[Music] Way back in the Summer of 1988, on July 16th, in
Toronto, Canada, a child was born. Simon Jarrett would have not only one tragic life, but many.
As he grew up, Simon became independent like many people do, got his own apartment, and to
pay the bills, he worked at a bookshop called The Grimoire. It was a simple life, and inside
and outside of his work, he had a close friend group. Sean, Kevin, Jesse and Ashley. Some of
who he worked with at The Grimoire. Meanwhile, the world around him moved on and the development
of technology reached new heights every day. In his pursuit to understand the complex nature of
the brain and how it worked, in 2014, a Japanese man by the name of Nakajima Shin developed a
process that allowed him to scan the brain. Dubbed "Neurographing Technology", he performed
his first scan on March 12th on a woman known as "Nanami". These were no mere normal brain scans,
the "Nakajima Shin" neurograph was groundbreaking. It scanned the brain in its entirety and copied
the consciousness, personality and memories of the subject into data that a computer could read
with ease. This technology had the potential to revolutionise how humanity understood the mind
and soul as separate entities. Unfortunately, Nakajima moved away from the development of
"Neurographing Technology" after this for an unknown reason. As the world entered 2015, friends
and neuroscientists, Dr. David Munshi and Dr. Paul Berg came upon the "Neurograph Technology". They
saw value in what this could do for humanity if it was developed properly, and together, they got to
work to expand and pioneer the technology at PACE Laboratories in Toronto. On the evening of April
9th, Simon and Ashley Hall had enjoyed the night together and were on their way to their next
destination. As of now, it is unclear if they were just friends or a little more than that. As
Simon drove them towards the intersection of Bloor Street and Spadina Road, their good night ended
quickly when they were hit by an SUV that had run a red light. This was an accident, the driver was
a mother who had been distracted for a few seconds by her children - the consequence of those few
seconds changed a lot of lives. The mother and children were mostly unharmed, however, the same
could not be said for Simon or Ashley. As he came to understand what had just happened, he turned to
Ashley and watched as she died right in front of his eyes from internal bleeding at the young age
of 23. There was nothing he could have done. As Simon arrived at Saint Mary Hospital, the doctors
discovered that his head had taken a large amount of force from the crash and had resulted in brain
swelling and bleeding. When they were finally able to do so, they explained to Simon that although he
had survived the crash, his injuries were severe and he had brain damage. At this point, they had
no way to treat this injury and told him that they expected him to last mere months. Over at PACE
Laboratories, on April 28th, Dr. Munshi and Dr. Berg believed they were ready for human trials
with their "Neurograph Technology". They wanted to use this technology to help people with brain
injuries, and in return they would be able to use the brain scans to further additional research
ventures. Upon hearing about Simon Jarrett's car crash and severe injuries, Dr. Munshi reached out
to him with the offer of a brain scan that would allow them to create a treatment plan. If this
project on "Brain Reconstruction" was successful, it would not only help Simon, but also many other
people change their life expectancy from mere months to decades. This was a rare opportunity and
the only chance Simon had to survive the aftermath of the car crash. So, he accepted Dr David
Munshi's offer, and they arranged an appointment at PACE Laboratories just 4 days later on May 2nd.
Simon knew how important this scan was, and as he woke up on the day from yet another nightmare of
the crash, he followed the instructions given to him by Dr. Munshi. They were simple, to drink a
bottle of Tracer Fluid and arrive at PACE. Upon his arrival, Simon was surprised to find that PACE
Laboratories was still very much early in their development, and their offices had not yet been
fully set up. After some small talk, Dr. Munshi explained that the scan would only be as painful
as having a picture taken to which Simon responded with "Indians thought cameras would steal their
souls". As he sat in the lab chair, the scan created an identical copy of Simon's brain
up until that very moment. His consciousness, experiences, memories and personality. This
copy of Simon was then converted into data, and uploaded to Dr. Munshi's computer. With this
data, Dr. Munshi created a treatment plan for his test subject. This technology was revolutionary,
but just a month later, it was clear that Simon's brain did not respond well to the treatment.
By June 1st, his condition had degraded vastly, and he knew he did not have long left to live.
On his deathbed, Simon spoke with Dr. Munshi. He did not blame him at all and even suggested that
the scientist use his brain scan to continue and improve upon his research. At the age of 26, Simon
Jarrett finally succumbed to his brain injury. The death of Simon Jarrett also led to the death
of the development of "Neurograph Technology" in the Medical Field. Dr. Munishi's treatment
of his first volunteer had failed. However, the Robotics Field saw value in these complex
brain scans. His Brain Restoration project was no more, so Dr. Munshi allowed those who
approached him to use Simon's Neurograph in their research and development into Artificial
Intelligence Technology. Simon's model was a very valuable asset and became a standard piece
in the development packs of this research. His death had meant something, just not in the
way he had expected. Over the following decades, Dr. Munshi and Dr. Berg helped with the formation
of this AI technology as AI became a regular feature in technology across the world. The
understanding and complexity of AI had advanced so much over these years, and it was even possible
to communicate with the consciousness of the data of a scanned brain. Of course, these scans would
only be aware of everything that had happened up until they were scanned and were unaware that
they were a copy of the original human that had continued with their life. As Dr. Munshi entered
his 90s, he was interviewed about his work and how it had impacted the world. His wife and Dr.
Paul Berg had passed on at this point and he was asked if he would bring them back with this
technology as both of them had been scanned at one point. Munshi explained that although
their copies contained everything that they were up to until their scan, they were technically
not human, and if they discovered what they were, they would become mad and unstable. Even if
he could bring them back in a stable state, he would still care for who they were,
but they would still not be fully human. As the world once again moved on with new
technologies and branches of scientific intrigue, in the 2060s, a Multinational Research
Organisation was constructed across multiple locations in Lisbon, Portugal, Cádiz,
New York and London. With investment from Haimatsu Technologies, Carthage Industries, and likely
even the United Nations, this station had a lot of funding behind it. Each land based location
helped with their main research site. PATHOS-II, an underwater Research Facility located on
the Mid-Atlantic ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean. This site was groundbreaking, and
was initially built to conduct thermal mining. As it grew, and as a result of being a
multinational facility, PATHOS-II had a large, diverse staff base of the best and brightest
scientists and engineers across the planet. PATHOS-II was developed to have eight separate
sites connected across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. One of which, Site Omega, was the only site
constructed above the water. Sites Upsilon, Delta, Theta, Lambda, Omicron were situated on the
Ocean Floor in a region labelled "The Plateau", and the final three sites of Tau, Alpha and
Phi were constructed much deeper than The Plateau within the depths of the Abyssal Plain,
labelled The Omega Sector. From these locations, the personnel explored multiple research projects
from marine sciences, hydroculture, to deep sea construction. This was a huge operation, and to
keep this advanced research facility on track, a station-wide artificial general intelligence was
utilised. This system went by the name of The WAU and was operated by Dr. Johan Ross. Per company
policy, each employee at PATHOS-II was implanted with a Blackbox device through an auto-injection
system. This was for their benefit as much as it was for PATHOS-II as it tracked their biometric
data, which in turn helped monitor their vitals to keep them as safe as possible in the facility.
