Metro Exodus Diaries Part Six

This is my ongoing exploration of the Metro series, played in release order, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I continue Metro Exodus.

Having finally delivered the passenger carriage, I was heading up an attack on the bridge for the next leg of our journey…

After briefly getting turned around, I crossed over to the crane, near to where I picked up Krest before. Anna was there waiting for me to go over the plan. Everyone was in place, just waiting for me to board the barge. All that stood in our way was a bunch of men guarding the place. Sneaking into position, I took aim and threw a molotov cocktail.

Swearing at myself for not double checking that I had throwing knives selected, the fight was on. It was a bloody few minutes, but I managed to knock three of them out - I may have shot one who was just about to surrender, though…

We went into the barge’s cockpit and took command of it from the captain. It was around half past 11, so we were going to get into position and wait until around four-ish, as Krest reckoned everyone would be sleepy from the time, the fog and morning prayer.

We would like to rent your boat. For free.

Krest pulled the boat up to the bridge and distracted the men there. Meanwhile, Duke and I split up, both of us heading for the lit torch at the top of the bridge. I managed to sneak pretty well, using throwing knives to kill one, and knocking out two others. I got onto the lift without incident, but I had overheard a story that someone was telling - about me. It was all about how this heretic had attacked the church and killed a bunch of people - but if you surrendered, then the heretic let you live. So you knew his humanity wasn’t all gone, you know for a heretic.

At the top of the lift, I knocked out another man to the right of the mass currently in progress. Somehow, surely in view of the congregation despite the hard rain which had just begun, I met a locked gate. I tried opening it, but the lock was on the other side and presumably all three of my weapons were too big to fit through the opening to shoot the padlock off. So, I went to the right where I found a rowboat swinging to and fro in the wind. Taking a chance, I jumped onto it, then when it swung back in, I jumped back onto the bridge structure.

After catching my breath, I continued sneaking and was almost spotted by a guard. One quick throwing knife took care of him, and I continued upwards. I knocked out another man before reaching the door into the control room. Silantius was there giving his sermon, and complained at me that I had corrupted Katya. Duke joined me, complimenting me on my speed as he had suggested a race earlier, and told Silantius to not worry about Katya anymore, also to let us through and nobody had to die.

TBF I wasn't too picky if the priest died

Silantius called to his men that heretics were there, and bullets began flying before Duke could knock him out. I grabbed the handle and made the bridge lower for the train, as Duke provided covering fire. Suddenly, he was hit and grabbed the handle from me, commanding the train to get a move on. As it came charging through, Duke refused my aid and told me to jump. I did so, landing on the carriage as we sped away, leaving Duke to his fate…

Some time later, Anna woke me in our carriage. Alyosha was there for some reason, but left when he told me that Miller wanted to speak with me. I fiddled with the radio a little, catching some transmissions here and there, before returning to the bed. Anna shifted over, and I sat beside her. She lay her head in my lap and spoke to me - about her father, about Duke; genuine, human stuff. But, I had to go see Miller, so I eventually got up and she told me to go get ‘em tiger.

Honestly, I loved this bit

As I left the room, Nastya ran over to me and told me to check out Tokarev’s shop. He had set up a workbench at the end of the carriage, and goodnaturedly complained that none of us fixed our own stuff, before telling Nastya all about how he repaired things. I had a quick smoke with Krest, who said that we didn’t need the government, but was thankful that we’d accepted him. He had more to say, but I left him alone - still didn’t quite trust him and his “blyat”ing.

I found a letter from Nastya to her father, written before his death, though I would soon learn that she still might not even know that he was dead. I joined Stepan and Katya while he played the guitar, then told the story of how she and Nastya had wound up in Silantius’ tower. As she’d traveled in this very carriage before, she knew of some routes that were still intact, but apparently some had been hit so hard that nothing remained but craters and extreme radiation.

In the main social area, Sam was cooking while Damir, Idiot and Alyosha were drinking to Duke’s memory. Except, he might not actually be dead. Apparently he had come back from the Library after being presumed dead. He wasn’t, however, one of the Spartans that I had met or seen when I had gone to the Library to look for the D6 file…

Why was he at the Library?

After sharing a drink with them, I headed on through to chat with Miller. He had a tape recording of a conversation that he had shared with the Ark, after getting the decoder working. He spoke with the communications officer, and explained that we were a small force on our way with important news, coming from sector K6 alpha. There had apparently never been any word of enemy forces between us and the Ark, so Miller was pumped, and called me a Doubting Thomas.

However, having listened to the tone rather than the words, I still doubted. They seemed dismayed that we were a small force, and there was just something off about it all. Once the tape ended, Miller told me to check the map, but I instead listened to Miller chat with Yermak. Yermak was also unconvinced, but more about the fact that he felt that we didn’t need the government. Miller argued that, with the people out here and the people in the Metro, we could repopulate Russia - once we cleared out the enemy forces.

Unfortunately, it would take a while before we found out which one of us would be correct, as we might have to rebuild some of the track along the way…