S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[messiah]

I posted this at .com, but I decided to post it here as well:


This is an unusual topic for me to write, so please appreciate that I tried doing it. First off is the rule: don’t spam this thread with chatting or senseless spam - chat can be done via PM.

Special thanks are to Danilonius, who inspired me with his Black Guard story, HardwareMaster, who helped in the making of some pictures, the Creative Assembly, for making such a sub-forum for stories and the Total War games, and GSC Game World, who made both S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s – “Shadow of Chernobyl” and “Clear Sky” – two games where I have never encountered a bug unlike many other people*. My sincerest thanks to all you readers and my friends on the Total War boards.


*Except that one time when I encountered a zombie in an anomaly flying in the air. Shot him in the head and he fell down. Though maybe it isn’t a bug, just a zombie in an anomaly.
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Post I, Part I

The Zone is a huge abandoned territory, with twenty-year-old dilapidated buildings, overgrown with forests and anomalous vegetation. It is a territory with deserted surface and underground research facilities, neglected military bases and testing grounds for new technologies. The radioactive land is covered with sores of burned out soil, poisonous fogs, and deadly gravitational anomalies. It is a world of a terrible anthropogenic disaster, and in the centre of this hell sit the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

April 12, 2006, 02:33 p.m.

Chernobyl zone was lit by an intolerably bright light. The clouds were evaporating in the silver bright sky with a thunder and earthquake to follow. People fell on the ground facedown closing their bleeding eyes and ears. The glow spread over an immense territory which was subsequently called the Zone. People ran away saving their lives.
It looked like a radioactive explosion at the nuclear plant occurred. The army sealed off the Zone... The explosion epicentre was a kilometre away from the nuclear plant. Obviously, some tests had been held there and they caused the disaster.
Presumably, the entire personnel died within seconds, but still there was a probability of survivals among the staff. It appeared impossible to arrange a rescue operation, as the Zone was characterized by strange energy disturbances posing mortal danger to the explorers. Attempts to use robots were unavailing. Several months after the accident the crisis situation peaked when the Zone abruptly grew five kilometres bigger.
People from nearby towns and villages were urgently evacuated, and the peril of a difficult-to-imagine scope loomed over the world.

Year 2008

The Zone exploded, radioactive clouds covered vast territories. A dreadful amount of people, animals and forests perished. Thirty kilometres of the area got cordoned off by the army, scientists failed to explain what had happened.
The Zone grew, various death-bearing anomalies were spotted inside. Some invisible force tore living beings apart, inflicted awful blood-sputtering wounds. Expeditions faced mutant animals, unlikely to have appeared in the Zone through natural course of evolution. The catastrophe, mutants, anomalies, contamination? Everything appeared to be a consequence of some eerie phenomenon?

Year 2010

First expeditions can enter the Zone several kilometres deep without mortal danger. Amateur researchers, marauders and poachers, called stalkers, show up. They move around the Zone searching for various anomalous formations, i.e. artefacts, they would sell to various organizations.



Post I, Part II


It was night-time. Everywhere were numerous bulrushes reaching out for the sky: as an old relic these plants were standing there, never giving up like old walls of mountains, fighting against the wind, the sun and the water. In between the dry roads throughout the marshes were small ponds of water, which were there since 1986. The crystal clear water was slowly flowing down south, bringing radiation and death wherever it went, purling over logs, stones and bodies. Everything here – the bulrushes, the water, the bodies, stones and trees - was in its place, giving away the nice, warm heat, taken during daytime. The soft wind bent the plants a little, but it wasn’t enough to make even the weakest ones brake. Together with all of this there was the smell of rotten bodies, stinking water and old food, tossed away by travelling stalker bands. These stalkers were sleeping in nearby houses and farms, the bandits were trying to encircle some lone wanderers, a lone boar was grunting and sniffing the air. Some pseudodogs (normally the “inhabitants” of the Zone call them just dogs) were sleeping in their hideouts or finishing their night’s meal. Some crows silently flew trough the air, keeping a close eye on the ground bellow, hoping to find rodents or left-over meat. The stars looked down on all this in carelessness and disinterest, for it was not their concern for the inhabitants of earth.

