Steel Waste

Backing out of the patrol logs, he selected his father's journal, scrolling up to the first entry of the terminal and selecting it... One thing was for certain, he father was no poet, it was basic and got to the point which was helpful for Afton.

Apparently, they were currently in the Mojave desert, travelling from California under the orders of the High Elder. The purpose of this? To secure technology and territory before the New California Republic could.​​

Afton wasn't familiar with them as he didn't remember them being mentioned in Fallout 3, regardless of how they functioned and what they stood for, they were now his enemy simply due to their conflict with the Brotherhood.

His father hadn't written down everything, but he'd mentioned some "traitorous heretics" that'd been sent to the Capital Wasteland, Afton himself didn't know much about America as the British rarely concerned themselves with it.

Apparently, the chapter sent to the Capital Wasteland had been outright ignoring orders sent to them, as well as providing "charity" to those in need. Their mission had been to eliminate the Super mutant presence there but they'd not gotten word of how it was going yet.

He continued reading the entries, their focus shifting from duty to his personal life as he found Verna to be pregnant. Afton backed out and shut off the terminal as the journal mostly just contained mentions of how well he'd been growing up thus far.

Afton sat there and stewed for a moment, digesting the things he'd learned... Apparently, they were far away from the Brotherhood of Steels main force, and dangerously close to their enemies territory.

Due to the proximity to the NCR the chapter had been ordered to keep radio silence until the Elder said otherwise. Communication was fairly limited from what he understood, Radio being the primary way of speaking over long distances... The only problem being that this could be intercepted, if the NCR found out about their presence in the Mojave they'd undoubtedly be hunted down and exterminated.

The Brotherhood of Steel may be more technologically advanced than the NCR, but they lacked the number of men their opponent boasted. It was incredibly difficult for outsiders to enter the Brotherhood, as such they'd be outnumbered one hundred to one should they be forced into a direct confrontation.

Afton nodded to himself, reaffirming his determination to get stronger before hopping off of the desk, onto the swivel chair and making his way to the door... Just as it swings open, revealing his father in full Power armour...

They look at each other in confusion for a while before Afton finally decides to move, he raises his arms and waddles awkwardly towards his father, "Dad up" he pleads, the man snapping out of his stupor and picking him up.

"Afton? What are you doing here?... It can't be a coincidence that you'd just walk out of the nursery and into here..." he says while giving his son a hard look.

Afton's heart stops in his chest when he hears this... Could he have let something slip? Was his father onto him?

"You came all this way to see your daddy didn't you? Hahaha! I knew I was your favourite, just wait til I tell your mother!" he suddenly says, bringing Afton to his face and giving kisses to his forehead, his beard uncomfortably rubbing against the child's face.

Afton tries to push the man away but he was no match, if only he wasn't wearing Power armour, he was sure he'd be able to defeat him!... Not. This was a relief though, the pain of being stabbed by the man's stubble was a preferable option to being discovered.

After the man had had his fun playing with him, he delivered Afton back to the nursery where the caretaker had been looking around for him in a panic.

"Oh! You found him, I am so sorry!" she says sincerely.

"Ah, don't mind it... Little tyke probably waited until you were gone, he's quite smart you know?" he says, but the caretaker just shrugs while thinking he's just boasting.

Afton is sat by the other children, one called Melissa Watkins crawls towards him with some blocks in hand and shows them to him, "Play!"

...

He could feel the caretakers gaze burning into his back, causing him to reluctantly nod, taking some blocks and stacking them all on top of each other while the child watches with an impressed look.

He continued building various things with the blocks, eventually gathering a group of children who watched his every move... What was this, lord of the flies? He got up and walked away, not bothering to look behind him at the children crawling after him... He climbed onto the cushions and closed his eyes, wanting to sleep instead of dealing with the annoyances.

The next day after he was dropped off at the nursery by his mother, he was pulled aside by a scribe with short black greying hair and wrinkles wearing the typical red robes. She kneels down to get to his eye level and smiles at him, "Hello there Afton, my names Adah, do you know why I'm here?"

He shakes his head, "Nuh-uh." he says, attempting to seem as innocent as possible.

She squints slightly as he speaks before hiding it, "I've heard many things about you, able to walk so well at such a young age, ability to speak well above your peers... I'm interested to see how gifted you are, okay?"

He gives her a confused look, he wasn't acting either, he really had no idea what she wanted with him... If they'd found out about his unnatural intelligence than he wouldn't put it past them to dissect him...

Adah pulls out some things from her bag, blocks... Each of them are numbered from one to ten, she places them all on the floor randomly and glances at him, "Do you know how to count?"

He scoffs inwardly, of course, he knows how to count... He was sure acting like an imbecile all the time was slowly turning him stupid. His thoughts and emotions were strong towards this matter, so much so that he hadn't realised he had nodded slightly at her question...