I've been working on expanding these guys beyond the original 'mention' in the Cyber Confedaration article... mostly because I've a character who spends most of their life in Fenspace as a Kunstler, they end up doing quite a bit in a current story... and because there's some cool stuff in there. The excessive commas are remnants of wiki-markup, since the original doc was written straight for wiki.
There's some stuff that doesn't quite match with them being Cyber's.... like the AR series, but I thought the idea of them from the manga was interesting enough... and they're not officially listed as members anyway. I also thought there was a little bit of humour to be had from Alita not realising she's an Android... and Daisuke being terrified of her finding out.
Alita:
Daisuke:
And finally, the AR-Series
I've also got to clean up some of the existing stuff I've done to fit this. And... I stayed up all night watching some Chile thing, which I found out when I turned the light off and it didn't go dark so things might be a bit weird in places.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote:Originally founded by Alita Gally in 2011 with the aim of defictionalising the cyborg martial art ‘’Panzer Kunst’’, the ‘’Panzer Kunst Gruppe’’ are made up of those cybers capable of undertaking combat operations in open space without the use of a powered suit. As a result, the ‘’Kunstler’’ are among the most cybernetically modified residents of Fenspace. Half of currently active ‘’Kunstler’’ are more than 90% artificial, and all are above 70%.
Independent at first, they established their home base Grunthal, in the maze of canyons that make up Noctis Labyrinthus at the far western end of the Valles Marineris on Mars. After the beginning of the Boskone War they were assimilated into the Sabre Corps where they were most often called upon to tackle Boskone cyborgs and armoured troops aswell as in-space combat. The ‘’Kunstler’’ also found themselves doing everything from courier missions, to ship boarding, intelligence operations and blitz raids against Boskone bases.
Post war, the Panzer Kunst Gruppe have maintained some links with the Supers, with individual Kunstler filling roles on JLI teams that can’t yet be filled with biomods. The Gruppe also provides a training service to the power-armoured or cybernetic forces of other factions, provided they are capable of operating in the Martian atmosphere.
They follow the OGJ rank structure for the most part, mixed somewhat with rating system ranging from ‘’Anfanger’’(Beginner) at OF(D), to ‘’Krieger’’(warrior) at OF-6. A ‘’Kunstler’s’’ rank depends on their experience, their skill and their overall power. The only ‘’Kunstler’’ who regularly see action are those above ‘’Geselle’’ rank.
== Panzer Kunst ==
German for ‘Armoured Art’. A fictional martial art originating from the Battle Angel Alita manga, designed for use by cyborgs, ‘’Panzer Kunst’’ teaches a cyborg how to live and fight in sync with their own body and its enhanced abilities, aiming towards a oneness between all senses.
‘’Kunstler’’ specialise in fighting armed and armoured opponents, as well as zero gravity and aerial combat. ‘’Panzer Kunst’’ emphasises speed and momentum along with distinctive vibration and shockwave based attacks that fracture bone and armour, and jelly flesh. The strongest members are known to be able to crack a truck’s engine block with a single punch.
‘’Kunstler’’ use a wide variety of weapons in the field, ranging from their distinctive and deadly Damascus Blades, to large calibre firearms and even internal body-mounted weapons. The choice is usually made by the individual ‘’Kunstler’’, based on their own preferences and fighting style.
‘’Panzer Kunst’’ teachings have unexpectedly found a wider audience among the recipients of unwanted or unexpected biomods. After all, one of the first lessons every ‘’Kunstler’’ must learn is how to come to terms with their own bodies.
==Kunstler Gruppes ==
Each Kunstler Gruppe consists of a number of ‘’Geselle’’, led by a ‘’Krieger’’ responsible for both their training and their combat operations if and when they deploy together in the field.
‘’’Kammer Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Yoko Rasierklinge
Specialise in heavy anti-armour operations, boarding actions and assaults, along with the use of internally mounted weapons. The Kammer’s are the most physically powerful ‘’Gruppe’’ and are often the most visible ‘’Kunstlers’’. Each ‘’Kammer’’ is usually a BNF in their own right. They are the most likely to work alongside the JLI.
‘’’Kugel Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Ashen Tiger
The ‘’Kugel Gruppe’’ was formed from ‘’Kunstlers’’ who practiced the sport of Motorball. The second most visible ‘’Gruppe’’ after the ‘’Kammers’’, since the end of the Boskone War they have been holding exhibition matches at various locations in Fenspace. While undoubtedly spectacular, the tendency for players to lose limbs has limited the sport’s uptake among most Fen who can’t easily replace a lost arm at a pitstop.
‘’’Engel Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Jet Jaguar
Specialising in aerial and space combat, the ‘’Engels’’ are ‘’Kunstlers’’ capable of controlled and sustained flight. When operating alone, Engels are often couriers of important information. When operating as a ‘’Gruppe, Engels’’ perform high speed raiding attacks or provide light air cover to ground assaults.
