STALKER: The Rift Protocol - Flux Load (a web novel)

The story so far: Wu Ming and Oksana's Rift incursion ended in disaster with the loss of four team members, doomed to become Drifters beyond recovery. Hunted through hostile anomaly territory and pursued by increasingly organized mutant forces, the survivors narrowly escaped and linked up with the Directorate logistics detachment led by Misha Korovin. Breaking free from an unprecedented strategic encirclement, they fought their way back toward Greyfield, the Directorate's primary base of operations. What awaited them was not relief, but the cold reality of the organization they served. Beneath Greyfield's concrete walls, the survivors were forced to confront loss, accountability, and the unsettling realization that the anomalies beyond the Rift were evolving faster than anyone had predicted. As new deployments pushed deeper into unstable anomaly territory, the Directorate's understanding of the Rift began to change. Strange Flux compounds discovered within the exclusion zone showed impossible medical potential, while growing evidence suggested that some anomaly-induced transformations could not be fully explained by existing science. When an active Anomaly Containment Core (ACC) was located inside a dangerous Rift zone, a recovery operation was launched under Pavel Orlov's leadership. What should have been a straightforward extraction spiraled into catastrophe as hostile entities converged on the carrier. Pavel remained behind to secure his team's escape and was lost during the withdrawal, officially classified as MIA. Yet the crisis only deepened when telemetry revealed the ACC was still moving under its own apparent direction. As Nexus Six tracked the signal and Greyfield assumed direct oversight under Dr. Elias Varenko, the Directorate found itself facing an impossible question: was the carrier simply lost, or was something guiding it toward a destination of its own choosing? Chapters 1-10: Chapter 1: The Edge of Entry Chapter 2: The Edge of Entry Chapter 3: Field Response Chapter 4: The Extraction Point Chapter 5: The Lingering Signal Chapter 6: Escape under Load Chapter 7: No Safe Distance Chapter 8: Holding Point Chapter 9: Window Chapter 10: Greyfield Chapters 11-20: CHAPTER 11: Debrief CHAPTER 12: Within CHAPTER 13: Recalibration CHAPTER 14: Return Flow CHAPTER 15: Common Ground CHAPTER 16: Controlled Variables CHAPTER 17: Standard Conditions CHAPTER 18: Familiar Ground CHAPTER 19: Containment CHAPTER 20: Return Route Chapters 21-30: CHAPTER 21: Rotation CHAPTER 22: Recovery Route CHAPTER 23: The Pursuit CHAPTER 24: Signal CHAPTER 25: Deployment CHAPTER 26: Dead Station CHAPTER 27: The Quarantine Gate CHAPTER 28: The Heart of Containment CHAPTER 29: Containment Breach Contingency CHAPTER 30: (Coming soon) Credits: Thanks to @panos for his Exclusion Zone. This is something to add to his and is a standalone spin. If you are keen to "subscribe" to this web novel, drop a comment below saying "subscribe me" and I'll ping you every time a new chapter is released. Subscribers: @panos @DavidP @Unleashed @archangeltara @SkarletFever @TheBard @TTRPG_Player @CaylaCatz @legion @jmn