The Phoenix Frogs Field – April 2016

This field had its impetus one night (9^th April) while I was out with nannydeb taking down yet another lazy blue field over the gulf. I mean how hard is it to field across water! And at 65k MU a layer why wouldn’t you. And we hadn’t had a mega for, well, for such a long time I can’t remember when the last one was!  We had a whole new breed of Enlightened Agents that have never experienced life under a large green blanket.

The smurf responsible for those lazy fields chided me as I took his layered field down, and they immediately threw another, that  we should get organised!! That coming from a Smurf and particularly this one, was like a red rag to a bull.

I got back home and had a bit of a dummy spit in Slack.  Then the following happened.

Talk began on Sunday 10^th April and by 7pm a Slack Channel had been started to pool resources and get a proposed mega off the ground. Nightshade 13 had a basic plan for a big triangle that was floated amongst a small but growing group of enthusiastic agents.  A Burra/Tintinara/KI triangle, simple.

Thewiseone and easygreen stepped up to be the lead field agents, and a few names were floated to lead the ops.

Next keys had to be sorted. With a cluster of portals at both Burra and Tintinara to choose from it became a matter of what keys were available to suit the angles and maximise the fielding.

Three portals were chosen in Burra, 8 portals along the highway in Tintinara and 1 portal on KI. Keys were gathered from far and wide, and all made their way to our two lead field agents. I was enlisted into the team at this stage, all the experienced Op’s were unavailable for one reason or another. This was to be my debut as a field Op. A bit scary really, but I was up for the challenge (well talked into it, as it was my dummy spit that started all this) and was assured there was plenty of support when (not if) I needed it.

The day before the field was to go up thewiseone, easygreen and I had a meeting up north to plan the field and swap keys.  It was a good meeting,  we confirmed the plan and timing, what obstacles were in place and the resources we could call on to make it all happen. We also confirmed the communications we would use during fielding, Zollo for voice coms and Slack as a backup. I knew I was in good company, these two really know their stuff.

We started lining up and confirming agents to take out blockers, and others to stand-by in case of any urgent clearances that may have been required. It all looked good. That night there were about 10 blocking links, both blue and green in 7 different regions, but they were all covered.

A few links were taken down that evening in what was made to look like normal activity, and they all went unnoticed by the smurfs.

The next day we woke to a couple of new blockers, but by mid afternoon, the smurfs had taken care of 2 of them and put in a new one, but we had them covered.

As the afternoon progressed and our 6:45 start time for breaking the blockers approached the stress levels started to rise. Around 4pm a new blocking link went in in the north and an ENL agent started playing and linking around the mid point of the eastern side of the field. He wasn’t in slack!!! I messaged him in “Faction Comms” in the Intel screen (never assume this is secure by any stretch of the imagination). I said I had a small plan for the area and would he mind not fielding it up, luckily he was OK with it and stopped (his brother in Adelaide also had a quiet word to him as well).  I stopped sweating for a minute!!

Between 5:30 and 6 it was all about making sure everyone was confirmed for their roles and either in place or getting there. After an agonising wait and a number of Slack messages and sms’s all was good.

At 6:45 the blockers started to fall, and our fielding agents were almost in place. It was a good climb up at Burra for easygreen and princesssel to get into postion, and in Tintinara thewiseone and mayathistle , having finished their Schnitties and chips, made their way to the outskirts of Tintinara.

By 7pm all the blockers were down and we started making links. Our first glitch of the night was a comms problem, Zollo wasn’t working well in Tintinara, so we went to Slack for Tint and stayed with Zollo for Burra.

Fielding went very well, with small delays as our agents moved from portal to portal and lit them up and threw their links. The last links in the main fields went in just before CP at 7:30. We had 9 layer in for 6,886,560 MU.

But then the sad news came through from Tintinara, I had miscalculated and Mayathistle hadn’t got her Black Illuminator. The fix was quickly in, (thanks to quick thinking by thewiseone),  ADA the Tintinara War Memorial and refield. It was done as easygreen and princesssel went out to take out a small blocker for a bonus field to the east out to Wentworth. By the time they were back Mayathistle had her Black badge and the last field was thrown at about 7:40.

From an Op point of view the whole night was worth it for the squeals of delight from princessel up in Burra as her fields went in. I am sure the same was happening down in Tintinara, we had a bunch of very happy agents, and one VERY relieved Operator. It was time for a large glass of port to settle my nerves. ☺

The hard numbers for the Op were:

First Fields           6,886,560 Mu in before CP at 7:30pm

After refielding the total went to  7.679 mil MU

Black Illuminator Badges for easygreen and mayathistle

Platinum Illuminator for (a very excited) princesssel

The fields eventually lasted 4 (almost 5 Check Points). It was taken down by a real person (rather than the “Spoof”option that seems to be so prevalent these days) in Tintinara, with the Burra portals taken out again by a real agent on the ground a bit later

I’d like to thank and acknowledge the help and great team effort of agents who took an active role in the Op.

Links & Fielding:  easygreen, thewiseone, mayathistle and princesssel.

Our Block Breakers without whom this just would not have happened: Pol42, gatedfender, Bructus, infiltrator, raeman, easygreen, mayathistle16 and thewiseone.

And those on stand-by for emergency help: skettilegs and rageus

A very big thankyou to nannydeb for keeping me focused and just being there ☺

Finally, a special mention to nightshade13. He got all this going and without his early (and ongoing) support and guidance I don’t think I would have made it through the Op in one piece. Thank you.

Keep it Green,

your Op, altotude.

A few pics of the Op