On a very recess road on the far west of these marshes a boar was now trying to quiet the squeaking of a captured rodent, which desperately held on to its life. The nearby pool of blood gave little interest to the mutated animal, which had its entire mind concentrated on feeding itself. However, the pool could serve anyone as a mirror for its crystal clear reflection. With a very quiet, almost unheard noise some flies and dragonflies were flying over the body, piercing its jacket and laying eggs in some bruises. Next to the dead human was another body, though it was untouched. A small hand pistol was lying on the dead, infested body, though not even a single bullet was shot from it. This seemed like a little hell with no way in, but a dozen of ways out.

The boar finished eating the rodent and looked forward at the dead body. It smelled good enough for the mutated animal, and so the boar stepped forward, splashing the blood on all directions. The flies didn’t want to leave the body, so the animal had to live with them, though was angered when a dozen of the bugs started to fly around its head. The boar groaned and shook its head, and began to drag the body back towards its previous position. After a few metres it stopped, looked on all directions, sniffed the wind and started taking huge chunks of meat from the corpse.

Suddenly, it stopped when it saw that in front of him the second body moved its head. The human was lying on the ground and his large cape protected him from the annoying bugs. On his back was a rifle, the Obokan. On his hips he had two pistols, a knife and some grenades. Of course, what else could he be than a regular stalker? The trunk on his back possibly carried his ammunition, clean water, food, a pistol or two, some cloths, some first-aid kit, “radioactive medicine” (an injection of medicine, preventing a person to die from radiation) and possibly some condoms used to pour water in a time of desperate need.

The man turned around with his pistol resting in his hand. When he saw the animal, he tiredly aimed at it and fired a bullet in its neck. After a few more shots, the animal lay dying, its blood mixing with the dead human’s blood. The boar looked at the stalker for one last time, desperately trying to convince the body to fight, but to no aid. The fight inside the boar ended, and now the man could think on what’s happening. Or, to be precise, what happened?

The man was about two metres high, with broad shoulders, strong arms and an over-all athletic body. On his face was a short beard, a very angry looking forehead and eyes, which were light blue. His head was covered by short, blond hair. The name of this man was unknown, but many called him Wolf for his good stalking and ambushing abilities. Luck was on his side often, excluding his childhood. His first lesson from his family was to never help anyone – it doesn’t pay off on the long road. His father was beating his mother, and Wolf tried to stop him, but they both started to hit him. In school life was no better. He saved some kids from a bully and then everyone thought he was a nerd, grew unpopular and hated among his fellow schoolmates. And now, here he was – on the dirt encircled by radioactive.

“What the hell happened?” Wolf loudly thought when he looked around. The last thing he remembered was the emission. He was near a house, when suddenly the sky turned as red as blood, the building was also coloured red and he felt great pain. Using all his strength, he and his partner slowly made it to this remote marshland. Emissions were very widely spread now, and most lurkers of the Zone had already grown on knowing them very well. However, this time was a first as far as he knew – he survived an emission, being right in the thick of it. He was a survivor!



Whatever happened, he should be thankful he’s alive, not wandering on what occurred to him and possibly affected some other humans as well. Wolf slowly got on his knees and took his trunk off his back. Inside he searched for a bottle of vodka, and drank a few sips from it. After looking around, he remembered that he was still in the marshlands, so he stood up and looked around, hoping to find a fast and easy route out. His mate Crimson Bullet was dead, lying next to the boar. He didn’t care for him much, but he did care for a different thing - he heard a sound of bulrushes braking from the nearby pond of water, and a scream of great anger (or maybe a battle cry or a hunting song?) echoed across the marshes. He aimed his Obokan at the bushes, where a creature, a bloodsucker came out. It was visible, though hardly. Its eyes were red, filled with blood. The animal’s tenticles were still, as it groaned. The mutant’s muscles were as hard as a rock, and its claws could pierce trough a body with ease. After another scream, the bloodsucker charged forward, caring for nothing else than the human in front of it…


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Extras:


A mutant boar:


Description:

A large animal that can reach 1.5 meters at the shoulder. The boar's ability to survive and aggression surpass that of its relatives outside the Zone and resemble that of most mutants.

Mutagenic processes engendered by radiation and anomalies have played a significant part in shaping these mammals: they have lost all fur in places and grown long, bristly fur in others. The animals' hooves have changed in shape and become sharper, acquiring a resemblance to claws; their pupils have become colourless and pigmentation disorders and deep wrinkles have appeared on their bald heads.

Zone boars resist radiation well which allows them to spend long periods in heavily contaminated areas. They normally attack by charging at their victims and attempting to rip them to shreds with their claws or knock them over.


