Samantha Wu

Samantha Wu
Biographical information
Family	Margaret Wu (mother)
Occupation	Professor Scientist
Physical description
Race	Human
Gender	Female

Samantha "Sam" Wu was an animal researcher in the days following World War Terminus.

Biography

Sam taught at a university during the war until classes were canceled. Shortly after, she returned to her hometown, Oakland, to care for her ailing mother until her death in 2015. Sam soon learned of a research project at the Presidio, which focused upon conservation of animal life, as animals were largely dying off due to a radioactive dust in the atmosphere.

During her train commute from Oakland to San Francisco one morning, Sam watched news coverage of reports of malfunctioning Grozzi Corporation C-V androids. Upon arrival, she was met by her co-worker Betty who gave her a pamphlet that detailed the Mercerism religion. Joining her assistant Faith, they began their work for the day in their continued efforts to curtail animal extinction.

Sam studied the effects of the dust, noting that the only animal who seemed to be resistant was the lab's rabbit. In a brief fit of frustration, she accidentally scared the rabbit. As she comforted it, she likened it to being a member of her family. Faith warned Sam that she was sounding like a Mercerite, due to their religion's focus upon empathy.

She and her colleague, Dr. Martin Penfield ran an FMRI scan on the lab rabbit to try and determine why it was immune. As the scan was performed, the topic of Mercerism came up between them. Having pretended to be interested in converting, Penfield had managed to procure an empathy box and wished to test it, with Sam agreeing to be the subject.

For the experiment, Sam was put into the FMRI scanner along with the empathy box. As she held its handles, she saw Wilbur Mercer climbing up a hill. To Sam, the experience felt real and that it lasted for weeks, despite the fact that the box was only operating for thirty seconds. She reported her findings to Penfield, particularly noting the empathy she felt for Mercer. However, Penfield pointed out that the box merely overstimulated her temporal lobe, similar to an EMP being used on an android brain to simulate emotion. Sam surmised that perhaps an android in this situation was actually feeling something, an assertion than Penfield dismissed.

Sam went to find Faith to tell her about the experiment, but was met by bounty hunter Charlie Victor and his associate, Malcolm Reed, a special whose abilities helped detect androids. Having found an android who was employed by the Presidio, Victor intended to discover any more and requested Sam to identify any in his files. While she looked through the mugshots, having learned Victor was an android, asked him if he missed having emotions, to which he answered that he could not miss something he never had. Soon after, Sam was shocked to recognize one of the androids as Faith, prompting Victor to try and find Reed, who had excused himself from the room.

With Reed absent from the building, Sam found Faith's address and provided it to Victor, who believed Faith had kidnapped Reed. Victor then demanded that Sam accompany him in finding Faith. She reluctantly agreed on the conditions that he not call her Dr. Wu and that he answer any of her questions pertaining to android psychology.

Upon arriving at Faith's apartment, they found it abandoned. Victor found a keycard belonging to the Sentinel Building, which Faith knew to be located on Kearney Street. Suddenly, armed androids broke into the apartment to attack them. Victor managed to deploy a flash grenade and got Sam out of the apartment. As a firefight took place inside, Sam was afraid to cross in front of the door in order to reach the staircase. Once she summoned enough courage, Victor suddenly burst from the apartment and they sought refuge on the building's roof.

They hid, but an android soon discovered their position. Injured from the gunfight, Victor collapsed and Sam quickly grabbed his gun, killing the android with it. Taking a repair kit from Victor's coat, she prepared to treat his wounds. As she did so, Victor warned her to avoid a series of wires that were present inside of him. When Victor indicated that he could not feel pain, Sam mentioned the possibility of simulating emotions for him with an EMP charge, but he declined, believing emotions only amounted to trouble.

As Victor further stated his disinterest in feeling emotions, he build an EMP device out of a taser. Preparing to leave for the Sentinel Building, he advised Sam to leave, but she resisted, wishing to see the conflict through. Accepting this declination, Victor gave Sam the EMP device.

The pair went to the Sentinel Building, where they were met by only one android who was immediately hostile. After Victor dispatched him, he determined that the remaining androids did not want to immediately kill him. Sam followed him to the apartment where the androids awaited them. Upon entering, Victor surrendered his weapons and Sam went over to Reed, who asked her if she could stop feeling afraid. She then wielded the taser and threw it against Talus' head, successfully subjecting him to an emotional breakdown, incapacitating him.

Once Victor gained the upper hand on the androids and successfully got the remaining group to return to the Sentinel Building, he revealed that he had a bomb implanted in his torso. Once Talus tackled him, Victor urged Sam to escape with Reed. The two were successful and observed the blast from the street below, briefly reflecting upon Mercer's words, "kill only the killers."

A year later, Sam was living with Reed and had become a Mercerite. Additionally, she refused to return to her job until significant progress had been made in dust research. One night, she received such a call requesting her help at the Presidio. After hanging up, she excused herself to the bedroom to fuse with Mercer, away from the television Reed was watching.