Soma story breakdown. Do not read until beating the game. SPOILERS.

[big_bob002]

This topic will contain major spoilers and info people might not pick up on their 1st playthrough.   Do not read until after beating the game. 

I really wanted to dig into what was going with the crew. I listened to this 5 video series 4x. It's about 2 hours long but he goes into really good detail and I can't recommend it enough. 

 

 

I also found this timeline of events organized on Reddit. They put all of the key events, audio logs, and computer logs in chronological order. There's a link in that link that leads to the updated version, which is a Google drive doc. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/soma/comments/3mwr3g/spoilers_complete_timeline_of_events_in_soma/

I will post some info below on certain key characters that it's hard to follow just from playing the game. 

 

Carl Semken and Amy Azzaro. 

You wake up in Soma in Upsilon station, which is the primary power source for all of Pathos 2. The helper bots had gone hostile and an evacuation was ordered for the Upsilon crew. Everyone left except Carl and Amy, who stayed behind to set the Upsilon systems to automate the power and were trying to evacuate themselves. Carl and Amy were advised to seal the doors using the locks that the player has to turn the handle, and it falls off the door. 

After the player first makes contact with Catherine and is trying to access the domed top of the building, you find Carl's dead body in a hall way. Down the hall in a room is a bot on the ground. The bot killed Carl and went after Amy, who shocked the bot with the nearby power cord. 

In that same area you find the talking robot which the WAU placed a scan of Carl in, and he thinks he's still human. 

Later when the player is trying to access the shuttle to leave Upsilon you find Amy hooked up to the life support the WAU attached to her. In the stationary shuttle is a message from her boyfriend or fiance.

Edited March 10, 2017 by big_bob002
Remove spoiler tags

[big_bob002]

Terry Akers

After the player explores the sunken Curie ship, the Curie explodes causing the escape shuttle to crash at Delta. Delta is the manufacturing part of Pathos 2. Terry Akers is the manager of Delta. 

After the events at Upsilon Akers is informed that Delta is being evacuated to Theta. Akers refuses to leave but his crew goes to Theta. 

Over the following months Akers plays 1,600 games of chess and eventually goes insane. He starts consuming structure gel and gouges his eyes out. He also starts worshipping the WAU in an almost religious sense.  

Akers finally agrees to go to Theta. When the transport arrives Akers attacks them, attempting to inject then with something (it's assumed to be structure gel). Akers takes the transport to Theta alone and the comms are down so the rescue team can't warn Theta. 

Shortly after the transport arrives at Theta, Akers is found unconscious and brought to a med bay. He eventually awakes and starts attacking everyone, sealing them in structure gel and hooking them up to the life support that the WAU uses to keep people alive. Akers seems to be following the WAU's goal of preserving life. 

After taking the elevator down the player is attacked by Akers and placed in structure gel, but the player is able to pull free of the structure gel after Akers leaves. The final sight of Akers is at the end of Theta. The player activates the flush system and if you look down the hall just before getting flushed out of the buildng Akers is charging towards you.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

Johan Ross

Between 2098-2102 Carthage Industries accomplished 3 things at Pathos 2. They got the black boxes installed in all employees with the WAU monitoring them, they integrated the Warden (short name WAU) AI unit, and they secretly got 3 Carthage employees on the staff: Julia Dahl, Mark Sarang, and Johan Ross. In a way all 3 of these caused the downfall of Pathos 2.

Johan Ross was assigned as the AI psychologist. He was to monitor the WAU and report in to Sarang if the AI started abandoning protocol. Ross spends most of his time in the Abyss. 

When the comet hits, the WAU starts acting strangely. The WAU uses structure gel on some of the wildlife which causes the wildlife to become extremely hostile. This makes maintaining the comm relays impossible, which in turn means Ross can't inform Sarang what is going on with the WAU. 

When the ARK team fails to launch the ARK they return to Tau to discuss what to do. Since the Climber can only be activated from Omicron, Ross and Glasser agree to return to the climber to take the scheduled pick up that was supposed to be for the ARK team. 

