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Although technology and world culture progressed rapidly throughout the twentieth century, their advancements paled in comparison to the seemingly reckless leaps that would follow. By the end of the twenty-first century, mankind had seen bold and unprecedented changes within the world. Radical new technologies were surfacing at incredible rates, offering increased access to advanced computers and informational databases to even the most destitute nations of Earth. In the wake of the eradication of Communism from the Eastern Nations, nuclear weapons quickly became available in abundance. The international power structure, once defined primarily by the acquisition of capital and military superiority, was blasted apart as third-world nations rose to challenge the economic and military might of the world's super-powers.

As the manipulative sciences of cybernetics, cloning and gene-splicing rose steadily into the public forum, militant humanist and hard-line religious groups challenged the rights of private interest corporations who profited from genetic experimentation. Multitudes of people were being augmented with cybernetic implants while others began to manifest slight physical mutations ranging from heightened senses to advanced telepathy. These dramatic changes within the human gene pool caused widespread panic amongst many of the fundamental humanist factions.

Technology continued to evolve and spread, and population rates soared. Near the end of the twentieth century, there were six billion people upon the earth. Within three hundred years, the population had grown to an estimated twenty-three billion. Pollution and a lack of natural resources and affordable fuels added to the fire as world leaders sought ways to stem the growth of their nation's inhabitants. Popular sentiment held that the world was plummeting towards an inevitable catastrophe as overpopulation and genetic alteration swept across the globe.

Meanwhile, as tensions rose around the world regarding the use and capitalization of cybernetics and genetic mutations, many core international economic systems folded in upon themselves and shut down. Horrific acts of terrorism and violence erupted between the corporate sector and the humanist factions, resulting in forced police actions across the globe. Irresponsible media coverage of these atrocious police actions spurred the already rampant civil chaos in many of the larger countries. Ultimately, the precarious balance of world power exploded into international pandemonium.

On November 22, 2229, the United Powers League (UPL) was founded. The UPL was to become the ultimate incarnation of the vision of a unified humanity held by the now defunct United Nations. This new order encompassed and controlled close to ninety-three percent of the earths population, failing only to bring order to a few volatile South American states. The UPL was founded upon the basis of 'enlightened socialism', but often resorted to harsh, fascist police actions to maintain the public order. With its control lasting for nearly eighty years, the UPL began to devise a rigid agenda that would unify the various cultures of humanity for all time. Great lengths were taken to eradicate the last vestiges of racial separatism, and the Unitariate Commissions banned many of the world's oldest religions. English was designated as the common tongue of the planet, replacing many ancient languages that were subsequently banned in their native countries.

Although religions were officially banned by the UPL, the organization held an almost zealous belief in the supposed divinity of mankind'. This quasi-religious dogma called for the immediate eradication of any non-vital prosthetics or mutations amongst the pure-strain human gene pool. Hard-line UPL proponents and scholars argued that genetic alteration, cyber technology, and the use of psychoactive drugs all led to the eventual degeneration of the human species. The UPL leaders formulated a bold plan that would assure that humanity would persevere, unscathed by the tempting corruption of radical technologies.

Like the bloody Inquisitions that devastated Europe eight hundred years before, the UPL set in motion one of the harshest agendas ever conceived by humanity: Project Purification. This genocidal crusade was the Government's final solution to the matter of cleansing humanity of its more degenerate facets. UPL troops scoured every nation on earth, rounding up dissidents, hackers, synthetics, the cybernetically enhanced, tech-pirates, and criminals of every kind. This planet wide culling resulted in the eradication of nearly 400 Million people. The world-media, now under the strict control of the UPL, downplayed the horrific violence and kept the general populace of earth unaware of the scope of the atrocities being committed.

Despite their heinous acts, the UPL succeeded in advancing many core technologies. Fields of research that had lain dormant for decades were opened again under UPL control. The Space Exploration programs of the mid-twentieth century, abandoned by the American and Russian governments due to drastically reduced budgets and incessant political sabotage, became the basis for a new era of exploration for humanity. The coupling of cryogenic hibernation with warp-drive technology resulted in the ability to travel amongst the stars. Within the span of forty years the UPL founded colonies upon the moon and many other planets within the Terran solar system.

