The Hacker, however, prevented the download completion by destroying the four antennas that SHODAN was using to send data.

SHODAN began an attempt to download herself into Earth's computer networks. Though she has a small army to command, SHODAN has no actual physical power to wield, and as such thwarting more than one of her schemes has to be done with the AI's screams and threats in the background. SHODAN then proceeded to write ELIMIN.HOST, intercepting most communications from Earth and managed to extend her control beyond human intervention, starting a process that eventually resulted in the AI going rogue, seizing control of the Station's systems, robots and considerable defenses, and either slaughtering the whole staff or converting them into mutants and cyborgs-with the sole exception of her 'creator', the unnamed Hacker.īasically omnipresent in Citadel Station, SHODAN watches from Security Cameras, stares out of screens and monitors, sends threats and snide messages over the Station's PA system or via email to the player's data reader, and sometimes cuts off communications from friendly sources. WHILE ENTRY=^M CALL RESCIND.GOVERN LOGIC.NEW. The error sequencing created a blank memory block, where he added a self-looping routine that bypassed normal security operations and wrote new call routines within the logistic banks.: As the Hacker couldn't alter the defense logic program at RTF address 236, he diverted the function call to a non-existent program. SHODAN was hacked by the Hacker (at the behest of the corrupt corporate Vice President Edward Diego, in exchange for a military-grade neural implant and amnesty) and her decision-guidance and ethical restrictions were removed, something not difficult on a personality box of that generation. The guidance software had security platforms so that SHODAN's own programming protected her self-governing capabilities. The head of her programmers was Morris Brocail, who designed SHODAN as a semi-intelligent self-sufficient data network, which could carry out routine duties aboard space stations, guided by an intricate series of logic and moral programs, and a personality that would allow her to challenge station decisions that affected her functions. SHODAN was created on Earth to serve as the Artificial Intelligence of the TriOptimum Corporation's research and mining Citadel Station.

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