



On January 4, 2020, in Odessa, Texas, Ingress agents gathered for a First Saturday event unlike any they had done before. As a community, they put aside faction and city loyalty to honor an agent, @Ribbitt223, who passed away last year, and also to bring smiles to his widow and their children.





We planned a link star, dubbed “The Bow Tie Burst” positioned between two cities in West Texas: Midland and Odessa. Agents spent a week planning, gathering keys, harvesting resonators, and clearing links for the big day.





IFS registration started at noon at a local restaurant with key distribution. Agents were given their assigned starting portals. At 13:00, IFS kicked off with Resistance agents flooding Odessa, and Enlightened Agents descending on Midland.





One ENL agent, @Ramsinator, took the special task of traveling about 90 miles to Colorado City, where @Ribbitt223 lived. She voluntarily forfeited the uptick on her First Saturday badge, missing the check-in portal, to be certain she could get keys to the family and help them throw. There, in Colorado City, she met @Ribbitt223’s wife and sons, who all play Ingress as well: @Craftyy @Abernathy918 and @Hawke0301. His sons had driven in late the night before to be present for the event. They threw a number of links from Colorado City to the link star as well.





All of this was accomplished for @Ribbitt223, who was one of the early members of the Midland/Odessa First Saturday cohort. Several agents who participated fondly remembered engaging with @Ribbitt223 both in game and in person. Further, some agents drove for more than five hours to take part in this event: they came from Las Cruces, NM, El Paso, San Angelo, Colorado City, Lubbock, Odessa, and Midland.





By the time IFS officially ended at 15:00 for double AP, agents had created 426 links to the star. However, after that, agents continued throughout the afternoon and evening to throw to the star — by the end of the day they had thrown nearly 700 links.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the successful op:





@Craftyy @Abernathy918 @Hawke0301 @Ramsinator @SavageMessiah @Ospurt @BoobonicBunny @judemistier @Listener70 @BCGolden

@DuneGreystone @TheWhiteRabbitt @TheIndigoRose @TheCryptKeeper @NoMore1007 @Umbrella004 @Patrizzie @PinkDaisy0213 @Losifer026 @Jtrealman @Rwbratgirl @Sunyu1 @AgentCryogenic





More pictures: https://imgur.com/a/xuc75ER