Great work agents!!!!!
Great work agents!!!!!
Originally shared by Tyler Varwig
Incoming Transmission
Operation: MILKSHAKE
Clearance approved
----
Chattanooga’s Resistance agents have a penchant for milkshakes. When level ups are announced, “Woot, milkshakes!” is as frequent of a reply as, “Grats”. L8 farms are as much about having an excuse for ‘shakes as they are about resupplying our team.
With ‘shakes so often on our minds (or in our hands) Operation: Milkshake seemed like a great name for Chattanooga Resistance’s latest Megafield Operation.
The idea for Operation: Milkshake started shortly after a few of our agents participated in Operation: Unight8. After seeing the Global Resistance push past the One Billion MU mark, we all wanted to see what could be done with just Chattanooga Agents.
The plan began to slowly develop, Erik Tate had an idea of what the fields would look like and began choosing portals that we knew were out of the way, but still accessible during the cover of night. We had our portals chosen and our field determined. Then the idea of layering the fields was presented to the group, we could boost the MU count, AND cover Chattanooga in a thicker field if we also chose closer anchors and built outward from there. Finally, we had our nine anchors planned and we decided on a day: February 1st. In the weeks preceding Feb 1st trips were made to collect the portal keys needed. Key harvesters were Jarrod Holder, Kym Martin, Randy Thurman, Erik Tate and Kelly Tate.
Niantic then revealed that we would soon be placed into Regional Cells, and that MU would determine which faction controlled the cell at given checkpoints. Suddenly, our plans had to change. February 1 had two viable scoring checkpoints, 5pm and 10pm. After a vote, we decided that we would try for the 10pm checkpoint. Agents would depart from Chattanooga around 7pm, a few janky interfering links would be cleared, and the final field would be launched at 9:50.
After careful planning for vehicles, drivers, and agents we broke into teams:
Our “eye in the sky” was +Jimmy Mayer .
North Linking Team was +Erik Tate, +Kelly Tate, and +Ryan Cavitt (Team Tate).
West Linking Team was +Jarrod Holder, +Kym Martin, and +Randy Thurman, (JKRs).
South Linking Team was +Todd Varwig , +Yvonne Varwig , and +Connor Varwig (Varmy1).
In addition to the Linking teams, we would need agents on standby in the area to clean up any attempts by the Enlightened to thwart our plans.
+Sam Wiggs , +Sara Ivy , and myself made up the Dayton crew (Varmy2), while +Jason Jones volunteered for North Georgia problems.
Everything was going according to plan and it looked like Operation: Milkshake was going to go off without a hitch… Until just before 7pm.
Multiple Resistance Links sprang up around our Southern anchors and created blocks. Jarvis Viruses were counted by Varmy1 and it didn’t look like there would be any problem. Everyone continued according to plan, with Varmy1 adjusting their course to remove the interfering links.
Unfortunately, we quickly discovered that Varmy1’s signal was bordering on non-existent near the blocking portals. Jimmy asked them to return to the Anchor and await further instruction. This task, however, requires that they go incommunicado for 20-30 minutes between the two portals.
Jason Jones volunteered to head to the blocking link and Jarvis it.
While this was occurring, Varmy2 was busy in Dayton clearing out Enlightened links and fields that were blocking our way.
Everything appeared clear. Team Tate fired their link. Link Established. Varmy1 fired. Link crosses an existing link.
Jimmy sifted through the Intel Map and discovered the problem: More Resistance links coming from the same area as before. This time, though, we couldn’t call on Jason. We would have to send Varmy1 and pray for a reception miracle, or we could send Varmy2 nearly an hour and a half south to clear the interference.
Varmy2 mobilized. The 10pm checkpoint had been completely missed. Morale was decreasing, anxiety was on the rise. The next checkpoint wasn’t until 3am. Could we all stay awake? Would the Enlightened see our links and come tear everything down? Yes, and yes.
Shortly after Varmy2 reached the blocking links, we get reports from JKR to the west: “ENL are attacking the first anchor. Do we move back to it and fight for it or just let it die?” Nobody knew exactly how to respond. We didn’t want to completely scrap the Operation, but it looked like we were quickly approaching a lost cause.
Jimmy spoke up: Everyone stand by. Do NOT give away your locations. Varmy2, back to Dayton, those block links are coming back online. JKR, stay at West Anchor 2. Team Tate, hold position. Varmy1, find a safe place near South Anchor 1.
As Varmy2 raced back to Dayton, Varmy1 searched high and low for a safe place with cell service. Near the portal had service, but wasn’t a safe place to loiter. The nearest safe place with signal was still a good ways off.
Over an hour later, the Enlightened seemed to have gone back home, and Varmy2 reached Dayton again. We cleared links coming from a church and rushed to a mural to clear that. Before we can get to the mural, the church was live again with blocking links.
Jimmy: Varmy2, split into two vehicles. Keep the links cleared.
Sara and I got into another car and raced back to the Church as Sam kept the Enlightened busy at the Mural.
