Prowler

Police Prowlers are part of a program of militarisation of the Police instigated at the insistence of Marshal Osterman. An atmospheric-entry capable attack craft, resembling a double-headed axe without the handle, their livery is the traditional Police colour scheme of navy blue and fluorescent orange; the main body being blue with the "blades" front and back being orange. Equipped with magnetic air-cleavers that eliminate friction and air-resistance almost entirely they are capable of hyper-sonic speeds. Armament comes in the form of the *"Box 12"* weapon package designed and manufactured by System 90, the best weapon manufacturer on the Protectorate side of the Goffa border. *Box 12* utilises laser-fired, dymond micro-pellet rounds, with a rate of fire of 240 rounds per second with a muzzle velocity of .93 of light-speed. Protection comes in the form of poly-alloy armour with the GRed nacelles being formed from single-molecule ceramics making them resistant to all but the heaviest of armour piercing rounds.

The Police Prowler program was initiated after the mob-war that engulfed Steimz in the immediate aftermath of the death of Darian Corvalis, the head of the Gamma Fraternity, and the most powerful mob boss in the city.

Corvalis' death triggered an immediate war to take over his turf, with major mobs like Epsilon Edge and Omega Omerta taking the lion's share in the first hours of the conflict. Ambitious smaller fraternities, long held back by the power and dominance of the bigger mobs decided to seize the moment to increase their own power and territory, and soon the entire city, effectively taking in the entire population of the world, was locked in all out war.

Police units from all around the surrounding sectors were mustered at the Steimz orbital space station, the critical hours in which the conflict might be contained were lost because the Police of Steimz were pitifully under equipped to deal with the scale and savagery of the violence sweeping the city. Legendary head-breaker, Marshal Osterman was called in to organise the Police response, and found even the best equipment the Police had meant they were often out-gunned when the larger mobs were in full-effect, and simply had to let the worst of the conflicts play out.

After months of managing side-conflicts and building up the arsenal of weapons the Police could utilise to return some semblance of lawful peace to the world, the fraternities seemed to come to an uneasy truce, with Omega Omerta emerging as the dominant force, taking over from Gamma as the pre-eminent fraternity on Steimz.

Omega Omerta offered to help the Police restore order to the city, an offer that brought a frustrated Marshal Osterman to near apoplexy. Grand Marshal Balfour intervened, arguing that it was unlikely the Police could restore full control of the city without the help of Omega Omerta, and would find it a deadly and impossible task if Omega Omerta were against them.

Osterman refused to work with a criminal fraternity, and refused to be replaced if the Police were to remain in this humiliating state of inadequacy, subservient to criminals. Negotiating hard with Grand Marshal Balfour, Balfour was eventually forced to agree to creating Police Enhanced Enforcement Squads (not recognising the unfortunate acronym), with significantly more firepower and the authority to use it in extremis. Placated, Marshal Osterman was allowed to leave behind the operation to pacify Steimz, and to take the credit for a successful operation, to be replaced with a Marshal more amenable to letting Omega Omerta use their own methods where the Police were not capable of doing so.

The program initially focused on weaponry and armour, but Osterman demanded the ability to call in close air-support should a similar situation ever arise, and so the Prowler program began in earnest.

Show/Hide SpoilersThe Prowlers were first revealed to the public during the invasion of Tiovo by the February Consortium, where they rapidly eliminated the ground troops of the Consortium, and, under the instructions of the Sovereign, who wished to ensure no such endeavour was ever attempted again, they eliminated their forces without offering any further opportunity to surrender.