The Waters of Life

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The Waters of Life

	20
Location(s)	Rivet City
Received by	James (dad)
Reward(s)	700 XP
Related Quests	Picking up the Trail

Quest Objectives

After leaving Vault 112, James will return to Rivet City. You can choose to follow him or fast travel to Rivet City and wait a few hours for him to catch up. Head down to the Science Lab to see James telling Dr. Li about his plan to reactivate Project Purity, James convinces her to join him and then asks you to meet them outside the gift shop at the Jefferson Memorial.

Clearing out the Memorial

Once everyone has arrived outside the Jefferson Memorial, James will ask you to remove all the Super Mutants from inside. Most of the Super Mutants would have been killed when you travelled to the Memorial during the Scientific Pursuits quest, but there's still more in the Memorial's Sub-Basement. The best way to exterminate the Mutants is to set some mines in front of the stairs on the top floor, then fire a warning shot to alert the Super Mutants. There's only one route they can take to reach you, so they should all come running up the stairs together and get blown to pieces. There may still be one or two at the very bottom of the basement that weren't alerted by you warning shot. You'll know they're all dead once when the "quest objective complete" sign appears on the screen. Now return to James and tell them it's safe to enter.

Maintenance

Once James arrives in the Rotunda he asks you to head back down to the sub-basement to fix some maintenance problems. The first one is to turn on the Flood Control Pump which can be found to the left of the room with all the bed in it. Press the switch on the wall to activate it, then talk to James through the Intercom and he'll tell you to return to the Rotunda for your next assignment.

When you arrive back at the Rotunda, James will give you some fuses and tell you to head back down to the sub-basement, find the fuse box and replace the damaged fuses. The fuse box is at the very bottom of the sub-basement, there are also signs on the walls directing you to 'Fuse Access A1'.

After replacing the fuses, James will tell you to head back up to the top level of the sub-basement and enter the mainframe door which has now been unlocked. Enter the room and activate the computer to boot up the mainframe. Speak to James through the intercom and he'll tell you to head back up the the gift shop for the last task.

James will ask you to drain the intake pipes, the entrance to the pipes can be found directly opposite the entrance to the gift shop. Follow the pipes until you find a valve, after turning the valve you'll see a Vertibird land on the roof of the Jefferson Mermorial full of Enclave soldiers. After this scene the doors on either side of the valve will unlock and you can head back up to the Rotunda.

The Enclave

Colonel Autumn and James locked in the Control Room

The pipes will lead you back to the sub-basement and there will be an Enclave soldier waiting for you, kill him and head back up to the gift shop which is now crawling the Enclave soldiers. Dispose of any Enclave that get in your way and then head to the Rotunda. You'll find that the control room has been locked down with 2 Enclave soldiers, James, Janice Kaplinski and Colonel Autumn inside it. You're forced to sit back and watch helplessly as the Colonel Autumn demands that James hands control of Project Purity over to the Enclave and assist them with further tests on it. When James refuses, Colonel Autumn puts a bullet through Janice Kaplinski which forces him to surrender, but instead of shutting the project down, James overloads the purifier which fills the control room with deadly levels of Radiation. The Enclave soldier are killed instantly, Colonel Autumn manages to inject himself with some kind of Rad-X which leaves him unconscious and James stumbles over to you and tells you to run before dropping dead to the floor.

Escape to the Citadel

After James' death, Dr. Li will tell you that they need to get out of the Mermorial and fast. She leads you to a manhole in the gift shop, enter it and you'll find follow survivors Daniel Agincourt, Alex Dargon and Garza waiting for you. Dr. Li will tell you to lead them through the Taft Tunnels until they reach the Citadel. The tunnels are crawling with Enclave soldiers and Feral Ghouls, Dr. Li can't be killed but if you want to keep the other three alive you should tell them to wait every time the enemy marker appears on your compass.

When you arrive on the second level of the tunnels, Dr. Li will stop and tell you that they can't go any further because of Garza's heart condition. You can give him 5 Stimpaks or 3 bottles of Buffout to help him through the rest of the journey. You can also convince Dr. Li to leave him behind or kill him for bad Karma.

Continue through the tunnels, killing the Enclave and Feral Ghouls until you reach a door that leads to the Brotherhood's checkpoint. As soon as you open the door, another door will open behind you and around seven or eight Feral Ghouls will come running at you. Try to get all the scientists inside the door so that you and the Brotherhood soldier can deal with the Ferals without anyone getting killed. Head up the rest of the enemy-free tunnel until you reach a ladder, climb up and out of the tunnels to find yourself right outside the Citadel.

Dr. Li will head up to the entrance of the Citadel and when Paladin Bael refuses to let her in shes screams at Owyn Lyons through the intercom to let her in, at which point the door opens and the quest is complete. Head inside the Citadel to start the Picking up the Trail quest.