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Post by Basil on Mar 16, 2010 19:18:35 GMT -5
"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."
"-Thank you", said Maginot, pocketing the artifact and going over to Adder, who was holding her bloody wrist and giving Victor a gaze so venomous it could have melted rock.
"-The bastard...the fucking bastard...", she snarled. She seemed more pale than she was earlier on, confirming the blood loss Victor had told Maginot about.
"-Now, Adder, calm down. He's a doc, a toubib as we say back in France, he knows what he's doing."
Adder turned her venomous, angry gaze to Maginot, and the stalker felt a slight jolt inside him in front of those malevolent eyes.
"-Yeah! Nice fucking move, Frenchie! He stabbed my fucking wrist with his goddamn fucking piece of thorny shit! I'll kill him! I'll fucking kill him..."
Maginot took Adder's chin in his hand and turned her head upwards so she ended up looking straight at him. His face was stern as a wall. Adder scowled and began to mutter something before finally opting to remain silent. Maginot was seemingly impervious to her venom and violent outbursts.
"-Calm down, Adder. That man is only trying to help you, trust me. If he really intended to harm you, I'd have his head put on a spike, because you saved me back in the Cordon, and I know how hard it is for you to do such things for other people. We're a team, and we can trust each other, so believe me when I say that Victor doesn't want to murder you or harm you willingly."
He let go of her, but his face remained stern. The venom had vanished from Adder's eyes, and she now seemed more lost and shameful than angry and vengeful. She looked at Maginot with sad, confused eyes.
"-I...I'm so sorry, Mag", she said, "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to lash out at you", she mumbled, almost on the verge of tears.
The female stalker suddenly fell forward onto Maginot's chest, flinging her arms around him as if she were a drowning woman grabbing onto a buoy in the ocean. Maginot put his arms round her and did his best to comfort her. He had been through a few of those outbursts, and he knew how hard it was for Adder to cope with her paranoid condition.
"I'm so sorry...everyone always seems so hostile and suspicious to me...I'm a crazy old hag."
"-It's okay", said Maginot, patting her on the back, "we'll be going to Yantar any time now, and money opportunities don't wait around", he added jokingly.
Adder laughed and wiped a few tears away.
"-I can't believe I'm making such a scene in front of everyone..."
Maginot chuckled and hefted his pack onto his back, picking up Adder's too.
"I'll carry your bag for now, if that's okay."
"-Thanks."
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 17, 2010 6:55:19 GMT -5
Rurik was still chuffed with his message to Seth, turning to the group they were getting very fidgety, "Let's go, hopefully we'll get some answers, and you lot will make some decent money. Keep alert, and stay together." He warned "Harmund and Sigbrand, cover the rear, everyone else watch your sides." Picking up his pack, and slinging his PKM over his back, checking the Groza, and reloading it, he looked around at the raising sun. Nearly 8am.
He took out his PDA checking the path again, it looked so easy from above, they approached the burner tunnel, put his hand up, it was littered with droplets, and and the occasional fireball artifact which were bobbing about occasional triggering the anomaly shooting a jet of flame up, Rurik picked up several lumps of debris chucking them into the tunnel, triggering more jets, hecontinued until the entire tunnel was almost to bright to look at, marking the spots on his PDA he uploaded it to the groups PDAs, "Stay away from those wavering patches or you'll regret it terribly. Careful when you grab the artifacts." With that he picked his way through the tunnel emerging from the tunnel, looking down the road he spied several corpses, adorned in mercenary attire, he looked through his binoculars. They had either been killed by the blowout or, the local dog populace. Turning he watched the group navigate the tunnel, collecting a decent handful of artifacts, they would probably be able to loot the corpses to it Lutiy hadn't already. He patted each stalker on the back once they cleared the tunnel, encouraging and congratulating them on navigating the anomaly. "Well done folks, that tunnel has claimed hardened stalkers, remember something ahead if your unsure." Rurik warned.
"Let's keep going, that should be the last major obstacle for us. Increase the the pace."
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Post by Basil on Mar 17, 2010 13:42:04 GMT -5
Maginot and Adder, using the information Rurik had uploaded on their PDAs, picked their way through the Burner Tunnel. The air was stifling in the tunnel, and the air was heavily distorted by heat. Maginot wiped sweat from his forehead as he slowly progressed through the tunnel, his detector in hand. The rather battered yellow detector was beeping away, signalling the presence of several artifacts nearby, although Maginot couldn't actually see any.
As the French stalker looked around him in the stifling inferno that was the Burner Tunnel, he suddenly saw Adder, who had been following him, deftly avoiding anomalies and picking up several objects on the charred gravel floor. He looked at her with wide eyes as she went back to him, smiling, her eyes hidden by the visor Rurik had handed to her earlier on. In her hands were two Droplets. They went through the rest of the tunnel, and Rurik praised the loners for managing to get through the anomalous tunnel without too much difficulty. Maginot turned to Adder, who was looking at the artifacts she had collected with a great deal of curiosity. He took his detector out and checked the strange objects for any radiation. The Droplets seemed safe.
Maginot put a Droplet in his leather jacket's inner pocket, and instantly felt a strange weariness in his limbs.
