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Post by Karcentric on Feb 1, 2010 3:02:30 GMT -5
Rurik emerged from the bunker, holding a small briefcase. He walked towards where Victor and the other man were standing. As he approached them he could see they were discussing something. Deciding to let them continue without his interruption, he sat by the campfire and began reading the documents he'd received. Most of them were happenings from the big land, or news of raids around the Cordon, Garbage, Dark Valley and Agroprom. Skimming over most of them with little interest. He noted that the Freedom leader had been spotted at Yantar.
"Why is he there?" Rurik said to himself, "No matter, nothing I can do about it for now." He thought. The rest of the documents were sealed for General Voronin. Placing the documents carefully in his pack, he stood up and made his way towards were Victor was. "Are you gents ready to go?" Pulling his PDA out he showed them a map of the zone. "We'll be going along this path. Hopefully, the bandits will be to drunk to notice us." Thinking suddenly "How many is there in your group? I can't take to many people as it will draw attention to us."
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Post by Διμι on Feb 1, 2010 18:58:31 GMT -5
This was where utmost care had to be taken, as it could ruin their chances of getting out of the Cordon, Victor thought. He decided to risk it. "There'll be four of us; myself, a stalker named Chaos, and the two brothers. We'll travel light and quietly." he added. He couldn't leave Chaos back here to rot in the wake of rookies trying to claw out their own share of whatever was left in the Cordon.
"I believe Harmund and Sigbrand are ready to go," he continued, "I'll go find Chaos and inform him that we're departing shortly, it shouldn't take long for him to get ready." Victor walked off quickly in search of his friend.
((Chaos - we'll need you to post once or twice more for confirmation when you have time, and once more during the expedition North so you can... errm... knock yourself out, so to speak, until you have time to really start posting here again.))
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Post by Karcentric on Feb 7, 2010 2:21:35 GMT -5
Rurik thought about what Victor had told him. 4 stalkers would be easy enough to take with him. Turning to Harmund he said "I'll go ahead a little bit, I don't want every loner here following us, head north along the road, you'll come across a railway bridge, I'll meet you there. Don't go off the road, there may be bandits and mutants lurking, I'll deal with any hostiles along the way. And remember stick together." Nodding to Harmund, Rurik turned walked towards the meet point.
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Post by Διμι on Feb 9, 2010 15:24:24 GMT -5
Victor watched the giant man walk off into the distance, almost out of sight. He turned to Harmund with slight unease. He put trust in the Dutier and the reputation that seemed to precede him, but he couldn't shake the possibility of being left behind or worse, being led into a trap.
"You think this guy'll stick around for us?" he asked the muscular loner. Going through the Garbage without the guide was feasible, he mused, but it would definitely be a nasty surprise to find themselves lacking support at a critical moment, especially if bandit numbers just north of the Cordon were as high as they were rumored to be.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Feb 9, 2010 19:56:38 GMT -5
"I think we can trust him." said Harmund, "At least as long as he considers us possible recruits, from what he said about these 'Freedom' people, I think their a little strapped for recruits".
Victor was probably worried about the possibility of a trap, Harmund was as well, but he thought it unlikely. "This Duty faction seems trustworthy enough, and I doubt they would work with bandits or openly kill loners, so I doubt he could be walking us into a trap.
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chaosshade
Fracture
RP Mod [teal]DISCHARGED[/teal]
50%
In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
Posts: 183
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Post by chaosshade on Feb 9, 2010 20:22:59 GMT -5
Chaos looked up when Victor addressed him. "I'll see you guys around," he said to the other loners, getting to his feet. He walked over to his companion and greeted him with a smile. "What's up, Victor?" he asked, glancing at the other loners around them. "We finally going north?" he asked, lowering his voice. He'd heard tell of something special in the north, something besides a treasure trove of artifacts or the wish granter.
