This chapter will be the first to be in the point of view of this story second protagonist.

This picture is the KF-X or in this story, KF-21/IF-21. Basically you can imagine if one day it has a naval version with tailhooks.

Hope you enjoy!

---

Majapahit .

A good introduction is a must.

I am 1st Lieutenant (Navy) Yoel Pramudya Angsana, 24 years old. In the Royal Navy or other Commonwealth navies my rank will be called sub-lieutenant, while the Americans called their equivalent as lieutenant junior grade.

I started my career by entering the Indonesian Naval Academy in Surabaya and now, my current assignment is the 120 Naval Air Squadron "Sea Eagles" with my childhood friend, 1st Lieutenant Bala Syailendra, also 24.

I am proud to be part of the nascent carrier aviation of Indonesia with my assignment aboard Republic of Indonesia Ship - KRI Majapahit, a nuclear-powered supercarrier of the Indonesian Navy.

We fly the navalized Indonesian-Korean Boramae stealth fighter, the IF-25 Ikan Terbang or Flying Fish in English. Along with the us, friendly carrier group in the region included Indian INS Vishal, American USS Saratoga, and Japanese JNS Zuikaku.

The 120 Naval Air Squadron was raised in 2035 after the civil war alongside a training unit (equivalent to US Navy/Marine Corps Fleet Replenishment Squadron) 402 Naval Air Squadron, and both squadron received its first IF-25 one year later. After 3-4 year under intensive training with friendly countries all of us were eager for our first combat mission. Just like the Americans, embarked aircraft in the Indonesian carriers were organized in Carrier Air Wings, also called Carrier Air Group (CAG).

A Carrier Air Wing consist of two squadrons in Majapahit-class of multirole fighters equipped with IF-34, one electronic attack squadron with EA-34 Belut Listrik (Electric eel) developed from EA-33 land-based jammer aircraft, one AEW squadron with E-2F/ID Hawkeye or the upcoming stealthy E-23 Sirius, a detachment of fleet support aircraft from a Naval Airlift Squadron (Carrier) with US-made CMV-24 Kestrel tiltrotors and upcoming C-23, a sea control squadron filled exclusively with Cakalang family of drones for anti-submarine, electronic warfare, as well as air refueling. Finally, the carrier had one helicopter/tilt-rotor squadron filled by tilt-rotor Kestrels.

Complementing the Majapahit class and following a worldwide trend, a smaller KMQ-101 drone carrying vessels had also been built as part of this country's massive naval expansion program, christened as Sumatera Timur-class, named after our nation's self-governing territories who have monarchs as chiefs; namely the lead ship KRI Sumatera Timur (formerly eastern part of North Sumatera Province in Unitary Era), KRI Bali, KRI Yogyakarta, and KRI Kalimantan Selatan.

There are five carrier air wings in total, three embarked on carriers, and two in reserve and as replacements.

Currently the 4th Carrier Air Wing is embarked on the Majapahit, consists of the 120 and 132nd Naval Air Squadron in the fighter/attack role; supported by the 207 Naval Air Squadron in electronic warfare role.

the 804 Naval Air Squadron in airborne command and control role;

the 802 Naval Air Squadron, sea control/tanker;

For tiltrotor squadrons it has the 510 Naval Air Squadron. And finally, the 604 Naval Air Squadron served as Carrier Onboard Delivery with Greyhounds and Kestrels.

The Navy also planned to form two more manned CAGs as we are building two more Majapahits, with planned name KRI Kutai and KRI Larantuka, two ancient kingdoms in Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara, respectively.

......

Now we're talking about the escorts for Majapahit and Sumatera Timur; an Irian-class armored missile cruiser (often called battlecruiser) KRI Irian (CG-200), had just been commissioned in 2039. Equipped with 6-inch main gun and long-range hypersonic anti ship and land attack missiles whose technology was supplied mainly from Korea, it's role was primarily surface warfare.

