Samir Duran

"I am a servant of a far greater power. A power that has slept for countless ages. And is reflected in the creature within that cell."

- Duran discusses Zeratul's discoveries on the dark moon.

Samir Duran is a mysterious being, claiming to be millennia old and having had many names over that time. He introduced himself to the United Earth Directorate as a terran commando lieutenant and later posed as an infested terran. Duran's origins became much more mysterious, revealed when Zeratul confronted him on a dark moon.

Few beings know Duran's true nature; Sarah Kerrigan didn't have a clue and few in the Confederate Resistance Forces would believe the truth about his mysterious nature.

Duran has much knowledge of the zerg, as well as protoss technology. He speaks with a "liquid" accent and favors the C-10 rifle in combat.

Biography
Samir Duran claimed to be thirty-three years old during the Brood War.

Confederate Warrior
"Believe me, I understand hatred very well."

- Samir Duran to marine Angelina Emillian

Duran claimed to have served in Alpha Squadron before Arcturus Mengsk brought down the Terran Confederacy. Duran, sensing a shift in the power structure, assumed command of a small commando squad called the Confederate Resistance Forces that was dedicated to striking at Mengsk and his new Terran Dominion.

When the United Earth Directorate launched its first attack against the Dominion on Braxis, Duran offered his services to Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov. Stukov accepted, but only because both men had the same enemy. Even though Duran had the potential to be a valuable asset, Stukov was nonetheless suspicious. This was not a deal that Admiral Gerard DuGalle approved at first glance, because in his eyes Duran was merely a "turncoat" to the Dominion.

DuGalle used the information gained from Braxis to gain valuable tactical insights into Dominion resources and defenses. Duran used this information to plan an assassination attempt against Arcturus Mengsk, who was visiting Umoja at the time. He sent Captain Angelina Emillian – Mengsk's former instructor – to carry out the task, but it ended in failure. Duran did not personally take part in the mission, as he was heading to join his new allies at Dylar IV.

Special Advisor to the UED
DuGalle's next target was the Dylarian Shipyards in orbit over Dylar IV. He planned on stealing a large number of battlecruisers in dry-dock; Duran warned him that Dominion Command could reinforce its outlying bases within sixteen hours. General Edmund Duke led the reinforcements, but was defeated.

Duran accompanied the UED fleet to Tarsonis, where his research team uncovered a hidden weapons relay called the Psi Disrupter. Duran, after explaining that it can disrupt zerg communications, suggested the disrupter was such a powerful and dangerous piece of technology that it should be destroyed before Arcturus Mengsk could get his hands on it, but Stukov believed its anti-zerg abilities would greatly assist the UED in defeating them. DuGalle agreed with Duran. Since Duran showed such concern for the device's inherent danger, DuGalle ordered him to personally descend to the surface of Tarsonis to reach and destroy the disrupter with a small task force while the main UED fleet traveled to Korhal. The disrupter was surrounded by four zerg hive clusters, and Duran believed that destroying the hives would render the zerg dormant; using this strategy, he was able to defeat these zerg forces. He approached the disrupter, intending to destroy it with explosives, but he ran into resistance from Stukov's ghosts. They said they would facilitate the disrupter's disassembly. Duran did not challenge them.

Upon arriving at the Dominion throne world of Korhal, Duran took part in the war council. He suggested destroying a large cluster of missile silos on the outskirts of Augustgrad, the capital city of Korhal, so that Mengsk would lose his core nuclear capabilities.

The Turncoat
The UED fleet defeated Mengsk, but Jim Raynor (an old enemy of Mengsk's) and a small protoss fleet suddenly appeared and rescued him. Raynor and Mengsk traveled to Aiur, where they were defended by a large protoss base which included a warp gate. The UED fleet's pursuit of Raynor and Mengsk was further complicated by the large numbers of zerg present; despite their proximity to both the protoss and UED forces, the zerg appeared to be dormant... but no one knew how long that behavior would last.

The captain of the UED fleet was ordered by DuGalle to attack the protoss encampment while Stukov and Duran provided cover for his forces and ensured that no external threats would interfere with his mission. Before the captain completed his assignment, the warp gate was activated, inciting the zerg to attack. The captain's forces forced Raynor and Mengsk to flee in a dropship headed directly towards the warp gate.