During this period, a brilliant young scientist named Doran Routhe made plans to consolidate his power within the UPL. Uninvolved with the vulgarities of Project Purification, Routhe was obsessed with founding colonies upon the world beyond the Terran Sector. Routhe was convinced that the discovery of new minerals and alternate fuel sources on the outlying worlds would make him one of the most influential men on earth. Through his political connections and personal fortune, Routhe was able to secure thousands of UPL prisoners to use as guinea pigs for his secret plans.

The prisoners, slated for mass execution under the edict of Project Purification, were transported to Routhe's private laboratories. Routhe, planning on sending the prisoners off to colonize the outlying worlds, had his science crews prep nearly 56,000 people for long-term cryogenic hibernation. Cataloguing the various mutations and cybernetic enhancements of the prisoners, Routhe input all of the data into a revolutionary supercomputer. This Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, known as ATLAS then processed this genetic information and was able to predict which of the prisoners should be able to survive the trial to come. Only 40,000 of the prisoners were deemed viable to survive the rigorous conditions. Those 40,000 were then loaded onto four gargantuan, automated deep-space supercarriers. As the prisoners were prepped for cryogenic 'cold-sleep', the ships were loaded with enough supplies, rations and hardware to aid them once they arrived at their scheduled destination. The navigation computer was then programmed with the co-ordinates of the outlying planet Gantris VI. All seemed in perfect preparation, but even Routhe could not have imagined that the prisoners would be launched to their almost certain deaths in the galactic rim.

The ATLAS was installed into the first of the super carriers, the Nagglfar. Three other carriers - the Argo, the Sarengo, and the Reagan - were programmed to follow the Nagglfar as it was launched into the void of space towards Gantris VI. Over the course of this journey, which generations later would call 'The Long Sleep', ATLAS continued to monitor the humans kept in cryogenic stasis. Evaluating the numerous mutations and enhancements found within the prisoner's gene pool, ATLAS became aware of a powerful mutagenic strain that existed in some of their DNA. While this mutation was found to reside in less than one percent of the prisoners, it seemed to augment the latent psionic potential within the human brain. ATLAS calculated that, should the prisoners survive in their new environment many of them might benefit from this psionic mutation within only a few generations. These findings were recorded and relayed back to earth, straight into the logs of Doran Routhe.

Originally scheduled as a one-year trip, their voyage took a turn for the worse at some point during the journey the navigational systems linked to ATLAS shut down, erasing not only the co-ordinates of Gantris VI, but those of the earth as well. The four ships, carrying their hapless cargo in stasis, barreled blindly through space at warp speeds for nearly thirty years.

Eventually, the warp-drive engines of the four super carriers reached critical meltdown. After twenty-eight years of warp travel, the huge ships emerged into real space near the edge of a habitable star system. Some 60,000 light years from the earth, their engines destroyed and their life-support batteries nearly exhausted, the ships engaged their emergency protocols and plummeted towards the nearest habitable worlds in the system.

The Reagan and the Sarengo crash landed on the world that would be named Umoja. The Sarengo, which had suffered massive systems failures during its atmospheric descent, smashed into the planet killing all of its 8,000 passengers. The Reagan was more fortunate, making a controlled descent and landing safely. Once the ship had landed, the 'cold sleep' chambers were deactivated and the surviving passengers slowly awakened. The passengers, attempting to discern where they were and how long they had 'slept', found that the ATLAS system had somehow erased all knowledge of their journey from their computer banks.

The Argo landed upon the red world of Moria. Its passengers met with the same fate as those aboard the Reagan, as all information regarding their current status was erased. Only the passengers of the Nagglfar could access their ship's computer to discern their plight. They accessed ATLAS directly and confirmed their growing suspicions that they would never see the earth again, for although they had landed on the temperate planet of Tarsonis, the Nagglfar was damaged beyond repair. The surviving exiles, now spread across three worlds, began to salvage their wrecked ships in an attempt to find refuge in their new surroundings.

