Alexei Stukov: murdered, then infested

Alexei Stukov was a human from Earth who served as vice admiral of the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet and as tactical advisor to Admiral Gerard DuGalle, his lifelong friend. He commanded the second seat of the force sent to bring the Koprulu sector under Earth's control during the Brood War, was murdered on his own commander's orders after Samir Duran manipulated the fleet, and was afterward resurrected and infested by the zerg. For the remainder of his existence he was an infested terran, eventually serving in the Swarm under Sarah Kerrigan. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft: Brood War (manual); StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Earth and the United Powers League#

Stukov grew up on Earth and rose through the ranks of the United Powers League alongside Gerard DuGalle. The two men were friends from their youth and competed constantly, each working to get the better of the other. Unlike DuGalle, who built his name in combat, Stukov spent most of his military career in top-secret research, pushing at the limits of conventional technology and physical theory to make UPL troops more effective in war. His views on those subjects were considered unconventional by his peers. (StarCraft: Brood War (manual))

Research occupied most of his time, but Stukov was not a stranger to combat, and his decorations reflected it. He won the Crux de Valor with combat tags, and for his part in quelling the Ishanti Uprising he received three Bronze Gammadons. He fathered four children. By the time of the Brood War he had a reputation among his peers as a brilliant tactician. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft: Brood War (manual))

The UED Expeditionary Fleet#

When alien species were discovered in the Koprulu sector, the UPL's stance toward its distant colonies hardened and its power structure changed. Now serving the United Earth Directorate, Stukov was appointed second-in-command of an expeditionary force sent to bring the sector and its inhabitants under UED control. He departed Earth for the galactic fringe aboard the flagship Aleksander, serving under DuGalle. (StarCraft: Brood War (manual); StarCraft: Brood War)

Shortly after arriving, Stukov and DuGalle watched a demonstration in which DuGalle released captive zerg onto an unsuspecting Terran Dominion colony to observe them in warfare. Stukov was indifferent, saying he already knew the zerg from having seen recordings many times over, but DuGalle forced him to watch, insisting that a live demonstration would instill a resolve in him that recorded dissections could not. DuGalle proved right, and Stukov resolved to go all the way. The Aleksander then withdrew and left the colonists to die. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Campaign across the sector#

Stukov directed much of the fleet's early campaign. He attempted to blockade Braxis when the protoss arrived there, but they penetrated the blockade and he eventually gave up the pursuit. Later he ordered a newly revived UED captain to take the Braxis capital of Boralis within two standard hours, an assault hampered by a shortage of vespene gas. When the UED met the Confederate Resistance Forces, their commander, Lieutenant Samir Duran, offered his services in return for amnesty. Stukov was suspicious, but when Duran offered an alternate route to the rear of Boralis he accepted the aid and formally declared Duran and his men the first colonial conscripts of the United Earth Directorate. (StarCraft: Brood War)

He accompanied the fleet to the Dylarian Shipyards, where, warned by Duran of an impending Dominion counterstrike, the UED stole the shipyard's battlecruisers and escaped. When a Confederate psi disrupter was discovered on Tarsonis, Duran convinced DuGalle that it had to be destroyed. Stukov disagreed, believing the device a useful tool, and without telling DuGalle he sent his personal guard to relieve Duran and had the disrupter secretly dismantled, transported to Braxis, and reassembled. (StarCraft: Brood War)

As the UED pursued Emperor Arcturus Mengsk and Commander Jim Raynor to Aiur, Stukov grew increasingly troubled by the allies Mengsk kept finding. When a massive wave of zerg arrived in time to cover Mengsk's escape, Stukov was horrified, realizing that even the zerg had apparently joined the fight against the UED. When he understood that Duran had deliberately moved his forces aside to let the zerg pass, Stukov grasped that Duran had been playing them from the start and was almost certainly infested. He fled to Braxis with the troops loyal to him and activated the psi disrupter. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Betrayal and death#

