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What would be the pros and cons of a soldier having only mechanical arms and legs and a mostly organic torso and would be even be practical Question
Backstory
I had an idea of a large project to breed specialized soldiers who will be used to fight and kill members of a story-specific group known for being super powered with some of these soldiers having cybernetic implantation. One subject in question has mechanical arms and legs for greater striking ability as well and to be able to use attachable/detachable weapons, along with a special device along her spine to connect to certain machines.
Technical Information
The lab subject in question (who shall be referred as the "char" for now) was bred to fight two members of the target group (who will be referred to as the targets) who function as engineers. Now there's quite a bit of detail about the engineers, what they can do, etc, as well as the specific type of gear and tech the subject will use against them, but getting into it would be getting away from the question so I'm gonna summarize the best I can.
Basically the subject was given cybernetic limbs in order to strengthen her physical strikes due to being solid metal with no soft flesh in the equation whatsoever, as well as being able to utilize attachable weapons and gear for any possible scenario. Her mechanical legs are the same way to a lesser extent, being to conceal weapons and designed to increase movement speed and momentum, the details of which I have not fully figured out though I think the bottom of feet or somewhere in that area would have specialized hover devices and discharge devices for sudden bursts of speed (though this is subject to change). One major implant is a special device on her spine that allows her to connect to specialized gear as well as absorb electrical energy to either amplify organic physiology or be released in an emp (it should go without saying that its fictional technology that operates on fictional principles based on limited amounts of real world physics).
Question Conditions
As I was contemplating this character I began to think about how other than her spinal device only has mechanical arms and legs and started to wonder if that actually makes sense. When I initially came up with the subject's design I didn't think too much on it, especially since in the story the people in charge of the facility knew she would be a glass cannon since the moment either of the target's hit her once she'll likely go down due to them being stronger than her for in story reasons. That said, I realized there are subjects who have full body cybernetics, with at least one being to the point where he's just a brain in a mechanized body, so I'm beginning to wonder if that makes sense or would even be practical and to that extent what actual benefits would there be for only having mechanical arms and frankly the downsides of such a design.
So my main question is what would be the pros and cons of a soldier having only mechanical arms and legs but a mostly organic torso and would it be more, less, or equally as effective or practical as full body cybernetics.
1 answer
What most instances of this trope miss is that the forces from these super fast and powerful limbs have to go somewhere. That rules out silliness like the Bionic Man and your super-strong soldier with only cybernetic arms and legs.
Cybernetic limbs could be more accurate, have special sensors, and allow attaching special modules like different weapons, but one thing they can't do is be significantly stronger than the biological limb they are replacing. Even if the arm is strong enough to lift a car, for example, how is the ordinary shoulder joint and collar bone supposed to take that force?
If you want super-strength, you pretty much have to upgrade the whole skeleton.
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