NOTABLE DIGITAL RENEGADES

CARMEN “5y5T3R 54LV4T10N” HOPE

Carmen Hope is one of the founding members of the Digital Renegades.  She was a hacker as a teen.  Unfortunately, at age 19, she was caught after breaking in to DEA databases.  She was put to work as an information specialist in the Army, and shipped off to serve in the Second South American Conflict.  She was one of the first military personnel to receive a neural processor.  It was her duty to monitor enemy movements and infiltrate their systems.  When the country pulled out, she was being evacuated.  Tragically for her and her team, the AWACS that was carrying her went down on a remote mountainside.  The crash killed everyone else on board; miraculously Carmen escaped with just a few bruises.  Throwing caution to the wind, she went back into the wreckage to retrieve the hard drives and the 6 brand new, state of the art, military cybermodems.  She hid the small, but extremely powerful for the time, devices in her personal pack, and escaped just as the plane exploded. 

She hiked down through the Gautemalan jungle and managed to hook up with a group of Long Walkers, eventually making it back into the States

Now back in Night City, and hiding out in the Combat Zone, she uses her skills for profit and fun.  And takes personal delight in any job targeting  the government and corporations.  She trains younger netrunners, though they often complain of having to listen to her drunk tales of the old days.

Her skills have only increased over the years, and while most of those early cybermodems were sold to finance her own equipment, which she has kept on the cutting edge. She has also kept the AWACS hard drive, insurance if the government ever tries banging down her door again.  Sister Salvation is a middle aged bitter women, prone to hard drinking and bouts of sullen melancholy interspersed with angry outbursts.  But she has a soft spot for those who attempt to fight back against the system.  Her avatar is a highly stylized representation of the Goddess Kali.

DEREK “WyRMy44” EDWARDS

In 2018 Derek Edwards, a then 17 year old suburban kid, managed to hack into the NCPD and expunge the records of 20 hackers who had just been arrested for attempting to break in to Arasaka’s Research and Development database.  Unfortunately for Edwards, he was detected by NET-SEC and his location traced.  Derek barely managed to escape as the police burst into his parents home, confiscating every thing in sight.  Derek fled to the Combat Zone, where he successfully was able to elude police.  However he, like many hackers hiding in the Zone at the time, was given a 5-Star wanted bounty. 

Trapped in the Zone, Edwards had little choice but to hide and wait for things to blow over, and pray the Bounty Hunters wouldn’t be able to find him.  His prayers were for naught, but luckily he was able to persuade the team that found him to let him live, in exchange for his services.  Calling himself Wormy44, he used his hacking skills to cover their trail and locate targets, the team, who call themselves the Night Crew, has become one of the premiere hit squads in the United States.

A few years ago the team disappeared, now Wormy44 is a member of the Digital Renegades and often works as a freelancer, specializing in high end infiltration and datawipes.  He has a partner named 3LS13 with him he has set up a business harvesting and distributing interesting footage taken from security cameras, street surveillance, and police dashboard cameras.  Usually these videos are of impressive crimes, but just as often they are videos that expose police, government, and corporate corruption, or at least stupidity.  Wormy44’s avatar is a cartoonish caterpillar.

KIMBERLY “N0NNY M0U53” MOUSE

Nonny Mouse lives in the top floor attic space high rise just east of the Combat Zone.  She has set up a tight beam laser link to the servers and main frames she keeps stored on the roof of an apartment building in the Zone visible from her apartment.  The servers sit in a weatherproof and climate controlled room on the top  floor that once served as a storage room but is now only accessible by secret door.  The room is specially insulated with fire proof materials capable of withstanding the thermite failsafe measure she has in place should anyone other than her attempt to enter the room… she can activate these measures by remote.  Her apartment itself has 2 computers, one is a safe computer she has that she uses for general stuff, surfing the web, playing video games, etc… the other is built into the walls, and projects holographic touchscreens anywhere in her bed and bathrooms.

Nonny is a highly skilled decryption specialist and can crack nearly any code given enough time.  Her specialized set up also allows her to store large amounts of data safely and securely. 

Nonny is somewhat of a recluse, she rarely leaves her apartment, though she does have several safehouses set up across the city.  She also owns property in Arkansas, Arizona, Hawaii and Brazil.

