Welcome to "The Diary of a Miner"; a blog detailing the adventures and mysteries that I, Syeonyx, embark upon in my quest to further my mining and survival skills! It'll be tough, there will be good times and bad times, but I'll always be alive to post my adventures... probably...

Day 102: Old ways

     THEROS and AMPHIS have been working hard with Amie to add to the current map to aid us in finding the portals. We can't guarantee we'll find anything at the tower to point us in the right directions, so at least we're prepared if we can't. The plan, as far as I know, is this: me and THEROS head off to the conducting/lightning tower to determine the state of the primary portals, and to look for more information to guide us to the portals. Then, depending on what we find, we act accordingly: if there are no reports to go by, we use the map we brought with us to find the closest suspected portal location to us and head off to it, working around the areas until we find one. This is instead of coming back to the base and wasting time taking the portal map then. If there are reports to help guide us, then we'll follow those based on the map we have, although we may need to return to allow AMIE to translate them onto the map. So far, most of the reports have been based on coordinates. We don't use coordinates, merely the points of the compass. It works for us, and stops things from becoming too complex. The key for the map has extended as well though to allow us to determine the difference between possible portal locations and actual ones. If we do manage to find a report detailing portal locations, we'll return to the base and cross reference them to the points that have already been drawn on. We'll then only visit the ones that match up to the locations in the report.


     We headed out quite early; it was still partially dark, made even more so by the fact that it was raining. I didn't mind the rain, in fact I loved it, and to make matters better for us, it would help us stay hidden. The only way it put us at a disadvantage was that staring into the distance looking for movement is a lot harder with rain intercepting your vision! I just needed to follow what I had learned from UOPETA, and not take any unnecessary risks. That was unlikely to happen; I was a naturally cautious person anyway. From the base, we headed due North to the tower. THEXIS had told us that the radio traffic had been practically non-existant for some time, so hopefully things have calmed down. No doubt that if Amie is that valuable to the company, they won't give up that easily but they'll direct their efforts in a different area. The journey to the tower was totally uneventful, and we managed to scope out the area before approaching it. There were no guards - that I could see - in the tree line around the tower, and after watching the base of it for some time, I determined that there were only two guards surrounding it. One was constantly posted at the entrance, whilst another patrolled around the perimeter. They would easily be dispatched, and I took out my blowpipe. If we could take out the patrolling guard when he moved along the Western-facing side, it would make it easier for the second one!

     A high pitched whistle, and the guard walking along the Western wall fell. We paused for a moment to ensure we didn't attract to much attention, and then moved forward. I took the dart from the guard's neck, and crept along to the right to the corner of the wall. THEROS followed close behind me, keeping an eye out in case another guard appeared behind us. Peering around the corner, I could see the guard had his back to me. This was too easy. Another high pitched whistle, and the unconscious form of the guard collapsed in a heap! Moving up quickly, I took the dart out from where it protruded, and ran THEROS through the plan. He would go in first, scout out the area quickly, and then advance if it was clear. I would bring up the rear to ensure we didn't get a nasty surprise. If there were any guards within the base - not that there had been any before, but now was not a time to become complacent! - THEROS would have to act fast. He took out his blowpipe too, and waited as I flicked the switch. The wall slid aside, and we waited a few moments longer to see if there was any reaction this. Nothing. THEROS moved inside, and then paused. He motioned me forwards, and crept behind him to see what he had found. There, over the other side of the conducting rod, was a guard slouched in a chair. Odd... A guard inside the base of the tower... But he seemed to be asleep. THEROS quickly took him out for good measure with a dart.

     As THEROS removed the dart from the now prone guard, I searched around for any reports that would help us to find portals. I knew that the main place to look was down in the chamber where Amie's desk was, but it couldn't hurt to search everywhere else as well. After getting nowhere with the files I had found, I decided to move to the master portal chamber. THEROS followed close behind, both of us with our blowpipes at the ready. I was nervous descending the stairs; we had never encountered a guard there before, but like we found with the guard in the base tower, there's always a first time... However, we made it down into the chamber without being seen. After peering over the edge, I could see no more guards or scientists. We were alone now. Good! We descended the short staircase and began rooting thorough the files and reports littered around, hoping to find something of use. I went straight to the place Amie had suggested; the drawer. But it was empty, as too was her desk. There were no reports here to help us. We were going to have to go back to the old method of trial and error, searching each suspected location. We could find a standard portal or a secondary portal, or we could just not find anything at all. It wasn't the preferred method to do things, but at least we had something to go by. I continued searching for awhile longer, hoping to find an out-of-place report hidden away somewhere, but closing the lid on the last box, I knew it was hopeless. We'd have to do things the old way... I now turned my attention to the primary portals; the ones on the far right wall that were active before were still in the same state, but as I made my way around the central column, I realised that one of the portals was actually off... I was sure that one of the primary portals had been knocked offline; the far left one! Yes! It was!

     I was in high spirits now; we had now successfully deactivated two primary portals, and if we made headway with the next portal locations, we could make a proper dent in their plan! I guessed that they had shifted their priorities somewhat since the disappearance of one of their top scientists leading the portal research, so this made our job easier! I just hoped we didn't suffer a fall at any point due to our odd stroke of luck so far. I signalled to THEROS to move out, and we headed for the surface. Closing the wall section behind us, THEROS took out the map and located the nearest location to us.

"To the North East then!"

Syeonyx signing off

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