trinitite was to infiltrate the region in order to locate these facilities and then figure out how vulnerable America's nuclear infrastructure actually was. Basically, China believed Appalachia might secretly be one giant military industrial backbone for the US. The problem was that their intelligence was mostly wrong. The factory cities they expected barely existed outside of places like Watoga. So, the mission slowly evolved into something else. Instead of preparing for a direct attack, the operation shifted toward espionage, along with stealth research, robotics, and embedding covert agents deeper inside America itself. 76 and really the entirety of the Fallout series constantly implies the Chinese weren't just fighting America overseas in Anchorage. In fact, they were already inside the country itself. That's where the Fujini intelligence base comes in.

[00:34:21]Deep beneath Mama Dolce's Chinese scientists were experimenting with stealth and cloaking tech intended to support covert field operatives already stationed inside the US. The core problem was that they barely had the resources to do it. Most advanced Chinese stealth tech was being prioritized for Anchorage and the main war effort. So, the researchers down here were basically trying to reinvent cloaking systems with scraps while hiding underneath enemy territory. This [ __ ] show operation makes the whole thing feel even more realistic, at least in my opinion, because the scientists stationed here were frustrated constantly. They lacked schematics and couldn't secure proper stealth armor shipments, and even worse, they have limited testing opportunities because they couldn't risk exposing the facility. And of course, reinforcements barely ever arrived. But when reinforcements did arrive, well, half the time the guards almost killed them because security was so absurdly strict.

[00:35:13]The facility basically operated under pure paranoia.

[00:35:17]Everyone had to carry identification at all times because unauthorized movement could get you executed, which meant random searches were constant. And that even possessing contraband could result in interrogation followed by death within 12 hours. So, though the Chinese operatives were hiding from America, they were also terrified of each other, too. But while the stealth division struggled, the robotics division started cooking. And this is where the Liberators come from. Most of us know Liberators as those annoying little communist robots scattered around Appalachia. But originally, the Chinese military considered them weak and ineffective. American soldiers basically treated them like a joke, too, because they're small and inaccurate. And let's face it, they're mostly just wasted ammunition. So, the researchers downstairs redesigned them into full-blown infiltration drones. They upgraded the weak laser systems into something actually lethal. They added spinning blades for close combat, and they gave them what they called an intimidating paint job, as well as propaganda speakers blasting revolutionary phrases in Mandarin. Some of the dialogue is funny when I reflect on killing these little bastards because through all the distortion, you can hear them yelling motivational communist slogans while trying to break your ankles. But the important thing is that they were designed to operate in swarms.

[00:36:29]You'll notice that these things network together constantly in true drone fashion, sharing information between units whenever they detected targets or movement. And because they are designed for air deployment, the robots themselves were built like tiny artillery shells that could survive being dropped directly into hostile territory. But, to add to the offense side of the Chinese here, we also find that the smoke stacks at Mama Dolce's weren't even normal smoke stacks. We find that they doubled as hidden launch bays used to deploy Liberators across all of Appalachia. So, while the public thought this place was making canned food, it was secretly launching Chinese robotic infiltration units into the United States. Just imagine how nuts that would be from the perspective of an average person living in Morgantown.

[00:37:12]You're walking around thinking this is some patriotic food company, while underground Chinese operatives are deploying cloaking systems and launching communist attack drones into the wilderness. Another piece of the real-world lore here is that initially, these Liberators were actually supposed to be the common enemy across Appalachia, >> [music] >> and not necessarily the Scorched we see today, but rather these walking deads' faces were intended to be replaced by the drone controlling the corpse.

[00:37:37]>> [music] >> Obviously, these cyborgs never made it into gameplay, but my assumption is it was easier to create zombies from the Scorched plague instead of assuming these drones took over every person in the area. But, back to the end-game lore. We gain even more insight when we realize Operation Treetop wasn't [music] fully unsuccessful either. During the operation, Chinese infiltrators managed to acquire information tied to America's nuclear launch code encryption systems.

[00:38:02]They discovered that the Appalachia automated launch system broke launch codes into fragmented keyword ciphers.

[00:38:08]And through infiltrators connected to Sugar Grove, they actually secured documentation explaining how parts of the encryption worked. And if you didn't know, Sugar Grove itself was basically Fallout's version of the NSA mixed with the CIA, but elevated even more.

[00:38:23]Officially, it looked like just another military communication station, but underneath it was one of the most advanced surveillance facilities in the United States. They monitored everything from civilians, labor organizers, anti-automation protests, free state secessionists, suspected communists, and basically anybody the government considered even remotely suspicious.

