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Post by Basil on Mar 14, 2010 19:40:44 GMT -5
Maginot woke up slowly, and quickly noticed one thing: his muscles were aching from the cold and lying on the hard ground.
"Putain...", he grumbled, rising unsteadily and rubbing his sore back. He looked at his backpack and sighed heavily. He'd have to carry that load for several more miles today. The exoskeletons he had seen some stalkers wearing seemed quite tempting. He looked back to where he had been lying...and saw that Adder was missing.
"Adder?", he said, looking around.
"-I'm here."
Maginot went over to where the voice had come from, just outside the room in which they had spent the night, and saw Adder sitting on the ground, her back propped up against the wall. She was staring ahead with tired, bleary eyes and her face looked ashen.
"-Have you been out here all night?", asked Maginot with a mixture of surprise and concern.
"-Half of the night", she said.
"-Why?"
Adder slowly turned her head to look at Maginot.
"-I had a weird fucking nightmare last night. I dreamt I was looking straight at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant...and there was only the plant, just standing there in a middle of a huge plain of emptiness. Everything looked blurry, like on a shitty TV set, and there was this huge thing going from the power plant to the sky...some kind of light..."
Maginot looked at Adder with scepticism.
"-And that kept you awake."
"-You've no idea what it was like. There were voices in my head, whispering to me...I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but it felt like a caress and a curse at the same time. That's when I woke up, and when I opened my eyes, I could see in the fucking dark."
Maginot looked fixedly at Adder, not quite sure what to say. She looked exhausted and distraught by whatever had happened, but Maginot couldn't help but doubt the authenticity of her tale.
"Don't look at me like that!", said Adder, her tired eyes boring into Maginot's, "it fucking happened! The room was really dark when I went to sleep, and when I woke up, I could see in the fucking dark. It went on for hours! I went outside and I could see clearly...almost like daylight..."
Adder fell silent, holding her head between her hands and staring haggardly at the ground. After a moment, she spoke again in a quiet, hushed voice.
"By the way...that merc and that criminal left last night."
"-Lutiy and the mercenary who got buried in rubble?"
"-Yeah, those two."
Adder told Maginot about how she had seen the two men leave during the night as she had left the room in which the others were sleeping. Maginot rubbed his chin thoughtfully before speaking.
"-Any idea where they went?"
"-No...they just left. I thought they were going out somewhere in the Wild Territory, but they never came back."
"-Looks like you were right about that Lutiy guy not being worthy of trust. We'd better tell Rurik about it."
Maginot headed back inside to tell Rurik about Lutiy's little nocturnal escape. He was having more and more doubts about the trip to Yantar...what were they after? What would happen in the end? He was also worried about Adder. She had always been on the nervous side what with her paranoid nature, but this was a rather frightening development.
I hope she's not going mad...
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 15, 2010 5:02:01 GMT -5
Rurik had taken his mask off of the Exo-skeleton, eventually drifting to sleep, the cool breeze blowing on his face. Waking up feeling no better than before he'd gone to sleep, there was a quiet discussion outside somewhere, by the the sound of the voices it was Maginot and Adder, he couldn't quite hear what was being said, twisting his neck to the left and rotating his shoulders, he checked his PDA it was nearly sunrise, May as well let them continue sleeping until we're ready to leave he thought. Standing up he replaced the mask sealing himself back inside his protective suit.
He clicked his spoke into his PDA, "Sergent, bring the Merc and Lutiy back now." There was no reply, Rurik waited a minute before trying again, "Sergent, I said bring the Merc and Lutiy back to the house now." He waited again, "SERGENT! WAKE UP!" He said louder. What the fucking hell is going on Rurik thought.
Walking out to where the loners were sitting he caught the end of the last sentence "...better tell Rurik about it."
"Tell me what exactly?" He asked, as he climbed though the window to where they were sitting. The look on Maginot's face seemed to be in doubt of something. "Whats up?"
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chaosshade
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In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
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Post by chaosshade on Mar 15, 2010 7:45:23 GMT -5
Chaos rolled over in his sleep and grunted uncomfortably before stirring then waking up. He rubbed his eyes and popped his neck. Well... that was an ass night's sleep... he thought, getting up and stretching. His left shoulder popped uncomfortably, but after rubbing it for a few minutes, he stopped caring. He picked up his rifle and made his way outside, taking in The Zone's fresh morning air. He heard a distant conversation, signaling at least two other members of the group were awake.
