Organizations in Deus Ex

This is a list of organizations within the world of the futuristic cyberpunk computer game Deus Ex.

National Secessionist Forces
The Northwest Secessionist Forces (abbreviated NSF), reside mainly in the United States of America although they do receive help from Silhouette, a supposed terrorist group in France, the Luminous Path Triads of Hong Kong, X-51, as well as other terrorist groups across the world.

The NSF are regarded as terrorists by UNATCO as they are known for raiding Ambrosia shipments (a cure for the "Gray Death" plague present in the game) and numerous other acts. Their motive is to decentralize the U.S. government and give the ordinary people of the U.S. as good a chance to survive the plague as the rich elite.

2030 was the year of the devastating West Coast Quakes, the cause of most of the mass chaos that lead to the Deus Ex, destroying most of San Francisco and dumping most of Southern California into the ocean. With the government focusing on the disaster on the ex-West Coast, the needs of the other parts of the country went unmet. In 2031 Utah announced its intention to secede from the United States, declaring its independence and annexing what was left of Arizona and Nevada. Inspired by Utah's example, fringe groups in Texas declared independence as well. Shortly after various paramilitary groups in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming formed the Northwest Secessionist Forces. All of these attempts to secede failed, though martial law continues to exist in some portions of these states.

In 2042 new gun control legislation, the Sporting Weapons Act, was passed and the NSF appeared once again. The new NSF (now National Secessionist Forces) was formed by gun toting individuals who refused to give up their rifles, grenades, land mines, and other "collectibles" based mainly in the West. Lead by Leon Woods, they intended the "liberation" of Washington, Montana, Oregon, and Northern California. The movement spread eastwards, eventually creating a large support base in major eastern urban centers such as New York. Many people saw the NSF as liberators from an increasingly authoritarian U.S. central government. Leon Woods died at his infamous last stand in 2045 at the Siege of Squalnomie in Washington state, but the NSF continued on gaining more and more strength and support from foreign groups such as SCHUSE and Silhouette. At this point the U.N. declared war on the NSF.

Status in Deus Ex
In the year when Deus Ex takes place, 2052, their objectives are to defeat the U.S. government and decentralize the country. The also want poor people to have access to the Ambrosia vaccine against the Gray Death. This has made them popular with the lower classes. The state of Texas which unsuccessfully tried to secede in 2032 is described in an email as being in a state of constant warfare between the NSF and UNATCO and the U.S. military.

Despite their ostensibly good intentions the NSF remain a terrorist group. They will arm anyone willing to fight for their cause and have committed many acts of terror, such as hostage taking. After the events of Deus Ex, most of the organization seems to be crippled but not destroyed. This is partly due to the actions of the player, whose short tenure with UNATCO saw the capture of several important bases - including the NSF New York headquarters; capture or death of several commanders, including a prominent supporter, Juan Lebedev, and the failure of a critical operation.

However the organization remains largely intact - though with a reduced strength in the East Coast. This is probably due to the sending of the NSF distress signal by JC at the New York headquarters in Hell's Kitchen which allowed other NSF bases and terrorist groups in Europe to take necessary counter measures. Several prominent members from the New York Section remain at large, probably waiting to reform the organization in New York. During the game the NSF are conducting operations in Paris under the command of Chad Dumier, leader of Silhouette and the Illuminatus Morgan Everett. Morgan Everett, in conversation with JC, mentions their still-operational HQ as being a hundred miles north of the X-51 base at Vandenberg. In Paris JC Denton overhears a man asking his wife to come with him to America as he has been contracted to work with the NSF.

UNATCO
The UNATCO (United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition) was formed in the early 21st century as an ad hoc response by UN member nations to the growing problem of international terrorism. The exact date of the genesis of UNATCO is unclear. Several of the game's characters have worked for the organization for many years, including Joseph Manderley, Sam Carter, Paul Denton, and Gunther Hermann. The game's protagonist, 23 years old in the game, also mentions adolescent dreams of working for the organization.

A few years prior to the events in Deus Ex, UNATCO, through collaboration with groups like INTERPOL and with funding by the United States, has become a standing international counterterrorist police force; the term "world police" is used to describe the organization. By the game year, 2052, UNATCO has formed its headquarters on Liberty Island in New York City after a terrorist strike on the Statue of Liberty. .

