Solo

SOLO — Metal Or Meat, Somebody's Losing

Street Hustle

You know every once in a while in Night City you just need some Muscle. A Solo is that muscle, and a good Solo is Muscle with Style. Killer, bodyguard, enforcer, ronin gun-for-hire, the job title changes depending on who's signing the contract, but the work underneath it never really does: walk into the worst room in the city and walk back out again, preferably with the client still breathing. Whether that's a corporate contract, a Fixer's favor, or just a personal grudge somebody's willing to pay to settle, a Solo is the key to that particular lock.

History

Most Solos didn't choose the trade so much as the 4th Corporate War chose it for them. A generation came up through Corporate armies, government police actions, and the private military outfits that filled in the gaps, trained to kill efficiently and kept alive by whatever chrome their employer was willing to pay for. When the War ended, plenty of that generation didn't have anywhere left to go home to, and the skills the War taught them weren't exactly transferable to a normal job.

So they went ronin. A Solo on the streets is the prime purveyor of violence in Night City. These days the edgerunner community relies on the Solo's to keep the other members of the team alive with practiced violence, polished chrome, and sometimes if everyone is on the ball a catchy line. As such Solo's can come from anywhere, not just the 4th corporate war veterans. Gang hustle? Street kid Toughs? Nomad enforcers? Corporate security? All are welcome as Solo's. They are the edgerunning business' all inclusive club.

The Trade

What separates a Solo from your average meatshield is training...ok training and instinct...ok fine Training, Instinct, and Swagger. A seasoned Solo reads a firefight the way an artist feels canvas, without needing to think about it consciously, weighing threats, openings, and their own position faster than the situation actually allows for. It's the reason they're still standing when all the noise has stopped.

The Combat Awareness that a Solo cultivates through their career means that they move through combat like dancers, or they take bullets the way most people take rain. A solo moves faster than you can, takes a bullet better than you, and handles it all like its just an average tuesday right before they put 2 rounds in the back of your head.

The gear a Solo might use is as different as the different ways they come into the business. Gang Hustle Solo's might go into a fight with a fancy armored jacket and a shotgun, while a corporate security specialist might be in full tactical gear with a precision carbine. What unites all Solos is a love of speedware and chrome(except Morgan Blackhand but you aint no Morgan Goddamn Blackhand). The Sandevistan especially is a particular favorite. This means that Solo's tend to be fairly unique on a person to person basis with bizarre equipment demands, a constant list of injuries, and a very odd propensity for being lit on fire. But it also means that a good Solo will almost always walk out of any firefight alive. Sure they might be missing a few pieces but they are sturdy. The same cant be said of a netrunner.

Other Kinds of Solo

Not every gun for hire wears the same uniform, corporate or otherwise.

• Corporate Cybersoldiers — Still on the payroll, still following a chain of command, and still very much a Solo underneath the badge. These are the ones enforcing business deals and running the black operations a company would never admit to out loud. Corporate Solo's tend to be looked down upon by other Solo's who see them as sellouts.

• Gang Enforcers — Huscle for a Boostergang or crew rather than a Corp or a client list, less polished than a proper contractor but no less dangerous, and usually a lot more willing to get personal about it. Gang Enforcers are the most common type of Solo you are likely to run into, Scrappy, lightly armed, but able to take a punch like a champ.

• Nomad Muscle — Not every member of a Nomad Clan is a driver, some people need to be able to get out and defend the clans Honor(yes with a capital H). These Solo's are almost always covered in clan tattoos and truly unusual styles of cyberware that make them look more hodge podge than most other Solo's.

Famous Solos

• Adam Smasher — A Full Body Conversion Solo serving as Arasaka's Head of Security and primary assassination asset, Smasher is a Night City living Legend and a Bloody one. In fact because of Adam Smasher other Solos have a hard time getting truly famous in Night City because eventually you are going to attract attention from Arasaka, and attention from Arasaka means attention from Adam Smasher. Those who know Smasher personally know him as an abrassive, abusive asshole who very likely has full blown Cyberpsychosis. Do not interact if you value your chrome.

• Morgan Blackhand — Widely assessed as the most capable Solo of his generation, and one of the few who preferred training over chrome, running on nothing more than a cybernetic right hand. Blackhand has completed more Solo jobs than any other Solo in history and is known for his almost supernatural ablity to get out of trouble. His last known 'Alleged' sighting was after taking out an entire Lazarus Group Assassination squad. He hasnt decided if he is dead or not, and no one knows where he vanished to.

• Rogue Amendiares — Operated at the highest levels of the Solo trade during the Corporate War era before transitioning to Fixer work and taking ownership of The Afterlife. Rogue has run with the most famous Cyberpunks in history and is now the undisputed queen of the Night City underground community.

See Also

• Cheat Sheet — Combat, damage, and Critical Injury rules.
• Kerenzikov & Sandevistan — the speedware most associated with the Solo trade.

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"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." — Bryan Mills 'retired' Solo.