The development of humanity proceeded unabated during the twenty-first century. Science was able to deliver everything that had been promised. Longer life spans, the cures for many diseases, super-strong alloys, computers that were both incredibly small and incredibly powerful, the list continues. Unfortunately, the rapidly changing security situation caused by the fall of the Soviet Union created new problems for the world. As small states were no longer restrained by the struggle between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, they began to look for their own security guarantees. These new guarantees came in the form of weapons of mass destruction: chemical weapons, biological weapons, and most importantly, nuclear weapons. At first, these weapons were tightly controlled, but as the decades passed, more and more countries developed their own ability to develop these weapons or bought them from countries willing to sell. By the middle of the 21st century, the club of nuclear powers grew from less then ten to more then fifty countries. Although no nuclear wars broke out during this period, sophisticated terrorist organizations were able to acquire large quantities of chemical weapons and used them in more and more of their attacks.
The instability caused by the widespread availability of weapons of mass destruction and the constant presence of international terrorist organizations did not end with twenty-first century, it only continued to get worse. Add onto this the problem of over-population, reaching 30 billion at the dawn of the 23rd century, and it became a recipe for the total collapse of international order. The United Nations failed and was disbanded, the total economic collapse of the United States destroyed the rock upon which the world's economic foundation was built, and the rising power and greed of the mega-corporations ran rampant across much of had been known as the developing world. From this chaos came the increasing use of genetic alterations, cloning, and cybernetic enhancements to create super soldiers. But with the rise of these altered Humans, came a backlash from the general population and many religious organizations. From Christianity to Islam, the world's major religions were united against what they considered the abominations of science. Their fight became a rallying cry for the desperate people across the world looking for someone to blame for their miserable lives. They blamed altered Humans, some of which were innocent people trying to survive in the world, just like everyone else, but most were power-hungry people willing to give up their humanity for more power. This rallying cry became a chorus, the chorus became a symphony, and within a generation, a new world power had been formed from the ashes of the international community, and it was called the United Powers League.
The United Powers League (UPL) was against all forms of Human alteration, they not only outlawed it, but they actively tracked down and exterminated those that had already been altered. This new inquisition, like those that had swept the religiously intolerant Europe during the middle ages, was a new time of terror. Over 800 million people were rounded up and killed by the UPL government, and the "normal" people loved it. Or at the very least, the loved what the government told them about the inquisition. The UPL had absolute control over the media and they only let out small bits of the truth behind their purge. Most people believed that the number of altered Humans was very small and all such individuals were clearly shown as blood-thirsty killers. The people never saw the whole villages and towns that had been swept away by the UPL and their secret police. In another ironic twist of fate, the UPL also turned against organized religion. Recognizing them as a threat to their authority, organized religion of any type was declared illegal and they were forced to disband. While personal faith was allowed, churches, mosques, and the like were shut down and often destroyed by the brutal police forces of the UPL. Again, with total media control, most people were almost completely unaware that this was ever happening.
Near the end of the great purge of altered Humans, the UPL decided to turn its attention outward, to return to space. Realizing that the Earth could not hold all of humanity forever, the UPL restarted the space programs of the twenty-first century and quickly moved to occupy the rest of the solar system. Wanting to expand even further, the UPL devoted its vast resources developing rudimentary Faster than Light space travel and after years of work a combination of a Warp Drive and cryogenic sleep allowed humanity to journey to other star systems.
With new worlds being discovered daily, many people realized the vast potential of wealth and power that was available. One such individual was the a brilliant young scientist named Doran Routhe, a well connected physicist convinced that founding space colonies would place him among the most powerful people on Earth. Doran Routhe was able to acquire 40,000 altered Humans that had been selected for extermination. But instead of being executed, these prisoners were given a second lease on life as part of a highly secret colonization mission. Dr. Routhe wanted to study the effects of a relatively hostile environment on these altered Humans and since they had already been selected for death, none of the prisoners, whose crimes ranged from murder to simply having an altered genetic structure, would be missed.
