Why remove them? By the time a soldier retired their implants are likely outdated. I doubt they'd get an upgrade right before retirement. I suppose their might be an issue with civilians having military tech, but with it being outdated the impact would be minimal. That and retired military are less likely to cause issues for the military. I can see their being a medical reason, and a retirement cost associated for maintenance, but that would be the only reasons I can think of.

I think obsolescence isn't really the issue, I think it's more related to civilians having military tech, making them dangerous to the civilian population, outdated tech or not, since the civilians would not have anything similar. Imagine a retired vet getting into fight for whatever reason, whilst still having implants giving them extra strength because they were carrying heavy gear or whatever; they'd be able to simply pulp a civilian in the fight. Or still having the claw and tooth enhancement mentioned, thus being able to do what Wolverine does to his enemies and much of the decor and props in the movies...

I'd be less worried about old soldiers killing civilians and more worried about criminals killing old soldiers to repurpose those enhancements. Back alley "butcher shops" (Illegal Medical Clinics) juicing up violent criminals and creating a market for outdated military tech. I suppose it really depends on how obsolete the upgrade tech is after a tour or two as a soldier. If all you get for stealing the tech from a soldier is the equivalent of an old Nokia phone, you'd be better off just buying from a civilian contractor.

Yeah, that too. Somehow, I get the feeling that even outdated military enhancements are still way ahead of anything the civilian might be able to get their hands on.

Im sure the tech uses some rare materials the military could recycle as well.

While it's possible to take anyone down with the right equipment and planning, old soldiers vanishing or turning up dead would make alarm bells ring, followed by a crackdown on everyone with the medical expertise and equipment.
And if the plan to take an old soldier down fails the consequences could be fatal.
Not sure if all that risk is worth it.

You saying the space mafia wouldn't try?

Try, maybe.
But the cost/risk factor makes me wonder if it's worth it and how many have the money to buy the stolen implants.
And then there is the question if the receiver can actually use it in a profitable way.
If even one case gets known the controls on everyone with the knowledge and equipment will be tightened.
And finally, anyone with stolen implants can expect similar enhanced soldiers supporting the cops.

Stolen implants don't have to be used in a profitable way for people to want them. And there's no way any civilization can have complete control over people with certain knowledge bases, even in Authoritarian Dictatorships. If there's money to be made, there will always be people willing to exploit it. The biggest reason for removing them that I can see isn't the criminal angle, but cost of maintenance for Retirees with the implants and the effect those upgrades could have on the elderly. Imagine an elderly with osteoporosis sneezing and breaking ribs, stumbling and tensing to try and catch themselves and snapping a hip or femur, or an Alzheimer's patient with brain implants.

I think in order for it to be worthwhile to bump someone off for their implants and augments, enhancement outside of state service needs to be illegal for everyone across all jurisdictions. I doubt everyone in the universe thinks or believes the same about the issue, and I doubt military enhancement exists in a vacuum without a civilian market. If it does exist in a vacuum, then this would be akin to a war on drugs with supply and demand, except with implants and augments. The illegality of civilians being enhanced would create a lucrative and rewarding market. It also invokes questions about how invasive a search can be on someone to determine what implants they have, and what the capabilities are, and if they are illegal. Every military member walking about in public would have a paycheck over their head, and lighting up a convoy would be a payday much like an armored truck.

It doesn't make economic sense to wait for someone to be outdated when there are plenty of top the line models to bag. Suppose the tech does exist in a vacuum, then any military members wouldn't be able to leave base without a huge paycheck looming over their heads. Enhancements and armor are great, but they can't ignore physics. Even by IRL/human standards, the synthesis of various explosives is trivially easy with off-the-shelf reagents. One of my favorite content creators is currently experimenting with consumer polymer-based products, like rat-trap glue, as part of his efforts to create a PBX (polymer based explosive) composition comparable to C4. I.E good melt-casting properties (shaped charges), shelf-stable, desensitized while also being pliable / moldable, etc.

The problem isn't augmented grunts entering civilian life, it's that the people apparently lack access to the technology of the day. The best logical explanation for this is that the state views the people as the enemy and attempts to deny them access to equivalent technology that would otherwise make returning vets moot. It seems that enhancements are also "... used responsibly outside of [our profession]", and there aren't any issues with military rigs among civilians, so long as they are under the state's thumb. This literally comes down to gun/armaments control; dangerous freedom vs a padded cell. It's pure faith in the state that it will never misuse its monopoly on violent force.

People with enhanced bodies are no more a danger to the populace than vehicles, heavy machinery, or an education. Attempting the impossible feat of restricting access to any given technology or knowledge is merely an exercise in totalitarian control over the people. The notion that the state can dictate the matters of someone's body tramples the notion of bodily sovereignty, and reduces someone to being the mere property of the state. Maybe Si'itiae psychology is different and more docile, but human psychology often warrants a violent pushback. Given the ruined worlds, I'm not holding my breath that Si'itiae are any less violent.

This brings up the topic of how varying legal jurisdictions handle bodily enhancements among the people, and if some are denied freedom of travel, rights, etc. for being enhanced.

-- a former grunt.

Damn, straight to 'their state is a dictatorship !' Wasn't expecting that...

Not too sure where you read that the enhancements are also "... used responsibly outside of [our profession]". I've just reread the whole thing and didn't saw anything even hinting that military enhancements are used outside of the military. But maybe I missed it. There one mention of people who might already have enhancements getting those upgraded ti military specifications, which seems to indicate a disparity between what's available to the average citizen and what's available to the military, the latter being apparently quite superior to the former.