The loner figured since he was awake he might as well have something to eat. He set his backpack down with a clunk of metal on stone and rummaged through it, taking out a tin of fish in tomato juice. He peered into his pack and sighed, it was his last one. Silently, he wondered if some of the others might be willing to trade, but he quickly reminded himself that if he ate it all the time, he'd get tired of it. With that, he popped the tin open and began eating by himself, keeping watch of his surroundings. He could only imagine how embarrassing it would be to die because a Bloodsucker sneaked up on him while he was eating.
After finishing his meal, he moved to join the others, finding them in conversation about something that seemed to be bothering Rurik. "Is everything okay?" he asked, seeing Adder, who looked like she'd been drinking too much vodka. He walked over and knelt, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You'll be all right as long as you stick with us," he said with a smile.
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Post by Basil on Mar 15, 2010 9:14:31 GMT -5
"Whats up?", said the exoskeleton-wearing Dutier.
"-Lutiy and the merc left us last night. Adder saw them, but she doesn't know where they went."
At that moment, the other loner, Chaos, turned up. He seemed to have spent a bad night too.
"Is everything okay?", he said, before kneeling down beside Adder, "you'll be all right as long as you stick with us."
Adder smiled at Chaos and murmured something that sounded like 'thanks', but Maginot could see she felt uncomfortable at being the centre of attention. Maginot looked at the slowly rising sun and the marvelously clear blue sky over the Wild Territory, and almost forgot he was in one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Even the gnarled, mutated trees and rusty cranes seemed less foreboding with sunlight.
A ray of sunshine reached them, and Maginot heard Adder almost hiss with pain and irritation. The sun was shining straight into her face, and she had put her arm in front of her eyes. Swearing quietly to herself, she retreated into the darker confines of the room in which they had slept.
Maginot went in after her...either she had been drinking and had a splitting headache, or something else was wrong. Adder stood blinking and rubbing her eyes in the middle of the old room.
"-Have you been drinking?", said Maginot with a joking smile.
"-No, I don't drink. The sun is just so bright today that it blinded me."
"-Weird...", said Maginot. The light wasn't that bright, but Adder was averting her eyes from the doorway as if it were literally burning her retinas. After a moment of eye-rubbing and quiet cursing, Adder ventured outside again, shadowing her eyes with her hand and squinting.
"Anyway", said Maginot, turning to Rurik once again, "I've been wondering about this lately...who exactly are we after? I know it doesn't really concern me and my partner Adder, as we consider ourselves neutral, but what everything that happened yesterday seems to indicate we are not chasing some mere thief or crook."
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chaosshade
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In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
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Post by chaosshade on Mar 15, 2010 9:40:11 GMT -5
The loner watched curiously as the woman hissed like a cat and shielded her eyes from the morning sun. He supposed that getting hit in the face like that after a bad night's sleep might do that. He took his pack off once more and rummaged through it, taking out a special tin of food he'd been saving for the proper occasion, and it seemed that it was the proper time to open it.
"Hey, Adder, c'mere," he called, sitting a little ways off from the others. In his hand was a tin of mixed fruit stored in its own juices. He'd bought it from Sidorovich before leaving the Rookie Village. The trader had said it was the last one for a while, but given him a pretty good price on it, considering fresh fruit was likely to be contaminated by radiation. He had other tins of food as well, although not all of them were able to be eaten without being heated or mixed with some water first.
Among his collection of tins was sardines in tomato juice, beef in broth, vegetable soup (which he'd swiped from a loner that hadn't been looking in the bar), and some tins of chicken soup that needed to be mixed with water then heated. He figured he'd be able to trade them for something useful instead of eating them, considering he didn't really like chicken anyway.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 15, 2010 10:04:44 GMT -5
Rurik shuddered with anger, Left, where the fuck are they going? Have they killed another one of my men? Claiming himself, he allowed the other stalkers to interact and talk, rather then involve them with his problems, he turned to look at the place where the 3 men had stayed. Sitting down he removed his entire helmet, rubbing the scars that covered his head and face. Looking into a small shard of a mirror, his face looked more and more like a skull each day, tearing into a loaf of bread, he sat back and watched the sunrise.
Maginot and Adder went back into the house, Chaos was sitting quietly looking at the sunrise too, "It's odd isn't it? At night this is one of the most dangerous places you will ever venture in days were, yet now you'd almost forget that it's the same place, most of the mutants are active at night. Some are active during the day but sunrise seems to be the safest time for you to pass through some places, here and Red Forest, pray you never get stuck there on your own." Rurik said, half remembering his time as rookie. The duo came out again, Maginot asked him who they we're after.
