UED Expeditionary Fleet

The United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet was a human strike force dispatched to the Koprulu Sector in order to bring the sector under UED control during the Brood War. The fleet was commanded by Admiral Gerard DuGalle with Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov as his second.

History
The UPL became aware of the existence of the zerg and protoss in the Koprulu Sector. Fearing a possible attack on Earth, it dispatched a fleet, tasked to


 * 1) Conquer all of the "rogue" terran colonies, and capture Arcturus Mengsk, the Emperor of the newly formed Terran Dominion.
 * 2) Take control of the entire Zerg Swarm by capturing the new Overmind with psychics and powerful drugs.
 * 3) Use the captured Zerg Swarm to pacify all protoss activity within the sector.

The UED fleet arrived in the sector after the Great War. One of the fleet's first actions was to conduct a "weapons test" in which Admiral DuGalle observed a battle between zerg he had released onto an unsuspecting Dominion colony.

Another early action was at Braxis as the UED sought to take control of the planet from the Dominion. The UED blockade of the world was forced by the protoss escaping with the Uraj. Although the protoss escaped the fleet proceeded to assault Boralis, the capital city, and capture the planet. In the process the UED recruited Lieutenant Samir Duran and elements of his Confederate Resistance Forces.

The UED fleet continued to attack the Dominion, such as capturing the Dylarian Shipyards and destroying a Dominion Armada counterattack led by General Edmund Duke. It also found the Psi Disrupter on Tarsonis despite heavy zerg presence in the world as it feared that Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk's forces would take the Psi Disrupter first.

Conquest of the Dominion
The fleet then launched a massive siege to Korhal, the Dominion throne world. Despite being outnumbered and a strong defense force set up by the opposition, the fleet was able to gain victory and even destroy Mengsk's palace on Augustgrad, though failed to capture the Dominion emperor himself thanks to intervention from Jim Raynor and a small protoss fleet.

The "Betrayal" of Alexei Stukov
The fleet's next course of battle would be at the world of Aiur, where Mengsk and Raynor had escaped. There, it found that a huge protoss refugee base was located there with a warp gate and worse, multiple zerg broods surrounding the base. The Expeditionary Fleet was able to destroy one zerg brood there with relative ease and secure a base and launch a large attack to the protoss base though by then, the warp gate had been activated which triggered the zerg into full action. Despite this, the fleet's forces were able to rout the protoss defenders and destroy Raynor's command center. With the fugitives Mengsk and Raynor attempting to escape, the UED followed them in hot pursuit. The mission would have been successful though a huge wave of zerg descended upon the attacking fleet from the north-east, forcing the fleet to fall back. They did not realize however, that Samir Duran had betrayed them by moving his troops out of the area.

Alexei Stukov left the debacle on Aiur and secretly reconstructed the Psi Disrupter on Braxis. When DuGalle realized that the Disrupter hadn't been destroyed, the fleet redeployed to Braxis. DuGalle sent a commando force under Duran in order to "terminate" Stukov's command. Duran killed Stukov, who, with his last words, revealed to DuGalle that Duran was a traitor and possibly infested, and told DuGalle that the Disrupter was essential to their mission. Shortly thereafter, a large wave of zerg invaded the Disrupter, while someone had set the power core to self-destruct. The UED forces were able to defeat the zerg and save the Disrupter.

Zerg Slaves
The UED fleet's perhaps last major victory came upon Char, where it went to enslave the second Overmind and its minions after activating the Disrupter. Initially, the fleet came across many difficulties thanks to three specialized cerebrates; one giving sunken colonies invincibility, one spawning a Torrasque and the other guarded by large numbers of infested terrans. However, these cerebrates were destroyed eventually and the second Overmind was finally captured, effectively giving the UED Expeditionary Fleet more numbers and making them the dominant power of the Koprulu Sector. A victory report was send back to Earth though much of it was exaggerated. For example, Stukov's was reported to have died heroically in action on Char.

Downfall of the UED Invasion
The Fleet's heavy-handed actions caused hate towards itself amongst the inhabitants of the sector. A powerful but uneasy alliance between Infested Kerrigan's zerg, Raynor's Raiders, Fenix's protoss force and the remnants of the Terran Dominion rallied against the UED fleet's forces. In essence, the UED fleet's doom slowly began after the alliance destroyed the Psi Disrupter. Making things worse, the alliance attacked the fleet's garrison backed up by zerg slave broods on Korhal. Although the fleet lost the battle, the alliance also crumbled due to Kerrigan betraying her allies.

The UED then dispatched a large number of its slave zerg against Kerrigan's main Hive Cluster on Tarsonis. In an attempt to bolster their control over the zerg, the UED performed scientific experiments on them. However, the UED Science Corps still lost the battle. When Kerrigan and her main forces attacked Char, the fleet was able to maintain strong control over the enslaved Overmind and its minions. The majority of the fleet was stationed at Char. Kerrigan, along with "assistance" from the Dark Templar, was able to defeat the fleet and its pet zerg and the battle concluded with Zeratul slaying the second Overmind, causing the Expeditionary Fleet to lost control of the zerg.

The remaining part of the Expeditionary Fleet attacked alongside fleets of the Dominion and the protoss under the commands of Mengsk and protoss Praetor Artanis. The timing was considerably well, given that the bulk of Kerrigan's zerg were at the surface of Char and only one brood remained on the space platform to fight the three fleets. The fleet attempted to throw everything it had left against the zerg but were defeated and although DuGalle asked for surrender, he was refused and forced to lead an organized retreat back to Earth. The UED Expeditionary Fleet's demise soon came when Kerrigan's minions caught up with the fleet and destroyed it. No vessels ever made it back to Earth to report what had transpired.

Remnants
Although the majority of the fleet had been destroyed, isolated pockets of the remnants of the UED Expeditionary Force remain in the Koprulu Sector, hiding in places such as on Abaddon.

Battle Order
The UED Expeditionary Fleet itself was organized into two distinct wings:
 * Atlas Wing - ground forces, main color brown
 * Cronus Wing - space forces, main color white

The Cronus Wing was by far the largest force; usually it focused on aerial combat rather than ground combat (which was favored by the Terran Dominion).

There were also several specialized organizations within the whole Fleet:
 * UED Blockade
 * UED Strike Team
 * UED Commando Force
 * UED Science Corps
 * UED Defense Garrison
 * Stukov's Elite Guard

The UED Blockade was formed to blockade newly conquered worlds or help prevent outside interference and escapes with ongoing planetary battles. The UED Strike Team and UED Commando Force were elite ground forces that played a role in some of the Directorate missions during the campaign. The Science Corps controlled the second Overmind. The Defense Garrison defended Braxis.

Vice Admiral Stukov himself had an Elite Guard, which used blue as its color. Stukov would actually defy the Directorate orders, although he did so in the Directorate's best interests. But disinformation by Samir Duran, a former member of Alpha Squadron, would lead to the death of Stukov.

During the Brood War, the UED's forces were augmented by "colonial conscripts" and former Dominion forces.