Operation: Anchorage! (quest)

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

Objectives and walkthrough
After destroying the Chimera fuel tanks and clearing the Listening Post of Chinese presence in Paving the Way, you now enter the heart of the map in order to disable the Pulse Field barring American Power Armored soldiers from attacking the Chinese base of operations.

Disable the Pulse Field
This time you have to make do without the assistance of your squad. Instead, Sergeant Montgomery alone accompanies you. The first line of the enemies defense includes scattered mortar fire followed by deep trenches. Once down in the Trenches you are confronted with various stealth units and snipers. After a while, you arrive at the final line of Chinese defense, the Pulse Field. As demonstrated by American Power Armored soldiers, soldiers wearing Power Armor are not able to enter the field safely, which is why it's your job to head to the building on the far right and disarm it.

Enter the Chinese compound
With the last defensive barrier fallen, it is time for the assault on the Chinese Compound, an occupied refinery. Once the field is disarmed the Power Armored soldiers begin their attack on the Chinese Compound turrets, and eventually destroy the front gates revealing the door to the final confrontation with General Jingwei. Cross the field and enter the building.

Kill General Jingwei
Upon entering the refinery your character will freeze as Chinese Soldiers and American Soldiers (with Benjamin Montgomery) begin to fight. Amongst this fighting you will witness General Jingwei, commanding officer of the Chinese troops at Anchorage, calmly executing an American captive with Jingwei's Shock Sword.

In the following dialogue you can convince him that the battle is lost through a Speech challenge, resulting in Jingwei committing suicide with his sword to presumably "preserve his honor". If you do not pass the Speech challenge, the General will attack you. He is the strongest NPC in the game so make sure you are prepared. His shock sword also deals a considerable amount of damage, so it would be wise to try to disarm him. You should also use the gauss rifle [if obtained] on him as it does a large amount of damage to him. Try to dodge his attacks and use V.A.T.S to your advantage.

Another way to easily kill him is to lay mines while running backwards. He will follow you anywhere, thus killing him by running into the mines.

Report to General Chase and leave the simulation
Once Jingwei is defeated, all NPC's are frozen in place and General Chase appears right in the middle of the final battle and tells you that the simulation is over. He also rewards you with the Covert Ops perk if you have obtained all Intel Suitcases. You then leave the virtual reality and return to the VSS facility.

Gain access to the VSS armory and take what you want
Back in the simulation pod at the Outcast Outpost, you can now proceed to the terminal at the opposite end of the floor (where the Outcasts are already waiting for you) and open the armory. Inside you find assorted weaponry, ammunition and other supplies including some unique items; refer to "Reward" below for a detailed listing.

Upon completion of the simulation, Defender Sibley and Protector McGraw start a dispute. Sibley does not want to share any of the unlocked equipment with you whereas McGraw insists that "a deal is a deal". The disagreement results in a revolt by the Defender and most of the unnamed Outcasts against the Protector and Specialist Olin, with yourself ending up as a target for the mutineers as well. If you protect McGraw from Sibley's attack he will only reward you with some friendly dialog. If Olin survives she offers you her ability to repair your equipment, however her repair skill is only equal to the regular Brotherhood scribes at 51%.

When the two Outcast soldiers begin to argue, get into the armory as quickly as you can. It is recommended that you take the Winterized T-51b Power Armor and the Gauss Rifle to make fighting them off easier. Depending on your level, the Brotherhood rogues can be difficult to take care of, so make things easy on yourself by taking cover inside the armory and equipping the these two items.

If you're trying to save Olin and McGraw, this method is very efficient: After completing the simulation, walk with McGraw until you reach the armory doors, then open them. Walk inside the armory to the far wall, without taking any items. after Sibley, Olin and McGraw are inside, take and equip the T-51b. Then, Sibley and McGraw will start to argue. after they start, quickly close the armory door, locking the four of you inside, and set some mines (around 6 frag mines will do) one step away from the door. (correct placement of mines may take a few tries, so save before doing it.) After placing the mines, wait until the discussion is over and Sibley turns hostile. Kill him. (a V.A.T.S sequence with the Gauss Rifle to the head is usually enough. The Gauss can be found inside the armory). If done correctly, when the rest of the Outcast traitors try to get in, they'll be blown to smithereens by the mines, saving the Scribe and McGraw, and getting you through what might have been a tough fight easily.

Intel Suitcases
The last 2 of the 10 Intel Suitcases required for gaining the Covert Ops perk can be found during this mission. Please refer to the main article for their locations.

It's also possible to return to the areas to get the cases from Paving the Way, if they were missed.

Reward
Upon completion of Operation: Anchorage you acquire the Power Armor Training perk if you don't have it already. In addition, you are granted access to an armory within the Outcast Outpost.

