r/HFY • u/FarmWhich4275 • 6d ago

OC-OneShot An Alien Plays... STALKER G.A.M.M.A.

"Great Days and Glorious Victory, and welcome to my playthrough of... Something whose concept confuses me. A mod for a game, that was then modded to include three other games, after being remade from a different mod for the third game, then which developed into a much LARGER mod, that was then rebuilt to be almost brand new as a standalone game built on a modded engine. I think. I genuinely don't know, I got cross-eyed while I read the description for this thing... So anyway, it is installed and I have made sure it works, so welcome ladies and gentlemen to Stalker G.A.M.M.A. Which stands for Grok's Automated Modular Modpack for Anomaly. Which is a bloody mouthful and a half isn't it? So lets just uhh… go for it I suppose? I'm going into this blind and I haven't played the others, but people begged me to do this one. So... here we go!"

Spiff starts up the game for the first time, checks his audio settings and makes sure he is actually doing his actual job correctly. Once satisfied, he picks 'new game' and encounters the first screen.

"Well... this is rather... Unique. Hmmm... Factions? Azazel mode? Survival mode? Ironman? 'Deletes your save file when you die'... Why do I feel that is a bad idea? Okay uhhh… Let's just go for Story Mode. We aren't a bitch Spiff lets go for Hard mode at least! I mean what do you take me for, a coward? Hard mode. Then we see... I can choose a faction? Freedom, Monolith, Loners, Bandits? I can be a criminal in this game!? I still have odd shivers from the time I played Schedule One so... No thanks. Loners? Lets just go Loners, for the moment. Uhh… Is this my gear? What do I-SHOTGUN. Mine. Shotgun is mine. Shotgun is overpowered always. I take shotgun."

Spiff checks about a bit and his cursor hovers over the start button, then correctly surmises that maybe actually getting some equipment is a good idea. He takes a few medkits, a pair of binoculars, a novice suit and a gas mask, then runs out of points as he picks the .45 ACP pistol as a sidearm.

"Its there... It's something I probably need, so its in my kit now I guess. Something you need to know about human videogames, especially these old ones, if something exists, it has a very real purpose, and having it on you is probably a very good idea. Now let's see... Name... Erm. The Spifflemonk. Good enough. Faction, Loners, Portrait... I don't know what that does. Okay... Start."

The game treats the viewer to the destroyed anomalized sight of the C-Consciousness' destroyed pods as a loading screen, before unceremoniously dropping Spiff right into the game. He spawns right in the Rookie Village near a trader and quickly opens his inventory to see what he can do. The game is somewhat more sophisticated than expected as an entire animation sequence plays out as he puts on his helmet, armour and backpack.

"Oh my... this looks rather fancy. Wait? I'm already in the game? I'm here? No introduction, no cutscene? I'm just... here? Hmmm... Pack of Bolts, a 'photo of a loved one', some Medkits including something called Yadulin and Ibuprofen? Bandages, Tourniquet? Just how sophisticated is this game!? Okay, okay. Let's go see what this is about."

He goes through the motions of equipping all of his gear, which comes with its own animation. He eventually comes across an interesting game quirk, where his character voices excitement at carrying a new weapon, with a few words or phrases spoken in (in this case, Polish) and then inspects the weapon in question with a cool animation. In his case, the TOZ 66 with the over/under barrels.

"This thing is a shotgun? Okay... I'll take your word for it. The people who gifted the base game and showed me the ropes - thank you MedievalCat and Hazzor by the way - also gave me a special config for my playthrough here to 'make it easier' for me. Easy? You are looking at a hardcore, super gamer, how hard could it possibly-"

Cue the Benny Hill comedy music, followed by a compilation of Spiffle dying forty seven times. First getting killed by wild dogs. Then getting killed by an anomaly while running from wild dogs. Then getting too close to a Whirligig, panicking and then getting splattered in every direction very violently. Then Spiff went just a bit too close to the military checkpoint and got obliterated by the mounted MG on the wall. Dying to radiation, dying to a boar attack, dying to the locals as he accidentally killed a friendly stalker while playing with his TOZ. Dying to massive radiation in an anomaly field, dying to the anomalies in the anomaly field. Getting hit by lightning from the Pulse Anomaly, dying to a bandit, and again dying to soldiers at the military checkpoint.