Three Yos Sudarso-class destroyers designed by a joint Indonesian-Japanese team; KRI Sultan Thaha Syafruddin (DDG-311), KRI Sultan Nuku (DDG-317), and KRI Hayam Wuruk (DDG-319) served mostly in air defense role supported by four further developments of British AH140 Arrowhead as Gatot Subroto-class missile frigates; KRI John Lie (FFG-380), KRI Yos Soedarso (FFG-372), KRI Cut Meutia (FFG-377), and KRI D.I. Panjaitan (FFG-374).

In addition the group consist of a Tide-class derivative replenishment ship, KRI Balongan (AOE-921) along with two brand-new Franco-Brazilian designed Soekarno-Hatta class nuclear attack submarines; KRI Abdurrahman Wahid (SSN-480) and KRI Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (SSN-482).

As the situation in India began to heat up six months ago, the Majapahit battle group, already positioned in Indian Ocean in her routine deployment has been plotted to be the part of Indonesia's initial response in case of the Caliphate invaded India, which will automatically activate the PPDU Article 5.

In fact, the Armed Forces General Staff had explicitly approved the Majapahit strike group to offensively engage the oncoming UCC fleet and air assets prior to the war declaration, with their own discretion, in coordination with Indian forces, as intelligence had precisely determined the UCC Navy and Air Force will preemptively raid western Indian naval and air bases, especially INS Kadamba, the homeport of carrier INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, in the State of Goa, on December 1st in conjunction of a land invasion.

I am inside the junior officer quarter I slept in since I'm deployed to Majapahit, looking at my girlfriend's photograph. Gloria Dewi Hutapea, a Trisakti postgrad student.

"How are you doing, hun?" I said to myself, just like a normal concerned man for his mate's fidelity.

Anyway, how I know her? My father, now retired, once worked in an agri-business company in one of its branches in Makassar and his immediate superior, a Bataknese, has kids, among them, Gloria, their third and sole daughter in the family. In my high school I soon know her more as she attended the same school as me. Like expected from people in puberty, I found myself to grow a thing for her.

Luckily, we shared the (almost) same faith; I am a Catholic while she's a Protestant, so our family could approve us being close. But my father one said to me that dating someone who is the daughter of his superior at work means double the responsibility including, if I want to marry her, must already with a job.

This factor, among with my desire to not further be a burden of my parents, in light of the fact that when I was in 12th grade, my mother was diagnosed with cervix cancer which she survived as well as the need to pay tuition for my little sister Arvinda, three years younger than me resulted in a personal consideration for a less expensive path of higher education, and in the end. I become the first in my family to wear uniform by joining the Navy.

Furthermore Gloria supported my path as well. I remember when I had a date with her in Panakkukang Mall four months before the final exit exam when she showed me photos of her brother Paulus, with his Indonesian Air Force academy dress uniform. Six months prior to the Civil War she also gave me a photo of him already wearing flight suit in front of his Boramae.

I obtained my Letter of Acceptance to attend the Naval Academy, in Surabaya, despite the hard times of the Civil War, in 2034, and graduated 17th out of the 650 cadets.

During my time there I grow to appreciate the expanding world of naval aviation, especially as we grow our experience with aircraft carrier operation. I want to be part of it, men and women who complemented the Air Force effort (as well as Army) in keeping our skies as well our sea ours.

Upon commissioning, I was ordered to directly went into flight school. And so began my life as Navy pilot.

About the origin of my callsign "Fishnet", it was the fact that my first carrier landing was an emergency one using the barricade due to my KAI T-50N Block 50 trainer aircraft developed a problem with it's nose gear and can't be lowered. In the Indonesian Navy lingo, barricade was called "jala ikan" or Fishnet, and as the result, the callsign sticks.

......

Back to present.

Over the last month since Caliphate crisis began. Majapahit has been deployed in a continuous patrol over the Indian Ocean.

I can remember our task force commander addressed us as we started our fray.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for us to know the truth what we might have to face. As you know, Arab nations, with the entire Middle East and North Africa, along with some collaborating nations like Turkey, Sahel African states and Bangladesh, has banded together to create a theocratic superstate, the United Caliphate Confederation, with the world in large are against it.

