Steel Waste

Chapter 9 - New-born Hacker...

Afton had just trying to sneak out of the room he and some of the other children were being kept for a while now, but saw no chance to leave... Until now, usually, there'd be someone watching over them but they'd been pulled away for some reason... He didn't wait and took the opportunity, slowly pushing the door open to look through the slit for anyone nearby...

The loud steps of Power armour alerted him to their presence, and so he waited for the group of four to pass, slipping out after any trace of them was gone.​​

He was dressed in some makeshift baby clothes that his mother and her friends and made, on his feet he donned some sandals that'd been made from rubber they'd cut from tires. He vaguely knew the layout as his mother would carry him around the facility to eat, change, and other necessities.

The tunnels themselves looked pretty primitive, being reinforced by metal scrap to prevent the roof from caving in due to their tunnelling. There wasn't any local energy source nearby so Afton assumed they set up some sort of generator nearby, judging by how much the scribes had been carrying on their backs, they probably a few options of powering the place.

Still, the power source probably wasn't that powerful as they used dim lights in the hallways. There were a few things Afton could do now that he had the chance, but he primarily just wanted to get some more information on his situation, and that of this chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel.

There were three places that had Terminals, one was the workshop which was where most of the scribes were located, those Terminals would be chock full of everything and anything he could need, the only problem being is that they'd probably be password protected and constantly monitored.

Another place was the security terminal that kept track of the automated defence systems they'd set up. They consisted of various turrets that'd constantly monitor the situation and annihilate any unregistered personnel. Obviously, Afton and the rest of the children had been put into the system, the mothers of the children had objected to the turrets presence around their children due to the fear of them being reduced to red mist should they somehow wander out of their designated room.

This forced them to put all of the children into the system, however, due to their rapidly growing bodies, they needed to be re-entered into the system semi-regularly to make sure they'd be identifiable.

The security terminal would hold what Afton wanted to know, but of course, one couldn't just gain access to that without a great degree of trouble. As such, the last place he knew of that contained a terminal was his father's office.

From what he understood, his father was a Paladin and was pretty prominent in the chapter. Well respected and liked amoung everyone, and always willing to help should they need it. Afton himself liked the man, usually he didn't like those social extroverted kinds of people, but he was smart, and always had a positive outlook... Even if it was "Slightly" fanatical about the Brotherhood.

His room was placed relatively close to the nursery so he didn't have all that much trouble getting there, it took all his strength to open the makeshift door but he finally made his way inside... His eyes were immediately drawn towards the set of Power armour lying atop a steel table, parts of it in the middle of repair it seemed.

On the opposite side of the room was a desk that had his goal atop it, the terminal. He made his way towards it and slowly clambered up the swivel chair that was next to it. Almost falling off as he jumped onto the top of the desk.

Look down from his position he realised that he could have very well been injured if he fell from such a height... Luckily the swivel chair hadn't strayed too far, he'd probably be able to get down with some effort.

He likely had all day before his father returned as of last he heard the man was on patrol, though, his caretaker would likely return to the nursery sometime soon. He examined the terminal for a while before finally discovering the on button, it whirred to life as he pressed it, the black background and neon green text appearing on the monitor...

[Enter Password] :

...

Shit. Why is this password locked? Was he mistaken? Maybe his father hadn't set up the password as they'd just settled in?... Regardless, he was now stuck unless he could get the password somehow.

He walked a circle around the terminal to check if he father was one of those people who wrote their passwords on paper in-case they forgot it... No dice.

The password would probably be something personal right?... Maybe something to do with Afton, the man was awful proud of him after all...

[Enter Password] : Afton

[Denied] : 1/3

1/3? That probably means he has two more tries before the terminal locks and logs the occurrence... That'd probably be bad.

He wrung his mind of possible passwords, eventually picking out something rather significant in his life as well as his fathers... His first words.

[Enter Password] : Dad Away

[Correct]

Nice! He mentally cheered, even if he was slightly annoyed at his father for making such an even so significant... The man had kept rubble his stubble on Afton's face and he couldn't take it anymore, telling the man to go away.

Regardless, he now had access to the terminal, lines of text slowly appeared and Afton quickly skimmed through them all. There were patrol reports, received orders, his journal, and other miscellaneous information...

Afton selected the patrol reports and quickly read through one, finding that it was literally just information about the land around them, creatures, plants, potential water sources, buildings, defensible positions and signs of locals. While he could probably glean some information from them, it'd take far too long to do.

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