Audio; Transmission from: Nexian Quadrant

[gtfostalker]

[If anyone has been wondering where Strelok has been, they will be getting the answer to that question presently. Strelok is on top of a ladder, tying together what looks to be a couple pieces of corrugated steel with some kind of flexible metal.

That finished, Strelok slides down the ladder, adjusting the camera back, to show the World's Lamest Shack. The walls and roof are all the corrugated steel, tied with the same wire. Sitting outside is that freakish energon-eating plant he picked up ages ago... which has a bunch of Christmas lights on it and doesn't seem too happy about. His pseudodog Fang is in a much better mood, though, tail thumping on the ground as it wags.

Strelok grins a little. Proud of yourself much, dude?]

Not too bad, for a hand-made home, yes? Nexus Prime, you know I like you, but I cannot loiter in your temple anymore.

And I have heard it is also near Christmas? Well, then we celebrate like stalkers! Isaac, I will find beer; we will have a party in the medbay. Who knows, maybe I will even be able to find some food that is better than normal. If anyone else wants to come, you are welcome. Though you Cybertronians will have to bring your own... energon, is it?

Comments

[deadlydoctor]

It's a start. That's a really odd looking plant. What is it?

Are you claustrophobic?

[gtfostalker]

Beats me. I found it one time by following some little bugs. It eats energon.

Not really. But where I come from, everything is run down. Most buildings have a few holes in the roof at least, and no doors.

[deadlydoctor]

Only energon or it also eats anything and anybody with energon in them?

Sounds like the Cybertron in my world. Before we revived it but it's still pretty destroyed. Wouldn't that make you wish to stay inside a proper building, though?

[gtfostalker]

Beats me. No Cybertronian has gotten near it yet.

Why should it? I have slept outside or in shacks for six years. It is... normal for me. Four walls and a bed is just not the same as a half-rotted train car and a sleeping bag.

[deadlydoctor]

Bring it to the Police headquarters the next time they arrest some crazy mech and we will know for sure.

Of course not. [He says that very slowly.] Who doesn't love half-rotted train car? For the record you might be living inside someone's corpse, be careful. Some mechs here get offended easily.

I'm Knock Out.

[gtfostalker]

If I can still carry the pot, sure. Though feeding someone to it might be bad, yes?

Bah, they were never the corpse of a robot back home, and there are none here. None good enough to drag out of the Junk Pile, anyway. But I can tell, you are not the stalker type.

I am called Strelok. It is nice to meet you, Knock Out.

[deadlydoctor]

Depends on that someone. It could be for the greater good.

As long as you are comfy....No, that was Soundwave. I'm the medic type.

Likewise. Have you been here for long, Strelok? I think I missed your arrival.

[gtfostalker]

Would you want an energon-eating plant getting a taste for your kind, though?

I am not familiar with Soundwave. He made excursions into the Zone often?

I returned several months ago, though I have been here for some time. Everything changed while I was gone. It has been interesting to see.

[deadlydoctor]

Now that you put it that way...no, really, no.

Consider yourself lucky then, he's not know for being friendly. No that I'm aware. [The Shadow zone, though...] What is the Zone?

I know how that is. interesting and confusing.

[gtfostalker]

That is what I thought. I will just keep it outside my house, then.

Ahh, then you mean the other meaning of stalker. You do not know of the Zone of Exclusion around Pripyat and Chernobyl in Ukraine, then?

But that is part of the fun too, yes? Figuring out what is different.

[deadlydoctor]

Like a really decorative and maybe dangerous guard plant?

No, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that. Pripyat is a real name?

I'm not sure if fun is the words I would use but that's a good way to see it.

[gtfostalker]

Pretty much. And kind of a, ah... porch light? It glows when it is fed.

It is! Chernobyl was a nuclear reactor station in Ukraine, and Pripyat was the town where the workers and their families lived. At least, until there was an accident with one of the reactors. Radiation everywhere. They had to evacuate and they set up the Zone of Exclusion to keep people from getting too close and getting radiation poisoning.

