Chapter XV: Operation Scorched Earth

 So far, Boris had done much more than any renegade before him. He had travelled the Zone, fought unimaginable horrors and allied with large factions. Boris had managed to convince the mercenaries to allow him to join them, and now he had shut down one of the biggest barricades holding back expansion into the Zone. Like the Zone legend Strelok had done, Boris had opened a way past the Miracle Machine. Now, the dreaded Brain Scorcher awaited, a massive facility that had ended the concious lives of so many stalkers and created such a vast army of slaves to the C-Conciousness. Even with C-Con gone, it still kept turning hapless stalkers into brainwashed (or brainscorched) servants. Boris would have to shut it down. His plan involved the northern parts of the Zone as well, and the labs could not be on when he activated the plan.

But before he could begin his almost suicidal assault into the lab X-19, he had one more stop to make. Boris crossed into Dead City from Yantar, entering the crumbling city in the first light of a new day. It would be a day Boris had waited for quite some time now, a day of newfound power. Boris marched to Dushmans shop, and emptied his pockets for an arrangment of gear. He sold pretty much everything he did not need in the mission, since if he failed he couldn't use them any more either way.

The new gear he had acquired involved multiple different things. First was a semi-automatic, magazine-fed shotgun, the Saiga-12 used by ISG forces, with a smallish sight. Boris had come a long way from the TOZ days, that was for sure. Boris also spent a good amount buying some fragmentation and thermal grenades. But the piece of equipment he had come here for and the most formidable thing he had ever owned was the Mercenary Nosorog. It had cost him pretty much everything he had. Boris had had to sell his renegade exoskeleton he had stitched together and fought hard with. But it was worth it. He had the best armour money could buy for the job he was about to set off to.

Satisfied with his new equipment, Boris did some minor upgrades on them with the last rubles he still had. His loadout for the mission of a lifetime now consisted of a ISG Saiga, a SVDS PMC he had been repairing bit by bit to full strength and a USP pistol he had also repaired with parts and tools captured or scavenged earlier. He had no ammunition for the pistol however, but Boris knew Monolith troops would most likely provide him with ample ammunition for it. Once he had expended every single ruble he had and prepared as well as he could, he set off to Army Warehouses. The mercs had provided him with information that there would be a seasoned Loner veteran at the Barrier who could arm him with some intel and perhaps even know of the whereabouts of Strelok.

Boris entered Army Warehouses only to find out it was once more a complete warzone. Monolith troops were assaulting the Dead City outpost, and in the Bloodsucker village a controller and its army of brain-melted servants were battling Freedomers. Boris normally would've helped them to the best of his abilities, but he was there on a mission and time was of the essence. He helped a merc detachment fight off the siege of Monoliths, using the SVDS's great rate of fire to pick off the fanatics one by one as they left cover or tried to aim for longer than few seconds.

With the dust settling down at the Warehouses, the merc detachment still stood. Bloodsucker village had seen the destruction of both the Zombified and Freedom forces. Boris knew that more would come, but he could at least help temporarily if his mission succeeded. The operation mattered above all else. At the Barrier, another squad of fanatics had been demolished by a loner, who identified himself as Gatekeeper. He apparently ran things at the Barrier and provided Boris with all the information he could've hoped for. Strelok had indeed continued onwards to north with a group of stalkers. Boris had some more questions for the seasoned stalker, but could not ask him as yet another horde of Monoliths pushed through the Barrier.

Fighting alongside the master loner and his Freedom allies, Boris fired his weapon with deadly precision, Monolith warriors collapsing one after another as deadly 5.56 caliber bullets hit them. With the last Monolith gasping their last breath, Gatekeeper urged Boris to continue and break through to the Brain Scorcher. After such a battle the Monolith would most likely be weakened and a determined stalker could break through. Boris followed his instructions. Stepping into the Radar, the weather had changed into misty and dark, cloudy day. He pushed forward, using his sniper to end the Monolith patrol just outside the entrance to Barrier, many of them did not even have time to point their weapons at him.

The road ahead seemed like an obvious trap. Boris decided to rather head into the forest, ominous as it was. A group of Zombified stalkers tried to stop him, but quickly fell to a series of shots from Boris' USP. A pack of lurkers and a chimera were his next victim, being baited into making their leaps too early and getting a spray of bullets into their sides as return. Right next to their recently acquired grave site was a half buried safe, which Boris managed to pull open. He found some useful items inside, most importantly some .45 ACP ammunition, and decided to stash all the surplus gear, ammo and medical items into it that he had gathered so far. He marked the spot on his map for later recovery, and continued on.

Rest of the forest was surprisingly easy to clear. A group of Zombies had been attacked by a pseudogiant, and Boris managed to stay undetected while slipping past them. He found a wrecked helicopter in the forest, and while marveling at the sight of the old warmachine conquered by flora, he heard faint whispers, unnatural sounding, in his ears. Boris quickly took cover, knowing that whatever was making the noise, it would not be friendly. Scanning the trees ahead, he could see a lone controller, running in circles and acting unusually erratic. Boris decided to not take any chances this time and ended the mutant with a well-placed sniper shot.

He quickly scavenged its corpse, and realized that the edge of the forest had finally arrived. He could see a gap in the fence, and a Monolith patrol behind it. His shots found the targets, and the Monoliths fell. Slipping into the road ahead, he could see the Monolith roadblock down the road. As he had guessed, the road had been an obvious trap. Judging his options, he decided to engage them. While he could've slipped through to the Scorcher, the Monoliths at the roadblock would have most likely returned back to base and he could end up encircled. Killing them now would remove that problem. It was a quick engagement, as Boris utilized his pistol to end the closest two Monoliths, and while in a heavily defendable position on top of a truck, he started picking the fanatics off one by one.

They put up a fierce firestorm, but in the end the precision of Boris' aim and the superior weapon paid off. The roadblock cleared (and the warriors looted clean), Boris entered the final stage. The assault on the Radar base. The hill proved to be quite the battle, as dozens of Monolith warriors left the base to assault him. However, they also left the safety of their walls and had to climb a small hill to get to the road Boris was travelling, and while cresting the hill they became excellent targets. The battle was still very hard and chaotic. Boris had to retreat from the road to inside the outer wall to even survive, and there he became exposed to the sniper towers. A fierce shootout between them and Boris erupted, but once again through luck and experience Boris triumphed. The other Monoliths tried to follow Boris back into their base, and faced a hailstorm of buckshot, ending them as well. The ISG Saiga had proven its worth.

Boris entered inside the inner walls, and was once again met with the buzzing sound of bullets passing him. Some of the snipers still remained, and Boris was caught into a dangerous game of cat and mouse as he closed the snipers. Ducking and weaving from one cover to another, he finally made it close enough to reliably kill them, and in quick succession the last defenders of the base fell. Victory was his for now. All that remained now was shutting down the Scorcher.