After getting approval from the leadership of the UPL, the doctor rounded up the 40,000 chosen prisoners and placed them on four massive colony ships named the Nagglfar, the Argo, the Sarengo, and the Reagan. While the prisoners would be placed in best cryogenic chambers available at the time for the duration of the three month trip, their genetic structures would be constantly examined by the powerful computer known as the Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, or ATLAS for short. ATLAS was not only in charge of analyzing the prisoners genetic structures, it was also in charge of guiding the four ships to their destination, the outlying planet of Gantris VI, and helping the prisoners build a viable colony once the ships landed. ATLAS was located on the Nagglfar and the other three ships in the small fleet had much simpler computers, programmed only to scan the genetic structures of the prisoners on their ships and relay all the information back to ATLAS and to follow ATLAS towards their ultimate destination.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown even to this day, ATLAS malfunctioned. By the middle of the three month journey, ATLAS had identified several prisoners that had exceptional psionic abilities that would likely manifest within several generations of breeding with the other prisoners. Within minutes of sending this transmission to DR. Routhe, ATLAS suffered a catastrophic failure. The ship's navigational system was completely destroyed and much of its databanks were erased. Instead of landing on the designated planet, the small fleet sailed through space for thirty years. The prisoners, still in cryogenic sleep, were completely unaware of this tragic turn of events. When the four ships were finally forced to shut down their Warp Drives to avoid a catastrophic failure, they were 60,000 light-years from Earth and divided into three separate groups.
With the destruction of the navigational system in ATLAS on the Nagglfar, the smaller computers controlling the other three colony ships were left to their own devices. Each ship chose a habitable planet near the area where they emerged from Warp Space, causing the ships to scatter over three nearby star systems. The Reagan and the Sarengo descended together onto the planet that would be later called Umoja, but the Sarengo was destroyed during the crash landing, killing the 8000 prisoner colonists it carried. The Argo landed with heavy damage on the mineral rich planet that became known as Moria, but its computers were so heavily damaged that it took the awakened prisoners days to even leave their ship. Finally, the Nagglfar, the largest of the four ships and the home of ATLAS, landed on the planet that became known as Tarsonis. As the prisoners from the three surviving ships awoke from their sleep they discovered that they were alone, on an unknown planet, with no way of communicating the other ships or Earth. The survivors of each ship believed they were the only ones left.
The survivors of the Nagglfar, with twice the population of the surviving ships, had a decided advantage when it came to survival. Although ATLAS was heavily damaged, enough of it could be salvaged that the prisoners were able to create a powerful central computer to organize their building efforts. Their ship was also equipped with the majority of the supplies that were needed to build the new colony. With this head start, the survivors on Tarsonis expanded rapidly across their world. But even with this advantage, life was hard for the people of Tarsonis. Although they had the largest technological edge of the three ships, they also had the most mouths to feed. The first year on Tarsonis saw over a thousand colonists die of starvation and to the unfamiliar elements. To make matters worse, although a large percentage of the "prisoners" were convicted of only having a small genetic modification, there were a significant number of real prisoners, which had been convicted of major violent crimes. Early in the second year after the Nagglfar had landed on Tarsonis, these violent prisoners had merged into a powerful bloc that seized control from the pre-selected colonial administrators. This group solidified their control of Tarsonis with the formation of the Terran Confederacy, using the name and symbol of the faction that had attempted to separate from the United States of America during that country's civil war in the 1800's CE.
