Her smile was back. “With such a proliferation of attacks taking place, something had to be done. How exactly does the Center defend against such attacks?”
“As you pointed out, we can do very little to prevent attacks, that responsibility lies with other agencies within the government. The Center comes into play once an event is underway. Just about every major building, monument, sports venue and mall now have their own defensive drone fleet. In addition to this, in communities across the nation—and soon to be around the world—the RDC has bunkers set up with fleets of the most-advanced ground and air units, all remotely-controlled from here. The moment we get notification that an event is underway our teams go into action and activate the closest rapid response units or civilian drones.”
“Even the privately-owned security drones?”
“That’s right. Quite honestly, we have the best remote pilots in the world, and our civilian counterparts acknowledge this. They’re more-than-willing to let us take the lead during an attack. We can deploy within seconds of the call with state-of-the-art weaponry and equipment. We do our best to limit the damage caused by the attacks.”
“And just how big is the Center?”
Xander knew his job was to provide just enough information to give the population a feeling of security. He had been through this before, and most of the information was available online. But still the reporter insisted on asking.
“I can’t be specific, but we are much larger than the military foreign drone program ever was.”
“Because of the need?”
“Mainly because of the scope of our operations. We cover the entire United States and our territories, with literally hundreds of rapid-response bunkers ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Also, the devices within these bunkers have to be maintained and tested constantly to assure their readiness when called upon. And then we need operators—pilots. In the past we’ve had as many as ten simultaneous events taking place. That requires trained pilots and sensor-operators to cover all the shifts and be ready to react when needed.”
“And all out of here?”
“We are the main center, yet rest assured, as it is with most government functions, there are backups to the backups.”
“As I mentioned before,” the reporter continued, “drones have been around for a long time, but now they’ve been regulated so much that everyone assumes that a drone in the air is up to no good. There have been protests by hobbyists and others against these restrictions. What do you say to these people?”
“Hey, I was one of them for a long time. I got my first drone when I was eight. Then I began to build them. At that time there were so many kits available—in fact you could buy a drone for less than twenty dollars back then.”
“But they weren’t the sophisticated UAVs we have today.”
“Some were. Depending on how much you could spend, there were units capable of being converted into killers quite easily.”
“But there were—are—safety features in them.”
Xander’s smile was more of a smirk. “Like everything else, regulations are designed to keep law-abiding citizens from violating the rules. Criminals don’t care about laws—that’s why they’re criminals. Sure, there are safeguards programmed into the flight controllers, but like any computer program, there are ways around them.”
“The killboxes?”
“Exactly. If someone has the money and the access, they can acquire a killbox, and in less than a minute all safeguards are voided. But even more, the internals within the killbox allow for standardized reprogramming that can make even a mid-range drone into a killer.”
“Please explain.”
Xander hesitated. He knew all this information was available in the clear, but he was an official spokesperson for the government, so he couldn’t make the situation appear too bleak. His job was to comfort the public, not make
“As you pointed out, we can do very little to prevent attacks, that responsibility lies with other agencies within the government. The Center comes into play once an event is underway. Just about every major building, monument, sports venue and mall now have their own defensive drone fleet. In addition to this, in communities across the nation—and soon to be around the world—the RDC has bunkers set up with fleets of the most-advanced ground and air units, all remotely-controlled from here. The moment we get notification that an event is underway our teams go into action and activate the closest rapid response units or civilian drones.”
“Even the privately-owned security drones?”
“That’s right. Quite honestly, we have the best remote pilots in the world, and our civilian counterparts acknowledge this. They’re more-than-willing to let us take the lead during an attack. We can deploy within seconds of the call with state-of-the-art weaponry and equipment. We do our best to limit the damage caused by the attacks.”
“And just how big is the Center?”
Xander knew his job was to provide just enough information to give the population a feeling of security. He had been through this before, and most of the information was available online. But still the reporter insisted on asking.
“I can’t be specific, but we are much larger than the military foreign drone program ever was.”
“Because of the need?”
“Mainly because of the scope of our operations. We cover the entire United States and our territories, with literally hundreds of rapid-response bunkers ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Also, the devices within these bunkers have to be maintained and tested constantly to assure their readiness when called upon. And then we need operators—pilots. In the past we’ve had as many as ten simultaneous events taking place. That requires trained pilots and sensor-operators to cover all the shifts and be ready to react when needed.”
“And all out of here?”
“We are the main center, yet rest assured, as it is with most government functions, there are backups to the backups.”
“As I mentioned before,” the reporter continued, “drones have been around for a long time, but now they’ve been regulated so much that everyone assumes that a drone in the air is up to no good. There have been protests by hobbyists and others against these restrictions. What do you say to these people?”
“Hey, I was one of them for a long time. I got my first drone when I was eight. Then I began to build them. At that time there were so many kits available—in fact you could buy a drone for less than twenty dollars back then.”
“But they weren’t the sophisticated UAVs we have today.”
“Some were. Depending on how much you could spend, there were units capable of being converted into killers quite easily.”
“But there were—are—safety features in them.”
Xander’s smile was more of a smirk. “Like everything else, regulations are designed to keep law-abiding citizens from violating the rules. Criminals don’t care about laws—that’s why they’re criminals. Sure, there are safeguards programmed into the flight controllers, but like any computer program, there are ways around them.”
“The killboxes?”
“Exactly. If someone has the money and the access, they can acquire a killbox, and in less than a minute all safeguards are voided. But even more, the internals within the killbox allow for standardized reprogramming that can make even a mid-range drone into a killer.”
“Please explain.”
Xander hesitated. He knew all this information was available in the clear, but he was an official spokesperson for the government, so he couldn’t make the situation appear too bleak. His job was to comfort the public, not make
Similar Books
