Great Fleet

The Great Fleet was the principal military space force of the protoss and a cornerstone of their military power, fielding a wide range of warships that let the protoss extend their reach across the stars. It was operated and protected by the Auriga Tribe, who took a central role in maintaining its vessels. The carrier served as the fleet's flagship class throughout its history. Across the wars of the Koprulu Sector the Great Fleet was nearly destroyed and rebuilt more than once, passing from the service of the old Protoss Empire to that of the Daelaam.

The fleet of the Protoss Empire#

The Great Fleet was the core aerospace force of the Protoss Empire, the means by which the protoss extended their dominion across the stars. Its carriers and arbiters were operated by the Auriga Tribe, who took a central role in caring for the fleet, and the carrier stood as its capital ship. In this era the fleet was the visible expression of protoss strength, ranging through protoss space and beyond it.

The Great War#

When protoss observers detected the Zerg Swarm moving into terran space, the Conclave dispatched a section of the Great Fleet under Executor Tassadar, known as the Koprulu Expeditionary Force, to halt the incursion and purify the infested worlds. The fleet burned the surface of Chau Sara to halt the infestation there, then moved on its sister world Mar Sara. Tassadar held his ships back to give the terran population a chance to evacuate before he cleansed the planet of all life.

A contingent of the Expeditionary Force, the 7th Fleet under Executor Andraxxus, moved to destroy the zerg in the Brontes System. There the judicator Syndrea schemed against the protoss Demioch and his daughter Edullon, and when Edullon condemned her strategies as ruinous to the terrans she was branded a traitor. A civil war broke out within the 7th Fleet, and when the zerg came in force they captured Syndrea, killed Andraxxus, and destroyed the last of the Great Fleet's presence in the system.

Tassadar's main fleets followed the Swarm to Antiga Prime, where Arcturus Mengsk had drawn the zerg down with a psi emitter, and again deployed ground troops to buy the terrans time before purifying the world. The fleet then moved on the Confederate capital of Tarsonis, which Mengsk had likewise overrun with zerg. There Tassadar broke from doctrine and chose to fight a conventional battle rather than purify the planet, but his forces were defeated by the Sons of Korhal under Sarah Kerrigan at the Battle of New Gettysburg, and he was forced to withdraw. The remaining ships fought on across Tarsonis and tried in vain to block the zerg exodus from the world. A separate contingent sent to recover the Argus Stone on Aridas was ordered to hold and engage the zerg instead, and was wiped out.

The fleet splinters#

After the defeat at Tarsonis, Tassadar ordered the surviving ships back to Aiur but took his own flagship to investigate a psionic call on Char. When the zerg discovered the location of Aiur and invaded, the Great Fleet, now under Executor Artanis, mobilized to defend the homeworld but could not prevent the Overmind from manifesting on the surface. Ordered to retrieve Tassadar from Char, Artanis and his ships instead sided with him against the Conclave and helped rescue the dark templar Zeratul.

Branded traitors on their return, Tassadar's followers were drawn into the Protoss Civil War, and the Great Fleet turned upon itself. Tassadar surrendered to Judicator Aldaris to halt the bloodshed, but his fleet fought on and freed him with the aid of the dark templar, giving him the chance to strike at the Overmind. His forces destroyed the cerebrates guarding the creature and pressed on toward it, and when they met heavy resistance Tassadar crashed his flagship into the Overmind, destroying it at the cost of his life. Most of the Great Fleet was destroyed in the invasion. The remnants evacuated to Shakuras, where they were absorbed into the Fleet of the Matriarch, while others fought on alongside Praetor Fenix and Jim Raynor.

Reconstruction and the Golden Armada#

After the Fleet of the Matriarch was defeated at Char Aleph in the Brood War, the protoss set about rebuilding the Great Fleet. By 2504 it had been effectively restored and had developed new warships such as the void ray. The protoss also began work on the Golden Armada, the largest body of protoss ships ever assembled, though the strain of the undertaking sharpened tensions between the Khalai refugees and the Nerazim.

With the outbreak of the Second Great War the Great Fleet moved to the edge of protoss space but took little part in the early fighting. During the war the fleet under Executor Selendis detected zerg spores infecting the colony of Haven, settled by refugees from Agria under Doctor Ariel Hanson, and set out to purify it. Jim Raynor intervened, and after a clash with Selendis the protoss were driven off and Raynor cleansed the infestation himself, earning the goodwill of the protoss. When colonists on Kaldir tried to summon the fleet after Kerrigan attacked them, they were destroyed before they could make contact.

The End War and after#

By 2506 the Golden Armada was complete, a wing of the Great Fleet and the largest contingent of protoss ships ever fielded, and it was sent to reclaim Aiur. There the fallen xel'naga Amon returned to the material universe and seized the Khala, and all Khalai protoss fell under his control. Artanis and a small group severed their nerve cords in time and escaped aboard the arkship Spear of Adun, while the corrupted Armada set out to destroy all life in the sector.

Artanis fought a running war against Amon's forces, recruited the Nerazim and the Tal'darim, and recovered the xel'naga artifact known as the Keystone. To reclaim Aiur he destroyed the world's psionic matrix to keep Amon's forces from warping in instantly, and when Amon's host body revealed itself the Great Fleet annihilated it from orbit. Forced to destroy his own fleet to buy time, Artanis activated the Keystone, purged Amon from the Khala, and gave the protoss of the Armada the chance to sever their nerve cords. The remainder of the Great Fleet later joined the Zerg Swarm and the Terran Dominion in the invasion of the Void, where it defended Kerrigan and helped destroy Amon for the last time.

In 2511, during the One-Day War, a detachment of the Great Fleet accompanied Hierarch Artanis to investigate the planet Gystt, which the fleet had purified during the Great War. Finding that the zerg had rebuilt the world, the ships prepared to purify it again, but Overqueen Zagara offered diplomacy, and despite the machinations of Abathur the fleet held in orbit and stayed its hand.

Branches and command#

The Great Fleet was divided into a number of branches over its history, among them the Koprulu Expeditionary Force and its subordinate 7th Fleet, the Fleet of the Executor, the Conclave Fleet, and the Golden Armada. Its commanders ranged from Executors such as Tassadar, Andraxxus, and Selendis to Hierarch Artanis and Matriarch Vorazun, while figures such as Praetor Fenix, Phasesmith Karax, and the preserver Rohana supported its operations in their own roles.