In today’s shard update, we’re going to follow #3’s short visit through Japan, #5 through the Middle East and #21 through the White Mountain. We’ve also got sitreps from #15 and #23 arriving at the Resistance target, #27’s dance around Mexico City and follow #20 from Melbourne, Australia to Nevada, USA!
Shard #03 – Recap: Forget Attack, See Distant Harmony
Shard #05 – Recap: First found #5, then #5 fought, now #5 lost
Shard #21 – Recap: White Mountain
Shard #15, #23 – Story (Res): Thelma & Louise
Shard #27 – Story (Res): The tragic journey of #27
Shard #20 – Story (Enl): Shard Shenanigans
Shard #20 – Story (Res): Moving Meercat aka David McShard from Hawaii to Nevada
If you would like your report added to tomorrow’s update, submit it here: http://fevgames.net/wpgforms/shonin-shard-stories
By Bill Tuner (for Aco Tjno)
Forget Attack, See Distant Harmony
The Shard event on Okinawa started with its arrival via Philippine on 03/08/2015 15:00 Japan Time (JST), and through a twist of events, agreements were formed between local ENL & RES for more enjoyable gameplay by actively aiding each other in collecting evidence and cooperating in the process of reporting suspect abusers.
Despite intervention by suspected ToS violators, the group of approx. 50 local agents were actively involved in the struggle to control the shard’s movement. The shard event itself concluded with the ENL returning it to the Philippines on 03/10/2015 09:00 JST, and it was 7 days afterwards that on and offline local cross faction meetings came to a conclusion that true adversaries were common to both factions.
The struggles for the Shard on Okinawa united local agents of both factions with the enlightenment to resist abusive and unfair cheating, cooperatively and in-line with Ingress ToS protocols. We thank all the local and international agents that helped us get the shard to, through, and out of Okinawa, as well as advisors of both factions. And much thanks to Niantic for bringing a community of hard-working and fair playing agents together!
By Thomas Sounness
First found #5, then #5 fought, now #5 lost
Devra Bogdanovich Shard #5 started it’s journey above the portal “The Infinite Loop”, at Pune University, Pune, a city somewhat close to the Indian Mega City of Mumbai. Which faction discovered the shard is unclear. However, the path of this shard is clear. Shard #5 took a few small jumps around Pune before being invited to a jump of thousands – this jump presumably representing the success of the Enlightened faction, from the portal at “Mandir in Rajbada” in the northern city of Indore to Ras Al-Khaimah in the Enlightened dominant northern United Arab Emirates’ via a Very Rare Link Amp. From here, an attempt was made to move the shard to it’s Enlightened destination in Rotterdam, however the Resistance successfully intercepted the shard somewhere within the fractious Middle East.
Shard #5 was fought over amongst 7 locations in Kuwait – leaving Kuwait it travelled to to Bahrain (to a portal named “Dinosaurs at Amwaj”) bypassed Qatar to then arrive at Saudi Arabia’s Resistance controlled Riyadh for 3 stops, including a stay at the “Alhaidan Grand Mosque”. The shard was then directed to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, to a large settlement called Salalah in Southern Oman. After 6 hours, it was then was given a jump to the north, the metropolis of Muscat in Oman. Here the Resistance sent the shard back to India – to Suret Station on the west coast, then via Rare Link Amps to “Hunaman Shrine” at Visakhapatnam on the East Coast. Here there was a brief pause in the shard’s journey before being sent by another VLRA along a blue link to the Côn Đảo Islands – an archipelago of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province in Vietnam.
Up to this point, the shard has moved through 7 nations and over 1200 kilometers. Since the last 3 days, the shard appears lost – currently jumping every 24 hours or so to low ranked portals on it’s own accord. A colleague in my faction was surprised to hear of the island, as it is a place where he has relatives living. However, he expresses reservations that his grandmother could start to be an ingress player of sufficient stature to help move towards either the Resistance or Enlightened final destinations. It is feared the shard may languish here for some time before any further activity takes place. Further details to come.
