> Remnant Shadows
>  by Merchent343
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Army Warehouses
May 15th, 2012

Deep within the Zone, an Anomaly formed. This would not have been much of a strange occurrence, save for one thing.

It grew.

The Vortex Anomaly it started as expanding outward, at a rate of one meter per day. It was quickly discovered and avoided by the local 'wildlife', but not by the STALKERS. Its first victim was a Bandit, who was dragged screaming into the center, where he simply disappeared. The gravitational distortion of a regular Vortex was massive, but this was completely off the charts.

Within two days, it was discovered by both Freedom and Duty patrols; when the former was pulled in without warning, the latter was there to watch. The word went out quickly, and by nightfall, everyone was experiencing a reaction the Zone did not see much of.

Fear.
> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The cold winds swept across the country side, scatters patches of grass swaying in the breeze. Dead trees dotted the landscape, reminding all who passed them of what had happened to this once pristine environment. The fields were vacant of all but the rusting hulks of cars and the occasional anomaly: Features as much a part of the Zone as the creatures that inhabited it.

That was how it was: The Zone was a dreary, sad place. The years since the original expansion had not been kind on it. Wildlife still inhabited some fields, if you could call it that. Horrible aberrations of nature were only one hallmark of life in this desolate land.

A lone figure stood on a small hill, looking out over the expanses. The figure was encased in a suit that covered him entirely, sheltering him from the horrors outside, be they natural or otherwise. In the Zone, not much qualified as ‘natural’.

The man inside the suit, for it was a man, breathed onto the cold glass just inches from his face. The only sound he could hear, aside from the muted roar of the wind, was the whirr of the closed-cycle breathing system. He looked out of his transparent visor, scanning for any threats. Finding none, he began to walk forward.

Valera, for that was the name of the man, turned his head, scanning the desolate landscape for the one thing all STALKERs both loathed and loved in equal measure: Anomalies.

Anomalies were one of the first creations by the Zone. After the first Psi-emission, when the Zone truly came into being, ‘Anomalies’ were one of its first creations. Manifesting themselves as something outside of nature, there were several types. ‘Electro’ anomalies were one of the first, and remained to this day. They were small patches of ground that could build up immense electric force, enough to kill an unarmored STALKER.

Whirligigs and Vortexes were also in extreme abundance. They were both gravity-based. If an object disturbed them by going near, they would draw it in with an immense gravitational force. Whirligigs were hardly powerful, and at the most would cause broken bones – a minor effect in the Zone. Vortexes, however, were almost impossible to escape. Once drawn in, there was only one: Death.

There were several others, such as Burners, which spewed highly volatile gasses that would erupt in flame at the slightest provocation, and the rare ‘Fruit Punch’, which took the form of the most acidic compound known to man, one even more powerful than the industrial-strength stuff that many scientists used. The only way of containing it so far had been found to be simple concrete or rock, and wearing slabs of either wasn’t much of an option.

The reason Anomalies were so hated was because of the dangers they posed: No matter how experienced you were, not spotting the distinct distortion in the air of a Vortex could lead to a quick and painful death. Falling into a pool of ‘Fruit Punch’ could leave you permanently disfigured, or worse. In the long run, the more the Zone expanded from the Chernobyl NPP, the more Anomalies that would show up.

On the other hand, Anomalies were the lifeblood of the Zone. At seemingly random times, or from interaction with the environment, Anomalies would spawn what STALKERS called Artifacts, the bastard creations of the Zone. The reason why every STALKER continued to remain in the Zone was because of them.

Artifacts ranged from fairly common to extremely rare, depending on the type. Each of them did something, usually while having a negative effect, but were extremely useful. One of them, for example, called the ‘Flash’, was very useful in almost any situation. It had several uses, depending on how the STALKER activated it. The main purpose was a massive increase in endurance, due to a surge of electricity to key muscles. However, like this, it caused the wearer to become hideously vulnerable to any sort of electrical damage, due to heightened sensitivity of the muscles to electric emissions.

Artifacts could sell for prices ranging from small to large. The weakest ones alone were worth sums in the thousand ruble range, while the rarest could sell for tens of thousands of rubles. Several of them could make a poor man rich within days, and in the Zone, that counted quite a bit.

Because of this, the Zone attracted both the best and worst of people: Criminals and normal people alike chose their own path. Small groups of bandits roamed the areas around the beginning of the Zone, waiting to prey on passing Loners; the official name for many of the independent STALKERS. Two opposing factions, named Duty and Freedom, were constantly engaged in a small-scale war against one another, the battles subvert if anything else. The usual groups of Mercenaries, hated by all of the factions and groups, wandered all of the areas, killing indiscriminately in the course of their ‘jobs’. Last of all, the Military often patrolled the entrances to the Zone, fired on by every faction almost continuously.

Valera spotted the area he was looking for, just to the north: The Military Warehouses. Halfway between then edge and the center of the Zone, it was an area where most of the factions collided. The main Freedom base was located here, as well as the path to the Red Forest. Before this point, some device located in the Zone that many called the ‘Brain Scorcher’ would literally destroy the minds of anyone who dared wander up that path. Now, with its deactivation just days before by an unknown STALKER, patrols from every faction were just beginning to venture there.

Moving out of his thoughts, he found the road he was looking for. Moving along it, he pondered his reasons for coming here. He currently had over five hundred thousand rubles, so he most certainly did not need the money. If you asked most STALKERS, one of the reasons they stayed here was to get away from the outside world. The reason he was here was rather base: He didn’t have anywhere else to go. After his military discharge, he found himself with a unique skillset, and no jobs to apply it in except scattered police forces.

So, he figured, when in doubt, go into the Zone.

His confidence in his abilities, however, lowered significantly when the first ambush by Bandits he face almost lead to his death. That had also been the first time he had been forces to kill. For anyone else, it would have made for a potent combination, but Valera managed to shrug it off long enough to bring his loot to the legendary bar in Rostok. There, at least, enough STALKERS knew medical aid to save his life.

Over the four months since then, he had wandered much of the accessible Zone, and seen most of what could be seen. He had been in firefights against the military, managed to kill a pair of bloodsuckers outside of Agroprom Institute, and participated in Duty patrols. Not many survive their first ten days in the Zone, much less one hundred and twenty eight.

Suddenly, Valera’s PDA beeped. He brought it up to his faceplate, looking for the source. It appeared he had a message, and from the Barkeep, no less. No man knew his real name, but once the man had set up his shop, in an old bunker in Rostok, he had become instantly popular. Duty protected the area, so he was safe from anything save an unexpected Super-Emission. However, that had not happened in a very, very long time.

The SEVA suit that he wore was bulky, but would protect him almost fully from every Anomaly, and had a fair amount of resistance to firearms. In the Zone, that counted for quite a bit, when the threat of a group of Bandits was always there. In addition, he was not on the best terms with Freedom, so he would rather not have taken any risks in encountering them. However, it had to be done, hence the suit. It was almost brand new, completely undamaged, given to him by a well-meaning Ecologist after he had rescued their team from a group of Snorks in the garbage heaps south of Rostok. So far, he had not gotten a chance to test it, and he hoped that it would prove as good as he had been told.

He moved his gloved hand to his PDA and clicked the ‘Play’ button on the message. The Barman’s image appeared on his screen as the clip played.

“Valera, come back to the Bar. We have some Duty people here who are interested in your work, and want you for something, what it is, they will not tell me.”

Valera sighed, his breath fogging up the glass visor somewhat. Thank god it provided around a 120-degree view in all directions.

“I guess I’d better get going.” He said to nobody in particular, turning around and beginning his walk back. Suddenly, he froze as he heard the distinct sound of a Kalashnikov being fired from in the direction of Rostok. Since he had to head that way in any case, he started running towards it, his TRs-301 at the ready.

The road turned ahead, passing between dozens of trees. He took the corner and immediately dived behind a rusty car just as a lone STALKER fired a burst of bullets at him, the rounds soaring through the air where he was. Valera leaned over the rusting wreck and pulled the trigger three times, each one sending two rounds downrange. The bullets impacted the weakly-armored STALKER, causing him to drop. Taking another look, he could see that the ‘STALKER’ was clad in the weak, black armor that most Bandits used.

Taking a deep breath, Valera moved from behind his cover and walked forward, rifle at the ready. Suddenly, he heard slow breathing to his left. He turned and saw a STALKER, a Loner this time, leaning up against a tree, wounded. It was obvious he had been ambushed by the Bandit. The STALKER wore the standard Stalker suit that most wore, making him out to be just one of the many.

The STALKER looked up at him with blue eyes. “Hey, do you think you could give me some aid?” He asked in Ukrainian. Thankfully, that was one of the three languages that he did understand, the others being Russian and English.

Valera took off one of his packs and started digging around, coming up with a small box around six inches square. He walked towards the STALKER and leaned down, opening the lid of the box.

“Two bullets in the center of my chest, about one inch in because of my armor. Slowed the round down enough, but hurts like hell.” The STALKER said.

“What is your name?” Valera asked as he lifted the man’s arm and began to apply disinfectant.

“Kasimir.” He said.

Valeria raised an eyebrow as he started to apply a bandage. “Polish?”

“Tak [Yes].”

A few moments later, Valera stood up as the bandaging was done. Kasimir stood up as well, on unsteady feet, before bending down and picking up a SGI 5K. Dusting it off, he slung it over his back before turning to Valera and offering a hand.

Valera hesitated for only a moment before shaking it, the STALKER looking at him with kind eyes.

“Thank you very much, stranger. What is your name?” Kasimir asked.

“Valera.” He replied.

“This is where we part, but I am eternally thankful to you. Any time you need help, feel free to contact my PDA.” The Polish STALKER replied.

“Thank you.” Valeria replied. “See you in the future, and good luck.”

Valera turned and walked away as the other STALKER did the same. He might not be the best man, but he did try to do good wherever he could. His time in the military had drilled that into him.

He walked along the road, his eyes moving left and right. The rest of the trip to Rostok, thankfully, passed without incident. As he approached the Duty outpost, the man at the entrance waved him inside.

“Did you have good hunting, Valera?” The guard asked.

“No. Got a call from the Barkeep, he wants me for an assignment. Speaking of which, I ran into a Bandit on the road ambushing a Polish STALKER.”

The guard cursed for a moment, before speaking into a radio. That being done, he turned back to Valera.

“Thanks for the info. I just informed the Colonel, and he’s going to boost patrols along the road. Damn.” The guard added, looking at the ground as Valera passed into the base.

Dozens of STALKERs stood around various fires in the buildings inside the Duty camp. No matter who you were, Rostok was a good place to go to relax. He passed through a small building, past the supposed ‘STALKER’ that was there. In reality, he was really just a ruse, a hidden Duty guard, which explained why he was there almost continuously.

He entered the staircase to the underground bunker that housed the Bar. The bouncer at the entrance just gestured him to go further on, never in the mood for talking. After several twists and turns, he finally emerged into the dim bar. Several dozen STALKERs stood around, either nursing drinks or talking. Two obvious Duty members stood in full Exoskeletons in front of the Barkeeper, talking to him.

Valera walked up to the three men. “I am here, Barkeep.”

“Ah, Valera.” The Barkeep said. “I want you to meet two friends of mine. They are from Duty, and Duty wants you for some assignment.”

One of the Exoskeletons nodded. “Follow me, Valera. We will discuss this at that table.” He said, pointing to one in the corner of the room by the fenced-off area.

They walked over there, the two Duty men standing up while Valera pulled up a stood.

“So,” The STALKER said. “I suppose you have some assignment for me.”

One of them nodded. “We do. Have you heard anything about the Anomaly just south of the Army Warehouses that has everyone in a worry? About two hundred meters off the main path?”

“No.” Valera replied. “Should I?”

The other Duty member nodded. “At 1820 hours yesterday, a Duty patrol was there to witness a rival Freedom patrol swallowed up by a Vortex. Not just any, but a massive one, twenty-four meters across. And it’s expanding.”

