Rodriguez's tale

Sean listened to that bitch give the final briefing.  Why the hell should she get all the credit for the takedown?  Wasn't it he Sean "Ryu" Rodriguez who put all the pieces together and queried the fusion center database on who worked with electronic warfare in the military?  Wasn't it he who rammed through a blanket wiretap order through the secret court to tap the movements of all veterans in the state? 

Sean had noticed that they lost the element of surprise when they used jammers to isolate the rebel bastards and decided that looking for EW veterans was the way to figure out where the insurgents were getting their tactics.  Over 400 EW veterans in the state, but Sean had dismissed all of those who retired before 1989 and narrowed the field further to those that had served in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Of the 59 left a blanket "mobile wiretap" surveillance order had been rubberstamped by the political appointed judge.

 But Sean "Ryu" Rodriguez had a plan, he recorded that bitch's voice issuing commands at the last live fire rehearsal, he had her, "Fire!" command on a digital voice recorder.  Once the rebels turned the corner he would thumb the play button and the gunner would hear his team leader give the "fire" command.  That dumb former Marine would obey without thinking, transitioning straight out of a "general discharge" into the team.

Sean had to give the bitch credit, she did know how to set up a roadblock.  Dummy construction crews would block off the highways at the last exit, forcing a detour around the intersection, but only for traffic heading in.  Traffic heading out would be let out, but no oncoming traffic would be able to flash their lights and let the scum know that a welcoming party was waiting for them.

Yup, Sean had it all figured out, after the bitch crumbled under the stress and gunned down rebels without provocation she'd be "transferred" into a desk job.  She wouldn't be fired, but she'd at least be sidelined for as many months as it took for the public to forget or new bosses to be appointed by the increasingly nervous administration.  Sean might even make team leader in her absence.

It sucked not having air cover for this mission, but the nearest air station capable of servicing a unit helicopter was 40 miles away, and besides, today was maintenance day.  Maintenance day was probably the reason the rebels decided to move.

Tracking the traitor down had taken a while, but Sean had strong armed the cell phone company to place reports on which cell tower her phone was registered without pinging her phone extra, following the software instead of pinging the hardware.  The vaunted "GPS tracking" claimed by conspiracy theorists was true, but if you started tracking someone who knew what to look for by turning on the GPS chip in their cell phone you tipped them off right away, much more covert to use the standard "timing advance" location approximation based on the standard ping time to three towers.  If there is only one tower the "timing advance" will paint a 550 meter band around the tower where the user could be.  If two towers, the intersection of those two 550 meter bands, and if three, one "ovoid area" of 550 meter bands.  But when your target was traveling down a choke point road through a mountainous area, you didn't need too much precision as 550 meters either way gave Sean's team a good idea of when to be ready.

"Five minutes out" The bitch called over the radio.  Sean smiled, and made sure his auxiliary input jack was firmly into the female port on his digital voice recorder.

"One minute out" The bitch said, and Sean smiled.

"30 Seconds, buzzer on" the Bitch commanded, taking out all cell coverage in the area, and FRS/GMRS radios too.  When the first sedan turned the corner 44 seconds later Sean pressed play, and the word "Fire" came out over the radio net.  The big dumb ox simply pressed down on the butterfly trigger and unleashed hell on the scum in the sedan.  They might not have been rebels, but Sean didn't care.

The bitch was calling "Cease Fire!" over the net but "Jarhead Joe" on the heavy couldn't hear, and the two saps from the sedan had made it into the ditch.  Evidently Jarhead wasn't going for blood, just disabling the vehicle.  Then Sean spotted a pistol and yelled "Gun Gun Gun" over the tac net and unloaded his milsurp M16 towards the two men. 

Sean was on his third magazine in less than 25 seconds when he noticed a that Jarhead wasn't laying down fire, but bleeding out, a hole in his throat not even gurgling air.  Sean noticed  the bitch had started waiving her arms and pointing toward the cliff.  A bullet slammed into his SAPI chestplate and knocked him down.  "Screw this" Sean thought as he slapped home a fresh mag and scurried to the machinegun.  He made it to the heavy and started raking the tree line with searching fire to try to flush out whatever it was in there.

Sean didn't feel the round that got him.  The team leader made her statement that someone else gave the order to fire to the Investigating Officer who later found the digital voice recorder listed among Sean "Ryu" Rodriguez's possessions.  The Team Leader was reprimanded and given a desk job which was fine by her.  Sean was buried with full honors, and the final report listed "heavy fire from an unprovoked attack from unknown forces" and no negligence on the part of the administration.