@ Steerpike…  I go back into that tunnel again to retrieve Strelok's weapons stash which I couldn't carry before.  I'll also go up the ladder in daylight to get the lay-of-the-land and see just where I need to go from there.  Then I'll go back at night to progress.  If the Controller again leaves me alone with gun holstered, I'll know that that is a possible way to deal with them in the future.  Or maybe this first one was just old and tired.  [Image Can Not Be Found]

I meant the blue melty ones.  There were quite a few of them in the tunnels, but none appeared to contain artifacts.

Whew!  Relief!  Got through Agroprom, got the briefcase, and hightailed it to the Bar.

I think I was very lucky.  This afternoon when I went back into the tunnels to retrieve Strelok's stash I got the stash then fast-traveled to the Military Entrance.  That took me to the end of the tunnels where the Controller is.  This time he killed me. My gun was no match.  Reloaded a save, got grenades ready, and took him out with 2 of them. First sorta lucky break.

Tonight I fast traveled from the beginning of the tunnels to the Military Entrance, but instead of dumping me in the tunnel with the Controller, I exited outside.  About 11:30PM.  Not as dead-dark as it was last night because there was moonlight.  Big gun in hand, I low-crouched my way from cover to cover.  I could tell which building I need to enter because of its size and proportions.  Up.  Up.  Only 2 soldiers in the hallway.  1 grenade.  Job done.  Got the goods and zoomed out of there.  My second lucky break was getting in and out before encountering more than 2 soldiers.

Got to the Bar.  Got rewarded and accepted a couple more jobs from Barkeep, and one more from one of the patrons – Family something.  Since I had stuff to trade, and lots of rubles, I tried to trade with every person I met.  Some had the ammo I wanted, so I am flush for the moment. I'm not certain of this, but I think the bar patrons had better prices on a couple of the things I bought than Barkeep.  I'll have to recheck that.

Got 2 nifty Stalker Suits in 100%  condition.  I hope to move up to better garments soon. 

By the way…my Military guys, both at the railway crossing, and in the tunnels, respawned.  I'm guessing that those at the post on the road south of Cordon will have respawned too, but I'm not gonna go look.  I got what I needed at the time from them, and now I have other options.

Bedtime for this tired Stalker.

Kay:  press "esc", then when you are at the load/quit/save page press
the "J" key.  You will get fast travel options.  This isn't like
Fallout where it is easy to fast travl over long distances.  You have to
fast travel in stages.  For example:  if you are in Cordon and want to
travel to Garbage, you hit "esc" + "J", and end up at Garbage.  But if
you want to travel from Cordon to Agroprom you would have to "esc" + "J"
to get to Garbage, then "esc" + "J" again to get the Agroprom option.  I
think the choice to go "long distance" is available for some locations.
Within an area, such as Agroprom, you will have a couple of options as
you will find out.  It's better fast travel than no fast travel at all. 
Only problem is that at each stage of traveling you have to wait for
the game to load that new area, and this game, with the Complete mod, is
awfully slow to load.

When I start the game for the first time in
the day it takes 1 min. 40 sec. for the game to load.  Loading a save
is shorter, as is using "Quit Game"  instead of "Exit to Windows".  If
you need to take a break from the game for a bit, just quit game and the
loading time is much shorter when you continue your game after your
break. 

Steerpike is correct.  The repair kits are one use only. 
The only 2 I've had were looted from dead bodies.  I guess there are
more of them out there, I just haven't found them.  Now that I have
accessed the Bar I can use the bartender for repairs.  I bet he charges
mucho dinero for those repairs.  I think that I'd rather count on
finding more of what I need and not having to pay for repairs.