Deus Ex Diaries Part Forty One (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.

Whilst trying to grab news anchor Eliza Cassan from the Picus TV building, I had been attacked by Belltower security, and was trying to escape…

Exiting the ventilation shaft I was inside of, I overheard some mercenaries chuckling about having the drop on me if I came this way. So, I headed back upstairs to the newsroom and reprogrammed a turret, before carrying it downstairs with me. I was cautious, but the moment it detected someone I dropped it and ran for cover. To my surprise, someone turned invisible, but the turret took care of them.

After looting a locker room, I went into a storage room. Unfortunately, it was a waste of time since I had no room for the mine templates, heavy rifle or ammo that was inside, though I did grab an automatic unlocking device. I carried the turret closer to the funicular, and it dealt with some men waiting inside. I found a vent behind a vending machine, so I climbed through it, finding a security console for another turret, as well as the nearby camera. I entered the password I had picked up, “marco”, and disabled the camera, swapping the turret to have a more friendly attitude.

Apart from ammo, there wasn’t anything for me to find, so I moved the turrets to the elevator doors and called the funicular. This summoned enemies, so I climbed a ladder and hid in a utility room while the turrets blasted the few who ventured through the doors. Pritchard kept me up to date on the funicular, so when it arrived at the top I carried the turrets inside and pressed the button to go down.

Pritchard remained on the line for part of the journey down, telling me that there was something suspicious, and not just everything I’d seen. Apparently it had been really easy to hack into the Picus TV systems, but it was as if he was being kept away from certain parts of the network. Nonetheless, my destination should be room 802-11, that was where Cassan would be.

Once the doors opened at the bottom, I avoided a security camera while setting up my turrets. When they were in place, I stacked some nearby crates to block the camera, but while doing that the turrets spotted two men, gunning them down without raising the alarm. After checking the area for loot, I punched through a nearby wall and climbed through a ventilation duct, exiting into a hallway with a giant hand creepily holding a hologram of Earth.

After hacking the laser grid blocking the hallway, I retrieved my turrets, chucking them down the hall because it was quicker. Unfortunately, I accidentally lifted one near the security room window, and it shot through, alerting the man inside. He retaliated by tossing an EMP grenade, nuking one of my turrets… I climbed through the window into the room, then used a computer to deactivate two cameras. I grabbed some ammo and credits, then took my remaining turret down the hall.

My plan had been to open the doors and let the turret do the work, but since the doors had glass panels, the turret began firing the moment it spotted someone. The doors were destroyed before I reached them, so I dropped the turret in the doorway. A security bot came over, but was no match for the turret — sadly when it exploded, the turret exploded in my face an instant later.

Running the opposite way, I went up some stairs and managed to sneak literally around a security bot. It was hilariously cartoonish to me in all honesty. I hid inside an office, where I got the password for the armoury computer, “titom”, before leaving and attempting to bypass the security bot again. It was made difficult due to the security camera above it, and so I was spotted. Panicking, I shot it with my stun gun; which worked. I made it into the security office just as the bot rebooted and started firing at me. Jumping onto the computer, I quickly typed in the password and told the bot to target everyone except me just as the whine of its gun spinning up reached the “kill you” pitch.

Feeling ever so lucky, I hacked the nearby security terminal and grabbed some ammo. There was a mod for the heavy rifle/plasma rifle, but I had a full inventory and neither of those. Leaving the armoury, I entered the upper level of the room I had attacked before with my turret. I hacked a security computer and deactivated two cameras, then went around the balcony to stun a guard. There was a nearby office with a glowing globe inside, which had an email in French that I couldn’t understand. In the main office area downstairs, I shot the final guard before looting all of the desks and hacking all of the computers. Someone wanted to know what was with the “Bond villain” hand, one was concerned that they might look as biased as they actually were, nothing too interesting.

Heading out into the hallway, I walked face-first into an EMP mine, but it didn’t set off any alarms. I went down some stairs and avoided a security bot, punching through a wall to access a ventilation duct for a back way into an office which had a Reload Speed weapon mod, which I attached to my revolver. Further down the duct was another office with some ammo and an automatic unlocker.

Sneaking out of the office and into a bigger one, I knocked out a guard and found a security computer. I used that to deactivate two cameras and turn the security bot to friendly mode. Unfortunately, it didn’t patrol where I needed to go, which was through another office with two men and a camera. Luckily, they were separated enough that I could stun one, then hop over a divider to shock the other. The camera spotted me, but I was at least free to check the computers which admittedly had nothing of interest. A door led into a security room, so I disabled the cameras before entering from what I could tell was a holographic simulation room. There was a globe and some monitors showed a mock-up of a moon base…

Heading down the hallway, I entered Data Storage 802-11 and met multiple holograms of Eliza Cassan. Or rather, I met the real “person”, because she turned out to be an artificial intelligence! She had taken an interest in me, and begun questioning her role in the world as a result. She wanted to answer my questions, but “she” wouldn’t let her. “She” turned out to be a mercenary utilising stealth camouflage, and clearly wanted to kill me.

The problem with fighting an invisible enemy kinda goes away when they’re running through water. The floor of the room was covered in water for some reason, so in between bouts of running away to recover health, I could tell where to fire. That included when I finally got a decent aim with my rocket launcher, blasting her with it.

Eliza asked if I would save the woman, though she was moments from death. She then told me that she didn’t know where Megan Reed was, but a man named Sandoval had removed the locator implants in the FEMA facility. Sandoval turned out to be Bill Taggart’s aide, who I’d met in Detroit. David Sarif would be able to tell me why they were taken, Eliza claimed, before giving me one piece of advice: everybody lies.

Rather than take the exit, I checked out the various cabinets around the room that had a bunch of guns and ammo inside. There was upsettingly little that I could use, so I hacked a security terminal and went up some stairs. At the top, above the room I had been inside, were some lasers keeping me from a security computer, so I punched through a wall and deactivated the power to them. The computer allowed me to turn the turrets off, but I hadn’t actually seen any turrets, and had to wonder if I could have made it up here while under attack earlier. Punching another wall, I dropped back down to the lower level and left through the exit door.

The passageway led to a hangar, where Malik was just landing the aircraft. Apparently, she had been contacted by Eliza and told where to pick me up. Boarding, we left for Detroit…