Zhenya Makarova was born in Yekaterinburg, Russia on October 14, 2029, a scant four years after the end of the Fourth Corporate War. Her family was originally loyal to the Soviet Union but broke away in the face of it's increasing corporate control, both of her parents and her elder brother Red Army operatives before signing on with SovOil.

The family was solidly middle-class, living in a series of decent apartments across Russia and the other constituent republics and getting food that was adequate in both quantity and quality. Zhenya received a decent education and had the means to make something of herself, perhaps a middle manager for SovOil or crossing the border to become an accountant for Kang Tao. Hell, with her height she could have played basketball

However, she never took to the idea of a desk job. Zhenya grew up fighting with other children and running from local law enforcement when she and her friends were caught scrawling tags over public property. While not quite antisocial she was uninterested in playing it safe. It was obvious that she was an adrenaline junkie, fueled by excitement more than anything else.

By the time she was in her mid-teens she had a number of infractions on her record, mostly disorderly conduct for brawling and a couple cases of joyriding.

Had it not been for her parents track records of service to SovOil Zhenya would simply another been another gopnik, hanging out on street corners while trying to prove herself as the baddest motherfucker around. Instead she was signed up to serve like the rest of her family, given basic security training before being given a gun and told to defend corporate interests from the same riffraff she had been hanging out with.

While she was hardly thrilled at the prospect of wearing a uniform or taking orders the power that SovOil gave her was intoxicating. She had a license to kick ass, not just allowed but expected to bust the head of anyone who even looked at company property funny. Most of her paycheck was spent on down payments for black-market cyberwear and fueling her addiction to syn-coke with the occasional hospital visit for injuries sustained in back alley brawls. There was a learning curve for the first couple of years, a few citations for excessive force and reckless endangerment, but eventually some pencil pusher managing the personnel roster had a brilliant idea:

Why risk collateral damage and waste a perfectly good goon when she could be reassigned to the middle of nowhere?

With the USSR's old enemy America having splintered into NUSA and the rise of corporate power over the Politiboro most of the conflict in Russia was internal. Besides the usual gangland warfare the various nations of Neo-Sov often had border clashes, to say nothing of the more organized crews making a living off of attacking SovOil storage depots. Zhenya was sent to Siberia to deal with those vultures, the wide open wasteland the perfect sort of environment for someone like her.

That was her life for the next three decades. Trying to stay warm inside desolate SovOil outposts, serving as gunner on AV patrols to clear out bandit camps and laying waste to anything she was told to. In between the months on the job were the weeks-long stretches of downtime, most of which was spent partying or running her own rackets on the side. SovOil didn't care if its guards were selling confiscated contraband or shaking down villages for protection money, as long as they did their jobs.

By her forties Zen had straightened out, more or less. She had figured out how to toe the line when required but found herself growing bored. The hard-partying lifestyle fueled by synth had been replaced by painkillers and sedatives done in private, the running gun battles with would-be thieves in the shadow of the Urals all blurring into one. Siberia was growing old, a change was needed.

The opportunity came when her EV was shot down by some booster with a stolen rocket launcher. The low power of the degraded warhead hadn't been enough to blow the vehicle apart and Zen survived the crash thanks to the aggressive amount of cyberware she had installed. With the rest of the crew dead she simply trekked back to base, grabbed her stuff and slipped free.

Her father had passed a decade ago and she hadn't spoken to her mother or brother in years. Zen found it easy to leave her old life behind, crossing the border into Poland and then onto Germany. The no longer United States was chosen as her final destination purely on basis of distance. She wanted to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible and with the help of smugglers she managed to do just that.

Eurodollars were not officially exchanged in the Neo Soviet Union and much of what Zen had earned from her side hustles was spent on making it to NUSA. She needed a job, and what with having spent her whole life as a professional gunslinger, had little in the way of marketable skills. But she had arrived in the early stages of the Unification Wars, NUSA moving to finally bring the Free States back under its thumb. Militech, the real power behind NUS of A, needed more bodies and was willing to bring on a foreigner who wanted to be thrown into the meat grinder.

Zhenya fought at Ridgecrest in what would be the bloodiest battle of the Unification War before marching north for the coming assault on Night City (noting the irony of her home country sending support to the soon-to-be-besieged city), only to be sorely disappointed when the arrival of an Arasaka supercarrier forced the Militech/NUSA army to retreat.

