Spider Murphy,

Spider Murphy was born into a corporate family, with her father serving one of the megacorps, which would later become the root of her rebellion. In 2004, at just nine years old, she began her journey into netrunning. Her first cyberdeck was a Hitachi-Radio Shack 95, a crude, outdated machine by professional standards, but enough for a prodigy. Using her early skills, she hacked into a Zetatech sales office and altered their system to send her a new Parraline 5750A cyberdeck—a bold and impressive move that set the tone for her future.   It wasn’t long after that she encountered the legendary Rache Bartmoss for the first time. After overhearing that her own corporate father had wiped Bartmoss’s System Identification Number (SIN) from the Net—a move that essentially erased someone’s existence—she tracked Bartmoss down and warned him. He was impressed, and from that moment on, he took her under his wing. The two developed a close, long-term bond, both professional and deeply personal.   Throughout the 2010s, Spider Murphy became one of the top netrunners in the world. She ran the Net with Bartmoss, Dog, and Edger, forming an elite circle that acted out of principle and thrill rather than profit. They challenged NetWatch, took down corrupt data havens, and pulled off impossible hacks simply because they could. Spider quickly gained a reputation not just for her ability but also for her signature approach—she preferred utilitarian, non-lethal programs and highly secure custom cyberdecks, distinguishing her from the more flamboyant, often deadly tactics of her mentor Rache Bartmoss.   Her digital avatar (Net ICON) was notable—a hyper-realistic redheaded anime figure clad in tight clothing, a deliberate misdirection to disarm or distract her foes. Despite the avatar's provocative appearance, Spider herself was sharp, philosophical, and highly educated. She often quoted famous thinkers, interweaving a thoughtful, reflective nature with her razor-sharp technical skill.   By 2020, everything changed. Spider received a coded message from Bartmoss, a prearranged dead-man’s switch message, informing her that his body had died, but his consciousness was still alive in the Net. For the next year, she worked closely with his digital presence to compile Rache Bartmoss’ Guide to the Net, and later, Rache Bartmoss’ Brainware Blowout alongside Dog and Edger. These publications became seminal works in netrunning culture.   In 2021, during the early phase of the Fourth Corporate War, Militech reached out to Bartmoss (or rather, his ghost in the machine) to help fight against Arasaka. Spider aided in locating Soulkiller 2.5, Arasaka’s updated mind-ripping program. In 2022, Bartmoss sent her the highest-level signal he had ever prepared—Foxbat 1—summoning her to a secure chatroom. There, he appeared calm and composed, a final contrast to his usual erratic behavior. He confessed his love to her, invited her on a surreal "date," and then released the R.A.B.I.D.S. viruses into the Net, creating the infamous DataKrash moments before his final death. At first, Spider celebrated his decision, thinking it would end the reign of the corporations, but she later came to the bitter realization that the corporations only adapted, creating tightly-controlled localized CitiNets and entrenching their power even further.   Driven by grief and a thirst for vengeance, Spider allied herself with Militech and volunteered to join Johnny Silverhand’s strike team on the mission to destroy Arasaka's updated Soulkiller. What she and the team didn’t know was that they were pawns in a larger plan—used as a diversion so that Morgan Blackhand could assault Arasaka Tower directly. Spider’s personal objective was to rescue Alt Cunningham, whose digital ghost had been re-captured by Arasaka.   As the mission unfolded, Spider bypassed the lab's security systems with Shaitan’s physical help and jacked into the Net to locate Alt. She dumped Alt into the memory core and deployed a virus to destroy the current iteration of Soulkiller. Before leaving, she downloaded vital intel on the program’s creators and received a fragment of Soulkiller from Alt for potential future use.   Just as the team prepared to escape, Adam Smasher ambushed them with two squads of Arasaka troopers. Spider, desperate and haunted, scattered Alt into the Net to protect her from recapture. Exiting the Net, she watched Johnny Silverhand confront Smasher and die nearly instantly. Using the chaos, she took down multiple Arasaka soldiers, repeating to herself that it was "just a game" to dull the trauma. With Shaitan's help, the rest of the team escaped, but Spider stayed just long enough to insert the data slug Alt had given her into Silverhand’s body, preserving his digital psyche.   During the team's extraction on the AV, Smasher appeared again holding Shaitan's biopod, mocking Blackhand. The legendary solo leapt from the AV to face Smasher in personal combat, leaving his fate unknown but ensuring the AV's safe departure.   One day later, Spider, along with Rogue Amendiares and a repaired Shaitan, tracked Kei Arasaka to his ship, the Sea Viper. Spider infiltrated the ship, killed Kei’s guards, and confronted him while he was asleep. In a moment of dark poetic justice, she presented him with a terminal containing the Soulkiller system and convinced him to plug in and face his failure like a samurai—through digital seppuku. Kei complied. After confirming his death and deleting the last vestiges of Soulkiller, Spider walked outside and silently watched the night sky, saying farewell to Bartmoss, Silverhand, and Blackhand while wrestling with the deep, hollow emptiness that followed their deaths and the war.   Despite everything, Spider Murphy's influence never faded. Her works on netrunning and her records of Rache Bartmoss remained in circulation, still read and respected as late as 2077. While many netrunners came and went, Spider stood out not just for her technical mastery but for the humanity she brought to the craft—her struggle with grief, her pursuit of justice, and her relentless spirit in a world that sought to crush it. She was a legend forged not only in code and cyberspace, but in love, loss, and the enduring will to fight back against tyranny.