Cyberpunk RED

1988 – 2000s
Robert John Linder was born in College Station, Texas, on November 16th, 1988. Growing up, he became a massive fan of Wendy O. Williams and came to consider her the toughest rockergirl ever.

John enlisted in the military as a teenager after lying about his real age, and it didn’t take long for him to see action. He was sent to Nicaragua to participate in the Second Central American War of 2003. While in the war, John’s life was purportedly saved by a friend who died protecting him.

Perpetrated by a corrupt and manipulative US Government, the conflict was devastating. When the government’s secrets were exposed, many of the American soldiers dropped their banners and fought back by deserting the military. In response, however, the government used its influence to launch a powerful propaganda campaign against these former soldiers and convinced the American public to despise them as deserters.

John was one of the soldiers who decided he would no longer fight in the corrupt war that ultimately led to him losing his arm and his friend. He left for Night City, staying at the Hotel Pistis Sophia for a whole month after his arrival. The military and the war had changed his life forever.

John changed his name to Johnny Silverhand, with his new surname referencing the bionic arm he had implanted to replace his left arm. Johnny thus began his mission of rebellion and exposing corruption by starting a rock band that would eventually be known as Samurai. He started this band with his friend, Kerry Eurodyne, originally only playing in backstreet clubs.

Johnny’s and Kerry’s first ever gig was in the Red Dirt, a small bar in Night City. At some point in 2003, while they were playing in a bar called Rainbow Cadenza, a producer named Jack Masters discovered them and signed them to Universal Recording. Samurai was comprised of the co-founders, Johnny and Kerry, as well as Denny, Nancy Hartley, and Henry.

Johnny’s music became revolutionary, kickstarting the rockerboy movement and becoming an overnight sensation. He, along with Samurai itself, rose to the top of the US music charts in record time. Despite their success, however, Samurai struggled to maintain as personal issues rose to the surface.

During this time, Samurai’s keyboard player, Nancy, was in an abusive relationship. She reached a point in the relationship where she could no longer stand the abuse, and she pushed her boyfriend out of a window. After the NCPD discovered the body, Nancy was arrested and taken to prison.

Without Nancy, Samurai struggled to stay together and finally split up in 2008. Johnny was still one of the most popular musicians at the time, however, and he planned to use his star power to launch a solo career in which to continue pushing his anti-corporation and anti-government message. By then, DBS Music wanted to sign Johnny so desperately that they blackmailed him, threatening to reveal his true identity as a deserter of the Second Central American Conflict.

In defiance of DBS Music’s attempts to blackmail him, Johnny instead signed once again with Universal Music. He then released a complete album entitled “SINS of Your Brothers,” in which he admitted to being a deserter and revealed all the terrible actions the government had ordered its military to carry out. The album was wildly successful and changed public perception on what it meant to be a deserter.

2010s
Johnny continued his rebellious campaign into the 2010s. During this time, he performed his famous free benefit concert in Japantown to call attention to the brutal methods the NCPD used to quell the Homeless Riots. Johnny’s relationship with Rogue Amendiares also ended at some point in 2011 after she discovered that he had cheated on her.

In 2012, both Johnny and Kerry bought the Grand Illusion club in Night City. As they didn’t make the purchase public, it wasn’t known by many. At some point later, driven by memories and using their influence, both rockers begun an open mike night on Thursdays which was regularly attended by an executive of Universal Records, the label under which both men recorded.

After giving a concert at The Hammer on August 4th in 2013, Johnny re-connected with his former girlfriend, Alt Cunningham. When the two went for a walk together that night, they were ambushed by a group of thugs hired by Arasaka. The thugs injured Johnny severely and kidnapped Alt as a helpless Johnny watched them take off in a van.

On the 5th of August, 2013, Johnny gathered a strike team consisting of his ex-girlfriend and solo, Rogue, media reporter Lyle Thompson, and the nomad leader of the Aldecaldos, Santiago, in order to infiltrate Arasaka Tower in Night City to save Alt. As a diversion, he called in a favor from all the members of his old band. Samurai gathered together to perform an entirely free show directly in front of the complex.

Samurai’s performance led to a riot aimed at the tower as troops were called in to control the situation. Unbeknownst to Johnny at this time, Arasaka had kidnapped Alt specifically to force her to develop a new version of the Soulkiller software she had written for ITS. In a panic reaction to the assault, Toshiro Harada used Soulkiller on Alt while the assault took place, trapping her inside the Arasaka mainframe.

As Johnny and his team infiltrated the tower, Alt attempted to find a way to escape the Arasaka mainframe and return to her body. The team reached the room where Toshiro and Akira were keeping Alt, and as a rage-fueled Johnny came upon Toshiro standing over Alt, he shot Toshiro dead. Johnny then disconnected Alt from the netrunning chair she was plugged into, assuming she had died as he gathered her still warm body in his arms.

Behind the wall of monitors, a disembodied Alt screamed out to Johnny, but he could not hear her.

After the assault on the tower, Johnny and Santiago left Night City and went into hiding with the Aldecaldos nomad family. In 2015, the two finally returned to the USA from Mexico City. Upon returning to Night City, Silverhand played a free benefit concert in Lake Park in order to bring attention to the brutal methods that the NCPD had used to quell the 2014 Homeless Riots. This made him gain the respect of the Pack, and Johnny occasionally went to their aid if they called for him. Little is known of what Johnny did during this time, but it was around 2015 that a firefighter by the name of Samantha Stevens saved him from a fire in one of his studios.

2020s
Around 2020, Johnny gave an interview in which he reminisced about a girl he had fallen for. She had told him she was born in Miami around 2004, as she could still remember the destruction of Tampa. Johnny mentioned that she had a biosculpt smile and blue Teknics 2350 eyes, though he did not care how much of her was “real.”

On August 20th, 2023, Johnny and Morgan Blackhand, alongside Rogue, Shaitan, Thompson, and Spider Murphy, led a Militech assault team on the Arasaka Towers in Night City, with the intention of destroying the towers with a mini nuke and ultimately ending the Fourth Corporate War. Johnny had another reason for going back to the towers, however: he wanted to find Alt Cunningham. There were more than a few obstacles in the way of this personal objective.

After successfully liberating Alt, Johnny’s team was pinned down in the Soulkiller labs by Arasaka forces and Adam Smasher. Johnny, who had barely managed to find cover, was conflicted on what to do next. He felt that during his first attack on the towers, he had failed Alt, and he was determined this time not to fail her again.

With a Militech SMG in one hand and his Malorian Arms in the other, Johnny resolved to leave cover, shouting at and provoking Smasher while emptying his ammo into the borg. Smasher, surprised at Silverhand’s audacity, whipped around and fired his auto-shotgun at Silverhand, ripping the rockerboy in half. This allowed Shaitan to immobilize the Arasaka borg, granting the rest of the team the chance to escape.

Spider Murphy tried to reach Johnny, but she was stopped by Rogue, who told her he was gone. Spider instead reached inside her jacket to pull out a data slug Alt had given to her long ago, and as she whispered to Johnny that she was sorry, she inserted the chip into the back of the dying rockerboy’s skull. She then reached for her data suitcase, quickly realizing it had been destroyed in the crossfire, and then escaped with Rogue knowing that both Johnny and Rache Bartmoss would one day be avenged.

Despite there being no body to inter, a niche was dedicated to Johnny’s memory at the North Oak Columbarium. His epitaph, which uses his real name, reads: “Robert John Linder: Son of a bitch who never gave up. A legend among legends.”