Events in Deus Ex
At the start of the game, it appears that UNATCO's intent is to defeat global terrorism perpetrated by groups like the National Secessionist Forces or Silhouette. But as the story progresses the player discovers that the director, Joseph Manderley, is the pawn of a secret conspiracy that calls itself Majestic-12. As a consequence, UNATCO is not a law enforcement agency, but merely a tool for global hegemony. By the end of the game the player works actively against the covert operations of UNATCO and Majestic-12. UNATCO's American base is in the location of an underground bunker beneath Liberty Island.

The player uncovers financial links that bind UNATCO to Walton Simons, head of the FEMA and a key leader of Majestic-12. UNATCO does much of MJ-12's dirty work, including the dispersal of biological warfare agents against the general population, and military suppression of any peaceful or military resistance to UNATCO member governments.

With the onslaught of the global collapse perpetrated by JC Denton at the end of Deus Ex, UNATCO, along with most other global entities, is portrayed in the game's sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, as having effectively ceased to exist. The old Liberty Island UNATCO base makes a cameo appearance at the end of Invisible War as it is used by JC Denton to store the dormant Aquinas protocol, though by the year 2072 when the game is said to take place, the complex is effectively a ruin.

Majestic 12
Majestic 12 (also known as MJ-12, MJ12, Those Who Rule the World in Majesty and officially as The Majestic Council of the Twelve) is a splinter organization of the Illuminati, and lead by the former Illuminati member, Bob Page. While the Illuminati prefers to control by assimilating persons of intellect into a grand conspiracy, Majestic 12 plans to control the world in secret through the production of the "Gray Death nanovirus" and the virus's vaccine, Ambrosia. The organization's public fronts include Page Industries, which controls the global banking system and is run by Bob Page, VersaLife, a division of Page Industries, and UNATCO.

The virus is then spread to the public, and then UNATCO and FEMA are then used to control the supply of the vaccine. It is provided in limited quantities, and the list of people to be vaccinated is limited to employees and conspirators of MJ12, as well as employees of MJ12 fronts, and to those for whom politicians request it, so long as they co-operate with MJ12.

Majestic 12 also uses complex information-processing systems, including artificial intelligence, at least two systems of which are prominent elements in the game's story, these being Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus and Icarus are the results of previous efforts of the Illuminati to create an omnipresent surveillance tool to not only monitor, but evaluate world events and even individual lives. Before the events in the game, Page initiated the Aquinas Protocol, allowing MJ-12 to monitor and selectively censor all global communications.

Apart from use of the Gray Death/Ambrosia manipulation, sophisticated military technologies and advanced surveillance networks, MJ-12 is also not averse to using divide and conquer methods, weakening their enemies and turning them against one another. The organization also holds no apparent qualms about using other types of psychological tactics as they wage war on the world's government. One example of this is the exploitation of the bizarre traits of MiBs to intimidate or unnerve dissidents and coerce them in to submission, and to deter would-be assassins or spies when serving as bodyguards and security forces.

On numerous occasions, Majestic 12 and its principles display their contempt towards reason, decency and life. In the game the player will encounter evidence of genocide, immoral experiments, murder and torture. All pointing at the organization as a disgrace in human history.

Majestic 12 is based in Area 51 and has two submerged Ocean Labs and also concealed bases in UNATCO headquarters, in the sewage system beneath New York and Versalife Headquarters.

Majestic 12 military personnel bear the insignia XII, which is twelve in Roman numerals. Other symbols used include a hand menacing a globe; this is displayed in actual form in Majestic Twelve's facilities, including the restricted labs at VersaLife's Hong Kong building, as a kind of centrepoint. The symbol also appears on MJ-12 computer terminals, in this instance the globe being the azimuthal equidistant projection used by the UN flag, under the shadow of a translucent hand. The symbol can therefore be interpreted in either of two ways; as a display of MJ-12's actual covert control of the UN and associated agencies, such as UNATCO, or as an aspiration to the complete world domination which the group strives towards and very nearly acquires.

It is hinted, though never explicitly confirmed, that MJ12 had been a government agency under the control of Lucius DeBeers' Illuminati all through the 20th century. The motto of Majestic 12 is: "IPSA SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST" — Latin for "Knowledge Her/Itself Is Power."

Page Industries
Page Industries is a huge multinational corporation. It is owned by Bob Page, and is involved in several industries including robotics manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, construction, computer hardware and software manufacturing and defense.

