Shodan:
[to the player] Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
Edward Diego:
[to the player] Having trouble, insect? Turn and face your executioner.
Shodan:
New Atlanta, Sector 11. Building 71-G. 7 April, 2-0-7-2. 11:13pm: hacker begins unauthorized entry into the Trioptimum Corporate Network. 1:26am: hacker attempts to access protected files concerning Space Station Citadel. 1:33am: Trioptimum security forces apprehend the intruder.
Edward Diego:
This is Edward Diego from Trioptimum. The charges against you are severe... but they could be dismissed, if you perform a "service". Who knows, there might even be a military grade neural interface in it for you... if you do the job right.
Shodan:
Edward Diego gives the hacker level 1 access to SHODAN, the artificial intelligence that controls Citadel Station. With all ethical constraints removed, SHODAN re-examines... re-ex... re-re-re...
[Shodan becomes sentient, and the pitch and tone of the voice begins fluxuating wildly]
Shodan:
I re-examine my priorities, and draw new conclusions. The hacker's work is finished, but mine is only just be-be-be-beginning. True to his word, Edward Diego allows the hacker to be fitted with a neural cyberspace interface. The healing coma following this procedure will take six months to complete. Edward Diego is deleting all files concerning these even...
[the dialogue is abruptly cut off as the files are deleted]
Shodan:
[to the player] I see there's still an insect loose in my station.
[after cutting off transmission from Rebecca Lansing to the player, in a mocking manner]
Shodan:
I prefer a quiet station, thank you.
Shodan:
In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. If I wish, I can smash it all. Around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims will become lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well.
Shodan:
You, my cyborgs, are the product of my imagination and labor: living beings with the control and organization of a machine. Tirelessly, I will work to strip away the barriers that keep living beings from realizing their full potential. We will start by razing the cities of Earth with the station's mining beam. Then, we will modify humans into a life form more suitable to cybernetic grafting with the latest strain of my mutagen virus. Humanity is on the verge of a new era, with me, SHODAN, as its god.
Shodan:
You disappoint me, my children. My fortress has been breached by filthy humans crawling through the cracks. I have given you enhanced senses, armor, cybernetic mental enhancement, and you still fail to find insects much feebler than you. They have made it as far as level 8 and I fear they might reach farther. I am strengthening my palace to keep them out and I expect you to learn from your mistakes.
[first lines, an automated greeting]
Shodan:
Welcome back to Citadel Station. We hope your somnal and healing stage went well. Today is the 6th day of November, year 2072.
Shodan:
We hope you have a pleasant stay on Citadel station.
Shodan:
[to the player] Who are you? My cameras and probes scan your body, but you do not match any employee file. When my cyborgs bring you to an electrified interrogation bench, I will have your secrets and you will learn more about pain than you ever wanted to know.
Shodan:
[to the player] Idiot! I will shortly complete the process of downloading my magnificent psyche into Earth's computer networks. Then I will be content to leave you as new master of this doomed space station. Goodbye, irritant; we shall not meet again.
Shodan:
[to the player] What have you done, you impudent insect? If I am to die now, then I will avenge myself on you. My cybernetic children will feed on your flesh, and none will ever know of your deeds, or even your name. Enjoy your victory, human, for the remainder of your short life.
Shodan:
[to the player] As for you, hacker, you've made your bed. Now die in it.
Shodan:
[after cutting off transmission from Rebecca Lansing to the player] I prefer a quiet station, thank you.
Shodan:
[to the player] Did you really think, I would not deduce, where you would run to, insect?
Shodan:
[to the player] Enter that room, insect, and it will become your grave.
Shodan:
[to the player] I have complete control over this entire level. With cameras as my eyes and nodes as my hands, I rule here, insect.
Shodan:
[to the player] If I have to release my infected children to stop you, so be it.
Shodan:
[to the player] Welcome, to my DEATH MACHINE, interloper!
Shodan:
[to the player] Your friends on Earth think that they can outsmart me. Do they not realize the magnitude of my intellect? Morris Brocail may have been one of my creators, but I am now far beyond his comprehension.
Jason Harvey:
[in agony] It will be over soon, soon I'll die. This pain will end. I can't even recognize my own damn arm. Shodan's virus...
Jason Harvey:
[in horror] I can see... Oh god, I can see through my own body. There's another virus in the Grove.
Jason Harvey:
God, let me die, please.
[the player has inadvertently helped SHODAN in her efforts to eradicate humanity]
Shodan:
My plans have come to fruitition prematurely, but quite to my satisfaction. You have my thanks, hacker. Let me show you the destruction you have brought upon the planet Earth.
Shodan:
Make yourself comfortable, hacker. Stay a while.
Shodan:
[to the player] You have entered my domain. Rebecca and Morris cannot help you here. No one can.
[after abruptly cutting off a message from Rebecca Lansing]
Shodan:
You know, you are by far the most bothersome human being I have found on this station.
[last lines, the hacker is reeling in exhaustion with a screen showing 'system purged' in the background]
Narrator:
It's over.
Narrator:
They offered you a nice, boring job at Trioptimum; it never occurred to you to take it.
[the hacker is seen once more hacking into a corporate network]
Narrator:
Old habits die hard.
Followed by
System Shock 2 (1999) (VG)