//------------------------------// // A Bad Introduction // Story: A Different Kind of STALKER // by WTF_Am_I_Doing //------------------------------// Grygoriy walked on under the bright moonlight. He had expected it to be much darker as it had been in the zone, but there was plenty of light to see where he was walking. Visibility was about 20 meters in either direction, any further and it became too dark to make out any details due to the thick canopy. He planned to walk until sunrise, then rest in daylight where more fearsome predators were likely to be sleeping. Not knowing where he was, he could be up against any threat, animal or mutant. To him, the recent attack proved that they were in some other world, and likely to be attacked again by more fearsome predators. He had re-equipped his helmet and was wielding the AK, not underestimating the wildlife again. In truth, he would've easily defeated his wooden foes had they been toe to toe, but the element of surprise had tilted the odds in their favour. Even so, he was certain he wouldn’t have died in that fight, but he appreciated the intervention anyway. Suddenly he motioned for his companion to stop, and he crouched. Zakhar quickly copied his movements and wondered what the problem was. He pulled out his shotgun as the Stalker peered into the blackness. He heard a near silent whine, and recognised it as a night vision unit being activated. Grygoriy had seen a white sparkle in the darkness and was unable to identify it in the brief moment that it had existed. He had since pushed his NVG unit into position and was looking at the same scene before him, only enhanced. Everything was brighter and either a shade of grey or black. He could clearly see the bush in front and the trees around, his vision radius increased to about 50 meters. As the image got brighter from adjusting to the darkness, he could see a constant sparkling near the ground. After several seconds of observation he identified it as a stream. He turned to his comrade and spoke in a whisper. “There is water over there” as he motioned to their right. “If it's a river or something, we should follow it either upstream or down, as will likely lead to civilisation” ‘if it exists’ he added in his mind. “For now we should keep moving till morning and then sleep till noon. Happy?” The Russian merely nodded in response. He didn't want to make a sound, fearful that a predator would jump out at him if he made too much noise. The sound of their footsteps alone seemed deafening to him after the intense silence. The duo made it to the water and discovered that it was a small river, not quite deep enough to disappear below the surface when standing. Not that they would, the airtight suits they both wore would make them float with little effort, but would ruin anything exposed to the water. They conferred briefly, and decided to move upstream. Grygoriy turned his nightvision unit off, the water reflecting enough light to see even more clearly. He had to stop for a minute as his eyes had adjusted to the display, and needed them to revert. Once ready, he walked along the bank with the water on his right side. He felt better, as he knew no predator would be able to sneak across the water. He didn't even bother to look at it. Unknown to them, a purple sea serpent was following them closely, observing the pair of odd creatures that walked along his rivers edge. He was just about to jump out and greet them as he would with any equestrian traveller, but stopped once he realised they weren't equestrian. Even he, bound to a narrow stream of water could see that they were alien to this land. Steven considered introducing himself anyway, but they made him uneasy. The creatures vaguely resembled diamond dogs, but one was a dark green and the other a bright orange! He took a moment to appreciate the bold colour, before deciding that he would tell his friend Fluttershy and let her handle it. ‘She is great with animals and could win over any creature’ he justified in his head. The pair were getting further upstream now, and it became harder to follow unnoticed due to the shallowness of the water. After brief consideration, he turned back and went to his original resting place. He would inform the birds to relay his message once morning came. Zakhar heard a splash and turned to face the river. He saw nothing amiss, too dark to really see anything. He attributed it to a fish or something similar and relaxed a little. Turning back around, he saw a worn path cutting to the left back into the woods. “Hey, hold on a second” He saw that Grygoriy was stopping and so he turned to face the path and analysed it. “Leave it man, it's just a game trail” “I thought so too, but look” the Ecologist said excitedly. The Ukrainian looked closer at the path, and noticed that it was made up exclusively of circular impacts. There were no other noticeable footprints and the path looked heavily used. “So what animal makes those shapes? Nothing