The Saga of Boris Unforgiven

  Dimuha sat on the old chair opposite of Olivius. Unlike Sultan and Livid, Olivius had chosen the medic's office as his new place. He stated that Sultan's office had been a bad move, three bandit leaders had died there already. So now the first negotiation of Olivius' career would take place in his new office. Olivius offered Dimuha a shot glass and poured in some of his own moonshine. Pey do dna!, Olivius cheered and they emptied the glasses. Man this is just as terrible as I remembered, Dimuha said with a grin. It's just for refined tastes, something you'd never understand. But yes, let's get to business then. So, what do you want for this little helping hand?, Olivius asked, shooting a sly gaze at Dimuha. I need ammo, supplies, equipment and guns. But we can pay for those. What we need as exchange for our help is a guarantee. We need allies, Duty and Military are a danger to us both. Cover our asses while we head north, keep routes to Meadow protected, and w...

  Not so long time since in a spatial anomaly far, far away, a group of men sat in a circle. The almost blinding whiteness surrounded them completely, but they tried to divert their thoughts away from the rather lacklustre situation by sharing stories. Boris kept clicking his wrist blade in and out, which drove Dima absolutely nuts (a thing that encouraged Boris to continue doing it). Vityukha was finishing up a story about how Toha and he had terrorized the Redemption recruits by imitating poltergeists during night time guard duty. So Toha was absolutely ace at that, one of the recruits, Dimon something if I remember correct, even went damn ballistic and fired at the nearby Electros in the dark. You should've seen him when Dimuha had a talk about trigger discipline and he tried to explain that it had been poltergeists. Eventually Dimuha found out and we had potato peeling duty for a week, but it was worth it, Vityukha finished with grin. Damn rascals, so that's why some of the...

  Dark Valley had seen many a battle. Conflicts between fledling Freedom faction and its enemies, mercenaries and Duty, in 2011. Strelok's slaughter of the bandits in 2012. Multifactional assault on same bandits much later when Boris first arrived there. But rarely had such battles taken place inside the fortress-like northern facility, between two groups of bandits. Usually bandit power struggles are swift and with little actual bloodletting, a thug killing his direct boss in a dark alley when said boss has enjoyed too many adult beverages, or a completely unsuspicious tragedy of a rival bandit happening to stumble into a Fruit Punch anomaly. Even big bandit bosses like Borov and Sultan preferred to directly strike their adversaries instead of using their footsoldiers to duke it out. This made the current situation all the more unexpected. Olivius was leading his "loyalists" up the hill, next to the rancid pipe puddle and into the through the eastern gate. Reefer's b...

Dimuha opened a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. These were not the expensive Western production ones, just cheap Soviet leftovers, but given the current state of his faction, they would have to do. Sudden flash from his lighter lit up the gloomy surroundings, even though it was daytime the heavy grey clouds allowed little light through. He inhaled once and immediately felt the cigarette's calming effect. While finishing up the smoke, he went through his belt with the other hand, feeling the familiar grip of his Desert Eagle, the pouches with Dragunov rounds and the two fragmentation grenades he had prepared for this mission. And last was his Monolit blade, a black curved blade given to Boris long time ago, which he had passed along in turn. These checkups had become a ritual for Dimuha. As days went by with no signs of rescuing his friends from the spatial anomaly, he grew more and more restless. Weird and wild rumours were heard all over the Zone, ranging from newly discove...

  Dimon looked over the horizon through his binoculars. Week had passed since Redemption leadership had returned. Well, what remained of it. Valik had been a broken man, Stepukha drowned himself at the bottom of a vodka bottle, Toha and Leva remained quite detached and quiet. The disappearance of most of their leaders had crippled Redemption, some of the rookies had deserted and joined different sides of the bandit civil war only to perish mere days later or become even more vile and pitiful than before. The faction was at its low point. Nobody knew what to do, everyone was waiting for a miracle. But some sense of comradeship, some sense of belonging kept them around, kept them waiting. Boris, Dima and Vityukha, now lost to the depths of a space bubble, possibly forever, had however left their marks into the former criminals and outcasts. For a brief period of time, they had had a feeling previously unknown to them during their years as thugs or killers, hope. Hope that someday, th...