Artyom's Journal (Metro Last Light)

Artyom's Journal (Metro 2033 Redux) <-- Click Here for First Diary Collection.

These are the journal entries of Artyom in Metro: Last Light. For a guide on how to collect them, see the Published achievement.

Note 1
"I must do what Hunter demanded of me, what Miller ordered me, what Anna expects of me. I must prove to them all that I deserve to be one of them. To be one of the Order’s fighters, to dedicate my life to the protection of humanity. The protection of the Metro. This mission is tailor-made for me. I am the only one impervious to the influence of the Dark Ones. Perhaps, I was born to rid humanity of them once and for all. And now I am one step from fulfilling that task. So why am I so uneasy?"

Level description
Just a year ago I stood on top of the TV tower and saw missiles rain on the Botanical Gardens, turning the flesh into ashes, smelting metal and glass. Nobody and nothing could survive that inferno. Yet Khan did find a Dark One there. Now my mission is to find and eliminate it. To finish what I started.

Note 1
"But maybe, the Dark Ones aren't the reason for this… It’s troubled times we live in. The whole Order is humming like a beehive. Once created to safeguard the Metro against any dangers, it inadvertently introduced a new danger on its own… When we entered the tunnels of the D6 secret military installation and found the vast sealed storage facilities we thought we'd saved humanity! With the stockpiles of food and medical supplies stored here, with the functional reactor, we all could survive indefinitely. And live to see the day when the radiation on the surface goes down and we are able to go back there and make Earth our home once more."

Level description
The creature I met in the burnt-out remains of the Gardens looks like a Dark One… And it was able to enter my mind, dragging the innermost out of me… But it was also just a baby. And I am sure that… it recognized me. And I got scared. It also left me knocked out for some time… Just enough for me to get captured…

Note 1
"The dead Botanical Gardens were always a deadly, deserted place. Stalkers used to avoid it even before the Dark Ones built their… hive… or city there. I was the only person in the world who'd eagerly go there. But this time some Reich stalkers were there, too. These race purists almost never venture out of their stations in the center of the city! What were they looking for in the smoldering remains of the Gardens? And why didn't Anna help me? Miller’s daughter would never abandon a comrade! What if they captured her, too? She’s a rude tomboy and seems to hate me to the boot, since I’m nothing like Hunter, but… I'm worried about her."

Level description
My escape from the Nazi prison could be entitled “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend”. This friend’s name is Pavel. He led a Red recon team wiped out by the Nazis. I never liked communists much, but Pavel acted like a real hero.

Note 1
"The Dark One was here, at the Reich concentration camp, but he’s long gone. Well… That means I'll just have to follow him. The mission assigned to me by Miller still stands. I will find the Dark One… and then I'll decide what to do next. If that Nazi was telling the truth and he really did sell the creature to Hansa traders, now the Dark One can be just about anywhere. Hansa occupies the ring line of the Moscow Metro and is a union of trading stations. They still have regular train service with cargo and passenger caravans… In one day the Dark One may surface on the other side of the Metro. I might have lost him now. I don't know how that Dark One avoided torture and execution. The Nazis regularly hang people for having a “wrongly” shaped skull, so a creature like the Dark One should seem an embodiment of evil and corruption to them."

Level description
We pulled off the impossible… Now I have to inform the Order that the Dark One is missing. Which means to acknowledge that I've failed my mission. But now, when he’s down in the Metro I won't be able to find him alone. I have to get to the nearest neutral station and then to Polis, the Order’s HQ. Pavel will show me the way.