Less than a mile from the church, "*Ding Ding Ding*" the railroad crossing bars came down and we watched a westbound train inch by us, going no more than five miles per hour. Then it stopped, directly in front of us.
Hangouts were on fire: “What’s going on?” “How far are you from the Church?” “Why are you guys stopped on Glympse?”
We explained the train situation and Jimmy provided us with a detour that was a few blocks to the east. Hopefully the train was past that point already.
We drove, and came up on flashing red lights and dropped bars. No luck. Everyone was searching Maps, trying to find us a way around. Sam continued to battle for the Mural, keeping the Enlightened right where we wanted them.
Finally Jimmy found us a way around. It added a few minutes of travel time, but it would work.
We made it to the church, Sara and I fired XMPs as fast as we could. When the portal showed gray we both screamed into Hangouts, “GRAY! GO GO GO!” “Link now!”
JKR, Team Tate, and Varmy1 fired their links and the first field went up.
We all breathed a sigh of relief; At that moment, we had Chattanooga covered. The original goal was a complete success.
As they rushed to the second anchor set, South Anchor 1 came under ENL fire.
Jimmy urged that we ignore it and put up the final field. It was larger, it wouldn’t matter.
The Southern portal fell and we were sure anything we did would be taken out within minutes and the checkpoint would be missed.
All three Link teams raced to their final anchors: Links Established, Fields created.
We had our fields completed before the 3am checkpoint. Now all we had to do was wait with crossed fingers and hope our fields would last the ten minutes needed to make the checkpoint.
They survived. Not only did the fields survive, they stood for the following checkpoint as well. The mission was a resounding success.
Since we didn’t make it back into Chattanooga until after 4am, we decided to hold off on the milkshake rewards, but they’re definitely coming soon.
Additional huge thanks go out to +Spencer Tate, for sticking it out in the car HOURS after the op should have been over.
Further thanks to the other agents willing to let fields decay in advance or be available on standby had they been needed.
By the end of the night, 14 fields had been created with Kelly, Kym, and Yvonne making the list of Top Three Agents across multiple cells. The total MU captured during Operation Milkshake - 2,735,229.
+Ingress +Joe Philley +Brandon Badger +John Hanke +Anne Beuttenmüller +Brian Rose
#operation #milkshake #Megafield #ENLTrainConductor #jankylinks #ChattanoogaResistance #AM02Juliet00
Attempt 2: Forgot to share Publicly
Attempt 3: Remembered to share Publicly, forgot to attach Images sigh
Originally shared by Tyler Varwig
Incoming Transmission
Operation: MILKSHAKE
Clearance approved
----
Chattanooga’s Resistance agents have a penchant for milkshakes. When level ups are announced, “Woot, milkshakes!” is as frequent of a reply as, “Grats”. L8 farms are as much about having an excuse for ‘shakes as they are about resupplying our team.
With ‘shakes so often on our minds (or in our hands) Operation: Milkshake seemed like a great name for Chattanooga Resistance’s latest Megafield Operation.
The idea for Operation: Milkshake started shortly after a few of our agents participated in Operation: Unight8. After seeing the Global Resistance push past the One Billion MU mark, we all wanted to see what could be done with just Chattanooga Agents.
The plan began to slowly develop, Erik Tate had an idea of what the fields would look like and began choosing portals that we knew were out of the way, but still accessible during the cover of night. We had our portals chosen and our field determined. Then the idea of layering the fields was presented to the group, we could boost the MU count, AND cover Chattanooga in a thicker field if we also chose closer anchors and built outward from there. Finally, we had our nine anchors planned and we decided on a day: February 1st. In the weeks preceding Feb 1st trips were made to collect the portal keys needed. Key harvesters were Jarrod Holder, Kym Martin, Randy Thurman, Erik Tate and Kelly Tate.
Niantic then revealed that we would soon be placed into Regional Cells, and that MU would determine which faction controlled the cell at given checkpoints. Suddenly, our plans had to change. February 1 had two viable scoring checkpoints, 5pm and 10pm. After a vote, we decided that we would try for the 10pm checkpoint. Agents would depart from Chattanooga around 7pm, a few janky interfering links would be cleared, and the final field would be launched at 9:50.
After careful planning for vehicles, drivers, and agents we broke into teams:
Our “eye in the sky” was +Jimmy Mayer .
North Linking Team was +Erik Tate, +Kelly Tate, and +Ryan Cavitt (Team Tate).
West Linking Team was +Jarrod Holder, +Kym Martin, and +Randy Thurman, (JKRs).
South Linking Team was +Todd Varwig , +Yvonne Varwig , and +Connor Varwig (Varmy1).
In addition to the Linking teams, we would need agents on standby in the area to clean up any attempts by the Enlightened to thwart our plans.
+Sam Wiggs , +Sara Ivy , and myself made up the Dayton crew (Varmy2), while +Jason Jones volunteered for North Georgia problems.
Everything was going according to plan and it looked like Operation: Milkshake was going to go off without a hitch… Until just before 7pm.
