AN: This story is going to be focusingon the Soul Survivor and his problems, it is an AU meaning Shaun was never born and Nora died from Vault 111 experiment. It might have a love story in this so if you like that stay around? Well now that I am done promoting myself. I want to say constructive criticism is welcome, but slandering my fic is not. I do not own anything except the special shitty situations these characters get themselves into. Sad that I actually have to say that. Enjoy!
What the hell happened? The sun almost blinded me as I came out of vault 111. Everything was destroyed and I mean everything. When I entered the vault with many other citizens from a town named Sanctuary. I used to live there, before everything went to shit. Me and my wife had just signed up for vault-tec not even hours before the alarms went off. Vault-tec wanted us in the vault because of my military history at least that is what they said. What I didn't know was that I would be on life support for about 200 years. I did some research from what little information that was left from the terminals and such. What I found out would make most people sick to their stomach. Of course I had an experience with the great U.S army. So there were worst things I have experienced. There were about 32 test subjects including me and my wife Nora. All but one died from life support failure. That one was me, I think this was when the scientists stopped checking up on us regularly. While we were on ice so to speak, the security staff was getting restless. There was this thing called a waiting period before anyone could leave the vault. I can't remember, but it was something like 120 days, the catch was that there was only enough supplies till that waiting period was over. The Overseer didn't want to leave the vault or even open the door because he believed there was still too much radiation outside. So as you would expect the security staff shot up all the scientists and the Overseer. With that the only ones in vault were the 32 test subjects. The exact test was to see what were the effects of cryostasis on unsuspecting victims for an extended period of time. The life support was still on, but it slowly killed off some of the test subjects to keep most of the population alive. I just turned out to be the lucky one and was the last to perish. I also found out that someone somewhere opened my cryostasis chamber remotely.
The question is who opened it? I may never know, but I do send my silent thanks to that person. The world I left is nothing compared to the world I came back to. I thought maybe more would of been done over those years, but of course I can't judge anything from the first sight. I decided it was best that I went back to my old home to see what was left.
XXX
When I got to the house I was pleasantly and morbidly surprised, Codsworth was there. "How Codsworth how are you still here?" I asked dumbfounded. Codsworth seemed hurt by my question. "Sir Caleb you surely didn't think a little bit of radiation could stop me" it was even a question. "You don't look so good better not let the mistress see you in that state."
My face went pale, "Codsworth she is dead". Codsworth looked at me with all three of his robotic eyes. "These horrible things you are saying must not be true, you must of not eaten for over 200 years". My eyes widened, "200 years is that how long I have been on ice. How is that even possible". The robot rolled his eyes "come inside Master Caleb". We both walked into the desc rated house. There was holes in the roof and walls, but a lot of the old furniture was surprisingly still there. Codsworth went over the fridge and tried to open it. I chuckled on the inside at the robots antics. "Don't worry Codsworth I will get it".
I opened a fridge to see almost nothing, it was expected if Codsworth numbers were not off then it would be expected to be looted many time over. There was a half drunken nuka-cherry plus a box of deviled eggs. "It's not much but it will have to do. So Codsworth have you seen any other people around the area."
"Oh yes there was but every time I went around them they threw rocks at me so I just stayed here until you returned here." I had the last bit of my meal, "hmm so where were these people Codsworth?" I asked. "Oh they are by the neighborhooding city Concord." he said.
"I'm going to go there because I can't accomplish anything just sitting here. Will you come?".
"Of course sir, but may I ask something?" the robot asked me. "Sure anything Codsworth." I said. "What exactly are you hoping to accomplish?"
I stared at the robots middle eye, "only thing I can do,l survive and to make sure my wife's death was not in vain." painful tears started streaming down my face. "Because of her I am here today and I will not forget that...ever."
Codsworth stood there awkwardly, he was a good robot and a good friend, but robots can't fix the hole in your heart. "Don't worry Codsworth now that i'm here you won't be alone anymore." I stood up to go into the laundry room where I hid my army backpack behind the dryer. So it turns out nobody was smart enough to check behind there, I mused.
I had a few painkillers in the back plus a hunting knife. I threw my baton into the bag and holstered the 10mm pistol where the backpack clipped around my waist. Then I checked the two back rooms for anything. On the left was our old master room which only had a broken bed frame and a dresser which had been thoroughly looted. the room on the right was our spare bedroom that we were turning into a baby room. We even had a crib in there, Nora was 5 months into the pregnancy. I clenched my fist this was vault-tec's fault. If they didn't try to do those sick experiments this would of never happened. We would have peacefully lived in the vault, alas that is not to be.
"Sir Caleb are we going?", Codsworth walks into the spare room. "Ah I see you have found your backpack from the time in the military". I nodded, I was one to never think that a robot was possible of emotions. Even if they did, they were programmed that way. They were just a frame of steel with a whole bunch of parts on the inside. The way he acted told me I was wrong, but how could that be so?
"Just a sec Cod", the robot zoomed in his eyes. "Oh come on don't tell me you don't remember your nickname."
"Sir, I have no recollection of being called by a special nickname." I walked around the robot, if he could not remember of all the times I called him Cod, who knows what other memories that have went missing. I opened his back compartment to his wires, I was confronted with a face full of steam. I waved the steam away before I went into a coughing fit.
"Are you okay sir?", Codsworth asked with a hint of worry. "...yeah just what exactly happened to you over these 200 years?" I asked my robot.
"Well the nuclear blast knocked me out for some time. After you and the misses left the blast came. When my systems rebooted nobody was here."
"Hmm interesting, okay well I did call you Cod. Let's go to Concord".