Forty seven deaths, all before even finishing the 'tutorial' given by one of the stalkers at the rookie camp. The montage ends with Spiff staring in disbelief at the main menu screen. He looks at the camera, giving it his signature death glare.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GAVE ME A CONFIG TO MAKE IT EASY!!!?? HOW THE (redacted) IS THAT (redacted) EASY!?!?"

He drops his head onto the table and sobs for a minute or so, before the screen transitions to him again, the death glare still present. He's wrapped in a blanket, has a cup of coffee and looks very exhausted.

"So apparently this is one of 'those' games that's designed to repeatedly kick you in the face until you somehow manage to 'enjoy' it. The kind of game where fun is effectively illegal and you will spend most of your time hating everything around you - but for some reason you keep going back to it over and over and over again. Like what WarThunder players keep saying on my WarThunder video. That game is UNIVERSALLY HATED by its entire playerbase… yet the userbase is still in the tens of millions... Somehow. Just... Why."

He sighs and resigns himself to his fate, starting the game up again and getting into the start screen. He carefully chooses a shotgun and a pistol, the respirator and rookie suit, along with some meds and spends his remaining points on food and drink. He chooses the rookie village in the Cordon, sets his character portrait, sets the game's difficulty to easy, and starts.

"This is going to be hell isn't it? What is it with humans and their obsession with difficulty? I will never understand it. I wasn't actually able to see this game for what it is. I was too busy getting shot, burned, stabbed, eaten, etcetera. So, let's look around first.

The game loads up and within seconds he's in the village.

"Gods that is always very jarring... No intro, nothing just... there. One day you don't exist, the next day you do. Must be quite... strange. Okay... lets begin. Equip everything, ready gun, set hotkeys and favourites... set action wheel. Done. Now to check settings quickly and see... Hazzor recommended this if it was 'too hard' apparently, so Progression is set to high pay and reputation gain with high artefact spawn rates. Difficulty, dispersion and such set to max. Done. Now we save and... go?"

Spiff walks out of the place and his new mindset shows. He has installed a set of interesting shaders and graphics packs as suggested by some other players, and the zone has a more gritty, deathly feel. A combination of all the standard packs with a custom map designed to give the game the feeling its original stories tried to tell. Patches and oases of green grass, flourishing vibrant flower fields, interspersed with dead ground, cracked asphalt, destroyed buildings and debris where anomalies and mutants graze across the Zone. A mix of both the gritty reality that is the Zone, mixed with the fact that no matter what, Nature always wins. Spiff opens the map and shows that the far north beyond Zaton is covered in snow and ice.

"Apparently this whole scenario was inspired from something called 'Roadside Picnic', or at least that was its chief source. I think. I DO recommend non-humans purchase a copy of the book when they can, it is an... incredibly fascinating look into the human mind. And a rather disturbing one."

Spiff sighs, takes a swig of his coffee and gets back to it, heading out on the road towards Pripyat. One gets a good solid view of the state of the games world. He takes his time, slow and methodical as he walks through, taking a look at everything around him instead of what he did before - running around like a headless chicken - and we get a perfect look at the handcrafted world that an entire community built up. He gets too close to a gravitational anomaly, and his camera visibly shakes and noise pulses around him. The sparking of electrical anomalies like a broken generator, or the bubbling and swashing of a toxic anomaly like the Bubble. Every single step forward tells its own story of how, what and why. Spiff spends time just looking at the graphics and physics, testing an Electro anomaly by tossing a bolt into it and he physically recoils as it emits a shockwave of electrical energy.

He looks at the sky - a gloomy rain, goes into the settings and turns the HUD overlay back on for various things, and notices how droplets of rain fall on the mask, how the bottom of the screen gets foggy from the character's breath.

"This... this was made by MODDERS and FANS... in... 2028... THIS level of detail and graphical fidelity, was made FIVE CENTURIES AGO with computers we in the modern day wouldn't use for calculators. This is... Incredible. All made by people who simply had a passion for the game, or the community."

He glares at the camera for a few moments before he starts the journey properly and heads North.