[00:38:44]Obviously, these people were good at what they did. Eventually, Sugar Grove analysts noticed suspicious overseas wire transfers connected to Mama Dolce's. Analysts followed the money through layers of shell companies all the way back to China itself, and eventually requested full surveillance of the company in August 2077.

[00:39:02]This means the US government was mere months away from exposing one of the largest covert Chinese intelligence operations in Appalachia. But perhaps the most disturbing part of this venture was that even while Sugar Grove was investigating Mama Dolce's, Chinese operatives had already infiltrated Sugar Grove, too. So, both sides were basically spying on each other simultaneously while the world was actively getting pillaged all around them. The unfortunate reality was that everyone was lying to everyone else. We find that the US government is secretly monitoring its own citizens, kind of like they do today, and Chinese operatives are hiding underneath American cities. Both sides are stealing nuclear intelligence from each other, and meanwhile the average civilian upstairs is just trying to buy canned food. Now, obviously, the Great War happens, and the fates of those operatives underground are decided. The Chinese operatives stationed inside were completely abandoned since they had no plan B for if the bombs fell, which meant they were absolutely effed since they had no evac or extraction plan.

[00:40:01]Now, some of the personnel immediately lost faith and fled into Appalachia hoping to blend into the local population. Others stayed behind because they truly believed China still existed somewhere and might eventually contact them again. The station leadership even tried convincing the remaining researchers to continue the mission, arguing that if China survived, they'd eventually be rescued. And if China didn't survive, there was nowhere left to go anyway. As I explored the facility underneath, I couldn't help but feel like I stumbled into a Chinese vault, since all we get are remnants of a tragic, already unfolded story where people were abandoned and left to rot.

[00:40:36]These people were trapped thousands of miles from home after the literal apocalypse with no idea whether their country, families, or leadership even still existed anymore. But shortly afterward, things somehow got even worse because the Enclave found the facility.

[00:40:50]And because Thomas Eckhart was completely obsessed with continuing the war against China after the apocalypse, the Enclave stormed the facility, killed many of the remaining operatives, which is why we see blood splattered throughout the place, and then captured the surviving scientists and took control of the Liberator technology for themselves. This means that even after the entire world ended, these factions still couldn't let the war go. Eckhart became obsessed with restarting America's nuclear systems. And in order to manipulate the DEFCON network into authorizing missile launches, the Enclave started deploying Liberators as fake Chinese invasion forces throughout Appalachia. Guys, let me just reiterate that the apocalypse already happened.

[00:41:29]And the Enclave was still trying to artificially continue the Sino-American war using captured communist robots. And somehow even that failed because the Liberators proved almost impossible to control. The robots constantly malfunctioned and attacked personnel randomly as well as swarmed areas unpredictably. There's even terminal entries describing Enclave operatives getting ambushed by Liberators during maintenance operations, including one poor bastard who got attacked while taking a [ __ ] It's true. Some guy died perhaps the most undignified way in the series by a bot. But doesn't that feel like the perfect ending to this whole story? Because underneath all the espionage and infiltration and robotics research and stealth tech and surveillance programs and propaganda and paranoia, everybody involved ultimately lost control of the systems they created. Because as we reflect on it, the Americans lost control of their surveillance state and the Chinese lost control of their covert operations. But after all of that, the Enclave lost control of the Liberators. And Appalachia itself became flooded with these tiny communist drones still carrying out fragments of war that technically ended over 20 years earlier.

[00:42:34]Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to play a holotape for your guys' enjoyment since we get to hear just how ignorant even people like the Responders were when it came to the Liberator bots.

[00:42:44]>> Responders field report, Sanjay Kumar speaking. Recon mission to Mama Dolce's food processing plant nearly complete.

[00:42:51]>> Shh, not so loud, Mr. Sanjay. I can hear more of those little robots with the red stars walking around nearby.

[00:42:57]>> If the robots are a concern, go and deal with them. You're supposed to be my security escort, aren't you? As I was saying, recon mission wrapping up now.

[00:43:07]What I found here is very promising.

[00:43:09]There's a good chance I can get these machines operational.

[00:43:12]>> Where are all these robots coming from anyway? What are they all doing here?

[00:43:17]>> [panting] >> Maybe maybe we should just get out of here.

[00:43:20]>> Where was I?

[00:43:21]Ah.

