As the weeks had passed, few people had seen Col. Autumn, while there was some speculation no one could have expected what was actually happening. Autumn had been busy working on his master plan, which he would talk about to no one. He had finally decided that this was the day, the day to reveal his work. He ordered a meeting of all senior officers which began at precisely 9:00 A.M the following day. During the conference he revealed his plan for the beginning of the restoration of the United States Of America.
He began the meeting with the acknowledgement that they had no president and would have to decide this by popular vote. He revealed a detailed plan for the capture of Vault 64, which had been taken over by raiders. What was so special about Vault 64 was the unused GECK module in there, the experiment had been to have much more storage and materials (including this GECK) than most control Vaults to test if the Vault dwellers would be willing to leave the Vault when the time had passed and it was time. Suffice it to say, raiders powerful enough to take a vault would have to pretty powerful, and while they would be fairly easy to "take care of" for the Enclave, they could not let the raiders find out about the GECK. The possible consequences of firing the GECK off involve the destruction of most of the biological life within the sphere, including raiders and the Enclave, ruin what they were planning to do to start bringing life back to the wasteland, practically destroy a vault, keep anyone else from getting a GECK from a nearby area, and many other things. As usual, the only way in was the Vault door, a standard airlock type Vault door.
The plan involved having an expert hack the door, then about 50 troops clearing the place out, but first they would need a scout to figure out the best way to invade the Vault. The scout or scouts would go in under the pretense of being drug dealers, allowing them access to the Vault. With a rough estimate of the vault, they could invade much more efficiently. Only after all raiders had been exterminated could they try to access the GECK. All said, it was not one of the Enclave's simplest plans, but it would do. The vote was 20-1 in favor of the plan.
The only real trouble with the plan was figuring out who would be the scout, so naturally they chose the most skilled person to be the "drug dealer:" Lieutenant Thomas Jackson. Jackson was a good pick because he had the look of a drug dealer, or what the raiders would believe was a drug dealer with some of Eleanor's makeup. The stuff was absolutely horrific, even Eleanor thought it was bad by this point. Eleanor had moved out of that phase long ago however, so she thought her old makeup could "aid" Jackson's performance, he was sure this meant she hated him, why else would she subject him to torture. But he donned it and went, bringing plenty of radaway, both to aid his appearance and to help him with the rads, some stimpaks were in there too, just in case.
About a week later (including preparations) Jackson returned with the info; he had been able to find some jet somewhere to help his appearance in front of the raider leader on the third level down, which was mostly storage and a workshop. The first level was the entrance, storage, the reactor, and the water treatment facilities. The second level was the holding cells, the Overseer's office, the Overseer's quarters, the medbay, more storage, the Armory. The fourth floor was blocked, it having been the one where the Vault's inhabitants had blocked off when the raiders moved in. The inhabitants had given Vault-tek some interesting results by not leaving the vault when the all clear was announced because they still had enough resources to stay in. The more knowledgeable raiders assumed that the Vault had still been under construction when the bombs fell.
The main Vault door had failed about a year back allowing the raiders to enter, and now it would prove to be the way the raiders left. About 50 Enclave soldiers had gotten together to assault Vault 64, all armed with plasma and laser weaponry, you could almost feel sorry for the raiders. They stormed the entrance, guns ablaze, killing many raiders and shattering morale like a dropped glass. The raiders finally set up a defensive line on the third level, actually wounding a few Enclave men with a fair show of force, too bad they were fighting the U.S government. The Enclave responded by retreating the wounded and pulling back, prompting the raiders to break the barricades and try to loot the corpses of the men they thought they had killed. The raiders walked right into an ambush, a classical trap that the raiders had sprung, not very many survived. The raiders tried one last attempt, each of the survivors getting into power armor and using laser weaponry, a rarity that not many raider gangs could have acquired to be sure but it was too little too late. The Enclave managed one last charge, destroying four of the five raiders and wounding the leader, whom they questioned.
The elevator used to access the final level was fairly easy for the mechanics to fix, and they soon sent people down to negotiate with the Vault dwellers, whose very existence was a shock to everyone. It took some convincing, but the negotiators finally convinced the inhabitants to let them in and soon they had made some agreements allowing the Enclave access to a GECK if they would help repair the Vault. This was a good enough deal for the Enclave, and they set to work, by the end of three days they had made an alliance of sorts with the members of Vault 64, after all, when everyone hates you, anyone who doesn't hate you is valuable.