Colonial Fleet
the Confederacy's naval arm
The Colonial Fleet was the naval branch of the Terran Confederacy's armed forces, older than the Confederacy itself. It provided air and orbital support from its Tarsonis platforms until the fall of the Confederacy folded its remnants into the Dominion Armada.
The Colonial Fleet was a branch of the Terran Confederacy's armed forces. Over two centuries old by the Great War, it was older than the Confederacy itself. Its members maintained a long rivalry with the Confederate Marine Corps, and fights between sailors and marines were not unheard of, though members of the corps could transfer into the fleet through training courses offered at various academies.
Service and structure#
The Colonial Fleet provided air support in terrestrial operations, and air bases were maintained on worlds such as Tarsonis, where three orbital platforms served as the fleet's primary base and staging area. Joining required an exam and a physical, the latter considered easy to pass, and its members wore space-black uniforms. The fleet's rivalry with the Confederate Marine Corps ran deep enough that brawls between the two were common, though the path between them was open to those willing to retrain.
The fall of the Confederacy#
Elements of the fleet were present in the Sara system when the protoss Koprulu Expeditionary Force arrived. A single battlecruiser, the Norad II under Colonel Edmund Duke, launched a counterattack against the protoss fleet at Mar Sara, but the protoss withdrew without giving battle. The fleet evacuated Confederate forces from Mar Sara as the zerg overran the planet, making no major effort to evacuate civilians or to prevent the protoss from purifying the surface. The fleet and the Confederate Army were then dispatched in strength to Antiga Prime, where the Sons of Korhal had subverted the colony and the defection of Alpha Squadron compounded the crisis. After six months of fighting, the rebels broke the Confederate blockade by luring the zerg to the world with psi-emitters, and the protoss arrived in pursuit and purified the planet.
The Sons of Korhal assault on Tarsonis was spearheaded by a strike on one of the fleet's orbital staging platforms, and the arrival of the zerg overwhelmed the Confederate forces. As the situation deteriorated, fleet units began deserting or defecting to the rebels, and the end saw them joining the general terran retreat, some picking up stragglers regardless of political affiliation. After the fall of the Confederacy, the fleet's remnants were absorbed into the new Dominion Armada. Among its known members were Captain Bolshev of the CSF Ragnorak, Captain Elias Tudbury of the Merrimack, and the medic Petty Officer Lisa Cassidy.
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Colonial Fleet?
- The Colonial Fleet was the naval branch of the Terran Confederacy's armed forces. It provided air support for terrestrial operations and was over two centuries old by the time of the Great War, making it older than the Confederacy itself.
- Where was the Colonial Fleet based?
- The fleet maintained air bases on worlds such as Tarsonis, where three orbital platforms served as its primary base and staging area.
- Why did the Colonial Fleet and the Confederate Marine Corps not get along?
- The two branches held a long rivalry that ran deep enough that brawls between sailors and marines were common. Members of the corps could still transfer into the fleet through training courses offered at various academies.
- What happened to the Colonial Fleet during the fall of the Confederacy?
- As the Sons of Korhal and the zerg broke the Confederacy at Tarsonis, fleet units began deserting or defecting to the rebels, and some joined the general terran retreat while picking up stragglers regardless of political affiliation. After the Confederacy fell, the fleet's remnants were absorbed into the new Dominion Armada.
- What did the Colonial Fleet do at Mar Sara?
- The fleet evacuated Confederate forces from Mar Sara as the zerg overran the planet, making no major effort to evacuate civilians or to prevent the protoss from purifying the surface. The battlecruiser Norad II, under Colonel Edmund Duke, launched a counterattack against the protoss fleet there, but the protoss withdrew without giving battle.
Gallery

Images via StarCraft Wiki
Sources
- WikiColonial Fleet — StarCraft Wiki entry
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Related entries
Alpha Squadron
Alpha Squadron, nicknamed the Blood Hawks, was an elite Terran Confederate military formation under General Edmund Duke that defected to the Sons of Korhal during the Great War and went on to serve the Terran Dominion.
Sons of Korhal
The Sons of Korhal was a terran resistance movement led by Arcturus Mengsk and dedicated to toppling the Terran Confederacy. Born from the destruction of Korhal, it grew into the dominant terran power and was reorganized into the Terran Dominion.
Terran Confederacy
The Terran Confederacy, also called the Confederacy of Man, was the dominant human government of the Koprulu sector before the Great War, ruled by the Old Families of Tarsonis and brought down by the zerg invasion and the Sons of Korhal rebellion.
Antiga Prime
Antiga Prime was a terran fringe world in the Antiga system, the site of an open revolt against the Terran Confederacy that the Sons of Korhal turned into a zerg massacre, and a world later repopulated under the Terran Dominion.
Edmund Duke
Edmund Duke was a Terran Confederacy general in command of Alpha Squadron and a member of one of the Old Families of Tarsonis. After his rescue by the Sons of Korhal he defected to Arcturus Mengsk, becoming the chief military tactician of the Terran Dominion until his death at Sarah Kerrigan's hands.
Great War
The Great War was the first open conflict between the protoss and the zerg in the Koprulu Sector, with the terrans caught between two ancient enemies. It saw the fall of the Confederacy, the rise of the Terran Dominion, the infestation of Sarah Kerrigan, and the death of the Overmind over Aiur.
Mentioned in6 entries
Antiga Prime
Antiga Prime was a terran fringe world in the Antiga system, the site of an open revolt against the Terran Confederacy that the Sons of Korhal turned into a zerg massacre, and a world later repopulated under the Terran Dominion.
Battle of Antiga Prime: the uprising that broke the Confederacy
The Battle of Antiga Prime was the campaign fought on the Confederate colony world of Antiga Prime during the Great War, in which the Sons of Korhal backed a colonial revolt, turned General Edmund Duke's Alpha Squadron to their cause, and lured the zerg onto the Confederate blockade with a psi emitter before the protoss purified the world.
Dropship
The dropship was a heavily armored terran aerospace transport built to ferry troops and vehicles into combat. Designed by the Confederacy and in use by 2480, it was carried forward by the Dominion before most were converted into medivac dropships.
Lisa Cassidy
Petty Officer Lisa "Doc" Cassidy was a Colonial Fleet medic attached to the Heaven's Devils during the Guild Wars, a skilled doctor and crab addict coerced into spying on the platoon by Colonel Javier Vanderspool. Her betrayal exposed the squad before she was killed in the crossfire at Korsy.
Medic
The medic, or combat physician, was a terran support trooper who healed friendly biological ground units with arm-mounted trauma gear and medical nanobots, fielded from the Confederacy through the Dominion and considered an indispensable battlefield asset.
Wraith
The Wraith was a terran cloaking-capable space superiority fighter used extensively across the Koprulu sector from the Guild Wars onward, prized for its maneuverability and stealth before being gradually supplanted by the Viking and Banshee.
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