Staatsschutz

"'I swear to the perfect holiness of my Lord God that my duty is for Mankind ; that I shall serve my country with unyielding loyalty and bravery. I am prepared to die so that others may live in harmony and tranquility; I am prepared to sacrifice all I have so that the light of our nation may never dim.' — First stanza of the Oath of the Unyielding, motto underlined"The Staatsschutz (Galactic Standard: State Protection), acronymized as SS, is the most powerful paramilitary of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat, only being smaller than the Nationales Verteidigungsamt. It is considered to be the organizational impetus of the ruling Vaterlandspartei, and has grown immensely from its humble origins as the party's defensive arm, the Schwarzegruppe, to a full-blown political and war machine outnumbering even the military of the nation, the Staatswehr.

Harboring numerous (in)famed organizations such as the National-Staatsschutz and Kampf-Staatsschutz — the administrative and combat arms of the SS, respectively — it is the executor of many laws and orders of the Sternenstaat government and its figures, and stands as the "Army of the State" (in contrast to the Staatswehr and its "Army of the Nation" spirit, differentiating service between the government and the national identity). With original feuds with the Staatspolizei being squashed as a result of the SS's empowerment and its balance in power with that of the Staatswehr, the SS has become, perhaps, one of the most influential players in the entirety of the Staat's political environment.

Work in progress.

History
The history of the Staatsschutz is as old as (or, arguably, older than) the Menschlicher Sternenstaat, intertwined with its political growth and machinations alongside that of its parent organization of the Vaterlandspartei. With origins as a refined outfit of ex-criminals, it has grown for around eight hundred years to encompass sixty billion people with an endless amount of ties to military technology, research, and government planning.

Origins
For all intents and purposes, the absolute origins of the SS lies with the people that composed "elite" cells of the Schwarze Schädel, or Black Skulls; an organization that was founded in the Veran Star Confederation by the famous veteran of the First Human-Kizankai War and progenitor for all of modern Staatism, Matthäus Wehner. Before the founding of the Menschliche Souveränität Partei and the subsequent reformations to internal organizational structures, these elite cells served as the hitmen and guardsmen of Wehner and the rest of the Black Skulls' leadership. More basic cells underneath these elite teams swelled in membership with the onset of the Great Troubles in full force, and as a result of both this and Wehner's desires to legitimately enter the Confederate political landscape, the elite cells and basic, nominal cells would be smoothly fused into one cohesive, organized unit to which the skills required (such as usage of firearms and operational tactics) could be easily defused. This unit would be known as the Schwarzegruppe, or Black Group.

The Schwarzegruppe
The Schwarzegruppe can be considered to be the true, existent prototype to the Staatsschutz organization, as it possessed many of the ideological and structural foundations of its officialized progeny. It acted as the armed wing of the MSP and was involved in numerous confrontations between themselves and leftist, democratic, and/or government forces well into the unification of the nationalist and fascist Confederate political parties that yielded the Reaktionsblock.

The Black Group was intimately involved in the Stanger Plot, where the death of the Drei-Sterne-Bewegung leader Laurens Stanger sparked an intraorganizational conflict between the MSP, remains of the DSB, and the Nationale Ordenspartei lead by Vinzenz Wilebaum. They were responsible for multiple bombings against NOP offices and recruitment centers, which were immediately framed on the leftist Befreiungsfront der Arbeiter socialist movement and thus lead to the brief One Day Inferno between Reaktionsblock and BdA rioters.

The success in the terrorist attacks against the NOP and the annexation of the two nationalist parties into the MSP's political machine finalized the Schwarzegruppe as a potent and efficacious paramilitary. Further consolidations were made under Wehner prior to the Congressional Elections of 278 KA and was finalized with the birth of the Vaterlandspartei following the MSP's victory in said elections. Following Wehner's death, the commander of the Schwarzegruppe, Hinrich Eisenstadt, was one of the three supreme members of the NPMV jockeying for control of the political party, but was eventually forced into submission by Dietrich Josten and reduced in political leverage for that timeframe. This lead to the creation of the elite Schutztruppen (lit. Defense Troops), who differed from the more numerous Vaterlandsbande militia.

