Tarsonis

Tarsonis is a planet in the Koprulu sector.

A temperate planet with a core continent and 27 hour day, Tarsonis residents were occasionally afflicted by powerful solar flares.

Early Settlement
When the Nagglfar crash-landed on the planet, the passengers accessed ATLAS directly and confirmed their growing suspicions that they would never see Earth again. In an attempt to find refuge in their new surroundings, they stripped the Nagglfar of essential materials. The ruling class, commanders of the Nagglfar, believed that keeping law and order was critical. The police district headquarters were built from bits of the original colony ships.

The vagabond new inhabitants worked to survive in what they termed 'the New World', making do with whatever meager resources they could find. They expanded quickly to establish cities and industry over much of the planet's surface. In a relatively short amount of time, the Tarsonians spread to other worlds and developed a prosperous, self-supporting economy.

After living in isolation for sixty years, the Tarsonians developed second-generation subwarp engines which allowed their ships to make contact with Moria and Umoja. Tarsonis was the most technologically advanced and prosperous of the three colonies, having been given a head start by ATLAS.

Tarsonis initially pushed for a conglomerated government, but Moria and Umoja steadfastly refused as they were faced with the likely pre-eminence of Tarsonis in such an arrangement. The Old Families responded by expanding their military and colonizing more aggressively. Founding prosperous colonies on seven other worlds enabled Tarsonis' military might to grow by leaps and bounds. Tarsonis and its colonies founded the Terran Confederacy.

The Confederacy
As Tarsonis was the central hub of the Confederacy's governance and economy, its most potent defenses were over the planet. Three primary orbital platforms served as staging areas for the Confederate fleet. The central platform was defended by Omega and Delta Squadron troops. The primary defensive weapon was the Ion Cannon. Over time, these defenses were engaged in over thirty major battles. At the height of the Confederacy's power, huge quantities of money and materials were shipped in from the colonies on a daily basis. The economic boom dwarfed that of any other terran world in the Koprulu sector, and the population of Tarsonis grew exponentially until it was one of the most densely populated planets in the sector.

The Fall

 * Main article: Fall of Tarsonis

"Families ripped apart -- literally -- when the savage zerg arrived. Mountains of dead bodies, deserted cities..."

- Kate Lockwell on the day Tarsonis fell

In 2500, Alpha Squadron assaulted the central platform. General Edmund Duke planted psi emitters to lure the zerg there. Adjutant 23-46 intercepted a transmission of Mengsk revealing that he authorized the use of psi emitters.

Despite bitter fighting, the zerg overran the planetary defenses and devastated Tarsonis' major cities and industrial centers.

The zerg set up their primary hive at New Gettysburg, where Executor Tassadar deployed ground forces to engage them. Mengsk sent a strike force led by Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan to stop Tassadar's interference. Kerrigan neutralized the protoss, but a wave of zerg advanced on her position. She called for immediate evac, but Mengsk ordered the Sons of Korhal fleet to move away from Tarsonis, abandoning her to the zerg. Captain Jim Raynor rushed to Tarsonis to save Kerrigan, but found no trace of her.

The Sons of Korhal rescued a number of civilians from the last functioning space port, Osborne Port. However, an estimated two billion people were killed. Refugees were absorbed into other colonies, such as Ursa.

The protoss and zerg continued to battle across the core continent until the zerg abandoned the planet and the Conclave bade Tassadar to return to Aiur.

The Dominion Engineering Corps, a division of the Kel-Morian Combine, built Theta Prime station over Tarsonis in order to maintain the flow of commerce following the destruction of the Terran Confederacy.

The Brood War
During the Brood War, the United Earth Directorate's research team uncovered the psi disrupter on Tarsonis. Lieutenant Samir Duran destroyed four zerg hives in the area before locating the disrupter. Before he could plant the explosives on it, he was relieved by ghosts who came with orders from Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov to disassemble the disrupter and reconstruct it on Braxis.

Kerrigan established her fortress on Tarsonis, from which she contacted Raynor and Fenix. Just as they arrived, the disrupter's signal shattered the unity of Kerrigan's broods. Over a few hours, they turned on each other and left their hive clusters to run out of control. Kerrigan had her cerebrate take the few zerg still under her control and stem further damage to her seven hive clusters.

Kerrigan returned to Tarsonis to rest after driving the UED from Korhal. Two days later, the UED sent hundreds of enslaved zerg to Tarsonis, which was too remote for them to maintain direct control, so they sent thirty scientists to coordinate their attack from a small facility towards the rear of their landing zone. A number of Kerrigan's outposts fell before Duran located the facility and ordered the cerebrate to kill the scientists. Kerrigan abandoned Tarsonis shortly afterward, relocating her base of operations to Char.

The Dominion
The Terran Dominion placed Tarsonis under strict quarantine while its salvage teams sifted through the rubble for any Confederate technologies and military secrets that may have survived the assault. Mengsk promised that Tarsonis would be restored, and the Dominion would help guide it toward a brighter future.

The Great Train Robbery


The Dominion restored power to the old rail network and ran a large number of supply trains with minimal security. In October 2504, they found Adjutant 23-46. As they were transporting it to the processing station, Raynor's Raiders arrived, having learned from their informants that something unusually valuable had been uncovered. Captain Matt Horner discovered Confederate diamondbacks in the hills that the Dominion had not yet salvaged. The Dominion responded by sending escorts to protect the trains, attacking Raynor's base, constructing a series of bunkers to protect the tracks, patrolling the tracks with large groups of marauders and boosting their trains' speed. However, Raynor's troops successfully retrieved the adjutant.

A memorial was later unveiled on Tarsonis.

Cities and Towns

 * Grange Village
 * Holyktown
 * Kithrup
 * Tarsonis City (capital)
 * The Gutter
 * New Gettysburg

Landforms

 * Bennet Park
 * Ewen Park
 * Cortlandt Meadow
 * Palombo Valley

Military Bases

 * Camp Connelly
 * Center for State Security HQ

Orbital Facilities

 * New Gettysburg
 * Osborne Port
 * Tarsonis Orbital
 * Theta Prime

Starports

 * Giddings Station
 * Tarsonis Starport

Trivia
Tarsonis is a black metal band named after the planet which lyrically bases its music on the StarCraft universe.