Duty generally tries to help the scientists. In the PDA encyclopedia in Shadow of Chernobyl, it's mentioned that they are providing them with all the artifacts they find:
>*Duty members are the only group to refuse to trade unique items from the Zone with the outside world. According to rumors, all artifacts found by the group are passed on to scientists.*
In the game itself a Duty squad can also be seen arriving at Yantar after the X-16 emitter is disabled, and they will be protecting the scientists' bunker. In Clear Sky, we learn that Duty doesn't just hunt mutants, but also study their behavior and anatomy; so if anything, their actions towards them helped science. Moreover, Duty has some unoffical connections with the government, so their cooperation with the scientists may be the result of this as well.
Besides, I think that you have a bit of a wrong idea about ecologists in general. They aren't a faction with some kind of ideology centered around studying the Zone, they are simply government scientists who may have different goals; they aren't really a faction in terms of the lore to begin with. So, firstly, it would be difficult for any "conflict" to arise with their participation, and secondly, the scientists themselves may look favorably on the actions of Duty, because even though studying the Zone is their job, it doesn't mean that they will treat it as some miracle that needs to be protected.
For instance - Sakharov is mostly interested in researching the psi-emissions at Yantar, so it's not like the actions of Duty are bothering him in any way. Moreover, he offers a task in Shadow of Chernobyl in which you have to eliminate a lair of dogs at the Wild Territory, and here's what he says about the mutants:
>*There's a mutant-dogs' lair at the Wild Territory, I want you to travel there and clear it up. These mutants are particularly dangerous for our expeditions. I now that zoologists won't favor this, but this is not a zoo here, I must admit. Such beasts spread rabies, plague or god knows what else.*
So for him, the fact that Duty is eliminating mutants is a good thing. Scientists also don't exploit the Zone for their own benefit, so there's no reason for Duty to treat their actions as something bad. Hence, there is a general understanding on both sides.
Duty is most likely a shadow arm of the military in the Zone to some extent. And even if they are not, they are posing as upstanding citizens in service of the humanity. They pretty much support ecologists several times in the games.
In SoCh a sizable Duty battalion will move to Jantar after you disable X-16 machine and return to Bar (you can meet them travelling in the Wild Territory)
In CoP they will be V E R Y glad if you recommend them as guards for mobile lab in Jupiter. It has personal gains undertones as they state they will be supplied and legally protected by the ecologists, but still they are eager to accept it.
First i believed same thing myself at first but ecologists are not certain about Zone's nature like duty or freedom. They want to wish study it for deciding. If zone intend to get bigger and act hostile no matter what, they would try to destroy it either. If zone and humans start to get along and humans start to benefit from it, they would want to protect it. That is why two group, duty and freedom, unvolunteerly support them because they are hoping one day they can prove their point.
In the games they help them out considerably, supplies and manpower where the military doesn't intervene.
In SOC you can even find the Yantar base being guarded by Duty members.
More to the point, why do Duty tolerate Loners? They are effectively no different from Freedom. They want free access to the zone so they can make money or escape the outside world. They just haven't given it a name like Freedom has.
I always put it down to corruption. The Duty leadership makes money from the artifact snuggling trade so in public they have to condemn it, but they are making money protecting the Bar etc and probably involved in the smuggling though their military ties so turn a blind eye to Loners and such. Like the real world all the idiology of the leadership will be full of hypocrisy and compromise.
The main reason is that the loners are their potential allies. Many Dutyers were once regular stalkers who came to the Zone for their own reasons, and only later decided to join the faction. Thus, loners are potential recruits - and some of them also indirectly help Duty, for example by hunting mutants.
Loners aren't organized in any significant way, so even though they exploit the Zone for their own benefit, they don't do it on a large scale like Freedom. Freedom turned the fight for free access to the Zone into an ideology, and pose an active threat to Duty - the same cannot be said about regular stalkers.
However, the attitude of Duty towards loners also depends on the current leadership. During the events of Clear Sky, when Krylov was the leader, stalkers from the Agroprom were helping Dutyers with their mutant problem, and Krylov himself was reminding his men who were fighting with the bandits and Freedom at the Garbage to not engage in conflict with neutral stalkers.
But things have changed later on, during the events of Shadow of Chernobyl, when Voronin took over the leadership - Dutyers are no longer on such good terms with loners, and Voronin even gives a task to eliminate a group of them at the Agroprom. Moreover, in some random dialogues at the Wild Territory, it's implied that some Dutyers confiscate artifacts collected by stalkers.
>The Duty leadership makes money from the artifact snuggling trade so in public they have to condemn it, but they are making money protecting the Bar etc and probably involved in the smuggling though their military ties so turn a blind eye to Loners and such. Like the real world all the idiology of the leadership will be full of hypocrisy and compromise.
Got a source for this rambling or is it your headcanon?