comes to mind” “I don't know” he thought for a moment. “What if it's some kind of tiny elephant?” The Stalker almost facepalmed “Are you fucking retarded or something? “Sorry, I'm just throwing ideas out there. That's the only animal with circular prints” Grygoriy thought for a moment. He determined that they must be on another world, since they have evidence of two aliens now. He was curious too, and wanted to find out what made such tracks. “Alright, here's what I'm thinking. This track looks to be used regularly, maybe daily. If I go and hide on the other side of the river, I could scope out the creature from afar, maybe shoot it if it looks dangerous” “Ok, I'll have to be doing something else though cause bright orange isn't exactly gonna blend in, and I'm not keen on splitting up” Grygoriy thought again, he knew that the orange man couldn't be near to him, and it was clear that he wasn't going to take off his suit anytime soon. He suddenly had a great idea. “Well, you could work on our way home” he said casually, a hint of excitement filtered through. “What?” “Do you know how the Svarog works?” “Well, for the most part yeah, I think. I still have the manual, I could probably build it if I had the parts” “Well, I have a Veles detector that is no good here in the anomaly-less world, could you use that?” Zakhar grinned “Yeah, the Svarog is just a modified version of a Veles” He frowned. “I can't code it like the one before though, It won't be able to map anything onscreen” “Well, hopefully we won't need it. It's can still use its advanced scanners to reopen the portal though can't it?” “Yes!” The Russian exclaimed. “I can do that, we just need a few parts. I can get them from our electronics and you even have a toolkit!” “Well, I suggest we climb a tree and try to sleep then. We have a long day ahead, and if we play our cards right we could be home before dusk” The Ecologist didn't think sleep was possible in a tree, but doubted he would be able to sleep anyway due to the excitement of returning home. Although he hadn't amended his earlier statement, he had since agreed that they were on some other planet. They both climbed some short, but thick adjacent trees and tried to get comfy. He thought back over the last 12 hours and wondered how he hadn't immediately realised this was a different world. For one, the trees were way too short, Grygoriy had to duck under half of them. The other thing was the sun and the moon. He had been looking at them whilst travelling, and noticed the sun moved with seemingly random pace, speeding up to lower in the sky then slow down to give a long sunset. the moon had raised rapidly as soon as the sun had gone down and then slowed, remaining almost motionless in the sky. In fact, he couldn't tell if it was moving, he hadn't seen it change positions in the last hour. Lying down on a sturdy branch, he took out his PDA and tried to access the map again. Nothing. He expected as much, but wanted to check. The clock displayed that it was 1:13AM, and he set a quiet alarm for 8:00AM, giving plenty of time for rest. He saw that the other stalker had already fallen asleep. He had only one hour earlier, and had since been attacked by some weird wooden dogs. That was probably the only sleep he'd had for a while. He thought back to the stick animals. He had been utterly confused, and had actually been watching the fight in shock instead of helping. He felt guilty, but no harm had come of it. The creatures had turned to inanimate sticks when they were harmed and assumed this equaled death. He wondered if that's why the forest floor was not covered in sticks. He noticed that most trees had little in the way of visible branches, most split in to a Y shape and had none on the trunk or the arms save for the highest points, hidden up in the canopy. The flora was still green, though he hadn't seen many recognisable plants. He had seen types of flowers and mushrooms, some kind of grape vine growing against isolated trees and lettuce. He didn't collect them but mentally noted their locations. As for trees, he had identified Oak trees and apple trees, though the apple tree had no apples on it. He also saw a chestnut tree, its floor surrounded by spiky shells. He yawned, and closed his eyes, falling asleep after half an hour of his silent reflection. Hours later, the moon began to pick up speed and disappeared behind the horizon. Seconds later, the sun appeared in the sky, rising rather quickly. After 2 hours, Zakhar woke to his PDA vibrating. He looked over to Grygoriy and saw that he was still sleeping. Deciding it was bright enough, he climbed down the tree and walked over to Grygoriy’s tree. He pulled out the shotgun and smacked the base in to the wood. It made little sound, but the vibration woke the Ukrainian with a small jolt. “Everything ok?” the Stalker asked groggily. “Yeah. It's about time we got a move on though” “Right” Grygoriy jumped down from his resting spot and pulled his pack