If the Renegades need a code cracked, or can’t get into a file, Nonny is the one they turn too.  She offers her services freelance to those in the know, and is well known in the hacker community.

Nonny has a soft spot for nomads, particularly of the Snake and Aldecaldo nations, and has several contacts among them.  While she almost never leaves her apartment, when she does have to travel, she does so with nomads acting as escort.  To her nomads represent the exact opposite of life of the technologically dependent life of a shut in she has fallen into.  In exchange for her services, nomads provide her with protection, with at least 4 Snake or Aldecaldo nomads living on premises at all times.  Nonny’s avatar is a young nude woman, surrounded by code.

MARJORIE “D177O” TOMBS

Marjorie has been going by the name Ditto since she was a young girl.  Ditto has eidetic memory and can recall anything she has read or seen with near perfect clarity.  She has used this gift to become a master of pattern recognition.  She is also a master at forgery and creating false ID’s.

Ditto is somewhat obsessed with maps, and she is personally responsible for the ever updated maps of the combat zone, the the gang territories in the city and keeps a ledger of their major movements.  She keeps similar tabs on corporations and police forces in the city.  Because of this, Ditto is seen as something of an oracle in the netrunner community.  She has successfully predicted major gang pushes, police sting operations, corporate takeovers, and though no one would believe her warnings, she predicted Carnival.

Ditto is also an accomplished netrunner herself, using her talent for patterns to break in to corporate and government sites. 

Ditto attacks any project she is working on obsessively, often forgetting to eat or sleep until her body is on the verge of shutting down. 

Ditto is paranoid, and with good reasons, she has been hunted by police, corporations, and organized crime figures.  She tends to move around a lot, and the only time she stays anywhere for any length of time is if she is surrounded by people she trusts implicitly, people she knows can protect her, or at least provide a distraction for the people looking for her long enough for her to escape again.  Ditto’s avatar is a silhouette of a woman, surrounded by ever swirling lights.

DAVID “H0UD1N18O8” HUDNALL

For the right price, Houdini808 will break in and infiltrate any building, facility, or site, and hack in directly to their systems. 

David Hudnall was a former Dalta Force operative, who was retasked to the CIA and trained to infiltrate facilities with closed systems.  At the close of the last century, it became apparent that the digital frontier was not only going to unite the world, it was also going to divide as potentially the most vast battlefield would be attempting to conquer next.  The net was vast and necessary for the flow of data, but it was also fragile and prolifically dangerous from a security standpoint.  The dangers only increased with the advent of neural interface and cybermodems, allowing anyone with the skill and resources to hack even the most secure databases at the speed of though, all they needed was an internet connection.  Because of this, many corporations and militaries keep their most important information stored in isolated databases, unconnected to the net.  Thus a new breed of infiltration specialists arose, ones with the skill to break into the most secure complexes undetected, access the inaccessible information, and get out again undetected.  David did this for several years, until he accidently stumbled across information he shouldn’t have.  He has never shared the information he found, or even its nature, but he knew merely possessing the knowledge would make him a target of his own government, so he faked his death in an explosion, and went underground.  Now armed with a wealth of aliases and fake identities, he is known in hacker circles only by the name Houdini808.

As a freelancer, Houdini808 now works regularly with the Digital Renegades as their infiltration specialist.   A master of disguise, he speaks 9 languages, and with his training and equipment is able to infiltrate virtually anywhere if the price is right.

CLARISSA “R3PL4Y” ABERNATHY

Replay is the main DJ and operator for The Signal, the pirate radio broadcast set up by the Digital Renegades.  The station is broadcast on 91.1 FM as is located in the only building officially claimed by the Renegades.  The building itself is a 5 story apartment building, and the radio station takes up the top floor.  Replay lives here, and usually has between 4 and 5 newer members of the Digital Renegades helping her run the station.  While a pirate radio station, Replay runs it fairly legitimately, and in addition to a wide and eclectic playlist she gives weather forecasts, local and national news feeds, and local traffic updates in the Combat Zone.  They also report on instances of violent gang activities, and they rely on listeners to call in anonymously, as well as their own contacts, to inform them of gang movements or buildups so that they can warn the people if they suspect violence is about to erupt somewhere.  While this does not make the radio station popular with gangs, Replay has managed to keep things smooth by offering technical support to both Stomp and Slaughterhouse in maintaining their own pirate radio stations.

