Deus Ex: Invisible War - Transcendence

This is a work of fanfiction based on the videogame Deus Ex: Invisible War.  I was dissatisfied with the endings available in the game and decided to write my own.  To a lesser extent this was inspired by Linkin Park's new album Living Things.

IMPORTANT: IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED "DEUS EX" AND/OR "DEUS EX: INVISIBLE WAR," A LOT OF THIS WILL GO OVER YOUR HEAD!

TRANSCENDENCE

Alex Denton spun around after he jumped off the end of the north dock and onto the hard-packed snow, watching for any Templar paladins still pursuing his cloaked figure.  Satisfied that he hadn’t been noticed, he hurried past the Hunter-Seeker bots lying dormant inside their cages and towards the shack where the only man he wanted to see was waiting.

“Alex!” Tracer Tong exclaimed as the tired and worn commando rushed into the room.  “I have been waiting for you!”

“There’s no time,” Alex coughed, regaining his breath as he holstered his silenced sniper rifle in his belt.  “I need to talk to you about something very important.”

“It is not I with whom you must speak!” Tong replied, gesticulating towards where the massive holographic Statue of Liberty towered in the background.  “JC and Paul are waiting for you!  You must go to them!”

“Tracer,” Alex shook his head, addressing the aged scientist by his first name for the first time, “I’m not merging with Helios.”

“But you must!” An expression of desperation emerged on Tong’s face, “it is the only way—”

“Tracer,” Alex said again, “have you thought about this?  About what will happen if Helios becomes a reality?  It will be the end of expression, the end of all differences.  The human race will become thoughtless servants of a robotic master.  And that would never change because no one would be able to act out and break the link to JC and Helios.”

“Helios is only an AI,” Tong insisted, shaking his head, “JC Denton will be there too.”

“JC Denton just spent twenty years imprisoned in a biomechanical sanctuary in Antarctica, cut off from any human interaction!  The only thing he could talk to was Helios.  I can understand that your old friend would be a good, sincere leader, but JC has been taken over by Helios.  Whatever is left of him can’t stand up to that AI!”

Tong bent over and pressed his hands against his temples, and Alex continued.  “Tracer, I understand you feel responsible for what happened twenty years ago.  I know you want to undo the Collapse.  But stealing the individuality from humankind is not the way to do it.”

“What do you want me to do, Alex?” Tracer looked up, “kneel before the Illuminati?  Bend down before the Templars, kissing their feet before they execute me?”

“There has to be another way,” Alex insisted.  There was a strange sense of worn vitality in his eyes, something that said I’ve come too far to give up.  “What about the Aquinas protocols?”

“What about them?”

“What is Helios using them for?”

“He can use them to establish his communication with the rest of the world.  The protocols are his point of entry into the mass consciousness.”  Tong looked back down, rubbing his temples as if afflicted with a migraine.

“And what would the Illuminati and the Templars use them for?”

“The same,” Tong looked up.  “They could control all worldly communications.  The Aquinas protocols once formed the hub for all electronic communications on the planet.  That’s why the Collapse was so easy to trigger, all JC did was shut off the router.”

“Could we use them?” Alex asked simply.

“What?”

“Could we use the protocols?  Take power ourselves.  Fix the world?”

“Your solution to fix a dictatorship by an artificial intelligence is to create a dictatorship by a person?” Tong snorted.

“I understand that you’re an idealist, Tracer,” Alex protested, “but think.  I wouldn’t be alone.  I want you there with me.  And there must be others, allies of you and JC from before the Collapse.”

“This is preposterous!” Tracer exclaimed, jumping up, “I mean, how do you expect to use the protocols at all?!  The Illuminati and the Templars have technical experts that could utilize them, but we….”

Alex raised his eyebrows at Tong’s sudden silence.  The old scientist’s expression had changed; he looked almost epiphanic.  “Yes, Tong?”

“Are you certain about this, Alex?” Tong questioned, his voice lower, contemplative.

“Yes,” Alex said.  His tone spoke of finality.  His eyes were hard as stone, but alive with some strange kind of warmth.

“I know someone who could help us,” Tong said softly, “one of those old allies who had fallen off the grid.  A computer expert named Alex Jacobson.”

“Can you contact him?”

“Get me to the Aquinas protocols,” Tong said, “and I will be able to.”

“So, you’re onboard?”