Although the majority of the colonists on Tarsonis objected to the formation Terran Confederacy, they could do little to stop it. By the end of the first decade on Tarsonis, the Terran Confederacy was entrenched in every aspect of life on the planet. By the end of the first sixty years, people had learned to live with the Terran Confederacy and even admire it for its strength and dedication to making Tarsonis strong. When contact was re-established with the other colonies on Umoja and Moria, the people of Tarsonis learned that those colonies had gone through a period of total anarchy before a stable government was finally formed, which caused the people of Tarsonis to appreciate their government even more. After the Terran Confederacy developed primitive faster then light drives, the technology was shared with its sister colonies causing a flood of new trade between the three worlds. However, the leaders of Tarsonis continued to push the governments on Umoja and Moria to form a unified government, but the other two colonies refused each such offer. With its technological and population edge, the Terran Confederacy had expanded into several star systems, far surpassing the other two original Human colonies.
The colony of Moria began to fear the growing power of the Terran Confederacy and became concerned that if the Terran Confederacy could not convince them to join the Terran Confederacy through diplomacy, they might resort to war. Thus, the Kel-Morian Combine was formed, a shady corporation that would work with the various mining guilds on Moria and the surrounding star systems and provide them with military equipment and a unified command structure in case of war. Tensions rose between the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine as they began equipping any mining guild that asked for their help, including those founded by the Terran Confederacy. These tensions led to the outbreak of the Guild Wars, which lasted for nearly four years. In the end, the Terran Confederacy "negotiated" a peace with the Kel-Morian Combine that allowed the corporation to remain independent and in control of Moria, but almost all other established mining colonies were annexed by the Terran Confederacy. As a witness to the blatant abuse of power from the Terran Confederacy, the Umoja colony founded the Umojan Protectorate, a nationalized militia that would be used to protect their colonies from attacks from the Terran Confederacy. Although the formation of the Umojan Protectorate angered the leaders of the Terran Confederacy, its power was limited and with the Kel-Morian Combine beaten, nothing could stop of the Terran Confederacy from becoming the most powerful force in the region, named the Koprulu Sector by the Terran Confederacy.
Although there was no power that could stand up to the might of the Terran Confederacy, there were cracks in its foundations. Dissent had always been a problem for the totalitarian government of the Terran Confederacy, but the dissenters lacked charismatic and organized leaders, dedicated financial backing, and popular support, but that was to change all to rapidly. The collapse of centuries of work began on the star jewel of the Terran Confederacy, the beautiful world in the same star system as Tarsonis, the first Human colony founded in the Korpulu Sector outside of the original landing sites, the planet of Korhal.
With a large population and industrial base, Korhal was one of the best planets within the Terran Confederacy, but it always had a rebellious streak. Since the foundation of the colony, the Terran Confederacy was willing to look past these problems in order to keep the important planet content, but a large series of street demonstrations and the vocal support from some local leaders of Korhal forced the leaders of the Terran Confederacy to take a harsher line against Korhal. Into this volatile sitation, Angus Mensk, a popular senator from Korhal, joined the ranks of the protestors to give them a real voice. Under Angus Mensk, the protestors and rioters became more organized and more influential on Korhal. They began working towards realistic goals and making specifics demands of the leadership of the Terran Confederacy, and their message began to spread to other planets in the Terran Confederacy. In an attempt to break the will of the protestors as quickly as possible, the leaders of the Terran Confederacy dispatched a small unit of their extremely effective psychic commandos, known as Ghosts, to Korhal. The morning after they secretly arrived on the planet, the decapitated bodies of Angus Mensk, his wife, and his young daughter could be seen swinging from the upper balcony of his mansion fortress.
The leaders of the Terran Confederacy had hoped the grisly sight would break the spirit of the protestors, but instead they became even more determined. On the far reaches of explored space, the only remaining child of Angus Mensk heard of his father's death and the death of his family. Arcturus Mensk has chosen the life of a prospector and was quite successful at it and while he had been embarrassed by the politics of his father, he never imagined that the Terran Confederacy would kill him and his family. Something stirred with Arcturus Mensk and after that, he dedicated his life to destroying the Terran Confederacy. Rallying a number of militias and pirates to his cause, Arcturus Mensk led his ragtag army against the Terran Confederacy throughout the Koprulu Sector costing the Terran Confederacy billions of credits in men, equipment, and property damage. With rumors of an alliance between the Sons of Korhal and the Umojan Protectorate, the Terran Confederacy searched for a quick solution to their Korhal problem. In desperation, the Terran Confederacy sent over a thousand of their apocalypse-class nuclear weapons to Korhal and within a few seconds, the once beautiful planet and its population of 4,000,000 was leveled, leaving only blackened glass and the memories of the dead.
