When the news reached the Polis Council, an immediate response came from the major factions to end this threat once and for all. With the guidance of Polis, Hanza would pay for the logistical expenses to send the Red Line and Nazi soldiers under the organization of the Rangers. However, they were going to Paveletskaya and it was not just any station. What made this place unique was the lack of a hermetic door to keep the mutants out. With the inhabitants in constant war with the mutants, it was a surprise to see it last long against this threat. If they were not on the border, Hanza wouldn't be sending shipment of ammunition to keep them at bay.

Bourbon sat in the head steam-powered railcar across from Stella as the Rangers simply waited for the time to deploy. The rest were ensuring that the Communists and the Nazis don't kill each other in the meantime.

Stella began to ask a question. "Since it's going to take awhile. Are you the mood to answer some questions of mine?"

The stalker nodded his head. "Sure. I don't have any vodka with me so why not. What's your question?"

"This station, Paveletsa."

"Paveletskaya." Bourbon corrected him.

"Yes. That station. I heard the populace was given long-term exposure to radiation."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"They could be feral or just ghouls in general." The ex-Ranger commented. "I have some experience with them."

"Ghouls? What are those?"

Her eyebrows were raised in surprise. "If you were living in the Mojave, you would have been considered living under a rock."

"I've been living in a Metro system."

"Point made." She replied. "Ghouls are people who look like they're skin is peeling off and appear to look like the undead."

The experienced loner chuckled at the thought. "If that is what you think we're going to see at Paveletskaya then you're wrong."

Stella crossed her arms. "Really? How?"

"I've been to that station, it's nothing like you just described."

"Then what do you think I'll find there?"

He pulled out a cigarette out of his pocket before bringing his bullet lighter to light the end. "Children's eyes almost look like bats, a person's fingers has claws instead, a pig's snout for a nose, you get the idea." The stalker replied before taking a smoke. "They should consider themselves lucky the Nazis don't want to exterminate their people."

"Why is that? The Nazis don't appear to be that mean." The man scoffed at her reply. "What? Is it wrong that they want my attention instead of you?"

"That's because you're an outsider and a woman. If you lived in these tunnels, you wouldn't want to be around their company."

"They can't be that bad."

Then one of the Rangers spoke up. "The stalker is right. They're the worst sort of company you want. The only reason they want your attention is because their officers don't know they're flirting with a subhuman."

Stella glared up at the man. "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Uhlman, one of the Rangers."

"How do you know so much about them?" She wondered. Bourbon allowed the man with the vast amount of experience do the talking.

"Ma'am, I've seen them mass murder entire stations because some people didn't meet their head measurement standards." He answered.

Her expression couldn't understand how people would do such a thing. "Why would they do that? Did their commanders punish them?"

"Kill them? No, they got congratulated that they executed the mutants and the subhumans from the rest of the Metro. It's in their faction's philosophy."

"That's wrong. Why are we in their company then?"

"Because they have more soldiers than what the Rangers could deploy." Uhlman answered. "Welcome to the Metro."

"You'd let the Nazis go free after all of this time. You shouldn't be a Ranger in the first place."

Bourbon snapped his fingers at the woman. "Hey, don't disrespect the Polis Rangers. They're the only people who are willing to limit the Nazis to do that shit in their own territory. If not for them, the other factions would have had a full-blown war in these tunnels and nobody will be safe."

"Perhaps it's preferable than letting those bastards live." The woman commented.

"Or you should keep to your own affairs." The stalker replied. "I don't know how your people do it in the Mojave, but things are different here. It's time you learned that."

A loud cry from one of the Rangers driver shouted. "I see something up ahead! There should be some station lights to meet us, but I don't see them."

Bourbon rose from his seat and walked up to the side and leaned over the railing. "Those aren't lights, they're fires." He replied. "Get closer, something must have happened to their generators."

When the steam-powered trolley accelerated forward, he brought out his combat shotgun for this suspicious moment. There were always flood lights to give the defenders a field of view of the tunnel so the mutants don't get past the sentries. However, there was none of that when he could hear people screaming in the distance.

The station must have been overrun by the Legion or there were just too many mutants to deal with. To his surprise, he saw four figures in the distance. They wore strange outfits as one of them was armed with a pool cue and smashed it on the victim's head. There was just something off about it, but their laughter didn't comfort him when they killed their victim. The others joined in, smashing pipes and bludgeons onto the now-dead man on the platform.

He heard one of the Rangers honk the railcar horn and looked back to the others. "Motherfuckers, everyone deploy!"

Stella stood beside him and glanced over at the scene. "Those guys aren't Legion, they're Fiends."

Bourbon stared at her. "How do you know?"

"Those assholes are on chems and they enjoy making people suffer. I'll explain later after we kill them all."

One of the Rangers ran to the back of the railcar and shouted to the convoy behind him. "Deploy! Deploy! Deploy!"

Looking back, the tunnel was filled with commotion as the railcars stopped moving. Dozens of soldiers grabbed their gear and jumped to the tracks as they made their way towards Paveletskaya.

Bourbon was quick to join them with Stella behind his back. The Fiends tried to charge them, but gunfire from the vanguard of Polis Rangers put them down. Soon, they ran past their bodies and climbed onto the platform.

When he got past the entrance, chaos ensued with Fiends caught off-guard by the force that stormed the area. Despite the numbers, some left while others fought back with evil grin on their faces. Yet, one of them carried a strange weapon in her hand as she aimed it him. A green stream of flew past the men as Bourbon fell to his knees while the heat flew past him. "What the fuck is that?" He wondered.

Then he heard Stella reply. "It's a plasma gun."

