Deus Ex Diaries Part Forty-Eight (Human Revolution)

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. I continue Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Having met up with my mysterious helper, I was now posing as Corporal Alan Tyler on a mission to find out just what’s been going on with Belltower…

As I snuck into the detention block, I spotted a guard taunting a prisoner in one of the many cells. I knocked him out, and the detainee ignored me and sat down on their bed. With incredible stealth, I climbed the stairs on the outside of the central tower and knocked out the man standing at the controls.

I checked the computer for emails, the first one was an urgent notice for personnel to stop using “certain cells for ‘entertainment’ purposes”, and to make sure “these love-shacks” were cleaned before inspection. I’d have suspected that the guards were just having sex with each other, if not for the fact that it was a follow-up to an email specifically mentioning female detainees… A second email made a passing mention of the havok I had created on the ship, and the third was about some repair work.

Before I could hack the security computer next, I had to upgrade my hacking to level four, and added Robot Domination. Then, I turned the security bots into allies — but didn’t hear any shooting. Curious, I climbed down the ladder next to me, and crawled out of the ventilation shafts on the lower level to try and find out where the guards and robots were. Unable to spot them, I went back upstairs and added my biometric data to the centre console. Keitner contacted me to needlessly remind me to get into the interrogation wing, so I went back downstairs.

It was lucky that I was still sneaking, as I finally spotted two guards. Figuring I’d get the drop on them, I picked up a crate and threw it at them, then knocked one out. Unfortunately, I hadn’t increased my bio-electric energy, so I didn't have enough left to knock out the second: I had to shoot him. Then a third man whom I’d completely missed…

Once the coast was clear, I headed up some stairs to the second level, which was where my security bots were, being absolutely useless. The open cells didn’t have any useful loot, so I went up some more stairs to the third level. I finally discovered what the green lights in the floor had been in several places, as there were some rotating devices with detection lasers on them. Deciding to play it safe, I picked up a crate and threw it at one of them, only for it to fire out a bunch of explosive pellets before retracting. I hurried past it in time for it to raise back up and resume rotating.

Following the gantry around, I entered some doors marked as the admin sector, inside of which was a sign pointing me towards the interrogation wing’s security checkpoint. Clearly this was the right way, at least. I went through the biometric scanner smoothly and walked down the hallway. There were more cells, but these were on the floor and bathed in red light. Or it may have been a window in the floor to see inside of the cells, but that wasn’t super clear as I hurried past them, and down some stairs at the end of the hall.

I was stopped by a woman in a cell named Nina Sullivan, who begged me not to hurt her anymore. Once I assured her that I wasn’t there to hurt her, she realised that I wasn’t with Belltower, and explained some things to me. She had been kidnapped from Cape Town and didn’t realise that we weren’t in South Africa. A woman named Kavanagh was one of the scientists testing detainees, and seemed to dislike the methods she was being forced to use. The scientists had taken biopsies, blood samples, and tissue cores, to see if they’re “compatible”.

When I told her that I had to leave, Nina said that she’d alert the guards (like I hadn’t done that myself) if I didn’t free her. Since a civilian running around would bring more attention to me, I couldn’t do that. In her frustration, she revealed that Burke and two doctors had come by recently on their way to the morgue. That seemed like a good place to go, so I readied Burke’s Revolver that I’d taken from his safe, eager to use it on him.

There were a few rooms off to the side, one of which had an audio recording of two doctors and Burke as they operated on a detainee. It didn’t end well, though Burke was quickly ready to send down another prisoner. Right at the end, however, Dr. Kavanagh insulted Burke, reinforcing the idea that she wasn’t totally on board with this whole deal.

The second room was storage with some ammo inside, but the third one was of interest as it had a computer and another data storage device like I had found in the main facility, except red instead of green. It was labelled OCM/Australia.

Hacking the computer, I sifted through the four emails. The first was just a requisition form, but the second talked about how “non-viable” subjects were then shipped on to a second facility called Omega Ranch. The third email mentioned something called Hydra, which I’d seen mentions of it here and there, but I still had no idea of what it actually was.

