StarCraft 2 Terran
Table of Contents
Introduction
The terrans are relative newcomers to the Koprulu sector. They are the descendents of a disastrous colonization expedition launched from Earth centuries ago, its human cargo made up of dissidents and malcontents the government deemed expendable. The survivors of the expedition established three colonies that became the basis for the major power blocs in terran space: the Confederacy, the Kel-Morian Combine, and the Umojan Protectorate. The corrupt Confederacy was overthrown by terrorist and revolutionary Arcturus Mengsk during the chaos of the zerg invasion. Now the Terran Dominion has emerged from the ashes of the old Confederacy as the dominant power, ruled by none other than Emperor Arcturus I.
Forced to adapt to the harsh existence on the mostly lifeless worlds of the sector, the terrans are masters of survival. With neither the advanced technology of the protoss nor the natural prowess of the zerg to rely on, the terran military forces consist of a varied mix of units. From basic but effective infantry like the marines to heavily armed battlecruisers, terran units rely on solid armor, plentiful firepower, and strength in numbers to hold the line. Terrans excel in defensive situations where their bunkers and siege tanks really shine.
Units
Trains From: Barracks
Armament: 8mm C-14 Impaler Gauss Rifle
Role: General-purpose Infantry
Marines are the first line of defense for most terran worlds in the Koprulu sector. In the time of the old Confederacy the vast majority of marines were criminals or rebels who had undergone mandatory neural resocialization. Freed from any previous allegiances or ideologies, these fearless soldiers stood ready to defend Confederate interests with their lives. The intake of "resoc" marines has been scaled back in many places since the fall of the Confederacy, but remains a common practice, for there are seldom enough volunteers for the job.
The heavy armor worn by marines is effective against small-arms fire and provides them with full life support and NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) shielding for operation in deep space and other hostile environments. Ballistic alloy combat shields have also been developed in light of experiences during the Brood War, giving an option to toughen up marines faced with an increasingly lethal battlefield.
Marines are normally armed with C-14 Impaler gauss rifles that fire 8mm metal "spikes" at hypersonic speeds. Basic rounds are designed to provide maximum penetration against all armor types, but a number of specialized rounds exist. Of these, the U-238 depleted uranium spike is the most popular because it extends the lethal range of gauss rifles by up to 25%. To preserve ammunition usage and minimize power requirements, the rifle uses a capacitor system to fire in short, controlled bursts. This flexible sidearm can be used to target both air and ground enemies.
If the practice of using resocialized marines has remained controversial, the use of stimpacks is even more of a hot-button subject. These inbuilt chemical delivery systems dose marines with a powerful mix of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, and a psychotropic aggression enhancer. Marines on stims benefit from greatly increased speed and reflexes, but are subject to long-term side effects including and not limited to insomnia, weight loss, mania/hypomania, seizures, paranoiac hallucinations, internal hemorrhaging, and cerebral deterioration. Nonetheless, both commanders and the marines themselves stand by the use of stims as essential to their continued survival and effectiveness on the battlefield.
Trains From: Barracks
Armament: P-45 Scythe Gauss Pistols, D-8 Charges
Role: Raider
Reapers are the most hardened terran criminals, taken from the most dangerous and violent prisons. Potential marines who prove too intractable even after resocialization are instead sent to the "Icehouse" in the Torus system, where reapers are trained.
Reaper troopers are chemically altered to make them even more aggressive before being subjected to weeks of brutal training in close-quarters combat and the use of their jet packs. A reaper who survives two years of duty is granted a full pardon and freed, his debt to society fully paid. In five years of service, the Reaper Corps has yet to have a single trooper survive more than six months.
In combat, reapers attack with dual gauss pistols, the rapid-fire signature weapon of their "strike fast, strike hard" credo. For tougher targets, reapers are often equipped with the dangerously unstable deuterium-eight demolition device, or D-8 charges, as they are commonly known. These can be thrown a short distance and will detonate after an equally short delay. Using D-8 charges is an acquired skill that few troopers live long enough to master.
Reapers are lightly armored and unsuited to head-on firefights. The key to their success lies in their personal jet packs. These packs grant reapers a high degree of mobility, including the ability to scramble up or down cliffs and jump across rivers, crevasses, and other obstacles. Reaper combat techniques emphasize hit-and-run raiding, preferably against enemy structures and workers, so that reapers can inflict maximum damage and then retreat before the enemy can muster a response.
Perhaps unsurprisingly reapers are also enthusiastic users of stimpacks. The dangerous cocktail of combat enhancement chemicals suits their high-speed tactics perfectly, and the long-term side effects are scarcely likely to prove an issue.
