>>31201399

You fly through the doorway in your haste to find Kris. "Kris, Kris! The tank's on it's way but I have a cunning plan!" Your volume causes Vasa shifts uncomfortably on the table, but remains asleep. You come to a stop before Kris and as she turns to face you, you register Ice's presence in the room for the first time. He's leaning heavily on an IV stand, a blood bag piped up and feeding into his arm. His pale face doesn't lift from its previous position, leaned in close to Kris' as they were whispering quietly to each other, though his eyes lift to meet yours. He nods a greeting.

Irritation and confusion pass across Kris' features. "Loli? What is it?"
You quickly fill her in on the incoming tank, and your idea to stop them. Her confusion is replaced by a manic grin spreading wide across her features. As the bubbling laughter passes her lips, you suddenly realize how much you've missed seeing Kris like this. "Wahaha! You're a genius, Loli!"

Ice disagrees. "You're insane."

You shrug. "Maybe."

"It'll never work."

"I can make it work," Kris corrects him.

------------------------

In the courtyard, Loki has gathered a handful of the best and bravest of his men, in the hopes that maybe one or two will be up to the task of accompanying you.

"...and it will be here in less than two hours," he continues the brief. "Loli here has a plan. It has a near-zero chance of success, and is very likely a suicide mission. However, if she pulls it off, she hopes to..."

[ ]"...capture the tank and its crew."
[ ]"...capture the tank after killing its crew."
[ ]"...scuttle the tank and capture the crew."
[ ]"...scuttle the tank and kill its crew."

>>31201411
>[ ]"...capture the tank and its crew."
Let's try and keep this civilized to regain Vasa's trust one last time, okay gentlemen?

>>31201434
Seconding.

Also you forgot to post the link on your Twitter, Kaleun.

>>31201451
Oh don't mind the second part. My Twitter is dumb, apparently.

>>31201411
>[x]"...capture the tank and its crew."
Let's try to get a humanity bonus shall we?

>[x]"...capture the tank and its crew."

If this succeeds, I have absolutely no idea how we are going to top it later.

>>31201411
>[ ]"...capture the tank and its crew."
Time for madness.

>[ ]"...capture the tank. We'll kill or capture the crew, whichever is easier and safer at the time."

>>31201411
"...capture the tank and its crew. I need volunteers for a strike team to accompany her to the ambush point."

Behind the assembled elites, the rest of the base is a throng of activity, men rushing back and forth, setting up for what could be a heavy siege, heavy weapons being placed into over-watching positions, windows being sandbagged and barricaded. The exceptions are those assigned to Kris, the mechanics, engineers, anyone good with their hands. As two men run heavy metal cables out to the small lake just outside the walls, you see her talking animatedly with the base's supply manager. "Alright, I get it, you've got no balloons. What about condoms, then? They might work... wha-, no... well how should I know?? No-one's ever had trouble finding condoms out here for me before!"

You zone her out as one of the men raises their hand. He glances around, realizing he's the only one to volunteer, and almost falters before his friend also raises his hand. Loki nods approvingly. You're about to accept your team and head to your ambush position when Viktor appears at your side, placing his hand on your shoulder.

"Hey, listen, this... this isn't our fight, and Rabbit and Spades are adamant they're staying here and are just gonna wait for it to blow over but... I wanna come with you. Besides, you need someone like me, right? Either of you know how to drive a tank?" He glances between the two Freedom fighters, and both of them shrug. 'Can't be that hard.' He turns back to you. "See? You need me."

You accept him to your team with a grin and a hug, then make haste for the spot along the road that should offer you enough cover from the approaching tank...

Scuttle the tank

Why do we want to give Freedom a tank?

>>31201673
>No-one's ever had trouble finding condoms out here for me before!
sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut

>>31201677
Who said we aren't keeping it?

>>31201677
A more fitting question is how far Freedom will go to prevent Giltine from having a tank.

>>31201707
As long as Freedom doesn't get the tank

>>31201724
Good point

I don't think Freedom are our friends, I think they're just using us to get rid of Duty

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>women
>in the zone

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Let's go get ourselves a new tank.

>>31201750
there's always this one nigga

>>31201739
Hey now. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Besides, if I was Duty I'd rather ally with Loli, if only to keep her from going after me. Freedom tried betraying her, and she took down a tank and its crew singlehanded.

