Deus Ex Diaries Part Thirty-Six (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.

Having helped out an old colleague and killed a bunch of gang members, I was off to find out who tried to hack Sarif Industries…

Faridah Malik dropped me off in a parking lot, while Pritchard told me that I was about as close as he could work out. If I wanted to find the person responsible, I had to do the legwork. I started out by going over to some gang members, the leader of whom gave me some information for free. Something “suspicious” and government-controlled was going on, though he couldn’t give me many specifics. He then sold me some ammo for my tranquilizer rifle before I left him to keep looking around.

Entering a nearby door, I cautiously made my way up some stairs. Outside the window, I watched as three heavily augmented individuals spoke about the neural hub that I’d swiped from the morgue. The big one, named Barrett, was told to clean things up, including “The Dutchman”, and they entered the building.

Jensen called Malik and told her to keep the aircraft out of sight - the mercs who attacked Sarif Industries and gave me an origin story were here. I didn’t want to assume they were the same people, so I hadn’t really made the connection myself…

Carefully, I went outside and kept out of sight. I knocked out one merc and shot another two, making sure the bodies remained out of sight. Heading into the alleyway to the left, I used a code that I had apparently found - 7984 - to unlock a gate, and went up a ladder. There was a door right there, so I entered and found myself in a large garage with a couple of trucks and a couple more mercs. I knocked out the one patrolling the upper level, then found a vent shaft.

Inside the shaft, I climbed down a ladder to what turned out to be the ground floor, then a second one to an elevator. It went down several floors, letting me see a big logo on the floor: FEMA. Jensen called Sarif while the elevator travelled, who was surprised that FEMA were involved, as half of the contracts the company took were from them.

As the elevator reached its destination, I exited and hid behind some crates while some mercs talked. There was also a big robot patrolling, so I happily grabbed the EMP grenade right next to me. I shot two mercs with tranqs, then threw the grenade at the robot. Of course, the remaining men attacked me, and I was out of tranq darts, so I had to kill and knock them out, which took more than a couple of minutes.

Once the area was clear, I looted the place. I had to increase the size of my inventory; since I had the Praxis Points available, I increased it fully and even gave myself the perk to lift heavy objects. With that sorted, I picked up a rocket launcher and traded in my tranq rifle for a stun gun. Since I kept running out of ammo and it took up so much space, I figured it would be a good change.

Exiting through a door, I followed a hallway to a ladder, thanks to some repair work apparently being done. I climbed up and went around into an office. I apparently had the password for the computer - neuralhub - so logged in and opened the door, then turned off the camera for the armoury. I pillaged what I could carry, then went through a door to a control room above some cells and interrogation rooms. I had to hack the computer to read some emails; one from Manderley telling people to clear out, one about a new procedure, and a third ceding authority to Manderley’s agency.

Having caught a glimpse of some mercs patrolling the area, I carefully took out the one furthest from me, then snuck into another control room. Logging into the computer with the same password, I disabled the cameras, then went out to knock out the man in the middle before looting a couple of offices. There were two computers, but the only thing vaguely interesting about the emails was one complaining that this was the second time in six months that the FEMA facility had been taken over for a while.

I ran across the gantry above the mercs downstairs, which made them come investigating the noise. After a few minutes, I had taken them all out and thrown an EMP grenade at a turret, so I had a look in all of the rooms to find things worth grabbing. I also checked out a control room just outside the main area, and disabled the cameras.

Exiting into the back area, Pritchard called to say that he thought that the mercs might be pulling out. The guy in charge was apparently somewhere below me. While exploring the area, I found two men that I took to be civilians - until they began shooting at me. I killed them, then looted a nearby locker room before returning to the section where Pritchard had contacted me. There were a couple of medical rooms, and the hallway ended in an elevator.

Once the elevator reached the bottom, I found myself in a warehouse. What appeared to be robots were folded up into squares and lined up along the shelves, but there was nothing else there. I followed the hallway around, spotting two of the three people from earlier outside - only for the third to heavy-footedly creep up behind me and clock me one.

They didn’t appear to recognise me from the first attack, but the big one who’d hit me - Barrett - realised that I was probably the one who took the neural hub from the morgue. The other two escaped, while Barrett converted his arm into a minigun. I whipped out my rocket launcher, but missed with the first salvo. Although I managed to hit with the next two, I was now out of ammo and had to do some hit-and-run tactics with a combat rifle. He kept throwing grenades, so I climbed a ladder and moved through a ventilation duct to keep out of sight. While I was hiding and hacking a computer that I found, Barret confirmed that he knew who I was. I opened a door and deactivated the cameras, before dropping down a second ladder and shooting Barrett once with my revolver, ending the fight.

Jensen asked Barret who his boss was, and why FEMA was going after Sarif Industries, but Barret said it was someone “worse than FEMA”. When pressed, he told Jensen to get to Hengsha Court Gardens in Shanghai - then tried to blow me up with grenades strapped to his vest.

As the smoke cleared, Malik called to ask what happened. She wouldn’t put me through to Sarif until we were out of there, so I got in the elevator and left. She was waiting right outside, so I climbed aboard, and we returned to Sarif Industries.

When I exited the aircraft, Pritchard called me, asking me to meet him in my office. I had to go and see Sarif - Malik didn’t put me through on the ride over - but decided to meet with Pritchard first.

Pritchard wanted to ask for my help, which was curious. He had worked out that the signal that I had disabled had been hacking the company for over a year, through a backdoor that Sarif had installed and neglected to tell anyone about. What’s more, it had been in place since before either Pritchard or Jensen had begun working there, and had received a large amount of data shortly before Jensen was hired. So, Pritchard wanted me to ask Sarif about it. With that in mind, I went upstairs to see Sarif.

As I exited the elevator, however, I was snagged by the leader of the anti-aug group Humanity Front, Bill Taggart, who had apparently just spoken to the boss. He seemed to know about me, and wanted me to know that he wasn’t behind these attacks. He wanted to shut us down legally, not violently. He also tried to psychoanalyse me while ignoring his men trying to disengage him from me - he had to attend a charity dinner. I stayed cool, then happily let him go despite his efforts to antagonise me.

Joining Sarif in his office, I confronted him with the information Pritchard gave me. Thanks to the CASIE mod, I successfully re-steered the conversation towards the backdoor twice when he tried to evade the question, then sprayed pheromones and appeased him. He cracked, emailing me the data about me that he’d collected before I was employed, but he warned that the bell couldn’t be unrung once I read it...