Chapter 1 - StarCraft
Rebel Yell
Far from Earth, in a region of space called the Koprulu sector, the terran-colonized world of Mar Sara was at a critical juncture. The alien zerg, a hive-mind bent on devouring all life, had infested the planet, and the Confederacy (the government overseeing Mar Sara and other terran worlds) had evacuated its military personnel, abandoning the colony to be torn apart by the swarm. Marshal Jim Raynor joined forces with a rebel group called the Sons of Korhal, led by ambitious, charming Arcturus Mengsk, to battle the aliens and rescue civilians. Though the rebels were able to save lives, the planet was consumed by the zerg, then purified from orbit by the protoss (an advanced civilization bound together by a communal psychic connection called the Khala).
With Mar Sara fallen, the Sons of Korhal (including Raynor, Mengsk and Sarah Kerrigan, who had trained as a Ghost, a psionic hitwoman for the Confederate government) regrouped on the planet of Antiga Prime. Jim and Sarah bonded quickly; the straight-talking marshal and the telepathic assassin made an effective pair. When the zerg invaded Antiga Prime, Mengsk suggested that the Sons utilize Confederate psionic projection technology – psi-emitters – to broadcast signals that would goad the aliens into attacking the Confederacy. His tactic proved ruthlessly efficient.
Flush with success, the Sons besieged Tarsonis, the capital of the Confederacy, with psionically-directed zerg. Sarah and Jim expressed reservations about using the zerg as a weapon, but Mengsk was resolute. The concentration of zerg drew a protoss assault, and Mengsk dispatched Kerrigan with a small force to fend them off, enabling the Sons to sack the planet.
Unbeknownst to Sarah, she had assassinated Arcturus’s father while serving as a Ghost – and her decision to question orders made it clear that her usefulness had ended. As Tarsonis crumbled, Mengsk abandoned Kerrigan to the zerg.Raynor and his crew left the Sons in disgust. Though they later stole Mengsk’s flagship, the Hyperion, Arcturus was unmoved. He reconvened the destroyed Confederate government as the Terran Dominion, and an old tyranny with a new face was born in the Koprulu sector.
The Overmind
Though Arcturus Mengsk had left Sarah Kerrigan for dead, the zerg were more pragmatic than he could have imagined. Intrigued by her psionic abilities, the zerg swarm brought Kerrigan to magma-covered Char, where she was slowly mutated by the zerg’s guiding intelligence, the Overmind, into the Queen of Blades, the first zerg-infested being to retain autonomous thought.
Kerrigan’s slumbering mind called desperately across space in search of aid – and Jim Raynor, still reeling from Tarsonis, led ex-Sons of Korhal (“Raynor’s Raiders”) to Char to find her.
Kerrigan’s call summoned more than just the Raiders; protoss forces, led by the Executor Tassadar, also converged on Char. Tassadar had fought to avoid purifying zerg-infested Mar Sara, but he’d been overruled by the Conclave, the protoss civilian government, who felt that containing the zerg was worth any loss of terran life.
Another group of protoss – under the command of Prelate Zeratul – was also summoned to Char by Kerrigan’s psionics. This sect of Dark Templar (protoss who forsook the Khala) had long been adversaries of their Khalai cousins – but, on Char, the protoss were united in their desire to destroy the zerg. Raynor’s Raiders attempted to free Kerrigan, but she emerged from her cocoon and scattered the protoss and terran invaders.
Stranded on Char, Tassadar and Raynor distracted the Queen of Blades while Zeratul slew the cerebrate Zasz, a controlling intelligence second only to the Overmind in its ability to direct the swarm. Their victory was short-lived – by killing Zasz with his psionic powers, Zeratul inadvertently allowed the zerg to learn the location of Aiur, home planet of the protoss.
The zerg surged to Aiur as one, seeking to perfect their race by consuming the protoss and integrating their genes into the swarm. Aiur was blanketed in alien spores, wings and teeth, and the Overmind embedded itself in the home world of the mightiest civilization in the sector.
