[Necromancer]

Special Mission: Find The Military Documents/Find Strelok

Sid thinks he might know how to track down Strelok, but he wants you to help him out. He wants you to head into a research lab far to the northwest and find some documents for him. This is going to be a lengthy quest, but there’s no time limit, so feel free to do other quests at the same time. Note that these are technically separate quests, but that they advance in more or less the same fashion in the same places, so we’ll group them together.

Meet The Journeyman

You’re supposed to meet a contact at the tunnel leading underneath the railroad tracks, but he’s unfortunately dead. His PDA purports to tell you about how to avoid the anomolies in the tunnel, but all it really says is that they move. Well, duh.
If you save your game beforehand, you can make it through the tunnel without too many problems. The anomolies do indeed move, first appear near the mouth of the tunnel, then slowly moving away from it before disappearing and starting over. If you follow them, moving super slow and not attempting to run through them, you can make it to the midpoint of the tunnel. The second half of the tunnel is the same deal, but the last anomaly here is floating above the ground, making it a bit difficult to see. Be sure there’s nothing there before sprinting out of the tunnel.
If you really don’t want to deal with the anomalies here, you can head to the main military checkpoint underneath the point where the bridge broke in two. If the soldiers there are shooting at other stalkers, they’ll be hostile to you, too, but if they’re simply standing there and minding their own business, you can pay them 500 RU to gain your passage. Be sure to loot their little camp in the middle of the bridge to offset the cost. This might sound like a gyp, but purchasing your immunity to the gunfire of the soldiers will let you watch as they skirmish with the stalkers, and pick up the weapons that the fallen combatants drop.

Tip: You can also find a permanent break in the fence that surrounds the railway embankment if you follow the rail a bit to the west. Don’t go to far, though, or you’ll wind up in radiation country.

Help Fox

When you pass through the railway embankment, Sid will tell you of a stalker named Fox, who apparently knows something of Strelok. He’s in a nearby house, lying wounded on the floor. You need a medkit to heal him, so if you don’t have one, you might have to return to Sid and buy one.

Tip: If you haven’t done so yet, you may want to check the area around the military checkpoint to see if any bandits have attacked and been killed. They’ll drop more powerful weapons for you, such as the Akm 74/2u. The military soldiers themselves will drop things like the Viper 5. Upgrade your weapons if possible.
Although his text screen will probably pass by too quickly for you to see, Fox will point you to a man named Gray, who’s up north in the Garbage zone. Getting there will require you to head north, through a bandit camp. It’ll be a tough fight, so you may want to complete any other missions you’re on (if possible) before heading up that way.

Reach the Checkpoint

The checkpoint leading to the Garbage area, to the north, is covered with bandits that will be hostile to you on sight. There’s no way to really avoid them, so gird yourself for a fight (you may want to buy some first aid kits from Sid), gather your weapons and ammo, and head up north. If you have an smg of whatever sort, be sure to switch it to single-fire mode (with the 0 or 9 keys) to increase its accuracy at long range.
The checkpoint itself is one small building, but there’s a truck in front of it that will provide you a bit of cover as you approach. Depending on the positions of the bandits, you may find your approach to be fairly easy. Many of them will usually be out in the woods to the south of the checkpoint, allowing you to sneak up by sprinting along the western side of the road. They may take a potshot or two at you as you run past, but they usually won’t follow you. We’ve seen anywhere from two to 10 bandits waiting inside the building here, though, so your journey may not be over yet. If you do manage to aggravate the whole bunch of bandits, get inside the building here if possible and start blast them as they come in with your shotgun.
If you find this fight to be overwhelmingly difficult, you may simply want to wait a while and come back, and hope that the bandits are in better positions.