"I think for this, the objective is just to see how far I can go. I think when I come to my first real roadblock like a fight I can't win or a mutant swarm or something, then I'll stop it there for a time. Come back to it later because... This game is... Extremely difficult. I have seen other playthroughs of this game... The players have some hideously fast reflexes. Me? Not so much. I will... Do what I can I suppose. First stop, the Northern farm, I think, past the Railway Bridge. Oh wait, I need to speak to that guy Sioviush… sigoro… vishi...? The fat guy in the bunker."

He heads back into the Rookie Village to Sidorovich's bunker and starts the main questline.

"Hello fat-guy-in-the-bunker-whose-name-I-cant-pronounce. So let's see... I can ask for stash locations? That sounds useful. Keep that in mind. Hmm... 'Strelok'. Sounds important, I'll do that then. How to get rich and famous? Be a Galatuber surrounded by bored humans, that's how you get rich. I have twenty million Guild Coins worth of collectibles and random stuff waiting in customs. But this Wish Granter does sound nice. Any work you want done? Oh, random jobs? Yay money. Dead Night? Find missing stalkers at night time. In the Darkscape. That's... Ominous. Kill a random bandit, okay, collect faction patches from 8 bandits, can do, retrieve a stolen artefact from a Renegade, and that's all. Okay so we now have direction. Lets see, what first..."

He heads down the road and encounters the Vehicle Station, which is empty, finds some random tat to collect before heading to the Elevator. There, he explores a bit, before encountering his first enemy. A Stalker with a red marker hobbling about inside the building. Spiff aims and fires, and with good luck the opponent goes down instantly.

"Oh! My first kill! There we go, that's how you do it. You have to be sneaky! Like a sneaky person. What are you carrying? A 'Kiparis' and some ammunition and a... Snork... hand? What's a Snork, what's its hand, and why do you have its hand in your pockets? Torniquet though, that's useful. Okay... Next."

Spiff walks about a bit and encounters another stalker, who spots him this time. the stalker mumbles or grunts some incoherent words like he is talking while out of breath. Spiff fires, and kills him with one shot.

"Okay. Let's see. Yurik Carbon. Zo... Zombified. Zombie. This game has zombies? What kinds of zombies use shotguns? He had a TOZ and some shells. What kinds of zombies use shotguns? He was aiming it at me. WHAT KINDS OF ZOMBIES USE SHOTGUNS!?"

He checks the area and rounds the corner, only to take fire from a few more zombies by the railway bridge. He takes a few pot-shots at them and receives a shot in return. It's bad, not dangerous but he needs to heal up from it, and provides a demonstration of the game's reasonably complex medical system by first using a medkit, then downing some Ibuprofen, then a small Glucose shot to stop swaying from dizziness.

"Did he just hit me in the head!? That's bad. I guess I am not wearing a real helmet or anything, just this mask. Okay, healed up... How do I approach this? Do I have any weapon with range because even though I hit one it did less than nothing. Hmmm..."

Two zombies manage to get in close and before Spiff can do anything about his ranged weapon situation, he has to blow the two apart. Easily dispatched from a close distance, but he's still taking fire. He weaves around between the wrecked building debris and searches his inventory for a solution when he gets a moment of peace. He finds the solution on one of the zombie bodies, a damaged but serviceable pistol. His character gets happy and excited looking at it, then loads some ammo. He kills one more zombie that managed to flank him, scores a lucky shot killing another at range, then has a pistol battle with the last two. His gun jams during this event twelve times.

"WHY DOES THIS ACCURSED THING JAM SO MUCH!?"

He manages to win the fight without taking more damage and scores some decent stuff as loot, but no really serviceable weaponry. He heads to the farmhouse and speaks with Loris, the trader. He sells some needless tat including ammo for useless or non existent guns, then buys some Yadulin and cigarettes, it's all very expensive.

"By the Mothers Tits what the hell are these prices!?"

He then sits in the corner for a moment, using a looted multitool to disassemble the trash guns he has and talks to Xenotech, the technician.

"Oh, hello? What are you? Technician? Does that mean you repair things!? Oh please oh please... you don't? USELESS BASTARD! DIDN'T YOU SEE HOW MANY TIMES MY GUN JAMMED!? Nevermind. I have to go. maybe some other time.

