Protecting The Waterway Walkthrough - Fallout 3 - Broken Steel

Head over to Jefferson Memorial to get this quest from Scribe Bigsby. He'll refer you to Officer Lepelletier at Rivet City.

You can find Officer Lepelletier at her desk on the land side of the bridge to Rivet City, one floor below the water beggar. Talk to her and you'll find out that not only is she in a very sour mood, but she needs your help to protect the caravan. She'll send you out to assist her guards. Her advice will be to follow the river.

By the time I caught up with the caravan, by following the river as instructed, they had already been ambushed. When you catch up with them, take out any hostiles and then talk to the security officers. You'll also need to search all the bandits as one of them has an audio log that tells you where to find their boss.

The bandits are meeting at Wilhelm's Warf, which isn't far up the river. In fact, you've probably already visited it and have a Fast Travel point right to it.

When you arrive at the warf the bandit squad is waiting for thier friends, who aren't going to show up now. You can talk with them and give them the pass phase, if you like. Ultimately, you simply have to eliminate them.

Once the bandits have been eliminated, return to Officer Lepelletier. She'll be most grateful that you were successful, but then she will inform you that she has no reward. You will then be referred to Scribe Bigsby over at the Jefferson Memorial.

Talk to Scribe Bigsby over at the memorial to get your reward and the quest completion notification. Make sure you have some space to carry stuff. He'll give you some Power Armor and a few other things that have recently come into his possession.