After the Arvin Accords Zhenya was unceremoniously booted from Militech, her maverick attitude and no longer tolerated without a conflict to let her get killed in.

The remainder of her Sov cash was long gone and her salary from Militech had been blown on drugs and picking up new gear. Zen was dead broke with no friends or family to rely on, lacking even a superior officer willing to vouch for her. What she did have was an arsenal of heavy weaponry, some military-grade chrome and the directions to a town she had intended on painting red anyway.

Night City didn't judge. It took her in like it did every other lunatic merc, a neon playground for her to ply her trade. With her connections far and few between Zen was at the bottom of the pile, an overqualified hired gun for those unbothered by things getting loud. Any decent-paying job she found required more discretion than she was capable or cared to give and there were always expenses. Food, meds to patch herself up with after jobs, new cyberware, various sedatives to numb the aches and pains picked up after a life of combat, so many things to buy and not enough eddies to buy them with.

But Zhenya didn't mind being homeless. She had a car to sleep in and a dog to hang out with, which was about as much as she needed. More importantly, she was free. No bosses yelling orders, no parents to try and impress with her service, she worked when she wanted for who she wanted.

She could be whoever she wanted, even if the person she wanted to be was just a more infamous version of who she already was. She found people willing to work with her, a crew with varied skillsets to complement her expertise in destruction, and with them came better paying gigs.

Jake Tao- A low-tier fixer, perfect for a low-tier solo. Johnny likes to spin himself as being bigger than he is and Zen nods politely despite knowing full well he's not going to find her a job different than the usual "burn rival stash spot here, shoot a too-curious bennie there." He's useful not because he offers good gigs, he's useful because he offers lots of them. It's the one advantage of working with bottom-of-the-bin clients, plenty of poor people want other poor people dead.

3D- An actually competent fixer, even if he has poor taste. Zen likes to work for 3D because he offers her gigs that actually paid well...or at least he did before he was ran out of his mansion. She tries to throw him a bone now and again in the aftermath of the bordello raid but there's only such much she can do when she's already skipping meals to afford more ammo. He's a a good buddy and a great driver but a very bad source for fashion advice.

Uncle Sam- Zen's pet, personal therapist, diary and pillow. He's named after the patron saint of her adopted country and he's just the bestest boy in the whole world, yes he is! A stray blast of buckshot took out an eye and a leg but Zen managed to rush him over to a ripperdoc in time to save his life.

Mark. 31 Heavy Machinegun- Eighty-two pounds of high-powered weaponry, firing .50 BMG from a backpack-mounted feed system. The Mk. 31 is unwieldy even for those all borg'ed up but its ability to chew through cover, light vehicles and most definitely people make it worth keeping around. Fires a variety of rounds, all of which will absolutely ruin someone's day.

Militech Crusher- The Crusher's small size makes it convenient for use indoors while its eight-gauge payload and twelve-round magazine make it deadly. It's Zhenya's go-to when the situation warrants some semblance of subtlety.

RT-46 Burya- Zhenya's sidearm from her SovOil days and one of the few tech-weapons she cares for. Low-capacity and most certainly not low profile but makes up for these deficits with its sheer power. If it doesn't drop dead after getting shot by a railgun Zen probably shouldn't have shot at it in the first place.

"Rezat" Officer's Sword- Her father's official parade sidearm from his days as an officer in the greatly diminished Red Army, it was given a very unofficial nickname when she inherited it. The titanium blade is sharp, durable, and lightweight while the decorative grip contains pressure sensitive circuitry. A squeeze of her hand sends a current of around eight thousand volts up the blade.

Even if she can't pierce their skin that much juice can inhibit a chromed up opponent just fine.

Agent- Zhenya's cell phone, computer, personal assistant and main source of entertainment outside of murder, all in one convenient package.
Galena GA32t- A used model of an already cheap sports car, given to Zen as payment for a gig. Since she has no permanent home it pulls double duty as her bedroom and transportation.
Heavy Armorjack- In the form of an armorweave trench coat with metal plates inserted at strategic points and a laminate armor vest underneath. It won't help much if she gets shot in the legs or the head but its far better than nothing.
Everything Else- Spare ammo, spare magazines, the few hundred eddies Zhenya has left, changes of clothes, a couple blankets and the various drugs she takes. Generally strewn about the floor and trunk of her car.

