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Attention! Spoiler ahead! This article contains plot information that may spoil major story aspects for the reader. Read at your own risk! |
The Battle for D6 was a major battle in the Red Line's plans to control the whole Metro. It takes place as the final level in Metro: Last Light, save for the endings, and, in either ending, ends with the Rangers victorious (Phyrric or not). The level itself is called D6 and is mainly a wave assault level.
Background
The events leading up to the Battle began when the The Rangers of the Order discovered D6 under the main Metro as part of the secret Metro 2 line and occupied it. Despite the Rangers attempting to keep its existance a secret, the rest of the Metro found out and were interested. Rumours came out that D6 was full of weapons, food and medicine, enough to sustain the Metro forever. As a result of these beliefs, other factions of the Metro felt the Rangers were being greedy - hoarding such wonders for their own good.
All three major factions had plans to claim D6 - Hansa wanted to use diplomatic pressure (most likely threatening to stop supplying the Rangers) in return for a piece of D6; the Fourth Reich had a plan called Operation: El Dorado, devised by the Führer to attack and take over D6; and the Red Line's plan, which is the focus of Metro: Last Light.
Unbeknownst to the Rangers, the Red Line had a double agent working for them inside D6 - Lesnitsky. He worked in D6's science labs, so had direct access to the bioweapons found there. It is likely he was a sleeper agent long before the Rangers even found D6, since it would take a long time for the Rangers to fully trust him. Under the command of General Korbut, he stole a bioweapon from D6, ransacked his own office to make it look like he had been kidnapped, and escaped to the Red Line. His ruse worked, as shown by Uhlman's conversation with another Ranger as to the whereabouts of Lesnitsky.
Safely back with his Red Line allies, Lesnitsky and Korbut tested the bioweapon's destructive powers on an innocent station - Oktyabrskaya (the level Contagion) - and sent in troops to execute the infected, under the pretense that they were stopping the infection spreading. They sucessfully occupied the destroyed half of Oktyabrskaya and were only stopped from penetrating the Hansa Ring section by Hansa troops. However, the weapon had proven itself to be powerful and lethal - it would wipe out a station's population quickly, then go inert ready for invasion by the Red Line. The Reds now had a method of conquering the whole Metro, but they needed more of it - and only D6 contained more samples of the bioweapon.
Korbut's forces advanced on D6, while Secretary Moskvin stalled the Rangers at the Polis Peace Conference. However, thanks to the Baby Dark One revealing his plans to everyone present, the Rangers had enough time to rush to D6 and set up a defense before the Reds arrived.
Battle
Using the Metro 2 train, the Rangers quickly made it to D6, Artyom, Khan, Miller and Ulhman among them. Miller gave a rousing speech to the Rangers and they made their final preparations, getting any weapons from their armory nearby. They moved to the front of D6 and the doors of the entrance sealed behind them.
Suddenly, the tunnel opposite burst open and heavily armoured Red Line troops poured forth. Artyom and the other Rangers fired on them, both sides taking heavy casualties, with the first line of Rangers falling. Artyom is injured here but Ulhman drags him behind the now open door to the next line of defence. The Rangers manage to hold the Red troops off here long enough to think that they were able to claim victory.
However, the parallel tunnel, defended by more Rangers, was overrun by a Red Line armoured Rail Car, a tank. Armed with a heavy machine gun and rockets, and protected by thick layers of metal, the Rangers small arms could not defeat it, and they began to take heavy casualties. Artyom, armed with a Preved anti-tank rifle, managed to destroy the tank, first by slowing it by taking out the wheels, then by shooting the turret armour until its ammunition explodes, killing all the nearby Red troops. With the tank defeated, the Rangers fell back to the final line of defence before D6, to await the oncoming onslaught.
With only a few Rangers left, the Red Line attacked them with heavily armoured shock troops. Artyom again saves the day, utilising a ramshackle Gatling to take out the troops. Finally, the Reds sent in their heavy trooper - a flamethrower weilding brute defended by riot shield armed guards, making him difficult to shoot at. But the Rangers prevailed, managing to take out enough riot shield troops to expose the flamethrower heavy long enough for the tank on his back to be destroyed, causing an explosion that kills the heavy and the remainder of his guard. The Red Line's army was seemingly no more, before another war-cry emits from the tunnel. Sensing the end is near, Miller then reveals that D6 has been rigged to explode. As revealed, D6 contained no ammunition, no medicine, no food, - no miracles; only more and more bioweapons. Their predecessors from before the apocalypse ironically left only more death. Miller knows that with such an arsenal, it would only be a matter of time before it destroyed the whole Metro.
But the Reds had one final card left to play. Before the Rangers could celebrate, the Reds sent their armored train into D6, destroying the whole defense line and breaching the walls of D6. The crash knocks all the Rangers down, killing many and severing Miller's legs. Only Artyom is left relatively unharmed. Korbut jumps out from the train and taunts Miller, claiming victory. But Artyom manages to crawl towards the self-destruct panel, reaching it before Korbut can see what he is doing. From here, the canonical ending is unknown - Metro 2035 will presumably reveal all.
In the standard C'est la Vie ending, Artyom pulls the lever and D6 detonates. The Red Line troops frantically try to escape, but are all caught in the explosion. The Rangers too, sacrifice themselves to save the Metro. In the moral Redemption ending, just as Artyom is about to pull the lever, the Baby Dark One appears and tells Artyom he can let go. The other Dark Ones appear, having been set free by the Baby Dark One, and they attack the Red Line troops, killing Korbut and many others, leaving the rest to flee. D6 has been saved and Artyom has finally been forgiven, in his eyes, for what he did on Ostankino Tower.
Aftermath
In either ending, the Dark Ones leave Moscow completely to an unknown destination, promising Artyom or Anna they will return one day to help rebuild humanity. The Baby Dark One waves goodbye to Artyom or Anna, and accompanies his family out of the city.
In both endings too, the Red Line army and Korbut are destroyed, leaving the Red Line weakened. It is unknown what happens to General Moskvin; until Metro 2035 is released, nothing is certain.
In the C'est la Vie ending, all of the Rangers die. Anna survives and gives birth to Artyom's child. Years later, Anna tells their child about Artyom and how he saved the whole Metro.
In the Redemption ending, with the Rangers being saved by the Dark Ones, Miller - now confined to a wheel chair - begins training new Rangers in Polis. Uhlman is said to be killed in the battle, and Khan disappears afterwards, leading to much speculation on Artyom's part. He suggests that he simply 'moved on' - left D6 for somewhere else in the Metro, or perhaps he accompanied the Dark Ones on their journey. Artyom also continues as a Ranger.