Journey to the West

The Journey to the West is what media in Shireroth called the surprise teaming-up of Prince Rubin and Prince Ichirō, both claimants as heirs to the throne after Salome, by Salome. She had ordered them to head to 's Koningenwaarde to meet with the Batavian nobles, particularly the different branches of the House of Vinandy.

Issues

There were several issues that Salome hoped the journey would solve.

• Succession crisis instigated through the non-imperial Secunda Divisio, a set of division of property and imperial and non-imperial titles decreed by Hendrik Leopold des Vinandy in 1717, that had not received imperial sanction. Problematic in particular was the by-passing of imperial law over how imperial peerages were succeeded to (relevant for the titles Duke of Gascony, Duke of Brandenburg, and Duke of 's Koningenwaarde). This was interpreted by Raynor's Keep as a deliberate snub of imperial authority and was deeply embarrassing to Kaiseress Salome.
• Aurangzeb Hakimi bin Alsalam, Prince of Shireroth, Duke of Brandenburg and member of the Imperial Family of Shireroth married in 1730 Lucy Myksos without having asked for or secured the Kaiseress's assent. As such, the marriage between Aurangzeb and Lucy is considered illegitimate in Shirerithian law. Any of their children will not be in line of succession to Aurangzeb's Shirerithian titles as they will be considered illegitimate under Shirerithian law.

The trip

On the morning of 35.XV.1730, Princes Rubin and Ichirō set off from Shirekeep airport. The plane was luxurious electric private jet belonging to the Imperial Family, seating 50 people maximum. Today, the crew consisted of 5 crew (2 pilots, 3 cabin crew), the two princes, five men from their Shirerithian security teams, sixteen esquires from their Order of the Holy Lakes retinues for comfort, ease and safety, as well as two private secretaries, and four assistant private secretaries. In total, the flight included 34 people on board (16 Shirerithian citizens, 2 dual Hurmu/Shirerithian citizens, and 16 Hurmu citizens).

The flight had been challenged by the Ardashirshahr Air Defence Sector from almost the moment it had gained altitude on departure from Shirekeep-Foley Aerodrome. Interrogations by Benacian air traffic controllers of Shirerithian flights in and out of Shirekeep had become an onerous fixture of civil aviation in the "confluence" region ever since work had begun on the Alalehzamin Security Line earlier in the year. Hurriedly the aircraft was obliged to confirm its acknowledgement of and adherence to the standing no-fly policy covering Elluenuueq. On two separate occasions, as the aircraft gained altitude over the Imperial County before dipping across the River Elwynn into Shirerithian airspace over Brookshire once more, the onboard ES-13 threat warning system activated, indicating that an unidentified radar system had illuminated the plane as though a target lock-on had been acquired. The aircraft's pilot captain duly squawked a warning to Shireroth's own air traffic network of being targeted by an unknown party over Imperial airspace. The message was duly relayed to the Department of the Confluence air defence network and, for whatever unknown reason, the lock-on attempts abruptly halted.

Due to Benacian Union rules of valid flight zones, the flight had been obliged to take a less efficient trip than what geography might warrant. As such, the flight first straddled the southern bank of the River Elwynn as it flew westwards from Shirekeep. It then crossed into Austland and passed Fiorecittà. Flight plans had been shared with the civil authorities in Chryse and Benacia Command in Merensk. Notably the feedback from the External Service of the Benacian Union had nixed the initial flightpath which had planned to arrive in Batavia via Mishalan and the Governorate of Absentien.

The 3 Air Defence Observation Regiment, whose batteries were assigned to cover the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area and the Alalehzamin Security Line, had noted what it termed to be a suspected intrusion flight originating out of Shirekeep-Foley on 11:15 and again at 11:28. Advised by Ardashirshahr Air Defence Sector Command that the target was non-hostile, the battery commander covering the confluence airspace nonetheless proceeded with acquiring a target lock on both occasions, in order to test the integration of the Kalgachi "Burdock" SAM system into the command and control network. These calibration efforts were abruptly terminated upon receipt of angry verbal communications from regimental command, relaying orders from Air Defence Command to immediately cease all operational activity in that sector until further notice.