One does not simply walk into Yantar!

[Διμι]

((I've decided to make a single thread for the Yantar trip that'll be moved across the boards, as opposed to cluttering them with location-based threads for the entire expeditions. My Dutier BROS, feel free to begin this one when you see fit to do so in here.))

[Karcentric]

Rurik and 5 other heavily armed Dutiers marched towards the the Wild Territory entrance. They stopped squatting in the shade waiting for the order to move. "I'll go and get the rest of the rest of the party, we'll have a medic amongst us, 2 new men, and an old face some of you won't remember." Rurik said, walking back to the duty base he found the 2 brothers sitting talking to each other quietly, "Gentlemen, we a preparing to move to Yantar, we will go via the Wild Territory, meet with the other men near the Barricade, they will have some things for you to carry. I'll go find Kirill and Victor. Move out"

Rurik made his way back to the bar.

[chaosshade]

"Hey old friend! Things have certainly picked up for us haven't they?" Chaos asked, thumping Victor on his back with a smile. Although he still wore the same bulletproof vest he'd scavenged from a dead soldier, he'd talked with Duty and coaxed them to allow him onto their firing range so he could get some practice in and sight in his new rifle.

"You getting a lot of work here?" he asked, looking up when a mountain of a man approached. "Hey, Rurik! How goes it, old friend?" he asked with a smile. "That stash you told me about was a big help," the loner added, standing near the medic.

[Basil]

After leaving the bar to join Rurik's group, Maginot and Adder made a brief stop next to a pile of old metal pipes, where Patchouli's stash was. They got a Flash from it, which Maginot put into his artifact belt, and headed off to where Rurik's little expedition was gathering.

Everyone seemed busy greeting each other in some kind of way, and the two stalkers quietly approached them.

"Greeting everyone...so we're all off to Yantar?", said Maginot to the assembled stalkers as a whole.

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

Standing up after Rurik left, Harmund and Sigbrand made their way over to where the rest of their group was waiting, on their way there, Sigbrand caught sight of Chaos, "Hey, it's Chaos!" he said to his brother, and waved at their former travel companion. When they reached the barricade, they saw the other Dutiers Rurik had mentioned, Maginot and Adder were there as well.

"So," Harmund said, "Looks like we almost have everybody."

[Διμι]

Victor nodded to the two brothers. "Not much work as of now," he replied to Chaos "thankfully for the rest of ye, of course. Unless our Dutier friends would voluntarily hurt themselves in order to make me feel like I'm making a difference, that is." he laughed. "I have a feeling that's going to change with this whole expedition to Yantar." he paused, mulling over the thought "not a good thing, of course." he added.

He shouldered his AKSU, he was getting tired of the weapon's kick and relative inaccuracy. Not entirely his kind of gun at all, he mused, he would have to swipe it in for something shinier in the Wild Territories.

---

Lutiy approached the Wild Territory gate, giving the customary greeting or two to the few Dutiers who had recognized him. Silently, he leaned against the rusting iron gate, when something caught his attention.

A bright green tattered scrap of kevlar-laced fabric hung from a rusty edge where the gate had been bent by some mutant's claws along with another piece of fabric, this one a faded brown. Normally the find wouldn't have surprised Lutiy, a piece of any old green suit that could have caught on the edge, and torn off. This one, however, was something else.

The fabric was soaked with some form of chemical, a chemical that Lutiy could not mistake. He had worn an armored suit permeated with the same compound a very long time ago, a form of bulletproofing only one faction had the means of manufacturing.

"Lieutenant!" he called to Rurik "You'd better come here and have a look at this..."

[chaosshade]

Chaos smiled at his former companions. "Good to see you're all alive still," he laughed, approaching the gate. He gave a quick wave to the Dutiers he knew and a silent nod to the ones he had yet to properly meet. The rusting gate before them was somewhat foreboding as he looked at it. Bullet holes, dents, blood spatters, and claw marks adorned the rusting metal gate. The loner knew there was a hard road ahead of them, but if the rumors were correct, it was also very lucrative.

