I don't see why we all suspect that scientist of inserting FEV - where would he get it from? - more than likely he was sent in to out the code in. As for the sabotage you can't just right it off like that; maybe some Enclave soldiers took matters into their own hands, a lot of people where killed that day, makes sense that they wouldn't want the enemy to succeed even in victory.
He leaves a note behind. Can't quote it word-to-word but he complains about Eden placing trust on an outsider and decides to do it himself. Badly.
Sic transit gloria mundi, he writes.
Well you say yourself below that Colonel Autumn is controlling the military, just means that it's likely a Autumn dcontrine; I would have to say though that just because we don't see ghouls means there are none, there's a camp outside Cantubury Commons that catalouges items taken from mainlanders, no bodies there but a fair few clothing and weapons. Just saying.
If we don't see something, nor hear of it, it's likely that it doesn't exist. It's a bad logic to assume things based on what you want. If it's not there, it's just not there :shrug:
Confiscated items don't tell about their owners, though it's a good find nonetheless.
They need Anna Holt in-case something goes wrong with the Purifier, and after Whitley went insane maybe the remnants just decided they needed a mechanic; it's not like they haven't dealt with mainlanders before, both amicably and through slavery.
Holt says the Enclave wanted her help. And? It pretty much proves itself here. Having Holt around is indeed for the Purifier, why not? What are you implying here?
Whitley was a robot programmer, for all we know. Virologists don't deal with bacteria, repairmen don't build.
Stiggs says he was irradiated and comatose when the Enclave rescued him, cured him and let him work for them. Simple as that. The Enclave recruited him as he seemed to come in handy.
Besides, Whitley didn't even exist at the time Fallout 3 was created. We first heard of him in NV.
As for Enclave Radio it is the truth, key difference is that everyone listening won't be alive when it comes to fruition.
Depends on who's pulling the lever.
the Radio is not truth if we are talking about it applying it directly to pure-humans only. Eden directs most of his speeches to the people of the Capital Wasteland, not "Americans" or anything like that. "The children of the Capital Wasteland will be its highest priority" and so on.
Now you see I wouldn't be so sure here, Autumn may control the Enclave's military but he certainly wasn't aware that Eden had been continuing his work on the FEV. Andronicus and I discussed this before, it's all the more likely that any backing down to pressure on Eden's part was intentional; as you said Autumn doesn't have the patience that comes from being an internal machine, we hypothesised that Eden backs down to Autumn over the FEV things and maybe others to lure Autumn into a false sense of security - so he won't begin his coup thing - so he can actually continue the FEV plan like he had all along. Makes sense no?
I wouldn't put my money on that R&D, Chemical Corps or whatever are parts of the standing military of the Enclave. They are most likely just civilians and thus take orders from Eden directly.
Nor I would go that far on hypothesizing as we lack proof to see what was going on behind the scenes. Hypothesizing is fun and so on but it's still hypothesizing. I am here discussing things that
are, not things I want to be.
I also think that Autumn and Eden's relationship is different to that, if you speech Autumn at the end it seems to me more like Autumn wanted to have his cake and eat it, have his non-FEV Purifier yet keep Eden alive as the President; maybe Autumn doesn't think himself capable of High Office or maybe he likes Eden. That self-destruct code in the locker was a plot-device young man.
The self destruct code is there, Autumn says on the tape that he uses it as a last resort, so that appears to mean that Autumn intentionally kept the code as an ace-up-the-sleeve. It's not a plot hole, nor a joke. Unlike the unexpectedly sabotaged Purifier we know who has the code, he repeats the code in tape, and says why it should be used. I'd say that's pretty damn enough of proof.
Otherwise I agree with the above. Autumn wants Eden alive. However, there are some serious tensions between them and Autumn appears to keep him alive in lack of better successors.
Also, whilst IRL the CiC is like a traditional position - much like my own Queen's role as CiC in the UK, it's really just to prevent a military coup by politicians controlling the army (as in they technically can't) - but in the Enclave it's a little different. Captain Kreger went on patrol with like three guys, a Colonel is the highest-ranking officer in the Army; what with the scale of things now being so much smaller it's not inconceivable that he could lean on Autumn more if he wanted too.
Kreger lived in a time when the Enclave's population was in thousands and command structure was intact. It appears Autumn is lucky to have a few hundred under his command. There were other Colonels back in the day, and even Curling was a Lt.Col. despite apparently lacking military expertise. A formality promotion, like with Soviet cosmonauts.
Despite my valiant efforts at understanding I didn't interpret any arguments in the above... Intended, perhaps.