I just saw a while ago a video in which the developers of Mankind Divided announced the making of a new book by James Swallow (the guy behind Icarus Effect), which would cover the gap between Human Revolution and Divided... Daaaamn my almost-canon-gap-filling-story is shot in the head ! But anyway, I'll keep writing, and I can't wait to have that book in my hands... I'll read it. I'lll read it sooo much.
For the sake of immersion, you can listen to Icarus Theme while reading... Because this song is awesome.
Well, let's keep going...
He tried to keep his eyes opened during the procedure. With morphin down his veins though, he didn't have the strength to move from an inch. The dosage had to be strong enough to overcome the Sentinelle Health system in his body.
He couldn't get higher...
The scientists had been at it for two hours now. Maybe more ? He couldn't tell. He sighed and swore... well, fictitiously. The drugs were playing with his thoughts, and he didn't like that. And they were getting stronger effects now. He felt tired, and fighting slumber was tougher and tougher. Silhouettes of white smoke were dancing around him. Echoing voices, far, far away. Strangely, he had the feeling to be a breath. Not a body. Not a mind. Just a breath. Surrounded by that white smoke.
The voices were faint. But far, far away, he could recognize one of them.
A woman's voice.
Soft. Nostalgic. Still far, far away.
"Adam."
"Adam."
She was just calling. Like that. Sweetly. Far. Far away.
"I am sorry..."
He had heard that before, had he ?
He could remember. Her soft skin, golden under a dim sunlight piercing through the curtains. Golden hair, like silk enveloping his fingers. Golden sheets caressing their bodies. And her dark, bewitching eyes. Her breath mingling with his... Her sigh echoing in his ears. Her lips on his.
"I love you..."
Her angel-like face. So close to him.
"Adam..."
"Adam Jensen..."
"Adam..."
"Mister Jensen ? Can you hear me ?"
He opened his mouth, tongue sticky beneath his palate. Damn... He had fallen asleep against his will. And he cursed himself for what he had thought about.
"The procedure is finished. We will put you in a recovering room and you'll be fully awaken in a few moments. One hour max."
...The last time he had had this kind of dream had been during his... rebirth, so to speak. It seemed that surgical procedure didn't suit him at all.
And deep inside, he knew that his body and mind still had a mark on them. A mark of her. He could not forget. In a way, he had never stopped being attracted to her. She had been the one who had left him. Too focused on her work, she was. She'd left him because she's been afraid of hurting him with her obsession in her research. And he hadn't had the courage of restraining her. He had lost her once, at this time.
Then, again... For months, he thought she had died. And when he had finally found her again... It was to discover the unsustainable truth that he had been her lab rat... So, was she so embarassed about the situation that she decided to dump him ? What a comedy...
Well, either way, she was gone again. "Good riddance", Adam was tempted to say. But his subconscious was obviously telling him otherwise...
In the new room he found himself in, he tried to put those feelings aside while slowly recovering the use of his arms and legs. Soon, he wouldn't have to think about all of this again. He was a man of action, after all. Moving his fingers one by one, he noticed that his arms felt lighter than before and easier to move. As if weight didn't exist anymore, or that his muscles were so developped that no effort could stop him.
He activated the Tesla augmentation by clunching his left fist. Little clicking noises erupted from his joints as blue little filaments twirled on his phalanxes. What a piece of art...
Carefully, he touched the nape of his neck, expecting a little bulge beneath the skin... But nothing. He felt a little puffiness due to a needle sting, certainly, but appart from that... No chip.
Maybe it was just that ? This little sting was enough to upgrade him with this new augmentation ? So if he...
**FRRRRRRRRR**
"OAW..."
He jumped in surprise.
Yep. He just had to think about it, and it... happened. Black diamond-like material covering different parts of his body. It felt like hot drizzle falling on his skin. He slapped his protected hands together and the shock didn't even reverberate in his arms. Nano-machines, were they ? Nano-machines reacting to chemical and cerebral stimuli... Can't kill progress was the right expression to use right now.* One needle containing the right substance, and nano-machines did the rest...
"You're already adjusting to your new body, as I can see ? This Titan Shield is stunning, I agree..."
Deactivating the shield - as easily as putting it on - Adam raised up his head to meet with a tall, black suited man hanging at the door of his room. Grey hair, dark and focused eyes, and straight as a pin, the newcomer had an aura... A real one.
"Ultimate research facility you have down here, mister..."
"Jim Miller*. And yes, the new Task Force is already efficient on the D&R field, at least. I'll try my best to guide everyone of you so that you can match that efficiency."
While saying that, the man entered the room and closed the door silenlty, taking a seat at a respectable distance. Serious features, but prepossessing behavior ? Jensen was intrigued.
"You're the chief then. Already here to brief me ?"
Miller cracked a fainted smile.
