I swear, everytime I load up STALKER: CoP I get reminded of how it's one of the best games ever made. Time to share a STALKER story:
It all started out at Skadovsk, the gun merchant there had given me a mission to scout the mercenary outpost at the water processing plant. Before I left I checked my loadout: AKS-74U with silencer (personal favorite), Silenced Skorpion with extended mag, 4 health packs, 4 anti-rads, and enough ammo for 3 extra mags in case things got dicey. I made my way up to the plant, which was surprisingly uneventful. Once I made it up to the plant I started to stake out the place from a safe distance. OK, two story building, two mercs with rifles patrolling the catwalks that go from the north to the south sides, their patterns overlapping. One other merc comes out of the side door every so often to check the road up to the facility, seems to be a 10 second loop. Probably at least one more merc inside besides the watch. 5 entrances, side doors on the north and south sides, a parking garage of sorts, one entrance up on the catwalk, and what seems to be a man sized pipe leading under the driveway and into the building.
I decided for the side door on the south side, as it was directly in front of me. I slowly inched my way past the broken down walls and into the plant outskirts, stopping behind a truck 50 ft SW of the side door. The door guard exited the building, I flipped to semi auto and trained my sights at his head. One muffled crack and the guard went down without uttering a sound. The guards inside had heard the shot, but had no idea where I was at that point. The two catwalk guards went ahead to investigate their fallen comrade while I slowly crawled forward to a better shooting position. Another muffled crack, but this time I missed. Now they knew exactly where I was, and the situation was turning. I panicked and fired about 2 dozen more shots, of which about 5 hit their target. 2 down, at least 2 more to go. No more than two seconds had passed when 4 rounds buried into the back of my skull. Apparently one of the mercs inside had decided to investigate the gunshots, saw me, and had circled around my position in a flanking maneuver just at that exact moment I had missed my second shot. After assessing the situation and deciding a plan of action, I pressed the quickload button. This time, I didn't miss that second shot, nor did I get shot in the back of the head. Now to deal with the other catwalk guard. Good thing is, the outside was clear. Bad news is, now I had to clear the building. I sprinted over to the door and shouldered up against the left side, slowly peaking my head into the building. Another dead me, but now I knew where the merc was: up on the second floor catwalk. Quickload. Another dead merc, but now I was down to my last mag. I took a deep breath, reloaded my gun, and sprinted into the building. A burst of gunfire later and my body joined the others. Merc coming up the stairs from the parking garage, should be an easy headshot. Quickload. It was. I stopped and listened intently. No voices, no breathing, no footsteps. I had successfully cleared the building. Now it was time to loot the corpses, bandage the wounds, and head home.