T-Bug

A Netrunner in V and Jackie’s Crew

T-Bug is introduced as the remote netrunner supporting V and Jackie Welles during their early mercenary work. She is already connected to the criminal and mercenary networks surrounding the Afterlife, and her expertise makes her valuable for operations that require surveillance, security bypasses, or remote intrusion. Unlike V and Jackie, she rarely participates in person. Her role is generally to prepare the digital side of a job, monitor the situation from outside, and provide instructions while the field team handles the physical danger.

T-Bug’s first major story function is to establish the working relationship between the three mercenaries. She treats the partnership as professional rather than sentimental, but she is still a trusted member of the crew. Her communication helps coordinate V and Jackie during their early jobs and leads into the larger opportunity offered by Dexter DeShawn. That opportunity is the Konpeki Plaza heist, the operation that changes the course of V’s story.

The Konpeki Plaza Heist

T-Bug plays a central support role in The Heist, the Main Job in which V and Jackie infiltrate Konpeki Plaza to steal the Relic. Before and during the operation, she works through the building’s security systems, helps the team reach the penthouse, and assists with the technical obstacles that prevent a straightforward entry. Her contribution allows V and Jackie to move through a heavily protected corporate environment without confronting every security measure directly.

Once V and Jackie reach the penthouse, T-Bug continues to guide the operation remotely. She helps them access the room containing the Relic and remains involved as the plan begins to unravel. The arrival of Yorinobu Arasaka and Saburo Arasaka turns the theft into an unexpected corporate crisis, forcing V and Jackie to hide while the two Arasaka figures argue. T-Bug’s remote connection keeps the team informed, but the situation leaves little room for her to control events.

The heist collapses after Yorinobu kills his father and frames the incident as an attack. When V and Jackie retrieve the Relic, Konpeki Plaza enters lockdown and Arasaka security begins searching for them. T-Bug assists with the escape route and works to open a way out of the penthouse. Her support is critical during the retreat, but she is unable to prevent the security response from overwhelming the operation. The crew escapes the building only after the original plan has effectively failed, and Jackie is fatally wounded while carrying the Relic.

Arasaka’s Counterintrusion

T-Bug’s fate is resolved during the escape from Konpeki Plaza. Arasaka’s security systems trace the network intrusion back to her, exposing the danger of operating remotely against such a powerful corporation. She warns V and Jackie that the situation has become critical, but the connection is lost before she can complete the operation. Her death is not shown as a conventional combat encounter; it is the consequence of the digital counterattack launched while she is supporting the heist.

The loss of T-Bug marks the end of V, Jackie, and T-Bug as a functioning mercenary team. Jackie dies shortly afterward from the injuries sustained during the escape, while V survives only because the Relic’s malfunctioning engram technology prevents a normal death. T-Bug’s disappearance therefore forms part of the immediate chain of events that separates V from the life they expected to have after the heist.

Evidence of Her Death After the Heist

After the prologue, V can discover the aftermath of T-Bug’s death at her apartment in Kabuki. The scene confirms that she was killed by the counterintrusion rather than simply abandoning the crew or disappearing voluntarily. Her equipment and the condition of the room show the physical cost of the attack that occurred while she was connected to Konpeki Plaza’s systems.

This discovery gives T-Bug a small but important posthumous role in the story. It does not create a new quest arc for her, nor does it lead to a surviving version of the character later in the campaign. Instead, it reinforces how quickly the heist destroyed the crew around V. T-Bug’s death also demonstrates that the consequences of confronting Arasaka reach people who are not present at the scene and who cannot rely on physical weapons or armor to protect them.

Role After the Prologue

T-Bug does not return as an active character in the main campaign after the Konpeki Plaza operation. She has no continuing relationship route, romance path, or faction transition, and she is not part of the later branches involving V, Johnny Silverhand, or the major power groups competing for control of Night City. Her narrative purpose is concentrated in the opening portion of the game: she helps define V’s first professional network, supports the heist, and becomes one of its earliest casualties.

Her brief appearance nevertheless affects the story’s framing. Before The Heist, T-Bug represents the technical expertise that makes ambitious mercenary work possible. During the operation, she becomes a reminder that a netrunner can be exposed and killed without ever entering the building being attacked. Afterward, the evidence of her death helps establish that V’s old life has ended. The game does not treat the heist as a temporary setback; T-Bug’s fate makes the break with that earlier life immediate and irreversible.