There is only one more week left of the Persepolis Shards. So far, there are 10 shards at the targets and combined, the 31 shards have traveled 820,359 km, more than the distance to the moon and back. In this update, the Enlightened push around 3 shards while the Resistance shuffle a different 3 shards around Asia and in Europe, a stolen shard gets stolen!
Shards 13, 19 & 20 – Story (Enl) – Con Dao Trio Departs Southeast Asia
Shards 8, 9 & 39 – Story (Res) – The Shard Games: Sri Lanka
Shard 21 – Story (Enl) – Shard Vacation
Shard 11 – Story (Enl) – Lebanon steals shard#11
Shard 11 – Story (Res) – The Battle For The Lightman Shard #11
Statistics
The alignment of the targets flipped last week which resulted in the shards becoming a combined 49,596 km closer towards the Resistance target. Week 5 saw the most movement of the shards for the series so far with a total of 594,258 km travelled for the week. The remaining shards are on average 8,282.24 km from the Enlightened target and 9,173.38 km from the Resistance target.
Shards 13, 19 & 20 – Story (Enl)
Con Dao Trio Departs Southeast Asia
By QUBlT
May 31, 2015
The Enlightened PH community successfully kept Lightman Shards 13, 19 and 20 for a week before sending them to the Russian Far East. Throughout the stay of the three shards, Enlightened agents lost and regained control of the three shards several times while attempting to score.
Shard numbers 13, 19 and 20 spawned in Varanasi (India), Nha Trang (Vietnam) and Magelang (Indonesia) respectively. Both 13 and 20 were stolen by the Resistance from Indonesia and dumped to Con Dao along with 19. Con Dao is part of an island group southeast of Ho Chi Minh City with historical prisons—an idea that the Resistance might have tried to replicate.
Enlightened agents across the region sought to put an end to this nonsense and steal all the shards caged in Con Dao. All three shards were on different portals downtown. The trio combined in Pulau Mantanani, Sabah, Malaysia in one jump on a Friday evening, the 22nd of May.
The morning of the following day, a Saturday, the trio were welcomed into the Philippines. Being visitors to the Pearl of the Orient, the trio deserves Filipino names. Thirteen as Jose, Nineteen as Andres and Twenty as Emilio.
Their first stop was at Baler where they spent a good weekend near the beach known for good waves for surfing. An attempt to score was thwarted, despite the tremendous effort Taiwan agents made to keep the path clear.
Monday morning of the start of the following week (25th of May), Resistance agents sent the trio closer to the capital against their will. The Enlightened being cool with everything, decided to go along with this plan and let more local agents have their scanners come in contact to portals with shards.
On the next jump, the evening of that Monday, Enlightened agents regained control of the trio from La Mesa Dam Eco Park to maintain a holding pattern in Novaliches City. Agents enjoyed an impromptu picnic in the amazing park grounds and had fun singing songs before the jump time.
Two days later, the trio was moved to Tanay, Rizal on the northern shore of Laguna de Bay. The evening of that Wednesday (27th of May), the trio was moved to Los Baños, Laguna with a few thwarted blockers thrown by Resistance agents across the lake.
What started as a joke to keep the shards in Los Baños became no laughing matter as agents guarded the trio for three days. On Thursday evening, Resistance agents appeared with a slightly larger force than the Enlightened, thus preventing a controlled jump. This resulted in Jose leaving Andres and Emilio behind at the chapel.
Not keen on the idea of having the trio disband, Enlightened agents reunited Jose with Andres and Emilio for their last overnight tour in Los Baños. A notable force of Resistance agents went to Los Baños but a little shake up didn’t stop Enlightened agents from maintaining control of the trio to the following morning.
The trio returned to Baler once again for their last weekend in the Philippines. Shard targets swapped on 8:10 AM of Sunday, May 31 and made it unsafe for the trio to be close to Taiwan. Agents in Baler bid the trio farewell as Russian agents pulled the shards with a 3,459.5 Km link from Dalnegorsk.
