Attempted Infiltration at M.A.S.A.D.A Facility

The Attempted Infiltration at MASADA is an event in which the gang from Endless Summer attempt to infiltrate the MASADA Facility to gain access to the Lernaean Gate as a means to get back home. It takes place in Endless Summer, Book 2, with the actual infiltration occurring during Chapter 13. However, the fallout of the infiltration continues long after and both Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 deal directly with its outcomes.

Planning and Journey to MASADA
The plan to infiltrate MASADA begins to take shape in Book 2, Chapter 9. IRIS, now in possession of her memories from her life as Imogen Rourke, appears and surprises Your Character, Aleister Rourke, and Zahra Namazi. She explains that she has a way to get you and your friends off of La Huerta. She explains that Rourke has a device called the Lernaean gate, which functions like a larger version of the portal gun you used to escape the Vaanti Attack on The Celestial. She says that Rourke abandoned the project because the completed gate required an impossible amount of energy to run, but that you should be able to power it with the island's heart.

You return to Elyystel and relay IRIS' message to your friends. Together, you decide to make the journey north to the MASADA complex, accompanied by Varyyn and a number of Vaanti warriors. On the way, you are attacked by the Arachnids, led by Rex Lundgren, but manage to escape. While taking refuge at the Elysian Lodge, Estela Montoya discovers that Lila Sethi killed her mother on Everett Rourke's orders. The two fight and Lila flees. Later, Arachnid attacks for a second time, causing many Arachnid soldiers and some of your friends to fall into a frozen river. Eventually, you reach MASADA and camp out on the cliff opposite the facility, which is accessed by a single cable car.

You and your friends try to develop a plan for how to reach MASADA, but aren't sure how to gain access to the facility without being taken prisoner by Arachnid. Jake McKenzie points out that the immediate concern needs to be caring for the wounded. Estela mentions having seen tire tracks from Arachnid vehicles and suggests raiding them for medical supplies. You, Jake, Estela, Varyyn, and Michelle Nguyen find an abandoned tank and search it. While you do so, a group of wounded Arachnid operatives return, and you incapacitate them and take their suits.

You return to the campsite with the suits and develop a plan. You, Zahra, Sean Gayle, and Craig Hsiao will pose as Arachnid soldiers who have taken the rest of your friends prisoner. Jake turns down wearing a suit, determining that being captured will avoid any suspicion from Lundgren. You develop a cover story explaining why you didn't check in after the fight on the frozen river, how you captured those of your friends who don't have suits, and what happened to the "missing" Catalysts.

Reaching the Gate
You board the cable car with your friends, but before you reach the other side, the radio inside the car turns on, and Fiddler begins to interrogate you. Your cover story succeeds at allaying her suspicions, and you are allowed to continue to the facility. When you enter the facility, you meet Rourke and Lila, who apparently defected back to his side after fleeing the lodge. He asks you further questions relating to your cover story and, when satisfied with your answers, orders you, Zahra, Sean, and Craig to dredge the river for your bodies, noting that he needs to recover your corpse in particular. The rest of your friends are led off to be put into stasis.

IRIS calls the four of you to Olivia Montoya's old lab, where she gives you directions for how to find and free your friends and how to find the Lernaean Gate. You accidentally activate a simulation Olivia created before her death intended to warn people of the dangers of Rourke's research. In it, you see yourself wearing a red spacesuit, and have the power to manipulate time. Your friends manage to shut down the simulation, and you have the opportunity to arm Craig with a laser cannon.

You succeed in sneaking past Lundgren and make your way to Hydrodynamic Stasis, where Fiddler and Mouse are about to put Jake into stasis. You defeat the two Arachnid soldiers and free your friends. If you chose to arm Craig with the laser cannon, it is also revealed that the missing hotel guests are being held in stasis at MASADA. You and your friends continue to Theoretical Prismatics, where IRIS told you you would find the Lernaean Gate.

At Theoretical Prismatics, you find Jake's Catalyst Idol. If you retrieve the idol, you see Jake be released from a cell in the facility after being held prisoner for years, with Zahra's voice informing you that she has rigged the building to explode. Rather than escape to safety, he moves further into MASADA and frees you from a stasis pod. Mouse finds the two of you and shoots him, but Jake manages to kill him before dying. Finally, you and your friends reach the Lernaean Gate. You say goodbye to Varyyn and step through.

When you arrive back at Hartfeld, you find that it has been destroyed, and that the whole town seems to be covered by lava. You attempt to return through the Gate, but find the portal closed. With Quinn's help, you are able to access your psychic link to Varyyn, who returns with the Island's Heart and reopens the gate, saving you.

Return and Capture
When you return to MASADA, Aleister shouts at the group because returning to Hartfeld put Grace Hall in danger for nothing. You attempt to escape the facility by retracing your steps. As you leave, you have the chance to retrieve Aleister's Catalyst Idol, though receive no vision since you don't touch it with Aleister. As you continue to make your way through the facility, Rourke appears on the screens. He "laments" to Aleister the loss of their relationship and how much they could have restored the world together had he not pushed him away and seen his worth.

Blinded by emotion, Aleister locks you inside a portion of the hallway, thereby betraying the group. Rourke arrives, accompanied by Arachnid and Lila. Rourke promises not to hurt you, but does so in a way that he can manipulate his promise to Aleister and kill you once Aleister leaves with Grace, who swears to never to forgive him for betraying everyone, before leaving himself.

The Arachnid soldiers drag Estela before Lila to be executed, but Lila, having now realized Rourke's true nature, instead shoots the soldiers. Before she can take them all out, she is wounded. Estela grabs a gun and prepares to kill Lila in revenge for her mother's murder. You either allow her to kill Lila or talk her out of it. If Estela does not kill Lila, she will wait in ambush for the Arachnid reinforcements, slowing them down before they kill her.

Escape
You resume your attempt to escape MASADA. Varyyn, Michelle, Diego Soto, and Raj Bhandarkar board the cable car, but Mouse appears and prevents the rest of your group from boarding. You encourage the others to leave, and they begin to cross the chasm on the cable car. While they do so, the rest of you engage Mouse in combat. You defeat him, but not before he damages the cable that the cable car hangs on. Varyyn climbs the cable while Michelle, Diego, and Raj hold on the car and release it. Varyyn then pulls them to safety and they retreat into the woods on the other side. During the skirmish with Mouse, Jake breaks his helmet, revealing that Mouse is actually Mike Darwin, his best friend whom he believed was dead after their thwarted attempt to reveal Lundgren's weapons dealing.

As you can no longer cross with the gondola, you decide to escape through the MASADA complex's helicopter hangar. On your way there, Zahra gives you the option to blow up the facility as compensation for their journey being for naught and retribution against Rourke, noting that the hotel guests are deep enough underground that they should be unharmed. You reach the hangar only to find the helicopters phasing in and out of being. Jake realizes that Arachnid only came to MASADA because Lundgren wanted to catch him, and calls Lundgren to report his own location.

You all succeed in boarding the helicopter, but Lundgren uses his exoskeleton to jump onto the helicopter and proceeds to cut through the door. Zahra succeeds in shocking him and knocking him off the helicopter, but he takes her with him when he falls. Jake announces that Lundgren damaged the helicopter and that missiles from Tetra are being locked onto you. Quinn says goodbye and floats out of the helicopter, accessing the Heart's power to defend the group. You fall from the helicopter's missing door. If you manage to catch the landing skid, either Sean, Jake, or Estela will attempt to pull you back in. Just before they reach you, the landing skid detaches from the damaged helicopter. You hit the water and lose consciousness.