DuGalle, goaded by Duran, ordered Duran to execute Stukov for treason against the UED. Stukov's personal forces resisted the rest of the fleet, but Duran located Stukov and shot him. With his dying breath Stukov told DuGalle that Duran had been manipulating him from the beginning, that he was almost certainly infested by the zerg, and that he had likely been so for a long time. As he spoke, the outer walls of the psi disrupter were breached by a wave of zerg. At DuGalle's request, the remainder of Stukov's loyal forces helped the UED recapture the device in time. (StarCraft: Brood War)

His true fate was hidden by the United Earth Network, which reported that Stukov had died in a final valiant assault on Char against the zerg. His body was jettisoned into space during a military funeral. DuGalle took the death personally, recognizing that his own pride had led directly to the killing of his friend. Sarah Kerrigan later picked at the wound, taunting DuGalle by declaring that Stukov had been twice the man he was. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Resurrection and re-infestation#

Stukov's death proved temporary. After being spaced, his corpse was taken by the zerg, who resurrected and infested him through the cerebrate Kaloth. Stukov also held Doctor Emil Narud responsible for his creation. He gained control of a brood known as the New Swarm and moved to Braxis, but the protoss found him while he was still maturing into the role, and his weakness showed in the poor performance of his zerg. The protoss developed a nanite serum to reverse the infestation, and a small joint terran and protoss force led by Jim Raynor and the dragoon Taldarin assaulted Braxis, captured Stukov, and delivered the serum, which freed him from the zerg. He lamented the serum's effects, and the protoss afterward burned the surface of Braxis from orbit. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft 64)

Given to the Moebius Foundation to research the protoss cure, Stukov was experimented upon as the cure slowly failed, and he was re-infested. He was imprisoned by Emil Narud and the Dominion at Skygeirr Station, where Narud experimented on him personally. In this second infested form, Abathur rated him second only to the Primal Queen of Blades, though the interweaving of terran and zerg material in him was beyond what even Abathur could reproduce. Unlike most infested terrans, he retained his intelligence and kept his mind closed off from the zerg hive mind. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Service in the Swarm#

During the Second Great War, Stukov escaped and contacted Sarah Kerrigan, seeking revenge. He told her of his imprisonment at Skygeirr Station and that the facility was breeding protoss and zerg hybrids. Together they defeated the Dominion garrison and the hybrids there, and at the lowest level confronted Emil Narud and a Tal'darim force. While Kerrigan held off a null zone Narud aimed at her, Stukov led the zerg against the Tal'darim and deactivated the xel'naga temples amplifying Narud's power, allowing Kerrigan to kill him. With his vengeance achieved and the laboratory destroyed, Stukov expected Kerrigan to kill him, but she offered him a place in the Swarm instead, which he accepted, noting that an infested terran had nowhere else to go. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

He fought through the rest of the war at Kerrigan's side. During the invasion of Korhal he screened the flanks of Broodmother Zagara's forces while Kerrigan destroyed the Psi Destroyer, and he led infested terrans in the final assault on Mengsk's palace that ended with the emperor's death. He commanded infested terran forces during the End War and was among the troops Kerrigan led into the Void in its final stages. There he found Narud, revealed as a xel'naga, and personally slew him for good, exacting revenge for his own death eight years earlier. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Character#

As a human, Stukov enjoyed smoking and vodka and spoke with a Russian accent, and in his infested form he sometimes missed the latter. As a UED officer he was highly professional and completely dedicated to the mission of the Expeditionary Fleet, unfailingly loyal to DuGalle yet willing to disobey him once Duran had led DuGalle astray. Jim Raynor, though on the opposing side during the Brood War, considered Stukov an honorable man. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft 64)

In his infested state he retained much of himself but adopted a fatalistic outlook, believing he had no place except the Swarm because no one else would accept what he had become. He kept a lingering fondness for Earth even after his transformation, knowing he could never return home, and agreed with Kerrigan that the Directorate would one day return to the sector. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)