Part 9: I fought the law

Thanks for your input! I'm really glad that we have a lot of peeps in here that can drop knowledge.

Oh yeah, I also have a big ass update before the first weekend of Jesus month. It has action, some story and ghosts. Yeah right, ghosts. In the shell of my computer..


I fought the law



So at least another six months have passed and it seems like Akhmet's predictions have come true. Things are getting worse as the Administration starts to rot and turns into the criminals it was supposed to fight. Good thing that he didn't get mixed up with them, eh?







It was just a matter of time till they came for him. Akhmet is known in the city and I guess they just relied on their status, and didn't expect him to make trouble. But he will, oh believe me.

Let's see what the family has to say..

:"You must be crazy! You want to shoot the Administration people! They will execute you and us conjointly!"

:"I've not been asking for you advice. Relax, why are you so nervous? I'll take care. Nobody will be executed."

:"What? You think Konev sends you his thanks? You're going to shoot at his patrol!"

:"This isn't a patrol. It's a group of robbers and murderers. Administration is no more, you see? No more patrols, just killers, bastards and robbers! And they don't pay attention to Konev's ideals. The more of them I kill, the more Konev will owe to me. If he is still alive, that is."


:"Yes, Akhmet?"

:"You see, Vitek. Our state doesn't exist anymore, and racket is still there."

:"Yeah. We have some answers, if they attack."

:"Yes, we'll answer. We don't have other options anyway."

And once again, Akhmet finds himself in a situation without a choice. I mean come on, giving the mooks that much stuff would only lead to his ruin and eventual death. It would be a stretch to say that he prepared his house for this exact thing, but he sensed trouble coming his way at least.

Oh right, his house..

You already had a short glimpse in the cutscene, so it shouldn't surprise you that we don't start this chapter in Akhmet's old flat.

The trapdoor behind him is actually the new stash. The old items are still in the locker though, so I was smart enough to put some things into his pockets before finishing the last chapter.

Now it's time to check out his work. You ready?

1..

2..

3..




He actually turned the whole block into a single fortress.

Let's take a closer look.

You can move about the place freely, as he broke walls and made ladders to the upper floors. All the ground floor windows are bricked and on the second floor the windows mostly have boards on them. It's worth pointing out that the ring of debris and dirt goes around the whole house and makes getting to the wall a bit more tricky for attackers. And he blocked the second staircase so that there's only one way into the house. He also removed the door, which I don't quite understand.



In theory, you could shoot through those little holes. But it's virtually impossible to place your guys in such a way that the barrel will not point against the wall.

And now for the main attraction..


It's as awesome as it looks, mostly. Some sandbags would have been a nice touch though. I mean there were some in the intro, so I guess they either encountered a limit of the engine or couldn't get them to look pretty on the walls.

Let me explain the MG real quick. First off, you can't directly aim at people and have to aim at the ground or designate an area to spread fire. This makes sense as large Mg's aren't meant to fire accurately at single targets. A sneaky and easily overlooked feature is that you can change the angle of your shots. It's important when enemies go prone or when something is in your way. A hit on an unarmored enemy is a kill, and even armored ones won't have a huge chance to survive. This thing is fucking deadly. But as you have to spread fire, you also have to anticipate the moves of your targets to have any chance of hitting. A good heavy skill or the MG perks will make it much more reliable, but it's not that necessary. Aside from the belt in the gun, you also get two spare ones in a chest beside it. There is a mysterious respawn mechanic between chapters, but I always bought some ammo at the Bazaar as money stops being an issue after the next chapters.

Speaking of ammo..

While enemies won't catch on fire, they sure die!

But the MG also has some downsides. First off, you're a sitting duck and will get shot in the head if you just stay on it. I learned to fire a burst and then get into cover for a moment before going for the next burst. Also you can't turn the MG without shooting. That makes spotting guys a real pain! Quite the oversight, if you ask me.

Akhmet's house isn't the only thing that changed..

As several months have passed, the whole area became unkempt and dilapidated. Especially all the trees have died and everything has become grey and lifeless. A neat detail, I think.

