The Motherlode

 is a quest in Fallout 76.

Synopsis
Before the Great War, the automation-obsessed Daniel Hornwright, patriarch and CEO of the Hornwright Industrial Mining Company, worked obsessively on a secret project, known only as "The Motherlode". What is it? The Vault 76 dwellers can find out for themselves.

Walkthrough

 * The quest is started at the Hornwright Industrial Headquarters in Charleston. To be able to progress, players need to read the mail at either Yvette's (reception) or Penny Hornwright's terminals (level 4) to learn of the project, then gain access to the upper floors by being hired as a senior executive. To do so, players need the password from the terminals, then use it on the automated hiring machine on level 3. There are two ways to be hired: Submit a resume or give a perfect set of answers to the questionnaire. The answers are:
 * QUESTION 1: 2: Blame the incident on agitators in the local unions
 * QUESTION 2: 2: Blackmail them into providing more information OR 3: Send it to the media, using the fallout to short their stock
 * QUESTION 3: 1: Dig up dirt on the politician to lower their price
 * QUESTION 4: 2: Offer them lucrative jobs to get them to reveal their identities
 * QUESTION 5: 1: Turn over the details to Hornwright's top-notch corporate intelligence team
 * After listening to the canned response, collect the ID from the printer in the adjacent office and head upstairs through the elevator in the lobby on the ground floor. Interact with the external connection system to meet the Motherlode and learn that it requires a repair beacon to obtain refueling and repair, as it reached critical levels on both.
 * The answer is located on the research terminal on the red corner machine in the lab (it might be covered in blast marks, but it's functional). Access Brigada's research notation and then the Power Struggles mail to learn of Hornwright's Pygmalionesque obsession with the Motherlode and the code for a repair beacon: 36984.
 * The player has to input that code on the pads near the dispensers, then collect the beacon. The Motherlode will then request their presence in the basement. In the basement, all the player has to do is interact with the beacon on the bottom floor and meet the Motherlode, then collect the reward from the nearby dispenser.