Paving the Way

 is a Fallout 3 quest that is added to the game in the Operation: Anchorage add-on.

Listen to General Chase's briefing
General Chase congratulates you on your success in The Guns of Anchorage. You are promoted and put in charge of your 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. You have to destroy the fuel tanks at the enemy Chimera Depot, clear a Listening Post of all Chinese presence, and disable "their damn Pulse Field". According to Chase, you should not try to disable the Pulse Field before you have completed the other assignments.

Chase then refers you to your intelligence officer for this mission, Lieutenant Morgan, for the details.

Talk to Lieutenant Morgan
Lieutenant Morgan is 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 you can get equipment by selecting it at the terminal and bringing the resulting Requisition Holotape to the Quartermaster (Fallout 3) (you can change your choice once by speaking to him).

For details on your strike team please see: Strike Team.

Talk to Sergeant Montgomery
Now in the U.S. Army Field Headquarters, talk to Sergeant Montgomery to make him leader of your team. You relay all orders for your 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 you pass a Speech check, he gives you a Scoped Gauss Rifle and ammo on top of the equipment package you have selected.

You can then choose which target to attack first: the Chimera depot or the listening post. Tell the Sergeant what you are going to do first, and then go to the area yourself.

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 your objectives in the final simulation quest, Operation: Anchorage). Alternatively, simply follow Montgomery and your 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. You'll notice one of your friends in arms executing four Chinese prisoners. Take a quick look at the curved sand bag structure in front of him, and you'll find a Chinese Commando Hat you can pick up and wear next to a static Pack of Cigarettes. Approach Ice Camp, and fight your way through Chinese soldiers and Spider Drones until you reach the depot. Once there, dispose of the enemy soldiers and any Chimera tanks. This will be easier if you chose the Heavy Assault pack, with its Missile Launcher, but Frag Grenades will work just as well. Rig the fuel tanks and enjoy the fireworks. After both of them are destroyed, you are teleported back to the U.S. Army Field Headquarters.

Secure the Chinese Listening Post
On the way to the Chinese listening post, you have to pass through an area of abandoned mines and houses which is heavily infested with Crimson Dragoons, Chinese snipers, regular troops, and a new breed of troop, the Chinese Launcher. Launchers have missile launchers (it's in the name.) and health similar to the Inferno Units. Simply follow the path and keep killing those reds until you reach the listening post. You'll have to plumb every nook and cranny to get all the troops, which include more Dragoons and Chinese Technicians. The techies are weaker than regular commies, but will nervously continue to work when you approach. Be careful. If one of the techs reach a HAM radio, they'll request reinforcements, a squadron of Dragoons that attack as you hit the roof. You are teleported back to the camp when you slaughter every last one of 'em.

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

Intel Suitcases
4 of the 10 Intel Suitcases required for gaining the Covert Ops perk can be found during this mission, 2 on the way and at the Chimera fuel depot as well as 2 on the way to or at the listening post. Please refer to the main article for their locations.

Trivia

 * Upon returning to the camp after completing the first objective, you encounter 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 War Memorial in Washington, DC and the reporter remarks that the photo is great and that "maybe some day someone might make a statue out of it".
 * On the path leading to the Chinese Ice Camp, one may find an American soldier executing four Chinese prisoners of war with pistol shots to the head. This is a brutal practice, and one which foreshadows the behaviour of American troops during the annexation of Canada.
 * Should you feel morally obliged to do so, you can exercise the privilege of your rank and take the necessary disciplinary steps as might be expected in such situations; you can kill the offending soldier! This will, oddly, incur karma loss. Less surprisingly, it ensures the enmity of the American troops at the nearby base. Your strike team will remain on your side throughout the ensuing battle, as shall the 'officers' at the base (Gen.Chase, Lt.Morgan, Sgt.Montgomery, Dr.Adami and the Quartermaster - they're not tagged as standard 'soldiers'). Amusingly, the soldiers from the infirmary will see fit to do battle against you, clad in nought but underwear against the Alaskan winter. The Chinese prisoners spared thus simply continue to huddle apathetically as they were.
 * Notably, the Chinese don't bother executing their American prisoners (whom you may free for no karma gain and 50 Experience Points, or shoot at no loss), though at least not in front of the player. This excludes, of course, the dastardly General Jingwei - who exhibits his distaste for the American way by executing a prisoner in front of you. International diplomacy, eh?
 * There are a number of possible references to Band of Brothers in this quest, such as the American Soldier who wants to collect a Chinese weapon for his "kid brother", and the execution of the Chinese soldiers, (a possible reference to Captain Ronald Speirs).
 * There is a rare Hulagirl Bobblehead on the Quartermasters Desk, presumably to remind him of warmer climates or perhaps "what we are fighting for".
 * After leaving the American Field Headquarters and heading to the left, it is possible to see an American Soldier executing four Chinese Soldiers in turn with a 10mm Pistol.
 * In the mining town, inside one of the bombed out buildings, there is an American soldier urinating in the corner next to an ammo recharge station and health drop. When confronted, he asks you not to tell anyone how you found him.