America! Fuck Yeah!

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Heading North through Garbage I was jumped by a pair of pseudodogs that managed to hurt me a bit. Kept pressing forward to the Duty outpost and just as I was about to reach there all hell broke loose - I had to sprint to cover as bullets flew everywhere and in quick order the Duty guys were dying left, right and center! A large mercenary group was attacking, all armed with Colt M16s so I figure they're Americans. Bastards were trying to kill me too though so I had to put an end to all of them. Only two duty guys were left alive after the massacre, and it took me a few trips to Raven, the fat merchant at the depot, to sell all their stuff. Continued to the Bar, killing a chimera and bloodsucker duo and a (tough) pack of dogs on the way in. Once there I figured I'd do the arena circuit, easily completing the first bunch of fights but could not finish since I was "not experienced" enough to proceed. Took my winnings and picked up quests from all over, without any real intent to do any of them this time. This time I'm looking out for numero uno.

Just like Team America!

Continued the march North where I found a friendly group of Freedom dudes in a farmstead I could trade with. Also took out "Master" again at Wolf's camp - this time with a bullet to the head after selling him all my stuff (then taking it off his corpse). Seems that somewhere during the arena battles I had misplaced my knife! Oh well. Since I was nearby I decided to clear out the bloodsucker village again but without my fancy radar thing or my good guns this was a little more dangerous than usual. Fortunately the quest completed after I killed just two. Snuck into mill to collect gear and got out of there before I woke up anything else. I was told by the Duty guys (back at the Bar) that there was a good rifle held by some mercs nearby so I went hunting that - found a few of them camped out in another farm, but the main group was at a roadblock. Managed to catch them unawares and only had to fight their two sentries. The rifle was a little underwhelming though. Interesting to note these ones too all had Colts - more Americans?

Still, I took it and their gear then sold stuff at the Freedom base at the Warehouses before proceeding to the barrier again, hearing gunfire as I approached. No monolith dudes rushing it this time, but a pair of bloodsuckers had killed all but two dudes. After reloading all my weapons I pushed on to the Radar.

Anomaly at the End of the World

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Monolith patrols were abound in this place, and I managed to down a dozen of them before the high radiation in the area became too much to bear. Decided to withdraw for now, only to find there was no way back! Well shit. Loaded the game from the Warehouse and returned to the Bar where I picked up a ton of quests - the main one being in Radar again, as well as my green scientist suit (good rad protect). Now that I was all prepared I journeyed back to the Warehouse... or tried to - only to find the way there -gone-! Instead I walked down the road, hoping it connected only to fall off the edge of the world and into bytespace. Frustrated by the long loading times and the broken travel links I decided to call it quits here. And so due to this strange anomaly I was hit by another bout of amnesia and blacked out.

Oh man, not this again.

When I awoke sometime later, I found myself near Cordon - as "the Collector". Yes, I love the game so much I'm willing to try it's other mode out still! Seems I traded all my good weapons for a lot of MP3 USB sticks. After the initial blowout in which I was joined by free stalker Petrushka in my hiding zone, I made my way back to Cordon to see Sid. Petrushka didn't follow me and instead died to Colonel Vodka's team. As soon as I arrived, the town was attacked by two waves of mercs! Managed to fight them off and yoink their gear, but Sid was no longer opening his door to me so selling stuff was going to be tricky since not many people here had money (and half of them were dead). Decided to forge my way North again, killing a large bandit group at the farmstead and fortunately finding a pair of veteran free stalkers I could sell stuff too.

