Night creeped over Pripyat Outskirts, and with it, the mutants stirred from their day-time lethargy. The action of the day halted, the various sides of the on-going campaign hid from these monsters. The warriors of Redemption and their allies chose to rest for a few more hours before continuing towards the laundromat once Strelok had been informed of the possible UNISG squad on way to get him. Strelok had informed them that he would move his men out of the place into a new safe location by the apartment blocks west of the laundromat. The squad was getting tired, and they still waited for Dimuha's group to join them. Huddled around a small oven inside one of the many apartment blocks, Boris was deep in thought.

He looked at the message on his PDA. It read:

"Boris. We know you're in the city, and we know you're hunting UNISG. Stand down now, and report to us at the book store. I don't know why you still hunt them, but this is a state matter now, and if you continue disobeying explicit orders, I will have to liquidate you as well. This is my final warning, you have time until noon tomorrow to leave."

The sender was Colonel Degtyarev. He had finally arrived to deal with UNISG here. However, Boris had no intention to leave. This was merely a time limit, one he knew Redemption could achieve. Boris was not sure why he was still so stubborn to stop UNISG, but something told him, a part of him perhaps honed during the long years in the Zone, that leaving now would be catastrophic. He also, for some reason, felt like the quest for vengeance that Dimka and Sevka pursued was also his own. Perhaps it was related to his own plan for revenge, but that would have to wait now. This fight was far from the simplistic clash of good, by Zone standards at least, and evil that the war against Sin had been. Too many variables, too many ticking time bombs.

He sighed and took a look around him. Others were fast asleep, bar for Dima, who was keeping watch in the corridor just outside the room. Dimka was drowzing, Sevka was dreaming as evident by the rapid movement behind his eyelids. Rogue had taken the corner spot furthest from the oven, and a poncho-like cloth thrown over his Sunrise suit made it impossible to figure out if he was actually sleeping or not. Boris took out his water canteen and drank, feeling the thirst from sitting so close to the fire. The sound of footsteps alerted him, making him pull his Automag towards the door. Dima entered the room, kicked Sevka in the shoulder and ordered him to go patrol instead.

"Five more minutes, man.", Sevka groaned.

"You had five more minutes twenty minutes ago, urod. Your time to go freeze your ass in the dark.", Dima pressed on, and muttering something inaudible in both Spanish and Russian, Sevka disappeared into the darkness.

Dima chuckled at the response and looked around the room, noticing Boris still wide awake. He strolled over to his friend and sat down, crossing his legs.

"What's keeping you awake? Shouldn't you be resting, tomorrow will most likely be nasty.", Dima said quietly.

"Can't sleep. I'm not sure why, it's just thoughts chasing each other. Listen, Dima, are we in all over our heads here? What the fuck are we even doing, chasing international spies in the Zone? And now, Degtyarev is coming after our asses.", Boris sighed.

"We are doing this because it's the right thing to do. We are giving two of our members a chance at Redemption and avenging those comrades lost at Jupiter checkpoint. Simultaneously, we are keeping yet another government out of the Zone. I don't like the jarheads from Agroprom, but at least they're the devil I know. The Chinese and their cronies? No telling what they would do with things gathered from the Zone. I do not wish to open that Pandora's box, and if I can, I will stop it from happening, SSU helping us or not.", Dima said in an angry tone.

"Eh, good thing I've got you as a voice of reason. Very uncharacteristic of you too, not a single pun during all that? Impressive restraint.", Boris said with a grin.

"I'm too tired for those. Besides, you're just a human and need reassurance at times too.", Dima replied, taking out a bottle of Nemiroff vodka and pouring himself some of it into a metal mug before pointing with it towards Boris in a questioning gesture.

"No thanks, I'm not in the mood to have my taste buds savaged.", Boris scoffed.

"I need some for the nerves. Watching Pripyat in the dark, with all the sounds of mutants travelling, lurking in the dark... It's hard already. But after those Nightshades... I've started to think that there is something utterly wrong with this place. Like some sort of horror laying dormant nearby, just out of reach. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe I'm right, who knows. But eh, with some liquid courage, I can brave the sleep now.", Dima replied to Boris' mocking and downed the mug's contents.

