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Post by Basil on Jul 1, 2010 6:14:55 GMT -5
Kovalenko muttered to himself, walking closer to the barricade with difficulty. Bootleg was feeling even worse than an hour ago and had to be carried by two other members of their rag tag group, who weren't feeling good either. The stalkers reached the Freedom barricade in a quiet chorus of coughing and tired panting and wheezing. The guards rushed over to them, asking questions that Kovalenko's fevered mind scrambled into incomprehensible gibberish.
"Red...forest...sick...", mumbled Kovalenko. His mouth slid about his pasty mouth lazily, like a fat rubber fish. His legs suddenly gave way below him and he slumped to his knees.
"-Damn! These guys look really sick, get them to the shelter!", said someone nearby. The voice seemed far away and hazy, and Kovalenko was vaguely aware of people grabbing hold of him and carrying him away, somewhere shady, a camouflage net? He couldn't say.
Once again he tried to explain himself to the men, whom he finally recognised as Freedomers: "Red Forest...sickness...v...vi..."
Kovalenko broke into such a violent fit of coughing that the Freedomers had to grab his head and rip his gas mask off to stop him from choking. His chin was specked with green phlegm and blood, and his skin was deathly pale and so thick with swet it looked like wet pasty rubber. Kovalenko drew a ragged, phlegmy breath before everything went black and he lost consciousness.
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Maginot awoke. The first thing he noticed was the splitting headache and his tormented stomach. The second thing he noticed was his radio squawking.
"Boss? Boss?"
Maginot groaned like an animal in pain and reached gingerly for the radio.
"-Yes?", he croaked, telling himself he would never drink that much vodka ever again.
"-Nort-West barricade here, we got a bunch of Loners in terrible shape. They arrived from the Red Forest, two of them couldn't walk and the rest all collapsed as soon as they got to us."
"-Huh...what do you think is wrong with them?"
"-Dunno, I thought it was radiation poisoning at first, but they're all coughing their lungs out and have a fever so it looks more like some kind of illness."
"-I'll come over with a couple of medics", said Maginot, intrigued, "maybe they got a very bad case of flu or pneumonia."
He got up, got dressed and was unable to repress the need to throw up in the rusty old bucket in the corner of the room he used as an office and sleeping chamber. After regurgitating most of his stomach's contents and a good deal of bile, he grabbed his SVU and SIG 550 and went outside.
"-Whoa boss, you look like you had one too many drinks last night!", said a Freedomer who was sunning himself in front of the HQ building. Maginot smiled and went off looking for Adder, trying not to think of last night's incident.
He found her splashing bottled water on her face and swearing quietly. She looked tired and drawn.
"Adder! Get ready we have to go out."
The Commandant stopped splashing water on her face and looked up at Maginot, who froze, expecting some resentful or acidic remark about last night.
"-Okay, I'm ready", she said. Maginot suppressed a relieved sigh. Either Adder had somehow forgotten or had gotten over it. Her sluggish movements made him worried again though.
"-Did you drink last night?", asked Maginot with concern.
"-No. I smoked something. Don't know what it was."
Maginot frowned at that, surprised that Adder had even accepted to take drugs. She had always been the most vocal opponent to drug consumption in Svoboda's ranks.
As Adder and Maginot went to get the faction's two medics, they called Ferret via a PDA vocal message.
"-Hey, Ferret, we're going to the North-West outpost, want to come?", said Maginot before sending the message.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 2, 2010 10:17:33 GMT -5
A boy and his classmates lined up their young minds not understanding what was happening. A man dressed in a white coat and wiry hair just the same shade of color sat at a desk and scribbled something down on paper as the students where called forward. In the minds of the children this stranger in white must have been ancient. The white haired man asked each student their name and birth date, his voice crackled like burning firewood. After the answer was given the white clad man would pull a folder out of a box and look over whatever the folder contained. The old man would then tell the child to roll up their sleeves; he would take a alcohol soaked cotton ball and dab it on a small area of the young students arm that action was followed by a quick shot. The man would then send the child on his or her way, depose of the used needle and cotton ball then call up the next student………….The boy returned home feeling ill, high fever, and coughing , the boy could do little more then moan and collapse into his mother. The taste of sickness and blood over powered his taste buds………….The boy awoke in a darken hospital room out side he could hear two men talking.
