Just to get this out of the way, thanks to @Hitchenson for the great mod suggestions. In the interest of time, I didn't manage to install all the mods for the game.

Here's a list of Mods I'm using for Shadow of Chernobyl:AMK Mod,Absolute Textures/Structures,LURK Animations for AMK

Difficulty: Veteren

And so our journey begins...

My journey began in a shipping truck on a dark and stormy night, the cliche air gave the weather itself a furious rage. It seems the weather noticed my amusement and chose that moment to strike my truck down. The truck violently explodes and flies carelessly off the road into a ditch. The world darkens for me.

A dull light begins to penetrate my consciousness as a man stands over me, checking to make sure I'm alive? Or, is he just checking to see if I had any good loot? It's always that way with folks in the zone. I notice through hazy eyes a look of significant interest as he notes my tattoo, must be impressed with it. As he hurriedly lifts me onto his back a throbbing pain strikes throughout my head and I slowly drift back into nothingness.

When I come to, I'm in some little shithole of a hovel, on someone's desk as they're poking at me trying to take my PDA. The rush of adrenaline as my PDA, the one object tied to my existence, is taken from me allows me to snap at the man looking it over. The Excitement became too much, my body needed to recuperate; rest would be good now. It's all I can do. The last thing I think is, "I hope this jerk doesn't mind I'm using his desk for a bed."

When I awake again my PDA is beeping at me, low battery? What the hell is going on, I thought I charged this thing already? How long have I been out?! I glance down at it and notice there's a message alert. It says simply: Kill Strelok. When I look up a man, a portly ugly man, stares me in the face and bombards me with the fact that since his guys took such trouble to get me back to him, I somehow how owe him for my life. He finally says his name's Sidrovich and tells me that I can begin paying him back for what he thinks is such a gracious extension of his kindness by getting him some information. He says he needs a flash drive from this Stalker named Nimble, only problem is he's not around. Once he's done blathering I simply sit and consider his request. I mean, it sounds easy enough... He even says he could help me find this Strelok guy for me, so I guess I may as well help him; my needs just overlap on his. I choose to accept the job and he tells me to head over to a nearby camp and talk to a guy named Wolf. He'd fill me in on the details of Nimble's whereabouts. Well, that guy seems like the right place to start. Just before I leave, he shouts "hold on a second! How would you like to make some extra cash?" Well, I could never turn down cash, and I could use it since I seem a little low after my events. I stop and look at Sidrovich. He tells me that he has an order for a particular artifact in the Zone and he would pay me a cut if I could bring it to him; he says he needs a Night Star. I nod acceptance and without a word, I turn around and walk away from my "savior" to have a chat with Wolf.

Once I'm outside just ahead of me I see a small collection of dilapidated houses with a small collection of Stalkers strewn throughout. I enter the camp and see a few guys grouped around a campfire, and I mumble to no one in particular, "where's this fuckin' Wolf character anyway?" I suppose one of the bonfire fellows overheard me, as he sarcastically remarks, "he's the tough guy standing behind us." So far, so good. I've found Wolf, bringing me one step closer to Nimble and that flash drive. I walk up to Wolf. He greets me and I return it. I tell him Sidrovich needs me to find one of his crew, Nimble, and get the flash drive he has stashed. Wolf chuckles, he states that Nimble was recently captured by a group of bandits. He sent a crew out to find him and they've located the camp where he's being held. He leans against the wall and says with a sideways glance, "If you're looking for that data, you'd best head over to that crew and help them out." Well, it's an offer I can't refuse. He smiles, takes my PDA, marks the location of his crew on it, and hands it back to me. I decide not to waste any time and head straight for these guys. I'll keep my eyes peeled for that Night Star along the way.