Stukov detected a wave of zerg coming in from the northeast, but Duran had moved his forces out of place, allowing a wave of zerg free access to the battlefield. Duran claimed his scanners weren't detecting any zerg, and suggested that perhaps there was a problem with Stukov's equipment. When Stukov ordered him to return to his position regardless, Duran claimed communication equipment failure, and cut off the transmission. The zerg interference with the UED operation had allowed Mengsk and Raynor to escape. The warp gate self-destructed after they were through, preventing the UED from following. Stukov told the captain that he had to leave to attend to personal business. He didn't explain his actions to the captain, DuGalle, or Duran.

Tracking Stukov to Braxis, DuGalle and Duran became aware that the psi disrupter had been reconstructed. Duran told DuGalle that Stukov had betrayed him, and that he had reconstructed the disrupter in order to sabotage DuGalle's mission in the Koprulu Sector. DuGalle couldn't believe it at first, but the evidence appeared incontrovertible to him. He ordered Duran to enter the Disrupter and "deal" with the "traitor".

Duran led a number of marines into the Disrupter, defeating Stukov's Elite Guard, before finally locating Stukov himself. Duran shot Stukov and immediately vanished. The dying Stukov told DuGalle that the real traitor was Duran, and as he was seemingly intent on sabotaging the entire operation, he suspected Duran may even be infested as well. Duran had convinced DuGalle to destroy the psi disrupter, and allowed Mengsk and Raynor to escape.

After Stukov's death, Duran set the disrupter's power core to overload, and zerg breached the outer installation walls. "This proves that Duran's working with the Zerg!" DuGalle said before ordering the captain to reach the manual override terminal and shut the reactor core down, so as to prevent meltdown. The Captain's forces, allying again with Stukov's Elite Guard, successfully defeated the zerg and prevented meltdown by shutting the reactor core down.

Infestation
The UED used the disrupter to severely weaken the zerg, enabling them to claim the second Overmind on Char. Duran showed up and introduced DuGalle to Sarah Kerrigan. He made no effort to hide his infested status.

Kerrigan and Duran traveled to Tarsonis, where Duran interrupted a conversation between her, Raynor, and Fenix to inform Kerrigan that the psi disrupter's signal had reached them on Tarsonis and shattered the unity of her Broods.

Aboard the Hyperion, in orbit around Moria, Duran and Kerrigan discussed whether Raynor, Fenix, and Mengsk suspected them of anything. Kerrigan said they must suspect something, but preferred working with her rather than the UED.

The Swarm traveled to Korhal and assaulted the UED forces there along with Raynor's Raiders and Fenix's troops. After the main UED base was destroyed, Kerrigan decided to eradicate her allies. Duran suggested the strategy of attacking while her allies were resting, allowing them to whittle down their defenses with relative ease. The ploy was successful. After the destruction of Duke's and Fenix's bases, they returned to Tarsonis to rest.

Two days later, the UED, intent on forcing Kerrigan's hand, tested out their control of the Overmind by sending hundreds of zerg to Tarsonis. As they began attacking their outposts, Duran informed her of the situation and rallied her forces. Kerrigan's forces secured their perimeter when Duran noticed a small UED encampment which protected a number of scientists. Kerrigan said the "scientists" were helping the UED command these Renegade Zerg at such a great distance from the Overmind; they had to be eliminated. Kerrigan's zerg took the fight to the UED Slave Brood hive clusters and the scientists, destroying them.

Duran then accompanied Kerrigan to Shakuras to kidnap Raszagal. Kerrigan did not reveal her interest in Raszagal to Duran, however. Duran informed her that the pylon clusters were generating some sort of electromagnetic field that prevented their flyers from maneuvering. Duran suggested staging a diversion and claiming Raszagal during the confusion, namely causing a surge within the pylon clusters adjacent to the oupost of Talematros, causing it's power grids to overload. The resulting explosion will be the perfect cover for retrieving Raszagal. Kerrigan agreed, calling Duran's scheme "Clean, simple, devious." A cerebrate provided cover for Duran as he infiltrated the pylon clusters, set the charges, and ignited them.

Duran soon discovered that Raszagal was captured so as to provide Zeratul and his brethren the incentive to kill the new Overmind. After this was done, Duran informed Kerrigan that with the Overmind and its cerebrates destroyed, all of the zerg in the sector had reverted to her direct control. In addition, the remnants of the UED fleet had fled the planet (although he had no idea how many functional ships they still possessed), and the zerg had finished relocating Kerrigan's primary hive clusters to Char Aleph. However, Zeratul and his brethren were able to bypass their defenses and steal Raszagal away from them. They had regrouped with a number of protoss survivors on the surface of Char and would be capable of dimensional recall to Shakuras within thirty minutes. Kerrigan had all of her Broods mobilized and sent to the surface of Char. During this time, Duran disappeared.

