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Post by Διμι on Mar 17, 2010 17:51:34 GMT -5
[continued from The Bandit Base]"A car?" Leon inquired "do you want half the Dark Valley's contingent of bandits running after a functional Zaporozhets that can barely outrun them? We'll probably get stuck in some marsh before we get anywhere on wheels, better to march it out on foot." The mercenary gave the rogues-turned-loners several minutes to grab the gear of the unconscious loners. Checking the incapacitated men, he ensured that their victims were sound asleep, and would be so for at least an hour. The group would be far away by then. Once the stalkers had finished ransacking the camp, Leon stood up, motioning for the rest of the group to follow. "Let's move out, team." he enunciated, walking out of the compound. The rest of the group quickly followed suit. Leon set a course for the Garbage. The town of Rostok, he figured, wouldn't be too far from there. The only issue crossing his mind was convincing the Dutiers at the gate to let them in. After some time of walking, the group reached a bend in the hill range ringing the Valley itself. Beyond this turn, reasoned Leon, lay the Garbage. He noticed a plethora of Meat Chunks and Souls lying around the hillside, but the expanding and contracting air patterns by the artifacts warned him exactly where the strange objects had originated. Not wishing to become another chunk of meat by the hill, the mercenary gave the valuables a pass, and continued walking. Soon enough, he could hear a rough voice up ahead. "Alright! Where the hell did you bastards take Bullet and Vasko?" A Dutier in a PSZ-9D suit toting an OC-14 "Groza" stood over a wounded bandit twisting on the ground. "Tell me dammit! Or I'll blow your brains out this instant!" the Dutier yelled, enraged at the man's silence. "They're... held at the smaller factory... Friar has them..." The bandit wheezed out, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. The man gave a final raspy breath, and was still. The Dutier swore loudly. It seemed that fighting off the infamous bandit and his team was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. "What the hell are you looking at stalkers?" he snapped angrily at the group "unless you want to grow some balls and help me out here, I suggest you all leg it!" "I think I'll give that proposition a pass," Leon said quietly, as an idea slowly formed in his head. "We just got away from a bunch of bandits ourselves, and we're not too eager to go back." "Fucking coward. I hope the Zone shows you what it takes to be a real man." The Dutier spat at the mercenary, turning and walking away, towards the bandit base. Leon let the man walk away several paces before opening his mouth again. "On the other hand, hold up!" he called to the officer "we might just be able to help you out!" The mercenary's Beretta was already up, cocked and aimed by the time the Dutier turned around. The silenced gun gave a slight pop as Leon's bullet entered straight between the Dutier's eyes. The man dropped to the ground like a sack of rocks. Leon walked over to the dead man's body, pulling out the Dutier's PDA and documents. 'Makfeev, V.', the tag on the man's uniform stated. "A major!" Leon chuckled, examining the lapels of the red uniform. He quickly pulled the suit off, changing into it himself. The little blood that had gotten onto it blended in unnoticeably with the red and black of the Duty uniform. Leon picked up the man's Groza and PDA as well, slipping the latter into his pocket. Upon further search, he found a bunch of keys of various sizes and proportions. Finally, he took the completely looted body of the Dutier, and tossed it into the vortex anomalies at the hill. The mercenary couldn't help but laugh as a new Soul jumped out of the anomaly, landing at his feet. He picked up the artifact gingerly, adding it to his belt. "Seems you'll still be of some use to me yet." he said to what remained of the Dutier in his hand. "Well," he said to rest of the squad "it seems our method of entry into Duty's holds is clear." From now on, address me as 'Major Makfeev' when around Dutiers or stalkers in Rostok. This should be only temporary, as we're doing a quick in and out there before continuing further North. Now, let's get moving. Those Dutiers at the barricade won't be coming to us." the mercenary clarified.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 17, 2010 20:32:01 GMT -5
Rusty smirked, "What ever you say Major." He said, grabbing Leon's dropped sunrise suit. I'm just picking everything he drops I may as well just grab it before he drops it. Rusty thought, pulling the new suit on, it fit much better, feeling as through he could take on the whole zone with his new equipment, he stood quietly waiting. Leon turned motioned again for the group to move out towards the Garbage.
