First Hand Experience of the Zone

[milch]

Pianist reached the other end of the hangar unnoticed thanks to the deep ditch he was in. He looked over the edge and saw a man unload a sawn-off into Darius who for some reason was over this side as well, he probably had the same idea in mind as Pianist. Darius fell to the floor and seemed dead... Pianist felt disappointed in the world... Only yesterday he met this veteran of the Zone who knew the tricks of the complicated survival and now he was dead... Suddenly the bandit who 'killed' Darius fell dead himself and Darius got up form the ground putting his pistol back in the hipster and picking up his battle rifle of off the floor. Pianist felt much relieved, his armor saved him... Now if only Pianist could get a good cover him and Darius would have the bandits pinned down here and slaughtered in moments.

Pianist quietly and carefully climbed out of the ditch and took cover behind a collapsed concrete pillar. He looked over it and saw that only about 4 or 5 bandits were standing live. He took aim at one's head and fired, dropping the bandit numbers to 4... One other bandit looked at Pianist and took a shot from his SVT-40... the bullet hit Pianist in the left arm and he fell backwards into the ditch he climbed out of less than a minute ago. He hit the floor and fell unconscious as his head smashed against the concrete floor...

(I really think we need to actually agree on where this is going coz idk what's actually gunna happen next... Although I think it's quite good like this, improv... And just to make it clear, I know after pianist whacked his head on concrete he should either be dead or severely concussed but this is like one of those Steven Segal movies... So yeah (: ...)

[Lysander]

Disciple saw Darius go down and roared with anger. Aiming at the nearest bandit with his SVD, he shot the man in the chest and quickly looked back at Darius, just to make sure. He was up and shooting again, his armour had saved him. Thank god Disciple thought to himself. He was looking forward to getting to know the guy.
Then he saw Pianist charging out of a small trench, and about half a minute later, fall back in again, clutching his arm.
Rage overtook Disciple and he dropped his beloved SVD, picking up the dead man's AK and charging towards the bandits in a desperate attempt to reach his only friend, five bandits fell to his anger and by the time he got to Pianist, only a few more were left, who promptly sprinted off, leaving their dead.
He jumped into the trench and crouched over his friend's body, which was lying in a pool of dark blood, after examining the wound he pulled the slime artifact out of it's container and squeezed it over Pianist's mangled shoulder, the disgusting liquid oozed out, dribbling over the wound and coagulating in a pool below. The bleeding stopped after a few seconds and Disciple put it back into its space.
He then pulled his stone blood out, broke a piece off and stuffed it into the hole in his friend's shoulder, almost immediatly, the stone blood began to knit itself into the wound, replacing the missing flesh. In five minutes that was done.
A dull thump sounded behind him and he turned around. A body had landed on the concrete and was lying there unmoving. Just then he saw another figure hop onto a train car and dash off, clutching its face.
"Shit." Disciple said as he realized who the prone figure was.
______________________________________________________

Drakon didn't realize who had shot him until it was too late, Jackal was already over his cover and had pulled out his knife, looking around, he saw Drakon and grinned maniacally. Drakon drew his own knife, a lovely thing, as long as his forearm and decorated with a golden dragon on the blade and a dragon's head on the hilt.
A jolt of pain spread through him as he lost more blood from the wound in his left shoulder. He uttered a prayer and felt a sudden, intense heat in his shoulder, then the pain receded. That's strange he thought. But there was no time. With a roar he charged his nemesis, knocking the small man down and nearly inflicted a wound on his arm, had he not blocked at the last moment.
They both got up and a dance started, steel flashing in the morning sun. Both men were by now on the outside balcony.
They broke apart suddenly, Jackal putting his hands on his knees and wheezing heavily.
"You ill old man?" Drakon mocked.
"Not by a fucking longshot." Jackal said, charging once more. Drakon easily sidestepped and as the man passed, swept his knife up his cheek.
Jackal screamed in pain and Drakon's hands were covered in blood. Jackal turned around and held Drakon in an iron grip. He grinned, a horrible sight, as his left cheek was now yawning open, exposing an unnatural amount of teeth. "Goodbye, you little cunt." He said as he pushed Drakon over the edge.
Then the concrete rushed up to meet him and the world went black.

[Karcentric]

Darius' shoulder was still causing him pain but he focused on the remaining bandits, lining up one he fired pulverising the man's ankle, collapsing in agony Darius fired another burst ending the bandits life aptly. The final bandits was retreating spraying rounds while running backwards away from the depot. Climbing the side of the buildings wall Darius was able to line the man as he retreated, lining him up through the scoop and fired a single shot which ripped through the bandits throat killing him instantly. Jumping down from the vantage point he was using he dragged the body of two of the bandits into the depot leaving them alongside the other corpses which included 3 loners unfortunate enough to get themselves killed in the foray.

Looking over the bodies Darius found a couple F1 grenades on one of the loners pocketing them he went to check on Pianist whose arm was healed quite well.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, giving Pianist a pat on the back, he looked up slightly dazed from hitting his head "Pretty ballsy move back there."

