"What do you mean? Where'd they come from?" Taves asked.
"They just showed up out of nowhere," ATC reported. "The signal matches the UAVs from last week's attack."
"Shit, again!?" Jumper asked. "How'd they get more of them here so fast?"
"Doesn't matter. We shoot them all down," Taves ordered. "All aircraft. Form up on me. We're heading back to the city."
Layla's body was just as much on autopilot as her plane was while her mind came up with a million questions a minute. All she could think about at the mention of UAVs attacking the city was her father. What if the Eruseans attacked the hospital he was at? What if she shot down another drone, and it crashed on the hospital, finishing off her father for good? What if a drone she shot down crashed on someone else? Even when she tried to tune these thoughts out, worries about how her father was doing would replace them. The others continued talking and speculating as they flew back, but Layla didn't say a word, and she hated that. All she wanted was for her dad to be okay. Instead, she was forced to worry about him constantly because he could be dead. She wanted this whole situation to be left in the past already.
"Are we gonna make it back in time? What if they sink the fleet before we even get there?" Rod asked.
"Maybe we should make a call to request reinforcements," Jumper suggested.
"It wouldn't do any good. Any reinforcements we get would take too long to scramble and get here. We're on our own," Taves replied. "Tower. How many bogies are currently in the airspace?"
ATC took a moment to respond. "At the moment, four. We're not sure if any others will show up, though. Destroyer Quail is reporting that the unknown aircraft aren't making any attempts to attack. They're just circling over the city."
"Then we work with that. Monk, Jumper, Bumble, and Rod, you four each target one of them. Singer, you and I will help them as needed," Taves ordered.
"Gorgon Squadron, be advised. We just got a visual on these aircraft from the ground. They're definitely the same UAVs from the attack last week," ATC chimed in again. "Marking all four bogies as hostile on your IFFs. You're cleared to engage."
As if on cue, the distant hue from the city lights lining the horizon finally turned into the towering cityscape on Aurick Bay, and with it, the four green squares marking the MQ-99s faded into existence on the pilots' HUDs. The strategy they came up with on the way back sprung to action as the first four split off, each heading for a target, while Taves and Layla hung back and watched, waiting for their opportunity to strike.
"Alright, let's shoot these guys down," Bumble said, already letting his excitement take over.
Layla, who had been mostly silent up to that point, lost in her thoughts and worries, finally spoke up. "Hold up, hold up, shouldn't we try to move them away from the city first?" she suggested. "That way, when we shoot them down, they won't go crashing on our buildings."
"There's no time for that," Rod insisted. "Those drones could start attacking any second. We've gotta take them down before they do any damage."
"No, she's right," Taves chimed in. "After the Kestrel II's attack on Farbanti last week, High Command wants us to be careful about downed aircraft landing on civilians. We have to lure them away from the city."
"You heard the man," Monk said without a moment's hesitation. "Let's chase them off."
Suddenly, the four UAVs stuck in a rigid, unbroken holding pattern above the city split up and zipped away in different directions. The first four F-16s lit their burners and chased after them while Layla and Taves went after the two closest drones with Monk and Bumble. While Bumble chased the drone going over the city up higher into the sky, Layla tilted her nose down. As the buildings got closer and closer, she threw her plane onto its side and zipped through the city, picking up speed and then losing it as she maneuvered around the skyscrapers. As she emerged on the other side of the downtown area, she came out ahead of Bumble and the drone, who were much higher up than she was. Layla used this as an opportunity to gain some altitude. She bled off quite a bit of speed in the process, but she put herself right behind the drone with a solid lock.
"Fox 2, Fox 2!" she called out as a missile loosed itself from the pylon on her left wingtip.
The missile lit up and shot toward its target. Suddenly, the UAV made a sharp and concise turn to the right, launching flares at just the right moment for Layla's missile to go careening off into the night sky, hitting nothing but the light pouring down from the crescent moon above.
"Dammit," Layla cursed. "Didn't hit a thing." She narrowed her eyes toward the sleek shape of the MQ-99 in front of her, watching its movements to mimic them to the best of her abilities. "Is it just me? Or are these things moving differently than they were last time?" she observed.
"Now that you mention it, I can kinda see it a bit," Jumper agreed. "They're movements feel so… human."
"They're probably being manually operated," Taves theorized as he and Monk closed in on the UAV over the suburbs. "We can worry about it later. Right now, we just need to take them down."
