Songbird

Songbird (Song So Mi)

Songbird, the NUSA netrunner and confidant of President Myers

Songbird (real name Song So Mi) is a legendary netrunner and a pivotal character in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Serving as President Rosalind Myers’ black-ops intelligence asset, she acts as eyes, ears, and scalpel for the New United States of America (NUSA) across the Blackwall-scarred Net. Songbird’s mind is augmented far beyond human tolerances; the resulting power makes her irreplaceable—and steadily kills her.

Biography

Early life and recruitment

Little is publicly known about So Mi’s childhood; scattered records suggest a precocious aptitude for systems thinking, code abstraction, and pattern recognition. An early brush with state security caught the attention of NUSA intelligence recruiters, who offered protection and resources in exchange for service. So Mi accepted and entered a fast-tracked program that paired gifted netrunners with classified neurotech.

NUSA augmentation programs

Under presidential authority, So Mi was fitted with experimental neural implants—stacked coprocessors, quantum signal conditioners, and ICE-bypassing firmware—allowing her to parse encrypted satellite telemetry, orbital relays, and air-gapped combat networks in (near) real time. Over successive refits, her baseline cognition was scaffolded with machine-assist layers. These layers enabled long-range signal injection and over-the-horizon intrusion, but at the cost of bio-compatibility: runaway inflammation, glial scarring, and fatal feedback loops. The codename “'Songbird’” reflects both her role as a covert courier of presidential will and the fact that most of her work is conducted as an unseen voice over tightbeam, comms, or neural overlay.

Blackwall exposure

To penetrate post-DataKrash architectures, Songbird’s toolchain included Blackwall-proximal interfaces. Prolonged exposure to outlawed protocol layers and rogue AI signatures accelerated her deterioration: micro-seizures, sensory bleed-through, and cognitive fragmentation. By the time of the Dogtown incident, medical projections were terminal without drastic intervention.

Role in Phantom Liberty

Dogtown crisis

Songbird contacts V during the Dogtown crisis, guiding them to secure President Rosalind Myers after a downing over the walled district controlled by Kurt Hansen. From the shadows, she orchestrates diversions, opens access, and weaponizes Dogtown’s grid to keep Myers alive. In return, she dangles a promise only she can credibly make: a path to a cure for V’s own bio-neurological death sentence.

Breaking rank

Once Myers is stabilized, Songbird reveals her intention to defect. The NUSA machine that amplified her is the same machine grinding her down. She seeks to reach the Night City spaceport and board a lunar shuttle—hoping that off-world clinics, distance from Blackwall entanglements, and time will buy her survival or at least freedom from state custody.

The choice

At the heart of the expansion is the player’s decision regarding Songbird:

Aid Songbird — V runs the gauntlet to the launch facility, leveraging Songbird’s last reserves of netrunning power. Depending on moment-to-moment choices, she can reach the shuttle—escaping Earth and the NUSA’s grasp—or collapse under the strain before liftoff.

Turn her over to Solomon Reed — Obeying the NUSA line delivers Songbird back into federal custody. Her fate becomes one of sedation, interrogation, and further experimentation; in exchange, a door opens toward experimental therapies for V—at costs that ripple into the epilogue.

Personality

Songbird is paradoxical: clinically precise under pressure yet unguarded in private channels. She uses quips and gentle teasing to keep allies moving, but the mask slips in moments of pain and dissociation. Empathy drives her defection as much as fear; she refuses to be a perpetual instrument. In many ways she serves as V’s mirror—both are dying from the very technology that once made them exceptional.

Abilities and equipment

Master-level netrunning — Rapid enumeration of targets, nested intrusion chains, and “hot-patching” exploits mid-breach.

Long-range signal work — Uplink hijacks and relay-to-relay piggybacking, granting reach far outside a normal decker’s bubble.

Blackwall-edge interfaces — Hazardous, short bursts that let her punch into otherwise unreachable networks; repeated use worsens her neurological collapse.

Cyberdeck & neural stack — A custom, classified deck bonded to cranial co-processors; firmware supports multi-threaded quickhack queuing, device daisy-chains, and stealthy low-signature uploads.

Operational tradecraft — Dead drops, one-time pads, and misdirection; she is as much a spymaster as a hacker.

Relationships

Rosalind Myers — Handler, patron, and jailer. Myers values outcomes; Songbird is both a cherished asset and an expendable component of the presidency’s survival strategy.

Solomon Reed — The consummate field agent. Reed’s loyalty to the state clashes with So Mi’s claim to self-ownership. Their rapport mixes professional respect with irreconcilable duty.

V — Confidant by necessity, then by choice. V sees the person under the asset designation; So Mi sees in V a fellow traveler trapped between body and machine.

Kurt Hansen — Obstacle and target. Songbird treats Hansen’s Dogtown infrastructure as a chessboard—pieces to be subverted or sacrificed.

Health and decline

Medical shards point to progressive neuroinflammation, micro-ischemia, and runaway excitotoxicity triggered by the implant stack. Symptoms include tremor, auditory/visual overlap, blackouts, and ‘‘fugues’’ during deep dives. Standard therapies only slow the slide; true remission would require de-stacking or radical off-world intervention—both logistically and politically fraught.

Themes

Freedom vs. Control — Is a state-owned savior still a person? Songbird argues the answer with her feet.

Power and Cost — Every burst of brilliance takes a bite out of her future.

Trust and Betrayal — The player’s choice redefines the meaning of “help”—liberation, mercy, or treason.

Endings and outcomes (spoiler summary)

Escape attempt — A successful shuttle extraction severs NUSA custody. Whether survival awaits on the Moon remains uncertain; Songbird trades certain captivity for uncertain autonomy.

Returned to NUSA — Sedated, studied, and siloed. V gains leverage toward their own survival route, but at the price of So Mi’s freedom.

Failure states — If V cannot hold the line, Songbird’s body gives out before departure—her final moments an overload of pain, static, and unfinished messages.

Notable appearances

Phantom Liberty mainline: Dogtown recovery of Rosalind Myers; covert coordination against Kurt Hansen; the airport run; confrontation with Solomon Reed.

Shards and intel briefings: redacted medical files, implant specs, and NUSA case notes referencing “Subject So Mi.”

Behind the character (in-universe)

NUSA codenames often carry layered meanings. “Songbird” evokes a messenger that sings where others fall silent—apt for a voice that slips through firewalls and battlefield chaos alike.

See also

Solomon Reed

President Myers

Phantom Liberty

Netrunner

Blackwall

Quickhacks

Cyberware