"My adopted father, he raised and taught me as if I was one of his own. Then dropped me like a brick, moving on to take care of his real family when I was old enough to take care of myself. I do owe him a great debt that I can never repay though. Though I am very thankful for everything he has done for me, and selflessly given. Perhaps someday I will see him again, perhaps not, but only time will tell.

"Mattson was my Trauma Team International instructor, and squad leader for the ten years I was part of TTI. He helped me improve my medical and combat skills to what they are today, along with teaching me about discipline. Eventually, we grew to become close friends, but nothing more than that."

[ENTRY_1]

"Troy was a former employee at Trauma Team international, something we both have in common. Apparently he likes to keep to himself most of the time, tinkering with new things and equipment. More information is needed before an accurate assessment can be formed."

[ENTRY_1]

"Apparently Alistair had themselves a corpo position, living the high life while the rest of the city did their best below, sounds familiar. He seems a bit impulsive, self-centered, and egotistical, perhaps I am misreading him, but I doubt it. More information is needed before an accurate assessment can be formed."

[ENTRY_1]

"This individual stands out among the rest in my honest opinion, and the fact that he is Ex-Max-Tac makes me cautiously Paranoid of him. There is an old rumor that says most if not all Max-Tax are made up from people who were once Cyberpsychos, and after seeing how they shoot anything that moves, would not surprise me in the slightest. He seems like a good man though, but that could be deception. More information is needed before an accurate assessment can be formed, or perhaps he will kill us all before I get the chance."

[ENTRY_1]

"I always welcome more medical professionals among a squad, and this mans shared history is quite impressive. Here is to hoping we can learn something from each other down the line if everything goes well. Though trust is earned, and at the moment, more information is needed before an accurate assessment can be formed."

[ENTRY_1]

"Petre is a reserved individual from what I can gather, though some small talk happens here and there. I tend to keep to myself as well at most times. Due to all of this, much more information is needed before an accurate assessment can be formed."

Mantis Blades [Left Arm Only]

"Arm blades designed with lethality and concealment in mind. As effective as they are flashy."

The blade is superheated to allow for thermal damage as well as cauterization of injuries.

Optical Camouflage

"But..! If you spend a lotta time in the Badlands, it's worth investing in cloaking gear. Holoskin, active camo - what have you."

Allows for almost complete invisibility for a short period of time.

Kiroshi Optics MK.5

"This advanced Kiroshi optical system is designed for the most demanding users. It incorporates the latest breakthroughs in neural-link technology, unprecedented support of optic function and the most powerful scanning algorithms on the market."

Allows for scanning of personnel showing NCPD information on the individual as well as enhanced vision. (Night vision, thermal vision, and able to enhance viewing distance.)

Dynalar Sandevistan [Custom]

"Thanks to trademarked synaptic transmitters, this Sandevistan from Dynalar ensures even more comfort and control in combat situations as well as increased neuromuscular tension."

Increases reflexes both on and off the field of battle as well as increased cyberwear functionality.

Trauma Team Network

An implant that allows the user to search through Trauma Teams extensive database, locating very detailed information on injuries and how to most effectively treat them.

Brennan Apollo (Raptor)

A customized version of a Brennan Apollo Off-Road, more resembling a military motorcycle than anything else. Has a rear seat so someone else can join her if the need arises. The compartments are smaller but are reinforced for security reasons.

Viper Drone

Made up from parts of both Militech and Zetatech drones, this small custom made drone can easily fit inside of a backpack or case for discrete transportation. The drone mostly fills a scout role but can be modified for combat or medical situations. Currently, it has no way to be charged, and requires either a Militech or Zetatech power core, thus leaving it dormant.

Trauma Team Medical Equipment

Maya has kept all of her Trauma Team Medical Equipment, and now carries it with her in a secure military grade backpack in case of an emergency.

Personal Apartment

A small but very well taken care of apartment in Japan Town, located in the Westbrook District. This is where she keeps all of her worldly possessions.

Backpack and outfit

Maya wears a military backpack upon her back, filled with Trauma Team Medical Equipment, a few snacks, small tools used for fixing up weapons and armor, and a couple other useful items.

Her outfit is mostly created from repurposed Trauma Team armor pieces attached to a comfortable flight suit, all recolored to be either black or a dark grey. Due to parts of her armor being made from these pieces, Maya can attach spare magazines, grenades, and other tactical gear of her choice to said outfit with ease.

Acoustic Guitar

An authentic Acoustic Guitar Maya bought around the age of 18 as a side hobby, which eventually lead to her learning how to sing as well.