They made good time from the Dark Valley, encountering no mutants what so ever, ahead was the Duty barricade, as they approached, a man waved to get their attention, the Major went to talk to him while the rest of the group stuck together chatting idly. "So where are you guys from?" He asked causally waiting for Leon to get them through.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 18, 2010 17:26:57 GMT -5
His gas mask on, Leon approached the guards by the Duty gate, pulling out Major Makfeev's documents. The warrant officer by the gate laughed, saluting him. "No need to identify yourself, Major. We know who you are. You were the last Dutier to leave for the Dark Valley." The man's eyes looked around, not finding any other Dutiers, but rather a squad of stalkers who appeared to be loners "I suppose Vasko and Bullet didn't make it?" he inquired of Leon. "The bandits did away with them." Leon answered quietly "and would have done the same to me if it weren't for these fellows here." he pointed to the squad behind him "they want to join our faction now, after seeing me fight." he explained to the warrant officer, an idea forming in his head. "There's no time for that now," a note of urgency entered the warrant officer's voice "there's been an emergency with the Duty expedition in Rostok. We've nearly lost contact with them since a blowout descended very near their area. Half of the squad's signals are gone. They said they're heading up past Yantar to the Red Forest to pursue the Freedom leader and his own squad. I suggest you take your newcomers to the armory, suit up, and get yourself out there to help. I assume you still have the keys to the areas in the base?" the warrant officer said, looking earnestly at the man in the Duty uniform before him. "Will do, and yeah, I've got the keys." Leon answered, a smile splitting his face beneath the gas mask. "You heard him, boys! We're needed in Rostok!" he said, walking through the gate into the town. Lutiy was no doubt with the group, following the famed Freedomer into the northern reaches of the Zone. The squad approached the Duty HQ, the guards letting all of the stalkers through. "You folks are lucky to be able to go through here." one of the sentinels said "we had the base under lockdown just days ago. Of course, that doesn't apply to you, Major." the man saluted Leon, allowing the mercenary to pass. Leon nodded, before entering the compound. After several minutes of walking about, the group encountered the armory via a conveniently labeled plan in the Major's PDA. Leon took the time to find the marked key to open the door to the Duty HQ's armament center. All the weapons of the faction were about to become theirs for the taking, he thought with a measure of glee. "Ah, Major." he heard a soft voice behind him. A man holding a Mosin 1891/30 rifle had come up from behind to address him. "Another raid, isn't it? And who are these young men? Rookies?" inquired the Dutier, whom Leon identified as a colonel. "Yes Colonel, sir" he explained, saluting the officer "we've been called in to Rostok. It seems there's a situation there." "I see," the colonel replied softly, seemingly sizing up the man behind the gas mask's cover, as if he suddenly saw something vaguely unfamiliar. "In any case, I've repaired and cleaned your assault equipment. I figured you might need it." the colonel concluded, eliciting a nod from Leon. "thank you, I'll see to it immediately." the mercenary replied as the colonel turned and walked away, leaving the group alone. Leon slotted the key into the hole, turning it to open the door. Taking a step inside, he flicked on the lights in the armory. Before him lay the biggest assortment of guns and armor he had ever seen in his life. AK's filled shelves along with more modern Abakans, VALs, FALs, Grozas, combat shotguns and long-range sniper rifles. Several PKMs and Bulldog revolver shotguns lay on large tables, as well as a single RPG with three rounds of ammo propped against a corner. Smaller SMG's and pistols, along with immeasurable amounts of ammo lined the shelves as well. PSZ-9D suits much like his own lay in large stacks, along with several modified units with bubble-like visors he had seen Dutiers wear. "Alright," he turned back to his group. "Everyone suit up and grab whatever gear you want. We sure as hell won't be giving it back. Grab the Duty suits too, we'll erase the marks later. Let's get this over with quick before the Dutiers start suspecting that anything shady is going on." Turning to Rodent, he leaned over to instruct the loner in the next stage of his plan. "I need you to go to the local trader and grab a few cans of black spray paint. We'll need them later for what I have planned." He walked over to an adjoining room, filled with huge lockers with officers' names inscribed on them. Finally, he found the one he was looking for. 'Makfeev, Valeriy' said the tag on the door. After much fumbling around and unsuccessful tries, Leon finally found the key to the locker, popping the reinforced door open. "Holy s..." escaped his lips as he saw the weapon and armor inside. A full exoskeleton took up most of the space. The suit had a massive chest piece that the mercenary judged to be made of titanium, as well as a considerably thicker layer of insulation than those he had seen on mercenary exoskeletons. Without hesitation, he slipped into the armored suit, latching it over his old armor. The weapon drew even more surprise from the mercenary. It was a compact, boxy prototype with a lateral, over-barrel magazine, and integrated optical sights. Leon had only heard of this gun, and knew that barely 1000 had been produced by the 1990s. There were numerous 45-round magazines of caseless ammo in the locker as well. Evidently, the Major must have had an impressive contact for a supplier. Leon picked up the G11, strapping it over his shoulder and sliding the mags into various pockets and strapping the rest to his belt. There was only one thing left in the locker - a rahter small black case. Opening it, Leon found a considerable heap of money as well as numerous important-looking documents, including several papers apparently related the Freedom leader Seth and the bandit Lutiy. The mercenary could not make much sense of the information. Inside was also another case-like box, but with no visible opening latch, or even a keyhole. The only identifying feature was a tiny, inch-wide slit, apparently for a unique key of some sort. He slipped the documents and case into his pack, figuring he could sell them for a profit later on. Making sure the locker had been cleaned out, he walked back into the main armory room and waited until everyone had grabbed their gear of choice. [OOC: To everyone in this RP - take for free anything you might want that you can buy from the Duty HQ's shop, except for the exo. The RPG is also available for grabs, though.]