As soon as the stalker saw the person once more, a shotgun blast put her down while the others fired their rifles and automatic guns.

Amongst the flood of troops, Colonel Miller began shouting orders. "Secure the platform and find any survivors!"

In the midst of the fighting, he became curious as he walked over to the body and picked up the weapon from the dead woman. This was something out of science-fiction, but in his hand was an energy weapon. This was something that Polis needed to see.

While the gunfire echoed in the background, Bourbon looked around and saw the remains of the station. Fire burned from the houses, bodies of the mutated inhabitants lying before him, others were charred from the flames. Death all around did little to comfort him as the stalker began to join the others, but for his own reason.

Stella was surprised by his quick reaction as he turned left and began running. "Hey!" Soon, she followed after him as he rushed forward.

On the right flank, Communist soldiers drew their assault rifles while their armored peers led the way with their automatic shotguns. "Lay down your weapons!" One man shouted at a sandbag position occupied by Fiends.

Rifle fire returned in reply before he could hear one of them cried out in laughter. "Do you like the sight of your own blood!"

"Fuck, suppressive fire." Volleys of shotgun shells peppered the position before one of the Reds pulled out a grenade launcher and fired two at the enemy. When they fell from their arc, the position was no more while the group dispersed to secure the position. "Leave no survivors."

While Bourbon ran past them, he saw one armored Fiend with two machetes confront him. However, he reached into his pocket and brought out a strange syringe before injecting it into his arm. Then the man screamed out a loud battle cry. "Bring it on, bitches!"

He raised his Shambler unleashing the fury of his shotgun shells onto the armored raider. Despite his effort, the pellets did little to deter the dual-wielding swordsman. Thankfully, he wasn't alone when Stella joined him fighting the man. Unlike him, she was firing the strange energy weapon at him.

When the streams of plasma landed on the man, his armor melted while he screamed in agony. "Fuck, get over here so you can bleed."

The stalker was not inclined to agree. "Shut up before I make you my bitch." He replied after he pulled out his revolver. Except, this weapons was last resort for the worst kind of monsters. Then he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Just as he expected, the armor did little to save him before he began to bleed from his heart. "Got to get some Med-X."

That alone made Stella step forward with her weapon. "Put him down before he puts more chems in his body!"

Heeding her advice, the revolver sight fell upon the Fiend's head. This one should count. At the pull of the trigger, the bullet struck through and killed the man.

"That should do." She replied. "Why did you run ahead?"

Bourbon slipped his sidearm into its holster before reloading his shotgun. "I'm trying to find out if there are any survivors left."

"Knowing the Fiends, they don't leave much."

"That's what I'm afraid that will happen." He said.

Then the duo looked ahead and were surprised by the sight they saw. A pack of Fiends fled from the left side of the platform to the right while gunfire chased after them. "Get the hell out of here!"

When they were gone, tall figures stormed out from the hallway before taking notice of them. The group had flashlights on as they turned to face them. However, all of them turned them off except for one. Then the light began to blink three times.

"What are they doing?" She wondered.

Bourbon pulled out his head flashlight from his pack and activated his light three times. After he finished the message, the group of soldiers split off, the first remaining in their positions as the second came towards him. Taking his head flashlight off, he chuckled to himself. "It's stalker code. We use this on the surface. Those are the survivors."

"How do you know this?"

Then he glanced to the ex-Ranger. "I usually keep in touch with this station and that part of the station is where everyone is supposed to go in case the station is under siege."

"What should we do now? It looks like the Fiends are running away."

"We should go to the colonel and tell him the news. They might find out where these people came from."

Opening his eyes, Artyom felt his body sliding on the warm dry ground as he looked around. His last memory was not comforting while he felt the tight iron grip on his collar. Looking over his shoulder, a ghost person dragged him into a room through a hole in the wall. However, it was unaware that he was awake.

Looking at his hands, his revolver was still in his hands, but there was a chance that it might have been empty.

Then he heard the ghost person's howling when it released its grip on him, but it also pulled out one of those strange knives from its side. If this was the time for it to kill him, he had to fight back before it took the opportunity to take his life.

The stalker grabbed his trench knife and slashed at its calf.

It dropped onto one knee as if it was taking in the damage and pain. As Artyom pushed himself off the ground, it turned around with its gas mask staring back at him. Whatever it was doing, the creature was allowing him the opportunity to fight back. The barrel of his revolver rested upon his arm while edge of the blade was pointed at the inhuman creature.

When it stumbled forward, he pulled the trigger and felt his magnum recoil at the shot. Just as he suspected, the ghost person before him had lost its head in the process.

After the body slumped to the ground, Artyom checked his ammo, only to see there was no bullets left. Either it was luck or coincidence that he would use his last round to save himself from the monster.

Looking back at the hole in the wall, Artyom felt unnerved if he tried to go through the tunnel itself. Just in case the ghost people would come after him, he would have to use one of his grenades into a makeshift tripwire bomb. However, he would have to ignore it if it was his only way out.

His attention grew elsewhere when he saw a strange rifle on the table along with a dozen other mags that was meant for it. Whatever this gun was, it would be a great substitute for his Bastard as he grabbed it off the table. Slipping the mags into his backpack, he noted two magazines placed beside the weapon. One called 'Locksmith's Reader' while the second one was named 'Fixin' Things'. Perhaps they would have information useful to him.

Aside from the hole in the wall, there was a staircase leading up, but where to? Filled with curiosity, the young man walked up the steps and made his way towards the level called 'Medical Clinic'. Maybe he could find some medical supplies for himself before he could join the others.