"Hé ben, ces putains de machins sont peut-être bénéfiques, mais ils ont leurs inconvénients aussi..." (well, these fucking things might be beneficial, but they also have their drawbacks...), he muttered in his native French language. Adder looked at him curiously, not understanding a word he said.
"-You'll have to teach me French some day", she said as he handed her a Droplet. She probably needed the artifact's properties more than he did if radiation was really what was making her feel unwell.
"-Won't be of much use to you in the Zone", said Maginot, "I'm probably the only Francophone in the Zone."
"-We'll be two if you teach me", said Adder with a laugh, "damn, this thing is nice, but it's a bit stifling after all this heat", she added, removing the visor and exposing her eyes once more. As the light from the flaming anomalies lit the group up, Maginot briefly saw a strange green glow from Adder's pupils before she closed her eyes.
"Light's still too bright", she remarked, putting the visor back on.
Well that was strange...
The group went down the road in the small dip to inspect several corpses decked out in mercenary gear. The two loners quickly got down to looting, searching the merc's backpacks and pockets for anything useful or valuable. At first, they thought the mercenaries had been caught out in the open during the emission and had died due to exposure to lethal levels of radiation and "psy radiation", but closer inspection revealed characteristic injuries around the corpses' necks, which were identified as a sign of a Bloodsucker attack.
One of the mercenaries was a woman, and Adder couldn't help but remark, with her grim and slightly macabre sense of humour, that she now felt somewhat less lonely as a woman in the Zone. Maginot and Adder looted the corpses, taking a couple of black and grey gas masks for extra protection against chemical and radioactive hazards. Maginot considered taking a few guns from the mercs, but decided against it as it would only create undesirable weight to carry, a task that would be made harder by the Droplets' annoying side-effect.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 17, 2010 20:03:55 GMT -5
Shying away from the direct jets of flame, Victor discovered that the microfilaments in his suit were more than capable of shielding him from the heat emanating from the anomalies. The loner took a slow, leisurely route through the tunnel, even walking through the occasional dancing tongue of flame thrown off by the anomaly.
Leaving the droplets on the fringes of the heat zones to the loners with less adequate protection, Victor took the center route instead. The medic managed to acquire two more Fireballs, and amazingly a Crystal, which he had snatched directly from between three burner anomalies. A faction of an inch right or left, he thought, and his hand would have been scorched or burned clean off.
Finally, the loner exited the tunnel, catching up to the rest of the squad. The loners and Dutier were examining the corpses of several mercenaries who had apparently been killed by the local bloodsucker populations, their lifeless husks left lying on the ground. The loner did not take long to loot the bodies, as Rurik was already calling for the group to mobilize once again. Victor contented himself with swapping his weighty Mossberg pump-action shotgun with a lighter P90 SMG carried by one of the mercenaries. Strapping the gun to his side, he followed the Duty leader down the winding road.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 17, 2010 23:34:52 GMT -5
Taking up their positions at the rear of the group, Harmund and Sigbrand followed the assorted Dutiers and Loners. Harmund could feel the burner tunnel before he could see it, the heat radiating from the underpass felt as if a giant space heater had been placed in front of them. The air in front of the tunnel seemed to shift and flow like various currents all flowing in opposite directions.
Following the rest of the group in, the two brothers carefully picked their way through the anomalies. Harmund could see plenty of tantalizing artifacts, but most of them were out of reach, or being superheated by a Burner. After safely emerging from the tunnel, he placed the two Droplets and a Fireball he had grabbed into his pack. Looking towards the rest of the group, he saw that they were crowded around some dried up husks dressed in Merc uniforms. Glancing over their remaining weapons, he decided not to take anything. I'm already carrying half my weight in Artifacts and weaponry. Looking back at the tunnel, he saw that Sigbrand was inside, looking at something on one of the support pillars.
Sigbrand had just stood up after bending down to pick up a droplet, when something shiny up near one of the pillars caught his attention. Just between the pillar, and a steel beam that connected it was an artifact. The glowing mass of anomalous material seemed to have taken on a crystal pattern. Sigbrand had seen Victor take quite a risk to grab out out from a few anomalies, so he guessed it was valuable. Grabbing a charred femur from a nearby skeleton, he threw it at the artifact, knocking it loose from its perch. The crystal tumbled down the side of the tunnel, right between two burners, and rolled to a stop at Sigbrand's feet. Pocketing the artifact, he exited the tunnel and rejoined the group.
Heading up the road, the group met little resistance. The occasional zombie unlucky enough to cross their path, met a bloody and quick end from Rurik's PKM. After around fifteen minutes of walking, the road straightened out and after climbing a small hill, Yantar was visible. A thick fog covered parts of the swamp and a factory complex loomed in the distance. Directly ahead of them, the concrete block of the Mobile Lab was visible, it's perimeter fence obscuring most of the building.
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Post by Basil on Mar 18, 2010 7:43:48 GMT -5
Adder and Maginot had never encountered zombies before, and even though the group was easily able to dispose of those they ran into, the two rookies were not left unaffected by the pitiful, groaning shells that were zombified stalkers. After walking steadily for around fifteen minutes, the group finally arrived at Yantar.
