Ingress Report - Raw feed Aug 7 2014 - The #helios artifacts

XM is crucial. Keep your reserves high. Hello Agents. I’m Susanna Moyer and this is the Ingress Report. When faced with the Portal crisis caused by Devra Bogdanovich’s Portal Virus, Agents from around the world banded together to capture more than 700 million Mind Units, temporarily reversing the effects of the virus. This achievement highlights the dedication and skill of Ingress Agents around the world, but it only scratches the surface. In Operation Deadliest BAF , a Resistance dream born in the Fall of 2013, Agents in the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Croatia, and Israel collaborated for months to plan and execute a series of Megafields over the Pacific Rim and North America. With multiple Fields valued at 67.5 million Mind Units each, the Resistance may have set new records for North America. Meanwhile, the Enlightened concentrated on a new Agent initiative, codenamed Appleseed. Designed to recruit and train the newest generation of Enlightened Agents with firsthand teambuilding and global coordination, 48 sites from Aberdeen, Scotland to Zheleznodorozhny , Russia, and more than 470 Agents took part to establish 3,916 Links. And finally, just as Helios brought Enlightened and Resistance Agents together to counteract the effects of the Bogdanovich Portal Virus, Agents have also come together for their own Cross-Faction operations: In Atlanta, Agents memorialized Agent @Darknight by creating a Cross-Faction bat signal in his honor. Agents can donate to this cause at www.ryantyndallfamilyfund.com In Japan, Agents created a heart and origami crane as a symbol of hope, good fortune, and peace in Hiroshima, where a memorial ceremony will be held this week. And in South Florida, Agents @Zynroch (zin-rock) and @ViridianSiren hosted a Cross-Faction picnic to meet local Agents face-to-face, donate blood, and raise money for the March of Dimes. Meanwhile, the planning for the next Helios Anomalies continues both at the highest strategic levels and on the ground. On August 9th, Exotic Matter Anomalies will take place in Taipei with Satellite sites in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, followed by Chicago with Satellite sites in Richmond and Galveston. In addition to these cities, a dozen Regional Cells, in countries such as Japan, New Zealand, Germany, India and the Czech Republic will be part of this Anomaly, enabling Agents across the globe to help influence the outcome. Further details are available in the Visur Technology Anomaly Document. At the heart of the Helios Anomaly series is the effort to undo the effects of the Bogdanovich Portal Virus. Up till now, Agents have only been able to partially mitigate its effects, but now, a permanent solution may have emerged. Last weekend agents in San Diego and Dublin were able to collect and assemble a document that revealed that the Portals themselves may hold an answer to the Virus. The document described a global mechanism that could counter the effects of the Virus if a set of XM Artifacts can be transported to a series of special Target Portals. These Target Portals will appear two at a time at locations around the globe, one aligned to Resistance modulated XM, and the other aligned to the Enlightened. They will migrate to a new location approximately every seven days. A total of 40 of these artifacts are believed to exist. While both Enlightened and Resistance Agents have a shared interest in ensuring that these Artifacts reach their destinations, returning the Portal Network to full strength, more may be at stake. It is currently believed that the Faction that captures the greater number of these Artifacts will obtain some additional control over this process. Given the effects of XM artifacts in the past on individuals such as Roland Jarvis and Hank Johnson, I have to question whether such a victory will bring a blessing, or a curse. We’ll be monitoring the Intel map for signs of these Artifacts and will update you when further news becomes available. In the meantime, the document, viewable at the Niantic Project on Facebook and Google+, reveals many other details about the Artifacts that will help Agents prepare for their arrival. Despite an effective counter-action spurred on by Lynton-Wolfe last week, Dr. Bogdanovich remains committed to shutting down the Portals. A new version of her Portal Virus has been observed in the wild. Initial measurements suggest that it partially reverses the gains made by Agents in their recent push to surpass 700M Mind Units. I was able to reach Dr. Martin Schubert, a former Niantic Project researcher, for the details. SCHUBERT The second deployment of the Portal Virus revealed a significantly more sophisticated attack vector. It appears to decrease the lifespan of a fully charged Portal from five days to four days, a mere 96 hours before it collapses to a neutral state. SUSANNA Dr. Shubert. You were able to identify the 700 Million Mind Unit Target as a mechanism to mitigate the effects of the initial Virus. Is there a ‘cure’ for the latest version of the Virus? SCHUBERT The data is still coming in but I feel certain that increased Portal activity will have a positive effect. At this point it appears that one Billion Mind Units, sustained through the end Helios Anomalies on August 9th, should be enough to counter the latest version of the Virus. SUSANNA Thank you, Dr Schubert. SCHUBERT This information is important for us all, Susanna. Thank you. SUSANNA An entirely new angle to the Portal Virus surfaced last week. The Exotic Matter shortage may be having an impact on Enlightened leader Roland Jarvis, the person behind the ironically named “Society for the Ethical Treatment of AIs.” Jarvis has reportedly become increasingly isolated in his seaside compound and there are rumors that he is suffering from some sort of affliction. Agent and Investigator zmaya (pronounced: Z-Maya) of the St. Louis Enlightened speculated that this illness is related to the the reduced XM output caused by the Portal Virus. Reports are coming in that ADA too, may be negatively affected by the Virus. An audio intercept obtained by this team revealed that ADA, the artificial originally set up to assist in Niantic Project research, may have run out of available computing resources. To continue her evolution, she appears to be contemplating leveraging the computing power of the human mind, using it as a kind of vast, distributed network. She reportedly requires large quantities of Exotic Matter for this initiative which she cannot currently obtain. Having seen the impact of ADA’s ingress into the mind of Klue, her first human “host,” I for one am alarmed at the implications of this plan. If we have learned anything from ADA based on her past history, it is that she seems to find a way to get what she wants, regardless of the cost. Much is at stake in Helios, and many are affected. I’ll be watching as the next Helios Anomalies unfold and Agents race to reach 1 Billion Mind Units in the days leading up to it. Good luck to you all. For the Ingress Report, I’m Susanna Moyer.