Trains From: Barracks
Armament: 25mm C-10 Canister Rifle
Role: Stealth Sniper
Ghosts epitomize the height of terran evolution and physical conditioning. Born with incredible psionic potential, these individuals are recruited and quarantined for government training from childhood. Ghosts channel their psionic energies to augment their natural physical strength and endurance. This process is enhanced by specialized skin-suits worn by ghosts that are laced with a form of psi-sensitive artificial muscle fiber. Thus, a typical ghost is tougher, stronger, and faster than even a well-trained but otherwise average terran.
Exceptional ghosts exist that can tear through walls, run at remarkable speeds, and leap tall obstacles. Excitable media rumors of long-range telepathy, telekinesis, and even mind control or other exotic powers have all added to the grisly reputation of ghosts cultivated by their masters.
As a precautionary measure, neural inhibitors are surgically implanted in all ghosts to prevent such deadly individuals from going rogue. The effectiveness of this measure is questionable, however, for there are whispered tales of ghosts working outside governmental authority. Most infamously the current leader of the zerg Swarm, Sarah Kerrigan, was originally a ghost loyal to Arcturus Mengsk prior to her capture and infestation with the zerg hyperevolutionary virus.
On the battlefield, ghosts are rightly feared for their preternatural sniping ability with the C-10 canister rifle. An unwieldy weapon in the hands of others, the C-10 is capable of a one-shot kill when used by a ghost. Tactically ghosts' primary responsibility is to locate enemy structures or units and eradicate them by calling down drop-pods or tactical nuclear weapons. The C-10 is equipped with an underslung low-frequency laser to pinpoint targets of such strikes.
The most unnerving skill of these agents is their ability to cloak themselves from enemy sight. This "invisibility" has earned ghosts a fearsome reputation for their mysterious battlefield tactics. The psionically powered personal cloaking device is a special-issue item only available by request. Once equipped, the device meshes with the ghost's hostile environment suit so that with an effort of will, the operative becomes entirely undetectable without the aid of specialized sensory equipment.
Builds From: Factory
Armament: Twin Gatling Cannon (assault mode), MT50 Lanzer Torpedoes (fighter mode)
Role: Air Combat/Ground Support
The Brood War revealed critical weaknesses in terran anti-air capability. The new Wraith combat fighters and Valkyrie missile frigates proved to be an unwieldy combination against agile zerg airborne organisms. Ground-based anti-air support from goliath assault walkers was too limited in its mobility: all too often airborne attackers would simply move out of the goliath's range and find less well-defended targets to destroy.
In the aftermath of the war, terran weapon technicians proposed a radical new concept to resolve both of these problems. Based heavily on the transformation design of the terran siege tank, the viking was designed to be the ultimate anti-air and ground-support weapon system. With the ability to change its combat role from an assault walker to an air-superiority fighter, the viking can switch smoothly to fulfill tactical needs in a developing battle.
The high mobility of the viking has also led to its expanding beyond the limitations of ground support. Full-scale raids by viking squadrons can inflict devastating damage and are very problematic to counter. In order to defeat vikings, the enemy needs to bring a strong ground and air force to bear.
Terrans have had difficulty finding pilots who can master both combat modes. Typically viking pilots are killed quickly in their first fight as they struggle to handle this complex machine. If they are talented enough to survive, they will last for hundreds of battles, becoming the ultimate terran aces.
Builds From: Starport
Armament: Backlash Cluster Rockets
Role: Tactical Strike Aircraft
Many experiments with dedicated air-to-ground attack have been undertaken by the terrans. Various dead-end approaches were tried and then discarded: ordnance packages for dropships, remote semi-autonomous drones, and airborne artillery platforms, to name but a few. Such continual compromises eventually led to retrofitting variants of the Wraith space superiority fighter with a belly-mounted burst laser to fulfill the role in the short term. Even so, the abiding problem of finding truly effective air-to-ground support below battlecruiser weight remained.
Procyon Industries has been the latest to tackle the problem by approaching it from a different direction. Instead of attempting to adapt existing aircraft designs for a role they were never intended to fulfill, the technicians at Procyon designed the banshee from scratch. As a planetary craft, the banshee wouldn't need high-powered engines to achieve escape velocity and fight in orbit, so instead technicians fitted it with economical twin turbofans. Any air-to-air weaponry was deemed unnecessary: the banshee would only hunt ground targets. Thus, it was equipped with powerful air-to-ground cluster rockets.