The two stalkers looked down at the vaguely sinister landscape with a growing feeling of apprehension. A decrepit factory could be seen in the distance, its large brick buildings standing out against the pale light of a sickly-looking sun, and a squat, bunker-like building surrounded by a slightly battered metallic perimeter fence was also visible down in a large hollow that Maginot assumed was what remained of an old lake. Mist partly obscured the bunker, although reeds could be seen here and there, indicating the presence of a swampy area nearby.
"I already hate this place", said Adder flatly, "everything seems wrong."
"-Same here. This place could only be qualified as glauque."
The two stalkers remained silent for a moment before Adder began to quietly sing, in horribly accented English:
"Duh duh doo doo, BASS! Duh duh doo doo, ooooh white liiiines..."
Maginot glanced at her and smiled as she saw the grin on her face, and he joined in.
"Visions dreams of passion..."
"-Floating through my miiiiind, and all the while I think of you, 'cause White Lines blow aaaaawayyyy", they both sang quietly, their morale restored by the glorious bout of silliness the song provided.
The group moved forward cautiously, guns at the ready, and the pair fell quiet with wide smiles on their faces.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 18, 2010 10:07:51 GMT -5
Rurik walked at the head of the group, several zombies had fired at him, several bullets skimmed off his armor, disposing of the zombies with no empathy, while they had once been men the zone was a dog eat dog place, "My friends this is Yantar, once a picturesque area of beauty is now one of the nightmares of the zone." Rurik muttered he knew the stalkers would be uncomfortable here, as he was never entirely at ease in this place. "Watch out for snorks and zombies." he warned.
Walking forward with the stalkers Rurik could feel the pressure building in his chest, he had fought to get here and was looking forward to finding out what Seth had done here so he could finally go back to Rostok and relax for a day. The last week was starting to strain him, finally they made it to the door it was raining lightly, the area was almost completely abandoned looking at his PDA there was only him and his group, plus two other people. Pressing the button for the door, nothing. Rurik growled quietly to himself, pressing the button again, longer this time a voice asked out of the speaker, "Hello? Who might that be? Is that you Vasily?" Rurik looked into the camera looking over the door, "Do I look like Vasily Sakharov?" he asked, continuing "It's Lt. Rurik of the Duty faction. I need to speak with you." the door still didn't open. Pressing the button once more, Rurik spoke in a much more menacing tone "Open the door old man, or I'll pull it open myself." A few seconds later the door swung open.
"Alright, let's go in, remember, they will pay a lot more for your artifacts here. But first I'd like to talk with Sakharov myself and get that out of the way, as you'll find, he's a little hard of hearing." Rurik gestured with a sweep of his arm towards the bunk rooms.
Rurik stooped under the low doorway towering over the little scientist, they exchanged pleasantries before Rurik finally started his questioning, "I need to know what Seth was doing here, also where is Vasily? I thought he was in charge now? Additionally did you have any other notable people in here?" Sakharov told Rurik briefly about Seth's dealing with Vasily and that they had both left with military and mercenaries heading north. He explained that the military had raided the areajust before that, and most alarming that two stalkers had passed through hours before them they were also heading north. Rurik chuckled to himself, everyone he was chasing would probably converge somewhere up north. Rurik nodded and walked away poking his head into the bunk room, "You can trade your artifacts and spare guns now."
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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 Mar 18, 2010 12:49:27 GMT -5
Chaos followed the group up to the Burner Tunnel. He pulled out is anomaly detector, but the piece of equipment didn't pick anything up. That was when he heard his PDA chirp, taking it out, all the anomalies were marked out and he smiled lightly before moving through the tunnel, casting his flashlight around. He accidentally kicked a bolt into a cluster of Burners and the ambient heat jumped to that of a blast furnace. He coughed a little and waited for the jets of flame to dissipate. It was then that he spotted the soft red glow of an artifact within the cluster, where the bolt had landed.
Blinking, he knelt down, feeling the heat as he carefully reached in and pulled out a newly born artifact. It was just like the one on his belt, but had a much stronger glow. He considered for a moment before taking the other Sparkler off his belt and replacing it with the newborn Crystal. His limbs and gear felt a little heavier, but judging from the entries about Crystals in his PDA, it was better to have two Crystals instead of one, even if they did wear you out. He continued down the tunnel, his sharp eyes picking out the dim glow of several Droplets and a Fireball.
Emerging on the other end of the tunnel, he noticed everyone seemed to be gathering around something. He approached quickly, but almost wished he hadn't as his eyes fell on the corpses of eight Mercs and what appeared to be the shredded remains of a ninth and tenth. He blinked and looked at the neck of the nearest Merc, his neck had a similar bite pattern to the one the Bloodsucker had left on his own neck and was suddenly very thankful he'd been able to fight off the one that had attacked him.
He sifted through the corpses carefully, going over each one twice before moving on. He turned up a few good artifacts, including a Slug and a Nightstar. He also picked up a G36, which, although more compact than his AN-94 and AK-74/2, had a much better scope on it. He discarded his AK-74/2 instead of fumbling with three rifles and slung the Abakan over his left shoulder by its strap, hanging the G36 by its own strap over his right shoulder.
Scavenging the rest of the corpses yielded some army medkits and a pair of stash locations, both in Yantar, one near the mobile lab, and another in the the factory. He blinked, a little wary of the one in the factory complex. He supposed he'd ask the scientists about it once they got there. Following quickly after the group, not too eager to become Bloodsucker food, he watched as Rurik sawed a zombie in half with his PKM.
