Unsafe Working Conditions

Unsafe Working Conditions is a Fallout 3 quest and achievement that is added to the game in The Pitt add-on.

A Warm Welcoming
Depending on dialog choices, the player may be beaten unconscious by the Pitt raiders, or the player may walk to Midea's quarters without too much harassment from the Pitt raiders.

Once inside, Midea will inform the player of her goal: to steal The Cure from Ashur. The conversation is rudely interrupted by Jackson, a Pitt raider, who interrogates Midea as to what they were talking about. She stammers out a lie about the Lone Wanderer being the new "volunteer". Jackson buys it and leaves the player and her alone. She instructs the Lone Wanderer to go and gather steel ingots from the Steelyard, because slaves that don't work are not tolerated. If the player inquires about weapons, she will point out Marco in The Mill for the player.

The Steelyard
The entrance to the Steelyard is through a small buffer zone called the abandoned area. The Steelyard is an extremely large area, and is inhabited by feral mutated humans - nicknamed 'trogs' by the citizens of the Pitt. A door in The Mill leads to the Abandoned Area. In turn, the door to The Mill is in the corner of Downtown where Adan is welding.

It would help the player greatly to grab an auto axe from Marco in The Mill before proceeding, as the Steelyard is a rough place for an ill-equipped, unarmored player. Asking Kai - who lives across the square from Midea - for some food is beneficial as well.

Everett oversees all work in the Steelyard and congratulates the player on their misfortune of being chosen to do such a dangerous task. He will walk the player through the Abandoned Area, and point out a trog scampering on a catwalk above. Everett will stop at the door and tell the player to proceed inside. The Steelyard is easily one of the largest areas in Fallout 3. It is an urban jungle of rusted steel catwalks, mammoth pipelines, and derelict buildings, as well as a relatively intact Supply Plant to the east. The first two ingots can be found directly in front of the player after entering the Steelyard, along with an assault rifle and some ammunition. That should help against trogs. Further ahead, the player stumbles into an emotionally charged scene: a slave trying to reason with his brother, Billy, now a trog. The trog will eventually attack the horrified slave if the player does not intervene. Killing 'Billy' will cause the slave to mourn the death of his brother: there is no good ending.

The rest of the steel ingots can be found easily, although at this point, the player most likely isn't well equipped for a deep foray into the Steelyard. See the page Mill Worker for extensive information on finding each Steel Ingot.

After the player leaves the Steelyard for the first time, they are presented with an unwelcome surprise: a trog has ripped through the fence in the Abandoned Area and now stands between the player and the door to The Mill. Fortunately, the hole it ripped in the fence opens up a new area with a few extra Steel Ingots to scavenge.

"Well, now, look who made it back," grumbles a surprised Everett, as the player returns with the steel ingots. This will earn the player a laborer outfit, and possibly more depending on how many Ingots the player managed to return. Once again, see the page Mill Worker for information about the rewards for finding the steel ingots.

The player will also receive the Auto Axpert perk, which boosts the player's damage with the related weapon and its variants. It is time for the player to head back to Midea.

The Hole
Midea tells the player to prepare for a fight in The Hole, which she explains is one of the only ways a slave can earn their freedom, killing fellow fighters in order to be promoted to the ranks of The Pitt raiders. Outside, Ashur will address his workers from a balcony above the square in front of Midea's house, talking about The Hole and asking for volunteers to fight for their freedom. Midea speaks for the player, volunteering them, and Ashur accepts.

On your way to The Mill before the door there is a group of Pitt slaves huddled up. If you walk up to them they whistle and they spread out. A player with high enough sneak can sneak up to them and listen to their conversation. They talk about being anxious for what they are going to do, and one of the slaves says they know about the cure.

Signing up for the battles in The Hole is quite simple. Faydra is in charge of the fights and is located in a room in The Mill, at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The entrance to the stairs is tagged with a sign that reads, 'Arena'. Faydra will inform the player of the rules and the like. There is a locker in the room that contains common weak weaponry, usually a low-caliber pistol and a few makeshift melee weapons. It would be good to use the items obtained from Everett or whatever the player managed to scavenge from the Steelyard. If the player intends to complete the unmarked quest Mill Worker, doing so before fighting in the Hole will earn good equipment and make the fights much easier. There are three fights to endure, ranging from one to three opponents each time. When the player finishes the third fight against Gruber, he drops the Infiltrator, an assault rifle with a scope and suppressor.

Once the player has cleared The Hole, they are considered 'free' and may have an audience with Ashur in Haven. The player also receives their gear that was taken from them at the end of Into the Pitt in a footlocker just outside of the fighting area. The player will also receive the Pitt Fighter perk, which boosts Damage Resistance and Radiation Resistance by 3% each. This ends this quest and begins the next quest, Free Labor.

Behind the scenes

 * When you speak with the character Adan, he quotes a famous passage from Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher.

Bugs

 * During Ashur's address in the square the speech can glitch causing him to stop half way, making it impossible to compete in The Hole or to progress the storyline. Solution 1: The only way to continue is to load an older save from before the speech and attend it again. Solution 2 For PC users, type "setstage xx00108b 120" in the console, where the "xx" is your load order for The Pitt (as it is in FOMM or the launcher). This will go to the next objective, skipping Ashur's speech. NOTE: there will be an invisible wall that you cannot pass, you will have to turn clipping off (type "tcl" in console)
 * If you don't find Wild Bill the FIRST time you enter the Steelyard he will be glitched through the map though it can be resolved.
 * If the footlocker outside the fighting area is closed before all items have been retrieved, once the quest is completed these items disappear for good.
 * When talking to Faydra OUTSIDE of the gate that leads to the hole, she will run inside and lock it, making it impossible to do the quest, the only solution is to reload a previous save or, if that is not possible then there is no way to get in.
 * After killing the slavers in the hole, when you go back to kill the Bear brothers, the game can freeze.
 * After completing your time in The Hole, Faydra may only respond to attempts at conversation by opening her mouth and emitting no sound.
 * Sometimes when returning to Everett for turning in the first ten Ingots, bringing him more than ten, then traveling back downtown to Midea will cause the game to crash and corruption of the file, so beware.
 * It is possible to kill Jackson before talking to Midea in her room. When he is supposed to interrupt his corpse will instead fly into the room. Midea does not try to speak to the body, and you can continue as normal.