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Post by Karcentric on Apr 25, 2010 8:02:00 GMT -5
Karc climbed into the tower, moving the search light around the base, the trucks had been parked behind the main complex in sheds. Quietly climbing down the ladder and crept over to the shed inspecting the trucks, they were indeed the trucks they had been looking for now he just needed to show Burner, plant the bombs, then hot foot it out of the base and watch the show before legging it back to the base and getting paid.
Walking back to the watchtower he waited for Burner to comeback from the barracks, a few minutes later Burner appeared saying "Got them! Where are the trucks?"
"Round the back of that big building in a shed, all together nicely, let's get this mission over with." Karc replied walking to the shed showing Burner the trucks. "Alrighty, let's blow these bitches up and get paid." Karc smiled carefully placing the heavy backpack on the ground and letting Burner set up the bombs while he watched out for any guards. "Coast clear, ready?"
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Post by blackpapermoon on Apr 25, 2010 10:50:43 GMT -5
Ferret slowly put the PDA back into his pocket, the others words giving him a sense of confidence. Perhaps not only would he find what was in the stash but that he might one day be able to return to the Bigland. However this feeling was short lived after one of the bandits positioned on the catwalks ran over and told Meph about an approaching stalker. In the amount of time it took the rookie to stand up and unholstered his pistol the Asian had already had the stalker under his control. As he moved in closer to get a better look at the loner, he gasped.
A woman, he had heard stories of female stalkers but her never thought they where true until now. He stood there just gawking at her until she ran off and Meph ordered everyone back to their respective sleeping areas. However sleep was the last thing on the Bandit rookies' mind, his thoughts kept going back to the woman loner.
"2:50," he whispered to himself as he sat up. He was the only one awake even the catwalk Bandits had fallen into slumber. Carefully he got up and quietly he made his way to the back of the depot and then out through the rusted gate. For his own mind's sake, he had to try and find the woman.
It took him a good twenty minutes of walking to make it to the area that the veterans called the Flea market. Seeing a lone figure laying on the first floor of the ruins, he ran over to it being careful not to fall over any rubble that might have been lying around.
"Hey," he said softly touching the small person's shoulder and gently shook them, “you ok man?”
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Post by Basil on Apr 25, 2010 11:20:58 GMT -5
Balalaïka dreamt. She dreamt of the small, improvised shooting range in the woods her father used to go to with her in tow. They would drive to it over a muddy path in her father's Lada Niva, with the SVD in the back.
"You shoot really well", her father would say almost every time she hit the same spot on the target more than twice, "just like your old dad."
Just like your old dad...
..."hey, you okay, man?"
Balalaïka floated slowly out of the murky depths of her sleep. At first she thought she was back home, but the hard, somewhat cold ground and the unknown person shaking her awake dispelled that impression.
Her eyes opened wide and she looked up at the man who had woken her up. It was one of the bandits she had encountered earlier. There was a quiet rustle as she unholstered her Makarov and stuck it right under the bandit's chin.
"-What do you want?", she hissed.
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Post by Afterburner on Apr 25, 2010 13:36:32 GMT -5
"Ah, locked. This is where these come in handy..."
He grabbed a pair of bolt cutters out of his backpack and snapped the lock off the truck.
"Whoah...Look at this shit inside...No wonder our guys want this down...With stuff like this, they can see your damn shoe size..."
He crawled into the truck, which was filled with different kind of monitoring equipment. He noticed a sealed envelope on the top of a computer screen.
"You know a Colonel D. Ikonov? We'll see what HQ has to say about this."
After a short search of the truck, he finally decided to rig the bomb. He pulled a heavy box out of his backpack and slowly set it down.
"Uh-huh...Okay, now...Flip this here...He could have connected the wires at least...Okay, now, cut off this thing...Got it!"
He jumped out of the truck, quietly. After checking the other one, he noticed there was nothing inside worth of taking.
"Okay, that's for the trucks...The bomb should take them both down...Heck, the boom should bring down half the base, so I might just as well put the other bomb on the APCs .