[CHECK]
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 18, 2010 21:35:41 GMT -5
Rodent held his breath as Leon attempted to talk his way past the warrant officer at the gate, releasing the pent up breath when Leon waved them through. Once they were out of sight of the gate, Rodent leaned over to Leon and said, "That was some smooth talking there." After a few more minutes of walking, they passed through into the Duty controlled section of Rostok, the guards at the perimeter saluting Leon as he walked past. Making their way into the heart of the Duty headquarters, they stopped in front of a door marked ARMORY. Leon was about to unlock the door when a voice behind them caused everyone to wheel around. Before them was a man wearing a Duty armored suit, and carrying an antique rifle. After successfully talking them through another potentially life threatening situation, Leon unlocked the door and pushed it open.
"Leiber Gott.." Rodent whispered. Inside the room was the largest collection of armor and weaponry that Rodent had seen in his life, it dwarfed the Bandit armory by far. Racks and racks of firearms lined the walls, grenade launchers, machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, pistols and SMGs. Every conceivable type of weapon a person could ever wish to obtain was inside this room. Discarding his old weaponry, he walked over to a locker filled with folded up armored suits. Grabbing one with an attached visor and breathing apparatus, he slipped into it, adjusting some of the straps so that it fit him. A certain locker caught his eye, below the man's name, several green wolf heads were painted. Grabbing a crowbar off of a table, he broke the lock. Nothing much caught his eye, until he saw an LR-300 with an M203 grenade launcher attached to it. Pulling the grenade launcher off of the rifle, he attached it to his TAR-21. Reaching back inside the he grabbed up five M406 grenades for it, and placed them in his pack. Walking back to one of the tables, he picked up a Walther P99 pistol. Rummaging through some of the nearby drawers, he found a silencer, and screwed it onto the pistol. Just as he was about to turn back, he picked up three F1 grenades from a box for good measure.
Walking back over to Leon, he examined his loot, and waited for everyone else to make their selections.
[CHECK]
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 19, 2010 5:25:35 GMT -5
Rusty followed them into the armory his eyes couldn't believe the site. He picked up and inspected each weapon finally deciding on a Steyr AUG and HPSA, grabbing one of the suits of armor with the funny helmet Rusty pulled it on, He snatched up two F1 grenades and several envelopes of information regarding squad locations and patrol timetables, thinking someone might pay very dearly for that, or if he had the chance. Stuffing the document into his bag he placed his old equipment in an old, empty chest.
He was about to leave when he turned it picked up a SVD also slinging over is back, grinning madly beneath the visor Rusty looked to the merc, "Your one crazy bastard I'll give you that. I'm glad I'm the one pulling this off and not some chump who will hear about it, and then get shot trying to pull it off." He laughed at the sudden haul of loot they'd collected. Waiting quietly for Duke and his accomplice to stock up.
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Post by Basil on Mar 19, 2010 9:52:13 GMT -5
"Holy fucking Molly", said Duke as he and Dodge entered the arsenal, "there's enough guns in here to overthrow a small African country in a month."
The room was indeed chock a block with weaponry and suits of all kinds, and Duke couldn't focus on any of them, his eyes switching constantly from evil-looking gun to evil-looking gun, his mind overwhelmed by the quantity.