On the way Ross and Glasser are attacked by the wildlife. Ross gets hurt and asks Glasser to tell Julia Dahl what is happening with the WAU so she can tell Sarang. Shortly after Glasser is attacked and killed by the Angler Fish. Ross makes it to the Climber but dies before reaching Omicron. 

When the staff at Omicron finds Ross they put him in a glass enclosure in the middle of the building to study him. The WAU reacts by pumping radiation into the glass enclosure to try and revive Ross. The radiation causes the black boxes of the Omicron staff to malfunction, causing headaches, nose bleeds and bleeding from the eyes. At one point it is described as the WAU shrieks which causes the black boxes to explode. This explains why everyone is missing their head. 

Ross is ultimately mutated. Seeing as he can appear and disappear I originally thought he was a hallucination of the player but if you destroy the WAU in Alpha he will try to kill you afterwards. This implies that he is physically in this world still. They also don't explain how he can handle the pressure of the abyss. 

 

One theory on the teleportation is Ross is temporarily shorting out Simon's sensors causing a temporary blackout. 

Ross gives the player the access code outside Omicron, and follows the player into the Abyss in an effort to get the player to use the modified structure gel to destroy the WAU.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

Raleigh "Herbie" Herber

Raleigh is the dispatch at Omicron. When Ross is brought in, Raleigh finds out about the modified structure gel. This is made clear by what Ross says when you enter Alpha:

"I need you to stop the WAU. The enslaved protein sloshing around in your suit is the noose with which the WAU will hang itself. As soon as I came to in Omicron, I tried to tell them to make the toxin that would make the WAU wither. But they didn't understand. They put it inside a cabinet. It was so infuriating. They needed to take it to Alpha. The Fountainhead of the misery we created. And the girl - she figured it out. She was going to take care of it - but the WAU shrieked. They all died. But you. You! You took the gel from the cabinet and made yourself into a venomous snake. "

From the glass enclosure Ross instructs the scientists how to make the modified gel and he communicates with Raleigh on how to kill the WAU. We know how Ross communicated with her because Raleigh comments that she's been having the dreams too.   We see post it notes with rough sketches of the WAU heart attached to Raleigh's monitor on the 1st floor of Omicron. 

One interesting note is in the Omicron mess hall is Julia Dahl’s corpse in front of her computer. On it is an audio log of Dahl talking about the WAU trying to revive Ross. At the end of the recording we hear her head explode. This implies that Dahl wasn't aware that Ross was alive. It could've been an oversight by the writers, or it could mean that Ross was motionless while communicating telepathically to Raleigh and the scientists. 

Raleigh intended to bring the modified gel to Alpha to kill the WAU but her black box exploded while she was putting on the deep sea suit. Based on Ross' quote it's entirely plausible the WAU realized what Raleigh was up to and destroyed the black boxes in defense. 

Raleigh's body is used to make Simon 3.

When you arrive at Phi the logs show Raleigh Herber as logged in on the date the player arrives.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

Julia Dahl

After piecing everything together I think Dahl is the worst person on Pathos 2.  She's certainly the most interesting and polarizing.   More so than Ross even. Dahl is a Carthage employee. 

After the events at Upsilon and after Delta is evacuated (but before Akers snaps), Vic Auclair orders an evacuation of Tau back to Omicron. 

Julia Dahl and Engineer Waldeck take the Climber down from Omicron to meet up with the Tau team. They wait the protocol 140 min but the evacuation team never reaches them. 

In Dahl’'s private notes she admits she lied, or at least withheld info to buy Ross more time to study at Alpha. "To avoid further disturbances I have decided to report the evacuation as a complete failure, hoping it will stop Theta from attempting another one". In her official report she claimed she left the Climber and proceeded on foot to try and meet the evacuees halfway. She reports she heard screaming over her radio and found field worker Espinosa almost cut in 2, before hurrying back to the Climber. 

 

It's entirely possible that she did attempt a rescue,  but she was still successful in thwarting future evacuation attempts.   When the ARK team arrives at Tau the ARK team comments that Omicron thinks everyone at Tau is dead.   "Some failed evac story". 

This leads to an order that the Climber stay at Omicron. It also means that the relay comms can't be serviced. The irony is that with comms down Ross can't warn Dahl about how bad the WAU has gotten, which in turn leads to Dahl’s head exploding. She got what she deserved.