Replay also manages to maintain her alliances with the gangs by instantly reporting anytime there is a police presence in the Zone, airing their locations, movements and likely destinations.  These reports are made in code, but the police have started to catch on.  Replay and the Signal don’t always work against the Police, if someone particularly vile, especially rapists, child molesters, or terrorists, go to ground in the Zone, Replay and her network will often ferret them out, and turn them over to police, or at least their remains.

Replay herself is only an amateur Netrunner, though she is considered an extremely important asset, and the public voice of the Digital Renegades.  On air she is bold, and takes no prisoners, but without the power of The Signal behind her she is rather shy and somewhat awkward.

DANIELLE “PUPP37_RC” TIMMONS

Puppet RC is the Digital Renegades surveillance specialist, she is also a master at remote piloting virtually anything.  In addition to her vast array of RPV’s, Cyberforms, retasked RC toys, and other assorted remote surveillance and attack tools, she often builds her own. 

Puppet RC employs a large array of small remotes, many of which are stashed across the Combat Zone and the surrounding blocks.  She also has rigged up several vehicles for remote operation.  These vehicles appear for all intents and purposes to be abandoned, and many of them often have homeless Zoners sleeping in them.  But when activated, they become heavy metal weapons she will use to drive over her enemies.  Some are even loaded with explosives.  Rumor has it she has a remote operated FBC body.

 As a netrunner, Puppet RC specializes in hacking vehicle operating and security systems.  She writes the programs and builds the devices that allow her to hack and operate virtually any vehicle with a smartlink.

She is an angry young women, and known to carry a grudge.  She is wanted by police and several corporations for her actions against anyone who has offended her rather warped sensibilities.  Her most high profile crime to date was hacking the demolition crane a construction site, and using it to heavily damage the FoxCast Media building in Night City after they ran a report comparing Netrunners to Sex offenders.

MARTIN “1N73RRUP7“ WHITECHAPEL

Interrupt is an old school hacker and code junkie.  He was hacking video game servers as a kid and breaking local police datawalls to get his friends out of trouble as a teen.  By the time neural interface become common, he was already a veteran code slinger, making a name for himself as a digital cowboy.  He is one of the founding members of the Digital Renegades.

Interrupt likes the good life, but never stays in one place for very long. He prefers Night City, but is also known to log in from Portland, Seattle, Miami, Nashville, and Mexico City.  He prefers expensive hotels or rental homes, usually for about a week at a time.

Interrupt has no specialty, while he is a highly respected programmer, he keeps his interface skills evenly balanced, allowing him to operate with a fair amount of independence within the Digital Renegades. 

In his freelance work outside the Renegades, Interrupts services don’t come cheap, but he has been known to work for favors, and has been known to monitor younger runners who catch his eye, providing guidance and even assistance if they impress him enough. 

In his late 40’s, Interrupt is still an idealist, and believes the most important thing he can do is use his skills to fight the rampant corruption in the world around him.  He is not naïve however, and doesn’t tend to expend his energy on futile and foolish gestures of rebellion anymore.  Instead he bides his time, waiting for opportunities to gum up the works, and hoping for a big enough opportunity to effect real change.

ALINE “M3RM41D” EMMERSON

The Mermaid made her fortune writing sex sims for Braindance.  She also is renowned as an expert programmer for VR environments, and her programs are the fully immersible online storefronts, showrooms, chat hubs, and service auditoriums of many corporations including Coca-Cola, Marvel Entertainment, WePorn, and others.

Now, independently wealthy, she leaves the day to day business of her company up to her subordinates and employees, made up mostly of apprentices hoping to learn from the diva herself.  She monitors the output of her company Emsoft, but spends most of her time on her private yacht cruising up and down the west coast. 

The Mermaid works with the Digital Renegades more as a hobby than anything else.  She specializes in exploiting the VR environments, setting up the chat hubs for DR conferences and collaborations.  She sets up back doors and gives access to private unmonitored space in legitimate company online forums.

