Gunny

Condition satisfactory, report to Paladin Gunny, the infirmary robot had said at the end of its poking and prodding and analyzing; and so, note in hand, Ellen stood blinking in the doorway to the Citadel bailey. She'd passed through it all of twice before that she could remember, and neither occasion had given her a chance to look properly. It was, simply put, the biggest training ground she'd ever seen. Milliways had a target shooting range and some scattered equipment. This- whatever they'd used the space at the heart of the Pentagon for, centuries ago, it had long since been driven down and out of sight. There wasn't a direction she could turn in that didn't have Initiates or Knights or someone practicing in it, whether with pistols or fists or wrestling. Or other things she couldn't quite make out at the far side of the bailey. Her stomach sank; how was she supposed to find one Paladin in all of this? Sawbones hadn't exactly been helpful with its description of the man.

"Hey. You."

The voice came from behind her. Ellen turned around and found herself face-to-face with a girl in recon armor. She had tanned skin, dark eyes, and short brown hair just barely visible around the edges of her helmet. Ellen wasn't entirely sure, but she thought the girl might've been about her own age. "Yes?" she said hesitantly. "Can I help you?"

"You're the new Knight, aren't you?" the girl said. "The one from that Vault?"

"Well-" Ellen hesitated, unsure whether she could really claim that distinction any more. "I… yes, I guess so."

"Huh." The segments of the girl's armor shifted silently over one another as she put her hands on her hips and eyed Ellen.

Ellen'd last seen that look on the people at Milliways who were evaluating her Brahmin. She wasn't sure she liked it applied to her. When the girl failed to speak again, Ellen said, "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know. You tell me," said the girl. "I'm not the one who got to skip training completely."

Ellen wasn't entirely sure they were having the same conversation, but couldn't for the life of her figure out what she was supposed to be saying in reply. Her eyebrows went up, but that was about all she could manage.

It seemed enough; the girl shook her head. "Maybe you're unaware," she said, "but some of us've been training with the Brotherhood for years now. It takes time to get up to speed. You don't just get ranks dropped on you out of the blue because Three Dog likes you."

… oh. Oh dear.

"It's not my place to contradict Elder Lyons," the girl said. "He must know what he's doing, if he's willing to have Gunny skip somebody over a whole training class. But I wanted to see who was getting the special treatment as soon as I could. I don't know if I'm impressed or not."

Ellen winced. After a moment of biting back a retort she said, mildly, "That's up to you." She probably could've gone on, but it didn't seem like explaining herself would do much good. People didn't seem to listen to stuff like that.

The girl considered her for a while. Finally she gave a curt nod. "All right," she said. "Fair. But if Gunny puts us in the same training cohort-"

"Then that'll be my decision, won't it," said a man's voice from directly behind Ellen. The girl paled. "Move it, maggot."

"Yes, sir," the girl said, and darted for a nearby training dummy.

The man who stepped out from behind Ellen was nearly as tall as John-117, and wore power armor, but the similarities Ellen could see ended there. Brotherhood power armor resembled John's about as much as Fawkes resembled Ellen, for one thing. For another, the man looked- and sounded- considerably older than John. The Wasteland sun had baked his skin to leathery roughness long ago, and the reddish fuzz that dusted his scalp faded to grey at his temples. He gave Ellen a single glance that took in everything and said, "You're looking for me."

"You're Paladin Gunny, then?"

Gunny nodded. "Heard you were coming," he said. "Don't expect me to like it. My Initiates sweat blood. Knight or no, you're not getting a free pass."

Ellen opened her mouth to protest, then thought of John and how little talking about prior training would've imprsesed him. She nodded instead. "I don't expect one, sir," she said. "I'm here to be evaluated."

One of the man's eyebrows went up. "That's all?"

"Yes, sir."

"Not going to argue with me, are you?"

"No, sir."

"Hnf." Gunny's eyebrow went back down again. "That might be a good sign. Or you might be trying to kiss my ass. I think it's time we found out which. There's a training armor case over there. Find a recon suit that fits you and get into it, and we'll see just what you're made of."