Nora had been Nate's wife and Shaun their son. Beorn had always loved Nora as the three of them grew up together. She and Nate had something special though. They had all known of Beorn's feelings, Nora most of all. She and he had dated in high school, but she had been drawn away to Nate. That was a bitter time in Beorn's memory. He was accepted to West Point and left to get away from the two of them. Then Nate had Enlisted. Before Beorn graduated Nate and Nora were married, the pain had assuaged over time and he was the best man at the wedding. The three of them became fast friends again.

Beorn graduated and Nate was promoted to Sergeant quite rapidly. They were both assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 108th infantry, serving in Alaska. The unit was augmented by a large portion of National Guardsmen from Massachusetts, which meant there were a few months needed for preparation before deployment to the front line. This had been a grand time for Second Lieutenant Stark and Sergeant Carson. Then the first deployment had come. They were gone for almost two years. They returned as First Lieutenant Stark and Staff Sergeant Carson. They both applied to the special forces and were accepted.

They went through the hell that was selection together and became even better friends. They returned to the 2nd Battalion and served in the recon company. They deployed a second time. Nora had been devastated when she heard the news. She and Nate had only been together for a few months in the three years since they were married. She was trying to finish up law school, which kept her busy, but she had hoped for a little time between the deployments. The commies had different plans though.

This deployment lasted another two years. Nora graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard Law school, Nate was promoted to Sergeant First Class and Beorn became Captain Stark. They returned home and had almost a year off before another call came to return to Alaska. The reds were pushing harder every month. This was the worst of the deployments. Beorn was appointed commander of Charlie Company and Nate was one of the platoon sergeants. The fighting was brutal and within a week Beorn's First Sergeant was killed, along with seven other men and women. He asked permission and appointed Nate as his First Sergeant. The two of them campaigned together for a further four months before that fateful night. Charlie Company had been forward, as recon element for the Battalion, when the largest offensive of the Alaskan war started. They had been the tip of the spear. Beorn's whole company had been killed or wounded in the attack, including Nate who had just returned from some well deserved leave. The 108th Regiment rallied and pushed back the offensive, saving the wounded, which included Beorn.

He returned to Massachusetts and faced a grief stricken Nora. Her best friend was hospitalized, her husband was dead. She practically moved into Walter Reed with Beorn as he recovered. She could not lose him as well. Her parents had died several years back from Cancer and then grief. It was soon apparent that she was pregnant with Nate's child, a blessing and a huge responsibility.

Beorn promised to be the best uncle Shaun would ever have. He would take the boy hunting, fishing, play baseball, and all of the things Nate would have done. Nora was happy for the support and Beorn found new purpose in his recovery. He was discharged from the hospital barely a week before Shaun was born and moved back to the Boston area, where his parents lived just southwest of the city. He was there all of the time with Nora for the birth, taking Shaun home, and really didn't even sleep at his parents' house anymore. He bought a Mr. Handy to help Nora when he was gone, as he started to look for work.

They were both still healing from Nate's loss, though Shaun was a major source of happiness. He looked just like Nate's baby pictures, and seemed to have his father's ready sense of humor. The ten months since his birth had been some of the best of Beorn's life. He was honorably discharged from active duty and awarded a silver star for his actions in Alaska. Nate was also awarded the silver star posthumously.

Beorn did not want to dishonor Nate's memory, so it was some time before he approached Nora about his feelings for her. She responded slowly as well, not quite over the loss of her husband. Three months before the bomb fell on Boston they had begun dating.

Beorn still had the engagement ring in the pocket of his vault suit which he had intended to present to Nora when the time was right. She had always been the love of his life. Now she was gone. All that was left of her and his best friend Nate was Shaun. He needed to find out what happened to him.

He took a breath and let the anger burn in his heart, warming the last remaining cold of the cryogenic stasis. He wiped the tears from his eyes and let the soldier take over. He took stock of his surroundings, there was not much in the cryo chamber. He found a terminal that showed the records of the other frozen corpsicles. Neighbors from Sanctuary that had all been good friends, all dead due to vault tech's failure. The door to the rest of the vault was unlocked and opened at the press of a button.

The klaxons continued to sound as he explored the abandoned hallways. He was the sole survivor, except maybe Shaun, of this vault. All of the residents in cryo died due to life support failure. Those who were not in cryo died before any help could come. There had been a revolt some months after the bombs fell. All of the records he could find showed that indeed there had been a nuclear apocalypse. Why or how this had happened was unknown to Beorn, but it happened and now he had to deal with it.

He opened a door and was almost knocked over by a cockroach the size of his old dog. The thing clawed and chewed at his exposed flesh. He wrestled it off and managed to get an old pipe wrench with which to smash it into pulp. He soon found an old fighting baton that provided some more reach and leverage, but kept the pipe wrench just the same. What had happened to the world? Beorn had studied Nuclear Physics and computer science at West Point, so he had some idea of what radiation could do to a body. This mutation was beyond what credible science had believed at the time. He had to accept the evidence before him though. What other creatures would be transformed? He imagined giant scorpions, spiders, and any number of other creepy crawlies turned to massive beasts of horror. Great.