In return for her expertise and efforts, the Digital Renegades also distribute her latest underground, illegal, and highly addictive braindance routines.

Mermaid is something of asexual deviant, by far the majority of her wealth comes from the more fringe sims she has created, which cater to every perversion, every secret desire.  She finds nothing distastefull, and the subject matter of her illegal sims is determined by the desires and requests of whoever donates the most money to her Development fund, set up through the back door of the online storefront of a bakery in Kentucky.

DARREN “DW33Z1L” CORNING

Dweezil is your typical shut-in netrunner.  He is a bit neurotic, a bit hyperactive, and prone to sticking his nose in anywhere he can fit it, but particularly where it doesn’t belong.

He has been a member of the Renegades for 3 years now.  He had been following the exploits of individual members, particularly Ditto and Interrupt, and then began actively following them online, it seemed whenever they would pop on he would immediately be there, following them around, asking questions and just geeking out.  After a while, he began putting the pieces together, contacting Replay and giving her coded messages letting them know he knew what was going on.  He would pop into their private chats, he would figure out what they were trying to with individual projects and provide them with necessary code, just left for them to find.  It was becoming a problem, and the Renegades were actually considering taking him out.

In the end, it was decided he was too obvious to be a cop, and that he wasn’t going to stop.  So they let him in, thinking it would just be less trouble all around that way.  After a while, his enthusiasm and determination earned their respect, and he has been a fixture ever since. 

Dweezil lives in the University District, where he makes most of his money by providing test answers, or even grade hacking.  He has contacts with the Voodoo Boyz, and pays them for physical protection in exchange for his hacking services.  He almost never sleeps, instead staying awake through massive doses of caffeine and low level stimulants.  Occasionally he hires himself out to a crew, though his habits and hyperactive personality don’t tend to make for long relationships.  He changes his avatar often, but its always something bizarre.

CL30P47R4

Cleopatra is outfitted with a custom Wiseman Full conversion package.  No one knows Cleopatras real name, she claims not to even know it herself, that whoever she was before she underwent conversion is no longer important.  What is known is that she appeared 2 years ago, and has become one of the core members of the Renegades.

With the upgrades to her body, Cleopatra is a walking database.  She runs faster and harder then any other Digital Renegade, and has become the forward vanguard for any of their major operations.  She lives in a custom RV, the interior loaded to the gills with computer equipment, the exterior disguised to look trashed and worn. 

The only thing anyone knows for certain about Cleo is that she is highly skilled, and she absolutely hates agricultural corporations, particularly Kraft, Biotechnica, and Monsanto.  She volunteers for any operations targeting them, and becomes almost obsessive in her efforts.  She has never given a concrete reason for this disposition, but many in the Renegades feel it has something to do with how she became a full conversion.   She seems to have a similar hatred towards lawyers.

