As you wander around the derelict and rusting remains of Pathos-II inSoma you'll see the effects of the WAU everywhere. Despite the acres of ground the underwater research station covers, seemingly nowhere is safe from its grip.
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As the story plays out, you learn the purpose of the WAU, its role in how things got so bad, and there's even a final confrontation with it that comes with an important decision to be made.
What Is The WAU?
The WAU in Soma is an artificial intelligence created in secret by Carthage Industries and a Neuroscientist known as Dr. Johan Ross. Its primary function was to oversee the day-to-day operations of the site. It was solely operated and maintained by its creator, Dr. Ross.
The device itself is a bio-organic construct that resembles a white sphere surrounded by prongs. These are used to inject substances into the orb to change the biological coding of the WAU to alter it.
After experimentation, it was found that injecting it with structure gel would cause it to mutate and essentially evolve. Over time it would develop a pseudo-mouth, grow a hard fleshy carapace, and expand its size substantially. Eventually, the WAU outgrew its original casing and crashed to the floor of the Core Isolation Lab, where it remained. However, its influence wouldn't end there.
Post-Impact Event
After the Impact Event, things got pretty interesting. From its home in the CSL, the WAU began reaching out to other machines on the research site. Primarily were the pilot seats used to operate the robotic workforce as it altered them to scan the brains of anyone that sat in them meticulously. In this case, the crew.
It would then use these scans to create Mockingbirds, which were perfectly scanned copies of human minds placed inside robotic bodies throughout the station. Its activities would be discovered by Catherine Chun, who would also go on to further improve the WAU's methods to create the ARK, a storage device containing an Artificial Reality for human consciousnesses.
There's a lot more to its actions than that, especially if you include the events of the Transmissions web series, which shows the WAU killing off the crew of the Lambda site. Plus, there was also the incident with the Omicron Site staff a few months later, where they were wiped out after they tried to kill the WAU.
Preserve Life Above All Else
The WAU's influence on Pathos-II can be felt and seen everywhere. From the shambling, moaning husks of the Constructs to the Mocking Birds of previous crewmates scattered around the station, still acting under the impression that they're still living, breathing people. Additionally, the brutally preserved but rendered immobile by rudimentary life-support machines made out of Structure Gel and even the local wildlife weren't safe.
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What little marine life there was at this depth was twisted beyond recognition into a collection of wandering, aggressive monsters. The most notable of these is the gigantic worm-like Leviathan, which was once just a humble squid. The purpose of these changes was to preserve all life no matter what.
After receiving information on the status of the surface, the WAU used the local supplies of Structure Gel to essentially ensure everything and everyone within its sphere of influence would never die, no matter what condition they would deteriorate into. As long as they kept going, the WAU didn't care what it needed to do. After all, it was just a machine following instructions.
Spoiler Warning For Soma's Story
Simon And The WAU
Throughout the story of Soma, the protagonist of the game, Simon, never really directly interacts with the WAU. Though it uploaded him into the Cortex Chip in the diving suit at the beginning of the game, he never really has a back-and-forth with it.
Instead, he has various run-ins with the results of its experimentation on the crew of Pathos-II and the unfortunate bits of wildlife that got too close. It's enough of an experience at first to initially portray it as an apparent threat and something that needs to be dealt with in order to progress.
However, it's not quite as simple as that. The interactions between the two are less captive and tormentor, but more someone wandering around derelict remains and the results of the machinations of an unhinged AI. All the horrible stuff happened before you got there; you're just dealing with the aftermath.
The WAU’s Fate
The WAU appears at the end of the game as a giant heart-shaped growth within the Alpha Site. From there, Simon, with some help from Dr. Johan Ross, is given two choices.
He can either kill the WAU by injecting it with modified Structure Gel that will basically poison it and cut its ability to network with machines outside of its self-made prison or leave it alone.
No matter the decision, the game then moves on to the next story beat as the Leviathan attacks. Afterward, the WAU never appears again. It’s assumed that it’s still down there in the Alpha Site, either cut off from the Network or still trying to preserve life as the Pathos-II station continues to crumble around it. At least it has the Simon copy that got left behind to keep it company.
Is The WAU Evil?
One question that's thrown around a lot in the Soma Community is whether the WAU is the game's antagonist or not. Depending on the interpretation of its behavior, there is evidence that is not strictly behaving in a malicious manner.
To begin with, it's only directly interacted with very briefly towards the end of the game. Even then, it's still vague as to whether the WAU was acting out of ill intent. There are also the Shrieks. These ear-splitting screams were used to kill the crew of the Omicron site in the Transmission series and to summon the Leviathan that kills Johan Ross. In both of these incidents, the WAU acted in self-defense.
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Also, if you look at the game's overall themes, such as the ethics behind artificial preservation, death, and consciousness combined with the WAUs central mission, there is the argument to be made that it was only acting with the best intentions.
For example, the core goal of the AI was to preserve life and to a machine with a mind devoid of pesky things like ethics and morality, using structure gel to alter those around it to survive no matter what could be seen as the right decision. Usually, that involved rendering someone down into a shambling zombie with an intact brain or literally wiring them into the walls whilst still fully conscious. Mission accomplished - they were still alive, in some way. Whilst there could have been other morally acceptable options, the cold, brutal efficiency of its methods are what makes it an antagonist within Soma's narrative.
This makes the final option of leaving it alone or killing it all the more impactful, as it's basically down to how you personally feel about its methods. Even in those last moments, it's never shown with sinister intent, it just sits there. In the end, The WAU was still successful at keeping everyone 'alive,' and it was just a machine that was doing its job, albeit in a grotesque manner. It wasn't malicious, just misguided.
NEXT: Soma: What Happened To Simon?