"This has gone to far… using children as lab rats, the Party will put an end to your…"
"- The Party has approved of it, they have no reason to stop it.…. Besides this experiment is vital to the project as a whole, it is for the greater good."
The boy now a man awoke to the sound of his PDA beeping, he had a message. Yawning as he pulled out the device and looked to see who it was from. Maginot, with out a second's hesitation Ferret played the message…
"-Hey, Ferret, we're going to the North-West outpost, want to come?"
"Yeah be right over, Boss," said the ex bandit then sent the message. Slowly he began pulling himself together, yet his mind would keep going back to his dream. It was not the first time he had it, it had been with him throughout most of his childhood but now since he entered the zone he had been having it almost every night. He had no idea what it was or if this had happened to him.
Collecting his new SIG 550 and grabbing a few mags of ammo, he made his way out the door. Quickly scarfing down a bit of bread he walked up to the entrance of the Freedom base where his leader and Adder where standing.
Maginot looked rather sick, a hangover no doubt. The rookie was rather surprised by Adder, who looked as if she was still recovering from a long night of stoning.
"Marry Janes or Blunts" asked Ferret still looking at the Commandant.
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Post by Basil on Jul 2, 2010 11:01:04 GMT -5
"Mary Jane or blunts?"
Adder glanced sideways at Ferret, not really keen on answering his question which she perceived as barely veiled sarcasm. She noticed Maginot looking at her, and she made an effort to answer the rookie Freedomer.
"I don't know actually. One of our boys gave some to me...it was black and in a glass pipe of sorts."
She looked at Maginot again. He was staring at her with wide eyes.
"-You're kidding, right? What did the stuff smell or taste like?"
"-I...it...it was heavy and resinous."
"-Adder, you've been smoking heroin. Whoever has been stashing heroin away will need some stern talking to, I don't want this shit in Freedom. Anyway, we must leave now."
The group set off from the base and went along the road, walking past the Barrier and a couple of old Ukrainian army MBTs abandoned several years ago when the military had unsuccessfully tried to police the Zone. As they came nearer to the outpost, Maginot's radio piped up again.
"-Boss? North-Western outpost here...the loners are all dead."
"-Fuck...how did they die?"
"-Several had already lost consciousness when they arrived here, so they just died somehow. The others were still awake and choked to death on their own blood and phlegm."
"-Nasty. We're on our way. Maybe their PDAs have something interesting that could inform us about how they all fell ill."
The group went past an old farmstead and the Northern part of the infamous Bloodsucker Village and finally arrived at the outpost, where the Freedomers were either waiting for them to arrive or going through the pockets of several fresh corpses. Maginot saluted the outpost's commander and walked over to the dead loners. The Freedomers had taken their gas masks off, exposing their pale, corpse-like faces and sunken eyes staring glassily up at the sky.
"-Damn...they look like they suffered", said Adder quietly, staring at the dead loners.
"-Do you have their PDAs then?", said Maginot to the outpost commander.
"-Yeah, but none of them seem to have anything of value save for their leader's. Ivan's his name. There's a journal of their expedition into the Forest as well as a few files, but those are all crypted and we won't be able to crack them without a computer."
"-Strange. We have a laptop back at the base, that should help."
Maginot switched Ivan's PDA on and sifted through the files. He found the mystery files the outpost commander had told him about as well as the journal. As he opened it, the commander spoke:
"-What do we do with their bodies, boss?"
"-Burn them, suits an all. These guys were ill with something and we have no idea how contagious it is."
Maginot then went back to reading the journal, which told about how the stalkers had set out from Yantar a week and a half ago after being paid a decent sum by the scientists for doing a few jobs for them. They had decided to go explore an area in the Red Forest which allegedly had a lot of artefacts. Maginot skimmed through those parts till he came to a more interesting section, which went like this:
Day 4:
We arrived at the place where we were told there'd be mountains of artefacts. The place looks nothing like what we were told, and is some sort of abandoned base. There's a large landing area with a couple of old Soviet helicopters in front of some huge, flat bunker mostly hidden by all those trees, the strange thing is that we haven't seen a single mutant since we came here.