Tong looked at Alex with a strange new light in his eyes, “I have already made one mistake that almost cost humanity everything.  I am not going to be responsible for a second.”

“Well, here we are,” Alex said as they stood outside the ruins of UNATCO.  They had sent out the Hunter-Seekers to eliminate any opposition, but Liberty Island had emptied.  The only remaining life form was the solitary Gray waiting outside the Statue’s massive gates.

“This place brings back many memories,” Tong said softly, and Alex was surprised to see a tear running down his elderly face.

“For you?”

“For JC,” Tong said softly.  Alex didn’t ask for an explanation and Tong continued.  “Twenty years ago… this was where Majestic-12 hid its face.  This was where JC first learned of them.  This was where he first fought them.  And this was where Helios first revealed itself to JC, in the form of an AI named Daedalus.”  He paused for another moment, then finished, “it is strangely fitting that this is where it ends.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said softly.

“My friend is gone,” Tong said softly, looking at his new partner with cleared eyes, “his brother as well.  For all intents and purposes, JC is already dead.  If we do this only his body will remain to die.  As it will when we cut off power to the statue.”

“You’re sure?” Alex asked.  “I don’t want an augmented soldier with a mechanical consciousness coming in here looking for us.”

“The remains of the statue will collapse on Helios’s machine when we shut off the power,” Tong said, “there is no escape from that kind of fate.”

“Well, if you’re willing,” Alex said, “after you.”

And together they descended into the depths of the UNATCO Ruins.

Unbeknownst to them, a shadow broke away from a storage container several yards away and headed, slowly but surely, towards the entrance to the ruins.  JC Denton shook his head slowly, his mechanized fingers stroking the rocket launcher affixed to his belt.  “Not so fast, Alex,” Helios said softly before following the pair into the Ruins.

Outside the snow continued to fall.  It was a peaceful starry night on Liberty Island.

Alex and Tong descended down the steps into the belly of what had once been UNATCO, passing the remains of destroyed desks and what might have once been United States flags.  In one room stood the remains of an effigy, and in another the crumbled pieces of a mosaic.

“This place,” Tong said softly, “it’s dying.”

“It’s already dead,” Alex replied.  “It died long ago.”  He suddenly spun around, his hand reaching for the flickering blue sword at his hip.  “Did you hear that?”

“Probably just a rat,” Tong replied.  “Come on, let us go.”

Helios watched them from behind a pillar, his own hand reaching for his own sword, and identical copy of the one at Alex’s hip.  “Close,” he whispered.  “Too close.”

“We’re here,” Tong said as they emerged into the remains of an office.  “Alex Jacobson once worked here.  It is now the home of the last of the Aquinas protocols.”  He gestured down at the computer terminal at the other end of the office, separated from them by a small flight of steps.

“After you,” Alex said, and Tong walked over to the computer terminal, careful to avoid the rubble scattered around his feet.

“Alright,” he said, sitting down at the terminal, “nothing too complicated.”  He typed in a few commands, and a slight beeping emitted from the terminal.  “Alex?” he called seemingly into thin air, “Alex, do you hear me?”

A few seconds past, and Alex began to doubt.  Then, abruptly, an incredulous voice spoke back.  “Tong?  Is that you?”

“Alex!” Tong’s voice was jovial, “where are you?!”

“Vandenberg,” Alex Jacobson replied, “where I’ve been for the last twenty years.  Dr. Savage hid me here, along with Sam Carter and Jaime Reyes, all of the old ‘good guys’ I guess you could say.  We built quite an impenetrable fortress.”

“Alex!” Tong said again, “there’s no time for chitchat, just listen!  The world depends on what I’m about to ask you to do.”

“And what is that?”

“I need you to reprogram the Aquinas protocols.”

“WHAT?!”

“Just listen to me—”

“Hang on,” Alex Denton said to Tong, his eyes fixed on a point outside the door, “I’ll be right back.”

“Is there a problem?”

“No… I just need to check something out,” Alex said softly.  “Probably nothing, but I didn’t survive this long by not checking every little squeak.”

“Alright Alex, come back soon,” Tong said.  “We should be ready rather quickly.”

“See you,” Alex said softly, and in the blink of an eye he had disappeared.

Alex stepped carefully into the decrepit hallway, his footsteps silent thanks to one of his many biomechanical modifications.  Another was keeping him invisible, something he felt very sure was currently saving his life.