Note 1
"When I heard the Fuhrer’s hysterical ramblings, all the pieces of the puzzle started falling together… The assaults our patrols, them capturing me as a Polis representative… The existence of D6 is no longer a secret, and a total war in the Metro is approaching…"

Note 2
"Having a guide like Pavel sure puts my mind at ease. It seems he'd been here before. And Reich’s peculiarities don't surprise him. I wish I knew what kind of mission he was on… But I just can’t find the right moment to talk. But Pavel seemed to know that Reich was poised for war beforehand, while to me this was a revelation. The tales of the stores we found in D6 are already circulating through the Metro. The Order was not going to hog the find, but we're running out of time to explain this. Reich is already almost at the Order’s throat trying to take the Vault… So what’s going to happen when the Red Line and Hansa find out about the bunker? So that’s the war Miller was talking about…"

Level description
"Pavel’s almost certainly going to hang. Who knows what would have happened to me, had he not released me? Red, blue, yellow - what difference does that make? He risked his life for me. You don't get that much in the Metro. I can't just walk away on him…"

Note 1
"Basically, the Metro never knew any lasting peace. The united administration lasted for just a few years. It all fell apart by itself when it became obvious that the world was no more, that the rumors of the President and government surviving and escaping somewhere behind the Urals were just that - rumors, and that Russia was no longer rising from the ashes. After that it was every man for himself. The stations turned into city-states and yesterday’s neighbors turned into bitter enemies. Survival in the Metro meant struggle - for food, air, every square inch of habitable ground. Hardly a quarter survives today of those two hundred thousands who found their salvation from Judgment Day in the Metro. Hansa, the Red Line and the Reich have grown so large because they were stronger than the others and fought with more determination. But not once throughout these twenty years of bloodshed has the fighting enveloped the whole of Metro. What if our tiny underground world is facing a new, final World War?"

Level description
"I dragged Pavel out of the noose, and he says he’s going to take me as close to Polis as possible. Then I'll contact the Order and report on everything that has happened. The path to the legendary Theater lies through the catacombs. I've never been here before, and without my new friend I'd probably be completely lost. I hope he knows the way."

Note 1
"The tunnels and stations of the Metro are but a part of the subterranean construction projects carried out in the long ages of Moscow’s history. The Dukes would build secret passages and hideouts, the tsars would construct catacombs and reliquaries - and even then, centuries ago they would routinely stumble upon even older passages created in times immemorial, and perhaps even not by humans. Caves, underground riverbeds… Nobody really knows what’s there around the Metro stations, above them or below them. There are no maps, for the cartographers never come back from their expeditions… And those strange, nightmarish creatures inhabiting the catacombs - were they really born of radiation? Could they have always lived there? Perhaps they would just avoid men before, but now, feeling that our end is near, that we're no longer the masters of the Earth, they got braver and now approach us closer and closer to finally jump us and feed on us while we're still warm?"

Note 2
"Pavel was captured in the vicinity of the Gardens, just like me. I wonder, what could he have been doing out there? What the hell were all of them doing out there? I think I'll hit him with that question - later. Right now we just need to stay alive and break out of the Reich borders."

Level description
"We're almost at the Theater now. The Metro entrance should be pretty close. But however small the distance is, we'll have to cover it on the surface. And there, every step you take could well be your last."

Note 1
"Since the day we ended up in the Metro, I have gone up to the surface only a few times. The background radiation is too high there, so frequent ventures out translate into grave illnesses to those brave enough to attempt them. One has to stay constantly alert on the surface. The pollution tends to be uneven; there are hotspots which could dole out a lethal dose of radiation in a matter of minutes, while some places could actually be habitable if not for the monsters and unbearable gloominess. The eye cannot discern between a safe place and a hotspot; you have to use a Geiger counter. You can't go out to the surface without a gas mask, either. We used to own the Earth. Today, although I still remember that summer day in the Gardens with my mom, I almost can't believe it actually happened. I can't believe I used to live in one of those tall houses and could look up at the sky every day. It’s as if Metro was always my home… But I still miss that world we lost."

Note 2
"The Red Line is one of the biggest and strongest states in the Metro, occupying almost a whole line. But for as long as I can remember, the Reds always used to preach that their goal was the installation of communism throughout the whole of the Metro, the restoration of a destroyed state that used to be based on the ideals of equality of justice. The problem is, the independent stations keep their distance from the Red Line as best as they can, which means they can’t restore the Red State without strife. Yes, the Reds are no angels, but what the Nazis are doing is regular horror. And I am happy to have an ally like Pavel. Even if he’s Red."