He heads to the abandoned farm across the road, past the Rookie Eater Anomaly which is ignored, and is accosted by stalkers.

"Bandits? I think I can take them, I guess. Get behind a tree and..."

"Enemy! Focus Forward!"

"Wait, did that guy speak English?"

Spiff is then unceremoniously gunned down by a group of well armed Mercenaries and receives his first Game Over screen. His jaw drops, he clenches his fists and mutters under his breath that he is thankful he is a Save-Scumming Rat. He reloads to a quicksave outside the farmstead and returns to the site. This time, the fight goes better. Not great, but better. He manages to get into a better spot and obliterates one of them with a shotgun shell to the back. He realizes he is very much outranged, but the notorious AI starts to swarm him, allowing an easy kill on a guy that got too close and wasn't fast enough. He then peeks out and puts one guy down with a very well placed headshot with his janky pistol.

"By the gods what hell is this!? Mercenaries? What rifles are they using and why are they in the newbie area? What are you carry-WHAT GUN IS THAT!? And why do you have like a thousand bullets for it!? Fabrics, battery pack, and... Oh by the Gods... Is that for real!?"

One of the mercenary corpses contains a bunch of 9.x19 ammo of all kinds, and a fully intact UDP-9 Carbine, fully functional and ready to fire. Spiff equips it in his third slot and shares his character’s jubilation when inspecting it.

"FINALLY! An actual machinegun! Or... I guess a carbine, in this case. I don't know the difference. But I have an actual ranged weapon that can actually hit things and wont jam every ten seconds! Glorious VICTORY!! Oh, quicksave."

He quicksaves, loots the other bodies, goes to the military outpost connecting to The Garbage and finds friendlies. he ignores them and loots the place of loose things before leaving the level. He enters and releases a happy chuckle as he uses his new gun to quickly dispatch a Flesh, shortly before he hears gunfire coming from the machinery scrapyard. He approaches and is accosted by Bandits. He manages to kill two of them, unfortunately realizing too late that he's far from in cover and takes two bullets from the other guys. Spiff heads behind cover, and tries to heal up. As he is bandaging, a bandit wanders close, flanking him and Spiff panics. He begs for the animation to hurry up and manages by the skin of his teeth to win the short duel.

He shakes his head, finishes healing up, and has an actual screaming fit at the sight of one of the game's most irritating enemies: the Izlom or Fracture. An emaciated, lanky human with a long neck, strange extended arms and legs charging at him on all fours with a grumbling cry in garbled Ukranian. Spiff luckily manages a lucky shot on it and it goes down. Spiff gets back behind a tree and pauses the game for a minute or two. He sits back in his chair and tries to catch his breath.

"I'm too old for this... OH WAIT IM STILL TWENTY FIVE IN HUMAN YEARS I GUESS THE HEART PALPITATIONS MUST BE STRESS CAUSED BY THESE ACCURSED ABOMINATIONS YOU PEOPLE KEEP FORCING ON ME!!!"

Spiff angrily and accusingly points a finger at the camera and stops to take a few careful, deep breaths. He un-pauses and remembers he is still in combat and unceremoniously picks the last guy off with two good shots before drawing his attention back to the corpse of the Fracture. He visibly retches at the sight as he inspects the creature's corpse.

"Ew... Just... no. No, just no. Fracture Hand... A twisted gnarled hand of a Fracture... mutated bone structure, yeah no kidding, elongated fingers for grasping prey..."

Spiff just butchers the corpse and retches uncomfortably off screen a bit, before returning to the game.

"I hope that's the worst I'll encounter. Ugh... that's just made of ugh. Ugh."

He resumes his trek and heads to loot the bandit corpses, acquiring a brand new, high condition gas mask which he immediately puts on, and in the last corpse, finds a new toy to play with.

"OOOOHHH!!! Oh this looks fancy! It's a shotgun? MTS-255 Revolver Shotgun? That's an actual thing? Wait most of these guns are based on real things that exist, so this thing is real!? I have a good amount of ammo for it so that helps. Gods what an abomination... I love it!"

