So I came across the SS Constitution or what ever it is called exactly. Piper was about as amazed as I was that this thing was just sitting there out of water. We're going up to it to investigate when a robot comes up. It recognized me as a US citizen and "recruited" me into the navy.

I played along and went to visit ol Captian Ironsides. Friendly bunch of robots in there and a few of them needed my help. ironsides wanted me to retrieve some circuit chips for him, stolen by the scavengers. Then the ship comes under attack so I helped defend it which morally put me on the side of the robots.

They seemed harmless enough to a 210 year old US citizen. Defended themselves only when provoked. Seemed fair.

So I go talk to the remaining scavengers who don't dare attack. They have the chip but won't hand it over. Instead they want me to turn on my new friends and take over the ship for profit.

What I find strange is... it seems the game feels your being bad when you attack the scavengers. Piper for example did not care much for it. And I had to steal the chip. I'd like to help out Ironsides since he is the first Sentry Bot that didn't try to kill me. The scavengers on the other hand will kill for profit and don't seem to mind much who they harm to get it.

Is there a neutral ground in this quest?

I originally decided to help the robots but Strong chastised me for siding with robots over my own kind, so I reloaded the save and agreed to sabotage the robots. In the end the scavengers back stabbed me and I had to kill both groups. I'm wondering what would have happened if I stuck with my plan to help the bots...

The most glorious maiden voyage ever witnessed by mankind.

I sided with good Captain Ironsides. No regrets.

So the ship actually moves when you help the robots? When you sabotage them it blows one of the engines.

The robots give you a cannon. thus they are better

Wait, the scavengers in that quest are supposed to talk to you? Interesting. They shot at me on sight.

Oh well, I would have helped the robots anyway and I now have a handheld cannon to show for it.

I'm going to say I loved that quest and siding with Ironsides is probably the only way it should be done.

Oh it most certainly moves.

Captain Ironsides is the most stalwart of naval commanders.

Lets see, you find some flesh and blood people, trying to scratch out a living, and decide to help some robots instead? Don't get me wrong, I side with the robots every time, simply because I really like ironsides. But those robots are not synths, they are just machines following out some orders that no longer hold any relevance.

If I leave Piper at home, I wonder if I can do this quest (siding with Ironsides) without disapproval from her.

So if some scavengers walked up to Codsworth and started pulling him apart for scrap to sell, the "good" thing to do would be to help them? Or scrap Codsworth yourself?

Sure, robots are robots, but the AI they're equipped with should at least make you think twice before you destroy them in cold blood. Not to mention you're in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You can help a group of scavengers destroy friendly robots so they can scrap the ship they're on, earning yourself nothing/scrap/caps, or you could make an ally of a friendly Sentry Bot with an army of Protectrons under his command -- all aboard a ship that certainly looks like it can fly.

well I left Piper at our fortified lighthouse retreat and took Curie with me instead. She loved every moment of it including our slaughter of scavengers who should have simply walked away.

Its worth helping the robots out, they launch the ship, which is basically a giant rocket powered vertibird lawl.

And the unique cannon is pretty awesome though you can't craft its ammo vanilla so it'll be used infrequently at best.