Island ho!

     As we passed through the checkpoint, I was glad to see that our way was clear ahead. Not a single guard, outpost or checkpoint in sight! I could however see they had CCTV set up along set points on each wall, monitoring everyone that passed through on their way to either the outpost or the HQ. I wasn't too sure, but UOPETA seemed confident that the cameras were visual only, possessing no microphones to capture people talking and other noises.

"I think that went quite well, don't you?"

"How do you know about 'bridge team theta'? If you made that up, they would have known about it, but it obviously exists... How?"

"On the guard duty roster that COLUS found I managed to sneak a peak at the teams in position at each point. It would have seemed a little strange for us to be the guards from the outpost, so it was easier and more logical to go along with us being one of the teams guarding the bridge. We say that we came across the Lone 7 attacking the guards at the outpost, and as such, when they go and check it out, they'll find three unconscious guards, just like we said."

"Good work thinking fast you three. We might not have made it this far if it hadn't been for you being on the ball. THEXIS, you played your part well too!"

I apologised to THEXIS for the rough landing, remembering that I had tripped him over onto the floor in the faked escape attempt.

"It's alright. I'm glad you reacted quickly enough; I was worried I'd get too far away from you and one of the other guards would have been forced to deal with me. They might not have been so... gentle..."

We continued our way through the tunnel, wondering how far it went, how deep it was beneath the surface of the water, and many other questions, although we remained silent for most of the time. I was still conscious about there being microphones integrated into the CCTV cameras, or maybe somewhere lower down embedded into the walls. Either way, it wasn't worth the risk, and the others seemed to have come to the same conclusion. However with a lack of a method to distract ourselves, the journey through the tunnel seemed to go on forever. We thought the stairs had gone on for long enough, but the far end of the tunnel seemed like a minute blip far off in the distance. A cobblestone wall could be seen from this distance, but only just.

"Where do you think this tunnel comes out on the island?"

"It could come out anywhere. It could come out near to the main HQ, or off at another checkpoint with a road leading to it instead, who knows... It probably won't lead to any of these structures we're meant to be finding, but when we're inside the confines of the island itself, the tracking chip in the PDA's will begin to work."

"Tracking chip? So when we reach the island, they'll appear and we can be tracked by them?"

"Yes an no. SERVERE said that the PDA maps are useless unless we're on the island where the range of the network takes into account all linked devices. We enter the island, and the PDA appears on the map and on the system. So the map can be used to track our position by us in real time. He also assured me that PDA's pop up and disappear off the system regularly as they are tinkered with, so we shouldn't draw any attention."

"Is there any way to turn that off? Remove ourselves from the system?"

"There is, but it means removing the real time tracker, which makes our job a lot harder. If we can't see where we are on the map, we would have to go by old fashioned methods and using landmarks to keep track of our location."

"Ah, well maybe it's best to leave them as they are. Do we still have them?"

"Yes, they're in one of the bags. Once we get to the other side, we can test them to see if we can see our position. We can remove the armour and begin to search the area for the structures."

"Wait, why do we have to remove the armour? I thought it would be a good idea to continue with this ruse. It might make it a little easier to get around."

"Not if we're completely lost, trying to take six captured strangers around with us. That's likely to draw more attention than trying to sneak around."

"What about the scientists? If we can get inside the labs and acquire a few lab uniforms, we could get around much easier, especially if we pose as a science team."

"That's a much better idea! It would hopefully be enough to fool the CCTV and anyone we happened to encounter. Although we would need to ensure that we acquired ID as well, hopefully not photo-based. If it is, we can just say that we left it in the lab..."

"Not sure how likely the latter part of that is to work, but it's definitely worth a try."

As we got closer to the end, we were a little confused as we saw it to be a full-on wall, rather than a gentle ascension to the island itself. Did this tunnel lead to nowhere? Or was there a hidden switch or something to it? As we grew closer though, we could make out a bend in the tunnel, going off to the right, indicated by the alterations of shadows and lighting on the floor and ceiling.

"We're nearly there. Around that bend will either be another staircase leading up, or another checkpoint. In either case, suspect anything! No more talking or chatting from now on. You three maintain your focus and exude control over the situation. We'll try our hardest to look subdued."

We reached the corner of the tunnel, turning right, only to see it continue on a little further until it ended with the stairs we had predicted. The CCTV cameras that had been dotted around at the other sections seemed oddly absent, and we took this time to check on our progress.

"Surely we're at the island by now... Or at least within range for the PDA's to appear back on the network..."

"Let's find out."

We stopped and COLUS reached down into one of the bags, pulling out two of PDA's. Turning them on, and waiting for them to boot up, the rest of us kept a lookout for any guards that might appear from the stairs. There was an audible ping, followed by a second, before COLUS smiled and held the PDA's up for everyone to see.

"We're in! Well... on..."

Syeonyx signing off