Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade

Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade is a comic book tie-in series that happens prior to the events of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It is published by Titan Comics, and the first issue was released on February 10, 2016.

Issue 1
"With society still reeling from the Aug Incident – the Illuminati orchestrated event which caused millions of augmented individuals to mindlessly attack their 'natural' counterparts – anti-aug sentiment is at an all-time global high.

Augmentation is now viewed as a serious threat to humanity. In response, transhumans have been segregated from the rest of society and placed in slum-like ghettos – an act many are calling 'mechanical apartheid'.

Task Force 29 – an Interpol-funded coalition, created to quash the rising tide of terrorist activity on both sides – stands as the world’s main defense against total anarchy.

In the city of Prague, where tension is especially high, the team’s latest recruit, Adam Jensen, an unwillingly-augmented freelance operative with unspoken ties to the Aug Incident, has joined Task Force 29 as its latest recruit. Striking from the air, he now begins his first mission in the field!"

Issue 2
"Following last issue’s explosive revelation, Adam and Task Force 29’s investigation leads them into the heart of the Glasshütte - Dresden's heaving transhuman ghetto - where the augmented struggle daily for basic survival. But with its residents, the media, and even the local police vying against them, it's going to be far from a clean-cut operation..."

Issue 3
"With Helena and her augmented daughter in custody, Titus King's hate-mongering leads to escalating tension around TF29 HQ, leaving the strike force in an uncompromising position. Meanwhile, Jensen discovers a shocking link to the pro-aug terrorists, which could have serious ramifications for the world at large."

Issue 4
"As riots ignite across the continent, Titus King incites further fans the flames of hostility by taking his hate speech into the heart of the Glasshütte. Meanwhile, Jensen undertakes a covert operation to discover the demagogue's connection to the terrorist cell and the real reason behind his anti-aug affront."

Issue 5
"In an attempt to strike a blow against the world's anti-Aug agenda, Titus King has been taken hostage by a group of pro-Aug radicals led by his augmented son Sebastian. Whether they like it or not, it's up to TF-29 to save the political agitator from a very public execution. But can Adam Jensen diffuse the situation without the spilling of more innocent blood?"

Plot
For a more detailed description of the plot, see the plot summaries of individual issues.

Shortly after joining the TF29 division in Prague, Jensen goes on his first official mission with the team to rescue kidnapped children. However the team leader, Duncan MacReady, distrusts augs and leaves Jensen to guard the quiet evacuation point, something that does not go unnoticed by Jensen, while the rest head inside and start shooting. Hearing that the fight is increasing, Jensen learns it is not going well for the team, so he rushes in and starts taking out the terrorists, disobeying Miller's orders to stay at the VTOL. During the fight, he encounters an aug with both life-saving and strength enhancement augmentations, but before he can take him out, the aug escapes to another floor. The rest of the fighting over, MacReady starts to tell Jensen off for disobeying orders but the latter retorts there would not have been a team left if he had not helped out.

A quick search of the warehouse reveals many children being held there and MacReady concedes, welcoming Jensen aboard. Jensen then turns his attention back to the escaped aug and runs back up to the roof in time to see the aug break through a window and run down an alleyway. Just as Jensen jumps down to pursue, Miller orders him to stand down and to return to the warehouse because they do not want any TF29 agents being seen by cameras. Titus King, a Picus News reporter who had gotten there before the fighting due to a tip off, takes this chance to try and question Jensen outside the warehouse. However Jensen, ordered by Miller to only say “no comment” unless he wants to be fired, acquiesces and only tells King “no comment” until pressed about his thoughts on Pavel Mikulski, an anti-aug politician. Just as Jensen is about to fall for the bait, a fellow agent, Jana Niemi, runs in and tells King off before she and Jensen head back into the warehouse. MacReady then orders the team to continue looking through the warehouse while, outside, King broadcasts his anti-aug sentiments.

