TEC have some of the least expensive frigates and cruisers of any faction, enabling them to more easily build large fleets and overpower enemies with sheer numbers. Their preferred planets are terran planets. The TEC have a mixed close-to-long range arsenal but mostly focus on the latter. TEC ships are heavily armored, shielded, and have greater hull strength than the ships of any other faction in the game, though this staying power often comes at the price of less firepower and damage-dealing potential. The TEC tends to have heavily armored units and mostly focus on ballistic weapons (missiles and cannons) and less on lasers. This compelled the TEC to force retired veterans to return to the navy to fight back the Advent. The Advent then returned, having become much more powerful, and started a two-front war. To defend against the Vasari, the Traders formed the TEC, mobilized their economy towards military production and managed to hold the Vasari off by converting their merchant vessels and mining ships into warships, and later produced the Kol capital ship which was their first battleship design in 750 years. In recent times the Vasari entered the scene as they fled from their Xeno enemy.

At one point they cast out the Advent, a religious desert sect that the Traders despised (see Advent) which lead many to mark the end to the Golden Age. The Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) was originally a group of trade worlds that descends from earlier human exploration, in the 'Golden Age' their economy flourished and society grew.

3.5 Vasari Ships, Structures, and Research.

2.5 Advent Ships, Structures, and Research.

1.5 TEC Ships, Structures, and Research.

Homeworld or sins of a solar empire