Joining Disciple who was standing over Drakon's unconscious form. He crouched prodding the large man.

"This isn't looking good, Pianist isn't looking too sharp right now and this chap is really looking bad. Didn't happen to see who did this did ya?" Darius asked. "We can probably get to Rostok in an hour maybe two depending if old Drakon here wakes up. He looks kinda heavy."

[milch]

Pianist was still knocked out when his arm suddenly felt really hot and then the pain stopped. He opened his eyes and saw his companion putting back the trophy artifacts: Slime and Stone Blood. Disciple helped Pianist to sit back up and suddenly a heavy thing dropped from the infamous balcony to the floor right next to Pianist, to his surprise it was Drakon, then a short figure leaped off the balcony onto the train inside the hangar and ran towards the other exist holding it's face with one arm and firing shots from his pistol with the other. The man jumped off the train and dashed to the gates disappearing as suddenly as he appeared.
The shooting outside was getting quieter and quoted and then stopped completely, a few moments after Darius jumped down into the ditch where the rest of the group was. Pianist didn't hear what the master said to him, but when he patted Pianist on the back the traveler realized it was a good thing. His head was still hurting after the hit, he pulled off the balaclava and checked his head for any blood, but there was none. Pianist looked into the broken mirror to his right and saw his mutated face, he then put the balaclava back on not wanting anyone to look at his face.
"He looks kinda heavy..." said Darius referring to Drakon who didn't seem he's waking up anytime soon.
"Well... We can try and carry him... It's not too far from here..." said Pianist, he wanted to get to Rostok's safety as fast as he could now, he was deadly tired... Pianist took out his Jellyfish artifact and began to study it, he was aware of the radiation that it produced but he wouldn't have it out off his belt for long enough to do much more harm than is done already. It felt warm and was squishy to touch... It's orangish glow had Pianist almost hypnotized... But he quickly snapped out of it and put it back in a container on his belt.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jackal made a dash for Drakon. His target dodged him and slashed at the attacker's face with his long and expensive blade. The knife hit on target and left a rip in Jackal's cheek, now his left side of the moth was extended by about two inches... Jackal shouted in pain and grabbed Drakon by the collar "Are you ill old man?" the crazy giant asked. "Goodbye you little cunt!" with those words Jackal threw Drakon down over the edge of the balcony into the concrete. Jackal now had nowhere to run. He looked outside of the hangar and saw the bandits retreating and a loner with really good equipment picking them off one by one. "Actually..." Jackal went to the other end of the balcony inside the hangar and leaped onto the train before him. He landed on the driver's wagon and started to run along the top of the train towards the other exit, holding his cheek which was bleeding down his face and neck... He was met by gunfire from a loner who was still hiding behind the barricades. Jackal took out his BFR and as he was running took a shot at the loner. The bullet hit right between the eyebrows coming out the back of his head bringing out splashes of brains... Jackal jumped down off the train and ran outside the courtyard. He ran towards the bus stop in front of him and sat down by the fire left by some kind person... Breathing heavily Jackal took out the stone blood artifact he found earlier and his field surgery kit he had from his war days. He got the needle and some tiny bits of the artifact and began sowing them into the cheek he was sowing up like a ripped shirt... The artifact stimulates the body's healing process and blood flow which has a negative side effect... The blood flow increases the nerves sensitivity, so now the place around the artifact affected area would be more exposed to pain like electric shocks, burns, cuts etc... But at that moment it worried Jackal the least... Right now he needed to get some rest and track down those bastard loners, he didn't care about honor anymore... He would kill them in their sleep, shoot them in the back even if they were unarmed... He wanted them dead either way...

[Lysander]

Disciple walked over to Drakon and kneeled down, trying to feel a pulse he was glad when he found one. The mans eyes flickered open and he rose albeit dizzily, but apart from that as if nothing had happened.
"With a fall like that, you should have several broken bones at least." He said.
"I am blessed." Was the merc's only answer.
"Right, i take it you are accompanying us to Rostok?"
The merc nodded.
Disciple turned to his other friends. "Let's get looting."
He walked over to the bandits he had killed and found an assortment of low-grade weaponry, except on the leader.
In his bloody hands was a finely tooled pistol, highly decorated with ivory panelling and black vines criss-crossing the grip. A desert eagle.
Pleased with his find Disciple put it into his pistol holster, stowing his PB1s in his pack.
"Right, we better get going." He said.

Disciple found:
Desert eagle x1
AKSU x3
MP5 x1
medical items, food etc.
one stash:
fake stalker grave, Rostok.

