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5.5% Steel Waste / Chapter 39: Dangerous Sun

Chapter 39: Dangerous Sun

Veronica wasn't the only one struggling with Christine leaving, Darian and Susan Royce were also feeling the aftereffects. They didn't get it as bad as Veronica due to the rumours of them being lovers, but as they were Christine's parents, many considered them responsible for Christine's "wrong" lifestyle.

Zachary and Verna tried their best to comfort them, by their daughters disappearance had clearly taken a toll on them. Afton didn't see them much anymore, but when he did he would always notice their previous happy attitudes had changed into more subdued ones.

His training continued, learning as much as possible and spending a great amount of time within the firing range in preparing for the looming conflict. He followed through on his promise and occasionally trained Miles and Melissa, the two were improving steadily, but not at the rate either would like.

One day everyone in the facility was alerted that the Elder would be giving a speech through the intercom system to let them know of the situation, and how they'd succeed regardless of the odds. It was obvious this was only to maintain morale as people was starting to get very tense and anxious from having the NCR constantly at their doorstep.

Afton saw this as an opportunity however, this'd mean that the Elder would be restrained to the intercom room for some time, potentially allowing him to find out what the fuck they were even doing here for.

He made his way to the underground half an hour before the speech was to be given, it was mostly empty aside from a few Scribes milling about to accomplish basic tasks. It was relatively easy to sneak by them as well, they weren't paying much attention to their surroundings and instead focussing on their work, that primarily being to repair the facility.

The other defences here were the turrets and robots, but as he was already a registered member of the Brotherhood, they didn't bother him at all.

He quickly made his way through, trying to get to the large room that the Elder had only allowed Veronica inside. The reason for this? Probably because it held the answers to what Elijah was looking for.

Eventually he reached the heavy metal door, pressing a button on it which causes it to loudly slide open, revealing a large room with many computer mainframes visible. It looked relatively well maintained, apart from the few damaged bits here and there... It seemed that Veronica was tasked with repairing the place alone, as the Elder seemed to only trust her.

He walked over to the mainframe and bent down to access the terminal attached to it, it wasn't locked surprisingly, and he was presented with three options to proceed... Power grid options, details about somesort of initial trials, and... ARCHIMEDES Testing...

He attempted to access the latter option, but found it was password protected... He'd learned much since last he attempted to access a locked computer, but was nowhere near competent enough to hack something like this. Shaking his head, he checked the others and found that the facility was running at 98% efficiency, all power was being being kept within however and not being distributed anywhere else.

Afton backed away from the terminal a little discouraged, the only thing he'd found of interest is this "Archimedes" thing, if he had to guess it was probably the weapon Elijah wanted to utilise...

He stepped onto the metal walk way and got to the second floor, immediately noticing the large holographic map set in the middle of the room... He wasn't sure what it was for, or even where it was meant to be displaying, so he ignored it for now.

There were a few robots held in stasis at the side, but they weren't really anything important... Instead he turned to the lone terminal sat up there... Judging by the papers scattered everywhere, he assumed this was where Elder Elijah worked. And that'd mean this was his terminal.

He tried to access it but found that it was locked... Damn, how was he going to find something out now?... He glanced around the room but found nothing else of notice, eventually slumping into the chair sat in-front of the terminal. Had he come here for nothing?

...

As he was thinking of ways to crack the terminal open, he noticed something yellow poking out from under the terminal... He tried to pull it out but found he actually needed to lift the terminal to retrieve it.

Once he got a better look at it, he realised what it was... It was a sticky note, with a password on it...

Afton can't stop himself from facepalming, he'd thought the wise Elder and genius Elijah wouldn't do something so stupid as to write down your password... That was something only simpletons and old people did, though, the Elder did match the latter discription.

Quickly he accessed the terminal and entered the password, "Power-Of-Knowledge".

[Accepted!]

A number of entries appeared on the screen, but he immediately selected the one speaking about ARCHIMEDES...

AN ORBITAL WEAPON!?!? He mentally screamed, his eyed threatening to bulge out of his skull. The world had already been destroyed by a nuclear Armageddon, and yet this man wanted to utilise an FUCKING orbital laser to destroy his enemies.

Wow. Everything made a lot more sense now... The reason the Elder refused to go to Hoover Dam, the reason they were stuck in this facility, the reason he refused to tell anyone what the purpose of them being here was... If someone from the Brotherhood got captured and spilled the beans about what was here, the NCR would likely abandon the Dam and send their entire army to reclaim the place.

Shit... Afton didn't know what to do with this information, it was incredibly dangerous, and if it spread everyone in the Mojave... Now, everyone in America would converge on the facility to take it for themselves.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

The MC finds out the ARCHIMEDES project, a shame the C-Finder is lost somehwhere :P

As always, if I missed anything please let me know.

next chapter

Chapter 40: Can't find Range Finder...

