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"I once thought I could save the world... now look at it"
— Spoilers for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided follow!
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- This article is about the news publisher. For the side mission, see Samizdat (mission).
Samizdat is an underground satirical publication published in the 2020s that reports on local and world affairs. Its newspapers appear as readables in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Samizdat aims to uncover real facts, and positions itself as a well-informed counterpoint to the "stream of misinformation and untruths" spread by the Picus media, such as Picus TV and The Picus Daily Standard.[1] As such, Samizdat is somewhat similar to the pirate radio host and conspiracy theorist Lazarus.
Samizdat has a small team of journalists who stay anonymous to avoid confrontations with the authorities. The journalists work with a network of undisclosed informants, found locally and around the world, to both inform the public and open its eyes to the truth.[1] The journalists go by the names K (the editor) and Little k (lead journalist), but never use their real names. Another member of the team in 2029 is Bones.
Publications on AugAware.org
- Main article: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided#AugAware campaign
During the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided marketing campaign, the anti-aug site AugAware.org (now defunct) was "hacked" by the Augmented Rights Coalition, after which the site featured several Samizdat articles. A copy of those articles can be found here:
- Panchaea: at the bottom of the deep blue secrecy
- The Human Restoration Act: A Problem For All
- Palisade: Centralizing Secrets
Newspapers in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Below are the transcripts of Samizdat newspapers that appear in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Human Restoration Act / Panchaea
Resolution 3507: A Problem for All
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
If you're augmented, you must be aware that the United Nations are sleeping peacefully at night beneath the cover of their olive branch with dreams of stripping you of your rights and dignity.
The U.N.'s Resolution 3507 is an obscene moral betrayal. Rucker's ARC are rightfully attacking the insidiously labelled "Human Restoration Act" for going against the very things the United Nations supposedly stand for. Without a control chip inserted for good behavior and official papers congratulating you on your loss of rights, resistant Augs will be promptly herded into more suitable accommodation courtesy of their local law enforcement. Welcome to Golem, citizen!
But what if you're "all natural" 100% prime society steak? It doesn't affect you, does it?
Consider this: thirteen "elected" individuals have ruled out that over 7 million human beings must give up their livelihoods without appeal to be licensed and monitored as if criminals, and I'm guessing you weren't asked for your opinion.
Augmented or not, who will the next inscrutable world power summarily judge as "problematic"? Resolution 3507 puts the world on notice that organizations like the U.N. feel they can do what they wish.
It's time to tell them otherwise or become the next pariah en vogue. We have been warned.
Panchaea: At the Bottom of the Deep Blue Secrecy
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
In 2027, Panchaea was humanity's titanic plan to save the world, a 1.5 kilometer deep installation plunging to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Built by a 100% augmented workforce, it was our hopeful answer to climate change.
Until it mysteriously blew up on the day the Augs went crazy.
Two years after the Incident, it remains conveniently unclear what happened at Panchaea. Amidst conflicting reports of human remains, corporate sabotage, and radioactive salvage, we wait for the official truth – engineering failure or another augmented horror story? More and more, Panchaea feels like a trillion-dollar hole in which to hide a trillion-dollar secret.
Palisade / Eliza Cassan
Palisade: Centralizing Secrets
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Samizdat is all about truth and information. Which is why we consider the greatest thing to happen in Prague in the last 15 years to also be the worst. The creation of the Palisade Bank in 2017 created a welcome surge in the economy and put Prague back on the map, improving everyone's quality of life.
Or did it? Since then, thousands of companies and their powerful owners have hidden behind those treacherous walls, allowing many to conveniently sidestep normal regulation or transparency in their business practices.
And it's not the corporations who apparently pay the highest price for such secrecy. When a Palisade employee recently attempted to steal sensitive data, the aspiring thief was efficiently "terminated" by the bank's alarmingly lethal security systems. Proud parents of the Palisade, Talwar and Oshiro, presented this an an unfortunate but reassuring example of why their clients can consider their private data safe.
Whether true or just another corporate cover up, the fact that a human employee was in a position to compromise the world's most secure databank must worry those with invested interests.
For now, one thing's particularly clear. If you decide to keep your secrets inside the Palisade bank, don't forget your password.
Eliza Cassan: Who is the Real Face of Picus?
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Everybody knows Eliza Cassan, making bad news look good for years.
The mouthpiece of those moguls of misinformation at Picus is a valuable commodity to the world's biggest media circus and one of the most famous people on the planet.
