Chapter 9: First Shot
30 Miles off the coast of Atlas
As dusk began to turn to night, Atlesian airships turned their radar to active. They had been doing this for months, since Ironwood shutdown the country. The tension between Vale and Atlas had been at a standstill, while relations with other had begun to slowly improve.
Then the radar began picking up an unknown object. Immediately the airships began to form a defensive perimeter.
"Unknown Bogey, this is Blue 1 of the A.A.F. You are approaching restricted airspace, turn your coarse or you will be engaged. I repeat, turn coarse or you will be engaged."
When there was no response, the two airships opened their cargo doors and launched two Atlesian Bullheads. The craft dived underneath the fleet and leveled out. They quickly picked up speed to intercept the unknown bogey.
"Unknown Bogey, you will be escorted by two aircraft. If you do not comply you will be shot down."
The two Atleasian Bullheads found the bogey flying very low. They assumed that the airship thought they could hide from radar after they had been detected.
Banking left, they descended to intercept. They quickly caught up and noticed a Valerian flag painted on the left-hand side. This however could easily be painted on any airship. The Atlesian airships decided to assume it was a smuggler.
They continued to try and get the pilot to respond. When they gave a final warning the airship began to speed up and open the cargo door on the back.
The Atleasian pilots saw a man sitting in the gunner seat of a turret. The turret had twin gatling guns. The pilots pulled away from the airship as the guns began to open fire.
A red stream of bullets streaked across the sky. The unknown airship, pulled a sharp right and began to fly away from Atlas.
The Bullheads climbed above the airship and followed.
"Blue 1, this is interceptor 1, I and interceptor 2 have just been fired upon. Requesting permission to engage."
"Permission granted."
The Bullheads slowed down their speed and allowed the airship to fly farther away. Using their 20mm cannons, the Bullheads opened fire.
To their surprise the airship increased in speed and began to fly dangerously close to the ground. The Bullheads continued to pursue.
Unknown to both parties, they had just entered Vale's airspace. Immediately Vale transmissions began to warn the aircraft.
The smuggler airship continued to fly towards Vale, while the Bullheads took their last shots.
Like the sound of hundreds of thunder strikes, the Bullheads unleashed their 20mm cannons again. The escaping airship managed to evade most of the rounds. Nearing the end of the burst, ten rounds pummeled the airship. The left engine was destroyed long with a rear rudder.
The Bullheads quickly turned coarse and flew back to their fleet, not even waiting to see if the airship was going to crash. The Atleasian Bullheads managed to leave Vale's airspace before interceptors could leave their base.
This event caused tensions to escalate between Vale and Atlas. Vale demanded an apology from Atlas for shooting an airship while within Vale's airspace.
One day, while on patrol, the Atlesian fleet came across another smuggler airship. They attempted to escort it out, but like last time they were ignored. Not wanting to have a long chase, the pursuing airships were allowed to open fire. The smuggler airship was damaged critically, causing the airship to spiral into the cold waters below.
While this event would normally be rather mundane, the rounds missed had flown into Vale's airspace. Vale foolishly declared that this was an act of war. This threat was taken very badly in Atlas.
Ironwood began to increase the military presence on the ocean and in the air, North of Vale.
It took two weeks for the situation to go from tense to inevitable. During those two week Vale would aggressively harass Atlesian war ships and airships. Their aircraft would buzz the airships and show they are armed to the warships cruising in the ocean.
One day a Vale airship decided to dive towards a Atlesian Destroyer. This had not been done before, so the sailors below noticed this. The anti-air gunners watched the airship carefully. But when the airship continued to fly towards them they lost their nerve. One sailor accidently pulled the trigger. The tension in his body making him reflexively clench his hands.
Atlas had fired the first shot.
Immediately after the first shot fired, all anti-air guns opened fire. The diving aircraft was taken by surprise. Dust rounds exploded on impact, causing immense damage to the airship. The pilot tried to pull away from the dive but his engines and wings were too damaged. The airship crashed just off the side of the ship and exploded in the water.
For a few seconds there was total silence, as everyone came to the realization that conflict was now inevitable. The captain of the ship quickly notified the Atlesian airships, who in turn sent a single airship to notify the mainland.
In a matter of hours both sides received the news.
Vale began amassing as many airships and destroyers as they could.
When Ironwood received the news he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then ordered all military personal that was currently on patrol to be on full alert. He also ordered, that they were only allowed to fire if fired upon.
South East Atlas
Winter closed her scroll with a small frown forming upon her face. Tanya noticed this easily.
"What is it?"
Winter turned her the young girl. "About an hour ago an Atlesian Destroyer shot down a Valerian airship."
"Oh." The word slipped out if Tanya's mouth. She knew what this meant, but now she needed to know what was going to happen. "So now What?"
"Now all personal on patrol are to be on full alert. And everyone else is to be ready to be called upon in a moments notice." Winter answered.
Tanya understood why there wasn't any orders to mobilize. Atlas didn't want to invade Vale, so they were going to stay in their territory and see what Vale's response will be.
One Day Later, Southern Sea of Atlas
The Valerian response came quickly and sent a strong message of their intent. Ten Destroyers sailed into Atlesian territorial waters. They were accompanied by 30 Commander Airships and 300 Combat Bullheads.
The first forces to notice the invasion force was the very ship that shot down the Valerian Bullhead.
The Atleasian Destroyer sent out an urgent message for help before quickly turning and sailing full speed back to Atlas.
Valerian Destroyers took chase and fired their 8 inch guns. The shells flew towards their target and just missed. The impact of the ten shells rocked the ship violently.
The lone Atelesian Destroyer used its rear gun to fire back, it missed it's shot by a margin of twenty feet.
The lonely ship continued to gun it back to Atlas all the while calling for help, by any Atlesian forces nearby.
In the skies Atlesian Airships received the call for help and began scrambling their Bullheads. While on the waters, five Atlesian destroyers made their way as reinforcements.
The lonely destroyer had been narrowly dodging Valerian shells for ten minutes now. This was when Valerian Bullheads took off from their Commander Airships. They flew low and fired their 20mm cannons on the ship. The burst caused minimal structural damage, but did kill two crew members.
In response, anti-air guns opened fire. The Valerian Bullheads banked left and right, making it harder to target them. As they got closer they released five torpedoes into the water. The Atleasian destroyer tried to turn into the torpedoes, hoping to take advantage of the angling of its hull to deflect or minimise the damage.
The first explosion rocked the front of the ship, pushing it away from the torpedos and opening its side. The other four torpedoes made contact and exploded. The ship began to fill with water and tip over.
As the Valerian Destroyers sailed past the sinking ship, many could see the floating bodies of the crew.
Up above 20 Atlesian Bullheads arrived at the scene, trailing behind them was a fleet of airships consisting of 20 Commander Airships, and 200 more Combat Bullheads. On the sea below the first 5 destroyers arrived with the airfleet. About 3 miles away, 20 more destroyers were on there way. Along with the destroyers was a single Atlesian battleship. This behemoth hasn't seen combat in over 80 years but with the improvement of technology this was still a force to be reckoned with.
I am super sorry the chapter took this long and it is this short. I had a chapter written but I deleted it because I did not like how it turned out. And I have lost interest in the story. I regret in saying that this will probably be the final chapter I make for this story.
I hope I get my inspiration back, and I can continue this story. But at the moment I think this is the last one. I did not write a ending because I thought you all could take this scene and think of whichever outcome you prefer. Again sorry, I hope you can understand.