In brief, Site Omega was developed above the surface and was the main source of communication,
weather, and feedback for the facility below. Omega lay just above the top of Site Phi and
reported the success of missions they performed with the Omega Space Gun. As the only site above
the surface, it was also often visited by the MS CURIE, a ship that brought resources from the
land-based sites to PATHOS-II, for maintenance. Below the ocean surface, Site Lambda was one of
the most important locations for the whole team, as it acted as a transport hub to all of the
other sites across PATHOS-II - through the shuttle transport system. Site Theta was designed to be
home to most of the staff of the facility, offices and large laboratories, while Site Delta, was
mostly used to manufacture aerodynamic projectile shells so that payloads could be launched from
the Omega Space gun in site Phi. Site Upsilon was PATHOS-II Power Generation Plant. Through the use
of Geothermal Boreholes, it harvested gas, refined it and generated enough electricity to power the
whole PATHOS-II facility. The workers here also developed, repaired and made use of robots and
universal helpers to help them with their roles, each of these were installed with basic AI to
follow instructions. Robotic repair may have been difficult years before, however, Carthage
Industries had developed a highly proteined, cross-linked lubricant that acted as a conductor,
signal medium and even allowed those who used it to calibrate it with a specific instruction.
Manufactured as "Structure Gel", the engineers of PATHOS-II used it for almost everything they
worked on and it almost was the magic fix for anything. Electrical damage? Structural
damage? Sure. On the other side of this, they also found that it mutated living and
dead tissue, even to the point of reanimation. Something the scientists at Site Omicron explored
along with their other work on Marine Biology and Hydrophonics, amongst many other research
ventures. Site Omicron also overlooked the vast Abyss that led to the Omega Sector of the Ocean.
To reach the bottom, the engineers developed The Climber Rig on the edge of The Plateau for the
personnel to reach the three sites below. Deep within the The Omega Sector of The Abyss, and
exit point of The Climber, Site Tau was home to maintenance areas, living quarters and a cargo
transit system that allowed the crew to move payloads constructed at Site Delta to Site Phi.
As mentioned already, Site Phi was home to The Omega Space Gun. Although under the ocean,
it had been designed to fire spacecraft into space in a safer and less expensive manner. This
gun, like many other regions across PATHOS-II, made use of a pilot seat. A seat in which one
of the personnel sat on and operated larger machinery and the various other technology and
equipment across the facility. The Omega Space Gun was extremely large and even reached the
ocean surface to Site Omega from the depths of The Abyss. This size allowed it to fire a maximum
payload of 10 tons at the impressive speed of 42 kilometres per hour into space. The final and
less known site was the secret Site Alpha. This location was known only to few staff and home to
The WAU. The personnel of PATHOS-II knew of the WAU and that it helped them, but they did not know
that it was actually a physical, biological being operated by Dr. Johan Ross. To adapt, improve
upon and change the WAU, Ross injected needles with structure gel into white organic matter
of the AI to change its biological code. AI had come a long way since Dr. Munshi's initial
brain scans, and now this one hung in the centre of a chamber. For years, PATHOS-II continued
their research, work and experiments with the backing of multiple nations under the depths
of the ocean to make the world a better place. Moving forward to 2089, Earth's nation's observed
a stellar object in space, and it was on a direct course to collide with Earth in approximately a
decade. This object, Comet Telos - telos meaning “end”, was extremely large and it was estimated by
Earth's scientists that if it did hit the planet, it would cause destruction to an apocalyptic
level. With this news, Earth's nations came together to build a rocket that they hoped would
push the comet off its course to save humanity. Not a lot is known about what the planet did
during this decade in their attempts to stop this destructive force. What is known is that
by 2102, Spokesperson Veiga and Dr. Catherine Chun had joined the Asteroid Deflection Program
and as a part of this role, they were placed in PATHOS-II to help in the efforts. Down here, they
worked with the Omega Space Gun in Site Phi with the plan to use it to launch a projectile to knock
the comet off course. The comet was getting closer and they were running out of time. By March of
the same year, Mark Sarang, a person close to Johan Ross' WAU work received a classified
message from Carthage Industries in which he was told how great of a job he was doing. It
was a part of his role of "Intelligence Analyst" to integrate The WAU across the whole PATHOS-II
station. With this task complete, he was asked to leave Dr. Johan Ross to continue his work on
The WAU alone in Site Alpha without interference. Regardless of all of the effort the nations of
Planet Earth had put in to stop Comet Telos, just hours before the comet was estimated to
collide with Earth, the population and nations realised they had failed. In these early hours of
January, 12th, 2103, many fled to bomb shelters, mountainous regions, and other locations
they believed they could survive the impact. Dr. Catherine Chun had worked hard to
save the planet as a part of the Asteroid Deflection Program with Spokesperson Veiga.
In this awful moment, Spokesperson Veiga Left PATHOS-II to spend her final hours with
her loved ones as Catherine stayed behind within the Underwater Facility. She liked her own
company and felt alone most of the time anyway. At 05:13am, Comet Telos collided with Earth
and hit the Pacific Ocean. Almost instantly, the impact triggered firestorms across the planet,
which led to the atmosphere being flooded with toxic dust and debris. Over the following days,
the surface of Planet Earth became a barren wasteland and those who had attempted to hide
in bunkers or on mountains were decimated along with the rest of the species. There was no way any
form of life could have survived on the surface, however, the population of PATHOS-II and the
animals of the deep ocean remained unharmed. Within the underwater facility, they listened
to the panic of the world above and heard the fall of the planet as each of their land
based stations across Earth went down, one by one as they were impacted by the crash. It
appeared that the personnel of PATHOS-II were the last humans on Planet Earth. Billions of humans
had been reduced to just above 60. The population of PATHOS-II knew only what they had been told
during the fall. After the dust had settled, The CURIE left the facility and ventured to
the surface. From here, they took pictures of the aftermath, just off of the coast of Portugal
to bring back to PATHOS-II. Having survived The Fall of Humanity, Catherine Chun made PATHOS-II
her new home and became a part of the team to keep the facility running efficiently, and she
was given the role of Systems Engineers on the Omega Space Gun. Catherine had always been a quiet
person and seemed to struggle to be around people, so she kept to herself. In her spare time, she
kept herself busy and worked on an Artificial Reality capsule. This was her new life now,
surrounded by the last of humanity underneath the ocean. As what was left of life went on,
within Site Alpha, the WAU's primary protocol changed to "Preserve Humanity". However, the WAU
did not understand humanity entirely to complete this task, and as this system was connected
to every part of PATHOS-II, it got to work. As an intelligent system, the WAU connected to
the structure gel that had been injected into it, and the copious amounts across PATHOS-II. The WAU
then connected to every machine it could through Structure Gel, and it also found that it could
create the substance. With this, it grew and grew until its restraints could not hold it any
more. After it fell onto the floor of its chamber, it continued to excrete the substance until it was
surrounded. Over time, the Structure Gel hardened and formed bulging growths. Across PATHOS-II,
some of the machines fell under the control and manipulation of the WAU, and Structure Gel
filled the pipes as the substance found itself all around the facility. The WAU needed access to the
whole facility in order to "preserve humanity". A week after what was called, "The
Impact Event", on January 19th, Dr. Johan Ross discovered what had happened to
his prized AI and he realised that the system had gone rogue. It was causing more harm than
good and he needed to stop it. The pipes across PATHOS-II began to explode as they struggled to
contain the mass quantities of Structure Gel, and Johan made the difficult decision to leave
Site Alpha for his own safety. So, he ventured to Site Tau. Unknown to the personnel of the
PATHOS-II, the WAU connected to and adapted all of the Pilot Seat helmets it could access across
the facility to scan the brains of the users. This was very similar to the Neurograph technology
developed by Dr. Munshi decades before. At first, the personnel had no idea that a copy of their
brain had been scanned, but they did feel the side effects. Over the following days, many
people complained of nausea and headaches, but had no reason as to why they were experiencing
them. This was the WAU's first plan to preserve humanity. The first documented person this
happened to was Carl Semken who worked at Site Upsilon. He was in the process of removing
a heat seal as the Pilot Seat he used to operate the machinery scanned his brain. Of course
he was unaware that this had happened and he just went on with his day. The WAU later took
brain scans of Gavin Finley, Robin Bass, Javid Goya and Adam Golaski to name just a few. Chief
Factor Jane Adams of Site Upsilon noticed that most of her crew suffered with these symptoms,
and in response, she ordered that they stop using the Pilots Seats as there appeared to be a
correlation between their use and the headaches. Having created "neurographs" of some of the crew
of PATHOS-II, the WAU began its next stage to "preserve humanity". The entire underwater complex
was full of robots constructed to aid the humans, and with its Structure Gel, it adapted the
machines it could access and uploaded copies of the crew to them. Over the next few months,
the team discovered robots that appeared to not only recognise them but claimed to be a friend of
theirs. One of them claimed to be Adam Golaski, the Chief Engineer at Site Omicron. This was
extremely confusing, and the personnel of PATHOS-II needed to understand what had happened.