The way the rumors told it, there was masses of Electro and Burner-spawned artifacts. More importantly, the eggheads in Yantar paid a fortune for them because of their interest in such things. Chaos figured if he could slip away from his companions for even a small amount of time, he could round up several hundred-thousand rubles worth of artifacts. The other rumor in the 100 Rads that he'd heard was that the mercs had an outpost in the area and didn't bother asking for an itinerary.

"So, what's this trip going to entail exactly anyway?" he finally asked, feeling a little nervous. It had always been normal for Chaos to be a little nervous when traveling, but he had come to find that The Zone often required your life as collateral when traveling through an area.

[Karcentric]

Rurik nodded to the approaching parties, it would be a sizable force, they wouldn't have any trouble from bandits, the mercs would probably be a problem. But his men here were nearly equal to a spetsnaz, most had been with Duty for years.

Rurik looked up, Kirill had called for his attention, making his way over he saw the fabric that had caught his friend attention. It was from no armor he'd seen around here, it was Freedom armor. "This would indicate that either a freedomer has sneaked into the base or one has passed by very recently." Rurik looked at the fabric and then back at his old friend, "Can you tell anything else from it?" Signaling to one of his men to come over to them, "Sergent, ask the men who were guarding here in the last day if any stalkers have been through here." Rurik ordered.

He didn't want to move until he knew who had worn this armor, but also wanted to move out and find out what Seth had been doing in Yantar.

[Διμι]

The sergeant returned. "Kitsenko was guarding this place the past couple of days. Says no stalkers came around except for the occasional loner coming back to the Bar from WT, but we know all of 'em, and there was one trench-coated loner fella, his face was bandaged and all bloody. But he didn't stick around, headed straight to the stalker camps up north."

Lutiy swore under his breath. "It was Seth," he muttered grimly "The Freedom leader walked in here right under your noses. If your guards really do such a superb job, and you accept any stalkers into your ranks who wish to be recruited," he looked suspiciously at Harmund and Sigbrand "the entire base could be swarming with Freedom spies by now".

He thought for a second "Seth was headed back to base, no doubt, so he'll have to come through here again if he needs to get to the Wild Territories or Yantar. There's also a path through Limansk, but as far as I know, the mercenaries and Freedom have nothing to do with each other." He looked at Rurik "Tell your men to check every stalker by face next time anyone comes through here, no matter how heavily wounded they say they are".

"There's no use going after him," Lutiy continued, "we'll need a regular army to attack the Freedom base, and victory will be doubtful even at that. We might as well go to Yantar, and figure out what he was doing there. Doubtlessly the scientists are involved somehow. I can't see another reason he would go there." He mused. "We should move out." he said finally. "There's little time to waste".

[Karcentric]

Rurik listened to Kirill, slightly taken by surprise, he turned to the Sergent, "Report this to the general at once, sweep the base, and check every man. Including our own men." Rurik added, "Keep Kitsenko within the base perimeter, and find out all he knows. Now."

Turning back to Kirill "I agree for the most part, let's move we've lost time. I hope Vasily has some good answers for us." Turning to the party "Move out, keep in line, only engage hostiles in our path. Men two to the front two at the back."

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

"Finally." Sigbrand muttered as Rurik gave the order to move out. The two brothers grabbed up their things and moved into line with the rest of the group. The sun was directly above them, and it's rays beat down on the group as they made their way towards the gate. A small sheet-metal and cinderblock wall was all that kept the ravenous hoards of mutants in the Wild Territories out of the Bar area, that and a few good rifles.

As they made their way through the gate, Sigbrand saw another wall ahead of them, this one had an upper story and several holes in it's wall, he could see a door on the right side. Beyond that he could see the tops of dilapidated warehouses and factories.

