Doc Pietr is a licensed practitioner of Martian Augmentation operating a clinic in Titan Garden's B-District. Martians have a unique relationship with cybernetics and Doc Pietr is particularly enthusiastic about his craft, sharing the specs and details of a piece of hardware with a candy-store sort of glee. His services are available to anyone who is even remotely interested in Martian Augmentation, no matter what world they hail from- non-Martian constitution can have a hard time accepting Martian cybernetics but it's not impossible, there are treatments and suppressants available to help encourage organic adaptation of augmenting hardware and Doc Pietr isn't gonna let a little thing like "immune responses" or "bodily rejection" stand in the way of a new patient! "You're beautiful as you are... but there's always room for improvement!" With a little work and a lot of patience the limitations of the flesh can be exceeded, and Doc Pietr and his staff at the Phobos Augmentation Clinic are more than happy to help any interested starfarer ascend beyond their natural restraints.
Doc Pietr practices Martian style cybernetics.
- [+] Martian tech offers speed, strength & sensory augmentation beyond other styles.
- [+] Can be reasonably field-repaired with standard starship-ready hand tools.
- [=] Gadget slots are non-modular and integrated into base hardware installations.
- [-] Very long recovery period, very high rejection rate among non-Martian constitutions.
Cybernetic augmentation is, for whatever reason, more of an Inner Belt thing than an Outer Belt thing, which isn't to say that Outer Belt species don't ever adopt cybernetics, it's just usually humanoids actively seeking it out voluntarily. Among the Inner Belt species, Martians by far have the closest relationship with cybernetics, with about half of all Martian starfarers sporting some piece of voluntary augmentation. Some believe it's a kind of self-made characteristic of Martian identity- their flashier neighbors are able to grow protective carapaces or assume an impish form, the showy aspect of Martian constitution and physiology is their ability to easily take to large-scale cybernetic enhancement. Many take great pride in this aspect of their inherent tenacity, and Doc Pietr counts himself among their numbers. He aims to share the gift of Martian technology with all other species, but when he has a fellow Martian patient there is a special rapport between them, an almost ritual excitement filling his office.
One of Doc Pietr's patients is Emily Timberwolf, bitter ex-girlfriend to Amy Redraven and recipient of a quarter-skull optical prosthetic. The doc takes an interest in all of his patients' backstories, but Emily is particularly secretive and reluctant to talk about the specifics of how she came to find herself at the Phobos Clinic. He'd received her medical records from Titan General, indicating large-scale burns consistent with damage from taking a plasmacaster shot to the head. She arrived at Phobos with half her head bandaged- she'd lost her right eye in the breakup but she "managed to disarm the shooter". There is no indicator of who was defending themselves from who but Doc Pietr knows sometimes it's best not to pry into sealed vaults, Emily is his patient so he's got to offer her the best enhancements he can! Emily isn't super into his enthusiasm, but his proposals certainly make a lemons-to-lemonade situation out of losing half your face to a squirrelly Mercurian.
The pitch went like this: Emily's extensive burn region can be encased in a full-enclosure metal case lined with antimicrobial gold inlay. A standard optic lens with motor-driven zoom capability can be fitted in ocular cavity, with a bit of dremeling work to help shape the orbital bones to receive the optic cylinder. A secondary lens can be installed to support supplemental visual data- Emily opted for a software package that includes a motion-tracking reticle HUD overlay to highlight minute movement and display a reticle shape around flagged targets directly into her optical feed, as well as a Geiger+ radiation field detection lens, allowing her to literally see spicy air as though it were a cloud of smoke. An inset panel in the occipital region of the full-enclosure case allows for a control computer to run the included visual software, offsetting the workload to non-brain hardware. Blue and green cables connect to healthy optical nerves, teal connects a side-mounted acute audio receptor to the HUD reticle lens, while red and tan cables interface with blood-sugar caloric energy converters and provide large supplemental power to both optical lenses, allowing zoom, reticle and radiation lenses to function at optimal levels. "You will have senses like a forest creature!" Emily could live with that.
Since her augmentation Emily has been a highly valued member of the Timberwolf Reclamation & Demolition team, able to spot the small movements of xenofauna or lurking bandits hiding out on shipwrecks, and identifying areas of radioactivity where her team can't travel safely, where only Jack in his Firewalker state can persist. She can hear the groan of bending metal where a piece of shipwrecked bulkhead is unstable, she can keep her crew safe thanks to the sensory augmentation available to her through the miracle of Martian cybernetics. Most important of all, because of the way her machinery integrates directly into her organic body Amy's mechanical influence isn't able to interfere with her hardware, leaving her free to terrorize her ex-girlfriend when Timberwolf and Red Raven arrive at the same piece of shipwreck to salvage. Doc Pietr loves to hear these stories when it's time for a check-up. He loves to hear these success stories about his hardware thriving in the wild. Occasionally he'll have to replace a cracked lens or buff a dent out of Emily's metal casing, courtesy of "that stupid grappling hook baton thing", but the real beauty of Martian technology is its ease of repair. Martian hardware, like Martians themselves, they can endure anything, anywhere! Even a broken heart!
Emily has turned down Doc Pietr's attempts to upsell her on a pulmonary augment- the two hearts she already has are enough trouble as it is.