Cyberpunk 2077 Lore Johnny Silverhand

Johnny Silverhand, possibly born as Robert John Linder, sometime in the 1980’s, the son of an Apple Computer programmer and Studio guitarist, working the San Francisco club scene. Linder’s family is rumoured to have been killed during the Collapse. Records appear to indicate Robert joined the U.S.

Army in 2004, training as a solider in the Special Operations Branch. It is assumed thanks to Silverhand’s participation in the Amnesty of 2009, that Linder went AWOL from Nicaragua. Taking on the appellation of Johnny Silverhand, after the trademark chrome cyberarm he adopted, in 2005, Linder embarked on a successful career as a rockerboy.

With his band, Samurai, consisting of Kerry Eurodyne, Nancy, Denny and Henry, they penned legendary tracks such as Chippin’In, and Never Fade Away, offering a melodic reminder to the historic troubles that have plagued Night City. It took Samurai, only three weeks to achieve their first number one hit on the EuroRadio charts with their single “Blistering Love”.

An attempt was made by EBS Record executives to blackmail Silverhand. Hoping to force him into signing a solo contract with them, they threatened to reveal that the rockerboy was an AWOL U.S. Marine who had deserted during the Second Nicaraguan Conflict.

Silverhand outmanoeuvred EBS by going public with his now famous “Sins of Your Brother” album, which revealed his secret and brought to light the plight of veterans of that covert war. Not only was the EBS threat blunted, but the album triggered a wave of sentiment that resulted in the national amnesty program for AWOL Central American Conflict Veterans.

As Silverhand himself remarked. “If you can face the truth, you can face anything. So, I faced the truth.” On April 16th, 2013, Silverhand became involved in a deadly cat and mouse game with Arasaka, in trying to rescue his girlfriend, Alt Cunningham.

To penetrate Arasaka security, he created a diversion by announcing a concert right outside Arasaka Tower. Six thousand ardent Samurai fans turned up and furious pandemonium ensued, following the song of Chippin’In. Eventually, Silverhand, Rogue and Thompson would find Toshiro, the Arasaka Corpo, responsible for using Soulkiller on Alt.

Upon seeing Alt’s lifeless body, Silverhand just didn’t care anymore, and executed Toshiro. In the lab monitors, the engram of Alt screamed out to him. But he could not hear her as he walked away with Alt’s still warm body in his arms. Subsequently, Silverhand would go into hiding amongst the Nomad groups for almost two years with his friend, Santiago.

During the Fourth Corporate War, on August 20th, 2023, Silverhand would return to lead team Alpha, consisting of Rogue, Shaitan, Thompson and Spider Murphy, as part of Militech’s attack on the Arasaka Towers. During the mission, the team found out that Alt, was being held as a digital ghost inside the Arasaka mainframe.

While attempting to download Alt’s engram, Adam Smasher would confront them. Silverhand blamed himself for what had happened previously to Alt, and he refused to let it happen again. He thus challenged Smasher, attempting to buy Spider Murphy more time to rescue Alt.

With a Militech SMG in one hand, the Malorian 3516 in the other. Silverhand began pumping rounds into the Borg. Adam initially astonished at the audacity of the rockerboy, retaliated with his auto shotgun, cutting Silverhand in half. Team Alpha thought Johnny was dead, but in reality, no one had time to check his body.