Day 5:
Found an entrance into the bunker. A gravitational anomaly must have formed there and smashed the concrete up. We went in, keeping an eye out for any mutants or anoamlies in the dark. The place was like a tomb, thick dust everywhere and abandoned jeeps and trucks in the area we assumed was the vehicle entrance. We explored further and descended into the more subterranean areas.
Down there we saw several large storage rooms, all sealed and plunged in darkness. One of them wasn't sealed anymore however, as the door had been opened somehow. We went in and saw huge stacks of old barrels marked with some kind of sign, not a radiation sign, I've seen enough of those to recognise them. I think it could have been a biohazard sign. Around the barrels were the skeletons of workers, just covered in dust and cobwebs and still wearing their clothes. Weird.
Day 6:
We went back inside to check the place out again. The signs were definitely biohazard signs, so I told the boys to be careful with them. Lobster opened one of the barrels, and it seemed to contain several vials filled with some green liquid of sorts. As we looked at them, that clumsy bastard Zealot dropped one and it broke, splashing the green shit on the floor. Nothing happened though, so maybe whatever was in the vial lost its potency.
We also found some kind of old computer lab filled with really old computers and processors, probably stuff dating from the 1980s and early 1990s. We found a dead stalker in there, rotting and still wearing his suit. We grabbed his stuff, which is when we noticed his PDA still worked and that he had been uploading something onto it from one of the computers. We took it and went back to the surface, maybe the eggheads will pay us well for the info that poor sod found?
Day 7:
Lobster isn't feeling well, and neither is Bootleg. In fact, none of us are feeling well. I feel woozy, and I have a slight cough. I think it's time we headed back to civilization.
Maginot stopped reading and switched the PDA off. All this was very mysterious. He smelled the ugly smell of burning flesh and rubber and he saw that the Freedomers had set fire to the corpses after splashing them with some old petrol they must have syphoned from the truck further down the road. One of them coughed slightly and went unsteadily over to Maginot.
"-Uuuh, boss? We ain't feeling too well. Maybe we should all get back to the base and rest."
Maginot looked at the Freedomer and nodded. The man seemed pale and tired...too much boozing probably.
"-Okay, let's head back. I'll get more boys out to guard the outpost."
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Post by Afterburner on Jul 2, 2010 11:37:48 GMT -5
"I'm telling you, Coil, struggling won't help you...Now, you ought to tell me everything you know."
The bandit kept trying to get up, but Dimitri's boot was still firmly pressed against his throat. Finally, Dimitri raised his pistol, and the bandit stopped wiggling.
"How do you know my name?"
Dimitri smiled, taking his helmet off. Immediately, the bandit fainted.
After a while, he woke up. He was prompted against a wall, next to a campfire. Across the campfire was Dimitri, sitting and slowly loading bullets into the magazines.
"I thought you were never going to wake up, Coil...Or, are you going to sleep again?"
The bandit looked at him, shocked. Finally, he spoke:
"Dimitri...I thought you were...?"
Dimitri interrupted him:
"Dead? Yeah, I know. I thought so too. But then, I regained sanity. Now, I'm back. Tell me, your little bandit friends...Oh yes, I forgot. You're a bandit now? Shame. Such shame."
The bandit looked at him, still semi-shocked.
"What's with bandits and Freedom these days? Who wanted a hit on the Freedom leader? And who is the Freedom leader anyways?"
The bandit stopped. He closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and started:
"Some French guy and his right-hand bitch, as always. The moment they came in, they started coming down on every fucking thing in the Zone. We've lost everyone up north. Duty seems a bit shocked by this bastard too. We've even lost Limansk."
Dimitri rolled his eyes:
"Can it. I'm not here to listen to your whining. What about this French guy, who is he?"
The bandit responded:
"Some new guy. From what I've heard, he came here less than a month ago. The bastard turned everything upside down. Apparently Seth gave him the leadership when he croaked."
Dimitri seemed to be lost in thoughts until he heard Seth's name.
"Seth? Oh boy. Thought he'd have given it to that retard Sokol...And who's this guy's 'right-hand bitch' ?"
The bandit started wiggling again, trying to untie himself, but he stopped when Dimitri reached for his pistol
"OK, OK! I'm stopping, I'm stopping! Some bitch. I don't know much about her except for the fact that she's a nocturnal psychotic. She's got this group, Penumbra...They go about, murdering folks like me who only try to earn for a decent living."