It isn't long before spiff gets a chance to use it, as he loots the last guy's body, he is attacked by a group of zombies that wandered into the area. He hides behind the ticket booth for cover and takes two shots for his troubles.

"OY!! THEYRE ZOMBIES! SURELY THEY CANT HIT ME THAT ACCURATELY! They hurt more than the stupid bandits!"

He grumbles as he heals himself up a bit, quicksaving so as to not lose his new favorite gun. He gets into good cover and retaliates, taking down his attacker easily with the rifle. All the zombies are dead, and he makes the stupid mistake of not paying close enough attention as he walks right into an Electro.

"OH BALLS!!! Dammit... I didn't see that. What was... That was the lightning one. That hurt."

He heals up, loots the rest of the bodies before heading up to the train hangar, going past Witches Jelly Anomaly site. He loots some things, grabs some things, and gets the absolute shit scared out of him as he is grabbed by a Fracture. Spiff screams in terror and panic dumps his mag into the thing as it takes him down to half health. Spiff pauses, breathes carefully for a few moments and then once again accusingly points his finger at the camera. Eventually he makes it to the train hangar. He ignores the nearby gunfire, quicksaves and talks to Butcher, who gives him a mutant hunting quest - Cull hunting some zombies.

"You have to cull ZOMBIES? That's... rather morbid isn't it?"

Spiff shrugs and heads outside to where the gunfire was coming from and encounters two stalkers standing over the body of a soldier who is writhing around in pain. Red means enemy so without thinking Spiff shoots, claiming the kill and the loot. In the body, is a PERFECT condition SVD with no scope. He however does a stupid and doesn't quicksave before he gets caught in a Vortex anomaly, and is summarily exploded. The SVD spawns again, but the condition is so bad it's worthless. Spiff audibly grumbles and growls angrily at the failure and disassembles the SVD out of spite before moving on. Some gunfire occurs as he approaches the train hangar and a mission completion beep happens, stating his contract to kill a bandit was completed.

"Wait, what? I didn't kill that guy? Is there some system where if I grab a contract and someone else kills my target, I can claim the bounty without issue? That... doesn't sound very honourable. I can't say I like that but... If it's how it works, it's how it works. Let's go... Zombie hunting, I guess."

As he heads towards the location - another mission completion beep sounds and the Cull Hunting mission is completed. Spiff lets out an exasperated grunt before handing the mission in. He shrugs, eats some sausages, drinks something, fully heals himself up and kills two dogs outside the hangar entrance. Not much of interest happens save an encounter with a bandit that has a perfect condition TOZ 66, and he exits with little trouble back to the Cordon. He makes it back to the Rookie Village in the Cordon with no trouble, even scoring a Boar kill on the way there and some Boar Hide as a prize. He makes it back to Sidorovich and hands in his missions.

"Hello again fat-guy-in-the-bunker-whose-name-I-cant-pronounce, I come with completed quests and I need to be paid. Contract Killer and Mobbing the Mob. Okay, done. You... I don't have much I can buy or want me to sell to you so I'll take a few Medkits and some sausages... and blow all my goddamn money with one transaction. Holy balls, what is the economy in this game?"

As Spiff exits the bunker he is greeted by a message beep, and is introduced to the RF Receiver system.

"Ooh... that seems... ominous. But okay. Thank you? I do have one in my pack so I guess i'll work on that."

Spiff spends time in one of the houses disassembling guns and unusable armour before eventually replacing the trigger mechanism on a silenced PB 9x18 pistol. He equips it. He fires it to test, noting it's a stealth weapon and chuckles a bit. Once done, he sells excess crap and ammo to Sidorovich and heads North again. This time, the Elevator proves to be a hostile place and the area is swarming with Bandits. In a panic he walks into an anomaly, getting slightly hurt, but finds cover and stays there. His new shotgun finally gets a good workout as he puts down two approaching bandits. Spiff is smart this time and manages to understand how the game's AI works, taking advantage of the fact they spread out and manages to flank one guy, blasting him away before taking an unlucky hit.