Meanwhile, the UAV Layla and Bumble were chasing after took another turn, cutting perpendicularly across another's path. By now, the two F-16 pilots were flying side by side with each other, but neither of them could hold a good enough angle on the drone to take it down. The MQ-99 dove as Bumble fired a standard missile, launching more flares along the way. Bumble followed directly after it, but Layla chose to stay at a higher altitude, waiting for her moment to dive and shoot it down. Bumble got close enough to let off a few bursts from his machine gun, and the drone immediately turned to evade, flying further out into the bay. Layla saw this as her chance. She pushed the stick down and lit the burners, picking up more and more speed as she angled herself into the drone's path. Caught unaware, the drone had no time to react as Layla let loose a hail of machine-gun fire, sending it into the water.
"Bandit splashed. That's one down," she announced as she got into formation with Bumble, and the two of them started heading back toward the city.
"Good work, you two," Monk praised them. "Now, let's deal with the other three. Taves and I've just about got this one, so you should help out Rod and Jumper. We'll be over as soon as this one is down."
"Alright, Singer, I'll take Rod; you get Jumper," Bumble ordered, already peeling off from their formation toward Rod's direction.
Layla quickly spotted Jumper chasing after his target in the direction of the airbase, so she turned toward them and flew forward at full speed. She knew it would be a long shot, but as soon as she was in range, she launched off a single 4AAM at the drone, causing it to curl up and back around into the night sky. Jumper chased after it while Layla worked on closing the gap between herself and the drone.
"UAV destroyed," Monk reported as he circled around the fireball that fell into the bay along with the first drone. "That leaves two left."
Layla cursed silently as the UAV took another turn, moving closer to the city. Jumper did his best to keep himself behind the drone, but its quick maneuvering this way and that before he could shoot it down made it difficult. Meanwhile, Layla came at the UAV from the side, firing another standard missile. Just as she expected, the drone evaded the missile with ease, but in doing so, it had to turn drastically, pointing it away from the city. To keep it going in the same direction, Layla and Jumper flew on either side of it to keep the drone from turning. Once Layla saw the city disappear from the ground below them, she cut back on the throttle, putting herself behind the drone and gunning it down.
"Just one more. Let's take 'em down."
"Way ahead of you. That's the last one," Rod reported.
Layla and Jumper had just started circling back toward the last UAV, but it was already down before they got close enough to do anything, and the other four F-16 pilots were already flying in formation. As the other two regrouped with the squadron, Layla realized she felt more on edge than after the first attack. Even with the assurance that none of the drones they shot down tonight landed over the city, the sinking feeling that something was about to go wrong was unshakable. All she could do was try her hardest to ignore it as she and the others came in for a landing.
"Well, I suppose tonight has certainly been… interesting," Rod remarked as the five pilots of Gorgon Squadron sat in the briefing room, waiting for Taves.
"I just don't understand how they were able to get more UAVs over here so quickly. The last attack was only a week ago," Monk mused.
Jumper stared at the front wall blankly, trying to say put one of the many thoughts in his mind into words. "I'd imagine the port authority is looking closely at everything coming in after the first time. How would they be able to slip more drones past?"
"Maybe the Eruseans have an inside man in the port that's turning a blind eye to it," Bumble suggested.
"I dunno. I feel like the OIA would've thoroughly looked at anyone that could've possibly let the UAVs in the first time. It just feels…" Monk's voice trailed off, searching for the right words to complete his thought.
He never got the chance to follow it up, though, as Taves stepped into the room a moment later. "I apologize for being late, everyone. I had to file a report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," he explained as he made his way up to the front of the room. "I know you're all tired after tonight, so I'll try to keep this brief, so you can all get some sleep. We're still trying to piece together what happened tonight, but from what we can gather, the UAVs from tonight's attack were brought in with the ones from last week. For whatever reason, though, they didn't launch when they were supposed to, so the Eruseans launched them now."
"Do we know if they have any more drones waiting in the port?" Monk asked.
"We're going to search the whole place top to bottom first thing tomorrow morning," Taves assured him. "If they have any more, which we doubt, we'll find them."
Bumble let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose any hopes of getting sent over to Usea any time soon have been sufficiently dashed, considering that we're gonna be on high alert for a while after this."
Taves nodded. "It would seem so. With two attacks on the city in the last week, High Command will probably be insistent on keeping this place on high alert, so I doubt you'll be going anywhere anytime soon." The Brigadier General paused and shook his head. "I won't bore you with all of that, though. I'm sure you're all exhausted. Go get some shut-eye."
Layla said nothing as she stood up and made her way to her room. She knew she wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight. All she'd be able to think about was her father. It felt like she'd be getting another phone call from the hospital any second now, saying his health had taken a turn for the worst. Layla was fed up with being worried like this. She shouldn't have to deal with this. It was right then, as she began making her way to her room that night, that she decided she was going to take matters into her own hands- regrets and consequences be damned.