Milintican warplanes have forced a Xiomeran surveillance plane to land at an airbase near the capital of Huānoch.
The Milintican government said that the Coyoaculhe aircraft had entered Milintican airspace to conduct “spying operations”. The Xiomeran aircraft then entered an area of restricted airspace near the Karauna Nuclear Plant, according to Milintican defense officials. “This Xiomeran spy plane was either conducting espionage to investigate our nuclear facilities, or helping plan an operation to destroy them,” General Xococatl of the People’s Democratic Air Force told the media. “Due to their obvious invasion of our airspace, we forced the plane to land at Huānoch Airbase.”
The Milintican government said that the Xiomeran aircrew is currently being detained at an unspecified military location. The Xiomeran aircraft itself is reportedly under guard at Huānoch Airbase. “The Imperial aggressors will be investigated and tried for espionage,” President Neina Arana declared on Milintican state television. “Their plane will be thoroughly dismantled and its secrets revealed.”
In response to the forced landing, Empress Calhualyana addressed an emergency session of the Imperial Parliament within hours of the Milintican announcement. She denied that the Xiomeran aircraft had entered Milintican airspace and accused the Milinticans of forcing it down from international airspace. Speaking directly to President Arana and “any and all Milinticans who are aiding and abetting her,” the Empress threatened to “unleash suffering worse than all the nine levels of Mictlān” upon Milintica if the Xiomeran pilots and their plane were not released.
While the loss of a surveillance plane and its crew to hostile forces does represent a security risk, the actual risk to Xiomera is likely minimal, defense analyst Steven Palmer told DTNS. “The Xiomerans would certainly have some kind of kill switches or overrides aboard their surveillance plane to destroy information and render the equipment aboard the plane useless. Xiomerans are very protective of their technology and knowledge,” Palmer said. “I would imagine that the crew also did everything they could prior to landing to smash things up aboard their plane. All of that is standard Imperial Intelligence procedure in the event of potential compromise. It would take a lot of skill to reconstruct everything, and to be frank, the Milinticans don’t have that kind of skill or technology.”
Palmer said that the real danger from the incident is faced by Milintica, not Xiomera. “The Arana government seems to be using Xiomera as a way to try to keep people behind the President and to tamp down unrest from her election scandal. They seem to think Empress Calhualyana and the Xiomerans are bluffing when they threaten a response. That seems like a very risky bet, to put it mildly.”
Former Milintican officials to face trial
The Milintican government also announced today that trials will soon begin for former officials of the previous government. Former President Matōchmizalo and former Prime Minister Tupai Tapihana are among seventeen former Milintican Peoples’ Party officials who will be tried on a slate of charges. The charges include conspiring to commit insurrection, treason and incitement of violence.
The former officials are accused of encouraging riots that have repeatedly occurred since the election of President Neina Arana and the subsequent outlawing of other political parties. “These individuals could not accept that they lost an election, so they turned to acts of domestic terrorism,” Justice Minister Patariki Waaka told the media. “Their acts of treason cannot go unpunished.”
Opponents of the government have accused the Arana administration of using the charges to further clamp down on dissent and try to shut down opposition to the Milintican Communist Party.
