Norfolk has been busy, there have been many rumors about something happening soon with several ships being deployed from New York - their destination unknown. At the same time, security on Liberty's western border increased, "holes" in regular patrols being filled. A chokehold being placed on illegal activities throughout California.

The Insurgency, pooling their intelligence have been able to piece together rumors of a task force operating on the border, led by a battleship-sized vessel. They lack information regarding the patrol paths of the task force, however, and have decided to expand a small group of fighter craft to spot the convoy and analyze it's flight vectors, perhaps yielding information regarding their patrol paths.

The task force is well defended with multiple smaller craft being identified, though the true size of the group is unknown. The Insurgency forces hope that damaging the flagship of the group will force a withdrawal.

An Insurgency snub-craft group consisting of 4 VHFs will encounter the Akhetaten's convoy during it's patrol within Whitney Ice Field. The Akhetaten's escorts, also 4 VHFs, will be sent to intercept the hostile snubcraft and take them down so as to prevent them from relaying the intelligence they've gathered to their command. The ice field renders it impossible for the Akhetaten to interfere in the show-down.

• The Insurgency side wins if the Navy VHFs are taken down and at least 1 Insurgency VHF survives. In that occasion, the Insurgency will be made aware of the convoy's patrol paths and hire a Lane Hacker bomber wing to assist them in the second phase of this event.
  
• The Liberty side wins if the Insurgency VHFs are taken down. In that occasion, the Insurgency will not be made aware of the convoy's patrol paths, altering the second phase of this event.
  

The outcome of this event has a direct effect on the event's upcoming second phase.

January 22nd, 20:00 UTC