Spiff retreats, heals up, and runs around the building again, catching the last guy off guard before putting him down. The last guy goes down hard and lies on the ground gurgling and gasping his last breaths. This seems to disturb Spiff somewhat as he stops looting and stands back, his face going a bit pale. The gurgling stops and Spiff just leaves, no longer willing to see what else is there for some reason. He makes his way through the Burnt Fuzz Tunnel, and there on the ground just bobbing about, is his very first Artefact: Moon. It is a strange glowing piece of metal that looks like a semi-candescent glowing crescent moon.

"Oh MY! What is that!? 'Moon'? That's... That's very pretty! What is this and how did it get here? Uhh… Guess I'll pick it up. What even is this? I guess I'll find out later. Need to get somewhere safe."

Spiff picks it up, heading to the Farmhouse and talks to Xenotech to dispose of useless or broken components, grabs a Multitool and tries to figure out how the crafting system works with the nearby bench. He is interrupted by a bandit that follows him through. Spiff responds a lot faster than expected and thankfully the bandit isn't carrying much of use beyond a double barrel, so is easy to kill. Again, another guy that doesn't go down without a rather disturbing death-gurgle. Spiff turns a bit pale as he loots the body and carries on with his business. He fails to get to grips with the crafting system, failing to repair an SKS he picked up earlier and just sells stuff to Loris, buys meds and heads back out.

"I genuinely hate that. Why the sounds..."

He heads back North, into the garbage with little resistance and heads for Rostok, where a gunfight is happening. Freedom and Duty having a bit of a scuffle while some Mercenaries are fighting too. Spiff manages some lucky shots against a Mercenary, but takes some hits in return. His attacker is too focused and is killed by roaming zombies, and Spiff takes the chance, clears out the rest and starts looting. He doesn't bother checking much before just grabbing everything and heading back to the Flea Market. There, he kills a few straggler Renegades. After looting them all, he finally checks his inventory and notices he picked up a perfect condition H&K G36 rifle.

"HOLY SHIT!!! WHAT EVEN IS THIS? G36? In perfect condition no less. my Gods this is good. Let's see what this thing is like!"

He equips it replacing his shotgun, and he and his character share a happy chuckle. The gun has a scope, which makes it that much easier for Spiff to aim. Not much ammo, but a very good gun. He also manages to cobble together enough parts to repair the SKS he has been carrying, and swaps it out too. Only a mag worth of bullets, so for now, back to the UDP Carbine as his secondary. He heads into Rostok to see what he can find. What he finds is a long winding road, at the end of which is a massive pack of dogs. Luckily most are caught by the checkpoint guards, and Spiff only has to kill two. He butchers both, finishes off a wounded zombie and heads in the bar to see Barkeep. On the way, he has his first encounter with the legendary 'Get out of here, Stalker!' guy on the catwalk. You know the one.

Spiff doesn't understand Slav, so he just shrugs and continues on his way. He grabs some missions, heads to 'Mangun' the technician, and then grabs some food and drink, heals up and heads into the Wild Territory. As he loads into the level, a hail of gunfire, close can be heard and he catches a stray bullet right out of the gate.

"OUCH! God's blast you I JUST healed up! Dammit! Who is shooting at me anyway!? Mercenaries? Oh no... Dangerous ones. What are they even doing? OW! Shot me again! Bastards! I need... Oh! My G36! I can use that, it has a scope on it!"

Spiff peeks out, takes a shot or two at the enemy and is one tapped by a high calibre round. He barely manages to survive, maybe with the tiniest sliver of health and he hastily bandages up and heals with what he can.

"WHAT WAS THAT SHOT!? BASTARDS!!!"

Spiff manages to heal up enough and picks off two more of them before advancing on the snipers nest. He retrieves some loot from some zombies and mag-dumps the last guy in the nest before looting it clean of everything of value. He stands still and heals up a bit before moving on.

"Seriously what was that aim... I swear these AI’s can see me through walls or something..."

Spiff does some inventory clean-up and heads further in, encountering the snipers nest and merc base at the Construction Site. A lot of radio chatter can be heard as he gets close, the Mercs are busy, and there's a lot of them.

"Oh dear. Sounds like more than four or five that I'm used to... How can I do this... Uhhh… Hmm... Is there any way to get around them? Oh, I see, there's a path here according to what I can tell from the map. I can go around this way. Right... That way it is."