So, Imogen Reed was assigned to speak with and examine the machine. During her examination,
Imogen spoke with what was dubbed a "Mockingbird" of her friend and colleague, Adam Golaski.
It clearly had a human consciousness inside, and spoke to her just like the real Adam. What was
interesting about this situation was that it did not know it was a robot. As the robot lay on the
ground, unable to move, Imogen asked it to stand, in which it claimed it had but in reality it
had not moved. She believed that the Adam inside saw its reality differently in order to preserve
itself. It believed it was human, standing and talking to its friend. Imogen later called for
the real Adam to speak with the Mockingbird, and the machine was amazed at how similar Adam
looked to itself. They later fell into an argument after the real Adam asked questions that only he
would know and his daughter was a touchy subject. This Mockingbird was peaceful and unable to
move, however by April, the various sites around PATHOS-II discovered that some were not and
attacked on site. They were corrupted by the WAU's influence or the personalities inside struggled
to grasp their reality. The WAU had turned against them in its distorted efforts to help them.
Regardless, the crew were still unaware that this was the WAU's influence. As a result of this, the
crew at Site Upsilon were evacuated to Site Theta for their safety as the halls became dangerous and
unpredictable places. Upsilon was still extremely important to the running of PATHOS-II as it was
the home of the Thermal Power Plant, due to this, Carl Semken and Amy Azzaro were ordered to
stay behind to maintain it. To keep them and the machinery safe, regions of Site Upsilon were
blocked off to keep the aggressive machines away. The following days brought more attacks from
the machines. On May 4th in Site Upsilon, Carl was attacked and killed by one of
the aggressive helper bots as Amy luckily managed to escape. On her way to Site
Theta to join the rest of the evacuees, she ran into trouble when her train failed to
power up. During her attempt to fix this power outage, she instead severely electrocuted
herself in the process. On the ground, Amy waited for death but then she noticed
something odd. The pipes of PATHOS-II had been known to move large quantities of Structure Gel
for a while now, and as she lay in the substance, she noticed that the gel formed itself into an
artificial lung. The WAU, although misguided in its other efforts to preserve humanity, it still
wanted to keep the real humans alive too. As the horror and the reality of her situation set in,
she waited alone to be rescued, unable to move. Approximately 1 month later on June 6th,
Imogen Reed was asked by Catherine Chun to examine another WAU creation, The Vivarium. She
observed that the machine appeared to be capable of the creation of an artificial reality. She
also discovered that a scan of herself had been placed within this reality. This was unsettling
yet remarkable. When Imogen brought her findings to Catherine, she remarked that this was almost
an improvement of the technology she had worked on in her spare time. She believed that the WAU
must have used her Artificial Reality Capsule and improved it. PATHOS-II had become a dangerous
place to live, and using the idea of The Vivarium, Catherine formed a plan to save what was left of
humanity. For her plan to work, all she had to do was create her own version of The Vivarium and
learn how the WAU had been scanning the personnel of PATHOS-II. She later discovered the AI had
used the Pilot Seats to scan the brains of the occupants, and with some reverse engineering,
Catherine adapted them to scan the personnel for her upcoming project. Over the next two
months, starting on July 3rd, Catherine asked for volunteers to scan themselves so that she
would have a copy of them to place in “The ARK”. A virtual world that would allow its occupants to
live and thrive without threat. With the help of Alice Koster, Catherine created virtual locations
for the scanned humans to live. Some of these locations included a modular space, a stunning
forest, a city and an urban park. As Theta was the safest hub in PATHOS-II, she scanned them
there. Within a simulated reality that felt real, the minds within would forget what their real
reality actually was. Her whole plan was to scan as many volunteers as she could across the whole
of PATHOS-II and then launch the ARK into space with the Omega Space Gun. In space, The ARK could
hypothetically last for thousands of years thanks to solar batteries attached to it. As the scanning
commenced, and experiments continued, Catherine learned that there were limits to how much mental
pressure a scanned consciousness could handle and if too much stress did occur for any reason, it
could lead a copy to become insane, just like the aggressive robots, or termination. The ARK Project
of course did not save humanity, but it allowed it to continue in another form. In Site Omicron, on
July 9th, Dr. Eames produced a different variant of Structure Gel that allowed her to calibrate it
in any way she wanted. Shortly after this, Jacob Halperin used this Unstructured Gel to reanimate
a mouse. The mouse, although seemingly alive, came back extremely aggressive and it attacked another
mouse. This experiment ended when the Gel hardened around the reanimated mouse, and it died again. In
Site Theta, Catherine continued to scan anyone who came to her. At first it was seen as her small
project, but as more of the crew heard of it, they approached her and showed interest. She
scanned herself and many other people over the next week. That was until she scanned Mark Sarang
on July 12th. Mark looked at the ARK Project in a different way to Catherine. He believed that
during the short period of time after the scan, the original human version and the copy were
identical, as they were. After this moment, their different experiences would make them different
people. Therefore, to ensure the copy went on to continue living an exact extended version of the
original life, he had to kill himself. In theory, this made sense and allowed another version of
Mark to continue on from almost the exact moment his original version left off. He called this the
“Continuity Theory”. So, after his scan, Mark ate chewing gum that contained cyanide salt, and he
passed away fairly quickly. Although Catherine had only performed the scan, the death of Mark led to
her short detainment on suspicion of manslaughter. Mark's message made sense, but this was a unique
and stressful time, and many misunderstood what he had explained of “The Continuity” Theory. Shortly
after, this theory was misinterpreted to mean, “If the physical body died quickly after the
brain scan, then their consciousness would transfer over, and they would be able to live
on the ARK.” This however was not the case. Catherine was released not too long after and she
continued to scan those who allowed it, but due to the misunderstanding of the “Continuity Theory”,
these scans were followed by a string of suicides. John Strohmeier, the Security Chief at Site Theta
looked into why so many suicides had occurred over such a short amount of time, and he learned about
the Continuity Theory. With the safety of the humans in Site Theta and the rest of PATHOS-II, he
warned Catherine that if there were more suicides, he would shut down the project. As the scans
continued, another theory was pushed around. “The Coin Toss”. This theory suggested that when
the brain was scanned, there was a 50% chance of the original consciousness being transferred
to the ARK. This of course was impossible, as the original mind would always stay in
the original body as the copy was uploaded to Catherine’s system in preparation for the ARK.
