The Island nation of Heldur has been silent ever since 1978 when another nation, which had recently acquired a nuclear arsenal of its own decided to show the world its strength by incinerating almost the entire island in atomic fire, nearly 40 nuclear warheads detonated on Heldur's surface.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, people managed to survive in the ruins of Heldurs former capital city in the extensive underground Metro System which had been designed in a similar fashion to the Moscow Metro System as an enormous fallout shelter.
Much has changed since those days, an entire generation has been born and raised in the darkness of the tunnels. Not knowing that there was an outside world at all, believing that they were not the only ones to be destroyed in what is now known as 'The Night of Fire'. But as resources scavenged from the surface become harder and harder to find, the brave men and women who brave the mutated beasts of the surface, known as Stalkers have been forced to scavenge in places further and further from the safety of their fortified Metro Station Cities.
However in leaving the safety of previously well traveled (for the surface that is) scavenging routes, Stalkers have been returning to the Metro System with tales of near mythical places, untold treasures as well as nightmarish stories of the horrors which now lurk on the surface. But one of the biggest and most important discoveries made in recent months has been the discovery of an old Embassy building on the outskirts of the Capital City. The building, despite its decrepit state still had strong walls, a tall, strong fence and most importantly, an old, but still functioning radio which must have once been used to communicate with the Embassy Staffs superiors outside of Heldur.
Embassy Ruins, Surface, 5:34 Hours
What a Treasure trove this place was. Lieutenant Roves had never anticipated finding such a place in the abandoned; crumbling husks of the city his mother had called home.
The building had strong walls, even after so many years, the roof was largely intact and some rooms were sheltered enough that one could safely take off their gas mask without coughing and spluttering incessantly. But the most incredible part of the whole building was the radio. And with sunrise only a few hours away, being accustomed to the darkness in the Tunnels they had made their home since the Night of Fire, Roves had decided that what better a place to take cover in, than this astounding find.
Roves's team had a tech expert of sorts, who had spent quite some time learning to maintain all the kinds of radios that the Stalkers carried to keep in contact with each other, any other friendly groups and outposts on the surface. The 'experts' name was Colban and he had feverishly begun work on the radio as soon as the building had been cleared. Seeing as they would be forced to wait in this place for quite some time, none of the Stalkers had any intention of sharing their haven with any number of the mutated horrors which commonly lurked in places such as this. Fortunately fate had been on their side as there were relatively few things at all hiding out in the building, and most had been chased out without incident when the stalkers and their electrical torches and guns came stomping throughout the building. Their next step had been obvious, gather the remaining furniture and plug as many holes in the building as they could and post a watch on the exterior corridors and rooms.
As Roves talked to one of his men about the situation of their supplies, the important ones, bullets, gas mask filters and spares as well as food and water, Colban yelled out in triumph, his radio screeched to life. The Stalkers crowded around as Colban fiddled with the dials of the archaic but powerful device. Eventually they found traces of human voices through the static, talking about things they didn’t understand, politics and advertisements occasionally broke through the static long enough for them to make out that there were voices out there. After a while of trying to clear out the static Colban shrugged and said to the slightly disheartened group of stalkers, , ‘I said it would work, but I guess we could never know if it would work well enough.’
After a while of yet more fiddling, jury rigging and scrounging for spare parts in the very depths of the building, the Stalkers had managed to clear up the radio more and more, it was hard work and everyone in the building was on edge, the prospect of encountering any more horrors on the surface chilled everyone to the bone, it was always better to avoid a fight altogether, plenty of things up here tended to just get mad when shot rather than hurt. Others, like the occasional anomaly couldn't be fought at all. But running into one of them could be just as lethal as the claws of a monstrous mutant.
Finally, their effort pulled off when Colban managed to get a reasonable signal through the radio. While the arranged Stalkers couldn’t understand all the languages in the broadcasts they did pick up, it was official, the world had gone on without them.
‘They don’t even know we’re here,’ one of the men had commented, ‘how could they forget about us?’
‘We’ve been gone from the surface for a long time,’ another Stalker replied sadly, ‘we don’t even remember how long exactly.’
‘You know,’ Ingrid, the teams sniper spoke up suddenly, ‘we should change that. Let’s set up a broadcast, dig in for the day and see if we get a response,’
Once it had, Roves ordered Colban to get to work on figuring out how to broadcast the message, meanwhile Ingrid began overseeing the preparations of better fortification inside the building. With the radio's old generator running again, they had to be on their toes, the machine was incredibly loud and belched black smoke every now and then into the sky, which was a surefire way of attracting the attention of the creatures of the surface. But the Stalkers were in agreed, they had to contact the outside world, at any cost.
Thankfully the structure was secure enough in general that the Stalkers could take their gasmasks off inside, otherwise they likely would have run out of filters, and therefore precious clean air long before the radio was up and running. The basement was a favourite spot for those not on patrol duty of the perimeter, since the basement was the most sheltered the air was more or less clean down there, even if it did smell seriously stale.
Once Colban had prepared the radio to broadcast, he opened up the channel and began to broadcast a simple message he and Roves had written on repeat, hoping that someone out there would hear him through the static.
Hello, is anyone out there that can hear me?
My name is Colban of the ----
-- Are survivors inside the Varhal Metro system in Heldur, --- thousands of survivors.
I repeat, there are survivors inside the Varhal Metro Systems, if you can hear me, please. Please respond!