After walking for about 20 minutes (5 extra because he'd lagged so far behind,) he found them filing into a bunker that looked like it could withstand a nuclear blast. The vegitation surrounding it looked completely dead and the trees were twisted and deformed oddly. He could only guess what had caused such a frightening display of The Zone's power as he slipped in behind everyone else.
He worked his way to the front of line and started taking things from his backpack and setting them on the counter. Sakharov watched in amazement at the small collection of artifacts and the unusual package. "What on earth is that?" he asked, prodding the roughly ball-shaped cloth-wrapped package. Chaos unwrapped the Bloodsucker head and the scientist jumped. "A... amazing! You managed to get the head and the mandibles completely intact!" he exclaimed, causing the loner to laugh softly.
"I may have gotten the whole head, but it cost me a little," he explained, pulling his vest open and showing the horrible scarring from the mutant's attack. "Well, be that as it may, this is a very valuable find," the scientist paused and looked over the artifacts on the counter before taking out some money. "Between the Bloodsucker head, the artifacts, and the rifle, you get 25,750ru," he explained, causing the loner's jaw to drop. He'd struggled to make the 24k he had on him over the course of more than a week, but had just made almost 26k in one sitting. It then occurred to him that he should be hunting artifacts as much as possible.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Sakharov asked, receiving a light head shake. "Please drop by if you get anything more," he said. Chaos stepped into the bunk area and laid down on one of the beds, nearly falling asleep.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 18, 2010 16:19:17 GMT -5
His pack weighing his slight frame down significantly despite the Moonlight, Victor walked through the lab's airlock, setting down his essential gear on a bunk in an adjoining room. He took the remaining bag of loot, as well as the P90 to the trader's counter.
Sakharov's pupils dilated to their maximum proportions as a generous dozen powerful artifacts scattered across the table. The loner medic laid down the P90 as well. "So professor, how much will this be?" he smiled at the old man.
The scientist quickly totaled up the sum in his still acute head. "38,700 rubles," Sakharov answered "it's been a while since a loner brought us this much profit. That suit has certainly served you well." the scientist pointed at Victor's SEVA.
"Speaking of which," the loner interjected "hold your money for a bit, professor. I've got a request for the suit's modification."
"Well, young man, what is it you need, then?" the professor inquired, smiling slightly.
"The full rig." Victor answered flatly "kevlar, advanced external plating, anomaly protection, your specialty psy-shield and psychic visor screens." Victor handed over the rest of the cash needed to complete the upgrade, and began to wait while the scientists tinkered with the SEVA. At last he received back his gear. The suit had changed completely. The visor was now completely reflective due to the psy-screen that was applied. Its inside too was covered in a mass of electrodes, shielded by a solid layer and kevlar lining. The ventral plates, as well as those on the arms and legs of the suit had changed as well, now feeling smoother to the touch. "deflective ceramic plating sitting atop an advanced bulletproof alloy" Sakharov explained "this baby will stop most bullets the Zone will throw at you. Only the Freedom boys' armor comes any better than this at such a light weight." Putting the suit on, Victor noted a thicker lining, no doubt consisting of the electro and heat insulation designed to protect him against anomalies. The scientists had also included a night vision apparatus for night and underground operations.
Overall, the upgrade left him with preciously little money, but Victor decided it was worth it, given the difficult task ahead. Walking over to his bunk, he sat down, awaiting Rurik's next word.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 18, 2010 23:37:59 GMT -5
Walking over to Sahkarov's counter, Harmund and Sigbrand poured their collective loot onto the smooth surface. "That's quite a haul!" he said to the pair. Harmund sold: 2x Makarov PMs. 1x AK-74/2 2x Flash, 1x Sparkler, 2x Fireball, 2x Droplets/ Money Gained: 18,700 RU New total cash: 23,050 RU
Sigbrand sold: 1x AK-74/2 1x LR300 1x HiPower 1x Merc Vest 2x Flash, 1x Sparkler, 1x Slug, 1x Droplet, 1x Crystal. Money Gained: 29,300 RU New Total: 34,100 RU
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 19, 2010 9:15:15 GMT -5
Rurik sat thinking about what Sahkarov had said, Lutiy and Jurgen had been delayed by the blowout and were no more than 5-6 hours ahead, Seth and Vasily were obviously well away and would probably halfway to what ever they were looking for. Standing up again walking back to Sahkarov he asked, "Did either Jurgen or his companion sell anything?" Sahkarov perked up, "Yes that tall gentleman sold quite a bit, I can show you if you'd like?" Rurik nodded, and the scientist went out into an adjoining room carrying a slightly charred Exo-suit, a PKM and several other objects, including a reinforced Mercenary suit. Rurik eyed the suit and the gun, they were definitely property of his Sergent. "Keep these aside for me, however I'll take that merc suit and one of those SSP suits too." Rurik passed his PDA to Sahkarov who connected it to a computer. Nodding he handing the PDA back Rurik grabbed the two suits chucking the merc suit to Maginot and the SSP to Adder who both looked confused, "These are your new suits, your not going to survive long around here with those jackets, radiation here is worse than Rostok and that nearly killed you." Walking out of the bunk room Rurik checked his PDA there was one message unchecked, from the General... Lt. Rurik, there has been another problem here if available please return or keep an eye out for reinforcements, if you capture Seth we want him alive, we have an interesting proposal for him and Freedom... Rurik re-read the message, what proposal was the he talking about, there was only one thing that would unify the two factions and that would be war between them and the Monolith. Was that what Voronin proposing?