Inside, Niemi has MacReady and Jensen come over to check out a suspiciously secured door. MacReady gets ready to blast it open, but Jensen steps in and hacks it. Inside is a non-augmented woman and an augmented boy, both handcuffed to a bed. Niemi frees them and MacReady notices the boy seems to look pissed rather than scared. Just then, another terrorist appears and Jensen chases him to the warehouse floor when the terrorist realizes Jensen is also augmented. As he begins to ask why Jensen is fighting for Interpol, he is shot from behind by another agent, knocking him out. Meanwhile, Elias Chikane lets Miller know that he is flying off with a load of children and will be back for the team.

MacReady learns from Helena, the woman they just rescued, that the knocked out terrorist is named Bruno, and he starts to question why she was being held there. She explains she was forced to look after the children or else they would kill her daughter, who is being held captive in Glasshütte, an aug ghetto in Dresden. The team finds out her daughter had been augmented as she had been born blind, but the woman could not afford the operation, so she got involved with the wrong crowd who took her daughter when she was unable to pay. Bruno, having come around, brings the team’s attention to Marek, the young boy that was with Helena, revealing she knows why the boy was separated, but her daughter, Emilia, will be killed if she says anything. MacReady punches the terrorist to shut him up, only for Bruno to say to Marek that MacReady “should not take such drastic action, should he?” then repeats “drastic action” an obvious kill phrase. The boy starts to turn red before the warehouse explodes, killing Bruno, Marek, and Niemi.

King, who is still around, tries to capture footage of the bodies from the explosion, but Interpol is jamming his feed. Meanwhile, inside the destroyed warehouse, Jensen and MacReady argue over the latter’s suggestion to shoot every aug child to prevent anymore from dying, like Niemi. Miller stops the argument and orders Jensen to take some samples out to Chikane to take back to Smiley.

Outside, King is waiting and confronts Jensen, who does not fall for his antics. King gets more personal in his insults about augs, believing they need to be wiped out, but Jensen merely comments that if he keeps it up, he will arrest the reporter for interfering with police business. He then hands off the samples to Chikane and heads back inside as MacReady and Zoe Beaufort talk about Bruno and his decision to have the bomb inside Marek go off. MacReady then starts questioning Helena, saying that Niemi is dead because she did not say anything, before Jensen tells him to stop. Finishing up at the warehouse, Miller hands Helena off to Prague’s police to be taken to their HQ. Jensen tries to argue that they need to go after Emilia, but Miller says they cannot afford to go on wild goose chases as the team boards a VTOL. MacReady continues to show his resentment against augs until Zoe tells him if it was not for Jensen, more of the team would be dead. Meanwhile, Chang contacts Miller about a sample he just ran. It matched a breakout from Glasshütte and Jensen confirms the pictures match the escaped aug from the warehouse, sending the team to the aug ghetto.

In Dresden, they meet with the, who make it clear they are in charge and TF29 is to follow their rules, having confirmed with Miller’s bosses in Lyon about it beforehand. MacReady notices on a screen King interviewing Mikulski and calls Jensen’s attention to it. The interview is very one-sided, with both men playing off eachother’s anti-aug statements and that naturals need to act first to prevent being wiped out. Zoe comments they are crazy, while MacReady agrees with the men. The team then goes over a plan to find the girl and Miller decides that Jensen should go in solo as he will blend in.

Jensen enters Glasshütte and is informed by Alex Vega to look for the Glassworks, and to act surprised once Chang figures it out. As he nears the building, Chang figures it out and gives Jensen possible entrances to use, but he cannot see inside. Jensen sneaks in and realizes they are hoarding crates of weapons in the building and informs Miller, who tells him his primary objective is to now find out where the supplies are coming from. As he makes his way further inside, he sees the escaped aug talking to another and learns that his name is Sebastian and that a mole inside BPOL has warned them Interpol is waiting to break in. Sebastian orders them to get ready to move the weapons so Jensen takes this chance to act, throwing a concussion grenade into the group and holds Sebastian hostage, an arm blade at his throat. Sebastian calls Jensen a traitor and that the other augs will bring the war the naturals started, before ordering one of his men, Olivier, to tell another, Misha, to kill Emilia. Jensen knocks out Sebastian and kills the rest before chasing after Olivier, knowing he will lead him to the girl, but is losing ground. Alex radios him instructions to catch up, resulting in Jensen crashing through a window where Misha is, and Jensen quickly disposes of him just as Olivier runs in. Jensen swiftly takes him out as well before hearing a voice call out further inside the apartment. He finds Emilia huddled in a corner and carries her out as he lets Miller know he found her.

