Too many things were happening in such a short amount of time, at least that's what it felt like to Ryan Anderson. One moment he's enjoying the morning with his wife and child and the next he's descending into a vault as an atomic warhead detonated, then he's frozen in some cyro tube across from his family. It felt like seconds later when he wakes up to see some person in a hazmat suit trying to remove his child from his wife's arms as some mercenary type guy watches and he can only watch as his wife is shot by said guy when she won't give up their son before he's suddenly frozen again. When he awakens this time though the hatch to his cyro tube opens and he collapses to the floor, unaware of how much time has really passed, only that he needed to check on his wife.

Unfortunately, it seems that the bullet had severed her brachial artery and she had died from blood loss shortly after their son was taken. After spending some time to grieve Ryan tried checking on the other people that were frozen with him, but it appeared their life support had failed sometime between their initial freezing and now. Taking one last look at his wife, Ryan left the cyro room and made his way through the vault, determined to get topside and find his and avenge his wife.

Getting out of the vault was more difficult than getting in it seemed, as many of the doors were locked and an infestation of over sized roaches had occurred. Alongside that Ryan was able to somewhat gauge the passage of time as he came across the skeletons of the Vault-Tec staff scattered throughout the vault. Still, he cared little for their fate as he finally managed to reach the lift and get above ground again.

Upon reaching the surface however, Ryan was met with a view of the destruction the warheads had left behind and saw that his neighborhood had been reduced to blown out buildings and rubble, but it would still be a good place to get his bearings and so he walked down from the vault into the neighborhood.

As he walked towards his house, which was somehow still standing, Ryan was surprised to see his Mister Handy, Codsworth still roaming around. The reunion with Codsworth was enlightening to say the least, that two hundred and some odd years had passed in what felt like such a short time was a lot to take in, but the passage of time was irrelevant as he still had to find his son. Ryan had agreed to Codsworth's suggestion to search the neighborhood together, but the search only turned up a bunch of over sized flies that tried to attack the two. After returning home Codsworth suggested checking out the nearby town of Concord, as their where still people there.

"Wait, there are still people in Concord?"

"Yes, they've only shot at me a few times though."

"Oh, that's not reassuring at all Codsworth."

"Sir I believe you would be fine, being a combat veteran and all."

"Yeah, I thought I'd be done with combat after I got out of the Marines, but if it means getting Shaun back then I guess I have no choice."

"Of course Sir, but please do be careful."

"Always am Codsworth don't worry so much."

Ryan than walked into his old bedroom and found the safe that had been installed in the floor under the bed was still intact. After unlocking the safe Ryan opened it to reveal all his things he had kept from his enlistment in the Marines and sorted through what he would take with him while reflecting back on his service.

"Nora always said she was proud of me, sure participating in the Anchorage Campaign was something to be proud of, but the cost of it…was it really worth it? No one else from my squad made it back, and here I am once again, only instead of my brothers my family's the ones that are gone. Enough of that, I've got to focus on saving Shaun." Ryan thought to himself as he changed out of his vault suit into his desert MARPAT fatigues and swapped the N99 pistol he had recovered for the M4 carbine the Marines had allowed him to keep.

Sure the weapon may have been outdated by most standards, but the Marine Corps had only just started phasing out the aging M16 series rifle as opposed to the Army who had already begun circulating a new Laser Rifle as their standard service rifle. Ryan examined the weapon and preformed a functions check on the weapon and was satisfied to hear the hammer strike the firing pin as he pulled the trigger, indicating that the weapon was still functional. Satisfied with his gear Ryan said his goodbyes to Codsworth and headed down the road towards Concord.

As he walked by the old Red Rocket gas station Ryan stumbled across a lone dog resting in the shade. The dog's ears perked up as he approached it.

"Hey boy, you all alone hear?" he asked as the dog whined at him.

"Well, you can tag along with ole' Lance Corporal Anderson if you want."

The dog jumped around happily as he begun to follow behind Ryan.

"Guess I'll call you Dogmeat, I know real original right? But you seem happy enough with it."

The two walked down the road and into Concord where Ryan noticed many of the buildings, while still standing, were boarded up. As Ryan and Dogmeat walked further into town he heard a sudden burst of gunfire coming from the main road through town. Ryan quickly took cover against a nearby building and peaked around the corner with the ACOG sight on his M4. What he saw was a group of people in crude armor assaulting an old museum as people that were dressed in revolutionary style clothing defended themselves with some type of laser weapon.

Ryan leveled his carbine at the nearest raider and fired two rounds into his chest, killing the man, before firing another three at a raider across the street. Despite his ambush several raiders managed to get inside the museum so he and Dogmeat quickly took care of the remaining raiders outside before entering the museum.

