Deus Ex Diaries Part Eighty (Jensen’s Stories)

This is my ongoing exploration of the Deus Ex Universe, in release order. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. This time I begin Deus Ex: Mankind Divided — A Criminal Past.

Opening on Jensen being transported via aircraft to a secure correctional facility in Arizona, we find out that this takes place as a therapy session with Doctor Delara Auzenne in her office at TF29 in Prague. Jensen being himself, doesn’t want to be there, but Aruzenne is adamant that she needs a spoken report about his time undercover to clear some things up. Specifically, she wants to know more about what happened to Agent Hector Guerrero nine months prior.

The cutscene continued, flashing back to the aircraft with narration from Jensen. It was his first mission to contact Guerrero in the supermax prison the Penley T. Housefather Correctional Facility, colloquially known as The Pent House. TF29 had intel about several attacks that would cause massive loss of life, so much that it was felt preferable to break the long-time undercover op Guerrero had been part of. He was what was referred to as Dark Opal, considered “do not contact ever”.

Jensen was escorted from the aircraft by two guards, using rods attached to the collar he was wearing to ensure compliance. In processing, he was implanted with a device to make using his augmented abilities painful — for someone as heavily augmented as Jensen, that meant it was constant. His undercover name was Derrick Walthers, doing a five-year sentence for aggravated assault and negligent homicide, but he was only at The Pent House for a few days before being transferred. Upon seeing his augmentations in scans, the head of security Thomas Stenger took an interest, nicknaming “Derrick” Hot Rod, but when asked by a technician if “Derrick” should be on “the list”, he said no. Stenger did introduce speak with the new inmate though, before the suppression upload finished and he blacked out.

Taking control, I awoke in a cell, and I briefly imagined how many people it took to carry me. Since I was in A-block and Guerrero (AKA Oscar Mejia) was in B-block, I would have to look around to find a way to him. The door of my cell opened as it was recreation time in the yard, so I had a quick look in some of the other cells for loot, but didn’t find anything interesting. Or, rather, I didn’t find any interesting loot I actually did find a warning on the wall in every cell about how augmented prisoners had fewer rights than non-augmented, and would be put to death if they killed another inmate.

Before exiting into the yard, I was stopped by another inmate who offered to trade me a multitool for a bottle of any kind of alcohol. I figured that was a fair trade, so decided to keep my eye out. Once outside, I was confronted by another inmate, D-Town, who called me Andy Johnson and claimed that I had arrested him for soliciting underage prostitutes in Detroit in 2022. He was stopped before things could go any further by the heavily augmented Frederick Flossy, a more friendly inmate.

Flossy went on to explain that keeping your head down was the best idea because the guards might arrange “accidents” if you didn’t. Ian Wilburg was the latest inmate to die for “no good reason”, so I asked for more details, not wanting to ask about “Oscar Mejia” and make my new friend suspicious. Officially, Wilburg was killed by a malfunctioning sentry, but word around the yard was that Stenger was sick of how much sway Wilburg had with the other prisoners. Apparently, he was well known and established in organised crime, so his death had made people angry.

An announcement said that Flossy’s group had to return to their cells, but before leaving, he told me to see The Fixer, an inmate who had come up with a way to sort out the suppression chip. I found him on the other side of a fence near what I assumed was a punishment box, and he seemed to be not all there. He introduced himself as Peter Wörthmüller (the umlauts were important), but he was afraid that he didn’t have “it” for Flossy. I decided not to play along and asked for his help. Wörthmüller explained that he had a pill to remove The Choke — the effect of the suppression chip. There might be side effects, and I should never take two of them, but he happily gave me one before he was called to the infirmary.

Side note: when given the option of having the traditional augmentations or also unlocking the experimental ones, I opted to respect the story continuity. I like to cheat, but I don’t like to break the time/space continuum.

After looking around the yard and finding cameras and guards everywhere, I headed back inside to look around the cell block some more. Going downstairs into the shower room, I saw D-Town talking about me. He was trying to remember my name, guessing Jorgensen or Jameson, but deciding those weren’t right. The only other thing of interest in the shower room was a plushy fox in the laundry basket, which had a note stuffed inside: 6014. Assuming it was a door code, I headed back upstairs and tried using it on one of the janitorial rooms — and it worked!

The room had some crafting parts and a bottle of whiskey, which I immediately took back to trade with the inmate with the multitool. Rather than go back to the room on the left, which had a ventilation shaft connected to it, I tried the code on the laundry room to the right, which it also opened! Inside was another plushy fox which was hiding a biocell that had a note written on it, addressing it to Flossy.

Rather than take the biocell right to Flossy, I went into the other room and climbed through the ventilation system, coming out above everything. Another hatch led me down into a security room, so I carefully went inside and turned the windows black so that I could have a good look around. I had to stay clear of the door into the next room as there was a guard and a security camera in there, and the door had a large glass panel.

I found a key card and a pocket secretary with the code 3499 on, but no way to unlock the security terminal, so I left the way I had come in. I wanted to check if that code unlocked the gate into the B-block yard, but it didn’t; however, my new key card was able to open the gates on either side of the guard tower. Taking a chance, I ducked inside and climbed the ladder, quickly knocking out the guard at the top. It turned out to be a great idea, as there was a pocket secretary on the table which gave me the password for the security terminal: CL4NKN3T1ON.

Hurrying back to the security room, I used the password to turn off all of the cameras and disable the alarm panels in A-block. That didn’t help me outside, but it would certainly aid my conduct inside. Speaking of which, I went to see Flossy and give him his biocell, which he was irked to discover I had. I asked how to get into B-block, and because I had his biocell, he decided not to ask me why.

In fact, my getting into B-block would help him, as he wanted me to give the biocell to a guy called Red Shoes. Annoyingly, he only gave me a keycard which I already had, and said I’d probably find Red Shoes in a cool-off cage, the thing I’d earlier assumed was a punishment box.

Leaving the cell, I used the keycard to open the doors to the outside, where guards, drones and cameras were ready and able to detect me. I managed to get inside the security office in between the blocks, finding some weapons and ammo in a weapons locker. A pocket secretary had a list of prisoner aliases such as “Fat Rat”, “Taffy, “ and “Kazoo”, but that was useless to me and my access to a security terminal… I climbed through a hole in the ceiling, using a hatch to access a gantry behind a sniper. Avoiding them, I slipped inside a ventilation shaft and found myself above B-block. The easy part was over…