Dimitri slowly got up.
"Penumbra, huh? Well well well...I think that's all I can get from you."
He turned around, but the bandit started screaming:
"DIMITRI!Man, what are you doing? You can't leave me here? DIMITRI! C'mon, help me out here, please! Come on! Dimitri! You son of a bitch!"
Dimitri turned around, again:
"Oh shut it! You won't be alone. You know how bloodsuckers are usually agitated by low-frequency noise? In thirty seconds, your PDA which is right next to you will start broadcasting the message 'Dinner is served' . See you around!"
The man started swearing loudly, yelling, but Dimitri didn't care. He proceeded up the hill. At the top, he heard a monstrous roar and a blood-curling scream coming from the direction of the bloodsucker village.
"That's one bloodsucker fed."
He put his helmet back on. As he walked, he noticed a group of people in the distance. He quickly side-stepped behind the car and grabbed his binoculars. The men were all wearing distinctive green camouflage, particular to the Freedom faction. Dimitri thought to himself for a second. He got on the road and approached the group. When he came closer, the Freedomers turned around, aiming their weapons at him. Naturally, they trusted soldiers as much as they trusted boars, but Dimitri lowered his weapon and raised his hands.
"I'm clear, no need to worry. What's with you guys?"
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Post by Basil on Jul 2, 2010 12:46:09 GMT -5
"I'm clear, no need to worry. What's with you guys?"
"-Well, mostly the fact you're wearing a military suit and that we heard somebody scream before you turned up. Who are you?", said Maginot, his SIG aimed straight at the stranger. As he spoke, the Freedomer who had spoken to him earlier broke into a fit of coughing, while another sneezed. He saw Adder lower her gun and put her gas mask on.
"-Uuuuh, Adder? Isn't that a little excessive?"
"-Sorry Frenchie, I'm a bit paranoid about germs too" answered Adder flatly. Maginot returned his attention to the stranger.
"-So, who are you and what are you doing on Freedom's territory?"
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 3, 2010 13:18:08 GMT -5
They made it to the out post only to find that it was too late and the loners were dead. Ferret helped pull the corpses away, he did not want to get what ever they had so he held an alcohol soaked rag to his face. He only hoped that the vapors killed what ever the loners had died from. As they lite the bodies on fire he held the rag tighter to his face the smell of burning flesh and rubber was unbearable.
On their way back some one had called form the top of the hill leading to the bloodsucker village. It looked like a military stalker, not something the rookie felt he was ready to tangle with. So he would let Mag and Adder deal with the new comer. But just then one of the freedomers that was going back with them collapsed. The man had an extremely high fever and was coughing up a nasty looking green phlegm.
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Post by Basil on Jul 6, 2010 14:29:56 GMT -5
"-What the fuck", said Adder, turning away from the stranger and kneeling next to the Freedomer, "what's wrong with you now?"
"-Uuuhh...feeling sick", said the Freedomer in a weary voice. He coughed a bit before struggling to get back up. Adder grabbed his hand and pulled him upright, where it became clear he couldn't stand anymore.
"Aw man, my legs feel like...like cotton..."
"-We need to get you back to the base", said Adder. Maginot on the other hand turned to the stranger once more.
"-Well, as you can see we don't have any time to waste. C'mon people, let's get back to base!"
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 7, 2010 16:46:43 GMT -5
"-Well, as you can see we don't have any time to waste. C'mon people, let's get back to base!"
Ferret watched as two of the sick man's friends began to carry him back to the base. What ever it was the man came down with the Ex Bandit sure as hell did not want to catch it. He staid as far way from the sick man as he could.
A few hours later, the sun was slowly reaching its lowest point in the horizon and the air was getting chilly as the stars started to pop out of a darkening sky. Ferret was helping out one of the base's mechanics with a rusted out, old vehicle that they where trying to salvage for parts. However their work was interrupted by a loud commotion coming from the HQ building.
"What the hell is going on up there," said the mechanic reaching for a bottle of booze, "Ferret why don't ya go up there and see what's got em making such a racket I’ll be along in a bit.”
