Free Labor

 is a Fallout 3 quest and achievement that is added to the game in The Pitt DLC pack.

As soon as you complete the three rounds in The Hole (see The Hole for detailed info on each round), Krenshaw arrives to tell you that you are free and that Ashur wishes to talk to you in Uptown. Then you are able to retrieve your equipment from the footlocker in the middle of the room and head to Ashur.

Once there, Ashur asks you to kill Wernher because he's been rallying the slaves and a riot would result in meaningless death. If you pass a speech challenge you can tell Ashur that you never met Wernher, or that you didn't like his looks. He will tell you about the cure and even ask you to speak with his wife to know more. After that you must decide either join him or refuse his offer. Here you can either decide to go and kill Wernher, kill Ashur or wait until he is called away and investigate Haven for the cure.

Siding with Ashur
If you choose to leave "The Cure" or kill Wernher (both have no effect on Karma if done correctly), slaves will be rioting all through The Pitt. Killing them will cause Karma loss, but they are easily avoided as most are equipped with Auto Axes or Steel Saws. Wernher may be located by talking to Midea or reading any number of the notes located in her quarters. He is found in his hideout, accessed through a door in the Steelyard which was previously inaccessible. You can either ask Wernher to leave forever by passing a speech check or using the Black Widow perk or kill him (he drops the key to the Pitt Underground) for no Karma loss if Wernher shoots first. For a reward you gain access to the Ammo Press and are given a quest to collect and return Teddy Bears similar to the Scrap Metal quests in the Capital Wasteland.


 * If a speech check is used to persuade Wernher to flee The Pitt the key to the Pitt Underground will be on the table with various scientific instruments.


 * You can successfully side with Ashur without losing tons of karma by not killing any hostile Pitt Slaves. To neutralize their threat you can target their weapons in V.A.T.S. and shoot them from their hands. Quickly pickup the dropped weapon so the slaves do not grab them again. Once disarmed they will either flee or fight hand-to-hand which does very little damage. The Pitt Raiders will often kill the disarmed slaves without any karma cost to you.

Siding with Wernher
After you steal "The Cure", you will be attacked by Ashur's wife and the Raiders. After making your way out of Haven, you will then find a riot between Slaves and Raiders. Make your way back to Midea's Quarters, where she will ask you to show her the Cure, revealing she knew it was a baby all along. She will give you a note telling you that Wernher has everything arranged and is waiting for you in his hideout inside the Steelyard. After you talk with him and hand over Marie, he will tell you that you must find the "Floodlight Control" and shut down the floodlights which are preventing the Trogs from attacking Uptown.

After you are done talking to Wernher, he will give you a Stealth Boy (there are 2 more in the safe in Ashur's room). If you have the Black Widow perk it is possible to get a few Stimpaks from Wernher. Leave Wernher's Hideout and go to the Underground entrance located at the opposite side of the tracks from the Supply Plant. Enter via a manhole at the very end of the train tracks, similar to the one in Paradise Falls (if you took the secret way when rescuing the children). Once inside there will be many Trogs that you will have to fight, along with a Protectron which can be activated to help kill them.

Make your way to a terminal where you can shut off the floodlights. When you finish, exit near the entrance to the Haven's yard, where you will be confronted by Ashur. You can kill Ashur and loot his body (he drops the key to the Pitt Underground) or leave him to his fate, to which he either randomly dies by Trogs or survives the encounter and you cannot speak to him.

If you kill Ashur and return to Midea's house, you will find Wernher outside. He tells you that he will be reorganizing the city and that you should spread the word out of The Pitt in order to get more workers down in the Mill. He also tells you that you earned your cache of the Ammo Press, and that if you want you can gather Steel Ingots and give them to the foreman in exchange for gear (a continuation of the Mill Worker quest). As a reward, you gain access to the Ammo Press and are given a quest to collect and return Teddy Bears, similar to the Scrap Metal quests at Fort Independence and at the Water Processing Plant in Megaton.

Alternate Path
Alternatively, you may chose to tell Ashur that you are there to kill him and free the slaves. The turrets, the raiders and Ashur's wife will become hostile to you. You can still kidnap the baby and find out it's "The Cure" via holotapes in the safe in Ashurs room and on his wife's body. From then on, it's the same as the other route.

Glitches

 * In siding with Wernher, you are asked to head down and disable the power feeding the floodlights to let the Trogs assault Uptown. Technically, you are supposed to go through the door that leads out into Haven and confront Ashur just as the lights shut down allowing the Trog to flood the area. However, if you backtrack through the tunnels and return via the Steelyard, you can make your way back to Wernher and "complete" the mission. This breaks the Trog attack as they never go in meaning that revisiting Haven at this point will force you to confront Ashur and whoever else may still be alive in Haven from when you had initially escaped with Marie.


 * If you kill Ashur before going to Wernher or stealing "The Cure", after completing Free Labor, Ashur may appear in his office in Haven lying down on the floor (as if dead) but will still talk when you get close and still has the option to talk to him (while he is in this 'dead state'). Although if you try to talk to him nothing happens. If you kill him while he is in this state the message 'Ashur is unconscious' will appear and he will come back to life after a few seconds, you can still not initiate conversation with him though.


 * Wernher may randomly become hostile after completing Free Labor if you try to leave the Pitt at the gates (the ones where Mex takes all your equipment). Unequipping your weapon or leaving the area/coming back will fix this problem although when you complete the 3 quests he becomes quite useless so players may wish to kill him for his Scoped .44 Magnum.


 * Siding with Ashur, after completing the quest and receiving the right to use the Ammo Press, you can then kill Ashur and take his power armor. All the raiders and turrets in his office will attack you as well as his wife. His wife can be injured and will flee. Kill the other raiders. When you exit the elevator downstairs all will be well, including with Sandra who no longer seems bothered that you killed her husband.


 * Siding with Ashur sometimes causes the door to Uptown to be permanently locked, with no means of leaving.


 * After leaving the Haven, during the raiders vs slaves event, bodies of fallen NPCs will randomly disappear (Tested multiple times in PC version).


 * Sometimes Ashur can not be talked to when you meet him in Haven; also you can not take the baby then. After attacking Ashur or his wife you can kidnap the baby though and the plot continues normally with the slaves revolt.