Chapter 1: Thawed

Nate felt strange as consciousness slowly began to trickle back into him. He felt extremely cold as if he was back near the Artic circle again, which was odd considering that the weather was expected to be extremely warm for the rest of October. His normally comfy mattress was stiff and seemed to be contorting his back at an odd angle. Slowly though he began to realize what was happening, he was cold because he had been frozen, his bed was in fact a cryo tube that he and is family had been tricked into upon entering Vault 111.

Slowly he opened his eyes peering out the slightly defrosted window to get an idea of what had become of his wife and son just across from him. In the other pod he could just make out movement through the two panes of still defrosting glass between them. Two figures came into his limited view the female figure clad in a white bio-suit of some unknown design pointed to his wife's pod.
"This is the one." Her companion a rather squat balding man with what appeared to be rat wire on one shoulder moved to the other side of his wife's pod. Nate noticed a rather oversized revolver in the man's had an immediately began pounding on the glass shouting a warning to his wife.

"Open it." The man ordered. Nora's pod opened and she looked around confused at the two strange individuals before her.

"Wha.., Wher… What's going on?" She struggled to breath forcing herself to take deep breaths with every word she spoke.

"Don't worry, just give us the boy." The mercenary ordered while his assistant in the hazmat suit attempted to take Shaun away from her. Nate pounded on the glass even harder as his wife began to panic.

"No, I've got him leave us alone." The man pointed a massive revolver at her clearly intending it as a threat.

"Let the boy go. I won't ask you again." Nora was nearly hysterical now and regaining her strength quickly from their unexpected nap. She nearly had Shaun free of the assistants grasp in only another few seconds she would get free and give the mercenary a run for his money.

"Give him back you bastards, I'm not letting you take my son."

Nate watched in slow motion as the gunman pulled the trigger and his wife's head exploded across the insider of her cryo-pod.

"NORA!" Nate woke up screaming in his bed in Sanctuary Hills, his heart beating a thousand times per minute threatening to burst from his chest soaked in a freezing sweat. His cry echoed throughout the abandoned and collapsing house startling several crows that had roosted for the night.

Codsworth came flying into the room buzz saw and flamer at the ready. Upon seeing Nate as the only occupant in the room he said "Mr. Nate? Is everything alright sir?"

Nate was too busy gasping for breath and attempting to calm his racing heart to reply initially. Eventually he managed to slow his heart and steady his breathing enough to reply. "No. Nothing is alright Codsworth and unless you can raise the dead it never will be." Codsworth seemed to be utterly flummoxed by this comment and hovered there attempting to process what Nate said for several seconds. Nate eventually broke the silence he had created and said much more gently "I'm sorry Codsworth. I'll be fine I promise, it's just going to take some time."

This Codsworth was able to respond to "Sir Nate I may just be a humble Mr. Handy but if there is anything I can do to help please don't hesitate to ask."

Nate gave the robot butler a weak smile "Thank you Codsworth. I'm going to try and get some more sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Proud to server, sir." Codworth replied and left to continue his patrol of Sanctuary.

Nate laid back down and attempted to sleep but whenever he closed his eyes all he could see was his wife's head exploding as that bastard gunned her down. He finally settled on staring at the ceiling and counting all the new cracks that had formed since his departure just a few days ago, or centuries depending on your perspective. Eventually though the sky began to lighten up as the first rays of sunlight broke the horizon. He sighed and decided if he couldn't sleep, he might as well do something productive with his time. He quickly donned his blue jumpsuit and pulled on some socks and boots that he'd managed to scrounge up from the remains of his dresser and closet.

Nate headed outside and was greeted by the rather pleasant aroma of stew cooking in the only other occupied house in Sanctuary Hills. Just two days prior he'd headed into Concord to find information and ideally a guide that could help him traverse the changed Commonwealth. Instead he'd found a group of Raider had trapped a small group of people inside the old museum there. After a few rounds of shotgun, or laser rifle, diplomacy he managed to secure the museum and link-up with the few remaining survivors. Preston Garvey the man in charge of this small group had requested his assistance in escorting these people to a place they called "Sanctuary". Turns out their sanctuary was his old neighborhood that he had just left from so he gave them the nickel tour before they all crashed for the night.

Yesterday Nate had every intention of setting out after picking Garvey's brain for every bit of information about this hellscape that he found himself in. Unfortunately, between the questions, building a water filtration system, planting crops, and preparing better beds the entire day had been spent. The information he gathered was not very comforting, turns out that raiders were the least of the threats that could be found across the Commonwealth. Ghouls, Robots, You Guai, Deathclaws, and even synthetic humans that could pass as the real deal stalked the wasteland. Thankfully they also pointed out a few settlements on his Pip-Boy Map that could be of potential use to him. Diamond City even had it's own detective that specialized in missing person cases that Nate couldn't wait to get to.