It was a challenging week full of adventures, mishaps and victories for Enlightened agents in the Philippines. The success of the entire heist is made possible by agents who sacrificed their time, energy and resources to secure the trio. A single resonator or portal shield deploy may not seem like much, but several individual actions working together produces a powerful force that can change the tide in favor of the global Enlightenment’s cause.
The community also offers this success in remembrance of our fallen friend and comrade, @ScarletChayazel. May you rest in peace and forever have a special place in our hearts.
Con Dao Details: https://plus.google.com/116819049308985892112/posts/arcrfbE6snt
Shards 8, 9 & 39 – Story (Res)
By Fayas Ismail
On a typically moody Thursday morning for an Ingress agent, (only brightened by the prospect of a coming #IngressFS event in Matara in 2 days time) the Hangouts suddenly started chirping with unusual chatter. Ever enthusiastic ResistanceLK agents @yohanzee, @thinir, @PA9, @dinmil, @cc89 et al. had managed to strategize, coordinate and direct Lightman Shards #8, #9, #39 to Tsunami Memorial Statue portal in Matara, the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The significance of hosting and safely delivering these three shards towards recipients close to the target portal in Taiwan was not lost to us ResistanceLK, specially since globally Resistance had not managed to capture a single shard at target yet and also due to an aborted attempt at pulling the shards to Sri Lanka previously.
Unbeknownst to most over the previous week, plans had been discussed over secret (cough…BRRN… cough) networks and these shards were to be delivered from Addu (Maldives) to the Tsunami Memorial Portal. On mission day, steps were well underway for safe transfer when around 01.00 am, 2 frogs created a link to Maldives, blocked the plan and made @simfyz go out in the gloom of the night to destroy it on command. With 90 minutes to jump, another Enl blocker appeared in Wattala, where we don’t have any Res agents. Being unable to contact nearby smurfs @yohanzee volunteered and rushed in a tuk tuk to break it. Spotting yet another blocker from Mount Lavinia, agent @dinmil volunteered to deal with it. However our Maldivian friends were quick enough to break it at their end prior to this. Myself and @yohanzee were coordinated by @xCl0uDYx to ADA the blockers at the exact moment, enabling the transferring link to be established from Maldives to Tsunami Memorial Statue, Matara the receiving portal. Shards #8 #9 and #39 were welcomed to Sri Lanka with open arms with promises of safe delivery towards Indonesia.
Thursday, June 4th 05:30 am THE JUMP (UTC 12:00 am)
Ayubowan! Welcome to the Shard Games!
Agents woke up to this news and all possible RESLK agents were mobilized to gather in Matara, which had long been a stronghold for the Resistance hosting only a scattering of Enl agents. However we had discounted the Enl determination and the recent infrastructure development through the E1 expressway which made access possible to the portal within 1 to 2 hours from Colombo. At the evening jump we were barely able to defend the shards, with on site agents outnumbered and recharging help of agents from other areas. The anchor could not be safely secured during the timeframe and field agents wisely decided not to show their hand by revealing the future plan or VRLAs (All hail the link amp!) in possession.
Thursday, June 4th 05:30 pm – No Jump (UTC 12:00 pm)
They may have won this battle, But lets see who wins the war!
These were early signs that this was going to be a lengthy skirmish to secure control at the vital moment and new strategies were brainstormed on. The Shards which were resting for 24 hours in the same portal were suspected to be unstable and have a random jump and split over to different portals. All the ResistanceLK channels resonated with calls for agents to go to Matara and strengthen the portals. There were many that answered this call and did their duty to protect humanity. For the next jump we were present in force to move it having received reinforcement and inventory from Colombo. It was exciting to see early smurflings gain experience from the old guns on statecraft to be employed. Portals were immunized by Matara Res agents and the battle started. As a counteroffensive, agent @yakaa with @sandiR, @yrangana and @chamith pulled a blocker to Addu, Maldives from Colombo port to stop the frogs from stealing the shards and sending it back to Maldives. After a 10 minute battle, we were successful in moving the Shards to Dondra Lighthouse portal, which although only 6km away was a better defensible site, being accessible only during daylight hours as it was inside a nearly 300 year old ancient fort.
Friday, June 5th 05:30 am Jump to Dondra Lighthouse (UTC 12:00 am)
Strategy @Dishum!
