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. (StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils)
Service and structure#
The Colonial Fleet maintained air bases 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. (StarCraft: Ghost: Nova; StarCraft; StarCraft: I, Mengsk; StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils)
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. (StarCraft: Revelations; StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade; StarCraft: Ghost: Nova)
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 Elias Tudbury of the Merrimack and the medic Petty Officer Lisa Cassidy. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils)
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Colonial Fleet?
- The Colonial Fleet was the naval branch of the Terran Confederacy's armed forces. It 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.
- 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
- GameStarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 1998
- GameStarCraft: Brood War, Blizzard Entertainment, 1998 (manual)
- BookStarCraft: Revelations, Chris Metzen and Samuel Moore, short story in Amazing Stories, 1999
- BookStarCraft: Liberty's Crusade, Jeff Grubb, 2001
- BookStarCraft: Ghost: Nova, Keith R. A. DeCandido, 2006
- BookStarCraft: I, Mengsk, Graham McNeill, 2008
- BookStarCraft II: Heaven's Devils, William C. Dietz, 2010
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
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: Mengsk's rebel movement
Arcturus Mengsk founded it after the Confederacy destroyed his homeworld. It toppled the Confederacy, then remade itself as 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: protoss against zerg over Aiur
The Great War was the first open fight between protoss and zerg, with the terrans caught between them. It ended over Aiur with the Overmind destroyed.
Mentioned in8 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.
Confederate Armed Forces: military arm of the Terran Confederacy
The Confederate Armed Forces was the military of the Terran Confederacy, headquartered on Tarsonis and organized into squadrons of conscripts and resocialized criminals. It fought the Kel-Morian Combine in the Guild Wars, razed Korhal with nuclear weapons, and collapsed when the zerg overran Tarsonis.
Confederate Marine Corps: infantry backbone of the Terran Confederacy
The Confederate Marine Corps was the best known military arm of the Terran Confederacy, an infantry service older than the Confederacy itself that filled its ranks with resocialized criminals and reluctant volunteers. It fought the Kel-Morian Combine through the Guild Wars and was destroyed alongside its government when the zerg overran Tarsonis.
Dominion Armada: naval arm of the Terran Dominion
The Dominion Armada, also called the Dominion Fleet or Dominion Navy, was the space naval arm of the Terran Dominion military. Built partly from former Confederate units, it fought at Char, through the Brood War and the Second Great War, and in the End War against Amon.
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 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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