The resulting aircraft was cheap, relatively robust, and well suited to its intended role of making tactical strikes on the battlefield. The banshee was adopted by the Dominion as a light infantry support craft that could be quickly transported to any world. Despite the banshee's many fine traits, Dominion commanders initially derided its apparent inflexibility and relegated banshees to a minor support role in backwater militias.
However, with the benefits of being lighter and much more mobile than a siege tank, the banshee soon gained itself a fearsome reputation in spite of its detractors. It particularly shone as a jungle and desert fighter that could hunt across vast areas of inhospitable terrain and suddenly strike at unsuspecting enemy forces. The surprise attack value of the banshees has been further enhanced by modifications that allow them to mount salvaged Wraith cloaking fields, enabling banshees to hit and run even where the enemy dominates the skies.
As the Dominion conquered additional terran worlds, the banshee was cast into a new role. Guerilla freedom fighters making hit-and-run raids against Dominion forces found themselves hunted by banshees that could respond quickly enough to catch them as they were fleeing to their hidden bases. In recent years the banshee has gained a nasty reputation as a Dominion terror weapon because it has been used more and more often in urban conflicts, where its indiscriminate attacks have killed countless non-combatants.
Built By: SCV
Armament: "Thor's Hammer" Particle Accelerators, 250mm Bombardment Cannon
Role: Ultimate Heavy-assault Mech
The Thor project has been shrouded in mystery since its very beginning. Agents of the Umojan Protectorate were the first to uncover a trail of clues that the Terran Dominion was intent on creating some kind of new terror weapon. The Umojans' curiosity was aroused when they heard rumors that the huge Simonson munitions facility on Korhal IV had been placed under a complete security lockdown by Dominion forces. Something big was in the offing, so big that the workers at the Simonson plant had been virtually placed under arrest to prevent any information from leaking out.
The crack team of spies swung into action to search for leads that would betray the work being undertaken. Hacked cargo manifests showed deliveries of battlecruiser-weight neosteel armor plating extending back over a year. Passive sensors that the spies planted around the facility picked up occasional industrial-strength electromagnetic discharges and regular seismic shocks. An increasing flow of high-ranking Dominion officers was observed coming and going, indicating that the project was close to completion. Yet beyond these tantalizing pieces of the puzzle, the Umojan team drew a complete blank.
The Umojans began to be frustrated by their lack of progress, and frustration can lead to recklessness. A young operative on the team, Ulli Trey, offered to take the risk and try to infiltrate the facility. The team leader was reluctant but out of other options, and so he approved the plan. Trey's approach was flawless: she liquidated the driver of the Dominion commander and took his place. As she had anticipated, the rigorous security checks needed to get through the outer cordon around the facility were focused on the high-ranking officer instead of his lowly driver.
Once inside the facility, Trey released a clutch of nanotech micro-spies to trail the commander as he went deeper into the facility. From this point Ulli Trey could only sit and wait, hoping that the stealth capabilities of her miniature spy drones would be good enough to prevent them--and her--from being caught.
Within a few hours Agent Trey was free and clear, carrying vital information about the Dominion's most significant military development since the Brood War: Project Thor. The micro-spy images showed a huge bipedal war machine armed with two giant particle beams and a dorsal artillery battery that wouldn't be out of place on a battleship. Most disturbing of all was the demonstration that this monster could be built from the ground up by ordinary construction vehicles in an astonishingly short time frame. The Umojan team reported back to Protectorate, thoroughly shaken by their findings and praying that some counter could be found for such a beast.
Builds From: Starport
Armament: Laser Batteries, Yamato Cannon, Plasma Torpedoes
Role: Capital Ship
These massive, heavily armored combat ships are virtual flying fortresses, built to keep the peace and dominate the space lanes of the Koprulu sector. Outfitted with bristling laser batteries and thick neosteel armor, these imposing vessels are among the most powerful to be found in terran space. Many commanders use battlecruisers as their command vessels during extended campaigns. There are several examples of vessels specifically refitted for this purpose, such as General Duke's Norad II and Norad III, as well as the battlecruiser Hyperion commanded by Jim Raynor.
The old Behemoth-class battlecruiser has proven to be an enduring design when kept up to date with periodic upgrades. Even the more modern Hercules- and Minotaur-class ships have retained the distinctive hammerhead shape which so defines the classic terran battlecruiser. Research has led to the development of two alternative weapon upgrades that can be retrofitted into a battlecruiser hull to supplement its already formidable armament.
