Day 99: Show on the road...

     Slight change of plans. Initially, we were going to head off to destroy the furthest secondary portal from the base, and work along the arc backwards. Instead, we're going to take out the one closest to us, and then continue, more or less, in a straight line to the farthest one. Then we head back to base via the arc. It works out a little easier as the furthest portal will prove difficult to get to unless we can find a crossing point. Additionally, if we left the plan as it was, we would have to back track a little to take out the last one. Well, either way I'm not bothered, as long as we get the job done, and UOPETA keeps us out of harms way! THEROS's new map looks perfect for our operation; it's crisp and clean, and also shows us the location of the most recently destroyed secondary and standard portals. THEROS will be in charge of the map, as well as the Solus stone, whilst I take charge of the pickaxe, and UOPETA carries the least to ensure his scouting skills aren't put out of kilter! For now, it's pretty much due North to the first secondary portal, and then off to the North East. We'll have to be careful; a straight line run puts us on a path with the conducting tower, so it'll more than likely be North East until the conducting tower, then follow the coast. COLUS gave us a brief before we left:

"Take out those portals in any sequence you see fit. Keep a watch out for guards, Creepers or search teams. It is likely they're still out looking for our good friend Amie, but as long as you remain quiet, and UOPETA keeps to the skills he's good at, you'll be fine. Don't take any unnecessary risks, and try not to draw too much attention. Good luck!"

     WE had set early; it was only just starting to grow lighter as we left the base behind. This was to cover ourselves to ensure no wandering guard saw us. UOPETA didn't see anyone patrolling nearby, so we continued North to the first portal. As well as the locations, Amie had also provided data as to how far underground certain portals were. The one we were heading to was close to the surface, in a small chamber that led from a flooded tunnel. When you take water into account in the middle of a landmass, it becomes easier to find! After a little under an hour, we had found the location of the first secondary portal. As Amie had said, it was located at the end of a chamber which had become flooded. Some rock around a pool of water with a spring source had begun to erode, causing a small channel of water to flood the chamber. It was only a trickle thankfully, and we made it into the chamber without getting wet.

"Be on the lookout for strange noises or shapes. Anyone see anything, signal us silently and we'll check it out."

It was dark, but the distinctive purple glow from the portal up ahead bathed the chamber in enough light to see by. There was no sign of an Affinitas cage, or any Creepers. Nor were there any guards nearby... Hmmm, no security for something very important... Odd.

     THEROS picked up the dimly glowing stone from the floor, and we made our way back to the entrance. One down. But I was still confused as to the lack of security...

"Maybe the security detail has been reassigned to search squads or something..."

"Or the installation of a load of replicated portals is taking up more man power than we initially thought..."

I hadn't thought of that... Both equally plausible explanations. It would also suggest then that, until the search teams came back at least, the security at the conducting tower would be lax. There would likely be very little in the way of civilian activity too, so a few guards at most. Let's just hope that this remains the case after the last portal is down and we make our way towards the tower! It didn't matter, we'd cross that hurdle when we got there. For now, we had to concentrate on heading past the tower to the furthest secondary portal. Once there, we would scope for any forms of security in place, and then destroy the portal. From there, we followed the curve that the remaining portals made back to the base to determine the next course of action. Hopefully THEXIS would have an idea as to the state of the search teams by then, and allow us to make the second phase of the plan. We began to make our way to the North East towards the next portal.

     We were within less than one hundred metres of the conducting tower. UOPETA had the excellent idea of checking on the guard situation prior to going there. That way we at least knew what we were getting into... Provided the search teams didn't all converge on the tower before then. There were only two guards there, and going along with every other time we infiltrated the tower, we assumed there weren't any guards in the tower itself. After the quick recon, we continued to the North East towards the next secondary portal. We still hadn't decided how to get to it yet, but I supposed it would depend upon the situation. We were hoping that a simple hop across to the island would be available, but I had ideas that we were getting wet! We didn't wait long to find out; I was right! We had scoped out the surrounding area, and even went out of range of the map perimeter, but we were unable to locate any landmass that connected the two. We would have to swim across... Well, actually it looked like more of a wade rather than a swim, but it still involved getting wet.

From where we stood, we couldn't see anything to suggest a portal, but we had encountered something similar before. Amie had verified that the portal was buried beneath a small outcropping from the main island, the bit we were looking at now. I had a feeling it was behind the conveniently placed sand dune. After ensuring the coast was clear, UOPETA, THEROS and myself jumped into the water. It wasn't as deep as I thought it had been, so swimming was definitely not needed. We waded across to the other side, UOPETA constantly watching out for guards and Creepers. We got to the other side, and rested awhile. UOPETA however scanned the coastline back the way we came to ensure we weren't being watched. For a moment, I thought he had seen someone; he was acting how he had when he noticed Amie following us. I asked him what was wrong; he stood in silence for a moment, and finally dismissed it. He began to walk around the suspected sand dune. A moment later, an exclamation of "bingo" was heard, and we joined him at the top of a long, dark staircase.

"Looks like it's down from here..."

     It was dark... Pitch black almost! We had descended to the bottom of the initial staircase, having to illuminate the base. We then saw a left bend that wound round immediately to the left again. We were going deeper again. After putting up another two torches, we eventually came to the bottom of the staircase, and the purple hue of a portal became visible. Once again, we checked on the security of our surroundings, but once again we found nothing. No Affinitas cage, no guards or Creepers... Maybe THEROS or UOPETA were right... Maybe they were both right! Maybe HoN Co. had been left with the only option of reducing the security forces in other areas to look for Amie. After all, she was a vital cog in their plan, and they couldn't just have her going missing! We made our way into the centre of the chamber. This portal was active as well. I was beginning to think that OROTHO was right. He had said that with the large number of replicated portals that were bound to have been brought online, more secondary portals were likely to be active. He wasn't wrong there...

THEROS placed the Solus stone on the portal, and we waited for the process to begin. After a little while of waiting, the rift began to change in colour, to the sickly green hue that we all knew as a good sign. After another minute, no trace of the portal existed, aside from the mark in the wall where it had once stood, and the steps that had let up to it. Two down, three to go!