I'm sure that your keen eyes already spotted the timer on the screen. We have three and a half minutes before the robbers will show up. Akhmet will use this time to plant some mines before manning the MG. Also this marks the point where I can't really show of sweet kills anymore. As the battles get bigger now, I have to jump around between my guys often and things will happen while I can't look at them, JFYI.


Vitek covers the other half of the building. He can move freely between the windows, which gives him a good FOV on the whole area. He better show that it was a good idea to take him in!




I tried placing the mines without exploiting my knowledge of the battle. A nice line with some sneaky mines in the garage area. In hindsight I should have pulled the ring closer, or stayed hidden for a while. You'll understand in a moment.


Of course I also mined the entrance. But a few more wouldn't have hurt...


Bring it on!

:"Aha, you don't want to negotiate, do you? Akhmetzyanov, you're so stubborn and stupid!"
Fuck you too!


Enemies will always spawn at the same points but it's random how many will spawn there. This time the majority spawned on Vitek's side. Also they directly went to shooting instead of advancing on the house. This makes my mines mostly useless. I really should have kept my guys hidden for a moment so that they would have walked forward.

On the other side..

..only two guys spawned.

Akhmet will still dump ammo on them, but it's much easier to get hits on a bigger crowd.


There is a third spawn close to the house, but I'm confident that my mines can handle that. _{no way that this could backfire}

Vitek has a lot on his plate.

That sniper needs to die ASAP. Also see the guy with the Balaclava on the ground? That's the leader, and he has an LMG and the next tier of armor. Dangerous fellow, but for now the sniper is more important.

BRAT-BRAT-BRAT

Akhmet fires the first burst, but misses completely. Literally by pixels. At least the two guys get so scared that they drop to the ground and stay down for the moment.


Vitek gets the sniper to bleed out! Two shots, one hit. Good enough for the beginning. But hey, there are a lot of fellas near the house..

:"Fuck! Now they're inside!"
Whaa?



Mines: 1 - Mooks: 0

Akhmet keeps the guys on his end pinned.

It's neat that you can also the the links of the expended rounds.

But it's time for him to get into cover as some fire is pouring in on his position..


Saved by his shitty helmet.

Now recover and get down!


LIKE RIGHT NOW

Vitek bags the next mook.

Three shots and two hits. Getting slightly worse, buddy. Also, clipping.

Okay, time for a gamble.

The boss is blamming his LMG at Akhmet's position, keeping him away from the MG. He needs to die but I really don't want to damage his armor too much. So I give Vitek this one chance for a headshot. With 23.4% I don't think he'll make it, but trying never hurts.




I swear, I didn't savescum. He just shot his way into my heart.

Akhmet doesn't want to lag behind and fires a burst of slugs.

God, I love auto on the Saiga!

On Vitek's end..

..he gets hit!

But as the round went through the wall, the damage isn't that big. He hurries into cover and regains some stamina. It's my own fault for keeping him in one spot for so long. The penetration mechanics in this game are very mysterious and unpredictable so don't worry about them.

He's back on his feet in no time..

..and continues to own.

Akhmet got back on the MG.

No idea why these two just kept hanging out at their spawn. I like to think that they were really scared though.


He finally got one! This also prompted the other to maniacally charge towards the house.

Things start to quiet down, seems like I got this in the bag..

Another victim for the mines...

:"HAHA. FUCK YOU, PLAYER."

What?




Wha..I don't..Well..THE FUCK?!

Okay, I paused the game here and stared long and hard at the screen. There is no way that he could have bypassed the cone of the Claymore. It aimed right at the steps! I came to the conclusion that he clipped through somewhere and that the game is a big jerk. I never saw something like this happen, honestly. Lp curse!

The fucker is moving fast through the house, probably going for Vitek who is still shooting at guys outside. Bad, bad, bad!

Akhmet leaves his post and races down the stairs...

..and right back up as a burst of 5,54mm hammers into the staircase. At least I stopped him from going after Vitek.

Speaking of him..

..he finds himself in another situation. This enemy takes cover behind a corpse. This will happen quite often and corpses block bullets if you're not lucky enough to penetrate. So, the only place he can really target is the head. Time for another gamble.




I swear I'm not rigging this to be entertaining. Vitek just happens to be the greatest sniper of all times and ever.

On Akhmet's end...

..corner jump, eh?


Fastest gun in the east!