[milch]

"Let's get looting" said Disciple and went over to the bandit bodies. Meanwhile Pianist walked to the wagon he was sleeping in earlier and got his things. When he got back to where Disciple was standing, his friend was holding a Desert Eagle, a beautiful piece of gun-smithery. Pianist knelt down to one of the dead loner bodies and closed the dead man's eyes. He then searched him for any valuables... He found the loner's PDA and discovered that the man was called Yurik. He was wearing an upgraded 'Sunrise' but it was damaged by the hail of bullets in the fight way too heavily. He was also carrying an AN-94 better known as 'Abakan' and a rare revolver Colt Peacemaker. Pianist looked over it and found it nearly in mint condition. Pianist moved over to a bandit's body and found a rusty AKSU which looked like it was used in the time of Clear Sky itself... and an averagely conditioned Beretta... Then Pianist felt how heavy his backpack actually was! "That's enough looting for today..." Pianist thought and it was true as he could barely walk a hundred meters without getting out of breath. When the whole group has finished their business they began to make their way past the heaps of irradiated scrap, whilst avoiding more bandits and mutants. When they reached the Duty checkpoint the warrant officer looked at Darius and said "Aah! I see you're back! Where you've been so long?"

------------------------------------------------

Jackal watched the group looting the bandits and thought "Fuck it! This is no use to me... I'm not making any progress!" then he looked at his missing finger and felt the scar on his face "This is all gunna cost you Sultan, you know that...". He finished the food he was eating and walked out of the bus stop back towards Rostok, where he first encountered his ex-protege, Drakon. Jackal reached a semi-destroyed building which was called 'The Flee Market" by the locals, he wasn't sure why but it didn't matter. The Merc climbed up the collapsed concrete slabs and set up a view point on the highest intact platform... He only had to wait about half an hour when he saw the group he was waiting for to reach the checkpoint. They stood there and seemed to have had a short conversation with the officer before moving in. "Finally!" Jackal said out loud and hurried to get down to earth. He ran to the checkpoint and and then began to walk, he needed to let them move further away a bit so he wouldn't be noticed. He walked around a barely noticeable whirligig anomaly and set down the road to follow his targets. After about ten minutes of walking the entrance to the factory complex was in sight. The four were standing by an old truck examining a dead body, most probably killed by the dogs who lived here. When they finished and entered Rostok, and only then Jackal followed them in. They entered the bar and Jackal decided that as they were probably sticking around Rostok for a while he might as well go and look for some easy cash... After asking around the Dutyers and some rogue loners he came to the conclusion that the easiest and quickest way if you have fighting skills, which he had plenty of, was a place called 'The Arena'. After much hesitation in his plans Jackal finally decided to try his luck and entered the door under the sign saying 'ARENA'...

Pianist Found: Abakan, Colt Peacemaker, 1500 rubles, stash: Rostok, up in the tower by the round window.

[Karcentric]

"-Aah! I see you're back! Where you've been so long?" The WO as Darius as he approached the gates to Rostok.

"I've been here and there, mainly in Agroprom trying to scavenge some artifacts. That and just surviving where I can by whatever means."

"-These guys with you?" The WO asked glancing over Darius' shoulder at the group.

"Yeah meet them at the depot just before a bandit party swept in, but we handled that without too much of a hitch." Darius said, "We'd best get moving."

With a nod the group moved past and navigated the anomalies walking in a scattered pattern towards the industrial town of Rostok, looking down at the body of an unfortunate stalker who had been mauled and partially eaten by roaming packs of dogs.

"Unlucky fella." Darius said before continuing with the rest of the group.

[Lysander]

When Disciple first saw Rostok looming out of the distance, he was impressed. He hadn't expected anything of it's like to appear in the zone, it was the closest thing to a town that he had seen since coming to this god-forsaken place.
Pianist also looked like he was in a state of quiet admiration, from what little Disciple could see of his face, his eyes were wide.
"Do you think they have a Piano?" Pianist asked.
"You could always ask." Disciple laughed.
They passed through the first Duty checkpoint without any hastle and then continued on to the bar.
The small group walked down the steps and into the bar area, Disciple went over to the bar to order drinks while the others sat down.
As he walked over to Barkeep, he got a lot of strange looks and Barkeep said "That's a lot of crap you've got there, you look like a walking armoury. You want to sell any of that?"
After he had finished emptying his pack, he took the drinks and walked back to the table where the others were sitting, he sat down, took a swig of his drink and said.
"What are we gonna do now, I know that i want some upgrades, but where are we gonna go?"
"We're going to Agroprom." Pianist said in an unusually forceful voice. "I've got some unfinished business i need to take care of there."
A few minutes later when the group had finished their drinks Disciple said.
"Meet back here before dark, maybe we can get a good night's sleep for once."
As the others turned towards the counter, Disciple walked out of the door and into the Duty compound, where he found the technician, tinkering.
"What do you want?" The dutier asked.
After he'd finished with the upgrades, Disciple went off to explore Rostok, and was the first back in the bar.
So, to pass the time he got out his new guitar and started to play.