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Post by Basil on Mar 19, 2010 9:35:49 GMT -5
Adder and Maginot followed the other stalkers into the rather cramped interior of the scientist's bunker.
"How are your eyes now?", asked Maginot.
"-They feel somewhat better, but the light is still too bright outside."
The two loners took the AK-74Us they had lugged with them since the Cordon. The scoped AK-74 rifles they had obtained back in the Wild Territory would do better than the two shortened assault rifles, who looked like they had seen better days. Mindful of ammunition, they both took the gun's magazine off and emptied it of bullets, doing the same for the two other spare mags. They then went over to Sakharov's little counter and presented the two assault rifles, as well as Adder's Droplet artefact. The professor bought the lot, paying them 3100 rubles. After selling the goods, Maginot addressed Sakharov about Adder's condition.
"-Professor, my friend here has been suffering from some inexplicable aversion to light. We think the emission or exposure to radiation might be the cause, but we aren't sure. Do you think you could take a look?"
"-I'm not sure", said Sakharov, looking at Adder and making her avert her eyes, "I'm not a doctor..."
"-Please Professor..."
Sakharov looked at Adder again thoughtfully before relenting.
"-Okay, I'll take a look at her. Ocular problem is it?"
"-Yes."
"-Hmm, if you'd follow me to the back, I'll do some eye tests."
The two stalkers went into the small room next to Sakharov's counter and the Professor opened a small door ins aid room, allowing them into the back of the bunker. The small field laboratory was cluttered with scientific equipment, and in the center was a stainless steel dissection table. Sakharov went over to a corner of the lab where a rather bulky contraption sat next to a chair.
"Now Miss, if you could sit down on this chair..."
Adder sat down on the rickety chair, looking suspiciously at the blocky contraption in front of her.
"-We usually use this thing for mutants, to study their eyesight, the chair is for us of course! It works just like one of the machines at an optician's: we shine a small laser beam into the patient's eye and study the pupil's contraction. Last time we used this was for a...now how do you stalkers call it? Ah, a Gerbil, so I'll have to adjust the beam. Now look into this here."
Adder positioned herself uncomfortably, looking at the point Sakharov had told her to look at. Maginot asked Sakharov how they managed to keep the mutant's eyes fixed at the lens.
"Oh, we strap them down and put blinds on the side of their head so they can only see in front of them, then we keep their eyelids open with special clasps", said the scientist almost absent-mindedly.
"-Pretty gruesome..."
"-It's for science. Now, don't blink and look straight ahead of you. Don't move."
Sakharov flipped a small switch, making a small green LED turn on.
"I'll expose you left eye and then your right eye to a laser of the same intensity as daylight...", said Sakharov as he activated the beam, which was invisible to Maginot's eyes. Adder blinked as the light hit her pupil.
After a minute of looking into a lens on the machine, and Adder sighing uncomfortably from her position at the other end, Sakharov looked up and did a few adjustments on the machine.
"This is strange...her pupils contracted far more than they should..."
Sakharov shone a few more beams of varying intensity into Adder's eyes before switching the machine off and shaking his head, perplexed.
"-So?", said Maginot, wondering what was troubling the Professor.
"-I'm not sure...her eyes did not react to stimuli like they normally should. They're far more sensitive than they're supposed to be, and are responsive to very very weak sources of light. This could be due to damage to the optic nerve, maybe somehow caused by the emission, but I have the strange feeling that it's something else..."
"-What can we do about it?"
"-Well...nothing really. I don't know what is causing her eyes to act like this, and the only thing that could be done to delve into the matter is surgery, something we cannot do in this lab. I would like to do some more observations..."
Maginot turned to Adder, who had got up from the chair, rubbing her back and muttering to herself.
"-I think it could be a good idea...depends on what the others are planning to do. Do you want to stay here for a bit, Adder?"
"-I don't really mind..."
"-That settles it then. You may rest a bit, I'll come and get you to do more tests."
Maginot headed towards the door leading to the front section of the lab.
"-I'll go and look around Yantar, see if I find anything interesting. I'll save some of the loot I may find for you, Adder."
Adder smiled and Maginot left the lab, quietly going past Chaos' slumbering form on one of the bunks right outside the door. He then quietly left the bunker and walked out through the perimeter fence's gate, unslinging his AK-74. He went off towards a large concrete pipe a few meters away from the scientist's bunker, keeping an eye and an ear out for any mutants or zombies that might be in the area. As he reached the concrete pipe, he saw a small case down on the ground. It was made out of metal with very worn greenish faux leather around it.
He crouched down next to it and flipped the lid open, not expecting to find anything in it, and predictably enough, it was empty. Maginot closed the box and walked into the man high concrete pipe, AK at the ready. A few meters down the pipe, he came across the corpse of some unlucky stalker, who was lying on the floor of the pipe. Maginot looked at the corpse and saw the poor soul had not been looted and still had all of his gear.