Dodge on the other hand was less overwhelmed. He headed straight for a rack of assault rifles and picked up an OTs-14 with a few full mags and some VOG-25 grenades. He also took several RGD-5 grenades.
"I like stuff that goes bang", he said happily, before he caught sight of an RPG sitting on a shelf, "now that's even better."
After taking the rocket-launcher, he took a PZS-9d Universal Protection suit, his face beaming with destructive happiness. Duke looked at the huge accumulation of guns and hesitated.
"-As your attorney, I advise you to take stuff that explodes", said Dodge.
"-What to take, what to take?", he said to himself, "ooh, how do you do, m'lady?"
He picked up an FN FAL and stroked the gun as if it were a pet cat. He followed Dodge's example and helped himself to grenades and a PZS-9d with the funny helmet. As he turned to leave, he ground to a stop, almost tripping over his own legs: a stout-looking grenade launcher had caught his eye.
"Now you must come with me too, lady, there's plenty of room for one more passenger", he said, as he picked up the RG6 "Bulldog".
Now geared up to take on practically anything, Duke and Dodge rejoined the others to await further instructions from the mercenary.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 19, 2010 16:27:35 GMT -5
"Finished? Good, now let's get out of here as our friend in the hangar suggested in the first place." Leon turned towards the exit, walking back through the door into the hallway. "Just remember," he reminded the group "we're all Dutiers now, so keep your backs straight and pay your respects to any high ranking officers."
The mercenary walked out into the base courtyard. The exoskeleton was hardly a burden with its pneumatic strength augmentation system, but it restricted his movements, particularly as far as agility went. Nevertheless, the suit would no doubt protect him against a good number of threats that would kill him while wearing any other suit.
"Moving out?" the colonel once again managed to catch Leon off his guard. A feeling that the man suspected something crept into the mercenary's mind. The major and colonel had no doubt known each other fairly well.
"Like I said, the Wild Territories call," Leon ejaculated, eager to get away from this man, should anything go awry. "We'll make a stop by the trader's for some provisions, and will be on our way shortly." The colonel only nodded, stepping away as the group continued past the guards and out of the Duty HQ. Leon breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. They had made it out of the bear's lair, but the exit from the woods was still a long way off.
The group walked towards the sign labeled "100 Rads Bar". He had not lied to the colonel when he said he would stop at Barkeep's place. However, provisions weren't entirely the main reason he was dropping by.
Leon descended into the basement, making his way across the clearing filled with tables of drunkards and stalkers, who looked incredulously at his armament. The mercenary approached the counter, beckoning the Barkeep over with a motion of his hand.
"What'll it be today, Major?" the older man said "you look like you're about to take on the whole Zone, and I don't doubt your ability to either." Leon dismissed the statement, not recognizing it either as terrible flattery, or obscure sarcasm. "I need four cans of black spray paint." he said to the trader "judging by the 'artwork' on the local buildings, I figured you must have some."
The trader disappeared into the back room, returning with four oblong black cans. Leon shook them, testing if there was still anything inside. Thankfully, they seemed to be full. "No need to pay." the Barkeep reassured the man in the exoskeleton. "My goods are free for your taking, in return for continuous protection."
Leon thanked the man, and ascended the stairs back into the open. Stalkers of all sorts had made this town their home, he noted, feeling slightly bad for killing one of its most revered protectors. The feeling dissipated after several minutes of walking. Serves the asshole right, Leon thought. After several minutes, the group had reached the western checkpoint. The three Duty soldiers at the barricade parted in silence, allowing the mercenary and his squad to pass.
The group initally set a course for the Wild Territories. However, as soon as the barricades disappeared from view, Leon took a sharp turn north. "We'll be going into the Army Warehouse region." he announced "Lieutenant Rurik's group is evidently heading north into the Red Forest, and our shortcut will save us time. Not to mention no one will ever think of looking for a bunch of rogues in stolen Duty suits in Freedom's territory, of all places." he explained to the squad.
The mercenary sat down on a concrete block, removing his suit and taking out the paint he had acquired from the trader. He tossed the remaining three cans to Rodent, Rusty, and Duke. Dodge would still have enough leftover paint to get the job done too, Leon reasoned. "Alright. We need to disassociate ourselves from Duty, as we don't want our anarchist friends gunning for us as soon as we set foot inside their house. Paint over all the red on your suits, and over the logos as well, if you can't tear them out," the man took out his knife and sawed out the Duty emblem on the liner of his exo, before going over all of the red-painted plates in black. The resulting suit was completely black, with exception of the metal carapace and drive systems covering it. Satisfied at his work, Leon waited for the rest of the group to finish disguising their own armor.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 20, 2010 1:23:14 GMT -5
Catching the can of spray paint, Rodent started covering over the red places on his suit. After tearing off the Duty emblem on the shoulder, the suit just looked like a solid black SEVA suit he had seen other, more experienced, stalkers wearing. Tossing the half used can to Dodge, Rodent slipped back into his suit, and picked up his rifle.