[00:43:23]I recommend we return with a mechanical team to investigate the possibility of restoring this facility to full operational status. This concludes my report. Pull yourself together, man. I swear, you're the most timid security volunteer I've ever met.

[00:43:38]>> Fallout 3 blesses us again with another spy thriller straight out of China.

[00:43:42]Well, Maryland, and more specifically than that, in Point Lookout. This time though, we go on a quest that takes the Lone Wanderer on a journey of finding a missing Chinese agent and stranded Chinese submarines. There's a lot of those going on in Fallout, really. This quest has a lot of parts to it, and it's probably one of the best Chinese espionage stories that we get in the entire series. It's called the Velvet Curtain, and the The premise revolves around intelligence operations focused on one main goal, to hunt down and destroy a Chinese submarine before the Americans could find it and use it to their advantage. It all begins in the Homestead Motel room 1D. When we go in, it looks like all the other abandoned rooms in the motel, except this one has a terminal inside of it. And this room isn't just a room, it's a Chinese operative safe house.

[00:44:29]>> [music] >> When we access the terminal, we learn about Agent Zhang. Dr. Zhang was a Chinese agent pretending to be a defector of the Republic. The Americans believed that he would be useful to them. They thought that he would be able to help them recover intelligence from a Chinese submarine that was stranded off the coast. But this terminal gives us the truth. He was never there to help the Americans, of course. He was there on a Chinese mission. Let me play the holo tape. Welcome to the USA, Dr. Zhang.

[00:44:58]>> I apologize that I cannot receive you in person, Agent Zhang.

[00:45:02]Our Norfolk contact confirms your arrival.

[00:45:04]How eager the Americans are to believe that a great mind of the people would defect. Our countrymen will herald you as a hero when your work is done.

[00:45:14]To that end, let us turn to the details of your mission.

[00:45:18]This room will be your safe house in Point Lookout.

[00:45:22]Focus initially on playing the American lapdog. Do not arouse suspicion.

[00:45:28]When it is safe, use the key you were given in Norfolk to open one of the public rental lockers on the boardwalk near the motel.

[00:45:36]You will be provided with the password you'll need to access your mission debriefing.

[00:45:41]The agreed upon payment will be paid upon extraction.

[00:45:45]Hai Yun, Agent Zhang.

[00:45:48]>> So now we know that Zhang was meant to maintain his cover, play along like the good American lapdog that he was pretending to be. Then he was to use the key he'd been given in Norfolk to open a public rental locker on the boardwalk.

[00:45:59]And so that was the next step. [music] And we had to follow in what should have been his footsteps. We can find the same key in the suitcase on the bed next to presumably Zhang's body. He never even made it out of the motel. It kind of feels like we're now part of the spy mission and I love this quest. So Zhang's and now our mission is to go to that locker on the boardwalk, the first dead drop. When we open it, we find another hollow tape labeled box 1207 spy's audio password and this is what it says.

[00:46:30]>> Go to the bank and use the password Sinchan Wing.

[00:46:35]The software is configured to recognize only our voices.

[00:46:40]>> This should have been Zhang's next step.

[00:46:42]He would have had to go to the bank and use the password, which apparently means albatross by the way. Next stop, the People's Bank of Point Lookout. We have to make our way to the safety deposit room and in there there's a voice activated security system. Zhang wouldn't have needed the hollow tape because his own voice was configured to open it, but since we don't have that capability, we have to play the hollow tape with the password to get it to unlock.

[00:47:05]>> Welcome to Pink Calm secure teller.

[00:47:10]Vocal authorization requested.

[00:47:18]Processing.

[00:47:19]Processing.

[00:47:21]Password verified. Voice ID mismatch.

[00:47:26]Access denied. User voice unauthorized.

[00:47:30]>> Sinchan Wing.

[00:47:33]The software is configured to recognize only our voices.

[00:47:39]>> Processing.

[00:47:40]Process >> Once it's played, box 1207 opens up and inside is the next piece to the puzzle, an espionage debriefing. Zhang would now have learned what his mission was supposed to be and what he would have had to do to complete it.

[00:47:55]>> [snorts] >> Agent Zhang, as you know, an important Chinese surveillance vessel was lost in American waters. Your mission is to destroy derelict submarine SSN-37-1A before the Americans can recover and analyze it.

[00:48:14]The recovery location is included in this dossier, and your cover ensures that the Americans will allow you access to their recovery operation.

[00:48:23]However, you will need an authorization code to trigger the self-destruct sequence.