Disciple sold:

PB1s
Ak74
AN-94
AKSU x2
SVT-40
PMm x2
Skorpion x2
MP5
Rookie Jacket

Money Gained: 13,100

Disciple Bought:

Guitar
Night Vision
Additional Polycarbonate Plating
Gas Mask
Modernized Inertial Compensators (For SVD)
Polygonal Rifling Channels (For SVD)
Pneumatic Accelerators (For Desert Eagle)
Active Barrel Counterweights (For Mossburg 88)

Money Lost: 13,500


Final Amount: 13,700

______________________________________________________

Drakon walked over to the counter, wanting to be rid of the troublesome new weight that his rucksack had gained.
After he had finished selling, Drakon looked around the bar and saw a loner sitting on a box in the corner, tinkering with a radio, which suddenly came stuttering to life.
He walked over to the man and told him what he wanted.
Putting his gas mask into his pack, he saw that Disciple had returned and was playing on an old acoustic guitar. He walked over to him and said.
"My Gods and I thank you."
"What for?" Disciple asked, looking confused.
"Saving me."
"I thought i'd give you this." The man said, bringing a Mossburg '88 out of his pack and handing it to Drakon.
"And what is this for?"
"Saving my friend from that bastard merc."
And with that, Drakon sat down next to his new "friend" and they started to discuss their lives before the Zone, waiting for the others.


Drakon Sold:

Berretta 92fs

Drakon Gained: 450

Drakon Bought:

Additional Polycarbonate Plating
Fiberglass Thermal Insulation
Gas Mask
Modernized Inertial Compensators (For AKM)
Scope Mount (For AKM)

Money Lost: 12,300


Final amount: 1750

[milch]

Pianist sat down at the table in the bar and began to look around. Then Disciple came back seeming much lighter than he was with all the gear with him. "Meet back here before dark. Maybe we can get a god night's sleep for once..." with that he was off to the Duty HQ to get the upgrades he wanted so long. Then Pianist himself got up and walked over to the Bar. "Hey..." said Pianist shyly "Erm... Can I sell some stuff?". After that was done Pianist went out and breathed in the evening air, a man was spray painting a suit to the left of him and another one was heading towards Duty HQ. Pianist followed him and saw that the man, over the Merc suit, was wearing a red band on his arm. "Communist or what?" Pianist thought to himself. They both entered the HQ and turned to the technician straight away. When the Merc was done it was Pianist's turn. He upgraded his suit as much as he could afford to and then went back to the bar. Disciple and Drakon were sitting in the corner and it seemed that Disciple was just playing the guitar. Pianist went over to Barkeep and asked "Hey. Do you happen to have a piano round here?" Barkeep considered something in his head looking at Pianist doubtingly but then said to a guard by the entrance to Barkeep's personal quarters "Hey! Bring out the piano here! And put it in that corner there! All it's doing in that room is collecting dust!". In minutes the piano was set up in the corner where Disciple and Drakon were for permanent stay. Pianist went over to it and sat down. He felt that all eyes in the room were resting upon him now. The loner began to go through all the songs he knew in his head but none seemed fitting. Then he remembered a guitar tune he heard down at The Rookie Village just before he left and decided to give it a run on the piano. When he was done the whole bar was applauding and whistling. He stood up, turned towards the crowd and did a little bow/nod with his head. Then he went over to where all of his friends were sitting now and ordered drinks for everyone.

Pianist Sold: PB1s, MP5, Skorpion, Grease Gun, AKSU, PMm x2, SKS-Carbine
Money Earned: 5350 rubles
Money Then: 22040 rubles
Pianist Bought: Fiberglass Thermal Insulation, Constane Electroisolation Layer, Ceramic Armor, Additional Polycarbonate Plating and an Integrated Gas Mask
Money Spent: 20500 rubles
Money Now: 1540 rubles

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Jackal entered the door under the sign saying ARENA not knowing what to expect. When he entered a tall, well built man was crouching down searching through a cupboard full of bottles of alcohol. When Jackal knocked on the table, the man looked up and said "Looking to earn some blood cash? Well you're just in the right place! The name's Arnie! You're just in time for the next match and lucky for you this guy doesn't have an opponent yet! It's as if it was booked for you! Heh!" Arnie chuckled. Then he showed Jackal into the next room where he was told to take off any armor and weapons and put them in a locker. "Don't worry about it's safety. We're not poor or greedy here!" Arnie then showed Merc to the final room where a man behind a counter handed him an old sawn-off and a short knife. Then Jackal went through the final door and was 'locked up' in a small space with one barred door going out to the ARENA itself. The so called ARENA was just an old hangar with a bunch of shipment crates and signs telling you 'which way to go'. Then a signal went off and the barred door opened. Jackal ran into the hangar and turned right, then he pushed himself back against a crate and side stepped to it's end. He looked around the corner and saw a man in a rookie jacket looking quite helpless spinning his head around, gun at the ready. Then the rookie began to walk towards the crate behind which Jackal was hiding. Jackal took a step back, cocked his gun and raised it up about the man's head height. In a few moments the man turned the corner and was staring into the two barrels of the shotgun. Without hesitation Jackal pulled the trigger twice and his face met a spray of blood, pieces of skull and brains. The man's body was semi-beheaded on the floor before him and a loudspeaker above the Merc came to life with a crackle "And we have a Victor! A Merc Jackal! Well all you unlucky bidders you know who to put your money on next time!". The crowd on the levels above was divided into two groups. One was singing praises to Jackal and the other was shouting to him, wishing he was never born. He didn't mind. Jackal went back by the same route he came to this place, gave back the weapons, got dressed and went to Arnie. "That was a bit cold blooded there! And a bit too short! The guys here like a good show you see... This is a bit like boxing! But oh well, you did your job! There you go. Your wage." Jackal took the money and counted it, 5 grand, well that was more than satisfactory for the easy job, if only all jobs were as easy as this 'game'. Jackal exited the room into the cold irradiated night. He headed towards the Duty HQ where he wanted to upgrade his long beloved rifle. When that was done he waited until he saw the group exit the bar and head to the exit from Rostok.

