The old workhorse of the galactic asteroids patrol, the Garbin 20.7 is the original model used by the patrol.

 

Designed as a garbage freighter thirty years ago, by modern standards this ship is almost scrap metal. However the patrol did install some upgrades over the years to this old line of ships. A protective force field, rotating cannon, enhanced engines and a cushioned pilot seat with lower back support were all well-received by the Patrol pilots. Indeed this old model now barely resembles its original design and serves as a reminder of just how dangerous (and back breaking) the business of blowing asteroids up in outer space was back in the day!

 

The result is not elegant, but elegance is not what the Patrol was ever about. The Garbin will, as it always has, get the job done.

The C.R.Z-9000 were a line of military scout & reconnaissance ships that were taken out of service shortly after they were introduced due to a fatal bug in the ships’ onboard computer artificial intelligence. Only after the first few missions it became clear that the computer is indeed insane. More precisely, it seemed to have an addiction to speed and risk, often ignoring the pilot’s instructions and flying straight into a nearby asteroid field, just so it can zigzag between them at crazy speeds.

 

While the fact that all those pilots came back to tell the tale is a testament to the CRZ's incredible maneuverability and capabilities, such a severe lack of discipline could not be tolerated by the military. Coupled with the fact that the programmers could not figure out where the bug was, (some still argued it was a feature), the CRZ soon found itself outside the service.

 

In the patrol however, a ship that wants to fly straight into an asteroid field is right at home. And so the CRZ now serves as the patrol's light fighter. While not very heavily armed and only lightly armored, in the hands of the right patrol pilots (who themselves have some bugs in their software) this matters very little.

The Sirius Ultra Vortis corporation's 4000x4000 model was the latest in their galaxy-wide famous line of luxury ship models.

 

Owning a Vortis is a true statement that one has too much money and too little to do with it, and wants everybody to know it. However the effect soon wears out and as the new Vortis models roll out, last year's models soon find themselves in space junk yards.

 

This was a perfect opportunity for the patrol. With its inherent bulky frame and military-grade civilian shields (guaranteed to protect the paint job in case of an accident with a lower-class ship), the Vortis was the perfect candidate to turn into an asteroid fighting machine. The leather sofas removed, the upstairs bar closed and the disco floor torn out - all to make room for a devastating arsenal of asteroid-blowing weapons and ammunition.

 

The result is the patrol’s heavy ship, which while not very maneuverable, more than makes up for it with raw firepower and ability to take punishment. Many "old" Vortis models now find new life as asteroid blowing behemoths.

The Enstemilya was conceived a few years back as a thought experiment when a group of guys from the quantum physics faculty met some girls from the philosophy department at a student party one night in the Galactic University.

 

Even though they went home alone, it got them thinking about existence and the question of partial presence in the space-time continuum. Or as one of them put it - "It's like we weren't even here.”

 

That incident started a chain of events that eventually led to some bold theories about a new form of travel drive that would challenge the monopoly of the Hyperspace companies. 

 

Unfortunately, the intangibility engine did not work. While it did in fact achieve the ability to render a given mass temporarily "unavailable" to normal spacetime by using an obscene amount of energy, the problem of using it as a means of propulsion was never solved. Though it was mainly a failure, the intangibility device eventually found some commercial success among people who preferred "not being there.”

 

The patrol, however, immediately identified the potential of the Enstemicia and it's only-partially working intangibility drive, purchasing all the prototypes that were available when manufacturing stopped. This is due to the fact that when one is flying through an asteroid field, the philosophical question of not being there often manifests itself in a very tangible manner.