Turning to Leon, Rodent said, "The Red Forest? Isn't that where the Brain Scorcher used to be active? I've heard it's crawling with Mutants and Monolith psychos." Rodent scowled behind his visor, thinking about the long, bloody, and dangerous road ahead of them unnerved him. Distant sounds of gunfire and shouting drifted over from the Wild Territories, accompanied by a muffled explosion followed by hearty cheers coming from the Bar area. Some poor fool must have met his end in the Arena.. Rodent thought.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 21, 2010 0:08:44 GMT -5
Rusty followed the example lead by Leon and Rodent, carefully removing the Duty emblem and spraying over the red patches on the armor, he laid it down and admired his work, the can was about a quarter full, leaving on the ground he slipped back into his suit, thankful for the closed breathing cycle which filtered out the intense smell from the spray cans contents.
He'd heard about the Red Forest but non of it was good, it was one of the no-man lands of the zone, mutants roamed about wildly, unknown anomalies. Just worry about keeping your wits and you'll be fine. he thought, the worst mutant he'd seen alive were snorks and they were a handful for most rookies, there rumors of two head creatures the size of a car, and twice as agile. "What sort of mutants are in Red Forest?" He asked as they started walking.
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Post by Basil on Mar 21, 2010 10:49:16 GMT -5
"Ah well, time to get all Michel Angelo", said Duke, grabbing a can of spray paint and carefully covering the red patches of his armour with black paint. He then took his knife out and carefully cut the Duty emblem off his suit.
"Like a nice, fake SEVA", said Duke happily, as he tossed some half empty spray paint cans to Dodge, "'y'know, we should totally try to get more of these suits and paint over 'em...fucker's would never know the difference!"
"-Could work", said Dodge, "until they go after you and put a slug through your brain. The pseudo-dogs would be picking your bones clean before morning."
"-True, true", remarked Duke wistfully, "Murphy's Law I guess."
Once everyone had their suits ready, the group set off to the Army Warehouses. The other bandit, Rusty was his name, asked what kind of mutants they would encounter in the Red Forest, which reminded Duke that he and Dodge had not given much thought to the risks attached to their little trip.
"Bah, who cares", he muttered, chewing on his now quite battered cigarette, "the road to fortune and glory is all that's ahead of us."
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Post by Διμι on Mar 21, 2010 19:55:32 GMT -5
"We'll need to make a stop by Freedom's base." Leon once again took a look through the contents of the case he had taken from the Major's locker. There were profiles of various stalkers - a good deal of known Freedomers, mercenaries, and strangely, scientists and the single bandit known as Lutiy. He could see several sheets concerning the group known as the Alpha Squad, including Seth himself, as well as some obscure references to a 'Project Shutdown', seemingly started in the early 1990's. None of the data made any coherent sense to the mercenary, but it was of little importance to Leon, and he figured he could net it for a fair amount of cash. And then there was also the sealed case. The container proved itself to be completely bullet and impact-proof, and had no visible crack to pry open aside from the tiny key-slit. Perhaps, Leon thought, the crafty Freedomers could find a way to open it.
"What sort of mutants are in the Red Forest?" he heard bandit Rusty ask. The mercenary furrowed his brow. He was an adept fighter, but had little experience of the Zone and the horrors rumored to live closer to its center. Although his PDA had ample information on the most widespread mutant varieties, he had yet to face the most dangerous ones in open combat.
"We'll see." he replied "just stick together, and I reckon we'll be alright. Most of us are not altogether bad killers," he nodded towards Rodent, "and we're more than decently armed."
After several more minutes of walking, several towers rising over a fortified wall came into view. Snipers in green topped the structures, but seeing that the stalkers wore no red, let the black-clad group pass below.
Leon nodded to the group before walking through the entrance to the compound. Two guards with scoped SIGs shifted slightly, but made no further movement, while an exoskeleton-toting Freedomer stepped to the side, letting Leon and the group pass inside without a word.