Written By Deric Bernier, (with gangs and locations created by R. Talsorian Games, Atlas Games, Interface Magazine, and Iaunus Games). Images from Deric Bernier, R. Talsorian Games, Interface, Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Warriors of the 21st Century, Transmetropolitan, Afro Samurai, Mazinger, The Last Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Black Samurai, Double Dragon, Capcom, Virtua Fighter, Streetfighter, Tekken, King Of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Fist Of The North Star, Red Alert, Dead End Drive-In, Shadowrun, Reklamation, Cyborg OEDO, Metro, Borderlands, Clockwork Orange, The Hills Have Eyes, Below Zero, Fallen Earth, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Rifts, Gurps, The Barbarians, Rage, Fallout, Weird Science, Netrunner, Cyberpunk CCG, Marvel Comics, Ultimates, Tron, Cowboy Bebop, Android, Mafia Wars, Deus Ex, DC Comics, Shazam, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost In The Shell, Appleseed, Breaker, Breaker: New Waves, Parasite Dolls, AD Police, Circuitry Man, Purge, Crimecraft, Saints Row, Grand Theft Auto, Star Wars, Crude buster, Two Crude Dudes, Road Avenger, Renegade, All Points Bulletin, C.O.P.S., Bionic Commando, Negative Burn, Wildcats, Superman, Neon Cyber, Darkminds, Megazone 23, Wolverine, X-men, The Warriors, Streets Of Fire, Class Of 1984, Class of 1999, Karate Warrior, Metal Gear, 2020 Visions, Bubblegum Crisis, Bubblegum Crash, Mortal Kombat, Crime Life, Fast And The Furious, GI Joe, Earthrise, The Club, The Suffering, Machete, Desperado, Blood In Blood Out, Mi Vida Loca, Brazil, City Of God, Crank, Falling Down, Gang City, Akira, Army Of One, NYC Mech, Brink, Set It Off, Assault On Precinct 13, Glen and Randal, Brawling Bouncers, Bitch Slap, Nemesis, Suckerpunch, Batman, Wasteland Empires, What If, Terminator, Resident Evil, Warlands, Exterminators 3000, Burning Man, Weapon Brown, Urban Warriors, Hard Boiled, Arachnophobia, Fallen Skies, Land Of The Dead, Empty Zone, Training Day, Big Trouble In Little China, Tank Girl, The New Barbarians, Gangs Of new York, Back To The Future 2, Savage Tales, Appleseed, Ride To Hell, Solar Babies, Spy Hunter, Metro 2033, Cyberspace, Road Warrior Weekend, Road War, D20 Future, D20 Apocalypse, Dethkillers, Massive Black, Twilight 2000,Adam Warren, Raben AAS, Wry1, Dmitrys, Adam Hughes, Quellion, Bordon,Timur Mutsaev, Cellfaces, Aleksi, Francis001, Gasket,Shiramune, Endo 74, Aaron Beck, Mohzart, Livingrope, Dingo107, Nanavuut,, Jani Hamalainen, Clement_Suave, Kishin007, Roboto_Kun, Quiros, JesserZZZ, NekoxxxNightmare, Josuhemaiz, AkaiSoul, Xadhoom, Carlos Cavalcante, Matt Bradbury, Akuma_Motarasutsumi, Bristow Bailey, Moongrape, N_Mel, Kieron Gillen, Angelero, Likodemus, Dead Dreamer, ShelestovV, LostSoulsArt, Riq, Dave Allsop, OmeN2501, Techtonic, Raven1303, Kazroth, Unhappy_Girl, Rosien_HoH, DOQ_666, The_A_Factory, den89, ichitakaseto-d3fwrw4, SC4V3NG3R, Ricochet188, Viviane, KFoster, Superhawkins, Jager375, Shed2602, Vinicius Menezes, Juhoham, Rubin Cubiles, Bstart, Raultrevino, Johnjackman, Chiara Pasquini, Dweller, RodoxDesign, Lethorgius, Ilog, Grusborg, Chow120, Tom Baxa, Pushpinder Singh, The Elysian, Misterho, Adonihs, Jasson, AKnox, Obeythekiwi, Andree Wallin, Fuchsiart, Garang76, Spiral Dance Studio, Dingo107, Nick Egberts, Acidlullaby, Orellana, Photoport, Wyldekarde, Knightwatch, Zalas, Mothbot, Horrified Survivor, WarmGunMod, Salemburn, Avonius, Avalonfilth, Wildlifehoodoo, Raetjor, Cellar, Skam4, Grinch_7, Patc_14, Echo_x, Bqw-d4822kt, Nickykcin, Scruffyronin, Poibuts, Archipelo, Maria William, Adonhis, A. Baldasseroni, Britnerfmogul, Udoncrew, Artbytheo, Luis Royo, Richard Daborn, atomhawk, Jaime Jones, Jan Ditlev, El Pinoy, Chonastock, Other Unicorn, Joe Clucher, Jacobcharlesdietz, Tim Okamura, Ghostronix, Psychofish, Polaris Pirate, Storm X, Januszwyrzykowski, Brokenhill, Bokuman, The Vigil, Tariq12, Lazeedog, Idomuchris, Remichan, Timur Mutsaev, Joe Leder, Johan Bergstrom, madmaxmovies.com, Humvee driver, Laurent, Barry Harker, and various other unknown films, anime, comics, artists, and car customizers.

For questions, complaints, criticisms and suggestions, e-mail the author:wisdom000@gmail.com