Black Sun

Chapter 5

Ruby woke with a start, her heart hammering against her chest. She sat bolt upright, gasping for air. Instinctively, she called out for Wolf, only to remember a second later that he was gone. Her heart sank, and she forced herself to stand up and collect her submachine gun, then sling it across her front. Outside, it was a rare moment of sunshine in the Zone, with not a cloud in sight. It didn't seem fitting, given the nightmare she'd just had.

She'd found herself marching through Beacon, her clothes and hands stained with blood, while all the other students and teachers stared at her, whispering accusations of murder. It had only been a nightmare, yet it had been too much for her to take, and she had awoken not long after it had started. She knew why, too – she had murdered that Ukrainian officer in cold blood the day before. Granted, he had deserved it, but still, murder was murder, and the knowledge that she'd been responsible for a murder had haunted her ever since.

But there was nothing to be done about it at the moment, not when she had so much other stuff to worry about. It had been a busy day after the big fight at the Village – they'd buried their fallen, licked their wounds, and tried to move on with life, her included. With Wolf dead and the Military cleared out, she had no reason to stay in the Rookie Village anymore. She'd always intended to leave at some point, and now the opportunity had been given to her. The only question was what she did with it.

Ruby stuck her hands into her pockets, and was confused when her fingers brushed against what felt like a plastic flash drive, before she remembered – it had been in one of Wolf's pockets, and the others had given it to her when they'd started stripping his gear off of him before burying him. Nobody knew what was on it yet, only that he'd apparently taken it from the Bandits at the car park when they'd rescued Nimble. Why they'd given it to her, Ruby didn't know; perhaps it was worth some money, or maybe they figured it'd be sentimental in some way, or that Wolf would have wanted her to have it. She supposed she'd find out once she reached the Bar.

Ruby stepped out into the open air, wincing and covering her eyes with her hand when the sun beat down on her. After a moment, her eyes adjusted, and she looked around, searching for Nimble. She found him sitting next to a fire pit, gently strumming a battered old acoustic guitar.

"Ruby," Nimble drawled as she approached.

Ruby blinked, surprised. "Are you drunk?"

"That easy to tell, huh?"

"Nimble, it's like eight in the morning."

"Well, I woke up today and figured it'd be a drinking sort of day. Can you blame me after what happened yesterday?"

Reluctantly, Ruby shook her head. "I've got a favor to ask of you."

"Sure, go ahead."

"I need you to look after Crescent Rose for me. I think it's about time I left the Rookie Village, and I can't take it with me."

Nimble suddenly hit a bum note on the guitar. He swore under his breath, then turned to her in surprise. "What are you talking about? You're leaving?"
Ruby nodded. "No offense to any of you, but I don't want to stay here anymore with Wolf gone. I'd always intended to head out eventually, and now I finally have the chance since the Military isn't around anymore."

"What are you even going to do?"

"Find a way home. I figure, someone's gotta know something about the Wish Granter-"

"The Wish Granter?" Nimble shook his head. "Ruby, that's just a myth from the early days of the Zone. Nobody knows if the Wish Granter even exists or not. My money's on no, because if it did, it would have been found already."

"All the stories I've heard say that it's inside the power plant," Ruby countered. "To my knowledge, nobody's ever made it inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."

"The NPP wasn't always impossible to get to," Nimble said. "It didn't become extremely dangerous until the Brain Scorcher got turned on and Monolith became a major player in the Zone. Before that, it was just like anywhere else."

"And how long ago was that?"

"This was the early days of the Zone, so admittedly, you may have a point, but that doesn't change the fact that nobody knows if the Wish Granter even exists or not. For all we know, you could just be gearing up to march straight into Monolith territory all alone for no reason."

"I wouldn't be going in immediately,' Ruby protested. "I'd get geared up first, plus find a proper group. I'm not an idiot, you know."

"No, you're not. I understand; you just want to leave the safety of the Village for a chance at finding a way home."

"Can you blame me? If you were in my position, you'd do the same thing." Ruby's expression softened. "I want to go home, Nimble. I miss my friends, and my sister, and my father. I don't belong here. If there's a chance that finding the Wish Granter can help me get there, then I have to take it. I have to."

Nimble hesitated, then let out a grunt. "...Alright, you've got a point. But before you leave, you should at least know where you're going."

He set the guitar aside and pulled out his PDA, then traced a line from their current position up to another spot on the map.

"You're going to want to head through the checkpoint," Nimble said. "Pass through the Garbage, and make your way to the Bar. Once you're there, talk to Barkeep – if anyone knows about the Wish Granter or how to get information about it, it'll be him. Fair warning, though – I hear he's no better than Sidorovich personality-wise."

Ruby nodded in understanding. "And the danger? What can I expect in terms of threats?"

"The usual – mutants, bandits, Anomalies… all that shit. Watch for Bloodsuckers once you enter the Garbage. If you hear them roar or hear heavy breathing, run. Got that?"

"Yeah, I've got it."

Nimble put his PDA away, and as he did so, Ruby handed over Crescent Rose. Nimble stared at it, then hesitantly accepted it.

"Take good care of it," Ruby pleaded. "It's all I have left of home, and I'll need it back when I get to Remnant."

"I'll guard it with my life," Nimble promised as he accepted the weapon, stumbling under its weight. "Shit, it's heavy… Are you leaving now?"

Ruby nodded. "I don't see any reason to stay. You guys have been great, don't get me wrong, but this is something I think I need to do."

"I understand. Good luck, Ruby."

With that, Ruby bid Nimble farewell, and she marched off towards the old checkpoint.

Pyrrha let out a wide yawn as she woke up. It was pretty late for her, from the looks of things – generally she got up early in the morning to go to the gym, but here, the sun was already high in the sky. Not that she cared; she was no longer on Remnant, which meant she didn't need to stay in peak physical condition to fight monsters, not when her gun and bullets would do the job for her.

Speaking of which, Pyrrha reached for her gear and began strapping it on, finishing with her AR-18, which she slung across her chest. With everything in-place, she stepped outside and looked around, her face brightening a little when she saw Rat and Swift sitting around the fire, eating breakfast.

"Look who's up," Swift commented as she joined them, taking a seat between the two. "Sleep well?"

"As well as I can here," she answered. "Is it common to have terrible nightmares all the time?"

"In the Zone? Yes," said Rat. "I haven't had a good dream since I got here. The Zone fucks with your head in strange ways."

"Great…" Pyrrha said sarcastically. "Anyway, what's on the agenda? Did Lukash assign us anything for today?"

