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Post by blackpapermoon on May 3, 2011 11:32:13 GMT -5
Yuras heaved his pack off of his shoulders as the doors to the station opened for him, a gentle calmness worked it’s over his cold, tired body, he was home at last. Belorusskaya was where his home and family was, he felt safe here amongst the traders and the Metro’s traveling merchants. When Polis did not need him he to scavenge the ruins above, he could always find work here if he needed it. Normally he had no reason to, as his contract with the Brahmins was enough to keep family living a comfortable life. However when his weapons or other equipment needed to be repaired or replaced he had to pull an odd job or two, this had been one of those times.
The job was easy enough, one of the older and richer residents of the Metro had tasked him with finding out if his old home still stood and if it did retrieve some items from it. As it turned out the old man’s home was still standing and was unlooted. Yuras recover a jewelry box, old Bible and Safe Lockbox as he was asked than returned home. What ever was in the lockbox weigh a ton, and he nearly broke his back bring it back to the station, but he some how managed to make it. Now entering the dimly lit station, he thought he could hear Nikita playing soft music at the inn over the noise of the restless trading center. He would try to steal a kiss after he was done with the transaction with the old man. As he walked he could not help but to over hear strange rumors of mutants running about around the dark empty tunnels around Belorusskaya and about night guards and other people disappearing never to bee seen again. He thought it noting more than talk, it was just some joker that was trying to cause mass hysteria. Paying no more attention to the chatter he found the old guy that had given him the job and took his pay than made his way to the local inn.
Nikita was just finishing playing when Yuras entered the inn, it was not hard to see why he took her as his wife. Her deep blue eyes, wavy long mahogany hair and soft face made her quite the looker, it was hard to believe that she would choose to marry a ragged looking scavenger like him.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on May 3, 2011 19:18:01 GMT -5
Nadya seldom hung around stations with as much activity as Beloruskaya, but at the moment she was moving from the North-East of the Metro towards the Nort-West, and was thus mostly forced to take the Ring Line. Getting through Hansa's checkpoints was slow and tiring business. Her passport was perfectly valid, but her little "deformity" made guards turn suspicious, and she was often detained for questioning. Thankfully, her good conduct and polite demeanour always got her through in the end.
And now she was approaching Beloruskaya, a flourishing trade centre. She approached the guard post cautiously, with all her weapons holstered and her little dynamo-powered flashlight in hand. As she got near the post, one of the guards lazily signalled her with his torch, and Nadya signalled back. When she got closer, a light was shone in her face, and her pupils retracted into their usual reptilian slits. And so the storm started.
"Oh Christ, a mutant", said the guard with the torch. "Sorry, we're not letting your kind in here."
"-I've already been through Beloruskaya before, comrade", said Nadya calmly.
"-We don't trust your kind here...", said the guard, reaching for a holstered TT-33, but he was interrupted by a tall, bearded man who was apparently his superior.
"-Stay cool, Vladimir. She can go through", he said, before addressing Nadya. "You can go through, but don't stay long. People would get jittery."
"-No problem", said Nadya before walking past the barricade. As she headed into the station, she did her best to hide her eyes, but people still looked at her suspiciously. Being in such a crowded place made her feel slightly giddy after the empty, echoing loneliness of the tunnels and stations she usually lived in, and she decided to head for the closest drinking establishment.
As she reached the establishment (proudly named "Inn" by a cardboad sign above the crude doorway), she hesitated slightly before entering. When she walked in, nobody noticed her, much to her relief, and she headed straight for the counter. A young woman was playing a pleasant tune on a balalaika, and when Nadya's "tea" arrived, she sat and listened while quietly sipping her beverage.
As the tune finished, several men headed menacingly towards Nadya, encircling her in a way that could not possibly be misinterpreted. Stoically, Nadya turned to look at them.
"Hello", she said simply, noting the hostile look in their eyes.
"-You've no right to be here, freak", said one of the men.
"-I don't seem to recall seeing a 'no mutants area' anywhere in this bar when I came in", remarked Nadya.