By Aco Tjno
White Mountain
The first contact of shard #21 for agents in Japan occurred in the afternoon of Mar 7. Resistance agents in Korea transferred #21 to the portal found in Tottori, Japan. First off, Resistance took control over the shard and moved it toward south, just across the Chugoku area (Fig. 1). #21 even touched the Shikoku Island. However, starting from the success in transferring #21 to “Matsushima Kanko-kou Terminal” portal in Ehime, Enlightened agents transferred #21 back north (Fig. 2). In addition, on Mar 11, Enlightened tried to send #21 to Sakhalin, Russia and establish a link from the target portal which held the #21 to a portal in Sakhalin, but this attempt failed for unknown reasons.
After this incident, Resistance gained strength back. Therefore, Enlightened transferred the #21 to the top of the sacred white mountain, “Daisen” on Mar 14. But at the very next day, Resistance agents followed it to take back #21. Agents in both factions were obviously exhausted because of red fights for #21, but the attitude toward the artifact #21 of both factions left a very strong impression that – the fight would never be ending unless the shard was kicked out.
The shard #21 was under control of Enlightened, after their success in transfer of #21 at 21:00 on Mar 16 (UTC +9). Finally, at 15:00 on Mar 17 (UTC +9), by the hands of Enlightened agents, it was sent back to Korea, the country where it was originally spawned. Almost 10 days has passed since #21 landed in Japan. The shard #21 touched 7 prefectures in Chugoku and Shikoku area, in total, during its visit to Japan.
By Karl Franke
Thelma & Louise
Late Sunday night Resistance agents in Delaware received word that Thelma (#15) and Louise (#23) would be heading their way from Portugal early Monday morning for a very unexpected visit. The couple was in a rush to get to the Washington Monument so agents came together to make their trip as speedy as possible. The long distance jump across the Atlantic occurred at 2am local time on Monday and landed the pair in Rehoboth Beach at the Beach Observation Clock Tower. To escape the hustle and bustle of the beaches, the happy couple made their way north only 6 hours later to a much more rural destination: the Hartly Volunteer Fire Department. Agents began prepping the path to their final destination and in just less than 12 hours a link was established between Hartly DE and Washington DC which would guide the happy couple to their final home. Thelma and Louise’s visit was short but sweet and Resistance agents were happy to act as tour guides at the two portals they stopped at in Delaware USA before seeing them off to the Washington Monument.
By Profetaz
The tragic journey of #27
The First steps.
The first day was a surprise to the resistance in Mexico City, placed in CU(University campus), at the moment several agents appear, but by the short time it can’t be moved, and they only can defend it from spoofers attacks to avoid that they take it to a game zone where they only can access. 24 hours later, the shard takes a leap by itself to the east side of the City. The agents involved in defence were: @Yhammisito @TroyVostok @CHPTma @Isacracker @SlipherD @Autumn13 @IMogwaI
The Travel began…
In the leap to the east, #27 landed in a zone where not many agents can go because of the distance and the time stuck in traffic. With a key to a portal in Ayala, Morelos, the local agents prepared the zone to send it there in one movement. The community “Legion del Sur” destroyed their interstate fields in order to clear the path to the destination. Seconds away from the deadline, the link was established, and the shard was on its way to Ayala, to send it to the coast of Mexico. The agents involved in cleaning and movements were: @cecy19 @ZzeroBiT @Yhammisito @Jones66 @TroyVostok @CHPTma @LeviathanLSur @Isacracker @BlueHopeStar @SlipherD @Autumn13 @MogwaI @AriusTargaryen @Inkata @Hellphoenix @Profetaz
And the travel continues to…
Located at the south of Mexico City in Ciudad Ayala, Morelos, the plot was ready, the move: send it to the west of Mexico. That night the Res team in Ayala was ready to make the move but the Enl team arrived to the shard to try to send it to the south of the country. Res and Enl agents fought with great dexterity to control the portal, however, the spoofers made their appearance with accounts of both factions. The agents on site tried to stop the spoofers from stealing the shard but despite their efforts the spoofer sent the shard back to Mexico City, to a residential zone where nobody can access and then on the next jump to an offices centre where the access is restricted. At the time of the next jump, the shard jumped by itself and landed again to the west side of Mexico City, near of the site where it was sent to Ayala.