The Fall
On Aiur, the protoss Conclave had lost contact with Tassadar’s expedition force. They swiftly promoted the young templar Artanis to Executor in Tassadar’s place. Artanis and his allies (including Praetor Fenix, a life-long warrior) fought to drive the zerg back, but they were sorely challenged.
Tassadar managed to contact Aiur from his position on Char, and share vital information: if a cerebrate were killed, a large number of zerg would become disorganized and fractious. Aiur’s defenders attempted to slay an invading cerebrate, but failed, and the Conclave branded Tassadar a heretic when they learned that he had allied with Dark Templar on Char. Fenix and Artanis fought pitched battles at provinces throughout Aiur, but the protoss gained no ground, and Fenix was slain while attempting to repel zerg invaders at Antioch.
Protoss joined Tassadar on Char, but rather than inviting his forces to rejoin the war effort, they stripped the Executor of his rank and arrested him. Though commanded to return to Aiur for trial, Tassadar shared an observation with his fellow protoss: the void energies of the Dark Templar could permanently kill cerebrates. He convinced Artanis to rescue Zeratul, who had been penned in by Dominion forces on Char, and join forces with the Dark Templar so that they could strike at Aiur’s cerebrates together. Artanis led his Khalai protoss and Zeratul’s forces to Aiur, but the presence of the hated Dark Templar on the protoss homeworld led to riots and civil war.
Horrified, Tassadar sought to overthrow the Conclave for the sake of the battle against the zerg, but ultimately surrendered himself to their judgment rather than promote further bloodshed among his people. Though Tassadar was jailed, Jim Raynor and Fenix (who had been reconstituted in the shell of a war machine called a dragoon) sprung him, and Tassadar assaulted the Overmind. Drawing on Zeratul’s teachings, Tassadar channeled both Void energy and the Khala of the Aiur protoss into a suicide strike on the Overmind with his flagship, destroying it at the cost of his own life.
Chapter 2 - StarCraft: Brood War
The Stand
Though the zerg swarms fragmented with the death of the Overmind, they still covered Aiur. The embattled Aiur protoss retreated to shadow-covered Shakuras, home planet of the Dark Templar, and attempted to integrate their two societies – painfully. Matriarch Raszagal, spiritual leader of the Dark Templar on Shakuras, welcomed the nascent alliance to her planet, but offered them little comfort. The zerg had not only dominated Aiur; a brood allied with the cerebrate Daggoth had also invaded Shakuras.
Working together, the allied protoss tried to dispatch the zerg on Shakuras, but they were outnumbered. Their efforts invited truly unexpected support from – of all people – Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, who arrived at Raszagal’s citadel on Shakuras and vowed that she was free of the Overmind’s control. Kerrigan asked the protoss for aid slaying a new Overmind that had begun to grow on Char – in exchange, she offered to help them cleanse Shakuras of Daggoth’s brood by recovering a pair of khaydarin crystals, artifacts that would unlock the power stored within a temple dedicated to the Xel’naga – an ancient race that the protoss revered as creators.
Though Zeratul, Fenix and Artanis were apprehensive about the Queen of Blades, Raszagal vouched for Kerrigan’s plan, and the tenuous allies departed in search of the two crystals. The combined armies of protoss and Kerrigan’s zerg recovered a crystal from Dominion researchers, and the other from feral zerg broods surrounding the growing Overmind on Char. Yet, while they were away, the protoss Judicator Aldaris, who opposed protoss cooperation with both zerg and Dark Templar, became suspicious of Matriarch Raszagal, and led a legion of fellow protoss against her. The protoss vanguard smashed Aldaris’ revolt and took him captive…but, as he began to confess his suspicions about Raszagal, Kerrigan executed him.
The furious protoss expelled the Queen of Blades from their planet, and activated the khaydarin crystals in the heart of the Xel’Naga temple. The shockwave emitted by the temple swept throughout Shakuras, cleansing it entirely of zerg.
The Iron Fist
Human admirals Alexei Stukov and Gerard DuGalle of the United Earth Directorate arrived in the Koprulu sector with a mighty force. Their mission was appallingly direct: assert control over the terrans, and reunite divided humankind. Taking stock of the chaos in the sector, Stukov and DuGalle allied themselves with the remnants of the Confederacy (led by Samir Duran) and set about deposing Emperor Mengsk.