"Long story short, yes. Your files are particularly interesting, Adam Jensen. Ex-SWAT, recruited as security chief by Sarif Industry, but some plot holes regarding your localization because of malfunction on your GPL implant signature..."
Jensen tightened his jaws. This man was definitely part of one of the biggest corporation in the world, alright. Of course, big corporations like that had contracts with the Big Bro thread, which was not only providing industries with the biggest brand of security cameras, but also the biggest data base in the world, including radiowave and camera recordings. It could be easy to track anyone down with the right tools. And since Jensen was not behind cover, it was easy. But apparently, "Troy Simons" did his job. He erased anything concerning the Panchaea incident, thus the plot holes in his GPL tracking. Because of course, without Troy's intervention, this Miller would know that Jensen had been there... And had had a big role in the destruction of the facility.
"Am I hired then ?"
"Definitely. The creation of the group is still not official though. You'll attend your first missions as an avarage agent of Interpol, under my surveillance. There are still a lot of future employees to recruit. As its name implies, the Task Force 29 will be fully operational for the new year 2029. Three weeks from now."
"And what will be the motive behind those missions ?"
"Reconnaissance, mostly. In the ghettos. Things are getting out of hands, you may have noticed it. We already have cops scouting the area, but I suspect some breach of rule here and there. It has to be, with the overall mindset."
"I see what you mean..."
Miller took his chair and put it closer to the bed.
"Now, listen to me. For an enforcer of the law to enforce the law correctly, he has to listen around him. Listen to citizens. And as far as I know, beings with mind and soul are citizens. You are a citizen as much as I am, and if you screw up, you are to be sentenced as much as I would be. The abuse of power is a breach of rule. And this is one of the first thing I'll work on as a chief. Nats and Augs alike."
Jensen was at a loss of words. This man was serious. Eye-locked on him. Jensen would have to be patient to uncover the truth, yes, but it seemed pretty obvious at first sight that Jim Miller was not part of any conspiracy. His job was his life. And he was straight sincere about it.
He had the same flame in his eyes as Hellen.
A Nat searching for common grounds, for understanding, for peace.
And that was praiseworthy.
Miller crossed his arms on his chest.
"Meanwhile, you also have to be available at any times. And aware of any suspicious behavior. On the Aug side, I mean. All this repression is like salt rubbed on open wounds, and some will cry out and retaliate soon enough. You know that almost every two days, anti-terrorist missions are being cared of, don't you ?"
Jensen shrugged, thinking about what happened with the Pitbull.
"I do..."
"Well then... I'll let you recover. I'm sending you data via e-mails. You'll have a place at the dormitories and official papers are taken cared of already. You'll be assigned a VTOL pilote. He'll bring you to the mission sites and extract you when you're finished. Prague is huge and traffic is always a big issue. It's much more easier through the air, you know that. I'm sending his number to your Info-link..."
While saying that, Miller tapped on his phone and the content immediately appeared in Adam's vision. Name of the contact : Elias Chikane.
The day after, it was with a wild look on his face that Chikane welcomed Adam on his VTOL. The man's jaws tightened hard. He mumbled :
"Well, I know now why our sweet chief didn't send me any details on you..."
"... And why so ?"
"I would've refused to share my engine right away..."
Promising... Adam wondered how in hell did he always get to work with those who naturally loathed him. First, Frank Pritchard, now this Chikane. From how he looked at him when he entered the VTOL, Adam knew that Elias was one of those to be upset with augmented people. He didn't have any augmentation himself. He seemed to have a brace on one of his legs though... He rejected technological advancement. "Probably for a reason", Jensen thought. Many people suffered attacks from insane augs during the Panchaea events... Others even lost their family, their friends... Hugh Darrow certainly made his point when he altered the chips...
They took off to a remote part of Aug Prague, eventually. Sat behind Chikane, Jensen looked at a detailed map of the area for quite some time, completely mute. It didn't bother Chikane. It was probably the contrary.
After 20 minutes of flight, Chikane landed on a VTOL landing area.
"There we are. Contact me again when you're about to come back. I've some errand to run. Oh, and try to be cool out there. Not the nicest place."
Adam never went to this part of town. In fact, he was quite the newcomer in Prague. He had "visited" the entrance of Aug territory, but he had never gone that far into the jungle. He kind of already knew what to expect.
Not at this extent though.
Roads were filthy. Even walls were dark of mud. Electricity cables torn off, some of them floating on water puddles, creating white discharges with clicking noises. Tags on the ground, on the brick walls, almost everywhere. "They have no rights" "We will starve to death" "ARC is coming" "Augs will survive" "ARC will save us"...
Adam's fists tightened. If he thought that Detroit's streets were sad, these streets were on another level completely. It was hell.
