The American Dream

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360 and PC achievement.

The player awakens chained up in a prison cell inside Raven Rock, the Enclave hideout located in the very northwest corner of the map. Colonel Autumn is demanding the access code, but he leaves when the president speaks through the intercom and asks to speak with the PC. All inventory is stored in a locker inside the prison cell where the Vault Dweller wakes up.

When you exit your cell, look left. You should see an enclave officer. Either through a speech check or a strength check, the Enclave officer will let you go. Otherwise, be prepared for a tedious battle all the way to the president's office. When you get to Raven Rock Level 2, eventually you will hear Colonel Autumn's voice telling everyone to attack. Occasionally, none of the Enclave soldiers at the cafeteria will attack you (perhaps due to some sort of glitch), so use that to snoop around. You should find a pantry area with a LOT of food (about 10 of each find of food you've so far encountered, Pork 'N Beans, Cram, etc.) Take them all, as you'll need to restore your health for the coming firefights, but watch your radiation level as you use them. The enclave soldiers finally WILL start attacking you when you get to the lab area. The scientists will be easy to take out; there armor is no better than that of the enclave officers. However, it is in this area that you will be ambushed by quite a few Enclave soldiers (3-4). They'll be using heavy weaponry, so if you have any explosives (missiles, grenades, mines (yes, mines)), use them.

The target destination is further down Raven Rock level 2 (just follow your quest marker). You'll find a force-fielded area containing Enclave crates in one of the rooms that you can deactivate by hacking the console next to it. The Enclave crates contain quite a lot of goodies, so stock up. Also in one of the rooms you'll find one of Dr. Li's assistants-- she was captured at the purifier. She'll tell you that although she first resisted, she eventually decided to help the Enclave (she was probably brainwashed). If you opt to kill her for her betrayal, you'll get negative karma.

In another room (near the Energy Weapons bobble head) there is a terminal which you can hack into that contains a "self-destruct" key command.

Eventually you will enter a room with two sentry bots finishing off two enclave guards. If you try to speak to them they'll tell you to "continue on as the president is waiting". Next, you'll enter a room with a long staircase, where you'll encounter President Eden, who turns out to be an AI. After telling you about his plan to wipe the wasteland from mutation using Project Purity, with a science check here a speech check, you can convince the president that he is just a simple AI and he should shut the Enclave down. Alternatively if you have found the "self-destruct" key command, you can use it and kill the Eden AI.

You must take the vial from the console for the door to open. If you convinced Eden to destroy himself and the enclave (or if you used the "self-destruct" command), the robots in the subsequent hallways turn on the Enclave soldiers, making the subsequent trek out to the wastelands much, much easier, as there are numerous sentry bots and Enclave soldiers with mini guns and missile launchers waiting on Raven Rock level 1 that will be otherwise unfriendly. Along the way out there are plenty of force-fielded areas with enclave crates, for which again you must hack the terminals to deactivate.

On the way out, one of the enclave soldiers will be carrying a Gatling Laser, one of the most powerful weapons in the game. It uses Electron Charge packs - so if you haven't sold any of the ones you've found thus far through the game - you'll be well armed. Even if you haven't though, there are plenty of EC packs to be found in Raven Rock on guards and in crates.

Once outside the Enclave base explodes (always?) and the tunnel is blocked with rock, there is no going back inside.

At this point you'll meet Fawkes who is taking care of some Enclave soldiers. If you have positive karma, you have the option of asking him to join you. Fawkes now carries a Gatling Laser with unlimited ammo, and in my experience, he is virtually indestructible. If you plan on going to some dangerous side places (like the Deathclaw Sanctuary), he is a must-have.