Trouble on the Homefront

Trouble on the Homefront is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360 and PC achievement and a PlayStation 3 trophy.

Walkthrough
This quest will be activated anytime after completing The Waters of Life, by picking up the Vault 101 distress signal on your radio. (Note: If you go to find the G.E.C.K you may have a bit of trouble picking up the signal. To find it simply wander near Vault 101, Megaton is close enough). It is a message from Amata asking you to return to Vault 101 to help stop her father, the Overseer. If you killed the original Overseer while escaping from Vault 101, Allen Mack will be the new Overseer and you can still do this quest (although the radio message changes to "...the new Overseer is insane. If you can hear this, please stop looking for your dad and help save us.").

Since you and your father escaped from Vault 101, the Vault has been divided into two major factions. The faction led by Amata, holed up in your father's Clinic, wants to open the Vault and interact with the outside world. The other faction is led by the Overseer and he wants to keep the vault closed permanently, in accordance with its mission. Butch however, wishes to abandon the vault entirely and live on the surface; the rest of the rebels simply intend to remain living in the vault but want to be able to make excursions into the wasteland when necessary.

One of the most essential reasons for having access to the wasteland and the remainder of humanity, apart from the obvious need for supplies and parts for the vault's aging life support apparatus, is to avoid collapse due to genetic stagnation and inbreeding. The number of Vault 101 residents has fallen significantly in the two centuries since it was sealed, implied heavily by various conversations and other means (such as a message encouraging procreation on the text messages) prior to the Lone Wanderer's initial escape. If he/she successfully persuades the overseer to allow exterior access then the overseer himself will finally accept and openly admit that without external input, the vault's population will not remain genetically viable for more than a generation or so.

Solutions
Although there are only three different outcomes, there are plenty of ways to finish each. Be creative!

Keep the Vault closed
There are essentially two ways to keep the vault closed. One way is to ignore the problem. The downside to this is you will not receive any quest-related rewards. The other way is to deal with the rebels. This completes the quest and will reward you accordingly.
 * Simply ignore the radio message. The signal will cease after a while and you will lose the opportunity to gain XP and the modified utility jumpsuit.
 * You can also just enter Vault 101 once, talk to some people and/or take items (such as opening the safe in your father's office) and then exit the vault. After leaving, you will be unable to reenter the vault as it has been locked again.
 * Kill the rebels. Killing Amata only should break them up, but you may also have to kill the other rebels as well. (You'll gain bad karma for this even if you're trying to keep the Vault closed), NOTE: if you are spotted, the whole Vault may turn hostile, including the Overseer. If you hide for long enough, they may turn friendly again.
 * Persuade Amata to stay in the Vault because the outside is too dangerous (You'll gain good karma for this). There are two ways to achieve this:
 * Pass a Speech check.
 * Hack the Overseer's computer and discover the attempts by the Enclave to gain entry into Vault 101, and the Overseer's refusal to admit them. This provides proof of the dangers outside and of the Overseer's attempts to protect them and will allow you to convince Amata without the Speech check.

After dealing with the rebels, you may talk to the Overseer who will ask you to leave. If you ask him about a G.E.C.K. he will tell you that Vault 101 never had one and will offer you the modified utility jumpsuit instead, whether or not you used violence. Alternatively, you can ask him for food and ammunition and get 13 Cram and 350 5mm rounds in place of the suit.

Open the Vault

 * Kill the Overseer.
 * One of two nonviolent solutions—neither of them work on Allen Mack, if you killed Amata's father in "Escape!" Any attempts to try to reason with Mack will result in him becoming aggressive.
 * Pass a Speech check. The Overseer will realize that the Vault won't survive more than a generation or two no matter how many supplies they may receive.
 * Show that security is planning an assault against the Overseer's orders. Access the computer in the security office either by hacking into it (Average difficulty) or by obtaining the password (either from the body of Officer Wilkins or from a locker on the other side of the room). This will also allow you to free Mr. Brotch (who also knows of the plan) from the jail cell. Telling the Overseer about the assault convinces him he has failed his mission as Overseer, and he'll surrender without the speech check.

Amata will take on the role of Overseer - if the Overseer is still alive, he relinquishes the role. Amata will show regret and sorrow if you had to kill the Overseer, or excitement and amazement if you managed to persuade her father to step down without violence. If you talk to her she will then 'ask' you to leave the vault permanently even if you instead persuaded her father to stand down without violence and will provide you with the modified utility jumpsuit (only if you didn't use violence). You may randomly encounter Susie Mack in the Wasteland. You can talk to her and she will give you purified water but say that you still cannot return. Butch will end up in Rivet City at The Muddy Rudder.

Destroy the Vault
Hack the (hard) computer in the sub-basement or steal the Vault 101 Maintenance Password from Stanley, the maintenance man, who can be found wandering around the cafeteria/dorm level. Go into manual override mode and perform a flush and a purge. This will flush the water chip, resulting in a catastrophic system failure (if Stanley is performing maintenance on the system, as he tends to do, the resulting explosive malfunction will kill him). Everyone is now forced to evacuate the vault (you lose Karma for this). This is always an option (unless you have loaded the latest patch, see below) - you can even complete the quest with another method and then flush the chip, although this will render anything you did before meaningless from the quest's point of view.
 * The passcode only unlocks the terminal and does not enable you to unlock any extra areas of the Vault.
 * You can lie to Amata that it was the Overseer's plan, and lie to the Overseer that the rebels did it. In the latter case he will stay where he is, ashamed at what he has caused, which results in his death.
 * If Amata finds out you did it, either by telling her or failing the speech check, she will say you're worse than her father and threaten to kill you if she ever sees you again. As she is running out of the Vault, you can attempt to speak to her, but she won't say anything and instead turn hostile and attack you.
 * In the latest patch, the option to Destroy the Vault is lost after completing the mission through interaction with either Amata or the Overseer. Back at the filtration room computer the option "Begin Water Chip Service" now returns the message "Service Disabled - See Vendor" when selected. This applies even if Butch has given you the optional task to Sabotage Vault 101.

