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Flying Hell
By
Peter Mackeonis
The police called for reinforcements as they were obviously out-gunned.
“No way” the captain shouted just inches away from the telephone, “taking a drug dealer out of a homeless camp shouldn't be a problem, just handcuff the bastard and get back to the station ASAP and that's an order sergeant!”
“With respect sir” the sergeant started with no emotion in his voice, “it's not that simple as we're surrounded and if you don't send reinforcements now we're all gonna die.”
“Man-up sergeant and I repeat that's an order!”
The line went dead as a deafening explosion could be heard across town.
The mayor wasn't aware that CNN had been covering the action live until the governor called his cellphone. “
“Yes Mike we have an issue but nothing we can't handle.”
“'I'm watching CNN Marie so don't bullshit me, when I made you mayor you told me that you could fix San Francisco's crime wave and it's only gotten worse.”
“Okay Mike, the mayor confessed, “it seems that we're fighting drones and our police haven't had that kind of training, we've already lost four men.”
The governor's tone was sarcastic, “So whose drones are they Marie? MS13, the Russians, aliens? I'll call in the National Guard and problem solved.”
The mayor swallowed hard as she spoke again,
“That's not gonna sole the problem Mike as it's National Guard's drones attacking us.”
The governor paused waiting for the mayor to continue, but there was really nothing left to say and the silence was broken by the Homeland Security chief as he was patched into the conversation.
“I'm calling from the Oval Office Mike and the president wants to know why this equipment was deployed in the first place?”
“No one requested them and as far as we knew this was just a routine drug bust,” the mayor responded defensively.
“Hardly routine” responded the president in an ironic tone. “CNN are calling this an act of terrorism.”
“We're watching as we speak Mr. President, we can see the buildings burning and it looks like a war zone and I've instructed the mayor to get this situation under control or else.”
Just able to control her annoyance the mayor responded, “That's because some of these bastard devices are equipped with incendiary devices Mr. President.”
Suddenly the city was rocked by a massive explosion.“What the hell was that?” the governor asked.
“That was the police barracks,” replied the mayor.
The head of HSS stepped back in, “So let's start from the top who controls these devices?”
“They seem to.”
“They? Who are they?”
“Themselves sir they seem to be semi-autonomous.” answered the mayor
“Not so semi it would seem Marie,” and the HSS chief pounded her name home again.
“Calm down everyone,” ordered the president, “what's your game plan Mike, just how do you intend to stop them because you know what this looks like to the rest of the world? Uber liberal San Francisco defunds the police in favor of Black Lives Matter only to get attacked by killer drones.”
“Not sure that's helpful Mr. President,” the mayor answered emphatically.
“Okay mayor but it sounds like you don't have a way of calling them back so we're going to have to bring in military sharp shooters to take them out before more people die.”
The mayor wasn't sure now to respond at first so she quoted from a piece of paper that she'd just been handed. “I've just had a report of over fifty dead so far - mainly from our homeless community.”
The president wanted to say these are all potential votes but instead said, “They're all citizens Marie so it has to stop and it has to stop now!”
The HSS chief was the next to speak, “Social media is cooperating Mr. President and we've slapped Fox with an embargo so we are in control of the optics.”
“But not of the drones?”
“Not yet Mr. President,” as was confirmed by the graphic film coverage of the ongoing shock and awe attack at the homeless camp that was now littered with bodies.
The Joint Chief of Staff was summoned to the Oval Office to appraise the situation.
“Starting from the top Madam Mayor who exactly is being targeted?” asked the military voice.
“They started on the police” Marie answered very annoyed at not being addressed simply as mayor, “then the firefighters moving on to anyone else in uniform, there are reports of two meter maids – I mean meter wardens being shot.”
There was a long silence on the phone before the head of HSS asked,
“Do we know why they've gone rogue?”
“No sir.”
At least your striking postal workers are safe, thought the President but he knew better than to voice it.
More silence, then the Homeland Security chief spoke again this time to take charge of the situation back from the military, “Will twenty snipers be enough Marie?”
“Maybe?”
“Well, will it or won't it?” snapped the HSS chief.
“Well so far we've seen ten or so drones.”
“Or so?”
“At the last count but I'm concerned that if we start to shoot back they could call for reinforcements.”
“You're what? Next you'll be telling us that they carry tactical nuclear devices.”
“That would be crazy” Marie answered not sure if they had, “but these machines look like they've been trained in self-defense as well as attack so they are not going to be easy to take out.”
“Okay let's stay calm” the chief said in an agitated voice, “just shut down those that are not already in the air.”
“We've managed to lock down the drone barracks.”
“Well, at least that's something.”
“Not really as they lift off through a roof conduit.”
“Just block the damn conduit”
“One of their own is monitoring that location.”
“Then just blow the damn thing off the roof!”
“Four men have already tried and they're the ones who die, it's damn good at what it does. It hovers it dives and it kills and my guess is when if we manage to take that one out another will just appear, it's like a bloody war game from Hell.”
“Listen up everybody this is not good enough, We're the United States of America goddammit, I want to know how this happened and I want solutions.”
The Joint Chief of Staff knew that this was his cue to explain.
“Our latest crowd control drones monitor the nationwide CCTV cameras and when a contract worker copied some war game code onto the command network by mistake the system wrongly flagged that San Francisco was being attacked.”
“So drones were sent to protect San Francisco police officers?” interrupted the president,
“Pretty much Mr. President except the drones themselves decided to deploy and due to a pattern recognition error they attacked who they saw as unidentified people in uniform attacking San Francisco citizens.”
“ You mean they attacked the police? Anything else I should all be aware of?” asked an incredulous president
“They self-charge through an innovative wind and blade motion and we have no way of knowing what weapon stocks they have but we can check the records Mr. President,” although he offered he really had no intent of doing so knowing his career, reputation and pension lay in ruins. “And I'm happy to resign sir” he further offered, “if you think that's for this situation calls for?“
“The hell you will,” replied the president but before anyone else could comment the TV flickered before displaying a postcard worthy image of the City on the Bay.
Over the image were the words THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA and a voice of the People's Pacific Drone Alliance asked the San Francisco's chief of police if he was ready to surrender the city
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