Deus Ex Diaries Part Sixty-Three (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.

Having been confirmed ready for active duty, I was on my way to see Alex Vega at the L.I.M.B. clinic…

As I approached the clinic, I was dismayed at how rundown it appeared, with graffiti and broken glass on its facade. The Aug Incident had only been two years ago, but clearly nobody was maintaining the building. Using the code 4464, I gained access and went downstairs into the basement where I met Vega.

Vega lamented how the city had changed from being augmentation-friendly to being downright hostile in such a short amount of time. I asked how she joined the Juggernaut Collective. Without naming names, she explained how she left the private military group Belltower when they turned on her, and a member of the Collective helped her out. Obviously, that was in reference to Ben Saxon, last seen climbing into Vega’s aircraft in Part Fifty-Five of these diaries.

I then asked why Vega had been sent to Prague, and I almost missed her explanation because she pronounced “Prague” as “Praag” and it surprised me so much. Apparently, it was because the Collective’s enemies needed chaos to operate in, and since Prague had turned so anti-aug there was plenty of chaos here.

She played the recovered audio from Jim Miller’s NSN, which was him clearly angry with his boss — Joseph Manderley, the director of TF29 — who was telling him that the Augmented Rights Coalition was behind everything. Bombings in Prague, a break-in at VersaLife, that whole Dubai incident, and more were all ARC, at least officially. Vega said that this proved that Miller was dirty, but I disagreed as he certainly didn’t sound like he was happy to be putting this all at ARC’s feet.

Vega went on to talk about the VersaLife break-in “that never happened”. Due to the size and importance of the company, there was no way that it wouldn’t have been reported. Except that Jensen knew for a fact that Picus Media would have squashed any coverage and prevented their AI news reporter Eliza Cassan from talking about it. However, from the discussion the pair were having I was confused whether it did happen and wasn’t reported, or it was reported but didn’t happen… Vega promised to look into it further and left me to look around the place.

Calling Miller on comms, I was told to head to Kopecky’s puppet shop, as I was heading to Golem City — the aug ghetto on the outskirts of Prague — soon. I took a look around the basement, finding only a couple of things, then headed for the puppet shop.

There was a door in the back which I opened with the code 4465, and found a workshop with an old plane inside named The Hawk. I found a few things in the drawers before heading out back. Miller was talking to someone on the phone, talking about someone needing to see another doctor. He apparently didn’t want “him” to go behind his back, though. He ended the call and brushed it off when I spoke to him. Apparently, TF29 had been given some intellicam footage which showed an augmented individual placing bags at the sites from the explosions at the train station.

As the bags were the same ones used by Talos Rucker and the aid workers at Utulek Complex (AKA Golem City), Miller wanted him brought in for questioning. Chikane arrived in an aircraft ready to take me to my destination, or as close to it as possible. Apparently, ARC territory was fiercely guarded against strangers and even the local police. Rucker had blackmailed the Czech government to let him take over a portion of the Utulek Complex in order to bury an unrelated humanitarian crisis.

To gain access to the ARC area, Miller had reached out to a member by the name of Tibor Sokol, and promised to get him and his family out of there if he helped me get in. I was to meet Sokol in the housing district, then grab Rucker. Miller left, and we flew to Golem City.

I was dropped — almost quite literally — near the residential district. The area that I had to pass through was, generously speaking, a medical clinic judging by the single doctor on duty, and the amount of meds I’d soon find inside. Chikane left me to my mission, and I went to talk to the doctor, who was named Martine Onziema.

The first words out of her mouth were asking me for spare Neuropozyne. As luck would have it, I hadn’t hit a merchant before leaving Prague, so I had some on me and handed it over. I figured that it was the best way to get some information from the good doctor. She warned me that the local police were being rougher than usual due to the train station bombing, even though the average citizen wasn’t a member of ARC. However, she fully supported Talos Rucker and his group, though when asked about the man she became suspicious of me asking questions. I feigned innocence, saying that the Utulek Complex was my new home and I just wanted to get information, which she bought.

I looted the clinic building and hacked Dr. Onziema’s computer. Apparently their supplies were being stolen and dumped in the sewage drains by the police, so she had reached out to ARC who had provided the clinic with some supplies. I left the building and looked around the area.

One of the rooms I found myself in had suspicious blueprints on the walls and a computer which I hacked into, discovering that it belonged to an Ivan Berk. There was an email from his wife, one from the head of operations at Tarvos Security Services upset that he couldn’t get them out of Golem, and the third gave me pause. It was from a Viktor Marhenko, and talked about how he was sorry that Berk was not with ARC for long, but promised that he would “become a legend”...

On the lower level — I’m hesitant to call it the ground, as I had no way of knowing where that was — there were several instances of the police holding civilians at gunpoint, threatening them with arrest, or just straight up arresting them. I found my way to domicile 000237 to meet up with Sokol, but was met not by Tibor Sokol but Adela Sokol. Apparently, Tibor had gone and gotten himself and his brother Dusan — Adela’s husband — arrested and taken to the Narrows. It was an unneeded complication, but I had figured this wouldn’t be too easy.

As I left, one of the other domiciles was marked red on my mini-map, and being guarded by police, so it took my interest and I went inside through a window. It seemed that there was a way to get from there to a police lockup, which I found blocked by a box. Unfortunately, it was also electrified, but I managed to get through the passage and in through the window before I ran out of health, though barely.

In the lockup I found medical supplies and through a locked gate I also found some ammunition and a laser-targeting system. There was also a Praxis kit hidden away in a box, which brought me up to eight available Praxis points. I left the way I had entered, and went downstairs to the Narrows. There was a ventilation shaft to the left, and by moving some large crates out of the way there was a crawl space to the right. I decided to check the direct route first, though, and approached the guard at the entrance.

The officer wasn’t too insulting, so I offered him a bribe so that I could speak to a prisoner. He told me that he wasn’t interested, but if he was interested how much would I be offering? I told him 500 credits, but he wanted double so I gave him 1,000 credits. He told me to go straight to the prisoner and then leave immediately, and the entrance area turned from red to grey on my mini-map. Past there was still red, however, so I would still have to be careful. I grabbed some ammo from a handful of lockers before entering the holding area, hopefully things could get back on track soon…