Edmund Duke

General Edmund Duke was the Terran Confederacy general in charge of Alpha Squadron and a member of the Duke family, one of the Old Families of Tarsonis. He was fifty-three years old when war with the zerg broke out. After the Sons of Korhal rescued him from a crash on Antiga Prime, Duke transferred his loyalty to Arcturus Mengsk and became one of the foremost military tacticians of the Terran Dominion, serving until his death at the hands of Sarah Kerrigan.

Confederate service#

A loyal citizen of the Terran Confederacy and a member of the Duke family, Edmund Duke had a long military career, much of it spent leading Alpha Squadron. He had defended Tarsonis in over thirty major battles and defeated the Colonial Liberation Army on Tyra Mining Station with what were described as nuked earth tactics. Despite this record his ascension through the ranks was slow, and he remained a captain into his forties. The reason was most likely known only to Duke and a select few, described as something loud, messy, and deeply buried in the Confederate military files, though it hardly dampened his ambitions.

In 2485 Duke, then a captain in Alpha Squadron, met Brantigan Fole on Onuru Sigma, who wanted him to attack the Kel-Morian Combine's Noranda Glacier vespene complex alongside another captain, Arcturus Mengsk. Duke held command authority and was even to evaluate Mengsk's unit, but the two did not get along. Duke attacked aggressively, ignored Mengsk's caution, and accused him of cowardice, only to walk into an ambush and have to call Mengsk to rescue him. Mengsk's more careful advance cut a corridor to escort Duke out as the complex burned and Kel-Morian forces approached, the moment the Guild Wars were formally declared. Mengsk was disappointed that Duke survived the rescue.

In 2491, not long after the destruction of Korhal, Duke, now a colonel, was ordered to watch for a lost ghost. He engaged a rebel ship with the Norad II and sent a boarding party aboard, only to find it belonged to the Sons of Korhal under Mengsk, who damaged the Norad II enough to escape through warp space. The encounter was a complete failure that shook Duke and set back his hopes of promotion.

The Great War#

In late 2499 the Norad II was assigned to patrol the Sara System. Still a colonel and long overdue for his general's stars, Duke joined the fighting at Chau Sara against the zerg, taking part in the reclamation of Los Andares and an assault on the zerg's main hive cluster before pulling out as the onslaught intensified. After the protoss purified Chau Sara, his clumsy counterattack against their fleet was nonetheless declared a success when Executor Tassadar withdrew out of respect for his courage.

Duke then oversaw Alpha Squadron's lockdown of Mar Sara. His conduct there was questionable: he avoided action against the aliens, failed to rescue besieged troops, and when the zerg attacked Backwater Station he ordered the local Magistrate to sit tight. This forced Marshal Jim Raynor and the local militia to act, after which Duke arrested them for destroying an infested Confederate installation and departed as the situation escalated.

During the Great War Duke clashed again with Mengsk at the Battle of Brontes. When the colonists of Antiga Prime prepared to revolt, Duke and Alpha Squadron were sent to suppress them, but Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan assassinated the officer placed in charge of the rebel command center, recruited the rebels, and defeated his detachment.

Defection to the Sons of Korhal#

When the zerg crippled the Norad II in high orbit and crashed it onto Antiga Prime, Duke survived and sent out a distress signal. Alpha Squadron's rescue attempts were stymied by the zerg, but the Sons of Korhal arrived, struck an alliance with Alpha Squadron, and rescued him. Mengsk convinced Duke, by then promoted to general, to join the Sons of Korhal, a major victory in their war against the Confederacy.

Granted a place in Mengsk's cabinet, Duke helped conquer Tarsonis, personally leading Alpha Squadron against the Confederate Omega and Delta Squadrons on a central space platform to create enough of a disturbance for a small force to break through the planetary defenses. His forces installed and activated the psi emitters that drew billions of zerg to the planet, an act that alienated Raynor and Kerrigan. Raynor and Duke came to blows, with Raynor breaking Duke's gun arm, and Duke sought Mengsk's permission for revenge to no avail. When Mengsk abandoned Kerrigan on Tarsonis, Duke and a team of resocialized marines ambushed Raynor's rescue attempt, but reporter Michael Liberty injured Duke and his suit's stabilizers caused him to pass out before he could order the attack, letting Raynor escape. Duke then activated the ion cannon to stop Raynor from fleeing, forcing Raynor to destroy it.

General of the Dominion#

Duke became a general in the Terran Dominion. In Kerrigan's opinion he was the real tactician of the new empire despite Mengsk's own military resume, and with Duke at his side Mengsk faced no serious opposition from the terran militias of the sector. When Raynor's Raiders sought transports at the Dylarian Shipyards, Duke waited for them in the Hyperion, but hampered by close quarters and the risk of destroying his own ships, his forces were overcome and Duke was left tied up while the Raiders took the vessel.

Sent to retrieve the infesting Kerrigan from Char, Duke suffered a disaster on the surface and was forced to retreat into orbit. When Raynor arrived and begged him to help clear the zerg from his ships, even offering himself up, Duke reveled in his despair and refused, leaving the Char system as the remaining terran ships were overrun. He returned to Char once more late in the Great War with a small fleet, was drawn into a battle between protoss and zerg, and again withdrew after losing. After the war, with Mengsk still distrusting his loyalty, Duke was sent to secure the planet Bhekar Ro and its strange artifact, where much of his force was destroyed and he was stranded for months.

The Brood War and death#

During the Brood War, the UED Expeditionary Force allied with Samir Duran's Confederate Resistance Forces and used captured codes to access Mengsk's secret files. When Mengsk traveled to Umoja six months after his inauguration, Duke commanded the accompanying fleet. Confederate forces under Mengsk's old instructor Angelina Emillian attacked, using a Cassandra scrambler to cut communications, but Duke ignored Umojan instructions, moved his fleet in, and made a heroic rescue. When the UED took the Dylarian Shipyards and stole numerous battlecruisers, Duke counterattacked with the Dominion Armada but was defeated and fell back to Korhal. He was present during the fall of Augustgrad to the UED, saved at the last moment by Raynor's Raiders and a group of protoss who recalled them to Aiur.

To retake Korhal from the UED, Mengsk allied with Kerrigan, Raynor, and Fenix, and sent Duke to establish a base in Augustgrad. While his men rested they were attacked by zerg led by Kerrigan, who had always wanted him dead and admitted her excitement at the chance. Duke stood his ground aboard the Norad III, but the ship was destroyed, taking its commander with it.

Character#

Somewhat gung-ho, Duke despised all non-humans on principle and was prejudiced against Fringe Worlders. Broad-shouldered and radiating authority, he possessed an impressive physique, though to some he gave the impression of a shaved gorilla. Raynor likened him to a rabid dog that Mengsk had to keep on a leash lest a mindless charge ruin his plans, yet Kerrigan held a high opinion of Duke's tactical acumen, and even Raynor admitted he was a good man in a fight. He was an experienced commander who specialized in fighting on even battlefields and was less suited to unorthodox combat situations.