"-The station is off limits for your kind. You belong out in the tunnels, with the rest of the freaks and scum. Now get out."
"-Well...I shall leave then", said Nadya, rising from her stool and placing a bullet on the counter to pay for her drink. "I apologise for bothering you."
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Post by blackpapermoon on May 3, 2011 23:07:04 GMT -5
Do something
That was what Nikita facial expression was telling him to do, and a woman’s sense of wrong was not something to be messed with or ignored even more so when said woman was your wife. Yet still getting into a physical altercation with four individuals that where built like a brick shit house was not wise or good for ones health. Yuras would have to use a lot of tact, even though he was still in his prime if one the apes managed to land one good hit on him than his scavenging days could be numbered. Nor did he wish to use firearms, the authorities of Belorusskaya would let seasoned stalkers get away with many things but use of guns in the station was not one of them. He could only hope that the men would up hold the custom of respect and immunity to stalkers and their families.
“Leave her be,” he said gruffly his voice was still hoarse from the cold, it helped him to sound more intimidating than his tall but stick like frame would let him be. The four turned to face him, they where hardly impressed by the lanky challenger.
“-and who the hell do you think you are,” said what appeared to be the leader of the gang in an almost mocking tone, it was clear that they where not from this station other wise they would have known who he was. Ferret guessed them to be from some where along the ring line given their arrogant attitudes. Luckily their postures showed no sings of any kind of military training. Other wise this would end very badly for him, he now stood at lest a small prays chance if a fight should brake out.
“-A person that actually lives here,” he said having them exactly pegged, “Last I checked the inn had an no animals policy.”
He was not going to not backing down, people like this made him sick, they used their size and numbers to push everyone else around but where too fearful to transverse the dark tunnels never mind the dead world above. They where the worst kind of cowards, always hiding behind the shield of bravado.
The gang now growled a challenge at the skinny stalker, and knives where pulled from belts and sheaths, however Ferret just brought his Metro made assault riffle to bear. The Saiga was normally the weapon he depended on but he did not plan on needing it. Everyone knew a gun beat a knife any day of the week, and it was not long before the troublemakers stood down than after Ferret gave them a harsh get out of here they left to mend their hurt pride. After holstering his weapon he turned to the snake eyed woman.
"Are you ok," he asked her unsure if she remembered him from Sevastopolskaya.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on May 4, 2011 5:22:38 GMT -5
The atmosphere in the inn had gone from comfortably indifferent to nastily focused and loaded with tension. Despite all her years spent alone, Nadya knew how to interpret the atmosphere of a crowded area, and right now, she could tell that hanging around was not a good idea. The confrontation between the skinny stalker and the thugs had attracted the attention of the rest of the patrons, and many were now looking at her with a mix of fear and suspicion. She rose and started to head for the door when a hand came down on her shoulder.
She turned to look and recognised the skinny stalker she'd seen in company of Balalaika and a couple of others back at Sevastopolskaya. She smiled softly at him before answering his question.
"Oh, I'm fine", she said. "But I'm not staying in this particular establishment. Too much tension. Staying would only make it worse. Any other places of note in this station I should visit before returning to the tunnels?"
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Post by blackpapermoon on May 4, 2011 10:41:31 GMT -5
Yuras could have handled the situation a less dramatic manner, but it ended without any bloodshed. He looked around the inn, the other patrons where acting like sheep that had spotted a wolf in the pasture, full of fear and ignorance. They where now fearful of Adder, the fear they had for her was much grater than the resentment and hatred they had for him. However she was right if she stayed in this place any longer the sheep would become jackals and attack. They would not rise against him or family due to his role and connections in the Metro, but even that would not stop them for trying to tear the snake-eyed woman apart.
“The Marketplace if you have not been there yet,” he said as he covertly passes her a scratched up pair of sunglasses, “ and The Fine Bottle Bar on the Hansa side might be worth your time.”
