Kel-Morian Combine

"Real men drill deep."

- Kel-Morian Combine slogan

The Kel-Morian Combine (KMC) is the name of the terran faction controlling the planet Moria. The Kel-Morian Combine is commanded by General Mah Sakai.

History
Moria established contact with Tarsonis after sixty years of development. The following economic boom resulted in the creation of numerous family guilds. Using shady tactics, the larger guilds began eliminating the competition until only the Kelanis Guild and Morian Mining Coalition dominated the economy.

When the Terran Confederacy was founded, the Morian colony, which had benefited from having the largest resource mining operations in the Koprulu 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 from the two most powerful guilds: the Kelanis Guild and the Morian Mining Coalition; it was a shady, corporate partnership that would supply military aid to any Mining Guild that was oppressed by Confederate policy. Led by General Mah Sakai, the two groups also banded together in order to maximize their ability to drain the resources from the numerous worlds within the sector. The line between corporation and government vanished.

Tensions heated up as the Confederacy continually stole Kel-Morian mining operations from locations such as the Paladino Belt and the world of Sonyan, actions internally justified that the Combine was composed of pirates and other criminals. The Combine planned on war with the Confederacy so it could control all the scarce resources. The Combine became increasingly antagonistic towards the Confederacy over its actions.

The Guild Wars

 * Main article: The Guild Wars

The war started when the Confederacy tried to steal the Noranda Glacier vespene operation on Onuru Sigma. The Confederates feared the Kel-Morian Combine had planned something big there.

Alpha Squadron captain Edmund Duke and Dominion section lieutenant Arcturus Mengsk led an attack force, which fell into a carefully prepared ambush. The Confederates destroyed the complex when brigade-sized ground forces and battlecruisers descended onto the field of battle, forcing their retreat. This marked the official beginning of the Guild Wars.

During the war, Kel-Morian Combine soldiers, known as rippers, continually made raids on Confederate bases, often more interested in plunder than in military victory.

As the war drew on, it became obvious that the Combine couldn't last. The Guild Wars lasted for nearly four years, and battles took place on planets such as Mar Sara and Char.

Aftermath of the Guild Wars
The Confederacy eventually "negotiated" 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, along with worlds such as Mar Sara. The Umojan colony, fearing the Confederacy's power, created the Umojan Protectorate in response.

The Combine became the largest non-Confederate organization operating within terran space. Equipped with thousands of armed troops and hardware, the Combine strictly enforced its myriad territorial operations. It was rumored that the Combine actually supplied the Confederacy with fuels and resources. So great was their political influence, the Confederate forces were banned from prosecuting the Combine for any potentially criminal action. Nonetheless, the Combine was effectively a shadow of what it once was; it was strength that even over a decade later, they were not able to regain.

Servitude and Independence
During the Great War, the Confederacy was overthrown by the Sons of Korhal, which became the Terran Dominion. Moria came under Dominion rule when the Kel-Morian Combine rallied to Emperor Mengsk's banner. The Dominion Engineering Corps, an arm of the Kel-Morian Combine, assisted the Dominion by constructing a number of space stations for them.

During the Brood War and the United Earth Directorate's domination of the Sector, the Combine did not clash with the UED, which Fenix found a surprising example of terran greed. The zerg, having been weakened by the UED's now-destroyed Psi Disrupter, staged a fuel raid on Moria. Their Queen, Kerrigan, needed a substantial cache of resources in order to build up her primary hive clusters for an assault on the UED-occupied world of Korhal. Praetor Fenix, engaged in an unusual alliance with Kerrigan, led the assault on Moria, bypassing the Combine's defenses and harvesting a large quantity of minerals. Kerrigan's zerg infested as many of their command centers as possible.

Interbellum Operations
"It was always the damned KMs. Here they were in the middle of one of humanity's darkest hours, with two alien menaces wreaking havoc on the Koprulu sector, and the Kel-Morians were busy threatening the Dominion's mining interests."

- Walden Briggs

The Combine achieved independence from the Dominion and competed with it for influence. It feared the Dominion would attack its poorly-defended planets, viewing war with the Dominion as inevitable. It continued to claim more worlds nonetheless; the Combine began salvaging Mar Sara in 2502, as soon as the planet was declared habitable after the destruction wrought by the zerg and protoss. The KMC also mined Chau Sara.

