Engineering core

The engineering core is a location on board Mothership Zeta.

Background
The engineering core is the third area that the player encounters aboard the Mothership, and serves as a hub between numerous other locations aboard the ship, including the steamworks, hangar, cryo lab, robot assembly, cargo hold, maintenance level and engine room. Here, the player can also find several other captives who will assist the player aboard the ship. As the player progresses through the Mothership Zeta quest, the Engineering Core changes. Defenses are put up and barricades are made by the other captives; eventually a broken Nuka-Cola Machine will show up; a teleporter to the bridge appears near the steamworks entrance, down a corridor to the left of the Nuka-Cola machine; and a terrified alien will appear and plead for its life, only to be executed by Paulson.

The engineering core is one of the few rooms still available to explore after This Galaxy Ain't Big Enough... quest is complete, as most other rooms beyond it will become inaccessible. At this point, aliens will also begin to spawn occasionally in the room.

First level
The lower level is far smaller than the top level. It has a small room the Toshiro Kago sits most of the time with a large window that displays the reaches of outer space. There is a table opposite Kago and a foot locker near that. Across the from the windows is a hallway that has some garbage in the middle of it. Through this hallway, you reach the main part of the lower floor. This has a main energy pillar in the middle of it, surrounded by capacitors.

Second level
In Kago's room is a staircase that leads up the second level. This staircase opens to a room with random junk strewn about on tables, beds and the floor. Going through a door on your right will take you to the main area with the energy pillar from the first level. This is the area where most of the captives roam. Going straight, you will head into the cryo research area, going to the right will let you into the maintenance level, robot assembly, or the engine rooms and going to the left will take you to the hangar of cargo hold.

Notable loot

 * There are alien captive recorded logs 5, 6, 7 and 8, beside each frozen captive.
 * A Buttercup toy on the table near the windows, and on the floor above, near the powered down teleporter.
 * After the quests have been completed, two aliens can be found here, wielding an alien atomizer and disintegrator, along with alien food/ammunition. They respawn every few game days. This can be a good way to replenish your supply of alien power modules..
 * In the hall leading to the engineering core's lower floor there is a Chinese commando's hat.
 * 26 alien power cells can be found here in a box along with a Nuka-Cola Quantum and three turpentines. This crate appears near the alien workbench after exploring all of the rooms branching from the Engineering Core and destroying the generators or after performing the spacewalk.
 * 2 Nuka-Cola Quantums appear in a crate with a Nuka-Cola next to a generator and rusty tricycle after exploring all of the rooms branching from the Engineering Core and destroying the generators.
 * 1 mini nuke appears in the chair next to the workbench in the room that leads to the Decompression Chamber after exploring all of the rooms branching from the Engineering Core and destroying the generators.
 * 1 Nuka-grenade in a bucket, on the right side of a control panel, in the room leading towards the decompressing chamber.

Appearances
The engineering core only appears in the Fallout 3 add-on Mothership Zeta.

Bugs

 * A floating turpentine can be found in the room where the captives wait for you near the door at the bottom of the stairs. It is supposed to be on top of the generator that appears here later.
 * The teleporters on this deck may stop working, while displaying the appearance of a fully active teleporter; attempts to activate them only result on a no interaction tone. This can be a fatal game glitch permanently trapping the player on the ship. As a precaution one should save on the bridge before returning to the engineering core.
 * When looking out the window in the room with the staircase at the sun and stars, the sun and stars will move at different rates with the shift in perspective. This is due to a badly made skybox, which is made up of individual meshes, rather than an actual background texture.