StarCraft Episode V

StarCraft Episode V: The Iron Fist covered the actions of the United Earth Directorate expeditionary force in the Koprulu Sector. In this campaign, the player took the role of a captain in the UED.

First Strike

 * Main article: Battle of Boralis (First Strike)

One of the first strikes by the UED in the sector was on the city of Boralis on Braxis. The Confederate Resistance Forces, led by Lieutenant Samir Duran, aided the UED by providing Vespene gas and tactical intelligence. The assault on Dominion fortifications was successful and the resistance was absorbed by UED forces.

The Dylarian Shipyards

 * Main article: Battle of the Dylarian Shipyards

Based on information gained at Boralis the UED aimed to capture a number of battlecruisers docked at the Dylarian Shipyards. The UED used the captured ships to turn back a counterattack by the Dominion Armada. The yard was subsequently demolished before UED forces withdrew.

Ruins of Tarsonis
Duke withdrew his forces from the quadrant and the defense forces of Dylar IV were impressed into the UED fleet.

DuGalle's next action was on Tarsonis. He believed the abandoned planet housed the Psi Disrupter, a potent piece of anti-Zerg technology. It could disrupt Zerg psionic communications, throwing them into disarray. He said that while Arcturus Mengsk had searched the planet for the technology and failed to locate it, the UED's scientists were able to do so.

Duran suggested the Psi Disrupter was such a powerful and dangerous piece of technology that it should be destroyed before Mengsk could get his hands on it, but Stukov believed its anti-Zerg abilities would greatly assist the UED in defeating the Zerg. DuGalle, perhaps surprisingly, agreed with Duran. He ordered Duran to descend to the surface of Tarsonis to reach and destroy the Psi Disrupter.

Four Zerg Hive Clusters stood in the way, but through careful attacks, Duran was able to destroy the Hives one by one. Doing so rendered the Zerg docile, as Duran had suspected they would. Upon reaching the Psi Disrupter, he was surprised by Ghosts working for Stukov. They said that Stukov would destroy it himself, so Duran withdrew.

Assault on Korhal
Admiral DuGalle called a strategy meeting for plans to attack the Terran Dominion throne world of Korhal. Because Korhal had been devastated by nuclear weapons, the Dominion does not fear using them on its own throne world. In addition, Arcturus Mengsk used a large fleet of battlecruisers to defend the planet.

The Captain was given a choice between destroying Mengsk's nuclear silos or his physics labs, which would prevent his battlecruisers from powering up their weapons systems. The sortie was a success.

Emperor's Fall
After achieving one of the objectives (destroying Mengsk's Physics Labs or Nuclear Silos) the Dominion counterattacked with its remaining resources. The UED forces weathered the counterattack and made their advance to Augustgrad, the capital city of Korhal.

Mengsk tried to flee in his flagship, the Norad III, when he was intercepted by DuGalle's own flagship, the Aleksander. Mengsk prepared to surrender in exchange for his life, but DuGalle said he would arrest and publicly execute Mengsk and his ranking officers.

A small Protoss fleet, along with the battlecruiser Hyperion appeared and opened communications with Mengsk. Mengsk was very surprised, but Jim Raynor told him he was being rescued. The Protoss warped Raynor and Mengsk out of the reach of the UED.

Emperor's Flight
The UED forces followed the fugitives to Aiur, where they discovered Raynor's weakly-defended Command Center near a large Protoss base and a "fully functional" but inactive Warp Gate. The Protoss had surrounded the Warp Gate in an effort to protect it from the Zerg, but the Zerg appeared to be passive. The UED cleared out a suitable home base from the Zerg who occupied it and settled in for a siege. The Captain was ordered to directly assault the Protoss, while Duran would hold off the Zerg to the northeast. Stukov and DuGalle would also prevent Zerg from approaching from other directions.

The Warp Gate activated, and its powerful psionic energies awoke the Zerg, who began to attack indiscriminately. Nonetheless, the UED slowly defeated the Protoss, even destroying Raynor's Command Center. Raynor and Mengsk flew away in a Dropship towards the Warp Gate, with the UED in hot pursuit.

Stukov detected a wave of Zerg attacking from the northeast, but Duran had moved his forces out of place. Duran claimed his equipment wasn't detecting the Zerg, and perhaps there was a problem with Stukov's equipment. Then he claimed his communications equipment wasn't working, and cut off the transmission.

The Zerg interfered with the UED operation, allowing Mengsk and Raynor to escape. The Warp Gate then self-destructed.

Stukov told the Captain that he must leave, as he had a personal matter to take care of.

Patriot's Blood
Admiral DuGalle didn't seem distressed by Duran's poor tactics during the battle; he was, instead, distracted by Stukov's actions. Vice Admiral Stukov had traveled to Braxis, where he has transported the Psi Disrupter, against DuGalle's orders. The device was not yet active. Stukov was DuGalle's oldest, dearest friend, but he seemed to have turned traitor. Duran diplomatically convinced DuGalle that Stukov is a traitor who rebuilt the Psi Disrupter in order to sabotage DuGalle's mission, and there was only one thing to be done. DuGalle, shaken, ordered Duran to deal with Stukov.

Duran brought a small force of UED Marines to the Psi Disrupter, and upon discovering that the main door was locked detailed them to breach it with an explosive device. Once the area is secure, noncombatant UED Medics arrived to treat Duran's wounded. They accompanied Duran and his troops thereafter.