"Just a simple scouting mission," Rat grunted. "Lukash wants us to patrol the northern side of the area, just past the farmstead. Ideally, it'll be an easy job – with the Bloodsuckers mostly cleared out, there shouldn't be much resistance, unless Duty somehow set up a presence here without us knowing about it."

"But what are the odds of that, right?" Swift asked. "Anyway, when did you want to head out?"

"We can go now," Pyrrha said. "Best to get it over with quickly, right?"

"Sure." Swift and Rat both stood up, reaching for their weapons. With that, they headed out, pausing only to wave goodbye to the guards standing post outside the base.

"Where are we headed, exactly?" Pyrrha asked as they marched through the Zone. She kept her rifle held at the low ready position, just in case. After last time, she never wanted to be caught by surprise again.

"We're going up to where the road forks and taking a left," Rat informed her. "Right leads to the barrier, and there shouldn't be a need to patrol that, because it's generally locked down pretty tight to keep mutants and Monolith from getting in. If there was an issue with it, we'd know. So instead we're heading the other direction."

"Is there anything over there we should be worried about?"

"There's a group of Mercenaries who have a camp set up there," Swift chimed in. "They're not exactly allies, but we have an agreement of sorts worked out with them – they don't shoot at us and we won't shoot at them. So far that's held pretty firm."

"So far?"

"Well, they're still Mercenaries. That means they'll still shoot us if they get paid enough money for it. If Duty had any sense then they'd be paying these guys to hunt us down, but fortunately for us, Duty and the Mercenaries hate each other. It's almost as bad as the stuff between Duty and Freedom."

"Really?" Pyrrha asked, curious. "Why is that?"

Rat shrugged. "Who knows? A lot of these old alliances and hostilities go back to the very early days of the Zone, and have just carried over since then. Many of them could probably be solved pretty quickly if both sides came to the negotiating table, but we've all been shooting at each other for far too long to risk it."

"Hey Rat, can you imagine if Duty and Freedom both controlled different parts of the Bar?" Swift asked. "That'd be a disaster, don't you think?"

Rat chuckled and shook his head. "How would that even work? We'd be too busy killing each other to do anything else. Why do you think Duty controls the Bar right now, and nobody in Freedom goes near it?"

"Huh," Pyrrha commented. "That's interesting."

"You'll get used to stuff like this the longer you stay in the Zone," Swift commented. "Trust me, at a certain point, the factions and their relationships will become common knowledge to you."

"You know, there's one thing that's kind of bothering me about that," Pyrrha said. "Early on, Bonesaw mentioned another faction, I think they were called Clear Sky? What happened to them?"

"They got wiped out awhile back," Rat spat. "Good riddance, I say – fuckers were trying to mess with the Zone, specifically the power plant. They're the reason the Brain Scorcher became a thing in the first place, it used to be that the only thing keeping people out were the Monolith soldiers patrolling, but now nobody can even get close because of the Brain Scorcher. That's what happens when you mess with the Zone, and that's why anyone with a brain ought to know better."

"And the Brain Scorcher?" Pyrrha asked, curious. "What is that?"

"Nobody really knows," Swift answered. "Most of the eggheads seem to think it's some kind of machine that's active close to the power plant. It does exactly what it sounds like – get too close to the power plant and the Scorcher will fry your brain. At best, you turn into a zombified Stalker. And no, those aren't the same zombies you might be familiar with from horror movies, though they might as well be – these guys don't do anything except shamble around all day, moaning in pain and shitting themselves. They don't have any higher brain function, but don't let that fool you – they're still very dangerous. If you see one, do the poor guy a favor and put him out of his misery, or just avoid him if you can."

"And the Monolith?" Pyrrha couldn't help but question. "What about them?"

Rat let out a sharp exhale. "Fuck those guys," he said. "They're like Zombies, only crazier – their brains are just as fried, but they're actually dangerous. They worship the Monolith – hence the name – and revere it as their god. They're a bunch of brainwashed religious fanatics who need to be put down, both to put them out of their misery and to keep yourself alive. If you ever run into any Monolith troopers, don't hesitate, because they won't. If they do manage to get to you, you'd better pray that they only kill you, because the alternative is becoming one of them or getting turned into a Zombie."

Pyrrha couldn't help but shudder. The Zone's danger was becoming more and more apparent with every moment she spent here. "I'll keep that in mind."
They continued walking in silence. As they walked, Pyrrha couldn't help but realize that for the first time since her fight with Cinder, she was on-edge. It couldn't he helped, she supposed – the Zone was simply that dangerous of a place. Even if she'd had her Aura, it'd still be unnerving purely because of how many ways the Zone had to kill you, but without her Aura, it was more like her position in the food chain had changed.

Granted, humans were hardly the apex predators back on Remnant – that would be the Grimm – but they could at least fight them off. Here, it was different – there was next to no way to fight a random stray bullet from out of nowhere, or accidentally walking into an Anomaly field, or absorbing too much radiation.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Pyrrha's head. "The radiation!"

"What?" Swift said hurriedly, his attention following to the Detector on his belt. "My Geiger counter isn't beeping…"

"No, no, I mean, that's why I don't have my Aura! The radiation!"

Rat and Swift exchanged a glance, then looked back to her. "You feeling okay?" Rat asked.

Pyrrha shrank beneath their gaze. "I… did explain Aura to you guys, right?"

"You did," Swift confirmed. "At first I thought you were crazy, but then I remembered that you showed up wearing Greek armor in the middle of the Zone with two arrows sticking out of you. So then I figured that you're probably still pretty crazy, but anyone badass enough to show up to the Zone looking like that was probably worth paying attention to."

"What he's trying to say is that your story is crazy, but that it's so crazy that we believe it," Rat explained. "And, to be fair, it's not like the Zone has any shortage of crazy stories. There's that one about the boots, for example…"

"In any case, I think that's why my Aura isn't working," Pyrrha said. "It must be trying to fight off the radiation I'm absorbing. That would explain why it's not coming back – because I keep taking in rads, my Aura doesn't have a chance to naturally regenerate like it does on Remnant."

"Makes sense to me," Rat said with a nod.

"It does?" Swift asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it's simple."

"You're so full of shit, man. You don't even know what Aura is."

"Pyrrha explained it awhile back, it's the power of your soul or something."

"Oh, because that's not incredibly vague."

"No, no, he's right on the money," Pyrrha said, a smile crossing her face.

"Bah. Now I know how Leshiy feels when he gets shit from the other guys. You two are going to be the death of me."