Valera’s jaw dropped. “That’s… Not possible.”

“It is. At the center gravitational forces are immense. The Freedom patrol was not crushed. At the center, they simply disappeared. There is an area two meters across at the center of it where the distortion is so immense, ti is literally impossible to see through.”

“What do you want me to do?” Valera asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“Simple.” The other one said, holding out a small bag. “We need you to get as close to it as you can. We have a special series of bolts going into production. Rather than the iron ones that are mass-produced and then sold to STALKERS, these are Titanium, and are fitted with transmitters. They will let us know everything that goes on in whatever Anomaly they are thrown into. We need you to use several of these and throw them into the Anomaly. Can you do this?”

Valera took out a bottle of Vodka and took a small sip. Looking up at them, he asked the most important question:

“How much are you paying? I don’t want to get that close to a terrible death without some sort of reward.”

The second member nodded to the other, and then turned to him. “We are offering 120,000 Rubles to whoever can do this, as well as the privilege of calling upon any nearby Duty team at any time.” Seeing Valera’s jaw drop yet again, he added. “Many have turned this down, and we are getting desperate. We must find out what it is before Freedom does, and we need to do it quickly. A Duty team will escort you there.”

With that, Valera nodded, taking the bag of special bolts. “It is agreed. I shall be on the lookout for any danger, so I shall be going armed. Give me a minute.”

Valera stood and walked over to the Barkeep. Because he came here so much, he had paid the Barkeep 20,000 Rubles to reserve him a locked room in the back, where he could store his things without worry.

“I need access to my room.” He said.

The Barkeep nodded, and gestured towards the guarded door. The guard at the entrance, normally unmovable, stood aside to let him through. He wandered through the back before coming upon his room, with a massive metal door leading to it. Putting his PDA up to the hidden electrical lock, the light on the door went from red to green, and it opened outward as he stepped inside.

The room was fairly nice. Perfectly white walls and a powerful light bulb in the ceiling made it virtually the epitome of luxury in the Zone, and the bed on the right wall marked him as a man who had been here for quite some time. Most STALKERs made do with a sleeping bag, and some not even that. On the left wall, his weapons stood line up on a metal rack he had built out of spare parts, and hundreds of small boxes of ammo dotted the shelves.

He sat down on his bed, quickly emptying his backpack of all its items, staring at the shelves and racks, figuring out what to take. He quickly wrote down a list of what he would grab:

-=-=-

1x TRs-301, M203 and SOSAT scope attached.
5.56x45mm SS109 Ammunition = 262 Rounds

1x Vintar BC suppressed sniper rifle.
9x39mm SP-6 Rounds = 120 Rounds

1x Chaser 13 shotgun.
12x70 Shot Rounds = 60 Shells

1x Black Kite .45 Pistol
.45ACP Hydro-Shock Rounds = 60 Rounds

One of his three SEVA suits, near perfect condition.

8x Regular First Aid Kit
8x Army First Aid Kit
4x Scientific First Aid Kit
16x Rolls of bandages

12x Tourist's Delight (brand of canned meat)
A water canteen
4x Energy Drinks

4x F1 grenades
6x M203 grenades

Artifacts
1x Flash
1x Goldfish
1x Crystal
1x Night Star
1x Kolobok
1x Pellicle
1x Battery (Electro)
1x Spring

-=-=-

Valera frowned at the list he came up with. It was around fifty-four kilos of weight overall, a bit beyond his normal carrying capacity. He would be slowed down by it, but that did not matter. If the Anomaly grabbed him, he could not simply sprint out like he could with a normal Vortex. If he got caught in it, he was done for in any case.

He quickly grabbed the supplies he wrote down, keeping his current SEVA suit on. The items all fit nicely; from the Vintar and Chaser on his back to the items he had packed into his backpack. He loaded all of the weapons with what he had out, and grabbed his TRs-301 to carry with him, as well as keeping his Black Kite on his waist, where he could grab it. Feeling well-armed, he walked out, closing the door with his PDA.

He walked out into the bar, where he met up with the two Duty members, who pointed towards the exit. He followed them until they left the north gate, where a group of eight Duty members was standing around at the intersection between Rostok, the Wild Territory, and the Army Warehouses.

One of the Exoskeleton soldiers with him turned towards him and gave a nod. “We escorted you here, and now you must stay with the team.”

With that, the two left, and the Duty STALKERs, wasting no time, started to head north, with Valera following behind them.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Valera walked along the road with the Duty patrol, at ease. No Bandit or Merc group would make the mistake of tackling with this group, not in these numbers. All eight Duty members in the group had Thunder S14s, and every one of them wore either a SEVA or a Stalker suit.

In short, Valera was enjoying this chance to walk down the road without anything to bother him. Even though the knowledge that he might die from this sat heavily on his mind, he could shrug it off easily. If he died, he hoped it would be quick. He had seen enough death to know that going out slowly, such as being carried off to god knows where by a Bloodsucker, was one of the worst ways one could go. He had watched friends of his go out that way: It wasn’t pretty.

The path was fairly well-traveled, what with being the only real road between the Army Warehouses and Rostok. Even so, not a soul was in sight. Yet again, due to the Duty squad, nobody would dare confront them. They started to trek to the right side of the road, watching and waiting for anything.

The man leading the group held up a hand, motioning for us to halt. Turning to look at them, he pointed to his left (Valera’s right) in an authorities manner.

“We’re here.” He said, turning to walk out into a field. Every followed him past the line of trees, onto a fairly flat, open area. Suddenly, they stopped, and Valera could see it.

“Holy shit…” He heard one of them mutter. His thoughts ran in a similar direction. It was massive area of distortion in the middle of the field. In the center of the field sat… Nothing. That’s all he could describe it as. It was simply a blank spot. It was as if it didn’t even exist.

It radiated the type of phenomena he commonly associated with Vortexes, but at a much grander scale. The gravity field was immense; it was already setting off some of the automated alarm systems inside of his suit, and they were twenty meters away from the edge. He quickly moved to switch them off, staring through the glass faceplate at the massive behemoth of the Zone.

The leader turned to him, nodding. “Good luck, buddy. You’re going to need it. Everyone else fan out. We don’t want a Freedom team to catch us now, do we?”

With that, the Duty soldiers moved away and looked out, watching for any signs of interference.

Valera gulped, stepping forward. He moved his TRs-301 to his back, the strap going across his chest as he reached for the bag, taking out several of the special bolts. They didn’t even look like bolts: While the normal ones simply used old factory machinery to churn out as many as possible, these were in a pill-like shape, with a very smooth outside and finish.

Holding four in his hand, he walked as far as he dared, eight feet from the edge of the rippling. He pulled his arm back, and threw them in powerful toss.

Once they hit the ripple, the bolts seemed to race inside almost faster than his eyes could track. Just as the Duty members had said, they at first faded and then disappeared near the center, about two feet from it.

“Good job.” He heard the voice of the Duty captain say over his PDA. “We’re getting a signal now, and it’s reading some pretty crazy stuff. Right now we’re getting indications that… GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THERE, STALKER!! RUN!!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he turned around and started to sprint away. He could feel the feeling he associated with anomalies in close proximities make itself know, confirming that something had gone terribly wrong. Foolishly looking behind him, he could see the ripple moving outward, coming up to meet him. He stared back in horror, and tried to speed up.

His forward momentum slowed and then stopped, and then started moving back. Valera cried out a warning into his PDA, and used the chance to transmit a warning to the Barkeep. That done, he dug his feet in, and tried to forward. He wasn’t making any progress at all, and, to his growing panic, he felt himself slipping.

Suddenly, he felt himself being pulled backwards with tremendous force. Warning lights erupted in his SEVA suit, telling him about the immense gravitational force as he was pulled into it. He could feel himself being pulled backwards, into the… Whatever the hell it was.

And, suddenly, his feet lost their grip. He felt the sensation of flying into an abyss, right before his vision went black.

-=-=-

Dark.

That was the only word going through Valera’s mind. He felt an immense… Nothing, all around him, surrounding him, enveloping him. It felt as though his eyes were closed, yet he could feel them open… Or could he? Did it even matter? Slowly, surely, his mind began to shut down. And with a last thought of his small family, the only happy thought he had left, Valera drifted off into sleep.

-=-=-

Valera’s eyes opened suddenly. His face was beaded with sweat, and the only light illuminating his face was red, from the multiple warning lights only now starting to turn off. He was hyperventilating, and forced himself to slow his breathing down. Calming himself, he gave himself a moment to ask the obvious question.

How had he survived?

The faint red lights illuminated the fact that his faceplate was buried in… Something. His equilibrium told him that he was facing down, so that might be the problem. He moved his arms around and, although they felt heavy at first, he was able to freely move them. Bringing them to face down, he pushed, trying to get up. As he did, light filled his vision, blinding him. Blinking away the sudden intrusion, he finished getting up, first to his knees, and then to his feet. The first thing he noticed was sand.

Plenty of it.

In fact, looking around, all he could see was a sea of it, along with a SEVA suit-shaped indentation in it at his feet. Checking behind him with his hands, he confirmed that his weapons and supplies were still there. How had they survived the Vortex?

Moreover, again: How had HE survived?

Valera had seen plenty of friends die from anomalies, but the most horrible ones were the Vortexes. Those simply crushed them, leaving nothing but a broken mist of blood and bits of bone. He had once run fairly close to one, and even that close miss had left him with several broken bones, and those later took much attention with a Mica artifact to fix.

He checked his weapons and emptied the sand out of them; some having had their barrels attain a thin collection of it. While he was doing this, he took the time to let his mind wander. The next thing he did was check his PDA: Nothing. No connection to satellites, and not even a map of his area. At the worst, he was in the middle of the Sahara. That would be just perfect: He had only a small canteen of water, and even the specialized systems of the SEVA suit could only convert something… Distasteful into something… Less so for only so long.

In the short run, he figured making a radio call would be a good idea. Turning it on, he quickly ratted out a short message in Ukrainian.

“If there is anyone in the area, listen. This is Valera, a STALKER, and I need immediate contact with anybody in the vicinity.”

After repeating it in Russian and English (and getting no response), he was fairly sure that nobody within range had even heard him or, indeed, had a radio in the first place.

Shutting off his radio, he quickly pulled up a compass on his HUD. Thankfully, his SEVA suit had many things, and one of them was a built-in auto-mapper, which would use an integrated compass, miniaturized radar, and the PDA to map out the local terrain, and, at close ranges, detect wildlife. While the PDA could detect only other PDAs, he often had his suits modified to a massive extent, in case he got stuck in a situation that warranted it, such as an unexplored lab with no maps anywhere in the database.

It cost quite a bit of money, but right now, he was thanking himself for the extra 80,000 Rubles that he had spent on it. It may have seemed worthless at the time, but it was paying off now. At least, he hoped so.

The current map taken by the miniaturized radar displayed the usual compass on it, and mostly, at this point, showed an expanse of desert two hundred meters wide: The maximum extend of the miniaturized radar and, therefore, the auto-mapper.

He started to walk towards what the compass identified as ‘North’. Knowing that most African settlements, if that was where he was, were on the Mediterranean coast, he had to head towards there. With no information, it was a long shot. For all he knew, he could be in the Gobi Desert, and be headed into good old Russia any hour now.

Step by step, he walked forward across the featureless landscape, the only thing noticeable being the small dunes of sand that gathered. His mind began to blank out from sheer boredom, so he decided to read his PDA messages. He had never quite managed to open a few of them, and they gave him some laughs. Apparently, a Merc named ‘Serbin’ was angry at him for ‘attacking’ a Merc squad (actually, it was self-defense, but it didn’t really matter now).

The day was very hot, but, thankfully, his SEVA suit had automated cooling systems to help regulate temperature. It was primarily for use against the ‘Burner’ anomalies, but it came into use at this time in an entirely different way.

