Quote:I Am A Panzer Kunstler, Ask Me Anything. self.IAmA
Submitted (09/08/2014) by Valkyriesride2012

I am a cyborg, training with the Panzer Kunst Gruppe here ot Grunthal, Mars. I've been with the Gruppe since 2012, earning my blades in 2013. While I have to be careful about some things, in general I should be pretty much able to answer anything about how and why we train, how we fight and what we do here. Or, what life is like for those of us who've traded meat for metal.

I've included an image of one of my personal blades with the hallmark from the Temple of Syrinx. The serial number has been erased.

Edit 1: Further proof provided to the moderators. Including the origin IP of my posts.

Quote: Dear Random Kunstler,
How does one actually become a Panzer Kunstler? Do you just talk with a representative from the organization after undergoing high-level cyberization, and they take you to Mars to train? Or, are there smaller local outposts where newby cyborgs are tutored at hospitals or local dojos? And you only go to Mars for advanced, high level training?
For that matter, what sort of training do you do there? It's all very neat to hear this cool stuff about meditation, but, from a practical standpoint, what do you end up doing? I have a friend who says they learned to juggle eggs while in Kunstler training, but I'm not sure of the accuracy of this statement, given my questionable sobriety at the time.
Signed, ChairForceMan

Quote:There're a couple of ways really.

The majority of people are referred here by their doc. That's how I joined and it's still the most common method. A lot of high-level cybers find they have problems controlling their bodies, and that's the first we have to teach them. It's also why most students start training with us. All they want to know is how to properly control themselves, and how not to break handles off the doors. We also handle accidental cyberisations, usually referred to our door by the doctor who's first examined them.

A few cybers find out about us on their own. Usually they get in contact with us directly and arrange an appointment to meet either here on Grunthal, or at their home.

The other method is to go the other way. We've got a referral agreement with Ares nearby and, if someone comes to our door and says they'd like to be a combat cyborg, we'll subsidise the conversion in exchange for a commitment of a minimum of five years. Decent combat-ware is expensive. We're also extremely careful to properly vette anyone applying this way.... there're a few people who really shouldn't be given the power we have. We now require at least two character references, or a statement of a person's good name from a major faction before referring them forward.

Right now, the only training's available on Mars. There's no reason why someone couldn't set up another school, but our sole base is here in Noctis Labyrinths. We aren't that large a faction. We have a few people on Kandor, mosly liasing with SHIELD and the like to maintain relations, or crosstraining. Crosstraining with Supers is fun.

I can confirm the egg thing. It's especially tough with metal hands. It's not a spectacular trick, but it requires far more concentration than block breaking. Most ordinary humans find it hard. I love just flicking it up in the air, while contuining to explain what I'm doing without overn watching it, then just nonchalantly sticking my hand out to catch it without shattering it. All without ever breaking eye contact. It's a trick that demonstrates multitasking, self awareness and use of the tracking and targetting systems built in to my body, beyond my visual eyesight.

Training can be quite intensive, especially over the first few weeks and months. It has to be. It wouldn't be unusual to be doing more than 12 hours a day. You've got to remember that most of us are quite capable of going without sleep for days at a time. That's also split up a lot and spread across the whole day, it's not just one block of 12 hours work. There's time to rest, there's time for individual hobbies. There's time to commute to Port Adelaide or Helium. A lot of us play motorball in our downtime.

Without getting into too much detail, what we do depends a lot on what stage a person's training is at. Anfanger spend most of their time just getting familiarised with their hardware and comfortable with their cybernetics, along with some very basic foundation exercises such as coordination development, and self awareness excersises (Like the egg) and important lifestyle things how to handle atmospheric transitions and low gravity environments, and why skimping on maintenance or going beyond what your instructor tells you is safe is a bad idea. This is where the egg thing comes in, once you can do that you're well able to move on the Tzereter level. Tzereter start learning how to actually defend themselves against an attacker, aswell as how to maintain their personal conditioning without outside help. Tzereter are a lot more physically active. Most training is conducted out of doors, either on the Martian surface or in outer space by more advanced members of the gruppe

Most people (4/5) will leave the Gruppe after completing Tzereter instruction.

That's basically what we do. Actual schedules can vary a lot, however, especially for Lehrling level and beyond, where the curtains get drawn and the students start taking mission

It's not easy by any means.

Quote:I think it'd be a fair fight. I won't say more than that.

Quote:That sounds like too much of a busman's holiday. I sandbox a lot though, when I can get somewhere with a decent interwave hookup.