"You know, it's funny," Pyrrha thought aloud. "This is really the kind of thing I'd have expected from you, Rat. Usually you're the no-nonsense type."

"What can I say, except that apparently I'm more open-minded than some other people," Rat said. "Who knew?"

Pyrrha let out a small laugh. As horrible as the Zone was, she couldn't deny that the guys in Freedom helped make it a lot more bearable. It reminded her a lot of her team back at Beacon. Obviously, there was no replacing them, but the men in Freedom certainly helped fill the void.

They reached their destination after a bit more walking. The small campsite stood ahead, with several men in blue camouflage armor sitting around a fire. As the three of them approached, the Mercenaries stood up and reached for their guns, holding them at low ready as they approached.

"Yo," Swift announced as they drew closer. "Just on a routine patrol, looking for Duty. How's it going, Coyote?"

The lead Mercenary, who must have been Coyote, shrugged. "Eh. Same old, same old."

"Got anything to report to us?"

"Nothing," came the response.

"Not even if we were willing to pay?"

"Still nothing, unfortunately. Come back in a bit and maybe we'll have something about Duty's troop movements for you. For now, we're still waiting for work to come in."

Coyote's gaze drifted to Pyrrha, and he paused. "Who's this?"

"This is our new arrival," Rat said, a defensive tinge working its way into his voice.

Coyote held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I didn't mean anything by that. You know me – I'm a classy guy. I just wanted to know."

"Yeah, well, we know how you Mercs are. Gonna sell that info to Barkeep?"

"Like Barkeep would care that there's a girl in the Zone," Coyote said, rolling his eyes. "She's not the first, you know – there have been women before her. Hell, rumor has it that one of the first people to show up in the Zone was a woman, though it's obviously just a rumor. No idea where you'd go to find out more about that, either."

"You don't know anything about that?" Pyrrha asked.

Coyote shook his head. "Nah. If I did, I'd already have named my price. You want that kind of info? Maybe see if Barkeep can direct you to one of the few veterans still walking around, assuming you can even get to the Bar in the first place. No idea why you'd care, but if you do, that's the way to do it."

Pyrrha nodded in understanding, then turned back to Rat. "Was there anything else we needed?"

"Nah," Rat confirmed. He turned back to the Mercenaries. "Unless you guys have seen anything worth noting?"

Coyote let out a huff. "Oh, please. Nothing happens around here; the Army Warehouses are pretty quiet. Most exciting thing I've heard of in the past few days was that someone finally cleared out those Bloodsuckers infesting the abandoned village."

"You knew about the Bloodsuckers and didn't tell us?" Pyrrha asked.

Coyote shrugged. "We don't tell you anything for free unless we benefit. Everyone else in Freedom understands that perfectly, except the new people, apparently. And like I was saying, we currently don't have any info for sale, or at least any info that you three would be interested in. Get one of Lukash's people over here and maybe we'll talk, but as-is, I can't trust the grunts with this stuff."

"Yeah, yeah," Swift said dismissively. "See you guys later, then."

With that, they all left. But as they turned to leave, Pyrrha caught sight of one of the Mercenaries staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He gave her a creepy feeling, and she found herself involuntarily inching closer to Rat and Swift as they left, and one hand holding tightly onto the grip of her rifle.

"So that was the Mercenaries for you," Swift said as they trudged back to camp. In typical Ukraine fashion, the once-clear skies had given way to clouds, and the first drops had already started to fall. "They're a bunch of pricks, as you can probably tell. Only interested in money."

"They… didn't seem that bad," Pyrrha said tentatively. "I mean, at least they weren't shooting at us."

"Trust me, if someone made them the right offer, they would be," Rat told her. "You can't trust the Mercenaries unless they're on your payroll, and even then, you have to be wary that the guy you're sending them after doesn't make them a better offer than you."

"Money makes the world go round, I guess."

"If you're a Mercenary, it does," Rat confirmed. "But some of us like to think that we fight for something greater than petty cash."

"That's something I've been meaning to ask about," Pyrrha said, pulling up her hood as she walked. "Why Freedom, if you don't mind me asking? It can't just be because of the company and the brownies."

"No, but those certainly help," Swift chimed in. "You already know what Freedom stands for, I'm sure, so it's not exactly a mystery to see why people would want to join. Sure, the Zone is a dangerous place and living here is miserable for most people, but the world outside the Zone is thriving because of what we're finding here. If people would just leave it alone, that'd be the end of it, but they won't. Instead, you get groups like Duty, Clear Sky, and the Ecologists trying to destroy it or exploit it. They don't realize what the Zone does for the advancement of mankind."

"Like what?"

"The Artifacts, mainly," Rat explained. "Think about it – the medical Artifacts alone are worth their weight in gold out there. Can you imagine how useful it'd be for a hospital to have something that can help stop bleeding, or absorb radiation? Hell, some of the Artifacts can apparently even cure certain mental illnesses."

"And then there are the other kinds," Swift continued. "Superconductors that never run out of energy and that can fit in the palm of your hand, wallet-sized sources of unlimited heat energy, a rock that you can shove in your pocket that will increase the amount of weight you can carry… the list goes on and on. Point is, the Zone has a lot to offer, and it's worth protecting. Everyone in Freedom will agree with that."

Pyrrha nodded along. "I see. So, would you say-"

The sudden crack of a gunshot passing overhead stole the words out of her mouth. Immediately, Rat grabbed her and threw her off the road into a nearby ditch, and him and Swift followed, rolling into cover next to her as rounds continued to pass over head.

"God damn it!" Rat growled, unslinging his rifle and taking it off safe. "Where did that come from?!"

"No idea!" Swift shouted over the incoming gunfire. "Pyrrha, can you see anything?!"

"Nothing!" Pyrrha confirmed. "Can't risk sticking my head up!"

"Damn it! What do we do?!"

Pyrrha bit her lip in thought as the gunfire crept closer and closer, signifying that their enemies were drawing near. If they didn't do something soon, they were going to get flanked. They were going to have to do something desperate.

"Cover me," she said. "I'm about to do something crazy. Hopefully it works."

Rat stared at her in surprise. "Cover you?! What are you-"

Pyrrha suddenly vaulted up over the ditch, sprinting for another piece of cover – a rusted, overturned truck on the side of the road. Behind her, Rat and Swift both opened up, pouring gunfire downrange to try and keep their enemy suppressed. Pyrrha heard rounds impact all around her, and by the time she made it to cover, her heart was beating so hard that it felt like it was about to burst out of her chest.