And what was "ARC" ? He knew he had heard about it somewhere... Was it a coalition ? Of course, Jensen knew that this would happened. Rebel groups had to be created. Citizens wanted justice. There was none here.
On the pavements, a lot, lot of people were just wandering about. Some other were leaned on the walls or fences, bottles of alcohol or cigarettes - or both - in hand. On his left, a man with a yellow hood was discreetly passing down a little plastic bag to someone else. Probably Nu-Poz. In the end, Megan's research didn't have time to reach the populace. augs were still addicted to Neuropozyne.
Appart from distraught faces all over the place, Adam recognized the Prague polizia, guns and nightsticks in hands. They suddenly shouted in Czech. And it was toward the man offering the secret plastic bag...
Jensen didn't understand a thing of what the polizia said. One of the guards was shouting louder than the others. Afraid, the other hobos dispersed. The arrested hooded man tried to defend himself with words, hands up, thinking that it would calm the guard a bit.
How wrong he was.
The guard laughed it up, and harshly struck the Aug in the face. The struck was so hard he stumbled two or three meters away before falling. His Isolay legs tangled in each other and he couldn't move, knocked off.
The other guards turned around, and looked at the rest of the populace who was getting indignant. The polizia members showed them their nightsticks, threatening to strike. It was not long before some more men and women were bitten up too...
Adam stood there, stunned. But not for long. The yellow hooded man was seized by the leg, dragged on the filthy ground, before being struck again. He caught his eyes, and for a brief moment, he reached his hand out. And cried out.
-HELP ME...
Jensen's heart missed a bit. It was too much. He was not here for a minute, and already, he was faced with... This...
-F*ck this...
*Activating his invisibility cloak, he sneaked behind the violent guard and struck him with his elbow, sending him off the ground where his victim was lying. The other guards around reacted to the sudden turn of event, as Jensen became visible again. He didn't care. He was not an official from the Task Force yet...
The citizens took this at their advantage and fled as quick as they could. The yellow hooded man though, stayed were he was, too wounded to move.
Before any of the guards could do a thing, Jensen seized one of them by the collar to project him on his nearby comrade. Another one tried to get his shotgun out of his belt and point it to Jensen's head... Adam had no other choice but to plant his arm blade into his legs to incapacitate him. The shotgun fell on the asphalt.
It was not done though. Two police bots, probably alerted by their masters' adrenaline's fluctuation - it was common for policemen to be linked to a bot by a magnetized bracelet - became wild and tried to pierce him with bullets. In a matter of seconds, Adam seized the shotgun on the ground, destroyed both bots and jumped as high as he could to avoid bullets coming from behind him. Two other guards were still charging him with submachine guns...
Time to try out his new arm abilities...
Jensen made his wrist bend to uncover a cannon linked to his Tesla charge and unleashed an EMP force field that stroke down the guards. As simple as that. The men were threw off by the discharge.
And silence covered the place like a veil. Jensen stood up, looking around him. Appart from the fainted guards, no one was around. Except for the hooded man.
He was young, in fact. Mid-twenties at most. His face was covered in blood and one of his eyes stayed shut, puffled up by the struggle. He was trying to get on his feet, but he was too weak to move his Isolay legs correctely.
Adam took him by the elbow to help him up. With a nod, the man thanked him.
"I... I was just helping the guy. With Nu-Poz. There are still some stuffs out there we managed to scavenge before they shut down most of the L.I.M.B. clinics. There are not enough of them anymore... We... We've been put here like cattle..."
The young man was breathing heavily, trying to hold tears back.
"You understand us, you... You are one of us... You... Are from ARC ?"
"ARC ? What's ARC ?"
He frowned.
"You don't know ? They are recruiting... They've changed their goal and... Well they're here to help us... We're not alone anymore..."
The man seemed to feel less and less comfortable.
"I have to go... Thank you. For everything."
With a sigh, he departed, leaving Adam alone. Surrounded by the bodies of the polizia.
Where did humanity go...
Seriously... Where did it go ?
The all scene at the beginning is a complete tribute to the cinematic intro of Human Revolution, of course. This intro is a piece of art on every levels. It adds so much depths to Jensen's personnality and deep feelings toward Megan that when you meet with her again toward the end of the game, you're like... "YOU'RE KIDING ME ? YOU'RE KIDING RIGHT ? Seriously, Megan !"... Anyway !
*Jim Miller : new character introduced by Eidos Montreal a few days ago. He is officially the chief of the Task Force 29 and he has a little character description which is pretty great ! I can't wait to learn more about this character. I jumped on the occasion to include him in my story.
*Can't kill progress : official social media hashtag used when the upcoming game is being refered to. That was a nice touch I wanted to add haha.
*Of course, everything that happens in the end of this chapter is a rewriting of the official trailer... You then already know who this yellow hooded man is~