After four hours, his boredom had almost peaked. Raising his hands and looking up at the sky in frustration, he began to vent his anger.

“Why the fuck am I here!” He screamed to nobody in particular. “Why the hell didn’t I die, and why the fuck am I in the middle OF A FUCKING DESERT! WHAT IN THE ZONE CAUSED THIS FUCKING CHAOS!? I can’t even access my fucking PDA, and that still worked after I fell INTO A GODDAMN POOL OF ACID!”

Unknown to him, somebody was watching him. Or, more accurately, something.

He was made aware of their presence when he heard a faint ‘Get it!’ in English, followed by something hitting the back of his SEVA suit. Rapidly turning around and pulling out his TRs-301, he didn’t pause for a moment when he saw four of what looked like four eagle-lion hybrids running at him. What did make him pause, though, were the spears in their hands. In the end, it didn’t matter.

He raised his rifle and flicked off the safety, not even bothering to look through the SOSUT scope before firing with a practice hand. Six rounds flew out, two for each of the three that he wanted dead. They all fell to the ground, no medical intervention able to save them. The last one didn’t even notice its comrades fall; It kept on going, charging him with the spear. Valera couldn’t imagine what they were, or, if they didn’t exist naturally, what mutation of the Zone made them this way.

As the last one held its spear out to jab him, Valera calmly sidestepped to the left and grabbed the end of the sphere, twisting it to his right and sending the other end, along with its bearer, flying upwards. The thing landed on its back, stunned, before Valera calmly walked over to it and put his foot on its chest.

“Now… Why did you attack me?” He asked in English, which he had heard right before the attack. He didn’t really expect a response, but, to his surprise, he got one.

“You’re intruding on a military excursion, and you have no right to be here!” It screeched out.

“Military exercise, heh?” Valera said, laughing. “I’ve heard that before. Now, just what the hell are you? Either you tell me, or I will crush your chest in.”

“I’m a griffon! How could you not know that? And just what are you?”

“I am a STALKER, someone who will make your life a living hell if you don’t listen.” Valera said. From a third person perspective, he knew he was probably intimidating at hell, especially in his armor. “Now another question: Where am I?”

“Equestria! The great desert, next to the Badlands!” It replied.

“Hmm, Equestria.” He said, rolling the same around in English. “Whatever the hell it is, it’s certainly nothing that I’ve heard of.” He simply shrugged, filing it away in his head for later. “Now tell me: What is the largest country around?”

“The pony kingdom of Equestria! Which we are in!” It said, adding the last part after Valera put more pressure on its chest.

Valera shook his head. A nation of ponies? This was either the most elaborate joke ever played, or he was really fucking dead, and either in heaven or, most likely, his own private hell.

Valera took his foot of its chest before giving it a kick, sending it rolling in pain and he walked away, leaving it laying there as he started again to the north.

Fifteen minutes later, his clock, updated to about local time (the sun moved at the same speed, anyway) read it was six o’ clock. Time to find shelter, of any kind, and get under cover before nightfall. Probably not necessary here, but in the Zone it was vital.

Five minutes later, the sand on the horizon had attained a brown color. Ten minutes after that, he found out why. In a clear line, past a certain point, the ground became perfectly dry and flat, not unlike the bottom of a dry lake, except it looked quite a bit like brown-red clay instead of yellow flats.

The walking was easier on that ground, and he began to make good progress. Up ahead, he spotted some rising mesas, so he felt that he would be able to find a good overhang. He also collected some dried wood from long-dead trees on the way. Literally, the stuff was so dry, it would probably catch instantly. Which was good, since, although like most good STALKERs he had a few boxes of matches, he didn’t want to waste them.

He thanked god that the SEVA suits had a cooling system integrated into the suit, or he would be much warmer than he was now. Still, sweat lay on face from the extortion, and the fact that he had not had a drink of water since he was tossed here did not make it better.

To Valera’s delight, in the side of one of the mesas he found a cave. It was around eight o’ clock, and the sun was about to hit around the horizon, so his find was perfect. He knew that he could deal with anything he found inside, so he happily went.

What he did not see, however, was the dimly glowing pair of blue eyes observing from the shadows.

Twenty feet in, he activated his bright flashlight, filling the tunnel forty feet ahead of him with light. As he continued through several twists and turns, around a hundred feet from the entrance, he found a large chamber around twenty feet wide, with no exits except the one he had just came through.

He set the dry branches down on the ground and grabbed a box of matches, taking one out and striking it against the package. It lit, and he held it to the branches, watching at they quickly lit on fire, casting off a bright glow that filled the cavern with light. Sighing in relief, he sat down on the ground and removed his helmet, taking deep breaths of the unfiltered air.

Valera took out two of the meat tins and started eating them; certain he could need the energy later. He also took a large sip of water from his canteen and, satisfied, stored everything back and laid down on his pack, content to rest the night away.

-=-=-

Meanwhile, two pairs of curious eyes watched him from the shadows. For the cavern itself was only a false lead: A concealed tunnel lay at the other end of it, virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding rock.

The eyes looked at each other, seeming to make a decision, before one moved off into the darkness, and the other looked out to observe.

After all, a new creature had to be studied before being confronted, right?
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Valera was awake moments after he heard the dull thudding of footsteps. The fire next to him was still going, casting the cavern in flickering light. He quickly checked to make sure his flashlight was off, and stood to the side of the entrance of the cavern, at the mouth of the tunnel leading up.

No question about it: Something with two feet (he timed the footsteps) was walking down the tunnel, and was getting closer. Light cascaded from the tunnel, suggesting whoever was coming had a flashlight.

“Thank god, a fire.” A voice said in English, echoing slightly. “I thought I would be out there forever. I wonder what in the Zone built it, though?”

Apparently, another STALKER had come through. It might be one of the Freedom members he had heard mentioned, or it might be something else. Deciding now was the time, he opened up his external speakers to talk.

“Don’t come any closer!” Valera said in English, causing the footsteps to pause. “I don’t trust you, and I don’t know where the hell I am, so you’d better speak up.”

“Who are you?” The voice asked, the voice sounding strained.

“Does it fucking matter?” Valera replied. “I’m just a STALKER. What are you?”

“Will you shoot me if I tell you?” The voice said.

“No guarantees.”

“Officially, they call me a Merc.”

Valera’s grip on his TRs-301 tightened. “Will you attempt to attack me if I let you come further?”

“Why would I?”

“Good point: You would die. Come on, this fire is kind of lonely.”

A few minutes later, Valera sat beside the fire. Across from him, a Mercenary, someone who most STALKERs would shoot on right, sat looking at the fire. He wore a SEVA suit like Valera’s, although in the blues of the Mercs rather than the mute greens his had. A GP-37 assault rifle lay beside him, and what looked like a SVUmk-2 was across his back. Valera looked at him in thought for a moment, before figuring out a way to start a conversation.

“How did you get dragged here?” Valera asked.

“The goddamned Anomaly that you found. After you were dragged in, it expanded. Our team was watching from the other side. The rest of them got away cleanly, at least I think so, but I got dragged in. Thought I was done for.” He paused in thought for a moment, before continuing. “When I woke up in the middle of a desert, I thought I was in some sort of limbo. All of my equipment was there, but I never packed much in the way of food: It was only supposed to be a short trip.

“I found this area a short while after I encountered a patrol of God knows what. They looked like something out of mythology, that’s for sure.”

“Griffons?” Valera asked.

The Merc blinked in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I questioned one of them after I ran into a patrol.” Valera stated.

“Yeah, probably.” The Merc said, shaking his head. “When I found this area and the cave, I decided to hole up here. It was the middle of the night, and, even if none of the Mutants I know of from the Zone are here, who knows what else is.”

-=-=-

“Interesting.” One of the creatures observing the exchange said, looking out through a tiny slit in the rock, where the shadows gathered. “We are learning much just by listening. Apparently, they have encountered the Griffon units searching this area for us, and, when the false princess finds out, she will be most displeased at their incursion into her territory.”

“Her territory?” One of them said, snorting. “We own much of this desert, and there is not much they can do about it.”

“Be silent, and observe.” The first one said.

-=-=-

“Do you have a name I can use?” Valera asked.

“Do you have a PDA I could send it to?” The Merc replied.

“Of course,” Valera said, faking offense. “What STALKER does not? Here is the PDA number…”

Valera ratted it off, happy that PDAs came with a function that allowed them to continue to accept any messages, regardless of local satellites. It simply would directly broadcast it in the local area, using the PDA’s built-in transmitters to do so, until it found the PDA in question.

Seconds later, as the Merc tapped his PDA, Valera’s showed a new message and a contact. Apparently, the Merc was named Stepa, and he was with an independent group of Mercs that had operated in the Zone for quite some time.

“So, Valera, eh?” Stepa said. “I have heard of you from the Barkeep. Despite what some may think, some Mercs are welcomed into the Duty camp. It all depends on which group you are in. I have heard of your record. Is it true you managed to slay a Controller when it attacked the Duty camp and killed off a quarter of the guards?”

Valera nodded. “That I did. With my good rifle here,” He said, patting the TRs-301. “I poured enough rounds into it to buy myself a few bottles of Vodka. Then again, when I killed it, I received enough from the STALKERs in the camp to get an elephant drunk. What have you done that is so great?”

“I met him.” Stepa said.

Valera blinked. “Who?”

“The Marked One. Strelok. Even if he did not recognize himself, I did.”

Valera’s jaw hung open. “How did you meet him?”

Stepa laughed. “He fucking shot me, and then healed me up while I was there on the ground. The rest of my team was dead, and that was two weeks ago. Said that I owed him for doing it, and boy, do I ever.”

Valera shook his head. “Strelok? I thought he was dead after the second great Emission.”

“Nope.” Stepa said. “He was looking for himself. It probably wiped his brain clean, and he’s going on a fucking mission to find himself. Poor bastard.”

Valera grinned in amusement. As the two continued to talk, they eventually got more and more tired. Finally, after an hour, Stepa stretched out and leaned back, telling Valera that he was going to sleep. Valera lay his head back as well, hoping to get some rest this night.

-=-=-

“Do you want to take them now?” One of the creatures asked.

“No.” Snapped another one. “Taking them with violence would make them… Unresponsive to our methods. Instead, wait until they wake up, and then send a team in behind a shield. If they accept, we take them to the Queen. If they do not, we ask them another time.”

“Why do we have the ask them?” The first one persisted.

“Because, young one.” The second one replied. “If you take every opportunity by force, who says that there will be others ahead of you after it? If this works, we shall become dominant. If it does not, we have lost nothing.”

“I hope you are right.” A third one conceded.

The second one sighed. “So do I.”
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Wake up, Valera!”

That voice instantly brought the mentioned STALKER out of his dreams and into the real world. Stepa seemed to be saying something to him, but in his semi-awake state, it only registered as a mumble.

“What?” He asked, a bit dazed.

“I said that there is something behind the wall of the cave!” The Merc said. He held his GP-37 in his right hand, pointing at the wall with his left. It was directly opposite the entrance to the small chamber. Valera quickly switched on his light in time to notice that the only thing lighting up the cavern were the dying embers of the fire, plus the Merc’s flashlight.

Valera got to his feet and picked up his TRs-301. Months of time in the Zone had trained him in the art of quickly going from sleep to awake, even if he had only had a few hours of it. By the time on his PDA, it had been only six hours of sleep, hardly enough time for a normal man in these conditions, but good enough for him.

Now that he shone his light on it, he could see that the rock of the side of the cavern was a slightly different shade than that around it. It looked completely natural, but…

… So did many areas of the Zone.

“What did you see?” Valera asked.

Stepa shook his head. “I heard what sounded like scuffling behind the rock face, but that doesn’t seem possible.”

“By any chance,” Valera asked. “Do you speak Ukrainian or Russian?”

“I don’t.” Stepa said. “I speak English, Czech and fragments of German.”

