Hilkiga Air Strike

**Hilkiga Air Strike** is the third engagement between the Gra Valkas Empire and Japan in the Great Naval Invasion of Japan. The Japan Self-Defense Forces strategic bombing operation was conducted to destroy the Gra Valkas Empire's Hilkiga Forward Operation Base in the Riem Kingdom, following the Second Battle of the New Sea of Japan, known as Operation Barbecue.

* Riem Kingdom
* Hilkiga Air Base Commander General Macina (MIA)

**Riem Kingdom**
* King Bank †
* General Rival Vale †
* Several numbers of Gra Valkas Imperial army
* Imperial Army Air Corps
	+ Aircraft (unknown number details)
		- Antares fighters
		- Vega twin-engined bombers

**Riem Dragon Knight Corps**
* Wyverns (unknown number details)

**Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force**
	+ Anti-aircraft gun emplacements, control tower, and reserve fuel tanks destroyed
	+ Antares fighters, Vega twin-engined bombers, and Reim wyverns destroyed
	+ Several numbers of imperial troops, officers, dragon knights, technicians, etc. died
* Hilkiga royal castle destroyed
	+ King Bank and General Rival died
	+ Several Riem knights and citizens died

### Japan

After JASDF F-2 fighters and JMSDF BP-3C Orion bombers annihilated the 44th Task Force and the Riem dragon carriers, they returned to base and armed the JDAM bombs before being ready for strategic bombing operation on the capital Hilkiga in the Riem Kingdom. In the skies above Hilkiga, 15 F-2 fighters flew rapidly approaching their target airspace. Their objective was to destroy the Gra Valkas Empire airbase’s radar and runway and silence their anti-aircraft guns.

### Gra Valkas-Riem Coalition

The radar operators in the Hilkiga Forward Operation Base were confused when they lost radar contact with the 44th Task Force, as well as the high-altitude and low-altitude bomber formations. Munrow, deployed by Gra Valkas headquarters to the airbase, could not hide his frustration with the radar anomalies and radio anomalies that had occurred last night since the start of the operation. There was a possibility of radar jamming by the enemy, but it was worrisome that the same phenomenon occurred last night. The 44th Task Force, which had a radio blockade, was found and could even have been attacked. However, Murnow raised anxiety if the operation would fail without contacting them.

When the radar operator rebooted the radar, Murnow looked into the radar screen. The several dots of light reflected in the airspace that should not exist, and nothing reflected in the airspace where the Guti Maun heavy bombers was supposed to be. The radar screen appeared blank for a moment and then whited out again. They began to suspect that the attacks had failed when the alarm sounded that enemy aircraft were approaching. He shouted at the crewmen to prepare for anit-aircraft combat. An air raid siren rang out across the airbase. Crewmen hurriedly moved about as interceptors, which were already up in the air turned eastwards. Aircraft on standby were rapidly prepared for takeoff.

Meanwhile, King Bank and General Rival Vale looked at the Gra Valkas Empire airbase from the royal castle where people ran back and forth throughout the airbase, preparing for another attack. Rival pointed to the radar site near the control tower and explained to King Bank that the Gra Valkas Empire’s super advanced tech could immediately detect incoming enemies, allowing them to intercept them. King Bank was impressed by the technology they employed in the fairytales, which was similar to the magic-to-electrical wave reflection detector from the Ravernal Empire. Then Rival explained to him about weapons called anti-aircraft guns, which were similar to the anti-air magic cannons used by the Holy Mirishial Empire, but it seemed that they could reach even the highest of altitudes. After seeing the radar sites possessed by the Gra Valkas Empire in their airbase, King Bank and Rival were blindly confident that the Gra Valkas was unbeatable by any country and were excited for the supposed upcoming victories against Japan. Suddenly, the radar site they were looking at erupted into flames as it was obliterated into pieces.