And finally, past the Mercs, Mutants, Bandits and Anomalies, was Yantar, their destination. As the group passed through the gate, Sigbrand held the wooden stock of his rifle tighter, keeping an eye out for any possible danger.

[Διμι]

Victor's eye caught a black shape move about in one of the apertures ahead, roughly sixty meters away. "There's someone in there." he said aside to the Duty lieutenant walking beside him.

"Mercenary snipers" replied Kirill, walking on the other side of Rurik "there's usually four or five of the buggers, and they're not too shabbily armed. Still, not a problem for thirteen men, with nine of them serving with Duty at one point or another. The mercs typically won't start shooting until you come too close. Seems that they haven't been here very long, since Seth only passed by yesterday."

The ex-Dutier took out his rifle, flipping the safety off, and the loner did the same. "We should spread out." Kirill noted "there's plenty of cover for all of us out here. Did you bring any snipers?" he asked Rurik "If we'll encounter Freedom up at Yantar somehow, we won't even be able to come close without a decent marksman, especially if they know the area well." He recalled repelling Duty raids back in his Freedom days. The men in red usually didn't even get a chance to enter within their own range of the sniper towers without getting a bullet in the head first.

[Karcentric]

"Two of my men have scoped weapons, Kirill take these two and deal with those snipers. Signal when your ready for us to continue." Rurik looked through his binoculars checking the area carefully, four men were posted along a walkway that over looked the entrance, he watched as Kirill and two of his men moved along getting into a position that would allow them to take out the snipers in quick succession...

[Διμι]

Lutiy turned to the two Duty snipers, signaling a 'one' on his fingers to the first and a 'two' to the second, instructing which mercenary each had to pick off. He positioned himself at an angle, with a view of the last two snipers. The rest of the huge Duty group was out of sight of the mercs, and the three men had so far remained undiscovered. Assuming that the two Dutiers could shoot more or less decently at this distance, all that remained was a test for Lutiy's own marksmanship in picking off his second target before it could go for cover.

"Count ten seconds" he whispered to the two men beside him, taking aim as they did the same "Then open fire. Begin." He began ticking off the time in his own head, the first merc's head firmly in his sights. If stalkers could count, he reasoned, three of the mercs should go down at the same time, leaving no time for the fourth to hide from the Dutier's bullets.

Eight... Nine... Ten! He thought and pulled the trigger. Nearly silent pops could be heard next to him. Scoped AS VALs, he thought, evidently Rurik took more than enough powerful armament with him for this one. Three mercs dropped as expected, not even having time to realize that they were spotted. The last dove out of the aperture, but was dead before he hit the ground, a 5.45x39mm round blasting through his temple.

Lutiy stood up. "Area secure. You loners might want to pick up their guns. Scoped AK-74's are something we might need later on." he patted his own rifle.

---

Victor quickly came out of hiding, ascending the building to its upper floor. Three mercs were on the floor, dead. A third was groaning and twisting about in his final moments. Victor spared him the agony, putting a 9x18mm round into his head from his silenced gun.

Four scoped AK-74's lay near their late possessors, as Lutiy had predicted. Victor quickly swapped one out for his old rifle, before turning to the rest of the group, all of whom had come in after him. Searching the merc he had picked his gun off of, he also found a HPSA pistol, as well as a meat chunk artifact. Those are getting more and more common nowadays, he thought.

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

Following Victor up the stairs, Harmund and Sigbrand searched a few of the corpses. Rummaging through the dead merc's packs, Harmund found another RGD-5 and a Makarov PM, grabbing up one of the AK-74s and removing the scope, he waited for his brother. Removing the Merc's PDA Sigbrand flitted through it, finding nothing of interest he discarded it and grabbed up and AK. Just as he was about to head back down, something caught his eye. Running over to the other end of the building he found a Stalker suit, neatly folded up and tucked in a corner, "Well," he said, "I guess today's my lucky day." and went to go join the others.

BIG [CHECK]