This series is as intense as the game and as "Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners." In other words, it's great.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #1: Our protagonist, Nadia, walks a Trauma Team International (TTI) psychiatrist through the events of a call that ended disastrously, with everyone else on her team dying. She and the psychiatrist have gone over the events previously, and Nadia reluctantly does so one more time.
TTI sends the team to Westbrook at 11:00p to save a platinum level client. When they arrive, two security guards are huddled behind a limousine, which is lying on its side, and exchanging fire with, presumably, the perps. One guard is already dead on the ground, and one of two surviving guards is shot through the head before the team exits the chopper. Nadia and the other med-tech, Zander, cut open the limousine's roof and extract the client while Dodds and Mason cover them. Dodds is shot in the head, distracting Nadia (though we can't see her face behind her helmet).
Nadia pauses in relaying the story to the therapist, who reminds her that she's trying to assess if Nadia is ready to return to active duty. Nadia complains that she's been sitting in her apartment for weeks doing nothing, which makes her feel like she died, too.
Returning to the flashback, Zander radios the chopper and tells them that they can't move the perp so they're going to have to come get them. Although he doubts their chances at survival, Zander tells Nadia to get her head in the game as she stares at Dodds' body, his helmet broken in half so you can see part of his face. The chopper arrives and lays down suppressing fire, but a crazed looking guy wielding two swords leaps from the ground onto the chopper.
Laughing hysterically, the assassin stabs Adson and Simmons in their faces through the chopper's windshield, prompting the chopper to spray fire into the crowd. (Why, oh, why, anyone in Night City would ever stay on the scene of a shoot-out is beyond me.) The assassin leaps off the chopper as it crashes and lands on the ground; he then slices the back of Zander's head. The second chopper arrives so the assassin leaves Nadia alive though not before they meet each other's eyes. (He walks past Mason's body as he leaves, though I'm not sure if he killed him at that moment or if Mason got hit by the guys firing on them or the wild fire from the chopper. So many options for death in Night City.)
The psychiatrist clears Nadia to return to active duty. As she leaves with her new team, the leader, Stratter, refers to her as new kid and doesn't listen when she tells him that she isn't new. The team arrives in Pacifica, and Stratter tells her that she's going to experience a trial by fire. She again tells him that it isn't her first op, and Knapp, the other med-tech, tells Stratter that Nadia's other team got iced but she saved the client. Stratter responds, "Stay frosty. Or get frosted." Heh.
The team arrives on the roof, and the pilot tells them they're entering gang-controlled territory. To get to the client, they have to go down two floors, so Stratter and Gordon start laying down fire. The team starts going door to door in a typical Night City shithole apartment building when a gang opens fire on them, announcing that they're not taking "him." Stratter gets winged on the shoulder and asks for some stimulants ("'dorph"), which Nadia comes to provide. Nadia freezes, thinking of her her previous team's demise, and Gordon tells herself to pull herself together, which she does, administering the drugs.
Stratter and Gordon hold off the gang members as Nadia and Knapp follow a trail of blood to the client. Knapp tells Nadia to pull herself together lest she get them all killed. Stratter and Gordon leave their position to follow the med-techs, and the gang members follow down the hall. As they enter the room where the client is, Nadia drops her medical case when she realizes the client is the guy who killed her team. Dun-dun-DUN!
I'll note this last part - the client being the assassin - is particularly ironic due to Nadia earlier telling the psychiatrist that she joined TTI to help people. Poor Nadia.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #2: Knapp (again) tells Nadia to pull it together and give the client a stim as Stratter and Gordon try to hold off the gang members who, as one of them notes, want the assassin really badly.
In a flashback, the therapist starts reviewing Nadia's team members. We learn that she worked with them for two years, which the therapist notes is a very long time.
