(DE) Mankind Divided: Prophet

[Part of the Wasted Land story]      

A gas bomb trap is what I find in the watch maker's apartment, but I also deduce she's joined some sort of machine cult in a tenement nearby. These nerds and their security cams are simple enough to sneak past them only to learn this woman also happens to be some high prophet and is about to "ascend" the cult members by putting their consciousness together like a new C-Consciousness and abandoning their physical bodies. 

She discloses that she made many bombs for her brother Marchenko right before stabbing me with the same poison that killed the ARC leader. Lucky I called for backup as the local cops arrest everyone and Chang manages to test out his synthesized poison cure which saves my life. 

There is evidence that Marchenko is paying the local Dvali crime gang for smuggling services so I visit them next in their domain of the red light district. These scum trade in everything including drugs and women so while I knock out the exterior guards once I sneak into their theater base of operations I hack their patrolling guard robots to join my side and then assist my new robotic friends in killing all the gang members within, including the bosses downstairs who get some surprise grenades for dinner.

(DE) Mankind Divided: Poison

[Part of the Wasted Land story]     

Tibor is grateful for the assist and takes me to the elevator straight to the edges of ARC territory. While he goes on ahead I'm temporarily detained by a big bruiser mechanic named Marchenko who warns that I don't belong there, before heading off to tinker with a downed police drone. 

Sure enough, just around the corner Tibor is warning his ARC buddies about my arrival and my intent to arrest their leader. Using the ladders to the maintenance ways and the tranq rifle gets me to my quarry with no one the wiser, but upon confronting the man he is adamant his group is being setup by someone else before suddenly convulsing and dying on the floor. Poison. 

I quickly take what evidence I can including a sample of this poison before the ARC guards come knocking with a blow torch. My exfiltration is anything but sneaky, and the bolt action tranq rifle really is really a disadvantage against opponents with machine pistols and combat rifles. Still, my opponents end up unconscious instead of dead. 

I make it back to the office later that evening and find Miller away, looking into some a potential link to the Tarvos mercenary security force, but Chang gives me a lead for the bomb maker from evidence Miller had "borrowed" from the police investigation team that points to a local watch maker.

(DE) Mankind Divided: Prague

[Part of the Wasted Land story]    

It's a beautiful city, albeit now one with a heavy police presence due to all the recent terrorist attacks. This doesn't seem to dissuade the Dvali crime gang from throwing their weight around though as, to get a certified clean bill of health from the local doctor after my previous gallivanting, I'm forced to sneak around a bunch of them shooting up a store. 

With that in hand it's time to head in to work. The storage and shipping shop front serves as cover for the hidden offices below where I meet colleagues Chang, a fidgety IT guy and boss man Miller, who is happy that I'm ready to be sent back into the field - specifically to some slums where the ARC activist group is based. I'm to take their leader in for questioning in relation to the bombings and all I'm taking with me is a tranq rifle, just to emphasize the no kill order given by Miller.

It takes some time to get to the cramped alleys where the homeless sleep beside the dead and of course Tibor, the contact I'm supposed to meet to gain access to ARCs HQ, has been imprisoned by the local police - and these guys don't play nice with other badges. Using vents and timing is enough to sneak in to find Tibor being worked over in interrogation so I knock the cops out, saving the guy in the exo suit armor for last as that involves throwing an EMP grenade at him to "double disable" the poor sod. 

Stalker 2: Scar

[Part of the Wasted Land story]   

My first stop in Pripyat is to assist the vanguard (another faction) defend their base from monolithians. Despite this their leader is very anti-ward and refuses to provide info, so Colonel K gets me to snoop around the vanguard's past operations and I find and report in details to an underground passage taken from a crashed helicopter (which I have to steal from a chimera who has made it his home).

