During the 2012 RIMPAC exercise, five alien spacecraft arrive. Their communications ship hits a satellite and crashes through the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, while the others plunge into the waters off the coast of Hawaii. USS Sampson, USS John Paul Jones, and Japanese destroyer JDS Myōkō discover a floating structure that generates an impenetrable force field isolating the Hawaiian Islands and the three destroyers from the rest of the world, and jamming all radar and communications inside.