The agents that defended the stolen shard: @EMILORD @josedgz10 @Jeddi @Agente2520 @Perrowi @Felposft @Pinkstar7
Mexico City… again??
During almost a week in the east side of the city, only a few agents could help with the defence of the shard because of the shard being stolen by the spoofers, most agents were in a depressed mood. During this time the help of other cities was wanted, however the spoofers made blockades and tried to steal it again, meanwhile the weekend was close and other agents can be available.
The warriors that defend the shard in that time was: @ZzeroBit @Cecy19 @Alandike @Riannon74 @Jones066
To be continued…
By Prky
Friday March 5th:
“Macho, Macho man. I’ve got to be, a macho man.” The Village People were playing live at Melbourne Zoo, and I was there, focussed intently on my phone, alternating between Ingress & the Enlightened Victoria chat programme, with an earpiece in for any Zello chat.
That morning, a Shard fragment had appeared at The Art of Chemistry Portal at The University of Melbourne. It was due to jump every 6 hours, at 5am, 11am, 5pm & 11pm each day. Both Enlightened and Resistance had agents on site at 11am, the first potential jump point, and the Shard had stayed put. The Enlightened had been surreptitiously preparing a couple of already Enlightened portals at the Zoo for the 5pm jump, with a single agent bumping them up to Level 7, hoping not to tip off the Resistance. In theory, the Shard would be safe overnight, and could then be sent on its way on the Saturday. However the Resistance had a similar idea, and just after 4pm they flipped the Shard Portal and then all the Enlightened portals at the Zoo were wiped out by three Resistance players – Nylonee, Mokurai, CarltonDragget.
With only a single Enlightened Agent at the Zoo, running low on gear, the focus was put on the Shard Portal. At 4:40pm, a full out attack on the Shard Portal was launched by the Enlightened, however the Resistance outnumbered us and held us off, and successfully jumped the Shard to the Thong Sculpture Portal at the Melbourne Zoo.
Enlightened: 0
Resistance: 1
It was shortly after that, that we realised there was an event at the Zoo that night. The Village People were playing, and tickets were available. I made my way to the Zoo, and casually scoped out the Shard Portal. No Resistance agents seemed present, so the plan was simple. Wait until as late as possible in the evening, then Jarvis the Portal to prevent a Resistance controlled Shard jump.
Wandering around the exhibits near the Shard Portal, disaster almost struck when I slipped on a wet wooden ramp, and my phone went flying as I landed hard on my butt. Ignoring the pain I hurriedly scrambled for my phone, and was relieved to find the case had protected it. Having burnt the Shard Portal out with hacks for keys by this stage, I decided enough was enough, and went and found a spot to watch the Village People.
Just before 9pm, the plan was put on hold, when three Resistance Agents – Nylonee, Mokurai & CaptKase – Jarvis’d the Portal Green, destroyed it, and rebuilt it. It was now inoculated for the next hour, protected with AXA shields, and we knew the Resistance had at least three Agents within the Zoo. A full on Portal attack against three defenders wouldn’t work, and would only advertise my presence at the Zoo.
“We want you, we want you, we want you as a new recruit!” If only the Village People were singing about Ingress Enlightened Agents, and not the Navy. With nothing to do until the concert ended, I decided to make sure I didn’t stand out from the crowd (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it) so I danced my way towards the stage, and was near the front when they came out for an Encore, the good old YMCA. I can now tick “Being taught how to dance to YMCA by the Village People” off my life experiences list!
