Instead of a bed, I wake up on the dirt floor of an absolute shithole, and instead of "Good Morning!" I get "You look fucked up. Rip that bullet out of your leg with this dirty knife." So I do.
The guy who gave me that helpful piece of wisdom is Carbonell, a lieutenant (or something) for the UFLL, one of the two major factions vying for dominance of...The Country. I could tell you what the abbreviation stands for, but it really doesn't matter and you probably don't care all that much anyway. He says I killed some of his men back in Pala, which is bullshit because I didn't even fire my gun once, but whatever. Basically, he tells me I'm his bitch now, so he wants me to fix his shitty car in the driveway. I don't really have much of a choice, and he does give me a G3-KA4 assault rifle, a Makarov pistol, and an RPG launcher free of charge, along with five medical syrettes, so I guess he's all right.
The yellow car outside is pouring black smoke out of the engine, so I pop the hood and tighten a bolt on the radiator for thirty seconds, and apparently that's enough to get the thing into good condition. Then I get a call on my cell, and it's from Carbonell. Really, dude? You can't even pop open the door and stick your head out?
He tells me there's a safehouse nearby with a couple of APR (that's the other faction) dudes guarding it, so why don't I go take care of that? I drive over and get out of the car a bit down the road so I can approach the position on foot. This is my tactic of choice for approaching enemy positions in this game so I can scope them out, but until I buy the camo suit it doesn't really work all that well. Here it does, though: both of the guards are just standing right next to the door of this tiny hut, so I pull out my assault rifle and a few seconds later, the place is mine. Carbonell calls again to say the malaria I have is "serious shit", so why don't I have a good lie down. Instead of burying the bodies of the men I just ruthlessly gunned down, I go inside for a little nap.
I decide to grab about seven hours of sleep and awaken at about 9:30 PM, the sun only just beginning to set. As I step outside, Carbonell calls again. Asshole's turning into my mother. Before I can even get out a sarcastic and biting "Yes?" he's going off in my ear about how there's an APR installation further down the road that he wants me to scout out. I drive down and take a small concealed path up onto the ridge. I pull out my monocular to see about four buildings, with five or six guards walking around. After I locate the ammo dump, Carbonell calls again to say thanks, and also he's pretty sure that those guys are keeping a foreign mercenary captive in that smaller bricked up building over there and maybe I should bust them out hint hint wink wink.
I drop down from the ridge and at first my idea was, "Stealth". If I was going to be serious about this permadeath, I'd want to minimize risk as much as possible. In this case, stealth would mean not being seen at all. Until I unlocked and could buy silenced weaponry, there wouldn't be any possibility of silent takedowns. Apparently, a guy screaming after he gets swiped with a machete tends to alert all his buddies nearby.
But then I saw the ammo dump. And for some reason, the phrase "Instill the fear of God" entered my mind. I chucked a grenade in its general direction and ran into the nearby garage. The ammo detonated, and the tactic actually sort of worked. All the militia run towards the exploding ammunition, which just happens to be on the exact opposite side of camp from the bricked up building. At one point, I hear two of the guys talking about who's out there, and one of them says he's sure it's at least two people.
I sneak towards and then around the back of the brick building. I look for a door and can't find one, but as I turn around to try the other side I see this guy in a pink shirt walking next to the building. Then he stops. I know what's gonna happen, but I still think, maybe, just maybe, he'll turn and walk away. I edge back around the other side of the building.
Nope. He sees me and gets a few rounds off, but I take him down. I peek back around the other side towards the central area of the camp to see the four other guys running towards me. I get some rounds out and duck back to reload when I get hit from the other side. I turn to see Mr. Pinkshirt is down, but not out, and he's plugging away at me with his pistol. I kill him then run past him. As I'm retreating to the garage, I decide to set some grass on fire with a molotov cocktail. This is actually a much better tactic than it sounds if you know what you're doing: fire spreads, and when this happens enemies will drop everything, even trying to kill you, to get away from it. But I mess up my button presses and end up throwing a grenade. I think it gets a dude but I throw a molotov anyway, because at this point why not, right?
I get into the garage and from there it's a fairly easy matter to dispose of the rest of the squad, as they've by now clustered around the brick building. I just pop my head up and down in some windows, firing until they're all down. Inside the brick building, my malaria flares up as I unlock a door to find Michele, some French lady, who says she might be able to help me with my sickness, and I should meet her later at Mike's bar.
As I'm walking back to my car, Carbonell calls again saying he's willing to pay me for my work. About time. I get back to where he's holed up and he tells me that he's got a cache of diamonds stashed away somewhere on the property, but if I want them, I'll have to go on a bit of a scavenger hunt, because the guy who actually delivered them apparently didn't bother to tell anyone where he put them before he went and got shot in the head.
The case is easy enough to find, and I get 10 diamonds out of it. I drive off, cutting through the now peaceful town of Pala, and I arrive at Mike's bar, which also happens to feature a franchise of the ubiquitous friendly neighborhood arms dealer. I stop in there to spend my new money on a brand spanking new G3 rifle and a reliability upgrade for the same. This is important because that means that the armories at all the gun shops will now stock one of these rifles for me to pick up whenever I stop by, and the reliability upgrade keeps it from degrading as fast, and when it does start jamming, it'll be easier for me to clear and keep firing.
I go in the bar and see Michele, who points me towards a guy at a table over in the corner. I keep talking to her a bit, and she says something about the "price of a child" in this country. That's about when I decide to leave her at the bar and let her continue drinking. I go to the table and meet Ruben, a journalist trying to cover what's happening in this country and failing at receiving any coverage. He gives me a tape which features the Jackal expounding on his philosophy, and says that there are many more that comprise the interview he conducted with him scattered throughout the wilderness. I was never able to find more than three of them last time, but maybe now I'll be luckier. He suggests I give the tape to a priest in town who can give me some medicine in exchange.
I also meet Marty Alencar, an American. He's the guy who I can get to rescue me when I go down. This won't count as a death, cause all it will amount to is him dragging me a few feet away, giving me a pistol and a chance to patch up, and then a friendly gun to continue the fight with. It's also not entirely without risk, because he can die on these little excursions too.
I drive back into town. Pala is now under cease-fire, which means no one there will shoot me unless I provoke them, in which case everyone will shoot me. It's where both the factions have set up their headquarters, and right across the street from each other no less. For now, I just head towards the church across from my old hotel. Inside I find Father Maliya, the head of the Underground movement that's trying to smuggle as many people out of the country as possible. He takes the tape and gives me some medicine for my malaria, but not before remarking that they might have use for someone with my talents down the road. I pop a pill and step outside. The training is now officially over, and the real fun can start.
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