Jackal Earned: 5000 rubles
Money Then: 10150 rubles
Jackal Bought: Pneumatic Accelerators and Polymer Recoil Compensation Buffer (Magnum Research BFR), Modernized Internal Compensators and Polygonal Rifling Channels (IMI Galil)
Money Spent: 7750 rubles
Money Now: 2250 rubles

((I'll let it fly, but I'm not sure you can put Pneumatic Accelerators on a revolver...))

[Karcentric]

Darius nodded to the group and said, "I'll catch you fellas in a bit, I'm gonna catchup with some pals of mine who have reckon they have some info I might be interested in."

Parting ways he made his way over to a group of loners sitting in one of the old warehouses and took a seat shaking hands with the stalkers and taking a shot a glass offered to him by one of them.

"So, you have some info I wanted to hear about?" Darius asked, gulping down the drink and resting the glass on his knee as he leaned back against a stack of concrete pylons.

"-That's right, we've heard rumors of a threat to the north, those Monolith fanatics have been seen in high numbers at the barricade, freedom is paying big bucks to any stalker which goes and wipes them out. They can always use a hand." Said the slightly slurring stalker.

"Is that it? Or is there more?" Darius asked, who had little interest in traveling north just to earn a few more rubles.

"-Well it turns out there's something going on in Limansk, the Mercenaries have been split, an elite group has gone off with Midas, they've sent someone after him, a lone stalker." The man continued.

"One man? That seems... insufficient to me." Darius chimed in, encouraging the man to continue.

"Well it isn't any man, it's that scum bag Luity's little brother, but keep that on the DL, he was joined by a group of stalkers and they meet up with one of the Merc agents here. So I'd say he is more than prepared for his journey."

"Okay but what's that got to do with me?" Darius asked.

"-Well, you see Darius, Midas is renown for being a gunrunner and he's got plenty of guns he's just not sharing them, thus the profits he makes a enormous, both major factions will be at his mercy if he isn't stopped. But that isn't our concern, what we want is some of those guns, you know, to turn the tide against the bandits, a couple of high powered sniper rifles would certainly leave those scum bags fucked." The man said in a matter of fact manner. "Those weapons may be be ill gotten and they may cost a fortune, but what's going to happen to them once Midas is toast? There gonna rust away in the middle of nowhere. I have a map... from a good source who knows exactly where his base is. The question is, are you willing to risk it to find those weapons?"

"What if the group hired to off Midas destroys his base as well? Wouldn't that be part of the deal?" Darius asked unsure if his partially drunk comrade had thought of in his lust for free high powered weapons.

The man gave him a look, of incredulous. "-Why would they do that? They could live like kings if they got hold of some of those weapons. I've heard all sorts of rumors about what's there. Nearly anything you want they can get, no one knows how though. The stalker said again with a glazed look over his eyes thinking greedily.

"So what's stopping you from going and taking these 'incredible' weapons than?" Darius asked already knowing what the answer would be.

"-You're the experienced traveler out us, you're the one whose faced the zones worst and survived, you're the one whose seen death and escaped him... twice. You're far more suited to this than we are." Came the reply.

"Always the same with you lot, not a single spine amongst you, no wonder your getting chubby now. Why don't you amass a group and go, huh?" Darius said, provoking a scowl from the man he was talking to and a small round of laughter from the other stalkers. "Leave the plotting to trader and Sid, it's them that want Midas gone isn't it? He must be taking away their profits."

"-Very funny comedian, you're always the first to laugh at plans even when they do pay off." The man rebuffed Darius' comments.

"Well give me the map, if it's really as great as you say it might warrant checking out." Darius said taking the offered map and folding carefully putting it in his pack and closing it. "And now you scumbags, I'll be off. Try not to eat so much diet sausage, or you might actually need to go on a diet eh?" With that final jab he left the group who were laughing again.

As we walked towards the bar he heard the sound of cheering, but before he entered he felt as if someone was watching him, looking around in the gloom he didn't notice anything, switching on his NV he looked around, he thought he saw someone but in the haze of the green glow it could of been a shrub, giving it the finger anyway he turned off the NV and went into the bar to see what the cheering was about. Noting that an old dusty piano was in the corner he guessed that someone must of played it.

"How's it going friends?" He asked leaning his pack against the wall and taking up a slice of fresh bread. "Where's the next stop than?"