The reinforcements from Colombo who’d come for the morning battle sped to and fro between cities 125km from each other with inventory and farmed keys. SouthRES agents were in motion to protect their domain and move the shards into a safer place. Agent @Dishum suggested the next jump to Old Temple in Island portal, Matara, because access for this portal is possible only by boat and hence we can defend it very easily. His local support helped us with many obstacles that would have come in our way during these games. Agent @Dishum made the arrangements for the boats and teamed up with young brave smurfs @jayvfodo and @VeNeN0R for this adventure. Near to jump time, it began to rain, and as expected frogs were out en masse. The hosting portal was immunized to alignment viruses and again both factions wrestled desperately for control. At the end, both sides failed, but unbeknown to us all, shard #39 had jumped randomly to an adjacent Peacock Mural, Dondra portal.
Friday, June 5th 05:30 pm No Jump; #39 Splits (UTC 12:00 pm)
Divide, to conquer
Although it was difficult to defend 2 portals at once, as #8 & #9 were situated in Dondra Lighthouse portal (inaccessible for the next jump) we focused on #39. We knew it wasn’t going be easy to do because the #IngressFS : Matara was just 4 hours away from the jump time, and we expected more frogs for the shards battle and to participate in the IngressFS. Announcements were re sent through our channels to reach Matara before 5.30am for the battle and to participate in the FS event as well. This battle was also pretty aggressive but finally ResistanceLK led by the indomitable papa surf @thinir managed to secure the portal and sent it to the island target.
Saturday, June 6th 05:30 am No Jump (UTC 12:00 am)
May the odds be always in your favour.
After participating in the #IngressFS : Matara event (where RESLK won the city prize), most of the attending smurfs stayed on until the evening jump. Again @Dishum was on duty to arrange the boats and teamed with @jayvfodo, @dinmil, @welii & @MonsterSL for this operation. These sea smurfs left early to the island to avoid last minute delays. It was exciting to participate on site for me after being on intel for the last few days. We were on the way to Dondra by 04.00pm, but we missed the timing to Immunize the portal. The portal being aligned green was ADAed by an ENL agent at exactly at 04:29pm one hour prior to the Jump. This lead us in to a trap thinking that the portal could be JARVISed at end after linking. Papa smurf @thinir organised on field agents into groups assigned with a specific task. Needless to say after a mother of all battles, both sides ended not being able to shift the #8, #9 shards.
Meanwhile the crew on the Island executed their plan to a T, by linking portal “Mushalla Nurul Ihsan” in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia 2331 km away by using a VRLA (All hail, He who extends!) to transfer Lightman Shard #39. This was a remarkable operation in Sri Lanka’s Ingress history for being the first time in Sri Lanka a Very Rare Link Amp had been deployed on a portal (proud owner @welii) and agent @Dishum for creating the longest link from Sri Lanka. Needless to say there was much celebration in Smurfsvillage that night.
Saturday, June 6th 05:30 pm Jump #39 delivered (UTC 12:00 pm)
One down, two to go!
Now agents focused on the remaining #8 & #9. Agents who came to #IngressFS stayed overnight in Matara, thanks to the warm hospitality of the Southern Resistance. They gathered and discussed new strategies. Everybody felt it prudent to end this battle somehow by Sunday evening. A plan was agreed upon to send these Shards to the target portal in Indonesia by using VRLA or else to send them to the secure Island portal. But since the access for Dondra Lighthouse portal in the old Portuguese Fort being restricted at night was the greatest challenge for us in reaching it at 0500 am. Thankfully our invaluable agent @navin83 tirelessly worked and managed to get permission to enter the premises. A team led by @thinir, @navin83 & @dinmil entered the site. We already knew the portal was accessible for an ENL agent who is a resident of Dondra and he with another Enl agent gave battle but were outmaneuvered easily. Managing to secure the portal, the VRLA was slotted, but unfortunately the Padang, Malaysia target portal was blocked. Because of this ResistanceLK lost 2 VRLAs which were smashed by the ENL. Finally we executed our backup and sent the shards to “Old Temple in Island” portal.
