Forgotten tower

     We navigated past the island crossing, where THEROS took over, allowing me to sit on the right side of the boat as we finished the last leg of the journey. In an attempt to bring an end to the silence, I asked THEROS and UOPETA how close they thought we were to ending this entire thing, and whether they thought it was possible for us to succeed. Admittedly not a step in the right direction towards a lighter mood, but it brought interaction back to life.

"Who knows... We're going to try as hard as we can, but I think we're beginning to feel the pressure now. It's pretty obvious that HoN Co. is willing to do pretty much anything to open the master portal, but they don't seem to consider us a threat, which I suppose is our saving grace at the moment. Either that, or we're just too good for them!"

This last bit made us all laugh, and unintentionally brightened the mood considerably. Here we were, rowing on a boat back from a hidden chamber that had possessed more standard portals in a single place then all of the portals we had destroyed so far to date, and we were still going! In this type of situation, I could imagine it being very easy to become demoralised, but we had all persisted, and we all maintained the idea that we had a good chance of taking HoN Co. down and revealing to the world what they're really like. I had begun to wonder though about how easy some of it was; HoN Co. seemed to be investing massive amounts of time, resources and man power into finding, activating and protecting portals, and yet the closest we came to failure was when UOPETA was injured by the living dead! It did make me wonder however how much more HoN Co. had to throw at us, and whether we could take it. We had assumed that they seemed to possess control over the living impaired, explosive creatures and HoN Co. guards... HoN Co. had opened my eyes as to the possibilities of this world, merely through means of trying to kill me! I would have scoffed at the ideas of Creepers and zombies actually existing if I hadn't undergone the seven years of training and experienced all of this. But I suppose that's what it sometimes boils down to: an odd scenario you find yourself involved in that tilts your perspective of the world and makes you reconsider everything you already thought you understood... Enough philosophy...

     When we reached the bank closest to the base, we jumped off, dragged the boat onto land and hid it as best we could with the remaining branches and leaves. We headed off to the base, making our way across the walkway, down the hatch and into the main area of the base. We were exhausted; over the past few days, we had exercised ourselves practically to death, with the amount of rowing and walking we'd done! We headed off to the lab where we predictably knew COLUS, OROTHO and Amie would be. COLUS and OROTHO were bent over a large piece of paper, stretched across a desk, whilst Amie and AMPHIS were in the corner, studying various maps on the other side of the room. As we entered, COLUS saw us and left OROTHO to mutter to himself.

"Well? Is the threat removed?"

"All forty four portals are destroyed. And if I haven't said it before, I'll say it now: if HoN Co. doesn't see as a threat, they do now!"

"Well, that's likely to get worse then. Since you've been gone, myself and OROTHO have been working on the tunnel to the portal. We think we've got everything planned; we just need to set out a few measurements from the chamber and we should be able to work it out from there. As for Amie and AMPHIS, they've come up with a few locations they think might be the site of an obsidian farm. Go and see them, and then we'll run you through the tunnel before you set out towards the tower."

We went over to Amie and AMPHIS, who had now seen us, and were splaying the maps out to show us the locations.

"Success I hope?"

"Yeah. Another threat removed. But how many more... I suppose you're going to tell us?"

"Well, actually no... We've gone through each copy of the map of the surrounding area, and due to the proximity of the chamber you found, we realised it's likely to be close by. Obsidian is notoriously heavy, so transporting it wouldn't go unnoticed over long distances. We've only found a few locations that could be the right place, bearing in mind the right conditions. They would need to have access to a huge amount of water, so they're likely to be located close to the coast. As for lava, well that's a different matter entirely. We've only found two suitable locations, but hopefully we can find out when you go to the tower. If you turn up nothing there, it may be a case of searching around the most likely places..."

Amie handed us a copy of a map with two areas circled on it. One was way off to the South, whilst the second was far North West. Both were on the coast, situated to large bodies of water. Worryingly, the one to the South was very close to where my house is... Had it been there the entire time? I doubted it greatly; even if this obsidian plant existed there, it would have been a new addition after I was forced out of my house. Amie says that portal replication hadn't been perfected until about a month ago, and they had no need or desire to farm obsidian before that point.

"Remember, when you're in the portal data room, use search strings that are concise but accurate. Try to only search for things that may be included in the actual file itself, rather than just the headings. Also, have a look around the other areas in the tower and master portal chamber. You can't really afford to come back empty handed unless you're willing to go exploring long distances..."

We kept the map and went over to OROTHO and COLUS who were still looking at the large piece of flat paper. As we got closer, I noticed it was essentially a schematic or blueprint, showing directions, rough measurements, calculations and build time to construct a tunnel to reach the portal. COLUS lifted a corner of the paper and dug out another load of small ones from beneath it, and put them aside in the corner of the desk.

"This is what we've come up with. A simple tunnel! Well, simple in design, but complex in security. That's what they are. Have a look. OROTHO's very excited about those!"

Picking them up and flicking through them, I could barely make heads of tails of most of it, and had to have OROTHO explain.

"As COLUS mentioned some time ago about a direct access tunnel, security is paramount! Having a tunnel linking our base to a portal which takes anyone across to the Nether is a massive security breech! So I've come up with a series of doors and security methods to enable us to remain hidden."

He took them from me and laid them out, one by one, explaining each in turn. The first was a door system operated by concealed pistons that would slide wall positions into and out of place. Much like the door system at the tower and the one he had constructed in the lab, only it would be wider to accommodate more than one person at a time. The next one was a series of pressure pads that linked to a basic trip-monitor system. If activated by treading on one, it would cause a series of lights to activate within the lab, thus indicating the presence of someone coming through the tunnel. Unless everyone was present and accounted for, the entire tunnel could be sealed off from here! It used the same system that the base currently had installed, only adding the lock-down feature. Another door system would mirror the one on the portal chamber side, and all of these controlled would only operate from our side. Finally, OROTHO had a brilliant idea of implementing the glowing stone into the idea of providing unlimited light! When not in use, a series of walls could be put in place to remove the light, but when in use, the wall slides aside, exposing the glowing stone, and lighting the place up. This could also be another feature added to the lock-down procedure.

"Like I said, we just need a few more measurements from the portal side, and we should be able to start. Depending on the situation you find yourself in after coming back from the tower, we may have already started. But for now, let's go to the discussion room. We all need to be clear what's happening at the moment."

     When we had all assembled in the discussion room, COLUS began to rattle off the same speech he had given shortly before we had left to destroy the portal chamber. Then Amie interrupted him with something that none of us had considered. What she said should have occurred to me a long time ago, considering it affected me the most!

"I almost completely forgot! The tower! Not the lightning tower, but the HoN Co. tower off to the far West! That will more than likely contain information to find the obsidian plant! I don't know why I hadn't considered it before!"

"The HoN Co. tower? The one Syeonyx was imprisoned in?"

"Were you, Syeonyx? I'm sorry to hear that... I really am. This might seem a little weird, but when you were there, did you see anything that might help us? Any location where data might be stored...?"

I shrugged, saying that I couldn't remember much of it, what with the guard's incessant need to keep me in a drug-induced stupor! I told her about the room I had been taken to; the room with blank surfaces and a mirror wall... Then I mentioned that I saw a huge room on top of the tower when I had escaped, but never made it up to...

"It's possible something could be contained there! It's a place of considerable power within HoN Co., so there's likely to be something there... I would try there first, before the lightning tower. It's the most likely place!"

"Looks like you can get some revenge on the way too Syeonyx!"

I wasn't a vengeful person, but going back there, and showing HoN Co. that I was willing to stand and fight felt incredibly compelling!

Syeonyx signing off