The inhabitants of each planet worked to survive in what they termed 'the New World'. Unaware that their fellows also thrived upon the other worlds in the system, the vagabond Terrans made do with whatever meager resources they could find. Having lost the means to communicate over interplanetary distances when their ships were stripped for essential materials, the Terrans lived in isolation for decades. In a relatively short amount of time, the three isolated groups of Terrans founded their sister colonies upon their respective worlds, and although it would be at least sixty years before the three colonies would be reunited by space travel, each of them grew into prosperous, self-contained communities. Tarsonis, the largest and most technologically advanced of the colonies soon developed second generation sub-warp engines. This allowed their ships to explore the myriad, barren planets of the surrounding star system and eventually led them to find the other survivors of the Long Sleep.

Once reunited, the three colonies benefited from mutual trade and commerce treaties. Although Tarsonis kept pushing Umoja and Moria to join in a conglomerated government, the two colonies steadfastly refused. The fleets of Tarsonis continued to explore the Terran patch of space that came to be known as the Koprulu Sector.

Founding prosperous colonies upon seven other worlds within the system enabled the military might of Tarsonis to grow by leaps and bounds. A new government, christened the Terran Confederacy, was founded by the Tarsonian colonies. The Morian colony, which had benefited from having the largest resource mining operations in the Sector, began to fear that this new Confederacy might attempt to move in and regulate their lucrative operations. Thus the Kel-Morian Combine was formed; a shady, corporate partnership that would supply military aid to any Mining Guild that was oppressed by Confederate policy. Tensions rose between the Confederacy and the Combine leading to the outbreak of the Terran Guild Wars.

The Guild Wars lasted for nearly four years, with the Confederacy eventually 'negotiating' peace with the Combine. Although the Combine retained its autonomy, almost all of its supporting Mining Guilds were annexed into the holdings of the Confederacy. The Umojan colony, after seeing what blatant abuse the Confederacy was capable of, founded the Umojan Protectorate. This nationalized militia would work to keep its colony free from Confederate tyranny. In the final analysis, the Guild Wars assured the Confederacy its position as the dominating factor within the Terran power structure.

The might of the Confederacy continued to grow as its 'prospectors' claimed world after world with their reckless expansionism. Pirate groups and radical militia organizations began to spring up more frequently as Confederate enforcement agencies continued to abuse their citizenry. One of the greatest examples of revolt against Confederate policy was the Rebellion of Korhal.

Korhal was one of the core Confederate worlds originally settled by Tarsonian colonists. A world of affluence and enlightenment, Korhal contributed greatly to the military and technological advancements of the Confederacy. Although the Confederacy benefited from Korhal's continued productivity, the citizens of the colony resented their forced affiliation with the often-corrupt Confederate Senators. Attempting to retain their independence, the citizenry of Korhal instigated numerous riots against the local Confederate militia. The Confederates responded in kind and declared martial law throughout the colony. This only seemed to agitate the populace even more, escalating the already rampant civil chaos. The Confederates believed that if their most treasured and pampered colony could turn against them, then all of their other colonies might revolt as well. It was decided that the crisis on Korhal would be ended by any means necessary. Korhal would serve as a chilling example to all of the colonies in the Confederacy.

A dynamic Korhalian Senator by the name of Angus Mengsk took it upon himself to formalize the sentiments of his fellow citizens. Their cry for freedom was undeniable when Mengsk actively declared war against the Confederates. Whipping the people of Korhal into a volatile, patriotic frenzy, the Senator succeeded in capturing all of the Confederate outposts on Korhal. Issuing statements declaring that the Confederacy no longer held any claim over the world of Korhal, Mengsk succeeded in garnering the respect and admiration of many other struggling colonies.

The Confederates, seeking to contain the situation, pulled their forces from Korhal and withdrew their fleet from its skies. Mengsk and the other leaders of the revolt, believing that they had won their independence, celebrated their victory over the Confederacy. The Confederates, knowing that a perceived loss to Korhal might instigate other colonies to revolt, planned to retake the planet through subtler means.