Sunday, June 7th 05:30 am Jump (UTC 12:00 am)
No man is an Island
After having safely sent the shards to the island, agents @Dishum and @jayvfodo scoured the beach finding means to transport our troops to location. Possible blockers to Malaysia were identified and agents were sent to defend them. The geographical features of Matara helped vastly in this aspect. Agent @CluZuu was set to Tangalle with @yashan007 to create a blocker to Addu, Maldives and Jarvis it on notice just before the Jump. Needing more manpower, request was sent for reinforcements and inventory to Colombo which duly arrived. Teams were assigned specific targets and links were made without blocking our main plan. Mysterious frog activity was meanwhile noticed at the Island portal destroying the much valued VRLA who vanished inexplicably by the time the Sea Smurfs had set foot on the island barely minutes later. One hour prior to the Jump the portal was duly immunized. At 05.25pm the greatest of mods the VRLA, was slotted and guarded by 3 AXA. The link was set up and at exactly 05.30pm the last of the shards left the pearl of the Indian Ocean, lightening our hearts burden and responsibility ever so much and yet leaving us a little bit sad at its leaving.
Sunday, June 7th 05:30 pm Jump (UTC 12:00 pm)
Goodbye, little shard.
The story of the journey of Lightman Shards 8, 9 & 39 via Matara, Sri Lanka has so many epic twists and turns that it can hardly be condensed and that without risking a TL;DR tag, but the effort which all ingress agents from both factions put in nevertheless deserves to have its place in Ingress history.
Sri Lankan smurfs rejoiced in the 3rd consecutive victory over an anomaly/shard event (Persepolis) held in Sri Lanka. Previously they’d won the Darsana and Shonin connected cells.
This sense of achievement is even more heightened by the keenness of gamesmanship on show by Enlightened Sri Lanka. Their fight was impressive, thank you for taking up the challenge. We are proud to have you as opponents.
ResistanceLK is very thankful to our neighbors Resistance Maldives, Resistance India, Resistance Indonesia & Big Regional Resistance Network (BRRN) for supporting us to claim this victory.
ResistanceLK agents worked hard day and night during these four days of shards games. We gave it our all. We woke up sleeper agents, wiping the cobwebs off their scanners. We farmed and recharged and transported. We leapt at any and every chance to help out (even if we were in Australia or Oman). Most importantly we achieved a camaraderie that far outshone the friendship, trust and dedication that is usual in LKResistance. For us, it isn’t the number of XMPs spent, PCs used, AP gained nor anomalies won that counts in the end but the love and care and the smiles we share with our Ingress community, our Resistance family, that will never ever fade away.
A mental STEIN can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.
By Tord Nilsen
After prodigious battles over 23 jumps the #21 shard has been forwarded to Finland.
Prolog:
#21 showed up in Denmark and was transferred to the west coast. It was early decided that it’s path should be Norway for safe keeping and we got involved at an early stage. At the Frisian Islands it changed ownership many times while trying to get it to Norway, but Resistance got control over it and moved it to Happisburgh via Farne Island. In Happisburgh three local Enlightened heroes seized control over it and kept it safe in Norwich for a couple of jumps before moving it out to the English canal at Lowestoft. We fought for control over the North Sea for four jumps before successfully transferring it to a portal in Norway called Store Vedøfse at jump 29. (906km)
Mission: Keep the Shard safe until agents at future jump sites were ready to receive and forward the Shard towards it’s final destination.
Because of a late arrival I left for the Bratislava Anomaly when the Shard arrived and asked @longguts if he could be Intel guy for a couple of days. He immediately said yes. The local community of Østfold was ready and inspired to work hard for the Shard with @eirlys and @wckdViking as local supervisors. The Shard arrived at 02.00 local time, and our plan was to keep it at Store Vedøfse, an old watchtower from the cold war, (SV) at least one more jump but Resistance agent @MagicLove took us by surprise and sent the Shard to Alta Bird, a portal near my house. We then understood that we might meet more opposition than expected and @longguts used all his contacts in the Oslo community and asked for help. Agents from Oslo said yes, and a tremendous mobilization of sharing keys, weapons, viruses and shields started, with agent @LilleDi as organizer and agent @Brusendeviking as a daily mule. It was really frustrating to only be able to watch the fights and the jumps in Intel from my hotel in Bratislava, but seeing the team defending the Shard fight after fight was very inspiring.
