GBOW: In The Navy

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

The first X-Men team goes out to meet the incoming Indian Naval Fleet, as Storm and Crystal start by slowing them down.



It was strange to see the ocean so occupied, the grey hulled ships looking small from their great height. Used to an empty expanse, the Indian fleet was like a menacing speckle of noise in the midst of the blue. The Blackbird was on autopilot, its advanced technology would keep it hidden and stable in the cloud cover. As the X-Men dropped from the rear, each either a flyer or tasked with a passenger, they found themselves dropping towards the battle group that was on its way to the southern coast of Pakistan. They had been surprised to learn that the massive guns of the destroyers or the torpedoes of the submarines were not the threat, but instead the power of the two aircraft carriers.

Bastion had explained that the key in modern naval combat was the ability to control a ‘bubble’ of combat area, and the key to that was airpower. Specifically, the squads of fighters resting on the deck or in the superstructure of the massive carriers. Combined with the aircraft which would launch from ground bases near the border, the UN forces would quickly lose air superiority, and with it, their ability to reinforce and resupply their forces. Now it depended on the X-Men to find a way to stop the fleet, short of destroying it. Xavier had been clear; despite the situation, the X-Men could not engage the Indian military with equal lethality. But how did you stop a modern naval battle group and leave them floating at the same time?

Luckily the X-Men were no stranger to neutralizing potentially hostile situations; though it would be difficult they had a myriad of options at their disposal. Ororo had already briefed the team and knew that they would try everything in their power to halt the wave of ships and aircraft as non-aggressively as possible. Of course, that was easier said than done. The weatherworker stayed until the last possible moment, watching as the rest of the team dropped from the Blackbird and dispersed over the waiting field of battle. She found herself holding her breath; there were too many uncertainties and risks to know how this would go, and it was hard not to worry despite the trust she had in the rest of the team.

Crystal stayed with Ororo, ready to follow the team leader's orders. This was the largest-scale mission she had been on since becoming a trainee six months earlier. She had been out with the X-Men before when the efforts of nearly everyone at the mansion had been requested, but she had not been an actual member of the team then. The young woman had accepted her place both then and now, but noted the difference in 'being a civilian' and along to help out and being an actual member of the team. Perhaps she was not an experienced member of the team, not yet, but that did not mean that she herself was inexperienced in either the use of her powers or in combat situations. Still, she was well aware of Storm's extensive experience and with the similarity in their powers, she had learned multiple new uses of her abilities from the white-haired woman.

Eventually Ororo glanced over at Crystal, giving her a reassuring smile that nonetheless didn't quite seem to reach her eyes. "Let us do our part, shall we? Remember, we want to weaken them - their strength is their unity. If we can drive them further apart they will have difficulty syncing their attacks and everybody - including our people - will be safer."

Crystal looked at Ororo and nodded, but it was hard to think about smiling at a time like this, and the smile she returned was small and fleeting. While she always did her best to maintain the appearance of collected calm, that didn't mean that she didn't feel a variety of emotions. It was an understatement to say that this was a big mission, and whether they were students or X-Men, here or somewhere else, so many people she knew were currently involved. Crystal would do what she could to help reduce the possible casualties in this fight, but it quite likely that the Medlab/infirmary would have more than one patient when all was said and done. "I am ready to begin."

With those words, Ororo moved forward, waiting only a second before stepping through the open hatch into thin air. The whipping winds embraced her, and she fell unaided for several seconds before gathering them about her to rise.

Crystal's departure from the plane was immediately after Storm's. The temporarily raven-haired trainee moved effortlessly from the plane into open space as the air itself moved according to her will. Crystal liked being out in the open like this, with nothing but air around her. Most of the time she did not fly too high in New York, purposely staying within heights that would not be seen by people off of the Xavier's campus, and well below heights that could involve detection in controlled airspace. In Attilan, she enjoyed more freedom with her flights, and their current altitude did not bother Buttercup at all.

The ships below them were packed tightly, obviously moving as a cohesive whole in order to keep the element of strength in unity. With such density the team would never be able to get close enough to affect any one ship, and they had nowhere near the numbers needed to make a massive assault possible. "We need to spread them apart," Ororo muttered into her comm, speaking as much to herself as to the trainee near her. Taking a deep breath, she gathered the sea breezes, working them into gusts that would turn the water choppy and hopefully begin to agitate the ships below, causing them to increase their following distances and push them apart.

Crystal moved both back and down a little bit, examining the air in the surrounding area as it was now that Ororo had begun her work. To everyone else, the air might seem the same, but Crystal wanted to make sure that the different uses of their powers didn't clash. Concentrating, the younger woman lend her aid, encouraging the gusts of wind to be faster and stronger, pushing them to affect the water around the destroyers even more.

Klaxons began to sound in the fleet, and as the inclement weather began, smaller ships started to move to the outside of the fleet, clearing space in the wakes of the larger ships to avoid crashes. Emergency weather teams began to move to position as the chop increased and the cohesion of the fleet started to separate. Inside, captains were yelling for details about where the storm was coming from, and grudgingly, starting to reduce speed to avoid the possibility of collisions.

Glad their efforts had begun to work, Ororo coaxed a bit more wind into a frenzy and sent it below while at the same time gathering electricity about her.. She could feel the frissons running over her skin and waited until the air was positively snapping before unleashing several bolts aimed at the largest destroyers' radars. They hit their mark true; even from so far up she could hear the shouts of the crew as their equipment began to fry and fail.

Crystal turned her attention to the ships that had not been hit by Ororo's lightning. There was no need for her to try lightning of her own; she could do it, but not to the degree of the woman who had taught her to do it. Instead, she decided to try a different approach. All of the ships were being affected by the weather conditions, courtesy of the two mutants secretly hovering overhead, but perhaps a bit of resistance from the water itself would help. Leaving the higher altitudes to her teammate, Crystal moved the water around, causing it to forcefully hit the side of an aircraft carrier.

Even as they worked, Ororo could tell from the chatter on the comms and her own observations that their attempts were only minor annoyances to the fleet below. Though they might succeed in distracting and slowing the destroyers for a time, eventually they would be swatted aside and the ships would plow onward towards their goal. Time was ticking past, time they didn't have to spare.