By Isairo Palantes, Monteddor Correspondent

29/7-The forces of Alejandro Julianos suffered a stunning setback earlier this week when a large force of rebels, said to have been led by Dougherty herself, attacked a small airfield in Govanna. However, instead of destroying or sabotaging equipment, as has been the modus operandi of the rebels to this point, Dougherty’s forces instead captured twenty of Julianos’ fighter planes.

“The loss of these planes is a stunning blow to our forces, and an embarrassing one,” said General Octavio Mostandes. “It should serve as a wake-up call to Julianos, that these rebels are no longer just a trivial threat. They are an army, moving freely through our lands and now, our skies.”

Military analysts say that the addition of these aircraft to Dougherty’s forces could give her a chance to devastate a large portion of Julianos’ resources…if she has the talent available to fly them and the strategic reasoning to deploy them wisely.

“It might not seem like much to the layman,” said Enricio Falar, a teacher of military history and wartime strategy at Monteddor’s Aeronautical Warfare Academy. “But twenty fighter planes is a large number. These aircraft are still pretty rare, and twenty of them accounts for nearly ten percent of their number in existence, world-wide (those are the most recent estimates, anyway).

“And if Dougherty really is smart, and her actions up to this point show that she is indeed possessed of a high understanding of tactics and strategy, she won’t deploy her captured craft anytime soon. She will instead study them, reverse engineer, perhaps even figure out a way to build her own or modify non-military planes to bolster her new squadron.”

We reached out to Alejandro Julianos’ camp for statement. They only replied to say, “It’s being taken care of.”