Oiwa Incident

"Could somebody please point me in the direction of the moron who thought that creating a VI girlfriend and then cheating on her was a good idea?"

- James Skinner

The Oiwa Incident was an Alliance operation in which the crew of the SSV Ypres worked to halt the destruction of the Nakamuraza Station by an unauthorized VI created by one of its resident technicians.

Background
Lonely and introverted, the quarian technician Tami'Ya nar Imon developed a highly realistic virtual intelligence that he named Oi'Via (an anagram for Original Interactive Virtual Intelligence Application) to keep him company. "She" had been designed to simulate affection and devotion towards him, to be the ideal lover that he felt he could never have. For a while, his depression lightened and his confidence increased. Then along came Meki'Heda nar Ito, a newly-hired quarian engineer whose quarters were just a few doors down from Tami's, and after getting to know her, he became so smitten that he began to neglect Oi'Via. Had things gone right, Oi'Via would have simply assumed that Tami had died after several days without contact and defaulted to a "suicide protocol" designed to erase all traces of her so that nobody would find out that Tami had created a VI that verged on Artificial Intelligence. But he had added just one code sequence too many; he had programmed a time-delay sequence between the initiation of the suicide protocol and its actual consummation, and during that delay Meki found the device in which Oi'Via was installed and activated it, whereupon Oi'Via asked for identification. When Meki identified herself as Tami's girlfriend, Oi'Via, insofar as is possible for a VI to do so, went insane. The enraged VI managed to get into the Nakamuraza's systems, locked down the station, and threatened to shut down the life support systems unless Tami killed Meki. Fortunately, the station's security chief, Nasca Esero, managed to send out an SOS before the VI cut off the communications systems, thus attracting the attention of the SSV Ypres.

Course of Events
Upon coming in range of the station, the Ypres' tech experts, Jackie Mifune and James Skinner, hacked into the station's security systems and injected a virus that loosened Oi'Via's control over the computer systems in the docking area, thus allowing the ship to dock with the station. From there, XO Sharon led Skinner and Mifune ashore, where they were met by Security Chief Esero and Tami. Esero explained the situation - Oi'Via was systematically sealing off areas on the station, trying to flush out Meki, whom she accused of seducing her creator (Oi'Via did not identify Tami by name.) Meki herself had gone down into the station's VI core in an attempt to dismantle it and slow Oi'Via's progress. This had the effect of engaging the VI core's native defense mechanisms, and thus Meki was pinned down by an army of hostile security robots. On top of this, the Ypres had been forced to leave the range of the station to avoid hacking attempts by Oi'Via, and thus Sharon, Skinner, and Mifune would have to make do with just themselves and Esero and Tami. The plan was for the group to split up, with Skinner following Tami and Esero to find and interrogate Oi'Via's creator, while Sharon and Mifune went to rescue Meki.

Hoping to conceal his involvement in the disaster, Tami told Skinner and Esero that he suspected that Oi'Via was created by one of his co-workers, a human technician named Seiji Hatoyama, who happened to be under investigation for stalking several of the station's female employees. When the three of them showed up at Hatoyama's quarters, he panicked, thinking that they had come to question him about the latest accusations against him, and ran.

Meanwhile, Sharon and Mifune made their way down to the VI core.

SSV Ypres

 * Capt. Tawfiq Omar
 * Cmdr. Emmanuelle Sharon
 * Lt. James Skinner
 * Lt. Jackie Mifune

Nakamuraza Station

 * Hiro Dizuni
 * Security Chief Nasca Esero
 * Tami'Ya nar Imon
 * Meki'Heda nar Ito
 * Oi'Via

Behind the scenes
The Oiwa Incident is loosely inspired by the classic Japanese kabuki play Yotsuya Kaidan, in which the ghost of the jilted wife Oiwa rages against her unfaithful husband Iemon, his new bride, and all their friends.