‘’’TUNED Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Erwin Lee
The smallest ‘’Gruppe’’ is often assigned ‘Special’ operations. Also the most likely ‘’Gruppe’’ to work with the Space Patrol. Most members will often be officially assigned to another ‘’Gruppe’’ while assigned to TUNED ‘’Gruppe’’.
‘’’AR Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Einz
Though not officially ranked as Kunstler due to being fully artificial, in an emergency the ‘Alita Replica’ AI androids built by [[Daisuke Edo], can deploy in the field either as their own ‘’Gruppe’’, or as a part of ‘’Gruppe’’ they commonly train with.
‘’’Krieger Gruppe’’’:
Led by: Alita Gally
Should the Panzer Kunst Gruppe ever deploy in full, the Krieger Gruppe is formed from the leaders of all other Gruppes, in order to maintain proper situational control and command awareness. This has only happened once, during the Battle of SerenityCon. A member of the ‘’Krieger Gruppe’’ is known to be an OF-8 troubleshooter.
==Trivia==
‘’Constructed Artistry’’: In the original source, there were multiple schools of ‘’Panzer Kunst’’, Alita Gally chose the name ‘‘Gebaut’’ for her constructed school.
‘’Artist’s blades’’: On reaching the rank of ‘’Geselle’’ and being assigned to a ‘’Gruppe’’, a ‘’Kunstler’’ receives a set of Damascus blades. Manufactured from pattern-welded handwavium-steel, these are extraordinarily sharp and resilient. The design of the blade depends on the preferences of the individual ‘’Kunstler’’, but most tend towards a single butterfly-handled sword, or a pair of elbow-mounted blades.
‘’Grundlose deutschen’’ : In order to distinguish the ‘’Panzer Kunst’’ from eastern martial arts, German attack names, titles and some commands are used, which often causes actual speakers of the language to wince, since they were created using Babelfish.
‘’Shaded eyes’’: Before going into combat, out of tradition, ‘’Kunstlers’’ apply a distinctive eye-black to their cheeks. Often red rather than black, in actuality.
Group Stereotype: Cyborg’s gone way too far towards the machine, and proud of it.
There's some stuff that doesn't quite match with them being Cyber's.... like the AR series, but I thought the idea of them from the manga was interesting enough... and they're not officially listed as members anyway. I also thought there was a little bit of humour to be had from Alita not realising she's an Android... and Daisuke being terrified of her finding out.
Alita:
Quote:Alita Gally believes herself to be a cyborg who lost her memory after being injured at the Islandcon incident, despite what records show about there being no casualties. She believes that her body was rebuilt by Daisuke Edo in 2009, and that the only remaining part of her that is originally human is her brain. She took her name from a Manga she read shortly after awakening... Battle Angel Alita.
Alita shares her appearance and many personality elements with her namesake, and chose to reconstruct the cyborg martial art of Panzer Kunst, based on the original Manga source, leading to the Founding of the Panzer Kunst Gruppe. She is headstrong and courageous, and tends to push back against anyone telling her what to do.
Already an exceptional fighter with beyond human strength, reaction times and abilities, thanks to her artificial body, the reconstructed ‘’Panzer Kunst’’ gives her an edge over other mechanically more powerful foes. Alita can take down an adversary many times her size.
The AR series, are AI androids, constructed copies of Alita sharing the same body designs with a more advanced AI which has grown on from the original template. Unlike the original, they know they’re artificial.
What Alita doesn’t know is that she is actually an Android built by Daisuke Edo in 2009 in an attempt to..well.. build Alita from Gunnm. She didn’t realise that fact when she woke up,... and he has been too afraid to tell her since.
She cares for Daisuke a great deal.
==Attributes ==
‘’Unknowing Angel’’: Alita is an Android. She doesn’t know this, believing herself to be a human cyborg. Whether this is an immutable handwavium quirk where her mind selectively filters anything that might impinge upon that belief or not is unknown. Daisuke has never dared test it.
‘’Armoured Artist’’: Alita developed the reconstructed Panzer Kunst technique, and is probably it’s most adept practitioner.
‘’Don’t tell me what I can’t do’’: Sometimes the best way to get Alita to do something, is to tell her she can’t.
==Handwavium Abilities ==
“Like Changing clothes,”: Alita has three bodies. One for daily life, one for motorball and a ‘berserker’ body for combat. Switching between them takes about an hour with a competent tech. Normally Daisuke does it for her.
* ‘’Daily wear:” Alita’s first and most commonly worn body is based on the first body she is seen using in the Manga. It’s her baseline, and roughly equivalent to the average fenspace android. She doesn’t physically need to eat or sleep, but does so anyway, and naturally doesn’t age so is potentially immortal.
* “Motorballer:” Alita’s motorball body is a copy of the number 99 body Alita used during the motorball story arc’s in the Manga. This body features high speed running wheels in the feet, enhanced reaction times over baseline, and a pair of Damascus blades mounted on the elbows. It breaks easily, but is also easy to fix.
* ‘’Berseker’’: Alita’s berserker body features enhanced strength, reaction times and armour plating, at the expense of some weight, and some poor aesthetics. Alita does not like using the body... it has poor strength control thanks to onboard power boosters operating in a positive feedback loop.