The marines followed Duran deeper into the installation, bantering (and killing Stukov's troops) along the way. They eventually extracted information from unwilling civilians on how to find Stukov in the complex, and then killed them. They discovered Goliaths in the repair bay, and were able to commandeer some of them. They also forced an SCV engineer to repair the Goliaths for them.

Finally Duran confronted Stukov. Duran said he was here to terminate Stukov's command, and Stukov said they both know what he's here to terminate. Duran then shot Stukov, using a different weapon from his canister rifle, and vanished.

As Stukov lay dying, he told DuGalle that Duran was, in fact, the traitor. Only the Psi Disrupter could defeat the Zerg, said Stukov, but Duran tried to keep it from DuGalle. Duran allowed the Zerg to overrun the UED on Aiur, even though they had the fugitives Mengsk and Raynor in their grasp, and even now he manipulated DuGalle into killing Stukov when he activated their best hope of defeating the Zerg. Stukov even claimed that Duran might be infested by the Zerg.

DuGalle was convinced by this emotional scene and tries to locate Duran, but he had vanished. Then the computer announced that the Psi Disrupter's power core has been set to overload. DuGalle believed that was Duran's work, and asked Stukov's troops to join him. Together they would go to the override terminal and prevent the device from self-destructing.

The computer detected a breach into the installation and multiple Zerg signals within the Psi Disrupter, and a Marine commented that they have a major infestation problem. DuGalle saw this as evidence that Duran really was infested. The invading Zerg would present a considerable obstacle to overriding the self-destruct.

The troops fought their way past the Zerg, at one point taking over the internal security autocannons and using them to shred the invaders. However, they were faced with a wave of Zerg near the core computer. The UED troops won a hard-fought victory and manually overrode the overloading power core.

DuGalle announced a great victory. He would activate the Psi Disrupter, keep it running around the clock, and would also leave a garrison to defend it. He could not leave many soldiers there, though, as his mission required him to travel to Char to claim the Zerg Overmind itself.

To Chain the Beast
As their forces near Char, the UED forces noticed that the Zerg Swarm was in disarray, thanks to the effects of the Psi Disrupter, which disrupted Zerg communications. There were so many Zerg on Char that, if the Psi Disrupter had not been activated, there would have been no hope of victory.

Three Cerebrates were able to resist the effects of the Psi Disrupter enough to keep their Broods functional. The UED's plan was to carve a path through the Zerg to the Overmind, then have their scientists inject it with powerful drugs to pacify it.

Unfortunately, they immediately ran into a problem. Each of the Cerebrates had a special ability. The first could inject its Sunken Colonies with energy, keeping them effectively invincible, while the other two did not immediately reveal their powers.

The UED cut a path to the first Cerebrate, killing it. The death of the Cerebrate rendered its entire Brood docile. The Cerebrate did not reincarnate (at least not immediately) despite not being killed by Dark Templar. This was possibly due to the effects of the Psi Disrupter.

The Terrans heard a very loud tortured roar ... it sounded like an Ultralisk, but this was no ordinary Ultralisk. It was the Torrasque. This powerful version of the Ultralisk charged into the UED's current territory. A marine reported the situation to Captain as though it were a meal, "Sir, we've just had a whole cargo-ship full of whoop-ass dumped on us! We ran into a new strain of ultralisk and it took a lot o' pepper to bring it down. To top it all off, our recon squad reports that the critter's been reincarnated by a nearby cerebrate and is on its way back for more!"

This Cerebrate, surrounded by multiple Ultralisk Caverns, could reincarnate the Torrasque repeatedly.

The third Cerebrate was surrounded by Infested Command Centers, and would create Infested Terrans in order to defend itself.

However, the disarray in the Zerg forces created vulnerabilities in the defense. The UED was able to carve a path to the last Cerebrate and kill it, rendering all the Zerg defending the Overmind docile (and preventing the reincarnation of the Torrasque).

After that, several Medics moved up to the Overmind and injected it with a powerful drug called Neurostim that would render it docile and vulnerable to the effects of psionics. As the UED set about putting the Overmind under the control of its psychics, they received unwanted visitors ... Infested Kerrigan and Samir Duran.

Duran introduced Kerrigan, who informed DuGalle that she had made alliances with people opposed to the UED's presence in the sector. DuGalle told her his Psi Disrupter could defeat her, but Kerrigan responded that it wouldn't last forever. She also said that Stukov was twice the man that DuGalle ever was, and that she was glad he saved her the trouble of killing him. Then she and Duran made a hasty retreat.

UED Victory Report
UED Victory Report (Double-click for larger video) r39hIAMbxRs The UED created a victory report which was sent back to Earth. Mostly propaganda it was filled with inaccuracies and outright lies. According to the report, the Zerg were planning on invading Earth, but the highly trained UED troops easily defeated them. Alexei Stukov was killed on Char by the Zerg and was given a naval funeral, his coffin ejected into space... which, of course, did not resemble the truth.

Aftermath
Admiral Gerard DuGalle was now a very strong player in the Koprulu Sector, having defeated the Terran Dominion and taking control of the majority of the Zerg. Furthermore, Kerrigan had trouble controlling the remaining Zerg. However, he was in a weak strategic position, being forced to defend Braxis, Char and Korhal simultaneously. He did not have the support of Vice Admiral Stukov anymore, either, but as Samir Duran had been revealed to be a traitor (and possibly infested), he was no longer hampered by his deceptive advice. DuGalle had Char and Korhal the most heavily defended though in the case of Char, due to its hazardous nature, soldiers that couldn't 'take the heat' in the planet were stationed elsewhere.