“Damn, that would have made this easier on me.” Valera said. “English may be my second language, but it’s not one I use often.”

“You speak it well enough.” Stepa commented.

Valera shook his head. “Focus on the situation.”

With that, they both focused on the wall for a moment, warily waiting for something to happen. Twenty seconds later, when nothing did, Valera relaxed, and so did Stepa.

“Is your name really Stepa? That’s uncommon, even here.” Valera said.

“I had strange parents.” Stepa quipped. “Sometimes, I think they would have been much happier in the Ukraine than in the Czech Republic.”

Suddenly, the rock wall they had so intently studied seemed to shift. A section of the wall six feet tall and four feet wide was sliding backwards, in a perfectly rectangular area. It then slid sideways, revealing a dark cave which Valera and Stepa quickly focused their lights on.

Staring back at them was a small group of blue dots, which, upon further study, were connected to strange, twisted back creatures. They filed out of the hole and to the sides of it, forming a line. Three more stepped forward, regarding the STALKER and the Merc with curious eyes.

“What the fuck is it?” Valera asked, his rifle pointed at the new arrivals.

“I don’t fucking know!” Stepa hissed out, keeping his gun pointed at them as well.

The black thing at the front of them looked for a second further, before they could hear it take a deep breath, apparently doing to say something.

“Greetings.” It said in English, shocking Valera with the precision it delivered the word. “I am Obsidian Cloud, and I would like to extend to you an invitation from our Queen for a… ‘Visit’ would be the best word.”

“Did it just talk?” Stepa said moments later, staring at it.

“It did.” Valera confirmed. “Switch to radio and close off external sound.”

“So, how do we respond?” Stepa asked over the radio.

“How the hell should I know?” Valera demanded.

“You’re better at communication than I am.”

“That is with human beings! And they rarely work out well in the Zone!”

“How about this:” Stepa said. “We follow them, and, if they try to harm us, we start mowing them down.”

A few seconds passed before Valera responded. “That’s actually a good idea. I’ll tell those things.”

They both switched off the radio and Valera turned to the twisted form of the thing. Now that he thought about it, he could recognize some traits from horses on Earth. Maybe these were distant relatives of the ‘Ponies’ that supposedly ruled the land.

“We will follow you. But if you try anything, you will die.” Valera said.

The thing nodded its head. “I understand. Follow us.”

The strange things began to go inside of the hole in the rock and, with some hesitation, Valera and Stepa followed. It led into a tunnel six feet wide and around eight feet tall, thankfully big enough for them. The tunnels were lit with small amounts of green crystals that glowed dimly, emitting light. Valera tensed when he saw them, for seeing that glow reminded him of the highly corrosive chemical Anomalies in the Zone, often called ‘Fruit Punch’.

“Why are we even going along with this, Merc?” Valera asked.

“Because we’re stuck in the middle of a fucking desert, and these things might have something interesting to say.” Stepa responded.

Valera shrugged. “Beats any explanation I have to hell.”

They continued following the clear forms of… Whatever they were down the hall. Valera supposed that nothing made any sense right now. Regardless, he had already set his automatic mapping unit to take a map of the tunnels they were traveling in, along with whatever it could catch of the side tunnels they occasionally passed.

“Stepa, I am going to send you my mapping data. Can you send yours to me?” Valera asked.

The Merc nodded. “Syncing between our PDAs in three… Two… One.”

Instantly, Stepa whistled. “You have some good mapping equipment.”

Valera nodded. “It cost too many Rubles, but would have saved me if I found a lab. I suppose this is another situation much like a lab, although I have never seen an entire world inside of one.”

“Neither have I. Then again, I have never been in a lab, or another world.”

Conversation ceased as they traveled through the cave. Several side passages showed themselves from time to time, and they passed through several other empty chambers, but otherwise nothing much happened. They occasionally passed other creatures in the halls, always of the same type.

They mostly looked alike, with grey-black bodies. They all had insect-like wings, and a jagged horn on the top of their heads. One or two wore a midnight blue armor, and the rest seemed to go around without anything. They all had light blue eyes, and those eyes literally glowed in the dark.

Their legs were riddled with holes that went all the way through, giving them a stick-like appearance. They also had fangs sticking out from their mouths.

In short, they were the strangest things Valera had ever seen, and the Zone had fortified him against seeing strange things. His worst experience had been when a blowout had caused the Apparitions normally seen around the Brain Scorcher to appear almost anywhere past the military cordon. The first one he had seen, rising out of the ground and coming straight at him, had caused him to expend a full clip of NATO rounds into it. And just when he had gotten used to them appearing and scaring the hell out of him, they stopped appearing.

Their group finally emerged into a fairly huge cavern. It stood twenty feet high, and twenty feet wide, and was around sixty feet long. At the end of it, a single, large creature waited for them. It was about twice the size of the normal ones, and sported hair that was some sort of dark shade of aqua. Valera really didn’t know: Life in the Ukrainian military did not prepare you to distinguish specific colors by name.

Most of the creatures spread out, forming into two lines on either side of the hallway. Valera an Stepa continued to walk forward, following the three who were still walking, until they stopped and stepped to the side, leaving the STALKER and the Merc to talk to whoever the large creature was…

… Alone.

“Good day.” The large creature said in a remarkably feminine voice. “I am Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings. You no doubt know that by now.”

“Should we?” Valera interrupted.

“Yes, you should.” The creature said somewhat arrogantly.

Stepa was the next to speak up. “We just arrived here from the Zone, and ‘here’ is definitely not anywhere on Earth I recognize. So, before you go assuming many things, explain to us who – and what – you are.”

The giant creature – Changeling, had it said? – sighed for a moment before continuing.

“As I said, I am Queen Chrysalis. From the moment you entered our territory, we have been watching you, and we have a proposition.”

“What is it?” Stepa asked instantly.

“You are fighters, are you not?” It asked.

Valera nodded. “That is true.”

“We are in need of fighters to preform… Special missions. If you accept, you will go out on small tasks for us.” It said.

“How much does it pay?” Stepa asked.

“Anything you wish.” It answered.

“We need to discuss this. We may come to separate answers.” Valera said, before switching to his radio and cutting off the external sound.

“Stepa, before you say anything else, I need to know what you think: Is it worth it?” Valera asked.

Stepa shrugged. “Do we have any way to get back to the Zone? Moreover, do we want to?”

“We do not.”

“Then I say: Let us do this, and see where it leads.” Stepa said with determination.

“Why are we even working together?” Valera asked.

“Because we might be the only ones who came through.” Stepa remarked. “God knows what happened to the Freedom patrol that got sucked in. We might as well do the best we can with what we have, and I don’t think wandering around a wasteland almost as bad as the Zone will be very beneficial.”

A few moments passed before Valera could think up a reply. “All right, all right, I’ll go along with this.”

They both switched to the external coms and turned off the radio.

“We accept.” Stepa said.

“Perfect.” The creature – Chrysalis, Valera reminded himself – said. “The first assignment that we would have is in one day. Can you travel within four hours?”

“All that we carry is on our backs.” Valera said. “We can start immediately, depending on what type of work it is.”

“Are you familiar with assassinations?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yes,” Stepa said. “I tend to do quite a few of them.”

“They are distasteful.” Valera commented.

“But necessary, in some cases.” It said.

Valera sighed. “I’m ready. When do we leave?”

It smiled, sending a small chill through him. “Whenever you are ready.”

“We are ready now.” Stepa said.

“Then follow the group of three that escorted you here.” It replied. “They will lead you to the team that will get you in. You are now infiltrators of the Changeling Empire.”

“Joy.” Valera deadpanned, before turning to follow the three departing ‘Changelings’.

“Are you ready for this?” Stepa asked Valera while checking over his GP-37 as they walked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Valera replied.

Stepa smiled. “Then let’s make the best of things while we can. Opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime, or not at all.”

“Let’s just hope we don’t get the short end.” Valera replied as they walked into the darkness, with only their flashlights to keep track of the creatures in front of them.

“I hope not, either.”
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Valera sat with Stepa around a small fire, inside of a cavern the ‘Changelings’ had left them in ten minutes ago. Apparently, they were going to be led by a small ‘team’ that was just now being gather; at least, that was what the insectoid things had told them.

Valera was checking a few minor parts on his TRs-301. Being a NATO rifle, it was made to much better quality standards than, say, a AKM-74/2. However, it was much more jam-prone, especially after extended use. Which it was most certainly going to get in… What did he interrogate griffon say? Equestria, that was it.

The STALKER quickly put the rifle back together, satisfied that it was in perfect working order: He might just need it. The Merc seemed content to rest his head on the wall of the cave and look at the fire; Valera was fairly certain that the former Mercenary knew that his weapon was in perfect order just by looking at its perfect finish. Valera knew that his other weapons were perfectly fine, not being used since he had gotten here.

After three more minutes, several darkened shapes walked into the room, revealing themselves to be Changelings after a few seconds when they sat by the fire.

“So… Are you the group we were told to expect?” Stepa asked.

“Yes, we are.” A voice snapped. “I don’t know who you are, but we are told to let you do the job. We are just bringing you there.”

The Merc nodded. “Good. Keep it that way. Let us move out.”

After a few more grumbles, the Changelings all started filing out of the room. Valera and Stepa followed them through the tunnel, their steps echoing down it until they reached a room with a perfectly smooth floor.

“Where are we?” Valera asked.

“The teleportation room.” One of the Changelings said. “It allows us to magically teleport to another Hive.”

The STALKER and the Merc rolled their eyes, Stepa letting out a sigh. “Right, magic. Next you’ll tell us that there will be flying ponies there, and rainbows everywhere.”

“Yes to the former, no to the latter. Rainbows are hard enough to manufacture, or so I have heard.” The Changeling stated matter-of-factly. “Now wait until the magic works.”

Valera rolled his eyes again. “Magic does not exist. Even in this dimension, or whatever it may be, it cannot possib-”

Valera suddenly saw a massive flash of light blind him, and opened his eyes to find himself in a much different-looking room. Actually, it was the middle of a forest, but he digressed.

“You were saying?” One of the Changelings said, smirking.

“Shut the fuck up.” Valera said. “Let’s just get this over with. Just lead us to the point, and then tell us whom to kill.”

One of the Changelings nodded and began to walk forward, leading them on a small path through the forest. It was well-traveled: A dirt path was worn half an inch into the ground, so Valera assumed that the Changelings must use it often.

The walk through the forest was a nice chance of pace from the desert hat he had walked in just a short time ago. Even though he was still inside of his SEVA suit, and his only view came through a quarter of an inch of specially hardened glass, he was enjoying the fresh air that he was letting through his closed-cycle breathing system.

His mapping system, detecting a teleportation much like that caused by some rare types of anomalies (the engineers of the system, whoever they had been, had really thought of everything), had instantly calculated the distance the sun had moved from where it would have been, and calculated their position as several hundred miles to the north, starting a new area on his mapping system.

“Valera, you’re a lucky son of a bitch.” Stepa said. “I don’t know who you paid off to get this system that the data is coming though, but you did pick the right bastard.”

The STALKER chuckled. “Just think of it: There I was, with eighty thousand rubles I did not need, and the Barkeep kept talking about a scientist team in the back. Well, I met them, and they were pretty damn happy that somebody could afford to buy and then test it.”

“What happened to the team?” Stepa asked.

“They went into the middle of the Army Warehouses, the ‘Bloodsucker Village’. I do not believe they are among the living anymore.” Valera stated matter-of-factly.

Stepa winced. “Ouch. Did they hire bodyguards?”

“Two STALKERs that they found at the bar. They were the only ones stupid enough to go with them into that hellhole.”

“Fucking idiots.” Stepa stated. Valera could not argue with that logic, so he simply stayed quiet.

They walked down the path for the greater part of an hour before reaching the edge of the forest. Ahead of them, the edge of a cliff loomed, and beyond that a city.

“Hoofington.” One of the Changelings stated. “We have been informed that you have weapons, correct?”

