Baton Rouge has been heard from and it not only the sauce that's green in the Creole state.

 Baton Rouge has been heard from and it not only the sauce that's green in the Creole state.

Originally shared by Emily Chance

Someone told me I should share this here, sorry if it's out of place. 

#ingress   #fieldreport   #enlightened   

Field Report

12/29 - Today we acquired the secret weapon. Being that I just joined the cause, I am humbled to have brought the weapon to our group on day one, and proud to do my part for those who seek the Enlightenment of all mankind. As long as it remains secret, the weapon will be the undoing of those who resist progress. The day it becomes known, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a serious blow will be dealt to the enemy's morale. 
Early in the day, my new associate Hyde and I went around to several portals held by the Enlightened to get resonators and shields. We got the items we needed, stopped for sustenance, and then headed down to Covington, Louisiana. I had gotten halfway to Level 2 the night before with the assistance of mynx and lenx, so the plan was to let Hyde take the lead in capturing the portals. 
We got there about 3PM and parked in a quaint little office park off Boston. We were struck by how adorable the entire town was, and I found myself remarking that it would be an excellent place to live. It had a cute, hometown feel, but the shops and eateries in the area were all very artsy. It reminded me a lot of the town near the cottage my family owns, where I spent most of my summer weekends growing up. Suffice it to say that for our first day trip in support of Enlightenment, we had picked a wonderful destination. 
The first portal was about a five minute walk from where we had parked. We walked over to it and found that despite being labeled "US Post Office" there didn't appear to be a post office anywhere nearby. It didn't matter though, because we were able to hack it and get more resonators, and then Hyde deployed the resonators and captured the portal. At first I forgot the training that mynx and lenx had given me regarding deploying resonators at the very edge of the portal's range, so a few of the portals there are much more vulnerable than some of the last ones. We took that portal, shielded it, and headed on to the next one, which was at a giant statue of Ronald Reagan. Supposedly it is the largest statue of Ronald Reagan in the world. I commented to Hyde "Ok, let's hack Reagan and capture it so we can move on quickly," and got strange looks from a few people walking past. It must sound strange, hearing someone instruct another person to hack a large metal statue. If only they knew what was floating in the air all around them, and how it could make their lives better. How it could Enlighten them. 
By then it was around 4, and Hyde needed to use the restroom. I left him at a bar, and walked down the street towards the truck. I found that as I walked I was passing through two of the unclaimed portals, so I quickly took them, and was able to link them together as well. By that time Hyde had finished the drink he had to buy so he could use the facilities at the bar, so I met up with him, told him about the link, and we both headed back to the truck together so we could drive to the outlying portals around the area. 
At this point I should mention something that happened earlier in the day. I was adopted at birth, and for most of my life had no relationship with my biological parents. In 2008, I finally met my biological mother. She's actually an Ingress agent herself, though she has painfully chosen to side with the Resistance scum. It doesn't damage our relationship though, and she's the one who brought me into the fold, knowing full well that my love of science and progress would drive me to join the Enlightened. Over the holiday, she and I were finally able to make contact with my biological father, after searching for him for several years. While Hyde and I were driving down to Covington, he called me to tell me that he was driving through Louisiana that afternoon. Suddenly, what had become a leisurely afternoon trip had time constraints put on it so that I could hurry to Hammond to meet him for the first time in person. 
With that thought in mind, we rushed from portal to portal, and captured the last three outlying ones that would have taken too long to walk to. We grabbed them quickly and then headed up to Hammond to meet my father for the first time. 
It was odd that our day trip to capture more portals for the cause of Enlightenment put me directly adjacent to the town that my father was driving through. It took us 20 minutes to get from Covington to the Petro truck stop in Hammond where we had agreed to meet up. When we got there, Hyde sat down and ordered food, while I waited for my father to get there. It was quite nerve-wracking, but the second he walked in I was able to calm down. He asked what had brought me to Covington for the day and I told him about "this game we play." He laughed and said it sounds odd before telling me that I look exactly like my mom (a comment I get from anyone who knows both of us). It was a fitting beginning to a very surreal conversation that left me far more satisfied than I was expecting to be. We quickly settled into friendly conversation, explaining details about our lives, and sharing tattoo stories. I had worried that we would struggle for things to talk about (after all, what do you say to your father when meeting him for the first time in your life, especially when he didn't know you existed until 15 days prior?), but that wasn't the case at all. When Hyde and I finally left and headed back to Baton Rouge, I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but in the best way possible. It was the exhaustion of having done a good day's work, and I admit I reveled in it for the rest of the evening. 
12/30 - I picked up Hyde around 3PM, and we headed out to a fire station in Denham Springs, because the intel map said it was a clear shot from the portal there to the ones that we had made in Covington, and I wanted Hyde to be able to level up by linking them. Unfortunately, between the time that I made these plans and the time we got there, someone had made a link that ran through Hammond, and so we were unable to make the links. While we were out, Hyde stepped in a large patch of mud, so we went back to his house so he could clean up. While there I took advantage of his computer to talk to mynx, who agreed to meet us downtown later in the evening. Hyde and I headed downtown and started hacking enemy portals to try and level him up to level 2. We spent time walking between a few portals along Laurel St. where the Red Star used to be, and we also went to the African American Museum on South Blvd. to finish deploying some resonators. Between all of that, Hyde was able to level up before I had to drop him off to meet friends for dinner. I headed back downtown, and quickly met up with mynx and lenx at the state capitol. The capitol was beautiful and stunning, lit up completely and surrounded by a dark, cold sky. The temperature had dropped significantly, since the sun had set while I was driving Hyde to meet his friends, and I found myself shivering slightly, despite the Michigan blood that courses through my veins. There were several uncaptured portals that mynx and lenx had knocked down and left for me, so I quickly set about the work of deploying resonators and shields, and I was even able to link several of them and create control fields. Doing that, I leveled up quickly to level 3, and over the course of the night was able to get about halfway to level 4. Mynx and lenx had me ride around with them from portal to portal, and also dropped a ton of L1-L3 resonators and shields that they no longer need. I found myself jogging around the portals as I captured them and deployed shields to stay warm. 
After capturing the portals near the capitol, I headed home to spend some time with my husband, since I'd barely seen him all weekend. I was considering going back out and capturing more of the portals that mynx and lenx left uncaptured for us, but the warm of my home enticed me to stay here instead, and write up this field report, detailing the first two days of my quest to see to it that all mankind becomes Enlightened. 

I do fear that, in Baton Rouge at least, we are severely outnumbered. It would do us well to add several more to our ranks, and to level up our new players as quickly as possible, especially if we are to have any hope of claiming the downtown area permanently. All deserve Enlightenment, and a place as densely populated as downtown should not be allowed to remain in Resistance hands.