[00:48:29]One of our field operatives in your area, Agent Yang, has these codes hidden in a dental capsule, but her current whereabouts are unknown.

[00:48:39]Locate and rendezvous with Agent Yang, then destroy the submarine.

[00:48:45]Report to your safe house for extraction information when the mission is complete.

[00:48:50]The will of the people protect you, Agent Jang.

[00:48:54]>> I know I kind of spoiled the mission earlier, but giving Jang a little more background before we dove deep in was necessary. At least I figured so.

[00:49:02]Anyways, now that we know about the sub, we find out about a new Chinese spy named Agent Yang, and they're operating in the area as well. But we don't know where she's located, and we'll have to search her out. Agent Yang is the one holding the submarine self-destruct codes inside of a fake tooth. I don't know if it gets more spy than that. The quest is now guiding us to the naval recruiting center. When we get inside, we find the DIA officer's terminal. And on this terminal, we find out that Agent Yang was already in the crosshair of the feds. They issued a person of interest public release with a photo of Yang that says, "Attention citizens of Point Lookout. Wan Yang, suspected communist and Chinese sympathizer, has been reported in the vicinity of Point Lookout. Agent Yang may be operating under an alias and or using a disguise.

[00:49:47]You are required to report any suspicious persons or behavior to Lieutenant Crumfels at the US recruitment station located at 1811 St. Mary's Branch. Known aliases: Jamie Patrick, Maria Lopez, Stanley Derek, Five Claw Dragon. Apparently, they know quite a bit about her and her multiple aliases. But, there is another terminal entry here labeled field report Yang capture {slash} transfer. It states, "Local community informants provided intelligence leading to the capture and arrest of a priority person of interest, Wan Yang, aka Five Claw Dragon. Yang is on file with the DIA as a Chinese intelligence field agent operating within America and Canada over the past decade. Yang has been transferred to the Turtle Dove detention camp for interrogation. Our office has so far declined comments to press and diplomats. Please have DOD relations advise regarding a public statement."

[00:50:41]Yang had been captured and transferred to the Turtle Dove detention camp. They were going to interrogate her and see if they could discover where the submarine was located. So, now that's where we're headed. Turtle Dove isn't just a regular old military base. This was apparently a detention site where the United States would hold and interrogate suspect Chinese agents like this guy labeled as the Submariner in the interrogation reports. Hunter spent another session in the interrogation room B with the surviving crew member from the Chinese spy sub Navy's attempting recovery on.

[00:51:10]This guy's demonstrating extraordinary fortitude for a relatively low-ranking grunt. [music] Can't say the Chinese don't make good soldiers out of their boys. I'm sure this one would have gone the same way as the skipper if the cyanide capsule in his molar hadn't been a dud. Hunter requested method B interrogation clearance, so I'm putting through to Quantico for that in the morning. Some of the terminal entries here give us the lowdown on what exactly happened to Agent Wong and some of her backstory.

[00:51:35]Wan Yang, suspected Chinese operative, previous incarceration 2062 in Canada, suspected in connection with the Niagara sabotage. Yang escaped custody during the transport to Albany, New York.

[00:51:47]Intelligence reports of Chinese activity in Maryland, which yielded an anonymous tip leading to Yang's capture and transfer to Turtle Dove detention camp, demonstrates remarkable resistance to interrogation, but yielded classified connecting the Chinese intelligence community to classified. The records show that she was interrogated and that she died under method D interrogation.

[00:52:09]Yang succumbed under method D interrogation during this afternoon.

[00:52:12]Medical examiner called in and verified cause of death as natural for the records. She's filed away in the morgue downstairs for now. Locker TD 0181.

[00:52:21]We're running out of space down there.

[00:52:23]May need to do a disposal early this quarter. After reading this, we know that her body was being kept in the morgue with that tooth hopefully still intact. And somehow, even after her capture, interrogation, death, and storage in the morgue, the Americans still missed the most important thing that she had, the self-destruct codes hidden in her dental capsule, still there.

[00:52:44]Now, we finally reach the main location, SSN 371A. The submarine is underwater south of the Calvert Mansion. Our mission is the same as what Zhang's would have been, to use the self-destruct codes to blow up the sub.

