Terran Marine

The marine was the standard infantry soldier of the terran nations of the Koprulu sector, a powered-armor trooper who composed the bulk of nearly every front-line force from government armies and local militias to private security firms, pirates, renegades and mercenaries. Equipped with a sealed combat suit and a rapid-fire rifle, the marine served as the foundational unit of terran ground warfare across the Terran Confederacy, the Terran Dominion, the United Earth Directorate and countless smaller factions, and remained the first line of defense for the sector's terran groups well past the End War.

Role and equipment#

Marines were regarded as foundational units, composing the bulk of most terran front-line forces. They ranged from officially sanctioned government soldiers and local colonial militias to private security firms, pirates, renegades and mercenaries. Koprulu sector marines were generally equipped with powered armor suits and rapid-fire C-14 rifles. The suit provided full life-support and NBC protection, allowing a marine to deploy into environments that would otherwise be lethal to human life. Massed together, marines formed a flexible and highly effective fighting force suited to both offensive and defensive operations and capable of engaging ground and air targets alike.

Despite the material investment in each soldier, marines tended to have extremely short combat lives, with the expectancy on a hot battlefield measured in mere seconds. To improve their effectiveness and odds of survival, many marines made heavy use of stimpacks, combat narcotics that sharpened reflexes and aggression at a cost to the body.

The Confederate Marine Corps#

A significant proportion of the Confederate Marine Corps was manned by "culturally challenged" individuals who had undergone neural resocialization through brain surgery, implanted aggression inhibitors, and resocialization tanks, with counseling and drug therapy used to overcome criminal or anti-social tendencies. Even this source of manpower was not always sufficient to replace battlefield losses, and instances of law-abiding persons being conscripted and subjected to "resoc" were not unknown. Genuine volunteers were few, and some marines bore barcodes tattooed or branded onto their foreheads.

By the time of the protoss attack on Chau Sara, each Confederate marine was officially issued a CMC-300 or CMC-400 combat suit and a C-14 rifle, with the slugthrower a common sidearm. The Confederacy did not require any prior combat experience to enlist a marine, or to conscript one.

The Dominion Marine Corps#

The fall of the Confederacy and its replacement by the Dominion saw the Confederate Marine Corps replaced by the Dominion Marine Corps. Volunteer recruitment increased, but not enough to supplant resocialization conscription. Marines continued to use variants of the C-14 rifle for many years after the Brood War, supplemented by M98 ballistic alloy combat shields, and at some point the slugthrower sidearm was replaced by the more powerful flak pistol. Recruits considered too scrawny for the corps were given steroid and stimulant treatments to build muscle mass, and criminal recruits were granted no rest and recuperation time.

After the Brood War the Dominion developed a modified Quantradyne dropship, the medivac, to keep wounded marines in the field longer; its success led the other terran factions to adopt the design, though medics remained in service because the medivac was expensive to deploy. The Dominion Special Forces kept a large cadre of marines with specialist equipment, and specialist marines with advanced technology were assigned to Nova Terra's Covert Ops Crew during the Defenders of Man Insurgency. Dominion marines remained the first line of defense for the terran groups of the sector well after the End War. During the reign of Emperor Valerian Mengsk, resocialization was outlawed within the Dominion Marine Corps, and marines of the period were known to use the CMC-400 powered combat suit.

Other forces#

The marines of the United Earth Directorate, nicknamed "smiths," bore equipment built to similar standards as their colonial counterparts but were supported by elite combat medics in their tactical units; the improved survivability that resulted inspired the Koprulu terran forces to adopt medics in turn. UED marines wore the advanced CMC-400A Powered Combat Suit, which housed advanced power cells, a heavy double shell, and an onboard artificial intelligence called the CMC 5000 "HAITE" System, and at least some among the Expeditionary Fleet were controlled through aggression inhibitors. In place of the C-14 they carried the C-141 AC Gauss Rifle, with the C-150 Ronin pistol as a sidearm.

The Kel-Morian Combine was fielding marines by the time of the Brood War, having used more irregular units during the Guild Wars, and the Umojan Protectorate equipped its marines with its own armor rather than the standard CMC designs. Mercenary and rebel organizations also made heavy use of marines, including the Sons of Korhal, Raynor's Raiders, the Knights of Tyrador, the War Pigs, the Moebius Foundation and Mira's Marauders. Mercenary marines often carried bladed rifles, largely for intimidation and for use in backwater bar fights.