Sebastian escaped again, so the team flies back to TF29’s HQ and has Emilia put in a separate room while the team talks about the mission. Zoe and MacReady get into another argument over augs while Miller talks to Jensen about how odd it was that he seemed to be able to know where he was going in Dresden, but Jensen plays if off and Miller gathers the team in the briefing room. Miller informs them those in Lyon are helping to come up with a plan, and to concentrate on Sebastian and be careful around any of the rescued children until they can be examined. He then states that Helena and Emilia will be moved once questioned and MacReady makes a remark that leaves Jensen privately thinking if there is a mole, it cannot be MacReady because he is so transparent. Meanwhile, King continues his anti-aug reports where he calls for their massacre, which starts to cause violence in and around Glasshütte. Sebastian, somewhere in the aug ghetto, notices this fighting and says everything is perfect before getting a call that lets him know Emilia will be moved soon.

At TF29 HQ, Miller tasks Jensen with talking to Emilia, hoping to get information out of her. He walks into her room to find King’s report on loop in her room, upsetting her and she starts to become angry. Jensen gets a call from Alex, and he leaves the room as Alex informs him the mole in TF29 knew Marek was going to blow himself up and more calls are going on between Glasshütte and TF29, but no names yet. Jensen finds Miller, who asks how the talk went, but Jensen points out they will have better luck if mother and daughter are reunited. Miller agrees, having just received orders to take the girl to Prague’s police HQ to pick up Helena before heading to a safehouse. Smiley then asks for Jensen to come see something he found.

In Smiley’s lab, he reveals that one of the DNA samples they got at the warehouse is related to Titus King. Jensen asks him how sure he is of the results, and Smiley responds it is real. Jensen heads to his locker to prepare to leave and lets Alex know of the information Smiley just found. Miller shows up to ask if he is ready as the car is outside with the route already programmed in and tells him to make sure to put the girl in the backseat.

Jensen retrieves Emilia before driving them to the police HQ to pick up Helena. As Jensen drives them to the safehouse, Alex suddenly tells Jensen to get out of the car, but before he can, someone shoots Helena in the head and the car is hit with a small explosion, throwing Jensen out of the vehicle and rendering him unconscious. A vehicle pulls up and several augs get out and retrieve an unconscious Emilia, then ask if they should kill Jensen, but Sebastian tells them no and they leave with the girl. Jensen comes around and checks the ruined vehicle to find Emilia is gone.

TF29 arrives and checks out the crash scene, but so far have no leads and Miller asks for Jensen to run through what happened. Jensen tells him, deducing that the bomb on the vehicle had been just big enough to get him out of the way and keep Emilia alive, leading him to ask how they got a bomb on one of TF29’s vehicles to begin with. Miller tells him it was not one of theirs but one from Interpol itself, and they are investigating on their end. He then sends Jensen home to get some rest. Back home, Alex calls to say she still does not who the mole is, only they set up the ambush, then tells him the Juggernaut Collective know there is a link between the Illuminati and Titus King, so if Jensen wants answers, to search his studio while the reporter is in Dresden. In Glasshütte, Sebastian talks to several augmented children, telling them that the rest of the world will never accept them and to strike back while, outside the ghetto’s walls, King continues to run his broadcast, saying that naturals are at war with augs.