Back in the present, we see blood splash on the nameplate on Nadia's helmet (it's a great visual), and she raises her helmet and realizes they hit Gordon in the neck. She takes off his helmet and applies skin foam and tissue glue as the gang members arrive and Stratter is forced to engage in melee combat with his gun. Stratter realizes that it's quiet and screams that they've got an opening, and Knapp tells Nadia to leave Gordon to help with the client. Suddenly, a gang member appears in the hallway, and Stratter curses that they lost their opening. Knapp tells Nadia that Gordon is dead and the client needs her now. He tells her not to pull a stunt like that again, reminding her the job is to save the client.
The assassin comments, "The customer is always right," which brings us to a flashback where Nadia and Dobbs are walking with boxes of noodles. Suddenly, Dobbs' body becomes a corpse as he tells her that some of the people they help are good people, which he knows she believes since he doesn't think she'd stay with TTI otherwise.
In the present, the assassin — sorry, the client — notes that they've up 100 floors, and Stratter calls for Aerodyne to bring the chopper to get them. Aerodyne opens fire through the walls on the gang members and creates an opening for the team to exit via tow cables. But the gang members use an RPG to take out the chopper.
As the fire-suppressant system (surprisingly, given it's Night City) starts raining down water on them, Nadia has a flashback to having sex with Dobbs. She tells him to say something sexy after they're done, and he responds that his wanton sexuality is what got them into this situation. (With a body like his, I'd be wantonly sexy, too.) He tells them that they can't hesitate in the field, prompting her to ask whom he'd save, her or a client. He responds, "You don't know the answer? Nadia, I -" and suddenly she sees the client slit his throat with his sword. She then sits alone on the bed in the flashback, Dobbs' helmet missing from the floor where it was when we first saw them in bed together.
In the present, the client picks up a gun and opens fire on the gang members coming at them. As they get to their feet, Nadia pulls a gun and puts it to the back of the client's head.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #3: Stratter pulls up Nadia's arm so she's no longer aiming at the client and tells her to drop the gun. Nadia tells him that he killed her team and enjoyed it, and Stratter tells her that, "This is the damn job."
As Nadia, Knapp, Stratter, and the client start making their way down the stairwell (only 98 floors to go!), the client tells them that he thought it was an easy gig, killing the gang's boss. But it turns out they loved the guy, so they're going wild. The client tells them that they're going to have to get wild, too, if they want to survive or Nadia should've killed him. Knapp tries to calm Nadia, telling her that the client is just baiting her, when the gang members open fire on them, hitting Knapp. He tells Nadia that the body armor took most of the damage, and Stratter returns fire to give them time to move Knapp.
The client surprisingly helps, opening a door onto the 94th Floor (oof) so they can get Knapp to an apartment where Nadia can treat him. Stratter hurls a grenade into the stairwell and then busts down a door into an apartment, which is occupied. Nadia starts to tend to Knapp, but the woman distracts her when she tells them that her daughter is sick. Stratter tells Nadia to move quickly, because the gang members are coming, but the client points out Knapp is dead. Stratter blames it on Nadia not moving fast enough (which seems a stretch and probably a sign Stratter is losing it), and the gang members arrive on the floor.
Nadia wants to help the kid, and Stratter is apoplectic. The client, though, tells Stratter to let Nadia help and he'll take care of the gang members if they give him a stimulant. Nadia refuses, but Stratter administers it, correctly pointing out they need him if they're going to survive. The client then goes wild, using knives he took from the woman's apartment to plow through the gang members. At one point, one gang member gets his arm around the client from behind, and the client bites off part of the guy's forearm. (It's a lot.)
In the apartment, Nadia is ministering to the girl when Stratter observes that she didn't save Gordon or Knapp but now she's saving this "little rat." Nadia tells him that she's a medic and she's helping so he has to get his shit together. (I felt the same way, as noted above.) Stratter loses it, grabbing her by the neck and telling her that he isn't the one who has to learn his place. Nadia then pulls a gun on him as the client enters and tells them that the hall is clear. Stratter threatens Nadia with telling the company on her when they leave, prompting the client (whom I'm really coming to love) to comment, hilariously, "Nice to see my Trauma Team money is well spent." Ha!
Stratter and the client exit into the hallway as Nadia gives the woman antibiotics, telling her to give her child one a day. Stratter is furious, but the client tells him to let Nadia do her thing and give the kid a chance. Huh.
In a flashback, Nadia returns to the question of whom Dobbs would save, and he tells her that it isn't that easy. Nadia tells him that it is, that she'd do anything to save him. Of course, we then get a flashback of her performing CPR on the client as Dodds' dead body lies behind her.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #4: Holy fuck, this issue.
In the stairwell, the client says that he's fading, and Nadia gives him a stimulant. It prompts him to comment that they make a good team and she may get her bonus. She then ominously notes they're not out yet. They enter the lobby and exit the megabuilding in a truly spectacular splash page from Valderrama.
On the street, Stratter tells the client and Nadia that the gang members are right behind them but the evacuation team is on the way. Stratter then tells Nadia that she's done once he files the report. Nadia reminds him they need a place to hide, and Stratter continues to rant about how Nadia wasn't ready for the field.
At this point, the client snaps his neck.
Yup. Snaps his neck. I was wondering how Nadia was going to survive this mission with her job intact, and there you go. The client, again hilariously, comments, "Don't mention it." Nadia is stunned, and the client is like, dude, I did you a favor. Nadia tells him that Stratter was her teammate, and the client says, "You're Trauma Team, right? Without that, what are you? Now, he won't take that from you. You're the last 'good little med-tech' standing."
At this point, the gang members pour from the building, and Nadia hustles the client to a safe place. She takes a flesh wound from a bullet as they arrive in a dead-end alley, when a huge jacked dude chasing them arrives. Nadia is fighting off a few gang members as the client goes toe-to-toe with the dude, telling him that he's platinum so he can't hurt him. One of the gang members manages to knock the gun from Nadia's hand as the client tries to rip off the dude's head. However, the dude grabs the client's hands and rips off his cybernetic one. As one of the gang members deploys a cybernetic arm blade, Nadia grabs her gun and opens fire. The dude then rips out the wires from the client's hand and starts the strangle him with them...when Nadia shoots him in the head.
The client is panicked at this point, again mentioning his platinum coverage as he demands Nadia save him. They stumble from the alley only to find a mob of gang members ready for them. The client panics more when Nadia smiles, but she tells him that she's smiling because back-up has arrived, which we see in the form of a chopper hovering above them. The chopper opens fire on the gang members and lands.
The client makes his way to the chopper as Nadia contemplates all her dead team members. She then pulls a gun on the client. The newly arrived TTI team is shocked, and the leader, presumably, asks one of the other members if he has the shot on Nadia. The client complains that he's platinum, and Nadia tells him that she knows what he is. Dobbs' ghost appears again to Nadia and tells her not to do it for him, and she says it isn't for him. The client mutters, "Neither one of us, huh?", and Nadia asks how it feels. He responds, "Feels...platinum." The issue then ends on an unclear note. Given the last panel is full of blood and bullet casings, I'm guessing Nadia shot the client and the TTI team shot her.
Final Thoughts: This series is great. If you aren't familiar with "Cyberpunk 2077," it might seem a little much, but it's the perfect ending, since you don't get happy endings in Night City. It becomes a pretty dark play on Shakespeare's quote, "So shines a good dead in a weary world."
In fact, it's really the only good outcome for Night City. Once the client killed Stratter, it was clear to me that Nadia was in trouble, as I figured TTI would get suspicious that she was again the teams' sole survivor. (That said, maybe not? It seems likely TTI has a lot of, um, turnover.) But it was clear that Nadia really wasn't ready for action again. I would've rathered Nadia work as a medic at a clinic or something. But to Nadia's mind taking this killer off the street was probably the best thing she could do.
(In an example of pet peeve #2, we learn from the back cover that the client's name is Apex, though I'm pretty sure that we never saw him called that in the book, which is part of what made him so creepy, honestly.)
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