2015-06 starts well

New Ingress​​​ septicycle 2015-06.

After "The pride of light", let's have a jump start and immediately make things straight.

Congratulations to Enlightened Pisa!!!

The pride of light

Here in AF10-SIERRA-10 we have a number of blue cheaters to deal with.
Multiaccounts mostly, some suspected fakeGPS, all of them also rebuked by local honest smurfs.
To fight those "superpowers" back, we had to battle waaay more than fiercely.
After operation "Il Milione" in 2015-04 septicycle that led to our final victory, it appeared clear we had to go for one more showdown in 2015-05 from scratch.
We tried to create green fields and tear down blue fields as much as humanly possible, but this is obviously unbalanced when your opponents have... "superpowers".
We could not accept this.
If more energy, time and resources are needed then more energy, time and resources will be used.
That's the Enlightened style.

"Marco Polo" operation

AF10-SIERRA-10 is an Enlightened stronghold almost all the time, but yesterday it became clear that 2015-04 septicycle could have been one of the (although rare) exceptions.

We did not like it.

It was a grey day: no rain, but a dark and heavy ceiling of clouds was obviously not helping our morale.

Then @NFranKy94 popped up in our group Hangout exclaiming:

«I got it. I have something in my mind. Let me finalize my project and I'll get back to you all somewhere after lunch.»

So be it.

Let's see what's in @NFranKy94's mind.

In the meantime, I headed to Cecina in the afternoon, successfully torn down a couple of big fields within the checkpoint of 4:00 PM CET but it wasn't enough to bring the Enlightened back over the Resistance at cell level.

There comes @NFranKy94, claiming:

«So here's a 1,000,000-MU worth operation. It involves a multilayered control field with base anchors in Viareggio and Livorno, while other vertices would be in a row towards the hinterland of Tuscany. Pisa would be fully engulfed. We'll need a number of link-cleaning agents in Livorno and where-it-is-needed and we'll also need to remove some megafields between Rosignano and Livorno to significantly lower the Resistance score thus making the final score difference larger. And we need to do this all within the checkpoint of 2 AM CET.»

Heck, I am in.

Of course I am in.

I live in Rosignano, so I'd join @ToscJones in Livorno for the link-cleaning part; also on the road to Livorno, I'd destroy all those blue megafields between Rosignano and Livorno as asked.

Quick dinner.

It's 8:00 PM CET, let me think about the time needed to reach destinations on the way to Livorno...

OK, no hurry needed, I have time for a coffee at https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=43.32364,10.465345&z=18&pll=43.323419,10.46473 to meet a couple of friends of mine, where I could also discuss with @Teo1987 about possible short routes to reach those blue megafields I had to tear down.

09:15 PM CET, time to go.

Blue megafields to tear down were anchored to a church in Castelnuovo della Misericordia, to the big stone egg monument along Emilia SS206 freeway and to a church in Gabbro.

Reach and destroy.

One after the other.

Castelnuovo della Misericordia and Gabbro are rural areas with Edge and some HSDPA from time to time, so it was not easy; especially, it was not fast.

Also, apart from Emilia SS206 freeway, those hilly little towns had narrow roads climbing and descending with many bends, which did not help making it fast.

But I did it.

I met with @ToscJones at Bon Ton bar/pastry-shop, one of the best in Livorno, at 11:00 PM CET.

His car is always equipped with any possible kind of cabling, batteries and other power sources, so we opted for his car.

Also, he is nerdy enough to connect his smartphone to his car to better listen to Zello.

After entering the channel, we "met" @thePier as our operator, @MATRIXIO76, @GasLeo, @AnonymousGM, @USL as cleaning agents and @NFranKy94 as the serial fielder.

After chatting a bit with them, we all decided that, while most blocking links could be cleaned at any time, some critical links should not be touched until 1:30 PM CET in order to not let the Resistance understand our intentions.

Only links that needed to be cleaned in Livorno were two critical ones, so we had to wait. They were green portals, so it would take two ADAs.

@ToscJones then decided that we could throw a number of barrier links to prevent possible links from South, so at midnight we set off to create those barriers, still keeping in touch with others via Zello.

Barriers created.

While waiting to kill the critical blocking links, we remained available should prompt intervention be needed last-minute to kill any sudden new links.

Rain. It started to rain heavily.

But rain cannot stop Enlightened agents. Especially, it cannot stop the ToscMobile, ToscJones' car.

Intel from Zello reported that USL, riding his motorbike, would reach the position of the last critical blocking link in Massacciuccoli at 01:30 AM CET, all critical blocking links should go down as simultaneously as possible at that time, once @USL arrives and gives the clear-to-go signal.

We drove in position of the first portal with critical link. It's 01:20 AM CET.

Let's wait.

Rain pouring from the sky.

All of a sudden, from Zello we heard USL's voice saying that «the road to Massaciuccoli is blocked due to some work in progress».

Not good. Really not good.

@thePier immediately suggested USL an alternate route using Google Maps, but then we didn't know whether he would make it to Massaciuccoli on time.

Time ran.

But here's USL that suddenly said «I'll be in Massaciuccoli at 01:40 AM CET».

Yesss.

So, on our side, we'd use the first ADA at 01:40 and the second ADA at 01:45... 5 minutes being the shortest humanly possible time from the first critical portal to the other critical portal.

01:40 AM CET, USL arrived, shouts on Zello: @ToscJones cast the first ADA and his car started, prancing, the race to the next critical portal.

Water on the asphalt, rain, narrow turns, he didn't care: his ToscMobile ran like Hell.

We got at the second critical portal at 01:44 AM CET, I cast the second ADA.

All critical blocking links were down, @NFranKy92 started his fielding series.