down from where he somehow used it as a pillow. He pulled the SV-98 off his shoulder and began walking to the river. Zakhar followed behind, eagerly awaiting to get his hands busy. After a short walk they reached the stream. In the daylight they could see a shallow point where their boots wouldn't even get too wet from crossing. They did so and reached the other side uneventfully. “Ok, I'm going to climb this tree here” Grygoriy said, gesturing to a nearby Y shaped tree. “I'll do my job, you do yours ok? The sooner you finish, the sooner we can get home” “I'll sit at the base of the tree then, I'm going to need that toolkit though. And the detector” Wordlessly, Grygoriy passed the requested gear to him and he climbed the tree. He perched himself so that he could see the path and about 60 meters down it. He set the zeroing to 100 meters after some brief guesswork using the size of the path, and waited. He was good at waiting, which was lucky for him because for 3 hours nothing happened. “Damnit, I can't make it” said a frustrated Ecologist. “What's the problem?” the sniper said, no emotion in his voice. He was focusing intently at the path. “I'm missing some key components, I can probably make them but I need some materials we don't have here” “What about PDAs, the charger, my NVG unit and the spare electronics I have?” “No, it's a specific component unique to detectors. I have the one from your Veles, but it needs to be ten times as powerful, and for that I need platinum to make the electron accelerator” “How difficult will that be to get?” “Well, near impossible. It's found deep in the ground and on earth and is one of the rarer elements.” “Is there even a chance of finding it? Any alternatives? “Well, if we find a material that is immune to any direct Psy field interaction I could potentially use that if I can shape it. I don't know of any materials that have this property though” Grygoriy was about to respond when the distant howl of a single bloodsucker pierced the air. He moved his scope to the direction and saw a large number of birds scattering to to sky. He was going to ignore the mutant, but he also heard a high pitched, feminine human sounding scream from the same place. “Zakhar, pack the stuff up and grab your shotgun. We gotta help whoever is being attacked!” Zakhar didn't respond. He didn't really want to interfere as that's what he was taught in the Zone. He couldn't decide if the rule still applied in other worlds, but did as he was told anyway. Grygoriy jumped down and replaced his sniper rifle for the AK, swapping the loaded magazine for a full one. Zakhar stood behind him ready to follow. “Alright let's go kill that vampire freak” With that he set of into a near sprint, followed closely by the Ecologist. He didn't know if he could keep up but as long as he was near he would be fine. They crossed the stream, disturbing the water with heavy footfall. They turned slightly and headed for the path he had been watching, realising the creature was attacking a traveller. He ran down the path at top speed, stopping to witness the bloodsucker in question claw at something yellow, sending it to the ground out of sight. He raised the carbine and peered down the sight. He let off a volley of four shots in the creatures direction, hoping to avoid the mutants prey. Loud cracks filled the air and the barrel of the gun let off a small amount of smoke from the barrel. He saw two red splatters appear on the bloodsuckers back and it howled, whilst stumbling forwards. The mutant, realising it wasn't going to be dining alone, ran off into the treeline, turning itself invisible as it did so. The Stalker ran forwards, curious to see what it was assaulting. Zakhar was almost caught up with him when he set off again, the Russian panted heavily and swore under his breath having his chance of rest removed. He walked towards Grygoriy who was kneeling over a yellow animal. The Stalker had not seen anything like this before. It resembled a small horse, maybe two and a half feet when stood up and about three and a half in length. It's general shape was normal looking, but it had a head almost bigger than his own, its snout very small in comparison. It also had wings that looked too small to even nearly fly. It had hair in a light shade of pink, both on its head and neck as well as its long tail. The creature had been raked vertically across the side of its chest just below its wings and was leaking blood at a decent rate. He inspected the wound and poked it gently. The creature tried to move away from his touch and neighed quietly. He had assumed it was unconscious but it must just be in intense pain. He stroked its head, attempting to calm it. The wound was starting to scab over slightly, the bloodsucker hadn't managed to inject its anti-coagulant. He couldn't see any major damage but he was no horse doctor. “Zakhar! In need help with this!” The panting Ecologist approached and followed a similar observation path