The base was in a general state of disarray. Whatever Freedomers weren't on active duty were pursuing secondary interests in the areas of obscure alcoholic products, and the smoking of unknown compounds. Evidently Seth was absent, Leon thought as he walked down the road to the main building.
The guards at the entrance, surprisingly enough, were sober enough to stop the mercenary as he attempted to answer. "What's your business here... erm... stalker?" the Freedomer wavered, unable to place the jet-black armored suit in front of him.
"Mercenary, actually." Leon corrected the man "I've got a few things to show to your boss. It seems to be of terrific importance." Leon tilted his head, sizing up the guards and their present capacity to wield weapons, should a fight break out.
"Boss is absent, and won't be back for a while." The Freedomer, who was rather large, growled. "Looks like you'll have to put off your 'business' for a later time, mercenary." the man drew his gun. "now get out of here, stalker!"
"Absent?" Leon gave an uncomprehending look "why, he's right here!" he exclaimed, pulling out the paper with Seth's picture and personal data, and thrusting it in the man's face. The Freedomer's eyes widened as he stared at the sheet for a full minute before giving it back and stepping aside. "You'd better explain yourself after pulling that out in here, mercenary." he said as Leon and the squad walked inside. "Katya's in charge around here for the time being, while Seth is out killin' stuff. She's inside, second floor."
"No need to make the mercenary clunk all the way up the stairs in his heavy suit, big boy." said a voice from the shadowy staircase. A tall woman emerged, her long flowing golden hair only partially obscured by the hood of the Wind of Freedom suit she wore. Despite the protective kevlar plates, the suit did little to mask her definite feminine features. Something in Leon jumped, seeing a girl in the Zone, no less a pretty one, was certainly a rarity.
"What've you got for me, hot-shot?" Katya interjected, pulling out and twirling a huge Desert Eagle. "I could sure use some light reading before Sethy gets his ass back home."
Leon silently handed over the sheaf of papers to the woman. The Freedom member pored over the information thoroughly for several minutes before looking back up. "Where did you get this, mercenary? And what the hell is Project Shutdown?" the woman asked, gazing intently at the tinted lens of Leon's gas helmet. "I know a lot of these faces. Some are known to be in contact with one another, and some are mortal enemies. Some are prominent, and some I've never even heard of. It's got data from the damn nineties, God knows we weren't even around back then."
"I know just about as much as you." Leon answered "As to where I got it from? Simple. I stole it. From the the Duty armory. It belonged to a man known as Valeriy Makfeev." he explained before recounting the entire tale of the group's ventures in Rostok.
The woman laughed loudly "So those suits... You jacked them from Voronin himself before repainti- oh God! Mercenary, there are no words to describe you. I haven't seen people like you in a long time since Seth came around. Freedom needs the kind of daredevils you folks are." she said to the group. "You've done us a great favor. Makfeev was known for his ruthlessness towards our faction, and pretty much all non-Dutiers in general. As for the documents," she added "I'll give you eighty grand. We're indebted to you as it is anyway."
"Fair enough," Leon responded, accepting the cash "personally, I'd love to hit you up on the join offer, but I've got a job to do. Perhaps some other time. I can't be sure of the same for my other colleagues though. Unless you'll let us go on after joining."
"Naturally." Katya smiled. "So, any of you boys up for joining us around here?" she gave the group a roguish wink. "I'll give you some time to decide. In the meantime, help yourselves. Our supplies of cannabis and NATO weaponry are in as high a stock as ever." She left, walking up the stairs to the second floor. "I'll be upstairs if anyone needs me."
Leon took out the money he had stolen from Makfeev's vault, adding it to his present earnings and splitting it evenly amongst the squad members. "Remember, if we go through with killing Lutiy, we'll earn three times more from Borov, if we manage to intimidate him, which I'm sure we'll be able to." The mercenary looked around. The Freedomers had sunken back into their jovial activities. "In the meantime, if any of you have any business to do here, do so. Like the woman said, she's letting us go on even if we join in."
[TOTAL MONEY SPLIT: 300,000 ru, 60,000 per person.]
