Etching for Help

Etching for Help is a quest given by Paul Hanson in Robertown. There are no requirements for starting this quest.

Walkthrough
Speak to Paul Hanson in Robertown. You can find him at the RobCo Facility during the day or at his house during the night. He tells you that the Union is in charge of delivering the materials for robotics to the facility, and the facility sends them a corresponding amount of robots. Apparently not all of the materials made it last time, but the Union refuses to acknowledge the mistake and now the facility is going to get in trouble for failing to meet the quota. He requests that you bring him 15 Copper and 5 Acid to finish the circuit boards for the rest of the robots.

At this point you can finish the quest by bringing Paul the supplies. However, you can instead choose to look into the circumstances surrounding the missing supplies. The local militia aren't much help, but with a 20 Speech check you can convince another worker at the facility, Sara Maus, to share that she once caught Paul stealing supplies from the facility.

Taking this route presents you with another two options. You can either approach Paul about his crime directly and blackmail him into bribing you or you can collect a note from the safe in his house containing evidence of a trade deal he had planned with a dealer from Undercity (not to mention the stolen robotics supplies). You can also skip to this step directly. If you present the evidence to the local militia they will confront Paul and kill him.

Reward
This quest has several different rewards, depending on how you chose to complete it.

If you gave the supplies to Paul he will give the player 50 caps and the ability to craft circuit boards.

If you chose to blackmail Paul he will give you 200 caps (or 400 caps at 50+ Speech).

If you had the militia 'discipline' Paul they will reward you with 100 caps and you'll gain Union reputation. Additionally, you can speak to Paul's wife Erin after the quest has completed and give her your reward for a boost to Karma.