[Lysander]

After the applause died down for Pianists great piano playing Darius came over and took off his pack. "How's it going friends?" He said, taking a slice of fresh bread from a loaf nearby. "Where's the next stop then?"
Disciple put away his guitar and stood up. "Pianist wants to go to the Agroprom institute. He asked around a bit and it looks like the bandits who fucked up his life in the big land have set up shop there. I'm all for it, and Drakon seems to agree though he doesn't talk much. All we need is your agreement. If you want to continue on with us that is." Darius nodded. "Fine, that's sorted then. I've been looking at some of the maps on my PDA and i think that the only way to the Agroprom institute is through the Garbage, yet again. It seems that there used to be a way in through Yantar, but that was blocked by anomalies after that huge emission in twenty-eleven. Am i right Darius?" The veteran loner nodded. "Well, through the Garbage it is then. I think that we should stay the night at Rostok, get a good night's sleep for once, we'll meet outside the bar at six o'clock sharp."
The group all went their seperate ways then. Darius went to look up some more old buddies, Drakon went to make a 'Night fire' to pray to his Gods and Disciple and Pianist went to a nearby hangar and sat by the fire. "What happened to make you want to kill these guys so much?"
His friend looked into the fire. "They trashed my stuff, killed my girlfriend and chucked me through my apartment window. When i went to the police they made a run for it. Into the zone. I am hunting them, especially their leader. I'm gonna cause him every kind of pain he inflicted on me and i'm gonna do whatever it takes to kill him." Pianist took off his balaclava and lay down. "We should get some sleep."
That night Disciple had the kind of dreams that only a stalker in the zone can dream. Unspeakable, unimaginable horrors. He woke more than once.
Morning came too quickly for his liking but he got up all the same, time in the military had served him well and he was ready within a minute. Pianist however was lying on the floor, snoring away happily, Disciple kicked him.
"Wake up we have to go."
In a few minutes Pianist was ready to go and they went to the area outside the bar to meet the others. Darius and Drakon were already there. The impossibly tall mercenary looking as grim as ever and the amiable loner smiling and waving at them as they came into view. They passed the Duty checkpoints without hastle and managed to get to the train hangar without any major events. It was midday by the time they arrived there and Disciple signalled the others to rest and eat. Even in the short time that they had been away another group of loners had taken up residence here, but there wasn't any sign of recent bandit activity which was strange. After a small lunch of tinned sardines the friends continued on towards their destination. When they found themselves on the road to Agroprom they saw that it was blocked by chunks of concrete, wooden boxes and even an old soviet jeep. And of course, a large group of bandits.
Disciple looked through the scope of his SVD, seeing that the men had not noticed them he asked Drakon to come over.
"What is it you wish of me?" Drakon asked.
"Can you and Darius go to the bushes on either side of the bandits, hide in them and wait till i take my first shot." The merc crawled away with Darius. "Pianist, you take up position on the other side of those crates. When they start firing at me fill them with lead."
Disciple saw a prime position on top of a train car next to him and he jumped up, easily climbing up thanks to his flash artifact. He breathed deeply and aimed at the head of one of the bandits, who was smoking a cigar and, assuming that he was the leader, fired.
The mans head exploded, showering the people closest to him with brain matter and bone fragments. The cigar flew up into the air and hit one of the men in the head. He yelped in pain and fell over. Disciple shot him before the others knew what was happening, they started to fire at him but were quickly taken out by the combined fire of the group. He killed two more with his rifle and the last three were taken out by Darius and a well timed grenade. The fight had lasted only five minutes. The poorly equipped bandits standing no chance against the loners.
When they had finished their looting, the four continued down the road to Agroprom, little knowing what lay in store.

Disciple found: IMI Gailil, AK-74, TOZ-34x2, Makarov PMm. F1 grenades, 1200 ru
Stash: Stashed my goodies in a hollowed out log by the camp. (Agroprom)
Drakon found: AK74x2, MP5x2, Beretta 92fs. 800 ru

[milch]