"I'm investigating why the leader of Freedom was snooping around Yantar. We're behind time too, chances are by the time we get there we'll be too late. On that note you should collect mutant parts, and artifacts while you can, you'll have an opportunity when we get to the burner tunnel. The scientists pay very good money for those things."
Looking up to, Rurik's surprise the Sergent was stumbling towards them holding his head, Rurik jumped up pulling his helmet back on and helped the man to where the group was sitting, "Sergent are you alright? Adder says she saw Jurgen and Lutiy head off." Rurik asked. The Sergent nodded "That prick Lutiy tricked us, him that merc have gone, stole my gear too." Rurik turned away and looked at the wall, fighting the urge shout out in frustration, hunching over slightly before standing to his full height he drew his fist back and slammed it into the wall twice, the first impact cracked the wall, the second punch was a lot harder a section of the wall collapsed. Stepping back he heard several voices within the building stir.
"If we meet our friend Lutiy again shoot on sight, I will personally give you 100,000 ru and whatever equipment you want."
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Post by Basil on Mar 15, 2010 10:46:45 GMT -5
The leader of Freedom eh?
Maginot had heard a few stories about Freedom. Some said they were a truely free society based on equality, freedom of choice, and of course an absence of authoritarian leadership, while others said they were incompetent drunkards and murderers. The fact they were hunting down the leader of said faction made Maginot uneasy as he had always had slight Anarchist sympathies, but the Zone did not seem to be a place for high ideals, besides, earning a living was his and Adder's original goal and top priority.
"If we meet our friend Lutiy again shoot on sight, I will personally give you 100,000 ru and whatever equipment you want", said Rurik, who was quite obviously very angry at Lutiy's traitorous ways.
"-I'd be delighted to do so", said Maginot, patting his gun, "le salopard mérite de se bouffer un pruneau."
Adder, on the other hand, was not paying attention. The strange dream that had plagued her last night still nagged her, could it mean anything? And why was the light outside so unbearably bright? The shadows of the small house seemed far more comforting and safe than the blinding white sunlight outside for some reason.
"Hey, c'mere Adder", said Chaos, and Adder obliged, albeit uncertainly. She went over to Chaos, who offered to share a tin of fruit with her. She smiled, her mood slightly improved.
"-Thanks!", she said with a smile. The fruit tasted much better than the tinned corned beef, soy sausage and bread she and Maginot had been eating for the past few days.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 15, 2010 17:08:41 GMT -5
Victor slunk into the room quietly, his back slightly sore from a night's worth of sleep on the bare ground. In the future, he resolved, he'd keep the sleeping on concrete to a minimum, for his kidneys' sake.
He glanced around. The group was evidently distraught over the bandit and merc's supposed disappearance in the middle of the night. The sergeant's gear, including his PKM and exoskeleton, was gone. Victor watched as Rurik slammed the wall twice, a large part of which imploded under the force of the impact. The man looked ready to tear Lutiy in half, were the bandit actually there. Victor did not for a second doubt the Dutier's ability to do so.
He glanced at the two thorn artifacts hanging from his belt. So all this magnanimity of Lutiy's was a ruse? The man was evidently incredibly clever and crafty even for a bandit, judging of the way he had disposed of a heavily armed Dutier and convinced a mercenary to join his cause. Moreover, the latter now seemed a much more potent foe, with powerful weapons and equipment restored to him. Victor remembered how the man's MG36 shredded the Duty stalker during the fight, narrowly missing Victor himself. The mercenary was no doubt an expert.
There was only one consolation to the entire affair. The fact that Lutiy now had virtually the entire population of the Zone against him, and that the Dutier force might actually find an unwitting ally in the form of the Freedomer they had been stalking from the beginning. The loner approached the Duty leader, who looked as if he had calmed down sufficiently. "So, when are we to move out?" Victor inquired cautiosly.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 16, 2010 8:53:23 GMT -5
Rurik took several deep breaths, dusting the grit off his knuckles, "So, when are we to move out?" Victor asked. He turned to the group thinking out loud, "Sergent, you will have to return to base, I don't want you running around getting radiation poisoning, also you'll need to report our little problem to General Voronin and post a bounty for Lutiy, you'll need to re-equip yourself too." Rurik said, "Take Jurgen's Pistol, and check the crashed helicopter, their Sergent shot himself in the head so some of his armor should be fine for you to take."
The injured sniper came out looking a little better than the night before, "Go with him, I'm sure we'll be fine, these stalkers have proven that they can certainly handle a weapon, we have a sniper here who I'm sure will be able to cover us." Looking to Victor to answer him, "We'll be moving as soon, as everyone has eaten and able to move, I'd like you to talk to Adder, she seems to be unwell, it may well be a number of things. Since you have the most in depth knowledge I trust you'll be able to figure it out." He stated.