"You may be right, indeed. But there's time to explore that aspect of this place later, now we're on a mission. Albeit... There is something I want to ask of you. Something I've been planning. Something big.", Boris said hesitantly, seeing Dima raise his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

Boris explained his plan, recounting what pushed him to form it, how he would execute it and how Felka had given him enough confidence and information to pull it off. To demonstrate this, Boris showed a weathered map with markings on it. Dima listened, nodding from time to time, knowing not to interrupt his friend at such a crucial moment. When Boris finally stopped talking, Dima was silent. He screwed the bottlecap off once more, and poured most of the bottle into the mug. Downing it in one go, he gasped, sighed and turned to Boris.

"This is insanity, Boris. Even more so than anything we have done so far. I understand your reasoning, I really do, but to do all this because of a vague threat from some unknown guy? How will you even get there?", Dima asked in a voice that sounded like he had found Boris' plans outrageous.

"I'm not doing it simply because of the threat, you know.", Boris said quietly.

"For revenge? Boris, you saw what happened to Veles when he pursued revenge over anything else. You've already changed these last few days... You're more impulsive, more brutal, less decisive. Boris, for God's sake, forget about this. Don't throw all you have achieved away because of it.", Dima pleaded, but Boris simply shook his head.

"I am not throwing it all away. If I die due to this, I die knowing that I had done enough. Redemption no longer needs me for guidance, the faction already has men of great devotion like Dimuha, Psoglav, you and Sanyok. Men who will keep it alive without me. If I don't die, I will return knowing that one part of my past is finally behind me.", Boris explained in a voice that conveyed this to be his final decision.

"I see you've already made up your mind. I don't like it, in fact, I detest it, but... You're my best friend Boris. A brother to me, quite frankly. I respect your opinion on this, and lead Redemption until you return. But if you go there and die, I will find your ghost or whatever fucking non-mortal form you take and make that Current artifact torture you had look like child's tickling.", Dima said solemnly.

"I would expect nothing less. Thank you, Dima. And you're like a brother to me, as well. Without you none of this would have happened, I'd probably be a rotting corpse in Jupiter underground.", Boris pondered out loud, glancing outside where first rays of sun appeared in the clouds hanging near the horizon.

"You'd probably smell better then. Alright, now that we got the insanity of your future and the soft feelings shit out of the way, I'm off to bed.", Dima said, emptied what little remained of the Nemiroff into his mouth and slithered into his sleeping bag.

"Good night, bratan.", Boris replied and looked at the map in front of him once more.

The conversation had made him even more sure of it. It was time to settle scores once and for all. From the hushed chatter echoing in from the outside, Boris figured that Dimuha's squad had most likely made it here too. These suspicions were confirmed when three stalkers entered the room, Dimuha in his rust-covered Skat, Sanyok in his Hybrid Alpha suit and another man in Sunrise suit. Behind them, far more hesitantly, a man in mercenary LC-suit entered in tow.

"Morning, Boris. You look refre-... Actually, you look like shit. Are you getting enough sleep? Eat your vitamins? Make sure to get balanced amounts of everything on your plate?", a familiar voice started in a humorous tone.

"Can we shoot him now?", Dimuha asked, irritated.

"That's against the Geneva convention to shoot a medic.", Sanyok replied.

"You guys follow those? Dushman always calls them "Geneva Suggestions".", Meeker, who Boris now recognized as the man in the LC-suit, chuckled.

"Morning, Stitch. Long time no see. And no, haven't been able to sleep well lately, you have any pills for that?", Boris asked in similar tone to the medic's.

"Sleeping pills are harder to come by these days, after the big emission. More nightmares, more cases of insomnia and even sleep paralysis, to a worrying extent. I don't have anything on me right now since many guys want them, perhaps I have some at the laundromat.", Stitch replied, now getting serious.

"We'll see. But before that, we have a battle on our hands. Wake up the others, it's time to prepare.", Boris ordered.

"I brought some goodies from my stock too, to help with that. Griffin's boys have no use to them now.", Meeker offered, and Boris nodded to him.

"And most importantly, he had this.", Dimuha said, taking out Boris' lost RPD, making Boris' eyes brighten up despite the lost sleep.

"You found it? Where?", Boris asked, flabbergasted.

"One of the UNISG lads had it, apparently kept it as a trophy. Another had your Korth and Tokarev too. Not sure if I'll keep them though.", Dimuha teased, making Boris slowly draw out his kukri before Dimuha tossed the guns to him.

Boris looked his weapons over once more. While they were tools of war and destruction, to him they were trusty companions too. Nowhere near the level of his exoskeleton, but trusty nonetheless. And now, they would reap revenge on the ones who had separated them from their master. Boris looked at the sunrise and grinned. It was time to put an end to this.