The rookie gave a nod as he slowly began making his way to the area where the commotion was.
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Post by Διμι on Jul 8, 2010 0:07:09 GMT -5
After an uneventful three-hour stay in Rostok in the space of which his slightly damaged armor was duly tended to by the Dutier mechanics as a favor for gaining the rookies' trust, Victor had finally reached the barricaded gate to the Freedom territories. A thin stream of smoke rose ominously to the north, something was being burned. Although the conflagration was at least a mile away, the medic could dimly smell something putrescent in the air, a mixture of burning polymer, and the sickening scent of burning flesh.
He shut his visor hastily, activating the contained air system. For a moment, the air he breathed was sickeningly sweet, as the contaminants were purged from within the suit. He continued walking, although with unease. The Border guards were probably just clearing out the accumulated mutant bodies, he thought, although an entirely more convenient and tasteful alternative seemed to be to simply bury them...
He made it to the main warehouse compound by the late evening and without any unforeseen eventualities. Seeing that he was only a loner looking for a place to spend the night, the guards let him in after a quick search and confirmation that he carried no explosives or sabouteuresque equipment on his person. The medic slowly made his way across the bridge and to the campfire to settle down before he could find either Adder or Maginot.
He was about to pull down his visor before he saw a curious green spatter on the ground not too far from the circle of stalkers sitting about the fire. He slowly walked over and knelt beside it, holding the contaminant sensors on his sleeve near. It appeared to be some sort of phlegmatic matter, but the color seemed extremely unsettling. In seconds, the sensor sputtered, crackling frantically as a sample of the air around the contaminant was drawn in. The sensor shut down almost immediately, overloaded by some strange biological matter. Victor quickly cleared the sample air chamber before drawing away from the substance. Whatever it was the Freedomers smoked didn't make for very healthy aftereffects, or for a good environment to leave a visor or gas mask down.
A strange discord coming from the direction of the main building roused him from his thoughts, and he looked up to see what the source of the disturbance was. Something was off with this place, he thought. Slowly, he rose and began walking towards the main building, eager to find either of the Freedom leaders, two stalkers that he had not seen for a long time since they had parted in Limansk.
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Post by Basil on Jul 8, 2010 3:21:41 GMT -5
"Get away from me!!"
Maginot charged up the stairs, his booted feet stomping loudly on the concrete. He burst onto the landing and saw Adder aiming her gun at two other Freedomers (who were both from the outpost, Maginot noted).
"-What are you doing?!", yelled Maginot as he grabbed the Vintorez and wrested it from Adder's hands. "Have you gone insane?"
Adder, whose face was still hidden behind her NBC gas mask stared at Maginot with a mixture of fear, shock and anger. She pointed at the two stalkers with a trembling hand.
"-Mag! They're contaminated! The thing that killed the loners up at the outpost, it's got to them! It's a fucking epidemic starting here!"
Maginot could only detect fear in Adder's voice. Adder's paranoia did not only encompass other people, but other people's miasma. The woman would avoid anyone coughing or sneezing out of fear of contamination, a visceral and irrational fear.
Up till now.
"-Boss...the Commandant's right. I feel real shitty right now...", wheezed one Freedomer.
"-Yeah", said the one next to him, "it feels like we got the flu or some shit."
Maginot considered the situation for a moment. Everything was sinisterly falling into place: the PDA notes, the dead stalkers at the outpost...they all described the same flu-like symptoms, and now people who had been at the outpost were showing signs of contamination.
"-Okay", said Mag finally, "you two go outside in front of the HQ building with Adder. Adder, you make sure everyone in the base heeds my message, and don't take your gas mask off!"
Adder laughed nervously at that. "There's no way I'm taking it off, not with all the germs hanging about in the air."
Maginot went over to small console in his "office" while Adder took the two Freedomers downstairs. He picked up a microphone and switched the console on before speaking.
"-Everyone in the warehouses, this is Maginot, put on your gas masks or any other respiratory protection your may have and come to the yard at the back of the HQ. We have a serious problem on our hands. All those presenting symptoms similar to the flu stand apart from those who seem healthy."