Upon entering the museum Ryan received fire from raiders that had reached the upper floors, but fortunately they were terrible shots and Ryan was able to quickly dispatch his assailants with a few well aimed shots. After killing them Ryan and Dogmeat cleared some more rooms before coming across a generator with a working fusion core behind a security gate locked by a nearby terminal. Ryan possessed many skills, but his ability to hack terminals was lacking, so he resorted to simply shooting the lock open with his carbine. With the fusion core secured he and Dogmeat fought the remaining raiders in the building and reached the group that was defending the place.

"Man sure am glad you showed up. I doubt we could have held them off for much longer." The leader of the group told him as Ryan approached.

"It's no trouble really, I'm just glad I still remember how to shoot." Ryan responded.

"Me too, you some type of soldier?"

"I served a few years in the Marines, yeah. I'm Lance Corporal Anderson, but you can just call me Ryan."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen. Now if you don't mind me asking what brought you out here?"

"Someone took my son, he's not even a year old, and I'm trying to find him. I thought I might find some clues here."

"That's fucked up man, only people we've seen around here are Raiders, but if we get out of here I'd try looking in Diamond City next."

"Diamond City huh, well I assume there's still raiders out there?"

"You'd assume right, but Sturges over here's got a plan that might just get us out of here." Preston said as he introduced Ryan to Sturges

"Well let's hear it."

"Alright, I'm sure you noticed the crashed Vertibird on the roof of the museum. Well whoever crashed left a sweet set of power armor up there for us, only thing is the fusion cores burnt out so we'll need a replacement." Sturges explained.

"Hey, I already got one from downstairs!" Ryan exclaimed as he held out the fusion core for Sturges to see.

"Well I'll be damned that's it! Just take that thing to the roof and plug it in, once you're in the suit you'll be able to use the Vertibird's minigun to mop up the raiders outside."

"Sweet, I'm on it." Ryan agreed before he headed to the roof.

The power armor was easy to find and Ryan quickly inserted the fusion core into its port and entered the armor. Power armor was just beginning to enter service in the Marine Corp's mechanized infantry during the Anchorage Campaign, and while Ryan's unit was attached to the Infantry he had never actually seen a full suit up close before, but the armor seemed easy enough to use as he walked up to the minigun and removed it from its mount. Ryan stepped up to the roofs ledge and saw a large group of raiders rushing the building. The minigun took a few seconds to spool up before firing its 5mm rounds, making short work of the surprised raiders as they were ripped apart by the hail of bullets. Ryan jumped to the street below as the last raider fell and proceeded to make sure all of them were dead. As Ryan finished checking one of the raiders he heard the sound of metal being ripped open and turned to see one of the most terrifying creatures he'd ever seen emerge from the sewers. The creature easily dwarfed him and he had no doubt that its large claws would easily tear anyone to shreds in seconds. Ryan didn't waste a second in turning the minigun towards the creature and fired at it. The creature roared in anger as the bullets struck it repeatedly and it began to charge Ryan. Scared out of his mind, Ryan continued to fire at the monster while walking backwards as quickly as he could and found himself backed against the side of the museum. Unfortunately the creature reached Ryan and swiped the minigun out of his hands before tossing him over its shoulder. Ryan crashed to the ground as alarms went off inside his helmet, warning him that his armor was severely damaged. A snarl caught his attention as he saw the monster towering over him with its claws poised to deliver the finishing blow, when a laser bolt passed through its head, frying the creature's brain. As it died it unceremoniously fell on top of Ryan as he was struggling to stand up. Ryan was attempting to shove the creature off himself when the Minutemen ran outside.

"Holy shit! You alright man?" Preston asked.

"Get this thing off of me." Came Ryan's muffled response.

The Minutemen quickly rolled the giant body off of Ryan and seeing that the power armor was severely damaged, hit the emergency release to free Ryan of the armor.

"Fuck, what is that thing!?" Ryan asked as he stood up.

"That's a Deathclaw, one of the wastelands most dangerous creatures. Lucky you were wearing that armor, otherwise, well let's not get into that."

"Yeah no kidding."

"Still that was an impressive feat you just pulled, we should have no trouble getting to Sanctuary now thanks to you."

"It's no trouble Preston, ok maybe a little trouble, but still I'm glad I could help. When you get to Sanctuary talk to my robot Codsworth, he'll help you get settled."

"Appreciate it, I assume you're headed to Diamond City to find your son?"

"That's right."

"Good luck then, I hope you find him. Once I've finished helping these people settle in, and if you ever need a hand you let me know and gladly help."

"You're a good man Preston, I wish you luck."

After saying his goodbyes Ryan and Dogmeat scavenged what supplies they could from the Raiders and headed out of Concord and into the wasteland, uncertain of what the future would hold.