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A Red Dawn

sgt.davis44 Blog 2 comments

A S.T.A.L.K.E.R story I'm starting to write. Tell me what you think!

Red Dawn
Prologue(Draft)

Saturday, 17 July, 2018. I remember it like it was yesterday. Me and my wife had a late night then. My daughter woke me up the next morning.
“Want some water or something?” I said groggily, still asleep.
Our bedroom had a large open view over this part of the city, and the bed was looking out through this. On winters morning the sun would be shining in and you would wake up warm and cosy. And let me tell you this: it was beautiful! It was still rather dark outside and I couldn’t see any stars, which I might mention was strange. I rubbed my eyes, trying to get them to work properly. I turned on my side to see the time, but before I could register the 5 digits that would give what I want to know, My daughter asked me something I would never forget.
“Daddy, where did the sun go to?”

***

My body became a lump bundle of empty memories. I knew what was going on. It all made sense. It started about two years ago, I took 6 months leave from work(all paid too!). I wanted to see the world, but there was one specific place I wanted to go. It was frowned upon and a weird time as our daughter had just turned one and I had been promoted. What few people actually knew, was that this “holiday”, wasn’t really a holiday at all. And everybody ,who knew where I was to be going, kept asking: “You know the kind of place you are going to?”. I wasn’t worried, I was in the army in 2011-2012 when Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland were invaded by the SADF. The action was largely frowned upon by many world nations but the reasons were there, they were just unclear. And nobody knew about hidden agendas and ideals. We just did our job.

It did cause some disruptions in the economy and just about everybody did badly for a few years. Infrastructure development in Zimbabwe and the other two countries were underway while back home nothing more was done. It was a bad time though as we still didn’t have proper medical services and education, policing all that sort of stuff. And then they want to improve our neighbouring countries? That was questioned too. And it was rather sudden the whole thing. Not even we had expected it. They hastily drafted all males under the age of 32 and above 18, 6 weeks of training and straight to war. The military was suddenly sized from about 70 000 personnel to 670 000 in 7 months. And that wasn’t everybody. Most escaped this, you just had to live in the correct place or have the correct job, the right amount of money or the correct reasons. I didn’t have any of them. Nobody knew where all the equipment came from because suddenly producing more than 600 000 rifles is no easy task, it must have been one hell of a secret thing(well planned too). Back to my holiday. I departed for Ukraine to meet up with my people and set off…

***

We couldn’t see anything in the house. I stepped on something as it cracked.
“Light bulbs, they’re all burst!” I’d seen this before in the Zone. It happens after a specific emission type. Everything goes dark, everything!
We went downstairs to check out the kitchen and what was going on in the street. The wooden stairs were suddenly rather creaky, they looked almost rotten. Strange I thought. They were new. We’d renovated the house just three months ago after we bought it. In the distance the sound of helicopters could be heard, a rhythmical thump-thump-thump. Soon it was joined by more and more different sounds. Police sirens, more helicopters. Some came closer. Somewhere rose up the sound of gunfire, it ended quickly. The BOOM of the old cannon on the mountain sounded up.
“Strange time isn’t it honey?” No reply.
Outside we could hear vehicles coming down the street. Police motorcycles. I ran to the outside stairs to see. I was shocked. Lining the streets below us were military trucks, police cars. And now and then even an Olifant tank. Soldiers were entering the houses and summoning up everyone inside. Here and there people were emerging carrying all kinds of stuff outside and putting it inside the trucks. An Agusta A109 was circling, it hovered above our house. What were they doing?

***

The Chernobyl Incident was the start. In 1986 a test had gone wrong. The rest most people already know after the second accident in 2006, Pripyat the ghost town and all that. The second incident was the start of the real problem. Everything died. Including humans. It was believed that no-one could survive more than a couple of days in the zone. Teams were sent in to investigate, but never came back. The abandoned vehicles and the occasional body, that had been ripped apart, was found. The problem was that this was never reported as the Search and Rescue teams went missing as well. After 3 months the Ukranian military stopped all expeditions into the zone, and focused largely on keeping it a secure, human free, area.

It didn’t last. Two years later, something strange happened. Some source of energy surted out some ball of just that, energy. It killed a large part of the perimeter guards. It was a shock. The Zone was expanding. The soldiers fled and tried to escape. Most didn’t, strange mutated creatures caught up to them, it was a lost cause. The next year was spent trying to kill all the mutants that had escaped and setting up a new fence. This was also the time in which the Stalker community emerged. Some groups of people snuck into the zone. They wanted to know, they needed to know! The military was rather pissed at this, and soon they started shooting anyone who tried to enter illegally on sight. The zone had stabilized however, and more and more people entered to experience it. All illegally of course. Eventually it was estimated that around 300 or so individuals lived within the zone.