Wolf’s weapon, the Obokan:


Description:

The weapon of the elite troops of the Russian army. It was designed as a replacement for the outdated AK-74.

Not only the Obokan’s internal mechanisms but also its receiver and its barrel are movable, that allows to decrease the recoil and thus to increase the accuracy.


Wolf before the emission (and after):




A marshland bloodsucker:


Description:

When you are walking through the marsh this mutant can attack you every minute. It is subspecies of well known bloodsucker. Habits and appearance differ from its land congener.

It has very good muscular system and ability to do great jumps but also it can carry off stalker without any problem. For this moment nobody who was carried off by this mutant couldn't return and answer what it does with its victim. May be it kills them by its clawhand, drown in to the water or may be sucks the blood out from the alive human.

Also like the bloodsucker the swamp creature can be invisible and that's why its attacks are unexpected. But even in usual condition because of its dark and thick hair coat it is hard to notice in the dark water among maze of marsh paths.


Stalkers:


Description:

Mainly, loners perish in the Zone, you can’t be on your own here. Any rule, however, has exceptions. Gogol was exactly such an exception. It has been for two years now that he was stalkering, but never joined a single clan, preferring to stick on his own. This said, neither bandits, monsters, task force, nor the very Zone could do away with him.

Stalkers exploring the Zone on their own. Most of stalkers are loners as membership in grouping takes valuable time and thus reducing the income; besides, some are just inclined to isolation and independence.


Rodents:


Description:

In reality these animals are not related to rodents although there is a distinct resemblance.

Determining the species from which the Zone's rodents developed has so far proved impossible although it can be said with certainty that their ancestors were gregarious mammals. Reaching up to 40cm at the shoulder they are more mobile, aggressive and ravenous than the normal desert animal.

Mutant rodents live mainly in basements and destroyed buildings feeding on everything they can get their teeth in, from plants to careless stalkers. Sometimes rodents attack and kill big animals and mutants in a large group tearing them apart before they can escape.

[messiah]

Post II

“Oh &&*&!” was Wolf’s only response as he saw water splashing on all sides, a groaning sound and a pair of devilish eyes turning their attention on the stalker’s body. Now time seemed slow, as an endless counting of seconds the attack went. The human could hear his own heart pound, he could feel the cold, calming steel of the Obokan, as if it was saying “Don’t worry. Just trust me and we will be alright.” The mutant didn’t think about life or death and fear was something unknown to it. The only thought it had now was feeding.

Even the bugs had disappeared from the sight and the lonely crow that fed on the remains of the boar immediately flew away as it heard the terrible cry of the marshland terror. For a moment Wolf wanted to fly away, leave Chernobyl and return to a normal life. He already saw himself in the sky, looking down on the Zone for the last time as he was flying north to the Volga River. But then he found himself in the marsh confronted by every stalker’s worst nightmare.

Wolf pushed the safety catch and pulled the trigger, though it was mere seconds of the difference between life and death. A few bullets sprayed the mutant who ignored the pain and continued to charge. The next thing he knew, Wolf was being thrown in the air, and he landed heavily on the ground. “No time for this!” and immediately Wolf had turned around. But it wasn’t there anymore. Slowly, but steady the stalker was on his feet breathing heavily and sensing blood running down his left leg.

It still wasn’t there, even after two minutes. Wolf’s eaves were feeling heavy and all he now wanted was to rest, but the will to live fought back as well as it could. Suddenly Wolf was on the ground and his old enemy was holding the stalker’s shoulders, ensuring he won’t escape. The large tenticles around the mutant’s mouth were rickety from the excitement to taste blood. Large drops of saliva were falling on Wolf, who now tried to reach his belt on which his trusty knife rested. He felt the claws of the animal go deep into his right arm, piercing the muscles and the skin.

He saw the mouth of the animal, full with razor sharp teeth, gleaming like iron. Beyond the mutant’s head Wolf saw the sun rising, colouring the world and the clouds in happier colours, and he started to understand – this may be the last sunrise he may ever see. But he held on his life. He reached the knife and immediately stabbed in the animal’s belly. Organs started pouring out, and several howls of pain echoed across the marshes.

The beast fell off of him and now Wolf took his pistol and fired the whole cartridge into its chest. The animal was dead, but Wold still didn’t have enough. He took his knife and stabbed the animal like crazy. The place was hell. The blood of humans and mutants mixed, three dead bodies were on the dirt and a human delivered a number of blows as if he was possessed.

