Originally built for manual labour and dangerous mining operations, the Zentraedi were built for strength and power, not intelligence, but they were also perfect soldiers. With only a few alterations, the Robotech Masters, the manufacturer of most of the Zentraedi race, were able to create an unstoppable army that allowed them to take control of the Tirolian Republic and increase its power under the title of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. Throughout the centuries, the Zentraedi have continued to build new ships, amassing an armada of over six million ships, but the designs have changed little over the years. Although programmed to be completely loyal to the Robotech Masters and all Tirolians, after years of struggle, Dolza, the supreme and absolute ruler of the Zentraedi race, was able to overcome his own genetic programming and was slowly preparing to launch an attack against the Robotech Masters in an attempt to take control of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. One of the few pieces left before he was ready to commit to action was securing the SDF-1 Macross, which Zor had sent to the planet Earth. Although Dolza had no idea what was on the ship that Robotech Masters wanted, Dolza believed that it would contain the key to his victory and he dispatched his best general, Lord Breetai, to locate and recapture the ship. Although a few million Zentraedi remained alive after the destruction of their armada in orbit of Earth in 2011, this number pales when compared to the billions of Zentraedi that held the Tirolian Mercantile Empire together and when they disappeared, the entire empire was thrown into chaos, coupled with the sudden energy crisis, and the appearance of the Invid, the empire that had lasted centuries, fell within twenty years.
Due to the large size of the Zentraedi, the purpose and title of their ships often do not reflect their size. Even the smallest Zentraedi vessel, the Tou Redir Class Scout Ship is 1633' (497.7 m) long and is very powerful compared to most "scout ships," as such the description reflects the true class and type of the ship, rather then the title given to the ship by the Zentraedi.
By far the most numerous of the Zentraedi vessels, the Tou Redir ships were built for reconnaissance operations, not frontline combat. Equipped with powerful sensors and a Quel Quallie Cyclops Scout Reconnaissance Pod, these ships were used to patrol the vast Tirolian Mercantile Empire and to act as forward scouts for a Zentraedi battle group. Introduced early in the development of the Zentraedi fleets, these ships underwent many refits, but their basic mission parameters never changed. Their limited offensive capabilities of this design did not prevent Dolza from marshalling almost all of these ships for his assault against Earth in 2011 CE.
Heavy Reflex Cannon was the most powerful weapon ever used in the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. The first deployed cannons were huge and required a large portion of a ship's internal volume, but over the centuries, the Tirolians have developed better technology and have been able to decrease the size of the cannon immensely. Unfortunately, a very powerful cannon still required a lot of space and in response, the Tirolians developed less powerful cannons for their Zentraedi regular ships and they designed a special ship to carry a very large cannon, but little else. The Rineunadou Lojmeuean Class Monitor was built for this role and they were widely used throughout the Zentraedi armada as heavy support ships.
One of the few designs that were considered to be "retired" from service by the Zentraedi, production on the Thuverl Dalem Class Destroyer stopped centuries before the start of the First Robotech War. At the beginning of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, this ship was heavily involved in exploration missions and meeting new races, and was often the first ship encountered by new members of the empire. By the time of the First Robotech War, most of these ships had been scrapped, but there were still several thousand on active duty and they, like nearly all Zentraedi ships, were marshaled along with the rest of the Zentraedi armada for the assault on Earth.
The workhorse of the Zentraedi fleet, the Thuverl Salan Class Destroyer replaced the aging Thuverl Dalem Class Destroyer and was a vastly superior design, both in firepower and in capabilities. Next to the Tou Redir Class ships, this class was produced in the most numbers, far outstretching the numbers of the other ship classes. Most Zentraedi battle groups were based around the destroyers as their primary source of firepower.
Initially built as an armored cargo ship, the Quiltra Queleual transport eventually evolved into a multipurse assault ship that was capable of carrying a large amount of cargo or a large number of Zentraedi soldiers. Control over this armed and armored merchant fleet was originally in the hands of the Robotech Masters' government, but in 1903 CE, Dolza took control over the merchant marine fleet and changed it into another military branch of the huge Zentraedi fleet.
A unique ship within the Zentraedi fleet, the Queadol Magdomilla command ship is able to separate into two distinct ships. This allows the command ship to better perform its main task, commanding an large fleet of vessels. The forward section of the ship, housing most of the weapons and the ship's Heavy Reflex Cannon, would move with an attack group into battle, while the larger, rear section of the ship could remain behind to protect its valuable command and control facilities.
Placed in charge of thousands of ships at a time, the Nupetiet Vergnitzs flagship was an impressive sight to behold. Several miles long, the ship was equipped with all of the command and control facilities that an entire fleet of vessels might need. But the ship was not built just for command operations, it was also equipped with a weapon array that was second to none and one of the most powerful Heavy Reflex Cannons deployed by the Tirolians.
The Zentraedi were originally supplied from a series of industrial bases spread throughout the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, but as the fleet grew following the Ci'Vonian disaster, the Robotech Masters agreed to allow Dolza to build a facility to house all of the Zentraedi's command staff and a large number of production and clone facilities. From this command base, Dolza could control the entire Zentraedi armada. After its final completion in 1853 CE, the command base did not move until it traveled to Earth in 2011 CE, where it was destroyed during what became known as the Zentraedi Holocaust.
Built to service the military fleets of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, the Factory Satellites were largely automated space stations that moved from one star system to the next in prearranged patterns, meeting and repairing Zentraedi ships at each location. While heavy armed and armored, the Factory Satellites were not designed for combat and would often fold out of a star system at the fist signs of trouble; these ships were far too valuable to the Robotech Masters to waste in combat.
These monstrous facilities are larger, more powerful versions of the already massive Robotech Factory Satellites. Designed as prototypes of a new series of Factory Satellites, only two of these stations were built by the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. The first, the G-94, was destroyed in 1895 CE in one of the last battles with the Disciples of Zor, and the second, the G-95, underwent a massive design change following the destruction of the G-94 before it was finally launched in 1916. Another feature that made these stations different from their smaller brethren is that they were fully automated; the Tirolian crew was completely unnecessary for the station to operate at peak performance. This level of automation was only possible through the development of a sentient artificial intelligence named Hypercomp.