D.U.T.Y group

´Deadly anomalies, dangerous mutants, anarchists! and bandits! Non of them will stop Duty on its triumphant march towards saving the planet! and its citizens!'

Duty (Долг) is a paramilitary clan of stalkers operating in theZone with members living according to a code. They appear in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Overviev
The founding members of Duty, as well as many of its subsequent members, were originally Ukrainian Military troops and Special Forces units sent into the Zone and left to die there after being nearly killed by the Zone's mutants and anomalies. Other members are ordinary stalkers who have seen enough of the Zone's horrors, and have decided to do something about it. Duty sees the Zone as an ulcer in the world that must be purged at all costs, as they believe that if left unchecked, mutants will soon break out of the Zone and attack the outside world. They achieve this by killing all of the Zone's manifestations, namely Mutants, in the process bringing them into conflict with factions such as Freedom, who believe the Zone is something beneficial. Duty also fights against other factions such as the Bandits and Mercenaries, who extort Stalkers for personal gain. With superior equipment and fervently dedicated members, they fully intend to achieve their goal. Duty is at odds with everyone seeking to exploit the Zone and, as Duty sees it, spread its corruption. They opt for the complete destruction of the Zone through brute force, effectively attempting to "kill" the Zone. They are contrasted by other factions, such as Freedom or the Ecologists, who see the Zone as a miracle. They tolerate Loners, but are hostile towards Freedom faction members, seeking to undermine their efforts at every step. They also openly engage Bandits due to their hostility and extortion of free Stalkers.They are, however, openly cooperating scientists and with the Ecologists at Yantar, transferring all recovered artifacts to them; so that the Zone can be better understood (and, as Duty wishes, defeated).The faction has long been in fierce conflict with Freedom due to their conflicting ideals.

Organization
Duty is a well organized faction, with a strict hierarchy and bureaucracy. Every member has a rank assigned to him (based on military ranks) and clearly defined responsibilities. Equipment is cataloged and marked with serial numbers, while all sensitive data is encrypted, to prevent non-Duty personnel from accessing it. Apparently when becoming a Duty member one has to take an oath. This is it's content, based on Marked One's example:

"I, a stalker known as the Marked One,swear to defend the goals and ideals of Duty.
*To protect the Earth from the dangers of the Zone, to seek out and destroy anything it spawns within and beyond its borders.
*To fight any nonconformists, be they individual stalkers or groups.
*And to give my life in the name of justice and order on Earth!''
- Marked One's oath.

History
Duty is primarily made up of the survivors of military expeditions into TheZone, sent to take its territory under governmental control in the wake of the very first stalker incursions in 2009. Anomalies and mutants caused many casualties, while those who managed to survive eventually made their way to the Rostok Factory, where they stayed, fighting off monsters and coping with hunger and deprivation. Duty was founded by then Captain Tachenko, the squad leader of a team of specialists who were tasked to destroy the center of the zone using nuclear explosives however were nearly wiped out by an emission that followed. A Captain at the time, he and his closest officers staged a communications breakdown, allowing them to desert the army and join stalkers in exploiting the Zone. While this ploy worked, the resulting chaos led to great casualties among soldiers, although it enabled Tachenko to create Duty. Tachenko was never held accountable, the story effectively silenced by he and the other higher ups. During a routine artifact hunting trip, however, he and his fellow conspirators were trapped in a spatial anomaly. While they searched for a way out of the anomaly, the Colonel suffered a nervous breakdown and shot two other Duty officers before Tachenko could take him down. With its original leader lost, General Krylov, one of the soldiers that served with Captain Tachenko in their mission, assumed leadership and set up a base of operations in the Agroprom Research Institute, initiating their research into the nature of the mutants the Zone breeds. The clan avoided contact with the military for obvious reasons. While progressing slowly at first, was launched forward with the discovery of the archives beneathAgroprom, containing a plethora of new information (mostly pertaining to Soviet mind control experiments performed on local wildlife, and research performed on behalf of the Group focusing on the C-Consciousnessproject).In 2012, Duty abandoned the Agroprom institute, relocating their base of operations to the Bar area in the Rostok Factory. Their wrap up was thorough, leaving only an empty shell of a building behind... and a nice, elegant rundown of their investigation into the activities of the Group in the Zone, to be recovered by Captain Maksimienko. Their war with Freedom did not escalate, as with General Krylov's resignation and Brigadier General Voronin's assumption of command, they pursued a policy of remaining static - they would continue to fight with Freedom, but would not actively seek to destroy them. After Strelok opened the way up North, Duty and Freedom both sent a contingent to the Yanov station, while General Voronin continued to command his forces from a reinforced bunker within the Rostok Factory.