Deus Ex Diaries Part Forty-Nine (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.

After having gone through a lot of hassle to access a hidden undersea lab, it turned out that returning to the surface was the difficult part…

Stuck in a stopped elevator, I called Keitner as I pressed the button for the emergency ladder and climbed out of the elevator car. Clearly distressed, she said that our transmissions must have been detected, and to meet her — she was cut off before being able to tell me where.

I climbed a ladder onto a gantry, then jumped up some pipes and junction boxes to reach another ladder. While I did notice a ventilation shaft, I also couldn’t ignore the fact that there was a level above me, and two large boxes. Unfortunately, even with some stacking I couldn’t get up there, so I installed the Cybernetic Leg Prosthesis mod to jump higher. As I suspected, there was something to find on the higher level! Much to my chagrin, it was a Praxis kit, so I’d spent two to get one.

Dropping back down to the ventilation shaft, I climbed inside to be let out in a crawl space in the ceiling above the morgue. I cautiously opened the hatch and fell down, behind three guards watching the elevator doors. Deciding that I didn’t want any extra trouble, I snuck away and back to the detention block via the biometric security scanner.

Upon exiting, I found Keitner bleeding against a wall. Apparently, Burke figured out what was going on and locked things down. What’s more, he was “cleaning house”, which didn’t mean with a sponge. In fact, he was using deadly gas, filling every lab and cell with it to make sure nothing got out of there. However, Keitner knew about a circuit board below the very security tower that I was heading to, which would be able to redirect the gas.

Keitner died, and I hid beside a wall while opening the doors into the detention block. Two men were bragging about killing Keitner before splitting up, so I shot them both. Unfortunately, while trying to snipe with my pistol, I managed to alert everyone else. With a timer ticking down towards eight minutes, and me stuck on the highest level, I decided to jump down to the ground, relying on my Icarus mod to ferry me down safely. I ducked inside the ventilation shaft at the base of the tower while under fire, and reached the circuit board.

Much to my surprise, my friend from the boat, “no1” contacted me. I had thought that it was Keitner, but apparently not. They told me that I had to make a choice of where to direct the gas — into the labs, or into the cells. Since the detainees could still be killed some other way, I opted to get Dr. Kavanagh out, to put Belltower on notice with her evidence.

I climbed the ladder behind me up into the security tower, and activated the controls to unlock the submersible for Kavanagh to escape. No1 said that they’d ensure that Interpol met up with her at the coordinates that Keitner had given me.

While considering how to take out the other guards, I took cover next to the door and shot one of them in the head. Well, I hit the wall beside him before nailing him when he turned to look. Hilariously, one-by-one the other guards went to check on “the disturbance”, getting into the exact same position and allowing me to shoot each one in the head. With the coast clear, I left the shouting and screaming prisoners to die, going through the biometric scanner to return into the main facility.

Annoyingly, it locked down part way through, Burke coming on the monitors to taunt that he knew who I was, and that Kavanagh would be found or at the very least discredited. He continued, saying that he was all that stood between me and Megan Reed. Then, he unlocked the scanner, granting me access to the main facility…

Before going through the doors, Quinn called me. He was leaving, but left the shop door open for me to get some supplies. Despite going through the door with all due caution, I neglected to look up at the guard looking down from the floor above. I shot him, then blundered into a group who had taken cover behind some equipment in the hallway! Nonetheless, once they were all dead, I headed to the elevator and down to Quinn’s shop.

One of Quinn’s safes was open with some health consumables, but the other required a level five upgrade, and I didn’t want to use the Praxis kits to get it. I had a full inventory anyway, and plenty of ammo. Back up the elevator, I went to the warehouse where I’d met Keitner earlier, via a nearby staircase just past the toilets. I opened the door with code 7736 that I’d found somewhere, and ducked behind cover before a turret could fire at me.

I managed to snipe one sniper, but couldn’t kill a second before he made too much noise. There were plenty of enemies in the warehouse, but I killed them all with my pistol, despite its rapidly depleting ammo reserves. I tossed an EMP grenade at the turret, then headed for the door into the next warehouse. Burke had been talking now and then over the PA system, so I almost didn’t notice the telltale red flashing of a mine, when I went around a shipping container. I tossed a crate at it, “deactivating” the mine “safely”, and was glad that I did as another turret would have shot me if I’d gone the other way.

Following the hall around, I attempted to do some sniping from the doors into the next warehouse, but quickly became overwhelmed. Thankfully, I remembered that there was a ventilation shaft, so went through that, and jumped up onto some shipping containers. From my elevated position, I gunned and grenaded down the men, then hopped between shipping containers to avoid a turret. Which turned out to be friendly, anyway.

I moved down a short corridor to be interrupted by a cutscene. Burke was in an office at the other end of yet another warehouse, and he claimed that I’d be of use to him dead. His men opened fire while a security bot activated. However, before it could attack me, I’d grabbed an EMP grenade and tossed it over. Since I was low on 10mm ammo, I swapped to my heavy rifle. Unfortunately, it required a couple of seconds to warm up before it began firing, so it wasn’t really suitable — and I really wanted Burke to be the only one I shot with my Burke’s Revolver.

So, I grabbed my grenade launcher and fired at his remaining men, using up four of my rounds. I used some shipping containers to jump up to an office on a gantry between me and Burke, and shot a guard on the roof of his office with my 10mm. I hacked the security computer I found in the office and turned the turret friendly. Not that it mattered, since I’d apparently killed everyone. With the way clear, I went over to Burke’s hiding place and climbed up on the roof. I snuck along to a hole and dropped inside, shooting Burke in the head with the revolver, killing him.

No1 contacted me, telling me to get to Loading Bay 2 so that I could get on a ship potentially headed for Megan Reed’s location. No1 had issued orders in Burke’s name, telling them to clear out. They were apparently using the opportunity to seize power. Before leaving, however, I couldn’t resist checking Burke’s emails on the nearby computer. A chat log between Savage and Burke mentioned the Hydra, and a second email from a “FatherD” talked about how “altered subjects” were headed for Hengsha apparently from Omega Ranch.

I headed back to the loading bay, only to be greeted by Quinn! Or to put it another way, “no1” was actually Quinn all along. Apparently, Keitner was as in the dark as me about Quinn’s real identity — and he wasn’t actually affiliated with Interpol! In fact, what he said made me suspect that he was a member of the Illuminati… Quinn did assure me, however, that Kavanagh was going to get to hand over her evidence.

After explaining that he was calling the shots on the base at the moment, long enough for the authorities to get here anyway, he told me to get into a stasis pod. The ship had already left, and a helicopter was on its way back to pick up “one more detainee”. He also returned most of my stuff, so I dumped my shotgun, heavy rifle, and some grenades, then grabbed everything. Then, though I didn’t want to, I climbed into the stasis pod. While I slept, Quinn talked to someone about how I could have been an asset for the coming storm…