As the concert ended at about 9:30pm, I waited for the crowd to lessen. At about 9:45pm, I went to get the flashlight I have on my car keys out, in preparation for heading towards the Portal, but I couldn’t find them. Frantically I pulled everything out of my pockets and double-checked. No car keys. This wasn’t good.
As the crowd cleared out, I began walking back and forth from the front where the stage was, searching to see if they’d dropped somewhere while dancing. Security came to check in on me, and I let them know I’d lost my keys somewhere, but they could be anywhere from the back, where I’d been sitting, down to the front. They radio checked with lost and found, but no-one had handed in car keys.
Suddenly, it occurred to me there was a positive to this. I had a valid reason to stay behind, looking for my keys, with security aware of my presence. Keeping an eye on the Enlightened Victoria chat, I kept searching for my car keys, without any luck.
At 10pm, the Resistance Jarvis’d then destroyed and rebuilt the Shard Portal again, deploying three mediocre shields and a very rare link amp. Then they linked the Portal to Lord Howe Island. Unless I could take that Portal down, they were clear to jump the Shard out of Victoria.
By 10:05pm, I’d reached the back area, where I’d been sitting at the concert, and still no car keys. Resigning myself to a taxi or long wait for a lift, I headed towards the Shard Portal, which was on the way to the main entrance. Approaching it, I closed the case on my phone and slipped it in my pocket so it the light from the screen wouldn’t be visible. Reaching the Portal, it seemed abandoned, I couldn’t hear or see anyone.
Positioning myself over the centre of the Shard Portal, I let off 14 level 8 Ultra Strikes followed by 7 level 8 XMPs, taking it down completely. Dropping a resonator on it immediately, I then moved to the edge and fully deployed, followed by two AXA shields. At L5, and with no planned jump route, that was all I could do that night.
With the Portal taken care of, I wasn’t looking forward to the car-less journey home, when suddenly inspiration struck! When I’d slipped on the wooden path earlier, and gone flying, the keys could have escaped then. Flagging a security guard with a torch, we scanned the area, and success! Car keys found in the bushes near the ramp.
Relieved, I walked with the security guards to the main entrance, and out the front, where I wandered up to say “hi” to three Resistance agents, and complimented them on the earlier jump they’d done to the Zoo. Then it was home and sleep.
Saturday March 6th:
The next morning, I headed back towards the Zoo, ETA 10:30am. Fleshy and Raahbin had gotten there earlier, bumped it to Level 7, and then ADA’d the Shard Portal at 9:59am. The plan was to clear the blocking links around the Zoo, Jarvis at 10:59am, and then jump it out. With only two Resistance Agents also in the Zoo, the three of us outnumbered them for the first time. I got slightly lost trying to take out some of the blockers, and only just made it back by 11am. As Fleshy went to execute the plan, the Jarvis failed, and the Portal remained blue.
As we were clear for a while, I got to meet Resistance Agents Benno & Mollyfud, and chat for a bit.
Fleshy headed off for the day, while Raahbin and I came up with a plan. This time we were going to control the flip cycle. We’d stay quiet and enjoy the Zoo until 2:55pm, then initiate.
It went almost perfectly. I enjoyed the exhibits and farmed the existing portals before 3pm, then at 2:55pm flipped the Shard Portal Green. Operation Smash the Blue in the Zoo then began, resulting in many unique captures, with an ADA flip at 3:56pm. At 4:45pm, Fleshy, Raahbin, Skythorn and I were back at the Portal. I had the Jarvis ready to go, and the key we wanted to link to ready.
At 4:57pm, I flipped the Portal Green, and prepared to link. Benno & DeadlyErnst began capturing nearby portals and creating links to block the link, which Fleshy, Skythorn & Raahbin were able to easily take down with 8 XMPs. At 4:59pm, the link wasn’t coming up, and we found the Resistance had a blocker up. Needing to get it out of the Zoo, Fleshy checked his keys and found a nearby Portal that was fully deployed and of a high enough level to link to. He initiated the link and the Shard jumped to nearby Princes Park. At least it was outside the Zoo now.