"I'll be just a sec if that's the case," he said, darting off and ducking into one of the wrecked houses. He pulled open the door on the fireplace and pulled his pack from the compartment along with his vest, which he pulled on immediately after zipping up his over shirt. After hooking the strap for his pack over one shoulder and grabbing his rifle, he headed back toward the gathering group. The suppressor he'd gotten for his rifle had been a godsend when he'd raided the carpark with Fanatic's group a few days back, but he was worried about losing it now.
With a shrug, he headed back out to the group of assembled loners. "I'm all set," he declared, his voice low. He wasn't at all sad to leave the Rookie Village, not after the more or less daily army raids and the roaming packs of wild dogs. He blinked and paused, "Umm... what are we going to do about mutant control? I'm not exactly keen on getting ripped to shreds by a Pseudodog or got forbid a pack of those overgrown rat-dogs..." he said, looking at the group.
Chaos figured that overall, he probably had the best gear in group, he'd originally modified his clothes before coming to The Zone, and he'd gotten some good gear from the soldiers after the raid the other day, and there had been that stash containing the suppressor. He shrugged inwardly, a trip was a trip no matter how it was sliced.
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Post by Διμι on Feb 9, 2010 20:43:24 GMT -5
Victor checked his equipment. The loaded AK-74/u was strapped across his back, his silenced pistol in a side holster on his Berill suit. Two grenades were tucked away into the utility pockets, and he had even managed to salvage some Army issue medical equipment and provisions from the dead grunts.
"Mutant control?" He turned to Chaos. He remembered the enormous machine gun carried by the Dutier. "What mutants?" he asked with a wry smile.
He noticed Rurik had already gone far out of sight. "We should get going," the loner spoke up "we can't keep our Dutier guide waiting. And waiting until the bandits' wake-up time wouldn't be the best idea right now." Motioning for the two brothers and Chaos to follow, Victor began to walk down the road crossing the Cordon.
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chaosshade
Fracture
RP Mod [teal]DISCHARGED[/teal]
50%
In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
Posts: 183
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Post by chaosshade on Feb 9, 2010 21:05:02 GMT -5
Not having seen the Dutier, Chaos was a little skeptical, but he knew he could trust Victor, so he shrugged inwardly. If nothing else, they could run, the military always opened fire on anything that moved but wasn't willing to give them money. 500ru had always seemed like such a drop in the bucket to him, but the loner knew ways to get around the checkpoint, as long as you were willing to do a little walking.
He followed Victor outside the village and down the road. The loner was excited to finally get to delve deeper into the Zone. He admittedly didn't mind the rookies or even Fanatic, but the military and the rat-dogs had always been a turn off for him. He hadn't even minded the anomolies, considering his experimenting with rocks had always been kind of amusing.
Springboards had always picked up the smaller rocks he'd thrown and tossed them randomly, based upon shape, out of their core after a few moments, but larger rocks had didn't seem to move for hours. Conversely, Whirlgigs had picked up and thrown whatever was tossed into them, no matter the size. Often times at the speed of a bullet or even faster. Chaos had learned to take cover when confronting Whirlgigs. Electros had been another matter entirely though as rocks, for the most part, didn't set them off, although he has noticed that bits of taconite or hematite set them off because of their high iron content. He knew there was more to The Zone's anomalies, but he had yet to encounter them.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Feb 9, 2010 21:26:15 GMT -5
Harmund and Sigbrand followed Victor, turning to his brother Sigbrand asked, "So we're heading north?". "Not quite," said Harmund, "Were meeting someone up by the railroad bridge." "Who?" asked Sigbrand. "An expert stalker by the name of Rurik, he is a member of the Duty faction and is going to lead us through the garbage." replied Harmund. "Can we trust him?" asked Sigbrand. "I think so, he doesn't seem to be the murderer type, and I don't think he would be to keen on working with bandits."
Turning to Victor, Harmund asked, "How far north is this railway bridge? We only ever got to the car park."
