"Hello again." William greeted the four pilots. "I hope you rested well. Please follow me and I will lead you to meet the base commander." He smiled.
"Lead the way, buddy." Richard grinned with his arms crossed behind his head.
The four Paladin pilots followed behind William as he led them through the labyrinth of corridors that made up the interior of the underground base.
Before long, they arrived before a heavily manned checkpoint.
"Hey Juzo. I'm bringing these four to see the commander." William greeted one of the guards that manned the checkpoint. If Moses had to guess, then the man should have been the squad leader of the group of guards.
"Oh, are they the..." Juzo raised the visor that hid his eyes, revealing deep purple eyes. Probably implants or contacts. William nodded his head and Juzo signaled to his men. A few seconds later, the blast doors that they were protecting slid open without a sound. With a nod, William led them through the blast doors, and it closed behind them.
They stepped into a corridor that was almost devoid of all humans. What patrolled the corridors were armed bots and highly trained elite guards. The corridor was quite short, and it only took a few seconds before the group found themselves in front of a metal door.
"I can not go any further. Good luck." William looked at them, nodded, and then turned around to leave.
Moses and the other three pilots shared a look among themselves before Moses stepped up to the door. It automatically slid open, revealing a brightly lit interior. The office was expansive, and many shelves lined both sides of the wall. A large, metal table was at the far extreme opposite of the office, and behind it was a single chair that was facing the window that gave a view of the dark, snowy expanse that was the surface of Pluto. If Moses had to guess, then that window was so thick that even a mech would find it difficult to destroy it in one fell swoop!
The chair behind the table was facing the window, so no one could tell who it was that sat in it. Seeing as there was no response, Moses decided to walk forward. The others followed closely behind him until they were about two meters away from the table. They stopped, and waited.
"Is it not beautiful? Pluto, the planet that we thought had the least value to us humans has now become our stronghold in the modern day. No one would have ever thought of this happening." Two arms spread out from either side of the front of the large chair. The person was garbed in the official uniform of a General as she stood up from the chair.
Her short black hair waved slightly and shone under the bright lighting of the office as she turned to face the four new Paladin pilots.
"Welcome to Pluto, brave pilots." She smiled at them.
Moses was immediately struck by that smile. The base commander, to him, was a breath of fresh air. She looked very young, and his heightened intuition could pick up an air of youth around her. Her deep blue eyes complimented her jet black hair greatly, and her smile fit her face just perfectly.
Moses unconsciously gulped before he snapped out of his daze. The base commander was still speaking. He could not let himself get carried away.
"My name is Rebecca Beckam, and I will be in charge of your stay here on Pluto. I have received a comprehensive file on all four of you, but I am someone who believes that human interaction will forever be the best way to get a read of both your opponents and your allies. So, if you please, introduce yourselves to me." Rebecca said while keeping her smile.
Moses felt the need to introduce himself, but Richard beat him to it. With a sly smirk, the brown haired man stepped forward, holding a hand to his chest.
"My name is Richard Wells. It is an honor to meet you." He bowed his head slightly, and Moses couldn't help the urge to roll his eyes that ran through his body. He only barely managed to hold it back with his strong willpower.
"Bethany Scofield, at your command!" Bethany was much more formal, even finishing with a salute.
"Anthony Grim, reporting for duty, ma'am!" So was Anthony.
Moses did not fall behind either of them too, "Moses Magair, reporting for duty!" He also finished off with a salute. The air suddenly became quite awkward as Richard realized that he should have probably been a bit more formal with his introduction.
Rebecca nodded with a playful smirk playing on her lips. "There is no need for such formalities, but I appreciate the gesture." She nodded. "As I said before, I will be in charge of your deployment here, so you will defer to my command on most issues concerning your deployment in times of battle against the Xenon."
Everyone nodded, and their postures relaxed. Rebecca returned to her seat, but faced them this time. She interlocked her fingers and examined the four of them with sharp eyes.
"You know, there has never been a case of all the candidates for Paladins having succeeded all at once. There is usually a very high chance of failure, but you four defied all odds and came out on top. That alone proves something must be good and outstanding about you. I hope to find out what this outstanding factor is sometime during your deployment here." She said.
"Well, that can come later, I have seen you now, and that is all. William will guide you to meet up with our resident Paladin. You can all get to know each other for now. The Xenon have not attacked in some time, so you can use this period to familiarize yourselves with Nagarka." With that, the young commander dismissed the four Paladin pilots and turned back to star out the thick window.
"Hmm, interesting four. They must be special to draw Admiral Gustavo's interest." She spoke to herself absent mindedly.