Moebius Foundation

The Moebius Foundation was a formerly legitimate research group interested in archaeology, which explored sites created by a race older than the protoss, such as Research Site KL-2. It was publicly led by Doctor Emil Narud and owned by Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk of the Terran Dominion, and it employed its own security forces and paramilitary unit. Behind its public work, the Foundation secretly bred protoss-zerg hybrids, and it was eventually enslaved by Amon.

Foundation and hidden purpose#

The Moebius Foundation was founded by Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk as part of his efforts to investigate alien technologies after the discovery of the xel'naga temple on Bhekar Ro. To head it he appointed Dr. Emil Narud, considered one of the most knowledgeable terrans in the sector regarding xeno studies. While the Foundation publicly studied the alien threat for the benefit of humankind, Narud secretly used it to hybridize protoss and zerg genetics, a project Valerian was aware of. Unbeknownst to Valerian, Narud also made secret deals with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. Alexei Stukov was given to the Foundation to research a protoss anti-zerg cure but was instead experimented on at Skygeirr Station as the cure failed.

In 2503 a Foundation team explored a xel'naga relic at KL-2, a dead star, where a crystal acted as a lock for the underground prison of a powerful entity. Researcher Dr. Morrigan, a minor telepath, learned from the entity how to create a psionic amplifier and released it, leading to the deaths of the research team before a Dark Templar team intervened.

The Second Great War#

During the Second Great War, the Moebius Foundation established contact with Raynor's Raiders through its liaison Tychus Findlay, offering payment for the retrieval of fragments of a xel'naga artifact. After Arcturus Mengsk made it illegal to trade in alien goods, the Foundation grew desperate and offered top prices for every artifact liberated from the Dominion, and its funding kept the Raiders financially afloat. The Foundation sent a specialist team to Xil with a Drakken laser drill, but the team was wiped out by the Tal'darim, prompting Narud to direct the Raiders to recover the artifact there.

When Sarah Kerrigan realized the Foundation was paying the Raiders to seize the artifacts, she attacked its main research campus on Tyrador VIII, and Narud ultimately asked the Raiders to destroy the data cores his own security teams could not reach. Once the final Keystone fragment was recovered from a derelict xel'naga worldship in the Sigma Quadrant and the device was assembled, it reversed Kerrigan's infestation, though not completely.

Betrayal at Prometheus#

After the rebel fleet took shelter at the secret Space Station Prometheus in the Kirkegaard Belt, a facility Valerian and Narud had designed together, Narud worked to betray Raynor, Kerrigan, Valerian, and the visiting scientist Egon Stetmann. He used Dr. Chantal de Vries to capture Stetmann and mimic his voice, sent engineers to sabotage the rebel fleet, and contacted the Dominion. When his attempt to capture Raynor and Valerian failed, Narud cloaked and escaped, releasing hybrids on the rebels and taking the xel'naga artifact with him as his security forces covered his retreat. Raynor, Valerian, and the rest of the rebels escaped.

Enslavement and downfall#

After Valerian re-established the Dominion, the Moebius Foundation went dark, its last transmissions chaotic and crazed as Amon turned its security details, the Moebius Corps, into his slaves. Moebius facilities continued to breed the hybrid and became targets of Kerrigan. As the End War broke out, Moebius Corps ranks swelled and assaulted Dominion worlds, laying siege to Korhal before being repelled by the Dominion and Daelaam, and fighting alongside Amon against the Daelaam at Ulnar. The Corps's primary base of Revanscar, a hybrid breeding facility, was eventually destroyed when Phase-smith Karax disabled its reactors and the Spear of Adun bombarded it, ending the Foundation's hybridization efforts.

Years later, newly crowned Emperor Valerian Mengsk attempted to hide his connections to the Foundation, but the Umojan Protectorate discovered files linking him to it. Valerian sent the ghost Nova Terra to retrieve the files, then released them to the public to mitigate the damage. Moebius technology recovered after the downfall later enabled the Defenders of Man to augment psi emitters and lure feral zerg against the Dominion.