Authors notes: Hey so I decided to make a story on what I think would have happened after Metro Last Light. This is my first FF for quite a while so I'm easing my self back into things.
I hope to keep as true to the Metro Universe as possible whilst adding in my own ideas on what I think would work and make a great story. I hope you enjoy it and comments and constructive criticism are welcome.
Metro: Broken CloudsThings changed after the battle of D6, in many cases not for the better. Although war was averted, and Korbuts plans where stopped in their tracks by the Spartans and the dark ones and peace fell upon the metro. We all thought that that everything would be okay and that things would go back to normal.
All the peace did was give us a chance to finally see just how bad things had gotten down here in the dark. Mutants ran rampant in the outer lines So many routes had been destroyed due to war and lack of maintenance and all but the largest of stations where starving or on the brink of annihilation. Even with the wealth of D6 distributed it wasn't enough not even the nuclear reactor was enough to power the whole metro.
People where sick the metro was falling down around us and it became evidently clear that we did not have the resources we needed sustain us. Riots cxame soon after they started in the Reich and quickly spread throughout the Hansa Ring stations then the Red line before finally erupting in Polis itself.
It was quickly realised that D6 was rich but not rich enough to sustain the metro, something needed to be done. The Council convened not a month after the fateful conference to decide how to tackle an issue that threatened to bring down our very existence.
No man liked to admit it but things where dire but the pride of man prevailed and the meeting achieved nothing but to open trade between all of the powers in the metro. A small victory at best a victory that left a sour taste in the mouths of Polis and the Order.
It soon became evident that man had to venture back out into the wilderness of the world, a place that rejected the very thought of them; in order to survive.
Chance looked over the ruined cityscape of Moscow, it had an eary calm about it today, the red square was quite, still even something rarely seen. Not even a Daemon prowled the skies this morning looking for its breakfast. It left him feeling slightly isolated as he watched over it all sat on a ledge of Saint Basils Cathedral cradling his rifle.
He watched his breath spread out before him, and listened to the air being sucked through his filter all the while looking down at the forest that had grown over the red square, reclaimed by mother nature. It showed that man's legacy would not last when they where gone. Without some one to maintain the constructions and the machines and indeed other humans, would just crumble into ruin then dust.
Chance let out a bored sigh and peered down his rifles scope into the red square hoping to spot something move or even just to so spot some mutant corpse. Anything to relieve him of the boredom of standing watch.
The war may have been over but the damage had been done when Korbut assaulted D6. That day was still a fresh wound for him and many of his friends, he had lost several brothers and sisters that day. Not blood brothers but friends he thought just as fondly of as if they where blood related. Tensions still ran high between the Red Line and the Order whilst the Reds where free to move any where on the surface they where not welcome at Order outposts and where left to fend largely for themselves out in the wilderness. Something they where ill prepared for.
Chance leaned back pulling a cloth from his bread pocket and beginning to polish the wooden furniture of his rifle His rifle was a rare breed a weapon you saw only once in your life time. Sascha he named her, the Druganov was a piece of beauty and it deserved a name just as beautiful. Delicately he ran the cloth through the groves of his sniper rifle and over the polished wood.
"Every lady should look their best eh Nikolai?"
The gruff voice of Anton Kalinski almost caused Chance to fall from his perch into the red square below. Turning he smiled from behind his gas mask looking at the two cups of smoking tea a straw sticking out of both of them. The snow may have thawed mostly but it the air in many places still wasn't breathable and this high up the winds could still rip the skin from your face if you wernt to careful.
Accepting the cup he muttered his thanks before placing the straw into his mask. Taking a long sip and savouring the taste, it had been a long time since he had had proper tea. Hidden within the numerous stores of D6 where vaults and vaults of food stuffs Military Ration packs and all manner of treats. Tea being one of them, proper tea not the broth made from the wacky mushroom farmers but proper green leaf tea.
Anton sat beside him doing the same using the warm cup to warm his hands.
"So anything interesting or just another day at the office?" He asked almost enthusiastically. Anton was a tall wide shouldered man with a shaven head , he towered over Chance and was twice as wide as he was. To look at him he was a thug black mannered and uncaring, at least until you got to know him.