Level description
"Our short visit to dead Moscow, the phantom of the past, is over. Pavel and I helped each other out again and are returning down to the Metro as real partners now. You can’t survive the wastelands any other way. But now ahead of us lies a populated station, The Theater. It’s very close to Polis. If Pavel manages to lead me through the Red Line guard posts, I'll be home in less than an hour."

Note 1
"Pavel needs some time to set everything up. The citizens of other stations need a permit to enter the Red Line. The state in permanent preparation for war readily sees a spy in any outsider. So I have some time to look around the Theater. This station is a real legend of the Metro - not unlike Polis, the difference being that while Polis gathered most of the surviving scientists, the Theater is considered to be the cultural capital of the Metro."

Note 2
"No wonder! The world-famous Bolshoi Theater is right above that station! There are rumors that there are underground passages from its basement into the Metro, and that’s the reason why many of its actors and other staff were able to save themselves on Judgment Day. They founded a new Bolshoi down here at the station. It is the theater rumors of which reach even the farthest corners of the Metro. And since the habitable world ends where the Metro lines end, you could say that the New Bolshoi is also known around the world. Some say it actually preserves the tradition of its great predecessor… They say that the Earth continues to spin while the Bolshoi still puts on the shows… How I wished to see one of those! Perhaps, I finally got my chance?"

Level description
"That was so stupid of me. I bought that talk of friendship, the stupid musketeer saying… Just you wait… I will get even. I wonder, though, why did Pavel go through the trouble of trapping me?"

Level description
"Now I am in REAL spider-infested catacombs… Where the General Secretary Moskvin does not look like the head spider; that title clearly belongs to General Korbut… I sure would like to know what’s on his mind. What did Lesnitsky bring him from D6? What’s going to destroy the enemies of the Revolution? Only questions, and no answers. The only thing that is clear: Pavel has information on the Dark One, which makes him my current target."

Note 1
"One thing is completely certain now: the Red Line is preparing for war. Without making pompous statements or fanning hysteria like the Reich usually does, they are steadily assembling the strongest army in the Metro ever. And the very silence accompanying their war preparations seems more sinister to me than all the Fuhrer’s speeches…"

Note 2
"Looks like the Red Line’s General Secretary Moskvin does not do much decision-making. It seems that he himself is Korbut’s hostage… The one-eyed General holds him in a deadlock with one hand, while using the other to move the pieces on his huge chessboard - the whole Metro. But why does the Secretary, supposedly capable of laying the general off or even having him executed, tolerate his insolence and yield to his demands? What gives Korbut strength? Knowledge, perhaps? I just have to catch up with Pavel and he'll tell me everything. We'll see how he is going to continue singing his songs of equality and brotherhood, of creating a just state for everyone… That traitor!"

Note 3
"Justice… Equality… Peace… Moskvin knows how to hit where it hurts. It might seem strange, but they are right: if we don't reach an agreement, don’t stop fighting, we’ll finish ourselves off much sooner that any mutants would. Communists, just like Nazis, use the bunker located by the Order as bait. The common folk swallow it hook, line and sinker… And that’s all. War. Prosperity has to be bought with a price of blood. For humanity to have a bright future, one more generation has to discard its present…"

Note 4
"I must find the last surviving Dark One. The Order dictates that I eliminate it. That is my mission. Kill it, like I killed all its kin. I’m prohibited from reflecting on this order, I have no right to doubt, but… After all I recalled under the effect of Korbut’s serum… I no longer know if I still want to carry that order out."

Level description
"I was able to send a report back to the Order via my old acquaintance: Andrew the Blacksmith. At least Miller will know that I'm alive, that I have not completed the mission but haven't resigned from it either."

Note 1
"Once again Andrew helped me out - and once again I am riding a railcar towards my goal. This time, though, I travel in comfort instead of hiding in a luggage cart risking being put to death on the spot if found out… These tunnels I’m driving through, though, seem to harbor things more dangerous than the execution squads of the Reds…"

Level description
"Pavel’s group is advancing towards Tretyakovskaya, also known as Venice. They have a few hours’ lead on me, and are moving via frequently used tunnels… But I will catch up. I can't afford not to."