to his comrade. “Ok, er, we should clean the wound and bandage it. The military kits have disinfectant in the green bottle” Grygoriy didn't hesitate and pulled out the kit, grabbing the mentioned bottle and sprayed it all over the wound, using half the contents. The creature shook from the cold, stinging liquid. The Stalker then grabbed the coated bandage pack and gave it to Zakhar. “You bandage it, I'll hold it off the ground so you can get to it” With that, the Stalker lifted the horse, allowing the Ecologist to cover the claw marks, stopping a lot of leaking blood. The animal put up very little resistance. Worrying, to say the least. Zakhar worked expertly despite the awkward location and soon the animal had a large white stripe of gauze across its torso, pinning its wings. a slight pinkish blotch appeared where the injury was hidden. “Why are we saving it?” Zakhar asked in mild confusion. He didn't want the creature to die, but those supplies could've helped one of them. It was just a horse. A weird, alien horse. “Well, for several reasons” he began. “Firstly, we brought the bloodsucker here and indirectly caused the harm to this thing” he said, pointing to the animal. “Secondly, look at it. It has bright pink hair and a cattle mark on its ass. It's clearly a pet or work horse for someone, and if we save it then we go into their good books. Maybe they can get us the platinum we need to return” Zakhar agreed at this insight, but saw he was making a lot of assumptions. It was likely that the horse was belonged to something, but it may not be human. Secondly there was probably going to be a language barrier, considering that they were from a different world. “Alright then, so what do we do now we have saved it?” Grygoriy thought for a moment. “We should build a campfire near it to keep it warm and otherwise just wait until the owner comes for it, or we follow it back home when it is healthy enough” Zakhar acknowledged the plan with a nod, but was focused on a point behind Grygoriy. He could've sworn he just saw a Zebra with a gold neck run off further up the path. He shook his head, confused at the hallucination. “I'll go and refill the metal canteens, we can boil the water over the fire to purify it. That stream looks clean enough to drink from as is though” he joked. Grygoriy chuckled but otherwise said nothing. He was busy making the fire. Zakhar collected the empty canteens and began the walk to the river. Fluttershy was terrified. The two creatures had scared off the other monster and now they had captured her! She could only lie there in tears, as they had tied her wings down and her entire left side hurt too much to walk. They must have known this as they didn't bother to tie her legs or do anything to stop her just walking away. They had built a fire next to her and she could feel the heat radiating to her back. It was comforting as without it she would be freezing in the cold night air. This only delayed the inevitable though, she was sure they would have her for dinner. The creatures were growling at each other, deep and bass sounds she couldn't understand. She guessed that it was some form of communication. The green one sat mere inches from her, and if she made a sound it would run its alien limb down her mane, causing her to be silent so it would stop. It took sadistic pleasure in making her uncomfortable. All she came to do was investigate some creatures that Steven the serpent had seen last night, but instead she had been attacked by a vicious bipedal squid monster that came from nowhere. It had screamed a terrifying noise, she could hear it approaching and jumped to the air, about to fly away when it literally appeared at her side and knocked her to the ground with its claws. It was scared off from a loud noise though which was lucky for her, it was going to carry on clawing her! She heard a rustling coming from a bush nearby, distracting her from reliving the horrifying scenario. Turning her head slightly, she was shocked and relieved to see her 5 friends plus Zecora expertly hiding in the shrubbery. The creatures continued their growling and snarling to each other, oblivious to the quiet noises. She smiled at her soon-to-be rescuers, silently thanking Celestia for watching over her. Twilight spoke silently to her, she didn't hear but her mouth and gestures were enough: “we will save you”. The six saviours then jumped out and tried their hardest to look threatening, Twilight and Rarity had a spell ready to cast, Rainbow Dash flew above them with Applejack and Zecora flanking them. Pinkie Pie was… gone? Regardless, her kidnappers quickly stood up and backed away, putting the fire between themselves and the ponies. Fluttershy allowed herself a small smile of relief. The orange one held up a shiny grey tube with a wooden handle, and was pointing it at each of her friends frantically. The green one stood there stoically, holding nothing but not backing down. “Alright you monsters! Walk