First, I decided to check the bridge again, or rather, under the brifge. Maybe we find something. And I am rewarded!
That's it for now, seems like I've got a whole lot of work in front of me.
But that's not the end of all! Looking around, I find a crashed car, containing some orders and a key labeled B. The orders say that somebody named K.S.Wlasow, Lieutnant Colonel, kept key B. So that must be what's left of his car. Colonel P.P. Slawin, driving at the end of the convoy, has key A. Yes!
Once again I make my way across the bridge,
get the second key, and open Pandora's Box
Those Bloodsuckers are going to pay.
Back through the beginning night, to the Bloodsucker lair, 10 kilo of gas in tow.
Mutants are more active at night, but I can't wait. First I help two Stalkers fend of two Zombies,
, then encounter some more.
.
(This picture hides one Zombie. Can you spot him? All entries go to brainscorcher@stalkerweb.ru. Stalkers, Zombies, Mutants and military spies are exempt.)
One of the most disturbing things those Zombies do, besides being, well, brainless, is that they sometimes simply refuse to die, thrashing about on the floor, and even getting up after a while. I take him out, and it's probably merciful, too. God...
More mutants!
And here's the lair. Why did I come here at night again? Just keep your nerves, and do waht is necessary. You'll be out of here soon. It's just that with those antennas pointing into the nightsky, and the wind howling in the trees... it'll take a dead man to not jump at shadows. Not that there aren't any walking dead around...
Oh, speaking of being attacked
First, four Flesh come charging at me. Some serious beating of meat ensues.
A boar for good measure.
And some dogs.
(Not displayed) I decide to take this as a good omen, because, honetly, I can't USE a bad one. Let's do this.
First we connect the tank to the ventilation.
Than we open the valve.
And than we let the poison do it's evil work. That should finish them.
But then I hear a roar. Footsteps, several. Oh god!
I'm not alone...
I prepare for them, getting out my shotgun. even if I'll die now, I'll die in the knowledge that the two who escaped will be the only two.
But
(after copious amounts of reloading) I prevail. My heart calms. <It is done.
I really apologize here. It is very ahrd to take a picture of something that is visible only when slashing at you, and the darkness doesn't help. They also have the ability to grab you and suck for a while, something that made me shiver at my PC (complete with sucking sounds), but you don't see much of it on a screenshot, as our hero just stares into the sky and whimpers.
The lair of the monsters lies calm now, and all that is left for me is to return to Beard and tell of my success.
On my way home, I encounter some more dogs, but luckily they pass me by.
I'm not sure if it is visible here, but the pseudodogs have eyes that flash whit, a sight that is most unsettling in the darkness, especially when accompanied by barks and the sound of paws coming towards you.
Back home I take a well deserved rest
(You can see a part of the reward here, a detector of the newest kind, which I'll put to good use later)
And spend some of the money on improvements, repairs and ammuniton.
Ah, a bright new day! I have slept well, and am ready for new adventures. Today, I'm going to investigate one of the crashsites, and put my dtector to good use finding artifacts. I need some money.
Some more Zombies in my way. Thse guys can't aim to save their life, and ahve the senses of a rock.
I take them out quickly.
And here's the home of some guy named Noah. Stalkers say, he has found a way to acces the platue Stingray 3 crashed on. Judging from his ship, he's also either a friend of modern art, or mad. Not that those two would be in any way exlcusive to each other.
Knocking on his door, and being greated by curses and a shotgun round, i decide he's the latter. And when he talks about how a tide of mutants and blowouts will ravage the land, and only he in his ship will survive, I decide that my suspicion was right.
At least he and his dog make a lovely pair. It seems that madness attracts certain kind of specimen. But look, they are a lovely family.
But before I go, let's go anomaly hunting!
Just a few metres away from Noahs ark (as he calls it) I find the anomaly named scar, though I really can't imagine why they named it so. Carefully scouting around the chasm, my detector finds an artifact down there, and I decide to go in! It seems that it wasn't the heat that made the air above the scar like that, but some sort of psy emission. Having just reinforced my gasmask with a special emtal ring against psy emissions, i decide to take the risk. Quickly in there, grab the artifact, and get out!
I feel woozy now, but nothing has happened
(really, nothing did happen, although the psy-warning was yellow. Either I'mm well protected (which I don't believe, or psy-radiation takes effect only when above a certain treshold)
The artifact, called lightning, protects me from electricity, but depoits radiation in my body. Sell it.
(I have the feeling that nearly all artifacts who cause radiation suck mightily. Radiation really kills, and collects fast.)
After the successful foray into this anomaly, let's head to the old gass tation. Beard told me of a stash there, and I want to see what I find in the claw anomaly just next to it.
Here are the goods,
but just as I emerge from unde the rocks, a blowout begins. And, much to my dismay, I find that the next safe hiding place is down in the chasm wher i rescued a metal chest from snorks. Yeah. But it beats being roasted alive.
So, down the rabbit hole I go...
... and, after fighting my way out of it again, I stand next to the claw anomaly, from which i bring two stoneflowers and a dose of radiation. There is progress.
But enough with the fooling around, time to think of the real reason why I'm here.
Noah, by the way, reveals that to get on to the plateau, you have to jump into an anomaly. I wonder how he discovered this? Genius and madmen...
The chopper seems to have been overrun by snorks, the onboard computer says that it suffered a failure of both engins, and reveals three locations marked for evacuation. I'll visit them soon.
Sadly, three of my comrades never reached any of these points
On my way back to the Sadowsk
(the headquarter-ship), I stumble upon a last anomaly, called the circle.
Again, I run in, grab what I can, and try not to get too scorched.