Back at TF29’s HQ, Miller points out that King has refused to move his broadcast, making the rioting worse around Glasshütte and their team is on standby in Prague as the terrorists could strike there. In Glasshütte, Sebastian has the children follow him into a building where a stockpile of weapons are while another places a bomb. Jensen, having broken into King’s studio with Alex’s help, finds and hacks into King’s servers and learns something astonishing: Sebastian is King’s son and was augmented to save his life. However, during the Aug Incident, he lost control and accidentally killed his mother. Jensen begins to download the files to Alex when an explosion goes off along Glasshütte’s border and terrorists pour out, knock out King, and drag him into Glasshütte. Miller informs Jensen the TF29 team is already en route to Dresden but he can catch a ride with Interpol. However Alex, having landed a helicopter on top of the studio, gives Jensen a ride instead. Miller then says Jensen needs to see this and sends him a picture. At first glance, it is just Sebastian and his children soldiers shooting back at the police, but then Jensen realizes one of the children is Emilia.

Alex drops him off outside Glasshütte and he approaches Miller to learn the terrorists will kill King unless their demands are met. As the team discusses tactics and if they will have to shoot children, Miller points out getting King is their priority. Alex then calls Jensen with bad news: the Collective have figured out that Sebastian plans to reveal he is Titus King’s son before blowing both of them up in a live broadcast. As Jensen tries to get Miller’s attention, the team sees that Sebastian has started to broadcast his message worldwide and Alex tells Jensen if he can interface with any of Sebastian’s augmentations, they can use a code to shut down the detonator. On the broadcast, Sebastian reveals that King is his father and his father hates him because he was not perfect, leading King to yell that he hates Sebastian because he killed his mother. As the team watches, Jensen convinces Miller he has a plan so the team gets ready and let Jensen try to do a solo extraction. He sneaks into the Glassworks and Alex lets him know they hacked Sebastian’s feed so Jensen will not be on camera, while also blocking any comms in the building, so TF29 cannot hear inside. Jensen gets Sebastian’s attention and the latter exchanges a few more words with King before Jensen reveals the feed is down. However, Sebastian mocks Jensen and says he has a backup feed, but Alex tells Jensen that the Collective also took those down. This is soon made known to Sebastian, who shrugs it off, then orders Emilia to shoot Jensen if he makes any sudden moves. Sebastian then hugs on Titus, sardonically talking about how they can be a family again.

Meanwhile, Vasquez, who is positioned to take a shot at Sebastian, is given an order from an unknown person to take the shot if he has him in sight. A bullet goes through Sebastian’s head and chaos breaks out, with TF29 storming the building and shooting at the terrorists. Jensen knocks King and Emilia out of the way of fire as MacReady chases several unarmed children, ready to shoot them. Jensen yells at him to stop before he does though and, with the fighting over, Zoe has MacReady help her get King out. Miller then reveals to Jensen that the real plan was to take out Sebastian as he was viewed as too high of a risk as he most likely knew kill phrases to use on the children to make them blow up. Miller then claims the mission a success, though Jensen privately thinks they have not discovered where the weapons or bomb components came from.

Outside, Miller asks Vasquez who gave him the order, with the latter replying that they thought it had been Miller. Miller tells him to forget it and goes over to King and starts offering condolences, but King only asks to be taken to his studio. Elsewhere, Jensen is approached by Emilia, who starts yelling at him, asking why he would save an aug hater who wants to kill augs. Jensen tries to tell her Sebastian wanted to kill her to make a point while King just hated her, but she is too angry and asks who will stand up for augs now before being taken away, leaving Jensen to quietly reflect on this.

In King’s studio, Titus plays up on the events, using what happened as an excuse for why nobody should get augmented and that in wars, sons will die. Elsewhere, Mikulski stands in an Illuminati meeting, surrounded by large screens of their silhouettes. They say that things are running smoothly, having given just enough weapons to Sebastian to light the fuse, and now they just need to time the explosion right. They then discuss whether to announce their initiative, which they have named the Human Restoration Act.

Issue 5
ru:Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade