LONER: is a common term to describe an free Stalker, or a Stalker who isn't part of any other group working in the Zone. This makes them the biggest group in the Zone in terms of sheer numbers but, as the name implies, Loners are not one orginised gruop but a collective of various smaller teams of Stalkers doing their own thing, which usualy is finding Artifacts, or some ocasional task like delivering packages,collecting scrap,killing bandits and other odd jobs. Most Loners are profit motivated people who jumped on the bandwagon of this new Gold Rush, which doesn't mean that they are bad people, especialy the Veteran Loners. You see even though Loners are not an orginised group they have some basic unspoken rules of behaviour all Stalkers with the spine should adhear to, for example do not kill other Loners and steal their shit and other things of similar nature if you break any of those rules then you become an bandit and everyone, except Mercs, will hate you and want to kill you. So if a Loner is an Veteran it must make him a man with his head being firmly placed on his shoulders and quite the moral spine or just plain common sense. The equipment of Loners varies from person to person and there is no common equipment or standard for it, except commonly used badge of a Radioactvie sign, which became an unoffical ,but commonly used, symbol of the Loners.