“We do.” Valera said, lifting up his TRs-301. “Our rifles.”

“Are any of them long range?” It asked.

Stepa nodded. “I have my SVUmk2, and Valera there has… A Vintar BC.”

“Just a question.” Valera said. “Is every town name here a horrible horse pun?”

“Manehattan, Ponyville, Appaloosa, Foal Mountain, and Pullmare. Does that answer your question?” One of the Changelings said in a sarcastic tone.

Valera put his hand to his faceplate, shaking his head in the universal sign of dismissal. “I fucking hate this place.”

“Cheer up,” Stepa said. “At least we’re getting paid.”

“You’re used to that, aren’t you?” Valera retorted.

“Quit whining and grow a pair.” Stepa shot back.

Valera groaned. “Shut the fuck up so we can do this. You can get paid, and I can try to forget I am here.”

“Who is the target?” Stepa asked, turning towards the Changeling who was apparently in charge.

“A white unicorn, jet black mane. He’ll be walking down the main city street, which, as you can see, we can watch the entire length of.” The Changeling said.

“That’s it.” Valera said. “I am insane. I am about to shoot a unicorn, working for a species of insects, and earlier yesterday I killed three birds who could talk.”

“You’re taking it well.” Stepa said sarcastically.

Valera groaned and, yet again, tried to figure out how he had gotten dragged into this. Finally figuring out he might as well do the job and get it over with, he slung his rifle and pulled his Vintar BC off of his back.

“I will take the shot. My rifle is suppressed, and is much better than yours.” Valera said.

“No, yours isn’t.” Stepa said, taking his backpack off.

“Mind telling me why?” Valera asked with a bit of curiosity.

Stepa grinned. “Just look what I found on a Monolith soldier by the Barrier.”

Valera could only sit there in stunned silence at what he saw. There, sitting inside of his backpack, along with several other things that Valera did not even notice, was a Railgun. It was the rarest weapon in the Zone. Originally used by the Clear Sky faction in a different form, it was adapted by the fanatical Monolith faction in small numbers after Clear Sky was wiped out in the Second Great Emission.

It used a series of superconducting magnetic coils to accelerate a 2mm-wide projectile to supersonic speeds, penetrating through any armor and often instantly killing the target. The best thing is that it was almost perfectly quiet – aside from a small noise most would simply dismiss, it made none while firing. The only disadvantage was a small blue trail of ionized atmosphere that would swiftly disappear, and even it was hard to spot unless you were looking for it.

“What… How… Who did you pay off to get this?” Valera asked.

“I told you: I killed a Monolith guy at the Barrier, and he had this on him, along with two spare clips. Thirty rounds in total.” Stepa said proudly, bring it out and unfolding the buttstock.

“That ought to do the trick. You, Changeling, how fast can we get out of here?” Valera asked the apparent leader.

“As fast as you can run.” It replied.

Valera nodded. “Good. Stepa, you take the shot. I’ll look with my binoculars. Otherwise, we pack all of our gear on our backs.” He said, slinging his Vintar BC alongside his Chaser and his TRs-301.

Together, the pair walked to the edge of the cliff. Looking down, Valera could see it was at least a thousand feet tall. True enough, they were staring right down the main road of the town. Valera lay down and put his binoculars to his faceplate, and Stepa did the same with the rifle.

Together, they waited.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Stepa calmly breathed in and out, looking for any signs of anything important on the streets below. Even with the 20x zoom on the Gauss Rifle, he still had some trouble telling individual details on the ‘ponies’ below them. They seemed to come in three variants: Ones with horns, ones with wings, and ones with neither.

“He will be coming along in thirty seconds.” One of the Changelings said, trying to be helpful.

“I will be waiting.” Stepa deadpanned. He was too focused right now to have a conversation.

He dialed the scope in more, the zoom increasing to its maximum extent. He was focused, so, when the target appeared, he spotted it immediately.

“Got him.” Stepa whispered. “Unicorn, white, black hair or ‘mane’ as they call it. Two thousand meters.”

“Do we have to adjust for bullet drop?” Valera asked in a joking tone.

“Is the target within fifty miles?” Stepa shot back. When Valera shook his head, he returned his attention to the scope. “Then no. The maximum the round will drop is a few millimeters at this range, and there will be no fucking travel time, either.”

“Take the fucking shot so we can get out of here.” Valera suggested.

Stepa was not listening. Instead, he had his faceplate to the scope, looking through it. The reticule lined up with the unicorn, who seemed to be talking to several other ponies near him. Stepa placed the red dot in the scope right over the target’s back. Since it was not bipedal, that was the biggest target.

Holding his breathing and steadying his rifle as much as he could, Stepa slowly squeezed the trigger.

A small electronic noise rang out as the batteries discharged, using the coilgun mechanics of the gauss rifle to accelerate the miniscule round to an extremely high velocity. It shot out of the barrel at several times the speed of sound, leading a wispy blue trail of ionized air behind it.

The round flew through the air, practically ignoring air resistance as it moved. Precisely 1/4th of a second later, it impacted.

The round hit the unicorn midway along its back. It instantly pierced through the spine and all of the internal organs in its path, erupting from the bottom of the unicorn a millisecond later, leading a three inch wide hole and piercing straight through the stone of the streets, where it traveled eight feet further into the relatively soft ground before slowing.

Stepa watched, emotionlessly, as the unicorn crumpled to the ground. With the amount of blood he saw, and with the horrified reactions of the onlookers, he could safely say that the pony was definitely dead.

“It’s dead. Let’s go.” Valera said as he got up off the ground and moved away from the cliff, Stepa following a second later as he stowed his gauss rifle.

They followed the slightly shocked group of the Changelings as they wound through the forest, until they reached the stop they had arrived in. A moment later, a flash of light signaled them being ‘teleported’ again.

“Well, we’re fucked if we go over there any time soon.” Valera said as they found themselves inside of the cave again.

“Probably.” Stepa agreed.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Valera walked down the tunnel, with Stepa only a few meters behind him. He closely watched the black ‘Changeling’ that he was following, not out of malice, but simply out of habit.

So far as he knew, they were certainly not in the Zone, and definitely not on the same planet. Whatever anomaly that had swallowed them both, had also transported them here, and most likely any others who had gone through. Speaking of which…

“Hey, Stepa.” Valera said. “What the hell do you think happened to the Freedom squad?”

“No fucking idea.” The Merc replied. “I just know that they have either found something, or will be dead within a few days. They won’t last long out in the desert: Freedom does not have good armor for that kind of situation.”

“Oh well.” Valera said, sighing. “I always preferred Duty anyway. Even if they were a bit close to the military for my liking, they seemed to have a good head on their shoulders. Freedom simply seemed like a faction for Zone-hippies. What do you think about the other factions?”

Walking up beside him, Stepa started as they followed the Changeling. “Freedom was populated by idiots, Duty by a bunch of no-nonsense veterans. The military was led by morons, the bandits died the moment they tried to attack someone, and the unaligned STALKERS were simply caught in the middle.”

Valera nodded, still following the Changeling. “That’s about right.”

“So, what do you want to be paid?” Stepa asked, changing the subject. “After that, I expect some form, although it does not matter much.”

“I don’t know. An all-expenses-paid trip back to the Zone?” Valera asked in jest. Turning serious, he continued. “I don’t know what to expect. Maybe a place where I can settle down, or take up some sort of job.”

“What type of job?” Stepa asked, curious.

“I don’t know. Giant bird hunting?” Valera snorted. “If nothing else, I’ll continue this, if only to do something I am good at.”

“Shush, we’ve arrived.” Stepa said as they emerged into the chamber they had first been led to. At the end of it stood the large Changeling that had announce itself – herself? Valera did not know – as Queen Chrysalis. They reached the other end, and stopped in front of it.

“You have completed the task I sent you to do.” Chrysalis noted, staring at them. “That I did not expect, but you did. Well, I did tell you that you could have anything you wanted. What do you desire?”

Stepa was the first to speak up. “Do you have any form of currency here?”

“Yes.” Chrysalis replied. “Equestria used a currency known as Bits, which have become a standard around most of Equis.”

“A fair amount, then, and any further jobs, if you have them.”

Chrysalis grew a smile, the strange expression almost horrifying on her face – if you hadn’t seen much worse in your life. “That we can arrange. What about you?” She asked, turning to Valera.

The STALKER shrugged. “Same as him, I guess.”

“Are you both willing to do more work for us, if necessary?” Chrysalis asked.

“We are.” Both Valera and Stepa answered.

“Good.” Chrysalis said. “You may follow the drones accompanying you to a more permanent area for housing. I must speak to another group of creatures like yourselves in a short while.”

“Are there six of them?” Stepa asked.

“Yes, why?” Chrysalis replied, confused.

“Yep, that’s the Freedom patrol that fell into the Anomaly.” Stepa said, turning away and following the ‘drone’ as it left the room, with Valera a second behind him, leaving a slightly confused Chrysalis behind them.

After a short time walking through the tunnel, the Changeling at the front took a sharp right, and so did they. Yet again, they found themselves in a corridor, with occasional small tunnels branching out. After two more minutes of walking, they turned left on a corridor, and then left again, into a small room.

Unlike much of the tunnels, it had a smooth floor, along with stone and wooden furniture. Two beds stood across the room from one another, with plenty of empty areas in the walls to store things. Four white crystals were embedded in the ceiling, and gave off a fairly bright light, with only soft shadows in the room.

“This is the room that Chrysalis ordered me to take you to.” The Changeling said, after turning around to look at them. “Turn off the light shards by pulling the lever on the wall to your left down.” With that, the Changeling exited, not casting a glance back.

Valera looked to his left and, sure enough, there was a small lever on the wall. Just to test it, he pushed it down, and the lights went out immediately, with only a dim green glow from the hallway to provide any light.

“What the hell, Valera?” Stepa asked as Valera switched on the night vision in his SEVA suit, bathing the area in a clear, blue glow. “Thank god I have night vision in this suit.”

“What kind?” Valera asked as he switched his off and put his hand on the lever. “I have a second-generation.”

“Same here.” Stepa said, right as Valera calmly pushed the lever up. The sudden light must have been near-blinding for Stepa, for he stumbled back and fell down.

“What the hell was that for, asshole?” Stepa demanded as Valera laughed.

“For being in a sky-colored armor, that’s what.” The STALKER said, nearly on the ground now.

“If you want, I can always paint your armor a bright red.” Stepa deadpanned as he picked himself up.

Valera waved him off as his laughter finally died down. “Christ no. I’m not a lunatic like you are.”

“There are always surprises in life.” The Merc said as he claimed the bed on the right side of the room by sitting down on it.

Valera walked over to the bed on the right, sitting down on it as well. Getting back up, he took his backpack off and lay his weapons down at the foot of the bed, aside for the Black Kite pistol, which he kept within reach in one of the holes in the wall above his bed. He undid the heavy latches on his SEVA suit’s helmet, lifting it off and taking a deep breath of pure, unfiltered air.

“Thank god.” He gasped after a moment. “I hate breathing the air inside that after a while. It’s perfectly fine, if you prefer life with absolutely no sense of smell.”

“Believe me.” Stepa said as he undid his armor. “I want to go my life without my sense of smell whenever I am around the bar. How often to STALKER’s take baths, anyway?”

“The barkeep charges five thousand rubles for a warm bath in the back rooms.” Valera replied as he pulled the chest piece off. “It was not cheap, but worth it if you had the money. Then again, if you are in the bar, you either struck it rich, or failed.”

“At least I can get out of this damn armor now.” Stepa grumbled. “What’s the longest you’ve had to stay cooped up in it?”

“When a Poltergeist decided to make his personal home in the area around a house I was staying in. The STALKER who kept his base there was good, but after four days of waiting, I got tired of it and simply blew the thing away.”

“What do Poltergeists even look like?” Stepa asked, curious.