 

The people at Tau starved to death. 

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

Mark Sarang

Mark Sarang is one of the three Carthage employees. 

Sarang is notable for coming up with the Continuation theory: that when you get scanned there are 2 versions of you. If you commit suicide directly after getting scanned you will carry on as the 2nd version of you in the ARK. He essentially was recreating the transition from Simon 1 to Simon 2.

After Sarang commits suicide 6 more people commit suicide over the course of the remaining scans Catherine does. This results in the scans being put on hold indefinitely. 

Catherine logs that 7 people that were still waiting to be scanned. Unfortunately it seems that these 7 people were never given the chance to get scanned to the ARK because of Sarang's selfish preachings.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

Imogen Reed

Imogen is a Mechatronics engineer. She has a few significant notes in the story. Imogen finds a machine built by the WAU that houses human brain scans in an artifical world. Catherine calls it the Vivarium and it serves as the prototype for the ARK. 

Imogen is the main character of the Transmissions short videos. 

 

 

 

In the last episode of Transmissions Imogen goes to Upsilon to shut down the power. Her goal was to shut down the WAU. She succeeds (it goes to backup power with a set amount of days before completely shutting down), but as a result she suffocates from lack of oxygen. 

Imogen's body is used by the WAU to create Simon 2 although there's no clear answer on how her dead body is transfered to the pilot seat where Simon 2 is created. 

Theories on why the WAU created Simon 2 are:
-The WAU was continuously trying to perfect creating a replica of a human. Simon 2 was it's most successful case. 

-The WAU needed Simon 2 to turn the power back on. After inserting the Omni tool into the pc station in the first room the player wakes up in, the system status says "Emergency systems: 13 days remaining". This makes me think this theory is viable.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

J. Yoshida

When you first reach Tau you have to sneak past a creature in a deep sea suit with weird tentacles coming out of the broken glass of the helmet. On the computer in the back it is logged as accessed multiple times by J. Yoshida.

On 4/11/2104 deep sea suit HPS3 is accessed by /4subjWAUr/. 
On 4/12/2104 the same deep sea suit is accessed by J. Yoshida.

This leads to the common belief that Yoshida is the enemy you are avoiding.

Edited February 15, 2017 by big_bob002

[big_bob002]

The Warden (WAU) 

I thought it worth mentioning that despite what happens in the game many people think the WAU was not only not bad, but was actually good. 

When the comet hit Ross notes that the WAU went into a low energy state but maintained it's protocol of preserving human life by keeping climate controls on. 

The WAU created the Vivarium to try and preserve human brain scans. Yoshida and Akers are explained in the game's lore. Most of the other enemies are the WAU's attempt to create a human by placing brain scans into robots. The robots simply went insane and the WAU couldn't control them. 

The WAU was finally successful at replicating a human with a "sound body and mind" with Simon 2. There's no reason to think the WAU wouldn't have continued to create more functional robot/human hybrids like Simon 2.

Most of the humans you find in the game either committed suicide or are hooked up to life support. This is further evidenced by when the player is attacked by Akers at Theta. You have the dream that you are in your apartment with Ashley. It seems the WAU was trying to put people into a Matrix like dream world to preserve their life.

Ross explains it like this "The WAU is reaching out to every machine, every lifeform, to manipulate, to control. It's trying to help, save it's creators from all of this, just like the protocol demands. But really, what is good enough? Where is the line drawn from what is human and what is not?"

 

Please do not postpost.   Only 2 more. 

[big_bob002]

Carthage Industries

In the story of Soma Carthage accomplishes the following:
-Gets 3 employees secretly on the staff. 
-Mark Sarang comes up with the idea of continuation. 
-Julia Dahl covers up an evacuation attempt of Tau. 
-Carthage introduces the WAU AI unit. 
-Johan Ross convinces Pathos 2 to remove all restrictions on the WAU. 
-The Failsafe on the black boxes is CRTH4 (reference to Carthage) and the WAU monitors the black boxes.

I would not have realized this last piece had it not been for the video series in the OP. Julia Dahl ends her audio logs with the phrase Delenda Est.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delenda_Est
 

["Delenda Est" is a short story written by Poul Anderson, part of his Time Patrol (1960) series. The title alludes to the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est ("Carthage must be destroyed") from the Third Punic War.

