Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade Issue 1

Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade is a 5-part comic produced by Titan Comics in 2016. It follows the story of Adam Jensen as he adapts to his new role as a member of Task Force 29, an Interpol-sponsored anti-terrorist unit. The series is set just before Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

The first issue was released on February 10, 2016.

Synopsis
"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!"

Plot Summary
The issue opens in Prague with a helicopter flying over the city. Two members of a Picus News crew, Gigi and Ike, are out-of-frame, with Gigi asks Ike if this is the right warehouse, noting that the Interpol team has not arrived yet. Ike says that it is and they just arrived early to get as much candid footage as possible. They finish setting up as the TF29 helicopter approaches the warehouse, and the news crew goes live.

Meanwhile, in the inbound VTOL, TF29 is being briefed on their mission. Jim Miller explains that a group of pro-augmentation radicals are holding a group of children hostage in the warehouse that the team is about to raid. One of the team members, Niemi, asks him why TF29 was dispatched as kidnappings are not serious enough to warrant their involvement. Miller explains that the group has kidnapped two sets of children: aug children who were sent to a re-naturalization clinic and several children of government officials, with the latter being why the team was called in. As he finishes his explanation, Chang cuts in and informs him that Titus King, the reporter from the news crew, has just started reporting on the team's pending actions and that someone must have tipped him off. Miller curses the development and tells the team to play nice for the cameras, explaining they cannot abort now as they can not risk the safety of the hostages. Miller then instructs the group's pilot, Elias Chikane, to land and radios the team that they have the green light to begin.

MacReady, the team leader, orders Vasquez to accompany him out first, and assigns Niemi and Beaufort to follow, before giving Jensen the order to hold the extraction point. As MacReady and Vasquez break down the door to the compound, a radical shouts in German that the police have arrived while Jensen thinks over how, being the new guy, the team does not trust him yet, and that the feeling is mutual, though the difference is that Jensen cannot let his mistrust show. Inside the compound, the team is engaging the terrorists but Jensen notes that the shooting has increased in intensity. Chikane tells MacReady that he is ready to leave if he needs to while Jensen hacks the surveillance feeds to see what is going on inside the building. Seeing the the rest of the team in trouble, Jensen rushes into the building to assist them and Chikane informs Miller, who orders Jensen to stay put. However, Jensen ignores this order as he knows that a team like TF29 will not trust him until he can prove himself, and that now is his chance, and will let his actions make up their minds about him being augmented. As he fights through, Jensen encounters a strong, fast aug, noting that the man is built for "ass-kicking," but also has neurological augments that fix a disorder that would have normally left him paralyzed or dead. The Aug suddenly breaks engagement and jumps to the second-story catwalk and Jensen notes the man's speed as he escapes before Jensen can pursue him.

With the rest of the terrorists dead, MacReady chastises Jensen for disobeying Miller's order, threatening to kick him off the team if he does it again. Jensen retorts that if he had not disobeyed, there would not be a team left to be kicked off of. The team opens up a shipping container and reveals that the intel about the kidnapped children was solid. However, there are too many children inside for Chikane to take in one load so they call for another ride. MacReady finally concedes to Jensen that he made an impression, and welcomes him aboard.

The children secured and waiting for evac, Jensen's attention returns to the Aug who escaped from him earlier and he asks Chikane and Miller if they saw anyone exit from the roof. Chikane says that no one has come out since Jensen went in, and Jensen concludes that the man is still in the building. He rushes back up to the roof, where Chikane reiterates that no one has come out that way. Meanwhile, Titus King is asking his camera technician how much footage they got from the scene and the tech replies that they only really got audio from the gunfire, and King approves. Just as Jensen asks Miller if they can make King go away, and Miller replies that they can not do anything short of shooting the chopper down and not to get any ideas, two stories below Jensen's target bursts through a window and makes his escape down an alleyway and Jensen jumps down to go after him. However, Miller orders Jensen not to pursue and to return to the team and the hostages, assuring Jensen that they will track the escaped terrorist in due time.

Jensen is about to return to the warehouse when King, who has just landed, intercepts Jensen in an attempt to get a quick interview. Miller warns Jensen that he will be removed from the team if he gives an answer other than "no comment." King asks Jensen about the operation and Jensen replies no comment while Miller is checking with Chang, who informs them he is blocking King's feed. King goes on to ask him if Jensen's loyalties are divided due to his augmentations. When Jensen once again refuses comment, King presses him for his thoughts on Pavel Mikulski. The question raises Jensen's ire, and he thinks about how Mikulski is an "anti-aug zealot" behind numerous anti-augmentation pieces of legislation and really wants augmented people "lined up against the wall and shot." Jensen is about to fall for King's bait and launch in to a tirade when Niemi interrupts. She reminds King that Jensen refused to comment, and tells him that, if he comes any closer to the entrance, he will be interfering with the Interpol investigation, and that she "will have a comment, but it will not be verbal." This angers King, who starts to tell her that the people have a right to know what's happening, but she slams the door in his face. At that moment, the camera tech realizes that there is a problem with the camera feed and King asks if they got the Interpol team. The tech replies that they did not, and King swears.