UED forces attempted to commandeer Dominion battlecruisers at the Dylarian Shipyards, where they bested Mengsk’s General, Edmund Duke. At Duran’s suggestion, they descended to the old capital of Tarsonis to recover a Psi Disrupter, a Confederate device that would disrupt the psionic signals of the zerg. Duran and DuGalle wanted the disrupter destroyed to prevent Mengsk from using it, but Stukov thought it would be valuable against the zerg, so he hid it.
Fresh from their accomplishment, the UED invaded Korhal, capital world of the Dominion. Before the domineering UED fleet could take Mengsk into custody, the battlecruiser Hyperion rescued the emperor. Jim Raynor (and the protoss accompanying him) saved Mengsk at Kerrigan’s behest, in the hopes that they could use his fleet against the UED, whose forces threatened the entire sector.
The UED caught up to the allies near Aiur, but a force of zerg swarmed them, and Stukov noticed that Samir Duran’s forces were conspicuously unavailable for defense. Suspicious, the admiral abandoned the fight. Without backup, the UED forces were savaged, and Raynor, Mengsk and the protoss escaped to Shakuras through Aiur’s warp gate.
Suspecting his comrade of treachery, DuGalle sent Duran to capture Stukov – but, when DuGalle arrived on the planet Braxis, he found the admiral dying near the psi-disrupter. According to Stukov, Duran was the true traitor – he had shot Stukov and set the disrupter to explode. Terrified that Duran was zerg-infested, DuGalle and his men salvaged the disrupter, and the remaining UED fleet changed targets to strike at the zerg.
Though the battle was hard-fought, the disrupter was a massive success – the UED sparked confusion among the zerg and sedated the new Overmind with drugs and psionics. Flush with victory, they claimed the Overmind for Earth.
The Queen of Blades
After the siege of Char, Kerrigan struggled to recoup her losses. She contacted Jim Raynor and the protoss, suggesting that they work together to rescue the remainder of the Terran Dominion and retaliate against the United Earth Directorate. With the Overmind under Earth’s control, the allies reluctantly agreed that the UED was a bigger threat than Kerrigan.
Guided by Samir Duran, Kerrigan attempted to reunite the devastated zerg broods under her control. She “encouraged” Mengsk to provide a psi emitter, which helped attract enough zerg to her side to destroy the UED psi disrupter on Braxis. Kerrigan and her allies then attacked Korhal, with Raynor and Fenix sieging the fortifications and Kerrigan’s zerg swarming forth to kill the UED. Mengsk began to rebuild his empire on conquered Korhal – but, with her swarm renewed, Kerrigan viciously turned on her allies, killing Fenix and General Duke and forcing Raynor and Arcturus to flee.
Only one obstacle to Kerrigan’s dominance of the zerg remained. Arriving on Shakuras, Kerrigan took Raszagal hostage, and forced the Dark Templar to slay the UED-controlled Overmind while her zerg crushed the UED. Victorious, Zeratul demanded Raszagal’s return, but the matriarch refused – she had been controlled by Kerrigan from the moment the Queen set foot on Shakuras. Sorrowfully, Zeratul slew his matriarch rather than allowing her to remain a thrall of the Queen of Blades.
The tenuous allies that Kerrigan had deceived earlier – DuGalle, Mengsk and Artanis – staged a desperate assault on Char, but the Queen of Blades devastated each fleet in turn…and then allowed some of the survivors to flee. Living foes no longer troubled her. Mengsk and Artanis slunk away, while DuGalle, whose UED fleet had been completely destroyed, took his life in despair. Content in her control over the Swarm, Kerrigan cemented her position on Char – and grew ominously quiet.
Meanwhile, Zeratul discovered an abomination hidden on a dark planet – a zerg/protoss hybrid cultivated by Samir Duran. Duran hinted that he served greater powers than any the protoss knew, and predicted that the coming of the hybrids – which he had seeded throughout the Koprulu sector – would change the galaxy forever.