There must be a leak though, because I soon come across hostile Spark forces vying for that same maintenance passage, led by Richter who meets his end in the gunfight. Colonel K and a squad of Ward arrive soon after, advising the now late Dr. Dalin was the traitorous snake. The next segment to get to the C-Consciousness requires lots running between bunkers between emissions, monolith defenders and two surprise bosses who get in the way as neither wants Ward to succeed:

Strelok himself, now wielding a powerful artifact is much like a wizard now - zipping around the chamber and throwing lightning anomalies left and right which really batters my gear. I end him from afar. And Scar, who has gone crazy after realizing his shining zone is not real, needs to be TV migraine induced to die just like Strelok did with Dark previously. With that Colonel K sacrifices himself to eliminate the C-Consciousness program, and I'm free to leave with a pretty decent report on what transpired within.

Duty above all.

Stalker 2: Surprise

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

Apparently "FIBER" is the pass code that translates to "please kill me" or something, because all the Ward guards at the base immediately attack and I'm forced to murder them in self defense! Colonel K soon arrives to sort things out, explaining they are protecting the FIBER program (which implants missions like Dark's one) from those who would abuse it until they can work out how to track the affected people (some having already escaped the zone) and to shut it down afterwards.

With that regretful misunderstanding out of the way I'm next tasked to get through Yaniv station and on to Pripyat in the North but due to the increased monolith threat they won't just let anyone through, as the monolith themselves find out when they attempt to take Yaniv station and fail miserably (without any participation from me).

Richter is here too, upset with my Ward allegiance and voicing how he should have left me in that anomaly field all those weeks ago (because Ward wants to "kill the zone"). He still helps get the border open though by suggesting I trade passage for a special detector that only needs leg work (in the Red Forest) to retrieve. As a bonus, I also finally find an Exo-Suit of my size and can get it and my more advanced firearms upgraded with the Yaniv technician, Harpy. I believe she is the best in the zone, and she definitely invoices like it!

Stalker 2: Strelok

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Doctor turns out to be a pacifist who lives on a small island in a highly radioactive lake and is horrified to learn the C-Consciousness project is still running so he reveals Strelok is somewhere at the Cordon, an area near where I first entered the zone! The boss of the rookie village there (who is also feared by the local bandits) partners me up with a capable stalker named Dark who is already on Strelok's trail, which leads to another abandoned underground lab full of anomalies and mutants, including a pseudogiant we manage to slay!

Surprise!

Soon after, Strelok gets the drop on us and kills Dark with a TV induced migraine - revealing Dark was an unwitting C-Consciousness assassin sent to kill him. As we're on the same side about "killing" this C-Consciousness he sends me to turn on another installation nearby, this one with ghostly type poltergeists in the way and a trio of burers down below. These mutant dwarves have powerful telekinesis and can use scattered weapons to fire or throw at their prey meaning it pays to fight them in "clean" areas.

After turning on the power I'm jumped by Scar and his Spark fanatics, who question my allegiance with Ward. I basically tell them what they want to hear, that I support their vision of a "shining land" to make the zone paradise for all to trick them into letting me go without harm. To help me see the "truth" about Ward I'm told to go to one of their bunkers and ask about "FIBER", which seems like a reasonable request.

Stalker 2: Subliminal

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

After finally getting the helm (it's actually a helmet upgrade that can be installed in any armor) I regroup with Ward forces about to stage a second attack on Duga, with plans to blow up the base of the radio wall. Led by Faust, the monolithians put up a decent defense but the helmet is effective and after a decent fight with his illusory tricks he falls to my shotgun.

Dr. Dalin is interested in Faust's pendant so I deliver it to him at STC Malachite just in time to witness Colonel K, now in exo-suit armor to compensate for his helicopter crash injuries, execute Professor Ozersky who actually sided with monolith and activated the Duga radio wall from here to begin with! Using the pendant, a shaken Dalin puts us in contact with C-Consciousness : the minds of seven merged scientists uploaded to a server hoping for people to join them in immorality. No wonder Faust was a nutcase if this is who he spent all his time talking to.

It's decided that these creeps need to be turned off, but to do that means having to find the one man who has navigated the dark valley in the past: Strelok. After running down a bunch of false leads I finally get one that pans out for winning 5 rounds at the Rostok arena (head shot vs humans and jump up on crates vs mutants). "The Doctor", an associate of Strelok's apparently frequents the Red Forest, a place high in psi-radiation. Gotta pack those Psi-block meds since this helmet won't be enough.