When those scanned were not copied onto the ARK, and had seemingly failed “The Coin Toss”, they
began to show their frustration with Catherine, as if she had kept them in their bodies. Moving
ahead to August, 14th, in Site Delta, the crew were reassigned to Site Theta for safety, but
their Chief Factor, Terry Akers, decided to stay behind. Site Lambda was also shortly relocated to
Theta. Within close Proximity to Catherine and in their new home, these new crew members had their
brains scanned for the ARK Project. In Site Delta, alone, Terry began to ingest large quantities
of the Structure Gel the WAU pushed through. This gel slowly mutated him and resulted in
psychotic episodes. Connected almost directly to the lifeblood of the WAU, he believed he
heard the voice of the AI and as a result, he followed the instructions of “the voice”
and cut out his own eyes. On August 26th, John Strohmeier heard of the suicide of Robin
Bass after she had just been scanned. He knew how much popularity The ARK Project had garnered
but human life was more important than the copies Catherine created. He warned Catherine that
just one more death would be the end of the project. This came later on September 2nd,
after Guy Konrad committed suicide after his scan. This was the final straw and John cut the
scanning phase of the ARK Project short. With Site Lambda empty after evacuation, a salvage crew was
sent there. This crew consisted of Imogen Reed, Adam Golaski, Vanessa Hart, Baxter Rogers, Richard
Holland, Jessica Davis, Martin Fisher and Dorian Cronstedt. As the WAU gained even more influence
over PATHOS-II, on September 13th, the evacuation of the Site Tau in the Omega Sector was ordered,
and Julia Dahl was asked to assist. During this evacuation attempt, she heard those she had been
asked to save being attacked by aggressive marine life that had been mutated the structure gel.
Against her orders, she left them to their fate and generated a fake report that the evacuation
was a complete failure. Because of this, the giant climber that was used to enter the Omega Sector
was ordered to stay at the Plateau. Believed to be dead and without the ability to contact Site
Omicron above on the Plateau Sector, the stranded survivors of the marine attack had to retreat
back. One of these was Dr. Ross. In Site Lambda, the Salvage Crew encountered a mass amount of
structure gel and WAU created robots. Imogen Reed and Adam Golaski spoke to one of these, Harry. He
was extremely confused about what was happening, but this was a robot and not the person
they had known. So, they shut him down. Over in Site Theta, the ARK Project was in full
flow. Catherine could not scan anyone else, but she could continue on the ARK itself. While
this was great, across PATHOS-II, the WAU slowly took over different parts of the facility with
Structure Gel and created new robots that grew mad and aggressive. It was also discovered that the
human crew members who came into physical contact with large amounts of structure gel also mutated,
just like the marine wildlife. Some grew blind and sensitive, dubbed “proxies” and “Fleshers”, These
mutations kept them alive as the WAU intended, but they were stuck in a constant state of agony,
madness and aggression. Around December 18th, the Salvage Crew attempted to escape after the
Structure Gel mutated both Adam Golaski and Jessica Davis. They became extremely aggressive.
Only Imogen Reed and Vanessa Hart survived this after they called for the CURIE to escape.
Despite this, the CURIE crashed and sank. Still stranded in Site Tau, Dr. Ross and another
crew member, Glasser, attempted to reach the Plateau sites to warn them about how dangerous
the WAU had gotten. Once again, they were attacked by the mutated creatures and Glasser did not
make it. Heavily injured, Dr. Ross made it to the climber but as he waited for rescue, he fell
into a coma. On a routine recall of the climber, the crew of Site Omicron came upon his body and at
first believed him to be dead. To his luck, they still brought him inside and discovered that he
was just unconscious. Within a containment cell, the medical crew of Site Omicron did what they
could for him, and as he lay there, the structure gel from his power suit leaked into his wounds and
his body mutated. He quickly learned that he could communicate almost telepathically to the people
around him through their blackbox, and he needed their help to stop the WAU. One person he managed
to reach was Raleigh Herber. Ross explained to Rayleigh of the existence, location and function
of Site Alpha and the physical manifestation of the WAU. He believed that if they could generate
a new strain of the structure gel from the uncalibrated gel and inject it into the WAU, it
could kill it and stop its mass destruction. The WAU attempted to save Ross' life even though he
wanted to kill it. The WAU itself had not caused a single death. Each death in PATHOS-II had come
from the derangement of the robots, human failure, or the aggression of the mutated wildlife. Even
the creation of the proxies or the fleshers had been done to preserve the humans. Even if they
lived in pain. Regardless, Rayleigh got to work. As December 27th hit, within Site Theta, Catherine
came to the realisation that she had scanned as many of the crew as she could, and the ARK
itself was ready to house them. All she needed to do now was launch the ARK into space. To do
this, she needed to reach Site Phi within the Omega Sector in the depths of the Abyss. Luckily,
Catherine had made some friends along the way, where Sarah Lindwall, Nicolai Ivanshkin, Ian
Pedersen and Jasper Hill rode The Climber deep into the Abyss, and they safely arrived at Site
Phi shortly after. Their world had fallen. They were the last of humanity, stuck under the ocean
in a dangerous facility that seemingly also wanted them dead. The evacuees at Site Theta feared the
other sites that housed aggressive robots and mutated crew members. Death surrounded them. This
mission to savour a slice of humanity, despite the fact the ARK only housed copies of what humanity
was, still was something and the pressure to succeed was incredibly high. Together, the group
entered the container region of Site Phi with the ARK. As Catherine made her way towards the empty
shell casing to place the ARK inside, the group broke out into a discussion about whether this
was actually the best plan of action. Some of them were not sure if the ARK would survive the
launch and wanted to keep it safe in PATHOS-II. The ARK was already up and operational, and the
constructs inside had begun their new lives of peace and happiness. If the launch failed, their
reality would end and this whole ARK Project would have been for nothing. Catherine had created this
project and argued that they should launch anyway. Ian disagreed with Catherine and in his anger, he
swung at her with a wrench. Upon impact with her head, Catherine fell to the ground and quickly
succumbed to this brutal attack. PATHOS-II had fallen so far at this point, and law had no
longer had any meaning here. Many had died as a result of the WAU’s misguided need to preserve
humanity. This was a dire situation but the group still had the ARK to think about. Pederson pleaded
that it was an accident, and the group just went along with his explanation. As they could not
come to a consensus on what to do with the ARK, the rest of the group returned to Site Tau
with it as Catherine’s body was left alone. Imogen Reed had become the final survivor of
the Site Lambda massacre. After her escape, she had made it to Site Upsilon with a
plan in mind. She had watched the WAU, or its creations take down the rest of the salvage
crew. Like any other computer system, it needed power to function, so she decided it would be best
to shut down the power source of the entirety of PATHOS-II. The Geothermal Power Generator. As she
shut the generator down, the ventilation turbine subsequently deactivated. This in turn completely
removed the flow of oxygen in the room. In her final moments, Imogen believed she had finally
stopped the WAU. However, after her death, the WAU continued to run off of the reserve power of
PATHOS-II. As PATHOS-II entered the new year, on January 15th 2104, Site Theta received a call from
Site Delta. The survivors heard the voice of Terry Akers. He had decided it was finally time to join
his team after they had evacuated months before. Unknown to them, he was not the Terry they had
known. After a rescue team was sent to retrieve him, only Akers was found, and in a comatose
state, just like Dr. Johan Ross had been. Shortly after, Akers was placed in the medical ward of
Theta. His doctor, Nadine Masters, determined that he would not wake up due to the mutilation
of his body as a result of contact with the Structure Gel. This had been a ploy by Akers
to enter Theta and attack the population there, and shortly after, he rose and injected whoever he
could with Structure Gel in order to mutate them so that they would join him. These unfortunate
people became what they feared. Proxies. Together, they wandered the halls and attacked anything
and anyone they heard around them. Thus, Site Theta became yet another location claimed by the
destructive preservation attempts of the WAU. For the few that did survive this onslaught, they
escaped this massacre through the sewers with the hopes to find refuge in Site Omicron. The next
day, in Omicron, Rayleigh Herber finally managed to create the uncalibrated variant of structure
gel that could take down the WAU. With trust in Dr. Johan Ross, she decided it was time to leave.