The radiation, it is not so bad now, but some other weird things happened there and now physics is crazy and the whole place is full of mutant creatures.

[deadlydoctor]

That's a new level of 'special', I hope you know it.

It's a funny name. Mutant creatures of what sort? Zombies?

[gtfostalker]

That is why we call it the Zone. The rest is too much of a mouthful.

And some zombies, yes - they are terrible. Bloodsuckers too, they are... like vampires, yes? With face tentacles and invisibility. That is not even bringing up the Controllers, the Snorks, the Pseudogiants - never fight a full-grown Psuedogiant, it is terrible. Feral monsters and psychic creatures.

Hell, my dog Fang is a mutant from the Zone. They are called Pseudodogs.

[deadlydoctor]

Vampires zombies again...[He makes a face. Still too recent for him.] The inbisibility part is new, though, that must be really prolematic. How does a Psuedogiant looks like? Just so I knows how to avoid those.

It's a zombie dog too?

[gtfostalker]

Zombies are different from the other mutants. None of the other mutants have ever become zombies. They would not be very effective predators if the Brain Scorcher got them. [Also the weather today is really nice, isn't it? How about those football scores.]

Ah, it is a problem. If you do not see their two glowing eyes in the dark, you are dead. The pseudogiant... it is a big meaty thing with a face like a human and huge legs. The adults can weigh up to two tons and stand two meters tall.

A zombie...? No, no. There are no zombie dogs. Just zombie humans. Pseudodogs used to be wolves, before the Zone irradiated them.

[deadlydoctor]

Your world is really filled with interesting things. Who's the Brain Scorcher? [ohm yes lovely.]

Really disgusting. [Thanks for telling him, though, he would kill that on sight if it ever appears here.]

It's he here too? The Pseudodog arrived with you?

[gtfostalker]

Not who. What. It was this machine that was made to keep stalkers out of Pripyat and Chernobyl. If you got to close... [He claps his hands together suddenly.] -Bam! You are a zombie with a scrambled brain.

Disgusting and dangerous; many stalkers have died to those creatures. They hit like a train and cause Shockwave's with their feet.

I found Fang later. The poor little pup was wandering the Junkyard about six months ago. I think I have been here too long for him to have come with me, anyway.

[deadlydoctor]

That's some twisted security system. [One that he hopes never gets to this universe.]

Are they as big as us? My kind, I mean.

And eh eats normal food like you do or he has some extra needs?

[gtfostalker]

It is smart. You have guards and if someone gets past those... they become one of them. [If the stalker getting past isn't clever enough, anyway.]

About half your size or so, but do not underestimate them. Even small mutants can be formidable, and the pseudogiants are much worse than many others.

Normal food. I take him hunting in the Junk sometimes for animals that survive the fall from the Lambda. [Unfortunately Fang heard that F-word and his tail starts thumping on the ground. FOOD YOU SAY]

[deadlydoctor]

How come the government in your world hasn't bombed the whole place already? That's the usual way of dealing with things they can't control. "If it's not doing what you want, kill it." [This is how things were in Knock Out's universe, when he was with the Decepticons at least.]

I know very well that mutants and zombies are not something you should underestimate.

they don't survive for long, poor bastards. Eh..he's hungry now, I take it? I'll leave you alone then.

[gtfostalker]

Because not everything that comes out of the Zone is terrible. There are amazing Artifacts there for anyone that has the skill to find them, things that are like nothing else on all the Earth. [Things that scientists pay a ton for.]

Good. You should be okay then. If you are careful and cautious.

Nah, he is always like that when he hears the word 'food'. [Strelok laughs.] He is a bottomless pit, this pup.

[deadlydoctor]

[Knock Out makes a 'hmmm' sounds.] All makes much more sense now. No matter the society, it's always the same old tale.

I will call you for back up if I need it.

Sounds like someone I know. [There's a small robot lizard peeking out from Knock Out's behind. It moves around the back of his neck and sits on his shoulder. Breakylizard heard the word food too and he's interested.]