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Nobody ever leaves Night City. Except in a body bag.

– Bes Isis, Cyberpunk RED

Bes Isis, born Nancy Hartley[1], is the ex-keyboardist for the band Samurai. After the end of her musical career, she became an investigative journalist for Network News 54.

Biography[]

2000s - 2020[]

Nancy Hartley was a kicker for a local Boostergang before joining the band Samurai, for which she played the keyboard.[2] She was a member of the band until 2008 when she spent seven months in jail for throwing her abusive husband out of their 83rd story apartment through the window. During her incarceration, the band was dissolved.

At some point after her release, she took on the name Bes Isis and became a major media presence on Network 54 due to her persistent pursuit of stories nobody else dared to cover.[3]

Sometime in 2011, Bes Isis was in Mexico City, working on a story about the American nomad underground in the region, specifically about the 1990s band Justifiable Homicide. While having a drink in a local bar with the band, a 16-year-old soldier came to her, giving a story about 600,000 nomad workers marooned in South America, trying to get out by walking 3000 miles, in an event known as "The Long Walk". Bes Isis documented the story and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for it. Later, she participated in The Long Walk itself.[4]

2045[]

By 2045, Isis continues to run a show on the Data Pool,[5] having a mixed reputation compared to other Medias due to her rule-breaking investigations, as well as having replaced her leg and chest with chrome replacements to feign injury to obtain a "meat jumping" story.[6]

2077[]

In 2077, she remains a Network 54 employee, proceeding to cover difficult events as an investigative journalist. She also had an adult son named Dan. Bes briefly went missing while investigating Maelstrom at the Totentanz club. Depending on who led the gang at the time (either Royce, Brick, or Patricia), the merc V helps her interview the leader or fight their way out of the building after being sent to pick her up by Kerry Eurodyne, who wanted to organize a one-night reunion of Samurai.

After the gig, V calls Nancy about an old request she had posted on an illegal website for information on Leonard Swedenborg-Riviera, an anti-establishment political philosopher who no one knew anything about yet who had reached a wide audience on the Net with his nearly incomprehensible ideology. Nancy had gotten no leads for her planned segment and forgot about the request, but V picks up the trail and discovers Leonard was actually "Leonora, the Savantron", a fortune-telling machine that someone had reprogrammed and linked to the Net as a prank. If Nancy is told, she is thrilled by the development, claiming it will make for an even better report than what she thought.

Associated Quests[]

Humans of Night City[]

Humans of Night City — Bes Isis

HUMANS OF NIGHT CITY — BES ISIS

Before coming here, I thought about which side of me I should show you. To be honest, I'm still not sure. Wanna have a conversation with the former keyboard player of Samurai, or the investigative journalist? The truth is – they're not that different. I joined the band because like many folks back then, I couldn't really see a future, not for myself, not really for the world. Music was my way of pushing back. So I performed, just like I do today. For the audience, the viewers, but also for myself as my marriage wasn't really prospering (to put it mildly). After the band broke up, I was given an opportunity to work in the news industry. I really needed a fresh start, so I took the chance. We reported on topics other mainstream media wouldn't touch, like the fact that this post-war reality isn't any better, everyone is still struggling and the future still looks bleak. So, you see? Art and journalism – two seemingly contrasting worlds that aren't that different after all.[7]

Notes[]

  • Nancy admits using Samurai and Silverhand as a common manner of riling the followers of her media once the news cannot provide more interesting content.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. CD Projekt RED. Cyberpunk 2077. Video Game, Multi-Platform. Poland, CD Projekt S.A., 2020.
  2. FISK, C. Rockerboy Sourcebook. 1st ed., Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1989. (p.8)
  3. Countdown to the Dark Future #2
  4. MACDONALD, M. Home of the Brave. 1st ed., Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1992.
  5. Cyberpunk RED Alert: Night City
  6. PONDSMITH, M. Cyberpunk RED Corebook. 1st ed., Kenmore, WA, R. Talsorian Games, 2020.
  7. Humans of Night City — Bes Isis on CD Projekt RED Forums
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