However just then shouts, screams, gunfire and a strange bestial roar was heard from some where outside the inn. Some of the patrons jumped up in fright, others pointed accusing fingers and comments at Nadya and some just fainted. The illusion that Beloruskaya was completely impervious had been shatter, mutants had attacked the station.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on May 6, 2011 4:55:06 GMT -5
"Monsters! They got past the barricades!", shouted someone. There were a few panicked screams, from outside, followed by gunfire and swearing. One of the bar's patrons drew a knife and pressed it to Nadya's neck.
"-You're their spy!", he spat. "You brought them into the station!"
"-Stop wasting your time with me and go fight the things if you want to protect your friends and family", retorted Nadya. "While you throw hollow accusations at me, your station is being ravaged by mutants."
The man lowered his knife and slowly stepped away from Nadya. Her words had persuaded him to go fight the real enemy, and not the perceived internal enemy. However, she was sure that once the fight was over, they would come back for her. So she took hold of her old Simonov rifle and rushed out of the bar and into the station. The sharp sound of Kalachnikovs being fired on full auto was audible, echoing through the station like a sinister beat.
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Post by blackpapermoon on May 9, 2011 13:05:29 GMT -5
As people screamed outside, panic set into the Stalker’s mind. Where was his son, the child was nowhere to be seen in the inn. Yuras turned to his wife the same expression of fear was plastered on her face.
“Where is Alexei?,” He said trying to keep his fear under control, blindly charging out there would not help to find the boy and would only serve to get himself killed.
“-With Olena Belyakova and her son,” Nikita said trembling slightly as, “they where going to the marketplace.”
The words hit home, Alexei was out in the middle of that mess. Nikita put a hand on her revolver and nervously made her way to the makeshift door but Ferret stopped her. Nikita was a strong woman but she had never been in a firefight never mind a mutant attack.
“-No, I’ll go find him and bring him back here,” said Yuras pulling her back, “make sure none of those things get in here.”
His wife a give a brief nod and he left the inn. The station had fallen into complete chaos unarmed people where running away from the fighting as others like himself rushed to the direction of it. As he ran he passed the corpse of a guard, his had been throat ripped out.
Yuras continued on, as the crowds of people thinned he could see blood splatters and bullet casings on the floor of the station. Still no sign of his son or of those he was with. He heard a growl coming from the wreckage of a stand. Looking over he saw some kind of thick hair beast eating an unfortunate merchant that had failed to esacpe.
The mutant was not like any he had seen before, its anatomy was similar to that of a human’s but it was covered in thick darkish gray hair and moved on all fours like a canine. The face was for all intensive purposes was human but was covered with unsightly tumors, it’s eyes where blood shot and it’s teeth where sharp and jagged. But what really freighted him was the fact it was clad in shreds of clothing, this thing was once a person.
The creature snarled and started to lunge at him as he brought his automatic shotgun around. The beast had seen guns before and knew what they could do. The creature jumped back just as the lanky man fired, causing the slug to embed itself into the ground. It then let out another growl that was answered by five others growls. The stalker glanced around as five more of the monsters crawled out of various hiding places and circled him.
They where clearly highly intelligent and worked well in a pack, on top of speed and agility it was no wonder they where able to get pasted the barrier. They tighten the circle and drew closer and closer to Yuras. The first attacked and the stalker just managed to dodge it, he took advantage of amount of time before the others attacked and made a brake for the opening. Taking a hold of the Bastard gun he sprayed the area behind him with bullets. He had managed to hit and kill two, but the others did not follow. Instead they stopped and looked like they where listing to something before turning and running off.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on May 13, 2011 9:20:00 GMT -5
Nadya did not really know how the mutants had gotten past the cordon in the tunnel, but now was not the time to wonder how it happened. What was done was done, and they had to act and adapt in accordance to what had been done. Right now, the best course of action was to keep the monsters away from the station's unarmed denizens: women, the elderly, children.
She joined a group of militians armed with a rag-tag collection of firearms who were protecting the entrance to another part of the station which the people probably used as a kind of refuge. As she took up position in the hastily made defence cordon, she raised her old Simonov rifle. There were people rushing towards the defenders to get to safety, and everything was in utter chaos. Suddenly, one of the defenders shouted and pointed at something.