>>31201884
Wait, scratch that. I got Duty and Freedom backwards.
My bad.

>>31201884
>"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Biggest crock of shit I've ever heard, it's like you've never played any free-for-all game.

>>31201673
------------------------

Kris appears over the shoulder of the man frantically working on the base's power generator, and catches him before he wires the cables to the wrong relays. "No, no, THAT one goes there, THIS one goes there!" He corrects his mistake as she steps aside, sighing. This was one Hell of a gig to get set up in just an hour, but it looks like it could actually work.

Ice appears at her side, still limping along with the IV stand. "I found you helium balloons."

"Ha, where did you even- never mind. Thanks." She gives him a radiant smile, before setting to work wrapping the copper wiring around the balloons.

------------------------

You stay perfectly still, lain flat in the grass beside the road. The breathing of your team filling what would otherwise be perfect silence. After what feels like an age, you hear it: the faint rumbling of the engine powering half a hundred tonnes of death along the road towards you. The breathing around you gets louder at its approach, deeper, more ragged. Your allies are terrified, and they have every right to be.

The tank engine cuts out within feet of you, on the road. You can hear the men talking to each other, the commander shouting something about proper spacing to the armored men surrounding the tank. The men swear back at him.
He gives up and yells down into the tank to prepare to fire.
You whisper into the personal radio Loki lent to you. "Now."

>>31201975
------------------------

The entire base is sitting in utter silence, staring outwards at the beastly vehicle parked two hundred meters down the road, its main cannon pointed directly at the base wall. At last, Loli's voice comes across the radio. "Now." Kris raises her hand and gives the signal. With the flick of a switch, 50,000 volts through the bare cables running the length of the lake. With such a high current, the metal melts within milliseconds, but the heat transfers in time. The water is near instantly thrown to boiling point, and hundreds of gallons' worth of steam is thrown into the air over the valley.

As soon as it reaches a suitable height, Kris calls out the second signal. Pre-prepared grenade launchers scattered around the walls all fire together, launching red smoke into the air. The detonations are masked by the wall of steam, and from another angle, it would most definitely appear as if the sky above the base had suddenly transformed into a blood-red cloud. "Round two," she calls, and half the launchers fire again, red flares igniting, their scarlet glow shimmering over the rapidly cooling mist. "Switch relays!"
The lever is thrown, and the circuit switches from the cables in the lake to the cables running up into the clouds, suspended by the large helium balloons.

"All yours, Loli," Kris mumbles to herself.

------------------------

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This is about the most heretical thing I've ever seen.

>>31201962
It's a solid principle. Some people just seem to think "friend" means best friends forever.

>>31201975
>>31202015
HA You totally went with it!

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April Fools emission? April Fools emission.

>>31202015
A heartbeat after you whisper into the radio, the entire valley ahead is engulfed in a blanket of white mist. The entire group of men, just a moment before casual and confident, suddenly take a step back, on edge.

You hit the "Send" button on the pre-written text message to Beard, as the mist rapidly turns blood red, and pray he reacts fast enough. An evil, shimmering light flickers into existence in the edges of the clouds in the valley as the men start to panic and shout questions at each other.
Viktor barely contains a snicker beside you.

Then you hear it. Skadovsk may be half a day's walk away, through the anomaly fields and swamp lands, but as the crow flies it's barely five miles. The old air raid warning siren echoes its frantic message along the valley. As the warning reaches each next outpost, more sirens take up the warning, broadcasting to all who can hear that a blowout is imminent, that all should seek cover immediately.

And then the lightning cracks through the cloud.

>>31202081
I'm just waiting for a real one to pop up right in the middle of our fake.

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>>31202040
You sound like they'll get a choice whether to stay friends.

>>31202113
The entire assault forces turns and flees, headlong back down the valley from whence they came. Apart from the tank commander, who simply ducks back into his tank and slams his hatch shut. As soon as the way is clear, you break from your position in the ditch beside the road and rush to the tank, clambering up onto the turret.

Thirty seconds later, the red smoke disperses, the flares extinguish themselves, and the sirens die down. You rap your knuckles twice on the commander's hatch, and wait for him to answer. He's barely finished unbuttoning before you kick him in the face and slip yourself down into the tank beside him, submachinegun trained on the other two crew members.
"April Fools!"

