Ripperdoc
The Ripperdoc
Street Names: "Stitchers," "Meat-Mechanics," "Chop-Shop Docs," "Hackjobbers"
"The hospital will save your life, sure. But they'll also log your DNA, flag your warrants, and charge you a fortune in insurance premiums. You come to me when you need a new arm, no questions asked. Just bite down on this leather strap; the anesthesia costs extra."
Overview
Legal medical care is a luxury reserved for corporate executives and elite citizens. Everyone else—mercenaries, Razorgirls, and dust-heads—relies on Ripperdocs.
These are unlicensed surgeons who operate in the gray zones of the city. They range from disgraced ex-military medics to self-taught engineers who treat the human body like a broken talking toaster. They are the only ones willing to install Military-Grade (illegal) or Experimental cybernetics.
The Clinic's Atmosphere and Location
A Ripperdoc clinic is rarely a standalone building. It is almost always a parasitic structure hidden inside another business to mask the massive power draw of surgical lasers.
- The Facade: You might walk through the back of a greasy noodle shop, a derelict laundromat, or a blinking IVR adult sex store.
- The "Operating Room"
- Lighting: Harsh, flickering halogen work lights clamped to rusty pipes.
- The Chair: Usually a repurposed dentist's chair or a modified pilot’s seat from a crashed hover-transport, stained with old blood and oil.
- The Sound: The hum of high-voltage generators, the whine of bone saws, and the wet slap of synthetic flesh hitting a tray.
- Sterility: Questionable. You’ll often see sterile robotic surgical arms hanging from a ceiling covered in Mars black mold. They use high-grade nanites to prevent infection, but the room itself smells of ozone, bleach, and copper.
Specific Services
Ripperdocs are the ecosystem that supports the Amp Heads and Razorgirls.
The "Dust Port" Installation
Amp Dust users eventually destroy their nasal cavities. Ripperdocs install "Hardlines"—direct neural ports at the base of the skull (preferred) or in the wrist.
- The Procedure: They drill into the bone and graft a bio-plastic socket directly to the nerve cluster.
- The Benefit: Instant high, zero waste.
- The Risk: If the port isn't sealed right, moisture gets in and shorts the user's brain stem or Mars black mold infests the user's body.
Razorgirl Tuning
Razorgirls are high-maintenance machines. They visit Rippers weekly for:
- Blade Maintenance and Repair: The thin mono-molecular blades can shatter or break after cutting through armored mercenary plating. Rippers use lasers, nanites and diamond-dust grinders to repair them.
- Myomer Repair: Synthetic muscles wear out over time or are damaged in combat. Rippers have to manually repair the fibers, a process described as agonizingly, painfully, like a winch and a blowtorch pulling your hamstrings taut.
"Scrubbing" (Identity Erasure)
For an exorbitant high price, a Ripper can sand off the serial numbers of stolen cyber-limbs or replace a criminal’s retinas to fool biometric scanners.
The Mechanics of "The Swap"
In the Ripperdoc world, surgery isn't magic; it's trauma.
- Integration Lag: after a new limb is attached, the user suffers Integration Lag. They might reach for a cup and crush it, or try to walk and fall over. It takes 24-48 hours for the software to "handshake" with the organic brain.
- Rejection Sickness: the body fights the metal. Users must take nano Immunosuppressants (expensive pills) or risk their flesh rotting around the metal (necrosis). This ailment is completely absent from true professional cyberdocs.
- The "Ghost:" a common psychological side effect where the user can still "feel" their original organic limb, causing itching or pain in a hand that no longer exists. This ailment is completely absent from true professional cyberdocs.
Ripperdoc Subtypes
- The Butcher: cheap, fast, dirty. He uses staples instead of bio-glue. He won't ask where you got that Arasaka combat arm, but he might steal a kidney while you're under anesthesia to sell on the side.
- The Artist: expensive and exclusive. She views cybernetics as evolution. She polishes the chrome until it shines, hides the seams so people look fully human, and tunes your reflexes to surpass thought. Razorgirls only go to Artists.
Hazards of the Trade
- Scavs: Ripper clinics are prime targets for scavengers (gangs who harvest cybernetics). A clinic might get raided mid-surgery, forcing the Doc to defend their patient with a laser scalpel. Some clinics have better defenses than others.
- Security Raids: If a Ripper is caught installing "black" (military-banned) tech, the authorities don't arrest them; they EMP the building and incinerate the evidence.
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