The two brothers were grouped together waiting quietly, "You two have been invaluable in this raid thus fair, keep up the good work, you'll be well compensated for your services." He looked about the group they in the stages of waking up. He walked into the open looking towards Yantar the sky was very turbulent but was fading, A blowout over Yantar? Rurik headed back, it didn't make sense blowouts were massive and normally covered vast areas of the zone.
Walking back to the group, he looked at Adder she was holding her eyes shielding them from the light, It must have something to do with that blowout. Rurik went through his pack, handed Adder a visor to cover her eyes and still walk, if they hurried they could get to Yantar and hopefully they could talk to someone working there about the symptoms and Seth.
"When your all ready we will move, you'll be able to pick at least one artifact each in the burner tunnel." Rurik checked his weapons and waited for the group to prepare and leave.
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chaosshade
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In Chernobyl, Zone Fears You!
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Post by chaosshade on Mar 16, 2010 10:00:53 GMT -5
Chaos smiled as he sat with Adder. When she wasn't trying to kill someone, she was actually fairly nice. He speared the last piece of pineapple to take it for himself but paused and handed the fork to her instead. "Here, take it," he said with a smile, leaving the tin full of fruit juice in her hands. "Go on." He looked up when Rurik came over and his smile faded a little bit. The hulking Dutier handed the young woman a visor, causing the loner to blink.
"Hey, Rurik, I noticed a light outside this morning that was brighter than usual. What was that all about? I remember some of the stalkers that came to the Rookie Village in the Cordon talking about something called a "blowout." What is it? Is that what I saw this morning?" he asked, looking at Adder with slight worry. Although he didn't understand the exact details, he'd heard it was something like a bright flood of light and intense radiation and psy-waves.
He sighed and leaned back on his arms, sticking close to Adder for a little bit. "Hey Adder, why did you come to The Zone?" he asked, looking over at her. He ran a hand through his short brown hair and smiled lightly, so far his time in The Zone hadn't cost him anything of value other than his old life, which he had happily given up.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 16, 2010 10:38:48 GMT -5
Looking at Chaos who had asked about the blowout, "Yes it was a blowout, but normally it is a far spread thing that can cover nearly the entire zone, the effects of a blowout a intense radiation and lethal levels of psi emission, they happen on very occasions, a few years ago there were several massive ones that changed the zone, Rostok was entirely inaccessible due to anomalies shifting, we weren't hard pressed for survival seeing as nothing could get in or out, it drove a couple of the loners insane, we had plenty of food, and drink."
Rurik rocked back and forth on his heels waiting, "I noticed you were able to intercept a message from Seth, do you think you could do me favor?" Rurik asked Chaos, "I want you to see if you can use my PDA to hack into his and I'll send a message that will keep him looking over his shoulder. He knows Lutiy will come after him if he has the chance, and I'm quite sure Lutiy has gone after Seth." He chuckled he knew exactly what Lutiy was doing, and he planned to make him the most wanted man in the zone, however knew he'd have to keep Lutiy's identity secret.
Handing the PDA to Chaos, Rurik waited patently after a while Chaos handed it back. Smiling to himself, Rurik sent the simple message to Seth. 'I've dealt with your ambush, and the survivor has a nice present for you... Your friend, Lt. Rurik', laughing to himself after he sent it. "Everyone ready?"
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chaosshade
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Post by chaosshade on Mar 16, 2010 11:16:15 GMT -5
He looked around nervously, obviously a blowout was the most feared "natural" disaster in The Zone. "Umm... how do we protect ourselves from it?" he asked, looking at Adder again. It was obvious she'd been hurt by the blowout and needed some looking after. He hoped Victor could do something to help.
When asked about doing a little PDA hacking he smiled. "Well... I guess I could give it a try," he said, taking the Dutier's PDA and taking out his own to cross-check the frequencies. After a little fiddling around he was able to match them. "There, that should do it. Just keep in mind that because you two can communicate, it'll leave a GPS signal," he cautioned, pocking his PDA once more and getting up. He turned and offered a hand to Adder.
Silently, he was beginning to regret coming to The Zone. It was more of a living hell than he'd been led to believe by the rumors and even by the stalkers he'd met on his way through Kiev to it. He shrugged inwardly, he'd always given up on things in his life and he wasn't going to give up on his new life. With some time he'd be like Rurik or that Merc, Jurgen.
