Mission 5:
The Rucker Extraction
Adam tests his armblades as the VTOL nears Utulek Station on the outskirts of Prague. When Chikane asks if he's getting angry enough to kill Rucker yet, Adam says that he has a no-kill order. He asks Chikane to drop him off as close to the target zone as possible.
Augs are seen being harassed by police as Adam leaps from the VTOL into the residential district. Chikane asks him to head to a nearby apartment and meet a contact named Tibor Sokol who can provide him with more information on Rucker and where to go next. When Adam arrives at Sokol's apartment, however, it's been trashed and the only person inside is his sister-in-law, Adela. She tells him that Tibor and his brother, Dusan, were taken during a police raid. Adam tells her that he'll find them and bring them back before leaving.
Adam sneaks into a nearby police station, where he discovers Tibor being held in one of the cells. Tibor chides him for being late, and says that he can't do anything because he's locked up. After some cajoling from Adam, Tibor tells him to go meet a smuggler named Louis Gallois, who smuggles black-market goods and owes him a favor. Adam also finds Dusan a short distance away in an interrogation room being beaten by cops. After dispatching them, Dusan thanks him for his assistance and gives him a password needed to get by a guard at the elevator leading to ARC territory.
On the way to the elevator, Otar Botkoveli radios Jensen and says that he knows Adam's frequency. He asks him to assassinate Gallois, and says that doing so will honor his end of the deal for the calibrator.
Adam finds Gallois in the nearby Stedry Market. After some polite introductions, they discuss the Dvali crime family. Gallois admits that he is working for the head of the family, Radich Nikoladze, and that there's an Enemy Civil War that's been going on between Nikoladze and Botkoveli for several years. He theorizes that Otar wants to assassinate him because he was feeding information to Radich. Adam refuses to kill him, and says that he'd just like information instead. In turn, Gallois reveals that Radich has an augmented leg, and that Koller is the one who maintains his augs, which is why he was under the protection of the Dvalis.
Adam continues on to the elevator and uses the password to access The Throat, a large dilapidated area between the main ghetto and ARC territory. Upon arriving, he finds a a large augmented man single-handedly knocking out a drone and preparing to walk back to the market. The man, who identifies himself as Viktor Marchenko, tells Adam he shouldn't be there and this is dangerous territory. Adam has a long conversation with him about Aug rights, and he eventually lets him go on his way. After climbing through scaffoldings and abandoned offices, Adam reaches the entrance to ARC territory.
He discovers that Tibor is informing the other ARC members about Interpol's involvement. They pledge to take out Adam as he sneaks into a nearby room and confronts Tibor, who admits that he did what he had to do in order to protect his family. Adam tells him that he endangered lives because of this before leaving.
Adam sneaks past the ARC members and eventually finds Rucker's office. Inside, Rucker tells him that he's unarmed and thanks him for not getting into altercations with his men, who he admits can be overzealous sometimes. When Adam tells him that he's bringing him in for questioning, Rucker refuses and says that Adam is being used as a pawn of "the men in the shadows".
A social battle ensues, and Adam eventually wins over Rucker's cooperation by pointing out that Rucker is a Hypocrite when it comes to defending his views. Adam reassures him that coming in is the best thing for all parties involved, and Rucker reluctantly agrees. He gives Adam a piece of data in his table drawer, and says that it will be the first step to finding out who the parties behind the bombings. He suspects that there is a splinter group in ARC that's working behind the scenes, and asks Adam to keep it safe in the event that he is assassinated.
Before Adam can do anything else, Rucker's augs begin to glitch out and he screams in agony. Blood shoots out of his eyes and he falls to the ground dead. Adam calls Chikane and tells him about Rucker's sudden death, and to get the VTOL ready to go immediately. After searching through Rucker's office, he also finds a pocket secretary from a "JM" mentioning something called "Orchid". He sneaks through an Air-Vent Passageway to avoid guards outside the office door, and makes his way to the extraction point where Chikane is.
