January ?[3][note 2] Three weeks after the Battle of Char,[4] Dominion forces track down the Raiders and Kerrigan. Raynor is captured and Kerrigan is separated from the Raiders. With nothing left save vengeance, she starts reforming the Swarm to achieve vengeance against Mengsk.[5]
January 31: Branamoor and Treicher settle into the facility. The adjutant briefs them.[6]
February[]
February 1: Sparrowhawk departs the facility. Transport vessels bring in more staff.[6] Relations between Branamoor and Doctor Talen Ayers are immediately strained.[7]
February 5: Work continues at Project Blackstone, though some systems have yet to get up and running.[6]
February 9: Ethanol is detected in the engineering bay. The adjutant shuts it down, temporarily stranding Red. The same day, doctors Leah Martine and Warren Held carry out experiments on protoss test subjects in the facility.[6]
February 14: Valentine's Day. An opportunity that Ayers does not miss in his efforts to flirt with Doctor Talise Cogan in the midst of discussing their zergling analysis.[6][note 3]
February 16: Monday meal. It's particularly ghastly.[6][note 4]
February 19: Quinton and Foster work in the facility's reactor. They trade ideas and stories.[6]
February 21: The crew ponder why Thursday meals are so much better than others. Branamoor puts a stop to the speculation. Ayers and Cogan continue to discuss their zergling studies.[6]
February 26: Quinton makes a request for another supply of Lot C-224CH. Dr Vera Langridge is irritated, as she needs such carbon supplies for her studies as well.[6]
February 27: Treicher orders the adjutant to check the seals on the lower levels.[6]
February 28: Professor Jake Ramsey arrives at the Blackstone facility.[6] Not long afterwards, Ayers and Cogan discuss their mutalisk studies (as per a specimen from Choss) along with Ramsey's arrival.[7]
March[]
March 1: Langridge's seed samples begin to germinate.[6]
March 5: Branamoor forwards a cell regeneration proposal from Cogan to the Dominion. By this stage, research on the Choss mutalisk is nearly complete.[6]
Early March: Ramsey and Branamoor argue over the treatment of the protoss specimens. Ramsey and Ayers later discuss it.[7]
Early/Mid March:[6] Cogan and Ayers examine the overlord genome.[7]
March 7: Ramsey and Martine discuss the former's argument with Branamoor.[6]
March 18: Treicher and Branamoor begin investigating Quinton's garage activities as per depletion of carbon supplies.[6]
Ramsey collapses in one of the base's hallways. He has to be carried to his room.[6]
March 19: Quinton confronts Treicher about his lockout. Treicher orders him confined to quarters until her investigation into the missing supplies (and suspected distillery) is complete.[6]
Branamoor orders Ramsey to have a medical check as per his incident the previous day.[6]
March 20: Treicher's investigation continues. It fails to detect any distillery or ethanol traces.[6]
March 22: Treicher interrogated Foster in regards to anything she might know about Quinton's distillery. She answers that she knows of no such thing. Branamoor orders that the investigation end.[6]
March 26: Foster and Quinton are let back in the lab. They begin work on the warhound, looking for ways to improve its efficiency.[6]
March 27: Ramsey and Martine discuss Held's erratic behavior. Martine discovers he has destroyed protoss research samples.[6]
March 28: Held snaps and attacks Martine, but with her former ghost training, is able to incapacitate him.[6] Officially, Held is removed from Project Blackstone, whereas in reality, he is moved to one of the lower levels for continued research.[7]
March 29: Dr Daniel Rothfuss and Quinton discuss the latter's proposed warhound modifications.[6]
March 30: Axiom Ordnance integrates modifications into their warhounds as per Blackstone recommendations.[6]
Mid-Year[]
April[]
April 1: 2 out of 3 transports carrying warhounds sent by Axiom Ordnance are lost in transit—one to the zerg at Mistaff IV, the other through a mis-jump into the protoss-controlled Gyras system.[6][note 5]
Early April: The Second Great War ends with the death of Arcturus Mengsk. Subsequently, Kerrigan withdraws from Korhal to take the Swarm with her to confront Amon.[8]
Mengsk's regime collapses. Raynor and his rebels dedicate themselves to rebuilding terran civilization in the Koprulu sector.[3]
As per the zerg attack on Korhal, communications with the Blackstone facility cease. The base enters radio silence.[7]
April 2: Cogan and Martine discuss the former's overlord research notes as to the possibility of psionic echoes.[6]