The Yamato cannon is a terrifying weapon that uses an intense magnetic field to focus a nuclear detonation into a cohesive beam of energy. The cannon requires a huge reserve of energy to fire, but its effects on the target are impressive, to say the least. Plasma torpedoes give battlecruisers an armament capable of saturating a target area with a lethal deluge of fire, ideal for breaking up oncoming attack waves or ravaging a defensive position. As with the Yamato cannon, a battlecruiser needs to build up a sufficient reserve of energy to unleash a plasma torpedo bombardment.
Builds From: Starport
Armament: None
Role: Battlefield Support/Construction
The TF-620 nomad is an all-around workhorse that combines the functions of light manufacturing center and observation post rolled into one. A common sight among the fringe-world colonies, the nomad is a robust, air-mobile vehicle built to operate independently in all but the harshest climates. Although the nomad shares a number of common traits with its smaller cousin, the SCV, the nomad is a far more specialized and advanced engineering craft.
Nomads are normally employed for first-line colony surveillance and protection duties against dangerous local life forms or climate events. These vehicles boast an impressive array of sensors delicate enough to detect even cloaked or burrowed enemies. By deploying its two aft-mounted nano-welders, the nomad can construct a variety of small, semi-permanent defensive structures to meet various threats in a matter of moments.
Several standard template constructions are available to the nomad, a popular example being the auto turret. This simple robot gun emplacement is suitable for driving off smaller hostile life forms for an extended period of time.
The Terran Dominion initially provided nomads to give low-level protection to its most isolated outposts, typically manning them with local civilians as something akin to a volunteer fire truck or ambulance service. Over time the military support applications of the nomad have seen it deployed in escalating levels of conflict, gradually replacing the older and vastly costlier science vessel.
Builds From: Factory
Armament: Twin 90mm Cannons (assault mode), 120mm Shock Cannon (siege mode)
Role: Armored Support and Mobile Artillery
The Crucio is the Dominion update of the immensely popular but aging Arclite siege tank. The Arclite was renowned throughout the Confederacy for its devastating firepower and stalwart emplacement/advance tactics. Originally designed to serve as a "final defense" security cannon, the siege tank adopted a two-stage configuration in its final form: a mobile assault mode and a deployed siege mode that brought its massive shock cannon to bear. The immense flexibility of an armored battle tank that could advance and then deploy itself as heavy artillery was a huge success, and the design was widely copied.
Although the Arclite was supremely effective in the artillery role, it suffered some shortcomings as a battle tank. It was a superb defensive unit, but in offensive operations it required substantial support to get to a forward emplacement. Enemies would often make strenuous efforts to get close to an emplaced siege tank battery so they could exploit its "deadzone." If they were successful, this tactic usually meant destruction for the Arclites because even in assault mode the machines were too undergunned and poorly armored to fight off a determined close-range assault.
The Crucio has been designed for increased survivability with an enlarged, reinforced turret and hull. The new turret layout also features an upgraded assault-mode armament package so that the Crucio can fend for itself more successfully in an open battlefield. Force deployment costs for the Crucio have increased over the older Arclite, but the increased versatility of the powerful new siege tank more than compensates for the additional expense.
Buildings
Builds: SCV
Command centers serve as the focal points for all terran outposts. Originally designed to be roving resource processors for Confederate prospectors, the command centers can pick up stakes and move on to new mineral or vespene deposits. They also have the ability to manufacture SCVs and serve as the return point for mining vehicles. Heavily armored and sturdy, the slow-moving command centers are most vulnerable when they are on the move.
Recent improvements have included the addition of bay facilities to carry a number of SCVs while the command center is in transit. This facilitates rapid exploitation of fresh mineral fields or vespene pockets, as well as supplying a handy shelter for the SCVs in case of enemy action.
The increasing use of command centers in combat zones has also led to the development of standard schematics for upgrading them to a dedicated military role. Two of the most popular upgrades with commanders are the surveillance station, which imparts a scanner sweep capability, and the planetary fortress with its increased armor and heavy defensive armament.
Top terran military analysts all agree that "Knowing is half the battle" and that early warning is one of the keys to victory. The sensor tower is a vital tool for long-range surveillance of enemy movement and the detection of stealthed aggressors. Sensor towers are a lynchpin of terran base defenses, and as such, they need to be heavily guarded. A smart attacker will try to destroy sensor towers as the first priority.
A sensor tower processes a whole battery of input, constantly updating a commander's knowledge of the battlefield. By using both passive and active thermal and electromagnetic scanning mixed with millimetric radar sweeps, input from seismic sensors, and Doppler analysis, a sensor tower can quickly pinpoint any target within range. Even foes that are out of sight behind terrain can be detected, although a visual verification will still be required to positively identify them.
