2503


 * Project Gestalt acquires a high templar, Muadun. Shortly thereafter the project is destroyed by Muadun and Gestalt Zero. The latter escapes.


 * The Battle of KL-2 occurs.


 * An emergency beacon deployed by Raynor's Raiders on Char three years prior expires (theoretically).


 * Jake Ramsey and his team are hired by Valerian Mengsk to excavate a strange artifact on the world of Nemaka. He discovers a protoss preserver, Zamara, who embeds herself in his mind. From her, he learns much about protoss history. However, this knowledge makes him a target for Valerian Mengsk. He and his companion Rosemary Dahl took shelter with crime lord Ethan Stewart at the independent world of Dead Man's Rock, only to be betrayed by Stewart. Unleashing a psionic distraction to escape from Stewart and the Dominion, Ramsey draws the attention of Infested Kerrigan and the powerful dark archon, Ulrezaj. The former's forces devastate Dead Man's Rock and she infests Stewart. Ramsey travels to Aiur to collect technology, becoming embroiled in a civil war between Ulrezaj's minions and Khalai loyalists stranded on the planet, all the while dodging the zerg. He manages to escape through a warp gate, intending to travel to Shakuras.


 * Nova begins a series of missions that lead to her uncovering information about the nature of Project Shadow Blade...and the revelations it presents.


 * Ramsey ends up far from Shakuras. He and Zamara locate Zeratul and convince him to help separate them. They also discuss a number of secrets, including the life cycle of the xel'naga and the creation of the hybrids. Zeratul brings them to a shrine on Ehlna, a Nerazim sanctuary where Ramsey's life could be saved, while he traveled to Pegasus, observing an energy creature hatching from a fresh temple and following it to a wormhole with a mysterious planet at the end. Meanwhile, Rosemary Dahl and a protoss force led by Selendis arrived at the shrine, while forces under the command of Ethan Stewart, Valerian Mengsk, Selendis and the dark archon converged on the site and fought over Ramsey. Zamara was successfully removed, only to immediately seal Ulrezaj into her crystal. Stewart was killed in combat, and the Dominion achieved victory. Valerian Mengsk was able to protect Ramsey from his father and also kept some knowledge from the shrine he had acquired before the protoss came back in force and drove the Dominion away.


 * Nero escapes from Gannemuck Prison and begins hunting down the members of his old reaper squad who betrayed him. Eventually he tracks down the last one, Kern, to Roxara. However, the Nerazim Lassatar has arrived in search of a xel'naga artifact and defeats the criminal, saving Kern and his family.


 * Starry Lace, unknowingly controlled by the zerg, helps the Swarm recover a xel'naga artifact from Meteor Station.