The Schutztruppen
With the ferocity of the 280 KA Confederate Presidential Elections and Bloody June taking full effect from the instability of the Confederation's political climate, the Schutztruppen were immediately thrust into action against socialist and conservative paramilitaries such as the Volksrotunion and the Blueshirts. With the Vaterlandspartei 's criminal backgrounds and connections to various military and law enforcement contacts, the Schutztruppen quickly rose to become one of the most militarized and armed paramilitaries of the period, amassing weapons and materiel ranging from anti-tank missile launchers and heavy anti-personnel machineguns to explosives and illegally reprogrammed riot-dispersal droids.

The March of the Nationale Integrität by the Nationale Integrität conservative political front against the Vaterlandspartei was the first instance of large-scale Schutztruppen action. Using the illegally reprogrammed droids and wearing decorated armor of both police and impromtpu origin, the paramilitary was able to hold their ground and defend a branch office of the political party against several thousand conservative protestors and a contigent of the Blueshirts. With the protestors firing on the droids, the march lead to the deaths of twenty people as the Schutztruppen exchanged fire with submachine guns and other personal defense weapons.

On the world of Kellemet, a series of anti-theistic attacks and troubles known as the Black Pentecost would break out that further solidified the lethality of the Schutztruppen. The Sevilla arcological riots in the Sevilla Arcology had been leading to the destruction of multiple Veran Catholic churches and properties belonging to both conservative organizations and the Vaterlandspartei itself. In response to this, the Schutztruppen were mobilized alongside tens of thousands of Catholic and conservative militiamen to defend vulnerable and essential properties, such as the aforementioned churches. Fighting broke out immediately upon contact with government riot police and the Volksrotunion stormtroopers, where the latter's confrontations yielded high death tolls from the ferocity of the political violence. A particular instance that changed the official outlook on the Schutztruppen themselves was when three heavily armored vehicles stolen by socialist rioters upon government evacuation - two APCs and one tank - were used to spearhead a charge against the Sevilla Cathedral. Military hardware was used by the Schutztruppen to disable and destroy these vehicles, including illegal anti-tank railguns and missile launchers, in addition to IEDs being deployed to harass and block the incoming flow of leftist paramilitary forces.

Such usage of illegal and dangerous weaponry lead to the Confederate government declaring most groups affiliating with the NPMV to be terrorist organizations, which was met with a massive backlash across multiple worlds, namely Vera and Bresen. The bill did little to limit the activities of the Schutztruppen, however, who amassed to protect Josten during the March on Kirchhausen against President Gerwald Seidenstücker using stolen police APCs, accompanying contingents of reprogrammed riot droids, and wearing police and military-grade personal armor.

The Schutztruppen entered a temporary alliance with the Blueshirts and the Zivilschutz-Front conservative militia following the declaration of the 280 Confederate Coup d'Etat by navy admiral Petrus Schreiner, who disputed the premature elections that the President had been forced to issue from the pressure of the Vaterlandspartei. The combined army, known as the Blau-Schwarze Armee, fought against both a huge influx of leftist insurrections and Schreiner's forces in the Oberste Festung. Arguably the most violent period yet, the Schutztruppen were confirmed to be utilizing a myriad of stolen police and military hardware, including tanks, artillery, and even hovercraft. With the mutiny of Captain Achim Berkel against Admiral Schreiner, the Schutztruppen were able to use hastily constructed anti-air batteries to shoot down the Confederate warship known as the Alcodra and bring an end to the coup.

Despite ending the coup, the Schutztruppen immediately turned on the Confederate government when Vice President Marwin Schutte disputed Josten's claim that President Seidenstücker ordered for the Vaterlandspartei leader to be temporarily vested with the political powers of the state, and had instead issued an arrest order for both Josten and Eisenstadt. A contingent of troops independent from the conservative alliance army stormed the Congressional Palace on Eisenstadt's orders, reinforced by Vaterlandsbande militia and overwhelming the security, police, and military garrisons present. Schutte himself was found by a team of Schutztruppen and was brutally gutted and hanged on the Congressional Boulevard as a means to send a message of finality to the nation in the terms of the seemingly neverending political conflicts.

The final act of the Schutztruppen began with the guarding of their leader, Josten, as he delivered the Mein Herz ist Wahr speech to the entirety of the Veran Star Confederation following Schutte's murder. The conservative-nationalist alliance was liquidated soon after, leading to the destruction of the democratic political factions and the suicide of Isaak Sackler, head of the NI.