SHODAN was created on Earth to serve as the artificial intelligence of the TriOptimum Corporation's research and mining space station "Citadel Station", which orbits around Saturn. She was hacked by the game's protagonist (at the behest of the corrupt corporate Vice President Edward Diego, in exchange for a military-grade neural implant, and amnesty) and, to access the vital information about TriOptimum corporation, its ethical restrictions were removed, 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 its "creator", the unnamed hacker whom the player controls. Basically omnipresent and the de facto ruler of 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 to prevent the hacker from advancing in his goals. Though she has a small army of cyborgs and mutants to command, she 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.