What If- The Sole Survivor was freed from Vault 111 only shortly after Shaun's kidnapping?
Premise: In 2227, the dwellers of Vault 111 are awoken from cryogenic suspension by mysterious individuals. One of the dwellers is forced to helplessly watch as their spouse is shot and their infant son Shaun is kidnapped by the strangers, who put them back in suspension while the life support for the other residents is cut off. The survivor wakes again to find themselves the only person left alive in the Vault, not knowing they were put back in stasis for a week before a system malfunction opened the pod. They return to the surface in a hunt to find the people who abducted their son, but what would happen to the Sole Survivor now that so little time has passed between the kidnapping and resurfacing? Will it be easier to find Shaun in a world where the Institute have yet to isolate themselves below the surface and still attempt to work with others? The Railroad and East Coast chapter of the Brotherhood are years away from being formed, but could evidence of the Institute's kidnapping of surfacers cause a premature start of the War of the Commonwealth?
Key Notes:
•All changed events occur post-2227.
•Prominent change in this timeline is the presence of the Institute in the Commonwealth. They have not yet abandoned the surface nor created the Gen 3 synths, so the majority of anti-Institute sentiment that exists at this time stems from distrust of using Gen 1s and 2s to replace human workers.