[00:52:58]I don't really know why the Lone Wanderer is deciding to complete some ancient Chinese spy mission. Maybe just out of curiosity, or maybe they figure the sub might still be a danger to the Wastelands. It's kind of funny to think about though. When we get inside the sub, the terminal confirms that this is the vessel that we've been searching for. It also lets us know what the sub was apparently doing. Vessel SSN 371A is ordered to patrol hostile waters between Variations from patrol are tolerated as required by evasive circumstances. Crew is under strict instructions not to engage enemy if detected. Self-destruct protocol must be initiated in the event of imminent capture. Status updates are required at 6-hour intervals by one-way burst comm on orbital frequency. So, they were just patrolling hostile waters and keeping tabs on enemy vessels, but they weren't meant to engage anything.

[00:53:46]And now, Zhang's mission, which is now carried out by the lone wanderer, is to erase it permanently. We enter the self-destruct codes on the terminal, and then we have to flip the fail-safe lever. Then you make a mad dash for it.

[00:53:58]Get far enough away and you can watch the sub go kaboom.

[00:54:09]But, this isn't where the story fully ends yet. After the submarine is destroyed, the quest goes on. We're now supposed to return to the motel room 1D and check the safehouse terminal again.

[00:54:20]A new message pops up for us, and what should have been for Zhang. It says, "Agent, if you're receiving this message, then our satellites have registered the destruction of your objective. Well done. Please report to my personal bunker hidden among the grounds of Calvert Mansion. Coordinates have been provided with this transmission. The bunker entrance is hidden, of course. Your pair of cryptochromatic spectacles have been hidden in the water tank of the toilet in your safehouse. Retrieve them if you haven't already. Here is the sequence code to unlock the bunker. 1323442.

[00:54:51]Once inside, the passphrase is seraphim descending. I look forward to congratulating you personally, Agent." I just want to bring up the fact that the entry says that orbital intelligence verifies SSN 371A termination. That is such a huge detail. It means that Chinese operation was not only based around agents on the ground. They had some kind of orbital or satellite monitoring going on in the area, and who knows how many other areas. The system was able to confirm that the submarine had been destroyed, and then send Zhang to the next step. Of course, Zhang is long gone. The war is over. The People's Republic that sent him is gone, too.

[00:55:28]But, the system is still running, and it gives us more details on just how vast the Chinese spy network spans. It should be pretty apparent after this video just how expansive it really is. Now, us and Ghost Jeong must collect these special glasses out of the damn toilet, the cryptochromatic spectacles. Then we have the sequence 1323442 and lastly the pass phrase, Seraphim descending. The glasses will let us read the hidden markings on the vases outside the mansion. The number on the rings on each base tells you which base matches each number. Enter the sequence correctly and the bunker hatch appears.

[00:56:01]It's quite the elaborate secret entrance and it leads us to a hidden Chinese intelligence bunker in Point Lookout of all places. The bunker is stocked with all sorts of Chinese gear and weapons.

[00:56:12]They were well prepared here. It must have been some sort of emergency base for any Chinese agents in the area. And in case the bombs were going to fall, they'd be able to bunker down here. Or if they had to wait out the feds or get picked up or something. This is where Jeong should have ended up. A protectron in the bunker will ask us for the pass phrase. Once we give it, it will lead us further inside.

[00:56:32]>> For your own safety, please vacate the premises.

[00:56:40]Clearance acknowledged.

[00:56:43]Follow me for your extraction debriefing, comrade.

[00:56:49]>> We end up in a final room with a terminal. On that terminal it gives us an extraction debriefing, which was meant for Jeong after he completed his mission. You've done well to get this far, Agent Jeong. Your payment has been transacted to your next of kin under the pretext of ration lottery. With deepest regrets, however, your life must now be terminated for the good of the People's Republic. Go with dignity, honorable soldier. After all that work, after destroying the submarine, after following the dead drops, recovering Yang's codes, and reaching the bunker, the room just seals and radiation starts filling the chamber. Jeong was never meant to leave. Chinese intelligence sent him to destroy the submarine, but once the mission was complete, he He a loose end. He knew too much, so he had to go. Like I said, the Velvet Curtain might be one of the best Chinese espionage quests in Fallout. We finally get to see just how complex some of these missions got on American soil.

[00:57:43]These agents were doing some pretty insane tasks. It's just really cool to get to experience it and how in-depth all of the background lore goes throughout the entire thing.

