Authors note before we start:

"Yes. I still plan to continue this story & take my sweet time doing it. I do understand that this has been a quite a big time span between the 2 chapters, but I have now been able close some of my different projects. So now I can say that we are back in business, and going full steam ahead with my personal fantasy in the Metro universe."

"PS. Hope this chapter was worth the wait thou"

Chapter 2

New Beginning

More backstory:

After Colonel Miller, his father-in-law had passed away on the mission on Novosibirsk Artyom had made it his goal not to repeat the same mistakes that the colonel made in the past. So now every time he thought about the future he never thought of it alone. He always shared some of his ideas with some of the individuals of the crew before actually addressing the whole crew about the idea. And now he was discussing his new idea with Duke.

Artyom had learned to keep Duke close to cool his head down a bid, as he wanted to transform him from a bold scout into his second in command. After Artyom had been made the new commander of the Spartan order he had decided to make Duke his right hand man replacing Idiot. Still Artyom kept Idiot very close to him as he needed a person close to him to tell him grim & cold truth where as a new bold commander he needed it the most.

The new colonel had made some good improvements also. He had reformed the recruitment style & rank structure within their crew. Basically he had decided that every place they visited & found friendly people they wouldn't force a contact with them. But if they found themselves in friendly terms, they could trade & take on a couple of recruits. Until now they had made some new contacts with different groups living close to the Siberian railway line, but only 2 of them had been successful. With one encounter getting them 3 recruits & the second one with 1 more. They had also been gathering military equipment for trade and upgrades, and now they seamed to be somewhat ready for a fight.

The current story continues:

Artyom pulled Duke outside on top of the Auroras deck to tell Duke about his plan.

"I think we need to start thinking about heading back towards Moscow" Artyom said boldly whilst lighting up a cigarette. "It has been a long wait, but I think the time has come to start talking about a plan for that"

Duke look shocked and pale for a while before responding: "Are you sure? What will they do to use when we try to return? Do you really believe Hansa would welcome us back just as is? We are still traitors in their eyes if you remember."

Artyom sighed and responded: "No of course not I don't believe they will welcome us with open arms, but as I said we only need to start thinking about our return & start actually planning what we could do. If we continue down this route of not even considering the different possibilities about returning we should forget it entirely then shouldn't we?

They both stayed quiet for a while as they just sat there silent staring into nothingness.

"Well I guess you technically make a point there, so what is this great plan of yours our glorious leader? How will you lead our peoples from the holes they dwell in, oh our great messiah?" Duke asked after a long pause.

"I have not worked out every detail out yet, but the gist of the plan is to move our selves into military bunker that was build with the same D6 style not far from Moscow and settle our selves there for a bit before figuring out the rest. At least my current thought process is to slowly infiltrate our order back home & talk to some of the old loyal guys, if there are any left that is" Artyom responded.

Dukes face quickly lit up with joy. "You know, that is not the worst idea we had so far. And so would have an end goal to strife for now. Have you already looked at the maps about the military bases to further the plans already?"

"Yes. There are some military bases to the east & north of Moscow, but I think we should check the eastern military bases first so that we may pass through Perm & Novgorod to see how destroyed the cities & the surrounding countryside is to further our plans of eventual relocation of civilians." Artyom said reading from his notes. "We also have a couple of military bases on the way there that should be above ground and with little radiation exposure, so I think we should stock up before departing"

"Sure thing my Messiah, you at least have my support on the matter, but I don't think it will be that easy to convince everybody else to agree to this plan" answered Duke with a serious look on his face.

Artyom nodded, threw away the rest of his smoke and decided to head back to Auroras deck satisfied to at least having convinced Duke to agree to his plan. Now he only had to convince the remaining crew to agree to his plan. He knew that Alyosha & Damir would follow him to the grave if he asked to, so he knew that Idiot was the person to try to convince next. So he decided to do exactly that.

Artyom soon realized how different convincing Idiot was compared to Duke. He has not completely even ended the explanation for his plan before Idiot started to questioning the logic behind Artyom's thinking.