Once he arrives in a clearing, Adam sees the VTOL rising in the distance. He's forced to run as ARC members notice his position and begin firing, and he barely escapes onto the waiting craft. A hand motions the ARC's to stop firing, and it's revealed that Marchenko is leading the army.He and Adam stare at each other for a long moment before the VTOL peels off and heads back to Prague...
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Numerous alcoholic drinks are seen scattered throughout Rucker's office, and it's suggested that the recent stress of the bombings and his role as the leader of ARC has caused him to become this.
- Biography: The player can find a chapter from Rucker's unpublished autobiography in his office, which gives more detail about his thoughts and feelings on being an aug. He also has a passage from another book he wrote, The Inconvenient Aug, talking about Hugh Darrow's involvement with designing augmentations.
- Call-Forward: An email addressed to Rucker in his office is signed by a "JM", which (coupled with the information about the unnamed "Orchid" project) is likely a reference to Joseph Manderley, the eventual head of UNATCO.
- Continuity Nod:
- A newspaper found in Rucker's office mentions that the Santeau Group is looking to overhaul Hengsha (seen in the previous game), and hints that massive walls may be built around it.
- An e-book (also found in Rucker's office) discusses Hugh Darrow and how his invention of augmentations has changed society.
- Another newspaper speculates on Tai Yong Medical's rise in power over the intervening two years, along with speculation about their involvement in the Aug Incident.
- Cutscene Boss: Regardless of how Rucker is dealt with, he dies before the end of the social battle cutscene.
- Dirty Cop: The first person Adam meets in Golem City (a doctor) mentions that all of the cops are corrupt and trade in food, drugs and Neuropozyne.
- Dying for Symbolism: If the setting and time of Rucker's death is any indication, the sunset and gold-soaked color palette of the scene is implied to be the "end of an era
" for any sort of peace between augs and non-augs. - Enemy Civil War: It is revealed that Otar and Radich (of the Dvali family) have been embroiled in one of these for years, with Otar scheming to overthrow his boss and take power for himself.
- Establishing Character Moment: Marchenko single-handedly takes out a rogue drone before getting into an eloquent discussion about Aug rights with Adam.
- Face–Heel Turn: Tibor Sokol turns on Adam and rats him out to the ARC members stationed near the entrance to The Throat. If Adam confronts him about this immediately afterwards, Tibor claims that he was looking out for his family. Adam can point that Tibor has unintentionally put a lot of lives in danger.
- Faking the Dead: One of the options in the Gallois sidequest is to convince him to fake his death so that Otar won't come after him. Gallois reveals that his identity is just a front, and that he plans to get out of Utulek Station as soon as possible.
- Fling a Light into the Future: An abandoned apartment near the starting point of the mission has an email written by a woman named "Karina", who says that she is dead and invites whoever is reading it to help themselves to whatever they want from her apartment, in the hope that it helps them more than it did her.
- Foreshadowing:
- Hacking into Tibor's computer allows you to start an email conversation with someone called "oldblueeye", who asks what happened to Tibor and if he told the cops anything (referencing an untold plan in the process). You won't meet "oldblueeye" proper until much later in the mission.
- A datapad you find in Rucker's study after his death mentions something called "Orchid",
- Friendly Enemy: Though Marchenko is revealed to be a villain at the end of the mission, his initial conversation with Adam runs into this, and you can spend several minutes talking about aug rights before he politely tells you to stay away from ARC territory.
- The Idealist: Rucker is referred to as this by the CASIE system.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Tibor says this to justify his Heel–Face Turn to Adam. The player can choose to either let him go free or execute him for his duplicity.
- Industrial Ghetto: Utulek Station, a place filled with despair and disease, of which the player can see numerous residents living in squalor, being harassed by cops and being driven to the breaking point.
- The Informant: Played with. Tibor Sokol agrees to give Interpol (and Adam) valuable intel and get him into ARC territory. As soon as you meet him, however, he backs out of the deal and only gives Adam some cursory information about the area and a local arms dealer. He later discovers that Tibor has tipped off ARC to Interpol's presence, and later justifies this as protecting his family. The player has the option of sparing or executing him.
