Dominion Armed Forces

The Dominion Armed Forces (DAF), also known as the Dominion military, were the military forces of the Terran Dominion, administered by its Department of the Military. During the End War they were the most powerful terran military force within the Koprulu sector, fielding fleets, marine corps, special forces, and a ghost program against the zerg, the protoss, and rival terran powers. Over their history they made repeated use of mercenaries, though only a few ever received honorable discharges.

Origins and early actions#

The basis of the Dominion military were the Sons of Korhal. Emperor Arcturus Mengsk reinforced them by forcefully conscripting the remaining warriors of the defunct Terran Confederacy, then used them to fortify the various worlds under his care. General Edmund Duke was sent to Char to flush out the zerg and investigate the psychic signal sent from Sarah Kerrigan, but his forces were pushed back, and he was repelled again when he engaged the protoss under Tassadar on the surface. Before the Brood War, the armed forces also fought a number of smaller actions, hunting down Schezar's Scavengers and clashing with zerg and protoss forces on Bhekar Ro.

The Brood War#

The Brood War went badly for the young military. The Dominion's defenses guarding the Uraj crystal on Braxis were overcome by protoss forces assisted by Sarah Kerrigan, and Boralis was assaulted by a United Earth Directorate strike force that destroyed its command center after Lieutenant Samir Duran revealed an alternate route to the city's rear. The Dominion forces defending the Dylarian shipyards failed to stop UED soldiers from commandeering the bulk of the Dominion's battlecruisers, and Duke's fleet was defeated by the newly acquired UED armada, forcing him to withdraw from the quadrant.

When Korhal came under assault, Dominion forces unsuccessfully attempted to defend Augustgrad from the UED. After Kerrigan's zerg overwhelmed the UED occupiers, Mengsk sent Duke to establish a base in Augustgrad, but it was attacked by the zerg overnight while most of the garrison slept, destroying the base and killing Duke. Mengsk scraped together a new fleet and joined the remnants of the UED fleet and a protoss armada in an attack on Kerrigan's base at Char Aleph, but he withdrew early in the face of imminent defeat and retreated to Korhal.

Rebuilding in the interbellum#

Following the Brood War the Dominion's military was still weak, unable to deal militarily with problems such as the New Trinidad Pirates and resorting to mercenaries to destroy them. Over the next four years its forces constantly hunted and harried Raynor's Raiders, denying them any chance to build their strength, and placed worlds such as Shiloh under heightened surveillance. In 2502 the armed forces tried to secure a xel'naga temple on Artika, but the attempt drew them into open warfare with both the protoss and the zerg, and they lost the battle to the protoss.

By four years after the Brood War the armed forces had largely been rebuilt, with a better understanding of how to combat the zerg and much of their Brood War arsenal replaced, though resources were stretched thin and some areas were left poorly guarded. The military's New Recruit Processing and Acclimation Center aggressively recruited new soldiers, and Dominion forces returned to Braxis to rebuild its fortifications. On Tarsonis and Mar Sara, Dominion troops excavated Keystone fragments and forcibly relocated citizens to dig, but were repeatedly thwarted by Jim Raynor and local rebels, who destroyed White Rock Base before its artifact could be moved off-world.

The return of the Swarm#

When the zerg launched a fresh invasion, the Dominion military abandoned the fringe worlds, including Agria, and retired General Horace Warfield was reactivated to take command. He began Operation Burnout to clear the Sara system while the core worlds were fortified, and rising enlistment within the penal system left the Dominion Marine Corps ready to push the zerg back. The Second Fleet regrouped at the Dylarian shipyards after Kerrigan's attack on Tyrador VIII, while the First and Second Fleets combined to defend the core worlds.

Raynor's Raiders harassed the rebuilding military throughout this period, raiding a Dominion salvage operation on Tarsonis to retrieve Adjutant 23-46 and seizing the battlecruiser Odin through Tychus Findlay before broadcasting proof that Mengsk had authorized the use of psi emitters on Tarsonis. When the main zerg push into Dominion space slowed, Warfield was credited with a successful strategy. He then led half the Dominion Fleet with Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk to Char, where a zerg spoiler attack scattered the landing force until Raynor rallied the survivors and held a landing zone. With the engineer corps moving the assembled Keystone to the base of Kerrigan's primary hive cluster, Raynor and Warfield entrenched their defenses and held off the zerg long enough for the artifact to make Kerrigan human again.

