This isn't meant as a prediction of exactly what CDPR will do, but an attempt to connect several unresolved threads into one possible direction for Project Orion.
What if, before disappearing, he helped establish analog safehouses, air-gapped systems, physical dead drops, weapons caches, and off-grid communication methods designed to survive corporate surveillance?
He didn't need to predict the Blackwall crisis. He only needed to understand that eventually someone Arasaka, Militech, governments, or something worse would gain too much control over the systems humanity depended upon.
Spider Murphy and others could have expanded that network over the following decades, until its original purpose was almost forgotten.
There is also a darker possibility.
Spider had intimate knowledge of Soulkiller and engram technology. What if Blackhand's greatest contingency wasn't a bunker at all, but himself?
If some form of Blackhand's consciousness was preserved independently of Arasaka, it would create a perfect inversion of Saburo. Saburo preserves himself digitally so Arasaka can rule forever; Blackhand allows himself to become a digital ghost so someone might eventually tear systems like Arasaka down.
He wouldn't need to exist as an active AI secretly controlling everything. He could instead survive as an isolated tactical archive cut off from the wider Net and eventually discovered by the generation that needs him.
The Peralez conspiracy strongly suggests that a hidden faction possesses technology capable of altering human consciousness on an extraordinary level. Night Corp's history with behavioral modification makes it difficult to ignore, but its actual relationship with whatever is behind Blue Eyes remains ambiguous.
Night Corp could control it.
It could cooperate with it.
It could have been infiltrated by it.
Or Night Corp itself could be another piece on the board.
Under this theory, Mr. Blue Eyes functions as the public-facing representative of a much larger network. Whether he's an augmented human, a controlled proxy, an AI-assisted operative, or something else entirely doesn't really matter.
Blue Eyes is the interface. The real question is who or what is on the other side.
That makes Mr. Blue Eyes' apparent involvement surrounding her escape to the Moon much more interesting.
What if helping Songbird escape wasn't purely an act of mercy?
It could simultaneously be a rescue, strategic recruitment, and disarmament operation.
The NUSA turned So Mi into a weapon. Removing her from Earth takes one of Myers' most dangerous and irreplaceable Blackwall assets out of her control.
But the people helping Songbird may also realize something else.
If something beyond the Blackwall is coming, Songbird could be humanity's best bridge to it and possibly its best weapon against it.
That creates the central contradiction of the entire alliance:
To protect humanity from the Blackwall, they have to rely on the human being most deeply connected to it.
And perhaps they genuinely want to save her.
Perhaps they genuinely oppose what Myers did.
But that doesn't mean they don't intend to use her too.
Depending on the path there, V has penetrated Arasaka Tower, defeated Adam Smasher, survived the Relic, interacted with Alt Cunningham, and become one of Night City's greatest living legends.
Blue Eyes doesn't need to interview V.
He needs something only V is crazy enough to retrieve.
That's where the Crystal Palace job becomes much darker.
Mr. Blue Eyes exploits the one thing V still desperately wants: a chance to survive.
V accepts an almost suicidal orbital heist believing it could lead to a way out of their condition. But what if the real objective is something this hidden network desperately needs data, access credentials, encryption technology, orbital intelligence, or something we haven't seen yet?
V thinks they're performing one last impossible job to save themselves.
Blue Eyes knows he's sending Night City's most dangerous mercenary to retrieve something nobody else can reach.
Whether Blue Eyes actually intends to help V afterward is almost irrelevant.
Maybe he has a cure.
Maybe he only believes he can find one.
Maybe he is exploiting V's desperation.
Maybe he fully intends to keep his end of the bargain.
We don't know.
And this is where I think Orion could make its smartest move:
After the Crystal Palace heist, V simply disappears from recorded history.
Maybe V dies during the mission.
Maybe V succeeds and is cured.
Maybe V leaves Earth permanently.
Maybe V discovers what they've helped set in motion and goes underground.
Maybe the network deliberately erases every trace of them.
Nobody knows.
Some people claim V died attacking the Crystal Palace. Others insist they survived. Some say V went to the Moon. Others claim the Palace job never happened at all.
Night City does what it always does:
It turns a human being into a story.
Not with Morgan Blackhand walking through the door.