She flattened herself against the side of the overturned semi truck, then chanced a look out through the space in between the cab and the trailer. Off in the distance, she could see several men in black-and-red armor advancing on their position. With no other options, she swallowed her fear, shouldered her rifle, took aim, and fired.

The 5.56mm bullet soared downrange, impacting one of the men in the pelvis. He fell to the ground, screaming, and one of his comrades grabbed him and began to drag him backwards away from the fighting.

A hail of bullets came racing downrange, impacting against the truck as Pyrrha ducked back behind it. She flattened herself up against the front wheel, keeping the engine block between herself and the incoming fire. From behind her, she heard Rat and Swift returning fire. Then, over the noise of combat, she heard something else – something metallic bouncing against the ground. Her eyes widened when she realized what it was.

"Grenade!"

It was too late. The explosive went off, the concussion tossing her to the ground and blowing out her ears. Pyrrha laid there for a moment, convinced she was dying, but as the seconds ticked by and feeling returned to her body, she hurriedly began to pat herself down, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that she only had superficial injuries. She struggled to her feet, wincing with every step. The only thing she could hear was a high-pitched ringing in her ears, and she felt dizzy. Something wet poured out of her ears, and it didn't much for her to realize that both her eardrums had burst from the sheer force of the blast.

She could still tell that the fighting was going on. She could feel each gunshot reverberating through the asphalt. Behind her, Rat and Swift continued to throw down fire. Rat was yelling at her, she realized.

"I'm fine!" she called back. "I just can't hear anything!"

Rat threw caution to the wind and ran forward, then grabbed her by her plate carrier and tossed her back into the ditch him and Swift were sheltered in. Swift continued to provide covering fire, and Rat soon joined him, but it was clear that they were losing ground fast – the incoming fire continued, and showed no signs of stopping. Pyrhra fumbled with her assault rifle, gritting her teeth in pain the entire time.

Then, suddenly, the incoming fire stopped just as Pyrrha managed to bring her rifle up to her shoulder. Confused, she looked around, only to see that off in the distance, several figures in green-and-yellow fatigues had joined the fight. Next to her, Rat and Swift seemed to both be cheering, and she realized immediately what had happened – the rest of Freedom had come to back them up. The men in red-and-black, who Pyrrha now recognized as Duty members, immediately returned fire, but the group of Freedom members was too overwhelming for them, and they were forced to retreat. Pyrrha watched them go, only peeling her rifle's stock from her shoulder and letting out a sigh of relief once they were gone.

Someone smacked her on the back, and she turned to find Swift grinning at her. It was tough to realize it was him at first – her head was swimming and her vision had started to blur. He was talking to her, she realized.

"Sorry…" she breathed. "Ears burst… can't-"

That was as far as she got before she passed out.

"Wake up."

The statement was punctuated by a sharp poke to his stomach. Jaune sat up immediately, wincing and clutching at his stomach as he did.

"Ow! Did you have to kick me?"

"You were still asleep," Cinder said nonchalantly. "We have work to do."

"What kind of work?"

"Heading back to the Bar, first and foremost. We're going to need another job."

Jaune stared at her. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were still trying to deal with that group of Loners. Or did killing those bandits earlier satisfy your bloodlust enough?"

"There's no point in going after the Loners now," Cinder said, crossing her arms over her chest. "We still don't even know who they are. We'll have to wait for them to make the first move."

"Oh, well that's just great. So we're basically just sitting around, waiting for someone to shoot at us?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, okay… well, what else?"

"We need a job," Cinder insisted.

"Wouldn't it be better to lay low somewhere and wait for those Loners to come to us, like you insist they will?"

Cinder shook her head. "We can't afford to wait. We're going to bleed through our money sooner rather than later. We've got a few thousand rubles, but that's a week or two of supplies at most. No, we're going to need to start taking jobs if we want to survive, and to be properly outfitted."

"You seem properly outfitted to me," Jaune said as he looked her up and down. And it was true – unlike him, Cinder had body armor and a Kalashnikov. Granted, she'd stolen both of them from people she'd killed, but that was neither here nor there.

"You aren't," she pointed out.

"Oh, that's nice of you. I didn't think you cared."

"I truly don't, but you're of no use to me dead," she insisted. "Now, are you going to sit there and complain, or are you going to get up?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Jaune rose to his feet, stretching as he did so. He reached for his Remington 870 and slung it over his shoulder, then turned back to her, only to find that she'd already started off down the street.

"Hey, wait up!"

The trip to the bar took a few hours, but was uneventful. A few of the Duty soldiers at the checkpoint gave the two of them a wary look, as they always did, but they didn't provide any trouble, and let them through without issue.

The two of them stepped into the Bar and laid their packs on the counter, then began to hand over the gear they'd collected from the dead Bandits. Barkeep eyed them with suspicion.

"Where the hell do you two keep getting all this stuff?" he asked as he took possession of all the gear and exchanged it with stacks of paper money.

"Bandits," Cinder stated.

"Ah. Well, they certainly won't miss it, and nobody will miss them."

Jaune's eyes were drawn to the top of the Bar. Crocea Mors was hanging there, mounted next to the boar's head. Next to him, Cinder continued to speak with Barkeep.

"We need a job," she insisted. "What do you have?"

Barkeep brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "Hm… how do you both feel about hunting mutants? Dangerous work, but it pays well."

"We'll take it."

"Alright," Barkeep grunted. "We've gotten reports from some Loners that a pack of Pseudodogs has been sighted wandering around the Dark Valley. We need them gone before they become a problem. You know how to get to the Dark Valley?"

"No."

"Head to the Garbage, past the trading post. Go east until you find the paved road."

Cinder nodded. "Very well. We'll get it done."

"See to it that you do. There's a hefty paycheck involved with this one."

With that, Cinder stepped away, and Jaune followed her.

"Did you get all that?" she asked as they walked out of the Bar.

"Just the part about the Pseudodogs," Jaune answered. "I don't know what a Psuedodog is, but it doesn't exactly sound friendly-"

"Not that, you idiot. I'm talking about the Dark Valley. Did you hear what Barkeep said about the location? It's close to where you found me."

Jaune caught on in an instant. "And that's where the Loner who got away ran off to. Do you think-"

"I think there's a chance that we'd be able to find out more if we went there," Cinder insisted.

Jaune hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. "...Is this wise to do when I still don't have armor?"

"Too late to say no now, isn't it?"

"I suppose so… well, at least you're watching my back, right?" he said sarcastically.

