John’s Sendoff (Operation Biffed It)

After hearing that our fellow resistance agent 1c0m4u will be returning home to AZ, we decided to pull a mini-op as a goodbye. We had talked about collaborating over the years and never pulled the trigger.

So on Saturday night, with a half baked idea and a little free time, I drew up a plan.

Loosely. Sort of. I didn’t draw it actually. I counted out the hours until checkpoint and decided that we would have fields up by the 7 PM CP on Sunday, September 20. Little did I know, CP was at 5 or 9 PM. I loosely traced some triangles between portals I had no keys to and said “eureka, that’s my op!”

I set out later than expected to key farm Sunday morning due to a brutal hangover. I ran the rugged quarter mile of the Illini Trail in Findlay, IL, between the Yantis Parking Lot and Mile Marker 7. Realizing I was supposed to be at 7.5, I hung my head and trudged the half mile to my anchor. After a frack where I probably got malaria from the thousand mosquitoes, I trekked back to my car and met with our most travel-happy agent ltlmagoo for a quick frack in the Arcola Township Cemetery. After swearing I’d stay off the map, a clumsy ultra strike showed my hand. I was officially on track to show up on Intel at every significant point in this field.

Keys in hand at 4:15, magoo said “We have 45 minutes to CP.” I said “What? Shit.” I kicked myself for two seconds, then I set out for Sullivan to pick up 1c0m and take out last minute blockers. CP or not, we were ready to roll.

With blockers dropped by 5, my sloppily planned fields were up without a hitch around 6:45, just in time for my imaginary CP. Magoo freestyled and pulled more layers than I had thought possible. We made the ugliest rectangle but it was OUR rectangle, dammit.

I stopped looking at my phone around 7, feeling pretty good about our overnight secure anchors. But then, at 7:13, a notification - 7.5 on Chief Illini Trail was under attack.

What?

Turns out those trails are open 24 hours.

So fellow agents, this is your sign to PLAN THE OP, DO THE THING, but for the love of god do your research, make your draws early, and do your math before you start drinking.

Thank you to mikearvi and logiCole for being our eyes in the sky. Thank you to DeweyJ for the comedic relief when the field went down. And once again, thank you to the throwers, 1c0m4u and ltlmagoo, for your time and grace for my royally poor planning. We didn’t score, but the real scoring is the friends you make along the way.

Safe travels and best wishes to 1c0m4u on his next adventure.