When I got home a jump window opened, and we mobilized the agents in Sweden and Finland. @longguts together with @ToHitAcZero and @Toblerone synchronized between countries and a team walked up to Store Vedøfse in the middle of the night. But a blocker at the last minute stopped us from making the jump. Our window was closed and we had to wait three more days with daily and nightly battles. The local community had had enough, and we were depending on players from Oslo (2h drive each way). Agents drove to the Shard for each jump, taking a sick leave or postponed work. For the night jump it meant only 2 hours sleep before workday started. I would say it was a dedication never before seen in Norway Enlightened history! Agent @Mellemmannen from Oslo practically lived here, guarding the Shard wherever it was at a monument in the forest or at an urban portal.
We tried to open a corridor at ‘two more jumps’, the Swedish team worked hard, @SemiNormal did a crazy 4h drive each way for clearing and they all put in a lot of effort but we got blocked every time by a last minute link.
Jump 09/06/15@20.00 CET
After exhausting battles, our window opened up once more and we deployed agents in Sweden and Finland. The Shard was now at Alta Bird Mural.
To stop us from being blocked again, we decided to use all our keys except one to create a corridor.
23:00: We got a go signal from the Swedes and the first of the 1090 km long links were created
23.50: Second guide link up
01.00: Third and fourth links. We had immunized Alta Bird, but had made one mistake; we hadn’t deployed all the mods that we needed. (1 AXA and 3 LA)
01.54: RES @MagicLove does the only right for Resistance, she deploys shields at two of the three empty slots, trying to make it useless for long links. Then she flipped the portal green.
01.58.45 We deployed one of our VRLA’s as we’re drowning in VRLA’s it felt good not to have to recycle one for once.
01.59.30 We sent the link from Alta Bird to Wooden Statue. Spread out and defended the portal because Resistance were firing XMP all over the place.
02.00.01 The Shard is not at Alta Bird anymore..
02.00.10 Confirmation from Finland that they have the #21 Shard at their portal.
Celebration!
A very special thanks to agent @longguts that first agreed only to be supervisor when I was in Bratislava, but has been our Eye in the Sky at every jump. Without your experience and understanding of the game strategies we could never have done this!
And a very special thanks to my girlfriend @PersianPassion for tucking me to bed, encouraging words and helping out with distribution of inventories, her soothing presence and for obtaining crutches. I know I should have used them more…
To Oslo Enl: without you guys, this would not have been possible. Thank you all very much.
It all started when we were so excited about bringing a shard to Lebanon and in the same time do it in some kind of a twisted way to put us on the spotlight. We asked for assistance from the European community to fund a crazy op.. Bringing Shard#11 to Lebanon. Shard#11 has been uncaptured ever since it spawned on the “volcano island”, SANTORINI. On a last minute call Agent @silentwandererr brought me the heads up from Europe to send someone to Santorini for my assistance in this op. Agent @Papashark dedicated his time to provide assistance and logistics in the island showing what a good host the greek people could be. It was a chance to get back to my homeland so I accepted the challenge with no hesitation.
On the 4th of June I managed to take my day off thanks to agents @Nagibov and @Vannous which provided me full support from their company KOEIN. After Travelling 1000 km from Beirut to Athens then to Santorini, I landed in at 9 am where @Papashark was waiting for me with his little agent Tesla (wonderful dog), He gave me a lift and showed me around and took care of me the best way you can imagine. At 3 am as planned we drove to the thira church portal in order to upgrade the portal to Level 7 where we established the link at 23:58 UTC and waited patiently. 00:00 UTC we started hearing hoorays coming from Lebanon, and every European country.
