Johan Ross

Englander

Dr. Johan Ross is an Englander[1] neuroscientist employed by Carthage Industries. He served as the A.I. Psychologist on PATHOS-II, stationed at Tau. In SOMA, he was the sole worker at the covert Site Alpha as the overseer and operator of the WAU.

He is an grown man presumably in his 30s. Ross has short blonde hair, a beard, and a short mustache over his lips.

Scientist at Pathos-II

Dr. Ross appears to be a very intelligent man, who is exceptionally well-spoken and prefers to keep to himself, as shown throughout Tau. He worked for Carthage Industries for a presumably extended period of time before he was stationed on PATHOS-II, likely with the goal of operating and overseeing the WAU.

Having been involved in the development of the WAU, Dr. Ross witnessed its mutations and came to the conclusion that the WAU needed to be terminated. In addition to the fact that it was causing pipes to burst structure gel all throughout PATHOS-II, he stated that though the WAU has Humanity's survival as its highest priority, it has no understanding of what Humanity actually is - its attempts to preserve Human life created the Proxies, its attempts to preserve Human minds created the Mockingbirds - meaning if it was not destroyed, it would subject Humanity's last survivors to endless suffering.

After the Impact Event, Dr. Ross joined his colleagues at Tau. He remained there until Vic Auclair ordered the staff of Tau to evacuate and move up the Abyss Climber Rig to Omicron.
During the evacuation, the Tau staff were attacked by structure gel-mutated marine life, resulting in loss of radio contact with Omicron. After failing to reach the Climber and losing a number of colleagues, the remaining members of Tau - Dr. Ross, Steve Glasser, Neil Tsiolkovsky, Antjie Coetzee, and Vic Auclair - returned to the facility and were left stranded there.

"The pattern has stopped evolving. The WAU has managed to find balance. I convinced SSE Wolchezk to turn off all external control systems making the WAU our de facto caretaker. So far it's exceeding expectations."
"Since the comet crashed a few days ago -- January 12 -- the WAU has dropped to a low energy state. It hasn't abandoned its duties. It's keeping climate and life support going, but it has been simplifying the pattern -- redefining its protocol."
"The WAU has started to grow physically. It's not just the core chamber, all around PATHOS-II, Structure Gel is bursting through the pipes and bleeding through walls. I don't know what WAU could possibly stand to gain from this, but I assume it is intentional."
"The heart of WAU has claimed such a large part of the core chamber that there can no longer be any question to its heightened awareness. Not only does its expansion suggest an unexpected understanding of space, but also its own physical manifestation within the world."
"The WAU is reaching out to every machine, every life form, to manipulate, to control. It's trying to help, save its creators from all this, just like the protocol demands. But really, what is good enough?"
"Where is the line drawn for what is human and what is not? Would walking corpses do? Would a group of machines thinking they're human be acceptable?"
"We can't trust a machine to know, to understand what it means to be. We have to terminate the WAU-project. It can be done. I just need to get some help from Omicron."
"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."
"The only way to make sure the WAU stays dead is to destroy the only one who's immune to the new pattern"