The ancient PA system of Freedom's base broadcast Maginot's message across the warehouses, and soon he could hear the commotion of people heading towards the yard at the back of the HQ building. Maginot put on a respirator and went downstairs, heading to the assembly outside. Once there he climbed onto an old UAZ jeep and, using it as a makeshift podium, addressed his comrades. A cold chill went down his spine as he saw eight or nine people sitting apart from the group, coughing and sneezing slightly.
"Comrades, I've called you all here because we may have a dangerous situation on our hands."
"-What, is it mutants? A new Monolith attack?", asked someone in the crowd. Maginot shook his head.
"-None of those. This is a threat we have never faced before. What we seem to be facing here is an unknown pathogen, or virus, similar to the flu. We first encountered it about two hours ago at the Nort-Western outpost, where a group of loners arrived presenting severe signs of illness. They all died before we got there and we burned the bodies, but it seems like the infection followed us back here."
His speech sent frightened whispers going through the crowd.
"Stay calm, brothers, we are now taking measures to counteract, or at least slow this thing down. First, you must all wear respiratory protection at all times. Second, all contaminated victims must go to the warehouse in the East of the base, and finally, we're placing the warehouses and the entire area around them under quarantine."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 8, 2010 22:58:38 GMT -5
Ferret herd Maginot's message and made his way to the front of the ever growing crowd of Freedomers, making sure his suits respiratory protection covered his face. After making his way to the front he could see nine people that stood apart from the rest of the group, he immediately recognized them as the guards from the North-Western outpost. They where not looking too good, weak coughing and sneezing, most definitely sick.
"Poor bastards," mumbled out the Ex Bandit just before Maginot started his speech. As others in the 'healthy' group started to voice their concerns Ferret could feel panic setting in on the mind of his fellow comrades as their leader try to calm his men.
"Stay calm, brothers, we are now taking measures to counteract, or at least slow this thing down. First, you must all wear respiratory protection at all times. Second, all contaminated victims must go to the warehouse in the East of the base, and finally, we're placing the warehouses and the entire area around them under quarantine."
Soon after the other Freedomers went about following the Boss' orders, now only he and the two freedom leaders remained.
"So, what about us?" he asked generally worried, "we where at the outpost, we where exposed."
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Post by Afterburner on Jul 9, 2010 7:45:32 GMT -5
"No one you need to worry about. From what I've heard, you had a little lot gathering up to kill a certain... 'Adder and Maginot' . If you really want to know my name, it's Dimitri. Dimitri Baranov. And yes, the uniform...Well, it's decent protection, to say the least. Although the insignia is off, it wouldn't matter to someone looking through the other end of the scope. "
He tossed a PDA to Maginot.
"Read it. There's something you ought to know. Are these lot all right?"
The leader turned around to the others. Some of them started coughing, and the group moved back to the base. One of the soldiers, a man wearing a "Guardian of Freedom" suit nodded at him, pointing him to move along with the group.
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Post by Διμι on Jul 9, 2010 17:59:30 GMT -5
Victor hung back by the crowd's periphery, taking in Maginot's speech. An epidemic?, he mused, just lovely, so much for an armed rebellion against the remainder of the Zone, Mr. Duty command. He pulled out his PDA and began to type a message to Rurik. Rurik,
We need to quarantine everything north of Rostok, there's some sort of potent pathogen flying around in the air here, and shitloads are already infected, by the looks of it, fatally. Freedom's doing their best, but I wouldn't trust them with controlling their own borders, especially in the state that they're in If you're planning to send any scouts to the north, give them full respiratory gear, preferably 9MD suits. Good looking out.
- Victor The loner, his visor still on, turned back to the crowd, which had begun to disperse. He noted that a single Freedomer, and a man in military gear whom he recognized as one of the ex-soldiers from Limansk, had stayed behind with the two Freedom leaders. Victor waited patiently until the other men had disappeared to fulfill their tasks, then approached the group of four. "Seems Freedom's hit some hard times, but it's good to see you two alive," he greeted the Freedom leaders and disregarding the other two, his voice slightly muffled by the external amplifiers on his suit "do you guys have any info on this thing at all, maybe a sample? You said a group of loners carried it in from the north. Any idea where the hell they were skulking about when they contracted it?" "The only people that I can think of being able to help with this would be the eggheads," he continued "but you know how they are, if we don't deliver anything clean and solid for them to study, they won't do squat in return. But if they can figure out how this thing works, and its precise chemical composition, maybe they can come up with some sort of cure. But we'll need the thing in its prime form, because isolating it from infected specimens, especially if we don't even know what it is, could take weeks."