The Combine frequently came into economic conflict with the Terran Dominion, sabotaging their mining operations with nuclear weapons. Kel-Morian spies were known to arm themselves with nuclear detonators, blowing themselves up if captured. The Combine valued alliance with opponents of the Terran Dominion, and struck an alliance of sorts with Jim Raynor c. 2502. Its leaders spent much time discussing matters with him. Raynor did not remain, however. Afterward the Combine continued to cover for Raynor. Conflict with the zerg was viewed as another inevitability.

Despite its sparring with the Dominion, the Combine was capable of operating with it to an extent. Both Dominion and Kel-Morian citizens dwelt on Meteor Station (albeit with a degree of tension) and both sides cooperated against the Players' Club, a pirate band which attacked both sides.

The Combine invited the Dominion to Mar Sara to help deal with piracy and mining camp revolts, partly due to the Combine's workers having a great deal of spare time on their hands. Tensions still existed, the reasons including the Dominion shutting down the Combine's salvaging of the Jacobs Installation, the reasons having been put under Level Black censoring. Things came to a head in 2504, when the Dominion annexed the planet.

The Second Great War
Not long after the annexation, the Second Great War began. During the conflict, the Kel-Morian Combine abandoned numerous outlying worlds including worlds such Meinhoff, which became a refugee planet before it was infested by the zerg, and Redstone III. Retired general referred to the KMC as "useless". It was a shared sentiment, as market confidence slumped.

The Combine had some success on a space platform above Braxis Alpha, where its ghosts used nuclear missiles to obliterate both Dominion and protoss forces. The ghosts were subsequently overwhelmed by the zerg however. Meteor Station went the same way, as due to the withdrawal of the Dominion Armed Forces stationed there, the colony was left to the mercy of the zerg. Thanks to Raynor's Raiders however, 800 civilians were able to escape with their lives.

Post-Bellum
Ultimately, the Queen of Blades was de-infested, bringing an end to the conflict. As events moved forward, the Combine began to play a greater role in Sector affairs.

Government
The Kel-Morian Combine is split into guilds. Each guild's leader is democratically elected, but once in that position, they are difficult to dislodge. The Terran Confederacy claimed the Combine's guild leaders were chosen through heredity, and family retainership was an acknowledged part of life.

The Combine's population exceeds that of the Umojan Protectorate.

Military
During the Guild Wars, the Combine's military was organized along corporate lines. Soldiers such as rippers and outriders were used, though were effectively irregulars and were more poorly equipped than their Confederate counterparts. Like the soldiers' armor, Combine vehicles were effectively scrapped together from various sources and the Kelanis Shipping Guild functioned as an irregular, albeit effective, naval force. As per tradition stemming back to the days of Moria's first mining guilds, guild affiliation and specialization were inscribed on uniforms.

The following ranks are known to have existed:


 * Overseer
 * Assistant Overseer
 * Foreman
 * Taskmaster

The Guild Wars nevertheless weakened the Combine's military. By the Great War, the Combine's militia color was green. By the Brood War, its military was operating under more conventional lines. While weaker than the Dominion, the Combine is stronger militarily than the Umojan Protectorate, though is still not the powerhouse it used to be in the Guild Wars.

The Combine has its own Ghost Program.

Units

 * Dominion Engineering Corps (co-opted by Dominion Armed Forces)
 * Hammer Securities
 * Snakehead Kommando

Territories
"Locusts! That's what those infernal Kel-Morian Combine mining teams are! You think you have a good claim all to yourself, but then the Combine comes to ravage everything in sight right from under your nose. They'll leave me with nothing after they're done. Well I'm not going to take it anymore, and I've got just the thing for them! I'll make this a hot spot they'll never forget! I'll show them!"

- Final recorded words of Usagi Hidalgo before the surface detonation of a 20 megaton nuclear device on the planet of Uilila IV.

The Combine currently only holds a couple of planets, having lost many in both the Guild Wars and Second Great War:

Worlds

 * Boone
 * Chau Sara
 * Chanuk
 * Feronis
 * Gamma Dorian (at least temporarily, along with the Confederacy in the Guild Wars)
 * Moria (capital world)
 * Onuru Sigma (at least temporarily)
 * Raydin IV
 * Turaxis II (at least temporarily)
 * Uilila IV
 * Warrant VI

Other

 * Meteor Station (at least temporarily)
 * Scrap Station

Former

 * Mar Sara
 * Meinhoff
 * Paladino Belt
 * Redstone III
 * Sonyan

Notable Members
''Main article: Kel-Morian Combine personnel
 * General Mah Sakai
 * Foreman Oleg Benson
 * Overseer Hanz Brucker
 * Overseer Aaron Pax
 * Tavish Kerr (merchant)