This room contains a couple of unique weapons and armors:
 * Winterized T-51b Power Armor
 * Winterized T-51b Power Helmet
 * Chinese Stealth Armor
 * Jingwei's Shock Sword
 * Trench Knife
 * Gauss Rifle

Along with other more common items, such as:
 * Chinese Assault Rifle
 * Frag Grenade
 * Frag Mine
 * Pulse Grenade
 * Pulse Mine
 * Plasma Grenade
 * Plasma Mine
 * 5.56mm Round
 * Microfusion Cell (7)
 * Electron Charge Pack (7)
 * Mini Nuke
 * Missile Launcher
 * Missile
 * First Aid Box

Behind the scenes

 * Watch for an in-game reference; after you complete the first mission, the War correspondent asks several troops to strike a heroic pose. This pose is identical to that of the Anchorage War Memorial. He also tells the troops that maybe someone will make a statue from the picture.
 * The previous "savage" mentioned by the outcasts as having failed some kind of test is Gary 23, one of the clones from Vault 108. His body is in a room off to the left of the simulation room, behind an easy locked door. He appears to have been quite badly beaten, as his face is red and his left arm cut off (possibly due to the Outcasts attempting to remove his Pip-Boy).

Bugs

 * In the ending sequence where the player must defeat General Jingwei, American reinforcements being hostile while Chinese soldiers are friendly is a faction bug that has nothing to do with anything the player can control ingame.
 * Looking into the G.E.C.K. reveals the source of the problem. The hostility bug is due to the 'PlayerFaction' faction being a friend of the Chinese DLC02ChineseEndBattleFaction while having no relation set (neutral) in the American DLC02AmericanEndBattleFaction faction for the ending sequence. Thus, because the American soldiers are hostile to the Chinese, they also consider the neutral Player, who is friendly with the Chinese, to be hostile.


 * Taking the Winterized T-51b Power Armor completes You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head. However, you can still do the quest the normal way if you haven't started it before starting Operation: Anchorage. If you remove the T-51b Power Armor from your inventory at any point (i.e. placing it on a NPC and taking it back to repair it) then you will receive a quest completed message for You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head, and will be unable to complete the quest.


 * On returning to the bunker (to pick up all remaining loot) you may find the elevator will not move, or that the door to the bunker is sealed. This is typically rectified by reloading a previous save. Alternatively, use the console to toggle clipping and walk through the elevator doors (remember to un-toggle clipping once you're in the bunker). Pick up the loot and initiate the firefight. After it is over, toggle clipping to walk back out into the elevator (once again, remembering to un-toggle clipping once you're in the elevator) and press the elevator button to get you back to the surface.


 * Entering the Chinese refinery marks an autosave point; the last autosave before you exit the simulation, and thus, have to fight the Outcast mutineers. Should the player perish in the ensuing firefight, he will be returned to the autosave point. General Jingwei will execute his American prisoner, but will not initiate conversation with the player, instead leaving him frozen in place, unable to move or utilize the Pipboy. This can be rectified by saving before entering the refinery, or by killing General Jingwei via the console. You can also reload the auto save from the menu manually before your death auto reloads it, this bypasses the bug. You may also try closing the game and opening it again.


 * While in the trenches a white triangle may appear in the players field of vision and not go away, this can be solved by saving and quitting then loading again, or by restarting your console..(XBOX 360)


 * Some American soldiers may glitch and their weapons will appear at awkward angles from inside their bodies.(PS3 and XBOX 360)


 * Sometimes when entering the armory at the end of the mission Defender Sibley will not be there, he will wait outside and become hostile with you if he sees you, however all the nearby outcasts will help you in attacking Sibley


 * In some areas around the Anchorage cliffs if you look out into the distance you will see trees floating in the air.
 * When you defeat General Jingwei, if you crouch down beside him and exit the simulation, you are stuck in the pod unable to move. Loading an earlier save may or may not fix this. It can also happen even if you don't crouch beside him. Another possible fix is to use the console command "player.moveto 01001401" to move to McGraw's current position and regain the ability to move after exiting the simulation.
 * Sometimes after you exit the simulation, you will get message that Benjamin is knocked out.
 * Sometimes you can talk to the Power Armored Soldier that runs into the Pulse Field but he does not say anything and the Dialogue box has no words in it.
 * At times, after exiting the simulation your Geiger counter will continue to click. Reverting to a previous save anytime in the simulation will not fix it nor will moving to a different area or quitting to the main menu and reloading. You will need to restart your console to fix. Leaving the Outpost via the elevator will also fix this bug.
 * Sometimes if you quicksave right before General Jingwei kills the soldier the conversation with him will not start. you cannot move and all you can do is watch the other people fight. If you use the console to kill him it will fix it and the simulation will finish and end. If you load, make a new save, and then load that one, it may fix the problem. Alternatively, if you can't get the conversation to start and want to be part of the fight, then open the console and type 'enableplayercontrols'. This will give you the crosshair and allow you to move. Manually talk to Jingwei and the cutscene will continue as normal.
 * If you are playing as a female character, in the main base, talking to an American soldier will make them say "Sir" even if you are playing as a female