Deus Ex Diaries Part Thirty-Two (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.

Newly augmented after an attack on Sarif Industries, I was being sent in to stop Zeke Sanders and his anti-augmentation terrorists from stealing a new weapon…

As I left the aircraft and it flew off, I wondered why people without augments would want a weapon unit that was designed for use by augmented soldiers. While I wondered, I talked with the men guarding the nearby door. At least a couple of the terrorists were smokers, since they had been spotted coming out for a smoke break every now and then. I entered the building and spoke to the SWAT officer in charge, who was unhappy about ceding authority to me.

The only useful intel they could give me was that the hostages were being held in an office near the assembly labs. There may have been between five and 36 hostiles inside, and hadn't communicated any demands, so I was just wasting time talking to this guy.

Exiting through the next door, Pritchard contacted me as I made my way down a ladder. I was entering through the shipping area, and he warned that there were going to be people guarding it. He suggested I try entering through the roof, which wasn’t a bad idea. After tranquing the closest sentry, I carefully crept around to see how many people I could spot.

Going through a gate and over some crates, I snuck beneath a walkway and counted the hostiles. Waiting for a good moment, I tranqued one and repositioned to shoot a second - who immediately spotted me. After a firefight, I climbed up some shipping containers to try and find the roof access. The way was blocked by an electrical current running across the ground, so I moved a box to protect myself by standing on it. Unfortunately, I walked against it and it shattered, leaving me with the main door…

After some quick recon, I shot at a man and missed him, but managed to hit a second man a moment later. Somehow that was seen, and everyone went nuts trying to kill me… Once the warehouse was clear, I checked for loot and read some emails on a computer. Heading for an open door, I was greeted by a hostile with his back to me. After shooting him, I managed to alert the remaining men, and ran out of ammo dealing with them. By now too late, I realised that I, that I hadn’t been picking up ammo from the weapons left on the ground which was why I was so low. To say that it was not ideal was an understatement, but I headed into the locker room.

With some free stuff out of the lockers, I made my way to the decontamination room which would let me into the production area. Pritchard contacted me to say that he was locked out, and cut Jensen off when he tried to ask about his failure to plug the leak. Six months, and he hadn’t done it…

Hacking my way into the door, I entered the lab. There were a handful of hostiles inside, and I had to deal with them when I was spotted. When the coast was clear, I looted the area before locating the hostages. As I entered the office, someone told me not to come in - and the door locked behind me. The bomb on the desk casually said “Automated dispersal device armed”, and a 30 second countdown timer began. Luckily, I had picked up a pocket secretary which had the code on it: 1505. With 24 seconds remaining, the bomb was disarmed.

Jensen reported in to Pritchard before speaking to the hostages. Whilst telling them to keep calm and stay here, one of them began telling me about how his wife - Josie Thorpe - was being held somewhere else. I reassured him, then left via a ventilation duct. The doors were open, I just wanted to explore. It left out above the lab, then led me to a ladder and another duct. The lab fight could have gone much more differently if I’d noticed this earlier…

Exiting the lab via a hallway, I avoided a camera by entering a meeting room. I was immediately spotted by the two men inside, but I used two takedowns. A third man entered and I shot him while Eliza Cassan’s news report talked about this exact situation I was in on a nearby television. Back in the hallway, I hacked a door and went through another decontamination and into a second lab. Managing to avoid detection, I went through a vent shaft and hid in a storage room while a terrorist patrolled nearby. I killed him when his back was turned, and exited through a door.

The lab was full of hostiles, so I carefully worked out how to take them out one at a time. This failed, and I had an extended firefight - because of course I did. After killing them all, I took the elevator down where I was told about upgrades. I upgraded my Radar System and was spotted by an automated turret before I ran into the control room and deactivated the camera near it. Perhaps I should have upgraded my hacking…

Exiting the room, I went into a vent shaft and wound up behind the turret, then entered the server room. An augment with glassy eyes was hacking something, and shot himself while saying “help me”. Sarif told me not to touch him, and to “deal with” Sanders. I went down the hallway and took the lift up to the head office. As I crossed a glass floor, I could see the terrorists fighting with SWAT below me. SWAT were winning.

Going upstairs, I waited for two hostiles to finish chatting. They were talking about having nothing to show to Picus Worldwide News, and that Sanders appeared to have messed up. I tranquilised both men, then searched a conference room for loot. I entered a vent shaft inside an office, which took me down a level to the restrooms. While moving silently to a meeting room, I was spotted by someone I could barely see, and attacked by three hostiles who I dealt with. Then I checked out the PCs using hacking and some obtained login details, but didn’t find anything too interesting.