XXX
The hike was pretty short it. If I had to guess it took about an hour to get there. We passed a red rocket gas station. I know that I should of checked it out, but the memories there were too painful. When we got into into Concord I could hear yelling and gunfire.
I pulled the straps on my backpack to tighten the bag to my body and started running to the chaos. I poked around the corner to the street that let to the museum of freedom. I could see multiple half naked men shooting up at people in the building.
"Great giant rats to lunatics", I said as I pulled my pistol out of its sling and aimed it carefully at the closest threat. I squeezed down the bullet and let the bullet loose. I knew as soon as I pulled the trigger I was going to be the cause of one more life. If my time in the army had taught me anything it was the fact that being an solo sniper every shot count. I didn't feel sorrow for those I killed, but I would never forget their faces. Some were filled with pain and misery. But like this gun he had no idea his life was about to go down the drain. When my best friend Kay died during our second tour his last words were "never forget".
The sound of gunfire that my gun made brought some unwanted attention to my vicinity. "Sir they are firing at us!" Codsworth yelled. "Yes you don't think I know this? Now be quiet and help me kill them!" This is when Codsworth went out into the open roasting one of the half naked men. I turned my attention to the rest of the threat, really they were at a disadvantage even if they had better weapons. They had to defend an assault from both sides, so I carefully picked one by one off. I was never one to waste bullets, when the threat was eliminated someone from the building yelled, "there is more of them inside help..please!". I spotted a rifle with a makeshift scope on top of one of the dead body. I looked through the sight, "man this is horrible if they were going to use nails as cross hairs they should've at least done all four sides!" The cross hairs were half assed but it be better than my pistol in my opinion. I opened the doors to the museum and I was confronted by a heap of gun shots. I wrinkled my nose the place certainly lost it's touch after 200 years. I planned to take my son to this place when he got older. Stop thinking about that Caleb, all they are is false dreams. I ran to a column supporting the building and started firing at the men who went hostile on me as soon as I walked into the building. I took my anger out on them so not every shot was a 100 percent hit. The scope was truly horrible but it still did it's job.
XXX
I walked into the room the people I just helped were holed in and a guy with some sort of electric rifle walked up to me. "Thank you for helping we got cornered in this building by raiders".
"So that's what you call them", I muttered to myself. Codsworth floated into the room. "Are these the people you were talking about Cod?"
"No sir Caleb, the men we killed were the ones I was talking about". Someone in a mechanic outfit came over. "How..how did you program one of these to say your name?", he asked amazed.
I shook my head, "no I didn't program him, the factory that built him programmed him, I said.
The mechanic looked confused, "that's Sturges, and I am Preston.", the man held his hand out. I took his hand, "the name is Caleb".
"So we need your help, there are more raiders out there, a lot more of raiders." Sturges said. "So what do we do then?", I asked.
"Sir if I may, but I detected some power armor in the vicinity of the area.", Codsworth said.
"Yeah I was about to go into that", Sturges was taken aback that a robot stole his thunder. "So there is some t-51b power armor on the roof. All we need is a fusion core, and there so happens to be one down in the basement."
I started to see where this was going, "I am not getting into that power armor", I snapped.
Preston stared at me, "why not?"
"That's none of your business. If you want my help I will help, but I am not going to get in that armor." all I could think of was the dead comrades that died in those killing machines.
"Okay", Preston said carefully. "I will get into the power armor, let me just go down and get the power core". I nodded "Cod go with him".
"As you wish sir", I was left to talk to Sturges who was still giving me a strange look. "So from the look of it you're not from around here", Sturges commented.
"What do you mean, I lived here all of my life."
"Well for one you have a vault suit on, which could only mean a few things; you found a spare suit either just laying around or on a dead body or you are a vault dweller. My friendly advice get out of the vault suit as soon as you can. People think you would be an easy target, and trust me you don't want that."
"I was in a vault, but I did live here", I said calmly.
Sturges froze, "how..how is that even possible that means your like a pre war ghoul but without being a ghoul."
"How about you tell me what won't make me an easy target and I will tell you how", I said with a smirk. An eye for an eye." Before he could respond Preston and Codsworth came back into the room.
"I.. I mean we got the fusion core let's set this plan into action."
XXX
All four of us were on the roof staring up in awe of the power armor except me. I hated the armor I wanted to get far away from the armor. Besides I was a sniper how was I supposed to snipe correctly in that suit?
"Can you use this?", Preston asked Sturges as he tried to hand his laser musket over to him. Sturges explained what it was to me and started to go into detail about it, but I told him we had more important matters to discuss. "Preston are you joking i'm no good with guns, I can try but I might just disappoint you."
Preston shook his head, "nonsense plus from the look of it we need all the help we can get." Sturges looked at the musket like it was his impending doom. That's funny it's like the first time I was asked to hold a rifle. I remember I was 15 years old. My family was not big on outdoors stuff except my uncle. You know that crazy uncle that always hits on your sister at thanksgiving, yeah it was that one.
Well uncle Joe hunted and camped all throughout hunting season. It seemed like each year he hunted something different. Well after my 15th birthday he asked me to go, I didn't want to go at first. I mean being away for at least a month, I had friends and other things going for me. My parents forced me to go and afterwards I was glad they did because that's when I learned the love for guns well not all guns. I disliked getting close up with guns. The first thing my uncle strapped me up with a double barrel shotgun. The first deer I saw almost got as scared as me. I nearly pissed my pants that day.
When it was all said and done Preston was in the power armor with a minigun, Sturges went inside to shoot out of a window, and Codsworth and me stayed on the room.
Inside the power armor Preston said, "well wish me luck". I silently nodded to him. He jumped off the building, "Codsworth guard my flank, if anyone comes up to the church blast them to bits".
"As you wish sir".