***

I was standing there. In awe. Everything started to turn red. SHIT! The horizon seemed ablaze. The earth started shaking, windows were breaking. Someone grabbed me from behind and pushed me to the floor.
“What the…”
“Martin Woodstock?”
“Yeah. How’d you?” My sentence was cut off by an excruciatingly loud bang.
“Listen! You have to let everybody know to get indoors, somewhere in a abasement or something” I said hastily, terrified.
“Sir, please” The black soldier started.
“NOW!” I shouted, angry and frustrated now. The soldier turned around to face someone who seemed to be the leader. One of the four soldiers ran down to a truck below our house. Less than a minute later, voices started booming out of speakers and megaphones telling people to get inside the houses.
“You guys too!” I said to the guy, having to shout at the top of my lungs to be heard over the noise. He nodded and talked to someone on the radio. They pulled me inside. I showed them where the entrance to the wine cellar was. Outside, one of the trucks suddenly blew up. The flame ball soared up into the air, lightening the inside of the open plan living area. I looked back again as we started down the stairs, some soldiers and two tank crewmen came running up the stairs. They were carrying a woman who seemed to have burn wounds.
“My wife! Where is my wife!?” I asked the soldiers.
“Sir?”
“Where is my wife!?” I shouted angrily. I didn’t ask again as the burnt woman was layed down on the ground, my hurt sunk and skipped a beat. My daughter was being held by one of the soldiers. She was screaming and crying hysterically. But before I could get to her, a shockwave hit the house. I could hear glasses and plates shattering, wood splintering. The fireplace chimney must have come loose during the earthquake as I heard a loud metallic THUNK. I looked at the soldiers, my wife and my daughter. And I saw something I’d never imagined cold happen. Some of them were crying, and some, some were screaming in fear…

Yeah, metro 2033

sgt.davis44 Blog

I here quote @Maiman on what he said about Metro 2033:
"Now don't get me wrong I liked the game, it was fun, had its moments and wasn't run and gun most of the time because the enemy had an almost Stalker ability to headshot you from across the entire metro in pitch black effects...

The part I didn't like was the story, it made no god damn sense!
Imgshared.com

[OH MY GOD SPOILERS]

I am your old friend hunter, oH GOD MUTANTS I be going after them now but if I don't come back inform someone Polis which is several stops away. Hunter didn't come back. Hop on train as they talk about stuff oh god mutants run run shoot gun ahahah votka kicks everyones ass, I am bourbon lets go out to the surface. Okay.. rarar demons are bitches... lets go down, oh god bandits don't worry I will go get my asas kicked and die, okay. I am khan KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN. Lets go here, look ghosts everywhere don't touch them or you die, GHOST BUSTERS GHOST TRAIN SCENE.
FUCKIN TESLA ANOMALY.
These guys are screwed lets blow up their homes and escape by desecrating their memorial to the dead. Then we should go and head to commieville and get accused of being a fascist spy and have to run down a linear chase that you lose anyways but get saved by a creepy guy who puts you under a train car with a copy of the book metro 2033 and sends you to a warzone because that is smart where you have to either shoot or stealth your way through so you can reach naziland and get captured because no matter how stealthy you are they already know you are coming. Then they get all pissed and get stabbed by a guy who literally jumps into the air with a knife and stabs him midflight and takes you to battle a Panzer Tank... in a russian metro in year 2033? After that you go find a kid take him to a town, fight the nazis and stuff, go to Naziville and sneak through there to find a friend go escape epic shit and eventually reaching Polis... then you spend 5 minutes there before deciding to go on a suicide mission and the choice is yours marked on, either i brainwash you like I usually do or I treat you like a pro and send you on your way...

Oh yeah I forgot, you go to a library and fight gorillas before going underground and fight gelatinous blobs and the zerg overmind before returning to the surface to fight every god damn mutant in Russia before going up a tower which has poorly built stairs and ladders which break as you climb making it impossible for Artyom to climb down after the story condemning him to starve to death or die of radiation before A. nuking the shit out of an already nuked the shit out of city
B. hugging the alien you shot six times to the chest and telling him he will be okay and nobody is going to hurt him... after this...

[OH GOD NO MORE SPOILERS]

What shit were they smoking, the story goes in every which way but straight!"

