NationStates Jolt Archive

April 12, A.C. 196, 2:33 p.m.

The Hmiel Colony was lit by an intolerably bright light. The clouds were evaporating in the silver bright sky along with the sound of thunder crashing, an earthquake followed. People fell to the ground, closing their bleeding eyes and ears. The glow spread over an immense territory, which was subsequently called the Zone. People ran away fearing for their lives. It looked as though a radioactive explosion had occurred at the naquadah mine. The Draconian Spaceguard sealed off the Zone.

The explosion epicentre was a mile away from the naquadah mine. It appeared to be obvious that some scientists had performed an illegal test had been held there and that had caused the disaster. Presumably, the entire personnel died within seconds, but still there was a probability of survivors among the staff. It seemed to appear impossible to arrange a rescue operation, as the Zone was characterized by strange energy disturbances posing mortal danger to the explorers. Attempts to use robots were unavailing. Several months after the accident the crisis situation peaked when the Zone abruptly grew five hundred miles bigger.

A.C. 198

The Zone exploded, radioactive clouds covered vast territories. A dreadful amount of people, animals and forests perished. The whole planet was cordoned off by the Draconian Spaceguards as scientists failed to explain what had happened. The Zone grew, various death-bearing anomalies were spotted inside. Some invisible force tore living beings apart or inflicted awful and usually fatal wounds. Expeditions faced mutant animals, unlikely to have appeared in the Zone through natural course of evolution. The catastrophe, mutants, anomalies, and contamination, everything appeared to be a consequence of some eerie phenomenon.

A.C. 200

The first expeditions could enter the Zone several miles deep without mortal danger. Amateur researchers, marauders and poachers, called stalkers, show up. They move around the Zone searching for various anomalous formations, i.e. artifacts, they would sell to various organizations.

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J was one such stalker, he always roamed alone while working for a couple of strange scientists camped out in the ‘safe sector’. Armed with an old style LR-300ML, a Geiger counter and of course a protective suit. He felt ready for anything the zone could throw at him. However in the zone, feeling safe and actually being safe were two rather different things, as there appeared to be mutant animals almost everywhere. Like most stalkers, J had transport, an old rusty jeep that had been left abandoned at the side of the road. He didn’t care why it had been, though being in the zone it was obvious.

http://www.jonathan.bennett5.btinternet.co.uk/ns/stalker.JPG

J travelled down a long road heading the direction of one of the colonies old cities. Ulvter had been populated by some six million until it had been evacuated, now it was home to wild packs of mutated animals and a base for various groups of stalkers. Within the city limits J knew a couple of good groups he could have joined if he wished, but he preferred to be solo. There was also a dealer in the area by the name of Dak, he always received good prices from him. He especially had good merchandise, which in the zone was very useful.

To his left as he drove along, he could see the remnants of the mines. A mile further on was the epicentre of the initial blast. Here the Geiger count was high, as long as he kept on going he wouldn’t be effected, much anyway. It didn’t matter to J if he did die of radiation poisoning or not as there was a higher chance of being killed by the mutant animals that roamed the area, or even by another stalker. There were some completely crazy ones out there, then there were the greedy type, the type that would stop at nothing to get an artefact that they wanted. The derelict city soon appeared over the horizon and J put his foot down on the accelerator, the sooner he got there the better.

OOC: Yes based off the game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. It's not out yet and so I decided to base my own RP off it.

This is open to anyone, though since it is future tech characters can only come from DN or any other future tech nation. Only one character, so no groups/armies. If interested in join telegram me with details of your character or catch my attention in chat.

http://www.stalker-game.com/

bump

Anyone?

"I'm a werkin on the raaaailroad, all the work long daaaay.."
K lent on the railing of the locomotive which was singing its way along the tattered track, it clattered and rocked, rails which hadn't been run on for 30 or more years screamed under the weight.

With his Kalashnikov on his back K was, for the first time in a month, enjoying the countryside of "The Zone." Birds fluttered through the sky and a deer ran across the tracks. He glanced to his right, a roadway ran side by side through the countryside, a bank of trees hid his view for a few seconds, then, when the road re-appeared a car was gunning its way along the old cracked tarmac. K tilted his head and frowned slightly. Heh, another artifact finder huh? he mused to himself.
We'll see where he goes...

J heard a noise he had yet to hear in the zone. He slowly stopped the jeep, readied his gun and listened. It sounded almost like a train, if it were it would have been one of the old-style trains brought to the colony a long time ago. J was surprised that one would even be able to run now. More to that, what kind of newbie stalker would be using a train to get around. Especially since the tracks had had no maintenance on them in who knew how long, they could break at any moment and the train would derail. Looking beside the road, he saw the railways tracks, further up ahead he could see the tracks bending upwards and being twisted inside an anomalie. He saw the train and knew it was heading for disaster.

