Operation Blue Crystal, Ogasawara, Japan

Hi! I'm Agent CrystaTech(RES) from Japan!🙌

This is my first time organizing an operation and writing a SITREP! How exciting!

Ogasawara Islands are tropical islands located about 1000 kilometers directly south of central part of Tokyo, Japan (and it's still part of Tokyo). It's my favorite summer vacation place. Why not make a gigantic field linking to the mainland of Japan this summer? I don't see any disturbance on the Intel Map. Looks like a piece of cake, huh?

(Image: Location of Ogasawara Islands)

-- Until I started planning things out, I didn't realize that I did not know what I was doing. I am relatively new to Ingress, and I was not thinking deeply about ordering senior Agents to do something. I was introduced to a group of Agents working on "Large-Area Defenses" (Sorry, I don't know the proper English term). I was kind of lost there. They asked me what I wanted to do, but I did not understand some of the terms they were speaking. I was embarrassed to ask them questions and pretended I understood everything, and I replied them back with vague answers.

One night komecco (kome for short), the group leader, said she wanted to have a meeting with me in person. At a cafe, I told her my plan was to make a main CF connecting Chichijima(Ogasawara Islands), Hokkaido, and Chiba. Kome said; “I'm trying to help you out. But I can only give you advices. You know what I mean?" I said; "Yes, I'm making people work for me right? Then I wanna my operation to be successful." Kome said; "THEN YOU PLAN THINGS OUT PROPERLY AND ACT LIKE A LEADER!" I think she knew I was being indecisive and somewhat passive about my own operation. Even though I had so little knowledge and experience, this is "my" operation and I'm the leader. Kome was right, and I was an a**hole.

She gave me portal keys I needed, plus other extra keys just in case if something happens and the initial plan does not work. She is very experienced and smart. We spent some hours drawing lines, and I asked her several basic questions. I was surprised how much I didn't know. I was not prepared for this at all.

7.2 Takeshiba Terminal

Taking a ferry is the only way to get to Ogasawara Islands. It takes 24 hours with no stop.

What about Sojourner? Well, My sister, level 9 beginner Resistance Agent, and I kept hacking until the last minute of the departure. Fortunately, some portals on the coast were still in range from the deck.


In about 5 hours we totally lost the internet. It's sometimes nice to be without it. It feels Internet is draining too much energy from us. 

It's a long journey - I changed to a comfortable outfit which is my favorite Ingress anime T-shirt that was too large for me, so it's a perfect pajama😄 However, that was a BAD idea. I was wandering around the deck, socializing with people, with a can of beer in my hand. That was a pretty night. I could not see the stars but the air was nice and cool.

I saw guy and girl about my age chatting by a table. I could not tell if they were couples or siblings. I greeted, and they smiled back, then we toasted. They said they were going to Ogasawara for scuba diving. I told them I don't scuba dive but I like to snorkel and I was going to swim with wild dolphins. The girl pointed out my T-shirt and said; "Hey, isn't that Ingress? Do you play Ingress too?"


Oh my gosh, Crysta. You such a moron.


They were both Agents😱

My heart was pounding but I pretended I was cool. I asked their faction very casually. They didn't answer and said they had already quit and now they were into POGO. Thank goodness, I was wearing Hulong version T-shirt, which is faction-free design. So I didn't tell them my faction either.

We chatted about Ingress for a while. I could tell they were very maniac. After finishing up like four cans of beer, I asked them again; "Hey, so were you guys blue or green back then?" They smiled and did not answer. (Me: If they had quit Ingress, faction does not matter anymore right? Why do they hide it? I'm sure they are active Enlightened Agents! That's very Enlightened-like attitude! Help me, my Resistance folks, I'm trapped in the ferry with two Enlightened Agents with unswerving loyalty to their faction... oh, no... no! no! I have no signal, I have no internet! HEEEELP!!!!!😱😱😱) *Drunk and paranoid*


After attempting to change the topic, and having two more beers, I don't remember much.

I don't get sea sick, but I became a good friend with a toilet seat for a while.


7.3 Chichijima Island

HOT!

And it's blue. It's freaking blue.

It's all green🐸 on the Scanner but everything else is blue.

It was 24 hours and 10 minutes from my last hack but my Sojourner was fine😉

Until the day of operation, I enjoyed my vacation (+Ingress) in Ogasawara Islands with my family. I was observing the logs very carefully but I only saw local Agents. Maybe those Agents on the ferry were not lying to me at all! (Then I feel very bad!)