The Confederates sent three of their deadliest assassins, known only as Ghosts, to eliminate Mengsk and his supporters on Korhal. The Senators decapitated body, along with those of his wife and young daughter, were found the next morning on the private balcony of his towering, fortress-like headquarters. Mengsk's head was never found. While the assassination did much to weaken the revolt on Korhal, it also fuelled the fires that would eventually forge the greatest enemy the Confederacy would ever know...

Arcturus Mengsk, an accomplished Confederate Prospector and businessman, did not take the news of his family's death well. Having been a Prospector for years, Arcturus knew of the despicable lengths that the Confederacy would go to in an effort to reach its objectives. He was uninterested with greater Sector politics and was even alarmed and somewhat embarrassed by the actions of his estranged father on Korhal. He never dreamed, however, that his family would be killed merely to prove a point. Their deaths stirred something inside the young Arcturus, leading him to forsake his promising future and follow a lonely path of vengeance.

Rallying the various militant groups that had followed his father against the Confederates, Arcturus succeeded in fashioning an impressive, yet somewhat ragtag, army. Mengsk's followers struck boldly at various Confederate bases and installations, costing the Confederacy billions of credits in men, machines and equipment. With rumors spreading of a secret alliance between Mengsk's group and the Umojan Protectorate, the Confederate government quickly decided on a final solution to their problem. A salvo of one thousand Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles was fired at the planet of Korhal from the distant Confederate capital of Tarsonis. Over four million people were annihilated during the savage attack. In a single instant, the prosperous colony of Korhal was reduced to nothing more than a super-heated sphere of blackened glass and stirring phantoms.

The news of the holocaust reached Mengsk at a secret base located within the border of the Umojan protectorate. With nothing left save vengeance, Arcturus and those gathered with him on that sorrowful day pledged a sacred vow to bring down the Confederacy at all costs.

Calling themselves the Sons of Korhal, Arcturus and his renegade team of volunteers quickly made themselves as the most wanted fugitives in the Sector. Striking silently and swiftly, the Sons of Korhal won countless victories over the Confederacy. But with every battle won in the name of justice, Arcturus was portrayed as a madman and a terrorist by the Confederate-controlled media. Most colonies refused to house or provide services to anyone affiliated with the outlaw group. Yet, despite seemingly overwhelming odds and scandalous public opinion, Mengsk never gave up the fight against the Confederates. To this day, the Sons of Korhal continue to confound Confederate enforcement agencies as they work to bring about their mission of liberation for the Sector.

The various colonial powers and pirate militias continued to spar with the Confederate forces. Although many of the groups were constantly at odds with one another, the overall Terran presence within the Koprulu Sector continued to strengthen and expand. These petty squabbles would end soon enough as the Terran colonies found themselves in the midst of a struggle of epic proportions.

Without warning a fleet of fifty alien warships descended from the skies over the outlying Confederate colony Chau Sara. The massive ships opened fire upon the unsuspecting colony, continuing to decimate every inhabitant settlement on the planet. This unprecedented attack caught the Confederate forces by surprise, sending the shocked Terran fleets into disarray. Although they had never encountered alien species of any kind, they rushed quickly to defend themselves against this new, mysterious enemy.

The Confederacy launched a clumsy counter attack against the alien fleet as it made its way towards the second Terran planet of Mar Sara. The alien fleet, identifying itself as the Protoss, mysteriously withdrew its forces and spared the colony. Soon afterwards, a second, terrifying alien presence was discovered on the outskirts of Mar Sara. These new, insect-like invaders were very different from the Protoss that attacked the Colony just a short time before.

No Terran agency could account for the disturbing presence of not one, but two strange alien races within their colonies. Overcome by a collective, paranoid terror and encumbered by their own political infighting, the hapless Terran factions could only watch as an ever-increasing tide of alien invaders made their way towards the heart of the war torn Terran Sector.

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 Mar Sara, 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 Terran 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 Terrans 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 Terrans 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 Terrans 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 Terran'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 Terran's military strength was far greater then even they knew. The remaining military strength of the Terrans 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 Terrans 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 Terrans in the Koprulu sector may not have that much time to spare.