Nadya saw five creatures. Humanoid and covered in grey hair. They moved quickly and in an organised manner. Pack hunters.
"OPEN FIRE!", came the hoarse cry. Nadya raised her rifle, took aim at one of the creatures, and pulled the trigger. The old rifle bucked in her hands and against her shoulder, and the bullet found its mark, hitting the mutant in the shoulder. The other mutants charged the defenders, one of them even leaping upwards and scuttling along the ceiling. Nadya shot the ceiling crawler down with a bullet to the spine, while another one of the creatures was killed by a burst of AK fire. The creatures seemed to realise their disadvantage and retreated before disappearing altogether.
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Post by blackpapermoon on May 18, 2011 10:51:39 GMT -5
The monsters where gone, but Yuras still saw no trace of his son. He prayed that he would not see a parent’s worst nightmare come true and find his child among the dead.
“Alexei,” he yelled as load as he could, fearing the worst, as a feeling of dread took over his mind. He had to find his son; the child must still be alive. The stalker was about to call out once more when he heard a small voice answer back;
“-Papa?”
The child came out of hiding, his dark brown hair was matted and his brown eyes where red, the boy had been crying recently. His clothing was cover in blood but the child’s small body was uninjured. He was shaking like a leaf as he ran to his father before barring his face into Yuras’s side and wept. The scavenger picked up the crying child, but as he looked up he realized what the boy had witnessed. There on the ground lay the partly eaten bodies of a young boy and a woman; it was Olena and her son Zhora, Alexei’s best friend and godmother.
“-It going to be ok,” he said trying to comfort his son,” they are in a better place now.”
The child dried his eyes, death was a part of everyday life in the metro but it was still hard for the young children who still did not understand it’s meaning. Yuras had done his best to shield Alexei, but there was only so much he could do.
“We need to leave,” he said as he began to make his way back the boy still in his arms.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Jun 9, 2011 7:11:35 GMT -5
Nadya caught up with Yuras just as he told his son that they needed to leave the station. She raised an eyebrow at that.
"Leave? And abandon the station's people?", she said. "What a surprising thing to say. Belorusskaya is an important station right next to the Ring Line. Why abandon it? The Hansa will send reinforcements and weapons as soon as this station sends a request for help. They might even organise a hunting expedition to track down these new creatures. It's far too early to abandon the place."
Nadya looked around quickly and saw an empty wooden box, which she kicked over to where Yuras and his son stood before sitting down. She had had little opportunity to rest her legs since she'd arrived here, and she had been walking for days. She loaded a new clip into her old SKS rifle before looking at the little boy next to Yuras and smiling.
"Hello", she said. The boy shied away from her and hid behind his father's legs. Nadya chuckled before looking up at Yuras again.
"From what I have seen and heard, mutants only attack stations if they have numerical superiority, or the advantage of stealth. I've heard of mutants sneaking into stations while everyone was sleeping in order to snatch the children and the elderly. They're natural patterns of behaviour, although the creatures that attacked this place did not have superior numbers and did not use stealth...I have a feeling this was a test of sorts. They were testing the defences of this station to see if any further attacks could be considered. However, this station has the major advantage of being backed by Hansa...so maybe they won't attack again."
A shout caught Nadya's attention. As she listened, she heard that the telephone line strung between Beloruskaya and the neighbouring Hansa station had been cut and that volunteers were needed to go bring the news to their allies.
"Now that's odd", said Nadya. "Maybe the line was damaged by some coincidental event..."
Nadya didn't really want to consider the other possibility: that the line had been intentionally cut by the same mutants who had attacked Beloruskaya.
"Hm. I suppose I'll be going with them", she said before standing up. "The trip should be fast. I think Hansa's got some railcars we can use to make the journey."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 3, 2011 17:41:36 GMT -5
“I look after my family first,” said Yuras, “Nadya, a home is nothing without them. It can be replaced but your loved ones can’t.”