When news of the destruction of Korhal reached Arcturus Mensk in his secret headquarters in the Umojan Protectorate, he was devastated. His main army disbanded and the rebellion through the Terran Confederacy quickly died away. Arcturus gathered what men and equipment he could from his falling army and formed the Sons of Korhal. With a new purpose, the Sons of Korhal would not longer seek to gain independence for Korhal, they would seek to destroy the Terran Confederacy. Although not the threat that he once was, Arcturus Mensk continued to be a thorn in the side of the Terran Confederacy for years, especially in the outlying colonies of the Terran Confederacy.
Through all of the years in space, Humans had never encountered a sentient alien species. They had discovered alien plants and animals, but never anything that could be described as sentient. And then without warning, the Terran Confederacy ran into two. The first they came into contact with did not actually become apparent until after the second species arrived. The first species, known as the Zerg, were led by a being known as the Overmind in a quest to perfect their bodies by taking genetic material from all species they encountered. To ensure the largest sample as possible, the Zerg often captured and killed an entire species before the Overmind was satisfied. They had traveled across the Milky Way Galaxy for millenia before arriving on the edge of the Koprulu sector. The Zerg spotted the Humans and determined that the latent psychic energy they discovered was worthy of being added to the Zerg races, so they began their subtle invasion of the Terran Confederacy. The first stage of their plan was to take control of a planet just outside of explored space, a highly volcanic world they named Char, and to seed the outer planets of the Terran Confederacy with spores that would develop into an army of Zerg, along with the facilities and food that would be needed to house and maintain the legions of armored warriors in the Zerg invasion force.
The first world seeded in this manner was Chau Sara and within a few days, the citizens on the planet noticed something strange was happening. First, several of the outlying farms suddenly went silent and then a rash of animal attacks began pouring into the central office on the small colony world. Just as the colony was sending word to its sister world Mar Sara and to the capital of the Terran Confederacy, a fleet of alien ships of unknown origin materialized above the planet and destroyed the surface of the world. Not a single living creature survived the bombardment, including the Zerg spores. The Terran Confederacy had witnessed the arrival of the enigmatic Protoss, the self-declared protectors of this entire region of space. The Protoss had recognized the true danger of the Zerg and had destroyed the entire planet to save the rest of the Human worlds. Unfortunately, their commander, a Protoss High Templar named Tassadar feared his mission would not be that simple. When his fleet was intercepted by a scrambled fleet from the Terran Confederacy, Tassadar simply withdrew instead of engaging in combat.
With Chau Sara a ruined world, the colonial administrator on Mar Sara knew time was short. He had read the reports from Chau Sara and realized that similar events were occurring on his planet. Not willing to go down without a fight, the administrator gathered what military forces he had, a small militia under the command of the marshal Jim Raynor, and investigated the animal attacks, leading to the first real battles against the Zerg. Around the same time, the Alpha Squadron from the Terran Confederacy, a powerful military force under the command of General Edmund Duke arrived on Mar Sara. Instead of assisting the colonial administrator in evacuating the civilians from the planet, General Duke seemed far more interested in clearing out the military labs on the planet before the Protoss fleet arrived in orbit. Desperate for help, the colonial administrator called for anyone that would come and assist him. His calls were answered by the Sons of Korhol. Seeing that the Sons of Korhal were the only hope for the population of Mar Sara, the administrator formed an alliance with Arcturus Mensk. The Sons of Korhal were able to evacuate the planet's population before the Protoss arrived, but Arcturus Mensk was not through with the planet, using the troops led by Jim Raynor, with the assistance of his rescued ghost operative Sara Kerrigan, Mensk attacked one of the research labs on Mar Sara and captured a psychic emitter that Mensk believed the Terran Confederacy had used to call the Zerg and Protoss to Mar Sara and Chau Sara.
