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Centurion Military Corporation, or CMC, was the brainchild of displaced veterans who were cut off from returning to Earth after the catastrophic war of 2491-2493.  A great number of off-world colonies suddenly found themselves without military protection in the wake of the collapse of their parent powers, and couldn't afford to maintain standing armies;  most were too focused around growth and survival to realize how vulnerable they were until that state was upon them.  Seizing a battered old destroyer and a pair of corvettes, the veterans began first by guarding merchant convoys, moving on to guarding the territorial space of various former colonies, and finally securing much-needed publicity through the dramatic rescue of a pair of motion-picture stars who had been kidnapped and ransomed by pirates in the Triste Debris Fields near Aldebaran.

After the Aldebaran operation, demands for their services increased substantially, and wise reinvestment by the business heads of the company saw to it that the firm grew in both size and quality in the years to come.  Two hundred years later, CMC is one of the major mercenary corporations operating in Human space, and leads the way in research and design of new weapons and technologies, particularly shield technology.  Of the twenty-four hundred Human nations recognized by the UN, CMC represents the thirty-seventh largest military force, and their research budget alone outstrips the gross domestic product of the poorest six hundred Human nations.  CMC employees six hundred thousand professional warriors, technicians, researchers, and business-management personnel, has a fleet of close to two hundred ships, and can deploy one hundred thousand infantry and eighty-one hundred armored fighting vehicles anywhere in Human space within three weeks' notice.

The ships that CMC favors are custom built to house specifications and feature advanced weapons technology rivaled only by that of the most advanced Human nations.  Using their groundbreaking work on gravitics, CMC technicians have built weapons systems that use a gravity "lens" to focus the energy of a conventional laser beam, allowing damage at incredible range and accuracy.  If CMC ships have any weakness, it's in their shielding;  CMC ships are built to destroy the enemy quickly, and to maximize economies of scale and deployment, they have foregone shield generators in favor of point-defence systems.  The flagships of CMC's new Battle Service Groups, a reorganization that is intended to increase CMC's response time to changes in market conditions, are the Cairo-class battleships.

CMC has an aggressive business-management culture, employing forty-five thousand account managers, risk analysts, finance managers, and asset-management specialists.  It is not unheard of for CMC to foreclose on a delinquent account by seizing entire continents, although this is rare, and currently CMC has a retirement estate consisting of three-point-three million square kilometers of land on the resort world of Spica IV -- a windfall brought to the company by the previous owner's failure to pay its debts.  Retired employees are granted tracts there according to their rank and time in service, and may keep it or sell it back to the company as they desire.

The current board of directors of CMC is headed by President General Mark Rohrbach and CEO General Pamela Riekan.  The major military and business units of CMC include Centurion Heavy Lift (providing transport to domestic armed forces), Centurion Naval Services (the armed fleet of CMC), Centurion Terrestrial Services (ground forces), Centurion Credit & Investment (financial services), Centurion Security Consulting (training for domestic military and police forces), Mercury Bonded Couriers (a wholly owned subsidiary specializing in secure transport of valuable commodities), and Centurion Depot Maintenance (offering refit and repair services). 

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Malanje-class Patrol Boat (PT)
The Malanje is Centurion's answer to the system monitor.  A heavily-armed ship for its size, the Malanje mounts a Denel/Naschem industries YY-90 gravity-lens laser cannon and four one-shot pods of Athena light anti-ship missiles.  The YY-90 laser has an extremely long range, and because of the way it works – using parallel gravity “lenses” to focus the bipartite beam upon a target – it is actually more accurate the further away the target is.  The Athena missile pods give the Malanje close-in defensive firepower as well, and the designers opted to forego shield generators in favor of a point-defense system.  Unlike most monitors, the Malanje is a warp-capable ship, as this was deemed cheaper than having a Centurion cargo vessel haul the patrol boat to whatever job site it had been hired to protect.

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Pretoria-class Frigate (FF)
The Pretoria was developed in response to the advanced fighter technology coming out of the Charybdis Cluster.  Since the role of a frigate is to screen and defend the fleet from fast-moving threats, it made sense to designate a destroyer platform used to mount anti-fighter operations as a “frigate”, even though it is built on the same keel as the Rashad-class destroyer.  Mounting three batteries of rapid-firing Gauss repeaters, as well as a TDAR system and defensive anti-fighter batteries, the Pretoria will usually stay close to the ships it is assigned to safeguard, using its munitions and sunbursts to tear incoming fighter flights to pieces.

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Accra-class Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG)
The Accra is an attempt to capitalize on the cost-effectiveness of drones.  CMC is highly cognizant of the cost of having a ship get shot full of holes going toe-to-toe with an enemy.  The Accra-class was commissioned by the CMC and built by the Novo Porto Shipyards after the disproportionate losses suffered by CMC's light ships during the campaign against the Yenpalo.  Its primary mission is to fill the skies with drones and then stay out of harm's way.  It has been popular in operations against starbases as well.

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Rashad-class Destroyer  (DD)
Destroyers were developed to protect the larger capital ships from smaller threats that might otherwise overwhelm them – specifically, torpedoes, drones, and fighters.  The Rashad destroyers were developed with that purpose in mind, but have become popular multi-role ship for clients that can't afford to hire true capital ships.  From anti-pirate operations to blockade enforcement, the Rashad has been a popular choice for other-than-war operations and for smaller customers.  The ship's neutron cannons give it sustained fighting power, while its expendable Athena missile clusters allow it to give a closing enemy a serious black eye.  Like many of CMC's light ship classes, the Rashad forgoes shields in favor of armor plating and point-defense batteries.