The downside to all this multi-spectrum output is that foes can easily detect the presence of a sensor tower and use it to identify the whereabouts of a terran base. Other strategies revolve around "spoofing" the tower with decoy units or simply staying outside its range. Terran commanders have been known to counter by erecting sensor towers in fake base locations just to keep enemies guessing.
Heroes
Jim Raynor was a Confederate marshal on Mar Sara at the time of the first zerg incursions on that world. Despite bravely fighting the alien aggressors and saving many lives, he was arrested by Confederacy forces on the pretext of destroying Confederate property at Backwater Station. When he was subsequently liberated by Arcturus Mengsk's Sons of Korhal, an anti-Confederate revolutionary group, Raynor chose to fight alongside them.
Mengsk's hunger for power and his growing lack of scruples soon began to trouble Raynor. Eventually Mengsk's betrayal of his own lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan and his ruthless manipulation of the zerg to attack Confederacy-held worlds showed Raynor that Mengsk was no better than the oppressors he sought to overthrow. Raynor led a revolt within the ranks of the Sons of Korhal and seized Mengsk's personal flagship, the Hyperion, and a small fleet of ships. While attempting to rescue Kerrigan from the zerg planet Char, Raynor encountered protoss there and gained the respect of the valiant Executor Tassadar. Raynor's bluff honesty enabled him to forge a bond between Tassadar and the dark templar Zeratul.
Raynor and his troops went on to fight alongside the protoss in several campaigns and played a key role in battling the United Earth Directorate incursion that followed. A twist of fate found Raynor temporarily allied with Arcturus Mengsk and the Queen of Blades, the being reforged from Sarah Kerrigan by the zerg Overmind. Although these two tyrants fought against a common foe, it was only a matter of time until their tenuous alliance collapsed. In the end Kerrigan was the one who turned against her erstwhile allies and struck the first blow, and many of Jim Raynor's comrades died to her treachery.
Raynor escaped the massacre and vowed to have vengeance at some day in the future. Even so, against the full strength of the zerg Swarm and the vast psionic powers of the Queen of Blades, his chances seemed slender at best. Eventually, exhausted and disillusioned, Raynor returned to terran space to lead a resistance movement against the spreading power of Arcturus Mengsk's Terran Dominion. Over the years this fight hasn't gone well. Arcturus Mengsk has used his greatest weapons – oratory, the media, and propaganda – to marginalize Raynor's efforts.
Raynor's Raiders remain public enemy number one to the powerful Terran Dominion. Mengsk sees Raynor's continuing existence as a challenge to his authority. However, Mengsk is also wary of creating a martyr by having Raynor assassinated, and so he has taken steps to keep Raynor and his followers constantly hunted and harried and deny them any chance to gain a respite and build their strength.
Years of skirmishing with the inexhaustible resources of the Dominion has whittled down Raynor's forces to a shadow of their former selves. Raynor has had to resort to occasional mercenary work just to garner enough funds to repair and rearm in the short term. Keeping his outfit running means that additional mercenary jobs will likely be needed in the future. Freedom isn't free.
Today Raynor seems to be losing faith: he's drinking heavily and blames himself for Kerrigan's being taken by the zerg. His hatred for Arcturus Mengsk has become a festering wound. Raynor's first officer, Matt Horner, still believes in him and in the revolution even though some of Raynor's doubts are spreading to his crew. Horner has done a lot to keep things going over the years, always having faith that Raynor's innate heroism will resurface and lead the rebels to victory.
Raynor is a good leader and an excellent tactician although he lacks any formal training or background. He has learned his skills through experience, and so he is unfettered by preconceived notions of what "the book" says is the right or wrong approach. Raynor will seldom plan things out in very much depth, but he has an excellent ability to improvise and turn the tables in a situation by using whatever he has at hand.
Raynor is also a man with a past. He is a known associate of notorious convict Tychus Findlay, the pair of them having served together in the 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion "Heaven's Devils" during the Confederacy/Kel-Morian Guild Wars almost twenty years ago. Their first meeting was in the brig at Camp McIntyre while serving 30 days apiece for insubordination.
Both men were listed as missing in action for almost nine months after a reconnaissance mission into Kel-Morian territory in the latter stages of the fighting on Mar Sara. Findlay was later turned over to the Confederacy by the Kel-Morians as part of a prisoner exchange after hostilities ceased. He was promptly incarcerated for desertion under fire. Exactly how Raynor managed to avoid Findlay's fate and land a job as marshal is unknown.
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