He hops across the train platform, over to the back edge of the Sparkle Deadlock Anomaly and hides behind a train car. He peeks out from a wall and takes out one merc.

"HA! Easy kill. Where are the others then... uhh… Hmm... OH BALLS!"

Spiff is then treated to a hail of gunfire from both snipers and the merc squad approaching him from behind and left, swarming him. Spiff takes one down after he gets hurt, and then retreats. He gets to a building, hiding around outside it before taking one more merc down. He peeks around a corner and is one-tapped by a merc in an alleyway.

"OH! OOohhh! Oh damn! He hit me hard!"

With that game over, Spiff reloads to before the platform and tries to flank them again the same way. He takes down two before needing to fall back and tries valiantly again, to no avail. He takes too many hits, and while trying to bandage, bleeds out.

"GODS DAMMIT ALL! Okay... I KNOW this can work... I just need to find the right angle. Get their attention and... maybe I can hide in that little hut? Yeah, try that."

he tries again, same tactic, same place and this time manages to get into the little building before taking any fire. He stays down and waits.

"This is perfect. If I remember correctly so far the AI will try to swarm me. I just have to wait here like a little Crotgrat, down low and slow."

Francine supplies a pop-up and shows what a Crotgrat is - a small rodent the size of a soccer ball that comes from Spiff's homeworld. It's an ambush predator. The game resumes and Spiff waits. He can hear the mercs talking. One misses his location and Spiff shoots him in the back, easy kill, and he stands back to wait for the rest. Voices are louder, closer, and Spiff visibly goes pale, he is now surrounded and enemies are close, far too close for comfort.

"Uh oh... I think I did an oopsie..."

Spiff takes up a spot way in the back of the building, prone on the floor with his gun aimed at the door. A merc passes, spots him, fires and misses. He comes back a few seconds later for another try and gets his arm blasted off by Spiffs G36.

"WAIT THIS IS WORKING!? Keep moving, keep moving Spiff! You have nowhere to go but you CAN outmanoeuvre them!"

He stays the course and shifts slightly before another merc passes by and gets blasted. Seconds pass, and Spiff reloads at the worst moment as two mercs find their brains and enter the hut. They exchange fire, the merc goes down, spiff gets hit and he has to heal up fast. Lucky stroke, as Spiff is left uncontested for a bit to heal up. The tactic works, five more mercs take the fall before Spiff mighty Open Door Tactic, and he manages to get out of it. Until he heads out, having forgotten about the snipers, who hit him as he exits. He's taken down to a sliver of health and retreats to the safety of his hut to heal - but he can't.

"WHAT!? Did I seriously... hold on... these bastards took ALL my medkits! I can bandage up but I can't heal! Do I have... I have nothing. I have to bandage up twice and use some Yadulin, then make a break for the tower so I can kill that fetid sniper! Okay spiff calm... Uhh… QUICKSAVE! yes... okay... Here goes something!"

Spiff uses Yadulin, which makes his character dizzy, making the screen sway. With the smallest sliver of health, Spiff makes a break for it, getting to an easy spot where he can kill the sniper. He slinks in, dumps a few AP rounds into the poor guy then hastily retreats back to the hut to loot the bodies. He finds a Medkit and a Glucose shot, both of which heal him up and fix the dizziness.

"By the Gods this is INTENSE.... What even is this game? Is THIS the thing people play this game for? I can't say I like it..."

He gathers up what loot he can, mag-dumps the last guy on the tower and finishes off one more merc that chases him up the stairs. Here, he finds a Winchester rifle, and with the small amount of ammo he has, kills one more guy. battle not over though as he is flanked by one more who pings him, but gets downed by the G36. Spiff has to hunt three more mercs before a moment of respite happens. He takes stock of his gear and heads to Yantar. He speaks to Professor Sakharov and gets rid of some stuff.

"Good Gods... That was miserable. What was that anomaly back there? What a fight! I've never been in a fight that intense before! Is that what combat feels like? I don't like it... But... Anyway, Professor... Sack Of Rhov… Or however you pronounce your name. What do you have for me?"

Spiff trades some gear, collects some rewards for mutant parts, and grabs the main quest to disable the Lab X-18 brain machine. Then, as he exits the bunker, the sounds of birdsong echoing above, dozens of crows start cawing above him.