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Libre-class Minesweeper (MSW)
Mines are a poor-man's weapon – cheap, plentiful, and you don't have to waste manpower keeping on eye on them, since they know when to go boom.  The proliferation of mines in stellar warfare has meant good business for CMC's Libre-class mine/countermine warfare ships.  Built on the Rashad hull, the Libre packs in not only an electrostatic mine-detonating array and sensor equipment, but it's own complement of autonomous, semi-intelligent “smart mines” as well.  A single Libre deployed with full magazines can effectively shut down a space lane in short order.  To deter aggressors, the Libre also mounts a pair of gravity-lens lasers in spinal- and dorsal-mounted turrets.

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Kebir-class Light Cruiser (CL)
The Kebir is the former mainstay of the Centurion fleet, having once been the only cruiser in the inventory.  An older vessel, it suffers from Centurion's problematic weakness in shields (the legacy of a former CEO having put an extreme emphasis on offensive power rather than defensive measures), but despite its age, its weapons systems are state of the art.  Carrying a respectable complement of drones, it can harass its enemy with those while the ship maneuvers into position to fire its main weapons.  The Kebir's tachyon cannons pack a respectable punch, especially given their strength against shields, and the clusters of Hellbore missiles arranged along the Kebir's outer hull are often the last word in a fight against a ship of comparable displacement.

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Maputo-class Assault Cruiser (LHA)
One of the oft-repeated requests to CMC is that for a ship to be used in seizing other vessels;  hence, the Maputo-class was born.  Armed with meson guns that pass through hull plating to decimate living crewmembers, the Maputo is able to field fifteen assault shuttles with armed, power-suited Marines on board.  These Marines are highly trained in shipboard combat and are equipped to blow through doors and bulkheads, attack and subvert computer systems, and use close-quarters weapons against defenders as necessary.  The Maputo is equipped with Luchs Propulsion Technologies' new stutterdrive, a temperamental system designed to allow the ship to close quickly with its prey, but which sometimes sends the Maputo off on odd headings;  thus CMC troops have nicknamed the Maputo the “Mad Mappy”. 

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Zinder-class Escort Carrier (CVE)
Fighters are a great asset to any fleet, and often can turn the tide of a battle.  The Zinder-class escort carrier was developed to provide fighter coverage in situations where sending in a heavy carrier doesn't make sound tactical or financial sense.  The Zinder CVE carries seven flights of fighters, a small drone complement, and a pair of the popular YY-90 gravity-lens lasers.

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Nola-class Heavy Cruiser (CA)
The Nola is a true cruiser, capable of independent action and operations against capital ships.  Six batteries of long-range, rapid firing graviton projectors give the Nola considerable punch to the front and at broadsides, while external pods of antimatter torpedoes give the CA a close-quarters offensive capability that will make short work of similarly-sized vessels and give larger ships a serious headache.  The Nola's long-range weaponry is all the more threatening considering the TDAR system in use aboard the ship. 

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Capetown-class Battlecruiser (BC)
The role of a modern battlecruiser is to chase down and destroy smaller ships.  The Capetown is a revamped version of the Nola, sacrificing significant firepower for an equally significant gain in agility and speed.  The Capetown is not intended to go up against capital ships;  rather, squadrons of battlecruisers function as a fleet's counter-reconnaissance screen, deploying far ahead of the main body to engage and destroy the smaller destroyers and frigates that will be scouting for contact and working to protect their own capital ships from fighters and drones.

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Cairo-class Battleship (BB)
The Cairo is intended to engage and destroy other capital ships, starbases, and ground installations.  Built by Centurion as an answer to those few full-blown wars they are hired to fight, the Cairo is relatively rare in the ranks of the Naval Services;  only sixteen have been commissioned, as most of the Naval Services' business comes through their smaller ships for operations other than war.  The Cairo utilizes the same types of armament as its little brother the Nola, but more of it.  With its drone magazines, extreme long range weapons, and TDAR system working in tandem, it can usually wipe out an enemy long before closing to range where its antimatter torpedo pods become a factor.  Its one weakness is versus fighters, which means that a Cairo will rarely be seen in the field without one or two Pretoria-class frigates operating in close cooperation.

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Harare-class Carrier (CV)
Like the Cairo-class battleship, the Harare-class carrier is rare in the Centurion fleet.  Currently, only eight carriers are in active service, since they are very expensive to hire and are thus only ever retained for all-out warfare.  Built for CMC by the St. Michaels Shipwrights on Caledonia Prime, the CV carries eighteen flights of multi-role fighters and is able to launch four flights at a time, while defending itself with a pair of YY-90 long-range laser cannon.  Recently, in a bid to drum up business, CMC has been sending Harare-class carriers on tours of highly-populated systems, giving free air shows and hosting family days aboard the ship, as well as four-star dining and lavish entertainment for local potentates, who will find a CMC sales rep at their elbow the whole time.

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Kariba-class Troopship (LST)
The mainstay of Centurion's business is ground operations, so it is essential that CMC be able to get troops to where they are needed, when they are needed.  The Kariba troopship is capable of carrying 1,500 troops and around 150 armored vehicles, and has the armor and armament to be able to survive to bring those troops dirtside.  In addition to a pair of spinal- and dorsal-mounted gravity-lens laser turrets, the Kariba has several banks of antimatter pellet projectors, close-combat weapons intended to ward off enemy fighters or boarding actions.</r>