- Inescapable Ambush: Notably averted. Two guards automatically spawn at the exit from Rucker's office, and it seems as though the following section will be a run-and-gun affair. However, if you have the requisite strength aug, you can move two heavy containers in the back room out of the way and go through an Air-Vent Passageway, which allows you to skip the confrontation and continue on. There is another ambush point a short while later, necessitating that you use a cloak to get onto an elevator before a pair of Rucker's men see you.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Gallois immediately decides to fake his death if the player spares him after Otar's order to execute him. Gallois laments that his identity (including the name "Louis Gallois") will have to be trashed, and that he enjoyed using it.
- Late to the Tragedy: Cracking the lock to one apartment near Stedry Market reveals a macabre scene — a woman and man laying dead on the floor, and another man laying on a stool near them with a gun at his feet. Further exploration of the computer in the level (as well as a computer in ARC territory, written from the woman's (Ana) brother-in-law) mentions a situation where Ana was informed (by Karine, the doctor who was subsequently found dead of unrelated causes near the start point of the mission) that she was pregnant, told her husband, and then the situation escalated to the point where Ana's husband, Kai, killed both Ana and the brother-in-law before turning the gun on himself.
- The Man Behind the Man: Inverted. When Adam arrives at Rucker's office, the latter claims that Adam is being used as a tool of the Illuminati, who are the real enemies to look for.
- The Man in Front of the Man: Rucker implies that there is a splinter section of ARC that is superceding his authority. As revealed a few minutes later, Viktor Marchenko is the true power behind ARC.
- Mess of Woe: Rucker's office is unkempt and disorganized, and was likely caused by his increasing feeling of failure due to the rash of aug bombings over the last few months.
- Monty Haul: Aside from the fact that the player can raid a police armory and Gallois' shop and get scores of weapons (which can also be sold to nearby dealers in Stedry Market), The Throat itself seems to be comprised of this. Searching around enough yields tons of weapons, credits and crafting parts, which can be very helpful considering that ARC territory begins right after this.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Tibor somehow gets past Adam and into ARC territory before him, despite the fact that he was last seen in a holding cell and there was only one apparent route through The Throat (which Adam had just crossed through without seeing any other people around).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Gallois indicates that his name and title is a cover, and that he's the only thing standing between Otar's quest to take over the Dvali crime family. His real name is never revealed.
- Sacrificial Lion: Rucker himself, who dies just a few minutes after Adam meets him, regardless of the outcome. His death causes the situation in Golem City to spiral out of control, and Adam is forced to flee without bringing him back to Prague.
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Self-Imposed Challenge: The Easter Egg "Golden Rookery" achievement. To complete it, you have to carry an oversized gold penguin statue all the way from Sokol's apartment (located right near the start position in Utulek Complex), though The Throat, into through ARC territory and into a secret area that can only be accessed if you have the "Punch Through Walls" aug. If you do, you get the achievement and a Praxis Kit. - Shrines and Temples: The "Golden Rookery" achievement requires that you carry a gold-plated penguin from Sokol's apartment to a hidden shrine within ARC territory, which is filled with dozens of the same statues piled about and lit up with strings of lights. Dropping the gold penguin in this shrine nets you a Praxis Kit.
- Stalker with a Crush: One of the emails on Rucker's computer is from a 15-year old augmented girl who lives in New York, who writes a rambling diatribe asking if he has a girlfriend and hinting that she wants to help him "carry on his legacy".
- Tragic Villain: Various encounters throughout the mission show that Tibor believes he was justified in selling out Adam's (and Interpol's) actions to the rest of ARC. His brother was captured (and can be beaten up unless Adam intervenes), he was thrown in a holding cell, his sister-in-law is a nervous wreck, and their apartment is shown to have been destroyed due to the police raiding it earlier in the day. When Adam calls him out on this, Tibor justifies it by saying I Did What I Had to Do.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Regardless of how the player approaches the final encounter, Rucker dies from mysterious causes, forcing Adam to flee and run afoul of Marchenko at the same time.