At the online meeting, I assigned each Agents to each portals for linking and defenses. That was one of the most difficult part for me. Most of them have been playing Ingress for really long. I was the least experienced. I felt really bad, but that was my job as a leader.


7.5 The Day of The Operation

My sister and I were at the Southernmost of Tokyo Sign portal, Hahajima Island, fracking and glyphing. It was about 31 degrees (in Celsius) outside, 80% humidity, means HOT. But those keys will make lots of my folks happy, then why not? Then we went into a jungle. There was no portal in a jungle nor the internet signal.

On the way back from Hahajima Island, I was perfecting the operation sequence spreadsheet. In the mainland, pre-operation for the night was already starting. I got reports from few Agents by the afternoon. Tomorrow25 captured Katsuura Lighthouse, Chiba. Gumball captured Nagasaki-Bana Lighthouse, Chiba.

(Katsuura Lighthouse, photo by Tomorrow25)

I remembered Gumball was asking everyone if it was okay to make links allover the portal that would not interact with the operation link. I looked the Intel Map and saw crazy fielding around the portal. I thought sksyun got there too early at first. Sksyun is so into fielding and he is one of the guys who could eat 3 bowls of plain rice by just thinking about fields. (Well, it's a Japanese saying, meaning somebody is really enthusiastic about something.)

Anyways, people were already moving. It takes some of them hours by car to get to the portals. I can't **** this up.


7.5 The Day of The Operation - The Evening -

With a help of kome, I had already prepared a Zello channel for this operation. The operation sequence was quite simple, but I decided to do the audio briefing to make everything clear. I'm not used to such thing, but I wanted to sound cool, as a leader. I think I tried too hard. "To my mighty soldiers, the time has come! Our glorious force, ADA is looking after us!" (No, it was not that terrible, but I'm sure I sounded pretty silly 😛) Anyways, I went through the operation sequences step by step. 

The silly briefing was not worthless at all - we got a response from one of the Agents at Nagasaki-Bana Lighthouse said they were missing the key of Habomai Post Office, Hokkaido. That was about an hour before the scheduled operation start time.

Kome contacted Large-Area Defense team immediately and asked them if they had the key, and was able to go to the portal in an hour or so to deliver the key. The portal was popular for Large-Area operations, so some had the key but seemed non of them could not make it to the schedule. --This is my fault. I should have double checked! What can I do?

Kojikoji, at Nosappu-Point Lighthouse, Hokkaido said; "Give me extra 10 minutes to get to Habomai Post Office. We can do the other way around. I got the key." 


Thank goodness!🥰😱🥰😱😍😍

(Nosappu-Point Lighthouse, Photo by Kojikoji)

The operation sequence started around 20:00, aiming the 21:00 checkpoint.

Yasirokagetu(My sister, Kagetu for short) and I left the place and walked to the portals. We had to wait until the last minute because it seemed like the local enemy Agent🐸 was living or working close to the portals we chose for the operation. We quickly prepared three portals for linking. P6s with two Softbank UltraLinks should be good enough for required link distance.

First, kojikoji cut two disturbance links. Next sequence was us linking Ogasawara Drum, Chichijima to Nagasaki-Bana, Chiba, which was about 1000km away. No disturbances, both portals were fully deployed, MOD statuses were fine, we got the key, should link. But it was taking time for the link destination to show up. I touched the screen and all of the sudden, the Scanner shut down. "****, again." I rebooted Ingress, but it shut down again. --Is it some kind of network problem?

"(Kagetu!)" I called her real name. "Nagasaki-Bana, just throw it!" "Nagasaki... Throw? what??" "Hurry!" Kagetu got upset and said; "Sis, I don't understand those terms!" I apologized and told her to link. If I freak out, that make her freak out. I had to be calm. I said; "OK, let's not touch anything this time." and we just waited. Then, Nagasaki-Bana was displayed on the Scanner. "Shall I?" Said Kagetu. "Yes." The first link was established.

Kojikoji reported he linked Habomai Post Office, Hokkaido to Nagasaki-Bana, Chiba. I took a deep breath and waited. Habomai Post Office was displayed on the Scanner. It was really a weird feeling. "It really does work..." It's about 1836km from Ogasawara Drum, Chichijima to Habomai Post Office, Hokkaido. My longest link ever created was like 15km or something. I pressed "link", and the link was established, all too soon. I did not see any field. I thought I screwed something up again, but Kagetu, right next to me, said; "hey, it's a field." I switched to the Intel Map, and there was a field, as big as the main island of Japan! YES!!!