As the Protoss were beginning their bombardment of Chau Mars, General Edmund Duke was leaving the world on his flagship, but his ship was attacked by a group of Zerg and was forced to crash land on the planet. With the hopes of convincing the experienced military commander to join him, Arcturus Mensk rescued General Edmund Duke and the remaining crew of his ship just minutes before their position was overrun by the Zerg. Grateful for being rescued, General Duke listened to Mensk's plans for building something better then the Terran Confederacy, of building an empire larger and more powerful with Arcturus in place as emperor and with General Edmund Duke in charge of this empire's military might. General Duke was convinced and within a few short weeks, he convinced almost all of his Alpha Squadron to follow him against the Terran Confederacy.
When Arcturus Mensk made his move against Tarsonis, he bypassed all of the outlying worlds and colonies and all of their defending forces and attacked the heart of the Terran Confederacy. Unlike his father, Arcturus Mensk would not try to lead a popular revolution against the leaders of the Terran Confederacy, he would lead a military force. While not the best equipped or the best trained, Alpha Squadron consisted of a quarter of the entire Terran Confederacy's military force and had the most field experience; its leaders were considered the best in the confederacy and its soldiers were the most disciplined. Within a few short days of fighting, Tarsonis belong to Mensk. Although the leaders of the Terran Confederacy had escaped him, Arcturus had a plan to end the dominance of Tarsonis in the Koprulu sector: he activated the psychic emitters, calling to the Zerg from across the light-years. The Zerg arrived within a few hours. The entire planet was overrun with the aliens within a week and as Mensk had predicted, the Protoss followed and finished the destruction of the planet.
Satisfied that the Terran Confederacy was badly broken, Arcturus Mensk moved his forces to Korhal and established his new base of operations there. Within days, Arcturus declared himself the emperor of the new Terran Dominion. While the Zerg hordes the Protoss would wage an epic war against each other, Emperor Mensk consolidated his power and destroyed the last vestiges of the Terran Confederacy. While some allies, like Jim Raynor and his now elite group of soldiers, left when they discovered how far Mensk was willing to go in order to form his "empire," the general populace did not care about the change in government. By the time the Zerg Overmind was killed on Auir, Arcturus Mensk had taken control of all the former Terran Confederacy worlds and no Human force in the Koprulu sector could challenge his control. Using his former relations with the Umojan Protectorate, the now Emperor Mensk even increased the trade between the two powers.
Unknown to the Humans in the Koprulu Sector, even that were passing there did not go unnoticed. While much of ATLAS had been destroyed during its mysterious failure, several parts continued to function. When the remains of ATLAS was used to form the basis of the computer network of the Terran Confederacy, a simple program slipped out of ATLAS and into the entire computer network. This program was the most sophisticated surveillance AI ever written up to that time and had been included by Dr. Routhe to allow him to continuously observe the developments of his colony. However, when ATLAS failed and the colony ships were sent to a distant part of the galaxy, Dr. Routhe realized his mission had failed and informed his superiors. Years passed without any signals from the colony mission and it was believed that it was destroyed. Future investigations of Gantris VI showed that colony ships had never even reached their destination.
Then without warning, a signal was received. When the surveillance AI left the insides of the crippled ATLAS, it was able to access powerful communication systems that allowed it to send messages back to Earth, even though it could not receive new instructions. Those on Earth could remain up-to-date on all of the political intrigue and battles in the Koprulu Sector. The leaders of the UPL were content to let the Terran Confederacy expand and grow, with new technologies and scientific discoveries flowing to Earth through the surveillance AI. And then the Zerg and the Protoss arrived.
