Samizdat (mission)

SM05: Samizdat is a side mission in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It can be started by talking to Peter Chang in Task Force 29 Headquarters who is concerned that someone is investigating the premises and will discover them. This side mission is obtained during your first visit to Prague, but can be completed during either the first or second visit to Prague.

An achievement of the same name is awarded for completing the mission, but only by completing it a particular way.

Find the source of the hack
Chang will direct Jensen to an apartment in the 33 Hlavni apartment complex. Visit the complex and go through the courtyard. Then ascend the stairs until you reach the top floor where the apartment you are looking for, number 302, is located. You can hack the door to gain entry, or get in through the window by jumping on the ledge in front of it. Inside in a room to the right of the door is a laptop that needs to be hacked. Access it, and switch to the messenger. You will appear as Little k (the owner of the laptop) and K will begin messaging you. K and Little K are both members of Samizdat, the group that are investigating Praha Dovoz. You will be given different options to respond to K with, but eventually he will give you his location. It is advisable to not blow your cover as Little K, instead pretending that you have forgotten where K is, or bluffing.

Find Samizdat in Dávný district
Once you have gotten the location from K, travel to the Dávný district and enter the manhole found close to The Music Box. Descend the ladder, and go through the gate on the left, then take another left. Keep going down this path until you reach a ladder leading down to some living quarters. On the other side of this area, there is a pile of boxes blocking a security door. If you did not get the code from K earlier, it can be opened with 5431. You can also climb up to the ledge from the power generator on the left, go through the tunnel on the right, and end up in the same area. Here you will find K, Little K, and Bones.

Keep Samizdat from exposing TF29
There are two options to completing this objective. One is talking to K, listening to what he has to say and accepting his request to find incriminating information on Picus. The other is simply killing or knocking out the members of Samizdat. This second option is not recommended, as you will not get the achievement and will be unable to complete the side mission K is for Každý later on. If you take them out non-lethally, Chang will send a team in to pick them up. Third option is to persuade K with Social Enhancer to not expose TF29. A successful persuasion will give 500XP and Adam will radio Chang about Samizdat's changed stance but you can still accept K's mission to dig up dirt on Picus. Dismissing that will end the mission but still enables the side mission K is for Každý.

Dig up dirt in the CEO's office
If you agree to help Samizdat, K will ask you to search the office of Palisade's CEO in Palisade Property Bank. The easiest way to get into the building is through the front door, as visitors are allowed to walk around the lobby and parts of level 1 directly underneath it. The CEO's office is on level 3, which is a restricted area.

Since Palisade has a substantial amount of security, it is unwise to alert the guards unless you are heavily armed. In addition, setting off the alarm causes security doors to close thus making it more difficult to get where you want to go. To the right when you enter the lobby, there is a stairway that brings you up to level 3. However, it is guarded by a Tarvos guard, a turret, and a laser grid. if you have the Glass-Shield Cloaking System, this can be easily bypassed by activating the augmentation and slipping through the lasers unseen. It is also possible to disable the laser grid, and go through it without the cloaking augment.

Alternatively, you can use the elevator but this will require a special keycard that gives you access to level 3. You can find one of these cards in the Account Managers office on level 2, but if you are seen hacking the keypad, the guards will become hostile. One way to avoid this is to use a multi-tool which does not alert them.

Another possible way to get to the third floor is through a vent hidden beside the vending machines behind the boardroom on level 2. This leads to a maintenance shaft with a type of elevator. If you have Remote Hacking, look down until you see a wireless control box with the Remote Hacking icon over it. This will cause the elevator to descend and you can jump on top of it. Look up to find a similar control box, hack it, and it will bring you up to level 3 where the offices are situated. Once on the third floor, again try to avoid being seen by the cameras and patrolling guards, and make your way to the offices of the CTO and CEO. Go up the stairs towards the office, and hack the door. You may want to disable the security camera before doing so. Search the CEO's desk and you will find a water contamination report, revealing that Picus was aware of unsafe levels of contamination to Prague's water supply. This is all you need to give to K, but there is more damning evidence better hidden in the office. You should see a sculpture made up of blocks of different heights. This is a puzzle that needs to be solved to open a hidden area. When they are in the correct configuration, all the blocks will light up. To solve it, raise the block that faces you, turn, raise again, turn, turn, and raise. This should open the hidden compartment in which you will find a safe behind a painting. Hack the safe and inside you will find a dossier on Flight 451, which reportedly was downed when an augmented passenger killed the flight crew. This dossier gives the real reason the plane crashed. With both pieces of evidence in hand, you can leave Palisade.

A third evidence can be found after completing Side Mission 6, 01011000. You can give K the pocket secretary you found on the mercenaries who attack you at your house. Expose Morgan Everett of Picus Group hiring mercenary to do wetwork. You can still give this information to K after you complete this mission.

Return the dirt on Picus to K
Return through the manhole in Dávný district and back to the area where Samizdat are hiding. Give K the evidence you found, and either way he will be happy even if you only found one of the evidences. He requests one more favor before promising to "forget" about Praha Dovoz. He wants Adam to hack Prague's news updater server, so that Samizdat can use official channels to broadcast their own stories.

Override the city's info hub
The info hub that K wants you to hack is located on the roof of Autodily. You can get to the roof using a scissor lift just outside the entrance, but this needs to be powered with a biocell. Otherwise, use a dumpster or similar to climb up on the ladder on one side of the building. Once on the roof, hack the keypad and chose either to enable remote admin, or trigger the network alarm. If you want to help Samizdat, chose the first option. You will see advertisement displays being overtaken with Samizdat's story on either the contaminated water report (if that is the only evidence you found) or the truth about Flight 451 (if you found just that, or both). Completing the mission in this way will award you with the Samizdat achievement.