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>>31202184

>>31202184
By the time you've managed to get your strike team to stop howling with laughter long enough to get your game together, you've managed to extract the crew from the tank and Viktor has taken up his seat in the driver's position. One of the Freedom men is left to take the cuffed and captured crewmen back to the base on foot, while the other is left to help you fully crew your new toy.

[ ]Take over the commander's seat.
[ ]Take over the gunner's seat.

AND

[ ]Drive straight back to the base.
[ ]Hunt down the Duty assault force.

>>31202141
wish the text lingered longer.

Preemptively saying this

DO NOT GIVE FREEDOM THE TANK

>>31202238
[X] take the commanders seat and find a spvoet era tank helmet
[X] track down the assault force and test out pur new guns

>>31202238
We should take the commander's seat.
Maybe we should drive back to base, and when they run away, chase them?

>>31202238
[ ]Take over the commander's seat.

It is ours after all.

[ ]Drive straight back to the base.

We got this done peacefully, not even Duty is retarded enough to attack us now, that Giltine has a fuck tank, right?

>>31202238
[ ]Take over the commander's seat.
[ ]Drive straight back to the base.

TANK GET.

>>31202265
*soviet era
We Katyusha now

>>31202267
Ahem.
>Fucking tank

>>31202238
>[ ]Take over the commander's seat.

AND

>[ ]Inform Duty that Giltine now has a tank. Surrender is an option.

>>31202238
>[ ]Take over the commander's seat.
>[ ]Drive straight back to the base.


>My suggestion with the balloons/grenades got worked into the game.
Feels good.

>>31202303
This

Hunt them down if they fail to comply.

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>>31202265
Fuck yes

>>31202303
this

>>31202303
Supporting.

>>31202365
We totally need a Katyusha cosplay from Beard next time Kaleun!

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>>31202303
This sounds pretty good.

>>31202238
>Gunner's seat
We can pull a trigger, but we don't quite know how to command a tank.
>Back to base
Force multiplier!

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>>31202303
Fuck it, let's do this.
>Duty's faces when

>>31202281
>>31202388
Sergei would've been our Nonna.

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>>31202238
You wait for the other guy to slide into his seat first before slipping in to your own chair in your shiny new toy of mass destruction. "Kay, Viktor, take us back! I wanna show it off to Kris and Vasa!" He chuckles, before flicking some controls to make the engine roar to life.
Within a minute, you're cruising through the main gates, met by deafening applause, fighters leaning from defensive dugouts and windows to cheer wildly at you as you pass. You pull into the main courtyard, and spot Kris sprinting across the yard towards you. As the tank jars to a halt, you hop down off the hull to meet her. She catches you in the air, spinning you around in a tight hug before gently putting your feet back on the ground.

"Hahaha! That was amazing! I honestly didn't think we could pull it off! They'll never forget this, Loli! Ahahaha!"

The cheers and whistles around you start to quickly die out, and the crowd of excited men surrounding the tank parts to let Loki walk slowly, purposefully, up to the two of you.

"Yeah, nicely done. And now WE have the advantage." He bares his teeth in a wicked grin. "How about we use it to go wipe THEM off the face of the Earth?"

[Part 28 End]

Remember the goddamn barrel had a grenade shoved down it. No shooting anything til we get it checked

No bloodshed please, we are finally getting our shit together after the previous incident. Let's use the tank and leverage peace treaty or something.

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Yes.

>>31202554
Good idea. We should try our damned best that nobody gets killed.

>>31202531
Tell him to fuck off, we're creating our own faction to control the zone

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Well guys, I hope you enjoyed this Super-Cutscened April Special. I was intending to run a reasonable length of time, but I have just noticed that I kind of had a place I was supposed to be about, oh, two hours ago. So I'm going to go do that.

Real thread later this week. Probably.

For now, please feel free to use the rest of this thread for whatever it is you usually discuss. And I'll try to answer any questions when I get back.

Hope to see you all next time!

>>31202531
short yet Amazing

Could we take a list of the things we have to take care of?

1) Freedom and Duty issue must be settled with as few casualties as possible.
2) Repay the scientists.
3) Pay our old pal the Monolith a visit up North with Kris and Vasa (main storyline?)

Anything I'm missing?

>>31202554
Our tank. Our rules. Freedom should probably obey our little goddess of death

So, are we going to refuel and stock up on supplies then just drive straight North for as far as the tank will take us?

I don't give a fuck for their war.

