321st Colonial Rangers Battalion

The 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion was an elite Terran Confederacy military unit of rangers and marines, formed on Turaxis II during the Guild Wars and tasked with high-priority missions in the campaign to retake that world. From its ranks came the platoon that would be nicknamed Heaven's Devils.

Formation on Turaxis II#

Near the end of the Guild Wars, the 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion was ordered to Turaxis II during the campaign to retake the world. It was placed under the command of Lt. Colonel Javier Vanderspool and assigned to Fort Howe, assembling from recruits of the Thundering Third.

The 321st Platoon repelled a Kel-Morian attack at Fort Howe and pushed back the advance. Unbeknownst to the rank and file, Vanderspool had made a deal with the Kel-Morians to loot the Confederate armory and sell off the profits. The scheme was interrupted by Jim Raynor, Tychus Findlay, and their squad, who repelled the looters and realized they were Confederate. Findlay's group took one of the trucks for themselves and returned the rest to Vanderspool so as not to arouse suspicion. Vanderspool, concerned but decorated with accolades and promoted to full colonel, assigned those he suspected to a newly formed Special Tactics and Missions Platoon, the 1st Platoon, for elite specialist work, and planted a spy among them, a medic named Lisa Cassidy.

The birth of Heaven's Devils#

The 321st next prepared for the liberation of Kel-Morian Internment Camp-36. The squad trained in the use of the new CMC-230 XE and CMC-230 XF "Thunderstrike" armor for the operation. Private Jim Raynor went ahead to warn the camp but was captured by the Kel-Morians. The 321st assaulted the camp regardless and liberated the prisoners, but Kel-Morian Hellhounds drove off the dropships sent to evacuate them. The platoon pushed through on the ground, warded off an ambush by the Snakehead Komando, and freed the prisoners. For their part in the battle, the Special Tactics and Missions Platoon earned the nickname Heaven's Devils.

The unit then took part in the third and final offensive to retake the city of Polk's Pride, using resocialized marines to draw fire while more specialized forces crossed on artificial bridges. The assault pushed the Kel-Morians back, though at high cost to the Confederacy.

Mutiny and dissolution#

It was soon revealed that Colonel Vanderspool was working with the Kel-Morians and had installed kill switches in the 1st Platoon's armor to prevent them from interfering in a joint operation to rob a train of silium crystals. The 1st Platoon and 2nd Squad mutinied, turning on both the Kel-Morians and Vanderspool's loyal resocialized marines. The Kel-Morians were beaten, the remaining members of the 1st Platoon deserted, and Vanderspool was left critically injured, though not dead.

The squad's core members became the founding Heaven's Devils: Sergeant Tychus Findlay, Lance Corporal Jim Raynor, and Privates Hank Harnack, Ryk Kydd, Connor Ward, and Max Zander, with medic Lisa Cassidy among their associated members.