Quote:Actually, we've never met.

Quote:I really don't remember. For me, it was a Tuesday.

Quote:17

Quote:Kammer Gruppe members, usually

Quote:The whole point is that when some poor shmoe wakes up and finds a good chunk of himself replaced with metal, there's an obvious cyber right there to tell him that life isn't over, there are people who understand exactly what it's like and who will help him adapt and get on with living, and not incidentally do this kind of q&a as needed. Officially they're listed as extra security staff, but the primary focus is proactive handling of these issues.

Quote:Hey Kunstler,

I know the Gruppe's kinda new, but have any interesting traditions developed?

Well, maybe that's the wrong way to phrase it. Put another way, is there specific lingo you guys use? Secret handshakes are a little cliche, but would you define anything right now as a cultural action that is unique to Kunstlers?

Also, about the blades. They're a pretty unique symbol, but why do Kunstlers, a group centered around Cyborg fighting (I know it's more than that, but humor me here) give out swordsas a mark of mastery?

-Signed ChairForceMan

PS: Sorry for the random sounding questions, but the space cultures up here are all pretty fascinating. If I can somehow pull the time from somewhere, I might just visits Mars to check it all out.

Quote:Traditions?

We're about 4 years old, just over that actually. It's been enough time to develop a few elusinian mysteries of our own. Some of them you'll have to get chromed yourself to discover....

But, well it's generally expected that Lehrling apprenticing to join one of the individual Gruppe will act as support to the Gruppe, preparing equipment before active missions, maintaining Grunthal itself and generallydoing their best to prove themselves worthy. In exchange, they learn some of the Gruppes Geheiminis techniques. There're a few other individual Gruppe ones.... for the Engel Gruppe, making a high speed canyon run without the benefit of your eyes is an important milestone in training that's built up it's own superstitions about the best techniques to use, and how to ensure the best weather.

There're a few combat ones, but we share a lot of them with other GJ forces we worked with.

It's common for Kunstler to have their individual Gruppe insignia permanently engraved on their armour. Once a Panzer Kunstler, always a Panzer Kunstler. It's generally done after the first combat mission as a full member of the Gruppe. Doing it before that would be considered a little presumptuous.

There's also some oddball stuff like the Peter's number, the Winry coefficient and the fact that the leader of the TUNED Gruppe is always called 'Major'. Or how our Space Patrol liaison also always uses the callsign 'Murphy'.

The blades come from the source fandom. They're made from a pattern-welded steel by the techpriests at Syrinx. We call them Damascus blades, because of the particular pattern the impurities in the steel give it. It's like liquid irridescence flowing through the metal and it gives the steel it's fantastic strength. They serve as a constant reminder to us that it's the 'impurities' that gives us our strength, beyond just hard training. It's a reminder that hobbies, enjoyment and 'humanity' is as important as raw mechanical skill. We have to be people, not just a cold hard razor's edge. That path leads only to self-destruction, the same as a pure-steel blade can shatter like glass. They also tarnish quickly, and lose their strength if allowed to get dirty. It's serves as a reminder to maintain our edge and practice, even in our downtime or we lose our strength. And it's tough to get it back.

That, and some of us (me included) don't like carrying long firearms. Especially when you're fast moving like we are, they tend to get in the way. And there's no penalty to us for carrying a heavy handgun like a Desert Eagle for when a little bit of range is helpful.

If you want to come out and visit.... we don't turn away visitors but try to understand that there is a safety issue for unmodified people.

Quote:So, let's say I was interested in hiring a Gruppe for a job. How would I go about doing that? What're the general price ranges, is there a set rate or does it vary depending on the job? Are there moral lines beyond the usual things? And would I have to provide transportation?

Quote:So, let's say I was interested in hiring a Gruppe for a job. How would I go about doing that? What're the general price ranges, is there a set rate or does it vary depending on the job? Are there moral lines beyond the usual things? And would I have to provide transportation?

Quote:If the "techpriests at Syrinx" are that important to the PK (I assume they are W40k Fen), might it be worth expanding a bit on how many of them there are, what sorts of specific things they do apart from make PK swords and other things with similar fancy metal?

Do you think any Boskone would be stupid enough to raid them for their tech? Do Boskone run to things like Chaos Marines? Or, I guess there is always Cultist-chan (what sort of biomod would that be?).

For real fun, to front an assault, have Boskone 'borrow' something from Monster Asteroid, 'wave it up with quite a few tons of stolen meat products... Zombie Godzilla or something...