Project Siren

"If our experiments with Desmond in the Animus aren't going well, you will remove him from Abstergo. Take him somewhere he will feel comfortable divulging his secrets. Your Assassins should do the trick."

―Warren Vidic to Lucy Stillman.^[src]^-[m]

Project Siren was a Templar plan to extract more information out of Subject 17, Desmond Miles. While their front company Abstergo Industries tried to locate him for the Animus Project, its overseer Warren Vidic realized that Desmond would not willingly co-operate with their plans and concocted a scheme to relocate Desmond to a seemingly safer environment.^[1]

History

In 2012, Vidic and his assistant Lucy Stillman decided that Desmond would have to leave the laboratory in Abstergo's Rome facility, in the eventuality that progress through his genetic memories would not be quick enough.^[1] From there, Lucy would contact Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane, two Assassins, and take Desmond to their hideout.^[2] Both Templars hoped that Desmond would feel more at ease amongst the Assassins, thus allowing him to access crucial memories more easily; particularly the ones that Abstergo desired. Lucy was then to contact Vidic once the Assassins had located the Apple of Eden.^[1]

However, this plan would ultimately fail due to interference from the Isu Juno, who knew the true danger Lucy posed. When Desmond arrived at the Colosseum Vault, Juno influenced him into killing Lucy with his Hidden Blade as soon as he touched the Apple of Eden, insisting that he "knew very little" and that she would guide him.^[3] Desmond would later learn the truth about Lucy's intentions when he inadvertently relived Clay Kaczmarek's memories while stuck in the Animus' Black Room,^[1] although he still felt remorse for having killed Lucy.^[4]

Legacy

The failure of Project Siren meant that Abstergo was unable to acquire the Apple of Eden in time for the scheduled launch of the Eye-Abstergo satellite on 21 December 2012, forcing the Templars to abandon their plans to use the Apple and the satellite to enforce their New World Order.^[4]

In 2023, the Templar Shimazu Sei indirectly mentioned Project Siren when she recounted Desmond and Lucy's "escape" from Abstergo to Animus test subject Noa Kim. Sei did not appear to be aware of the true nature of the escape, however, implying that the Templar Order at large had been kept in the dark about Project Siren's existence even a decade after its failure.^[5]

Trivia

The project's name was derived from the nature of the siren, winged creatures in Greek mythology that looked like attractive women on rocky outcrops. They sang so seductively that sailors were lured to their deaths by unwittingly crashing their boats on the rocks only to drown in the wreckage or be eaten if they swam and reached the sirens.