"I'm not about to let you die, not until we've dealt with the Loners."

"How reassuring…"

It was raining by the time they reached the Dark Valley. The two of them pushed their way through the thicket of trees where Jaune had first encountered Cinder. He noted with no small amount of morbid disgust that there was still dried blood coating the ground, though the Loners' bodies had all disappeared.

"So," Jaune whispered to her as they crept through the valley, "what were you doing before I found you, exactly?"

"What do you think?" Cinder hissed. "I was keeping my head down and killing people to survive."

"Why did I even ask…?" He shook his head. "Whatever. Let's just keep going."

The two of them continued creeping along, taking care to stick to the treeline the entire time. There was what looked like some kind of old factory off in the distance, which they were moving towards in order to get out of the rain and rest a bit. As they drew closer, however, Cinder suddenly stuck her arm out, stopping him.

"What's-"

She brought a finger to her lips, hushing him. In a whispered tone, she said, "Give me the binoculars."

Jaune blinked in surprise, but did as she asked, passing the binoculars over to her. She accepted them and brought them to her eyes, using them to look into the old factory. After a moment, she scowled, then lowered the binoculars.

"What is it?" Jaune asked.

"Take a look," she urged, passing the binoculars over to him.

Jaune gave her a skeptical glance, but did as she told him, bringing the binoculars up to his eyes. It was dark out due to the rain, but with every flash of lightning overhead, the area was illuminated for a brief instant, allowing him to get a good look at the inside of the factory. In an instant, he saw what was wrong.

"Great," he muttered. "More bandits… my favorite." He handed the binoculars back to Cinder, who pocketed them. "I take it you'll want to kill these guys, too?"

"Not necessarily," she admitted. "I counted at least a dozen of them, probably more. I don't like those odds."

"I sense a 'but' coming here sooner or later."

"But-"

"There it is."

"-I don't know if we can afford to go hunting Pseudodogs around here when there are Bandits wandering around, who will no doubt be drawn in by the gunfire."

"Yeah, that figures…" Jaune said with a sigh. "I cannot believe we're doing this again."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"How about telling Barkeep we don't want this job? I mean, I'm sure it pays well, but it's not worth my life."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Relax. We'll clear out the Bandits, go hunting, and then head back to Barkeep."

"Yeah, whatever. If we're doing this, we're doing it my way."

"Your way?"

"Yes, my way," Jaune insisted. He began pointing out parts of the old factory. "The entrance at the front gate is relatively unguarded – looks like there's just a single sentry standing at his post, with no backup. I doubt they expect anyone to just come through the front gate. They even left it open for us to just walk on through. So, I say we take that guy out, push our way through, and begin clearing the base out. We'll have to go room-by-room, I'm sure, but if we're careful, it shouldn't be any worse than the train station."

Cinder blinked. "That… is surprisingly astute of you.:"

"I wasn't team leader for nothing," Jaune said. He brought his shotgun up and checked to make sure a shell was chambered and the magazine tube was full. Once he was certain he was full up on ammo, he looked back to her with a nod.

"Alright. Let's go clear out the factory."

The storm had intensified by the time they managed to creep their way over to the front gate. The guard never even saw it coming – he stood there with his back to them the entire time, and was completely unprepared for Cinder to lunge forward, cover his mouth with her hand, and drive her Kalashnikov bayonet into the base of his skull. The man's death was instant; Cinder let the body fall, then sheathed her bayonet and motioned for Jaune to follow her. Together, the two of them pushed their way through the front gate, weapons at the ready.

There were two other guards up ahead, walking along the street with their backs turned to them. Cinder motioned for him to follow her, and he did; together, they ducked behind the nearby building, pressing their backs up against the wall as they carefully crept around.

"We're going to have to take all these guys out," Cinder whispered to him. "You take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right. We'll fire at the same time."

Jaune nodded, and then together, they pushed out from behind cover. The two guards had stopped moving and were instead engaged in conversation about something up ahead. Cinder dropped down to one knee to steady her shot and Jaune braced himself against the building.

Then she gave the signal, and he fired.

Both men went down with a single shot. For a second, the only noise aside from the rain was the sound of the gunshots rolling through the nearby hills like thunder. But it didn't last.

Someone from inside the building yelled something in Ukrainian, and then all hell broke loose.

Cinder ducked back behind cover just as a burst of incoming gunfire tore through her position. She narrowly made it back to safety in time to avoid being shot. Once she was safe, she peeked out long enough to lay down some shots, earning a scream of pain from someone in the process.

"What now?!" Jaune asked.

"We hold here," Cinder replied.

"Hold here?! What if they throw a-"

His statement was punctuated by the sound of something metal hitting the ground. His eyes widened, and he barely had time to throw himself to the floor before the grenade went off. His legs shook as he picked himself up, but he wasted no time in holding his corner, poking his head out and firing off several shots from his 870 that took out a few bandits.

"We can't stay here!" he shouted as he thumbed shells into his weapon.

"I know!" Cinder called back. "Alright, give me cover!"

"What?! Are you-"

"Cover me!"

Jaune let out a low growl, but did as he was told, peering out from behind cover on her side and firing off several blasts of buckshot while she bounded out from cover. Cinder managed to make it to cover inside a small shack just as his shotgun ran dry, and Jaune let it dangle from its sling as he again found himself forced to drop in more fresh shells.

Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he managed to turn just in time to see several bandits pop out from around the corner. There were three – two armed with shotguns and one wielding what looked like a machine gun of some kind. Jaune hurriedly spun around the corner just as a spray of incoming fire tore chunks out of the wall he'd just been standing in front of. He dropped a single shell into his weapon's chamber and closed the action, then pointed the gun blindly around the corner and fired it. There was a scream of pain, indicating he'd hit something; rather than reload, Jaune ripped his Makarov out of its holster, then looked around the corner and took out the remaining two bandits with four shots each. He swapped magazines in his pistol, then put the single wounded bandit out of his misery.

"Jaune, over here!"

Cinder's voice caught his attention, and Jaune hurriedly finished reloading his shotgun, then broke cover and sprinted towards her. He found her hunkered down out in the same barracks; the gunfire from outside had stopped, indicating that she'd been successful in her gunfight, and all the bandits shooting at her were now dead. Jaune chanced a look out from behind their new cover, frowning when he saw shadows moving inside the building up ahead.

"We're going to have to push inside," Cinder told him.

"Of course we are…" he muttered. "How do we want to-"

She cut him off by revealing a grenade she'd apparently picked up from a dead Bandit. Jaune eyed it with surprise, then moved a few inches away. She rolled her eyes.

