Monolithic Defense

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

Holy crap. Upon arriving down the main Southern road I came across a monolith controlled check-point under attack by a military squad PLUS a helicopter. Deciding to stay far away I watched through my binocs as the monolith team absolutely tore the military guys and their flying support into pieces! Though it didn't look like they lost any of their own number I figured they should have at least been injured so began my own assault. Downed the first two with sniped headshots while they were unaware (damage bonus I guess) then began slugging it out with the remaining four from behind an overturned supply truck on the road. Killed two more in the shootout, but the last two were giving me big problems. One had a heavy MG while the other was armed in a super exo with a Vintar - they were beating me no matter what I tried. It soon became clear that due to my low count of remaining ammo and the growing annoyance of having to restart the game per death I would not be beating them this night. With a loud curse and louder gunfire I withdrew back to the warehouses and left them to their victory.

It was like bashing my head against this.

With a quick check on my map it looked like there was another way to reach the Radar and that was through Yantar of all places, so I made my way to the merc checkpoint I had cleared earlier which led me back to the Rostok Wild Territory. Unfortunately the game decided to continously crash at this point, and having a 24 Gigabyte game (stalkersoup is huge) with frequent crashes, bugs and long loading times chips away at the appeal even to an avid fan so it was time to say goodbye - but this isn't the end of the story.

The Rostok Wild Territory was a war-zone as I arrived near the train station there with another bunch of mercs attacking a big group of free stalkers loading up a cargo train with supplies. I rushed to the defense, using my remaining rifle ammo on a flanking group of mercs before getting knocked down by a nearby grenade. Still managed to stand up with my ears ringing and continued to hold off the attackers with my pistol to a lesser degree as the remaining free stalkers finished loading crates and the train started to move. They called out to me to get on board while they provided cover so after emptying my current clip I chased after it with bullets flying overhead. Had to ditch my pack to keep up and lost my pistol as I jumped on, taking cover behind some of the food crates that had just been loaded. The two guys that helped me on weren't so lucky, one taking a bullet to the head and his buddy getting his legs shot out in quick succession - they both fell, gear and all, out the door. After a few minutes the train was safely on its way - picking up speed away from the surviving mercs. Seemed like I was alone in this carraige now, speeding to god knows where. My armor was damaged beyond repair so I discarded it, and found a warm blanket to curl up in and sleep until the train reached wherever it was headed.

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.

Another Lab of Horror

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

Not that type of Lab.

With my psi-block helmet on it was time to march into that facility, and by march I actually mean very cautiously navigate past a deadly anomaly field. I had been warned that once I stepped in, the helmet could only protect me for so long so I made it a point to move a bit quicker, using my spray-and-pray Necro rifle to hose down the numerous zombies and snorks lurking within. The building I was meant to explore was blocked by a nasty teleport though (it threw me to the snork swamp - reload :P) so I had to find my way up to the higher levels using an adjoining structure and sneak in through a window. Once inside it was down, down into the darkness. This lab was pretty straight forward, just dark and home to more dead brains and jumping idiots. Eventually I reached the multi-level core and that's when the timer started. I had to shut down the death machine quick or I'd soon be one of the dead heads. The Necro served me well here as zombies began piling in from the higher levels and from behind me. With four switches to hit on various floors I had no time to take cover and had to spray from the hip. Eventually I made it to the top control and managed to shut that bastard
down. Huzzah!

Now I just had to get out - the ladder I used to drop down was broken and I couldn't go back that way so I forged ahead to the final chamber but stopped quickly as five burers blocked the hallway ahead. This was a challenge but I managed to get past them by using a turn in the hall and their greed. I noticed most AI here like to loot things so I tossed a rifle out at waited at the corner with my Saiga shotgun. Sure enough one of the dwarves shortly showed up, going directly for the item. A single shell to the side of it's head finished it. Soon after the second dwarf came to loot the first - he met the same end. This repeated until all five were dead in a humorous congo line with none of them having noticed me at all. Victorious I marched up to the door confidently and was faced with the largest group of fleshes, rats, and dogs I've ever seen! With a quick switch to the Necro I hosed them all down, as well as the Controller lurking in the back behind them. Having collected what I came for I found a hole in the floor which indicated my exit. Sure enough I found myself in the now unused tunnels beneath the facility, now inhabited only by snorks and a pseudogiant. The sounds of a helicopter outside plus heavy gunfire was not good but it turns out the military was not what I had to worry about. After climbing up a tall ladder I saw that there were now two "super" chimeras running around along with a whole pack of snorks - I call them "super" because they had lightning circling around them and each time I tried to shoot at them from above my shots reflected back and killed me! :(

After much loading, I decided to be quiet and watch what they'd do - the lot of them jumped straight down the long shaft I just climbed up. While they were down there I took the opportunity to FLEE. Didn't get very far before they caught wind of that and began chasing after me though, but now being on lower terrain I filled their bellies full of holes and they died before their claws could finish me off. With my armor in ruins, I hobbled back to the Research Outpost and handed it as many quests as I could, earning a bit of cash which I quickly spent on medical supplies of all kinds.

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.

Rostok Rumba

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

The entry of Rostok was a strangely quiet and anomally filled courtyard. Good thing I trusted my instincts and pulled up my binocs to spot a squad of mercs waiting to ambush me. Took some cover behind some concrete blocks and put all of them down and FINALLY managed to get a decent scope from their weapons. It was going to come in handy too, because the city was a warzone. Mercs led by some dude called Wolfhound were here in force, even shooting down a passing army chopper in the process. They were after a science group in the area, and it wasn't long before it was up to me to rescue them.

Decided to stay on the rooftops as much as I could to avoid the anomalies below, also taking the opportunity to snipe down as many mercs as I could. Eventually I had to get down to the train tracks and decided to check the downed chopper. Had a close encounter against Wolfhound himself but my shotgun was faster than his. Found what was left of the science team, one guy named Kruglov who asked me to escort him down to the Yantar valley. Ofcourse I agreed, getting him through a few more merc ambushes, a dozen anomalies and right at the end along with a few zombified stalkers. The valley itself is mostly inhabited by zombified guys and snorks, neither of which are very dangerous if they don't catch you by surprise.

They're more like radioactive jumping idiots.

There are tons of dangerous, moving anomalies though - and the building zone where all the zombies were coming from just seems to kill me by simply standing in it, so it was definitely a no go zone. At least the mobile science lab was well stocked with useful gear which I paid big bucks for: military grade binocs, an anomaly detector, a mine detector, various pills and medicines and because I got Kruglov there in one piece - a brand new bio-hazard suit - useful for radioactive areas. Unfortunately they did not sell bullets of any kind, depite having some high caliber weaponry on sale. With nowhere else to go and ammo running low I began the long trek back through Rostok.

The snorks and radioactive skull-rats had moved in, as had two more merc units with one exo-armored bastard but I got through them just the same, despite me choosing to go in the dead of night where visibility was really against me.