[00:57:53]>> The Deep is an underground spot in Appalachia filled with Chinese espionage lore. But, how does this location tie into the Motherlode Facility, Operation Piercing Viper, and the Communist Infiltrators? Well, that's what we're here to find out. One of the strangest and more in-depth parts of Fallout's Chinese invasion lore is deliberately hidden underneath Appalachia in a place called The Deep. If you barely dabbled into the cave system, it would truly look like your run-of-the-mill creepy cave network full of toxic water and glowing plants. But, buried even deeper underground is an actual covert Chinese military facility called The Motherlode Acquisition Facility. I don't know about you, but it feels like some type of Cold War facility you'd expect to see in Stranger Things. The craziest part is where it's located. The base was hidden directly beneath the Whitespring area, meaning Chinese infiltrators were secretly operating under one of the most important regions in Appalachia while America was still functioning right above them. Now that I'm saying this, it's kind of like a more wild version of Mama Dolce's factory, right? But, inside the facility, the operatives had hijacked one of Hornwright's massive Motherlode mining robots and were using it to dig tunnels underneath Appalachia itself. Evidently, we're not talking about some tiny bunker operation. They'd already completed multiple underground tunnel routes connecting different parts of the region together. Basically, it's an entire hidden transportation network underneath [music] America. And here, we find references to something called Operation Piercing Viper. We never get this elaborate full explanation of what the operation actually was, which makes it even more mysterious. All we know is that when we enter the deep in 2103, or rather the Vault 76 residents enter it, the facility's security systems automatically reactivate and start broadcasting orders telling surviving Chinese operatives to continue the operation. Think about how wild that is for a second. Over 25 years after the bombs dropped, the system still believes sleeper agents might be alive underground waiting for orders. Fallout loves implying that the Chinese infiltration of America went way deeper than people realized. Between Mama Dolces, Hoover Dam, stealth submarines, and now entire tunnel systems underneath Appalachia, we can begin to piece together a narrative that debunks China operating in isolated espionage movements. And we see a broader story that China was discreetly embedding itself inside the country way before the Great War ever happened. The Motherlode itself adds this weird layer of irony to the story because Hornwright built these giant mining machines to replace human workers and maximize profits. And then Chinese infiltrators literally stole the technology and used it to secretly burrow underneath America itself. I don't know about you guys, but that feels like Murphy's Law in the making.

[01:00:30]And Fallout always leans into the worst outcome being the most likely. Now, somehow the unpleasant part of all this isn't even the communists, but it's the fact that if James Addisons holotape is anything to go by, random civilians were accidentally discovering this place before the war and nobody believed them.

[01:00:47]>> [music] >> The dude literally thought he found an underground spaceship because the Motherlode facility looked so insane hidden beneath the caves. Anyway, I wanted to throw this holotape here so you guys could hear it for yourself.

[01:00:58]>> I'm William Bryer, investigative reporter for the Charleston Herald. I'm currently standing just outside the security fencing of one of several Hornwright industrial sites that have cropped up around the area in recent months. I'm here tonight to [music] try and get some answers about what has become known in certain circles as the Motherlode project. Could this be the answer local mining families have been looking for?

[01:01:24]A series of new mining projects that could reinvigorate the local economy. Or as the environmental groups have suggested, could these be a fresh set of toxic disposal sites poisoning the ground beneath our feet? At the very least, according to local experts, the area's recent increase in seismic events can almost certainly be tied to these sites. And now I'm here to see for myself what's really going on. I've just just made my way up to a small gap in the first line of fencing.

[01:01:54]The security here is intense.

[01:01:57]Barbed wire, armed guards, feels like a war zone. I'm making my way over a small ridge and I >> Mother of God, ground shaking and Oh my God.

[01:02:12]What is that?

[01:02:14]>> Hey, you. This is private property.

[01:02:17][ __ ] it's that reporter.

[01:02:19]Change is this. HE'S GOT A GUN.

[01:02:22]GUN.

[01:02:24]WAIT, THIS ISN'T A >> WHO HERE HAS BEEN TO CAMP LIBERTY? I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't since [music] Appalachia is a big place, but even still, it's one of the more unique pieces of Chinese invasion lore because technically, there wasn't any Chinese infiltration happening here at all. At least not directly. But what do I mean by that? Well, before the war, this isolated pioneer scout camp in Appalachia was secretly being used by the DIA for something called Operation Sleeping Giant. And the entire point of the experiment was to prove whether communist brainwashing could create sleeper agents inside the United States.