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Post by Basil on Jul 9, 2010 18:17:45 GMT -5
Maginot briefly went through the PDA the ex-military stalker (or whoever he was) had given him. It contained an exchange between a few bandits, who were, surprise surprise, planning to take down Adder and he. There was even a description of their arsenal and the place where the hit was meant to take place.
"Bros, I got you some Makarovs and a couple of shotguns. You'll have to jump the bastards near the old farmstead up North."
"-Oh boy, those are definitely dangerous assassins we have on our hands here", said Maginot with a snort. He could send a few Freedom rookies and they'd be able to take the fools out, and if he sent Adder and Penumbra the 'assassins' would be slaughtered before they even knew what was happening.
Maginot then turned to Victor.
"Well", said Maginot, taking the dead loner's PDA out, "we did find a few notes on the leader of the ill fated loner squad's PDA. It contains a few journal notes describing how they found an abandoned military base in the Red Forest, and it also has a few files we haven't been able to access yet."
Maginot handed Victor the loner's PDA. "I believe the loners were headed to the anomaly in the South of the Western part of the Red Forest, but got lost and went too far up North...where exactly did they end up is beyond me."
They were all surprised to see Adder's hand snap forward and take the PDA from Victor's hands.
"-Lemme do something" she said, her voice muffled by her NBC gas mask. She fiddled with the PDA before showing it to Maginot: the PDA's small screen was showing several locations in the Red Forest, and all were linked by a red line. They were effectively retracing the loner's journey.
"I'm guessing the point the most to the North is where they got the virus", said Adder, "it's in uncharted territory...who knows what shit might be lying up there."
She handed the PDA back to Victor.
"-Adder...how did you do that?", said Maginot. He wasn't the most tech-savvy person in Freedom.
"-It's simple really. One of our men showed me how to do it a couple of days ago."
Maginot arched an eyebrow at Adder and smiled slightly. He then gave the small group of people around him a cursory glance.
"-Okay people, we've found the place where we'll find the samples the scientists will need. It's a risky expedition, and we'll obviously have to pick those who aren't yet infected..."
Maginot paused and coughed. He was suddenly feeling rather dizzy.
"Shit...I think I got it. This means I'll have to stay here...Adder, you'll lead this expedition. Anyone else feel like volunteering?"
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Post by Διμι on Jul 10, 2010 2:09:55 GMT -5
"I suppose a half-decent medic wouldn't do the group any harm?" ventured Victor, stepping to Adder's side "not to mention that with the Red Forest, the more firepower we have, the better. Our last little expedition didn't do too well, and we had a pretty tangible target - Limansk. Now we're headed off into God-knows where, so the more people we bring along, the more secure we'll be."
He paused a bit, considering the task at hand. They were venturing into a laboratory that was most likely contaminated beyond imagination. His completely sealed suit would protect him, but the filters on the Freedomers' gas masks weren't above failure. "We'll need some hardcore protection, preferably full protective biohazard gear. The levels of the pathogen in that lab could be enough to overwhelm any of us, especially if it decides to stick to us. Who knows whether a gas mask will even stop all of this stuff when it's concentrated. A pellicle over it would work well enough though, if you have any of them."'
"Bring some sort of secure container too," he continued "if one of those vials breaks along the way, everyone who passes through the area could be at danger for hell knows how long. We'll have to figure out how to seal this lab too, or at least remove all of the dangerous chemicals from it, as well as any dangerous intel that people would no doubt be after."
He stared at Maginot worriedly as the Freedom leader coughed and shook himself, the man did not look in the least healthy, and he was perfectly aware of it. "Shit," the loner muttered "this isn't good. If it took this thing only a few days to bring down those loners, I don't imagine we'll be in any better luck. We're in a critical situation - we have to head up to the northern reaches of the Red Forest, then back down to Yantar, wait until the eggheads make a cure, and then travel back here. We're in one hell of a tight time frame, and we can't lose you of all people. You should stay here while we hit up the lab, but come back with us to Yantar, so we can treat you faster, or it might end up too late."
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