Chapter Zero: Story Layout and Character Background

Mark's Backstory and History

This story will involve Mark Andrews, my Sole Survivor from Fallout 4. Some things will differentiate from normal Fallout canon. In this AU novel, Mark will be born in 2049, being 28 when the bombs drop in 2077. He served in the United States Army Rangers, specifically the 75th Ranger Regiment. He served in Anchorage from 2071 to 2077, about half of the whole Sino-American war. Being 17 when the war first broke out, Mark's first thought was to drop out of high school and to enlist as an enlisted man in the US Army. However, his father, Charles Andrews, persuaded him to wait and attempt to try to get into West Point. Mark at first, disagreed with his father's opinion but eventually agreed with him. He became the valedictorian of his high school class, and because of this, got offered a spot into West Point. He took the opportunity and graduated from West Point with the graduating class of 2071, being the top person in his class. Right after graduation, he was transferred to the Anchorage front line as a second lieutenant in the 75th Ranger Regiment. As the war went on, he was offered promotion after promotion, but he declined them, wanting to stay on the front lines with his men. He developed a close bond with John Parker, a fellow Ranger and one of Mark's closest friends. After the war ended in early January 2077, Mark was invited by Matthew to move into the gated neighborhood of Sanctuary Hills, Massachusetts with John and his newly wedded wife, Melinda. This was convenient for Matthew, as his sister, Veronica, the only person besides his parents and John, Mark had a real connection was dying of leukemia, and she and her newly born son needed someone to take care of them. Mark immediately abandoned his military life to become a stay-at-home uncle. However, sadly in May of 2077, Veronica passed away from her cancer. In her will, Veronica made Mark the caretaker of her infant son, Shaun. By the time the bombs drop in 2077, Mark is starting to get over Veronica's death and because of his long and intensive military service, gets accepted into the local vault, Vault 111, along with Shaun Parker and his wife were also accepted into Vault 111. But as many know, Vault 111 had more nefarious intentions, in which the entire vault population was cryogenically frozen. And when Kellogg and the Institute came in 2227 to find an non-irradiated human test sample for their Generation 3 Synth program, Parker's wife, Melinda died along with the rest of the vault population and Shaun was kidnapped by the Institute. However, the Institute left two subjects alive as backups in case Shaun failed as a sample: John Parker and Mark Andrews. Now, I will explain the most divergent moment between this story and Fallout canon, instead of in 2287, like normal canon, Shaun decided to wake up both Mark and Parker in 2277. The reason why I made this drastic choice is that it could line up with Fallout 3's and Fallout New Vegas' timelines. I know I will probably get some backlash, but I wanted to try something new that has never been attempted on this website. Comments and reviews are very highly appreciated. Story events/ideas that you guys think would be good for this story would also be very appreciated. The prologue to Book One should be up in a couple hours. Thank you.