Enlightened: 1
Resistance: 1
Wrapping up at the Zoo, Fleshy, Skythorn and myself headed over to Princes Park to key farm it (I hadn’t lost my car keys in the Zoo this time), where we ended up with quite a large group, approximately 5-6 Enlightened and 8-10 Resistance agents. We all stood around in a large circle, chatting in-between key hacking. Once the Shard Portal was burnt out for keys, I headed off, dropped all bar one Shard Portal key with Snow987 and called it a night, other than to watch on Intel.
That night, the Resistance Agents outnumbered Enlightened again, and they controlled the flip cycle, flipping it Blue at 8:50pm to inoculate it. At 9:45pm, we started to attack the Portal, and knock off shields, but the resistance held it and flipped it Green at 9:57pm. Without thinking, two Enlightened agents added shields back to it. At 10:58pm, the Resistance ADA’d the Portal and successfully defended it, however either blocking links stopped the Resistance linking it anywhere, or they didn’t try, and the Shard remained at Princes Park.
Sunday March 7th:
Again, the Resistance outnumbered Enlightened, this time a whopping 15 to 2, and also had control of the flip cycle, flipping the Shard Portal Green at 3:55am then back to Blue at 4:55am. At 5am, they brought a link up to Cape Schanck, and successfully jumped the Shard out of the city. In my opinion, that was an incredibly well planned and executed jump, they managed to clear all the blockers without tipping us off, and had overwhelming agent numbers at the Portal to defend it.
Enlightened: 1
Resistance: 2
The Resistance once again controlled the flip schedule in the lead up to 11am, flipping Green at 9:47am, Ultra Striking a mod off at 10:41am, flipping it Blue at 10:47am and deploying a very rare link amp.
With no Enlightened agents able to get to the Portal, we’d been working on blockers and had a Victoria – Tasmania blocking link ready to go, but were just 15 seconds too slow in establishing it.
At 10:50am the Resistance brought up a link from Cape Schanck to New Zealand, and at 11am, the Shard jumped out of Australia and out of our lives.
Enlightened: 1
Resistance: 3
Game, set and match to the Resistance.
Full kudos to the Resistance Agents who planned and executed well, but also full kudos to all Enlightened Agents who helped in the field, or on Intel. We put up a damned good fight, and came within a whisker of jumping it out ourselves.
For those of us, like myself, who hadn’t had Shard experience before, it was very useful to see the different strategies used by both factions, and what worked, and what didn’t.
Enlightened Agents Involved throughout the weekend: @C4th3rin3, @chrism852, @cluelessness, @cluey, @comealongsinny, @danielsoar, @dotmelie, @DrDrMontague, @DrVogel, @emanedoc65, @fleshy, @gghunting, @HRabbit, @JackJamesJohn, @JohnsonSmith, @madllama, @Ooohmeplums, @Prky, @Raaahbin, @RogerD, @roj667, @sirnecromancer, @skythorn, @snow987, @unclebulgaria, @UncoElite, @wiggy, @wonk, @ZacPower
Shard Number: #20 – Story (Res)
By Dwayne Maxwell
Moving Meercat aka David McShard from Hawaii to Nevada
Last week I was approached by Hawaii Resistance about figuring out passage of shard #20 named Meercat by the Australian and New Zealand Resistance that originally got the pleasure of dealing with it. Due to 6 hour jumps, I determined the safest route to move it on to its eventual new home in Salt Lake City where he is now known as David McShard was to use a Sat Modem portal a good friend had submitted and captured a long time ago near the small town of Cedarville, CA near the CA/NV border.