Back inside the warehouse, Niemi asks Jensen if he got a good look at the runaway and he explains the man had both augmentations for fighting and to save his life. Jensen then asks Niemi why Miller kept him from chasing after the terrorist, and Niemi replies that Miller did not want the team out where there are cameras, leaving Jensen to internally think that there may be more to it than that. MacReady then orders a sweep of the building to make sure that there are no more terrorists in hiding. MacReady compliments Jensen again, but tells him that "It won't make [him] love [Jensen]." Jensen jokes that MacReady is breaking his heart, and the group pans out.

Outside, King has begun to wrap up his broadcast. He recaps that an Interpol team took down a nest of pro-aug terrorists and freed dozens of children, describing the scene as shocking but "all too common" and that "hanzers" are evil. As King continues his broadcast, Chikane asks Miller why they can't just put the kids on buses, and Miller reminds him that it is a live-fire zone, to which Chikane retorts that it is not very hot any more. More kids are filing out onto the roof and King turns his attention to them. He tells his audience that augmented people will stop at nothing to advance their agenda and that "hanzers" have no place in Human society, thinking they are better than naturals.

Back inside the warehouse, Niemi has called Jensen and MacReady over to inspect a door that is very curiously secured considering all the rest barely had knobs. The door requires a passcode, and Niemi remarks that it might have a retinal scanner as well. MacReady prepares to blow the door lock with his combat rifle, but Niemi stops him, concerned that the door might be booby trapped or he will hit someone inside. While MacReady tells her that she watches too many movies, Jensen ends the argument by hacking the lock, noting that the lock's thumb and retinal scanners are not even active: a common tactic to make your security look better than it really is. The lock clicks open and Niemi teases MacReady who simply tells her to shut up.

Niemi, Jensen and MacReady breach the door and find two people handcuffed to beds inside the room: a non-augmented woman and an augmented man. The woman begs the team not to leave them, and Niemi promises that they are here to rescue them. The team clears the room and as Niemi goes to untie the hostages, MacReady notices that the augmented man is grimacing and asks what his problem is. Niemi shoots back at MacReady, saying the kid is just scared, but MacReady says that he doesn't look scared. The natural woman then points out that MacReady does not know what the man has been through. Meanwhile, King is telling his audience about the savagery of Augs, that they are willing to take children hostage to get attention and are creating the next generation of terrorists.

At that moment, Jensen spots another terrorist nearby before the man jumps down to the warehouse floor while Jensen fires after him with his rifle. The man returns fire as he tries to retreat between two shipping containers, with Jensen jumping down to go after him. Just as the terrorist realizes Jensen is also augmented and asks why he is fighting for Interpol, Beaufort comes up behind him and shoots, taking him down. All the meanwhile, King is still pushing his anit-Aug sentiments to his audience.

On the rooftop, Chikane has finished loading up the first group of children on the VTOL, and radios Miller to let him know that he will be back for the team once he has dropped them off. Miller acknowledges and King reports on the latest gunshots. Inside the warehouse, Jensen wishes aloud that he could have heard what the terrorist was going to say and MacReady tells the group that, if he is alive, they should keep him that way until they have a chance to talk to him. Turns out the terrorist was wearing body armor and is still alive, just unconscious. The woman that was being held separately from the children tells the team that they should let the man, named Bruno, die. The augmented boy found in the room with her insists that Bruno was trying to help them, and Jensen notes privately that he seems to have a "touch of Stockholm Syndrome." MacReady suspiciously inquires what Bruno was going to help them with but the boy refuses to answer, so MacReady questions the woman, asking her why she was in the warehouse. The woman explains that she was kept there to take care of the children, and that the terrorists are holding her daughter captive in Glasshütte, an aug ghetto in Dresden, meaning that this terrorist group is just one cell of an international organization. MacReady asks the woman if her daughter is augmented and she replies yes, explaining that her daughter was born blind so she saved for three years to get her a pair of eyes for her birthday. MacReady presses her on how she was able to pay for such an expensive operation, but is chastised by Niemi, who reminds him that the woman is not the enemy. MacReady remarks that he figured she wasn't a terrorist and that she just got involved with "the wrong crowd," who kidnapped her daughter when she was unable to pay. The woman pleads with MacReady to help her, saying that she only wants her daughter back.

Meanwhile, Bruno has come around and MacReady asks him if he's in charge, but when he says he is, MacReady corrects him, telling him that now TF29 is in charge. MacReady threatens Bruno, who remains unfazed and defiant, so MacReady questions him about the kids in the shipping containers, but Bruno steers the conversation around to Marek, the boy who was kept in the separate room. When MacReady asks why he was kept separated, Bruno asks in mock surprise "Helena hasn't told you yet?" Bruno then addresses Helena, saying that she will not tell them anything, because she knows what will happen to Emilia, her daughter, if she does. MacReady then punches Bruno and tells the terrorist that he only speaks to MacReady. Ignoring the warning, Bruno turns to Marek, telling him that he thinks MacReady "should not take such drastic action, should he?" He then repeats the phrase drastic action, and Helena bolts for the door, telling the others to run. Marek, reacting to what was obviously a kill-phrase, turns red and begins smoking from the eyes before the warehouse explodes.