He got the other bomb out of Karc's backpack and slowly set it just under the wheels of the APC,crawling under it to rig it and cut the wires where necessary. He heard a noise from outside and nearly snapped the green wire.
"God damn it! ...Okay, the bombs are in place."
Burner jumped out and took the remote detonator out of the satchel on his backpack. Thirty minutes would be enough for them to clear out and look at the fireworks from a safe distance.
"Okay, I've set the detonat-"
He froze. To his horror, the timer was clicking away, rapidly
"THAT PSYCHO SET THE TIMER TO FORTY FIVE SECONDS!"
His yell echoed through the base, followed by a distinctive alarm siren tearing through the silence of the entire area. Smashing the remote against the pavement, he could see soldiers jumping out of the barracks, trying to discover who disturbed their sleep. He threw himself at a manhole, dodging a hail of bullets
"QUICK! DOWN HERE!"
He lunged for, nearly tearing it out of the ground. He could hear the bullets whizzing around him. Without further thinking, he jumped down, followed by Karc.
"Turn your flashlight on and run!
As they ran through the corridors, a lone soldier on patrol was standing at a staircase. It was another one of those bone-chilling nights down in the "catacombs". He heard a batter of footsteps behind him and turning around, he saw two strange figures running towards him.
"STAL-UGH"
The bolt cutters smashed into his face, knocking him out instantly. The mercenaries were about to climb the staircase when...it happened. The bombs went off, creating a massive explosion, followed by a horrible shock-wave. The earth was shaking so ferociously that the lower part of the flimsy staircase the mercenaries were standing on collapsed. They barely managed to jump into a small, shadowy corridor leading east. Still panting, Burner managed to spit out
"Never...Doing...S&D...Again."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Apr 25, 2010 13:51:30 GMT -5
“Whoa, whoa, easy,” said the rookie Bandit as he held his hands the air, his head tilted backwards from the gun under his chin.
“I’m not going to hurt you, I just wanted to know if your ok,” he said carefully his hands still in the air, “Look I might be a Bandit but I still have a conscience, on one should be alone at night here.”
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Post by Basil on Apr 25, 2010 14:42:20 GMT -5
"If you have a conscience why did you join the bandits", said Balalaïka flatly. From what she knew and what she had seen, bandits were cowards, psychos, thieves and scumbags who did not bother about high ideals or 'keeping someone company'.
"Do you sing that tune to the loners you mug, or do you put on your 'no more Mr Nice Bandit' mask?", added Balalaïka, sitting up and keeping the gun aimed at the bandit's face as she spoke. She plunked herself down onto a block of concrete nearby and sat thoughtfully looking at the bandit. She set her SVD Dragunov across her lap and drummed her fingers on the handguard.
"Got a cig?", she ashed after a moment, "I'm dying for a smoke."
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Post by Διμι on Apr 25, 2010 17:10:06 GMT -5
Meph was jarred from his sleep by the scrape of the metal sheet against the concrete blocks. The bandit's hands instantly flew towards his waist, drawing an automatic pistol and his flashlight just as the sheet came loose. He aimed both at the intruder's face, causing the man to recoil from the harsh light. It was only Dober. Meph sighed. "You could've knocked," he said "what the hell's the matter, did the chick turn out to hatch from a rotten egg?"
"Sorry 'bout that, but you know guard dogs never sleep" the man replied, tapping the Doberman chain around his neck "and no, it's not her. She didn't even stay, just walked off in the direction of the Flea Market. We watched her a bit, but then she just left out of sight." he stepped aside as Meph crawled out from his niche. "It's the newbie you picked up. He just left in the middle of the night, maybe five minutes ago, exact same direction she did. I'm gonna have to get on our watchmen's ass about this, they fell asleep right on their post." Dober muttered an inaudible curse word.
Meph rolled his eyes. Chances were, the two would either shoot each other, or the rookie would walk into an anomaly in the darkness without any night vision, not to mention all the mutants that were milling about at this hour. "What the hell do you want me to do? Go out there and pluck 'im out of some kind of trap again?" he growled "Look, I'm just trying to get some sleep here. I'm not you, I can't live for a week without it. Go and get 'im back yourself, before something or someone finishes the gutting."
Dober grinned, playfully delivering a solid punch to the Asian's small frame, nearly knocking him over. "Fine, you lazy bastard, if that's how you want it." The bandit loaded his AK and put on his black trenchcoat before stepping out the hangar door. "I'll make this quick." he said, before turning in the direction of the Flea Market and walking off.
"Hope you get shot." Meph called back jokingly. With another loud scrape, the Asian forced the metal sheet back over the opening, and fell asleep once more.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Apr 25, 2010 20:26:33 GMT -5
“Yeah, but put that gun away first,” he said as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his coat and tossed it over to her. Glancing up at the sky he had to admit in was a nice night. It would have been almost beautiful if it was not for the dogs and other mutants calling to each other in the moon lit night.
“I’ve only been here a week,” he said after she took the cigarettes, “didn’t have much choice in that either, I almost wish my boss had put the bullet in my head.”
For that he could tell of her she looked pale and almost sickly by Ferret decided that it was best not to say anything after all he probably did not look all that much better himself.
“Since I got here I don’t know what’s worse,” said the Bandit hoping to change the subject, “The military assholes with their patrols or the mutants.”
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Post by Karcentric on Apr 26, 2010 3:50:43 GMT -5
"Never...Doing...S&D...Again." Burner ground out. Karc almost laughed out of habit, "Yeah. That shit was close, too close for my liking." he said clicking his lamp off "I'm not looking forward to this place, I've heard nothing good about this place, not even any artifacts to grab, however there was once a stash here somewhere. Hidden in the walls or something." Karc said quietly trying to remember what one of the stalkers had said when he'd arrived in the zone.
Helping Burner up Karc peaked his head around the corner, it was very quiet, except for the occasional squeak from somewhere deeper within the catacombs. Karc crept along pointing his silenced Colt where ever he looked, motioning for Burner to follow. Around another bend Karc could hear two army grunt talking quietly.
"Did ya hear that fucking noise? Sounds like someones bombed the base!" One grunt muttered to the other, "Was probably those fucking bandits, nothing but trouble them lads. Come here and think they run the place." the other responded. "Bandits? Those bastards don't have the guts to do something like that. Was probably one of them Duty or Freedom pricks, you know they don't like us." the first guy replied, his friend answered "Duty? They might be assholes but they wouldn't do that, they'd storm the base, and Freedom doesn't have anyone this far south. It's gotta be bandits."
Karc held a hand up to Burner. "We'll take these two down at the same time." He whispered, "You take the chap on the right, I'll take the other one." Burner nodded and aimed at the army grunt on the right, Karc aimed the the other "Now" he said quietly, both fired almost simultaneous taking down the two patrolmen.
"Nice shot." Karc said, dragging one of the bodies into the darkened corridor they had just been in, taking the 1100ru from the man's body, leaving the guns and supplies. "Any idea which way we go now?" He asked
((Karc found 1100ru))
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Post by Afterburner on Apr 26, 2010 14:38:14 GMT -5
"Okay, we're supposed to be going east, according to Snarl. Now, if I only knew where east is, we'd be getting out of here. Now...I think we ought to go...here."
As they passed through a corridor, Burner nearly stepped into a puddle of something green. There was something suspicious about it. He picked up a pebble and chucked it into the puddle, which made a loud, hissing sound as the pebble clearly dissolved. He raised his head
"Don't step into these...Got it."
Passing through the damp, dark corridor, Burner couldn't help himself but think that somebody was following them. He thought he had seen a pair of small, yellow lights disappear in the dark.
"We ought to pick up the pace-I don't like these "catacombs" one bit. I can almost hear someone following us."
They started running. Burner thought he could hear footsteps behind him and what seemed like heavy breathing.
"There's something following us, split up!"
They split into the corridors, Burner going right. He nearly got inside when something grabbed him by the ankle. Turning around, he saw an enormous subterranean bloodsucker, covered in scars, holding him by the leg. With one hit, the bloodsucker sent him flying on the ground and jumped on him, his enormous, red tentacles ready to suck their victim dry. This time, he was ready. The HS-PA was already in his hand and Burner emptied his entire magazine into the monster's chest. It jumped back, roaring in pain, but not dying. Again, the beast pinned him down, ready to kill its victim. He couldn't let go of the bloodsucker's grip, as the monster was ready to kill. Suddenly, the monster dropped down onto him, limp. Karc was standing behind it, pointing his pistol at the mutant's skull.
"Thanks, friend..."
Burner murmured as he threw the bloodsucker off him.
"I owe you for this one...Let's move out, I don't know if there are more of these lurking around..."
His HS2000 was ruined beyond recognition from the bloodsucker swipe. He removed the silencer and tossed the pistol into a puddle, which dissolved it.
"Croatian piece of shit...Best pistol of the 20th century my ass... Okay, there's a staircase here."
They climbed the staircase, occasionally checking if they were being followed. Burner could smell fresh air again
"We're close...Draught. Through he-AWW, SHIT!"
Blue lightning flashed in front of them.
"FUCK! Electro! Agh! Okay, get a grip...I'm going through first. Remember, grab a bolt or a pebble...or anything there is and toss it straight through the tunnel, then haul ass. Remove any electro artifacts, if you've got them and turn off your PDA. Forget everything you've known and just run like hell."
He grabbed the first thing he could and nearly threw it, when he realized he was holding what people called a "Flash", a somewhat rare electric artifact. Carefully, he tossed it through the tunnel. The electric nature of the artifact buzzing through the anomaly triggered it, drawing it towards the artifact which released its energy into the tunnel with an amazing display of light. The artifact had somehow deactivated the anomaly. As they passed through the tunnel, Burner picked up the artifact. There was something different about it now. Burner carefully picked it up and tossed it into his backpack. Immediately, the anomaly returned, nearly frying them both.
"WHAT THE...I'M GETTING OUT OF THIS PLACE!"
They ran out of the tunnel and ended up in a small chamber, with an exit to the east. Following it, they emerged in front of a ladder.
"The exit! Quick, out of here!"
Emerging through the little manhole, they noticed that it was still dark. They moved quickly through to the base, startling the rookies who had told them about the underground.
"Listen, thank you for your help. Now, I suggest you get the hell out of here, the army doesn't know who to blame first for that explosion. If anybody asks about us, we weren't here, alright? Oh, and, here's something to compensate for your help."
Rummaging through his backpack, he grabbed the artifact, noticing that it didn't look anything like the Flash from before. Burner recognized the light blue sphere.
"Don't let the trader rip you off on that one...You've got a Moonlight there. It's worth around 6000 RU alone, even more if the trader special-orders. Just ask him about it, I'm sure he'll know. C'mon, Karc, we got to return these cutters to that maniac in the Garbage...Oh, and, one more thing? I'm not doing a report on this shit."
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Post by Basil on Apr 26, 2010 15:44:30 GMT -5
"Trick question", said Balalaïka, inhaling tobacco smoke, "both are as bad as each other. Now where's my prize money?"
The bandit did not laugh or even smile.
"Huh, I guess having a gun pointed at you spoils stuff, eh", she said, putting her Makarov back in its holster, "there, I put the gun away, but don't try to pull any shit on me. They don't call me Balalaïka for nothing."
The truth was that when she had arrived in the Cordon, scruffy, filthy, frightened and tired and carrying her SVD rifle, the stalkers in the rookie village had asked her to show how good she was with the weapon. They had challenged her to shoot a pack of blind dogs, six in number. She had put a bullet through each dog's head except for one who bolted behind a tree stump and lived to fight another day. Balalaïka being a nickname Russian soldiers gave to the SVD, she had received such a nickname in honour of the blind dog feat.
The two rookies sat in silence in the darkness of the night. A blind dog howled away in the distance, and a soft, cool breeze blew between the old, twisted concrete structure's remains. The quiet was interrupted when Balalaïka saw a black shape move stealthily up the road, several meters away from the building where she and the rookie bandit were.
She rapidly and quietly grabbed her SVD and aimed towards the black shape. Her PSO-1 scope showed the familiar form and features of one of the bandits she had run into at the abandoned train hangar. She smirked.