Vehicles and heavy machinery are regulated to protect the public. You need permits to drive a vehicle and to operate heavy machinery, and heavy machinery, in many cases, just isn't allowed in the streets for day-to-day activities. You're not going to take your big bulldozer or whatever to the grocery store, and park it in the parking lot like your average car. As for calling education a danger to the populace, that's a whole other can of worms that I'm not going to open right now.

I'm going to answer your extreme example by another extreme example : while the knowledge of how nuclear weapons works is pretty spread, access to the technology and materials needed to build is restricted by about every government in the world, and with good reason given the destructive potential of said weapons.

From what is pretty obvious from iPoke's works, as well as his answers to comments, Si'itiae civilisation is quite different : they're pretty much post-scarcity, and their state seems to be a well functioning welfare state (I think that's how it's called ?), which implies a different way of thinking than what we're used to, both for the people in charge and for the general populace.

Straight to nuclear, not unexpected. Access to knowledge and access to technology are one and the same. Nuclear age started in the 1940s and it's neither an informational nor a technological restriction by the state, rather it's logistical restriction. The main hindrance is the logistical nightmare of sourcing, extracting, and refining the shear tonnage of raw uranium ore necessary to obtain a usable amount of U-235. It has less to do with the state's opinion on the matter, and more to do with an industrial scale that beyond the overwhelming majority of individuals. It's a completely different barrier to state restrictions or attempts to restrict technology. The US literally auctions off it's old nuclear equipment, and FleshSimulator received a mere inquiry call for buying a nuclear instrumentation modulator to repurpose for music creation. The name sounds wild until you realize it's just a fancy synthesizer; again, ancient technology by today's standards. States have never, and will never been able to restrict anything from someone who wants it bad enough; it's the scale of the operation that restricts people.

The responsible use of enhancements outside of the profession is on page 5.

Don't worry too much about this. I suspected the odd political argument to pop up here for exactly this reason, since a lot of what's described here goes against the hyper-individualist notions expressed by Spiffy (looking at their comment further down), which I'm sure are shared by a couple' more. I won't argue on this, since political furdom is the worst kind of hell, but while the empire is not a dictatorship, it makes sense for someone with Spiffy's pool of opinions to see them as such.

Having said that, vehicle and heavy machinery operation is probably the best parallel example as to why augmentations are controlled in the civilian world and also what the "...use responsibly outside of..." line is about. It's easy to see how someone could get carried away with, or abusing, being able to lift ten times your own body weight, for instance. Never mind what a cognitive accelerator (even a low-end one) or a military grade hack-chip would allow you to do in an environment it's not meant to be applied in.

For the nuclear argument - a family member of mine used to work in (what we called) nuclear accounting. The bottleneck for most proliferation isn't the technology (although there are safeguards there too), but getting their hands on the base raw material required to make the technology function - which makes sense, because much like pandora's box, once an idea has been expressed/recorded, you're not really getting that genie back in the bottle. So while the technology itself may not be as heavily regulated as one might think, fissile material is very tightly monitored, even in the most liberal states of our planet - and this is a good thing <3

If I may, one of the other things not mentioned is the potential of an enemy successfully capturing a lone, retired soldier (not necessarily alive), and analyzing the implants, everything from the hardware itself to the firmware to the software, and being able to gauge, through this, potential attack routes and vulnerabilities that might not yet have been "patched out" of later generations of the implants, or, equally, cannot be successfully patched or removed without compromising the very functions themselves. All of this doesn't even take into account the security risk of classified information on the whole leaking to a hostile state.

It sounds like a state with too much power over it's people and it's scared it will have that power checked. Politicians and standing armies have always been, and still are the biggest danger to the public, not former military. It's history 101 to disarm the opposition. I see physical enhancement and augmentation as extensions of essential liberties, and forbidding such to the people is a symptom of a state that sees the public and as the enemy, and a threat to unchecked state power.

Perhaps some TS implants would be removed, but that doesn't explain why the public wouldn't have equal or better enhancements than the general populace of the military. My personal kit in civilian life is far better than anything I ever had as a grunt. Even the police are more kitted out than the infantry these days.

Can imagine there'd be difficulties.

That's a nice heavy army suit that guy has on, very tactical I think.

The full suit is visible in the previous instalment ^^

Ah, I'll have to go back and look again at it.

most excellent...

Vix

Thank you ^^

Twenty new arms? That's some Asura's Wrath shit right there.

Also, what about ear augs? To be so perceptive, to hear EVERYTHING.

I mean, they already hear a lot XD that sort of thing probably wouldn't be an augmentation - at least I don't see any practical use - but the suits do allow for enhanced perceptions of many forms.

Yea I can see how removal would be hella hard

It's not something I see addressed in fiction a whole lot, so I felt it needed inclusion :3

Yea, it doesn't get addressed much which is unfortunate cause I enjoy world and society building, and this is part of it.
Like for my deer, in his society its more replacement then removal for applicable enhancements, not just cause of -what- was replaced, but also cause of the society he comes from, its the more convenient and effective option, and there is still an adaption period.

But you don't really see that, and I don't really talk about it much cause most art or things I get are of the deer in his "prime" as with most other folks.

So its nice having a snippet of what happens when people move onto other things.
Round about way of saying I really liked what this panel has shone a light one, cause its not really something that, as you said, gets addressed much.

Ooof...yeah, I can only imagine that getting augmented and living your life with those augments would make losing them feel more like mutilation than a return to your natural state...so many skills and patterns you'd built over the years only to like, not have the body parts that made them usable?
Sounds like a nightmare...

I imagine it may well be kind of like withdrawal in some cases too. You had all this ability at one point, more perception, faster thinking etc. like going on an LSD trip (anecdotally - I've never had more than alcohol(yet?)), and suddenly you're back to normal, but you constantly remember what it was like when you were in that other state.

But that's what counselling is for.