Yermak

"This speed is basically nothing for our old gal…"

- Yermak

Andrei Ivanovich Yermak (Russian: Андрей Иванович Ермак) is a character who first appears in Metro Exodus. A survivor of the war who worked as part of the Moscow Metro personnel, he is the helmsman of the Aurora.

Overview
One of Moscow's few surviving metro personnel, Yermak was a train engineer before the war, working on the Ring Line, much to his boredom. He often dreamed of quitting his job and signing up with a real railroad to see Russia. His wife, Tatiana, let him know how she felt about that by refusing to sleep with him for months every time he brought it up. While his wife and son were killed when the bombs fell, Yermak's daughter survived with him, since they were in the Metro at the time, as she was coming home from cram school and had come to visit him at work. Eventually, he signed up to run a train on the surface for Hansa. Though initially optimistic about his new assignment, he soon discovered the mass graves of all the people that Hanza executed for trying to enter Moscow. While disillusioned, Yermak kept working for them out of fear for his daughter's safety, and then out of hopelessness after she passed away from TB. He knows absolutely everything about the armored vehicle of the Sparta Order and is also its helmsman, as well as the driving force behind it.

His expertise covers everything from the complicated machine that is the steam engine right down to the smallest bolts in the wagons. Yermak works tirelessly to keep the Aurora, which he endearingly calls the 'old gal' (Russian: старушка), in running condition so that Artyom can get to his destination.

Trivia

 * Ермак/Yermak is the Russian form of the Germanic given name Herman or Hermann.

Gallery
Ермак