Operation Red

The extermination of rebel sectors was a constant job that had to be completed. Although the population of the Grid was quite large, and there were only a thousand or so Sectors, most of the human population was actually contained on only 80% of the Sectors leaving the remaining 20% of the Sectors relatively un-inhabited. This meant some Sectors out there were solely used as rebel hideouts. Unfortunately, while it would sound easy to simply trace down the rebel Sector and destroy it, these Sectors were cut off from the main Grid system as soon as rebels took over. The Warp Zone would be hijacked and the entire Sector would simply disappear off of the map.

Of course, the engineering team had solutions in place for these problems such as back up tracers on different parts of the Sectors that would remotely attempt to reconnect the Warp Zone. However, the rebels weren't stupid. They learned over time how the backup systems worked and eventually managed to disable them first before disabling the entire Sector's Warp Zone.

Thus the Council decided over the years to use a more primitive approach and started seeding spies into the rebel forces. Of course, the rebels would be extremely cautious of such spies. However, those whom the Council had chosen were not only brilliant scouts but were also excellent at the art of deceit and acting.

Naturally, knowing the lying and acting capabilities of the people they have chosen for such missions, the Council would not simply let them join the rebels. The scouts would have to go through vigorous training in order to be brainwashed enough that the betrayal of the Council was as low as possible. Even then, after 2 years of training, the Council still had back up plans. Before training, the scouts were told that the Council was going to implant a tracker onto them which monitored their heart rate and body temperature.

Of course, this wasn't exactly the truth. The tracker wasn't simply a tracker, it was also a Remote-controlled Explosive Device. Or, it was better known as RED. And where better to hide such a name than in plain sight. The operation that the scouts went in order to receive the implant was known to them as Operation RED, and the 'tracking' device that they received was code-named the 'red pill' after an ancient scripture from the archive of 'Matrix'.

Of course, not everyone was ignorant of the irony. After all, these scouts were selected for their extreme IQ levels. While they didn't understand the meaning of the name, they still realized that there was a specific reason as to why it was called such. However, after digging around for a bit in their spare time, all the scouts were able to deduce was that the operation was probably called RED simply because it was a surgical implant. Of course, the red pill analogy was slightly harder, and some scouts even went as far as to find the ancient archive of Matrix and analyze its own interpretation of the red pill. However, even that was pretty much a wild goose chase as all they learned was that a red pill was simply symbolic of the brutal truths of reality. And as far as the scouts knew, the only 'truth of reality' that the red pill showed was their location and bodily statistics.

Sam, however, obviously knew all of this. After all, he helped design and engineer the tracking device. And, not only did Sam know how the tracking device worked, but he also had the control that could end any scouts life instantly. But this was because Sam wasn't just an engineer. No, Sam was secretly more than an engineer. He was also part of the mysterious Council.