Their total population, despite recent hardship from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, is almost two times larger than ours. We are about to face almost 600 million Arabs, Pakistanis, Iranians, Turkics (Turkish, Azerbaijani, etc.), Afghans, black Africans, Berbers, Bangladeshis, Bedouins, Kurdish, and many more. I said to you, to be honest, this might be a brother vs brother, as we know majority of these people shared the same religion as most of ours. But let me tell you. This is not about religion. It's about defending our countries and our neighbors from a specter of tyranny masking as religion.

We are entrusted as the first line of defense against such monster in this titanic clash of civilization. And we will one day take casualties. But most of you, will survive to the end.

Majapahit-Sumatera Timur Composite Task Force, Indonesia is counting on you. Fight hard and fight smart is the way to victory. God be with us!

Then I was called into the briefing room and inside, my squadron has been assembled for next day sortie. Upon arrival, I look at my surroundings. One of them is the profile of a Caliphate guided missile destroyer, the D401 Harun al-Rashid, which is an Egyptian reverse engineered and built, enlarged derivative of the French Aquitaine (FREMM)-class frigate, which as the result its classified by the Caliphate as destroyer. She was commissioned in 2037 with her missile complements consist of reverse-engineered Aster 30 and Aster 15 SAM for anti-air, MM42 Exocet-II supersonic anti-ship missile for anti-surface warfare, and MU90 anti-submarine homing torpedoes and finally a single 127 mm naval gun.

Minutes later,

"Sir"

Bala and I stood up and put themselves on salute position, upon saw our squadron commander arrived in the room, Lieutenant Colonel Alan Budikusuma. While he's Chinese descent and a professing Roman Catholic like the legendary badminton star in 1990s which was his namesake, he has no relation with that man. Besides Bala, a messy-haired Major Yanuar Dharma, from Tegal, Central Java, which is to be my flight leader, and the only female member in my flight, 1st Lieutenant Fransiska Tobi, hailing from Ende, East Nusa Tenggara, also stood up. The entire wing, from fighter/attacks to early warning, has been called for briefing and new intelligence about the Caliphate plan of a pre-emptive raid on the Indian Navy.

Soon, the Commander Air Group (CAG), Colonel Edi Suryawan, arrived in the room alongside his staffs such as the wing's intelligence officer, operation officer, warfare officers, landing signal officers, maintenance officer, and the weapons officer.

"Attention!"

"At ease!"

"Alright boys and girls, listen up!" Edi barked. The screen changed into a real-time satellite footage showing the position of the combined Indonesian-American-Japanese fleet, Indian, and Caliphate ones. The combined fleet are about 300 miles from the Indian West Coast.

"Our defense operation will be initially directed against the Caliphate frigates and corvettes which will provide screen ahead for their heavy hitters, namely, Harun al-Rashid class (Egypt), Persian Gulfs (Iran), and Tabouk-class (Chinese Type 052D/Luyang-III copied by Pakistan) along with various types of their submarines. The greatest threat among the latter are the nuclear-powered Shangs which was reverse engineered by the Pakistanis in 2030. Meanwhile their most potent surface combatants are the Harun al-Rashid and the Tabouks/Luyang-IIIs, in terms of missile capabilities. The Chinese has passed us the limitation of their copy of Luyangs to us, fortunately.

We religiously studied the real-time positions on the screen. I noted that the nearby INS Hansa, an Indian naval airbase in the state of Karnataka, was also shown. Soon we realized that the airbase is one of prime targets for a Caliphate attack because it houses naval Tejas, Rafales, and Abhayas, along with P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircrafts and DRDO Sea Hawk combat/surveillance drones.

Edi continues "The Indians had recently intensified their patrol with their P-8s and Sea Hawks, along with Japanese which deployed their P-1s as part of their PPDU commitment. Expect their presence soon near our position. But we will do our part too. A Hawkeye from ours, along with the Saratoga and the Zuikaku will be deployed and work together with allied land-based aircraft and our own assets, namely two Cakalangs from the 802 Squadron, with CAP provided by two fighters for each drone. Meanwhile, four of our Kestrels also from the 802 Squadron will be plotted for gas. For backup in case of the recon drone got jammed, one Kestrel also will be airborne, also with CAP protection of its own."

