Koprulu sector

"What is it with the Koprulu Sector, anyhow? It seems like every week there's another skirmish, insurgency, sortie, planned offensive, counter strike, police action, border conflict or plain old-fashioned war breaking out. While the chaos and anarchy are great for a spacefaring merchant vessel that's willing to transport certain cargo of questionable legality, I sometimes have to stop and wonder if this madness will ever end."

- Norris Bailey reflects on the state of the Koprulu Sector

The Koprulu Sector&mdash;nicknamed the Terran Sector&mdash; is a sector in space colonized by terrans in the shadow of protoss space. It is situated on the galactic fringe of the Milky Way, 60,000 light years from the Solar System. During the Guild Wars, the sector was divided into at least five zones. Most of its planets are inhospitable. Still, the sector offers a vast range of foodstuffs.

History
"Nobody ever dies in bed in the Koprulu Sector"

- Brian T. Kindregen on the sector's grimness

In earlier times, it appears that the Koprulu Sector was inhabited or at least graced by alien species, given the prevalance of landforms that appear to have been formed artificially. By the time of terran settlement however, while the Koprulu Sector featured an extensive range of flora and fauna, no sentient species inhabited it. . Following a period of social anarchy and the "fall of western civilization", a new world-government was re-asserted over Earth: the United Powers League (UPL). A police-state, it encompassed almost all of Earth. Rounding up "undesirables" &mdash;cyborgs, genetically "impure" individuals, hackers, political dissidents&mdash; Project Purification was instituted: a mass genocide campaign in which millions died.

However, the dynamic scientist Doran Routhe wanted to explore deep space. It was very risky, but he had no problem with sending political prisoner lab rats to their deaths; 56,000 prisoners were secretly prepared for transport. Of these, 40,000 were loaded into four sleeper-ships designated the Reagan, the Argo, the Sarengo, and the Nagglfar and were sent on an intended 1 year journey into deep space to Gantris VI, an outlying planet. The Nagglfar was also equipped with an artificial intelligence called ATLAS. Routhe believed they would set up a colony and mine new resources for the UPL.

ATLAS scanned the prisoners, and discovered something unusual about them - a high proportion of them had a mutation leading to psionic potential. While currently weak, it would manifest in only a few generations. This information was logged and sent back to Earth. However, the guidance computer failed, and they traveled at faster than light speeds for 28 years, traveling 60,000 light years to the far edge of the galaxy. The ships emerged at the edge of a habitable star system. When they awoke, the survivors had no idea where they were or where Earth was: all hope of making contact again was lost. The Sarengo crashed on Umoja, killing 8,000 prisoners, while the Reagan, which landed softly, founded the colony of Umoja, the Argo founded the colony of Moria, and the Nagglfar built the main terran colony in the sector: Tarsonis. As the Tarsonians had access to ATLAS, they had a technological head-start on their stellar neighbors. Even so, it took them sixty years to build second-generation subwarp engines and eventually discover the other two colonies. With Moria and Umoja resolving to go their own way, the inhabitants of Tarsonis spread throughout the sector, eventually creating an interstellar Terran Confederacy. They also came into conflict with Moria over its own colonies. The Morians founded the Kel-Morian Combine to fight back, sparking the Guild Wars, but lost. In order to safeguard their interests, the Umojans founded the Umojan Protectorate.

This status quo remained until the Great War. The sector was rife with rebel activity, most, if not all of it centered against the Confederacy. After the conflict and the coming of the zerg and protoss, the Terran Dominion has taken the place of the Confederacy. Since the Brood War, it has become a more dangerous place.

In a possible future glimpsed at by the Overmind (and others through it), the Dark Voice waged a genocidal campaign throughout the Milky Way. In the Koprulu Sector, all life was extinguished.