"We go in right after it goes off," she informed him. "Alright?"

"Fine," he conceded. "Tell me wh-"

Without warning, she pulled the pin and threw the grenade through the front door to the factory building. There were several panicked shouts, then the grenade went off. Jaune had no time to focus on the screams of the dying, instead following after her as she pushed in.

The instant they were inside the building, the gunfire started back up again, this time led by Cinder, who was pouring fire on the upper levels of the building.

"Upstairs, Jaune!" she shouted.

Jaune didn't argue, instead moving to the stairs. He led with the barrel of his shotgun, keeping an eye on the stairwell ahead of him. A Bandit stuck his head out to get a better look; Jaune just about removed it with a single blast from his 870. The man's lifeless, nearly headless corpse slumped over the guardrail, and Jaune found himself forced to swallow his bile as blood and brains dripped onto him from above.

He made it to the top floor, and on instinct, dropped into a crouch as he peered around a corner. His instinct was correct – the Bandits hurriedly adjusted towards his new position, giving him just enough time to pull his head back into cover before their incoming bursts of automatic fire could shred him to ribbons. Jaune winced as he felt pain suddenly blossom up from his right shoulder, and for a moment he was worried he'd been hit, but a quick look revealed that he'd only been grazed. He took a moment to still his pounding heart, then took a breath and stuck his shotgun around the corner, blind-firing the weapon. There were several shouts of alarm, and he heard what sounded like people diving for cover from down the hall. Seizing his chance, Jaune pushed out, shotgun at the ready. One Bandit tried to pop up and lay into him with his Kalashnikov, but Jaune put him down with a load of buckshot to his chest, then continued on his way.

There was movement on the other end of the hall, and Jaune readied his shotgun in preparation, but he was relieved to find that it was just Cinder. Together, the two of them converged on an open room, stacking up on either side of the door.

"We've got you surrounded!" Cinder called into the room. "Give up if you don't want to die!"

For a moment, there was nothing but silence, but then they got a response.

"Alright, just don't shoot!"

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the remaining few Bandits drop their weapons to the ground. He looked to Cinder for instruction, and she motioned for him to follow her as she pushed into the room.

Upon entering, they found four Bandits standing there, their weapons on the ground and their hands on their heads. Jaune instantly put his weapon on safe and prepared to sling it, having seen that the fight was over.

Naturally, Cinder had other plans.

She moved the selector switch on her Kalashnikov to fully automatic. Jaune's eyes widened when he realized what she was about to do, but it was too late. She held down the trigger, hosing the four Bandits with automatic fire. Jaune could only watch as the four men were cut down in the blink of an eye, their bodies falling to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

It was over in an instant, and when it was, the only people left alive in the Bandit camp were him and Cinder. Jaune stared, stunned, as Cinder put her weapon on safe and slung it across her front, then went to rummage through the pockets of the dead men. With shaking legs, Jaune leaned against a nearby wall, bringing a hand up to rub at his tired eyes.

This was all getting to be too much for him. He needed some way to calm down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune saw something lying on a nearby desk. He looked towards it and found an unopened pack of cigarettes sitting there. Everything in his mind told him to resist, but he didn't care – he needed something to take the edge off, and this was the only thing available.

So he reached for the packet of cigarettes, opened it, and popped one into his mouth. Then he pulled out his lighter and flicked it open, and held the flame to the end of the cigarette. He took a drag from the cigarette, and instantly found himself reduced to a coughing fit. The smoke slipped from his fingertips and landed on the ground as he coughed and retched, but he paid it no mind, instead pounding on his chest.

Idly, he was aware of Cinder staring at him, which was all the impetus he needed to recover as quickly as possible. He willed himself to stop coughing, and instead turned towards her. "Yes?"

"I didn't know you smoked," she said.

"I don't. I just… need something to take the edge off."

Cinder shrugged. "There's probably some vodka around here somewhere."

Jaune considered her words for a moment, then lit up another smoke. This time, he didn't cough at all. He took a small drag from it, then eyed the pack in his hands. Shrugging, he pocketed it, then looked back to the desk, searching for anything useful.

He disagreed with Cinder's methods, obviously, but what was done was done. The Bandits were gone now, and whatever they'd left behind was going to line someone's pockets either way, so it might as well be theirs.

Instantly, Jaune's attention was drawn to something buried underneath a pile of dirty magazines. It looked like the bottom half of a key. Curious, he reached for it and pulled it out, then held it up to the light to examine it.

"What is that?" Cinder asked, having paused in rifling through a Bandit's pockets long enough to stare at him.

"Looks like a key," Jaune reported around the cigarette in his mouth. "It's got a tag on it – says 'X-18'. Hm. Wonder what that means."

"Whatever it is, it sounds valuable. Perhaps Barkeep would know?"

"Yeah, and he'd probably charge us a premium for that information. No thanks."

Idly, Jaune became aware of the fact that the massacre he'd just helped perpetrate only a few minutes ago was no longer on his mind. The revelation was enough to make him ash his current cigarette and immediately light up a new one. Seeing it, Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"You'll make yourself sick if you chain-smoke like that."

Somehow, Jaune couldn't bring himself to care.

They finished looting the fallen Bandits, coming away with ammo, supplies, and several rolls of paper money. Jaune had also taken the key to X-18 himself, since it seemed like it'd be important, even if neither of them knew anything about it yet.

Once they'd finished collecting the spoils of war, they'd continued on their way. Now, they found themselves on top of a nearby hill, again peering through a set of binoculars, this time looking for the mutants they'd been hired to exterminate.

Luckily, it hadn't taken them long to find them.

"Gods, those things are ugly," Jaune commented as he stared through the binoculars. "Here, have a look."

He passed the scope over to Cinder, who looked through them briefly before handing them back. "That looks like them," she reported. "How do we want to do this?"

"I'm surprised you're asking me. Usually you shoot first and ask questions never."

Cinder glared at him. "Are you going to help me come up with a plan, or are you going to sit there and make snarky comments?"

"Fine, fine." Jaune put the binoculars away, then hefted his 870. "You're a good shot, I suppose. I say we do this simply – you start taking shots at them, and any that close the distance, I'll take care of."

"You assume I trust you to watch my back."

"Yeah, considering I've been watching it since I saved you from those Loners. Do you trust me on this or not?"

Cinder scowled, but acquiesced with a nod. "Very well."