“Like if you cut off everything below the top of the waist of a Controller, and made it fade out. That is, it only appears after you kill it. Before then, it manifests itself as a ball of Psi-energy.” Valera explained.

Stepa perked up, looking over his shoulder as he slipped out of the last of the armor. “Like a small, floating Electro Anomaly?”

“That’s about right.” Valera replied. “Have you seen one?”

Stepa nodded at Valera, who turned away to take off the leg pieces. “Once, in Rostok, by the train yard. It took out three bandits by take their guns and throwing boxes at them. Never saw it again.”

Valera finished taking the pieces of his SEVA suit off. He folded the suit up, placing it, along with the helmet, at the bottom of the bed with his weapons. Glancing down at the PDA on his arm, he noted the time.

“It’s around noon now.” He announced, laying down on the bed and sighing.

A Changeling walked into the room, carrying two bags in a green glow. It sat them down on the ground and walked out quickly, probably afraid of them.

“And another thing.” Stepa said as he walked over and picked up one bag. “Have you noticed that these things can do the same things a Poltergeist can?”

“Several times.” Valera admitted as he got up and walked over to the other bag, picking it up and looking inside. In the interior sat twenty golden coins, along with a note.

‘These are Equestria 100 bit pieces.’ The note read. ‘There are twenty of them here, for a total of 2,000 bits. This is your payment for the first job that you did for us. Signed, Obsidian Cloud, chief advisor to Queen Chrysalis.’

“Well, that solves our money problem. Teper my mozhemo kupuvaty rechi , yaki ne isnuyutʹ. [Now we can buy things that are not there].” Valera said, half in English, half in Ukrainian.

“What?” Stepa asked.

Valera sighed, putting his face in his hands, hiding it from view. “I keep forgetting that you do not speak Ukrainian.”

“You do not speak Czech.” Stepa pointed out.

“Shut up.” Came the reply as Valera sat the bag of ‘Bits’ in the same hole in the wall as his Black Kite.

“What are we going to do for the rest of the day?” Stepa asked as Valera lay back on his bed.

“My guess is: Nothing.” Valera replied.

“Do you think anybody else got swallowed by that Vortex since we did?” The Merc asked.

“Most likely.” The STALKER replied.

“Do you think that the Freedom team that will most likely be here will accept Chrysalis’s offer?”

“Probably.” Valera admitted. “Most of them are former STALKERs, and in the absence of any leadership, Duty and Freedom might as well just be groups of STALKERs.”

They waited inside of the room, resting on the beds. Both of them were perfectly content to rest there, until Stepa spoke up.

“Valera, do you have any food?” The Merc asked. “Because I’m fucking starving.”

“About time you asked.” Valera said as he got off the bed and walked towards his backpack. Opening it up, he sifted through the ammo and artifacts inside until he found the food, taking out two tins of Tourist’s Delight, a tinned meat brand common in the Zone.

“I don’t know what the fuck is in these, but since when have I cared?” Valera said as he sat them both on the table. He went back to his backpack, taking a fork out of a side pocket. He ripped the top of the tin off with the tab as Stepa eagerly did the same, practically digging into the tin of meat.

Yet again, the taste was bland, but filling. Valera brought out his small canteen and took a swig of water as Stepa did the same. Valera grabbed both of the tins and put them inside of a hole in the wall, designating it as the unofficial trash can.

Valera’s PDA emitted a beep, and Stepa’s did the same a moment later. The STALKER glanced down at his to see a changed number: Instead of one PDA in the area, there were now seven, six marked as red on his map and coming in his direction. Valera calmly turned to Stepa, who was staring at the door.

Moments later, the sound of feet thudding against the ground became audible. Five of the dots went away from them, probably in a room across the hall, while on went towards them. Moments later, a Freedom soldier inside of a ‘Guardian of Freedom’ suit looked inside of their room, spotting them.

“A STALKER and a Merc, eh?” The man said in Russian. “Figures. And who are you, STALKER? Our PDA registers you as ‘in the red’.”

“Valera.” Said STALKER replied. “Please stick to English, as Stepa does not understand Russian. I assume you accepted the offer that ‘Chrysalis’ had for you, if I am reading this correctly?”

“Yes, she said you would be here. Well, I won’t shoot you, but you’d better not shoot at us, either.” The Freedomer replied in English, gesturing towards the SVDmk2 on his back.

“I don’t plan on it. We’re in low numbers as it is.” Stepa said.

The Freedomer paused for a moment before nodding. “That, I believe, is certainly true. Do you have any idea where we are?”

“From what I have seen and heard, we are no longer on Earth.” Valera said. “We are at the boarders of the ‘Magical Land of Equestria’,” He made air quotes around his statement. “Where, apparently, there are unicorns, pegasi, and dozens of other mythical species.”

“Fucking fairyland.” The Freedomer summarized, and Valera nodded.

“We have already completed one mission. Let’s just say that these won’t be like the ones you would have gotten from your leader, or some trader.” Stepa said.

“I understand.” The Freedomer replied, before walked back through the mini tunnel and out into the corridor.

“Well, that was an interesting conversation.” Stepa remarked a few moments later.

Valera nodded. “Let’s just hope our next opportunity to do something will come soon, or I fear that I will die of boredom.”

“Better than being in the Zone.” Stepa remarked.

Valera paused in thought, looking up at the ceiling, before shaking his head. “Maybe not.”
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Valera shot at the Snork as it jumped towards him, quickly sidestepping to avoid its body. Turning to the left, he unloaded on a back of Blind Dogs, the mutated creatures falling to the ground. He didn’t know why he was fighting, but he did know one thing.

He was losing.

The wall to his right burst apart, showering him with bricks that, strangely, did not hurt when they hit him. He turned towards it and unloaded on the vague shape that showed there, reloading his rifle when his bullets stopped shooting. The Pseudogiant charged at him as he continued firing, slamming into him as he backpedaled, flinging him back into a wall. Valera fired off a final burst, and the mutant went down, dead.

‘This is not your home, Human.’ A voice boomed in his head.

Getting off of the ground, he looked around, spotting a vaguely human shape through the mist in the distance. He could see it, and knew it was a Controller, one of the deadliest mutants in the Zone, but he did not care. He could feel his grip on sanity loosen as he looked at it, unable to turn away.

Suddenly, the area around him turned to mist, and the sky slowly turned to a black sheet, with what looked like stars dotting it. Even the Controller he had seen went away, dissolving into the dream that he now knew he was in. In the distance, through the mist around him, he thought he spotted something… Different. It looked at him, whatever it was, before disappearing.

Valera opened his eyes and sat up, breathing heavily. He was back inside of the cavern, where his new home truly was, on the comfortable bed in it. Swinging his left to the left, he sat on the edge of the bed and put his face in his hands, going through everything that he had seen in his head.

For reasons unknown to him, and to science, the Zone produced nightmares. Terrifying nightmares that often had STALKERs refusing to sleep inside of the Zone because of them. Sometimes STALKERs would simply die in their sleep, consumed by whatever had caused them.

He knew he should not be getting them here, as he was nowhere near the Zone now. Maybe this was a normal nightmare; God knows he had enough experience with the horrors of the Zone to get them. The question on his mind, however, was simple: What had caused the nightmare to vanish?

“Trouble sleeping?” Asked a voice in front of him.

Looking up, Valera could see Stepa, the Merc, laying down on his bed all the way across the room, looking at him. Frowning, Valera nodded.

“Zone nightmare.” He explained, causing Stepa to raise an eyebrow.

“Aren’t we out of the Zone?” The Merc asked.

“Don’t I know it…” The STALKER replied, laying back down and pulling the cotton blanket over him. Checking his PDA, he noted the time. “It’s around noon, you know.”

“Does time matter in a cave?” Stepa asked.

“No, but I want it to matter. Fuck it; I’m getting something to eat. Do you have anything?”

“Four pieces of bread.”

“Hand me one, will you?” Valera said.

Stepa turned around, digging through his pack, before coming up with two small loaves of bread. He tossed one towards Valera, who caught it easily, before they both began to eat. Valera finished and washed it down with some water from his canteen, no longer feeling the pangs of hunger.

One of the Changelings walked into the room. Seeing Valera and Stepa, it quickly walked in and stopped in the middle.

“Queen Chrysalis would like to speak to you.” The Changeling said in an unwavering voice. “The Queen said to arm yourselves.” It then quickly walked out, its resolve apparently loosening.

Valera quickly got out of his bed and walked to the bottom of it, picking up the pieces of the armor. He quickly put on the leggings, locking them in black before picking up the chestpeice and slipping it on, closing certain latches and locking it on. He looked over to Stepa, who was likewise donning his armor. Finally, Valera put the chemical-resistant gloves on before donning his helmet, the armor now complete.

The STALKER grabbed his hardened pack and slung it behind him, attaching it to the armor and slipping his arms through the straps. Valera grabbed his sniper and shotgun and slung them, before slipping his Black Kite into a holster on his hip and gripping his TRs-301.

Looking over at Stepa, he could see that the Merc was likewise armed and armored.

“Are you ready?” Stepa asked.

“Let’s go. I have the route plotted.” Valera said, pulling up his miniradar images of the cave that it had been taking and activating the link to Stepa’s PDA, broadcasting the information to the Merc. They moved out of their room and past the Freedom STALKER’s room. Moving towards the waypoint that marked the ‘Throne Room’, as Valera called it, took ten minutes.

When they walked into the large room, Chrysalis was waiting for them at the other end. The STALKER and the Merc walked up to the edge of the small raised area that marked the place where she stood, and stopped.

“What do you need?” Valera asked.

“I have a disturbance I need you to investigate.” Chrysalis said. “At the entrance to the Hive, I have lost contact with the four Changeling guards. The two I sent to ‘Investigate’ likewise were pulled from the Hive Mind, and I do not want to risk further Changelings. I can still sense them, but they are not responding to any of my questioning.”

“So you want us to take a look at it.” Stepa said.

“Precisely. Do you still know the way?” Chrysalis asked.

“I have it mapped.” Valera responded.

“Then go. You will be paid depending on what it turns out to be.” Chrysalis said, obviously dismissing them. Turning around, the two set out through the tunnel, guided by Valera’s map.

“Hey Stepa?” Valera said.

“Yes Valera?” The Merc replied.

“What will we find?” The STALKER asked.

“I don’t know.”


They continued walking through the tunnel, headed for the entrance they had come in through. The tunnel, yet again, was nearly deserted, aside from the occasional Changeling walking through it or at the side, along with the occasional branching path.

In no time, they entered the area around the entrance. They were two hundred meters from the exit, when Valera noticed something.

“Stepa, are you feeling a headache?” The STALKER asked.

“For a moment, yes, but it passed.” The Merc said, pausing. “Why is there a white mist coming down the hallway?”

Valera turned towards the tunnel and frowned at what he saw. “I don’t see a white mist. It looks sort of like a ‘Fruit Punch’ anomaly. I still have the headache, though.”

“Impossible.” Stepa said. “We can’t be seeing different things, unless…” The Merc paused, looking at Valera, who had stopped walking.

“What, Stepa?” Valera asked.

Valera could see the Merc take his pack off and dig out a sheet with pills. Quickly taking off his helmet, Stepa punched one of them out and swallowed it, turning towards Valera as he put his helmet back on and holding out the sheet.

“Valera! It’s a Psi-image!” The Merc said urgently. “Take one of these.”

Valera unlatched his helmet and took one of the pills as Stepa put it back in his pack, swallowing it down. The taste was bitter, but seconds alter he could feel his headache recede. Once he put his helmet back on, he looked down the hallway and gasped.

“Stepa!” Valera said. “The ‘Fruit Punch’ I saw is gone…”

“It’s something sending out a Psi-emission.” The Merc explained. “When I signed up for the Black Dawn PMC, they gave me a sheet of Psy-Block. It suppresses Psi-emissions, but it’s very expensive. What you saw was a projection in your head.”

