Back to work

     With some of the waste material that was left over from mining out the entrance, me and THEXIS blocked the hole up, hoping that it looked inconspicuous from the surface. We then followed UOPETA and THEROS back to the lab along the tunnel, running the entire way back. We were excited that we had finally managed to make it through to the surface, and that we had come out close enough to the tower for us to remain hidden. Now all we had to do was keep it hidden until the door was implemented tomorrow. It had started to get dark as we emerged from the tunnel, so any light OROTHO and Joe would need to work by would easily be seen from the tower, not to mention by anyone who was patrolling nearby. We had to assume that due to the obsidian farm incident, HoN Co. were increasing their security at the tower. AMPHIS, Joe, COLUS, OROTHO and Amie were all there in the lab, busying themselves with various tasks, and they seemed a little surprised to see all of us skid to a halt. COLUS stood up from bending over AMPHIS's shoulder and began walking towards us, looking slightly worried.

"Good news I hope...? I don't want to hear the words 'we've been found' or the like..."

We were all breathless, which might be considered a sign that we were out of shape, until you considered the length of the tunnel, and that we had managed to run the entire way. UOPETA managed to step forward and gasp out a few words.

"We've finished... The tunnel... We're on the surface... Right where we need to be..."

"Excellent news! Although with it being close to night, we won't have enough time to install the door, that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Did you block the entrance and seal all of the doors on the way back?"

I nodded, and then passed the images I had taken a few minutes ago to COLUS, who looked at them, a contented look coming across his face.

"Good! Well, have a break and then get ready to go out again. I've decided that UOPETA's idea of scouting out the tower during the night might be the better option, so you're going when the sun's down!"

The only one who seemed happy about that was UOPETA, who stood up straight from being doubled over, and began to casually walk towards the lab exit, presumably to get something to eat. That was a brilliant idea. We were going to need our strength if we were going to remain alert with this next operation. We hadn't done this in some time, and it was likely to be more difficult than we could ever had imagined. Then again, that was probably COLUS's purposeful pessimism slipping in so I could laugh about how easy it was later one.

     Standing in front of the tower now, it was odd to be back in a position that we hadn't been in for some time. As usual, there was me, THEROS and UOPETA, the trio back together! As we looked across towards the Northern entrance of the tower, we could already see four guards... Was this meant to be an increase in security? There had been times when four guards had been posted here before... Maybe there were more inside... We waited outside until it was quite dark already, to check that there were no more guards hiding close by, or around the other side of the tower. Content with the number we could see, we devised a plan to get by them, although it was the same as before.

With the final guard dropping to the floor, we waited patiently before advancing, just in case there were other guards watching. After a full of minute of no further activity, we moved forward towards the four unconscious guards, and removed the darts from their necks. It was odd that they hadn't got neck guards like the other ones had, but that was little to worry about. It was likely that there were many guards inside, so now we had to be incredibly careful. Ensuring that none of the unconscious guards could be seen from within the tower, UOPETA flicked the lever, and we stepped out of the line of sight. We waited for a few minutes, expecting to see a few guards emerge from the tower to find out who opened the door, but no-one came... How could they be so ignorant? Were they asleep again? Taking a chance, UOPETA leaned in and began to head into the base of the tower. Waiting for him to return was agonising, as we couldn't tell whether he had found any other guards. Or if they had found him... Eventually he re-emerged, motioning for us to follow. With blowpipes still at the ready, we followed UOPETA into the tower, but as he stepped aside, we could see that there was no-one there...

"Maybe they're all down in the chamber itself...?"

It was possible, but surely it would make more sense to prevent people getting into the tower from the surface, rather than putting all of the security in the area you're trying to stop people coming down into... Oh well, it didn't matter; we were already finding it easier than we had initially expected, so there was nothing really to worry about. UOPETA maintained guard at the top of the stairs, whilst me and THEROS looked around for anything that might help us identify any more portal locations, but we knew it was highly unlikely. We were much more likely to find something useful to us in the portal data room. After a few minutes of finding nothing, we went over to UOPETA, who then began to descend. Despite the lack of a guard presence, UOPETA was still fully alert, and for good reason! A few steps down towards the chamber, UOPETA silently motioned for us to stop, and then pointed down. The iron column that descended from the top of the tower to the chamber was surrounded by glass, which the staircase wound around. Due to this design, we could see a guard moving down towards the chamber from where we were, and UOPETA motioned for us to continue silently.

We tried to remain in the guards blind spot the entire time; if we gave him any excuse to see us, we wouldn't be in any position to deal with the situation well. A single shout could be enough to have us surrounded. But thankfully UOPETA was silent and quick! Going off ahead on his own, he soon found his way onto the same set of stairs as the guard, and a high-pitched whistle was enough to inform us that the guard was down. By the time we had reached UOPETA, he had already removed the dart, and positioned the guard so that he didn't fall down when he awoke.

"Right, that's five in total. How many more do you think there are going to be...?"

"I don't know, but the sooner we get out, the better. We're on a time limit, so we need to be quick. Let's just hope there's nothing that holds us up."

We continued down the remainder of the stairs, until the stairs levelled out and moved in a single direction towards the master portal.

     A slight chill ran down my spine as the master portal loomed out of the distance as we entered into the chamber. From the top of the steps we could see a few guards milling around at the bottom, and it seemed UOPETA was right. Although why they had posted the guards down here was beyond me... Moving down the stairs, we waited close to the bottom for an ideal opportunity to take them out. After a few minutes, we determined that there were three guards, making eight guards in total.

After a few minutes of evaluating the situation, we determined that the best idea would be to cause a distraction. However, when UOPETA knocked out one of the guards furthest away with a dart, causing the other two to go over to him. We took this chance and knocked out the remaining two, before removing the darts and dragging their unconscious forms back to where they had been.

"Now hopefully the sedative in the dart will do the rest."

Satisfied that we were now clear, UOPETA and THEROS moved out to the portal data room to find any information pertaining the portals we need to find and destroy, whilst I remained in the main chamber to search through the desks and files. I took this time to check on the primary portals. I wish I hadn't. Before building the tunnel, we had deactivated all of the primary portals on the left-hand wall. Now three were active! We were falling behind again! We really needed to find more portals to deactivate! I rushed over to the portal data room to help UOPETA and THEROS find information that we definitely needed!

Syeonyx signing off