But it was over, and now Wolf could rest. His head felt heavy… the wounded places burned like hell… his arm was exhausted… all fell dark…

[messiah]

Post III

Wolf opened his eyes and immediately felt the pain coming from his right arm. The arm that was cut open by the bloodsucker. ing bastard, I hope you rot in hell. He was in a very old, but comfortable bed. Wolf looked to his right and saw a wall covered by red wallpaper with yellow flowers on it. He took the opportunity to check his arm. It was bandaged and he was laid on his own coat. To his left were a dozen of small trees and a thousand bulrushes encircled by water, which astounded him. Either he was in a house somewhere safe… or still in the marsh? The sun was a little higher than the last time he saw it, and by the looks of it, it was either 8AM or 9PM. Whichever it was didn’t matter much.

Wolf looked below on the ground only to see his Obokan resting there, backed up by pistols, a (clean!) knife and three grenades. His equipment, obviously. He was startled when he saw some movement from bushes not too far away. Let’s see who you are… Wolf picked up his Obokan and trough the scope looked at the group of men. Three of them had blue capes and blue shirts, but the fourth had a black jacket and a dark green hat. The three men, as he identified them members from Clear Sky had decent weapons – two of them had hunting rifles, but the third who seemed to be the leader of the group had a RP-74, a very nice weapon for combat in the marshes. The guy in the middle seemed to be either a bandit or a very dumb, inexperienced stalker.

They soon got near the house and Wolf laid his weapon on the ground. He heard (as he thought) the guy with the jacket swear, and he started swearing again when one of them pushed him so hard he hit his head against the wall. Ah, . Here we go again. And Wolf’s guess was right. A man quickly ran to the second floor of the building (Wolf’s position). The man had a very muscular build-up and he seemed to look like the macho type of a guy. Nonetheless, he was Wolf’s old friend, who called himself Vladimir.

“Hi, Wolf. How are you doing?” Vladimir asked and grinned as he saw his old friend blush.

“How do think I’m doing?” Wolf asked quietly and waved his arm in the air.

“You should be thankful. If it wasn’t for us you would’ve been eaten by dogs, so show some respect, for old times sake, at least. Do you remember anything?”

“The emission, then I killed the boar, then the ing bloodsucker, and now I’m here. Oh, and you own me 60 roubles, remember?” Even though Wolf mentioned it, he didn’t want to say anything more about the emission – no need to start some fuss around here.

“Haha, still fun, aren’t you? Anyway, if you can walk, you may leave immediately or stay with us for a while, I don’t care.” Vladimir helped Wolf get up and showed him a view from a window that Wold hadn’t noticed. Down below was a fireplace, around which five men were talking and cleaning their weapons and about eight more men were patrolling the perimeter. There were also about four shacks. Vladimir pointed at the one in the middle, “That’s our trader. He doesn’t have a name, we just call him like that – trader. And that’s our engineer, Vladislav. He can fix your armour or add new “items” on it. Do as you wish, we’re not holding you.” Vladimir said and went away.

Now Wolf was standing there, thinking on how to spend his money. He had approximately 30’000 roubles in his trunk (he quietly checked if they were inside it; they took away the largest part of his trunk) and now he could gather some items, weapons and what not, which could help him well. As Wolf was about to put on his cloak, he threw it away in disgust – it was covered in the bloodsucker’s blood, and was unusable for sneaking around bushes anymore. Maybe except the famed Red Forest.

He went downstairs and saw something that looked like a kitchen – it had a table, some stools, a sink and an empty refrigerator without a door (the bandit was thrown inside the refrigerator). More than he expected of Clear Sky! He went outside and everyone now looked at him, but forgot about him seconds later – he was not a part of their world. Wolf walked across the dirty field and went inside the shack of the trader, where he saw a fat man eating a chicken’s leg. Again, more than he expected.

“Hey, fatty! What have you got for sale?” Wolf asked as the trader turned his attention towards the client.

“I’ve got some regular body-armour, then a more bulletproof one and much more!”

“Ok, how about you show me the better one of the two?”

The trader went deeper into his store and came out with camo armour. Then he took off a reserve piece of it (he had one for any armour he had) and gave Wolf a pistol. The stalker aimed and fired five shots. They all went in the armour, but neither even scratched the other side of it.

“How much?”

“That’s 50’000 roubles.”