“So that wasn’t real?” Valera responded in an even tone. Strangely, Valera sensed himself becoming much calmer, almost detached.

“Yes. We are not alone in coming from the Zone, I think.” Stepa replied in the same tone.

‘So, you are the ones who have come near.’ A voice said in Valera’s head, which he recognized with a small amount of horror as the one from his dream. ‘It seems you are special, in a way. No STALKER has yet resisted my influence. Do you dare to come closer?’

“A Controller.” Valera stated.

“I’ve never heard one speak before.” Stepa said.

“Oh, they’re perfectly intelligent.” Valera replied. “How do you think they overpower STALKERs? Well, I have one question: How long does the Psy-Block last?”

“A little over two hours.” Stepa said.

Valera nodded. “Enough time. Let us continue forward.”

The two went forward, headed for the entrance. Valera had his TRs-301 out, and Stepa had his GP-37 at the ready. Together, they rounded a corner. In front of them was the room they had camped in the first night: Valera could see scattered ashes on the floor. At the back of the room stood the Controller, staring at them.

Valera knew that the Controller could not harm them with Psi-control with the Psy-block, but the appearance of it still alarmed him. He raised his rifle at the same time as Stepa and fired, blasting all twenty-four rounds left in his magazine at the mutant as the Merc did the same.

What surprised him, however, was that when he lowered his rifle, he could see that the Controller was still there. Six of the Changelings were around it, the strange horn-like things on their foreheads glowing a bright green. Surrounding them was what looked quite a bit like a shield out of a video game Valera had once played, and what he assumed was the thing that had kept them alive.

“What the fuck just happened?” Stepa asked, his voice still the same calm, level tone.

“I think we did not kill it.” Valera stated as he watched Stepa lower his GP-37.

‘These creatures are interesting.’ The Controller’s voice in his head said. ‘They have the abilities that you refer to as Psi, and much more besides. They were connected, but not controlled by, another one of their kind similar to myself. As you can see, you cannot harm me, and I cannot harm you.’

Valera reloaded his TRs-301 as Stepa did the same with his rifle.

“So… Stalemate?” Stepa asked.

“Stalemate.” Valera agreed. “We have enough Psy-Block to halt any attacks it makes, and it has a shield.”

They stared at the Controller, waiting. Finally, after a short time, a voice echoed in Valera’s head.

‘Do not attempt to follow us.’ It said.

The Controlled turned towards the exit, along with the Changelings, the thin shimmer of the shield clearly visible. Once they were at the edge of the exit, the rock wall that has disguised the entrance was enveloped in a green glow and slammed shut, enveloping them in darkens before Valera and Stepa activated their flashlights.

“Well… That was interesting.” Valera said as he turned around and started walking, Stepa right behind him.

“Certainly.” The Merc replied. “We just encountered a Controller, and none of us or it ended up dead.”

“I have a feeling it’s going to cause problems later.” Valera stated.

“It probably will.” Stepa agreed.

Once they got back to the throne room and explained to Chrysalis what had happened, Valera noticed that she seemed very pissed off by it. Nevertheless, she mentioned that they would receive payment for what they had found, and with that promise Valera and Stepa walked back to their room.

Valera quickly removed his SEVA suit once he arrived, enjoying the fresh air in contrast to the stale taste of the filtered air inside of his armor. It may have saved him multiple times from ‘Fruit Punch’ anomalies and other dangers, but it did not make it any less annoying.

A Changeling arrived shortly with 200 bits for each of them. From what he had gathered, it was a paltry sum, but still worth the time. Laying back in the bed, he fell off into sleep again, enjoying the opportunity to finally rest, away from the Zone and all of its dangers. Whatever the next day would hold, Valera knew he would overcome it, as he always had.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"This is a stupid idea, and I never should have agreed to it." Valera said as he lay on top of a muddy hill, thick rain pattering down on all sides.

"Come on, STALKER!" Stepa, his companion for this job, said to his right. "Buck up! You've been through fields of radiation bigger than your mother's ass. What the hell is the problem with this?"

"The fact that I am lying down in the mud, my helmet's visor is splattered with it, and I am waiting to capture a potentially dangerous pony that will be along here any second. I am doing this as a job for an entire race of mutated bugs, who also happen to be the ones paying us." Valera said, his voice filled with resignation. "Why do I always pick up the shit jobs? First the Anomaly, and now this. Fuck you, and fuck my life."

"Cheer up, Valera." Stepa replied. "At least your SEVA suit blends in. Mine is a blue and grey abomination, and as such I'd be seen at a mile away if it was not for this rain."

"If yours is blue, you'll fit in perfectly here." Valera sarcastically remarked. "See all the water in the air?"

"Well fuck you, and the leader of my Private Contracting company." Stepa replied.

"Shush, I think it's coming." Valera said, causing both to quiet down.

Two hundred meters away, a stone road ran through a small valley. Nobody would dare travel in such weather, with the rain coming down in such quantities that it reduced vision to half a kilometer. In other words, the perfect conditions to do what they were going to do.

Up ahead, down the road, a faint silhouette could be seen. As it came through the rain, more and more details could be worked out. It was a flying chariot, plain and simply, going only twenty feet above the ground. It was pulled by two of the winged ponies, both of them in dull, silver-colored armor. In the back was light blue pony with a horn on its head: Their target.

Valera slowed his breathing down as he aimed through the scope of his Vintar BC, aiming ahead and above the chariot. Letting his breath out, he slowly pulled the trigger.

A faint ping emitted from the rifle as a single 9x39mm round passed through the first, and then the second pony pulling it, punching through their armor and killing one of them, wounding the other. The chariot tipped down and crashed into the ground a moment later, spilling the unicorn onto the ground.

By this time, Valera had already put his Vintar BC away, as he and Stepa both sprinted across the field. For Valera, he had already pulled out his Chaser 13 shotgun, while Stepa had brought up his GP-37.

They reached the downed chariot within twenty seconds. With the SEVA suits aiding in their movement and Stepa's Moonlight artifact aiding him, along with Valera's Flash artifact, they had easily made the two hundred meter dash. The wounded 'guard' pony was struggling to stand, while the blue unicorn was out cold.

Valera raised his shotgun and blasted out one round, putting the wounded guard out of his misery while Stepa moved over, slinging the light blue unicorn over his shoulders.

"Ready?" Valera asked as he loaded a round into his shotgun. He quickly went for the small bags each 'guard' had carried, finding forty pieces of gold ('bits', they were called) and a small booklet, keeping both.

"Ready." Stepa said.

The STALKER and the Merc quickly jogged away from the area, entering the forest two minutes later and following a thin path towards their destination. At the clear sat a bored-looking Changeling, who turned to look at them.

"You got the unicorn?" The Changeling asked, looked and them and finding Stepa. "Good. I'll teleport us all back now."

With that, all four, counting the unconscious unicorn, stepped into the clearing. With a glow of the Changeling's horn, all suddenly found themselves in the room they had always teleported back to, with almost a dozen Changelings in front of them, including 'Chrysalis'.

"Well done." Chrysalis said as the Changeling who had teleported them picked up the unicorn with a green glow, walking off with it. "That pony will be the keystone of our next few plans."

"Wonderful. When do we get paid?" Stepa asked.

"Right now." Chrysalis said, two bags surrounded in a dull green glow floating forward and into Valera and Stepa's hands. "The agreed-upon sum, of course. You may return to your rooms."

With that, the STALKER and the Merc quickly started to walk back, entering their room a full ten minutes later. With that, both of them sat down on their beds, quickly starting to take off their armor.

It had been almost twenty hours since the Controller had gone away when a Changeling had contacted them for a mission. Valera and Stepa had both agreed to it, to rid themselves of boredom if nothing else. Twenty minutes later, they lying down on that hill. A full hour later, and they were back.

"Well, they do not lack for easy tasks, if nothing else." Valera said as he finally finished unlatching his chestpeice, the last part to his armor he usually took off.

"Yes, certainly." Stepa said as he went through the motions of taking his SEVA suit off. Being an off-the-shelf suit with almost no modifications, it was harder to take off than Valera's, as well as being less advanced in most of its systems.

Meanwhile, Valera picked up the bag, looking through it. As had been agreed, inside sat twenty of the '100-Bit' gold pieces. Valera put it, along with the forty 'One-Bit' pieces, on a shelf next to his bed, adding them to his growing amount of the local currency.

With that being done, he took out the small booklet he had taken from the dead pony, opening it to the front. Apparently, front the writing it the front, it was the guard's journal. While most men would be put off by that, Valera always kept such things, as a reminder of the STALKERs he had been forced to kill. He had almost thirty individual journals or notebooks on his PDA, some of them almost textbooks, while others were of a more personal nature.

Making a decision to himself, Valera put the small booklet inside one of the waist pockets of his SEVA suit, the tough Nomex material resistant to almost anything the Zone could throw at it, and certainly anything in this world as well.

With that being done, Valera propped his weapons up against the wall, stacked his SEVA suit in a pile next to his bed, and hopped down on the bed, content to another day of boredom.
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Present




There were some days where Valera wondered why he bothered getting up. Every single morning (or as close as he could find to one in a cave system), he had contemplated simply wandering off and falling off a cliff. It would have been unnoticeable, and the only people - beings, he corrected himself - who would have missed him would have been a Merc and a transforming pony-bug.

This was one of those days.

"I fucking hate you, Stepa!" Valera yelled as he leaned around the corner, firing three rounds from his TRs-301 at one of the military STALKERs down the cave hallway. The man flopped to the ground in a heap as the 5.56mm bullets shattered the faceplate on his suit, killing him. Valera went back behind the wall just as a barrage of bullets passed through the space he had just vacated.

"Why the fuck are you blaming me, you asshole!" The Merc replied as they traded fire with the Ukrainian Military troops just down the corridor.

"Why? Oh, I don't know. It might just be because you're the one who dragged me along with you into this!" Valera replied, huddling behind the outcropping of rock that happened to be the only barrier between the bullets and himself, and he didn't trust the Kevlar panels that covered his SEVA suit to protect him against a rifle round. Slowly, Valera went over the morning in his mind, wondering how he had gotten himself roped in this situation.




Twenty minutes earlier...




Valera stared blankly at the booklet in his hands. After fighting his way around the closest thing to Hell itself, he shouldn't be having second thoughts about opening a book. But here he was, staring at it with no small amount of hesitation.

He supposed the reason for it was a reluctance to read the words of somebody now dead. Valera had 'liberated' the booklet from a dead guard on his last job: One of his particular habits was reading the PDAs of his dead opponents, something that he did to remind himself of the cost of what he did.

So why was he waiting?

Sighing, he set the small book down on an alcove above his bed, alongside much of his equipment.

"Stepa, does selling your work for money ever get easier?" Valera asked the Merc, who turned around from loading a magazine to look at him.

"No." Stepa replied, the message short but to the point.

Valera sighed again, wondering what he was going to do today.

His thought was answered moments later, as a Changeling rushed into the room.

"Queen Chrysalis requests your presence. Now!" The Changeling quickly blurted out. "It's an emergency."

"Wonderfully convenient." Valera dryly noted as he and Stepa quickly hopped up, working to don their armor as quickly as they could. "Right as I have nothing to do, another crisis seems to pop up."

"Life is such." Stepa noted as both of them finished securing their SEVA suits.

"Still, it's bullshit." Valera noted as he put his helmet over his head, switching his radio on before continuing. "I just wish I could have a day off for once. I have spent months working to get away from the Zone, and it is not fair that the same dangers have come around to find me again."

Stepa had no reply, so Valera quickly finished by grabbing his TRs-301 and his Chaser-13 shotgun. Most of the ammo for each was already strapped to bullet- and anomaly-resistant pouches on his suit, so he didn't have to worry about grabbing each individual magazine for his rifle every time he needed it.

Looking over at the Merc, Valera could see that he had grabbed his GP-37 and finished putting his suit on. They were ready.