"Pianist, you take up position on the other side of those crates. When they start firing at me, fill them with lead." said Disciple to Pianist. In the same manner he did to Pianist, Disciple told everyone which positions to take up and what to do when. Everyone took up their positions quick and then, the shot rang out. A bandit's head exploded and his cigar flew off into another's head. Another shot and another man hit the ground. Only then the bandits got this bearings and began to shoot at the train car Disciple was atop of. When they became distracted, the rest of the group hit. Pianist got out of cover and emptied the mag of his Abakan pretty quickly dropping two more bandits, Darius and Drakon got out from either side of the bandits and minced them up with precise shots and a well thrown grenade. The bandits were over and done with in less than five minutes. When the group was looting Disciple came over to Pianist and showed him the PDA of the bandit leader "Hey I think I've got something that might help". Pianist looked through the PDA and found the latest messages that the bandit received or sent. He read through the latest one and discovered that the bandits are going to do a massive move all over Agroprom to try and push out the military! Pianist gathered the rest of the group and announced the message to them. Everyone seemed quite shocked, apart from Darius who was staring at the bandit PDA in Pianist's hands and thinking about something very serious. The group decided it was best to get moving right now to get to Agroprom as soon as they can. They gathered all of their looted stuff and began to jog up the road leading to The Agroprom Research Institute.
After just over an hour of fast jogging the group ran through the gates into Agroprom and the first thing they saw and heard was a skirmish between a military checkpoint group and a gang of bandits. The military were taking cover behind some sandbags with their backs turned to the group that just entered the Agroprom, and the bandits were being shielded by some trees, metal barrels and some were even sheltering in and old bus. A grenade came from one of the bandits' under-barrel grenade launcher and hit directly in between the lines of soldiers. Three soldier fell, two dead, one severely wounded. Pianist and the group were hiding behind the gates, looking through the metal bars at the fight. The bandits weren't looking the winners of the battle and they probably knew that too judging by their faces and the way they were slowly moving back towards the large building compound behind them. The military noticed that too and began to advance forward, but they got out of cover too soon because in the next moment two were cut down by a good burst from the bush next to them. Completely unexpectedly three more bandits suddenly popped out from either side of the grunts and began to spray them with fire, but luckily for the military they didn't have the best weapons and the armor was able to stop most of the bullets. The three bandits were taken down without causing too much damage and then Disciple's group kicked in. Disciple fired a shot at the bandits first and hit the best armed one directly in the left eye. Then Darius fired two or three accurate bursts, and Pianist sprayed the grunts with his full clip and only left two standing. Finally Drakon took them down with a few precise bursts and the grunts were dealt with. The group advanced quickly to take up the military's old positions and took out another three bandits before the remaining few threw a grenade at the sandbags and began to run towards the large buildings covered behind a bunch of trees and walls. The grenade exploded, but it was a bad throw so the group managed to take up cover and not get damaged. After that they began to loot the bodies and when that was done they finally noticed that there was a lot of gunfire in the distance. It sounded like they were just dropped off in a war zone. Explosions and the rattle of assault rifles and some military machine-guns never seemed to stop. Darius gave the group a nod towards the buildings and everyone understood that that was their next destination.

Pianist Found: 2000 rubles
Money Originally: 1540 rubles
Money Now: 3540 rubles

[Lysander]

After the firefight Disciple checked his SVD to see if it was okay, it was and he could see the improvements that the upgrades had made. He made no move to loot any of the corpses, he didn't want to get into the situation he had when he was at Rostok when he had about ten guns on him at once, and anyway, the bandits would not have anything of value on them and the grunts had nothing that he didn't have.
After the others had finished frisking the corpses Disciple walked over to Darius. "Find anything good?" He asked.
The experienced loner shook his head. "Listen, i know some guys who've set up shop over there, travelled with them for a while, they can tell us what's going on here." He said, pointing at a compound not far from where they stood.
"I agree, it sounds like Grozny out here." Disciple replied.
Darius nodded to the group and they set off at a jog, as they neared the compound they could see a mortar strike commencing on the buildings, the heavy shells sending carpets of shrapnel through courtyards and clearings, shredding anything unlucky enough to be caught in the blasts. This is too much like a warzone for my liking. Disciple thought as they jogged through the gateway, past an overturned truck. The strike had stopped and Disciple held up his hand, motioning for the group to stop. A beep cut through the air and he jumped before realising it was his PDA. He looked down to see a message pop up on the screen.

-Anyone who survived the strikes, come to the main facility building, we need to gather our guys for the incoming assault.-

The others were looking at their PDAs as well and Disciple assumed that they had got the message as well. "Come on, lets go, before the military start their assault." Rising up and sprinting through the streets of the compound. Soon they were in the central building and were greeted by two stalkers.
"You're the last ones in, we have orders from Comet to shut the doors now, you were lucky to reach us in time." One of them said. "Go up those stairs and up the stairs in the next room, then you'll come across our commander."
A loud metallic clang rang out behind them as the group went up the stairs, a few beleagured loners leaned against the walls or sat around the central fire, some wounded men groaned on makeshift beds made of packing crates, horribly disfigured by the mortar stikes.
Suddenly and without warning Disciple's vision started to swim and he was running through tight corridors, clutching his SVD close to him. A man in a bandana stepped out of an alcove in front of him and tried to bring a shotgun to bear. Disciple raised his rifle, shoving it into the man's stomach and pulling the trigger. The man's midsection exploded, spattering the corridor with entrails and blood. Disciple did not slow down once. He finally came to a stop outside a rusty door and kicked it in. A single light lit the chamber within, casting a beam down upon a bloody figure sitting in a chair, his hands bound to the sides and a man standing over him with a large knife. "Hands up motherfucker!" Disciple shouted bringing his pistol to bare.
"No thanks." the man said, giggling and bringing up a revolver with inhuman speed and firing at him. Disciple ducked and was thrown against the wall as the round hit his arm. When he rose the man was gone but the figure was still in the chair, groaning.
Disciple rushed to him and unstrapped his arms.
"Thanks for coming, but..." his friend interrupted himself with a violent coughing fit. "but your too late to save me. I'm dead man, but i found him out. Promise me you'll kill him for what he did, promise me Danila." Disciple nodded his head. "Good, it was..." but his friend's head went limp, a fresh wave of blood soaking his military fatigues.
Disciple's vision went black and he barely registered as his body hit the floor.

