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Life During Wartime


Life During Wartime
Type Main Job
Giver Panam Palmer
District Rocky Ridge
Region Badlands
Location Sunset Motel
Previous Lightning Breaks
Next Tapeworm, Play It Safe, I Fought the Law, Riders on the Storm

Life During Wartime is the main job in which V and Panam Palmer chase the falling Kang Tao flying car into Jackson Plains in the southern Badlands, to capture Anders Hellman. It starts straight after Lightning Breaks. Panam's friends from the Aldecaldos reached the crash first, and the job ends with Hellman in a room at the Sunset Motel, explaining what the Relic is doing to V.

Story

The Chase

The journal enjoys the sight of a car full of corporate staff crashing into the dust. It is hard on the nomads, though, and on Panam above all, who seems to keep losing everything she loves. Hellman must know the game is up. Johnny warns that the Kang Tao troops will not go down without a fight, and he is pleased that things are finally being done his way.

Panam and V chase the falling car across the plains. Over the radio, they hear that Mitch and Scorpion of the Aldecaldos are heading for the crash too. Panam tries to warn them, but the pulse jams the signal. Three Kang Tao drones attack the truck. V shoots them down from the turret, but the gun jams, and Panam puts the truck on autopilot to fix it. A ricochet hits her in the back, but she keeps driving.

The Crash Site

At the crash site, Panam patches her wound with an old injection. V agrees to go to the wreck while she covers V with Mitch's rifle. First, V flies a scout drone over the site to look for Aldecaldo survivors, enemies and the car itself. V then deals with the Kang Tao troops and a turret. As a last stand, a Kang Tao pilot takes Mitch hostage and locks them both inside the wreck.

When V opens the hatch, the pilot can be talked down and made to say where Hellman went. If he is shot instead, Mitch tells the pair that Scorpion died in the attack and that Kang Tao escaped in Aldecaldo vehicles. V then has to follow the tyre tracks, and the delay brings more Kang Tao troops to the gas station where Hellman is hiding.

Hellman

V can also leave Panam at the wreck and go after Hellman alone. In that case, Panam rescues Mitch herself and later arrives with Aldecaldo reinforcements, pointing out that unlike V, she does not bail.

At the gas station, V finds the owner locked in a room behind the counter. He says Hellman is on the upper floor. There, a Kang Tao medic is treating Hellman. He panics, fearing that Arasaka has sent V after him, and V knocks him out. V calls Goro Takemura and arranges to meet at the Sunset Motel, then carries Hellman out to the Aldecaldos. After a talk with Panam, she lets V take Scorpion's Apollo motorbike.

The Motel

At the motel, V wakes Hellman and explains the Relic and what has been tried so far. Hellman says the chip was an experiment, still being tested. He jacks into V to examine it. V's nervous system has decayed too much to work without the chip. When Takemura walks in, Hellman hands V a chip with a blueprint of V's brain and of the Relic. V leaves Hellman with Takemura. Outside, the Relic glitches, and V talks with Johnny.

Life During Wartime Map Location and Walkthrough

Life During Wartime map location:

The Chase

  1. Chase the falling flying car with Panam.
  2. Jack into the truck's turret and take out the drones.
  3. Wait for Panam to fix the turret when it jams, then finish off the drones.

The Crash Site

  1. Reach the wreck and jack into the terminal to fly the scout drone.
  2. Scan the crashed car. Scanning the Aldecaldos, the Kang Tao troops, the combat drones and Mitch is optional.
  3. Disconnect from the drone and talk to Panam. Telling her that V will find Mitch and that she should stay in the car because she is hurt helps her trust in V.
  4. Check out the crash site. For stealth, move round counter clockwise from the truck to the emergency control panel on the side of the car and switch off the turret.
  5. Defeat the Kang Tao troops, or sneak past them.
  6. Wait for Panam, then open the hatch of the car.
  7. Talk to the pilot. Say that V only wants Hellman, then that V is losing patience. Do not shoot him during the talk.
  8. Talk to Mitch and to Panam.

The Tracks (if the pilot did not talk)

  1. Scan the tyre tracks around the wreck to see where Kang Tao went.
  2. Get on the motorbike if desired and follow the tracks.
  3. Defeat the Kang Tao troops on the airstrip if desired.

The Gas Station

  1. Go to the gas station with Panam. Scan for enemies and mines first.
  2. Get inside and find the owner behind the counter.
  3. Take the stairs in the garage workshop to the upper floor.
  4. Confront Hellman and knock him out.
  5. Call Takemura and talk to him.
  6. Pick Hellman up, carry him outside and put him down.
  7. Talk to Panam.

The Motel

  1. Ride to the Sunset Motel and wake Hellman.
  2. Talk to Hellman.
  3. Talk to Johnny after leaving the room.

Map credit by Map Genie.

Choices

Mitch

Staying to help Panam at the wreck and rescuing Mitch opens the side job I'll Fly Away later. Leaving her to chase Hellman alone means she saves Mitch herself and is angry with V afterwards. Her messages then speak bitterly about life outside the clan, and mention that Mitch gave Scorpion a nomad funeral on his own.

The Pilot

Talking the pilot down gives Hellman's location straight away. Shooting him means tracking the tyre tracks, and more enemies wait at the gas station.

Rewards

Completing Life During Wartime pays 1,994 experience and 2,658 Street Cred. It also rewards Scorpion's Apollo.

Panam gives V Scorpion's Apollo, a Brennan motorbike. The Aldecaldo Camp also opens as a free place to stay.

The job opens many others. Panam later texts to start Riders on the Storm. Elizabeth Peralez calls to start I Fought the Law. Wakako calls about the job Sinnerman. The cyberpsycho sighting The Wasteland appears in the Badlands. A hidden cache appears at the top of a tower near the crash site.

Tips

Use the computer on the side of the wreck to switch off its turret. The gas station is guarded and mined, so scan the area before going in.

Characters

The characters who take part in Life During Wartime are listed below.

Name Image
Panam Palmer Panam Palmer
Mitch Anderson Mitch Anderson
Goro Takemura Goro Takemura
Anders Hellman -

Enemies

V fights these enemies during Life During Wartime.

Name Image
Kang Tao Kang Tao

Notes

  • The job is named after a song by Talking Heads.
  • A shard called Directive P0-08 lies inside the wreck where Mitch is found.
  • After Phantom Liberty is finished, V has an extra dialogue option with Hellman.

All Main Jobs