Mutants must have got him…
Maginot knelt down next to the corpse, and was about to start searching it for anything valuable when something caught his attention : there were bullet impact wounds on the dead stalker’s chest and right shoulder. Unless mutants had learned how to use firearms, the victim’s killer was human, although the fact his gear was still there was strange…
"-Uuurrraaa…"
"-What the…"
Two bullets slammed into the concrete next to Maginot, and the loner looked up to see a zombie had quietly approached him while he was checking the corpse. The zombie was wearing a worn Sunrise suit and was armed with some kind of AK variant Maginot didn’t recognise. The fiend had apparently fired its last two bullets, and was busy loading a new magazine into its rifle.
Maginot took his pistol out of its holster and shot the zombie in the face twice, the bullets slamming through the fiend’s forehead and making it drop dead onto the concrete floor. The rookie stalker crouched in the penumbra of the pipe for a few more minutes, waiting to see if any other zombified stalkers showed up. As none appeared, Maginot relaxed and searched the stalker’s corpse, taking his AK-74 and ammunition as well as some tinned food. The dead stalker also had a few antirads and an army medkit, all of which Maginot pocketed.
The French stalker then turned his attention to the zombie he had shot. As he searched the zombie’s artefact belt, he saw it contained two artefacts : a glowing, bluish white ball that Maginot identified as a Soul from his still sketchy knowledge of artefacts. He looked at his find softly glowing in his hand before stuffing it into his artefact belt. He also took the zombie's gun, which was a Galil.
He then went hastily back to the scientist's bunker, not wanting to make Rurik and the others wait. He was also mostly worried about Adder even though he had only been gone for a few minutes. He got to the scientist's bunker and went through the airlock, quickly going trhough the front part of ther small squat building and knocking on the door in the side room.
"It's Maginot, Professor, I want to see how Adder's doing."
The door opened, revealing the Professor’s concerned face.
“-Ah, good you came back…”
“-Is there anything wrong?”
“-Well…there have been some disturbing developments…”
Maginot followed the Professor into the small lab and saw Adder, sitting on her chair with her face buried in her hands.
“-Adder?”
“-It happened very quickly, I have no idea what’s causing it, but it’s definitely not some form of injury.”
“-Adder, speak to me”, said Maginot, going over to her and feeling anxiety building up in his chest.
Adder drew a shuddering breath before slowly looking at Maginot, her face a mask of horror and incomprehension. Maginot almost recoiled with surprise and shock at what he saw: her pupils had changed shape, and were now almost like slits, like those of a cat or a snake.
“-I don’t know what’s happening to me…”, she said in a faint voice.
“-Wh…what?”, stuttered Maginot, not quite sure what to think.
“-Her pupils are changing rapidly”, said Sakharov in an almost scholarly voice, “her eyes have become much more sensitive to light, and her earlier aversion to daylight or any other relatively strong source of light was due to the fact that her pupils were not retracting properly in conjunction to this new ability. Now they’ve adapted.”
“-What on earth is causing it?”, said Maginot, aghast.
“-As I said, I don’t know. Some radical alteration of her DNA is my best answer…and I’m afraid, there’s no going back for her.”
Adder seemed on the point of bursting into tears, and Maginot was too shocked for words. Sakharov calmly went on:
“-She’s a mutant.”
A few minutes later, Maginot and Adder came out of the lab. Adder was now keeping her gaze fixed at the floor and refusing to look up despite Maginot assuring her that everything would be all right. As they left the small lab, Rurik came up to them holding two suits.
"-These are your new suits, your not going to survive long around here with those jackets, radiation here is worse than Rostok and that nearly killed you."
He handed the SSP to Adder and the Merc suit to Maginot. Adder almost closed her eyes in the fear the tall Dutier would notice her pupils, but Rurik was apparently too concerned with something else, and quickly left them again. Radiation was now Adder's smallest concern. In fact, one part of her longed to go and lie down next to a pile of highly radioactive waste and wait for death by radiation poisoning. She was a monster...and in her knowledge, monsters did not deserve to live, but at least the light did not hurt her eyes anymore.
"-You'll be fine, Adder", said Maginot, patting her on the shoulder, "we're still a team you know."
Adder smiled weakly before falling back into her morose mood.
Items sold: AK-74U x2, Droplet x1 Money earned: 3100 Items found by Maginot: Galil, Soul, AK-74. Also, SSP-99 to Adder and reinforced Merc suit to Maginot
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 19, 2010 23:48:50 GMT -5
Rurik sat down on a crate, summing up the movements of Lutiy and Seth, they were both probably lost now, and without a hunting party, the idea of taking the rest of the group deeper into the zone didn't appeal to him. He replied to Voronin. What problem is it? I've reached Yantar, Lutiy was here hours earlier, Seth is long gone, taken Vasily with him. I'll inspect the area and see what I turn up. Depending what I find, I may require a hunting party. Also what proposal do you have, I may have a way to contact Seth.