Unfortunately, in this moment, the WAU shrieked and sent a huge wave of energy across Omicron.
This shriek and surge of energy locked down the site and overloaded the black boxes of everyone in
Omicron, and as a result, killed everyone as their heads exploded. The death of the personnel of Site
Omicron also came with the failure to poison the WAU. Dr. Ross did somehow manage to survive this.
He just needed someone else to help him take down the AI. Shortly after this, the survivors of the
Theta attack arrived at Omicron, but could not get inside as all of the personnel were dead. They
had nowhere to go and were trapped. Without the codes to get in, these survivors all perished over
the following hours. The deaths of these survivors left only a handful of people alive in PATHOS-II.
Each one with their own fight to evade the WAU. Approximately 4 months later, on May the 9th,
2104, the WAU uploaded the Neurograph of a human that had been completed in 2015. This scan
was transmitted onto a Cortex Chip and inserted not into a machine, but into the body of Imogen
Reed in Site Upsilon. A couple of days later, Imogen’s body was placed onto a Pilot Seat
by the WAU's creations and the first cyborg body was activated with a human consciousness.
This cyborg was the perfect combination. Imogen Reed's body allowed the mind that occupied it
to almost accept the reality of what it was without going mad. The Structure Gel was also
extremely important in making this combination work. This 2015 neurograph scan contained the
mind of Simon Jarrett. A legacy scan of a man with brain damage that had helped generate every
AI development up to this date. Upon activation, Simon woke up and observed his surroundings.
Just a second before, he had been in a room with Dr. Munshi, and now he was alone. This copy had
continued on exactly from the moment of the scan, and he was completely unaware of where he was,
what he was, what had happened to the planet and how much time had passed. He knew he was Simon
and had no idea that he was a copy. As he wandered the abandoned Site Upsilon, Simon picked up an
Omnitool - a device the personnel of PATHOS-II used to perform their roles and access regions.
In his confusion, he encountered an aggressive mockingbird, and naturally, he hid from it.
In his confusion, and aim to seek answers, he reached the central control of the Geothermal
Power Station. This region had no ventilation. This had killed his host body, Imogen Reed, but
he was a combination of human organic tissue, structure gel and a Cortex chip. Therefore, he
did not need oxygen to survive. Here, Simon came across a Mockingbird of Vigdis Jonsdottir. Her
robotic frame lay on the ground, connected to a power port. She was also completely unaware
of her surroundings and that she was a robot. She pleaded to be left alone, as she was happy
in her state. However, Simon did not know what she truly was and disconnected her from the power
port in order to reactivate the power plant. He had unknowingly killed a sentient mind just like
him. Upon activation of the Geothermal Planet, the rest of PATHOS-II came back online, and here,
Simon received a transmission from Catherine Chun. This was not the "Catherine Chun" who had been
murdered by Ian Pederson as she had attempted to launch the ARK into space, this was a copy of
the scan she had made during the early scanning phase of the ARK Project. The Neurograph had been
taken by the WAU, transferred onto a Cortex Chip and inserted into a PATHOS-II robot. Catherine
had been preserved just like many others. This Mockingbird of Catherine was completely unaware
of what had happened after the scan. It is also very likely that her robotic body had activated
after Simon had brought back power to PATHOS-II. Catherine wanted to complete the ARK Project,
and as a machine with limited capabilities, she believed Simon was a human. So, she asked
Simon to make his way to the Comms Centre, and there, she would explain what had happened.
Catherine was curious about this man. No one who had worked on PATHOS-II was called Simon Jarrett.
Despite his confusion, Simon ventured through Site Upsilon and came across and evaded another one
of the WAU's aggressive machines. In this safe location, he found a stairway that led to the
Communications Centre. The stairway however was offline. As he explored this floor for a way to
activate it, he came upon the Mockingbird of Carl Semken. The machine was confused. He could not get
up, and Simon still had no idea why the machine spoke like a human and believed itself to be one.
