Mobile Scientific Lab

[Karcentric]

"C-c-controller!" Stammered Four looking up clutching his head while he dropped to his knees.

Karc heard the rattle of the P90 being snatched out of Balalaika's hands and saw it fall down into the darkness below. Slight panic gripped him but he forced himself to stay calm, the psi waves weren't affecting him as badly as the rest of the group.

"Fuck!", Balalaika said, grabbing her SVD, "we're in shit up to our necks!"

"Oh it get's better and better." Karc muttered in reply he could see several figures slowly walking towards them in the dark, "Keep an eye out for any buggers above us." He said to Dark and El who were standing at the back of the group, lining up the closest zombie with his SCAR Karc shot it in the head. The zombie dropped and rolled off the platform into the darkness below triggering a burner anomaly. He and Schwarz downed the others approaching their group.

A deep chuckle from above echoed out looking up Karc tried to see what was up there but threw himself to one side as an old rusty toolbox crashed into the rail behind him scattering the tools. "We appear to have a burer up there too. Balalaika get some cover and see if you can pop 'em, we'll try and distract it. If it moves drop it." He said

Pointing the assault rifle up Karc fired at any movement he saw. There others in the group followed his lead firing in bursts dodging the occasional object which was hauled at them. Dark was moving forward towards the stairs holding his SIG ready walking cautiously up he spotted the burer above him, firing carelessly until the mag was spent. As he was reloading a large box was flung at him, looking up he didn't even have time to speak the heavy object smashed him through the rail and into the darkness below landing heavily with a sickening crunch.

"DARK!" Schwarz shouted before dropping to the ground as another piece of debris was flung at him. The chuckling was louder now. The creature had gained confidence from it's successful attack and was redoubling it's efforts to kill the remaining stalkers.

[Basil]

Balalaika rushed off to another point of the platform, closer to the door through which they had entered. She crouched there and took aim at what she thought was the burer, and after carefully getting its head in her sights, she pulled the trigger. The SVD's shot echoed loudly in the closed environment, but the thing she had aimed at somehow managed to block the bullet and send it hurtling away...how the fuck could it even do such a thing?

Swearing, Balalaika fired again, this time lower, but to no avail. The bullet simply ricocheted off some invisible obstacle, and the short, stubby creature growled in annoyance and anger. Balalaika felt an odd change in the room, as if gravity were being warped. Following Karc's advice, she kept an eye out for any flying objects, but saw none.

The two burers were up to something, but what? All they were doing was standing and keeping their short arms in the air...

And then she felt the platform tremble.

At first she thought it was just one of the mercs running along it, but the second tremor was more violent. The platform then proceeded to do something utterly horrifying: her end suddenly detached itself from the wall with a loud squeal of metal and literally hovered in mid-air without any kind of support.

"KARC!", yelled Balalaika, "THE PLATFO-"

And then the platform fell. Balalaika screamed and fell flat on her face before starting to slide down into the darkness below them, a darkness only lit by the flames of Burner anomalies. With a snarl, she grabbed hold of the platform, her fingers entwining themselves in it's grill-like structure. Gasping in pain as the old metal dug into her fingers, she brought up her SVD, propped it with one hand and her shoulder, and proceeded to take aim at one of the burers. The burer was leaning over the platform above them and had started to levitate a heavy and very dangerous looking crate...if that struck somebody's spine, it didn't matter if you were wearing an exo, it would kill you.

"Motherfucker", swore Balalaika as she got the creature's head in her scope. No hesitation, no thought, just pull the trigger. She yelled in pain as the rifle's recoil pounded against her shoulder, practically dislocating her fingers. The shot didn't miss, and the burer found itself missing half its face before dropping over the side of the platform and falling to the floor below. The case followed suit and clanged onto the platform before sliding down, barely avoiding Balalaika.

Balalaika heard a startled moan, followed by two zombies sliding down the platform and falling off, their arms flailing uselessly. Where was the other burer?

That didn't matter too much as the familiar skull rape feeling of a controller returned, making her wince. As she lay on the platform, gasping with pain and effort, she saw the second burer send another large, wooden crate onto the platform, missing one of the mercs but making the weakened structure lurch further towards Terra Firma below. Balalaika took aim again before pulling the trigger and sending a bullet smashing through the heinous creature's skull. This time, her fingers gave way, dislocated and bloody, and she began to slide down.

"Oh for fuck's sake", she moaned as she slid down.

[Karcentric]

"KARC!", yelled Balalaika, "THE PLATFO-"

Karc looked wildly from Schwarz to Balalaika only to fell the ground drop from under his feet. Rolling down the platform he knocked Schwarz and Four off their feet missing a burner anomaly by inches. El on the overhand had managed to leap for the platform next to the collapsing one and landed heavily.