Multiple Resistance Links sprang up around our Southern anchors and created blocks. Jarvis Viruses were counted by Varmy1 and it didn’t look like there would be any problem. Everyone continued according to plan, with Varmy1 adjusting their course to remove the interfering links.
Unfortunately, we quickly discovered that Varmy1’s signal was bordering on non-existent near the blocking portals. Jimmy asked them to return to the Anchor and await further instruction. This task, however, requires that they go incommunicado for 20-30 minutes between the two portals.
Jason Jones volunteered to head to the blocking link and Jarvis it.
While this was occurring, Varmy2 was busy in Dayton clearing out Enlightened links and fields that were blocking our way.
Everything appeared clear. Team Tate fired their link. Link Established. Varmy1 fired. Link crosses an existing link.
Jimmy sifted through the Intel Map and discovered the problem: More Resistance links coming from the same area as before. This time, though, we couldn’t call on Jason. We would have to send Varmy1 and pray for a reception miracle, or we could send Varmy2 nearly an hour and a half south to clear the interference.
Varmy2 mobilized. The 10pm checkpoint had been completely missed. Morale was decreasing, anxiety was on the rise. The next checkpoint wasn’t until 3am. Could we all stay awake? Would the Enlightened see our links and come tear everything down? Yes, and yes.
Shortly after Varmy2 reached the blocking links, we get reports from JKR to the west: “ENL are attacking the first anchor. Do we move back to it and fight for it or just let it die?” Nobody knew exactly how to respond. We didn’t want to completely scrap the Operation, but it looked like we were quickly approaching a lost cause.
Jimmy spoke up: Everyone stand by. Do NOT give away your locations. Varmy2, back to Dayton, those block links are coming back online. JKR, stay at West Anchor 2. Team Tate, hold position. Varmy1, find a safe place near South Anchor 1.
As Varmy2 raced back to Dayton, Varmy1 searched high and low for a safe place with cell service. Near the portal had service, but wasn’t a safe place to loiter. The nearest safe place with signal was still a good ways off.
Over an hour later, the Enlightened seemed to have gone back home, and Varmy2 reached Dayton again. We cleared links coming from a church and rushed to a mural to clear that. Before we can get to the mural, the church was live again with blocking links.
Jimmy: Varmy2, split into two vehicles. Keep the links cleared.
Sara and I got into another car and raced back to the Church as Sam kept the Enlightened busy at the Mural.
Less than a mile from the church, "*Ding Ding Ding*" the railroad crossing bars came down and we watched a westbound train inch by us, going no more than five miles per hour. Then it stopped, directly in front of us.
Hangouts were on fire: “What’s going on?” “How far are you from the Church?” “Why are you guys stopped on Glympse?”
We explained the train situation and Jimmy provided us with a detour that was a few blocks to the east. Hopefully the train was past that point already.
We drove, and came up on flashing red lights and dropped bars. No luck. Everyone was searching Maps, trying to find us a way around. Sam continued to battle for the Mural, keeping the Enlightened right where we wanted them.
Finally Jimmy found us a way around. It added a few minutes of travel time, but it would work.
We made it to the church, Sara and I fired XMPs as fast as we could. When the portal showed gray we both screamed into Hangouts, “GRAY! GO GO GO!” “Link now!”
JKR, Team Tate, and Varmy1 fired their links and the first field went up.
We all breathed a sigh of relief; At that moment, we had Chattanooga covered. The original goal was a complete success.
As they rushed to the second anchor set, South Anchor 1 came under ENL fire.
Jimmy urged that we ignore it and put up the final field. It was larger, it wouldn’t matter.
The Southern portal fell and we were sure anything we did would be taken out within minutes and the checkpoint would be missed.
All three Link teams raced to their final anchors: Links Established, Fields created.
We had our fields completed before the 3am checkpoint. Now all we had to do was wait with crossed fingers and hope our fields would last the ten minutes needed to make the checkpoint.
They survived. Not only did the fields survive, they stood for the following checkpoint as well. The mission was a resounding success.
Since we didn’t make it back into Chattanooga until after 4am, we decided to hold off on the milkshake rewards, but they’re definitely coming soon.
Additional huge thanks go out to +Spencer Tate, for sticking it out in the car HOURS after the op should have been over.
Further thanks to the other agents willing to let fields decay in advance or be available on standby had they been needed.
By the end of the night, 14 fields had been created with Kelly, Kym, and Yvonne making the list of Top Three Agents across multiple cells. The total MU captured during Operation Milkshake - 2,735,229.
+Ingress +Joe Philley +Brandon Badger +John Hanke +Anne Beuttenmüller +Brian Rose
#operation #milkshake #Megafield #ENLTrainConductor #jankylinks #ChattanoogaResistance #AM02Juliet00
Attempt 2: Forgot to share Publicly
Attempt 3: Remembered to share Publicly, forgot to attach Images sigh
Wow.. my hometown Pittsburgh covered in blue!!!
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