This exercise also saves SHODAN from her fate on the planet surface.Īfterward, the landing crew begins its infection of the rest on board. of both the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker, and it is around the time of infestation of the Von Braun that the player awakes from cryo-sleep, and the game begins.

The virus infects the crews One of many eggs that infest the ship. The eggs immediately infect the rescue team, who then load the highly evolved virus onto the ship, and return to the Rickenbacker. The distress signal was in fact transmitted by the fragment of SHODAN's artificial intelligence contained within the cultivation chamber's systems. The Hacker ejects the cultivation chamber into space, preventing that particular element of SHODAN's plan from coming to fruition.įorty two years later, the Von Braun, a faster-than-light Starship (on her maiden voyage), and it's military escort ship the Rickenbacker detect a distress signal transmitted from the surface of Tau Ceti V. A rescue team from the Rickenbacker is sent down to the planet, where they discover some unusual eggs. Unbeknownst to the rescue team, these eggs have developed from the mutagen virus, as the cultivation chamber from Citadel Station had crash-landed on the planet a significant period prior to its discovery. During the events of the first game, SHODAN reveals that she has been cultivating a mutagen virus to unleash upon Earth, corresponding with her machinations to destroy, or otherwise reign over mankind. The organisms that comprise The Many began life in a grove on Citadel Station, the setting of the original System Shock. Over a period of days or weeks (it is never made explicitly clear) the thoughts of the annelid, and - by clear extension - The Many are integrated with the host, with The Many taking the controlling share of its body and mind. To spread its singular vision of unity, the annelid requires a host body to infect The worm burrows into the subject, attaching itself to the brain stem. While they differ in size, appearance species, they are bound together by the method of their creation: Annelids, incubated within the eggs discovered on Tau Ceti V. Essentially a worm, each individual annelid is telepathically connected to all other worms, creating what is functionally a network of creatures with a singular, unified mind, in other words: The Many. Annelids / The Many The Many are a collective of different creatures and humanoids aboard the Von Braun and Rickenbacker.

System shock 2 shodan quote