Had to eliminate a smaller military team at the tracks crossing (one of whom had invis armor), and found one of the downed soldiers was just wounded. Decided to give him a medkit, and he changed alliance quickly to a free stalker. This was a good call as he had quite a bit of money to buy more gear. Left my new friend and continued on my journey, finding Fox's group under attack by dogs as usual. They had it under control before I arrived, losing only one member. The rest of the road was relatively clear. Also nice to note that "the Collector" difficulty is far easier than "Master" which I was playing before in that there are now 80% less anomalies. Where as before I had to navigate a tight maze in a sea of death, now I can actually just walk down the road which is kind of refreshing. :)

Guns make the World go around

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Managed to convince Sakharov to tell me where to get a mini-gun and he told me to talk to the army guy that was arriving by helicopter. As if on queue I heard the chopper arriving and stood outside to meet Major Dad. Yes, that was his name. He told me that the good doctor will exchange the gear for me in exchange for some data disk to be retrieved from the wild territory. I agreed, then watched as he got back in his helicopter and just as it was taking off, it hit a random anomaly and exploded. WTF? Kruglov also asked me to return into the lab to pick up a laptop which I did, meeting very little resistance this time around before heading back to the Rostok Wild Territory to look for this data thingie. The usual sniper bandit and dogs were there but this time there was also a huge amount of RATS! Spent so much ammo eradicating those little vermin that I was almost glad when I then had to fight a lone random poltergeist - at least he was easier! Scoured the area for quite awhile till I finally found the tape hidden in some grass near the railroad tracks. Low on ammo I decided to make my way to Bar first, using the last of my sniper rounds on a Merc squad guarding the exit.

Then I became like Gene Hackman at the end of this movie.

Right after entering the "safe zone" I had to do a quick-draw duel against an "invisible" stalker of the "Avenger" faction. It took a few loads before I managed to shoot him dead before he could launch a grenade into my face. Not sure where he came from but after looting his stuff made my way to the Barman to sell goods and hand in more quests. Got a new sniper rifle for it too. Decided to continue South to complete tasks there and after testing out my new rifle on a burer and his dogs on the South road and waiting for a blowout to pass, made my way through the Garbage (after handing over 10 medkits to a Duty captain there) directly to Agroprom with no incident. Found a friendly group of stalkers had taken up residence at the facility there, though half their number was killed by a rampaging bloodsucker.

Since I had a task to clear out a bandit who had taken up residence in the tunnels below, I decided to do that first and managed to salvage his super exoskeleton armor before continuing to Strelok's stash again to loot the items I previously left behind, and some I missed entirely. A pair of Izolms and four blood suckers tried to stop me but they all got saiga'd to death. Upgrading my radar to detect those tentacle-mouth freaks was really paying off. A small military squad was also present at the very end but the grunts had no idea what hit them and didn't even put up a fight.

Return of the Yantar

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

At the Garbage a band of 3 mercs pulled a really tough ambush on me (flanking from both sides) probably because of what I did to their buddies at Cordon previously. Survived that and started restocking on grenades from the Duty guys at their road block. Also got a nice sniper rifle from one of them for giving him a whole bunch of flesh eyes. At the entry to Bar the road was again full of anomalies and sure enough the Burer and his pet pseudodog were still lurking about. It was bright daytime now though, and with the new rifle I managed to one-shot the Burer between the eyes before he could react. The dog was a bit more annoying, hiding in the tall grass so I just kept pushing forward and when I thought he was almost on me, I turned around quickly and Saiga'd the mutt in the face.

Some strange things happening at the South watch to Bar when I got there though - they were being attacked by bandits from INSIDE the base? Maybe a group escaped from the arena? No matter, they handled the threat though half the guards were now dead. Handed in a whole bunch of things at the Bar itself, upgraded my radar to detect bloodsuckers, and left my duty armor (found it off some one at Dark Valley ages ago) to be repaired and in its place am finally using the science suit Kruglov gave me at Yantar. Speaking of which, that's where I need to head next - to find another lab. You mean the one that kills me as soon as I step in there? Yeah probably that one.

Didn't end up using the science suit for very long as there was a large group of exo-skeleton mercs waiting for me in the Wild Territory (the ruined city) whom I sniped down from far. Managed to salvage one of exo suits and continued on my way past the multiple anomaly fields to get the high ground. Good thing too as I saw new blips on my radar moving around really quick. That upgrade was working. From the rooftops I also eliminated a large pack of psydogs that had taken residence there as well as the odd sniper or two. Finally after what felt like a long trek I made it back to Yantar and was given the task of escorting my old buddy Kruglov to take some readings to develop an anti-instant death helmet. For a scientist he handles a gun well, and we completed the task through a good number of zombies with ease (though we did both black out at one point - good thing no zombies were around then!). Once we returned to the mobile camp Sahkarov used the data to complete the device and I was finally ready to look for the next undoubtedly spooky laboratory.