Admin02245 and Tomorrow25 reported they linked Katsuura Lighthouse, Chiba and Nagasaki-Bana, Chiba. Kojikoji reported he linked Habomai Post Office, Hokkaido and Nosappu-Point Lighthouse, Hokkaido. Sksyun and LightSpeed2998 at Nagasaki-Bana, Chiba reported they went back to their cars due to the bad weather but they were carefully monitoring the portal and the surroundings. The portal had more chance to be attacked than other portals since the Enlightened was superior in the region. LightSpeed2998 said on Hangout; "Hey, I'm playing your songs now. It's perfect. No worries, We can do this!"

Kagetu and I linked from two other portals to Nagasaki-Bana and Habomai Post Office to make the core CF to 3 layers CF. Then at the last, linked to Katsuura Light house, Chiba and Nosappu-Point Lighthouse, Hokkaido. We made 5 CFs in total. That was the end of the operation sequence. 20:23.

Now all we could do was to defend the fields until 21:00.

I sat down on the turf, by the coconut tree with Kagetu. The sea breeze was nice but it was making my phone kind of sticky. It's been always like this since I came to this Island. Would I miss it after I go back to the mainland? I looked up the sky. The weather was perfect. We were in the middle of the city but still we could see so many stars. Ogasawara is one of the best places for star gazing in Japan. "40 minutes till the checkpoint. We were too good. Any signs of attack?" "Nop." Sometimes people walked by, and some tourists were gathering by the pier light, watching fish. I wished if it was much later at night and quiet, then I could hear the ocean more.


We passed the checkpoint.

Our operation was successful.

"Thank you, thank you everyone."

I thanked my friends on Hangout.

All of us lead this operation to success. Not me, all of us.

I was not the best leader at all but I was blessed with the best people🙂

It was strange that I could feel other Agents all the time during the operation even though they were 1000km away (one of them was 1900km away!). We were always communicating, thinking, and solving problems together. It's just a game, but 8 people actually went to actual places, got in sync with each other, and drew virtual blue triangles that was as big as the main island of Japan on the Pacific ocean. Isn't that cool? I think it's cool.

Ingress is something.

(Ogasawara was green when we got there, but look!)


---------------

Stats:

I wasn't expecting much MUs since the most part of the field was on the ocean, but in total we got 2,091,087MUs. Not bad! My Illuminator medal went Gold to Platinum, and Kagetu's went Silver to Gold. Maybe we mind controlled all the dolphins 🐬🐬🐬 I don't know. 

---------------

Field Agents:

Admin02245

CrystaTech

Gumball

kojikoji

LightSpeed2998

sksyun

Tomorrow25

yasirokagetu

Thank you. 🙂

Tagged:

Comments

  • Excellent work, resistance agent !!

    Bright blue sky, clear beautiful blue ocean, very large blue field !!

  • StranditStrandit ✭✭✭

    This is a really lovely writeup. The first field I ever ran, I felt much the same way. Thank you for sharing!

  • excellent ‼︎

  • Excellent sitrep!

  • Sometimes you got into a scrape, but you got the mind blowing landscape, and the blue shape!

  • chiakeshichiakeshi ✭✭✭✭

    What a beatiful view!

    Thanks for sharing great sitrep.

  • Good work

  • i really enjoyed your write-up of this operation. what an awesome adventure.

  • You were lucky to get support from experienced agents, that's what I love about Ingress. How did you get 2M MU over water? Did you cover coastal area's or islands maybe?

    Congratulations on your first ops, hope to see more coming!

    Greetings,

    Fortifer from Amsterdam.

  • It is VERY VERY nervewracking to be making long links. You throw the link. And then you wait ... wait ... wait ... until the link is up!

    Well done. Mainly for taking charge, and putting the effort in. Makes the game worthwhile.

    Now if only I could motivate myself to take all your blue down and turn it green! Ha!

    Well done.

    @ArrayQueue from Exeter, UK.

  • Hi🙂

    I don’t know how MUs are calculated. Our fields were on the same cells of some coastal areas, plus they were multi layered so I guess that’s why we got decent MUs. (I got #1 at PA02-ALPHA-01 and some other cells)

  • excellent work!

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