Who Dares Wins

Broken Steel main quest
Who Dares Wins
Location	Presidential metro Adams Air Force Base
Given by	Paladin Tristan
Rewards	1500 XP Tesla cannon ±1000 Karma
Quest chain
Previous	Shock Value
Related quests	Death From Above
Technical
Form ID	xx0011AD

Broken Steel achievement
Who Dares Wins
Complete Who Dares Wins
Gold
30

 

“At the battle for Project Purity, you proved yourself... and any doubt that I had about you dissipated on that day.”— Elder Lyons

Who Dares Wins is the final Fallout 3 main quest and achievement that is added to the game in the Broken Steel add-on.

Quick walkthrough

Add-on Main Quest: Who Dares Wins

Locate and enter the utility tunnel from Pennsylvania Avenue. Travel to the Presidential sub level and enter.

Navigate the Presidential sub level, locate M.A.R.Go.T. and identify yourself to M.A.R.Go.T.

Ignore M.A.R.Go.T. and pick the lock to the Presidential metro.

Tell M.A.R.Go.T. you're looking for Adams Air Force Base.

Tell M.A.R.Go.T. you're from the U.S. Army (Speech).

Tell M.A.R.Go.T. to override security parameters (Science).

Use the Senate employee ID and pretend to be a U.S. Senator.

Fail on first attempt.

Succeed.

MARGoT classifies you as "hostile".

Fail on second attempt.

MARGoT classifies you as "friendly". Speak to MARGoT to gain information.

Enter Presidential metro and encounter the Presidential metro sentry bot

Kill the sentry bot and take the main fuse. Insert the fuse into the power box.

Kill all the ghouls in the Presidential metro. The sentry bot activates system power.

Ride the train to Adams Air Force Base and encounter the Enclave guarding the enterance.

Kill the Enclave sentries.

Pick the lock and sneak behind the guards to attack and kill them.

Pick the lock and sneak behind the guards to bypass them.

Locate Adams Air Force Base, retrieve your orders and equipment from the resupply crate, fight or sneak through the base and search for the access terminal in the air control tower to lower the ramp on the mobile base crawler.

Locate and enter the mobile base crawler and search for a way to the upper platform.

Deactivate the pulse field.

Switch it off (Science).

Blow it up (Explosives).

Smash it.

Encounter Stiggs in the repair bay.

Encounter Enclave Squad Sigma in the high security area.

Speak to Stiggs

Kill Stiggs, Sparky and Hoover.

Kill Sigma squad.

Unlock the pulse barrier to the armory and loot armory.

Search area, find and access the mainframe.

Hack the terminal to access the mainframe (Science).

Pick the lock on the access door to the mainframe (Lockpick).

Kill any Enclave officer and use his keycard to access the mainframe.

Access the mainframe's security terminal.

Access the mainframe's robot control (Science).

Unlock all interior and exterior doors and the armory.

Disable robot targeting parameters.

Change robot targeting parameters to target Enclave (Robotics Expert).

Exit to launch pad and locate the satellite control tower.

Enter satellite control tower and locate the control room

Access communications terminal.

Access security control terminal and unlock doors.

Access satellite uplink terminal.

Fire payload on the Citadel (negative Karma).

Fire payload on Adams Air Force Base (positive Karma).

Exit satellite control tower via upper door and enter verti-bird.

Land at the destroyed Citadel and survive the hostile BOS.

Watch the air base's destruction and land at the Citadel.

Reward: 1500 XP, Precision Gatling laser, alien blaster, masses of ammunition and supplies.

Enter the Citidel and loot the armory.

Visit the Citidel's laboratory and locate Liberty Prime's head.

Reward: Callahan's magnum, weapons and ammunition.

Reward: Tesla cannon (2).

Leads to: Freeform Quests Getting Ready for Prime Time and Blood Brotherhood.

