Anderson had given them a one hour reprieve after the Drift Compatibility test before simulation training. Away from everyone else, he'd told her it was so she could collect herself with a pointed look that said 'don't argue with me'. She'd braced herself for a dressing down, despite her status and their friendship, and so was surprised when instead Anderson had simply congratulated her about not getting completely fucking lost in the Drift.
Of course, that had been mostly Kaidan's doing, holding her steady as he'd done years before when she'd thrown him aside after the scientists inadvertently activated the beacon. She hadn't realized just how much that whole situation had frightened him, how it had eaten at him and he'd blamed himself even though he had now way of knowing the scientists would muck things up and trigger a security field.
She also hadn't realized how shitshe'd looked after that ordeal. Dark circles around her eyes, hair sweaty and matted to her face after Kaidan had removed her helmet to check on her once the beacon released her and she hit the deck. Skin pale and bloodless.
At least she'd had a good excuse.
Now she was dicking around in the armor labs until their first test flight, trying to stay out of the way of the specialists doing their jobs.
"This is the suit?" she asked.
Specialist Parker looked up from her work station and nodded as Riley opened the locker. "Yours is complete, Major. Would you like me to go over the specifications?"
Riley examined the armor and circuitry suit. Red, probably to go with the name of the ship. Armor techs always did love that kind of thing, especially once the jaeger program kicked off and jaeger pilots became the next best thing to rockstars. As if her notoriety in the Alliance hadn't already been enough, becoming the first human Spectre and then jaeger pilot had skyrocketed her into the top echelon.
Her armor while pilot of the Vulcan Fury had been orange and charcoal gray. She'd joked more than once with Williams she felt like an overstuffed, electrical bee.
Then Williams had purchased goddamned wings for her next birthday after that. She still had them, stuffed at the bottom of her duffel. Previously with no small degree of embarrassment coupled with humor born of a sarcastic friendship, now with sentiment and a not insignificant dose of survivor's guilt.
"Sure."
Parker slipped past her and removed the armor, slinging it onto a nearby diagnostics table. "Jaeger combat suits weren't designed with environmental seals. The focus was more on body protection and shock absorption, lining up with neural circuitry suit." She hit some buttons on the console connected to the table and specs floated above the suit as it was scanned by the table. "Valkyrie pilots aren't meant to be in the cockpit for an extended period of time, unlike typical tours."
"I read that in the report," Riley interrupted, excited, though she kept the tone of her voice neutral, "Twenty-four suit air supply. Valkyries will be deployed off carriers and nearby space stations. The Alliance already has three Valkyrie class warships ready for flight, and ten near completion with an additional five on the budget."
"Not counting what the STG and turians have in development for Council airspace."
"Isn't the Alliance sending two Valkyries to the fleet?"
Parker bobbed her head excitedly. "Yes, two Alliance Valkyries will be deployed to the Citadel. The Destiny Ascension's been retrofitted to house and deploy eight. Another four to -"
Riley held up a hand. "Okay, the suit."
"Right, Major. Sorry. Get distracted easily. Okay, so environmental seals, air supply is good for twenty-hour continuous use. The cabin of course has air circulation complete with CO2 scrubbers, so you won't be completely reliant on the suit for air. So," she held up a finger as she marched around the table and lifted the shoulder of the armor up, exposing the back, "when you're in the conn pod, you're connected to the Drift interface tech, yeah? We got fancy in R&D, integrated life support readouts into the neural circuitry of the undersuit."
Riley glanced at the undersuit still hanging in the locker. It didn't look significantly different in design. Then again, she wasn't a tech-head and the finer nuances of engineering blew past her.
Kaidan probably understood. She wondered if he'd already gone through this spiel since he'd been aboard the station longer than she had.
"When you're connected in the Drift, you're connected to the ship, too. Controlling it. Now, the ship can tell you if it's lost air support and your armor hard seals will activate. The hardsuit will switch to its internal life support."
Riley nodded, impressed. That was certainly a beneficial use of the Drift tech.
"If you disengage from the Drift, and therefore pilot rig, switching to independent air supply is automatic, of course. Auto-disengages as soon as the helmet is removed. Like normal."
The doctor passed the helmet to her. Same style as the Jaeger helmets with the full frontal clear visor, lit up from the sides. The N7 logo fit in with theme, unlike the bumblebee one. Riley set the helmet back down on the table.
"Anything else?"
"Tons of updated tech, integrated medi-gel systems, power output, ballistics..." Parker trailed off and Riley was about to leave and let Parker get back to her work when she shot up. "Integrated amp functionality! Hardsuit syncs with your amp and displays power flow through the amp to your nervous system, capacity, temperature, and how well it's doing!"
"How well it's doing? Like, if it needs to be replaced?"