He was really one of the nicest people Chance had ever met and was smart to boot. He had admitted that once he had been as skinny as chance an office clerk for some big multi national bank and had been on his way to work on the metro when the bombs fell. When something like the apocalypse happens you either adapt or die Anton had told him once so when he found out that the missiles had fell and his home was gone he adapted got big so no one would mess with him and survived as best he could before stumbling upon the Order.
Chance had been busking in one of the outer stations near the suburbs, when the missiles fell he had watched Moscow burn for days after the initial attack the sky had ran as red as blood and the ash had stained is skin for weeks.
Eventually even he himself ventured below never expecting to sea the sky again. He looked behind him once more, the clouds where breaking again and for a moment he saw the blue of the sky and the suns rays fall down to earth.
"Beautiful isnt it?" He spoke aloud causing Anton to turn and watch as the clouds once again collided with each other.
"A rare glimmer of hope for the future that is" His partner and friend replied taking another sip through his straw.
"Do you think one day the world might go back to normal... well I mean less fucked up?" Chanced asked still watching as the last bits of blue sky where enveloped in grey by the clouds as they sped across the sky.
"Who can say the snow is melting and the sun shines, sometimes ill take that as a good oman. Say did you here about Petyr and his squad?" Anton asked stretching out his legs to work out the cramp.
"No why?"
"I heard on the radio that they cleared a nest a few miles from here in some gasoline station." Anton replied sounding almost giddy.
"Yes and? Was probably just a ruin like the rest of the damned city." Chance was fore ever hearing rumours about Rangers clearing out this building and finding hidden treasure troves. It was all largely bullshit made up to make everyone in the Metro feel a little better about their situation.
"Aaaah Nikolai why be such a pessimist? You spend to much time up here on your perch you don't see nearly as much as you think you do. Ha... They found much and more my friend, they had to dig for hours to clear the wreckage but they found several garages locked and undisturbed and inside they found much and more... Dont believe me go downstairs my friend see for your self they are unloading a lot of it as we speak. Mostly tools but any blessing is a good blessing no?"
Anton leaned back placing his hands behind his head, even from behind his gas mask he looked smug about the fact he knew something that Chance didn't. He had to admit he spent way to much time up in his nest but he preferred not to be in the thick of things he enjoyed the silence and skill of long range weapons. Something that was lost on Anton who liked nothing more than getting into the thick of things.
The two sat there for a long moment deep in their own thoughts considering what to do when their shift was over and they returned back to the metro for some much needed RnR and some fresh air. They wernt privileged enough to know the greater picture but soldiers talked to other soldiers and they knew that the Order was pushing further and further afield looking for resources. They for the moment at least had no shortage of timber the Red square was a forest and even now there where men moving through the growth pushing back the tree line and with it the mutants.
"I hope they dont..."
"Shhhhh...!" Shot to his feet grabbing the binoculars that sat on the ledge next to him, before darting to the window and looking to the sky.
"What? What is it Anton what do you see!" Chance looked out as well gripping his sniper rifle ready for anything to jump out at them. He only hoped it wasn't a daemon.
"Do you not hear it?"
"No what is it?"
"A droning noise almost like a propeller engine." Anton answered quietly still looking frantically out of the window
Chance went silent and listened and sure enough the drone was there it was faint but getting louder with every second he quickly began to scan the sky as the drone got louder and louder, and more distinguishable it was definitely a propeller plane of some description. Probably no larger than a two seater contraption.
"There... There I see it! North by North east heading west! At 2 o'clock" Anton pointed and sure enough it was there a small speck in the sky, it wasn't coming towards them simply flying along in the distance heading west he pulled his rifle up and peered down the scope adjusting to get a better view of the aircraft.
"Crazy fools!" He muttered out loud. IT was almost a death sentence to fly these days not that any one had a plane to fly these days they wernt exactly easy acquirable and no one had parts to maintain them. Yet there it was, it was only a small thing no larger than a two seater like he had though but it was undeniably there and from someone not of the metro. No one had access to aircraft not that he knew of. The Order had always been the one that ventured mostly to the surface whilst the rest of the powers where content to sit below in the darkness.
"Captain Gorbochev this is Rooster Nest do you read over?" Anton had moved over to the radio and was franticly turning dials almost screaming down the radio. "Captain do you Read over!"
"What is it Nest? Where busy down here!" The even Gruffer voice of the outposts commander replied back finally obviously annoyed by the interruption.
"We have a flyer Captain, god strike me down if im lying we have an aircraft in the sky! There are others out there!"