[01:03:03]The government basically used children as test subjects, mixing psychological conditioning with propaganda and staged social experiments, and then leveraging fake communist indoctrination to see if they could reprogram people into becoming loyal operatives without them even realizing it. If we walk around this place, we realize that the camp itself still looks innocent on the surface being reminiscent of the summer camps you may have attended in your teenage years. Well, with the exception of the Chinese flags everywhere and graffiti. But aside from that, we've got a large bonfire mid scout cabins and activity centers littered with tents about the area. Normal summer camp stuff. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the DIA was running MK Ultra style experiments on kids in the middle of Appalachia. And as a soft reminder, Project MK Ultra was a top secret illegal human experimentation program run by the US CIA from 1953 to 1973. And yes, it was real. Its goal was to develop drugs and procedures to alter human behavior and achieve mind control during the Cold War. Now, if you ask me, the government likely never stopped doing this, but that's a discussion for a different video.

[01:04:11]Anyway, back to 76. The really creepy part is that many of the subjects didn't even know what was happening, much like the real CIA's operation. The campers were conditioned to give fake cover stories about their time at Camp Liberty while government actors secretly manipulated the environment around them.

[01:04:28]But Fallout also leaves this morally gray on purpose because some of the surviving diary entries imply the campers weren't just brainwashed. A few of them genuinely started questioning pre-war America on their own. Automation was destroying jobs, which is a big theme we see in the wasteland, and the government was paranoid. Corporations controlled everything, and the world was spiraling toward nuclear war anyway. So, the experiment becomes this weird false lead in Fallout's Chinese infiltration lore. At first, you think, "Oh, China infiltrated this camp." But really, it was the US government becoming so terrified of communism that they started experimenting on their own citizens instead. Also, if you're looking at the screen right now, then you'll get to see what some of the campers had to watch and endure on the projector, which was pure indoctrination.

[01:05:14]>> What is the best way to get information?

[01:05:16]If we needed to learn more about Chinese agents and their spy work, where should we go? Well, that's easy. Straight to the source, to an agent that is still alive and can give us information on their work. And that's exactly what happens during the Invisible Ties quest in 76. During the whole Vault 79 operation, Page tells us that we need to get past the laser grid system. He says the best person for avoiding that is a girl named Jen. Jen tells us that she wants to find a Chinese cell suit and use the tech inside of it to help avoid the lasers. She wants to use a small vulnerability in the technology to track it down. Other Chinese devices could detect the suit and report its location back to the controllers to ensure that no spy went rogue.

[01:05:57]>> Yes.

[01:05:58]Exactly.

[01:06:00]This tech allowed for other tech from the same origin to see it and report [music] back.

[01:06:05]If the wearer wasn't where they were supposed to be.

[01:06:08]>> Bang.

[01:06:08]>> Right?

[01:06:10]Yeah, so we just had to get that other tech, which is easy to find by comparison, and check its logs. Which means that we need to go [music] out and grab one of those jumpy little Liberator bots.

[01:06:21]Yeah, that untraceable spy tech, it's Chinese.

[01:06:24]>> We first have to capture ourselves a little Liberator and bring it back to Jen and Penelope Hornwright, where they reconfigure the Liberator. While they're doing that, Jen interprets a Chinese system in the bot, and it's a reference to the White Springs golf course. Penny figures out that Jen must have connections to the Chinese secret operations that have been happening in America.

[01:06:43]>> I don't get it. I can't imagine there's anything spy-worthy there.

[01:06:47]What the heck would she be doing there?

[01:06:49]>> Are you saying what I think you're saying?

[01:06:53]>> Yes, they were spies.

[01:06:55]Our parents were spies.

[01:06:58]They're both dead, all right? I was born here. I don't know about any of that.

[01:07:01]>> No, no, no, I don't care about I mean you're looking for spy gadgets. That's like a dream project. Can I see everything when you get back?

[01:07:13]>> Apparently, Jen was born after the Great War. Both of her parents were Chinese operatives [music] that got into some trouble because they loved each other and that was strictly forbidden. She grew up in the Capital Wasteland with both her parents. And then 11 years later, her mom randomly disappeared. Jen and her dad were left alone. And at some point, her dad thought he was picking up the signal in Jen's mom's stealth suit.

[01:07:34]But really, it was just a radar trap and Jen's father was killed. She had to bury him in his stealth suit because she couldn't remove it.

[01:07:41]>> Anyone's ever prepared for that kind of loss.

[01:07:45]I feel like I need to find her so [music] I can move on.

[01:07:47]But I also don't feel [music] ready for it.

[01:07:52]>> It's pretty incredible to meet someone that has such a close connection to two of these operators. But it gets even better than that. We're eventually led to the seventh hole on the golf course, which as we know, leads to the deep, which we're well acquainted with at this point. But on the bottom floor of the base, we find a Chinese spy wearing a stealth suit and she's been ghoulified.