I went up the final set of stairs to the head office and finally met Sanders. He was shouting at Josie Thorpe for lying to him. He was surprised by the revelation that he had an augmented working for him, and didn’t want to believe it. He grabbed Josie and said that he was taking her to ensure his own safety. I told him that he couldn’t take her, and tried to empathise, to convince him that I would work with him to find out who was behind setting him up. I then reasoned with him, telling him that getting out of here on his own would be easier than being pursued for having a hostage. Since he still wouldn’t let Josie go, I decided to try and humble him - by calling him stupid, wanting to get himself killed by falling into this obvious trap.

Sanders let Josie go, and I let him leave. Sarif asked what was going on, so Jensen filled him in, before being ordered back to headquarters. Beforehand, however, I spoke to Josie and explained that her husband - and the others - were safe. I went to get on the transport, but overheard Josie’s husband being told that he couldn’t see his wife, so I stopped by to tell him the good news. Once I did that, I spoke to pilot Faridah Malik, and she took me back to base. After we landed, she asked how my augmentations were, and I replied that while I didn’t choose it, it felt good. I asked her about the attack which had injured me, then went inside.

Now that I was back, I finally explored the main lobby a bit. I saw the memorial set up for those killed six months ago, where two people were talking. I had a quick look around the rest of the lobby, activating a display to learn about Hugh Darrow and the LIMB (Liberty in Mind and Body International) organisation. I then went upstairs to my office.

My system account had been wiped and partially restored by IT, according to a pocket secretary, so I logged into my PC with my new password: mandrake. There was an email from Greg Thorpe, saying that I should drop by his apartment so he could give me something in return for saving him and his wife. I also had an email from Athene, asking me to investigate some missing Neuropozyne which had been ongoing for three months. Pritchard said that it seemed to be the fault of Will Rosellini, but Athene asked that I talk to him when I get a chance. There were also company-wide emails from Athene and Sarif, but they weren’t worth noting.

Deciding to have a quick look into Rosellini, I went down to his office and used the code which Athene had given me. His PC wasn’t locked, so I was free to read the emails which Pritchard had sent him, basically accusing him of stealing the Neuropozyne. Rosellini argued that he needed it for his research, and that Pritchard should instead talk to Ted Bruger for confirmation. Speaking of, Bruger had sent an email telling Rosellini to check out the research in his office, about Patient X…

So, I headed for Bruger’s office upstairs and used the code from the aforementioned email. Luckily, he had his password on a sticky note, so I logged into his PC. There was an email about his hook up with Andrea van Wesel - curiously in the Neuropozyne freezer. Ironically, there was also an email from Pritchard warning people about password safety, including not to write it on a sticky note.

There was a ventilation entrance in the office, so I used it to go through to van Wesel’s office. Her PC wasn’t password protected, so I read an email from Pritchard. He was the reason that van Wesel was in the freezer - placing an intellicam inside to find the thief. There was also an email from Athene, talking about overtime. Instead of taking time-and-a-half pay, it asked people to instead take one-for-one paid vacation hours once project deadlines were reached. It seemed the expensive Neuropozyne thefts were putting Sarif Industries further into the red - again, Malik had mentioned earlier that the company was in financial trouble.

Since I had no more clues, I went to see Pritchard, who was once more antagonistic towards me. He couldn’t look at the Typhoon yet - because he was running a diagnostic on security. He knew more than he would tell me, so I headed upstairs to see Sarif for a debrief. He had been on a call with Hugh Darrow about Bill Taggart, the founder of The Humanity Front. Taggart had gone on national television to basically call out Sarif and get him into a public debate. As I entered, he was wrapping it up.

Sarif was clearly in a bad mood, having to agree to the debate - and smile while doing it - so I expected him to be angry. To his credit, he ordered me to see Dr. Marcovic at the LIMB clinic for a checkup. But then he laid into me about my decision to let Sanders go. I told him that it was a gamble, hoping that Sanders would lead me to whomever arranged this whole thing, though Sarif wasn’t convinced. However, since the police weren’t letting us see the body of the augmented hacker - who they claimed wasn’t augmented - he wanted me to head over to the police station and steal the neural hub. I readily agreed, because I’ll always follow orders.

So it was definitely going to be a busy night, and I still needed a lead on the Neuropozyne thefts…