I dashed through the swamp, arrows narrowly missing me. Come on, where is it?! I thought to myself in annoyance. I hadn't gone far from it! As a poisoned arrow whizzed past my right ear, I spotted the witch's hut. I carefully aimed an arrow (or as carefully as you can aim an arrow while running at full speed) and shot the middle of the side wall. Which was actually a concealed button. And the ground opened up. I fell into the hole, sling, or maybe whumping, down a stone chute. I carefully sealed the tunnel with smooth stone, a bit sad that it would never be used again. But I knew that sealing it meant the main outpost would never be found, and if it was... Nevermind, I don't want to think about that. I jumped into the minecart and sped off down the track.
As I hopped out of the minecart, I contemplated that at least my mission had been somewhat successful. I did gather some intel (the griefers had located the concealed Outpost 28) and checking my bag, I realized I had gathered some resources - about 3 feet of vines, 6 blue orchid thingies, 15 chunks of wood, 2 glistering melon chunks, and 3 lumps of nether wart.
"Adriana!" I turned. Lizzy, one of the chief landformers, was waving to me from the workshop area. (A landformer is someone who's in charge of diguising outposts, emergency shelters, and the like to make them look like a natural part of the landscape.) When I had walked closer, she continued. "What did you get?"
After I showed her my gathered resources, I reported, "Outpost 28's been discovered. We probably should send a team to get everything and everyone out of there by sunset tomorrow." Lizzy nodded grimly. "Here, you take the flowers and the vines. They'll help if you're ever in a swamp."
"What about the wood?" I asked once Lizzy had tucked the supplies in her bag.
"I'll take them to Miles," Lizzy said. "He hasn't had much wood lately. I think Lilly is having some problems with the tree farm. Oh - and I can take the melons and nether wart to Renee. Why don't you go check how Claire's doing? Then you could go and get your next mission." I nodded and went off to the orchard.
Inside, I found Claire looking around in a chest for something. When I entered her range of vision, she prompted, "Do you know anything about my bonemeal?"
"What?" I asked, confused. "I know what bonemeal does, if that's what you mean."
"No. My bonemeal's all gone, and I know I had at least 20 little lumps of it in here. Now nothing!" Claire looked more angry than distraught. "Someone must be taking them!"
"I know!" I said. "You could try replacing the door with an iron one, and then put an observer by the chest, and make it so the door won't open once someone opens the chest. But if you do that just remember not to use that chest."
"Perfect!" Claire said. "Thanks, Adriana. I'll talk to Brian sometime." Brian was the redstone expert.
And so I walked over to the mission control center, where Amber was busy reviewing outpost locations and blueprints with Lexi. "Thank the goodness you're back," Amber remarked. "We were worried you'd been captured." I nodded, and slid a silver book over the table to her.
"Intel," I said. "But something more important first - Outpost 28 needs to be evacuated." Amber sighed sadly. "Very well. I'll assemble a team by sunset. Would you like to go?"
"I don't really care."
"'Kay."
I returned to my quarters, and fell asleep in my bed.
"MRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOWWWWW."
I was awakened by my cat, Pepper. The little brown kitten kneaded my belly. "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOWWRRRRRAAAAOOOWWWRRRR." I gently pushed her off of me. And then there was an announcement.
Lizzy, Phil, and Adriana, please report to mission control for your next mission. I thought about how Pepper had woken me up just in time. Sometimes it seems like she can read my mind. I grabbed my bag off my desk, and retrieved a new silver notebook from one of my drawers.
In the mission control center, Amber was waiting with Renee of the apothecary and Phil and Lizzy were already there.
"Hello everyone," Amber began. "Your task is to go to Outpost 28, and evacuate it without getting captured. But there's a bit of a catch. We haven't yet been able to build and disguise a tunnel there yet, because the last one near there got discovered and destroyed. So to keep the element of surprise, we're going to have you all go up to Mt. Olioli first."
Phil raised his hand. Amber turned to him. "Wouldn't it be better to take horses and speed potions? They'll probably see us coming anyway if we're traveling across the plains."
"No," Amber said. "We're going to have you take elytras."
There was an awkward silence.
"I'm sorry, what?" Phil asked.
"You're going to glide off a designated ledge of Mt. Olioli to the outpost," Amber said. "You should be able to get there, since Mt. Olioli is high, but if you're not, you can release fireworks to boost you higher. But use them sparingly, please, because gunpowder is hard to come by. We've enchanted some elytras taken from the griefers; you can keep them. When you're gliding, have your bow, fireworks, and maybe a bucket of water ready in case you crash."
"What will we do when we've evacuated?" Phil asked.
"Oh yes - I almost forgot," Amber said. "Give the people there these elytras, and this is where it's extra important to not use your fireworks, because you will need them to launch yourselves up in the direction of Mt. Olioli, and take the train at the base back."
Amber paused and handed us each a map of the Mt. Olioli region and a book. "Those are directions for getting to the outpost. Get going now, and good luck.
Renee gave us each potions of healing, regeneration, leaping, speed, and invisibility, and reminded us to return them if we didn't use them. And we got on the train to Mt. Olioli.