>>31202713
>2) Repay the scientists.
This feels like it should be the main priority, their field team's help got us our own tank.

>>31202749
We have to deal with it one way or another though. Duty has the means to acquire anti-tank weaponry and they seem to be pretty hellbent on ripping us a new asshole. I think it would be better to settle it before we leave, we don't want them on our behind when things get hot around the CNPP.

>>31202791
Agreed, they were really cool about it, so we should at least do a mission for them.

I think we should probably have a chat with Kris and Vasa to see what they want to do about this, or maybe they'll think better of us if we just outright say no to the killing and demand peace but then we'd be a hypocrite because we started it.

>>31202713
1) Freedom and Duty issue must be settled with as few Freedom casualties as possible.
2) Repay the scientists with all the loot we get from extermianting Duty.
3) Pay our old pal the Monolith a visit up North with Kris and Vasa (main storyline?)

>>31202825
This sounds good. We should start by saying that we aren't killing anyone. Then we consult with Kris and Ice, and depending on whether Vasa is conscious she too. We need to show her we have potential.

>>31202829
>Return to Yanov station and repay scientists
>Bury the dead, give Sergei a special headstone
>Announce to Beard that we are creating our own faction, we welcome all Freedom and Duty defectors
>?????
>PROFIT!

We really should take out Duty. We missed our chance to settle this peacefully when we decided we didn't want to chance execution.

>>31202912
>all Freedom and Duty defectors
Oh and also all ex-Monolith fighters, I know there are quite a few of those. Maybe we can even meet their leader!

WHERE'S THE SMUT KALEUN

>>31202825
We didn't start the fight. Freedom and Duty were always fighting, rolling the tank into the station obviously wasn't just because they wanted to bring us to justice. It was very much a show of force, and if it turned to a fight, a neat opportunity to push Freedom out of the station. I think right now we're very much in a position to say that no, we're sick of all the pointless killing of nice people and everyone looking at us like a monster for defending ourselves against people trying to hurt us and our friends. I'm making you both cut that shit out.

>>31202967
>April Fool

>>31202967
>>31203003
Cut content. The thread was shorter than planned, remember? You will get your filth next time, don't worry.

>>31202967
IT'S RIGHT THERE YOU
YOU
DOUBLE ROOKIE

>>31202967
This whole thread is secretly innuendo for lesbian sex.

Do individual tanks usually have names? Like, not just their production series and shit, but a proper name like you'd give a ship? Can we name the tank Sergei?

>>31203118
Yes, actually.

There's Sergei, does anyone else have a name for the tank?

>>31203118
I hope so
>inb4 the tank gets demolished so Sergei dies again

>>31203118
Too soon, it'd seem like we're replacing Sergei.

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RIP in peace Sergei

>>31202531
>"Yeah, nicely done. And now WE have the advantage." He bares his teeth in a wicked grin. "How about we use it to go wipe THEM off the face of the Earth?"
Not a fucking chance

>>31203167
Diplomobil

>>31203194
b-b-but that's not what it's supposed to mean! We're naming it after Sergei because he was big and strong like a tank, not because it killed him. Maybe we should ask the others if it's too weird before naming it?

>>31203226
I'm sure Sergei would love a chance for revenge. No objections here.

>>31203250
IF we do end up using the tank the first people we blast should be preceded with a "MY FRIEND SERGEI SAYS HI!"

>>31202912
That... might be viable? We could negotiate a peace between Duty and Freedom under the terms that both factions withdraw their forces from Yanov, leaving a neutral party as peacekeepers between the two. Found a new faction based on the idea of stopping the pointless killings in the Zone by first and foremost keeping Freedom and Duty in check. Appeal to every stalker who's sick of the fight between Duty and Freedom and who want to work towards a Zone where the real danger is fucking monsters and anomalies.

>>31204158
I am so happy someone agrees with me, the deafening silence was off putting

Duty and Freedom leaders don't really care that much about their supposed goals anyways

>>31204158
>the real danger is fucking monsters and anomalies

That's precisly what Duty is doing though. Sure, our view might be a bit skewed since we are some weird monolith-influenced abomination, but yeah

>>31204232
That's what an IDEAL Duty is, but they're more interested in policing the Zone and killing Freedom

>>31204252
Well, they set up the Bar as a huge safe zone for one, and like working with the scientist.
All Freedom is doing is being anarchistic pothead shits

I can't be the only one who doesn't enjoy this sudden push for pacifism.

