Stealing Independence

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Stealing Independence

	20
Location(s)	Rivet City
Received by	Abraham Washington
Reward(s)	400 Caps 330 XP Railway Rifle Schematics
Related Quests	n/a

Quest Objectives

To begin this quest, head to Rivet City and talk to Abraham Washington who can be found in the Capitol Preservation Society. He owns a museum full of rare, pre-war articfacts, but there's still one artifact that he believes would complete is collection, the Declaration of Independance.

Washington will ask you to find the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. After a short conversation and flawed history lessons, you are off to find the document. If you inquire about a reward, Abraham will mention Schematics to a Railway Rifle. If you ask more, he says an additional reward will be available, and it 'will be worth it.' This is 400 bottle caps.

National Archives

The National Archive is located in the north-east of The Mall. The quickest way to get there is to fast-travel to The Mall. If you've never been to The Mall, you can get there by heading into the Anacostia Crossing Station just outside Rivet City. Follow this Metro Station north-east to reach the Museum Station which will bring you out to The Mall.

Enter the building and head straight forward to the rotunda. Here you'll and a friendly NPC named Sydney who was also sent by Abraham Washington to retrieve the Declaration of Independence. She calls you over there, and says to prepare for the Super Mutants|Muties]]. You will now have to fight off 2 waves of Super Mutants. The first wave can be easily dealt with by placing a Bottlecap Mine at the door-way to the rotunda before talking to Sydney. Kill the rest of the Mutants

Sydney

After the fight, speak again to Sydney. She will state that she was also sent by Abraham Washington to find the Declaration. This is where the quest branches off into several parts. You can either:

Tell Sydney to come with you. Her Health determines a few things:

If you keep her alive, she will help you throughout the quest. She contains Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG, the best SMG in the game. I does 40 damage. She WILL take half of the caps if you keep her alive the whole mission. So, be weary. If she does happen to die, search her corpse and take her Ultra SMG. It's worth it.

(If you are relatively low level or are ill prepared to fight, keep her alive as long as you can. If you talk to her, you can give her Stimpaks).

Tell her that you're doing this on your own. She will tell you the code to a secret elevator that will bring you very close to the document. Use the terminal around where you met her and enter the code, "We the People."

Secure Wing

Button Gwinnett

In the middle of the rotunda is a pillar, activate the pillar to discover a secret elevator that leads down to the Secure Wing. This area is protected by Mister Gutsys, Robobrains, Protectrons and Sentry Bots. There's a broken door directly in front of you as you enter the Secure Wing, it will require a Science skill of 67 to fix. If you can open the door you'll find and destroy the generator that powers the Turrets in all the rooms that contain documents.

The Decraration of Independance is not the only document found in the Secure Wing. You can also find the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta behind average locked doors. A the far end of the Wing you come the room that contains the Declaration of Independence. Inside are two Automated Turrets and a Protectron robot called Button Gwinnett who has been programmed to believe that he's the real Button Gwinnett and that they are still in the 1700's.

Button Gwinnett can be dealt with in one of four ways:

You can simply kill him and take the document.

You can convince him that you are Thomas Jefferson through a Speech check, he will gladly hand over the document.

You can assist him in forging a new document to give to Abraham Washington. For this you will need a Ink Container that is found in the Arlington Library.

If you have the Robotics Expert perk you can disable him during dialog.

Back to Abraham Washington

Now that you have the document you can take the long route by heading back the way you came. If you cleared the Wing on your way in then you shouldn't have to fight any more enemies. You can also exit through the utility door in the room with Button Gwinnett, this is the quicker route which will lead you straight to the top floor of the Archives. However, you will have to fight a few more Super Mutants. Once you're back on the bottom floor, head out of the Archives and back to Rivet City. If Sydney is still with you, the reward money will be split in half so you'll only get 200 Caps plus the Railway Rifle Schematics. If you also have the Bill of Rights, you can get an extra 100 caps (125 caps with high enough Barter). The Magna Carta will fetch you an extra 75 caps (100 caps with high enough barter).

Note

Its recommended to do the Reilly's Rangers Quest first. On a bed in the Statesman Hotel you can find a Holotape from Sydnes father: A Note from Little Moonbeam´s Father At the endpoint you can tell Sydney about the tape and she´ll give you her Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG.

When you visited the Arlington Library you should have an ink bottle with you. With the ink, its possible to fake the document.