So... what do you think? :P

My luck ran out

sgt.davis44 Blog

Ok. So today I'm not talking about a bad experience with a game or the L.O Department :)
Ill be talking about my past few days and how some of it came to be very bad :( But Ill only explain briefly to keep it short

Friday, 7 May 2010: This day I had an optometrist booking for the tests for contact lenses(I was tired of my ever-breaking glasses) at 14:00. School on Fridays ends at 13:30 and so I am not worried much because I figured my dad would take me to school and take me to the optometrist. All good and well :) BUT thats when my luck ran out...

Friday, 7 May 2010, 06:23: Firstly, I wake up usually at 06:00 as that still gives me more than enough time to get ready, shower, go on Facebook, RelicNews and ModDB but that morning was different. I woke up at 06:23 to find that my father hasn't showered yet and he should have been done by the time I wake up, my brother also has to go shower before me. I walk to the kitchen to get some breakfast as usual and found that the cereals are all finished and there are no leftovers from the previous night. I eventually go to shower and dress. I go outside and wait for my dad but he tells me that I have to go to school on my bike as usual.

Friday, 7 May 2010, 07:16: I get to school later than usual(ad late for school generally). As I cross the rear gravel parking area, my bike's pedal suddenly falls off and thats the first REALLY bad thing that happened. I had a relatively usual school day apart from by wallet being stolen, 2 of my friends ending up sick and writing the worst ever Social Studies test ever!

Friday, 7 May 2010, 13:43: Some of the kids in my class made a mess in the last period and the teacher held us back. I get back to my bike very late with only 17minutes till my booking. I forget about my loose pedal and I leave in a big hurry. As I reach the gravel parking area a few meters later... the pedal came loose, I hit the dirt with tremendous force, I get a nasty cut on the leg, and a big crowd of kids from the hostel stand laughing and only one of them offering a little help to find "The Missing Pedal". I eventually leave the school and head home with a rather awkward pose on my bike having no pedal for the 2km ride home through the never ending traffic who seemingly try to make crossing roads as difficult as they vehiclely possible(mostly the drivers I suppose).

Friday, 7 May 2010, 13:57: I finally get home to find that there is nothing to eat and only 3minutes left and to find my dad at home, which was sort of lucky. He rushes me to the optometrist and with my light sensitive eyes, I go through the tests looking like a heart-broken, druggie teenager who just lost his to best friend when playing CoD4. They optometrist tries to put in the test contacts but struggles a bit with that part and finally comes to the conclusion that its my skin medication perscritpion pills that have dried out my corneas that are causing the pain and discomfort. Luckily I go off those in a month. We finally manage to get them settled and check the alignment. Now the wait for my contacts.

...The rset of the weekend was rather uneventfull at my moms house in Pretoria except for a rather large heap of homewrok I never managed to finish...

[To Be Continued...]

My bad S.T.A.L.K.E.R CoP redux experience

sgt.davis44 Blog 2 comments

Man, I just got into a bad situation...

I restarted the game after playing 70% with Redux and did something wrong somewhere. I don't know how it happened but I went to sleep from 23:00 to about 8:00 and when I woke up, the 2 bandits in the sleeping area of the ship suddenly started shooting me for no reason. Obviously I died because of the surprise.

I loaded the savegame and did the same again but got my gun out. Again they did the same but I managed to kill one and wound the other. I started chasing after him and shot him once more on the stairs. He shot me and suddenly 2 stalkers started to shoot from the back so I ran behind the engine thingy and killed them. I went back out and the bandit was leaving the ship along with 2 other stalkers. They all started shooting and I ducked behind the metal wall, I quickly sidestepped into the line of fire and killed all three with a few bursts of fire from my L85. I then went outside on top of the ship. Below, 2 stalkers engaged me and 6 bandits were approaching from afar. I killed the two stalkers and then started to engage the bandits who had just opened fire, luckily they were far away. I killed 2 of them and went around to the other side, where a little distance away, 3 zombies were walking past. I killed them too. Afterwards I went back to re-engage the bandits but couldn't see them. And then suddenly I died once more...

South Africa's 2010 Soccer Craze

sgt.davis44 Blog

The Department of Education has gone mad with LO(Life Orientation, Standard subject in school in SA) this year. Being the Soccer World Cup host is not the easiest thing for South Africa's population. We have to play soccer in school now because the Government thinks all us white kids are the biggest soccer fans in the world and all our names are Sipho. I'm not a racist but we are who we are. I swear I'll sue them if they continue this crap! Im probably gonna fail this years LO because Ive never played soccer(in a proffesional or standard sporty way. Only for fun with very few rules), its utter madness!

Guess I'll sign out and start practicing my soccer skills.