After a long drive to the base and a short wait through the security checkpoint, the pilots and other new arrivals to CFI California are allowed onto the base. A short orientation session has been planned by the base's managers and thus security guards escort everyone to the conference room. The little you see of the base is clean, modern and well-lit, looking more like a university than an international research facility. Your escorts give you no time to stop and explore the place, explaining that you all will get plenty of time to do so later.
After several minutes walking through the labyrinthine hallways you end up the conference room, a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows to let in plenty of light and give a marvelous view of the facility's robot hangars and surrounding countryside. The room has been set up like a kind of theatre, where several rows of seats face an open area at the front that acts as a stage. Several important-looking people wearing suits and businesswear sit at the back of the 'stage' and talk among themselves as they wait for the session to begin. Among them is Yakov Matveev, world-famous materials scientist and President of the Cold Fusion Initiative, and Olivier Villeneuve, former CEO of Mirabilia Pharmaceuticals and Head of CFI California, leaning so close to each other that their heads almost touch as they hold a whispered argument. Judging by the two technicians struggling to set up a slide projector at the back of the room it'll be a while before the orientation session actually starts. The hum of bored conversation fills the air as the new arrivals sort themselves into small groups and start finding places to sit.
((I hope that this intro isn't too barebones, but this'll give everyone a chance to introduce their characters and greet each other before the game starts proper.))