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chaosshade
Fracture
RP Mod [teal]DISCHARGED[/teal]
50%
In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
Posts: 183
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Post by chaosshade on Feb 9, 2010 21:47:46 GMT -5
Glancing back at the pair of loners, Chaos couldn't help but laugh. "You're been to the car park you haven't seen the bridge? You been drinking the ground water or eating tushkanos?" he asked with a laugh. "The car park is about 100 meters from the bridge, although it's in a place where you can't really see the bridge," he explained, pointing ahead.
There was a burly man in the distance talking with the army commander under the remains of the bridge. Chaos had always found the tale of the bridge amusing. According to Fanatic, Nimble, and even Tolik, the rumor was that a train had been crossing it and it had simply fallen down. He'd questioned Sid about it and gotten the same answer, and he'd been in The Zone forever according to Fanatic.
"Hey! You loners! What are you standing there for? Come up and we'll have a chat, otherwise get out of here before we get angry!" the bridge commander shouted, brushing the burly stalker aside and reaching for his gun. Normally Chaos would have grabbed for his own rifle, but considering the present company and the number of soldiers around, he wasn't really interested in getting himself or others killed. So, instead of reaching for his gun, he took up a relaxed stance with his hands at his sides, away from his firearms.
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Post by Διμι on Feb 9, 2010 22:18:41 GMT -5
Victor frowned. He didn't count on the military pokes to get in the way after Rurik had passed through. He decided to attempt to negotiate his way through. He pulled his binoculars from their pocket, looking into the distance at the gate to the Garbage. Sure enough, Rurik's gigantic figure was there, standing still and staring silently at the bridge. The major at the bridge gave Victor a questioning look.
The loner walked up to the military officer, weapons still holstered. "Take a look over there," he said, handing over the binoculars. "See that Dutier? If he hears any shots, he'll be back here as fast as his suit can allow, and with the loner camp right behind you, you won't have anywhere to run." Victor smirked "You can take your chances attempting to block a few rookies who will most likely die soon enough in the Zone anyway, or you can let us through."
Major Kuznetsov considered the young loner's words. Little tricky bugger, he could easily be bluffing, he thought. What business would a Dutier have with a bunch of rookie loners? He asked himself. He decided not to risk facing a veteran Dutier, after all, the military already had enough faction problems to begin with.
"Get out of here stalkers!" The officer waved them through. "If we see any of you around here again, we'll shoot on sight!"
Still smirking, Victor waved for the rest of the team to move on, crossing under the bridge and continuing to walk in the direction of the gate.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Feb 9, 2010 22:38:47 GMT -5
Once they were out of earshot of the Military goons Harmund leaned over towards Victor and said, "That was some smooth talking." Looking back up the road he could see Rurik walking towards them. "Well, lets not keep him waiting, theres quite some distance left till we hit Duty territory." he said, and quickened his pace.
((If you're wondering, Kar, you're next))
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chaosshade
Fracture
RP Mod [teal]DISCHARGED[/teal]
50%
In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
Posts: 183
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Post by chaosshade on Feb 9, 2010 22:54:07 GMT -5
Chaos almost laughed when Victor talked them through them checkpoint. He considered the former doctor to be someone he knew a fair bit about and could therefore say he'd seen that silver tongue work its magic on more than one occasion. The loner was honestly surprised he hadn't been shot on sight by the soldiers considering he was wearing one of their vests, but it then dawned on him that it was entirely possible that loners in military body armor was more common than he actually thought.
Looking down the road, he could see the Dutier they were supposed to meet. Well... he certainly looks menacing... Chaos thought, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck. He noticed a group of loners up the road shooting it out with a pack of dogs. His reluctance to leave his companions, coupled with the arrival of a pair of decent stalkers, won out over his will to help those in need.