Rurik He sent the message, knowing that it may not send due to the equipment here may interfere. Putting the PDA back in his pocket, he stood up again, the young stalkers were sitting, on the bunks enjoying the comfort of a soft mattress, "I'm going to inspect the area, if any of you care to join me your more then welcome, you can catch up on your sleep, or maybe there is a job available here, artifact hunting, and mutant hunting and purging all pay well." Grabbing his PKM and the Groza, he stepped out of the lab, clicking on his light, checking for anything that wasn't from his parties trip, the first thing he found was the casing near the gate, leaving it, where it was he continued towards the swamp, there was blood trailing towards the Lab, not really a surprise injured stalkers would drag themselves there after a snork caught them and they fought for their life, but these had tracks beside them, a group had been attacked gone back to the lab, putting notes in his PDA Rurik continued. A little further from the lab he found where the group had been ambushed the one man had obviously been shot in the head, Rurik didn't crouch to inspect, the blood and brain matter was enough for him, looking at the way it had landed he looked up towards the hill. No point looking there it wouldn't result in anything except except determining what gun had been used. The prints of the ambushed party lead to a recently caved in pipe, several charges along the pipes had made it impossible to excavate by hand. I'll need ask where these lead he thought, noting that down as well. What he found didn't really help him at all, except, who ever had sealed this passage, had been ambushed from the hill overlooking the swamps. Was the ambush a petty attack or was it related to the tunnel. Not finding any answers here he head back to the lab, a beep on his PDA indicating another message. Armory has been broken into, a heavily armed squad has left for Rostok, hold your position for now, send your findings here, tell Seth we have a deal for him, no more no less. Rurik quickly pocketed his PDA, Someone has managed to break into the Duty armory?, he thought, almost laughing at the idea, it must of been the most genius piece of talking in the zone.
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Post by Basil on Mar 20, 2010 9:36:15 GMT -5
"Mutant hunting eh", said Adder quietly after Rurik left the bunker, "I guess that makes me eligible for being hunted too."
Maginot turned to her and frowned.
"-Don't be silly, you're human, not a monster. Now come on, let's get these new suits on."
The two rookies left the bunker, and went to the side of the building, taking off their worn, and frankly useless leather jackets and anoraks and putting on their new suits. Maginot looked a good deal more professional with his merc suit on, but Adder stood out like a clown in a graveyard with her bright orange SSP-90 suit.
"How does that new suit of yours feel? Mine is quite seyant", said Maginot with a laugh.
"-It's stuffy", said Adder in a muffled voice, "feels like I have a plastic bag over my head."
"-You won't have to worry about radiation now", said Maginot, "and people seeing your pupils. How are they doing?"
Adder removed the integral helmet of her suit, and Maginot was once again taken aback by the alien look her eyes now had. The light of day made them look even more reptilian than in the lab.
"-They feel fine now. The light doesn't hurt them anymore."
"-Good, that's at least one positive aspect. You should wear your helmet more often...the visor will hide your eyes."
Adder put her helmet back on with a sigh.
"Rurik said the scientists could give us something to do, we should go ask Sakharov to see if he has anything available."
The two loners went back inside the bunker and went over to the small counter in the front room. Sakharov was already there, looking thoughtfully at some documents. When asked about any work that needed doing, Sakharov looked at Adder.
"-I'd like to get a blood sample if you don't mind, we don't often get stalkers who have been..."marked" by the Zone."
Adder reluctantly agreed and beared her arm while Sakharov went to get a needle, still talking to the two loners as he went about the task at hand.
"-So, jobs? Well, there is one that needs doing actually. Up by the North-Western side of the factory there's this large anomalous area in which we detected the presence of an unknown artefact."
He tied a rubber tube around Adder's arm, cutting off the circulation and making her veins appear. He cleanly jabbed the needle into the most prominent vein, eliciting a hiss of pain from Adder.
"I was going to send Professor Kruglov out to retrieve the artifact, but the thing is that it would entail going past the swamp, a dangerous place to say the least, and the Nort-Western part of Yantar sometimes seems to have zombies wandering around it, so all in all, I can't send Kruglov out by himself, it would be too dangerous. Do you have enough experience with firearms and the like?"
Sakharov removed the needle, now filled with dark red blood, from Adder's arm and placed a small bandage on the tiny puncture.
"-Well, we've been in a few gunfights and killed a few mutants and zombies, so we know how to handle ourselves...so long as the enemy isn't too overwhelming."
"-Good, I'll tell my colleague to get ready. And thank you for the blood sample."
Adder grumbled something, and Sakharov disappeared into the recesses of the scientist's bunker. A few minutes later, a man in a green ecologist suit emerged from the back, grumbling to himself and closely followed by Sakharov.
"-I hope you got me a descent escort this time", said the man, who was obviously Kruglov, "last time they ran away when we were attacked by pseudo-dogs."
"-I am entirely confident that they will not let you down", said Sakharov, "besides, it is very important for science that you find that artefact..."
"-Fine, I'll go", grumbled Kruglov before turning to face Adder and Maginot.
"-Ready to go?"
"-Yep."
The trio headed out of the bunker and left the enclosure, Adder and Maginot keeping an eye out for any enemies. Kruglov himself was armed with an LR-300 rifle, and seemed to know how to use it. After walking around the bunker's perimeter fence, the group headed along the slope below the factory, catching a glimpse of Rurik nearby. The swamp right below them seemed mutant free, but Adder and Maginot were not intent on visiting it.