Daisuke:
Quote:Daisuke Edo is a Japanese engineering student originally from Tokyo, who hitched a ride to Fenspace rather than tell his parents he failed his exams. A fan of the Gunnm manga, he set about building an android replica of Gally, using scrap parts ‘borrowed’ from various fen along with some handwavium .Sometime in 2009 she awoke... and he was rather surprised to find that unlike other androids... she didn’t realise she was an android and not human.
Initially afraid of hurting her, or possibly afraid of annoying someone with superhuman strength and reactions, he didn’t tell her otherwise instead telling her that she was a cyborg, and that she’d been injured during the kaboomite accident a few weeks earlier and lost her memory. Gally... who insisted on being called Alita, proceeded to take after her namesake.
A skilled technician, he provides a lot of technical support for the Kunstler, and is usually the first port of call if anyone needs repairing. He doesn’t normally do cyberisations himself... being a tech rather than a surgeon. He does do tune-ups and alterations of existing parts, but some Kunstler prefer to have the work done by other cyber’s, normally the one who installed their parts in the first place.
He specialises in doing a lot with the bare minimum of equipment, reusing salvaged and scrap parts from other cyborgs, or from the construction of Helium. He can usually rebuild the body of an over enthusiastic motorballer, or a Kunstler who’s been damaged in action or training. The end result doesn’t always look good, but it usually works as good, or better than new.
Daisuke also constructed each of the AR-series androids, imprinting them with each with Alita’s memories (at her own request), to create training instructors and sparring partners for Kunstlers, which could be damaged and repaired with little difficulty. Unlike Alita, the AR series know they’re artificial.
He cares for Alita a great deal.
==Mundane Attributes ==
‘’Scrapheap Challenger’’: Can rebuild anything using re-used parts and salvaged materials. Strangely doesn’t seem to have as much luck with brand new parts.
‘’The Masquerade’’: He feels he must keep Alita from learning her true nature. For this reason, he is the only person who does her maintenance.
“Blind without them’’: Is far-sighted, and isn’t as quick to get a new set of eyes himself as he is to rebuild someone elses. He still wears glasses, with added magnifying attachments to help with fine detailed work.
“Non-fighting type:” Doesn’t usually fight if he can help it. Alita has tried to teach him some self defense... with varying success.
“Squishy:” Ordinary Mk 1 unmodded human being, and determined to stay that way thank you very much.
And finally, the AR-Series
Quote:The AR series are androids build by Daisuke Edo, based upon the original Alita, and using her memories and skills as a template. They were constructed at Alita’s request once she had perfected her Panzer Kunst technique, to help with training others. A unique modular design allows an AR to share parts with any other AR, aswell as to be easily repaired after sparring matches.
The AR series are of course naturally capable fighters on their own, and will occasionally join with the Gruppe they train with when it deploys in the field, though in general, do not operate on their own. In an emergency, they can deploy as their own Gruppe.
Needless to say, they each share Alita’s skill with Panzer Kunst, and her determination to do for themselves. They’re not forced to remain at Grunthal... it’s doubtful anyone ‘’could’’ force them if they tried.
Each of them are simply named using their construction number in German. Einz, the first, is their de-facto leader, the eldest sister. The youngest is currently Zwolf, the twelfth to have been built.
==Attributes==
“Sisters of metal”: Each AR series can share parts with any other AR. They’re all built to the exact same template.
“My own Person!”: A good way to get a good arse-kicking is to make the suggestion that an AR is 'merely' a copy of the original. Each of the AR series strives to be their own person, rather than ‘just a copy’.
‘’Armoured Artist’’: Each AR is an expert in Panzer Kunst, having been programmed initially with Alita’s skill, and trained extensively.
‘’Don’t tell me what I can’t do’’: They all have one characteristic in common... they all share Alita’s headstrong self-determination.
==Handwavium Abilities ==
‘’Steel Angels’’: Each AR is an android, with beyond human strength and reaction times. They don’t need to eat, sleep and will never age. In theory they are immortal. Unlike Alita, they know what they are.
“Like changing clothes,”: Each AR has three bodies. One for daily life, one for motorball and a ‘berserker’ body for combat. Switching between them takes about an hour with a competent tech. Normally Daisuke does it for her. In generall, these are the same as Alita's
* ‘’Daily wear:” In general, also the body preferred by the AR’s, though they change the hairstyle or colour as much as possible.
* “Motorballer:”Sechs and Sieben prefer the motorball body.
* ‘’Berseker’’: .Feunf prefers her berserker body, day to day. Drei and Elf refuse to use theirs.
==Trivia==
Elf and Sieben are OF-5 troubleshooters, most often working in Metropolis.
Vier left Grunthal in 2017, joining Starfleet to make her own name.
I've also got to clean up some of the existing stuff I've done to fit this. And... I stayed up all night watching some Chile thing, which I found out when I turned the light off and it didn't go dark so things might be a bit weird in places.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