"Anything I missed, Fahruddin?" Edi asked the Operation Officer, Lt. Col. Fahruddin. The latter answered.

"207 Squadron will do what they are trained to do."

Then, the Commander took over "As the Caliphate lack true carriers, they managed to make it up by land-based aircraft including long-range, high speed missile-carrying strategic bombers, following the old Soviet example." The slide then changed into several air bases in Pakistan, a prominent UCC member-state. "Pakistani air bases will be the most obvious origin for their attacks, especially Masroor Air Force Base in the city of Karachi" The slide changes again, still showing air bases but this time, in Iran and Arab Gulf region. "The bombers, on the other hand, were placed further west. Particularly in Iraq and Northern Iran, while on the other hand, they had fewer tankers to play with, compared to us."

He continued. "And their aircraft are the main thrust for this invasion against the Indians while the surface fleet will mostly keep us busy and generally seek survival as much as possible, unusual for the fanaticism of their ideology, relative to the air assets, especially to defeat carriers like the Indian's own Vikramaditya, Vishal, and our own. Expect P-3 or P-8s as their patrol birds, along with missile-carrying H-6s and Tu-22M Backfires, which will come with heavy fighter escort; including stealth aircrafts like the J-31, JF-20, or F-313. Also keep your eyes on enemy drones. In case of the H-6s, which is the Chinese version of the old Soviet Tupolev Tu-16s if you remember your military history lesson, they obtained it by hacking the Chinese. Those sand monkeys also had completely reverse engineered old Soviet made Su-24, Su-25, and more modern Su-34, which two of their member states, Syria and Algeria, possessed. In short, there are lots of weapon technologies and systems those people managed to steal, or reverse engineered, both from the West and the East."

"We are cleared to use lethal force, as the 132 squadron had been fired upon by UCC fighters yesterday and managed to down two of them without any losses. The Indians also confirmed the same and also managed to down a couple of them, too."

"Our primary target will be their sniffers and drones, along with their bombers if they deployed it, but if their fighters joined the fray, especially to intercept our own or allied sniffers, they will be our target too. And at the D-Day of the planned raid, all Caliphate aircrafts detected by our radar, or by our allies, will be engaged without any hesitation."

"Is that clear?" asked Edi "All clear sir!"

Soon the squadrons were split up for individual briefing. The 120 NAS were now conducting their own. Yoel and Yanuar, along with Stella and Sri will be tasked to protect a Cakalang drone and an Indian P-8 in the western part of the patrol sector for tomorrow sortie. Sumatera Timur will launch their KMQ-101s for further firepower.

"Stella, Sri, you will be with the Poseidon as you are in the inner station. Keep UCAF birds off it at all times, as far as possible. In the upside, expect Indian fighters as our reinforcements, through. While you Yoel, Bala, will accompany our little bird" Alan told us. The flight chart showed that the search drone will head northwest relative to the carrier's position, and then, the drone will head north towards former Pakistani airspace. The 120 NAS will be the spearhead and screen forward while the semi-automatic controlled UAVs protecting the flank and the rear.

"The controllers in Sumatera Timur also know where they will be?" asked Sri.

"Exactly. Now, weaponry, we will be packing AAM-6s in the central bay, along with full gun load, four Diamondbacks inside the side bay, and four Buzzards in the external wing station. Our AWACS callsign in this operation will be "Cakalele" (Moluccan traditional war dance). As the CAG had said, two Kestrel will be on station on your track to provide additional gas."

The flight soon organized. I am assigned as "Sea Eagle 3-2", and then, the duty officer, Henry Wattimena, relayed to the flight that they are cleared to head to the flight deck and launch.

---

Outside, the sun was not yet rise, but the flight deck is busy as usual. The crewmember's faces are generally steady, eager to be the witness of history as the Indonesian Navy will undergo its baptism of fire in the foreign soil. Particularly, it's newly established carrier-borne aviation, extensively trained and mentored by France and United States, but mostly, India.

I boarded my jet, IF-34 registered "TM-3490". TM means Tempur Maritim (Maritime/Carrier-based Fighter) accompanied by salute from ground crew members, as they finished feeding her with ordnance and fuel.