So it seems strange that we know so little about her off-camera. After the Aug Incident, Cassan suffered a mysterious breakdown and disappeared from public view so abruptly that it even led to speculation of her death.
She later returned with no official statement but something's felt off since then. Did she die in 2027? Is Picus' popular puppet merely a coached lookalike?
Maybe we don't know Eliza like we thought we did.
Picus / Neon
This issue will only appear if you complete the side mission Samizdat by agreeing to help Samizdat expose the Picus Group. During the mission, you have to find the Flight 451 Dossier containing evidence on what really caused the flight to crash, rather than just the water contamination report.
Flight 451: Picus vs the Truth
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Did you hear the news telling us that Augs are to blame for everything? It's hard to miss.
This week saw another concerning revelation from those stalwart paragons of truth over at Picus. They claim that the recent tragedy involving Cista Airlines Flight 451 was, in fact, the action of an unstable augmented individual who wrestled control of the aircraft, causing it to crash and kill all on board.
Well here's a revelation of our own. Picus are disingenuous liars and need to be shut down. Hard evidence in our possession clearly shows Picus covering up the truth once again. After undertaking a forced detour to avoid unseasonal storm activity in the region, Flight 451 was ultimately downed by catastrophic instrument failure due to "extreme interferences in the ionosphere". The source of that extreme interference? An undisclosed military facility conducting experiments in the area.
The two hundred and fifty one souls who perished that day deserve the truth as do we all. What is this secret military base doing up there with the ionosphere anyway? A pertinent question.
Picus, however, care more about making you look the other way. Think about that next time Eliza Cassan is telling you what you should worry about.
Neon: Recreation or Death Sentence?
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Samizdat gained recent access to confidential police data for the latest recreational drug, Neon, and discovered several alarming details the authorities have apparently been too busy to share.
Of a surprisingly high count of 28 Neon deaths in Prague so far, 26 were augmented individuals.
After the events of 2027, rumors surfaced that some Augs were drugged en masse to induce their murderous mindset as part of a plan to depopulate numbers. Feel familiar? With Prague's current politics on augmentation, how might one explain the arrival of Neon and its 93 percent augmented mortality rate?
It's starting to feel a lot like 2027 all over again.
Earthquakes / Augmented Justice
Earthquakes: Man-Made Menace?
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Samizdat investigated last year whether undisclosed "geo-bombs" are responsible for funneling earthquake activity to control when and where they will occur. The why remains unclear.
Since 1999, according to Geological Survey Data, earthquakes at magnitude 7.0 and above maintained a steady annual average. Now a reliable informant in the US government tells us it's the less dramatic data that's been buried in public reports. Seismic activity below magnitude 4.0 -- "tremblers" that a lot of people in high-risk areas hardly notice anymore -- have increased year on year by a stunning 300 percent, from 3,960 in 2018 to 11,810 in 2028.
So what's going on? Are mysterious government scientists detonating tens of thousands of explosives beneath the earth or is something else afoot?
Digging deeper, we unearthed something called Acoustic Wave Theory, first proposed over a decade ago but since rejected by many geologists as untenable. It seems to posit that seismic activity emits acoustic wave energy within certain frequencies that could carry the potential to trigger sympathetic quakes up to thousands of miles from the original epicenter.
If true, maybe these so-called geo-bombs aren't bombs at all. Is that noise you can't hear actually the ground being pulled from under your feet?
There's No Justice Like Augmented Justice
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Prague's "overworked" police force is reportedly reserving full investigations for "priority homicides" only. The underlying message is clear: murdered as an Aug in this city and the only thing investigating your corpse will be rats.
But the killing this week of well-known local journalist and augmented woman, Angela Gunn, forced the police to assign their "best", one Detective Montag, an aging veteran scheduled to retire later this year. He's since confirmed that the case is "complex with few leads". Good job it's just him then.
As much as we'd like to believe that Montag is Prague's elderly answer to Sherlock Holmes, we suspect this case is being filled under Who Cares?
Earthquakes / Clones
This issue has the same main story as the previous one, but a different sidebar story.
Clones in High Places
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
The entertainment world sagged this week with news that the release of the movie Incipient has been controversially frozen due to “illegal financing”.
Make no mistake, the movie sounded awful. But Molk Tennyson’s conspiratorial blockbuster, of a world overtaken by advanced genetic clones that realize power over their own masters, was a useful opportunity for Hollywood to soften up a distracted public to bizarre fiction becoming frightening fact.