away and we won't hurt you!” shouted Twilight. “Yeah, I'm gonna kick your flanks if you've even scratched Fluttershy!” added Dash. “Don't you worry sugarcube, we’ll get these monsters off’r ya!” Shouted Applejack reassuringly. The green creature quietly growled something to his orange partner, who nodded in response and slightly lowered the strange object. He raised his hand. Everyone was tense, Twilight and Rarity lowered her horns to point squarely at the creatures midsection. The green one, unfazed, continued and began waving his raised arm back and forth. The orange one was slowly backing up, something beeping and he was yipping and growling frantically. “Uh, is that thing wavin’ at us?” asked a confused applejack. “WHATS THE BIG IDEA, HUH? ARE YOU MOCKING US?” shouted Rainbow. The green one continued to wave, its head turning to look at its accomplice. “Right, that's it!” Rainbow shot forwards towards the green animal, ready to punch it in the face. A light blue shield surrounded dash, courtesy of Rarity. BLAMF! Rainbow was launched backwards, a thin trail of red leaking from her. Every non-monster gasped as the blue pegasus tumbled midair and crashed in front of the would-be rescuers. “Rainbow! You OK there partner?” Applejack shouted urgently. “Y-yeah, I'm – OW – Sweet celestia! my wing! It's broken!” Rainbow Dash’s left wing was indeed crumpled at a strange angle, and her body had several holes where blood slowly leaked out. The damage had been minimised thanks to raritys quick thinking. “Don't worry darling, we will get you to the hospital!” Shouted the concerned fashionista. “Zecora, can you take us back?” “Yes indeed, of course I can! It would be best though if we ran!” rhymed the Zebra. She then took off at a gallop, followed closely by Rarity with Dash floating above encased in a blue aura, groaning and holding back tears. Meanwhile, the two creatures seemed to be arguing, the green one was no longer looking away, and it had grabbed a bigger looking object off its back. It was mostly black metal with bits made of polished wood. Twilight realised that the objects were weapons of some kind, and had to disarm them. She focused and reached out with her magic and grabbed the objects. The small one was encased in a purple aura and pulled towards her, the orange one practically screaming at this point and backed away, hiding behind a tree. The green one however kept its growling consistent and firmly held the weapon in its claws. It had raised it and had it pointed at twilights head. Upon realising this she redoubled her effort, but saw only a slight shake and a brief purple glow before it sparked magically and the spell died. The creature steadied the object an- CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The tree behind twilight exploded outwards, wooden fragments hit her back doing no harm. Out of surprise her spell stopped completely and the retrieved object fell to the floor nearby. The green creature took advantage of this and was briskly striding forwards, still pointing the deadly weapon at her head. It stopped about a meter away and growled aggressively without raising its voice. The message: ‘Get away’. “Applejack! We have to back off!” “What! Are ya’ crazy! We can't leave Fluttershy here!” “This creature will hurt us all if we don't leave!” The creature, almost as if understanding, used the weapon again. It flashed yellow and two deafening cracks cut through the air. Two clouds of dust appeared from the ground in front of each pony and they briefly hesitated before running off. Fluttershy broke down into tears, wailing loudly, certain she was going to die a captive. “Don't worry! We’re gonna’ come back! Stay strong Fluttershy!” Shouted a retreating Applejack. The butter pegasus took no notice of the not-so reassuring words and continued to cry hopelessly. The green creature didn't come over to caress her like it normally did, instead it turned to the approaching orange creature and started shouting. If she thought the creature was terrifying before, it was a literal nightmare now. It's piercing roars made even the orange one falter. The creature raised its hands defensively as it backed off, but the green one strode forwards and shoved it. The orange animal was pushed backwards and almost fell. It snarled something back in an aggressive questioning tone, and the green one stopped his advance. It made a barely audible sigh and sat down next to the frightened captive. It growled softly to the orange one, apologetically. It then turned to look Fluttershy in the eyes and growled in the same apologetic manner. “I- Its alright” she squeaked in response, not knowing what it had said. The creature nodded, and raised its hand to its head, twisting it slightly then pulling it off. A recognisable, animal face replaced the alien, emotionless façade it had worn. It's eyes looked conflicted, a sorry smile on its face as it stared at the captive Pegasus. Fluttershy responded by passing out.