“It’s ok Alexei,” he said trying to placate the boy, “Nadya is a friend and a good person.” The boy however was not calmed by his fathers words, the woman’s eye were not human. She was a mutant, all mutants where bad, weren’t they? What was his father thinking, how could he just talk to her like she was not a monster, she might have even been the one to call those things that had killed Zhora and Aunt Olena. He hid behind his father trying to keep out of the snake eye woman’s sight.
“ You say this was a test of our defenses, No,” said Yuras, “this attack was not a test this was a declaration of war. Those things chose to attack one of the most populated and most defended stations north of Polis. You saw how they fought for yourself; they where once human and they still have human intelligence and tactics.”
“Belorusskaya is going to become a war zone,” he continued just then as if to make his point more clear someone began shouting that the communication to Hansa had been cut.
“That does not sound like a coincidence,” said the lanky scavenger, “Come on Alexei we need to get you and your mother ready to leave.”
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They where not taking much with them, Yuras wanted to make sure if anything did happen during the evacuation that Nikita and Alexei could getaway. He would help to guard the evacuees once they got word form Hansa then he would return to fight. He looked around the station, there were some people acting as if nothing had happened. The fools believed that they had beaten the monsters back for good and that things were safe and could return to normal. These where the fools that he and the other defenders would be protecting, they where nothing but liabilities. He was sitting outside his family’s tent; he wasn’t sure if the mutants would try another attack.
“Yuras,” came a voice and the stalker turned to face his wife.
“-Something wrong,” he asked as she continued to approach him.
“-Nothing, I just want to be with you,” she said taking a set next to him.
“-How is Alexei doing,” he asked as he put an arm around her and pulled her close. He missed her so much when he was away at other stations or skulking about the surface, yet he could not bring himself to give up scavenging.
“-Sleeping, I’m surprised that he could after to day… Yuras please stay with us when we go to Hansa, there are others who can stay and fight.”
“-Nikita stop I have to come back to fight,” he said putting a hand to her face and holding it softly, “I will come back to you, and when this is over I promise I will not take any jobs for a month, it will be just us and Alexei.”
“I will always come back,” he said kissing her sweetly.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on May 12, 2012 10:20:24 GMT -5
There was a lengthy and heated debate between the station's leaders. The director and a few others was in favour of evacuating the civilian population South, to a safer, friendly station while Belorusskaya's defenders and Hanse reinforcements were left to defend. The commander of the station's garrison, though, was vehemently opposed to such a decision. After all, the Southern tunnel's phone line had been cut, which could mean that the mutants had access to the area.
In the end, the director won, and it was decided that the station's non-fighting population would be sent South to the Ring Line with an escort. Nadya, due to being a stranger and an outcast, was not allowed to have a say in the debate, and it was with worried eyes that she watched the station's children, women and elderly disappear into the tunnel with guards by their side.
"This is madness", she said, more to herself than anyone. "They should have sent a small group of well armed veterans to scout and secure the tunnel and repair the phone line."
As she watched the civilians leave the station, Nadya suddenly decided to go with them. After all, she wasn't a citizen of Belorusskaya, and nobody had given her any orders to stay and defend. Besides, she had a very bad feeling about the evacuation process...
Nadya joined the cortege, jumping quietly down onto the tracks and joining the refugees. She drew a few cautious glances from the people beside her, but nobody made any remarks about her presence. Soon she was walking through the semi darkness of the tunnel, the sound of many feet echoing off the round concrete walls that encased the procession like a shell. The tunnel was not lit, and the guards and civilians had had to bring along their own lighting: old Soviet electric torches to crude old oil lamps. The collection of lights gave the tunnel a sinister air, with grotesquely disproportionate, flickering shadows suddenly becoming frighteningly distinct and dark every time an electric light shone through. Nadya cursed inwardly and shielded her eyes every time her eyes were struck with such light.
As she walked, she saw a group of technicians huddled around a section of cable that ran along the tunnel wall. Curious, she broke away from the crowd and looked at what held the mens' attention.