"Great. On my count-"

Cinder didn't wait, instead standing up, shouldering her Kalashnikov, and starting to lay down fire. Off in the distance, Jaune watched as several dogs in the pack began to fall, and the rest turned towards the sound of the gunshots, sprinting towards them both. Hurriedly, he shouldered his 870 and began to put shells downrange. Between Cinder's AK going off right next to his head and his shotgun, the noise was deafening, even through his ear protection. Still, he continued to fire and pump his shotgun as fast as he could.

By the time the dogs reached them, the huge pack had been reduced to just a few, who were now limping forwards with buckshot pellets stuck in their limbs, their teeth bared in snarls. Jaune and Cinder didn't hesitate, instead letting their weapons dangle by their slings as they pulled their pistols and finished off the dogs. By the time it was over, they were both standing in a pile of spent brass and shotshells, breathing heavily, smoke leaking out of the barrels of their guns.

Cinder wasted no time, instead rocking another magazine into her AK and pulling back on the charging handle, then swapping mags in her handgun. Jaune stared at the carnage before him for just a moment, then began to load shells into his shotgun.

"Is that all of them?" he asked.

"Does it look like all of them to you?" Cinder asked back. Before Jaune could argue, she stood up and drew her bayonet, then approached the first of the dogs. He couldn't help but recoil in shock.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Collecting proof of a job well-done," she said without missing a beat. Cinder knelt down next to one of the dead dogs, then in one motion, lopped off its tail and stuck it in her Artifact container, uncaring of the blood that leaked onto her in the process. She then moved on to the next one, only pausing to look back at him.

"Were you intending to help, or simply stare at me like an idiot?"

Jaune shook himself out of his stupor, then reluctantly drew his own bayonet and approached another of the dead Pseudodogs.

"The things I do for money…" he muttered.

"The job's done," Jaune reported as he dumped the Pseudodog tails onto Barkeep's countertop.

"Jaune!" Barkeep shouted. "What the fuck?! Don't dump that shit here!"

"I figured you'd want to confirm that the job was done."

"I only needed to see the tails, not have them laid out here!"

"Yeah, well, you just saw them. I'll take payment now."

Barkeep glared at him, but ultimately gave in, shoving over a big roll of bills. Jaune accepted them and handed them to Cinder, who began to count them. Barkeep grimaced as he gathered up the Pseudodog tails and dumped them into a nearby trash bag. Jaune's eyes were drawn immediately to Crocea Mors, still hanging up on Barkeep's mantle next to the severed boar's head. He felt a pit form in his stomach at the sight of it; every fiber of his being was screaming at him to fork over the money and buy it back, but he knew he couldn't afford to, not when they were already so strapped for cash.

"The money looks good," Cinder reported.

"Of course it does," Barkeep said with an irritated huff. "I don't stiff my workers."

"Forgive me if I say you seem like just the type."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Do you have body armor for sale? We need to get him fitted with something that can actually stop a bullet."

Barkeep threw his arms up in frustration. "You people are fucking annoying," he declared. "Next time, say you want to buy before you collect the money, and I can just hand over the item and subtract the price from the money I owe you – makes the whole thing go so much smoother. Hold on, let me see what I've got in the back…"

He disappeared into the back room, and Jaune exchanged a glance with Cinder. "Seems we both hate that fat bastard," he said.

"That obvious, is it?" Cinder asked.

"Just surprised you're stooping to my level, is all."

Jaune reached into his pocket for the package of cigarettes and his lighter, then lit one up and took a drag from it. Cinder eyed him with disdain, which surprised him.

"What?" he asked.

"Must you do that around me?" she asked.

"Now that I know it annoys you? Yes. Why does it annoy you, by the way? Not only am I not the only one smoking in here, but your Semblance literally starts fires."

"There is a difference between the ash my Semblance makes and the ash from cigarettes," she insisted. "Cigarettes simply smell foul. And besides, you don't seem the type."

"Yeah, well, I need something to help me relax," Jaune argued. "It's either this or alcohol, and I doubt you'd want to babysit drunk Jaune while we're wandering around the Zone."

"It can't be much worse than babysitting regular Jaune."

He rolled his eyes just as Barkeep came back, lugging a heavy outfit behind him. He hefted it onto the countertop with a grunt, then paused to wipe sweat off his greasy forehead and take a breath before turning back towards Jaune and Cinder.

"This is what's known as a Sunrise Suit," he specified. "It consists of a bodysuit of twin-layer rubberized cloth with plexiglass lining and built-in body armor."

"How good is the body armor?" Jaune asked as he examined the suit.

"Decent," Barkeep said. "The Sunrise Suit is the gold standard for protection in the Zone, if only because of how common it is. The suit itself will only stop a pistol round, but it's highly customizable – you can swap out the front layer for bulletproof ceramic plates and back it with a layer of Kevlar, and it will provide good protection against most rifle rounds and spall."

"Don't tell me – that costs extra?"

Barkeep grinned, showing off yellowed teeth. "The base cost of the suit is fifteen-thousand, but if you want the ceramic plates and Kevlar, I can give you the whole thing for twenty-five thousand."

Jaune's eyes just about bugged out of his skull. "That's too-"

"We'll take it," Cinder interrupted.

Jaune turned to her in surprise, but could do nothing as she handed over the money and accepted the items in question.

"Cinder," he began, "what are you-"

"Oh, hush," she said. "You need protection, and this is the best we can afford right now."

"That's almost all of our money!"

"Then we'll simply have to take another job. What's worth more to you – your money, or your life?"

Jaune glared at her for a moment, then reached into his own pocket and pulled out a small stack of bills, slamming them on the counter. "Carton of smokes, Barkeep."

Barkeep looked at him in surprise. "Since when did you start smoking?"

"Since I started having to deal with her all the time."

"Ha! Yes, I can see. Give me a moment."

He walked off again. Cinder crossed her arms. "I thought you wanted to save money."

"My sanity is more important than my money," Jaune declared. He gathered up the suit and disappeared around the corner. "I'm gonna go get changed into the suit. Try not to shoot anyone before I come back."

"No promises."

He managed to get the suit on by the time Barkeep came back with his carton of cigarettes. Jaune gathered it up and slipped it into his backpack. Truthfully, the suit wasn't particularly uncomfortable, just heavy. He supposed that was reassuring, though – it meant he actually stood a chance against gunfire now.

"Anything else?" Barkeep asked.

Jaune exchanged another glance with Cinder, then thought back to what they'd taken from the Bandits. "Actually, there is one thing," he noted. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the key. "What can you tell us about this key?"