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 22, 2010 23:11:20 GMT -5
Walking away from the group, Rodent went to go have a look around the base. Freedomers lounged about everywhere, smoking, drinking and laughing, the snipers on the tower keeping a close watch on the surrounding area and taking potshots and stray mutants. Sounds of distant gunfire drifted over from the north. Walking past a dark and empty barracks, Rodent peered in through one of the windows, something glinted in a corner and caught his attention. Walking over to the doorway, Rodent walked into the barracks. Flipping on his flashlight, he pointed it into the corner. Lying there on the ground, was a VSS Vintorez sniper rifle, with several boxes of the rare SP5 ammo next to it. Taking a quick look around to see if anyone was watching, Rodent walked over to the rifle and picked it up, removing the stock and silencer he slid the rifle parts into his pack, then placed the ammo inside. Standing back up, he quickly walked out of the barracks and switched off his flashlight.
Taking a right turn after walking out the door, Rodent walked down towards the train tracks and abandoned tunnel. The tunnel was filled with visible distortions in the air, and clumps of mutated vegetation hung from the ceiling. Pulling a bolt from his pocket, Rodent tossed it into the tunnel. Jets of flame erupted from the ground, and the mutated plants shot out a barrage of small spines. Rodent's armor protected him from the pesky projectiles, and he brushed them off. Walking over to the top of the hill the tunnel formed, he walked over to a gaping crack in the stonework. Looking down into the hole, he could see the heat distortions of the burner anomalies. Just to his left was the roots of one of the pesky mutated plants, but nestled inside of the roots, was a blue glow. Slowly reaching his hand down, and pushing the roots aside, he plucked out a Crystal, Today must be my lucky day. he thought. Placing the Crystal into his pack, he walked back to Freedom's HQ.
[CHECK]
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 22, 2010 23:41:27 GMT -5
Rusty stood quietly beside Leon unable to think of anything to say, that was reinforced when Katya emerged from the building, he hadn't been very good with women outside of the zone and now one very attractive lady was talking to the group, Rusty juggled with the idea of joining Freedom, but decided against it, Maybe later, if we survive this Lutiy fiasco. He thought, looking around most of the Freedom soldiers seemed to ignore them, one or two gave them a second glance.
Making his way over to the campfire he sat down, the other men passed him a joint that was making it's way around the circle, removing the visor with some trail and error, from his suit he took a long drag on the joint. All the worries he had seemed to slowly fade away. Laying back, he took a swig from a bottle of vodka, offering it to the other on the circle. He recounted the story of how they managed to sneak into the Duty armory, snatch some gear and make their way here, some of the facts may have been a little wrong, and parts of the story were exaggerated a little, but generally it went down a treat for the Freedom chaps.
I wonder what the others a doing? He thought, he could hear Duke nearby but couldn't quite tell where the voice was coming from, he could see Rodent poking around in the tunnel, he wasn't sure what Leon was doing but guessed it was to important for him fathom. After several failed attempts at standing he decided the best method of moving was to not move at all. He gazed at his PDA for several minutes before noticing was in fact a can of food. How odd, I could swear I had a PDA in here. Checking his bag he found it eventually, while there was nothing of interest on it, in his delusional state of mind it was enough to keep him occupied. He eventually fell asleep.
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Post by Basil on Mar 23, 2010 15:11:43 GMT -5
Duke sat down on a a crate as the others went about their business. He supposed he could have gone off artefact hunting or exploring too, but such traits were not included in Duke's nature. Dodge had been drinking again during the trip from Rostok to the Army Warehouses, and fell asleep in a corner of the ruined building in front of Freedom's HQ, leaving Duke on his own.
"Hey bro...fancy smoking some real good weed?"
Duke turned to face the Freedom member who had spoken to him.
"-Weed you say?"
"-Yeah man...I grew it in a mixture of soil and ground up Stone Blood, and lemme tell you, it's fucking potent!"
Duke rubbed his chin, his interest piqued. He was quite partial to the occasional toke, and if this Freedomer was to be believed, this particular toke would blow his brain out of his nostrils.
"-Very well, my friend, let's have some."
The Freedomer took out a joint from a small metal box he had, laughing and stumbling slightly. Duke took the joint and let the Freedomer light it with a scruffy match. The bandit puffed on the joint for a moment, breathing the smoke in and savouring it.
"Hmmm, not sure it's doing any...holy fucking crap!"
The lower parts of the ground were now flooded with sticky red goop, and the level of the stuff was steadily rising.
"Fuck man! Get us golf shoes! We'll never get out of this muck!"
He saw Rusty and several Freedomers nearby calmly sitting with red goop up to their necks. He had to warn them about the terrible danger or else they would drown!
"Fuck man, I have to go save them! They're drowning and don't even realise it!", he said to the Freedomer next to him, "nice hat by the way", he added, as the Freedomer seemed to have donned a bright purple top hat.