Valera turned towards the Changeling. "Lead the way."





"There is a problem." The strange bug-like 'Changeling' named Chrysalis said as the STALKER and the Merc entered.

"So I have gathered." Valera stated dryly. "What is it?"

"More of your kind have entered the caves." Chrysalis hissed. "They have killed half a dozen sentries, and are holding one of the entrances. We believe they are waiting for something, and you are the best ones to combat them."

"We'll do it." Stepa quickly replied before Valera could.

"Good. You know the entrance: It is the one you used." Chrysalis said. "Come back when you are finished."

"Yeah, yeah." Stepa replied as he and Valera turned around.

"Who do you think it is?" The STALKER whispered.

"I think we'll find out when we get there, Valera." The Merc replied.




Present




Valera's train of thought cut off as another burst of gunfire erupted. Rounds flew past his makeshift cover, to impact on some cave wall far down the tunnel.

"Stepa, any ideas?" Valera asked over the radio. His Merc friend, who was huddled behind a similar rock outcropping, shook his head.

"None at the moment." Stepa replied. "They didn't exactly train me for this type of situation."

"STALKERs, come out!" A voice over the radio said as the gunfire died down. "Your situation is hopeless!"

"Pishov ty [Fuck you]!" Valera yelled back in Ukrainian. The gunfire quickly resumed. "Damn it all. I'm going to use a grenade, Stepa."

"Do it!" The Merc replied.

Valera pulled out one of his F1 grenades, took the pin out, flipped off the safety lever, and tossed it around the corner.

*boom*

Both Valera and Stepa stepped out from behind cover, scanning for targets. A three-round burst from Valera's TRs-301 lanced out, piercing the thin Kevlar covering that the first soldier had. Moments later, Stepa fired his rifle, blowing a hole through the helmet of a second.

The third and final one was still getting up from the grenade blast when Valera kicked him in the chest, knocking the soldier down. The STALKER was on him in seconds, Valera's foot holding him down. By the time he finally put two and two together, Valera had already unclipped his sidearm, a well-maintained SIP-t.

"Stepa, what do I do with this poor bastard?" Valera asked over the radio, motioning towards the downed soldier.

"Just let him go." The Merc replied, scanning the area for more targets. "You don't need to kill everything you meet, after all."

Valera grunted, lifting his foot off of the soldier before looking down at him and muttering a single word. "Run."

And run he did, the Ukrainian Army soldier taking off towards the entrance of the cave. With the man's rifle lying on the ground and his pistol in Valera's hands, the STALKER knew he would not be a threat.

"Come on, let's see what we can find on the bodies." Stepa said, already kneeling over one of them. Valera simply shrugged, reaching down to search through the pouches of the soldier next to him.

By the time he felt he had finished, he had acquired two of the Army-designed First Aid Kits, four tins of meat, an AKM-74/2U with 240 rounds of 5.45mm BP ammunition, as well as two clips of .45ACP for the SIP.

Valera noticed that the second body appeared to be lying on top of something. Rolling the body over, he grabbed a bag that it appeared the soldier had been holding on to. The STALKER opened the top, reaching his hand in to search for the contents.

The first thing he pulled out was a package with eight small rolls of gauze bandages, which he quickly pocketed. The second objects his hands found just happened to be a pair of RDG-5 grenades, which Valera gingerly attached to his belt. The final object in the pad, though, surprised him.

His gloved hands pulled out a single PDA, which Valera swiftly activated out of curiosity. His jaw dropped as he saw the contents. It was one of the newest military models, something that no STALKER could ever afford. It had dozens of documents full of clear-classified information, ranging from hundreds of military stash locations scattered around the Zone, all the way to contacts with various arms dealers in Rostok that even the Bartender could not have known of.

All of that would have been useless, however, had it not been for the information that it did possess in this new world, ranging from a few buried caches of supplies and weapons out in the desert, to information on the anomaly that had sent them here. From the information that the PDA contained, there were a grand total of 48 STALKERs of various factions that had been taken by the anomaly thus far, and three teams with four soldiers each that had stumbled into it by accident.

This happened to be one of those teams.

Valera quickly scanned over the data from the anomaly. From what the pad had recorded, it expanded and contracted on a daily basis, never going farther than a hundred meters from the center. However, it had produced almost twenty different artifacts as of the writing, and while most STALKERs - and the Military - were beginning a rush towards Pripyat, quite a few had chosen to try their luck with harvesting the artifacts contained within the anomaly.

This, of course, had led to dozens of skirmishes between Duty, Freedom, the Military, multiple Mercenary groups, and plenty of STALKERs over the anomaly itself.

Valera shook his head, turning off and pocketing the PDA. The information on it was invaluable, and it was definitely something that he would be downloading to his own PDA later.

"Are you done, Valera?" He heard Stepa ask impatiently.

"Yes, I am done." The STALKER replied. "Let's get back to the bug lady."





At the end of it all, Valera and Stepa had both been handed thirty of the 100-bit pieces for their work. Both of them had swiftly retired to their room: Valera to go over the PDA, and the Merc to fuss over the two AC-96/2 rifles he had taken.

As he finally stripped the last of the armor off, Valera sighed, falling onto his bed and taking out the PDA he had taken. Turning it on, he picked up where he had left off, starting on the military files contained inside.

To his frustration, a box prompting him for a password appeared. Over the next few minutes, he tried several obvious combinations, ranging from numbers to the names of military units. Finally, he sighed and entered 'Password' as the password.


Access Granted
Welcome, Lieutenant Maksym


Valera's hand swiftly met his face as he groaned, silently cursing the sheer stupidity and unoriginality that some people happened to possess.

A new screen came up, with several subjects given in list form.

The Zone: Basic Information
Supply Locations/Maps
Contacts/Safe Areas
Messages
NEW: Northern Rostok Anomaly

Valera tapped his finger on the last one, and quickly found himself inundated with dozens of briefing sheets, scientific papers, and data charts. He quickly exited most of them, narrowing down the amount of information to just a few small summary documents. From the data within, the Anomaly itself was giving off an immense amount of gravitational readings, as if it contained a near-infinite mass at the center, while at the same time no effects were shown from this outside of the anomaly itself.

Scientific trackers, like the special bolts that Valera had thrown into it, still sent out readings, but the results given were completely random, quite a lot like static on a television screen. The area of the anomaly itself fluctuated regularly, growing and shrinking in no discernible pattern.

Seeing that he would learn nothing of use, Valera exited out of this section and tapped on 'Supply Locations/Maps' and then on 'Maps'. Several icons popped up, ranging from 'Anomaly Locations' to 'Lab X-17'. Valera scrolled down with a flick of his finger, and tapped the one labeled 'Unknown Location'. 

Immediately, a large map popped up, starting at a location almost forty kilometers to the west, and ending at the entrance to the cave. A location marked 'Arrival' had an area ten kilometers in diameter around it mapped, with a .5km-wide path leading from it to the ending point. Scattered around the explored area were at least eight stash locations, as well as several markers labeled with the tag 'Battle with ________'.

In short, this PDA was a virtual gold mine.

Valera used a short cord to establish a connection between his PDA and the new one, beginning a download of all the data contained within: More than ten gigabytes of high-grade military information. At the same time, he combined the mapping data from that PDA with his, noting that they had appeared to the south-west of him, and that he had gone along a track almost parallel to them.

Finally, after several minutes, the information finished transferring, and Valera felt it was time to alert his friend.

"Stepa." He said after a moment. "You need to see this..."
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Ready?" Valera asked his companion, Stepa, as both stood outside of the entrance to the cave.

"Ready." Stepa confirmed, nodding.

With that, Valera took the first step out onto the barren landscape.

It had been only a day since the small battle in the tunnels, and in the time since, both he and Stepa had poured over the PDA's files. It was a treasure trove of information, and the supplies inside of the stashes could prove very valuable.

And it was quickly decided that they needed them.

Each had taking only one weapon: Valera had grabbed his trademark TRs-301, with the attachments removed, while Stepa had opted for his GP-37. Both of them carried four rolls of gauze and two regular medical kits each, and with no heavy artifacts to bog them down, they could easily haul a large amount of items.

The only problem would be getting to them. The nearest stash marked on the PDA was four and a half kilometers to the west, buried in a satchel under a rock, at the edge of the desert.

With a sigh, Valera steeled himself for the walk ahead.





Boring.

That was the only word that Valera could use to describe the trip mentally, even as he used his covered hands to dig for the satchel. There was literally nothing to distract him during the trip. At least in the Zone, you had to avoid anomalies, and fight off packs of Blind Dogs. However annoying they may have been, they at least kept a man on edge.

As he continued to dig, he felt his hand grasp something. With a quick pull, Valera brought it up, revealing a dark grey pack.

"What's in it?" Stepa asked from above it as Valera opened it.

"Good shit." The STALKER replied, pulling out eight packets of Vinca, a common anti-coagulation drug used in small quantities by the Military and those STALKERs who could afford it. Needless to say, those who could were very rare, and most simply choose to rely on artifacts and bandages.

Valera quickly pulled out the rest of the contents, coming out with four military medical kits, a PSO-1 scope, and a disassembled VLA Special Assault Rifle inside of a case. Also known as the SA Avalanche in some circles, it was quite like the Vintar BC that Valera used, although with less accuracy and a faster rate of fire.

"Do you want the VLA?" Valera asked. "Two boxes of ammunition inside of the case, along with a telescopic sight."

"Sure. You can have the military kits. Let's split the Vinca." The Merc replied, grabbing the case for the rifle and strapping it to his pack.

"Okay." Valera replied, standing up and dusting himself off after he finished packing his gear. "On to the next one?"

"Let's go."





Valera lay down on the top of a dune of sand, lining up the iron sights of his TRs-301 on the distant figure of the Bandit.

"Two o' clock, five hundred meters distant, forty meters down." Valera heard Stepa whisper.

"There are five of them. Take one and let them scatter, or kill them all?" Valera asked.

"Take them down." Stepa replied coldly. "I don't like those bottom feeders. The world would be better off without them."

"Ready yourself." Valera said, preparing to take the shot.

Several seconds later, a loud crack sounded, swiftly followed by the body of the Bandit collapsing onto the ground.

Valera swung his aim towards the next target and fired another round, killing the half-alert man just as Stepa burst-fired his GP-37, killing two more. The final bandit fell moments later, costing the STALKER one more round.

"No more around. Let's check them out." Valera said, standing up and running across the sand towards the downed bandits.

As Valera arrived at the scene of the slaughter, two minutes later, he quickly spotted a good prize: A Striker shotgun, often nicknamed 'The Eliminator' by Zone veterans. It held a hell of a lot of shells, and although it was often considered 'weak' by some, it was definitely something to hold on to.

Within a few minutes, he had scavenged a TOZ-34 shotgun, along with sixty 'shot' shells for it, while Stepa examined a Viper 5 SMG. While based off of the MP5, the Viper 5 was build outside of the Zone to trader's specifications, and then smuggled in, making it quite useful for new STALKERs.

A short time later, the two set off again, heading for the second stash.





A full hour later, and they were headed back, content with what they had found. The second stash had been empty, and the third that they had checked had been raided recently, but the group of bandits and the first stash had yielded enough.

Valera, though, was wondering where he was going to store his two brand new shotguns. Both of them already had enough firearms and ammunition to equip a small team, and it was stored - haphazardly - in their 'rooms'.

In any case, tomorrow or the next day was likely to yield an assignment. Hopefully, it would reduce the amount of time he spent on his bed, stripping his weapons apart and putting them back together.

Another part of him wonder if there ever would be a way to traverse back to the Zone. He had no desire to, at least not at the moment, but he had to retire eventually. He could not live our his entire life in the caves, moving from mission to mission. And the amount of gold he had just in coins would have been enough to supply him for well over a year.

Sighing, Valera focused on putting on foot in front of the other, willing himself to walk faster, if only to reach his makeshift 'home' sooner...