Barkeep leaned forward, squinting as he examined the key. "Hm… it's definitely a key. Probably to a lock somewhere, if I had to guess. If you want more than that-"

"We'll have to pay," Jaune said, exhaling tiredly. "Very well. We'll be back, Barkeep."

He waved them off as they went. "Don't let the door hit you."

As they walked out of the bar, Jaune let out a big yawn, then turned to Cinder. "I'm beat. I say we find somewhere to rest up for now."

"I'm inclined to agree," she admitted.

Thankfully, the two of them had bedrolls in their bags. They found a place far away from the other Stalkers inside an abandoned building, then laid out their bedrolls next to each other. Jaune climbed inside his bedroll and closed his eyes, but try as he might, sleep wouldn't come. There was something that was bothering him.

"Cinder?" he asked.

At first, he didn't get a response; it seemed as though she was asleep. But after a moment, she let out a small sigh of resignation. "Yes?"

"Why did you really attack Beacon?"

She turned to glare at him, her yellow eyes visible even in the darkness of the abandoned building they'd hunkered down in. "Why do you insist on asking me this?" she hissed. "You know nothing good will come of it."

"It's just a question," Jaune stated. "You don't have to-"

Cinder let out a low growl. "You want to know the truth? I attacked Beacon because I wanted power. There was something at Beacon which belonged to me, and which would make me more powerful if I managed to retrieve it. So I did. There, that's it – I killed your friends because I wanted power. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Jaune stared at her in surprise, unsure of what to think. He knew some people lusted for power, but to think that someone would go to such an extreme just for that was unimaginable.

So unimaginable, in fact, that he didn't quite believe it.

"That can't be the only reason," he said.

"What?"

"I mean, wanting power is one thing, but why did you want that power in the first place?" he asked. "It doesn't make any sense to me. You wanted power so badly that you went to the trouble of orchestrating an attack on Beacon, an attack which could have easily failed if one of the many dominoes you'd set to fall simply didn't. So why go to all the trouble, just for power? Why-"

"You are an insufferable man, you know that?" she spat. "It shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Why would someone want power so badly in the first place, if they weren't powerless themselves?"

Jaune stared at her in surprise. "...You think of yourself as powerless?"

"I certainly am now," she said with a scoff. "I went to all that trouble just to end up here, with you, where a single bullet can kill me just as easily as everyone else. Now I am forced to rely on you, the weakest of your class, otherwise I will be killed. All the power in Remnant can't help me now, because I'm stuck in this abomination of a world with no way home, and even if I got home, it's likely I would be killed for my failure."

"You'd be killed?" Jaune echoed. "By whom?"

Cinder gave him one last baleful glare, then turned away from him and laid back down. "Go to sleep, Jaune," she said. "We're done talking."

Jaune stared at her back with dismay, but did as she was told, lying down again.

The knowledge that something else was going on with her kept him tossing and turning for a long time that night.

Bleh. Really should've updated this story sooner, but it is what it is, I guess. In my defense, I did say I'd be taking my time with this one, but still. Damn story hasn't been updated since November, which is honestly far too long. My apologies, guys – I'll do my best to get the next one out faster than two months.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, even though not much happened in it story-wise; it's basically all setup for future events. The filler chapter strikes again. I swear we're going to get to the good shit sooner rather than later, but for now, I really needed this chapter for setup.

Oh, I had a question for you all – what are your favorite STALKER mods? Personally, I'm a very vanilla guy – my most played is probably Call of Chernobyl with Arsenal Overhaul, just because I like the freeplay and the extra guns, even if most of them are just varying degrees of Kalashnikovs. But that's okay – we don't discriminate against guns based on their heritage here, because that shit's racist. Sure, there's functionally very little difference between an AK-74m and an AKS-74, at least as far as gameplay is concerned but I appreciate having them both regardless. And to be fair, it does add several rifles in 7.62x39, which is something that was inexplicably lacking in the base game, so I have to appreciate it based on that alone. Also it adds .308 as a caliber, which is very based IMO – I don't care if the M14 EBR basically has the gun equivalent of Down's Syndrome from a design standpoint, it looks sexy as fuck so I will absolutely keep a save file open just to mess around with one until I get bored and move back to other, more practical guns.

Anyway, I was playing Anomaly for a bit, but honestly, Anomaly is a little too autistic for me, if you catch my drift – I couldn't be bothered to learn all the systems and shit that the mod added. I'm a pretty basic guy when it comes to games like STALKER – I tend to just hoard money however I can until I can afford a gun that appeals to me emotionally, and then I run that for the rest of the game and just buy ammo and meds. Generally, that's the STG-58 in Arsenal Overhaul, but IDK. Side note: I have no idea why they call it an STG-58 in the mod when it is clearly an Israeli-pattern FAL with the half-wood, half-sheet metal handguard, just painted black; I ought to know since I actually own an Israeli light barrel FAL. For the record, that gun is heavy as shit, but it is a really smooth shooter, and I love it, even though I had to send it in for warranty work after the bolt carrier literally snapped in half at the range one day and the whole gun was completely locked up (on an empty chamber, thankfully; the gun somehow broke on the last round in the mag, which was great because that whole situation could have been WAY more dangerous than it was). DS Arms' customer service took good care of me, at least, and I don't blame them for it since it was a surplus part and they replaced it without issue, but still. Not fun. But yeah, I don't know why they call it an STG-58… unless it actually is an STG-58 and they just swapped handguards on it, but: 1. Why would you do that in the first place? 2. Why even bother modeling it that way when you could have just modeled it after the probably far more common (in Europe, anyway) L1A1 and been done with it? 3. It should have been a para FAL in the first place IMO, paratrooper FALs are really sexy, if a bit impractical (having to remove your scope rail just to clean the gun is not very cash money TBH.)

Anyway, yeah, I'd be curious to hear what everyone's favorite STALKER mod is. I've been meaning to try a few more, namely Gunslinger (for the gun porn) and Reborn/Doppelganger (for the memes) but I just haven't found the time, and I haven't really been keeping up with the modding scene ever since CoC came out.

That's about all I've got for now. I hope you enjoyed the story, and I'll see you all next time!

Enjoy my work and want to help me out a bit? You can support me, as well as read more of my writing, over on Amazon. My first original story is available for purchase now, you can find it by going on Amazon and searching for 'I Accidentally Summoned the Demon Queen' by John Haruspex. The story is available now for three bucks in ebook format (or free with Kindle Unlimited) or twelve bucks in paperback format, if you prefer physical media.

www . amazon dp/ B0BLFL72MX