Sea battles were always a bother, even if your mech had a Tesla Drive equipped. This did mean Rai's Schutzwald was hovering over the ocean, but the majority of their team was still stuck in water. It also meant everyone with flight capacity was taking majority of the attacks launched by the enemy, seeing as how all the enemy mechs were flying. They were crossing the lines of defense the enemy had around Aidoneus Island, which unfortunately meant the enemy consisted of Bian's elite unit, the Last Battalion.

Rai wasn't worried about himself too much; the Schutzwald had some armor on and could take a couple of hits if necessary, should they ever actually get a hit in on him. His brother might have been able to do so, he admitted bitterly, but he hadn't seen Elzam in the defense forces yet, not after the last battle with the Last Battalion. There was no doubt about the man still being somewhere, and Rai was quite sure he would run into Elzam later on.

He studied the battlefield, deciding to forget about Elzam for now. Anyone shooting at him wasn't his main concern right now anyway, as it seemed he didn't rank too high on the enemy's primary target list at the moment. The honor of being the primary target went to Ryusei, who was flying ahead of the rest of the group with the R-1 transformed to the R-Wing.

Their order had been to clear the way for the main units, but the only support Ryusei currently had was Latooni, and she had been forced to take the southern side of the enemy forces. Their other two fliers, Ryoto in his Lion F and Irm in the Wing Gust were off too far from them, engaged with another enemy group, and all the custom Guarlions ahead seemed to be aiming at Ryusei. Rai felt uncomfortable watching it, but he was busy enough taking care of his own opponents and couldn't follow his teammate.

He frowned as he noticed two enemy submarines on his radar but noted that the other ally units in the sea had just noticed as well and started moving in on them. This of course meant even more responsibility on the air units for clearing the way. Rai noticed another half a dozen Lions turning towards the two flying units in the front, and he swore under his breath. It would be fine, he decided. Their current course and formation considered, Ryusei had to see them coming.

He was forced to turn to dodge a couple of missiles shot at the Schutzwald's way from the submarines' direction, then he had to concentrate on the closer enemies and ended up missing how the battle in the front went. When he finally had enough time to glance at that direction again, he could only see smoke and explosions. "Damn it, Ryusei," he muttered under his breath, turning his attention on the radar and feeling like swearing as he found that the thing was being jammed. He checked it again but gave up, deciding to just deal with it for now.

Captain Aya's image appeared on the comm line, and Rai couldn't help but notice the worried look on her face. "What happened over there?" She asked, her voice somewhat unclear due to the interference, but Rai could only shake his head. He figured out well enough what she was asking, though.

"Sorry, Captain," he replied. "I can't see a thing, and my radar's getting jammed. You'll have to contact the Hagane for..." He was about to continue when Ryusei's grinning face appeared on the comm as well.

"Wow, that was close!" The youngest of the SRX trio cut in on the conversation. "But you know, none of these guys can hit me in my R-Wing! These guys are supposed to be DC elite? Bah, come on! Even you could dodge pathetic shots like that, Rai! Path's clear here! Hey, think Bian's gonna show up in that Super Robot of his..." Ryusei's excited expression faded to a questioning one about then as he studied Rai's and Aya's images on the comm. "Wait, hey," he continued, suddenly all serious. "What's with you two anyway? You look like someone just got shot down, but I don't see any reports of..."

Rai gave his teammate a quick glare. "It's nothing. No one's down, get back to duty already," he said with a calm voice then cut the communication to Ryusei before the younger man had a chance to ask more questions or start bragging more about his battle accomplishments. He closed his eyes and sighed, relaxing for a second before turning his attention back to the battle around him.

"Rai?" Aya asked, and Rai turned to look at the comm again.

"Yeah?"

The woman smiled a little. "Is it just me or were you actually worried about him just now? Not your style..."

Rai stared at the captain's image for a second, realizing too well what Aya had just said and the truth in her words. He was about to come up with some excuse, but thankfully, Major Ingram's image appeared on the comm right then, relaying them the order to continue forward. Rai settled to giving Aya a short nod before cutting the communicating and concentrating on following the orders.

He didn't need to make any excuses.

Author's notes:

Originally written for a challenge at the Obscurefandom LJ community sometime around summer '07, then I finally got around to fixing it and made it fit the setting better. Supposed to be kind of Rai/Ryusei. Yeah. Blaming MarsDragon for this because she got us into SRW.

- Lady Harken (July 2007/February 2008)