The unexpected appearance of the sentient aliens, the first that any Humans had encountered, terrified the leaders of Earth. When news of the aliens leaked out, the stagnant planetary government could not stop the panic that swept across the planet, and within their own ranks. Following the information about the aliens, other facts began to leak out of the United Powers League, all of the lies and "special projects" that they had undertaken were revealed to the public for the first time, it took only a few weeks for the centuries old government to collapse. Within a matter of months, the UPL was replaced with the United Earth Directorate (UED), a military government that spanned the entire planet with a popular mandate to protect the Earth and its sister colonies from the Zerg and the Protoss. To that end, the United Earth Directorate organized a massive fleet under the command of Admiral Gerard DuGalle. The admiral's mission was to take control of the Terran Dominion, subdue the Protoss, and attempt to take control of the Zerg. Although it had taken the colony ships thirty years to originally reach the Koprulu sector, advancements in warp drive technology allowed the UED fleet to make the journey is less then six months.
When the fleet arrived without warning, the Terran Dominion could do little to stop it. Arcturus Mensk fought for as long as he could, but Admiral DuGalle's fleet was too strong. Although Mensk was able to escape with a sizable fleet of his own, his main fortress on Korhal was destroyed and the planets of the Terran Dominion were occupied or left to fend for themselves by the UED. Turning their attention to the Zerg and the Protoss, the UED fleet was surprised to find the Protoss had almost completely disappeared from the Koprulu Sector. Aside from a few struggling bases on Auir that were easy to deal with, the once feared Protoss threat had turned out to be a ghost. With the Protoss dealt with, the UED turned their full attention towards the Zerg. The UED's invasion of Char, the main base for the Zerg after they had arrived in the Koprulu sector, was swift and complete. After encountering stubborn resistance, the UED was able to defeat and subdue the new Overmind that had been created by several merged Cerebrates.
The United Earth Directorate fleet stood victorious over the remains of Auir, the Terran Dominion, and the once dreaded Zerg. Of course, it was not to last. Sarah Kerrigan, the self-styled queen of blades and the leader of the largest group of Zerg outside of the control of the UED, conspired with the remnants of all of the disparate groups in the Koprulu sector. All of these groups had a score to settle with the UED fleet and while none trusted Kerrigan too much, they all believed that they would see when she would betray them. With the other groups working together, the UED fleet was forced to retreat back closer and closer to its new stronghold on Char. When the UED was left with only its forced on Char, Kerrigan chose her moment to betray her new allies. Each group that had worked with Kerrigan was attacked; great heroes from the previous wars, like the former Protoss Steward of the Templar Caste Finex and the great General Edmund Duke, were cut down and killed. In the end, the groups were far weaker then they had been before they had begun working with Kerrigan and they had little to show for it. The UED fleet was her only remaining enemy and it was dealt with quickly.
When the dust settled, the UED fleet was utterly destroyed and Kerrigan took control of the remaining Zerg hordes. The Humans in the Koprulu sector were divided and demoralized and their once powerful civilization had been fought over several times within the span of a few years. The Terran Confederacy and the Terran Dominion were both shattered, while the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate were militarily powerless. Even worse, the Human's two greatest military forces, the groups under the control of Arcturus Mensk and Jim Raynor, had been driven into exile by the UED and the Zerg. The fate of humanity in the Koprulu sector had not seen suck dark times since the first arrival of the colony ships centuries earlier.
But not all was lost, many colony worlds escaped without too much damage and the Human's military strength was far greater then even they knew. The remaining military strength of the Humans was spread out on every single world, planet, and space station built and occupied for over two hundred years. Although widely dispersed, the power of the Humans could be harnessed, but to do so would take the return of Arcturus Mensk or Jim Raynor and time. Unfortunately, with Sarah Kerrigan the undisputed ruler of the Zerg Swarm, the Humans in the Koprulu sector may not have that much time to spare.