Chapter XIV: New allies, old enemies

 Boris and Rogue arrived to the collapsed bridge of Yanov during midday, having started their journey in the morning. Boris had prepared for the journey by swapping his top-notch gear for something simpler. He still retained his Nosorog battlearmour since Rogue had informed him that they'd be travelling through Jupiter underground, but this time Boris only had a MP-133 shotgun and AKMN rifle with him. Rogue had come prepared as well, packing a PKM variant of his own. The journey so far had been an easy one, they'd travelled undetected and stopped only for a quick break at the sewage station where Boris bought some additional ammunition.

This peacefulness changed the second they entered Yanov, replaced by the roaring of a massive beasts and the thundering fire of a shotgun. They quickly dashed forward and spotted a lone mercenary battling a horde of mutants. They could see a pack of pseudodogs, another pack of cats, more than Boris had seen at one spot, and lastly, a trio of bloodsuckers flickering in and out of their camouflage. The mercenary was trying to utilize his high ground as an advantage, and his massive KS-23 shotgun send one of the bloodsuckers flying. A cat darted towards him, partially hidden in the reeds, and Boris fired at it with his MP-133, blasting it apart. The mercenary turned to them and nodded, as if the chaos around him was but a mild annoyance.

Rogue started spraying at the dogs with his PKM while Boris tried to tango with the cats. The mercenary kept fighting the bloodsuckers, nailing another one with a massive cloud of 23mm buckshot. Boris jumped, ducked and weaved trying to avoid the furious balls of claws and fur, and managed to kill one of the larger cats. The others scattered, and became much harder to spot in the murky water. Firing at the slightest signs of ripples in the water, another cat fell. Boris glanced over his shoulder quickly to check on the others, and one of the cats clawed at his foot, scraping it slightly under the armour. Boris groaned and fired at the cat, almost missing it, thank the Zone for buckshot he thought.

Rogue was in trouble, the dogs almost biting at his feet and torso while he retreated to reload. Boris was about to turn his attention to the dogs to help, when he caught a glimpse of the mercenary. The merc punched last of the bloodsuckers with his rifle butt, killing the beast and sending the corpse flying. He switched to a AS Val rifle and begun cutting down the dogs, saving Rogue in the nick of time. Boris turned back to battling the cats, his shotgun running low on ammo as he missed couple shots at the quick bastards. He switched to his AK and started firing wildly at the reeds where he knew the last cats to be hiding. A low growl signaled that he had hit one, and the other two survivors launched from the foliage to attack him. He emptied his magazine into one, and was just about to switch into his knife to finish the last one when the cat pounced at him, scratching and biting at his armour.

He was overwhelmed by the thing, not quite capable of doing anything else than trying to dogde its attacks. Just as it was about to charge him again a hail of fire brought down the cat, fired from the Val of the mercenary. Last of the mutated beasts was down. The trio regrouped on top of the bridge, and Boris observed the mercenary more closely now that the action had died down. He was wearing a SEVA suit, which had multiple claw marks on it. His Val however was in pristine condition, as was the KS-23 he had on his back. The merc thanked them for saving his skin, and they thanked him likewise for doing the same.

The mercenary introduced himself as Dima Lord, and stated that his group had been slain by the same monsters they had slain now, specifically the three bloodsuckers. Dima had hunted them ever since, and now that his hunt was over, he really had no idea what to do. Returning to Dead City alone didn't seem right to him, as he would be followed by the ghosts of his fallen comrades there. Boris proposed that he'd join them on their journey, they could definitely use a capable mercenary like Dima on the way to Outskirts. Boris had expected Rogue to argue on this, but he remained quiet, apparently he also saw plenty of potential in Dima. Dima agreed on Boris' idea, and they set off.

The Jupiter underground was not too far from where the battle against the mutants had happened, but it was guarded by enemies, Monolith and Zombified. A shambling, brainless Zombified patrolled the outside of the tunnel, while two other sat inside the first floor, muttering to themselves. Boris motioned to the others to remain quiet and sneakily dispatched the guard, sinking a hatchet at the back of its head. The other two heard nothing, and Dima finished them by using his deathly silent Val expertly. Boris took the lead due to his strong armour, and trying to make as little noise possible, crept upstairs. Peeking the corner he saw a squad of Monoliths, clearly not aware that their braindead allies had perished. Boris threw a frag grenade amidst them and ducked to cover, hearing the panicked cries no more after the explosion.

Looting the bodies of anything valuable while Dima and Rogue kept watch, Boris found some useful information on a dead technician. However, most useful was the stack of grenades and ammunition he discovered, and he gave Dima his fair share of the 9x39 and 23mm ammunition. All resistance dealt with, they entered the underground. Boris hoped to the Zone that this would not be like the underground in Agroprom, the living hell that that was, or like the one in Moscow, even the thought of that place made him shudder. Rogue told them that the place had been vented of gases years ago when Dima asked if they could traverse the place without chemical protection, and satisfied with the info, he took of his helmet and lit a cigarette.

They continued in the pitch black darkness, thankfull of their night vision gear and flashlights, Dima even held out his lighter for extra illumination, although that made him carry his KS-23 quite ankwardly. Boris joked that if he shot it like that he'd be losing at least one of his arms, but Rogue replied that in the darkness they'd lose much more. Dima continued with that, saying that he did not want to put that theory to the test. Despite Rogues warnings, only thing they kept encountering were tushkanos, Boris almost routine-like stepping on them with his massive exoskeleton boots. The darkness continued forever, only anomalies appearing amongst the old Soviet heavy machinery to break the monotonous walking. It was simultaneously soothing to not have anything attack them for a while but also nerve-wracking to know that anything could be lurking here.

Soon they were greeted by a familiar sound, the asthmatic, raspy breathing of a snork. In the dark and quiet halls of the tunnel, this sound was amplified and seemed to be coming from all around them. They did not see the monsters anywhere, but could hear them, their unnerving sounds crawling inside their heads and making them grip their guns harder. Minutes passed yet no mutants were to be seen, and on they continued, haunted by the creeping echoes of the monsters in the dark.

Then, just as suddenly as the sounds had started, the combat did as well. Scores of snorks appeared from the darkness, jumping and kicking at them while making their incoherent noises ever stronger. Bursts of tracers and buckshot fire lit the darkness, the blasts from the KS-23 of Dima lighting up the entire tunnel. Having prepared their minds for an ambush for so long, the trio of stalkers managed to defeat the snorks quickly, leaving one survivor to limp for cover. Boris ran it down and hit it with his tomahawk, killing it right there.

After the brief skirmish they entered a large domed room, opening to the city of Pripyat. They had not realized that the darkness had already fallen on the Zone, and thus even this large opening provided them with no more light than before. The Darkness surrounded them once more, and this time they could hear sounds coming from further down the tunnel, eerily bouncing from the walls of the tunnel. The Monolith had arrived.