To be clear, Crea wasn't always on day patrol.  In fact, she preferred the night, since of course that was the best time to use a Gouf.  Really, if the blue color was functional at all, like how Zakus would take on desert or jungle camouflage, then her use of the night and of water made the most sense.  And while it wasn't designed AS a Marine Mobile Suit like the Goggs, its engines were sufficient to get it where it needed to go and operate in the water.  Did so better than the Feddies ever could with their GMs, that's for sure.  Of course, some weaponry didn't operate well underwater, which is why the Goggs have those tendrils arms that launch out with heavy pressure and claws, and why they fire torpedoes.  Any non-Marine Mobile Suit has to make due.  Fortunately, as the Gouf was originally designed as a close-quarters Suit that could simply pick up any weapon a Zaku or Dom could have, it had options.

The first option was the Heat Rod.  The right arm of every Gouf contained a deployable whip-like 'rod' that could superheat under any condition - even under water - and lethally burn through a Mobile Suit's armor, when used right.  It WAS A whip, but it deployed with force, like a Gogg's arm.  Crea had used it to grab and pull GMs into the water before, and the electrical strike was a big help in making that happen.  In a situation like that, she had gotten it around the neck, short-circuited the machine as it was pulled in, and then Option #2 was used.  That was the Gouf's heat sword.  It wasn't as good as a Dom's, as theirs were longer, but it was perfectly servicable, and it fit inside of a shield.  Anything else - guns and the like - were less dependable if immersed in liquid.  The sheer force of their Mobile Suit weapons tended to displace water quite a bit if fired down there, but there was a reason Zeon built dedicated Marine Suits.

These technical and tactical thoughts were what was going through Crea's mind, reviewing the facts of her opposition, as she went to scope out what the Federation was up to.  Opposition had [i]indeed[/i] been light in this area, which meant that they were [i]now[/i] trying to make a push, and that could not be allowed.  It's important to note, at this point, that she and Axton had chosen two very different approaches to the south of the lake.  The Gouf pilot was taking full advantage of the lake, as she often did, to make the chances of spotting her nil and to reduce the chances of them finding her thermal traces.  Africa was HOT, and the water was cool, soo the mitigating factors helped so long as she wasn't on the attack, and not staying in one place for too long.  The Acguy was so much better at this, though.  It's dual-plant of two smaller reactors left a smaller energy profile, made it great for watery ambushes.  It was designed for it.

In any case, she was in the water and not at full speed to prevent any sort of cavitation that would be visible on the surface.  Axton, meanwhile, was on foot, going around the edge of Lake Nassar, which was fairly large.  What HE was doing to reduce detection was on him  Crea didn't know he was there.  Her focus was ahead, to the impossible-to-miss blip on her screen from a large vehicle, similar in nature to the energy profile of their own.  As soon as it registered, she stopped, thinking [color=ed1c24][i]'I have to risk a look, but not dead-on.  If it's what I think it is, I could be dead meat within seconds.'[/i][/color] before moving her Mobile Suit more to the right.  From there, she dropped down, hit the lake floor, and then boosted up, so that she would surface, but only for a few seconds.  That was long enough, though.  More than enough to see that she'd made the right decision, as she dropped down again.

[color=ed1c24][i]Big Tray...  High-powered guns, heavy armor.  Not good.  They want to push us out.[/i][/color]

Big Trays were slow, but fairly powerful in their own right.  Attacking one dead-on in [i]anything[/i] was never wise, and so the best way to handle one is to take either the sides or even the back if you can.  Getting around to the back of the thing would take forever, and the other important thing about Big Trays were that they were hover vehicles.  They could go over the water.  That was going to be a problem when they made their push.  It looked like the other units were a few Mobiles Suits, maybe the standard medal GM or something close.  It depended upon the importance of the mission, but still...the Big Tray was the play.  They were there to protect their heavy armament in order to force her own people out or kill them outright with its cannons, which meant only one thing in Crea's mind.

[i][color=ed1c24]The Big Tray's gotta go, the sooner the better.[/color][/i]