"Not a clean cut, but cut nonetheless" said one man as he examined a crudely sectioned telephone wire.
"Looks like something bit through it", said another one, knuckling his bushy mustache, "better fix this up quick if we want to stay in contact with the Ring Line."
Nadya frowned as she stepped back into the moving crowd. If the cable had been bitten in half, as the technician had suggested, then it was clear that the mutants had intentionally cut the communications between Belorusskaya and its neighbour station.
And this did not bode well for this part of the metro.
The loner's gloomy thoughts were brutally cut short by a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the tunnel. Gasps, shouts and curses exploded around her, and a woman yelled and shouted in anguish up ahead.
"Serioja! SERIOJA!! THEY TOOK MY SERIOJA!!"
"Everybody stay calm!", barked a heavily armoured soldier, "stay close together, and keep an eye out for anything unusual!"
His order was punctuated by another scream and a vicious, inhuman snarl. Gunfire reverberated through the tunnel, and the orders shouted by the soldier were lost.
"Bloody hell!", shouted Nadya, reaching for her revolver. She quickly checked it to see if it was fully loaded before snapping it shut and looking around her, her eyes struggling with the crazy and aggressive flashes of light in the tunnel.
Suddenly, a small, grilled vent set in the top of the tunnel was pushed open, and an ugly, naked body swung down through it. The mutant's claws grabbed an old woman, and she was dragged screaming and kicking through the vent.
"TVOYU MAT!", yelled one of the soldiers standing near Nadya. The screams continued to come from the vent before being cut short. Nadya had a pretty good idea of what had happened to the victim.
"Fuck! They're in the tunnel!"
Nadya spun around and saw several mutants making their way through the tunnel, slashing and biting at panicking civilians. A teenage girl ran towards Nadya and the soldiers before tripping on the rails with a frightened scream. As one mutant pounced on her, Nadya brought her revolver up and fired, sending a bullet smashing through the creature's chest.
"Protect the civilians! Fall back!"
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Post by blackpapermoon on May 31, 2012 22:11:31 GMT -5
Yuras was for the evacuation, but disagreed on how it was done. They should have sent someone to fix the phone line first, and ask Hans to send troops to help with the evacuation. But worst of all the director and the other station officials were going to send the civilians in one large group instead of several smaller groups with well arm guards.
He watched as his wife and son departed into the tunnel with the rest of the refugees, as much as he hated it he could not follow beside them. They needed the most experienced men in the front and back of the evacuation. With a heavy sigh, he entered the tunnel his intuition telling him that something bad was going to happen.
The passage was dark, and the civilians and their guards only had the light they had brought with them. They should have taken a rail car with a search light to clear out the darkness and frighten away any mutants that hid in the tunnel. Although the stalker was unsure if the light would matter with the new mutants, they showed on fear or reaction towards the light when they attack the satiation.
Slowly he walked along the riles with the others no one said a word, the tunnel was relatively silent considering the number of people involved with the exodus. Just the soft patter of footsteps or the random cough or squeak of a rat. Then from somewhere up a head the sound of chaos echoed gunshots and screams. People began to retreat back to the station, panic trampling and pushing each other as the new mutants began to pull people into the vents.
The scavenger began to fire at the bests with the bastard gun, causing one to let go of an elderly man. The man ran once free of the monster, and went to rejoin the others. Yuras kept with his section firing at the freaks as soon as they try to poke their heads out of the vents. Soon the monsters started to go after the guards, managing to knock one younger guards down before pulling his kicking a screaming into a vent.
Ferret nearly lost his balance as one of the mutants latched itself to his back, with a swift hand he took hold of a knife with a backwards thrust stabbed the monster in the abdomen. Shifting his weight he threw it of his back, and finished it off by clubbing it with the butt of his weapon. With the monster dealt with he continued to guard over his section as they made their way back to Belorusskaya. The only thought on his mind was that Nikita and Alexei would make it back and did not end up trampled or dragged into the vents.
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