“Thought so. Give me some armour that costs no more than 5’000!”

And he did. He took out armour usually carried by stalkers – it was light, but capable of protecting the body from several shots. Then Wolf asked to show some of the guns the trader had. He took out some pistols, a scope, an AK-74, a Thunder S14 and some other weapons. Wolf took the Thunder in his hands and aimed. It was a balanced weapon, but quite heavy.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” Wolf said and took the gun. He positioned the small reserve piece of armour on the ground and went inside the building he was previously resting in. From the second floor window he aimed and fired a short salvo. When he got back most of the bullets had hit the target. “Steady, balanced and accurate. How much do you want for this, a lot of ammunition and that scope there?” Wolf asked as he looked trough the perfect scope on the desk.

“10’000 roubles.”

“Not bad. I’ll buy it all and one gasmask and a cape that can conceal me in some bushes. You can get this Obokan, its ammunition and the scope on it for 5’000 roubles. It’s heavily engineered, you know!”

The trader thought for a minute, checked the Obokan and said: “That’ll be 9’000 roubles.”

Wolf gently put the gasmask in his trunk and went to the engineer. Inside it was dusty, with multiple tools on the walls, weapons on the desk and some reserve parts for them. The stalker saw a very clean man, who didn’t seem to fit in everything around him. But from the looks of it Vladislav knew what he was doing.

“May I help you?”

“Yeah. Can you add some of your ‘things’ on this baby to boost its firepower? And maybe add an extra layer on this armour?”

“Sure, but that’ll cost you 8’000 roubles.”

“And for another extra layer?”

“10’000 roubles.” Vladislav smiled as Wolf put the money on the desk. “Come back this evening.”


The rest of the day was nothing interesting. Wold listened to the stories of the members of Clear Sky, waited for his equipment to be ‘fixed’ and spent the rest of the day thinking of his priorities with a glass of vodka in his hand. He had heard that the trader can give a nice job to get rid of a bandit-nest, and the group still needs men. The reward would be nice, that’s for sure. Or he could go to Cordon to the north, moving on closer and closer towards CNPP (Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) and get rich from the things he gets there? There are more valuable artefacts there, unlike in this “training ground for stalkers”.


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Extras:


Clear Sky:


Description:

Skiff rose from knee and dropped his gun – strangers were too many. He was surprised to see the colour of their camouflage it was blue with white insertions like sky out of Zone.


It was rather disclose for marshes. Stalker thought to himself “Of cause they are not very good fighters but I also made a mistake and let them come to me so close."
Explorers of Zone`s phenomenon, little-known faction which is lost in marshes. Nobody knows surely what their overall strength what are they doing and what purpose they serve. But some rare stalkers who stayed alive after passing the marshes told about guys in the camouflage with sky blue colour.


Pseudodog:


Description:

Despite the name pseudodogs developed from wolves. The wild animals inhabiting the Zone's forest when the catastrophe occurred gave rise to one of the most dangerous mutant species.

Pseudodogs are about as different from mutated dogs as wild wolves are different from mongrels. The creatures mark and guard their territory, attacking those who enter without mercy.

Their reaction, mobility and sharp teeth make pseudodogs very serious enemies for large mutants and well-armed stalkers alike.


Thunder S14:


Description:

An assault rifle combined with a grenade launcher. It’s a very good type of assault rifle for the Zone conditions: it’s compact, reliable, but universal and powerful.

The Thunder is one of the favourite rifles of the army stalkers.


Hunting Rifle:


Description:

Hunting rifle with vertical paired gun tube it is chip and powerful weapon witch is used mostly be stalkers novices.


RP-74


Description:

Machine guns of RP- type are characterized of great reliability and in great favour of army in spite of little complex two-step system of cartridges feed from cartridge belt to gun tube.


Wolf:

[Edward lV]

Nice AARt.

[Stalins Ghost]

Nice job man

[Harðurāðaz]

nice

[messiah]

Thanks guys, I really try, but I know the last post wasn't that good. Anyway, I'll put up options for you tochose about the next chapter, so we can get this going:

A. Wolf must go north and ditch Clear Sky.

B. Wolf should stay with Clear Sky and get some money.

[Stalins Ghost]

Time to ditch Clear Sky. The real winners in the zone show initiative

[Harðurāðaz]

Join Freedom

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Hey mate! Where's this going next?

[Watercress]

Stay with them. It's alot better to stay in a group.