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Background

In several places in the wasteland, you'll find holotapes referencing an escaped android. Listening to the holotapes, or asking someone about them, will trigger the quest. If you somehow miss all of the holotapes, then you can also trigger the quest by talking to Dr. Zimmer (#2) in Rivet City.


Walkthrough

The quest will start out a little vague, just asking you to learn more about the android. You can do this by listening to the holotapes or by talking to the owners of the holotapes (usually by bribing them or using your speech, medicine, or science skills to get at the answer).

Holotapes can be found with four kinds of people: doctors, technicians, slavers, and slave sympathizers. There are about 20 holotapes in the game. Three of them can be found in Megaton -- in Craterside Supply, in the Megaton Clinic, and in Manya's house -- and one or two others can be found in most towns.

Once you've learned enough about the android, at a random location you'll meet a woman named Victoria Watts, who won't be very happy with you. That's because she's a part of the Railroad, a group that preaches "the rescue and salvation of synthetic humanoids," and she'll assume that you're up to no good.

No matter what you say to Victoria, the conversation will go about the same. She'll give you an Android Component, and she'll ask you to deliver it to Dr. Zimmer (#2) in Rivet City and claim that the android is dead. Then she'll leave and she'll return to her home in Rivet City (#1).

You'll then have two choices for what to do: you can help the android by misleading Dr. Zimmer, or you can help Dr. Zimmer track down the android.

Helping the Android

This is the easiest but least rewarding solution. If you show the Android Component to Dr. Zimmer (#2) and tell him that the android is dead, then he'll believe you, and he'll give you 50 caps for your trouble. You'll also earn 300 experience points. "Try to buy yourself an education out here in this hell. Good day."

If you then return to Victoria Watts (#1) in the Market, she'll be happy with you, but she won't really give you an added reward. She'll just tell you that Pinkerton (#7) in the Broken Bow is the one who performed the facial reconstruction surgery on the android, and that he might be able to do the same for you.

Helping Dr. Zimmer

For this case, when you talk to Dr. Zimmer (#2) in the Science Lab, you should agree to work for him. Dr. Zimmer will then tell you some more about the android -- how its job was to hunt down other escaped androids, and how it must have decided that it was doing something immoral. He'll also tell you the designation for the android: A3-21.

Your quest will then update, and you'll receive a new objective: to search for clues about the android. This is basically the same as the original objective for the quest. That is, you'll need to hunt down some more holotapes. Fortunately, all of the holotapes that you'll need can be found in Rivet City, and if you've done enough exploring already, you might not need to find any of them.

Here's where you can find the clues:

• Doctor clue. Talk to Dr. Preston (#3).
• Slaver clue. Read the holotape in Sister's room (#4).
• Sympathizer clue. Read the holotape in the church (#5).
• Technician clue. Read the holotape in Seagrave Holmes' room (#6).

Once you've read enough clues, your quest will update and you'll receive another new objective: to speak with Pinkerton (#7) in the Broken Bow. To get into the Broken Bow, you'll probably have to go swimming. That's because, while the Broken Bow has two entrances, the one above ground (Exit I) is locked with a "very hard" lock, and so you'll probably have to use the underwater one (Exit H).

To get to the underwater entrance, leave the Market using the Rivet City exit (Exit B), go forward a bit, and then jump into the water. The entrance will be on your right. If you don't see it, look for it on your local map.

When you go through the entrance, you'll still be underwater, and you'll have to swim for a ways to find places where you can breathe (usually you'll find air near the ceilings of the rooms). It's easy to drown while looking around, so be sure to save your game first. You might also want to turn up the graphics options relating to water, so it's easier to see where you're going. Finally, don't forget to wear some sort of Radiation Suit and quaff some Rad-X before going in, because you'll be absorbing radiation the entire time.

While underwater, you should swim southwest, open a doorway, and then swim into the room underneath the above-ground entrance (Exit I). From there you should swim southeast to a stairwell. You'll be attacked by a pair of mirelurks there, but the stairwell will take you to the dry part of the ship, which is where you'll find Pinkerton (#7), plus a bunch of traps.

When you reach Pinkerton, he'll readily admit everything. He'll tell you that Harkness (#8 or #9) is the android, but that because of the memory transfer he doesn't know that he's not human. Pinkerton will also give you some evidence about the process (such as before and after pictures of Harkness), and he'll tell you a special code that you can use to cause Harkness to regain his memories: "Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet."

You'll now have two choices for what to do. If you tell Harkness who he is and warn him about Zimmer, then he'll give you A3-21's Plasma Rifle. If you tell Zimmer about Harkness, then he'll give you the Wired Reflexes perk (which will improve your chances of hitting while in VATS). You can get both rewards if you want by going to Harkness first and then ratting him out to Zimmer, just as long as you don't convince Harkness to kill Zimmer. You can also get both rewards and then kill Zimmer and his bodyguard, provided that Harkness gives you permission (otherwise the bodyguard will only fall unconscious, and everybody in the city will turn against you).

Regardless of the method you use for completing the quest, you'll receive 300 experience points at its conclusion.


1 - Victoria Watts


2 - Dr. Zimmer


3 - Dr. Preston's Office


4 - Sister's Hotel Room


5 - St. Monica's Church


6 - Seagrave Holmes' Room


7 - Pinkerton


8 - Rivet City Market


9 - Bridge Tower


Exits:

1. Main entrance to Rivet City.
2. Exits to the ship exterior.
3. Doorway between the Market and the Midship Deck.
4. Doorway between the Market and the Upper Deck.
5. Exit to the stairwell (not shown).
6. Doorway between the Midship Deck and the Science Lab.
7. Doorway between the Upper Deck and the Science Lab.
8. Underwater door to the Broken Bow.
9. Above-ground door to the Broken Bow. This door will start out locked with a "very hard" lock, so you'll probably have to go swimming (via Exit H) to get inside the Broken Bow. On the interior side of the door, right next to it, you'll find a lock mechanism switch, and activating will unlock the door for you.