Deus Ex Diaries Part Seventeen

This is my ongoing exploration of the Deus Ex Universe, in preparation for when Mankind Divided arrives. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. We continue on with Deus Ex.

From the petrol station to the ocean base, I had found the schematics for the parts Gary Savage needed to repair his universal constructor. I had taken out Walton Simons on my return to the sub, and was headed back to the surface with a warning of a missile headed for Vandenberg Air Force Base...

Back at the surface, I met up with Savage and Jock the alcoholic pilot. With a missile headed for their home base, it seemed prudent to head to the missile base to disable it. Somehow flying faster than an ICBM, we arrived with plenty of time to be told the one access code that might work.

I ran for cover as the guard in the tower spotted me (and not my big black helicopter which had left literally moments ago...). Laser sword in hand, I took out dogs, troops and ran for cover from the patrolling mechs. I found a hatch in the ground which I had no way of opening, and figured it was going to be the exit after this mission. I went back across to the other side of the complex to a lift which had a keypad. Rather than waste Multitools on it, or lockpicks on the nearby door, I threw a LAM at it. I went down the stairs and entered the facility.

Stupid guard mechs...

I was met with a series of blast doors, all locked with keypads. I checked the code that Savage had given me over comms earlier, and tapped it in. When the same code opened the fourth series of blast doors, I couldn’t help but wonder why they would be so stupid as to use a single code for every single door…

I took out a commando and couple of troops, then picked the lock on the nearby door -- inside was a scientist. Apparently he had worked out that Majestic 12 were villainous, and had been locked in the toilet. There was a datapad with the computer login data on it, but as I usually hack everything it was really a waste of lockpicks…

Bob Page kept contacting me over comms, which at this point was just more annoying than mildly threatening.

I went into the control room and up the stairs, getting contacted by Savage to tell me how to disable the missile. Curiously, he seemed to think I would miss the “ABORT” button… I hit that and turned to the computer, changing the missile’s target from Vandenberg to Area 51. But for that to work, I was told I had to stop MJ12 from sabotaging the missile!

Off I ran, going through another poorly-chosen combination door, and was confronted by a hallway with the lights going out. If I couldn’t see them, maybe they couldn’t hurt me? Sadly no, two commandos and some troops were at the other end, taking shots at me. Laser sword, speed augment and shield augment all on, I ran down the hallway and sliced up some cyborgs.

I jumped into the lift and up the missile silo, spotting someone stood in a cherry picker who was fiddling with the rockets. With no way to laser sword him, I grabbed my shotgun and blasted him instead. With that, I was told Jock was waiting up above and to meet up with him, to go to… Area 51… Where the missile was headed. A good little soldier, I head up and jump in the chopper, praying Jock would avoid the missile headed the same direction as us.

"There's a missile, Jock... AVOID THE MISSILE, JOCK!"

We arrived minutes after detonation, with a guard in a tower and some mechs wandering around the crater that was Area 51. Deciding to take the guard out first, I ran over and picked the lock on the door. Deactivating a LAM on the wall, I climbed up two ladders and sliced the guy at the top. Hacking the security console, I opened the doors to the bunker which housed Bob Page.

The secret bunker, discovered by exploding a nuke over it...

I went down and ran over to the nearby slope and jumped over the small wall. I waited for the mechs to walk off, and ran over to the open bunker doors, being told by Savage that Page was deep inside, probably in Sector 4. But as I went about restoring power to the elevator, Page came over the comms to tell me that, in fact, he was “much further than that”!

I went down to Sector 2 and encounter a hologram communicator which receives a message from Morgan Everett. He proceeds to ask me to aid the Illuminati by killing Bob Page and rule the world with an invisible hand as a higher-up of said secret group. JC says he’ll think about it, so we headed off a-killing and a-exploring. Assorted troops died by laser sword and shotgun (damn cherry pickers), and I found several beds locked by keypads. I ignored them until I found a datapad with a code for one written on it -- so I headed back and looted the now-dead guys bunk.

Well, since you asked first...

As I went through the door into Sector 3, Bob Page sent up a lift full of people, including the man who apparently murdered JC’s parents. Taking revenge some twenty years later, the three men exploded into bits thanks to a LAM or two, then I went down.

Nobody here but us chickens!

At the bottom, Tracer Tong was on a hologram communicator. I’d seen less than five of those through the entire game, until I reached Area 51… He explained that if I killed Bob Page and destroyed the Aquinas Hub, that would cut off worldwide communications and bring about world peace due to a new dark age! I don’t quite think it will work that way, though, as I wouldn’t be able to survive without the internet…

"But I just said yes to Morgan..."

Moments later, Helios (the merged Daedalus and Icarus AIs) contacted me and told me that I was only this far because he allowed it. Also, I should totally come see him in the Aquinas Hub. That sounded familiar…

I went about slicing people apart with my laser sword, being shot surprisingly few times for a place underground where the guy in charge knew my every move. I eventually realised that an open door was not the one I had come through, and I should totally have gone through there to find out the code for the Hub -- which I did. I spoke to a guy who gave me the code and blathered on about some kind of Grey alien clones running about the place.

Soon to be deceased alien clones...

As I left the room, I spotted some Grey alien clones running about the place, and departed swiftly. Back at the door to the Aquinas Hub, I went inside and into an elevator, heading to the top floor.

Along the gangway, there was what appeared to be the ‘face’ of Helios itself. We chatted about this and that, eventually getting to what it wanted me to do. Merge with it, so it could understand emotion, and rule the world with it inside me. All I had to do -- kill Bob Page.