บท 22: First Taste
Paladins were considered the elite forces of the Brotherhood, once you were promoted to them you'd be provided with the best training they had available and learned the complete range of known tactics they had. You were also fitted with the best gear the Brotherhood was able to provide.
Apparently, there was more than that but his father didn't elaborate further, the knowledge must be restricted for the man not to tell him.
Top of the hierarchy is the Elder, the absolute leader of the chapter. Of course there were higher ranked Elders back in California but they didn't even have a way to contact them so their influence was negligible.
The Elder controlled everything in the order, delegating tasks, and ultimately deciding the direction the Chapter would be heading. Whether it be to success or destruction, they have no way to refuse his orders, even if some were outright suicidal.
Elder Elijah had been a Head Scribe before he was promoted to Elder, no one was sure why he was given the rank though. Most assumed it was due to the nature of the task that the Elder's had sent them to accomplish. The man didn't lack any enthusiasm for pre-war technology.
Afton nodded in satisfaction, not noticing that Melissa and Miles had been peeking over to see his paper...
"You passed!?" Melissa exclaims, drawing the attention of most of the room.
"I did, I'd mind your tone as well Melissa, you're now talking to Initiate Parker." he says with a smug smirk.
"I refuse!" she retorts.
"Good job." Miles says to him, seeming a lot calmer now that the results were finally in.
A few other students walked by and congratulated him, Sandra included. Veronica ended up pulling him out of the room and towards somewhere else.
Once she'd reached whenever she wanted to take him he saw his parents waiting for him, immediately hugging and congratulating him.
"Oh, I'm so proud of you my genius boy!" Verna dotes, unable to hold back the flow of tears.
"Stop crying mom, its just test." Afton reassures, hoping that she'd stop crying soon...
"I know, I know..." she mutters as she wipes her eyes, "Its just, it feels like only yesterday you'd barely been speaking... And now? You're an Initiate."
"I won't be going anywhere, I doubt they'll even left me out with patron units until I'm seventeen." he says, or more accurately complains. He'd rather get some practical experience sooner than that, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
His father nods, "Yeah, I won't be letting you anywhere near combat until I know you can handle yourself." he says, more to Verna to Afton.
Christine pats him on the shoulder, "Good job, maybe they'll allow us to "officially" give you some training."
"You better not stop coming to get your butt kicked, I need the stress relief!" Veronica chirps from the side.
Afton sends a glare her way, "I'll be busy, I don't know if I'll find time to be your punching bag." he shrugs.
"If I can find time away from the Elder then you can spare an hour for training, got it?" she says, walking up and poking him in the chest.
He sighs, "Got it."
As much as he'd like to act otherwise, he enjoyed training with Veronica and Christine, it was a good stress relief from all the studying he'd been subjecting himself to... Now that he was an Initiate they might be able to get some actual weapons so Christine could teach him some moves. She was more adept in using knives and other similar things than she was in actual hand-to-hand combat.
She'd been made a Junior Knight a couple of years ago so hopefully he'd learn something interesting.
His father walks to the side of the room and opens a cabenet, pulling out a bottle filled with a brown fluid... "Whisky?" Afton muttered to himself loud enough for everyone to hear.
Zachary nods, "Whisky. As an Initiate you're technically an adult now, even if your mother doesn't want to admit it... When I became an Initiate my dad sat me down to have my first drink with him, I'd like us to do the same. Maybe it's becoming a tradition?" he says, sitting down and grabbing a few glasses and glancing over at Veronica and Christine, "You girls want one?"
They smile and nod, "Would it surprise you to hear that this'll be my first drink too?" Veronica says, Zachary becoming momentarily shocked by this. He recovers quickly though and smiles at her, "Well, considering your dad and I were good friends, I don't think he'll mind if I do the honours for him."
Afton sits next to his dad while Verna sits on his other side, sending an unhappy look at Zachary, "I don't think I like our ten-year-old son drinking alcohol Zach..."
"We're not gonna make a habit of it, it's just a right of way I think..." he gets up and walks behind her before whispering in her ear, "Plus, whisky tastes fucking awful when you're a kid, that'll stop him trying to drink later on." he says, his wife flashing him a sly smile as he goes to sit back down.
He pours everyone a small glass of whisky before screwing the lid back on and holding his glass up, "Congratulations son, you're growing up but don't forget your still just a kid to me." he says, as everyone clinks their glasses together.
Afton sips the whisky, he'd had it before in his previous world and was impartial to it. But as soon as the liquid hit his lips he felt himself almost gag. Harsh! It takes all his willpower not to start coughing, he hadn't realised before now how much his tastebuds had changed... Or, maybe the two-hundred-year-old whisky had something to do with it?
Regardless of his efforts, everyone noticed his troubles and started laughing at his expense. He took it in stride as he knew there were no bad feelings involved and continued to try and get his drink down.