[Karcentric]

"Mortars huh?" Darius was muttering to himself, he'd barely a chance to think about it when a loud shot rang out from the somewhere deep in the building, spinning around he glanced a man sprinting away, loosing one shot that passed inches over the man's head before he was gone.

"Shit, shit, shit." He swore ran forward, finding Disciple laying on the ground next to another corpse, checking his companion's pulse he felt a weak sign there.

"Just hold on a little longer friend." He said taking the slime and the Mama's Bead from his belt. Wiping the slime over the arm soaked up the majority of the blood and stopped the major bleeding, next he held the Mama's Bead over the wound, and marveled as it slowly extracted the bullet and closed the wound. Wrapping a bandage over the still weakened area he dragged the taller stalker out of the dark room, leaving him with Pianist and Drakon.

Taking the stone blood artifact from Disciple's pack he sliced off a small amount, and mixed it with water letting it sit and dissolve into a thick red liquid. Placing the artifact back he left the bottle by him. "Make sure he drinks that, it won't taste great but it'll replace the blood he lost, don't know how but it does." Darius said before going back to check the second body that he'd found. The man's pulse was absent and his body temperature was quite low. Taking the corpse under the arms he dragged it out, leaving it in the open away from the other wounded.

"Looks like this guy didn't make it." Darius commented looking over the corpse noting the injuries with some distaste. "Any idea who this guy is?" He asked Pianist and Drakon.

[milch]

Jackal awoke the next morning, his wound scars hurting less, but still causing major disturbance. He got to his feet and went out of the hangar. He saw four figures moving around the corner out of his sight. Jackal rushed back into the hangar and gathered his things. He rushed back and to the corner where he last saw the figures whom he presumed to be his targets. Following the tracks in the snow he came to the Duty checkpoint and saw, on the horizon, the four figures leaving for Garbage. The Merc cocked his assault rifle and checked how many rounds were in the chamber of his Magnum Research. He began to jog down the road, stealthily following his targets.

He kept his distance at all times, even when they came to the bandit checkpoint and attacked it. He remembered that Sultan has warned him that the bandits will not be warned about Jackal's mission, so he preferred to stay out of sight. They reached Agroprom in shorter time than he expected, but something wasn't right. He listened carefully and realized than in the distance he could hear mortars and non-stop machine-gun rattle. This felt like his older days. He saw that the group has taken cover behind some gates and was having a skirmish with a group of bandits. Jackal didn't want to get involved, but he needed to get to the other side of the gates before them. The Merc ran up to the fence and jumped. He grabbed the top of it and pulled himself over. No one noticed him in the midst of the fight. He held his rifle at ready and advanced into Agroprom.

He moved towards a factory complex being hit with heavy shell fire. Jackal tried to figure out where the shells were coming from, and he got an approximate location of the mortars. In less than five minutes he was standing on top of a small hill next to collapsed electricity lines. A mortar team was hiding behind a shot down helicopter. Jackal moved slightly to the left to get a better shot. He kneeled down and aimed through the scope. Three mortar men were busy with the mortar and they only had one 'guard' covering them. Jackal aimed at him and fired. The bullets hit the ground next to the soldier and a few hit his legs. The soldier collapsed crying out and the mortar stopped firing. The mortar men took out their pistols and fired away at Jackal's position. Jackal did a barrel-roll to the left and fired at the soldiers. They took cover behind the helicopter and the bullets just kicked up some dirt.

Whilst Jackal was trying to get hold of the mortar, a quite large group of bandits was approaching the helicopter crash site as well. They saw the three mortar men hiding behind the helicopter and the now dead guard. The bandits couldn't miss an opportunity of taking control of a heavy weapon, besides it would be quite useful in their current 'push' against the military. Bandits took quick aim and fired. The soldiers were riddled with bullets in a matter of seconds.

Jackal heard lots of mixed gunshots coming from the other side of the helicopter and understood that he wasn't the only one out for that mortar. He ran back up the hill he was on a few moments ago and hid in the bushes. From that position he saw a large group, about 7-8 bandits, coming up to the mortar. Jackal knew that he couldn't take them all on, but just to make it not all-so-easy for them, he gave a few bursts. One of the bandits went down immediately and another one was hit in the stomach and fell wounded, the rest of the group scattered into the 'forrest', their black suits really standing out on the white snow. But Jackal couldn't afford to waist time on them when he had his actual targets to take care of. He backed up down the other side of the hill and was off towards the factory complex the stalkers were heading towards. Behind him the mortar came to life, but firing at the Agroprom Research Institute now, where the military was based and where the bandits wanted to hit them hardest.