Deus Ex Diaries Part Forty Four (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 faced Sandoval and stopped him from making a mistake, I was back at Sarif Industries with the knowledge that we finally had a way to track the kidnapped scientists…

Heading up to David Sarif’s office, I was greeted by an unfamiliar bodyguard, and his personal assistant Athene Margoulis was absent. Entering Sarif’s office, I was greeted by Hugh Darrow, the veritable father of augmentation. He greeted me while closing the employment file he had open about me, which I noticed was far more in-depth than it should have been. Information about life as a child, and such…

Darrow explained that Sarif was trying to convince him to invite members of the UN to see the Panchaea project, though he didn’t say whether or not he was going to. The facility was going to end global warming, he claimed, but before more details could be divulged — such as what harm it might do in the process — Sarif returned. He pulled me aside and sent me to the helipad. They had located one of the missing scientists, a man named Vasili Sevchenko, so I had to head back to Hengsha to find them. What’s more, due to how we got this information from the DOD, the Illuminati probably knew that we had it…

Returning to Malik on the helipad, we set course for China. However, our flight clearance was revoked as we approached Hengsha. Malik complied, changing our heading for the new coordinates, but someone had other plans. A masked figure fired a rocket launcher at us, the missile exploding in an EMP, sending us crashing down. Leaping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground in a construction site, I happened to be in an ideal position to see it come under fire from a bunch of Belltower goons.

Malik told me to escape while I could, but I ran around knocking out and shooting the attackers. They were so concerned with shooting at Malik that they barely noticed me as I took out their friends, though the security bot noticed when I shot it with a rocket of my own, before destroying it with a second. Once the coast was clear, Malik had rebooted the aircraft and took off. I looted the bodies but found little of value other than ammo and credit chips.

When I finally took the slow elevator out of the construction site, Pritchard called me. Apparently, Belltower was after me, so I should watch out. Exiting the area, I found myself in Lower Hengsha’s Jiu Schichang district. Suddenly, I was hit by a glitch in my augmentations, causing them to reboot. It had happened upon my return to Detroit, but this had been more severe — two nearby civilians had collapsed from the pain, having clearly experienced the same phenomenon.

As I walked the streets, avoiding Belltower, Pritchard contacted me again to ask if I’d seen the news. Apparently, the WHO was advising augmented individuals to check in with a LIMB clinic to resolve an issue with biochip technology. It seemed to be experienced world-wide, so it was up to me whether I wanted to visit the Hengsha LIMB clinic, or wait until I was back in Detroit. I picked up a newspaper and spotted a secondary headline talking about how Belltower were after me (AKA “a terrorist”), but neglected to read the main headline about the recall of biochips. I would later discover that it talked about the new chips coming from Tai Yong Medical.

I went straight to the LIMB clinic, bypassing the queue outside completely and being seen straight away by the technician on the left while more people queued for the person on the right. I was asked if I wanted the new chip, and I said yes. After a brief cutscene, I was ready for action. Though I also bought two Praxis kits while I was there.

Before I could leave, I was called over by a Doctor Wing Hui. He knew me by the description being circulated by Belltower, and thought that I’d be the perfect man for a job he needed help with. Apparently, he had been doing off-the-books work for Belltower, fixing up and installing mods on their contractors. Well, one person that he had worked on, Michael Zelazny, had gone rogue with his unit. They had killed a city official, and as Hui had been contacted for help, he knew that they were going to kill more people. He also knew where they were, so asked me to go to a “meat shop” in the Youzhao district to speak to Zelazny and stop him.

Before leaving, I used my five Praxis points to do some upgrades. I decided on Damage Reduction 2 & 3, hacking Stealth 3, and Energy Level Upgrade 2 & 3.

Heading the closest route to Youzhao, I found myself literally next to the “meat shop”. Before I could go inside, however, I was contacted by Hugh Darrow. He knew I could get things done, so wanted me to speak to his contact, Mengyao, to do a little job for him. Since I was literally outside one of my side quests, I crept inside and headed for the basement.

A Belltower corpse greeted me just inside the open doorway, and the rest of the place appeared evacuated in a hurry. The body had a pocket secretary on it revealing that he was a mole inside Zalazny’s inner circle, and had obviously been found out and dealt with. The only other thing left was a safe, which I hacked open and took some credits out of. Luckily, the pocket secretary also mentioned that he’d overheard them talk about a safe spot in the sewers, so at least I had a lead.

Leaving the “meat shop”, I headed for the rooftops to meet with Darrow’s contact. Mengyao was in charge of one of Darrow’s divisions in Hengsha, and told me about some terrorists threatening the Panchea project. They had stolen some information, and were trying to sell it. Mengyao’s people had arranged to buy the information, but instead I was being sent in to get it back. The meet was happening in the Daigong district, but since that’s where I knew the sewers were, I had to go there to deal with Zalazny anyway.

Before I headed to Daigong, I hit up the local arms dealer to offload some unneeded ammo and a remote detonated explosive device, as well as a combat rifle I’d picked up. Since I had modded my rocket launcher, I was reluctant to sell it despite how much room it took up in my inventory.

Once I was in Daigong, I went down the closest manhole cover. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right area, so I headed for the Alice Garden Pods, which was where I had to meet the terrorists for Darrow. There were six men in suits in the drainage overflow nearby — two in the corner, the rest spread around — so I carefully knocked them all out, somehow only alerting the final man because I knocked out his friend right beside him.

After looting the men, I noticed a manhole cover leading into the sewer, so I went down it. As I’d suspected, Zalazny and his men were hiding at the end. As I approached them, Zalazny struck up a conversation with me. Given the fact that there were three former-Belltower men along with the heavily-augmented man, I was happy about that. He asked if I was there to stop him, and I said not exactly.

I listened to Zalazny tell his story, about how he had been doing what he felt was right for the USA — first as a member of the armed forces, then as a member of Belltower. He accepted augmentations and money in exchange for doing his job well. But one of the brain implants, for use in case he was captured and needed to wipe part of his memory, malfunctioned and he saw flashes of doing things he didn’t actually remember. Realising that he was being used as a tool and not a man, so he had the mod disconnected, then killed the one who installed it. He took the man’s files and contacts, intending on killing everyone involved in these shady dealings. It was clear that those men weren’t working in the governments’ best interests any longer.

When he was finished, I had the option to reason with him, fight him, or approve of what he was doing. Some of it had resonated with a recently-augmented-against-his-will man, so I told him that I approved and wouldn’t stand in his way. With that, he thanked me and left.

As I exited the sewers to return to Hui, Zalazny called me to say that he’d spoken to an old friend at Belltower. He’d had them reassign some patrols, which would make things a bit easier for me. Upon reaching the LIMB clinic, I told Hui what had transpired. He wasn’t too happy, but gave me a Praxis kit anyway.

With that done, I still had to go back to see Mengyao and give her the stolen data chip. I took the nearby subway train back to Youzhao district, then climbed to the rooftops to meet her. However, rather than simply hand the chip over, I wanted some details. She was far from forthcoming, so I sprayed her with pheromones from my CASIE augmentation. Given her beta personality type, I charmed her and she spilled the beans. The information was specifically about the Hyron Project, without which Panchea couldn’t exist. Jensen asked if it was some kind of computer, and Mengyao responded cryptically with “I suppose you could say that”. Jensen was convinced, even if I wasn’t, so he handed over the chip, and I was paid 1,000 credits.

As I went to finally locate Sevchenko, Darrow contacted me again to thank me personally for getting the chip. I name-dropped the Hyron Project, which Darrow didn’t seem especially pleased by Mengyao’s loose lips, but told me that one day I might see it for myself…