All in all, the short trip went quite smoothly, as no mutants or zombies were encountered. As they arrived near the anomalous area, which looked like the earth had been ripped upwards into strange, arch-like shapes, Kruglov slung his rifle over his shoulder and took a sophisticated detector out.
"-Okay you two, watch my back while I go get the artefact. I won't be able to escape the area easily, so I'll be very vulnerable if zombies decide to show up and shoot at me."
Maginot and Adder nodded and Kruglov headed off to the anomalous area, moving slowly and looking at his detector every now and then. Adder and Maginot checked their guns and moved out, Maginot keeping an eye on a nearby gate leading North into the factory, and Adder keeping an eye on the route they had come from.
Maginot's PDA beeped as he received a message from Adder: This is turning out to be pretty easy, we'll be back at the bunker in no time.
I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, replied Maginot before resuming his watch.
Suddenly, he saw a group of three, shambling individuals appear from round the corner...zombies.
"Ooooh shit", he swore as the fiends spotted Kruglov and raised their guns. Maginot grabbed his AK-74 and fired a burst at the closest enemy, hitting it in the shoulder and chest. The zombies quickly focused their attention on Maginot, and the loner had to duck behind the rusty old piece of ventilation piping he was using as cover. He saw Adder dash towards him to lend assistance.
Just as suddenly as the zombies had appeared, there was a loud roar, and Maginot saw Adder stop in her tracks and raise her rifle to greet the newly arrived threat: a snork. The snork launched itself from the building next to the anomalous area, Adder's shots missing it, and knocked into the female stalker, bowling her over and making her drop her rifle.
"ADDER!", shouted Maginot. More bullets bounced off his cover with metallic pings. He saw Adder hastily get back to her feet and grab her Makarov as the snork attacked her again. The zombies had come closer to where Maginot was hiding in the meantime. Maginot raised his rifle and took more careful aim before shooting one of the zombies in the head, the bullets slamming into its brain and dropping it instantly.
He dropped the two last zombies before dashing off to where he had last seen Adder. He suddenly saw her running towards the anomalous area, the snork in hot pursuit. Kruglov saw what was going on and waved his arms in alarm. Adder stopped right at the edge of the anomalous area and fired at the snork with her pistol, but the shots missed and the mutant leaped at her with a triumphant roar.
As the snork sailed through the air, Adder dropped flat on the ground, sending the snork flying over her and right into a Burner. The triggered anomaly incinerated the surprised mutant in an instant, and Adder got up, brushing the dirt off herself.
"That was a close shave", said Maginot as Adder went off to retrieve her AK-74, "that thing could have killed you."
"-Well it didn't", she said, breathing heavily, "it did try to bite me a couple of times, but I managed to get away."
They saw Kruglov exit the anomaly with the artefact in his hand. Upon closer inspection, the thing looked like a globular piece of glass, which Kruglov theorised could be vitrified stone. After placing the artefact in Kruglov's artefact container, the trio headed back to the mobile lab. Once there, Sakharov eagerly took the container from them, and handed them 10 000 rubles as payment. Maginot also decided to sell the IMI Galil he had found earlier.
"-I'm not going out again", said Adder tiredly, "almost getting mauled by a snork was enough."
"-Same here", said Maginot.
The pair went outside and sat down on some crates, cracking open a few tins of food whose contents they heated up over Maginot's camping stove (bought in Aix-en-Provence's Decathlon sport store a few months previously).
Money earned: 13 000 ru (6 500 to each). Items sold: IMI Galil.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 20, 2010 22:03:36 GMT -5
Victor suited up and walked out of the lab, quietly tailing the Duty lieutenant, who appeared to be going on a reconnaissance trip. He passed Adder and Maginot by the gate, noting that the former now wore a glaringly bright SSP-90 ecologist suit, obscuring her face.
"Stunning fashion sense, milady," he dropped as he passed the two, chuckling to himself. He almost swore to himself that he could hear a sound not unlike a deflating tire emanate from inside Adder's bodysuit, but decided against further aggravating her. If the mutant presence here was as high as it was rumored to be, he figured he would have more than enough vicious claw marks all over him anyway.
He continued after the Dutier, pulling his rifle out as he stepped into the marsh. While it was true that Rurik had already trodden here, he didn't want to be caught off-guard by a wandering mutant. Walking through the marsh, he found a Slug by an isolated pool of acid. However, the artifact had been in the water for so long, that it disintegrated into three slimy bits as he picked it up. Nevertheless, the loner still tucked it away into separate cans inside his pack, and continued trudging through the murky swamp after Rurik.
Victor found the Duty leader by the incline leading up to a fenced factory compound, standing by a large, caved-in pipe. Beside him was the body of a stalker in military attire not unlike the men they had ambushed in Rostok. The man had apparently been shot in the head from the hill above.
The loner walked up to Rurik, who looked up in surprise, raising his gun before realizing that the man was a friendly. "Anything interesting?" Victor queried "where do you think the Freedomer and his buds went? And is there any trace of Lutiy and the merc? I assume we're still going after them?"
The medic examined the body, noting the head wound. The bullet had entered and exited cleanly, blowing off a small part of the cranium along with it. The edges of the entrance wound were visibly cauterized. "Same kind of high-velocity round that the guy we found in the chopper got shot by. Pity we didn't get to question those guys." Victor remarked.
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