Detailed walkthrough

Paladin Tristan has tasked you with infiltrating the Enclave's final, massive base at Adams Air Force Base, and destroying it with an orbital strike. The quest begins at White House Plaza. The Utility tunnel that leads to the White House now also has a connection to the Presidential metro, which should lead directly to Adams Air Force Base. Reach White House Plaza through any means you have, and enter the tunnels. The metro is crawling with feral ghouls, Mister Gutsies and sentry bots. You'll proceed down several different tunnels before meeting with M.A.R.Go.T., the protector and dispatcher of the metro. The robots (and M.A.R.Go.T, to some extent) are initially hostile, but if you pass a difficult Speech or Science check, or present a valid Senate employee ID, M.A.R.Go.T will mark you as friendly, and you'll have a chance to use her for information or help.

Contain the Security Breach

Among other things, you can learn that the train to Adams is offline, due to a "security breach" which has resulted in "the forced removal of a main fuse." M.A.R.Go.T can repair the fuse and train, but only if the breach is contained. According to her, the intruders have depleted 22% of the metro security units, have no internal body heat, and are emitting lethal levels of radiation. The metro units should be able to handle the breach at lower player character levels, but higher levels can result in facing several more deadly foes, which will make short work of the sentry bots, and you too, if you aren't careful. If you aid in containing the breach, the Presidential Sentinel Unit will repair the Adams tram for you; if not, you can find the main fuse on its body, as well as in the room with the fusebox, and can use it and a Repair check to fix the train yourself.

Enter Adams Air Force Base

After a quick ride on the train, you'll wind up in the Adams Metro station. Continue through the tunnels, and you'll encounter the first of many Enclave soldiers in Adams. Reach the surface, climb the stairs, and take a left to find the "Resupply Crate" Tristan mentioned. Inside is a fully repaired Tesla cannon, 50 electron charge packs, 50 microfusion cells, and your orders, contained within a voice recording, courtesy of Tristan. There is also a dead robobrain near by containing a few energy cells.

Proceed to the right, and begin the long trek to the mobile base crawler. The path is full of Enclave troops, regular and Hellfire, banks of turrets, deathclaws and several combat ready vertibirds. Make use of the Tesla cannon to destroy the vertibirds in one shot, and anything else (guns, grenades, followers, even several Enclave Artillery batteries) to stave off the Enclave hordes. As you approach your next objective, you'll begin to see vertibirds gunning down the runway, lasers firing in all directions. They're firing on a contingent of Brotherhood soldiers, who are the "distraction" Tristan promised. It doesn't work very well, though, as the Brotherhood soldiers are outnumbered, outgunned and hold the low ground.

Find the access terminal to lower the ramp on the Mobile Platform

The mobile base crawler can only be entered via a ramp. To lower the ramp, you'll need to enter the Air Traffic Control Tower, and find the Main Access terminal. When you reach the main battlefield on the runway, take a right and enter the small building through a set of stairs on the west side. Inside are a few Enclave robots, which can range from robobrains to sentry bots, depending on your level. When you reach the top, activate the unlocked terminal and hit the "Lower Access Ramp" entry. Beware, though, that as you enter the control tower, three vertibirds will appear overhead, the last of which fires three missiles straight at the tower. The resulting explosions could easily cripple or kill you, so it is best to take cover on the stairs. Alternatively, you can shoot down the vertibirds with the Tesla cannon, if you act quickly enough.

Enter the Enclave Mobile Platform

Make your way back down to the runway, and head on over to the ramp. There are several more Enclave troops, but a Brotherhood of Steel task force will arrive and cover you. Run up the ramp, and enter the final Enclave stronghold.

Destroy the Enclave Mobile Platform with an Orbital Strike

The first thing you come across is an Enclave Repulsion Field. Using the blue panel to the left, you can deactivate it (Science 80), set a timed charge (Explosives 50), or smash the control panel. Smashing the panel will cause an explosion (which will damage you), as will setting the charge (the difference being that you have time to escape). Either way, the field will still be partially active, and passing through it will cause damage. If deactivated with Science, the field will be harmless.

Turning left will introduce you to Enclave Squad Sigma after an alarm goes off. Turning right and heading into the repair bay yields plenty of ammunition, as well as an encounter with Stiggs, who fixes the robots. Talking with him gives some useful information:

• The floor above is a deathclaw research facility, but the majority are out fighting in checkpoints across the Wastes.
• The facility is patrolled by Robots, who are all controlled through a mainframe, located on the floor above, in the middle.
• To reach the Satellite Tower, you have to reach the Central Control Area, then to the Launch Platform. After the platform, you'll have to fight or sneak (if you can) through a few Enclave soldiers to reach the tower.

