Deus Ex Diaries Part Twenty-Eight (Invisible War)

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 with Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Now in the Antarctic, I was facing greasels, Templars and more on my quest to reach JC Denton…

As I went into the bowels of the abandoned Versalife facility, Tracer Tong came over my comm to warn me that there were creatures down here that had been created by the company. That had been clear from all of the datacubes and holocomms that I had found upstairs, but he was trying to be helpful.

At the bottom of the stairs was a greasel, which I shot with my boltcaster. Checking the routes open to me, I decided to enter the ventilation shaft beneath the stairs.

There were a few puddles of radioactive greasel spit, but nothing down with me. Using my eye mod, I kept an eye on what was above me, and shot a greasel when I reached a dead end and had to get up. In the next corridor was a bigger creature called a karkian, which I shot in the back before closing the door. Once it succumbed to the neurotoxin, I opened the door and crossed into another room. Once I had my biomod energy replenished by a robot, I went back out - but avoided the room at the end of the hallway, guarded by a camera and a turret.

Someone called to me from a cell - a Templar had managed to lock himself inside when running from a karkian. He asked me to get him out, even though he knew I wasn’t one of them. To avoid having to shoot him in the inevitable double-cross, I left him there and went towards a karkian that I could see through the wall. I shot it and attempted to close the door before it could get me, but failed and had to run backwards to avoid it’s swipes until it fell.

In my efforts to avoid it, I fell into view of the camera which I was avoiding - so the turret opened fire on me. I shot both with my Mag Rail before going inside, finding myself in the generator room. There was a single greasel, which I shot, before reactivating the generator. From a holocube nearby, and others I’d found, it transpired that the Great Collapse had really screwed these scientists in particular, leaving them without a way to leave Antarctica, or communicate with anyone.

With the power back on, a couple of Templars had come to investigate - from where, I’ve no idea. I avoided both, returning to the ventilation shaft that I had first climbed into, and letting them deal with the remaining security systems. On the surface, I headed back to go and meet JC, but stopped off at the pilot beacon, calling Ava Johnson down. Unfortunately, she told me that I had to go and see JC, but that she would be circling until I had done. That was going to use a lot of fuel, but it was her decision.

Arriving back at the entrance to JC’s hideaway, I activated something which seemed to teleport me to the inner chamber. Tracer came through my comm again to warn me that I had to prepare for the unexpected, as JC’s consciousness was so merged with the Helios AI that it had affected the building. JC was in a beam of light to the right, in front of a console. To the left was a holocomm which Ava used to contact me.

As it transpired, Ava’s passenger (which she’d mentioned a few times) was JC - she was an AI which had been dispatched to find him in Nevada. Clearly, she hadn’t found him there, so followed her directive to locate JC and ensure his safety. There were five Helios cores that I needed to repair, and Ava told me that I had to destroy Billie before she could damage them further.

I decided to check out the terminal, and ignore the doorway to the right of the holocomm. I figured that it would let me talk to JC, but it actually teleported me to an apartment in Hong Kong. Well, a recreation of one. Billie spoke over my comm, whining that this meant that JC wanted the whole world recreated in his image, because portions of the tower had formed from his memories.

A Grey which was in the room warned me about Billie, and that I needed to stop her. Because nobody had told me that yet… I went up some stairs, and found another terminal. Below were some greasels and a karkian, as well as some health packs and ammo, so I sniped with my boltcaster before collecting them via some ladders.

Activating the terminal brought me to another room, with another Grey. It muttered more vague warnings about Billie as I wandered past, leaving the room to find another terminal. Chad Dumier came through my comm, saying something about snatching JC’s hand away as he reaches for the sky… Again, there were animals and ammo below, so I grabbed it.

The terminal took me to what appeared to be a UNATCO board room, and another Grey. Outside was another terminal, and again more stuff to pick up. Now with plenty of ammo, I used the second-to-last terminal.

I appeared in the clone room from Area 51, much to my surprise. Before I could move, Billie appeared next to me, thanking me for finding the way in here and allowing her to follow me. A three hour head start, and she hadn’t managed to do what it took me 10 minutes to do - she wasn’t the best and brightest of the Tarsus trainees…

She again proclaimed that JC was mad, and the only sane answer was to kill him while he was weak. I told her that I didn’t want to kill her, but I’d take her down and leave her breathing. Her opinion was that although I had taken out Templars, but I’d never taken on a true equal.

Billie attacked with two spiderbots, aided by a couple of missile turrets placed around the room. I jogged backwards, shooting Billie with my boltcaster as I went. The neurotoxin made her flinch every few seconds, and thanks to the turrets and spiderbots I lost track of her at some point. I shot the spiderbots with my Mag Rail’s EMP mode, and thanks to one of my mods intercepting the missiles I was soon safe.

I had no idea where Billie went, as there was no sign of her unconscious body anywhere. I activated the final console, and JC came over my comm saying that I should find him near the entrance, he had much to tell me.

Turning left, I saw JC now seeming more awake than before. He was still inside the beam of light, but now willing to talk to me. He explained that he had been thinking these long years, thinking about changing the world for the better. By establishing a posthuman civilisation, of which I was the first citizen!

My first act as a citizen was to return to Cairo, where I was going to rescue Paul from the Templars. From there, I was to meet JC at Liberty Island - where the UNATCO base was. He wanted to use the Aquinas node to distribute nanotech across the world, which would join everyone to Helios. That way, society would actually be run by society, a pure democracy run on instantaneous input from the electorate.

Alex asked JC what would happen if some of the 10 billion people on the planet resisted. JC assured that the people would welcome true equality. He then sent me on my way, allowing me to use Ava Johnson’s helicopter - obviously not realising that she was already at my disposal.

As I left, Tracer contacted me over comms and warned me that I hadn’t been speaking to JC. It was Helios, and if I revived Paul I would be reviving a sworn terrorist - whatever that meant. He said that he would talk to me more once I reached Cairo…