"Looks like one of your friends has come looking for you, bandit. Shall I shoot his head off or his leg?"
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Post by blackpapermoon on Apr 26, 2010 23:37:44 GMT -5
"Don't," said the Bandit pleadingly as he raced out in front of her SVD, praying to both god and the devil that she wouldn't shoot. His weapons clattered on the concrete as he disarmed himself the barrel of the sniper rifle mere centimeters from his body.
"Just don't shoot," he repeated calmly his arms raised so that she could see them, "Think about it, if you kill him, there are seven or more others that will come after you."
When she gave no look of changing her mind, he tried a different approach. Slowly he removed his coat to reveal the bandages the where wrapped around his torso and his slim frame. It seemed that the only thing that the Bandit had going for him was his height, it was also apparent that with in the week he had been in the Zone he had not had much in the way of food.
"Find if you want to kill someone kill me first," he said looking into her eyes, "Then you can tell your buddies at the Cordon how you shot and killed an unarmed wounded man at point blank, then killed the guy that came looking for him."
“I’m sure you be a big hero,” he said in a sarcastic tone, “Bet your parents would be so proud of you too.”
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Post by Basil on Apr 27, 2010 5:46:24 GMT -5
"Gosh, who knew a stinking bandit would be so uppity?", snarled Balalaïka, "well I'm not hanging around, especially not with old snaggletooth coming my way."
She stood up and slung her SVD over her shoulder. She'd go up to the gate to Rostok and try to settle down with the Duty guards there for the night. She briefly turned round and said to the bandit:
"I guess you'll just stay here and wait for snaggletooth to arrive, eh? I'm heading off to the Duty checkpoint, so...t'was nice seeying ya!"
She started to make her way down a large section of concrete that leaned against the ruined building, forming a kind of ramp. She could see the light near the Duty checkpoint and hope they would have enough heart to make room for her for tonight.
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Post by Karcentric on Apr 27, 2010 11:06:45 GMT -5
Karc watched the loners stand up and disappear into the night. "We have to file a report? Fuck that." he said "It's been one hell of a night and I'm sure it's only going to get better once get to that dump." He said pointing towards the Garbage. "Let's just get it over with, I need a drink."
They moved quickly towards the Garbage, moving past the rusted gate down towards the train depot Karc's PDA beeped indicating the presence of several people, "Hold up. It's those bloody bandits." With his NV on Karc could see that no one was moving within the hanger. "Seems like everyone is asleep, let's find your friend and get rid of those cutters." Karc crept right up to the depot looking around, everyone was indeed asleep. We could rob these chaps before they knew what hit 'em. Karc smiled to himself, jogging away quietly to where Burner sitting on a pipe waiting for him, "Sorry, was checking on them sleepy heads. Even the guards a sleeping up on the catwalk."
They walked towards the meeting point when out of the corner of his sight Karc saw one of the Bandits they'd seen earlier walking towards the flea market. I wonder where he's going? Karc thought while drawing his Colt holding it ready just in case he needed it. His thoughts returning to the two men he'd seen just before he'd left the bar trying to figure out if he'd seen them before.
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Post by Afterburner on Apr 27, 2010 16:30:01 GMT -5
"Leave them be. I'm not bent on getting myself shot after all I've been through. Now, seriously, let's get the hell out of here. I'm anxious to turn in somewhere, and, as much as it pains me to say this, we can't stay much in the bar. Okay, now, Swallow said he'll be-"
All of a sudden, the mad stalker popped out behind them, grabbing Burner by the neck.
"Right here you son of a bitch, now what the hell do you want from me?"
The lunatic's grip was getting stronger. Burner barely managed to spit out
"Here...to...return...your...cutters!"
The stalker immediately loosened his grip, letting him go. He started smiling
"Of course you have! Here, let me take them, friend. Now, thank you for this gift, I'll keep it for ever! Any time you need something, come to my old shop and we'll have a blast!"
The stalker hopped away, laughing and waving the rusty 'cutters around.
"Mad bastard...Nearly choked me. Karc, is there something wrong? What are you thinking about? You saw something?"
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