Heading up the ladder in the repair bay or the stairs where Sigma Squad attacked will lead to the second level. Your target is the mainframe in the center of the floor. The deathclaw research facility should contain one or two Enclave-controlled deathclaws, which will be a great asset if you still have the deathclaw control scrambler. The mainframe is locked behind several "High Clearance" doors, which can only be opened with a High Clearance keycard. The various Enclave officers each carry one, which will open all the doors. The mainframe itself is divided into two sections: Door control and Robot control. The Door control terminal is unlocked, and can be used to unlock any doors on the floor, the Armory, and the doors leading to the Platform. The Robot terminal is locked Hard, but if hacked, you can deactivate all the robots, or scramble their targeting parameters. If you have the Robotics Expert perk, you can even reverse the friend-or-foe settings, marking the Enclave as hostile, and yourself as friendly.

Head to the Satellite Tower. Once inside, head to the top, to the terminal. Make sure you've thoroughly searched the crawler, then hit "Fire Payload" and choose your target:

• Preset Target 01: Citadel
• Preset Target 02: Project Purity
• Preset Target 03: Megaton
• Preset Target 04: Rivet City Carrier
• Preset Target 05: Adams AFB Platform

Only two of the targets can be fired upon: Adams AFB Platform, or the Citadel. Be warned, anything in the Crawler will be lost forever, no matter which choice you make, so clear it out before you make the decision. Once you make your choice, unlock the door from the active terminal to your right, and head through the door at the top back outside, where a Brotherhood of Steel vertibird lands to get you out. If Sentinel Lyons survived the activation of Project Purity, she will personally escort you to the vertibird.

If you chose the Citadel: You are rewarded with 1000 negative karma, and on the flight back the pilots seem to think the vertibird is malfunctioning when the Citadel won't respond to radio. Upon landing and seeing the smouldering ruins, they quickly pick up that it was you, and attempt to kill you, deeming you a traitor and a murderer. Any other Brotherhood of Steel members you meet, like in the Washington Monument, GNR building, White House Plaza, Arlington Library, and the Jefferson Memorial, will be hostile as well. You also can enter the Citadel's hidden armory, filled with plenty of goodies such as Tesla cannons, alien power cells, Nuka-grenades, mini nukes, and Callahan's magnum.

If you chose Adams AFB Platform: You are rewarded with 1000 positive karma, and the vertibird lands a little off Adams AFB to allow you to watch the missiles strike. After hopping back on the vertibird, you are taken to the Citadel, where Elder Lyons is waiting with a heart-warming speech of thanks. You may then speak with Scribe Rothchild and Paladin Tristan for two additional unmarked quests. You are also allowed to return to Adams AFB after the quest where there are 8 Tesla cannons spread about in 4 different Resupply Crates. Three Dog will also occasionally make a funny report about your deeds and tell his "children" to have pity on the Enclave; they're homeless after all!

Reward

• 1500 XP
• Tesla cannon
• ±1000 Karma

Quest stages

Stage	Status	Description
10		Enter the Presidential Metro
20		Locate the Exit to Adams Airforce Base
25		(Optional) Clear the security breach in the Presidential Metro
30		Retrieve your orders and equipment from the Resupply Crate
40		Find the Access Terminal to lower the ramp on the Mobile Platform
50		Enter the Enclave Mobile Platform
60		Destroy the Enclave Mobile Platform with an Orbital Strike
70		Escape from the Enclave Mobile Platform
80		Board the captured vertibird

Notes

• Finishing this quest does not end the Enclave, and random Enclave camps continue to respawn. Paladin Tristan explains this by telling you that several Enclave troops already deployed across the Capital Wasteland remain, and that it may take months for them to learn of the Base's destruction.
• The game doesn't end after this quest. You can play as long as you like.
• Even if you don't destroy the Crawler you won't be able to enter it again.
• Star Paladin Cross will turn hostile and no longer act as a follower if the Citadel is destroyed.
• Like all turrets in the game, the laser turrets mounted throughout the base have terminals that connect to them. Trying to hack them to clear the targeting data will cause the terminal to display a message saying "ERROR: Turret(s) Not Responding". However, it is still possible to activate or deactivate the turrets even with the error.
• Destroying parked vertibirds may prevent Enclave reinforcements from pouring out.
• Your followers don't ride in the vertibird; they will appear at the Citadel.
• If the Lone Wanderer hacks the robot mainframe and sets the remaining robots to attack the Enclave, a communications terminal in the satellite uplink room will reflect this.
• It is not possible to damage or destroy the captured vertibird, even after it has dropped the party off at the Citadel.