"Have you really lost your mind with these plans of yours? You really think we can break through the Hansa patrols & lead our people out from the tunnels? Artyom truly speaking look at us, if we put every current Spartan to arms we can mass a total of 15 fighters. Although we know that 1 Spartan is worth 5 regular fighters, but still Hansa has many more times that number. We would be lucky to get through the 1st patrol before getting ourselves killed over this dream of yours." Idiot responded to Artyom's sales pitch.

"Well as I proposed we should move yourselves to one of the military bunkers between Moscow & Novgorod at least and figure out our next step from there. With luck we will be able to figure out the next steps then, and the mission of actually finding and settling the base will take some time on it's own also." Artyom answered calmly. "Can we at least agree on that first?"

Idiot seemed to think about that proposal for a while. "You know what, that we can at least agree on. The base would supply us with shelter, electricity & room to store the Aurora without drawing too much attention to it."

After which they both stood up and shook hands. "Glad that we can at least agree on something" Artyom commented.

The confrontation:

Crew on the Aurora have always been a close knit crew and a tradition of theirs that they always seem to keep doing is their dinner around the big table with the whole crew present. Only Krest or Yermak were missing from time to time as they had to keep someone at the helm of the Aurora all the time. And this evening was as similar as the others, but there was a sort of tension on the air given by the up coming discussion about their next objective. After they had eating their dinner it was show time.

First Artyom stood up and explained his plan to move the crew to the military bases to the west of Novgorod looting military sites and meeting the people on the railroad between here to all the way through Perm & Novgorod. He also explained the current short version about the infiltration back in to the metro.

Every stayed silent after Artyom's speech until Idiot stood up and continued: "Well the plan seems somewhat realistic about taking the military bunker as our base of operations & our new temporary home, but I at least think it's too quick to plan so far in the future at this very moment." Artyom fell silent and waited for Idiot to continue, and the seconds felt like years in his mind. "… but I think the main idea is there I agree that we should start traveling back west. The are there was not that badly hit so there should be no fear of running into mutant infested bunkers, but that also means that there are humans living there also. I agree with Artyom that we should start slowly moving West.

Duke also chimed in commenting: "if there are locals there, they most likely cannot operate the military bases, so they shouldn't be that big of a threat" and "if they are good people, we might even find some new people to join our community." This gained a lot of support from the new eager recruits.

"Stephan, Damir, Alyosha, Tokarev, Krest, does any of you have any ideas of your own?" asked Artyom wanting to hear everyone's opinion.

Krest was the first to answer: "You know barhtuha I'll follow where you guys take me to, you guys like family to me and will be with you where ever we set off to." Damir and Alyosha both agreed with Krest. But Stephan and Tokarev were kind off still thinking about what they heard in the first place.

"Going back to Moscow ehh?" Stephan commented after thinking about it for awhile. "I mean no offense guys but at least for me personally there is no reason to return back to Moscow any how. I do understand that there are multiple innocent & mislead people back in the metro. When I left Moscow with you guys I was a single sad man, but now I have a beautiful wife that is pregnant and an adopted daughter. I know I might sound selfish in my thought process, but why would I risk loosing all of that just to convince people who would shoot me on site that they have all been living in a lie? Stephan fell silent for a while before continuing, "Yes, I do agree that we could move to the military bunker to live safely, but the idea of transliterating Moscow is something we seriously need to talk over on a later date."

(Everybody has agreed until now except Tokarev), Artyom thought to himself. "Tokarev what is your opinion on the plan?" Tokarev rose from his seat, gathered his thoughts and answered: "I think we have our destination Artyom." Raised his glass in celebration and continued: "Be afraid Hansa, we are returning to reclaim Moscow!"

Returning to Moscow? Who commands the loyal Spartans in Moscow? What will happen on their travels on the rails, at Perm & Novgorod and the bunker that they wish to settle? Many more questions and the answers will come eventually.