Karc untangled himself from the other two stepping away from them, looking up he saw a large crate sliding towards him, "Shit." he hissed lurching out of the way. Looking up from where he'd landed he saw two zombies slide down the ramp into the burner anomaly. He heard Balalaika firing and the distinct roar of the burer, two loud meaty thuds nearby indicating that they had fallen.

"Oh for fuck's sake" He heard turning he saw Balalaika sliding down the platform nearby. Karc caught her before she reached the landing, she was clutching her left hand. "Let's have a look at that." He said examining the bloodied hand. Carefully wiping the blood her hand he taped the damaged finger together.

Dark's corpse was laying nearby as well as the two burers. Many droplets were dancing about along the platform glowing weakly. Schwarz checked his dead companions body taking the PDA and his ballistics mask stuffing them in his pack. Another psi wave from the controller was felt by the group.

"Hey, guys up here." El called down to the group from the platform above and let down a knotted rope for the group to climb. Once they were assembled on the platform the group slowly began moving up the stairs to the top of the massive chamber. Stopping to pick up the occasional droplet or shoot another zombie.

At the very top of the chamber was what looked to be a giant brain in a jar.

"How is that possible?" Karc asked, "Should we shoot it?" he added looking to Balalaika.

Schwarz had gone into the control room and had returned with a file. "I believe it was shut down at least a year ago it was the cause of all these zombies and countless stalkers becoming zombies from emissions." He said.

[Basil]

"Indeed...", said Balalaika, looking at the odd brain in a jar. The Zone had many horrors in it, but this? This seemed to have been pulled out of a 1950s American horror flick. "Why shoot it? Seems pretty damn harmless to me.

The rest of the "brain room" seemed quite clear of enemies, but Balalaika kept wondering where the controller had gone. Controllers couldn't teleport, could they? The group made its way up the rest of the large room's catwalk network, ending up near some sort of control room and a short flight of stairs leading to some other room. Balalaika went up the stairs, picking up a couple of Droplets as she went, and arrived in an odd little room with tile-covered walls and what appeared to be chain link cages set against the walls. She spotted the corpse of some unlucky loner, and, like anyone who has spent more than a couple of days in the Zone, the 'looting instinct' activated itself in her mind. As she went over to the loner's corpse, she saw an odd opening in the ground in one of the cages...an exit of sorts?

She crouched next to the corpse and went through its belongings...a couple of grenades, the high fragmentation, defensive kind, a shitty Makarov pistol which she tossed aside and a note addressed to some other guy which was signed "Ghost".
The name rang a bell in Balalaika's mind. Hadn't someone mentioned Ghost's suit and how the eggheads wanted to get their hands on it? With a smile, she proceeded to remove Ghost's suit and was about to stuff it into her rucksack when she heard the mercs enter the room...fuck. She knew they'd want to share the money gained from selling the suit, and Balalaika wasn't keen on sharing.

However, as she stood up to face Karc and his goons, a familiar sensation swept through the room, an ugly ringing in her mind...the controller had returned. Wincing, she saw the ugly beast standing behind the mercenaries, on the stairs that lead into this room. Its appearance was promptly greeted with a healthy dose of gunfire.

Balalaika, despite the migraine and voices murmuring away in her mind, saw an opportunity to act. Grabbing the two grenades, she headed over to the opening in the cage's floor and proceeded to hop into it.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?", shouted one of the mercenaries.

"-Ditching you", said Balalaika simply as she uncapped both grenades and tossed them towards Karc and his group. Cackling, she ducked into the hole and proceeded to crawl downwards as the grenades noisily exploded above her. The explosion was strong enough to make the small and unstable opening behind collapse, blocking the way back into the lab...and the way out.

The small tunnel lead into another, bigger tunnel which was plunged in darkness. Balalaika switched her NV on and took her Stechkin out of its holster. The pistol was all she had besides her knife for close quarter combat, and it would probably do well against mutants. If a big mutant decided to chase her, she'd have more trouble.

Without wasting any time, Balalaika dashed down the tunnel, jumping over old wreckage and scrap and hoping she wouldn't get jumped by something in the darkness.

[Karcentric]

Turning to face the controller which was standing no more than 5 feet away the remaining mercs all raised their guns riddling it with holes. It fell wheezing and coughing blood as it fell to the ground.

Sighing Karc lowered his gun looking at the dead mutant. His thoughts were interrupted by El shouting. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Wiping around to see what had caused the outburst, only to hear Balalaika say "-Ditching you" before chucking two grenades towards the group.

Pushing through the door as the grenades exploded bringing large chunks of concrete from the ceiling blocking the way after Balalaika. Schwarz pushed himself up painfully "Everyone alright?" He asked gingerly. El and Four stood brushing themselves off. Karc rose slowly feeling giddy, "I'm dandy thanks. But If meet that midget again I'll be fan-bloody-tastic." He muttered looking at the rubble which they had narrowly escaped being crushed by.

