Eduard Baranov

"Sam, the sub is a terrible weapon. A weapon that was entrusted to me to protect my country. Not to be used in pirate raids or even something as noble as creating Kingdom of Heaven on Earth"

- the Captain urging Sam to destroy the submarine.

Captain Eduard Baranov (Russian: Эдуард Баранов), most commonly referred to as the Captain (Russian: Капитан) and Ed by Sam, is a character in the Sam's Story DLC for Metro Exodus. He is the former captain of a nuclear submarine docked in Vladivostok.

Overview
Eduard Baranov was in command of a nuclear submarine when the war broke out, but didn't launch his nuclear payload, as other submarines destroyed all of the predetermined targets and he never received orders with new targets to strike. With their base destroyed, the crew sailed to Vladivostok, only to find the city devastated by a tsunami. He was able to organize the survivors and settle them in the docks, where the submarine's reactors served as a power source until they built their own power station.

Rumors of luxury and prosperity, however, soon caught the attention of bandits, who flocked to the city in search of fortune. Despite Ed's best efforts, the bandits remained a problem until the arrival of Tom and his group. Tom proposed an alliance between their forces to drive the bandits out, which Ed reluctantly accepted. Despite Tom's group being ruthlessly efficient at the elimination of the bandits, the leaders soon clashed over the use of Ed's submarine. Tom wanted to restore the submarine and use its nuclear payload to threaten other communities into cooperation to recreate a functional government and order, which Ed found unfathomable.

Ed tried to drive Tom and his men away, but failed. In order to make sure the submarine never fell into Tom's hands, he and several other crew members decided to refuel the nuclear reactor to set sail away from Vladivostok. After his group managed to locate the nuclear rods, however, unbeknownst to both Tom and Ed, bandits allied with Klim ambushed them in the upper marsh area of the city, killing them. The Captain was ultimately ousted from his leadership position and forced to flee, becoming the most wanted man in the city due to the fact that he was the only one that knew where to find nuclear control rods.

Sam's Story
Sam first meets the Captain fighting off a gang who wished to capture him to curry favor with Tom. After eliminating the bandits, he holds Sam at gunpoint and orders him to lower his weapon, with which Sam has the option of complying with or ignoring. The Captain shows Sam a view of his submarine when Sam asks him about a ship that could take him across the ocean. Sam and the Captain are separated when the seraph attacks them while they are ziplining down the ruined tram line, with Sam being captured soon after by a party that was sent by Tom to apprehend the Captain.

Tom tasks Sam with locating the Captain and acting as a negotiator. Sam finds him battling humanimals and helps his retreat to a second base. During the trip, Ed tells Sam about his backstory. After they arrive, Sam tells Ed about Tom's proposal. Ed is skeptical but agrees to talk to Tom via Sam's radio. Tom promises that he will not use the nukes and leave the settlement forever after the refueling process. The Captain reluctantly agrees, but makes it clear that while he could spare some trust toward Tom, he could not trust Klim due to his brutality and his shady dealings with the bandits. To ensure the Captain's cooperation and due to his own distrust toward Klim for potentially planning a coup against him, Tom agrees to get rid of Klim when the time comes. After Sam helps Ed fix his knee, they get drunk to pass the time while waiting for the storm to pass.

The Captain assists Sam in retrieving the nuclear control rods from a submarine base. After completing the extraction, they inform Tom and go back to the sub. Right before they get there, the Captain reveals that one his friends planted a charge within one of the nuclear rods to ensure Tom's plan never came into fruition. He then hands Sam the detonator to blow up the sub when the time comes. While he acknowledges that Tom might not use the nukes, he nonetheless believes the sub is too powerful of a weapon to entrust to any one man. Although this would prevent Sam from returning to the United States, he asks Sam to at least consider his proposal.