Sequence of bright lights over Garden City, SC.

Looking out over the ocean at dusk.  All of the sudden a bright orange light appeared in the sky, and a few seconds later another bright light appeared just to its left.  The two then vanished.  A few minutes later, far to the south, two more lights appeared for approximately 10 seconds then disappeared.  Five minutes later 3 lights appeared spread equidistant far accross the sky.  The were visible for approx. 5 seconds, then disappeared. No sound, no trails, no movement...only sequences of large, bright orange lights appearing and disappearing.  For a few minutes after some thought they saw smaller objects moving and communicating much higher up in the atmosphere, although this was tough to decipher.
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information.  PD