Not with V returning as the protagonist.
But with a new generation inheriting consequences they don't fully understand.
Trace Santiago, the son of legendary Aldecaldo Santiago, represents the media front exposing the corporate and political systems hiding what is happening.
Songbird represents the digital front navigating the increasingly unstable boundary between humanity and whatever exists beyond the Blackwall.
And Orion's new protagonist represents something else entirely:
the human variable.
Blackhand and Spider's generation left behind the infrastructure.
V's generation unknowingly moved the pieces into position.
Now another generation has to decide what those pieces should actually be used for.
2077 begins with two mercs trying to become legends and accidentally stumbling into a conflict involving immortality, corporate power, artificial intelligence, and the ownership of human consciousness.
Orion could begin with another nobody stumbling into the systemic consequences of that conflict.
Except now the battlefield has expanded.
Night City remains at its heart, but the conflict stretches outward to other cities, governments, orbital infrastructure, the Moon, the remnants of the Old Net, and eventually the Blackwall itself.
And somewhere along the way, the protagonist discovers the real horror:
The corporations aren't the only ones manipulating humanity.
The Rogue AIs aren't necessarily the only enemy.
The people supposedly fighting to preserve human freedom may have manipulated politicians, exploited Songbird, sacrificed people like V, and interfered with human consciousness themselves.
Their justification is simple:
Humanity cannot remain free unless somebody is willing to do what is necessary to keep it free.
And suddenly the conflict isn't simply:
Humans vs. AI.
It's something much more Cyberpunk:
How much humanity can you sacrifice in the name of preserving humanity?
Blackhand's generation couldn't destroy the system.
V couldn't escape it.
Now the next generation has to decide whether breaking the cage is worth what they'll have to become to do it.
1. Blackhand's Real Legacy: The Contingency
Blackhand spent his life fighting corporations and understood one fundamental rule: anything connected to a network can eventually be compromised.What if, before disappearing, he helped establish analog safehouses, air-gapped systems, physical dead drops, weapons caches, and off-grid communication methods designed to survive corporate surveillance?
He didn't need to predict the Blackwall crisis. He only needed to understand that eventually someone Arasaka, Militech, governments, or something worse would gain too much control over the systems humanity depended upon.
Spider Murphy and others could have expanded that network over the following decades, until its original purpose was almost forgotten.
There is also a darker possibility.
Spider had intimate knowledge of Soulkiller and engram technology. What if Blackhand's greatest contingency wasn't a bunker at all, but himself?
If some form of Blackhand's consciousness was preserved independently of Arasaka, it would create a perfect inversion of Saburo. Saburo preserves himself digitally so Arasaka can rule forever; Blackhand allows himself to become a digital ghost so someone might eventually tear systems like Arasaka down.
He wouldn't need to exist as an active AI secretly controlling everything. He could instead survive as an isolated tactical archive cut off from the wider Net and eventually discovered by the generation that needs him.
2. What if Mr. Blue Eyes Isn't the Mastermind , But the Interface?
Rather than Mr. Blue Eyes being the mastermind himself, what if he's simply the physical interface through which something much larger interacts with the world?The Peralez conspiracy strongly suggests that a hidden faction possesses technology capable of altering human consciousness on an extraordinary level. Night Corp's history with behavioral modification makes it difficult to ignore, but its actual relationship with whatever is behind Blue Eyes remains ambiguous.
Night Corp could control it.
It could cooperate with it.
It could have been infiltrated by it.
Or Night Corp itself could be another piece on the board.
Under this theory, Mr. Blue Eyes functions as the public-facing representative of a much larger network. Whether he's an augmented human, a controlled proxy, an AI-assisted operative, or something else entirely doesn't really matter.
Blue Eyes is the interface. The real question is who or what is on the other side.
3. Songbird Wasn't Rescued for Free
Songbird (So Mi) may be one of the most valuable humans alive in any future conflict involving the Blackwall because she has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to reach through and weaponize it.That makes Mr. Blue Eyes' apparent involvement surrounding her escape to the Moon much more interesting.
What if helping Songbird escape wasn't purely an act of mercy?
It could simultaneously be a rescue, strategic recruitment, and disarmament operation.
