An unidentified aircraft crashes into a Navy jet. Callen is getting nowhere investigating his deep fakes, which he blames on Katya. Joseph Landry, the pilot of the jet, shows up at the Boatshed for questioning. Landry refuses to go along with the official story that a bird strike took down his jet. Roundtree suggests trying to determine where the UAP would have landed. The XO downplays Landry's piloting abilities. Sam and Callen discover Army Future Command is onboard the USS Allegiance. Fatima has located a potential crash site for the UAP and sends Deeks and Kensi to investigate. Fatima suggests the UAP to be a drone swarm gathering military intelligence. Deeks and Kensi find the crash site but the UAP is missing. Gabe Dawson, a college student,  surrenders to them. He does a UAP podcast and has been tracking the swarm. Intercept Controller Heather Greene talks to Sam and Callen and confirms Fatima's theory. Gabe says that the drone swarm takes flight every night. Callen and Sam agree that a U.S. company must be manufacturing the swarm. Fatima suggests signal hijacking as a countermeasure. Sam anticipates an attack on the Allegiance that night. Fatima attempts to hijack the drones, with the help of Roundtree, Kensi, and Deeks. But she finds no signal. The drones are rogue AI. Kilbride orders her to stand down. The drone swarm approaches the ship. The team is relieved of the investigation by a secret DOD agency. Kilbride tries to explain to Fatima why he called her off. AFC lost its handle on the drone swarm. The investigation was to push the AI to evolve faster. He adds that the U.S. is in a race to create the best AI. The military release calls the lights a training mission using weather balloons.