– The Shard arrived to Maghdoushe (South of Lebanon), Where Agent @rtrohan and @Skykiller were waiting for it;
– Next day, 7 Enl agents (@charbel4t, @MAntares, @jeanmarcmjbr, @EY6lc, @illvic, @aouad, @lahoudox) went south to Maghdoushe, to protect and send the shard to Zahleh, (East of Lebanon) while agents,@rtRohan and @Skykiller went to Zahleh to receive it. 3 Resistance agents went to maghdousheh to block the shard. In the meantime, Agent @Moophz (Res) was in the Chouf mountain, and made a tiny link that definitely blocked the shard from getting to Zahleh.
– Next jump at 3am local time, agents @rtrohan, @Skykiller and @damnedrider went back south to block the shard, and protect it from a stealing plan made by the Resistance to send it to Egypt.
It was a hard fight; many links to break and many blocking links to create, as soon as the Resistance tunnel was broken, agent Jeho who was traveling on the same day linked from the airport to the city of Tyre and created an untouchable block that ruined the Resistance’s op. The Enlightened team (only 3 agents) managed to keep the shard portal green for a full 15 minutes against a team of at least 8 Res agents attacking the portal, thanks to the remote recharge team, and the defence techniques taught by @sprrw and @silentwandererr
– Then the shard Randomly jumped to a portal 10 meters away.
– Next day, myself and agent @Aramatz went south to secure the jump. No Resistance agents were there and the shard made it easily to the Historical Site of Aanjar. (East of Lebanon, Near Syrian Border)
Agents @rtrohan and @Skykiller made sure that the shard stayed green ’till the closing time of the Aanjar Site. They left feeling secure, No one can get near it.
For the rest of the shard’s journey in Lebanon, read agent’s @spyrex story below.
In the end we gained a lot of experience during this event. Made new friends, showed everyone what team work can realize and most importantly showed what the Enlightened are capable of doing. “When there is a will there is a way.”
Thank you to the Enlightened team in Lebanon for pulling this off especially during the night
The Battle For The Lightman Shard #11
By Spyro Thy First
Saturday on the 6th of June 2015, the Lebanese Resistance woke up at 3:00 AM to find a Shard in the city of Maghdouche in the south of Lebanon. It was sent by Enl agent @FoulFoulen from Greece and hosted by agents @rtrohan, @damnedrider & @skykiller, who left later on that day to cross link from Aley and continued to Zahle/Ablah.
Agents from the Resistance @fadfoud and @modrami and myself (@spyr0s) went to Maghdouche around 11:00AM with a goal to disturb the current shards path, extract it and deviate its path. We were faced by agents @lahoudox, @illvic, @charbel4t, @Aouad, @MAntares, @JeanMarcMjbr, @EY6lc.
Phase I: Disturbance.
The 1st Encounter – Battle 1 – 6/6/2015 @15:00
Following several ENL cross-fields to fence the area, they had left one tight gateway to Zahle/Ablah – this made it easy for RES to guess ENL shard’s next hop.
Between 2:44 and 2:55PM, the shard-holding portal was still controlled by ENL agents, but that wasn’t enough, a link to Zahle/Ablah was still missing in order to extract the shard from the battle zone. Agent @Moophz who was silently waiting since the morning at Cedars of Chouf Nature Reserve surprised the ENL with a far link rendering the Zahle/Ablah gateway unreachable. On top of that, RES agents @fadfoud and @modrami mobilized in Maghdouche, trying to cross-link the ENL and cage the shard in its current location, leaving me near the shard portal to distract the ENL agents. 30 seconds before the jump I was firing at maximum rate trying to break at least one resonator to make the portal un-linkable while the ENL agents recharged and tried to re-deploy to the portal.
In the last 5 seconds before the hop, agents @fadfoud and @modrami managed to setup a small field that caged the shards in its current location, “wouuup elbet l sama zar2a” which translates roughly to “wouuup the sky turned blue”.
Battle 2 – 7/6/2015@3:00
Around 6:30 PM, agent @bamsi destroyed the Chtaura-Arnoun link, one of the most important ENL self-blocking fences, putting Zahle/Ablah back on the shard’s radar. ENL spread many blocking links to prevent RES from sending the shard anywhere over the borders.
