Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk (Russian: Новосибирск) is a location in Metro Exodus. It serves as the main setting of the "Dead City" chapter, as well as The Two Colonels DLC. Prior to its appearance in the game, some stories from the Universe of Metro 2033 book series used Novosibirsk as a setting.

Overview
The City of Novosibirsk was the third largest city of Russia before the Great War. During the war, Novosibirsk was the target of an extremely potent cobalt bomb. As a result, despite most of the buildings remaining intact, the radiation is more than eight times that of Moscow. Despite the Metro not being as deep as the one in Moscow, numerous people found shelter in it and survived for quite some time.

The shallow depth of Novosibirsk's metro system provided inadequate protection from surface radiation that would seep into the tunnels, requiring its inhabitants to regularly take anti-radiation medications. These began to run low, and the metro's hydroponic-based food supply could not feed its entire population.

Riots soon broke out against the military leadership, eventually resulting in a civil war that wiped out most of the population.

History
The city of Novosibirsk was, leading up to the war, in military control. The military unit, named "OSKOM" was in command leading up to, and after World War III. Through flashbacks, it's revealed that as the war occurred the military took action against civilians, including but not limited to firing a SABOT round from a tank into a Metro entrance. Due to attempted evacuations, the entire city was gridlocked, with many of the internal roads and those outbound were filled with cars.

It's believed that a majority of the civilian population, as well as the military, was decimated by the cobalt bomb that went off in Novosibirsk.

Novosibirsk Metro
Novosibirsk, like Moscow, had its own local metro system. The Metro is first encountered a short drive in Saul's Van away from the Aurora, just after finding the tank roadblock through which the vehicle cannot pass.



The inhabitants from the Novosibirsk Metro, despite being in one of the most irradiated cities of post-war, were kept alive using "Green Stuff", rumored to be from the same institute the medicine was retrieved from that saved Anna's life in the ending. Once injected, the drug appears to absorb radiation instead of the body, allowing the metro population to survive the background radiation.

In Novosibirk the Russian Armed Forces, in the form of the OSKOM unit, was in charge of the Metro and its inhabitants. It is unlikely this particular Metro had a bunker similar to D6 or the Yamantau Complex, as both Lieutenant-Colonel Khlebnikov and later Miller were forced to try and find radiation maps within a surface Sat-Com center, when a command bunker would have access to these maps.

Being a scarce resource, "green stuff" was used as currency by the residents, as opposed to MGRs like in Moscow. Since OSKOM were the only ones with the means to explore the surface and obtain more green stuff, it fell to them to distribute the drug as they saw fit.

The metro stations were primarily powered by hydro-electricity, which was harvested in the flooded stations. A strange form of mutated slime would often spread through the flooded stations, however, clogging the pumps and waterways in the flooded stations, followed by giant worms. This meant that the stations had to periodically be cleared with flamethrowers.

As the supply of Anti-rad ran low, OSKOM started preparing for an evacuation. The original goal was to evacuate the entire metro population to a clean area via rail. To this end, stalkers were sent to a satellite center on the surface to search for maps that would, hopefully, reveal a clean area. These expeditions did not yield much result, however, and the population grew more and more restless as OSKOM was forced to confiscate any excess supply of Green Stuff from the citizenry. The fact that the evacuation plans were kept secret did not help either, as rumors soon started spreading that OSKOM were planning on leaving the civilians behind. The decision to evacuate the leadership first only served to give these rumors more credence. Eventually, a large riot erupted that culminated in the storming of Sibirskaya, which initially resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, and then nigh absolute once poison gas was released into the tunnels. In the end, the worst fears of the residents came true, as the leadership decided to evacuate without them, leaving not only civilians but regular OSKOM soldiers behind as well. Additionally, a disgruntled General Tolya ordered his solders to intercept the train and destroy it. Ultimately, there were only two known survivors of the riots: Colonel Khlebnikov and his son, Kirill.

Miller references that as the Metro was not as deep as the Moscow Metro, and the city was hit hard especially, as natural life expectancy was not sustainable past the one year mark of the initial bombing. This would mean that if it were not for the medicine provided by the Institute, the population would have died in 2014. The mass-extinction took place three months before the arrival of the Aurora crew.

Metro Exodus
The Aurora crew made a short incursion into the city in search of a medicine to save Anna's life, and a snow plow for the train. Colonel Miller and Artyom get inside the Metro system in search for the medicine, where they found Kirill, the last known human survivor in the city. After completing their mission, the three of them attempt to return to the Aurora, but Miller dies of radiation poisoning along the way. Kirill and Artyom reach the Aurora alive, but Artyom's fate depends on the players actions in previous chapters. After the Aurora left the city, it has no human population, only mutants and, potentially, Dark Ones.

Trivia

 * Novosibirsk is quite possibly the most irradiated city in Russia, with radiation levels more than eight times that of Moscow. The radiation is so intense that Miller and Artyom are forced to wear specialised, lead-lined suits alongside their gas masks, and even then cannot spend more than a few minutes outside without getting critical radiation poisoning.

Gallery
Nowosibirsk Nowosybirsk Новосибирск