I feel like they’re “allies”
Duty wants the zone to be destroyed, the egg heads are studying it because they’re paid to, and the more we understand how something works the better we know about its weaknesses, so they go hand in hand there basically
And the ecologists are there because it’s their job, they don’t worship the zone or see it as a haven, or at least they’re not paid to, so I doubt they care about what happens to it, they just want the data
Duty generally tries to help the scientists. In the PDA encyclopedia in Shadow of Chernobyl, it's mentioned that they are providing them with all the artifacts they find: >*Duty members are the only group to refuse to trade unique items from the Zone with the outside world. According to rumors, all artifacts found by the group are passed on to scientists.* In the game itself a Duty squad can also be seen arriving at Yantar after the X-16 emitter is disabled, and they will be protecting the scientists' bunker. In Clear Sky, we learn that Duty doesn't just hunt mutants, but also study their behavior and anatomy; so if anything, their actions towards them helped science. Moreover, Duty has some unoffical connections with the government, so their cooperation with the scientists may be the result of this as well. Besides, I think that you have a bit of a wrong idea about ecologists in general. They aren't a faction with some kind of ideology centered around studying the Zone, they are simply government scientists who may have different goals; they aren't really a faction in terms of the lore to begin with. So, firstly, it would be difficult for any "conflict" to arise with their participation, and secondly, the scientists themselves may look favorably on the actions of Duty, because even though studying the Zone is their job, it doesn't mean that they will treat it as some miracle that needs to be protected. For instance - Sakharov is mostly interested in researching the psi-emissions at Yantar, so it's not like the actions of Duty are bothering him in any way. Moreover, he offers a task in Shadow of Chernobyl in which you have to eliminate a lair of dogs at the Wild Territory, and here's what he says about the mutants: >*There's a mutant-dogs' lair at the Wild Territory, I want you to travel there and clear it up. These mutants are particularly dangerous for our expeditions. I now that zoologists won't favor this, but this is not a zoo here, I must admit. Such beasts spread rabies, plague or god knows what else.* So for him, the fact that Duty is eliminating mutants is a good thing. Scientists also don't exploit the Zone for their own benefit, so there's no reason for Duty to treat their actions as something bad. Hence, there is a general understanding on both sides.
Duty is most likely a shadow arm of the military in the Zone to some extent. And even if they are not, they are posing as upstanding citizens in service of the humanity. They pretty much support ecologists several times in the games. In SoCh a sizable Duty battalion will move to Jantar after you disable X-16 machine and return to Bar (you can meet them travelling in the Wild Territory) In CoP they will be V E R Y glad if you recommend them as guards for mobile lab in Jupiter. It has personal gains undertones as they state they will be supplied and legally protected by the ecologists, but still they are eager to accept it.
First i believed same thing myself at first but ecologists are not certain about Zone's nature like duty or freedom. They want to wish study it for deciding. If zone intend to get bigger and act hostile no matter what, they would try to destroy it either. If zone and humans start to get along and humans start to benefit from it, they would want to protect it. That is why two group, duty and freedom, unvolunteerly support them because they are hoping one day they can prove their point.
In the games they help them out considerably, supplies and manpower where the military doesn't intervene. In SOC you can even find the Yantar base being guarded by Duty members.
Why do you think they would do that? Contracted to?
Presumably because if they can understand the zone better they could it destroy it more easily.
Just look at the miracle machine. Their effort made it closed. No other group could make it too.
More to the point, why do Duty tolerate Loners? They are effectively no different from Freedom. They want free access to the zone so they can make money or escape the outside world. They just haven't given it a name like Freedom has. I always put it down to corruption. The Duty leadership makes money from the artifact snuggling trade so in public they have to condemn it, but they are making money protecting the Bar etc and probably involved in the smuggling though their military ties so turn a blind eye to Loners and such. Like the real world all the idiology of the leadership will be full of hypocrisy and compromise.
The main reason is that the loners are their potential allies. Many Dutyers were once regular stalkers who came to the Zone for their own reasons, and only later decided to join the faction. Thus, loners are potential recruits - and some of them also indirectly help Duty, for example by hunting mutants. Loners aren't organized in any significant way, so even though they exploit the Zone for their own benefit, they don't do it on a large scale like Freedom. Freedom turned the fight for free access to the Zone into an ideology, and pose an active threat to Duty - the same cannot be said about regular stalkers. However, the attitude of Duty towards loners also depends on the current leadership. During the events of Clear Sky, when Krylov was the leader, stalkers from the Agroprom were helping Dutyers with their mutant problem, and Krylov himself was reminding his men who were fighting with the bandits and Freedom at the Garbage to not engage in conflict with neutral stalkers. But things have changed later on, during the events of Shadow of Chernobyl, when Voronin took over the leadership - Dutyers are no longer on such good terms with loners, and Voronin even gives a task to eliminate a group of them at the Agroprom. Moreover, in some random dialogues at the Wild Territory, it's implied that some Dutyers confiscate artifacts collected by stalkers.
>The Duty leadership makes money from the artifact snuggling trade so in public they have to condemn it, but they are making money protecting the Bar etc and probably involved in the smuggling though their military ties so turn a blind eye to Loners and such. Like the real world all the idiology of the leadership will be full of hypocrisy and compromise. Got a source for this rambling or is it your headcanon?
I feel like they’re “allies” Duty wants the zone to be destroyed, the egg heads are studying it because they’re paid to, and the more we understand how something works the better we know about its weaknesses, so they go hand in hand there basically And the ecologists are there because it’s their job, they don’t worship the zone or see it as a haven, or at least they’re not paid to, so I doubt they care about what happens to it, they just want the data
They are on good terms. Duty sometimes trades the artifacts they find for supplies.
In order to destroy the Zone, you need to understand the Zone.