SRW OG Secret Hangar 2nd Target Rai

TURN.34
"Protector's Guidance" ~DEFEND THE CREED~ (Part 1/2)

Rai is a genius pilot that has continually served on the SRX team as support for Ryusei and Aya. What was running through his mind, riding the R-2? Let's pick his brain.

Featured Character(s):
Raidiese F. Branstein: SRX team member, rank of second lieutenant. Lost his left hand in an accident, but is nonetheless possessed of genius-level piloting skill. Acts as the team support, and is always ready with a calm and objective viewpoint.

Rai goes into battle alongside Ryusei and Aya as a member of the SRX team. What is the duty he has to shoulder on the team, and what position did he want...?

"The R-Series had a secret like that?! Oh man, that RULES!" Ryusei rose out of his chair in an Izu Base briefing room and clenched his hands into fists. In contrast, Raidiese F. Branstein murmured quietly.
"The combination's probability of success is 30.2%, and there's still the dangers of tronium to account for separately. Will this even be usable as a mobile weapon?"
"You'll have to master using it. That's the duty you've all been given." Their commanding officer Ingram replied, in his distinctively mechanical and dispassionate tone.

After the briefing, the SRX team flew with the Hagane to China to conduct the R-Series's final testing.
"Phases 3 and 4, clear. Fire control system, all green." The Tronium Engine reverbrated softly through the R-2 Powered's cockpit. Its pilot, Raidiese, was going through some very careful final checks for Formation OOC, the R-Series's sequence for combining into the SRX. The Hagane was in flight en route to China at the moment, and in its hangar, the R-1, R-2 Powered, and R-3 stood together, awaiting launch time.

(...There are too many unstable factors at play. Is there another angle to this whole transformation?)

Rai opened up a comm line to Aya in the R-3 Powered.
"What's wrong, Rai? Trouble with the R-2?"
"No, ma'am. The Tronium Engine's output is actually lower than expected levels, and there aren't any other issues."
"We've got to make this test a success, whatever it takes."

The air was crackling with tension, and Aya's voice rang with a tone of determination that wasn't normally there. Raidiese continued speaking with no change in his typical intonation.
"...Captain, did you know the R-Series had this function in it all along?"
"Yes, I did... But Major Ingram designated it a level E classified secret. Only certain staff were allowed to know about it."
(Why...? Why did the major wait until now to loop in me and Ryusei, when we're the ones using the mechs?)

Raidiese had long harbored doubts about Project SRX in general. Everything about the R-Series machines they were piloting. And the true objective behind the formation of the SRX team.
Don't question top-down orders. See the mission through quietly. A soldier's duty was to try and be as precise as possible. Nonetheless, all the concealed functions hidden beneath the mech's surface, things that might as well be black boxes - Raidiese was not the kind of utter pawn that could discover their existence and then pretend he never did.

The fact that all three of the R-Series units had combination functionality was revealed in time for the upcoming test. But Raidiese still had major doubts.

(What's the real reason Ryusei got handpicked for the SRX team...?)

Ryusei Date rode the R-1. He was scouted out as a civilian and went through an unprecedented admissions process to get assigned to the SRX team.

(He's got the right stuff as far as piloting goes. I'll grant that much. But the Federation has plenty of pilots better than Ryusei.)

While he did make it out of some brutal fighting with the Divine Crusaders alive, he still had all the experience of a rookie. Nonetheless, in the SRX team's recent mock battle with the ATX team, Ryusei produced some jaw-dropping results. He went toe-to-toe with Lieutenant Kyosuke Nambu, a seasoned pilot, and proved that he'd mastered the R-1. This was particularly impressive given that the fight was designed as a series of 1v1s rather than one group against another, and it served to drive home Ryusei's highly unusual growth rate.

(Was Ryusei really just selected for compatibility with the T-Link System? Or does he have something more...?)

What if the T-Link System was designed for more than just adapting people's thoughts for offense, defense, and sensing? What if it was meant to draw something more from people... or to test if they had that something more? What if those compatible with the system were its guinea pigs... or even sacrifices?
He didn't like to indulge the idea of supernatural phenomena. That said, he still couldn't fully deny a power that couldn't be fully proven through scientific formulas alone. Despite being a great inventor, Nikola Tesla spent his latter years devoting himself to the occult and proposing earthquake devices and ESP energy. In centuries past, there were many more such precedents, of people trying to take a power that couldn't be fully explained by science and channel it into a weapon of mass destruction. Even the Third Reich, an entity that sparked a world war in the previous era, explored the idea of weaponizing ESP. The existence of such power wasn't some fantasy for Raidiese. It was starting to be tied to Rai's fate in a big way.

(The SRX requires a brand of power that I can't sense. But if that's so...)

Raidiese had an inkling that Ryusei and Aya's telekinetic power was what Project SRX needed. But that raised another question - What was Raidiese's intended role in the team?
Raidiese was an ordinary human being, so to speak. He had never noticed any special power within him, and the military had never so much as hinted at him having any. All he had was piloting experience accumulated through hard work, and a sense of righteous indignation that drove him to prevent the spread of tragedies. If the T-Link System held the key to the SRX team, then wouldn't it be more beneficial to have more pilots with telekinetic power?

(Given all of that, exactly what is the role I'm supposed to fulfill, sitting in the R-2's cockpit seat?)

Just as Rai pondered that question, he heard a light crackle in his helmet speakers, an incoming comm. He could hear Ryusei's voice over the line.

"Time to get pumped, Rai! The SRX team finally gets to show its stuff. Oh, and we're using that one phrase as the password for the transformation, okay?"
"I don't believe you... Can't you take this a little more seriously? If we fail at this combination, we might not get out unscathed."
"Well, that's why we're all gonna work extra hard to make sure that doesn't happen, all three of us!" Ryusei's carefree voice rang out from the speakers into Raidiese's ears.

Right then.
An emergency alert sounded throughout the Hagane. The Aerogators had appeared in the sky over Beijing, and they had begun to descend down into the city proper. The Hagane rushed to the scene and plunged into battle against the Aerogators.

(...How can an enemy attack line up so perfectly with this?!)

Ingram ordered the SRX team on standby for a short time before sending them straight out into the battlefield. Then he issued an alarming order - To combine into the SRX during a real battle.

"Use the SRX to wipe the enemy units out en masse!"
"That's crazy, Major! We've literally never once tested it!"

Ingram shut down all of Raidiese and the rest of the team's objections, then unlocked Pattern OOC, used for the combination. Unlike some pilots, Raidiese had no policy of taking bad bets. But the situation didn't allow otherwise.

(...There's no other choice!)

Raidiese clenched his jaw in determination and raised the Tronium Engine's output.

"Let's do this! Rai! Aya!"

With Ryusei's call, the R-Series started to accelerate. They began their fated countdown to attempting the first triple combination in PT history.

TURN.34 END

<<Terada Memories>>
The name of Rai's personal BGM, ICE MAN, comes from the callsign of a character from a certain movie about fighter jets. That character isn't exactly the basis for Rai's concept, but he was also someone that, even though people called him cool as ice, could still get pretty heated at times. Also, the name Raidiese was taken from part of a certain band's song. (Terada)