Progress

     COLUS was right; it WAS dark! I think the moon had entered an "empty" phase or something, so there was no light to see by at all! Luckily UOPETA and THEROS are the ones with the good sense of direction. Well, UOPETA is... THEROS just holds the map... After emerging from the base, we checked to see if there were any guards were nearby. I say "checked" but I actually meant UOPETA listened. We didn't want to bring attention to the hatch control if someone was watching. I couldn't see anything except THEROS and UOPETA, but that was enough. Eventually, UOPETA moved over to the controls, and the sand walkway sank back to the bottom of the pool. I hadn't really thought about it, but that was a pretty impressive piece of engineering; I bet OROTHO had his work cut out for him trying to get wiring established with all of this water! I didn't even want to know how the walkway for the lava trench worked... We made our way to the North, ever vigilant for guards or Creepers, or other creatures of the night. I was still frightened that I would stumble across a skeleton archer... That got me thinking back to the day mum died. She was killed by a skeleton... I'll never forget that day, and I ever get the chance to avenge her on any skeleton I see, I will! I think I just need to get over my fear of them first...

     It was still pitch black, and there was no sign of the sun coming up any time soon. However, due to the lighting on the tower, we were able to pinpoint our position early on. A while later, we had arrived at the ring of trees around the tower. With the shadows as dark as they get, and the rest of the open area, just as bad, we couldn't be seen by anyone! As we were approaching from the South, we were able to scope out the current guard situation from three sides before coming around to the entrance. Although we didn't see much in the way of a security detail. When we got around to the Northern side, we hadn't seen a single guard at all! When THEXIS had said the guards had been merged into the search teams, we didn't know it almost literally meant all of them! There were no guards on any of the sides we had searched, and we had waited long enough to wait and see if a solitary one was coming around from the far side... But nothing... No-one...

"This doesn't look good... Where are they? Is it bad that a lack of guards seems worse to me than a few?"

I had to share THEROS' feelings in this...

"THEXIS must have literally meant all of them then... Amie must be really important to the future of HoN Co. ... Let's just hope she doesn't stab us in the back then... Either that, or this is a trap..."

I really wish UOPETA hadn't pointed that idea out... I was comfortable with them just being absent. But as we watched, the wall slid backwards, to reveal a single guard leaving the base of the tower... Well, one was better than none... I highly doubt it would be a trap with one guard! Or maybe he was bait... Oh that was such a bad thought to have right now!

     What did we do now? If that guard went around the corner, we could go down, enter the base and then he could come back and seal us in. Then other guards could come up through the staircase and trap us! Even if we tranquilised the guard, we could still be trapped in there! It seemed though that UOPETA made a quick decision; I heard a sharp whistle from my left, and the guard fell... UOPETA had managed to hit the guard from this distance! At least forty metres!

"How did you do that?"

UOPETA shrugged, and moved forward. We followed quickly behind him, not wanting to fall into a trap that could be set up behind us! Once we got to the base of the tower, UOPETA took the dart from the guard's forehead - most epic shot ever! - and turned to us.

"We've eliminated this guard from any trap. He could've closed the door behind us, but that threat is still possible. Here's what I suggest: you two enter into the tower, and pretend as though you're not expecting a trap. If the door shuts behind you, get ready to move out. Meanwhile, I'll stay behind outside to be able to open the door if it does close. Once it opens again, you run outside, and we scatter. It doesn't matter what direction, as long as it's not the same as any of the other two. Got it? Good!"

I shrugged, hoping UOPETA knew what he was doing, and entered into the doorway. I had my blowpipe ready just in case, and hoped that THEROS was as prepared as I was. Once I was clear of the doorway, I was adamant that I would hear it slide shut, and would see a whole load of guards run up the stairs... THEROS joined me by my side, and I stood there, teeth clenched, waiting for the inevitable moment... ... But it never came... After some time, UOPETA joined us:

"Looks like it's OK. They must all be merged into the search teams. Amie sure is valuable to them. OK, everyone start looking for more data. I'm going to check where Amie suggested, and then we'll head down to the portal room and check on progress..."

     After a while of searching, UOPETA found the record that Amie spoke about. Instead of the usual case of photographing, we decided to just take it; Amie admitted that she was the only one who had noticed the change in the order of files and records after we had photographed them, so the others wouldn't notice. Besides, they were too busy looking for her, rather then wondering where a certain file has gone. We then turned our attention to the portal room. Descending the staircase, we secured the room before investigating, but even from where I was standing, I could tell we had made progress. THEROS and UOPETA had also noticed this:

"Look! One of the primary portals has been knocked offline! Did we do that? We must have done that!"

THEROS was right; one of the portals close to the stairs was no inactive, leaving only five active primary portals. We just needed to keep on with the progress to ensure that we had a chance of removing the master portal threat, once and for all!

     Before leaving, UOPETA had a search around for any new developments in the replication project, and to see if there was any information about us, the Lone 7. We had thoughts that they might have documented something about us, maybe as a reference when talking about the deactivation of the portals. But nothing. We left it there for now, and headed back. We would have to be quick as THEXIS had said the search teams would be heading back now. They had fanned out in all directions, starting from the the tower, and would go as far as the other search teams who did the same, but from my old house. When they met, they would turn back and head towards their respective bases. It was hard to see my house as a base, but it was definitely controlled by HoN Co. ... It was still dark by the time we got to the base, and we ensured that we didn't slip up at the last moment. After locking down the hatch, we headed into the base to be debriefed, and to pass on the information to COLUS and the others. After that, it was time to get some well needed rest, before going back out and destroying a new load of portals. It was hard work, but it was necessary to stop HoN Co. from completing their diabolical plan!

Syeonyx signing off