During this time, Simon also found the real body of Carl. It was here that he discovered he could
somehow hear the last moments of a person’s life. Unknown to him, this of course was due to his
composition of human, Structure Gel and Cortex Chip. He in reality was able to listen to the
black boxes within the bodies. In Carl's case, he heard his last moments before his death at the
hands of a machine. To continue, Simon discovered that he had to divert power from Upsilon to the
Comms Centre to enter it. The first opinion he had was to activate a switch that turned on the
power, but in the process, the active power line to the Comms Centre electrocuted the Mockingbird
of Carl who lay on its path. It was a machine, but it felt every ounce of pain and cried out
loud. Simon’s second option was to disable a generator’s flow to the Mockingbirds room, this
would give power to the Comms Centre but turn off the power in the room. Without power, Carl would
go offline. Essentially killing him. This option also brought the attention of the aggressive
scavenger Simon had avoided earlier to reach this floor. Regardless of the tough decision he had to
make, Simon made it to the Communication Centre. After a brief conversation with Catherine over the
computer system, the Comms Centre began to flood. Catherine was Simon’s only source of information
in this fallen facility, and so, he was instructed to make his way to Site Lambda to meet her in
person. Although the Comms Centre had flooded, Simon was surprised to find that he had not only
survived the pressure of the water, but he was also somehow able to breathe underwater. His mind
continued to make up for these irregularities as it flickered between his real form and adjusted
form. On his path, Simon came across the Shuttle Train Amy Azzaro had attempted to use to reach
Site Lambda from Upsilon. He also discovered the same problem she had one year before. There
was a power issue. In the tunnels, Simon reached the power source, and to his horror, he also
found Amy. She was still alive, still alone, and fully conscious. Initially, she was afraid of
Simon and asked him not to hurt her. She saw what he actually was, and went on to explain that the
WAU would not let anything die. Everything had to live and be preserved. She wanted help to
leave this place. Here, Simon had the option to either leave Amy plugged up to the WAU or
unplug her. Which would result in her death. As far as he knew, the entire facility was lost
and no-one was going to come and save her. After their meeting, Simon rode the reactivated
shuttle towards Lambda. Unfortunately, his shuttle crashed and he had to make the rest of the
way there on foot. As Simon entered Site Lambda, he heard Catherine shouting in the distance to
be left alone as a creature attacked her. The creature was a flesher, one of the WAU’s preserved
humans that had died and then reanimated. These grew a cocoon on their head that would have
suggested they were blind, however, they grew even more aggressive when they were looked at. Aware
that Simon had arrived, Catherine warned him not to look at it before it left. Within Catherine’s
office, Simon came face to face with her robotic form. He really hoped that she would be human and
was frustrated and disappointed that she was not. He voiced his concern and that he thought he
was the last human alive. She explained that she was human once, and that he should really
look at himself in a mirror. He was “a walking, talking diving suit with some electronics
slapped on for good measure.” - and when he thought about it, it made sense after everything
he had experienced since he had woke up in Site Upsilon. He was also not completely human. Before
she had been knocked to the ground, Catherine had been attempting to find out what had happened to
her ARK Project. Despite his feeling of defeat, Simon followed her orders and placed her Cortex
Chip into his omnitool on a computer. She then proceeded to tell him everything he had missed.
He was a brain scan, the world had ended and the ARK was humanity's last chance to survive. During
the development of the ARK Project, Catherine had placed a tracker on the ARK itself. With the help
of Simon, she was frustrated to find that it had not been launched but it was in Site Tau, not
too far from the Omega Space Gun in Site Phi. These sites were located in The Abyss, and to get
there, Catherine asked Simon to take them to Site Theta to use the DUNBAT. A submersible vehicle
designed for deep sea exploration. This would not only transport them, but help them survive
the pressures of the overwhelming pressure of the abyss. Catherine of course could not come with
him physically, so Simon kept her Cortex Chip that held her brain scan in his omnitool. This way,
she would be with him every step along the journey to guide him. However, she would only be active
when the Omni-Tool was connected to a terminal. To Catherine, she felt like she was floating,
and time meant nothing. When she was activated and then deactivated as result of her connection
to a terminal, it felt like no time had passed, time was just a long line of moments instead
of breaks. On their path, Simon came across the wreckage of the CURIE. To reach Theta, Catherine
told him that they needed to use an escape vessel on this ship, but when they eventually reached
one of these vessels, it would not move. The ship, although sunk, still appeared to be stable
as a result of the WAU’s influence, and thus, would not release the escape vessels. In response
to this, Simon destabilised the core of the CURIE that kept it from going into a catastrophic state
and jumped into an escape vessel. As the escape vessel travelled across Pathos-II, it appeared
Simon’s sabotage of the ship had worked a little too well, and the core’s explosion knocked the
vessel off course towards Site Delta instead of Theta. Connected to the vessel, Catherine did
everything she could to keep herself and Simon alive. The escape vessel crashed just outside of
Site Delta. From this abandoned underwater Site, Simon called for a Zeppelin to take him the
rest of the way. Out in the underwater site, he watched as the robots, with human minds, simply
worked completely unaware of what they were. One of which held the brainscan of Javid Goya. Just
like every other Mockingbird, his mind had warped his reality around him to believe he was still
human. Upon arrival, Catherine attempted to launch the Zeppelin but she found that the tool chip
that allowed the vehicle to function was bust. To fix this, she told Simon to just take down one
of the robots that worked at Site Delta with a stun baton. Simon argued that he did not want to
hurt anyone, to which Catherine showed her lack of empathy for the robots and stated that “they were
just robots”, even though both she and Simon were, and it was the only way to get to their
destination. Catherine could not take down one of these robots herself, so the tough decision once
again fell to Simon. Take down the UH3 Unit that contained the mind of Javid Goya or a standard
K8 unit. Having completed this difficult task, Simon returned to the Zeppelin with a tool
chip, and Catherine navigated it to Site Theta. Upon their arrival, Simon came upon a Mockingbird
of Robin Bass. The WAU had taken a copy of her scan from the ARK Project. She seemed to be in a
constant state of confusion of whether she was on the ARK or not, and with empathy, Simon convinced
her that she was. This solidified her “false view” of reality in comparison to the bleak environment
around her. As Simon entered Site Theta, he connected Catherine to the system and
she told him that Theta was in quarantine mode and they needed the Cypher to release it
to access the DUNBAT. To acquire the cypher, Simon entered the office Catherine had used to
scan the volunteers for the ARK Project. Upon his navigation of this office, Catherine also gained
a better insight into how her human self had worked after the scan. Following this, Catherine
instructed Simon to activate a simulation and place the scan of one of the security team inside
of it to get the cypher. After some manipulation, they used a scan of Brandon Wan and tricked him
into giving the Cypher Key to who he thought was his girlfriend. With this key, the simulation
was shut down and Catherine was able to lift the quarantine. Upon activation of the DUNBAT, Simon
watched as the consciousness inside of it also woke up. The person inside panicked as it began to
understand its situation. It cursed out Catherine by name and dropped itself into the ocean. The WAU
had got to this one too. It had used yet another one of Catherine’s scans and placed them into a
machine. It is unknown who this person was, and it did appear as if the WAU was working against
Simon at this point, but the WAU in all terms was not sentient, it was like an aggressive cancer
that covered the majority of PATHOS-II with the simple task. Preserve Humanity. Without the DUNBAT
to continue, Simon moved deeper into Site Theta to find another way to Site Tau. Here, he came across
the lab Catherine and her small team had used to develop the ARK itself. After he plugged her into
the terminal, she activated the power in the room. As Catherine was “offline” during the DUNBAT
incident, Simon let her know what had happened and they came up with a new plan. Reach Site
Omicron, get a new power suit that would protect Simon from the pressure of the Omega Sector
and use The Climber to descend into the lower sites. While in the lab, Catherine asked Simon to
step into a “Compound Examiner”. It was normally used to investigate the structural integrity in
payload frameworks but it could also be used to examine Simon to find out what he actually was.
Catherine still had no idea how a conscious mind could inhabit another human body, or how she could
transfer his mind to the ARK when they reached it. The examination told her that Simon appeared to be
one with a diving suit. As he would have to wear a stronger diving suit to survive the ocean pressure
in the Abyss, Simon asked how it would work as he was unable to take this one off and replace
it. To which Catherine lied, and told him that there should be a big one that would fit him. No
suit would fit, but she had another plan in mind. The examination continued to tell them that the
human body he inhabited was that of Imogen Reed, an old colleague of Catherine, a Cortex Chip
with Simon’s consciousness, a data reader and an Occu-Torch had been forced through the skull.
This is how Simon was able to use a flashlight and live in her body. All of this possible as a result
of Structure Gel that meshed everything together. The best part about this scan was that Simon
occupied a Cortex Chip, and Catherine could use this to transfer his mind to the ARK with a Pilot
Seat. This scan also helped make sense of the aggressive entities they had encountered so far.
