Drones or Cans?

[Highwayman667]

*Casts resurrect on thread*

I've only played The Protectorate so far. I was totally down for The Protectorate for most of the game and the questline, since they seem to be a more organized institution and with a clear goal for South Underrail. I liked their ideals, liked the people and its approach. Everything was good so far, despite the clear prejudices and poor attitude of many of its members.

The real beauty of the questline of course, is when the Chemical Assault Unit appears. Once they enter the picture, everything The Protectorate and the United Stations supposedly stand for, completely falls apart in front of the player's eyes.

It was a great twist in my opinion. I imagine a similar type of disillusion awaits me when I go with the Free Drones.

[harperfan7]

That's how it is.  Protectorate looks good at first, drones look bad at first.  After doing their questlines, it switches.

[Kujo qtaro]

I choose drones for personal reasons and experience.

 While i do see the good arguments for protectorate, i belive in free drones, as having an evil government is worse than any bandits.

Plus:tin cans remind me too much of NATO fascists...

[Deep Driller]

Both. In different playthroughs.

As well as BS Expedition and pirates.

[Antalos]

The Drones and the Protectorate are two polarities that I have to choose between, and I really don't like that, and I'm a little angry at Styg for basically shoving an "either this or that" ultimatum in my face, even though neither is a "correct" choice... in fact, it's better not to choose at all, but if you have to, the Protectorate is the only correct choice. The Drones' fight is pointless and merciless, it's doomed to failure, they confidently march to hell ahead of the Protectorate, but they drag innocent people along with them...

[Amannamedsquid]

Both sides certainly have their ups and downs, but it's a fairly simple choice for me. Free Drones, 100%.

The Protectorate/United Cities seem to be a very large and very capable faction, they claim to have the entire Underrail's best interests at heart and the group seems to have some decent people in it. However, their expansionist tendencies, overall disdainful attitude for outsiders (I can imagine a similar attitude towards East and West Underrail too, not just the South) bordering on Jingoism, all of the propaganda, all of the horror stories about them that we've heard from various characters, it all paints a very ugly picture. And then there's the CAU, a bunch of psychotic spooks who make all of the Real- world three letter agencies proud at best and look like the Make-A-Wish foundation at worst. There's also General Malek, who started the Protectorate via the violent overthrow of Reformed Biocorp and who is essentially the de-facto head of the organization as a whole (it's also rumored/implied that he has the final say in any decision made by the United Cities council). To me, the Protectorate looks very much like a military dictatorship disguised as a democracy and will end up doing more harm than good in the long term. And if they gained full control of Underrail and then decided to stop pretending to be nice, would be very difficult to defeat or escape from.

And then there's the Free Drones. Described by people of the protectorate (and some others) as terrorists and bandits. Once you meet them, they come off as decent, reasonable people who value independence and who have very reasonable grievances against the protectorate, given the daunting task of waging a guerrilla war against a huge, well supplied army. Though they have been described from supporters of theirs as having had moments in the past when they let paranoia and fanaticism drive them into going too far. To me, they seems to be a group of scared, bitter and disillusioned people driven to make some hard decisions by circumstance and desperation.  And if they did turn bad down the line, they'd be just another warband like the Ironheads and the Grim Jetters, dangerous but neither omnipresent nor invincible.