The people that Nate had rescued seemed to be decent enough folk but Nate still wasn't sure what to make of them. Preston was a frontline soldier thru and thru but he seemed completely at a loss for what to do without someone giving him orders. Sturgis was a gearhead that couldn't go two seconds without taking something apart and (hopefully) putting it back together again. The Longs, Jun & Marcy, were in grief over their son's death and while Nate could relate to that he didn't really see anyway he could help them with that, he never had been very good with grieving families. That just left Mama Murphy the supposed psychic of the group, honestly Nate just figured she was a druggy that had found a unique way to score a fix but even he had to admit she seemed to know way more than she should.

Briefly he considered joining them for a quick meal before he headed out but decided against it, the D-rations he'd stashed in his house were still good and much easier to eat on the road than any meal they would offer. As he made his way towards the bridge out of Sanctuary Preston's voice pierced the early morning silence. "Nate, can you hold up a second?"

Nate stopped just in front of the bridge and turned to face the last minuteman. "I suppose so, but I'd like to get going sooner rather than later."

Preston caught up with him and nodded "I understand we made you some food for the road as thanks for all your help yesterday." Preston handed him a sack that looked to be full of some kind of jerky or venison. "And I hate to ask but I was wondering if you'd be willing to take care of something else for us?"

Nate sighed. "Look Preston I know I saved you guys in Concord but I don't think I'm half the guy you think I am. I honestly only saved you because you were the only people NOT shooting me in Concord and I need some information."

"That may be the case but you didn't have to escort us back here or help us setup or even stop and listen to me today. Look we can argue about how great or not great you are later. I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to help some more people out. The trader that came in this morning brought word of two settlements that need some help, trouble is I'm just one person and they both need help soon if they can get it. I'll even let you pick which one to help."

Nate nodded. "Show me the settlements and tell me what their problems are. I can't guarantee I'll help but I can go talk to them at least."
Preston smiled as Nate pulled out his Pip-Boy map. "Tabernathy Farm is directly West from here it's more out of the way but supposedly they're only being bothered by a small raider gang. Oberland station is actually on your way if you're going to Diamond City however they say that it's a super mutant group that's bothering them."

Nate winced and nervously ran his hand thru his shorn hair. Super Mutants, according to Preston, were genetically modified humans, resistant to light arms fire, and strong as hell fighting them with just a pistol and a laser musket would be quite a challenge. "I'll head for Oberland Station."
Preston shuffled nervously. "You sure? Super Mutants are no joke, especially if you've never fought them before."

"I'm sure."
"Okay then take these frag grenades then, I know we split them after Concord but you'll need all the help you can get against those things."

The two men headed out of Sanctuary past the Red Rocket station to the fork in the road where they would head their separate ways. Waiting for them was a dog, the dog glanced at the men and then at the sun slowly rising into the sky as if to say "you're late" Nate kneeled down to scratch the dog behind the ears "I know we're late Dogmeat, it's all Preston's fault."

An indignant "Hey!" and a soft bark later Preston and Nate said their goodbyes. As they headed off Dogmeat followed Preston who seemed a little shocked. "Are you sure boy? Nate's the one going against Super Mutants." Dogmeat merely barked and him and continued up the western road.

Nate shrugged at Preston "Maybe he knows something we don't. See ya later Preston, stay safe." They finally split up with the man in Brown heading west and the Man in Blue heading South.

The road out of Concord was rather quiet, a stark contrast to just a few days ago when the raiders had tried to kill them all. Unfortunately for Nate the quiet trip meant that his mind was free to wander, even before the events in Vault 111 this never was a good thing to have happen. Memories of the Resource Wars, of countless battles, the stench of bile and gore, the screams of the innocent and combatants alike all began to plague him during his walk.

Luckily the sound of raided voices managed to yank him out of those memories before he got to deep into them. Checking his Pip-Boy he saw that it'd been almost an hour had passed and that he was near the old Drumlin Diner. Apparently, some drug, or chem, dealer was trying to collect on some debts that the current Diner's residents had incurred. A little persuasion here, a few threats there and the dealer was paid off much more cheaply than what he'd been demanding with the stipulation that he not sell to the kid again.

Nate doubted this would be a permanent solution but at least this way he didn't have to waste time burying some corpses in a shallow grave. Heading further south, and steering clear of the pre-war disposal yard, his Pip-Boy began to beep at him. Closer investigation revealed that it had picked up a new radio signal for him to listen to labeled Military Frequency AF95. Nate highly doubted it was the military that he was familiar with from the Resource Wars but decided to have a listen anyways on the off chance it had some useful information.

"our position at Cambridge Police Station. Automated message repeats… This is Scribe Haylen of Reconnaissance Squad Gladius to any unit in transmission range. Authorization Arx. Ferrum. Nine. Five. Our unit has sustained casualties and we're running low on supplies. We're requesting support or evac from our position at Cambridge Police Station. Automated message repeats…"

Nate sighed and said aloud "Great Igor seems like we've got more helpless villagers to go save." After a second, he realized that he said that out loud and became slightly concerned about his mental health. He shrugged and continued on it only seemed natural to go a little insane in this new world he found himself in. He shouldered his laser musket and decided to head towards Cambridge, time to see what the "military" of the Commonwealth really looked like.

AN: So this is the real chapter 1 for my story An Old Holotape, fair warning the other chapter already posted will be the ending for this story so don't read it if you don't want spoilers.