When Rayne graduated from flight school, there was music. Granted the music was just some patriotic Alliance tune played over the ceremony, but it was something. Something to spice up the otherwise dull affair of a graduation ceremony. Congratulations, you managed to not crash the simulator a few times and you know what the difference between kinetic barriers and armor plating, here's your certification and maybe if you're lucky you'll be flying something within a decade. Music, at least, helped take her mind off the fact that following her graduation her only position was a flight crew member. Not pilot. 'Flight crew member'. The only thing more vague than such a position would be stripping off the 'flight' from the title. 

But here? Here, where she was moments away from actually taking the helm on something carrying more bodies than her entire graduating class, here there was no music. Rayne Teague wondered if a simple song was out of the budget. Doubtful, given the ship and the crew assembled here. Honestly, no one seemed to appreciate the value of a song. It would spruce up the boring speeches and atmosphere. Yes, the Reapers were kind of a big deal and kind of a daunting challenge, but that's no excuse not to play some kind of inspiring melody. Hell, make it a Turian song. Did they have songs? An Asari song, then. Rayne had been to Chora's Den. She knew that Asari knew about music. Or at least were really good at faking their gyrations in time with the beat. 

Regardless, Rayne stood in the formation with the rest of the Unity crew, only half listening to the speech. Her mind was in the middle of a Beethoven movement. From his ninth symphony. Something to focus on. There's only so many times one can hear about the power of unity - and it was only now that she understood why the ship was called Unity, how clever - before it just starts sounding like buzzwords. Though focused on the symphony buzzing in her head, when the crew saluted in unison, Rayne was saluting right along with them. A little trick she picked up in the Alliance, when a commanding officer is giving a speech, watch the hand movements. The more wild they are, the closer he is to wrapping up. 

After her salute, Rayne couldn't help but get a bit excited, though for the cameras she refrained from bouncing and grinning like a teenage girl. It took a great amount of willpower. SHe was, after all, finally getting her chance to live out her dream of piloting a ship. A large one, not a transport. Granted, in her head she always figured she'd always be flying Alliance colors, but...well...there was blue on the uniform. It counted. 

Rayne followed the other crew inside, rolling her eyes at the mandatory decontamination. She wasn't here on shore leave, she didn't have time to get contaminated. Not that she would. Not without at least four dates. Good ones, at that. But the decontamination was thankfully short and she crossed the threshold into the ship proper, taking a moment just to marvel at the interior. The walls looked like Alliance by way of Thessia with how they seemed to actually shine bright enough to see a reflection. The low hum of various stations and monitors was like music. It was home, and dammit it was good to be there. 

"You four gonna stand around the whole time?" Rayne spoke to the four crew members standing around, her voice quick and her accent creeping through. One was a human. Turian. Volus. Krogan. The Volus caused her to do a double take, but if he was here he had to have some sort of credentials. Or deep pockets. "Wouldn't recommend it, I might decide to get a bit fancy with me flying. Hard listing and such. Wouldn't want to see the rolly polly types rollin' around like balls. Assumin' from the way this one thinks he's d'Artagnan, I'd say you're not part of my flight crew. So I'll tell you this now, while you're being right lazy. Don't step foot on my bridge unless you're with the CO. Or the XO. No social calls. I'm not here to socialize, And the first one of you to comment on my flying is getting a date with my palm." 

Rayne clapped her hands together just once to emphasize her threat, and without another word, turned to the left and headed towards the bridge. Standing in front of the helm, Rayne couldn't help but inhale sharply and exhale slowly. It all felt so unreal. She took her seat, incredibly comfortable - this clearly was not a military operation, and paused just to have her eyes dart around at the controls. The buttons. The toggles. The switches. With eagerness, Rayne began flipping switches to the upright position right before hitting a button to open a communication channel with Citadel Control.

"Citadel, this is Unity. Under going final system prep and will be clear to launch on your approval." 

Rayne could get used to that. It was a good feeling, being in control like this. The fact that she would soon be flying around Reapers seemed furthest from her mind right now.