The Eta Carina Hegemony is an alliance of fourteen different worlds in eleven star systems that reside near the beautiful and brilliant Carina Nebula. One of the few "imperial" governments made up of multiple races and species, the ECH operates on a set of fundamental basic laws, within which each member state can craft its own internal laws and regulations. There are no fewer than twenty-nine different races in the ECH, including Human states, and an authoritarian central government maintains order and stability. An interesting facet of ECH life is that some member planets only partially belong to the Hegemony; the planet of Vineturria IIIc, for instance, is two-thirds occupied by ECH member states, while the rest of the planet is divided up by a dozen independant, non-aligned nations.

The ECH actively seeks to grow through diplomacy, but is not afraid to use force to push back boundary lines it considers inconvenient. The ECH economy is robust and thriving, mostly owing to a business climate that enforces contracts but doesn't prohibit any type of business that doesn't explicitly break ECH laws; thus, one can find large and active organizations that deal in "corporeal" trades -- slavery, prostitution, cadaver recycling, bioengineering, and other forms of commerce that the social and religious mores of other nations may deem undesirable. These disagreements in philosophy have led to violent clashes between the ECH and some other nations, most notably the Xri'ta, who have no tolerance for slavery in any form. A huge black market has opened up in light of these perpendicular moralities, with those from non-slaving nations coming to ECH ports to sell slaves illegally siezed without their controlling authorities being any the wiser.

The ECH maintains a solid but relatively low military budget, preferring to sink money into building existing ships rather than R&D. Because of this, many potential gains in integrative research have not been realized, except in the field of weapon fabrication; ECH scientists have been adept at making potent weapons smaller and less massive than their counterparts in other parts of explored space. ECH naval doctrine also relies heavily on semi-intelligent drones, leaving the capital ships back where they can engage from long range. Ships engaging an ECH force will often find themselves flying into a cloud of missiles, and the ECH word for this kind of warfare translates roughly into "the million small deaths".

All ECH ships are owned by the central government, but individual nation-states will occasionally maintain their own "home" fleets as well. This leads to some redundancy in design and ship coverage, but also allows central naval planners to organize assets without having to worry about stripping those systems bare of protection. The only other active ship-owning forces in ECH space are the massive corporations, which may occasionally field their own small fleets of warships in support of off-world operations.

Hegemony politics are vibrant and sometimes violent, and the laws are strictly enforced for all who are in ECH space, whether citizens or not. No civil war has yet been fought, although a few political squabbles have come close to inciting such. The Hegemony feels like a delicately and dangerously balanced spinning top; one unsure move could send the whole thing crashing down and light up the Carina Nebula in internecine warfare.

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Alpha-class Patrol Boat
The Alpha is the in-system security workhorse of the ECH.  Armed with long-range, rapid-firing lasor cannons and protected by ionic shields, the Alpha is able to handle most low-intensity problem within a star system, such as piracy and inter-corporate warfare.  Its lack of a hyperdrive prevents it from straying too far from the systems it protects, however, so pirates have been known to hover just a few light-years outside an ECH system, where the short arm of the law cannot reach them easily.

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Beta-class Frigate
The Beta is an older design inherited from the predecessor of what is today known as the ECH.  The Beta sacrifices multiple gun batteries for only two batteries of power repeating grasers, plus a small complement of drones.  While the Beta would be unable to hold its own against a ship of similar size but different armament, ECH doctrine calls for ships to operate in triads -- usually a heavier ship paired with two lighter ships -- so the odds of finding a Beta in deep space by itself are very slim.

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Gamma-class Heavy Cruiser
The Gamma is a newer hull commissioned by the Hegemony State of Aurora VI, which has been adopted throughout much of the Hegemony navy as the workhorse of its non-capital fleet.  Armed with shorter-ranged weapons than most heavy cruisers, the Gamma is still able to wreak terrible damage to enemy ships' onboard systems because of its use of highly radioactive solid projectiles, which, once they penetrate the hull, fry electronics and optronics alike.  The ship also carries a compliment of drones which can occupy the enemy's attention while the ship closes to direct-fire range.

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Delta-class Battleship
A recurring theme in the Hegemony is the "me too" adoption of new or proven designs. One such example is the Delta-class battleship, a ship that is packed with drones, carries a heavy shield, and can bruise most opponents badly with its singularity torpedoes.  Built on technology stolen from non-Hegemony sources by the member state of Neue Keineleben, the Delta has quickly become the darling of many member navies. Able to fill space with clouds of drones, the Delta can also use the harmonics of an enemy's shields against it, as its "singularity torpedoes" use a spatial-distortion effect to overload the target's shield capacitors and cause them to burn the hull from within.

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Epsilon-class Troop Ship
The ECH is not shy about pushing back international boundaries that it finds inconvenient, but this often requires the fielding of ground forces to enforce its will.  The legendary invasion of Penelope Prime, for example, involved no fewer than thirty million ground troops.  There is no shortage of manpower in the ECH, and moving it from one end of the Hegemony to the other is the job of ships like the Epsilon. Short on amenities but packed to the gills with passenger berths, the Epsilon can deliver a brigade of infantry to wherever its needed in short time.  For defense, it mounts a single universal turret housing a Rheinmetall Gauss autocannon, a formidable defense.

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Zeta-class Space Station
A visitor to an ECH member system will usually find themselves greeted by a Zeta-class battlestation. While smaller than a battleship in actual displacement, the Zeta has no need to mount a hyperdrive system and can therefore pack its hull with a huge drone compliment, as well as 360º coverage from its enormous "vorpal cannons", which are known for their shield-penetration abilities. While the Zeta has medical and science facilities on board, its primary purpose is to discourage hostile action against the system.</r>