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The Squadron of F-22 Raptors scrambled from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada waited out of range. Only when they got word that the directional energy pulse had gone out, had wiped out any communications between the drones and their controllers, did they go in.

The jets flew on the express orders of the President of the United States. Two Squadrons had been scrambled. Squadron A was armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. The AMRAAMs, commonly known in the Air Force as Slammers, were all-weather, beyond-visual-range guided missiles with a top speed of Mach 4 and a range in excess of thirty miles. The chances of escape from an AMRAAM were minimal.

At close range, the pilot could fire the missile and its own radar tracking system would acquire the target without further input from the pilot. They were known as Fire and Forget. Though none of the pilots operating that day would ever forget their targets. Squadron Alpha was tasked with destroying the drones. Squadron Bravo was tasked with obliterating the yacht Zephyr. They had flown out to sea and were busy quartering the ocean in their search for the fugitive yacht.

Squadron B was armed with ship-killing missiles known as Harpoons. Once launched, the Harpoons homed in on their targets with active radar. They could fly low-level, skimming the sea, making them almost undetectable until impact, when the warhead containing 215 pounds of high explosive would explode.

Each Squadron split into hunter packs of two. There were few other aircraft in the sky. Some of Squadron A passed a Helicopter, a Bell, which should have known better than to be out in these conditions, but it wasn’t their call. Their mission was to find the drones.

Along the coastal valleys of California, those still stuck in their cars, or stubbornly cowering in their homes, heard above the roar of the storm the scream of jets and the sonic boom as the sound barrier was broken. Glass windows shattered, shards flew into walls, into flesh. The Raptors flew on. The pilots found the drones on radar. The Slammers acquired their targets. The pilots fired. One by one, in a streak of fire, the drones were blasted from the sky.