"Fuck it let's get out of here, and if she survives those tunnels I'll kill her." Karc said looking a the giant brain within the tank, drawing his 1911 he lined it up and fired 3 times cracking the large container before walking down the steps in silence using the torch mounted on his helmet. walking slowly down the stairs in silence he spotted what looked like a military vest. Stopping to pick it up revealed it to be a Berill-5M he looked it over before speaking, "Hey Schwarz, take this." Passing the suit to him.

Schwarz changed suits packing the merc suit into his pack. On the way down they found a small haul of droplets as well as two fireballs Schwarz offered one to Karc who shock his head, happy with the three droplets he had picked up earlier. Stopping he picked up a fourth holding it in his hand watching it writhe about before slipping it in his pack. After walking slowly down the remaining catwalk they came to the downed platform. Looking at the steep ramp Karc climbed down the rope carefully poking about the mesh floor several areas were glowing from the heat the anomalies were radiating.

Searching back and forth he found his P90 in very poor condition with severe scorch marks all over it. “Fuck sake.” he muttered pulling the magazine from the gun and wrapping them both before stuffing them into his bag, making his way back to where Schwarz, El and Four were standing by Dark's corpse.

“I'm sorry about Dark.” Karc said gingerly expecting the worst, Schwarz nodded with out saying anything. Eventually Schwarz looked up holding a wrapped package. “Take this I'm sure you'll be able to find some use for it. We're going to head north try and make our way into Limansk if you ever head up that way we'll see you there.” He said giving Karc the smallish package. “El get up there and get us out of here.” El took a run up and sprinted hard up the steep ramp, once he got to the top he threw down a rope which he tied to the railing at the top. Each of the mercs climbed the rope leaving them there for any other stalkers who came down later.

“I'll see you guys later, I'm gonna have look at something I was meaning to look at last time I was here.” Karc said to the group letting them go ahead and into the darkness, turning on his NV again he found the door which he and Torch had come through when they first fled the military group that had followed them.

Hanging his lamp from an overhanging pipe he turned it on and unpacked a first aid kit containing a set of old surgical tools and removed his mask. A several thin slivers of shrapnel had pierced the mask embedded in his right check and chin and were ebbing blood. Taking the tweezers and a small mirror he took a couple of deep breathes before he began the painful task of extracting the shrapnel from his cheek and chin.

---

Karc gains: 4 droplet artifacts.

Schwarz gains: 1 fireball and 1 droplet and Dark's belongings: PDA containing 15400ru and stone blood artifact.

El gains: 1 fireball artifact.

Four gains: 3 droplet artifacts and SIG 550 taken from Dark.
Four drops: AK-74/2.

CHECK[/b]

[Basil]

Balalaika dashed through the tunnels, scrambling over old, rusted junk and slipping every now and then on the muddy floor. All her senses were ablaze, her mind sharp as a razor, and her body was filled with an odd feeling of exhilaration. The frenzied will to survive and get out of the place she was in. As she rounded a bend, she was momentarily blinded by a Burner anomaly that seemed to be burning continually, illuminating the tunnel with Dante-esque shadows and red light.

Switching her goggles off, Balalaika looked around her to see if anything was creeping about. Thankfully, she saw nothing, but she did spot a couple of Droplets, which she proceeded to pick up. She then walked around the roaring tongue of fire and proceeded further down the tunnel, eventually arriving in a rather large stretch where daylight (oh miracle!) was visible. Balalaika's feeling of triumph was short-lived however, as she felt the ground shake below her, accompanied by an angry growl that could only have been made by an abnormally large and cumbersome creature. The perceived mass of said monster was enough to make Balalaika feel terrified in her smallness, and prompted her to break into a desperate sprint for the tunnel's exit. As she ran, she felt the ground shake horribly below her, and she glanced over her shoulder only to see a horrible, deformed and enormous abomination lumbering after her with alarming speed.

Pantin, she sprinted the last few metres before the exit of the tunnel, which was barred by a heavy metal grille, and scrabbled through a hole in the middle, ripping a few of her merc suit's pockets in the process. The beast, which caused her Geiger counter to crackle away happily, slammed into the grille, causing a bit of rubble to fall from the ceiling, and roared in frustration. The horrible creature slammed its enormous feet into the grille, and rammed it with its body, and it was clear it was very keen on breaking through and tearing Balalaika to pieces. Balalaika got up and ran, but not before she fired a few bursts at the creature's loathesome face with her Stechkin.

