Spiderweiss

The Spiderweiss were a group of Austrians with robotic spider legs. The Beauftragter of der spinne was a Spiderweiss, and she had tarantula-like knee-joints; her forelegs tended to mimic the movement of her arms. (PROSE: A Star's View of Caroline)

Behind the scenes
Author Sarah Hadley introduced the Spiderweiss in the short story Man of Smoke and Dust from the 2001 charity anthology Walking in Eternity.
 * In that story, when rebel insurgents were taking back the Vienna work camps at the end of the invasion, the invaders paralysed whole groups of prisoners from the waist down, ensuring that they would not be able to help the rebellion while still needing food. However, in the aftermath, scientists found schematics for all-terrain spider-like hydraulic legs in the Invaders' ships, and they were able to build the eight-legged machines for the paralysed.
 * The Spiderweiss were established as the fearsome new face of the law after the invasion. The Viennese bureau of Spiderweiss was founded in 2173, four years after the invasion ended; Johanna Adell joined the bureau when it began.