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.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?