Joining Duty

 is a storyline fork that the player may undertake if certain conditions are met when playing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost Alpha standalone mod.

"Marked One, Petrenko here. I don't recommend you go deeper into the mines. You pissed off Sin really bad by killing their comrades on escape. Voronin can help you with that if you join Duty, or aternatively go speak to Barkeep, he has a way of easing the situation, for a price of course. Visit one of them as soon as you can before you get yourself killed. While you are still in the area try and get to the lab as originally planned."

- Petrenko

Mission Acquisition (v1.30013 to 1.4005)
All versions up to and including v1.4005
 * The above quote, sent to the player just as the Go deeper into the mines task is about to be executed; indicates to the player that some form of remedial action is necessary in order to proceed.
 * This all comes about if the player wiped out the Sin contingent in the Sin House early in the game.
 * The situation is resolved in one of two manners, as indicated, with the trivial case - talking it over with Barkeep - merely resolving the issue with Sin by paying them off, so that the original task may be executed with the subsequent task chain proceeding as normal.
 * Failing to heed Petrenko's advice will result in the death of the player's actor.
 * Talking the matter over with Voronin results in a Storyline fork being available - Joining Duty.
 * Due to the fact that Voronin will only offer the player this opportunity ONCE, making an interim savegame beforehand is advisable.
 * Both resolutions cost the player 10,000 Ru.
 * Voronin throws in a PSZ 9d Duty armor, counting the "blood money" as an enrollment fee that permits the player to join Duty. Any rapprochement with Sin is now impossible.
 * He then initiates the player into the faction with a semi-pseudo "swearing-in" ceremony:

""I am stately swear to protect my country against the Zone and any stalker which would like to help our goal. I'll never go against the moral code and stop everyone who will join our enemies and support living of this abormination! We are Duty, Zone must be stopped and only we can do it! hurrah!"

- Voronin

Sub-missions

 * Your new commanding officer then issues a series of missions prior to discharging you from service with the final "Help the yantar scientists", at which point the storyline re-links with the normal storyline task-chain. These are:


 * Find yantar recon teamleading to:
 * Eliminate bandits camps and
 * Find Greben's stolen stuff
 * Infiltrate freedom bar
 * Find the Duty group deep in the zone
 * Help the rest of the Duty group
 * Meet with Negotiator


 * Other missions become available and need to be concluded:


 * Find the artefact (Garbage) (for Sin)
 * Talk with blockpost group
 * Clear Sins base with the Duty group.
 * Find the disc with intelligence information
 * Return to Voronin


 * Eventually:


 * Help Duty
 * Help duty
 * Find the Duty recon unit

Mission Acquisition (v1.4007+)
There are significant differences both in the fork acquisition and sub-task order for v1.4007
 * Players will have noted that the Sin House becomes vacant early in the game.
 * This does not obviate the Joining Duty game fork.
 * The opportunity to partake in this fork is offered by Voronin later in the game.
 * The offer is made irrespective of whether the player "cleaned the 'Sin House'" very early in the game (in fact, as soon as Fox is rescued, the Sin contingent vacate the area shortly after)
 * The precise infoportion that determines whether Voronin will offer the opportunity is not yet completely clear, but appears to be between the conclusion of the Documents Thread and before the Merc Heli-raid on Rostok (at which point Voronin is no longer available to locally issue the mission fork)
 * (Obviously, once his NPC relocates, the fork is unavailable)

Sub-missions (v1.4007)

 * Your potential commanding officer then issues a 'test run' followed by a series of missions prior to discharging you from service with the final "Help the yantar scientists", at which point the storyline re-links with the normal storyline task-chain. These are:


 * Join Duty A 'test run' delivery mission carrying supplies to Dima in Rostok Factory. Presumably, this is to take the player there to help with their other problems (which may already be completed) It replaces the similar 'milk run' to Yantar in previous versions as part of "Find yantar recon team".
 * The player then 'joins duty' (see infobox for v1.4007 details) and may ask for a sequence of tasks:
 * Find the Duty group deep in the zone and
 * Help the rest of the Duty group
 * Find yantar recon team leading to:
 * Eliminate bandits camps and
 * Find Greben's stolen stuff
 * Meet with Negotiator

NOTE: There is no 'spy mission' to the Outskirts Freedom Bar in v1.4007. This is most likely to prevent the player from exploiting that level in a variety of manners.

Notes and Consequences

 * Although the player is discharged from "active duty" at some stage, which will vary depending upon performance; the player will remain a member of Duty for the rest of the game.
 * This will have various consequences. Freedom will not look kindly upon visitations, and since the only Technician on Outskirts is Skinflint (to v1.4002, Chef from v1.4005), this may be an inconvenience.
 * Lukash is also unlikely to issue his Retrieve the machine for Lukash mission thread.
 * Trading with Loners, who may have been "friendly" before the player joined duty will now be neutral at best and the trading returns correspondingly lower.
 * The player will be expected to follow the Duty fork of gameplay at the NPP.