Afton sighed to himself, he couldn't tell anyone about this... Not even Veronica, the person who was literally working on fixing the weapon of mass destruction. If Elder Elijah found out that she, or he knew about its true purpose, he'd undoubtedly have them executed to keep the secret safe.

He didn't knew whether he wanted Elijah to get the weapon working or not, sure it'd probably keep the NCR away from them for the time being, but they'd be permanently surrounded and stuck within Helios One... They'd probably try to starve them out by denying them access to supplies.

The Elder didn't strike Afton as the most sane man either, who knew if he'd turn the weapon upon the Chapter itself, wishing to keep the power for himself.

The only boon to the situation was the fact that there seemed to be one vital component missing... The weapon required a range finder, one that had a unique signature and couldn't be replicated... One that the Elder was currently searching for.

If Afton had to guess, one of the raiders that managed to escape were probably carrying it on their person... From its description they most likely thought it was a flash light or children's toy due to the large glowing "Poseidon Energy" logo on it.

Regardless, he needed to get out of here now, he'd almost forgotten that he had a time limit. He returned everything to its original location, even the sticky note with the password written on it.

Once done he quickly dashed through the halls to get out of the underground facility, he wasn't actually supposed to be down here as only certain Scribes were given access... Hopefully he was able to make it out unnoticed.

There were more Scribes than before, most probably returned after hearing half of the Elder's speech. He'd just reached the doors leading out when the door in-front of him opened, revealing a Scribe who just started at him blankly.

It was Susan Royce, Christine's mother... She looked at him in confusion for a moment before the sounds of steps from behind her caused her eyes to widen. "Quick, hide!" she quickly whispered, her eyes looking towards a utility cupboard at the side

Afton quickly climbed inside it as he heard who was behind her...

"Scribe Royce, what's the hold up?" the Elder's familiar gruff asks.

"Nothing sir, I was just making sure all the Scribes were attending to their duties properly... My apologies for holding you up." she says, stepping to the side to allow him past.

"I almost forgot to ask... How are you getting on Scribe, without your daughter I mean." he asks the strange question, neither Susan nor Afton knew why he was interested, as he showed no interest in Christine or them previously.

"I-er... I am struggling with my loss Elder, I don't know if it was something I did or could have prevented." she says noncommittally, not wishing to discuss this with someone she was so unfamiliar with.

"Hmph, well, don't let it distract you from your work Scribe. I understand it will effect you but what's done is done, time to forget the betrayer and continue your duties for the Chapter." the Elder says before leaving.

Afton felt like he could sense Susan's rapidly rising anger from here, once he knew the Elder was out of sight he walked up and escorted the woman out of the facility before she could march up and slap the man. "Ignore him Susan, he's an idiot and doesn't understand what "emotions" are." he says, trying to placate her.

She forcibly calmed herself down before looking at him, "I just don't understand what he problem is! Why would he ask something like that!? Why is he even interested?"

"Well, if the "rumours" are to be believed, Christine had a close relationship with Veronica, his apprentice... Maybe that's the reason?" he remarks, not sure if he was right or wrong.

Susan slowly nods before getting serious once again, "What were you doing down there Afton?" he asks.

"Uh-errrr... I was, exploring?" he says, taking from her expression she didn't believe him in the slightest and continuing, "Exploring.... Technology! Yes, I felt that I wasn't learning fast enough and decided to visit you guys down here, to learn what you were actually doing."

...

Susan just shakes her head, "If you don't want to tell me that's fine Afton, just don't do it again or I might not be able to save you next time... You know how strict the Codex is about preserving technology. If you'd gotten caught you might just be exiled..." she says, trailing off as she thinks of her "unofficially" exiled daughter.

"Don't worry Susan, I'll make the same promise to you as I made to Veronica... I'll find Christine one day, once I do you can give her an earful for ditching us without even giving a proper goodbye." he says with a grin.

Susan smiles and ruffles his hair, "I'm sure you will Afton, just try not to get yourself killed doing something stupid, kay?"

He nods and quickly leaves, he may be outside the facility but he'd rather not be anywhere near it right now, in-case the Elder notices something amiss.

Afton returns to his quarters and flops onto his bed, wondering what he was going to do about ARCHIMEDES, and the fact it wasn't ready to deal with the NCR... Elder Elijah kept promising the Chapter that he'd be able to repel them, but without the Range finder used to operate the orbital laser, that plan wouldn't work at all.

He jumped out of bed and immediately headed to the firing range, deciding that practising his marksmanship was more productive than just idling around in bed with just his thoughts.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois enjoyed the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

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