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บท 23: Malfunctioning Class
It'd been a couple days since Afton was promoted, he as given the steel scout uniform that all Initiate's had to wear as well as limited access to the armoury, even if that only included assisting them in repairing things.
Him, Sandra Torres, and the other students that'd passed with them were currently standing in one of the vacant workshops with Doran standing at the far end of the room.
The man nodded at them all before speaking, "Welcome Initiates... Well? When I say something to you I expect to get a reply Initiates!"
"Sir!" they all reply in unison.
Doran nods "Good, now, I will be your teacher for all intents and purposes on most subjects. You will likely have other more experienced people show the ropes on things I am no so competent at. For now I think we should do something fun before we get bogged down in studies... Who's up to go to the firing range?"
Excited whispering immediately starts at the thought of finally learning how to shoot, a few shout out "yes" in undisciplined fashion, but Doran didn't seem to mind. Afton himself was pretty happy, he wanted to see at what level he was compared to the others, especially since Veronica and Christine had given him limited firearm training.
Doran "Alright, if you look to the side of the room you'll see a number of small arms. Pick what you want, there'll be ammo provided at the range." he says before walking to the door.
After steps over to the weapons and spots a few different kinds, laser pistols, plasma pistols, and some other variants of both. He grabbed the closest one and raised a brow, it was significantly lighter than the one he'd fired before... He quickly headed to one of the desks and grabbed a screwdriver to open up its casing, afterwards realising that there was no battery inside. The weapon was functionally useless without that vital component.
He glanced over to Doran who smirked back at him as other students headed to the door, completely unaware that the weaponry was faulty.
Afton shook his head and looked around the workshop, eventually finding an intact, slightly scuffed battery. After checking it over to make sure the weapon wouldn't explode in his hand he made his way to Doran, only then noticing that Sandra seemed to have fixed her own weapon aswell.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" Doran asks, receiving "Sir!" from the group.
He shakes his head, "Initiates! What is the most important thing when using a weapon?"
"Skill Sir!" an Initiate chirps.
"Wrong!"
"Knowledge?" an eleven year old asks.
"Now you're just saying words." he sighs... "Its safety, you can't very well use a weapon if its likely to blow your damn hand off! Initiate Parker! Could you elucidate what I mean for the others?"
Afton nods and displays his laser pistol, "I felt my pistol was lighter than it should be, and so cracked it open to check if its internals were fine... It was missing a battery. We're in a workshop so its likely all the weapons were malfunctioning in one way or another, if we used this at the firing range disastrous things may happen." he explains, the Initiates having looks of realisation flash across their faces.
"This was a test of mine to see which of you could keep a clear head despite all the excitement, all of you should fix your weaponry and show it to me when you're done. If we have time afterwards we'll head to the firing range." Doran states causing the Initiates to scramble towards the tools.
Afton and Sandra remain where they stand as their weapons were already ready for use. "What should we do sir?" the latter asks.
"You have my permission to go to the firing range... But before that. Why did you not help any of your fellow Initiates?"
"It's better they get a stern warning from you instead of assistance from us sir, they'll remember it that way." Afton explains.
Doran nods, "Good, there'll be a Knight on your left when you enter the firing range, tell him I sent you to learn the basics." he says before turning his attention back to the others.
"Thanks" they murmur as they leave, Sandra glances at Afton and smirks, "You know, I only remembered to repair my weapon after seeing you do it." she admits as the walk.
Afton shrugs, "Being able to spot it doesn't make you efforts any lesser, if any of the others had been paying attention they would've noticed too."
The duo enter the armoury and look to their left, a man in Power armour sits at a desk writing into a terminal. He has short unruly black hair with a handsome face and an average length beard.
It takes a moment for him to notice their presence and sends them a curious glance when he does, "Now what would two Initiates need from me? Doran too hungover to teach a class again?" he questions, causing the duo to smirk at the thought.
Afton shakes his head, "Doran wanted you to give us basic firearms training."
"Where's the rest of your class then Initiate?" he asks, wondering why just the two of the were here.
"They attempted to go to the firing range with malfunctioning weaponry sir, we were the only ones who bothered to check." Sandra says, receiving and slow nod from him.
"Alright... I'm Senior Knight Ramos by the way." he says as he stands, taking the Gauss rifle from the desk and slinging it over his shoulder.
"Initiate Afton Parker."
"Initiate Sandra Torres" they both reply with their ranks and names.
"So let me see the weapons you've got and I'll decide how best to do this." Ramos asks and is handed two laser pistols. He examines them and wraps them with his knuckles to check the casing and internal components.
Afton didn't know how much experience you'd need to be able to check if all the vital parts were inside just by tapping it... But he supposed it could be done if you were very familiar with the weight and feedback a properly working pistol would give.
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