After a short run along the road, I see the guys stationed on a hill overlooking a small encampment. I speak to Petruha, the leader of the group, and he tells me that Nimble is being held at the ahead encampment; there are about seven or eight bandits to deal with. He offers to have us move as a group and I graciously accept. Normally I think I could fight off a group of bandits, but I seem to have lost all my weapons, except for a crappy little service pistol that somehow replaced my high powered .45 cal deal. Fuckin' scavengers. I move ahead of the group opting for a side assault. I crawl through some bushes and encounter little resistance. Once I head into the building where Nimble is being held, all hell breaks loose. I hear from just outside the thunderous sounds of sawed off shotguns peppering the air with their shot, and the return volley of pistol fire from the bandits. A bandit, looking towards the sound in the confusion, take one of my bullets to the back of his head and slumps down to the ground. One down. I turn the corner and see nimble bound in a corner next to a fire, and decide to eliminate the rest of the threats before helping him out. I head up the stairs and see another barrel campfire. I move cautiously towards the room, and with good reason. Another bandit awaited me on the inside. Before he can pull out his weapon, I leaned the corner of the doorway and plugged him. Two down.

The hail of bullets outside has grown even fiercer, decide to move for the high ground. I head up the ladder into an attic and notice that some of the panels are missing. Thinking quickly, I hop up onto the roof itself and glance downwards. It seems my new-found friends have taken down a couple of bandits themselves, dead bodies are strewn around the camp. There are still a few enemies left, and I use my rooftop advantage to lay down a little justice. With just one bandit left I creep to the edge of the roof, using the chimney as cover and spot a bandit peeking out of a guardhouse on the ground. He fires a shot that wings me and a dizzying feeling comes over me as the pain of the bullet sears through my brain. I back up further on to the roof where his bullets can't reach and wait until I regain my senses. I then adhere a bandage quickly to my wound and sneak back to the corner of the roof. I spot him again, this time I put a few bullets into him before he can fire and he goes down. The camp is bandit free now. I guess I should check in with Nimble.

I head back down to the corner where Nimble was being held, free him, and he thanks me for my efforts. I tell him Sidrovich is looking for that flash drive he has, and he gladly hands it over to me. Fewf, mission accomplished. That wasn't as easy at it should have been. Before I leave, I chat with Nimble for a bit about the Zone, and he regales me with what sounds to me like a folk story. He talks about a Controller who lived in the forest here. He never killed or harmed unless in self preservation, and he would roam the forest aiding the creatures therein. The military, however, grew increasingly annoyed with the Controller's altruistic intentions, as they sought to exterminate the dogs. One day, a maimed, blinded puppy comes across the Controller, and they become close companions. However, the military finally comes upon the Controller and strike him down with horrific precision. The dog, given enough time to escape, returns to the Controller, and it settles in the now blood-soaked earth next to his companion and howls, without end for weeks. Eventually hunger and thirst consume the dog and he passes on, laid down next to his companion. I think this story is a heartwarming pile of horse-shit, but Nimble snaps, "It's true! They've found the bones of the Controller and the Dog!" I guess it's my preconceptions of the Zone, but I don't sincerely believe a Controller can be that nice. The last thing Nimble tells me: just before we arrived he told the bandits about a stash of artifacts and they sent a man out there. He did not tell them that this stash was guarded by fierce boars, but he happily gives me this information, as well as the coordinates. He bids me farewell and to take care on my journey.

I loot the corpses around the camp and find a few medkits, bandages, bottles of vodka, and a big surprise a sawed-off shotgun. At least this will have some close range power to dish out. Anything is an improvement over this pea-shooter I'm stuck with. I decide it's best to head straight back to Sidrovich while dodging a few Anomalies that I happen upon. To the unwary traveler, these anomalies can be deadly, as a few Stalkers I loot learned the hard way. When I return to Wolf, I notice it's getting late. I decide that it would be better to sleep and take care of the rest of the details in the morning; get a fresh start on the day. I unroll my sleeping bag inside one of the houses, crawl in and in the same action fall soundly asleep.

So that's it for my first entry, Let me know what you think, comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated and I'll get to working on the next one. I'm hoping to have these done in roughly a weekly manner, but that may or may not be possible.

Nice job with the first part. Good work on using the high ground to your advantage. It proved to be a good way to survive the hectic shootout. I also like the style of your writing. It makes it sound like the personal diary of your character.

I'll look forward to the next part. :D