Level 8!

Mission Briefing:

After five months of duty serving in the reserve forces of the Resistance, Agent eminus received an Intel package containing directions to his most important mission yet.  Highly classified Intel indicated a strong Enlightened presence near the area designated as "Smurf Village" near the Civic Center of San Francisco.  To reach Level 8 clearance, RA7 eminus would need to attack a specific portal held under Shaper influence and claim it for the humanist population.

The primary target for this operation was a Zipcar parking space portal on Mission Street between 7th and 8th.  Secondary targets nearby would assist Agent eminus in reaching his goal if primary goal failed.  If successful in destroying the Enlightened resonators and deploying to fully occupy the portal named "Zipcar - 1160 Mission Street" RA7 eminus' clearance would be upgraded to Level 8.

Chatter in the COMM channel, declassified here for the first time:

10:33AM
[secure] Otarin: Dear god, would you look at Smurf Village. Gross.
10:51AM
[secure] ChromePanda: dropped a couple bombs on it as I went by on the bus
10:57AM
[secure] Otarin: @ChromePanda Thanks, just saw that. Slightly less slimy now :)
10:57AM
[secure] ChromePanda: just on 8th street, wish I could have done more, hopefully someone will get a bunch of AP out of re-capturing it
10:59AM
[secure] Otarin: @ChromePanda Hoping the same. I'd hate to see it like this when I get home; I'll clean it up, but it'd be better if it goes to someone who needs the AP.
11:07AM
[secure] eminus: i think after the conference call that i am on i may need to be L8 for my next meeting and dispose of at least one green portal at smurf village

Shortly before 1200hrs, RA7 eminus reached the target portal, beginning his attack:

11:51AM

eminus destroyed an L3 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:51AM

eminus destroyed an L3 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:51AM

eminus destroyed an L4 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:51AM

eminus destroyed an L4 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

Problems with the scanner app delayed the attack further at this point.  A forced reboot acted almost like a normal portal hacking cooldown period.  Tears began to form in RA7 eminus' eyes.  The moment was almost at hand.

11:56AM

eminus destroyed an L5 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link that's California (1099 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed a Control Field @Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA) -13 MUs

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link Friend Ears (1137 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link A Place to Dream Mural (98 Julia Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed an L4 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed a Control Field @Colorful Lamp Post (1 Rausch Street, San Francisco, CA) -166 MUs

11:57AM

eminus destroyed a Control Field @Colorful Lamp Post (1 Rausch Street, San Francisco, CA) -72 MUs

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link Colorful Lamp Post (1 Rausch Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed a Control Field @Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA) -147 MUs

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link Colored Lamp Post (1074-1098 San Francisco Bicycle Route 30, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed a Control Field @Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA) -451 MUs

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link that's California (1099 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed the Link Take Flight (1185-1199 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA) to Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:57AM

eminus destroyed an L4 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:58AM

eminus destroyed an L5 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:58AM

eminus deployed an L1 Resonator on Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

11:58AM

eminus captured Zipcar-1160 Mission Street (1160 Mission St San Francisco, CA)

GPS drift in the scanner app forced RA7 eminus to give up on fully deploying on primary target, resulting in deployment of low level resonators on secondary target "Lenahan Mural".

12:05PM

eminus deployed an L1 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:05PM

eminus deployed an L1 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:05PM

eminus deployed an L1 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:06PM

eminus deployed an L2 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:06PM

eminus deployed an L3 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:06PM

eminus deployed an L3 Resonator on Lenehan Mural (1148 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)

12:07PM

Level Up!  You are now Level 8.

And with that, eminus' security clearance was upgraded and he was officially RA8, the highest ranking Agent Level currently available.

Celebratory Chatter in the COMM channel, declassified here for the first time:

12:13PM

[secure] eminus: what a productive meeting I had at the Lenahan mural and zipcar portal. Ding!

12:19PM

[secure] Peregrinator: @eminus yay! you should write off your expenses for making LEVEL 8!!

12:48PM

[secure] Blackfoot: @eminus congrats!

1:13PM

[secure] Otarin: Thanks for helping on the Village @cynja!

1:29PM

[secure] gundamxx123: @eminus congrats l8

1:29PM

[secure] gundamxx123: @eminus congrats l8

1:30PM

[secure] cynja: @Otarin Wish I could have done more. Crazy winds & server lag sent me running for cover.

2:04PM

[secure] eminus: That server lag was crazy!

2:13PM

[secure] cynja: @eminus But the lag didn't stop you from reaching L8! Congrats!

Agent Post-Op Report:

Planning a strategic attack for minimal walking and maximum AP using an extremely limited amount of bursters and resonators worked out well for me in my final push to reach Level 8 in Ingress.  Yesterday, I scouted the Jamba Juice portal in Westlake Shopping Center in the afternoon and earned over 8000AP by just destroying the fields and links emanating from that portal and then deploying resonators to fill it.  Today, I worked my way through the remaining AP needed to reach Level 8, again by destroying fields and links and capturing a single portal.  I used public transportation for both events to minimize the walking on the still recovering knee and got to the highest available level currently in the game.

I had committed to Brian Rose of Niantic Labs that I would let him know when I hit Level 8 when I met him at the USC event a few weeks back.  I'm there now!

Thanks to my wife for bearing with me while I play this crazy game and the many folks playing for their support in helping me reach Level 8 over the five months that I've participated in Ingress thus far.  I've walked over 300 miles as tracked by my FitBit and Pebble devices and have had many grand adventures.

I recovered the Verum Inveniri storyboard drop back in February that lead to my likeness being added to the Niantic Project as well here: http://goo.gl/DqKEc

Niantic Labs have helped take me to places I'd have never gone before and the story is just beginning to be told.

To those of you in Southern California tonight for the Misty Hannah performance, BE SAFE!  I can't wait to see where this rabbit hole continues to go.

Agent Report to Local Resistance "Resist SF":

Couldn't stay long but breaking a bunch of fields from the Zipcar portal and dropping some resonators on the Lenahan mural made for a very productive meeting near Smurf Village for me. 

Thank you to each and every one of the Resist SF agents that supported me with transport, Intel, gear drops, social interaction and just plain old encouragement to keep going!

Additional addendum to Resist SF faction:

I just wish I'd had some actual time to spend over there.  It was basically race up Mission Street, attack the portal.  App crashed, phone crashed, reboot everything, attack the portal.  Acquire AP, deploy, GPS drift, give up trying to find the Zipcar portal and deploy on the mural then take BART back to FiDi to get back before my next actual meeting.

RA8 eminus has indicated he will now attempt to maintain a low profile, having taken a telephone maintenance grate to the knee and will assist in building and maintaining high level farms rather than attacking Enlightened targets.