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Post by Basil on Mar 16, 2010 13:27:01 GMT -5
Adder took the visor Rurik offered her and put it on. It dimmed the overly bright light of the sun marvelously, and her strained eyes made the relief palpable.
"Oh thank you, thank you!", she said. She could now see properly once again, even thought it made the landscape seem a bit dark.
After Chaos had helped locate Freedom's elusive reader with a bit of PDA hacking, the group began to prepare itself for the trip from the Wild Territory to Yantar. Chaos helped Adder up.
"What a gentleman", said Adder with a smile. Maginot chuckled slightly at that: Adder had seldom looked so open and happy with other people, as she was usually too busy wondering how they would or could stab her in the back and how she could avoid that from happening.
As he and Adder grabbed their stuff, Maginot asked her a few questions about anything strange she could remember from last night.
"-Well, I remember that dream vividly...it seemed so real. And that thing about seeing in the dark...I could really see in the dark. It was supposed to be pitch black, with only the Moon, but I could see very clearly. That's how I saw Lutiy and the merc leave, I wouldn't have seen them otherwise, it was too dark."
"-Hmm...very strange, and rather worrying", said Maginot, "maybe Victor will know what it is."
"-Yeah..."
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Post by Διμι on Mar 16, 2010 18:11:17 GMT -5
Victor walked up to the woman. Nightmares? Night vision? this was hardly his area of expertise, but judging from Rurik's description of whatever kind of emission had emanated from the direction of Yantar last night, he managed to put two and two together. Either this is something serious, or we're all just going nuts now... he thought.
The loner peered into Adder's eyes, who instantly averted her gaze under his scrutiny. "Look at me, I'm trying to help here!" Victor snapped in slight annoyance, motioning for the woman to look him in the eye. Adder returned the gaze, although visibly uncomfortable with the arrangement.
The loner could detect no serious problem in neither the actual pupils nor Adder's gaze, aside from the obvious paranoia the loner seemed to exude from every square inch of her body otherwise. Bemused, Victor pulled out his Geiger counter as a last resort.
The device started ticking almost immediately. Despite the natural irradiated state of the area they had slept in before the blowout had occurred, the radiation levels had certainly risen overnight. Looking over Adder again, Victor noticed that the female loner had neither a solid suit or artifacts to protect herself from the hazard. The woman needed serious attention, and fast. However, he had little idea how to pull the maneuver off successfully.
"Well," the medic began to divert Adder's attention, who stood rapt. The loner's hand, meanwhile, crept towards his artifact belt "I can't see anything particularly unusual, but you see, the thing is that you-"
In a flash, his hand flew out, jamming the Thorn into Adder's wrist. "Sorry," he muttered, holding the bleeding extremity in a vice grip as the female stalker struggled about "there was no way you'd agree to this otherwise, and you need the fastest radiation removal treatment right now." after holding down the woman's hand for several minutes, he pulled out a bandage, wrapping up the wound.
Looking over his patient, he smiled grimly. "I wish I could say this is all you need, hun." he muttered good-naturedly. The woman was pale from blood loss, shaking slightly. But she would certainly be better off than being dead from internal bleeding in a month's time. He pulled out his Fireball artifact, giving it to Adder. "this should completely cure any long-term effects of the radiation. Just keep it close by." he sat her down "just sit still for a moment. You need to recover." he said.
Walking over to Maginot, he slipped the stalker his Stone Blood artifact. "Crush it and slip it into her food. Even a tiny dose should regenerate any lost blood or fluid when digested, as long as you do it. I don't want any potential side effects from the blood loss to happen."
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 16, 2010 18:46:15 GMT -5
Harmund had been watching the goings on carefully. I knew that Lutiy guy couldn't be trusted.. he thought. Climbing back into the house, he gave his brother a nudge with his foot. Sigbrand woke instantly, and reached for his MP5, but stopped when he saw who it was.
"Alright, alight..I'm up" He muttered, standing up and slinging his pack over his shoulder, "Are we finally getting out of this hellhole?" he asked. "I really don't know," Harmund replied, "I'll go ask Rurik." Harmund was about to climb back through the window, when he realized there were no boards on the inside of the building's door. "Fuck it." he muttered, and kicked the door open, causing it to fall off of it's rusty hinges. The resulting crash caused a dog to run out of one of the nearby factories, growling a curse under his breath, he raised his Abakan and put a bullet through it's chest. Walking over to the hairless mutt, he cut off it's tale and wrapped it up in a rag.
Trudging back over towards the group, Harmund approached Rurik, "So," he said, "When are we leaving?"
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