Behind the scenes

• "Who Dares Wins" is the regimental motto of the British Special Air Service (SAS) special forces, coined by the founder David Stirling. One of their main roles (and the role for which they were originally conceived) during the Second World War was the destruction of Axis aircraft and positions at air bases behind enemy lines in North Africa. The saying comes from the similar Latin expressions, "Qui audet vincit" and "Qui audet adipiscitur".

Bugs

• PC After clearing the area of ghouls, the (optional) quest of containing the security breach may not trigger as complete, preventing the Presidential Sentinel Unit from repairing the train. If playing on the PC, this can be fixed by opening the console and entering set DLC03NQlvl.PlayerHelped to 1. Alternatively, you can destroy the Presidential Sentinel Unit, take the fuses from its body, and do the repairs yourself. Be warned that destroying it will turn all the other surviving robots hostile. To avoid this, use V.A.T.S. to disable its combat inhibitor, and the other robots will actually assist you in destroying it. ^[verified]
• PC Sentinel Lyons will mention the first time she met the Lone Wanderer, outside the GNR building, even if the player bypasses that part of the main quest entirely. ^[verified]
• PC Should you destroy the Citadel, the Brotherhood Initiate will yell "Kill this traitor, kill him!", even to a female character. ^[verified]
• Xbox 360 Sometimes, when you pick up the high security clearance cards they will not appear in your Pip-Boy. ^[verified]
• PC After the platform has been blown up and you returned to the Citadel, Sentinel Lyons may just walk away instead of starting her speech, and you are stuck unable to move. Use the console command EnablePlayerControls and start talking to her to finish the quest. ^[verified]

Quests in Fallout 3 Main quests Baby Steps · Growing Up Fast · Future Imperfect · Escape! · Following in His Footsteps · Galaxy News Radio · Scientific Pursuits · Tranquility Lane · The Waters of Life · Picking Up the Trail · Rescue from Paradise · Finding the Garden of Eden · The American Dream · Take it Back! · Project Impurity Side quests Agatha's Song · Big Trouble in Big Town · Blood Ties · Head of State · The Nuka-Cola Challenge · Oasis · The Power of the Atom · Reilly's Rangers · The Replicated Man · Stealing Independence · Strictly Business · The Superhuman Gambit · Those! · Tenpenny Tower · Trouble on the Homefront · Wasteland Survival Guide · You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head Unmarked quests A Manhandled Manservant · A Nice Day for a Right Wedding · Happy Birthday to You · Church Donations · Collecting Holotags · Council Seat · Economics of Violence · Election Day · Fungus Deal · Gallows Humor · Geomapping with Reilly · Grady's Package · Hired Help · I Want to Drink Your Blood · Jiggs' Loot · Just for the Taste of It · Keller Family Refuge · Leo's Drug Habit · Lincoln's Profit Margins · Merchant Empire · Mississippi Quantum Pie · Murphy's Bombing Run · Nectar Collecting for Fun and Profit · Our Little Secret · Ryan Brigg's Wonder Meat · Searching for Cheryl · Slave Hunt · Strictly Profitable · The Kid-Kidnapper · The Lost Initiate · The Outcast Collection Agent · This Old House · Treatment · Walter's Scrap Metal · Water Beggars · Yearning for Learning · Zip's Nuka Fix Cut quests Infiltration · Last Rites · MS07 · Matchmaker Add-on quests Operation: Anchorage Aiding the Outcasts · The Guns of Anchorage · Paving the Way · Operation: Anchorage! The Pitt Free Labor · Into The Pitt · Mill Worker · Toys for Tots · Unsafe Working Conditions · Wild Bill's Last Stand · Slave Snitch Broken Steel The Sorrowful Suitor · Blood Brotherhood · Death From Above · Getting Ready for Prime Time · Shock Value · Who Dares Wins · Holy Water · Protecting the Water Way · The Amazing Aqua Cura! · Wastelander Water Request Point Lookout The Local Flavor  · Walking with Spirits · Hearing Voices · Tailing the Tomboy · Thought Control · A Meeting of the Minds · A Spoonful of Whiskey · An Antique Land · Plik's Safari · The Dark Heart of Blackhall · The Velvet Curtain Mothership Zeta Not of This World · Among the Stars · This Galaxy Ain't Big Enough... · The Legend of Zeta