Now things really quiet down, and it's time to mop up.

For some reason he survived this, only to get shot a little later


Vitek is on fire! Also look at the arm of the boss...how is that even possible?

:"You're a goddamn sniper, are you?"
Yes Akhmet, thanks for noticing.

Does some work yourself, for a change.



Oh, another grenadier. Second chance to get him to blow up himself.

And then something really, really weird happens...


A second before Akhmet shot, the guy suddenly became shocked, passed out and fell in such a way that the slug missed him by a pixel. True story.

I have no idea why this happened, but I'm not complaining.


So far so good, and then..


What


the fuck


is even


happening?



Okay, screw this. I'm going to call the Ghostbusters as my game appears to be haunted by the ghost of Lp's past. Seriously

Moving on...


This battle went pretty well, aside from the random ghosts and my ineffective mine ring. The MG didn't shine as much but it'll have chances for redemption. Vitek performed exceptionally well, bagging seven kills with 15 shots. I sure want him to be my pal for the big breakdown!



:"Boss, we did well!"

:"We're coming along. You're doing great, Vitek. I'm glad that you cover my back."

:"We can fight them back as many times as needed. But I wish to be a friend of Konev."

:"Friend of Konev.. I don't know if he is still alive. Administration has rotten fast and fell into chaos. Very soon they'll be fighting each other and they'll pay no more attention to our place."

One can only hope that you're right, Akhmet.

:"What? They're gone? And what if they bring a crowd next time?"

:"Breathe. Nobody's gone. These are dead and newcomers are not born yet. Konev owes me a drink for clearing his men from rats."

Sadly, you can't visit Konev and get closure on this event. It may be an oversight or have been cut. On the other hand, the next chapter will bring a different kind of closure to the whole affair. In any case, the mooks had a lot of good loot on them and some new toys as well.


The armor goes straight on to Akhmet and I'm glad that I don't have to sink too much money into fixing it. It can also take an armored plate, and I'll find some soon enough. As I said before, I never really noticed an effect on movement.


This is the LMG from the boss. It sure is a good weapon, but much to unwieldy for my taste/playstyle. Also you really need the perks to make them work well. But fear not, I'll show of a better LMG along the line.

Akhmet also finds an Aks-47 that is not broken. So he makes a quick trip to the Bazaar to fix it and have it pimped out.

:"Any news?"

:"Shit, soldiers are becoming ugly. This week they've gathered the "tax" twice! Something is wrong about Administration. Soldiers don't care about Konev's orders, Akhmet."

The Bazaar guards also suffer under the boot of the changed Administration. A nice touch is that they are familiar with Akhmet by this point, calling him by name instead of Beard or something like that.

:"What's the news, Oleg?"

:"People say you eliminated some of Konev's soldiers? They've not been obeying him for a long time. His new apprentices Nigmat and Miroha are both trying to be leaders themselves. I sense Konev's end. Good times are passing by..."

Take a note of those names as they will play a role in the future.

With a profit of 800 Fives, Akhmet buys ammo, supplies and a bra for Vitek before fixing his gear and going for upgrades for the Aks.

:"I can install a rubber buffer inside the mechanism. it will slow down the bolt in it's rearmost position. This reduces recoil and makes burst fire more accurate."


I'll take it.

:"I can install a new handguard on your rifle, one with a forward grip, like those Romanian Kalashnikovs back in Warsaw Bloc days. The gun will be easier to handle, boosting your accuracy. You won't be able to attach a grenade launcher though."


I didn't plan to use a launcher with Akhmet anyway, so do it!


That's one sexy rifle! It will be Akhmet's new main gun, while the Saiga becomes the sidearm. Ditching the pistol makes him a tiny bit slower in QCB, but I know how to handle that.

"They say live is much better in Moscow, under Mistresses..here we'll just die..




Back to the house...

Another fateful day comes to an end. Akhmet predicted the tough times coming, and it seems like they just started. He feels that the Administration will not bother him further, as it seems that they have their own internal struggles. Konev might be dead by now, and his lieutenant's might already be fighting for control of the group. But even if Konev is still alive, he has a slim chance to deal with a revolt and get a hold of his group again. Akhmet just sits at the side line and keeps watching...