Galactic Cooperative Mercantile Alliance (abbreviated GCMA or GA) is a Terran exploration, shipping, trade, manufacturing, and government alliance group comprising of hundreds of member worlds, organizations, and governments around the galaxy, although primarily centralized in the Omega Trisector and largely made up of Terrans. The GCMA was created as Terran Governments were increasingly adverse to public fund expendatures for unknown risks during the early years of Terran space exploration and trade. Its original goal was to create a joint venture among terran interests that could be evenly spread out to lower the risk as it related to the hazards of doing business in space. Initially this was done through service abstraction, and the initial risk was absorbed through the agencies very wealthy founders, who realized that getting a foothold in space commerce would propel their companies stock and value if they were able to take control. With their government memberships, The GCMA is allowed to have combat ships, albeit with Government oversight members of their crew. The relationship between New Earths military force and the GCMA is heavily intertwined, with there being little difference between the two at times despite the laws and regulations that surround them.