How many people are left alive by the end of SS2?

[680fe24246f4bDark-Star88]

 Soldier is a no-duh, Suarez and Siddons gets iffy. One of them is possessed in some manner by SHODAN who isn't exactly known for playing nice. Did Siddons survive her own cyber-rig being bodyjacked? Did Suarez get bumped off for her amusement?

Was there anyone else either known in canon to have survived, suggested as not being dead, or merely a chance that somebody somewhere is hiding in a crate praying for the madness to end? 

Just something I've been curious about for writing a one-shot work.

[680fe242470devoodoo47]

canonically no, but some parts of the ships are blocked off/inaccessible, so yeah, technically there could be someone sitting in a crate somewhere trying to wait everything out.

[680fe2424722ficemann]

Extremely unlikely though, considering how methodical the Many were.

[680fe242474d8RoSoDude]

Methodical and telepathic to boot. Ignoring the in-game AI's selective perception, The Many can probably sniff you out of the closet you're hiding in if one of them walks by.

[680fe2424764fvoodoo47]

the susceptibility to the Many's calling does seem to vary a lot from person to person, and it's quite safe to assume their ability to psionically detect someone works in a similar manner - those few completely immune to the calling are most likely psionic blanks, not showing up on their radar at all (Prefontaine).

to make it short, a survivor or two is a possibility, assuming this is perfectly within the constraints of the SS2 universe. meaning, if the OP wants to write a short fanfic about a guy that crawls out of the blocked off part of ops4 right after Goggles goes up the Many's anus in the escape module, there is little problem with that, lore-wise.

[680fe242479b5Dark-Star88]

the susceptibility to the Many's calling does seem to vary a lot from person to person, and it's quite safe to assume their ability to psionically detect someone works in a similar manner - those few completely immune to the calling are most likely psionic blanks, not showing up on their radar at all (Prefontaine).

to make it short, a survivor or two is a possibility, assuming this is perfectly within the constraints of the SS2 universe. meaning, if the OP wants to write a short fanfic about a guy that crawls out of the blocked off part of ops4 right after Goggles goes up the Many's anus in the escape module, there is little problem with that, lore-wise.

Is that the collapsed hallway near where you take a lift down to the brig?

There's also the part of the Rickenbacker that's inaccessible in vanilla, but opened up in Secmod 3 by making the pipes destructible objects.

[680fe24247aaevoodoo47]

yes.

[680fe24247d74icemann]

to make it short, a survivor or two is a possibility, assuming this is perfectly within the constraints of the SS2 universe. meaning, if the OP wants to write a short fanfic about a guy that crawls out of the blocked off part of ops4 right after Goggles goes up the Many's anus in the escape module, there is little problem with that, lore-wise.

That would make for a good mod. Be like Blue Shift for Half-life of a story that runs concurrent with the main storyline, but just in other sections. Would love to see something like that.

[680fe242482ccJDoran]

That would make for a good mod. Be like Blue Shift for Half-life of a story that runs concurrent with the main storyline, but just in other sections. Would love to see something like that.

Oh yes! I'd love to see a mod like that, where you play as a lone survivor, and at times during your struggle to stay alive and escape, you occasionally see or hear Goggles' actions from the main game. You could even see other events that are only referred to in the main game, and maybe even take part in them, and even (and this would be *brilliant*, if done right, of course) get to witness some of the events that set up the game, such as the birth of the Many.

The player character (called 'Bob', to save me repeatedly typing 'player character' here) could either by a human who has managed to avoid being assimilated or killed by the Many, or perhaps say a member of the rescue crew who first became converted to the many, but then regains his free will somehow. Say if he had suffered an accident in his childhood, where his brain was damaged leading to severe memory loss, so he'd had a neural implant fitted that cured the problem. He'd been converted to the many like his team mates, but part of the neural implant's functions is to issue a strengthener signal to his brain's memory centre every few weeks, and when it did so then Bob became fully compo mentis and in control of himself again.