April 5: Martine and Ramsey discuss Held's psychotic breakdown and Ramsey's past history with the protoss.[6]
April 10: Langridge requests additional water rations for her plant samples, but is denied.[6]
April ?: Rothfuss tells Cogan about the activities of her daughter with Raynor's Raiders. Cogan comes to the conclusion that she's dead, and requests a transfer. Officially she departs, but like Held, she's moved to a lower level of the facility.[7]
April 18: Ayers confronts Rothfuss over the information he gave Cogan.[6]
April 21: In what will the first of at least six days in a row, the facility's mess hall serves enchiladas.[6]
April 23: Treicher asks for a vitamin requesition, but is only given two weeks' allowance instead of the usual one month. By this stage, the facility is beginning to run low on supplies.[6]
April 27: Treicher and other marines get into a brawl as tempers run short.[6]
April 30: Ramsey and Martine discuss the improved status of the protoss test subjects, as per Held's absence.[6]
May[]
May 8: Ramsey and Martine discuss the former's recurring headaches. One thing leads to another, and the two end up having intercourse.[6]
May 9:[6] With supplies running low, Dr Held releases zerglings into the Blackstone facility, in order to reduce the number of mouths to feed, and consumers of oxygen.[7] The researchers are able to barricade themselves in the mess hall, but the facility is overrun.[6]
May 15: The survivors attempt to escape, but Martine takes the only shuttle for herself. Thus, they are still trapped with the zerglings.[6]
May 16: With a combination of ethanol, a hellion's flamethrower and the vents, Quinton is able to eradicate the remaining zerglings, albeit at the cost of his own life.[6]
The survivors descend into the depths of the facility, where they discover Cogan, Held, and a single protoss survivor from Held's experiments. Held is killed, but the survivors are still without communication or a means of escape.[7]
Later Events[]
With the war ended, Valerian Mengsk, now emperor, works alongside Raynor to reform the Dominion.[9][7]
Valerian arrives at the Blackstone facility and rescues the survivors. He offers them recompense and a place on the science vesselBrin, which is being prepped for long term exploration of the Koprulu sector and the xel'naga artifacts scattered throughout it.[7]
With the zerg and terrans no longer threats to the protoss, Artanis declares that Aiur shall be reclaimed. Although some dissension exists, the majority of protoss welcome the move.[9]
↑The events of this have to take place prior to February 28, for it is by this date that a mutalisk recovered from the battle is delivered to Project Blackstone. It is technically possible that they could fall into late 2504, but unlikely.
↑A number of sources listed the events of Heart of the Swarm as occuring in 2506. However, the timeline in StarCraft II: War Stories establishes that, among other things, Kerrigan reached the Umojan lab in 2504, but had to flee in 2505. As only three weeks pass between the end of Wings of Liberty and the beginning to Heart of the Swarm, the events below must occur in January of this year.
↑The date on Project Blackstone (February 14) corresponds to the real-world date of Valentine's Day. This is one of the examples that points to the viral campaign occurring in real-time. Because of the timeframe and the actual months, the campaign has to take place in 2505, as February, 2504 (or anything earlier) is before the outbreak of the Great War
↑This date is not given directly, but with such comments being made on February 21, and with the previous Monday of February 2505 being February 16, the date for this event can be ascertained.
↑This is another case of real-world date synchronization, as per Blizzard's April 1st 2013 joke, where the worker units of each species were replaced by warhounds.
2505 was once used as the basis for the "four years after the Brood War" standard, based on relative timing from various sources, which pointed to the Brood War ending in 2501.[14][15] With the release of the novel StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils however, Blizzard provided a concrete timeline, compressing the events of the Brood War and Great War to end in 2500.[16] Thus, 2504 became the new "four years after" standard, backed up by numerous absolute dates.[17][18][19]
↑ 9.09.1Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. (Activision Blizzard). Cinematic: StarCraft II: The Story So Far (in English). 2015-10-27.