Broken Steel Quests Death From Above · Shock Value · Who Dares Wins · Holy Water · Protecting the Water Way · The Amazing Aqua Cura! · The Sorrowful Suitor · Blood Brotherhood · Getting Ready for Prime Time · Wastelander Water Request Achievements Death From Above · Shock Value · Who Dares Wins · Devil · True Mortal · Messiah Locations Adams Air Force Base (Adams storage facility, Air control tower, Mobile base crawler) · Hank's Electrical Supply · Holy Light Monastery · Museum Authority Building · Olney Powerworks (Old Olney underground, Old Olney S. Wilson Building) · Presidential metro (Presidential sub level) · Satellite relay station (Rockland car tunnel) · White House Plaza Weapons Callahan's Magnum · Discharge hammer · Grenade launcher · Heavy incinerator · Lightning gun · Precision Gatling laser · Rapid-torch flamer · Slo-burn flamer · Tesla cannon · Tesla cannon (Beta) · Tri-beam laser rifle · Colonel Autumn's laser pistol Armor All-nighter nightwear · Composite recon helmet · Enclave Hellfire armor · Lab coat · Lag-Bolt's combat armor · Lag-Bolt's shades · Police hat · Tesla resonance armor · Wig Items Aqua Cura · Aqua Pura · Deathclaw control scrambler · Holy water · Main fuse · Senate employee ID · Super mutant blood sample · Tesla coil Characters and creatures Friendly NPCs Scribe Bigsley · Paladin Tristan · Scribe Vallincourt · M.A.R.Go.T. · Wint · Kidd · Badger · Connelly · Carl · Dunbar · Griffon · Brother Gerard · Mother Curie III · Atom's Champion · Sun of Atom · Rosa · Officer Lepelletier · Officer Davis · Officer Lorin · Stiggs · Hoover · Sparky · Sanders · Paladin Jensen · Project Purity scientist · Operations Officer Edwards · Split Jack · Novice · Bandits Hostile NPCs Adams Air Force Base scientist · Armory master · Enclave Hellfire trooper · Enclave Sigma Leader · Enclave Squad Sigma · Lag-Bolt · Security officer · Ghoul guard Creatures Feral ghoul reaver · Super mutant overlord · Albino radscorpion Perks Almost Perfect · Deep Sleep · Devil's Highway · Escalator to Heaven · Karmic Rebalance · Nerves of Steel · No Weaknesses · Nuclear Anomaly · Party Girl/Party Boy · Rad Absorption · Rad Tolerance · Puppies! · Quantum Chemist · Warmonger

The Citadel Characters Knight Artemis · Arthur Maxson · Paladin Bael · Scribe Bowditch · Knight Captain Colvin · Star Paladin Cross · Knight Captain Durga · Knight Captain Dusk · Scribe Jameson · Paladin Glade · Paladin Kodiak · Paladin Gunny · Knight Captain Gallows · Liberty Prime · Owyn Lyons · Scribe Peabody · Scribe Rothchild · Sarah Lyons · Sawbones · Paladin Tristan · Scribe Vallincourt · Paladin Vargas Sections Laboratory · A-ring · B-ring · The bailey Fallout 3 The Waters of Life · Picking Up the Trail · Finding the Garden of Eden · The American Dream · Take it Back! · Collecting Holotags · Gallows Humor Broken Steel Death From Above · Shock Value · Who Dares Wins · Getting Ready for Prime Time · Blood Brotherhood Groups Brotherhood of Steel · Lyons' Pride