Gridless

Manufacturing guns was quite simple. However, actually dispersing the weaponry among the rebels was another matter altogether. Making sure that the rebels actually used the guns would be quite tricky. The rebels might've been stupid sometimes, but they weren't brain-dead. They would know better than to switch out all their weapons for new ones, even if the new weapons were more advanced and efficient. However, Sam thought hard about this problem. There must've been a way to infiltrate the rebels without raising any alarms. And then Sam suddenly realized something. He didn't have to sell the Rebels anything! Simply releasing a lot of weapons into the Grid was actually already a pretty good tactic at finding rebels. And, on top of that, he could simply order some spies who were already in rebel groups to swap out the rebel stock. After all, the Council had lots of spies in some top ranks of large rebel groups, they could easily swap out most of the rebel weaponry if they were convincing enough.

With the dispersion plan settled, the rest was fairly easy. The Council had many Sectors dedicated to weapon manufacture, by dedicating a few of those to purely manufacturing these infiltration guns, they could easily create about a three hundred thousand or so a week. And then they would just have to slowly release these new weapons to the public in batches. Not only could they make a lot of profit out of this, but they could also spy on the rebels, but they could also spy on anyone who has access to buying black market weapons. Mission complete!

Except. . . . there was one small issue.

While Sam and the Council were right in assuming that the rebels wouldn't be a problem, they forgot about some people in the black market who were even more dangerous than the rebels themselves. Imitators. Imitators were people who were dedicated to re-creating anything in the black market. Naturally, seeing that this new weapon was quite the trend, the imitators wanted to create their own versions. That's when one of the more elite groups of imitators realized that there were hidden tracking devices in the guns. Being imitators, they were quite well versed with different tech devices, and they easily recognized the tracker device cleverly hidden in the gun's chamber.

Naturally, word of the tracking devices spread like wildfire. All versions of the gun were re-called and the rebels realized that there were clearly spies amongst even their upper echelons. Mass cleansings occurred throughout the rebel organizations. Many unfortunate spies who slipped up were executed. Many more innocent individuals suspected of being spies were also killed in the chaos. And Sam, well, Sam was dismissed from the Council of course. But not only that, Sam was sentenced to 'Gridless'. The Gridless status was given to those who commit the most heinous crimes against the Council. In the Council's entire history, only 3 members had ever been marked as Gridless, and just as the title suggests, they completely vanished.

People who were marked Gridless were sent outside of the Grid with only a week's rations. Naturally, no one knows what happens to them. Not even Sam. Any trackers that are placed on them instantly go offline as soon as they are warped and no further attempts at communication are made.

Thus, being gridless was definitely a punishment worse than death. Sam knew that if he were to be sent to the outside of the Grid, he'd definitely be a goner. Or at least, he'd hopefully be a goner. Best case scenario, he'd die instantly. Worst case scenario, he might end up in a black-hole and slowly be stretched into spaghetti strings over the course of an eternity. Knowing full well that his fate was sealed, Sam planned his disappearance very carefully. . .

And then, he was gone.