Note 1
"I remember Pavel saying, “You can't save everyone. You have to choose the lesser evil” in the Nazi concentration camp… He’s probably right. But one thought has been nagging on me ever since… We are all damn heroes saving humanity. The Nazis killing anyone however slightly mutated. The Communists eager to herd everyone into one state and thus introduce peace into the Metro. Me, who in order to save people has destroyed a whole new sentient species. We’re talking of salvation all the while killing, killing, killing… And that was the way of man always."

Note 2
"Somebody told me once, that the Metro stands on water. Usually it can’t get inside the tunnels. The lived-in stations have pumps working day and night to remove the water seeping in from the outside. But there are also places like this, where the tunnels have turned into subterranean rivers and the stations into islands. That won’t stop me. I will continue pursuit even on water. The Tretyakovskaya is already in sight."

Level description
"The snow on the surface starts melting… The familiar railcars are now joined with boats… and fishermen. One of them appeared just in the nick of time. Soon we’ll be docked at Venice. Pavel is most probably already there."

Note 1
"Some people don't understand why the whole Metro isn't still flooded. The others wonder how humanity could last for twenty years in a shelter intended to be used for a few months at most. Some say that man is just as hard to kill as roaches or rats. But I don't think that’s the only reason. I always thought we exist for a purpose. We just don’t yet completely get it."

Level description
"The subterranean Venice… An island on the dark waters of underground rivers. You always hear rough stories circulating about this place. I hear it is all one huge den of thieves. But there is something I know for sure: Pavel reached Venice and if I'm not late he’s still there. Finding the Dark One is still my main mission, but now I see I must also uncover Korbut’s plans so that I can warn the Order about them…"

Note 1
"The subterranean Venice is a strange city. Three stations half-flooded with groundwater. Old-timers say there used to be another city by that name… They also say it was the most beautiful city in the world. Who know what has become of it?"

Note 2
"Venice… I've been told that subterranean Venice is a city of thieves and murderers, but I found regular people here. They've arranged their lives as best as they could, have achieved a fragile peace and are really afraid that the chaos raging outside might envelop them. They just want to live."

Level description
"If I'm lucky, our people will be waiting for me at the outpost in the abandoned church. I will tell them everything I know - about Pavel, about a test of some kind they're going to conduct - and will continue my way to Oktyabrskaya. The Dark One is there."

Note 1
"I feel like I sailed into a maelstrom - events that I don't fully understand start happening all around me and suddenly I'm dragged down to the bottom by their current… Wherever I go, everybody around me keeps talking of war. Some are getting ready for it, others - running from it. But everyone believes it’s coming. Miller, Fuhrer, Moskvin, the people at the Theater and the refugees from the Red Line. The damp and rusty air of the Metro smells of blood and doom. It is not my war. I wonder if anything at all can be done to prevent it…"

Level description
"I made quite a lot of noise pushing through the marshes. If there really are our people in the Church, I will soon meet them."

Note 1
"If this subterranean island gets dragged into the meat-grinder of the coming war, all this will be done for. Gondola rides in the tunnel rivers, swimmers and fishermen, the amazingly useless art galleries, all these children who grew up in the dark but are shining themselves with the light of hope… Nothing will remain - just a charred burnt-out station. And soon all the rest of the Metro will become just like that…"

Level description
"For some reason I was genuinely glad to see Anna, my pain in the ass partner… She finally stopped those wicked jokes of hers. Looks like she’s ashamed of having left her partner at the battlefield."

Level description
"All the roads lead to Oktyabrskaya. The Dark One is there. Anna is there now, too. In the hands of my enemies. The hands of the traitor - Lesnitsky."

Note 1
"The group that wiped out the Order outpost and kidnapped Anna takes over Oktyabrskaya - a peaceful neutral station. This is a declaration of war with the Order and influential Hansa, which borders Oktyabrskaya. Lesnitsky’s team, even though quite strong, would still not be enough to start a war against Hansa. I don’t get this. What is Korbut hoping for? What is this devil thinking?"