The Mystery Deepens
Duran traveled to a dark moon where he and a team of Clandestine Mercenaries worked on a protoss/zerg hybridization project at the behest of a "far higher power".

Duran would refer to the hybrid as the "completion of a cycle, a reference to the life cycle of the xel'naga, in which the long-lived but not immortal race would regenerate itself by modifying two species with purity of form and essence to naturally over eons involve into a new incarnation of the xel'naga. According to the preserver Zamara, however, Samir Duran's experiments are a "perversion", and if his attempts "unify" the species become successful, it will result in "a monstrous and powerful perversion of both protoss and zerg will be set loose upon the universe, and all that [the protoss and terran] know and cherish will fall in their wake".

Zeratul discovered the project when investigating the source of protoss energy signatures on the dark moon. Duran himself uncloaked in front of a stasis cell holding a successful specimen and spoke to Zeratul. From the manner in which Duran replied to Zeratul, claiming to be many millennia old (and having had many names over these millennia) and serving "a far greater power", Duran's background became even more enigmatic. Duran, referring to the hybrid, said it was a "completion of a cycle. Its role in the cosmic order was preordained when the stars were young", Zeratul destroyed the creature and the facility.

Duran's position as Kerrigan's consort was replaced by a newly-infested terran, Ethan Stewart, who practically fell in love with Kerrigan. Kerrigan has learned something of Duran's activities.

After being in self-imposed exile for years, Zeratul learned the truth about the xel'naga and hybrids from Zamara, including her warning about the nature of the hybrids. Zeratul traveled through a wormhole created by a large group of energy creatures to find answers, intending to confirm Zamara's assumptions.

Game Unit
"I know how you like to use that bad boy."

- Angelina Emillian comments on Duran's tastes in combat.

Samir Duran is represented by a terran ghost unit. He has all the basic ghost abilities and also carries his powerful canister rifle.

During the zerg campaign, Duran becomes represented in-game by a new unit, called Infested Duran. He has more hit points and a zerg carapace (although it's not very obvious). In addition, he possesses the zerg's ability to slowly regenerate health over time. He still uses a canister rifle, however, and the method by which his Consume ability functions is obviously a technological device, as it makes a "high-tech sound" (the same sound as Lockdown) when he consumes a zerg, somehow feeding its biological energy into the device. Furthermore, he retains the ability to cloak and cast Lockdown. His voice changes to that of an infested terran. He is also shown in the unit window as a color-coded wireframe identical to his previous form, making him the only zerg unit represented as such. Curiously, Infested Duran is the only unit to be upgraded with weapon and armor upgrades from separate factions: zerg Carapace upgrades will improve Duran's armor, but it is terran Infantry Weapons upgrades that improve the power of his weaponry. This makes him one of the most unique units in the game.

Duran also has a unique death sound that is in the game data, but not implemented.

Quotes

 * See: Samir Duran Quotations

"''Duran: "Magnificent, isn't it?"

Zeratul: "What? Who are you?"

Duran: "I've had many names throughout the millennia, young prodigal. You would know me best as Samir Duran."

Zeratul: "Kerrigan's consort! Is this part of her twisted schemes?"

Duran: "No. Young Kerrigan could not have engineered this grand experiment. Although her rebirth into the Zerg Swarm has sped up my progress, I can assure you that this endeavor is quite beyond her narrow understanding."

Zeratul: "If you are not her pawn, then what are you?"

Duran: "I am a servant of a far greater power. A power that has slept for countless ages. And is reflected in the creature within that cell."

Zeratul: "Have you any conception of what you've created here? Do you have any idea what this... this Hybrid is capable of?"

Duran: "Of course I do. This creature is the completion of a cycle. Its role in the cosmic order was preordained when the stars were young. Behold the culmination of your history."

Zeratul: "All I behold is an abomination."

Duran: "Your violence, young prodigal, is typical. As is your inability to comprehend the greater scheme of things. You can destroy all of the specimens here. It will do you no good. For I have seeded the Hybrid on many, many worlds. You will never find them all before they awaken... And when they do... your universe will be changed... forever.""

- Zeratul discusses the hybrid with Duran