Reviving a dead person with structure gel led them to become extremely aggressive. A mind inside of
a robot body made them unreliable, so, Simon was the best of both worlds. A sound mind in a sound
body. After this, Simon and Catherine experimented with a test version of the ARK, and this gave her
a better insight into how the human Catherine had set it up and generally how it worked. They needed
to reach Site Omicron, and they could only do this on foot. Unfortunately, on his way to the sewers
to exit Site Theta, Simon discovered what had led to the fall of this site. The heavily mutated
Terry Akers. Terry was blind but could hear anything around him. At this point, Simon knew
how to navigate the WAU’s mutations, and quietly, he moved around the claustrophobic halls and
fixed an elevator as Terry’s wails echoed behind him. Akers was still intelligent and was aware
a target had evaded him through the elevator, so he made his way to the bottom of Theta and
ambushed Simon as he wandered around. As he fell unconscious, Simon had a vision of himself back in
his apartment as Ashely spoke to him. In reality, Terry Akers had placed him inside of the WAU’s
Structure Gel in order to also transform him into a mindless, aggressive proxy. Simon was
not entirely human, so this did not affect him like the others. Simon quickly snapped out of
this, and after he pulled himself out of the goo, he quietly made his way through Theta, avoided
Terry’s proxies and finally escaped Site Theta through the sewers. On the Ocean floor, Simon made
his way to Site Omicron and discovered that it was locked down in Quarantine. This quarantine
had led to the deaths of the original Theta massacre and Simon found their bodies scattered
around. However, Simon had someone on his side. A now heavily mutated, but sane, Dr. Johan
Ross. Ross sent through the cypher to Simon inside of an Omicron substation, and using this,
he lifted the Quarantine and entered the site. Site Omicron had fallen so far, it was
once the hub of experimentation, but now, Structure Gel leaked through the pipes onto the
walls, the headless bodies of those affected by the WAU’s shriek scattered across the hallways
and the victims of the structure gel’s mutation waited for whatever came next. Within the Dive
Room, Simon once again connected his Omnitool to a terminal and brought Catherine back online.
She instructed him to check for a Power Suit inside of one of the pods. Inside of Pod D, Simon
found the body of Rayleigh Herber and she wore a suit he needed. Catherine explained that because
Simon’s suit was merged with Imogen Reed’s body, he would actually have to transfer his mind
over to Rayleigh’s body, and in a sense, wear it just like he had with Imogen. To
fix the body and complete this transfer, he travelled around Site Omicron, evaded
the mutations that lived here and picked up a Cortex Chip to transfer his neurograph to,
a battery pack to power him, and structure gel to meshe everything together. From a distance,
Johan watched as Simon put these materials into Rayleigh’s body. He was also happy to see
that the Structure Gel Simon used to create his new host was the uncalibrated gel he and Rayleigh
had attempted to use to kill the WAU. In essence, this new body would be a weapon. His new body was
ready, and to transfer to it, Catherine instructed Simon to sit in a Pilot Seat to begin the transfer
process. As he sat, everything went white and he found himself in Rayleigh’s body in Pod D, but
he also heard himself in the Pilot Seat too, “There must be something wrong. Can’t you
run a diagnosis or something? Catherine?” The transfer process Catherine had mentioned was
not a transfer at all. It had taken a copy of Simon and put it into this new body. There were
two Simons. Catherine had intentionally misused the world transfer to get Simon to help her with
the ARK. The “Simon” in the Pilot Seat had been put to sleep and would sleep for a couple of
days, as this new copy argued with Catherine about what had just happened. He thought his mind
would just transfer over like a brain transplant, but according to Catherine, it didn’t work that
way. This was an awful moment for the new Simon, he had experienced everything the other Simon had.
It was the perfect “Continuity Theory”, but he was just another copy in a stronger suit. He had a
tough choice to make. He could simply leave and continue with Catherine to find the ARK, and as
a result, his older version would wake up alone in this nightmare, the Power Suit would be gone,
without an omni tool to access anywhere outside of the room, he would be trapped and completely
unaware of what had gone wrong during his sleep, or Simon could save him from this and stop him
from waking up entirely by draining his battery. It was clear Catherine still lacked any empathy
for this situation or for any of the robots they had encountered so far, and after Simon made
this incredibly impossible decision, he left Site Omicron and activated The Climber to reach
the depths of the ocean. Simon felt immense guilt for what had happened back at Omicron, that Simon
would never experience the full journey. That life had ultimately ended at Omicron, regardless of
which choice he had made. Catherine stayed quiet as Simon rambled as she did not want to upset
him any more. She had been responsible for this, she had hidden the truth of the situation up
until the very last moment. To help calm him, she told a story from her life, well her human
life, about how she would stand on a rooftop in her home city of Taipei and watch the people below
go about their day as the smells of her favourite foods rose up to her. She felt connected to the
world in a way she had never before. A feeling of comfort and belonging. She did not feel that way
now as a machine, but she still wanted to preserve what she could of humanity on the ARK. This calmed
Simon. On the ARK, both he and Catherine would make new friends and a new life there despite the
fall of their world. Simon was getting closer to Site Alpha, the home of the WAU, and as Johan
Ross’ biological weapon, the scientist entered the cage of the Climber and let Simon know he
would put preparations in order. Of course this made sense only to Johan, and confused both Simon
and Catherine. In the depths of the Abyssal Plains in the Omega Sector, Simon evaded the dangerous
mutated wildlife that had taken out many of the PATHOS-II personnel. He quickly learned
that they stayed away from the light sources, and having stuck to them, he reached Tau safety.
Inside, he came across, and evaded the reanimated corpse of Jin Yoshida. In silence, Simon reached
safety in the crew quarters, the home of the group that had brought back the ARK from Site
Phi. Inside, Simon was saddened to find many of them had also become victims of the WAU. It
was not all bad news though. In the infirmary, he found quite possibly, the last living human
on Planet Earth. Sarah Lindwall, and next to her, The ARK. After she and the others had returned to
Tau, she watched as the WAU took over her group, one by one, but she refused to die. She wanted to
guard the ARK and protect the people inside it. She hoped there were survivors across PATHOS-II
but Simon let her know the whole facility had fallen. She was the last. Sarah offered Simon
the ARK so that he could launch it into space but she had one request. That he deactivate her life
support before one of the WAU’s creatures did. She was sick and did not want to live in pain anymore.
With the ARK in his possession, Simon made his decision and left the Infirmary. To safely get
the ARK to Site Phi, Simon attached it to “The Cargo Cargo System” and followed it on foot. But,
to get to Phi, Simon had to make his way through Site Alpha. Inside, he discovered The WAU. This
Biological AI had manifested into a large mound of flesh that had taken over a large portion of
the chamber. As he stared at it, Ross explained that the uncalibrated gel Simon had put into his
new suit had turned him into a “venomous snake”. He could kill the WAU, and stop the Structure Gel
that had decimated PATHOS-II. All he had to do was push his arm into the WAU’S heart and then it
would spread the poison across the whole facility. Simon once again had a decision to make. The first
option was to place his arm into the heart of the WAU. It would rip it off, but kill the WAU. The
second option was to just continue on his path to Site Phi and leave the WAU to its goal. Regardless
of his choice, Dr. Ross decided to kill Simon anyway. If he had chosen to kill the WAU, then
Ross had to kill Simon to stop the WAU from using him to create an antidote. If he left, Ross would
attempt to kill and forcibly feed him to the WAU. Despite Ross’ questionable intentions, as he did
believe the death of the WAU was something that needed to be done, one of the marine life mutated
by Structure Gel, The Leviathan, crashed through the floor and with it, took out Ross. Having
survived this ordeal, Simon left and arrived in Site Phi. The last stop on his long journey.