If the mod did go down the route of Bob being a freed member of the Many, then at the start of the game, then the Many wouldn't hurt Bob, as they wouldn't see him as a threat. So Bob could move amongst them safely, until he did something to turn them against him, such as harming one of them, or performing a mission objective that harmed the many. Maybe since Bob was still biologically still a member of the Many, then he could still access the group mind, and so he would always know what they were aware of, and what they intended. Bob's mission objectives could depend on what the Many's intentions and discoveries, are, which would change as the game goes on.

Maybe Bob is a brilliant scientist, and when his memory strengthen signal goes off and frees him, then he is alone in a shielded part of the ship, where the Many's mental communications (and radio signals, etc) can't reach. When Bob realises what has happened, he still remembers everything about the Many, and is aware that when he leaves the shielded area then the Many will read his mind, realise that he's now free, and kill him. So his first objective is to build a portable shield generator that will not allow the Many to read his mind. And one of his later objectives will be to modify the shield generator to allow one way communication, so that he can read the Many's collective mind, but they still can't read his.

[680fe2424841bicemann]

First that comes to mind for me, would be just like with Blue Shift be part of the security force for the ship. So in SS2's case, you'd be part of Bronson's security team. You'd go through the ship attempting to root out and eliminate the forces of the Many, try to avert or fix sabotage (eg Malick's sabotage of the sim units), and have it end with the big show down by the large force sent in by Diego.

[680fe24248917sarge945]

the susceptibility to the Many's calling does seem to vary a lot from person to person, and it's quite safe to assume their ability to psionically detect someone works in a similar manner - those few completely immune to the calling are most likely psionic blanks, not showing up on their radar at all (Prefontaine).

to make it short, a survivor or two is a possibility, assuming this is perfectly within the constraints of the SS2 universe. meaning, if the OP wants to write a short fanfic about a guy that crawls out of the blocked off part of ops4 right after Goggles goes up the Many's anus in the escape module, there is little problem with that, lore-wise.

Keep in mind the many were unable to detect (and stop) the soldier when he was undergoing his post-surgery coma, so it's possible someone else could have been undetected for a while if they were shielded in some other way. Even more weirdly, goggles can be psionic and still won't be detected.

My headcanon is that "they can't detect anyone in a coma", regardless of their psionic status. I doubt there are any other post-surgery survivors though.

IIRC there's something in the game about the many jetissoning all escape pods to stop people from leaving? I think there may have been a few people that got out before then though.

[680fe2424a27fDark-Star88]

Keep in mind the many were unable to detect (and stop) the soldier when he was undergoing his post-surgery coma, so it's possible someone else could have been undetected for a while if they were shielded in some other way. Even more weirdly, goggles can be psionic and still won't be detected.

My headcanon is that "they can't detect anyone in a coma", regardless of their psionic status. I doubt there are any other post-surgery survivors though.

From reading the various logs, it's heavily implied that your R-grade mods are the only thing preventing you from being straight-up mind controlled when you get to close to the eggs (instead you 'hear' a funny sound, as you do when near a grub), like the team who landed on Tau Ceti. They are quite likely shielding you in some unknown/undescribed other ways. Moreover, the Many can STILL punch through whatever protection they provide as proved by the so-called "many ride" hallucination in Engineering.

And assuming that there is no longer any safe space aboard either ship by the time the game proper starts...I think i know of one remaining option.

[680fe2424a493Bloxy]

Well as Tommy Saurez says in the ending cinematic, "They've regained control of the Von Braun". The implications of this are that "They" are the survivors, If it was just Goggles than Tommy would've referred to "them" as "he" (Assuming Tommy knows that Goggles is male.) So the chances are, Atleast a few people survived to regain control of the Von Braun.

[680fe2424a5daZylonBane]

Or y'know, he was using the singular gender-neutral "they".

[680fe2424a6c6voodoo47]

"they", the humans.

[680fe2424a7d6icemann]

Meh