The bullets didn't seem to phase the creature, and Balalaika decided it was best to just run. She sprinted again, feeling fatigue grab hold of her muscles as she was forced to carry her SVD, Ghost's suit and the AW50, which made quite a load for her small frame. As she rounded another corner, she saw two horrible creatures awaiting her: snorks. One of them threw itself forward, its hands outstretched, and Balalaika threw herself down, rolling over and firing a burst into the snork's belly as it went over her. The creature squeeled in pain and slammed to the ground, its belly ruinedby her attack. The second snork roared and attacked her before she could get up, and it clawed at her throat as she struggled to keep it away from her. With an exhausting heave, she threw the snork aside and was able to get Mr Stabby out as the creature came back to the charge. As it leaped at her, she plunged Mr Stabby's blade deep into its chest before wrenching it out with the sickening sound of tearing flesh. The creature slumped to the ground, spasmed, and died.

Gasping and half delirious from the adrenaline rush, Balalaika made it to the ladder that lead to the surface via a circular 'well' of sorts. She struggled up the rusted metal rungs, wincing at the pain in her injured hand, and collapsed on the concrete as she finally made it to the light of day and the stale air of Yantar.

She had made it.

With a tired sigh, she sat up and smiled manically at the sky. All she felt now was triumph, savage, unadultered triumph. Victory. She broke into a laugh that would have made most people reconsider approaching her.

"But we must waste no time, Mr Stabby!", she said, giggling and stroking her beloved (and now very bloody) bayonet. "There is no time to waste!"

She stood up and took hold of the fence that surrounded the small platform where she had emerged. She tried to climb up, but her dislocated fingers made her give up, hissing in pain, but she was undeterred. With savage determination, she climbed up the fence and jumped over the other side, landing heavily on her feet and rolling over. Cackling and panting at the same time, she dropped down from the platform and onto the slope below, almost falling over and rolling all the way down. Still giggling, she stood up and strode confidently, almost swaggering, down the slope towards the lab. There was no sign of the mercenaries anywhere, which made her even happier. It was with a small skip in her stride that she made it to the field lab.

(continued in Epidemic).

[Karcentric]

Karc carefully wiped the scalpel clean before wiping it with an alcohol soaked swab as well as the other pieces of equipment he'd used. Pressing another swab to his face and wincing from the alcohol sting the wound, he taped a bandage in place. Sighing with relief that he managed to extract all of the fragments.

Grabbing the package Schwarz had given him he unwrapped it revealing a heavy black mask shaped like a skull with a yellow outlines of a smiley face. Chuckling manically an idea began to form in his head. Pulling out the toolkit he'd received for the S&D mission, it contained a small portable blowtorch, a mini hack saw and several tools used for simple metal fabrication. Placing the damaged gas mask from his SKAT military suit and the ballistic mask next to each other.

Picking up the military mask he turning it over he as he studied it, several studs held the gas mask in place within the mask. Taking the pliers and a screwdriver he unwound them removing the gask mask from the metal plate of the military suits mask. Laying the gas mask within the heavy ballistic mask he secured the mask into the heavier mask. Pulling it on he found it stuck well put was very heavy. Taking a look at the sphere 12 helmet that came with the suit Karc attached the mask directly to the helmet and placed it on his head finding it easier to move his. Buckling the straps that held the mask securely to his head Karc. Removing the helmet again he lay it down. Taking out the ruined P90. The gun was entirely destroyed. "I'm gonna need a new one of these." He muttered to himself, throwing the gun into the darkness below listen as it clattered loudly followed by the melted magazine. Putting the helmet back on and securing it.to his head and suit, he packed the tools and surgical equipment into his bag. Slinging it over his shoulder he took up his rifle and walked towards the exit. Before coming to the narrow corridor with the burner anomalies we spied several crates in the shadows, breaking open the first he found 3 F1 grenades.

Stuffing them in his pocket he peeked into the toilet block and the corpse that was slowly rotting in the corner, the unfortunate stalkers pack was laying on the floor nearby, pulling it over to him he dumped the contents on the floor, most of the food was stall, a case caught his eye opening it revealed a SUSAT scoop. Stuffing that in his pack too he felt he'd found enough equipment. Climbing the rope to the ladder he climbed up as quickly as he could. reaching the landing he heard a moan of a zombie and the clumsy shuffling as it struggled to fit through the doorway. Running and sliding into the narrow control room he peeked over the console and saw a zombie clad in full exoskeleton armor. Peering down the sights of the SCAR he lined up the head and fired a burst, the rounds punched through it helmet spraying blood, brains and shrapnel over the stairs behind. Jumping over the console Karc checked the corpse deciding to take the SPAS 12 and a box of shells. Slinging the shotgun over his shoulder he jogged up the steps out of the lab.

Karc gains: 3 F1 grenades, SUSAT scoop and SPAS 12.

((Next post will be in Epid))

[Διμι]

The 1000th RP post will be dedicated to me raging over Karc and Basil forking up this thread.