So step one was finding 3 other crazy agents willing to make the long trip with me in a small car Jenn Wilson, David Bauman and Brad ReDacted stepped up to the task of going with me. We left the Bay area at approx 6 PM Friday night and headed north only stopping for gas and Dinner half way and arrived at the portals remote location at 2 AM as all the nearby towns hotels were closed by then or already full so no choice but to rough it in the car for the night but fortunately the location had nice public restrooms even though it was remote.
We all wake up around 9am in the car to find its been raining all night to our surprise! goody! and prepare to get online via sat modem and check in with ops to see how lane clearing for hawaii is going. Everything looks good and on track, so we check back near the 11 am jump and successfully bring #20 in that jump. Phew, ok, easy part done! Now I ask ops about clearing to our following destination and they tell me to check back in 20 minutes, ok. 20 minutes pass, back online and I’m hearing our original path is being troublesome from ops. Alright, no problem we shut down and head to Cedarville to get much needed coffee and cell service and then find a diner to have brunch at while we figure out where exactly we’re moving this thing next if we can’t go with Plan A. After about an hour of discussing options, we determine that Carp Post Office in southern Nevada to be our best shot of moving it safely for another 6 hours and then head back to camp out at the shard hoping no sat capable Enlightened show up before jump.
T-1 hour till jump approximately a car rolls in with oregon plates and two people in it but they just drive in and right back out, seem like sightseers or possibly lost, who knows, never saw them again. About 10 minutes later a much more suspicious car rolls in with a Wilson antenna on the roof. Agent Psygor of Redding gets out and greets us and tells us damn no signal! We proceed to apologize to him about that but of course we’d not be using a booster portal in this sat portal riddled state of California we live in! He leaves claiming to be wanting to get uniques in Cedarville, a likely story I’m sure 😉 .
T-30 till jump we’re trying to get back on the sat network. All morning we had been staying in the car due to rain getting perfectly fine signal thru the windshield keeping ourselves and the equipment dry but now we’re having issues getting a good signal likely due to the storm clouds that had just passed us. A SUV rolls in with a booster antenna on roof and Enlightened sticker on rear window this can’t be good, we’re still trying to get a good signal mind you! Out comes agent KC007 Kenneth Colwell and we all say hi and introduce ourselves and of course he brought his Sat modem with him. Well crap we’re still having issues getting on so enough talk lets get on and prepare for a potentially painful battle data and thus money wise.
We eventually get on at T-20 till jump and first thing i see in my scanner comm is our buddy Psygor in Cedarville linking. Yeah I figured as much, good thing it’s nearby so I sent two of us in my car into town to go take care of that. There was no way anyone else could do it in time and also at the same time another Enlightened agent from Davis, CA showed up to help KC007 so we had ourselves a 2 v 2 at the portal… so we thought…
Minutes slowly pass we get our link up to Carp nevada and still no attacks or missing xm on the ground. He must be having same problems we had with the poor weather effecting pointing accuracy and signal strength I guess. We continue to stand ready to defend seemingly forever until boom 5 PM hits and its gone! We thanked the Enlightened that showed up for coming to keep it interesting and were sorry but not sorry they never got on the sat network to try and stop us.
For those that are not used to Sat portal fights, yes its happened in CA and its not pretty. Southern California got into one at the start of Shonin so both sides can agree that in that aspect we’re glad it left without a fight.
For Niantic: thinking 6 Hour jumps makes us get more sleep my odometer and lack of sleep last weekend says you’re wrong.
Big thanks to all the lane clearers the unsung heros of anything like this: Rob Montgomery, Kathleen Ross, Domenic Belli, jeramie socey, Dave Blackmon, William Olsen and Redding Resistance for keeping the lane clear and being ready to drop if it wasn’t.
If you would like your report added to tomorrow’s update, submit it here: http://fevgames.net/wpgforms/shonin-shard-stories
Thanks to Thrakazog for the Shard tracking map and Marwan Sbitani for collecting the data for the map.