Level description
"The pieces of the puzzle are falling together, and the big picture is horrifying and unbelievable. I will tell the others about this, but I still can't make myself believe it: the Reds have infected Oktyabrskaya, a peaceful station, denizens of which never suspected anything, with an unknown deadly virus. And then their mop-up squads entered it under the pretense of saving the station from the epidemic and eliminated everyone they could - women, children, old people. To prevent the infection from spreading… And if all this is true, then me and Anna could be infected too. We've been saved from being killed, but we don’t know if we're going to survive for long."

Note 1
"The Reds were quite possibly hoping to enter a station completely wiped out by the virus, but it took too long to do that and they got impatient. They did not just wait for the outcome, they hastened it. The survivors say that when the purging of the station started, the Reds allowed some supposedly contaminated locals to escape to the neighboring station, the Oktyabrskaya-Koltsevaya. But those escapees were closely followed by the execution squads. If not for a team of Order fighters who just happened to be at Koltsevaya at the time and repelled the Reds, by now they would have two stations and Hansa would be cut in half. But the Order managed to avert that."

Note 2
"Now the Oktyabrskaya-Koltsevaya belonging to Hansa is a cross between a hospital and quarantine zone. All the refugees from the neighboring station and everyone who had contacted them are being put into plastic boxes. And that’s it. Nobody tries to treat them. Everyone suspected of being infected sits in his plastic cage and his death sits across, playing stares with him. A minute of this game lasts an eternity. The losers are infected, die and get burned. Death is too good of a player to give his opponents many chances of winning."

Level description
"In some other time and place, what happened could be life changing. But there is no time but present and no place but the Metro for us. And we must do everything we can to save it. I have to hurry and catch up with the Dark One, Anna has to tell her father of what Korbut and Moskvin are doing. Anything else is a luxury we can’t afford right now."

Note 1
"I remember Korbut calling the operation they were going to carry out at Oktyabrskaya “an experiment”… What if this massacre was not a prelude to a great war, but just a test of the new monstrous weapon? What if the Reds are simply distracting Order and Hansa, all the while preparing a much more powerful, overwhelming attack? I wanted to be a soldier. To protect humanity. But all the blood I spilled didn't help me prevent the war that’s already started. I didn't become a superhero capable of killing the villain and saving the whole world. Not that I didn't dream of it. Everyone does. But when the war starts, most turn out to be just a cannon fodder. Many don't even survive their first engagement. And I, as a little gear, can only spin on the predetermined axis and watch the massive flywheel of slaughter unwind. That, perhaps, is why I am going with Khan. This might be my only chance to change anything."

Level description
"I never believed him - and that is no surprise - but Khan’s words were true. This strange river took me to the past, the moment where I sent out the signal and destroyed the Dark Ones. And then it dropped me off at the place where I can find the last survivor of that race - a helpless and harmless child… Khan called him the Last Angel."

Note 1
"Khan. I never know what to expect of him. I don't even really know what he is. A traveling philosopher? A wizard? A guest from a parallel dimension? How does he earn his living - by saving people or by killing them? He always makes me feel like I don't understand anything about life and world I'm living in. He shows me things I can't explain - and will never be able to. He makes obvious seem absurd, while the absurd becomes logical and natural. What if he is right? What if the Dark Ones were not demons, not hellspawn - but angels? What if they were able to save us, if we could overcome the animal within us and find a common language with them? What if the little Dark One that’s sitting in a cage inside this train… What if he really is the last angel? What if he’s going to pass judgment upon us?"

Level description
"Of course I could not kill him. And while I am alive and my heart is beating, I will protect him. Khan says we'll be able to use him to stop the war… Yes, he can make miracles happen… But I don't want to use him. His war was over when I targeted the missiles at his home, his family."

Note 1
"I recalled why I am immune to the Dark Ones’ influence. I am, in fact, a Chosen One - but I was not born that way. I became so the day we opened the airlock, the day I was destined to die. I was supposed to be ripped apart by feral beasts, but that Dark One saved me. I was the first human they met. It just happened this way. And before I even had a chance to get scared, he touched me. Because that’s the way they create a link. It’s hard to do with a grown-up person, but kids… They're not yet hardened, their soul is still free of crust, easier to get to… I became the First."