Renegade time travelers meddle in the outcome of the Second Punic War, bringing about the premature deaths of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Ticinus in 218 BC, and thus creating a new timeline in which Hannibal destroys Rome in 210 BC. This meant that western European civilization came to be based on a Celtic-Carthaginian cultural synthesis (rather than Greco-Roman, as in actual history).] 

Given the similarities it is very obvious imo that the writers of Soma took some inspiration from this short story. It's unfortunate that they buried the references behind audio logs and emails that takes so much effort to piece together because it's easily my favorite piece of the story.  

I discovered 1 more interesting thing I thought worth sharing. I've been listening to Let's Plays and found this interesting. As far as I can tell it's not in the ps4 version as this Let's Play was on pc. It also might have been patched out. 

At 42:40 in this video they access Julia Dahl’s laptop. 

 

In the 3rd recording before her head explodes is subtitled, but not voiced "No need for the company to be worried, if she does decide to go into the Abyss, she won't make it far. She's not... Arghhhh". 

What caught me off guard is why is Dahl still talking about the company? This is after the comet. After Ross came up dead from the Abyss. After Herber tells her she's going into the Abyss to find site Alpha. Dahl should know the surface is destroyed. 

The 3 reports in her computer are "undelivered". Carthage was on the surface and should be destroyed. It could lend some weight to the time travel theory. Ultimately it's just something the writers left open ended but it's fun to contemplate.

 

Did Carthage create Simon 2?

 

The common theory is the WAU created Simon 2.  This new theory was brought up on the Frictional Game forums by Senior Member Abion47. 

 

When Simon wakes up in Upsilon the sequence of events goes like this.  The player flips a switch to turn on the lights, and possibly provides power to the robot that stalks you.  After breaking the glass there's a vent down the hall where you can see the light from the robot traveling inside the vent.  When you approach the door to the room where the omni tool is you hear smashing and a man screaming. 

 

If you open the door too quickly the robot will kill you.  If you wait a few seconds before opening the door and quickly look in a vent in the room you can see the light from the robot leaving the room.   In the room is a dead body with fresh wounds.  It's possible this is the person that moved Imogen Reed's body to the Pilot Seat and created Simon 2.  He then fled the robot through the vents and got cornered in that room. 

 

According to the crew logs the only two Pathos 2 employees still at Upsilon are Carl and Amy.  Given the mystery of this man's existence it's entirely possible he's a Carthage operative. 

 

That's it.   I'll stop bumping.   Thank you for your patience and hopefully someone finds this helpful. 

Edited March 5, 2017 by big_bob002

[Karnacharya]

Neat. Thanks for posting this!

[big_bob002]

8 hours ago, darkamdusias said:

Neat. Thanks for posting this!

 

I'm glad at least 1 person found it helpful.  I'm still going through everything 4 months after beating the game.  I've got a topic going on gamefaqs as long as this one entirely dedicated to just Carthage Industries.  It just keeps getting more and more insane.  1 of the craziest stories I've ever seen. 

 

I didn't keep adding stuff here because I figured people would get sick of me bumping my topic repeatedly. 

Edited April 13, 2017 by big_bob002

[Karnacharya]

4 hours ago, big_bob002 said:

 

I'm glad at least 1 person found it helpful.  I'm still going through everything 4 months after beating the game.  I've got a topic going on gamefaqs as long as this one entirely dedicated to just Carthage Industries.  It just keeps getting more and more insane.  1 of the craziest stories I've ever seen. 

 

I didn't keep adding stuff here because I figured people would get sick of me bumping my topic repeatedly. 

 

Honestly, this is a pretty slow board, so not many people are going to be upset about it unless you're bumping it with useless posts.

[big_bob002]

On Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 0:06 PM, darkamdusias said:

 

Honestly, this is a pretty slow board, so not many people are going to be upset about it unless you're bumping it with useless posts.

Meant to come back sooner.  I went into a really long detailed breakdown of Carthage Industries in Soma here. I imagine it's only worth it for people that really liked the story. 

 

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/735003-soma/75224380