After gaining the response from the four Officers, Admiral Gustavo turned to face Stewart with a smirk.
"There you have it. Just have them sign the contracts and you can cart them off to the lab." He patted the white haired scientist on the shoulder before turning around and walking off.
The professor clapped his hands, and an armed soldier handed him some papers. He passed the papers around and stepped back to let them read it.
"This is a contract of confidentiality. A non disclosure agreement, if you please. Whatever you see here today shall not leave your lips, until death!" Stewart explained as the Officers went through the papers.
Moses just skimmed through it and quickly signed it with the pen that was provided for him. The others did the same after a minute, and the soldier that handed Professor Stewart the papers took them back.
"Follow me." The professor turned and began walking through the hallway. Moses and the others fell into step behind, him, and they were surrounded by the soldiers on all sides. "You might have thought that the elevator was taking you up higher, but it was actually taking you a long way down. We are so deep in the earth that even if the main guns of the Nova Dread fires a couple shots in the same spot, it still won't be able to touch us. The most we would feel would be the vibrations that would be transferred through the layers of earth between us and the round that was fired into the crust." The old man said in a matter-of-factly tone.
"What?!" Bethany almost screamed, drawing the attention of the others. They knew the implication of the professor's words.
The Nova Dread was one of humanity's most powerful Dreadnaughts. Humanity had many more powerful warships, but the Nova Dread was still one of the top ten popular warships in human history. It was the first ship to take the fight to the Xenon.
Five years ago, the Captain of the Nova Dread had been cut off from humanity. He had been forced into a corner when his fleet was ambushed by a larger and more powerful Xenon fleet. Surprisingly or not, the Captain of the Nova Dread was also a Paladin operator. In a moment of desperation, he achieved a breakthrough with his Paladin, merging it with the Nova Dread, and granting some special, metaphysical abilities to the Dreadnaught.
Although more than half of his fleet had been wiped out, he had been able to single handedly bring down three Xenon Dreadnaughts, twelve Frigates, two Destroyers, and a Cruiser!
No one had been able to explain how exactly it had happened, but it was all thanks to the Captain of the Dreadnaught. Even though the military had kept a tight hold on the details of the fight, the Nova Dread was praised as one of humanity's most powerful weapons! Propaganda had spread, and action movies and thrillers had been made surrounding that story.
"If I might ask, Professor, how is that even possible?" Anthony stepped forward to ask.
"Remember the Non Disclosure Agreement." Professor Stewart raised his right index finger before continuing. "On Pluto, we have discovered an incredibly resilient material that goes by the name, Rilon. It has recently been processed to be used at the primary hull plating for our most powerful warships. This underground base is made entirely from that material."
"Whoa!" Richard gasped like an idiot.
No one said anything more as they reached a large blast door. Stewart pressed his palm against a scanner, which shone with green light after a second. The blast doors slowly slid open, revealing an immensely large and expansive room. The room had to be the size of at least three standard football fields meshed together. The room was occupied by only twenty test tubes of varying sizes. Ten of those test tubes were only three meters tall and a meter wide, while the other ten were at least ten meters tall, and seven meters wide. The larger test tubes were places behind the smaller ones.
"Strip and step into the smaller test tubes. Your treatment will begin immediately." Stewart said and turned to leave them.
"What? So soon?" Richard exclaimed.
"Of course! The Xenon do not wait for us to be ready, so we must take the first move into our own hands!" The man shouted madly before disappearing around a corner with a large portion of the armed guards. The remaining guards were left to watch over the four Officers.
Anthony audibly gulped.
"Let's go." Moses said and took the first step into the room. The others silently followed.
At the side od each of the smaller test tubes, there was a small table where they could hang their clothes. They all striped, leaving just their underwear on, before stepping into the open tubes.
Shhhh.
With a low hiss, the tubes were sealed up, and a colorless liquid like gel began to fill up the tubes.
"What is this? Slime?" Richard wiggled his fingers through it as it began to reach his knees. Anthony looked like he was going to faint, while Bethany was the only one aside Moses that remained steeled.
When the gel passed their heads, they realized that they were able to breathe like it wasn't even there!
"Begin the procedure!" Stewart gave the order and hit the button that began the procedure. Electric currents were passed through the gel liquid, and began to electrocute the four people inside.
"Gah!" Richard screamed loudly, but his voice was muffled by the liquid around him. His muscles shook and quivered as they were subjected to some absurd levels of electric current.
"Sir, Richard Wells' stress levels are climbing dangerously. Should we stop now?" One of the operators on the side said with an alarmed tone.
"No, continue! The failure rates were already at twenty percent, and if he does fail, he won't die at least. If he does not become a vegetable, then we can compensate him heavily. If he does, then we can compensate his family!" Stewart waved at the researcher. He wanted to see this through. If they could produce four Paladins at once, then that would be a great thing!
The currents in the four tubes continued to build up more and more, until Richard's body could barely stand it any longer.
"Ugh!" His mouth gaped and blood mixed with the gel around his head.