"Exactly, yes!"
"Will that work with every amp?"
"No, not every amp. Not yet, at least. But it will work with yours. And, Major Alenko uses the same brand, though a different model, so he'll benefit from the upgrade as well."
Riley nodded. Fourteen years of military work with her amp had taught her to recognize the warning signs when she was at risk of overheating or blowing her amp out. But she couldn't argue against synced displays of real time usage. Especially if an amp was on the brink of malfunction – one of the few things that was hard to predict in advance.
Of course, that functionality would only be useful dirtside. Though it got her thinking about two biotics connected in the Drift... and what the outcome of that would be.
"Ah, Major Alenko!" Parker slipped around Riley as Kaidan entered the room. "Specialist Carson was looking for you. The adjustments to your hardsuit are complete."
"Fantastic," Kaidan replied, coming to rest next to Riley. "Nice color scheme."
"I thought so. You get the tech babble?"
"I read the tech babble."
"Of course you did."
"If you two are ready, we can get you suited up for the test flight, make sure everything checks out."
Riley nodded. "Absolutely."
Nothing compared to slipping into a new set of armor for the first time. Well, some things could, such as holding the Widow Anti-Materiel Sniper rifle the geth had manufactured. Knowing she couldn't shoot it without breaking an arm hadn't stopped her from wanting to try it regardless. So when the Black Widow had been released, based on the Widow's design but manufactured for organics, Riley had been ecstatic. Not as ecstatic as the day she'd purchased the Wraith.
Now that gun was a thing of perfection.
That feeling almost compared to this.
The armor in front of her had the added bonus of hooking her up to a first generation Valkyrie class warship, which she would fly in concert with Kaidan Alenko using her mind.
No feeling could really compare with that.
She caught Kaidan smiling at her and could almost hear a whisper in her mind of what he would say. She just smiled back at him because it was evident in his features that he was just as excited as she was. To top it off, it was his first new advanced warship he'd be flying with his mind. While this was technically the first one she'd be flying, it wasn't the first she'd be operating.
That only made her even more excited for the test flight to come. The training simulation she and Alenko had completed two hours earlier wasn't a substitute for the real thing. Nor did all the reading she'd done since she'd gotten here really tell her what it would feel like to take control of the Valkyrie and fly.
Moments like these made her understand Joker all that much more. Flying was his escape from the limitations of his body. It didn't matter that he was fragile when he was in the cockpit because he could take on anyone and go anywhere. Flying was his freedom.
Of course, he'd never say that to anyone; but he didn't have to.
Specialist Carson entered the room, tugging a wheeled crate behind him. "Major Alenko, sir. I've got your hardsuit right here."
Riley headed over to the locker where her undersuit was while Kaidan walked over to Carson. The specialist rattled off adjustments and specs, Kaidan voicing approval as his suit was unpacked.
"Alright, Major," Parker said as she opened the locker. "Let's get you outfitted."
Riley stripped off her uniform while Parker unpacked the undersuit. The neural circuitry patterns were different from what she remembered on the suit for her Jaeger, but that was to be expected as the Valkyries did not have a 1:1 pilot to ship movement alignment. She'd spent half the night practicing the motions as best she could without being connected in the conn pod and the training session had certainly proven beyond reasonable doubt that operating the Valkyrie would be challenging, different, and exhilarating.
Parker assisted her in pulling on the undersuit, connecting all the functions that most marines didn't like to talk about but everyone knew were necessary. After that came the hardsuit. Technicians attached the plating, lining up nodes and latches. Some pieces strapped and clicked into place, others required drilling.
The spine connector snapped onto the suit and Riley would swear up and down she felt it integrating with her own nervous system even though it wasn't active. Williams used to give her shit over that, too.
Of course, Riley used to give Williams shit after each mission when she'd swear she felt like her arm was still a cannon.
The materials used were lighter and the suit felt more lithe, though Parker had assured her no fewer than three times that it would offer just as much protection as the medium armor she was used to on the battlefield. The surface area was certainly greater in terms of protection, but it reminded her of the older sets of Onyx armor the Alliance used to hand out to marines fresh out of basic.
Once she was completely encased, minus the helmet which she held at her side, she walked over to Kaidan who was nearly finished. Techs standing behind him, snapping the last pieces in place before attaching the spine.
"Your face is all stoic but I bet you're jumping like a little kid inside." Riley almost missed a step, not having expected him to give her shit like Williams had. Though really she should have seen it coming.
"I am excited," she said, coming to a stop in front of him.
"You're all set, Major."
Kaidan retrieved his helmet, tucking it into his side just as hers was. "Let's go fly a ship."
His boyish grin was disarming and Riley found herself grinning back, for once not concerned that her grin was a little lopsided.