5 more minutes of faaast driving and @ToscJones and I reached the fields base anchor in Livorno at 01:50 AM CET: we'd idle there ready to counter any possible attack within 02:00 AM CET.

We saw layers as they appeared and stacked up, and MU as they were harvested.

15 layers - 1.303.587 MUs at 01:59

18 layers - 1.630.842 MUs at 02:07

Cheers of joy over Zello: the planned 15 fields within 02:00 AM CET were successfully created.

The scanner reported the measurement: the Enlightened skyrocketed over the Resistance, securing a biiig distance in this checkpoint and a solidly higher average score on septicycle level.

We did it.

Congratulations everybody for the operation, the adventure and the adrenaline.

Enlightened-style; Enlightened rocks!

XM anomaly: 証人 (Shōnin)

Feb 21: 

Primary: Florence, IT http://goo.gl/TMBbm1 

Alexandria, EG http://goo.gl/G048Ns

Bilbao, ES http://goo.gl/fDLZXM

Brno, CZ http://goo.gl/MKhX0r

Primary: Austin, TX, US http://goo.gl/AYDXxl

Atlanta, GA, US http://goo.gl/FxLkVb

Las Vegas, NV, US http://goo.gl/SoqDIW

Medellin, CO http://goo.gl/ABTBnZ

Mar 28: 

Primary: Kyoto, JP http://goo.gl/Xmsv5W

Adelaide, AU http://goo.gl/ca5Kzc

Christchurch, NZ http://goo.gl/LpqeWm

Guangzhou, CN http://goo.gl/rynGPy

Primary: Hanover, DE http://goo.gl/fR4Mzw 

Cardiff, UK http://goo.gl/EFqXQC

Reykjavik, IS http://goo.gl/znnK7o

Yekaterinburg, RU http://goo.gl/Rm0aLB

Primary: Pasadena, CA, US http://goo.gl/5fg6IT 

Denver, CO, US http://goo.gl/sCq6sR

Lima, PE http://goo.gl/S2oL6A

Orlando, FL, US http://goo.gl/fKXNzH

Black guardian medal

Click here for the original post on Google+.

*** My smartphone rings. ***

Me: «Hallo?»

A.D.A.: «Good morning, agent MarkBoy81.»

Me: «Oh, hi ADA! Nice to hear you. Still trying to hack into my mind just the way you did with Klue?»

A.D.A.: «Even if I tried, I would be unable to perform that operation. You are located in an area cloaked with XM resonated in a way that prevents me from attempting to interfere with human brains. I understand that your question follows a typically-human mental scheme you call "sarcasm".»

Me: «Just kidding a bit. And yes, Enlightened green XM is everywhere around here, almost all the time. It’s a hard work, but it seems to pay off, after all. So, you were looking for me for...?»

A.D.A.: «I just have a piece of news for you: among my subroutines, the one in charge of monitoring you has just reported that you reached continued control of a specific portal for 150 days. I understand that, following some sort of operation-tracking progress measurement, you humans call this "Black Guardian medal".»
Me: «Why, thank you ADA! You are the carrier of good news this time!»

A.D.A.: «I sense that you are currently secreting hormones in a combination that you humans define "feeling merry, fulfilled".»

Me: «You are robotically correct.» (chuckling)

A.D.A.: «There is only something I am currently unable to understand.»

Me: «Beats me. There actually exists something even you cannot comprehend?»

A.D.A.: «While I understand your confusion about my high computating and logical capabilities being somehow insufficient to understand something, it's only complete to say that it's due to your behaviour.»

Me: «Mmmh, what?»

A.D.A.: «Yes, you humans are incognites in a system of equations that would otherwise be perfect and perfectly predictable, so what I cannot understand is completely due to you.»

Me: «I do like that "Matrix 2" reference, the Architect must be really fascinating to you...» (chuckle) «Anyway, can I help you understand?»

A.D.A.: «By reviewing your activity log I identified the long-defended portal, and the peculiar part of your achievement consists of that portal being located in an area where human population, portals, links and fields are not scarce.»

Me: «You are right, it's an industrious area by the sea with many activities, much tourism and it’s well served by public transport.»

A.D.A.: «Statistically, it is correct to state that the more crowded and busy a place is, the more likely a portal is captured over and over again; as a matter of fact, many agents from both factions attempt to achieve their long-defending streak on portals that you humans colorfully describe as "lost in the middle of nowhere”. Your achievement is therefore incoherent with these statistics and procedural patterns.»

Me: «ADA, you should know that 99% is different than 100%, statistics are not "absolute truths". If you ask me, I think the proverb stating that "if you really want to hide something just put it in evidence" is true: your local Resistance  agents here are grossly disorganized up to the point of overlooking an enemy "guardian" portal in a busy place and under their nose; simply, setting up a couple of high-level, super-linked, AP-worth portals around my “guardian” portal lured their attention away. The logic is “give them something to break and they will be content”, very basic strategy used for crowd control for example during rebellions; with Resistance agents out here it worked pretty well.»

A.D.A.: «These explanation likely indicate negative consequences on the efficiency of my faction.»

Me: «Indeed; and the history of AF10-SIERRA-10 proves those negative consequences here.»

A.D.A.: «May I state the name of your so-called "guardian" portal at this time?»

Me: «Please, don't. We both know this communication is being spied by God knows who, and I suppose you may still want to keep the secret: let them keep on searching, see how longer it takes your Resistance agents to finally identify it and capture it, find where and how badly their procedures are flawed. Nevertheless, as a hint, let’s say it’s very close to the beach, not fully resonated and not fully shielded.»

A.D.A.: «You may have a point here. I will be tracking actions of my Resistance agents located in that area and its neighborhood, now. This could take a while.»

Me: «Happy tracking, and thank you again for bringing me good news. See you soon, ADA.» (smiling)

*** End of phone call ***