The fourth email was the most interesting, as it was between Dr. Kavanagh and her colleague Dr. Savage — someone that JC Denton would later meet at Vandenberg Air Force Base. It mentioned Bob Page, a name I hadn’t seen since the start of the game. Apparently, Page wanted to meet with Savage face-to-face, and bring along an associate named Mr. Everett — presumably Morgan Everett, the head of the Picus media group. The same man that would create (and cure) the Gray Death…

Finally entering the morgue, I overheard Burke talking with Savage and Kavanagh. They mentioned something called the OCM, and how the connected implants burn out and kill the augmented person. Savage suggested that bringing Megan Reed back to Rifleman Bank Station would yield a breakthrough, but Burke shot him down immediately. Kavanagh suggested trying with volunteers before Burke asked if she wanted to be the first one. Before she could retaliate, physically it seemed, Savage asked Burke to unlock the elevator so that they could all go down to the laboratory.

After they left, Jensen called Keitner, saying that he needed Burke’s retinal scan to access the lab. Fortunately, Burke had augmented eyes, and a replacement had been delivered earlier that day. So, I had to go back through the two biometric scanners to nip back to his office to grab it. So, that’s what I did, jumping down to the ground floor of the detention block thanks to my Icarus Landing System mod, and re-entering the main section of the base.

Unfortunately for me, some replacement guards had taken position. Including one right outside Burke’s office, where I’d left a few bodies. I quickly went up the stairs to my right and knocked him out, then shot a second man I hadn’t realised was there. I dragged all four bodies inside the office before grabbing the spare eyes from the desk. Since they had to be plugged into an optic nerve to work, Keitner told me to take it down to Quinn who would get it sorted for me.

Much to my annoyance, I blundered into a few more guards who were outside the elevator I required. They hadn’t popped up on my radar! I shot them before going down to see Quinn, who greeted me and got to work putting something together for me. After an indeterminate amount of time, he handed over something hand-held that would work well enough for one use before it burnt out.

With that in my pocket, I went back through the biometric security checkpoints and scanned the eye on the elevator controls before taking it down. It descended deep into the water, passing multiple submersibles, including one that was just leaving. Keitner called to tell me that I needed to get evidence that this was going on, as hard facts and paperwork were more damning than the word of a few prisoners.

The elevator reached my destination and I passed through the hallway into the laboratory. There was a woman begging to die on a device that was covered in blood just inside the door, and a computer just past her. As I looked around, I found another data storage device and a pocket secretary with the computer password on (SGSULPKT), so I logged into it to read Kavanagh’s emails. The first one was from Bob Page — it seemed that she had reached out personally — reassuring her that she was an important part of this project, despite how many lives it was costing. After all, what would the death toll be if not for her empathy?

The second email was a chat log between Savage and Kavanagh reiterating that she didn’t want to be here doing this. The third was one that I’d already read her reply to, and the fourth was Kavanagh asking someone at Belltower for Burke’s personnel record. It turned out to be heavily redacted, but he had been dishonourably discharged from the Marine Corps.

Around the lab were three holographic tables, which apparently accepted the data drives I’d been collecting. They gave me a look at Panchaea, a facility apparently in Ayers Rock, and Moon Base Omega. I also found a trauma kit with a few doses of morphine in it, which I used to end the woman near the entrances’ suffering.

Kavanagh was also in the lab, but had ignored my exploration and looting, even as I took a Praxis Kit from a drawer beside her. Of course, she was shocked when I spoke to her, but told me that Burke had gone back upstairs, presumably while I was getting his spare eyes adjusted, and that Savage had left in a submersible. Upon hearing Megan Reed’s name, she mentioned that she had seen the research and, upon discovering that Reed had been kidnapped, expressed her surprise. She mentioned OCM, and I asked what that was: Organic Computational Matrix. It basically plugged people into a computer to use their brain power.

Apparently, the OCM augmentations were causing complete neurological breakdown and Kavanagh hoped that Reed would be able to fix it, but she had no idea what Reed was actually working on. Rifleman Bank Station was the “factory floor”, where subjects were augmented before being sent on to other facilities and plugged into OCMs.

So, I gave her the offer — she didn’t like what they were doing here, so if she grabbed as much evidence as she could carry, I’d get her to safety with Interpol. She agreed without convincing, and told me to use the security console in the detention block’s command tower to unlock a submersible. Of course, that meant going back through the biometric security gates, but at least I was finally getting off of this base.

In the elevator, I contacted Keitner and told her to get me some coordinates to meet Interpol in a submersible, as we had a whistleblower. However, 25 metres from the top of the shaft, the elevator stopped…