Note 2
"That day I opened the airlock and went out to the dead surface, risking my life and the lives of my friends, because I just missed my mother too much. And that Dark One saw me. He saw a lonely orphan. Alone in the whole world. By touching my soul he… it’s as if he adopted me. Ever since that moment their presence would not inflict terror or pain on me. I was supposed to grow up and become a medium between humans and the Dark Ones, a bridge between two worlds. They were coming to the expo to find me. To make me recall my mission…"

Level description
"Whatever my intentions concerning him might be, the little Dark One just does not seem to care. He keeps following me as if I never was going after him, as if we were tied together by fate…"

Note 1
"But I remained human. I was afraid to be different, afraid to be considered abnormal... I was the only one free from their influence, but I suspected myself to be a sleeper agent of the monsters... The meeting with the Dark One just got displaced from my memory. The beast within me woke up and devoured the human. I went out to the surface an orphan, yet I came back a firstborn son. I was to create a connection between the angels and men, and instead I targeted the missiles at them. There was only one survivor. And now he stands before me. A child. An orphan. Alone in the whole world. The circle is complete."

Level description
"We are coming to Polis. Together. Come what may. The Little One did not want to leave. Something is holding him... I don't yet get what. Nevertheless, I'm glad it is, because he is helpful."

Note 1
"I don't know what I will tell Miller, who ordered him killed. I don't know what the Dark One will think when I introduce Miller to him... What does he think of us in general? When I think what he had to go through in the course of the last few days... They were going to kill him as a mutant, and his only salvation was human greed. Then they were going to turn him into a guard dog, watching over the prisoners and making the green recruits charge into the enemy's bayonet lines... But he escaped the fate only to be put into a freak show, and then shipped away as property from the station where some people decided conduct a sinister experiment on the... God... What if he really is an angel?"

Level description
"He who sows the wind, shall reap the storm. The Dark One opened up Lesnitsky's thoughts to me. I know all their plans. I know Pavel is going to be at the Red Square, and that's where I have to face him - I have to reach Polis to denounce the liars. And face the storm."

Note 1
"Once again we're going through the surface. Hello again, Moscow. A crypt city. A fallen hero city. A city bereft of its soul. It's not my home city anymore. My home city is in the past. But it is the home city of the little Dark One... How strange."

Note 2
"The Dark One, I saw an angel in him... Yet he's just a child. I feared him judging us. What if he was to decide if we were going to live or die? For that reason, I feared him. I feared that the way through the Metro he had to travel was going to bring a death sentence upon Humanity's head. And now... I'm just ashamed. Ashamed for us all. For what we'd become. The history of Humanity must not end like this..."

Level description
"I know one way into Polis from here - through the Red Square. The Order keeps an outpost in the Saint Basil's Cathedral. I'll get in touch with our men and tell them all I know. And my goal would be just a step away from there. It will all be over soon."

Note 1
"What is it like, the Red Square? I can't wait to see it. People before used to say it was the heart of our motherland. I'd never been to this place, and saw it only on the old postcards. This must be the most popular postcard sight of Moscow. - the Saint Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin... All the foreign tourists used to be brought here first and foremost... They didn't nuke the Kremlin in the War. Instead they hit it with something... Something that spared all the buildings but ate everything organic within the radius of a few miles. Something... experimental."

Note 2
"For years nobody dared approach the Red Square. They said that something remained in the basement of the Kremlin, luring anything alive in and consuming it. Then the Order purged the Kremlin with fire... it's empty and all black with silt inside now. Just like the rest of the city. The Red Square. The stopped heart of a country long gone."

Level description
"We have to make it to Polis in time for the peace conference. There isn't going to be peace... Just war. The last war! Now I know the answers to all the questions. Pavel's head proved to be a real treasury of Korbut's sinister plans."