K glanced at the Stalker, his gun was pointed at him, the guy then looked down further along the tracks. K frowned and simply swung his rifle from his shoulder.
The locomotive squealed around the corner, the rails apruptly stopped being rails a few hundred yards infront of him.
"Shit!"
K dived from the locomotive and landed in some bushes, the locomotive thundered on before flipping and crashing noisily onto its side.
K scrambled out of the bushes, his Kalashnikov dragging behind him, he now limped slightly. He looked at the wreck, then at the Stalker, then at the wreck agin, before turning.
"Hi, err, I'm K, and that.." he waved to locomotive "Is the second ride of mine to get totaled in a week..." He sat down on one of the rails and began to massage his leg.

J looked at the other stalker with an expessionless look on his face. "Only a complete newbie would use a train to get around." he said, shaking his head. He then sat back in his jeep and tapped the steering wheel. "Better off hotwiring one of those jeeps in the dump, maybe a little radioactive and they do have a tendancy to glow a little in the dark but out here thats the least of your worries kid."

A bright bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. Looking at the clouds drifting toward the city, there looked the distinct posibility of rain and usually that wasn't good. J knew that he would have to get to the city and shelter soon. His gaze returned to the other stalker.

"Hop in," he told him. "I'm not the type to leave anyone out here to die."

K glanced up at the clouds.
"Green rain..."

He looked back down and ran to the jeep, he wasn't going to argue.
"Hell man, My jeep got totalled by some damn Wild boar things... that's the only thing I could find that wasn't wasted in a mile..."

He threw his kalashnikov into the back and jumped into the "Shotgun" position. His weapon clattered slightly in the back.

J just shook his head as he hit down on the accelerator. The tyres spun briefly before gripping the road and the jeep took off. He fought the wheel as the jeep wanted to swap ends, but soon all four tyres gripped the road and they were safely away. Beside the road were many rusted vehicles that had been abandoned long ago by their owners.

"So you have a particular employer or just freelance," J asked.

"Freelance, whatever I find I try to sell to the highest bidder..."
He looked at all the rusted vehicles lying by the road.
"Jesus this place sure is a mess..."

"Left in a hurry, no one wants to clean up the planet," he remarked.

Up ahead, the road finally went into the city itself. There was an old spaceguard road block, but most of it had been pulled to one side to allow clear access to the city. However it was still block, only what was blocking the city wasn't human. A pack of mutated dogs were gathered on the road in front of them.

"Shit," J swore, slamming on the brakes.

The jeep slid to a halt and J quickly grabbed his gun. Standing up, he took aim and waited.

"Crap!" K grabbed his Kalashnikov from the back of the jeep, leveled it at the dogs and waited...

"What do we do? we're gunna get killed if we get caught in the rain... and killed if we try to attack all those dogs..."
He swung the backpack off of his back, ripped open the zip and began funmbling inside.

J said nothing, he just concentrated on the dogs. They had yet to notice them. He knew that was a good thing as it was a strangely large pack. Some gas canisters caught his eye, if there were full then if he fired at one it would explode and would hopefully set off the others as well. Since the dogs were in close proximity to the canisters they would be incinerated.

"Gotcha," he smirked and fired at one of the canisters.

The dogs never knew what hit them as the they were instantly incinerated by the large explosion that followed. Debris rained down around them as through the flames a surviving dog ran at them, completely engulfed in flames. That lone surviving dog was easy pickings for J and with one shot, the dog fell to the ground. Another flash of lightning appeared in the air.

"Gotcha!" K had a grenade in his hands. A single gunshot cracked off next to him, then the sky ruptured with the explosion.
"Argh!" A second gunshot signified the end to the burning dog.

"Good shot" He clacked the stock of the Kalashnikov and placed it in the bag, he then pulled out an old shotgun, checked it was loaded, then swung the backpack onto his back before walking slowly forward towards the remains of the dogs.

J sat back down, keeping his gun ready just in case. He moved the jeep forward, annoyed that K had gotten out and was moving towards were the explosion had taken place.

"Newbie if you want to live get back in the fucking jeep," he yelled at him.

"Whatever. Hell man, just poking around this stuff anyway." K looked at the remains of a dog and smiled before running back to the Jeep and jumping in.

As soon as he was in the jeep, J hit the accelerator and they raced off into the city. The geiger counter at J's side briefly went off the scale as they went through the firey remains of the dogs. Quickly he drove away from the scene.

"Listen newbie, an explosion like that will always attracts nasty things," he told him. "Not to mention an increase in radiation."

"Hmm, looks like rain," a dark figure said from the relative safety of a derelict building somewhere within Ulvter.

"So what are we to do about finding this artefact?" a female figure asked.
"First things first, Sil'ni'narth," a rugged figure told the woman. "We wait for the rain to pass."
"It is not going to rain," the woman known as Sil'ni'narth replied. "We have no need to wait."
The rugged figure shook his head. "You might be an elf, but even I know those are rain clouds out there," he said. "It is not as if you would dare go near the naquadah mine anyway, we need to hire some suckers to go there."
"It will be to their deaths,"
"Maybe, but one may survive and we only need one to retrieve the artefact,"

*Bump*