Paving the Way

Paving the Way is a main quest in the Fallout 3 Operation: Anchorage add-on.

Detailed walkthrough
The quest will automatically begin after the completion of The Guns of Anchorage.

Listen to General Chase's briefing
General Chase congratulates the Lone Wanderer on their success. They are promoted and put in charge of their own strike team (formerly led by the now deceased Patterson). The general explains that 3 tasks have to be completed before the assault on the Chinese headquarters, a refinery, can begin. The player character has to destroy the fuel tanks at the enemy Chimera Armor Depot, clear a Listening Post of all Chinese presence, and disable "their damn Pulse Field." According to Chase, the player character should not try to disable the pulse field before they have completed the other assignments.

Chase then refers the player character to their intelligence officer for this mission, Lieutenant Morgan, for the details.

Talk to Lieutenant Morgan
Lieutenant Morgan can be found in the same tent sitting at a computer. He can provide more detailed information on the targets, as well as why they need to be taken out. Morgan also explains that the player character can get equipment by selecting it at the terminal and bringing the resulting requisition holotape to the quartermaster (One can change their choice once by speaking to him).

Talk to Sergeant Montgomery
Now, in the U.S. Army field headquarters, talk to Sergeant Montgomery to make him leader of the player character's team. The player characters relay all orders for their team through him, although this is basically limited to telling them where to wait and whether to attack.

Don't forget to visit the quartermaster and get your equipment. If the player character passes a Speech check, he gives them a scoped Gauss rifle and ammunition on top of the equipment package they have selected.

The player character can then choose which target to attack first: the Chimera depot or the listening post. Tell the Sergeant what they are going to do first, and then go to the area.

When leaving the camp, the path on the left leads to the Chimera depot, the path on the right leads to the listening post and the path in the middle leads to the pulse field and Chinese compound (which are going to be the objectives in the final simulation quest, Operation: Anchorage!). Alternatively, simply follow Montgomery and the team.

Destroy the fuel tanks in the Chimera Depot
The path to the fuel depot is fairly linear. Starting at H.Q., take a left. One will notice one of their friends in arms executing four Chinese prisoners. Take a quick look at the curved sand bag structure in front of him, and one will find a Chinese commando hat they can pick up and wear next to a static pack of cigarettes. Approach Ice Camp, and fight through Chinese soldiers and spider drones until reaching the depot. Once there, dispose of the enemy soldiers and the Chimera tank. This will be easier if the player character chose the heavy assault pack, with its missile launcher, but frag grenades will work just as well. Rig the fuel tanks with explosive charges and enjoy the fireworks. After both of them are destroyed, the player character is teleported back to the U.S. Army field headquarters.

Secure the Chinese Listening Post
On the way to the Chinese listening post, the player character must pass through an area of abandoned mines and houses which is heavily defended with Crimson Dragoons, Chinese snipers, regular troops and a new breed of enemy, the Chinese launcher. Launchers are regular Chinese troops with missile launchers and health similar to the Inferno Units. Simply follow the path and keep killing those reds until reaching the listening post. Sometimes before entering the post, if the player character orders a Mister Gutsy through Sgt. Montgomery, it will turn around and hover back up the path one came. The player character has to search every nook and cranny to get all the troops, which include more Dragoons and Chinese technicians. The techies are weaker than regular soldiers, and will nervously continue to work when the player character approaches. If one of the techs reaches a HAM radio, they will request reinforcements, a squadron of Dragoons will attack as the player character hits the roof. The player character is teleported back to the camp when they are all killed.

Once both objectives have been completed, this quest ends, and Operation: Anchorage! begins.

Rewards

 * 100 XP

Intel suitcases
Four of the ten Intel suitcases required for gaining the Covert Ops perk can be found during this mission, two on the way, and at the Chimera fuel depot as well as two on the way to or at the listening post. Refer to the main article for their locations.

Behind the scenes
Upon returning to the camp after completing the first objective, the player character encounters an American war correspondent who asks a couple of soldiers to pose for a photograph. Their pose is identical to the one displayed by the Anchorage Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the reporter remarks that the photo is great and that "maybe someday someone might make a statue out of it." This is a reference to the Iwo Jima War Memorial.

Bugs

 * During the final part of this quest when one infiltrates and secures the Listening Post, Sergeant Montgomery can get stuck in a loop and the player will be forced to save and reload. Doing so will cause Morgan to run over and initiate the dialogue for the quest to complete. If one has not killed the two cloaked snipers on the roof of the Listening Post, they may not be experiencing a bug.
 * It is possible for the Quartermaster to give the Wanderer the scoped Gauss rifle but nothing else from their equipment package after they have passed the speech check. This will, if not manually asking for the equipment, not remove the requisition holotape from the inventory. It will still be there after leaving the simulation and, because it's a quest item, it won't be removable without the use of console commands.

Gallery
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