Exoskeletons are cool. This is the Sarcos prototype.

Southern Circuit

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Blew through Bar pretty quick, though I had to take some time on the Southern border to snipe a whole pack of dogs waiting for me. Tried sniping a wandering Burer too but I ended up having to just run past the telepathic bastard. Pushed through Garbage to Agroprom for a small detour of sniping a military grunt at a toxic lake. Also found myself attacked by a small litter of fast moving cats. Yes. Cats. God damn. Everything here wants to kill me. Fortunately some drop good loot like the bandit bunch I ran into. Managed to pickup a "Bandit Exo-skeleton suit".

Decided to then take a short-cut back to the Cordon via a foresty path filled with anomalies, boars and fleshes. Thought I'd finish off a few quests while I was here only to find I couldn't for some because a) the quest giver had travelled to a different location and b) the item I retrieved and used was so damaged they wanted me to fix it first. Sigh. Fortunately Sid repairs for resonable prices. Got a replacement shottie while I was at it and I also found a fat guy named Tolik bleeding out in the bush, patched him up and helped him get vengeance on the dog pack that got him and his buddies.

I also met a group of three hunters who wanted my help in staving off an attack by bandits near the rail-crossing. I agreed and sure enough a large firefight ensued with the hunters all dying in the first 10 seconds of combat. To make things more interesting a group of wandering stalkers and Colonel Vodka and his squad decided to join in. In the end everyone except for the invincible Colonel and myself were dead.

After the blood bath I had to elude the Colonel with a large detour, then it was time to push back North. My journey was slightly delayed by a heavy storm so I made camp to wait it out near the ruins where Fox's team was - though one of their number had been killed by another pack of dogs. They weren't what I came across when following the road to Garbage though. It was this guy...

Yup. A psuedogiant.

Fortunately I was well stocked on launchable grens and took it down with no fuss. Still high on ammo and supplies, I headed for my next stop: the Dark Valley.

A Bar full of Bullets

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

On my way back to Garbage I met the trader Adrenalin who had setup shop in the research station as well as the "flying" trader named Gray. Seriously, he lands his helicopter at a spot and opens a temporary shop. Also had to deal with one more military squad waiting for me on the road. Back at the Garbage I made my way through the duty checkpoint after helping them with a stampede of boars from the dark valley and began the trek to the "Bar". The path was littered with anomalies, and the pack of dogs didn't help. Apparently the pseudo-psy dogs gained the ability to pull weapons from my hands too. Great. More fantastic was that a blowout was on its way.

Smarter than the average dog.

With a mad dash I made it to a bunker and waited with a squad of Duty guys for the emission to pass. After it was over, I had finally made it to the duty controlled city of "Bar" (which seemed to be run by the barkeep no less). Some interesting people there too - one being Gordon Freeman. Yup, exactly the one you were thinking of. There's also an arena here. Apparently these crazy guys don't have enough to shoot at so they shoot at each other for sport. I knew there was good money in it though so I joined the tournament. First two rounds were one on one matches with pistols which I won easily. The third match which pitted me against a swede and his frenemy with shotguns was perhaps the hardest and a lesson in cover. Fourth match was a teams of 3 event which was easy since I had bait, followed by a round against 2 spetznaz who had no chance since they gave me a decent rifle for that fight.

Sixth round was very fun as I was fully equipped against a band of six captured bandits. After slaughtering them it was I who was almost completely unarmed against a veteran in powerarmor. I had four grenades to win the match and only needed one. The finals saw me go against 4 other Exoskeleton dudes (with me being the only one without exo armor). However since it was a free for all, I let the idiots kill each other and picked off the winner at the end. With that, I was the new tournament champion - for now anyway. It runs everyday.

After talking to everyone and now having a super long list of things to do, I decided to push onto the main part of the city that "Bar" is attached to. Large warning signs conveniently let me know that it is no longer a secure area. Nevertheless - I pushed on into Rostok.