[01:08:11]This is Agent Mo Shao, Jen's mother. An actual agent [music] that is willing to have a conversation, unlike all of her other comrades, even all the ones in Fallout 3.

[01:08:22]>> Yes, I can see why that would be confusing.

[01:08:27]Not all of us have the luxury of choice.

[01:08:30]They threatened to kill my family if I didn't work for them. From what I have overheard on these listening devices, you are working with my daughter.

[01:08:40]She's on her way here.

[01:08:42]Right now.

[01:08:43]>> This is our chance to get some first-hand information. Mo Shao had basically been trained from birth by the People's Republic of China for one purpose, to serve as an agent.

[01:08:54]>> Yes.

[01:08:55]I was trained from childhood to do this job.

[01:08:58]It's all I knew.

[01:09:00]I never chose any of this.

[01:09:02]It was either follow orders or die.

[01:09:06]Orders and a lifetime of being shaped to think and be what they wanted.

[01:09:11]I didn't question it.

[01:09:13]Because I didn't know there were other ways to be, to think. We were lied to.

[01:09:19]But people here were also lied to.

[01:09:21]Once I could see the puppeteers, I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

[01:09:27]I fled.

[01:09:28]>> She was sent to America under threat of death, where she worked with communist operatives against the American war effort. After a lifetime of being taught to think exactly how her commanders wanted, she became a skilled and loyal spy. But then, the Great War happened.

[01:09:42]Mo Shao started to realize that both government superpowers had lied to their people. China and America had both been controlling their citizens, feeding them propaganda and using them like pieces on a board. Once she understood that, she wanted nothing to do with either side.

[01:09:57]She didn't want to go back to China, so she ran into the wasteland instead. At some point after the war, Mo Shao fell in love with another Chinese spy, as we know, and the two had a daughter named Jen. That alone went against Chinese orders. Their relationship was forbidden, and so was Jen's birth. But they still raised her together in the capital wasteland. [music] They taught her Chinese, showed her how to scavenge and survive, and they passed down a distrust of capitalism. But they didn't really raise her on strict communist beliefs, either. For a while, Mo Shao believed the old governments were gone, including China. But she was wrong. Another pre-war Chinese asset that was still loyal to the communist [music] cause, even after the world ended, eventually tracked her down. They found her through trackers hidden in her gear and gave her a choice: follow orders, or her family would be killed.

[01:10:44]And that's when she left, and now we find her here. Jen meets up with us and confronts her mother.

[01:10:49]>> I'm here. I caught up. Ma.

[01:10:57]Wait.

[01:10:58]How can you be alive, Mom?

[01:11:01]Why are you here?

[01:11:03]What is this place?

[01:11:05]Jen.

[01:11:06]Why would you come here, you foolish child? You need to leave. I came here looking for your corpse.

[01:11:13]I needed a suit, but I buried Dad with his years ago.

[01:11:19]I couldn't get it off.

[01:11:21]He was killed in it. I didn't know you were alive down here.

[01:11:24]How could I?

[01:11:26]You left. Just don't move, okay?

[01:11:31]I'm trying to think of a way where you walk out of this.

[01:11:34]Where we don't just kill you along with everyone else down here.

[01:11:39]>> I let her live because obviously she didn't want to work with the organization. She was being forced to.

[01:11:44]And also because it's badass to know a Chinese spy personally. I wish we could have got a few more details, but it's actually really cool that we got to interact with this all in 76. I think this game has hidden little treasure trolls from time to time.

[01:11:59]>> Nah, it wasn't too badly broken.

[01:12:02]I snagged it on my way out. Penny's going to fix it up so can chase the cat around.

[01:12:07]>> I think it's fascinating to see how each installment in the series peppers in its own lore on Chinese operatives or infiltrations into the games.

[01:12:15]For me, I never actually explored places like 76's Camp Liberty or 76's Mama Dolce's this much until making this week's video, and I'm glad I did. I learned a lot about just how meshed into society their military became. But, I want to leave you with the question. Out of everything we covered in the video today, what do you think is the most realistic situation Fallout got right?

[01:12:37]Do you think a robotics facility could be hidden for so long disguised as a food processing plant? Or do you think summer camps are more likely to brainwash their fellow camp goers into becoming sleeper agents? Or is this all just too far-fetched to actually consider?

[01:12:51]Thanks for watching, and remember enjoy time is never wasted time and we'll see you in the next.