>>31204288
As much as I like shitting on Freedom and supporting Duty, Duty did try to arrest us when they have no authority to do so

>>31204297
Losing Sergei was a hard blow Anon.... But fear not, there will always be Bandits and Monolith and those who simply want to kill Loli. Hell, we haven't even figured out who was watching us so long ago!

>>31204354
Don't pretend that trying to strongarm both Freedom and Duty into a peaceful situation will do anything but make them both even angrier at us. Well, Duty angrier, Freedom kind of likes us at the moment.

>>31202967
IN MY FIRST DRAFTS FOLDER

>>31203118
You could name it however you please.

>>31204297
Neither Freedom nor Duty would take kindly to pacifism at this point. Both sides have lost many friends.

>>31204439
>IN MY FIRST DRAFTS FOLDER
WELL CRANK THAT SHIT OUT COME ON MAN

>>31204403
>Freedom kind of likes us at the moment.
Freedom only likes us because we're fighting against Duty, as soon as we say we're done fighting they'll turn on us, the anarchistic dogs

>>31204476
Yeah, they'll be angry. But they won't be angrier, because they aren't angry yet.

>>31204297
I've been pushing since the escape from Monolith. It's been kind of back and forth since then between merciless slaughter and actually trying to be nice. I guess the incident at the station has helped bring more people over to the humanity side.

I think we could recruit enough Loners, and Duty/Freedom defectors to form a reasonable faction.
Especially if we could get Kris and Vasa to take pictures too.

We don't need to go for pacifism. If we create a third faction, we'll be a balancing force. No one faction will want to attack another because that leaves them open to attack.

If Duty were to attack Loli faction, then Freedom could easily attack the weakened and distracted Duty faction. A third faction would be an equalizing force in the Zone.

>>31204687
I dunno, people always want to go for some silly take control of everything plan, but I don't see why Loli would.

>>31204581
>>31204687
That's great but it would really cut into our time. We aren't here to fix The Zone, we're here for our own and Kris's motivations.

Can we hold off on these army-raising plans until after we visit Pripyat?

>>31201399

kill yourself

quit quest forever

do both or one

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>>31204581
Do you have any idea how much effort goes into running a faction? Even if you manage to find and recruit enough willing meat shields to act as a force capable of taking on the combined might of one of the existing factions.

Between constructing and maintaining a base, maintaining outposts and defenses, organizing patrols, never mind the logistical nightmare of acquiring supplies and getting them to where they're needed, when they're needed.

Loli has absolutely no interest in doing such a thing.
That is not the road to adventure.

>>31204837
I think most people forget that being the king of everything is a shit job.

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>>31204831
>shitposting after the quest has already been run

>>31204837
And that's why we delegate Beard for that

>>31205019
"Hey Beard, I'm going to go to Pripyat. Can you build an army that can rival the strength of both Freedom and Duty for me while I'm gone?"

>>31205097
"I'll let you take pictures of me an' Kris an' Vasa!"

>>31205019
i don't think he'd do that for us
not even for some prime loli butt

Do we get any achievements in this quest? It'd be pretty neat to have loli get a beast tamer achievement that gives us decreased hostility from mutants, a system similar to cop

>>31206328
Long ago, Kaleun would show us when we gained or lost a point to our stats, but that kinda stopped because whenever we lost a point (and we started losing A LOT because of crit fails) we would lose our shit

>>31206382
I still record whenever you gain and lose points. I just don't display the changes any more, except the odd occasion. Some stats do raise certain event flags, or change the abilities you have. Most just have an effect on your dice roll DC's. Which I'm still trying to phase out where possible, because often they were just silly.

>>31206467
When this quest is all over will you upload all your notes?

I'm still curious as to what may have happened had we not fallen under the influence of the Monolith

>>31206490
We'd be following a storyline I'd only half-written and was thoroughly unhappy with based on shadowing the Marked One. Personally, I'm glad you guys managed to trip all 3 flags necessary to get Brain Scorched.

>>31206536
That does sound boring. I love that he's around and stuff, that we can hear about him, but if I wanted to follow him I could just go play the game instead. I'd much rather be shadowing chocoshota.

>With the state I'm in now, I find it highly unlikely I'll be able to find either the time or energy to run Racketeer tomorrow. Sorry.

Get some rest, last time you drove your car over a wall and into a fence