## Battle

### Assault on the Hilkiga Forward Base

As anti-aircraft batteries and interceptor fighters were being prepared, fifteen JASDF F-2 fighter-bombers attacked the base, intending to take out the radar stations, runway, anti-aircraft gun emplacements, and reserve fuel tanks along Antares fighters in the runways and hangars with JDAM bombs. The fuel tanks and Antares fighters setting on fire emitted intense, black smoke, darkening the sky above the royal capital. They succeed in doing so, causing the base personnel to turn into panic. The F-2 fighter-bombers had cleared the way for a formation of BP-3C bombers to finish off the base with unguided bombs. After finishing off the airbase, the bombing squadron attacked the Riem Dragon Mother Fleet and their capital wyvern force and successfully destroyed all of them.

King Bank and Rival witnessed the JSDF demolish the Hilkiga Air Base while the base was helpless in defending itself as all of their anti-aircraft guns and fighters were destroyed. Panic and utterly terrified, Rival screamed and finally admitted that it was totally stupid to provoke the Japanese in the first place while King Bank fearfully lamented what happened to Riem when the Japanese came for payback for his treacherous action. Then they looked up at countless BP-3C bombers that appeared in the skies slowly approaching them. King Bank froze in dread, believing the Japanese bombers that eradicated the military base near the Parpaldia capital of Esthirant.

The Gra Valkas Empire airbase, having lost its defenses and function in the first attack, welcomed the enemy with open arms against their will. Helpless and unable to do anything, King Bank and Rival could only watch and run as the enemy bombers mercilessly closed in.

### Destruction of Riem Kingdom's Administration and Royal Castle

Forty JMSDF BP-3C Orion bombers finally reached the skies above Hilkiga and unleashed their explosive payload while the entire Riem wyverns in the capital had been shot down by F-2 fighters beforehand. The bombs, each boasting a tremendous explosive power, dropped one by one, enveloping the Gra Valkas Empire airbase, which was still trying to put out the fires from the first attack, in an explosive gale.

To add more damage, Gra Valkas had previously installed a communication radar on the Riem royal castle for communication, which emitted radio waves to the JSDF, causing them to designate the castle as an enemy communication facility. Consequently, Bank, Rival, and almost all Riem officials and nobles watched helplessly as BP-3C bombers dropped bombs on the royal castle, sending the keep which towered over everything else crumbling. They ran continuously poured bomb after bomb on the royal castle, reducing its great stone walls into smoke and setting anything combustible on fire. As the royal castle was destroyed, King Bank, Rival, and almost all Riem officials and nobles were buried under the rubble, ending the ruling regime and crippling the administration of the Riem Kingdom.

After that, the BP3-C bombing unit started to decimate what was left in the Riem military force, causing the country to have zero means to defend itself again future foreign attacks.

## Aftermath

As the Hilkiga base was demolished, base commander Murnow and some survivors escaped to the bomb shelter to save their lives. Despite being utterly enraged by the JSDF attack, Murnow sulked and admitted that the Gra Valkas had lost the war and tried to get back to Gra Valkas territory to inform their military of the destruction of the base and the entire fleet of bombers and air corps.

At the Mainland Defense Command room in Japan, the Japanese Ministry of Defense had confirmed the loss of function of the Gra Valkas Empire airbase by the communicator’s report from the BP3-C bombing unit. Furthermore, the enemy surface invasion force has lost its capability to fight. They had also verified that Reim Kingdom’s fleet of dragon carriers and all enemy air power had successfully annihilated. In the end, they were relieved and still able to defend their mainland.

After that, they received the emergency report from intelligence that the Great Fleet (Caesar's Main Fleet) was heading toward the Nahanath Kingdom faster than they anticipated. Only one convoy of supplies had made it there in time, and there was only a small regiment of F-2 fighters and BP-3C bombers available as they were not being recalled back for the mainland defenses in the first place. To make matters worse, Japan also didn't have enough ammunition to supply the entire Air Wings with missiles. As a result, Japan had insufficient firepower to stop the invading fleet, and casualties seemed unavoidable this time.