Exploring the vault led to one conclusion. He could not stay here. There was water, that was something, and shelter but no food. More importantly, he could not find Shaun by staying here. The system clock on one of the terminals showed him that the year was 2287. He was frozen for 210 years… anything could be waiting above. Since the vault had not been recovered and seemed abandoned he assumed that society must have collapsed much as the vault staff had.

He finally found a pistol in what had once been the overseer's office. That was something anyway. Even better, he found a discarded pip boy by one of the deceased vault staff members. This allowed him to operate the vault door and provided a number of other helpful menu options, including a map of the vault and the local area. How the navigation systems were still working after 200 years without maintenance was a bit baffling. Perhaps society was not as gone as he originally thought. The pip boy allowed him to interface with the controller for the vault door and soon he was staring up into the bright sun for the first time in 200 years.

Immediately his eyes were drawn to the last thing he remembered seeing as they descended into the vault. The location of the nuclear blast. It also happened to be where his parents used to live. He hoped they had died painlessly and not slowly from radiation exposure. 200 years later and they were sure to be dead, along with everyone else he ever knew. The air was crisp and smelled of earth. As far as ge could see in any direction the trees were skeletal, the land a muddy brown.

"Could be worse," he said out loud. There were few signs of thriving civilization, though he could see the remains of downtown Boston, Lexington, and Concord to the south. He checked the safety on his pistol before holstering it and took stock of his ammo and supplies. The primary thing he was missing was food. As long as he didn't stray too far from the vault he would have shelter and water as needed. It would be good to know where the vault got its water, just in case something does happen to it in the future. He started a to do list on his new found Pip Boy.

He began searching the area around the vault entrance for signs of Shaun's kidnappers. There was surprisingly little activity in the area around the vault. Animal life was scarce, a few crows fled his presence, evidence of some small game animals, a few deer - though there was definitely something off about their tracks. No signs of humans other than the dried and blasted bones that were probably here before the bombs fell. The remnants of clothing certainly looked like some of his neighbors'. Looking down the hill he had run up in such a hurry all that time ago, that seemed to him as it were yesterday, he could see the houses of Sanctuary Hills.

They were remarkably well preserved for all the years and the nuclear blast. At least what he could see of them. Keeping an eye out for other mutations, he continued down the hill. he was having visions of monkeys or gorillas now ruling the world. Either that or a world ruled entirely by some giant ant hive, all of the b class sci-fi movies he had loved to watch with Nora were coming back to him. He felt his heart grow heavy with thoughts of her and fingered the ring in his pocket.

So far, so good. There was a stream at the bottom of the hill still, though he couldn't identify the plants now growing in the water. He crossed the foot bridge that somehow still stood. And emerged next to the Wilson's old house. He cautiously crept along the side of the house with his weapon at the ready and poked his head out quickly to get a peek at the neighborhood. There was not much to see. He ducked back as quickly as he'd stuck his head out just in case. Then he heard something, the sound of a buzz saw? Perhaps there was still someone here. He cautiously peeked around the corner again.

It took his brain longer than he liked to process what he saw. A Mr. Handy robot was outside of his old house trimming the hedges as if the world hadn't changed one bit. Like it somehow didn't see that the plants were withered. Was it possible the hedge still grew? How could that be? Was the robot still following it's basic programming? Beorn knew that Robco and General Atomics had been working on some good AI that should have learned from experience.

He stepped out into the street with the 10mm pistol in hand, safety off, but held down by his side and approached the automaton. It didn't take long for it to notice him. The robot turned away from the hedge and hover over. "Sir! Good to see you!" What followed was one of the strangest conversations of Beorn's life. This was Codsworth. The very Mr. Handy that had served him coffee the morning of the bombs. It was all so surreal that Beorn had to go inside of Nora's house and sit down on the moldering couch for a moment.

Codsworth followed him into the house and continued their conversation. Apparently the robot had been here taking care of the house for 210 years with no idea what had happened to Beorn or Nora. He hadn't seen anyone in particular come up to the vault. Though Codsworth had gone to visit it on several occasions. Without the proper access codes the robot had been unable to access the vault.

That meant that whoever had Shaun had somehow gotten the access codes. Making his adversaries all the more dangerous, or just lucky. He wasn't sure which would be worse. He took the time to explore Sanctuary a bit. His neighbors were all dead so he didn't feel too bad about looting anything useful. Not that there was much of it. Codsworth followed him around like a lost puppy, even helping him to kill the giant flies and cockroaches that infested the houses. There was some old food around, still edible after 200 years. Mr. Griswold down the street had a bunker behind the house that was still full of food, water, and ammo. He even found an old hunting rifle and a box of .308 rounds to go with it. He and Codsworth spent the next few hours transferring everything they could find that was still of use from the neighborhood up to the vault. The overseer's office would provide an excellent place to set up shop. It was secure, defensible, had easy access to water, and other facilities.

After they were set up in their new home Beorn and Codsworth talked a bit more. There was a tape from Nora which brought back more memories, and Codsworth had a lead. He had gone as far as Concord in his personal exploration of the area over the last 200 years. People would set up shops and temporary settlements there every few years. For some reason none of them ever stayed permanent. Perhaps Beorn could find someone there who had a lead on where to find Shaun. Codsworth himself was not particularly keen on exploring the Wasteland, and opted to stay in the vault to continue cleaning up the place.