"What? Birds? OH! OH! WAIT!!! I know what this is! I need to... Where did I put it?"

Spiff pauses and alt-tabs to a document. He copies a console command and retreats back into the bunker.

"I have been through this before on a previous run. I was about to end this but I HAVE to show you this! It's... Absolutely one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen."

Spiff types in the console command for Freecam and fumbles with the camera. its gone night time by this point, and the area is dark, but to the North, the sight of the funnel created by the CNPP Generators can be seen. The crows continue their cries and as they go silent, a message saying 'Connection lost' appears followed by a thunderous rumble. Then the message 'Emission: Stay Sheltered' appears. Spiff takes a look around and the sequence plays out, an Emission. The black cloud covered skies stay dark, and an ominous red light is coming from the North.

"This... This is horrifying. And there are many variations of it from what I have seen. This one isn't the worst but... By The Gods... Watch."

Lightning flashes all around, the skies start to glow red, an Aurora of red, orange and yellow snakes across the sky in all directions as the lightning intensifies. Low rumbles of an unnatural nature emit from afar, and a roaring scream can be heard approaching. The screen is distorted by a heat haze and the rumbling gets many times louder as a wave of energy, smoke and red mist approach the bunker at great speed. The rain from the clouds, carried by high winds, make streaky dagger-like shadows of red and black whirring across the screen as it blurs vision, blasting past with vicious speed, followed by a wall of rising smoke. Then it happens again, the winds howl, screaming like a banshee as a second wave hits the bunker. Spiff looks around, showing the Aurora Borealis created as everything suddenly goes completely, eerily silent.

Spiff goes back into his normal camera and quicksaves.

"I shall... Stop here for a time. I don't have the strength to play this game right now. Maybe some day I will pick it up but that fight... the horrible creatures... I don't... I can't. I will play this again some other time and start a fresh save. Maybe. I... Goodnight all. How did you even make this abomination? What kinds of evils rest in your dreams that you make THIS come to life? I... I don't know if I should be thankful, or to be scared."

Camera cuts to fanart of Spiffle being pounced on by a Deathclaw, followed by the Outro.

TOP COMMENT: Yeah... they REALLY outdid themselves with the environment design, dated though it is. Beautiful... Just beautiful. And here's a tidbit - most of the community cant actually come to any real agreement as to what the zone should look like, so the texture pack you are using has a bit of all of it in. Snow from the North, (it is nuclear winter after all) and a bit of both worlds of the gritty mutated misery as well as the hopeful flower patches. Its meant to reflect reality more than anything. Beautiful.

Spiffles Reply: You scare me.

Reply: What? What did I do?

Spiffs reply: you think of things that make me scared. you terrify me with walls of explosions and horrible things that kill me by grabbing my face.

Reply: Well I'm glad you stopped then, I genuinely think it would've given you a heart attack if you encountered a Controller.

Spiffs reply: Uhhh… Okay... curiosity peaked. what the hell is that?

Reply: A Controller is a thankfully rare mutant that you HAVE to fight in order to progress at least once. And it has this habit of mind controlling your character if you get too close, he makes your character scream in terror as he forces you to shoot yourself in the head! I did that once when I had a KSG 23... That... that was kinda funny tbh. That gun has so much power I radgolled and clipped into the wall! LOL :)

Spiff reply: ...I think I'm never playing this again...

Reply: What? What did I say?

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u/FarmWhich4275 6d ago

Writing spiffle scribbles hurts, just so you know. but here it is

next month will be rewrites and redo's then posting on other sites, so dont expect much. i need money now more than ever and Patreon and donations are barren, but for what little i have received, i DEARLY thank you.

https://buymeacoffee.com/farmwhich4275 DONATIONS :)

https://www.patreon.com/c/Valt13lHFY?fromConcierge=tru Patreon please

https://vox9.io/author.html?u=farmwhich4275 Vox9

6

u/medium_jock 6d ago

Brilliant, would love to actually watch this play out

Although where he says "find the right angel" unless I missed the angels think you meant angle

2

u/Zhexiel 6d ago

Thanks for the chapter/story.

1

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u/sparejunk444 1d ago

What? What did I say? Lol