Deus Ex Diaries Part Sixty-Five (Mankind Divided)

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. This time I continue Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

I had made my way to The Throat and encountered Viktor Marchenko, but was well on my way to speaking with Talos Rucker…

Using the ARC keycard, I activated the elevator and went up quite a distance. There was a lot of wind, and not an awful lot of city still above me when I exited the elevator. To the right were some offices which I went through finding ammo, and a Holosight weapon mod, which I popped onto my combat rifle. I then went into ARC territory proper.

Chikane told me that his flyover showed storage, then a barracks, so I should be careful. As I went up some stairs, I overheard Tibor Sokol telling people about me! Worse, they were lies! He claimed that I tried to intimidate him, but I did no such thing. The person he was speaking to told him to keep watch, and that they would teach me a lesson if and when I turned up.

Following Tibor into a kitchen, I spoke to him curious as to why he would turn on me when I’d been down right pleasant when we spoke earlier. Obviously, he was surprised to see me, but I decided not to taunt or threaten him and remain as calm as I had been before. Tibor said that he did it for his family, to keep them safe which he didn’t believe Interpol could do. He did what he thought was right, even if it cost him his life, at least he had done right, could I say the same? I told him yes, I was there to find out who was behind the bombing in the hopes that it would protect families like his. He relented, telling me to go and do what I was there for.

On my way out of the kitchen I grabbed a pocket secretary from next to the back door which gave me the code for the book room (2104), though I didn’t foresee needing a library. I carefully climbed to the upper level, being spotted by an ARC soldier as I did so. I ducked behind cover, activated my cloak and knocked him out, thankfully without the alarm being raised. Dropping through a hole in the floor, I searched through some lockers, then stunned a man behind a desk when his friend finished talking to him and left the room. Annoyingly, the man returned before I could access the computers, so I knocked him out.

The security terminal let me deactivate the camera and laser grid covering a doorway. The computer had four emails, one about the security gate code (3468), and two were general updates from Talos Rucker himself. The fourth was from Marchenko, angry that people kept asking him if things were urgent, because of course everything was.

Sneaking out through the window, I went past the deactivated laser grid, but was blocked by a second one. My cloak allowed me to slip past it, though a ventilation shaft just beyond showed me that I didn’t even have to bypass the first!

Using a biocell to recharge myself, I quietly knocked out a guard sitting on his own, then picked up a crate and threw it at two others to distract them before shooting them with my stun gun. It worked surprisingly well, I’ll be honest. The area itself was full of posters and printing presses to create the same, a real propaganda machine. Sneaking into the next area, I moved a crate out of the way to reveal a hole in the wall which I could sneak through, and not have to bother with the laser grid. I stunned someone and dragged them behind cover, then knocked out another person standing at a computer. My radar showed lots of hostiles which obviously was less than ideal.

As I snuck into an office I was spotted, but only enough to make them want to investigate. I hid behind a desk until they had left, then looked around for loot before exiting through a window. I went out through a second window and jumped up to the next level where I found someone patrolling on their own, so I knocked him out and dragged him out of the way. As I couldn’t see more dots on my mini-map, I hacked open a door and went inside.

There wasn’t much of note, so I passed through and knocked out a sentry, resulting in them falling near to a laser grid, which deactivated it. I rounded a nearby corner trying to get the drop on an ARC soldier but they spotted me immediately! I shot them as they hopped down from where they were sitting, and they dropped like a sack of rocks. They appeared to have been guarding a computer, which a nearby pocket secretary told me the password to: OU812. It belonged to someone named Kvido, according to the emails, but judging by the lack of a profile picture I wasn’t going to shoot them. The three emails were just random personal emails, though one did have a password (pozy45).

Going through a window, I found some ammo and a rifle I couldn’t carry, and exited a storage room into a hallway. I hacked my way into the storage room next door for some ammo, then went to hack the next one only to almost get spotted by a turret! I had been hidden by a big reel of wire, but it had also been hidden from my sight. As it rotated to look away, I hurried over and picked it up, turning it to face the door next to it, so that it wouldn’t look over the hallways anymore. My mini-map showed someone patrolling that office, so I waited for them to walk away before going in through a window.

Stunning the two guards inside, I looted the place and checked the two computers. The first one I had the password to already, and one of the emails on it gave me the password for the other one! Reading the emails on both, it appeared that Viktor Marchenko and a guy named Marek were working together to do something that Rucker wouldn't like. Something Marchenko called “Stormsurge”, and it seemed to involve two people by the names of Red King and Roland Galla. There was also a chat log between “AM” and “Viteka” that was just the former wanting to know what Viteka thought about a “problem” and not getting a response.

I then went around the entire area shooting people with my stun gun and finding loot. I found my way to the security office and found a pocket secretary on one of the guards with the password “VM451” on it. Looking through emails on various computers there were people concerned about a “noise” in the speaker system making them sleepy, the fact ARC was buying guns, and Tibor sucking. I also found out the identity of the extra person in the home of the guy who shot his pregnant wife — he was sent to check up on them.

Hopping in the elevator up to Rucker’s office, I was buzzed in by the man himself. He asked me not to kill anyone else on my way out, despite the fact that I hadn’t killed anyone except for the police officer, and that was an accident. I was quite annoyed by that comment, but I didn’t let it affect my decision making.

Rucker explained that ARC wasn’t behind the bombing because they were a nonviolent organisation. I explained that the only way to get out of here without violence was if he came peacefully, though he expected that if he did that he would never return. My CASIE augmentation kicked in and began to analyse him as he angrily told me off for obeying my unknown masters. I decided to turn the tables on him, because the reality was that he was hiding behind an army of people with guns. Impressed with my candour, he warmed towards me and explained that he had tried to lead by example with nonviolence, but the world hadn’t even tried to follow his example.

I patronised him, explaining that anti-other movements always sprung up in times of chaos and fear. He should have known that ARC by its very existence would just stoke those fires. He countered that he thought he was prepared to shoulder the burden, because if not him then who? Unfortunately, his leadership was under threat, and he requested 48 hours to resolve the internal conflict. However, I knew that if I left then someone less sympathetic would be sent in, and I suspected that they’d murder their way up here instead of sneaking.

While Rucker agreed somewhat, he told me that I’d not only be responsible for his death, but the perversion of everything he stood for when ARC reacted to it. Although when I turned the tables on him, reminding him that leaving with me would result in less violence, he finally acquiesced. He gave me a keycard so that I could grab some evidence that some within ARC were less committed to peace — he feared those very people wouldn’t let him leave safely.

As Rucker began to explain that he was looking for the real terrorist, his augmentations began freaking out, and he dropped dead in front of me…