To Simon in his mind, he had woken up that day, had his brain scanned and then found himself a
hundred years later in the future. The time jump from his perspective had been instant and he just
wanted to reach the ARK to safety. Simon placed Catherine into a terminal, and she restored power
to the site. Interestingly enough, Site Phi showed little sign of the WAU's corruption. As Simon
explored the site, he placed the ARK into a shell in preparation for launch, and then, he discovered
the body of the real Catherine. With his ability to listen to the last moments of her life through
her blackbox, he explained to his Catherine that she had been murdered after a disagreement on
whether to keep the ARK at PATHOS-II or risk launching it into space where it could be damaged
during the launch. Regardless of how she felt, Catherine now had the full story on what had
happened to her original self, and the fate of the ARK. With the ARK ready to launch, Simon
entered the launch dome, and sat in a pilot seat. After he placed the projectile into the gun,
Catherine activated the launch as she scanned both her and Simon's minds to transfer them onto the
ARK. Just as the gun launched, the upload of Simon and Catherine completed and the ARK was sent into
space. They had succeeded in their mission - but Simon was still in the Pilot Seat, in Site Phi, in
PATHOS-II. Not on the ARK. Confused, Simon asked Catherine what had gone wrong? Why were they still
here? They were going to die down here. Catherine explained that everything had gone to plan. Their
copies were out there, among the stars. Still in disbelief, Simon argued that he saw the upload
complete, he should be on the ARK. Frustrated with Simon, Catherine told him that there was
no way to transfer a scan, only copies were sent over. He knew this! Just like what had happened in
Omicron. He was in the same position as his older abandoned version. They just had to be happy
for the “Simon” and “Catherine” on the ARK. Simon refused to accept this. Catherine had used
the word transfer and as he got more frustrated and angry, he refused to listen to Catherine’s
positive view of how they together had saved at least something of the hundreds of thousands
of years of human history. Because of them, something had lived on. In a heated argument,
Simon shouted at Catherine. He had trusted her and believed she had lied to him. Catherine, for the
first time, retaliated. She called him ignorant and that she could not be responsible for how he
had interpreted what they had done. As she got angrier, her Cortex Chip struggled to contain
her and it overloaded. This critical failure corrupted the chip and left the omnitool useless.
Without it, no terminals could be activated, no doors could be opened, and the worst part, the
corruption had taken Catherine with it. He in all essence was dead. Despite his anger, as soon as he
realised what had just happened, Simon called out to Catherine even though he knew she was gone.
“Catherine?” “Please don’t leave me alone”. The fate of this version of Simon is currently
unknown. He would have been unable to even leave this dome without a functional Omni-Tool. All he
could do was wait for his battery pack to either run out, or he could pull it out himself. Trapped
within the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, alone. Out in space, the ARK moved away from Earth as
the sun powered its batteries. Inside of the ARK, the mind of those that had been scanned lived
in peace. No pain, no WAU, no comet. Here, Simon Jarrett found himself in a cave sitting
in a Pilot Seat. The last minute scan had been successful. As he left the cave, Simon found
himself in an open forest with a stream. This was one of the simulation locations he had
seen back in PATHOS-II. This was peaceful. After he had taken in his surroundings, a
vast difference in comparison to the desolate, claustrophobic halls of the research facility,
Simon saw a woman standing in the distance, looking out at a city across the dock. This
was Catherine. As they finally greeted each other in person. Simon remarked that he could not
believe they had actually made it. They had been through a lot together. A stark comparison to
the horror that had unfolded just seconds after this scan had completed back at the bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean. In the real world, the ARK was a huge success and the remnants of humanity
sped off into space away from Planet Earth. This artificial life would thrive for thousands of
years to come. Eternal bliss among the stars. SOMA was pretty much a perfect game. I can say
that after I finished my first playthrough, I felt numb. So many thoughts and feelings. Catherine’s
use of the word “transfer” was always something that stuck with me. Did she use it to manipulate
Simon into completing her agenda knowing full well he would not want to be abandoned by
another version of himself, or was that just her terminology and Simon misunderstood her?
The game plays the line perfectly between horror, existential horror, philosophy and it really makes
you question. What does it mean to be human? Did the ARK Project really matter? The copies of the
humans were sentient and they lived on the ARK, but they were copies. Humanity still went extinct
during the process, even if copies of them lived in a virtual space. Now the toughest part of the
game was not the parts where you have to avoid the creatures. The toughests parts were the decisions.
Do you keep someone alive that is clearly in pain and will not die unless you intervene. Do you
shut down an earlier older copy of yourself to ease their suffering? Do you kill the final known
human because she asks you to? Do you give up your arm to kill a cancerous AI system? I had such
a hard time making these decisions and I would be really interested to see what you guys did.
The completion of SOMA comes with that feeling of numbness. You know the one. While I have
been writing this, I have been asking myself. Did humanity really survive on the ARK, or
did those who worked on the project lead to the mass death of PATHOS-II. The WAU of course was
responsible for a lot of the chaos that happened, but so was the ARK Project. In terms of the
continuity theory and the coin toss, I can almost understand why the crew wanted to believe
in them when there was no clear way they could transfer their human mind into a machine. I guess
it is similar to being stranded at sea. There is a phenomenon in which the thirst sets in and some
people believe that if they swim deep enough, there will be a part of the water they can drink
that does not have salt in it. I guess desperate people rationalise their situation in any way
they can. The last humans in PATHOS-II died so that copies of them could live. SOMA in Greek,
means body. The perfect title for the game. I could talk about my thoughts and feelings about
the game for a long time but I think I got my main points out there. While putting this together,
there was so much information and at points, it was tough to slot events into the correct
order. Judging certain events, I am 99% sure I got them right. The mini-series “Transmissions”
did not give a lot of dates. SOMA was not only one of the best games I have ever played, but it was
truly an experience in decision making, survival, and above anything else, the story left me numb.
Questioning our reality, and what it truly means to be human. This was a long one. If you
enjoy deep dives into darker games, timelines, ARG’s and generally lore, then hit that subscribe
button. Depending on how well this does, I may look at other games from Frictional Games. Amnesia
would be a good one to look at. Now, how did you feel after you finished SOMA? What decisions did
you make and would you have chosen to live on the ARK? Finally, leave a like or dislike depending
on how you felt, and finally, I’d like to thank my Patrons and Channel Members. Jonas, Lewis,
Queen Arby, FluffyTheDragon, ChickenGuy791, Ruben Mendoza, Mosvelit, Duke, Toadnut, AuronX,
Azu, Karatana, A.J, Vrona, Comfy and BGgames. Thank you so much! This is where our story
ends. Check back next week for a new one.