The NUSA turned So Mi into a weapon. Removing her from Earth takes one of Myers' most dangerous and irreplaceable Blackwall assets out of her control.
But the people helping Songbird may also realize something else.
If something beyond the Blackwall is coming, Songbird could be humanity's best bridge to it and possibly its best weapon against it.
That creates the central contradiction of the entire alliance:
To protect humanity from the Blackwall, they have to rely on the human being most deeply connected to it.
And perhaps they genuinely want to save her.
Perhaps they genuinely oppose what Myers did.
But that doesn't mean they don't intend to use her too.
4. The Sun's Darkest Possibility: V Was the Delivery Mechanism
By the end of The Sun, Mr. Blue Eyes already knows what V is capable of.Depending on the path there, V has penetrated Arasaka Tower, defeated Adam Smasher, survived the Relic, interacted with Alt Cunningham, and become one of Night City's greatest living legends.
Blue Eyes doesn't need to interview V.
He needs something only V is crazy enough to retrieve.
That's where the Crystal Palace job becomes much darker.
Mr. Blue Eyes exploits the one thing V still desperately wants: a chance to survive.
V accepts an almost suicidal orbital heist believing it could lead to a way out of their condition. But what if the real objective is something this hidden network desperately needs data, access credentials, encryption technology, orbital intelligence, or something we haven't seen yet?
V thinks they're performing one last impossible job to save themselves.
Blue Eyes knows he's sending Night City's most dangerous mercenary to retrieve something nobody else can reach.
Whether Blue Eyes actually intends to help V afterward is almost irrelevant.
Maybe he has a cure.
Maybe he only believes he can find one.
Maybe he is exploiting V's desperation.
Maybe he fully intends to keep his end of the bargain.
We don't know.
And this is where I think Orion could make its smartest move:
After the Crystal Palace heist, V simply disappears from recorded history.
Maybe V dies during the mission.
Maybe V succeeds and is cured.
Maybe V leaves Earth permanently.
Maybe V discovers what they've helped set in motion and goes underground.
Maybe the network deliberately erases every trace of them.
Nobody knows.
Some people claim V died attacking the Crystal Palace. Others insist they survived. Some say V went to the Moon. Others claim the Palace job never happened at all.
Night City does what it always does:
It turns a human being into a story.
5. The Next Generation Inherits the War
This is where Project Orion begins.Not with Morgan Blackhand walking through the door.
Not with V returning as the protagonist.
But with a new generation inheriting consequences they don't fully understand.
Trace Santiago, the son of legendary Aldecaldo Santiago, represents the media front exposing the corporate and political systems hiding what is happening.
Songbird represents the digital front navigating the increasingly unstable boundary between humanity and whatever exists beyond the Blackwall.
And Orion's new protagonist represents something else entirely:
the human variable.
Blackhand and Spider's generation left behind the infrastructure.
V's generation unknowingly moved the pieces into position.
Now another generation has to decide what those pieces should actually be used for.
6. Project Orion: Break the Cage
This would make Project Orion a thematic inverse of Cyberpunk 2077.2077 begins with two mercs trying to become legends and accidentally stumbling into a conflict involving immortality, corporate power, artificial intelligence, and the ownership of human consciousness.
Orion could begin with another nobody stumbling into the systemic consequences of that conflict.
Except now the battlefield has expanded.
Night City remains at its heart, but the conflict stretches outward to other cities, governments, orbital infrastructure, the Moon, the remnants of the Old Net, and eventually the Blackwall itself.
And somewhere along the way, the protagonist discovers the real horror:
The corporations aren't the only ones manipulating humanity.
The Rogue AIs aren't necessarily the only enemy.
The people supposedly fighting to preserve human freedom may have manipulated politicians, exploited Songbird, sacrificed people like V, and interfered with human consciousness themselves.
Their justification is simple:
Humanity cannot remain free unless somebody is willing to do what is necessary to keep it free.
And suddenly the conflict isn't simply:
Humans vs. AI.
It's something much more Cyberpunk:
How much humanity can you sacrifice in the name of preserving humanity?
Blackhand's generation couldn't destroy the system.
V couldn't escape it.
Now the next generation has to decide whether breaking the cage is worth what they'll have to become to do it.
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