Stepan

Stepan is a Spartan Ranger who first appears in the novel Metro 2035 and returns in Metro Exodus as the heavy-weapons specialist of Artyom's crew aboard the armoured train Aurora. A ranger of the Order for years, he was one of the survivors of the Battle for D6, alongside Artyom, Miller, Letyaga and Duke, and in Metro 2035 he sides with Artyom and the veteran rangers when the Order splits. The tallest man on the train and one of its strongest fighters, he looks intimidating but is a hopeless romantic who always wants to help. On the Volga he takes an immediate interest in Katya and, for the first time in his life, argues with Miller so that she and her daughter Nastya are not left behind; in the Caspian desert he is the first ranger felled by dehydration and survives thanks to Katya, and as soon as he recovers he proposes to her.