Obviously, life in the vault is no longer feasible. A random encounter may occur where Amata is being interrogated by the Enclave. If she gives up the location for Vault 101, she will be executed. If you save her life she runs away from you, cursing you for all the trouble you caused. She doesn't have a destination and will eventually be killed by one of the horrors of the wasteland. Butch can be found at The Muddy Rudder bar in Rivet City and can be recruited if you have neutral Karma. In the random encounter Trapped Outside you'll also find dead residents (provided these residents survived your Vault visit). In order: Freddie Gomez, Pepper Gomez, Herman Gomez. All of the other vault dwellers are not seen again.

Doing this nets no rewards of any kind except bad karma; if you particularly want a reward then you can complete the quest that way, get the reward, and then destroy the chip. You can, of course, still loot the Vault.

Failure
Killing the overseer after getting the vault either open or closed results in failure of the quest itself. This also causes the Vault to be left open and you can come and go as you please, but all residents will turn hostile. A message will appear explaining that Vault 101 has been 'thrown into chaos'. If you decide to make it a home-away-from-home, be aware that even after you've killed all the people, the place will become infested with radroaches.
 * It's possible for this to happen accidentally - if you convince the rebels to stay and then go to the Overseer when Officer Wilkins is nearby he will cause the Overseer to become hostile as well. This won't instantly cause failure unless the Overseer actually dies.

Glitchy endings

 * It is possible to kill the leaders of both sides without failing the quest. Resolve the situation, killing people if you want, but spare the acting Overseer (whether it is Amata, her dad, or Mack). Attack the Overseer and make them pursue you to the entrance of the vault but don't kill them. After the vault door closes and the quest is deemed completed, you can revel in the joy of slaying the previously "critical" non-player character and getting away with it. You won't receive the message about the vault being thrown into chaos if you achieve this.
 * It is also possible to kill the leaders of both sides and more residents of the vault without failing the quest. If the player convinces the overseer that the vault shouldn't remain closed the overseer will then run and tell Amata that she is the new Overseer, right after that conversation, kill Amata and everyone will want to kill you, make a run for it and get out of the vault towards the wooden door to the wasteland but don't open it, the quest will be completed, the player will gain the XP, the vault door will close and even with the vault door closed, the residents somehow will get outside the vault and attack you, you can kill them then for XP with karma loss but the mission will be complete (discovered on Fallout 3 PC version).
 * It is also possible to finish the quest and have the vault door stay open indefinitely. Enter the vault and don't talk to anyone - ignoring Officer Gomez, Amata and the Overseer isn't critical but there's no real point in talking to anyone else (except perhaps Butch, to get the optional "Sabotage Vault 101" subquest on your Pip-Boy, but it isn't necessary). Head to the reactor area and purge the water chip. This will cause the vault to evacuate. Wait about 2–3 minutes realtime and then go through the Overseer's tunnel. (If you can't avoid the Overseer here, lie to them.) Leave the vault when it says the quest is completed (when the vault door would normally close). The door will remain open forever, and the vault will be empty of people.
 * You cannot shut the vault door using this method. Method confirmed on Xbox 360.
 * If you avoid the Overseer when leaving they may remain in the vault, alive and with no dialogue options.
 * If you kill the Overseer and then kill Amata when she tells you to leave then the vault door will stay open indefinitely
 * Note: Waiting does not work.

Bugs

 * If you entered the Operation: Anchorage simulation when the signal was available, but had not activated the quest, the signal will disappear upon exiting the simulation preventing you from ever starting the quest. The same thing happens upon going to, and returning from, Point Lookout - but if this happens, going to The Pitt and returning directly to Megaton/Vault 101 might reactivate the signal. Also, the signal might not be available for those who have installed the expansions "Operation: Anchorage" and "The Pitt" just after doing the quest, "Waters of Life." After finishing the quests from "The Pitt" you can go to Megaton or Vault 101, open the radio screen on your Pip-Boy, and listen the Vault 101 distress signal to start the quest.
 * If you choose to end the vault troubles by sabotaging the vault, the vault door will remain open, allowing you to come and go as you please. If you inspect the vault for any present dwellers, you will notice that Beatrice Armstrong is no longer present at the surgery table (but Andy is still present), and Mr. Brotch is no longer held up in the jail cell (if you decided not to free him in the quest). The jail cell door remains locked.
 * When attempting to reason with the Overseer and convince him to step down, he refers to the player as a "young man," regardless of the Lone Wanderer's actual gender.
 * It is possible that the final objective (Leave Vault 101 forever) will stay marked as unfinished, even after you've completed the quest.
 * After convincing the Overseer to step down, it is possible to get to Amata before he does. Speaking to Amata will have her talk as though the Overseer has already spoken to her, and after the player finishes talking to her the Overseer will arrive and their conversation will proceed normally.

Behind the scenes
Fallout reference: Portions of Amata's speech to the Lone Wanderer when he or she leaves are strikingly similar to the speech given to the Vault Dweller at the end of Fallout, even the number of ellipses used in each (bold quotes specifically).

NOTE: The above dialogue only appears if the Lone Wanderer chooses to resolve the problem by killing the Overseer. Resolving the problem diplomatically results in a different dialogue that does not reference the original Fallout.

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