xp_logs | GBOW: In The Navy (Reply)

Monet and Sam take a shot at disabling the ability of several ships to keep moving towards Pakistan.

The destroyers were huge vessels close up; steel mountains on the sea,
studded with weapons and radar screens. Their guns could reach miles
and touch other ships, inflicting immense damage. With the carriers
out of commission, they were the most dangerous threats left, and
while the other X-Men grouped to try a special attack, Cannonball and
M had been tasked with making sure that they couldn't reach the waters
around Karachi. For all their size and weapons, every ship needed
propulsion. Otherwise, they were just elaborate flotsam. The Indians
had made adjustments to their anti-missile point defense, ready to
target anything. They didn't know what the threat was, but they
weren't taking any chances, and now their flights would be filled with
return fire.

Sam flew at full speed toward the ships. There wasn't any point at
fancy tricks, just low, fast, and winding. The worst they could do
would be to shoot him off course but, considering time was of the
essence, that could be enough. Fortunately he knew of plenty of
situations in which friendly fire had ended sea battle and, once he
was close enough, he knew where to position himself so that he would
take fire from as few ships as possible. If nothing else, that could
be a huge benefit.

Monet followed him in, less visible and (hopefully) less of a target
as, unlike Sam, she still had to fly evasively if she wanted to
survive this. She was, as much as anything, support this time around -
Sam could do far more than she could against ships this size.

Playing up his role as obvious lead, Sam weaved in between ships to
reduce their fire and gain attention, flying by main decks before
darting under water for only a moment to blast through their
propulsion units. He focused on the larger ships with rotary units
that would take a his blast shield to subdue, leaving water jet
propulsion ships to Monet so they could quickly disable the fleet.

Monet waited until Sam was drawing the fire before dropping to just
above the water line, flanking the ships and staying close enough to
touch them. She looped around and ducked under water, grabbing hold of
the blades of the ship's turbine and twisting before surfacing,
gasping for breath and moving on to the next ship.

Having less ships to focus on than Monet, and being well versed in Naval warfare, Sam knew he could garner attention very easily by focusing on the weapons that could still reach to shore and, while the pair was there anyway, it seemed like a good idea. He could pierce a cannon to disable it without risking the rest of the ship or any injuries so he set about doing just that, flying tight to the deck fast enough to push out a sonic boom when necessary to deter the crew from coming out too close.

She swooped after him, screaming when their fire came too close and moved on to her last ship, crusing its propellor. "I'm done!" she called and moved carefully, hoping to avoid fire before they ran.

The moment Monet was done, Sam fell in behind her, skimming the water's surface to her keep her safe from any remaining weapons as they made their way back to shore free from pursuit. Once they moved out of range of the ships, Sam flew up alongside his partner. "I don't think that could have gone much better." He offered with a sincere smile.