Keystone

The, led by Dr. Emil Narud and secretly owned by the heir to the Terran Dominion, Valerian Mengsk, intended to collect a series of five artifacts, which they could use to de-infest the Queen of Blades. The Foundation collected information on the artifacts' locations in data cores on Tyrador VIII.

The artifact pieces generated power and seemed to generate disturbing mental effects on terrans including hallucinations. The artifact was also harmful to other races. According to Dr. Ariel Hanson, close proximity of the artifact to a protoss would "drain the life right out of them". When fully assembled, they could generate a powerful "nova" as it charged, which could be unleashed to deal terrible damage against the zerg.

Tychus Findlay, an "escaped" convict, made contact with his old friend Jim Raynor on Mar Sara at the war's eve. The two led forces to acquire an artifact being dug up by the Dominion there. Large numbers of zerg descended upon Mar Sara, landing at the artifact's dig site. The pair escaped in their battlecruiser, the Hyperion, with the artifact, only to discover the Queen of Blades was leading zerg against numerous Dominion worlds.

Findlay induced Raynor to try for another artifact on the protoss world of Monlyth. Unfortunately for Raynor's Raiders, the protoss there, the Tal'darim were unfriendly. Furthermore, the zerg also landed there, attempting to acquire the artifact. The Raiders were successful.

The Raiders tried for yet another artifact on Xil, also defended by the Tal'darim. This artifact was contained in a very tough xel'naga temple, which the Raiders had to spend a long time drilling through. When they made off with the artifact, the Tal'darim Executor threatened them, leading Raynor to wonder if collecting the artifacts was worth it.

The Queen of Blades tried another method to gain access to the artifacts; attacking the 's base on Tyrador VIII. The Foundation managed to evacuate, but the personnel they had sent to purge their data cores hadn't reported back. The Raiders were hired to destroy the data cores before the Queen of Blades could get to them. They were successful.

The Raiders headed to Typhon XI, the location of the next artifact... and the site of a Tal'darim colony. However, the sun began to explode when they arrived, forcing the Raiders to move quickly across the planet's surface as they fought past the Tal'darim. The Raiders made off with this penultimate artifact.

The Raiders then headed to the rendezvous point with the, only to be intercepted by a massive Terran Dominion fleet. Aboard they discovered Valerian Mengsk, the heir to the throne of the Terran Dominion, who explained why he wanted to collect the artifacts: to de-infest the Queen of Blades, formerly Jim Raynor's "girlfriend", Sarah Kerrigan. Doing so would promote him as a better man than his father, Arcturus. Raynor agreed to work with the heir to the Dominion.

The last artifact was located on a xel'naga worldship, populated by the Tal'darim and protected by rip field generators and a powerful Tal'darim Mothership. The Raiders defeated the Tal'darim and acquired the last artifact.

The Raiders, teaming up with Dominion military leader Horace Warfield, made an invasion of Char, home base of the Queen of Blades. Warfield presented Raynor with a completed artifact. Raynor's Raiders placed the artifact in a defensible location and used it to help fend off waves of zerg. Eventually it fully charged, enabling them to destroy vast numbers of zerg and at least partially de-infest Kerrigan.