At midnight, 2 teams were dispatched to Maghdouche in an attempt to steal the shards. Due to logistic reasons, team 1 arrived late, while the Lebanese coast was still blocked. Team 2 arrived later with the below lineout:
RES:@AgentRX @modrami, @spyr0s, @nomad79, @samerc, @zeghost, @butcher & @minasdur.
ENL:@rtrohan, @skykiller & @damnedrider.
RES’s only choice was again, to block the shard inside a field preventing ENL from any possible link, so the same maneuver was applied. Agents @butcher and @minasdur stayed at the shard portal trying to distract the ENL while other players worked on the field. Once the field was up, agents @butcher and @minasdur mobilized to one of the field portals to help defending it. At 3:00AM, everybody zoomed out the Intel map to watch the shard jump, but it didn’t, it just stepped 10 meters to a nearby portal – trapped – postponing battles to Sunday 3:00PM.
Battle 3 – 7/6/2015@15:00
Actually no battle occurred at that time of the day, it was a Sunday and most of the Resistance agents were occupied by other commitments. However, agent @Moophz had another plan on his mind, sabotage ENL strategy and prevent them (again) from moving it to Zahle/Ablah. He single handedly achieved this by creating 2 cross links that blocked the path of the shard to Zahle/Ablah and forced ENL to move it to the historical castle of Anjar . We assumed that it would be the next hop, it was heading towards the place where we are least expected, so we let it go.
Phase II – Extract and Deviate
While the shard was enjoying its nice and cool stay in the “safe” fortress of Anjar, agents @fadfoud, @modramy and myself didn’t like this fact. We decided to hit the road to Anjar, steal the shard and deviate it to the next destination: Riyadh, KSA.
Doing some math, the current portal configuration required an additional L8 and L7 resonators as well as 4 link amps. The procedure was as below:
– Ultra Strikes to take down the current MODs (2 AXA, 2 Very rare shields)
– Flip the portal
– Upgrade a resonator to lvl8 and lvl7 resonators (= 4x lvl8 + 4x lvl7)
– Install 4 link amps (to reach 1454 KM)
– Link and defend
4 resonators L8, 4 resonators L7, 4 Link amps, 4 agents (2 watching over and 2 executing) and at the 4th jump, it seems that 4 is our lucky number. The operation was delicate, no resonator shall be broken during the process of MODs destruction so the link could reach Riyadh, KSA. Agents @modrami and myself headed towards Anjar, 1.5 hours from Beirut, reaching our destination at 00:30.
00:30: We reached Anjar, our first move was to recon the area (we were told it is not very safe for strangers), find a place to park the car, trying to find out the local people activities. We planned everything, we came up with a cover story in case we got caught, we calculated everything, we even got an empty bottle, in case someone asked about what we are doing, we would tell them “the car overheated and needed water”.
01:00: First recon is done, we headed to a restaurant where we spent some time reviewing our plan.
02:25: It’s time! We moved for another recon to confirm everything, we parked the car, walked for about 5 minutes till we reached our entry point.
The timing was very important, do it early in case we faced problems such as internet connection problems, but not early enough to give the ENL enough time to counter our moves.
02:30: We rushed to the shard portal and placed our self in a good location where we can be on the same distance from all the resonators.
02:40 – Ground Zero: We started firing ultra-strikes in a systematic way: We fire 5 US, check resonators health and mods, 2 ultra-strike fired after the mods are down would be enough to break some resonators and our plan would fail, we depended on the ENL to recharge the portal even though the damage was 1% due to the portal heavy shielding (2 AXA with 2 VR shields).
After 50 US, we removed the mods, @modrami flipped the portal with an ADA, I upgraded the portal and we both installed 2 link amps each.
02:50: The link to Riyadh is up, now we must defend the portal in case the ENL were on their way, it was the longest 10 minutes ever.
03:00: The shard jumped to Riyadh, we evacuated and headed to the car when we started receiving cheers and hoorays from resistance agents all over the world!
Respect for agent @rtrohan for his dedication to this game also @skykiller and @damnedrider. Shout out to all the Enlightened agents in Lebanon, it was a hell of a weekend. Respect for agent @karahunj for he has endangered and sacrificed his guardian for the sake of his team, hats down for you my friend.