“I know you’re there,” he said forcefully, quickly dashing away from his position.  A second later he felt a bullet whiz past, embedding itself into the wall in the distance.

“Very good, Alex,” Helios’s voice sounded filtered, fake, mechanical.  Alex’s eyes flashed all over the room, looking for the combination of man and machine that he knew was lurking in the shadows.

“Show yourself!” Alex roared, rolling away from his position again.  Another bullet flashed past, blasting into a million fragments against the powdery concrete walls.

“It’s not so easy when you’re up against an equal, is it?” Helios taunted.  “No longer taking on commandos or mere soldiers.  No… now you have to take down the great JC Denton!”

“I will kill you, Helios!” Alex called out, skittering across the floor like a spider.  Another bullet buried itself in the wall, but he’d had an idea.

“I am immortal you fool!” Helios roared, “I cannot be killed by mere mortals!  You are just a puppet, Alex Denton, unfit to rule the world.  Give in to your true master!”

Alex clasped the grenade tightly in his hand, knowing that as soon as he threw it he would be visible, at least until he could reenergize the nanobots in his skin that were keeping him invisible.  It was no ordinary grenade however.  As soon as it hit the ground it would transform into a Spiderbot, which would find Helios by tracking the invisible super-soldier’s heat signature.

“For a robot, you’re quite a fool Helios!” Alex roared at the top of his lungs as he launched the Spiderbot towards the other side of the room.  At the same time he dove through the nearest doorway and into what was left of the UNATCO armory.

“You think a wimpy little Spiderbot can defeat me?” Helios’s laugh was terrifying, a cross between an adult man’s guffaw and the mechanical buzz that emits from inside a robot.  A moment later there was a smaller, feebler buzz as the Spiderbot was crushed under an ironclad foot.  “I am immortal, Alex Denton!  You’d do well to remember that before you waste any more of your only remaining allies.”

But this time Alex didn’t reply.  As soon as Helios had crushed the Spiderbot, he’d become visible.  And during his threat, Alex’s cells had recharged.  He was once again invisible, and now resting on the old, dust-ridden carpet five yards behind Helios’s muscled and mechanized body.  The sniper rifle was laid out beside him, with Helios’s unmistakable head in its sights.

“Goodbye, JC,” Alex said softly, and fired.  A millisecond later, what had once been JC Denton’s head evaporated in a mist of blood and sparks.

“What was it, Alex?” Tracer Tong asked as Alex reentered the office.

“Oh nothing,” Alex smiled, “Just a rat.”  He wiped a bit of moisture from his eye and nodded at the terminal, “how’s this going?”

“We’re almost online,” Tong replied.  “In a few minutes the protocols will be completely ready, and you can rule the world just as JC always intended.”

“I want to do it from here,” Alex said, looking at the room around him.  “I want to rebuild this place, create a new cradle of liberty.  I want Liberty Island to be the capital of our new world order.”

“That can be done,” Alex Jacobson’s amicable voice entered the conversation, “we just need to airlift all the equipment from Vandenberg to Liberty Island.  Not hard to do with the Illuminati and the Templars still occupied in Cairo and Trier.”

“Alright,” Alex Denton said softly, patting the old scientist lightly on the shoulder.  He thought of the sniper rifle still lying on the ground outside the office, of JC Denton’s body and the remains of an AI with dictatorial dreams.  He thought of the few others waiting to see Helios rise into the sky, of ApostleCorp’s remaining workers, of the remaining Illuminati and Templars about to see their dreams fall by the wayside.  But mostly he thought of the massive holographic statue rising above Liberty Island, long after the old one had crumbled into dust.  Very soon that too would fall, and crush the last remains of Helios’s dream in one last Collapse.  “Tracer, time to bring it down.”

“JC, forgive me,” Tong said softly, and typed a command.  Another tear trickled down his face.

There was a colossal rumbling from outside the Ruins as the statue’s remains crumbled down upon its base, crushing whatever was left of Helios’s ragtag army of soldiers and Grays.

“Our transcendence is upon us,” Tracer Tong said softly, sitting back in his chair.  He shook his head softly, tears now streaming openly down his face.  “I only hope we are wise enough to survive it.”

Outside, across the cold, darkened landscape of Liberty Island, the snow stopped falling.  The stars however, continued to shine.  And in the east, a faint red glow began to emerge from beyond the horizon.

The sun was rising on a new world order.