Julie's view

Organizing Patriot resistance came second nature to Julie, having served as an electronic warfare officer in the USAF as well as a cub scout den mother she knew a thing or two about getting all the boys and their toys moving in one direction.  The pre-execution "back ramp brief" she gave before every movement covered all the basics, but to keep people thinking she asked questions.  Holding a ramp brief at a back table in a diner seemed to be a good enough way to do it when you didn't want to draw too much attention.

"Leon, what do you do if you encounter a roadblock."  Julie smiled at the big moustachioed man.

"Have Al send a text message, and comply."  Leon responded.

"Good, but odds are they are using jammers, if you can't get a message out how do you let the rest of the convoy know?"  Julie asked.

"I do a U turn if at all possible and come back lights flashing and horn blaring."  Leon replied.

"And if you can't?"  Julie asked.

"I ram the bastards and fight like hell."  Leon said in a matter of fact tone.

"Johnny, what is the comms plan?"  She asked the driver of the second vehicle, the sedan loaded down with three fighters in addition to the driver.

"Text message the mile marker to all the cells in the convoy from the lead vehicle lets us know where our front line trace is, within a minute or two anyways."  Johnny shrugged.  "Backup is Motorola push to talk radios, backup to that is the short range FM transmitters on 88.7 to make a one way transmission to the rest of the convoy, if no comms can be made that way we try the satphone back to the batcave for further instruction.  The go to hell plan is everyone moves to a hide site for as long as it takes to re-establish comms."

"Good."  Julie smiled.  "Vehicle spacing Al?"

"Line of sight on the flats, no closer than 3 car lengths in the curves, no further than 6."  Al responded. "And before you ask, order of march is Leon and me, you and Jack, with Johnny in the van and George, Elliot, and Spencer bringing up rear security."

"Ok, and our break contact plan?"  Julie asked.  No one volunteered.  "Ok, same as always, abandon the vehicle closest to the enemy, fight back to friendlies, and make it look like a carjacking when you get in, might throw off the drone operators long enough to get to one of the rally points."

"Ok kids, what are the signs of jamming?"  Julie asked.  Groans ensued from the crowd.  "Full bars on your cell but no ability to connect, or no bars on your cell when there should be, remember to have your cell service map handy for reference."  Julie had driven the entire route two weeks prior and mapped the cell coverage to give a reference for the the operation.

"Command and Control?"  Julie asked sweetly.

"You're in charge" the assembled men chorused in unison.

"Damn straight." Julie laughed.  "All right, everybody get in, do a final comms check, and we move out in 3 minutes."

Some of the men visited the restroom, some went straight to their vehicle.  When Jack pulled out Julie monitored the four cell phones attached to the lapboard in front of her.  Not exactly a state of the art intelligence asset, it still covered every band of GSM and the lone CDMA networks along the route.  The car radio stayed tuned to 88.7 which was out of range of the local government broadcast station, so any signals from any of the other cars would come in loud and clear with a measly 4 watt transmission at line of sight ranges. 

Every mile on the mile Al texted a number to the three other vehicles in the convoy.  The natural "accordion effect" of vehicles traveling together kept the convoy from looking like four vehicles traveling in formation.  Jack made the turn at the same moment Julie said "Dammit!" as her impromptu cell phone jamming detection system went haywire and the Motorola PTT radio started hissing static.  The thugs didn't even bother with niceties like bullhorns and orders, they simply opened fire on Leon's pickup, now in line of sight past the curve.

Luckily for Leon and Al the thugs were aiming to stop the vehicle, not necessarily kill the drivers.  Jack slammed on the brakes and pulled the car off the road, and began backing up.  Julie yelled into the Motorola and FM transmitters at the same time, "ROADBLOCK ROADBLOCK ROADBLOCK!" and heard her voice loud and clear over the car radio, evidently commercial FM wasn't being jammed by the thugs.

Leon and Al were pinned down behind a small set of rocks by the ditch waiting for a lull in the fire.  Jack pulled an AR from behind the seat and bounded up the hillside to a micro-ravine where he started returning aimed fire at the roadblock.  Leon exploded as a 50 bullet ripped through his head, and Al was pinned down.

Julie felt tears of rage build up in her eyes when she saw the gunner manning the 50 cal go down from a headshot.  Hope from nowhere surged into her brain as she grabbed her M1A and rolled out of the car and into the ditch.  She took aim at anything unprotected, and cheered on Jack who seemed to be scoring headshots left and right.  "AL!!" Julie screamed as she slammed home a fresh 20 round magazine, "MOVE YOUR ASS!!!"

Al ran and Julie unloaded 20 rounds in 18 seconds, each rapidly aimed through the 4x scope.  The impact of 147gr FMJ didn't break through the SAPI plates the thugs were wearing, but it took them out of the fight long enough for Al to make it to the car and get into the drivers seat.  Jack half ran half stumbled down the hill as Julie slowed her rate of fire and concentrated on exposed legs, heads, and windshields.  She was about the pull the trigger on a guy pointing towards the cliff when his head sprayed red mist, and she knew that Jack hadn't been the one to pull the trigger.  Julie sprinted to the car now that the big gun was silenced, and Al pulled a perfect "rockford" turning around to leave the kill zone.

The engagement lasted less than 3 minutes from start to finish.