Hunting Kerrigan#

For three weeks afterward, Mengsk's forces carried out a relentless hunt for Kerrigan. Nova Terra led a raid on Research Station EB-103, capturing the security hub and putting the facility on lockdown before seizing Raynor, though Kerrigan and part of his Raiders escaped. The Dominion Fleet attacked the Hyperion above Phaeton, refusing to cease fire even when Matt Horner warned that Valerian was aboard, as Mengsk was willing to sacrifice anything to kill Kerrigan.

As Kerrigan rebuilt her Swarm, the Dominion fought her at every step and lost ground at each. Warfield's forces were driven back when she brought down their Gorgons by awakening scourge nests, and when his compound on the Dauntless Plateau came under assault he activated his nuclear arsenal, only for Kerrigan to survive the blast and destroy the fortress; she killed Warfield but spared three shuttles of wounded soldiers at his urging. At Skygeirr Station the garrisons were infested and the Dominion vented gas to kill the infested terrans, but ran out of reserves and failed to stop Kerrigan from destroying the laboratory. With zerg leviathans massing over Korhal, Dominion fleets converged and troops arrived from across the sector, but a leviathan blockade held them off while the swarm flooded into Augustgrad, the Drakken defense network was destroyed, and the elite guard failed to keep Kerrigan from breaching the palace and killing Mengsk.

Reforms and the war against Amon#

After the conflict, Valerian Mengsk assumed the throne and made a series of reforms to the military. During the war against Amon, Dominion forces fought to hold worlds such as Sky Shield, which was overrun by Moebius Corps until a protoss army under Hierarch Artanis cleared the platform and Horner took control. The Dominion reclaimed the Keystone from Moebius Corps at the cost of enormous casualties, and tried to hold back the Golden Armada as multiple systems fell. Raynor and Horner ultimately led an expedition into the Void alongside Artanis and Kerrigan, defeating Narud and protecting Kerrigan as she became a xel'naga and destroyed Amon. Two years later Horner reaffirmed the military's support of the new government, though rebuilding was difficult and the Dominion had to care for many veterans scarred by the wars of the past decade.

The Defenders of Man#

Years after the End War a schism opened in the armed forces. General Carolina Davis, dissatisfied with Valerian's rule, gathered an opposition group called the Defenders of Man, drawing forces from across the military, including its Ghost Program, and using Agent Nova Terra to plant psi emitters on Antiga Prime that lured feral zerg to the planet. The Defenders then staged rescues of zerg-stricken worlds to weaken public trust in the Dominion, while Dominion ghosts began to vanish into Defenders facilities. With her memory wiped, Nova broke out of a Defenders base, rejoined Horner, and pieced together the conspiracy. Highlord Alarak of the Tal'darim led her to terrazine that restored her memories, and her covert ops crew traced the plot back to Davis. After fighting through Tal'darim attacks and a final confrontation aboard the experimental war machine Xanthos, Nova captured and then killed Davis, and Valerian released the evidence of the conspiracy, restoring public faith in his rule even as Nova's crew became fugitives.

Structure#

The Dominion Armed Forces were a sprawling organization spanning fleet, ground, special, intelligence, and science branches. Their air and space arm centered on the Dominion Fleet, while ground forces included the Dominion Defense Force, the Dominion Marine Corps, and the Dominion Reaper Corps. The Royal Guard served as an elite formation, and the military's special forces included the Ghost Program, the Annihilators, the Cerberus Program, Prometheus Company, and the Covert Ops Crew. Intelligence and espionage fell to bodies such as the Dominion Intelligence Section and the Dominion Center for State Security, while named squadrons such as Alpha, Nova, Omega, and Tau Squadron carried out frontline operations. By the One-Day War of 2511, the armed forces deployed under Colonel Abram Cruikshank and Admiral Matt Horner to escort Valerian Mengsk to peace talks with the Zerg Swarm and the Daelaam.