Duke went over to Rusty and the others, finding it hard to walk straight as bright, colourful lights flashed around him, like some crazy psycho disco.
"Fools! Children! Sheep! Get out of that stuff now! You'll drown!!", he shouted, but Rusty and Co seemed completely oblivious to his cries, and red goop was now lapping at his boots.
"Fuck, it's too late for them", he said, stumbling back to the Freedomer, who had fallen over onto his back and was giggling stupidly to himself, "now we have to find those fucking golf shoes before...holy shit!"
All around him were Bloodsuckers, chatting in weird distorted voices, smoking, drinking, walking about...and all were dressed like clowns.
"Fuck man! We're in the middle of a fucking Bloodsucker lair!", said Duke, "and someone's giving booze to these fucking things!"
He stumbled about, wildly clawing for his gun before he finally got hold of it and raised it. To his horror, the gun was made of red jelly and dropped out of his hands.
"Oh God, man", he muttered, "look at that bastard! He's spotted us!"
Duke turned to grab the arm of the Freedomer, and noticed his arm was rather cold and hard, and slightly raspy. The bandit looked around and saw he had grabbed hold of the building's gutter. Giggling crazily, he slumped to the ground, desperately trying not to look at a nearby Bloodsucker who looked like Bozo the clown with two oversized meatballs growing from its chest. Darkness soon envelopped him, and he was out cold, snoring like an asthmatic boar.
REEFER MADNESS Funniest post EVAR!!
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Post by Διμι on Mar 23, 2010 20:32:23 GMT -5
Leon watched the squad wander off across the run-down military compound. Dodge had quickly fallen asleep in the demolished structure across from the main building, while Duke could already be seen by the campfire with the rest of the Freedomers, smoking god knows what. Soon enough the bandit dropped to the ground as well, exhausted by the effects of the high. Rodent was nowhere to be seen, presumably exploring the compound.
The mercenary walked back into the headquarters, sitting down on an unoccupied bed in the room adjacent to the trader's nook on the first floor. He took off the heavy helmet and exoskeleton, putting them both in a locker alongside with his weapons, and locking the cabinet with the late Major Makfeev's reinforced lock and key. Thankfully, the building seemed to be free of smoke fumes, reputedly due to Seth's general disapproval of the habit. Of course, the Freedom leader would never be able to completely remove the hedonistic streak defining his faction, which showed through the earnestness with which the stalkers at the campfire downed bottle after bottle of vodka, interspersed with the occasional lighting up.
He noticed Rodent walk into the building. "Nice gun," he noted "You don't find any of those lying around too often." the mercenary paused. "Find a place to crash around here somewhere," Leon advised the loner "it's getting dark out, and I definitely don't want to go poking around near the barrier at this hour. Get your rest now, stalker, we'll be moving out early tomorrow, we need to get through the Red Forest as quickly as possible." Bidding Rodent good-night, the mercenary settled onto the cot in his blacked-out PSZ suit and fell asleep in minutes.
A slight beeping on his belt awakened Leon from his slumber. He opened his eyes, re-setting the alarm on the PDA and taking a peek outside. Sunlight streamed into the room from an unusually clear, sunny sky. After the previous night, the base seemed oddly quiet. Looking outside, Leon noticed that most of the Freedomers were still out for the count, ravished by their usual late-night Dionysian revelries.
The mercenary opened the locker, noting with relief that the gear had not been stolen. He slid into his exoskeleton, fastening it to his underlying kevlar suit, and snapping the titanium chest piece into place. Once the armor was securely attached, he picked up his G11 and made his way out of the building.
Like most of the Freedomers, Duke was still sound asleep. Dodge however, was slowly coming to, rubbing his head as he attempted to shake the aftereffects of the substances. Fabulous, Leon thought, not only will we be fighting scores of powerful mutants and fanatical and zombified stalkers, we'll have hangovers to deal with as well.
The mercenary gave Duke a gentle kick to wake him up from his sleeping state. "Wake up bandit!" he muttered "that was the last time I let any of you in this place..." he trailed off as Duke slowly stirred, finally getting up. Rodent was still nowhere to be seen, but the mercenary assumed that he would show up eventually.
"Time to get going," said Leon to the rest of the team "with any luck, we'll make it to the Dead City by nightfall, and we'll surely be able to track Lutiy and his buddies from there." sending a message to Rodent's PDA, the mercenary walked out of the compound, motioning for everyone to assemble.
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