Note 1
"Now I know it all. The picture is complete. All I saw was just in preparation. The real blow will be delivered at the very last moment. When nobody would expect. Korbut boasted he was going to take the whole of the Metro without spilling blood. He could really do it. The last blood he'd have to spill would be the blood of the Order fighter's protecting D6. The Reds are going to take them by surprise, for at that very moment Moskvin is going to be signing the peace treaty with Miller and the others."

Note 2
"And then Korbut would have a weapon which could wipe out all of Humanity...that hadn't been done before. All the stations will be filled with corpses. And the Red Line will rule the Metro. If it manages to contain the virus - after all, it could mutate too... I can't waste a minute anymore. I have to make it in time for this "peace" conference."

Level description
"He is not alone... He's not the last! I understand his excitement and his wish to immediately meet the others. To free them and wake them up... But... He has agreed to wait a bit longer. First he's going to try and help us. If we make it to the conference, the Dark One will be able to open up the thoughts of Moskvin - or Korbut himself! Perhaps... make them stop this madness! This is our last chance."

Note 1
"I asked the kid about how he made it. How did he survive the inferno? Now I know. When the missiles rained upon the city of the Dark Ones he was simply not there. The Dark Ones... We've been asking ourselves how it happened so that new sentient life emerged almost instantly. Why did we take millions of years of evolution, and all the Dark Ones needed were a few years? The answer was simple. It was us, people, who had brought them to life. They emerged amongst us. Sukhoi, my stepfather, was right - they were the next step of evolution. Next to ours. We were their fathers, they were our children. We had created so many weapons to destroy ourselves with... and one of those weapons gave birth to them. They are not like us. What kills us makes them stronger. We left them a ravaged, poisoned world. But they learned to live in it. They sustain themselves by absorbing radiation. After being born, they do not enter the world at once -

For sometime they continue to exist in a dream, growing and learning from the ones who came before them. What we destroyed was their home. But the place where their young one slept was underground. Close to the Botanical Gardens. Close to the TV Tower. It was in the bunkers under the TV buildings, which were connected to D6. But when the warheads fell, the entrance tunnels caved in. The Dark Ones who were almost ready to enter the world got blocked inside. Instead of them, he, the Little One, opened his eyes, awakened by the explosion and the last scream of his mother. Knowing nothing of what had happened. Not ready for anything, knowing nothing of the world. He tried looking for his kin, but could not find them, because the few survivors continued sleeping. Their time to wake up had come and passed. Very soon they could die of hunger, without even opening their eyes once. I don't know how Khan persuaded Miller, but he was the icon of stoicism and did not reach for his weapon when he saw the Dark One. And the following events shocked me even more than the plans of the Reds -

There were Dark Ones in D6! Khan had hypothesized that they were created artificially before the war. Created as what? Soldiers immune to radiation and having no need for voice communication? Could be so... But then God probably decided to breathe souls into them..."

Level description
"He is gone. He did what he could... And now he has gone to meet his kin. I can't judge him for that. The remainders of humanity are finishing each other off in their final fight - it is not his war. I hope he was able to forgive us... Me. For what we did to his brothers and sisters. His mother and father."

Note 1
"We must stop Korbut, prevent him from taking D6. If we fail, all we've been through after the War, all the hardships we braved surviving all these years, all the sacrifices... Everything would have been in vain. Could it be that the spring that has finally melted the decades-old ice on the surface, promising us a new hope of leaving the darkness of the underground and reaching out to the sun again, is also in vain? Could it happen that there won't be anyone left to welcome the spring? I can't believe this. Hope still lives while the Order holds D6, while even a single one of us still draws breath. We will stop Korbut - at any cost. For our friends and families. For the whole of the Metro. For the spring we've all been waiting for. For the future."

Note 2
"Now I know. There were never any stores of food or medical supplies in D6 to speak of. Miller just didn't want to tell us that; he kept opening door after door hoping to find what he'd promised. Our chance for salvation. But all he found were containers with viruses. With bacteria. Spores of death. The ancestors left us a vast stockpile of tabooed weapons, nothing else. And we opened Pandora's box. Korbut knew this. He never cared about food or other supplies. Hungry people are easier to control. They always want more. We opened Pandora's box, and we're going to seal it back. Or die. All of us..."