Aurora

The Aurora (Russian: Аврора) is a heavily modified steam locomotive, boarded by Artyom and Anna to find a new home far to the East in Metro Exodus. It serves as a mobile base in the game. Yermak is the Aurora's helmsman, while Miller serves as its crew's leader.

Overview
The Aurora is the primary vehicle and one of the main aspects of Metro Exodus. First appearing after Artyom and Anna attempt to go back to the Metro after finding no radio signals, the Aurora is hijacked by the duo—with the aid of its engineer Yermak—to escape from the Hansa soldiers pursuing them.

The train pulled by the Aurora takes numerous different appearances as the game progresses. When first captured by the Spartans, it consists solely of the engine. In the Volga level, a passenger carriage and a railcar are added. In the Caspian, a van, vehicle storage, and fuel tank carriage is added to the collection. In the Taiga level, Krest's railcar is lost in a landslide. The final addition is gained in the Dead City level. While Miller and Artyom complete their tasks, the rest of the Spartans set out to pick up a large snow plough for the Aurora, which can be seen in the game's ending.

In the open world levels of Metro Exodus, the Aurora serves as the base of operations for Artyom. While workbenches can be found around the world, Artyom can only swap out weapons at the one aboard the Aurora. During the Volga level, the Aurora's weaponsmith, Tokarev, will provide Artyom with the Tikhar, a pneumatic air rifle. When he returns to the Aurora over the course of the game, new upgrades are unlocked.

Crew
The team aboard the Aurora can grow or diminish in number over the course of the story of Metro Exodus.

A group of rangers from the Spartan Order form the basis of the crew from the start of the journey, but new individuals can be recruited to join Artyom along the way.

The Aurora's crew include:
 * Artyom - The player character and protagonist of the game, returning from previous installments of the series.
 * Anna - Artyom's wife and best sniper of the Ranger Order, first seen in Metro: Last Light.
 * Stepan - Not to be confused with the stalker of the same name from Metro 2033, he is a ranger from Metro 2035 who sided with Artyom and joined him aboard the train.
 * Tokarev - The weapons expert of the armoured train's crew, responsible for creating many of the Order's weapons and modifications
 * Yermak - Helmsman of the Aurora as well as the driving force behind all of its mechanisms, he used to work as personnel in the Moscow Metro before the war.
 * Idiot - One of the smartest men aboard the train, he is considered its resident philosopher.
 * Alyosha - The Order's scout specialist and survivalist expert who used to work as a guard in Polis.
 * Sam - An American who used to guard the US embassy in Moscow, now a ranger and personal security for Colonel Miller.
 * Duke - A scout with the Ranger Order and survivor of the Battle for D6 like Stepan. He is one of the youngest members of the Aurora's crew.
 * Damir - Kazakhstani-born medic of the Rangers, a rarity among the primarily Russian members of the order.
 * Miller - The Sparta Order's leader, commander of the Aurora and a character who has thus far appeared in all the main Metro books and games.

As well as the Spartans, others can join the crew. These include:
 * Katya - A trained nurse who initially survived with her daughter in the Southern Urals, she moved north towards the Volga River. They were both captured by the Church of the Water Tsar and its leader Silantius.
 * Nastya - Katya's daughter, was captured by the Church of the Water Tsar along with her mother. Particularly hated Silantius as he smashed her flashlight in his technophobic zeal.
 * Kirill - The last recruited survivor, a boy from Novosibirsk.
 * Krest - A mechanic making his way east, recruited by Artyom at the Volga river.

Allies

 * Giul - A native of the Caspian Desert and resistance fighter who stayed behind to fight the Munai-bailer.
 * Olga - Stayed behind in Kazakhstan to lead Children of the Forest and possibly convince them to leave.

Trivia

 * The Aurora is the second armoured train to appear in the Metro games after the one used by the Red Line in Metro: Last Light, but also the first steam locomotive in the Metro series of games.
 * However, armoured and modified trains have appeared in the Metro book series before, namely several novels of the Universe of Metro 2033, such as Denis Shabalov's "Constitution of the Apocalypse" trilogy consisting of the novels: The Right to Use Force, The Right to Life, and The Right to Revenge.
 * The Aurora is a "duplex" locomotive, with two sets of driving wheels in what appears to be a 2-8-8-4 configuration, which means a forward pilot truck with two wheels, two sets of driving wheels with eight wheels each, and a rear trailing truck with four wheels. In Russian configuration, this would be a 1-4-4-2.
 * The locomotive may be a heavily modified Russian P38 articulated locomotive which were the biggest and heaviest Soviet steam locomotives in existence.
 * It might also be based on two Soviet IS20 locomotives (like IS20-317, for example) combined into a single engine. Those were made from 1932 to 1942, and were used even all the way up until 1972. Most were scrapped in the 1980s as Soviet railroads were replacing them with larger locomotives.
 * The locomotive that was converted into the Aurora could have been taken from one of several Moscow's railway museums, where some steam locomotives are preserved in a fairly good shape, despite their age. In the book Piter, it was said that the Soviet government kept a steam locomotive in every station of St. Petersburg for use in case of nuclear war. The Aurora's good state, and its ability to function with carbon, wood, or fuel, may suggest that it could have been the Muscovian equivalent of this.
 * For a locomotive of such size, the Aurora doesn't have a tender. It's unknown where the crew stores fuel and water required for the operation of the locomotive, as the small box of coal next to the firebox and the barrels of water mounted on the roof and sides are way too small to power the Aurora for days or weeks without any stops. After the Caspian, the locomotive burns liquid fuel from the tank car that was taken from the Baron's base. The method of storing water, however, still remains a mystery.
 * The back of the locomotive (the part resting on the trailing truck) appears to be an end section taken from a passenger carriage. This allows the crew to easily walk from the Aurora to the connected carriage, as the passageways on both ends are nearly identical and thus compatible.
 * Steam engines require much more maintenance than diesel-powered locomotives and also need to carry much more substantial volume of fuel and water. This might make them seem impractical for a long journey through the wasteland with no proper infrastructure. Steam engines, however, have two notable advantages - they can burn a much wider variety of fuels (in theory, anything flammable can power the train for at least a short duration of time, as long as enough heat is produced by the combustion) and they are also much simpler in design, making emergency repairs easier.
 * There are anachronistic elements scattered throughout the Aurora, hinting that it was either heavily modified or just cobbled together from various pieces after World War III.
 * The snow plough that the locomotive acquired in Novosibirsk appears to be based on "Taran" type railway snow ploughs. In real life, however, these snow ploughs have their own undercarriage/control cab and are pushed by a locomotive from the rear, not directly attached onto a locomotive. The one found in the game is most likely be a prototype though, according to Yermak.
 * Aurora is also the name of a Russian protected cruiser. A shot from her forecastle gun is considered to be the symbolic start of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7th, 1917. Idiot mentions this cruiser during the naming of the locomotive.

Gallery
Aurora Aurora Аврора (поезд)