“Ma’am?”

Milla looked up and saw a female dressed in the same hard armor looking at her from the door. “Yes?”

“I’m here to help you suit up.”

“Oh,” Milla nodded. “All right…”

The woman looked at her and she looked back. After a moment, she saw the armored woman roll her eyes and let out a soft chuff of amusement. “Oh for…Look, I’m Jaime…”

Milla looked down at her extended hand before she slowly took it. “Milla.”

“All right, Milla…” The woman smiled, then waved her hand. “I’m afraid that you’re going to have to lose the clothes.”

“Pardon?”

“The clothes,” Jaime repeated. “You can’t wear those in a battle suit. It’ll screw up the monitors and get real messy if we’re stuck planet-side for too long.”

Milla was about to repeat her last word, but realization clicked in.

Of course! She felt like slapping herself for a moment as she realized that the suits were much like her own spacer gear. You could be in it for hours, even days, depending on the situation, and wearing clothing would prevent certain key functions.

Or at least render them disgustingly messy.

Milla shuddered but quickly began to shuck her borrowed clothing, looking at the armor with a new eye.

A short while later, Jaime led Milla out of the locker area and back into the hangar. Surprisingly, Milla found that, despite its armor-hard exterior, the suit was fairly comfortable to wear, and she didn’t feel encumbered by the bulky clothing. Though, she grimaced, as the burning sensation left from connecting its various plumbing connections wasn’t something to be enjoyed. Thankfully, that was going away quickly; otherwise, the armor would be hellish beyond belief.

“It’s lighter than it looks,” Brinks said, when he noticed her look of surprise. “Has to be. Otherwise, it’d be a hindrance.”

Milla nodded. “It is…” She gingerly tried moving. “But it feels strange to move in.”

Brinks nodded, a knowing expression on his face. “The legs and arms have a series of nano-fiber enhancements. They take some getting used to, but they’ll add about five hundred kilos to your lift capacity and let you jump about forty feet vertically. Take care, though, your step will be a little energetic until you get used to them, so you’d best start now.”

Milla bit her lip as she found out what Brinks meant. A simple step had catapulted her two feet off the deck and landed her face first into a bulkhead. Groaning from the floor, she bent her legs under her and tried to rise to her feet. Instead of slowly rising from the deck, she snapped straight up, stopping only after her feet were six inches off the floor. Landing roughly on the balls of her feet, she balanced herself precariously on her toes while her right arm flailed around, looking for something to steady herself with.

“Whoa! I said take it slow.” Brinks reached out and grabbed her outstretched arm, steadying the young woman with a firm hand. “You practically have to relearn how to walk with these things. The fibers make for a fun step. Don’t make any sudden movements.”