"That's certainly a sight we won't see much anymore," he commented as they arrived at the barrier that linked the Cordon to the Garbage. He'd only heard rumors of the Garbage from the few loners that actually traveled to the Cordon. There was masses of abandoned machinery and pockets of super intense radiation there. Supposedly, if he recalled correctly anyway, the Garbage was a graveyard for all the equipment that had been used during the clean up of the first accident at the power plant.
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Post by Karcentric on Feb 10, 2010 5:59:54 GMT -5
Walking back to meet the 4 stalkers, Rurik noticed firing to one side, a pack of dogs were charging towards a pack of loners, without thinking he gripped his PKM and let loose at the groups of dogs. Several were ripped in half by the hail of bullets, the rest fled in all directions. Turning back to the group he was going to guide he held his gun pointed at the ground.
"Have any trouble from the Major?" Rurik inquired "I told him you were coming, but chances are he didn't believe me." Turning to face the stalkers he hadn't meet "You must be Chaos, and you must be Sigbrand" He said in turn. "Let's go, hopefully we won't have to stop, but if we have any confrontations stay behind me, if by some chance you need to run I'll give you cover fire, in exchange one of you take this and and make sure it reaches the Duty base." Showing them a small sealed package.
((I'm sure you can see where the barricade thread is heading))
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Post by Basil on Feb 14, 2010 11:43:07 GMT -5
OoC: leaving the Cordon and heading to the Garbage...might join the Barricade thread.
"Leaving the Cordon...ambitious? Maybe", said Adder with a smile. Maginot sighed at his companion's exuberant mood and kept his eyes on the left hand side of the road.
Adder hadn't been that chirpy when he had first met her, perched in a tree trying to avoid blind dogs. She had saved him from death by grabbing his collar and dragging him up into the branches. Maginot had repaid that favour by saving her from some muggers at the Autopark.
This mutual aid had made them team up for their upcoming departure from the Cordon. After the raid that had hit the rookie village, the pair had decided it was time to leave for the Garbage and head for Rostok, and so they had set off, following a group of more experienced stalkers who were also heading North.
"-You're chatty today", said Maginot.
"-I'm glad we're leaving the Cordon, going further into the Zone, towards adventure, and of course profit."
"-Dubious profit at best", said Maginot with a chuckle.
"-Still better than scraping a living by sweeping streets, at least here we have a chance to find a rare artifact that'll be worth enough money to get us back to the Big Land and set us up comfortably."
"-I guess..."
They both stopped as they came into view of the military checkpoint beneath the railway bridge.
"The fuckers'll try to make us pay a fee to get through", said Maginot.
"-No worries", said Adder with a smile, "there's a way round that. But it's a bit dangerous."
They left the road and went through the the abandoned mill, finally ending up in front of an old tunnel going under the railway embankment. An electro anomaly could be clearly seen in the tunnel, as well as the blackened body of an unlucky stalker.
"-A bit dangerous eh?"
"-Don't worry, the anomaly moves up and down the tunnel. All we have to do is wait for it to move away from us and follow it through."
"-How do you know that?"
"-I spent three hours watching it the day before yesterday. Now come on, the anomaly is moving away."
They both entered the tunnel, slowly following the electro anomaly as it moved away from them. Maginot could feel his hair stand up from the static electricity accumulated in the air and ground. After making their way through the tunnel, they jumped onto an old piece of concrete piping, avoiding getting fried by the anomaly, before walking away from the tunnel, towards the dilapidated sheds of an old factory.
"We're almost out of the Cordon", said Adder with a tinge of wonder. They had never been beyond the railway embankment before.
They saw no mutants, save for a pack of blind dogs in the distance, and soon made it to the old checkpoint that heralded the road to the Garbage. A group of three stalkers had settled down on the floorboards inside the old guard shack.
"-That your first time out of the Cordon?", asked one of the stalkers as Maginot and Adder arrived.
"-Yes."
"-Good luck at the Garbage."
Maginot and Adder left the old guard house and onto the road leading to the Garbage.
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