Samizdat has long warned of worrying behavior in high places, of politicians and leaders who exhibit all the signs that they’re not who they used to be. Luckily, Tennyson’s magnum opus conveniently broke the law, saving everyone a painful truth.
Martial Law / Aug Extinction
Prague Under Martial Law: Everyone Is Guilty
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Understand. The police now have the authority to kill ANYONE walking the street after curfew, augmented or not.
Samizdat's revelations on the government have always had us in the firing line, but martial law means that any person who "steps out of line" is a target -- you, your family, your neighbors -- regardless of the truth.
This lockdown shows that our government neither respects nor values the lives of their citizens. Samizdat's warning of Resolution 3507 for the rest of us has materialized.
Easy answer: stay home and out of trouble. But what of the weeks to come? Will those same Dvali-corrupted police be ordered to drag you from your own house as a suspected troublemaker?
It's not enough for us to simply report on this. Samizdat is providing shelters around Prague for those who no longer trust the authorities. Seek sanctuary, stay off the streets, and join others like you offering help and a way out. Ignoring disregard for others' rights is what got us here in the first place. Now more than ever, Samizdat will fight back to remain the loud and clear voice of reason against the pernicious idiots in power.
Never forget: the truth can change everything. Find it. Protect it. Share it.
Longer Life, Shorter Expectations
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Confidential review copies of an upcoming U.N. report warn that Earth's population will hit 10 billion by 2040, 10 years earlier than expected.
"Without moderation." says the report, "this rate of growth will prove unsustainable." Luckily, it's hard to believe that our world leaders might consider culling as the best answer, right?
Time for a history lesson. Since the turn of the millennium, 65 million people had elected for biomechanical augmentation. In 2027 the tragic accident known simply as the Incident wiped out 89 percent of these freshly empowered human beings, faster than you or I could say "depopulation".
Still finding it hard to believe?
Rabi'ah / Control Chip
This issue can be found in the Golem City, in Dr. Martine Onziema's housing unit.
Rabi'ah: A Brown New World
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
In a recent interview, Nathaniel Brown described Rabi'ah as a haven for Augs, further revealing that the "self-sufficient" city in the desert is costing over 7 million dollars per day to build. Santeau's CEO seemed unperturbed.
"It's not just [the money] that keeps me doing what I do," a honeyed Brown opined to camera. "Rabi'ah is giving augmented people all over the world an opportunity to rebuild their lives and dignity. It's a win-win scenario for everyone and I'm proud to be involved."
Inspiring, isn't it? In other news, Brown will attempt to walk on Santeau-branded water before turning it into wine and toasting his investors.
The idea of Brown being hailed as some kind of business saint is repugnant. Reports out of Rabi'ah paint a picture of indentured Aug workers ransomed to pittance salaries with promises of a place in paradise. Trouble is, the only people getting tickets are those willing to buy them with Santeau's money.
The projected capacity of Santeauland -- sorry, Rabi'ah -- is 101,500. There are 7.1 million augmented survivors since the tragic incident. By my reckoning, that's roughly one for every daily dollar spent building a paradise most can't afford. Will Brown make them pay to dig their own graves next?
Tai Yong Medical: A Chip off the Old Block
LITTLEK
TOP STORY
Worry not, dear Augs, for the chip the U.N. demands you swallow or be damned, apparently "unobtrusively supports intrinsic nervous control of installed augmentation". What's more, you will now be considered safe against "involuntary aberrations in expected behaviour". Excellent.
This alarmingly dystopian lingo is borrowed directly from documentation written by Tai Yong Medical, the chip's manufacturer. The tech giant is no stranger to this kind of controversy, either. Wasn't it TYM that supplied a quick fix biochip to repair malfunctioning augmentations back in 2027, only days before the Incident occurred?
Now, barely a year later, here's another quick-fix chip from the very same experts? No aberrations in expected behaviour from TYM, either.
Trivia
- The term samizdat (Russian: самиздат, "self-published") refers to a dissident activity in the former USSR and the communist countries of eastern Europe, when the literature banned by the state was reproduced clandestinely and passed from reader to reader.
- If you choose to help Samizdat by completing both Samizdat and K is for Každý, they will flee to Paris. Picus reports that since Samizdat left Prague, a new underground publication emerges in Paris using the name "Silhouette". Silhouette is a resistance group based in Paris during the events of Deus Ex and likely originated from Samizdat.
Gallery
