Hyron Project

The Hyron Project is an advanced network of quantum computers (called Hydras), slaved to human drones, first mentioned in Deus Ex: Icarus Effect and appearing in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its DLC, The Missing Link.

Note: For tips on defeating the Hyron Project, see Zhao Yun Ru.

Function
A single Hyron Project consists of an enormous quantum supercomputer (Hydra) fused to multiple human beings (Drones) that have been heavily modified to connect with the Hydra. The Drones allow the supercomputer to think abstractly, store huge amounts of data and be somewhat self-aware.

Drones are produced through a painful and deadly process. They are first hand-picked from the population due to genetic predispositions that make them more likely to fuse with the Hydra. Upon being selected, they have their spinal cord severed and replaced with the proper ports to connect, but this has an overwhelmingly high failure rate. The few that do survive past the operation are inserted into metal pods, where they contribute to the project as a whole. Due to the same glial tissue rejection syndromes that most augmentees suffer, even the drones that survive surgery rarely live more than a year.

Under the Rifleman Bank Station, if the player has found the proper holographic storage drives, they can see projections of where Hydras are plotted. This includes 5 of the current Panchaeas being constructed (including the Arctic and Indian Ocean units), one location on a planned "Omega Moon Base" and one in central Australia. The location of this Hydra appears to be Ayers Rock, Australia.

Background
Though it is unofficially mentioned in some e-mails on computers in the Tai Yong Medical 4th floor office level, the Hyron Project is first officially mentioned during A Matter of Discretion side mission when Adam Jensen questions Mengyao, an associate of Hugh Darrow, about the information on the datachip he recovered. She tells him that it contains the data on Panchaea's advanced computer system, the Hyron Project.

In The Missing Link, Adam Jensen boards the Rifleman Bank Station, a Belltower-owned compound in the Pacific Ocean. After investigating, he finds hundreds of prisoners kept in cells, then some bloodied operating rooms. After finding Pieter Burke's prosthetic eye and using it to enter the bottom levels of the RBS, Adam finds several men and women in the process of becoming Hyron Drones - Their vertebrae are removed, and a port is seen being implanted into their back for them to attach to the Hydra. Tiffany Kavanagh tells him that the RBS is where the both the machinery necessary for a Hyron Project and the drones themselves are assembled. Kavanagh may or may not survive, but if she does she leaves for the mainland to be a whistleblower on the Illuminati's corrupt actions.

Much later, once Adam arrives on the Panchaea installation to shut down Darrow's broadcast, Hugh informs him that it can be done from the broadcast center, at base of the installation, but the Hyron is the security system protecting it, able to adapt to new situations almost instantly. Eventually though, he can be convinced to give up the deactivation code for the life support system to Jensen. When Adam arrives in the Hyron Project chamber, he discovers that it is indeed a very advanced computer network - but its operational status depends on three human females connected to it via special interface suits.

Before having further time to examine it, Zhao Yun Ru appears and connects herself to the Hyron in an attempt to control it, and alter Darrow's broadcast to the Illuminati specifications. But the system doesn't recognize her biochip, and so she cannot take full control of it. However, she does manage to activate the defenses, consisting of turrets and security bots. Adam is forced to deactivate Zhao's defenses by either eliminating the female drones or using Darrow's deactivation code to open her chamber (or simply by shooting through the chamber door with the laser rifle), exposing Zhao and rendering her vulnerable.