It was only two hours later that Moses woke up from his slumber. He let out a sigh as he cracked open his eyelids, the bright lights overhead blinding him for a moment.
"Ugh..." He let out a low groan and raised his fist to his eyes.
"Finally awake, sleepy head?" Richard's obnoxious voice came from beside him and he opened his eyes again. Looking around with his now clear vision, he realized he was in a medical ward. He turned to the side and saw that Richard was seated on a chair beside his bed. The two of them were the only ones there.
"Mm, what happened?" Moses asked and tried to sit up. His vision swam for a moment, but he quickly got a grip on himself, straightening up in the bed.
"Easy, there. The doctor said you might be a bit out of it when you woke up. How do you feel?" Richard asked, a concerned tone lining his words.
"I'm fine. Just a bit tired. What happened?" Moses brushed off the earlier question and asked again.
"You just lost consciousness after leaving your mech." Richard replied.
"How long was I out?" Moses asked.
"Erm... Two-three hours, I guess?" Richard scratched his head in thought.
"Oh... What about the others?" The more Moses spoke, the more the various scenes of the battle rushed past his mind's eye. He recalled all the strange and reality bending moves he had pulled and could not help but feel a wave of awe and shock well up within him. But he managed to suppress those emotions from showing on his face. He was proud of himself, and also very satisfied.
'Indeed, a Paladin is stronger.' He thought to himself.
Just then, the hatch to the ward he was in slid open and a doctor walked in. He glanced at Moses, nodding when he saw that he was awake.
"Just as predicted. You're awake." He mumbled as he tapped a few times on the tablet in his hands. He approached Moses' bed and took a look at the monitor that kept track of Moses' telemetry, nodding his head and humming as he went over the readings.
"Everything looks good. You can head out now if you want." The doctor nodded respectfully as he unplugged the various monitors connected to Moses and turned to leave.
Moses sighed in relief. He did not want to be cooped up in the medical ward for long. He quickly got up from the bed, picked up some of his gadgets that had been kept aside as he was being treated.
"Let's go." He nodded at Richard and the two left the ward. While Moses was unconscious, the fleet had returned to base, and he was now back on Pluto. Richard led him to the mess hall where the others were having a meal.
When the duo stepped into the large hall, many pairs of eyes immediately looked over.
"Whoop!"
Someone cheered out, and many more whistled before the entire mess hall erupted into a cascade of applauds and cheers.
Moses was stunned for a few moments, stopping where he was with wide eyes until Richard threw an arm around his shoulders.
"Don't look too shocked. You contributed a lot to the battle, and the other soldiers all saw it. The rest of us have gotten our own share of praises, this one belongs to you." Richard laughed and clapped along with the crowd.
"Err, thanks." Moses smiled a little bit and bowed his head slightly. He had never gotten this much attention before, and even when he was a mech officer in the regiment stationed above Earth, the attention he had received was just because of his post.
After a while, the chaos calmed down and Moses and Richard went over to the table where the others were seating. Taking his seat, Moses was met with a wide grin from Manuel.
"No one told me we had a star among us here." He laughed and gave Moses a firm pat on his back. "How did you do it? The transformation thing?" He asked.
"Honestly, I don't know. It just happened because I wanted to join in on the fight from a distance." Moses thought for a moment, before shrugging and giving an honest reply.
"Hmm, alright then. There are still a lot of uncertainties when it comes to Paladin abilities, after all." Manuel could only accept this answer as it was. It was true, Paladin technology was only just a bit over a decade old. While there had been a lot of breakthroughs and advancements recently, most of the fog obscuring the uniqueness of Paladins was still shrouding them. Only someone like Professor Stewart would have a slight hope of understanding all this. And even then, it was only relative to the others.
The five continued to chat, with most of the chat revolving around Moses and his outstanding performance. Other than him, Richard had also stood out, mowing down dozens of elite units and many more normal Xenon units down during the fight. Anthony and Bethany did not really stand out, but they did not mind. It was not yet their time. Surely, an opportunity would show itself in the future fights.
After a while, the five went their separate ways. Manuel said he had someone to see and left first, and the other four only parted ways later on. Anthony left to meet up with some ranged mech specialists, while Bethany said she was going to rest, leaving Richard and Moses.
"I also need some sleep. See ya later, bud." Richard bumped Moses' shoulder before throwing a lazy wave over his shoulder and walking out of the mess hall.
Moses looked down at his half eaten plate of food that was still barely just warm. He shook his head and quickly finished it off before getting up and leaving, heading straight to his room.
"Maybe I should sleep in for the rest of the day..."