By: Hoaseng Thao

Note: This story revolves around the topic of war and military actions

Background

A year after the ceasefire that halted the Second Continental War, tensions between the Polaris Alliance Treaty Organization (PATO) and the Croatoke Defense Pact (CDP) remained rigid as both sides rebuilt their militaries for a possible flashpoint. A founding PATO member state, the Vaserian Federation, had elected King Shota Orion in 2024, who’d start the Shattered Front Initiative; an initiative to boost the Defense Forces (VFDF) budget from 2.9% of GDP to 4.2%, with the idea that Vaseria and their allies on the Vaserian continent would have to fight the Second Continental War alone.

A part of this initiative was to secure the Bay of Veina due to its strategic position to the Vaserian Federation and its ally, the Kingdom of Valona, but also because of the presence of the neighboring Republic of Nashua, a member state of the CDP. In a joint effort with Valona, the Vaserian Federation established Joint Naval Base Stonage on the small Valonan island of Sutao, housing over 30,000 military personnel and a small detachment of Aircraft from the Vaserian Navy.

THE INCIDENT

In the morning of November 29th, the island’s radar warning system intercepted three unknown signatures heading towards Stonage, with the craft appearing to be of Nashuan origin, however Nashuan officials have declined that the aircrafts were theirs.

Four fighter jets belonging to the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron immediately took off from the island for interception, with the lead craft being manned by Captain Warrick, a veteran of the Second Continentals War.

At around 7:46 AM, the lead fighter jet, callsign “Typo”, receives on his warning system of a missile locked onto his jet, a VF-20A Starling, resulting in a hard turn to his starboard side as he deployed counter measures to break his heat signature. With the unknown crafts firing first, the call was given to engage the unknown hostiles with extreme prejudice. The first Starling to fire was commandeered by a pilot named “Taxes”, who locked on and fired a missile at an enemy jet, but missed.

Closing the distance between the unknown force and the Starlings, an anonymous pilot who took part in the incident, recalled that the unknown jets resembled that of a Kavaran SJ-88V Sea Lion jet, which are operated by both Kavara and Nashua, both members of the CDP.

The Starlings proceeded to split up, with a single jet acting as flank guard while the rest seeked to eliminate the threats. One Starling, is credited with downing two of the enemy crafts with only their main gun after their missile bay malfunctioned. The last remaining enemy jet, proceeded to bail out of the situation and flew towards Nashuan waters, resulting in the Starlings to return back to Stonage.

AFTERMATH

In the aftermath of the incident, Nashua denied all claims of responsibility, claiming that they had “eliminated” the remaining craft upon entering Nashuan airspace, however there is no evidence to suggest that the case was true. The incident would also inspire the creation of the 2027 film “FOX3!”, which included the same Starlings used during the incident.