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Hey guys,

I started reading Chains of Golgotha and got to a point where Yarrick began using his Power Klaw and it got me thinking:

Can Power Klaws and other generic bionic arms/legs/etc be removed and re-attached at will and/or with relative ease? Or are they permanently attached to the bearer's body?

Cheers guys

Generally speaking, a bionic/cybernetic limb is, for all intents and purposes, permanently grafted to the subject's body. Of course, a trained AdMech Magos Cybernetica could perform the necessary surgeries to remove the limb and replace it with another, or perhaps even replace it with a vat-grown organic limb, but this is obviously not something that one does "in the field".

As to switching out the equipped weapon mounted on a cyberlimb? Theoretically possible, as such a feature makes appearances in other sci-fi/dark future settings where cybertechnology is common, but I am not certain if the AdMech works in that manner.

If it were possible, though, the weapon would be mounted somewhere like the wrist or elbow, and the wearer would unfasten certain linkages, loosen bolts and screws, etc. to remove the weapon, and then fit on another option with a matching "limb" to join to the cyberlimb. You wouldn't just tear your metal arm out of your meaty shoulder.

I have no sources at all on this manor, but I would imagine it varies. The vast majority I think would be permanent as they are intertwined with the wearers organic body parts. However I could also see a fancy inquisitor getting special treatment and having say a bionic arm which has a specific purpose but can be swapped to something different if the situation changes (Think Metal Gear Solid V).

I dont imagine the vast majority of bionics would be a simple manner of placing something into a socket or pulling it out of said socket. By in large I would bet on the vast majority of bionics being intended as a permanent replacement for organic parts.

Now Orks on the other hand....

Are they easily removed and reattached? I'd imagine that it would depend on the bionic. Bionic organs? Probably not. A bionic limb? Probably, at least when compared to an organ. Bionic half of a body a la Huron Blackheart or Straken? Definitely not.

Now are they simply easy to remove? 3rd edition Newcron codex had an adept who had tore out all of his bionic implants including his eyes with his bare hands... Take that how you will.

Fair enough. I figured it must be possible in one way or another. I mean, can you imagine Yarrick trying to go to sleep with this big fething Power Claw just hanging off the side of the bed? Haha

 IllumiNini wrote:
Fair enough. I figured it must be possible in one way or another. I mean, can you imagine Yarrick trying to go to sleep with this big fething Power Claw just hanging off the side of the bed? Haha

Yarrick does not sleep. He waits.

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:

 IllumiNini wrote:
Fair enough. I figured it must be possible in one way or another. I mean, can you imagine Yarrick trying to go to sleep with this big fething Power Claw just hanging off the side of the bed? Haha

Yarrick does not sleep. He waits.

He waits... he waits while periodically flicking a lamp next to his arm chair on and then off again; waiting for the day he kills Thraka!

In general terms I would think having the technohow to install them would mean you would be able to remove them.

I would guess it would be more risky the more invovled the bionics were, a bionic arm would be easier to remove than a bionic set of lungs and heart for example.

I would also guess that some bionics are designed to be removed to start with, a swappable hand for example.

We also know that bionics can be replaced with grafted or cloned real parts - eisenhorn loses a hand and initially has a bionic but replaces it with a real hand later.

In the Dark Heresy supplement "The Lathe Worlds" there's a kind of Admech diplomat called a Factor of the Lathes. Their bionics are all hidden in their bodies or otherwise concealed. Obvious bionics like Mechadendrites can be temporarily removed and reinstalled, though the procedure does take a few hours.

Can they be removed? More than likely.

Whether or not the former bearer would live through the procedure is debatable.

Remember, whatever happens, you will not be missed.

 chromedog wrote:
Can they be removed? More than likely.

Whether or not the former bearer would live through the procedure is debatable.

Remember, whatever happens, you will not be missed.

ha, thats a very good point. I had imagined that bionics might well be recycled once the owner was "finished" with them but hadnt gone as far as thinking that might be in a less than willing manner!

Following along the lines of what Buttery Commisar once said, I'm assuming Yarrick's power klaw has to be detachable. How else would he put a new shirt on, or anything practical? I don't see giant tears in his shirts, so it has to come off somehow without hurting Yarrick.

As durable as the Old Man is, I doubt he'd want to have his arm forcibly removed each time he wants to change his clothes, and I don't think he's just that skilled either. I'm also aware this would be one of the special cases like Inquisitors, but I figured that it'd be worth mentioning.

Removed. Yes

Survival is a matter of who does it, how and what part it once replaced.


You can remove an arm, a leg, etc and besides extreme pain (or not, depends on the design) he subject would be "alive", sometimes. Head and torso stuff gets a little more complicated.

One would imagine some parts have to be designed so you can remove them, at least temporarily. The Space Marine heads with the obvious camera eye, for example - it's probably necessary to take the eye module out for cleaning (both it and the flesh underneath) once in a while.

You would clean the external components of an optic mount with a static-free cloth and sacred unguents. The internal components could be cleaned with nanites.

Not sure on those optics being removed. Some of the Dark Eldar heads-on-pikes bits include skulls with the bionic fairly clearly embedded into them.

Well, the Dark Angels librarian with a bionic eye only had it as a temporary stop gap ( it wasn't very good.) with the option to update it to a nice one at a later date. He kept it because he was a stubborn git.

I imagine that if you are gene growing replacement limbs, you could have temporary bionics.