VersaLife
A subsidiary of Page Industries, VersaLife is itself a commercial behemoth. It specialises in nanotechnology, making several products which use nanites, from nanoaugmentations, to nanotech swords, to the nanite-composed vaccine for the Gray Death. In secret, and in accordance with Majestic 12's plans for world domination, it also produces the fatal Gray Death virus. As the source of both the virus and the only working vaccine, anyone susceptible to the virus is effectively at Majestic 12's mercy.

VersaLife may operate as a pharmaceutical company, but specializes in established and theoretical applications of nanotechnology, especially in conjunction with living creatures. It also experiments with synthetic creatures, known as transgenics, and— with the aid of nanotechnology — genetically engineers organisms, presumably as a result of experimentation, or for use in experiments, or possibly both or neither. Some of these include: Greasels, Grays, and Karkians. In addition to these creatures, Bob Page claims that VersaLife created the protagonist, JC Denton, and his "brother," Paul Denton.

The cost to Majestic 12 of the Denton "experiments" is apparently very steep; Simons comments that the cost of creating JC Denton alone was approximately "fifty billion dollars." Simons is also one character who refers to the Dentons as "experiments. "Experiment," in this context may or may not be used properly; perhaps it is a euphemism. If the word is being used properly, then the hypothesis behind the experiment is a mystery, though theories exist. MJ12's power over VersaLife could make mass nanoaugmentation very possible--though "unpredictable behaviour" of nanoaugmented agents is considered to be the main problem with it. Perhaps the Dentons were attempts at eliminating this problem.

Silhouette
Silhouette is a French antiglobalist group loosely aligned with the United States NSF. They focus their efforts on subversion of media outlets and symbolic non-military acts of destruction. Their motto is "Tandis qu'ils dorment, nous gagnerons victoire" (While they sleep, we shall gain victory) and their leader calls himself the "Minister of True Lies". The philosophy and approach of Silhouette is similar to the real-life French Situationists.

By the game year 2051, a new plague known as the "Gray Death" has caused unrest throughout France and much of the Western world. Small cells of insurgents, inspired by Silhouette, repelled initial attempts by INTERPOL and the United Nations to help the French government maintain order. During this time, Silhouette suffered a leak that led to the exposure of one source of their funding, the wealthy French heiress Beth DuClare. After a brief but torrid scandal, she was assassinated by Majestic 12. Also during that year, an attack on the Statue of Liberty was the most-cited reason for the establishment of a standing UNATCO force on American soil. Many throughout the world suspected Silhouette, which had several months before released statements on world cultural monuments, among them a claim that the Statue ought not have been given to America. Silhouette are led by revolutionary Chad Dumier.

Through their leader's close relationship with Nicolette DuClare, Silhouette benefit from the financial, social and intelligence support of the French faction of the Bavarian Illuminati. Dumier claims that he doubts the Illuminati would continue to assist Silhouette were MJ-12 not a threat, but the younger DuClare sympathizes more with Silhouette. The Illuminati find Silhouette to be useful allies in their struggle with MJ-12.

X-51
X-51 is a fictional organization in the computer and video game Deus Ex. As described in game, X-51 is a group of scientists, technicians and ex-United States army soldiers, led by Dr. Gary Savage, who defected from Area 51 in 2051 after learning about the shadowy intentions of Majestic 12, the secret organization led by the game's main antagonist, Bob Page.

When they walked out they stole “everything smaller than a paper clip” according to X-51 member and scientist Carla Brown, and C-4'ed the large pieces of machinery at Area 51 that would make up the Universal Constructor needed for MJ-12's nefarious plans. After their defection, they are said to have eluded UNATCO and the U.S. Army by posing as a research consortium and purchased Vandenberg Air Force Base, which had fallen into disrepair as a result of a catastrophic seismic upheaval mentioned in the game's back-story only as the "SoCal Earthquake". They have had contact with the NSF, the Illuminati and other terrorist organizations, however they are not coordinating fully with any organization. Despite this, they are portrayed as well armed and their Vandenberg base as heavily fortified. They are the only institution excluding MJ-12 who are said to possess a "Universal Constructor", a device with which they hope to find a cure for the plague known as the "Grey Death", a pandemic which has spread across the planet within the game.

Trivia

 * When the game was released in 2000 Ion Storm created a website (www.unatco.org) for the fictional organization to promote the game. Ion Storm pulled the website shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
 * The motto of UNATCO is from the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus: "Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere," which means, "Necessity knows nothing other than to conquer."