Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company's world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy
The Terrans
The terrans are relative newcomers to the Koprulu sector. They are the descendents of a disastrous colonization expedition launched from Earth centuries ago, its human cargo made up of dissidents and malcontents the government deemed expendable. The survivors of the expedition established three colonies that became the basis for the major power blocs in terran space: the Confederacy, the Kel-Morian Combine, and the Umojan Protectorate. The corrupt Confederacy was overthrown by terrorist and revolutionary Arcturus Mengsk during the chaos of the zerg invasion. Now the Terran Dominion has emerged from the ashes of the old Confederacy as the dominant power, ruled by none other than Emperor Arcturus I.
Forced to adapt to the harsh existence on the mostly lifeless worlds of the sector, the terrans are masters of survival. With neither the advanced technology of the protoss nor the natural prowess of the zerg to rely on, the terran military forces consist of a varied mix of units. From basic but effective infantry like the marines to heavily armed battlecruisers, terran units rely on solid armor, plentiful firepower, and strength in numbers to
Units & Buildings of The Terrans
Command Center
Command centers serve as the focal points for all terran outposts. Originally designed to be roving resource processors for Confederate prospectors, the command centers can pick up stakes and move on to new mineral or vespene deposits. They also have the ability to manufacture SCVs and serve as the return point for mining vehicles. Heavily armored and sturdy, the slow-moving command centers are most vulnerable when they are on the move. Recent improvements have included the addition of bay facilities to carry a number of SCVs while the command center is in transit. This facilitates rapid exploitation of fresh mineral fields or vespene pockets, as well as supplying a handy shelter for the SCVs in case of enemy action.
Reaper
Trains From: Barracks
Armament: P-45 Scythe Gauss Pistols, D-8 Charges
Role: Raider
Reapers are the most hardened terran criminals, taken from the most dangerous and violent prisons. Potential marines who prove too intractable even after resocialization are instead sent to the "Icehouse" in the Torus system, where reapers are trained. Reaper troopers are chemically altered to make them even more aggressive before being subjected to weeks of brutal training in close-quarters combat and the use of their jet packs. A reaper who survives two years of duty is granted a full pardon and freed, his debt to society fully paid. In five years of service, the Reaper Corps has yet to have a single trooper survive more than six months. In combat, reapers attack with dual gauss pistols, the rapid-fire signature weapon of their "strike fast, strike hard" credo. For tougher targets, reapers are often equipped with the dangerously unstable deuterium-eight demolition device, or D-8 charges, as they are commonly known. These can be thrown a short distance and will detonate after an equally short delay. Using D-8 charges is an acquired skill that few troopers live long enough to master. Reapers are lightly armored and unsuited to head-on firefights. The key to their success lies in their personal jet packs. These packs grant reapers a high degree of mobility, including the ability to scramble up or down cliffs and jump across rivers, crevasses, and other obstacles. Reaper combat techniques emphasize hit-and-run raiding, preferably against enemy structures and workers, so that reapers can inflict maximum damage and then retreat before the enemy can muster a response. Perhaps unsurprisingly reapers are also enthusiastic users of stimpacks. The dangerous cocktail of combat enhancement
The Protoss
With their highly advanced technology and potent psionic abilities, the protoss once considered themselves the most powerful species in the galaxy. Their war with the zerg has proved otherwise: even the most individually capable warrior cannot overcome such insurmountable numbers. The lesson has been a hard one for the protoss, for their society is built around core philosophies that have been rigidly adhered to for over a thousand years. However, the zerg invasion of the protoss homeworld of Aiur has brought the race to a crossroads: the protoss must embrace change if they are to survive and prevail. Now new tactics and technologies are being brought to bear in the increasingly desperate battle against the zerg, and ancient, terrible weapons the protoss set aside long ago are being unleashed.
The protoss have never been a prolific people and have traditionally bolstered their numbers with a variety of robotic war machines. Individual protoss warriors are unsurpassed in their skills, greatly enhanced by the combination of technology and formidable psionic strength. Nonetheless, the protoss must rely on mobility and surprise to maximize their advantages without getting drawn into a battle of attrition. One of their greatest
Units & Buildings of the Protoss
Immortal
Builds From: Gateway
Armament: Twin Phase Disruptors
Role: Ranged Assault Support
Before the loss of Aiur, veteran protoss warriors who had been crippled in battle could volunteer to continue their service by being transplanted into dragoon exoskeletons. Now the dragoons of the past are all but gone. The sacred shrine that was dedicated to the creation of the dragoons was infested by the zerg and lost along with the protoss homeworld itself.
The remaining dragoons have become the immortals, refitted with twin phase disruptors and hardened energy shields that can shrug off the most powerful weapon strikes - though at the cost of leaving them more vulnerable to the pinprick attacks of lesser foes. The heavily armed and shielded immortals give critical fire support to the ferocious legions of zealots by eliminating enemy artillery and ranged attackers, allowing the zealots to close in and complete their work of destruction. But the loss of every immortal is keenly felt. These ancient warriors are a dying breed pledged to give their all in the end times of their people. They stand on the front lines of the final war, sacrificing themselves to buy their race a few more days or hours. Soon none will remain.
Gateway/WarpGate
Builds: Zealot, Immortal, Stalker, Dark Templar
The protoss' ability to manipulate time and space far surpasses the limited understanding of other races. A gateway is a structure capable of opening a spatial rift via which protoss forces can be warped directly from their home territories to the battlefield. A phenomenal amount of energy is required for this operation so, as with all protoss structures, a gateway can only function if it is powered by the psionic matrix formed by a network of pylons or phase prisms.
Once a gateway has been established, it can be reconfigured to an even more remarkable device: a warp gate. The technology used in a warp gate is barely understood even by the advanced sciences of the protoss, having been reverse engineered from ancient Xel’Naga devices found on Aiur and Shakuras. It is a measure of the desperation of the protoss that they are now willing to attempt to build such devices themselves.
Functionally a warp gate is similar to a gateway in that both devices open a spatial rift. However, protoss forces moving through a gateway must emerge in close proximity to the structure, whereas those summoned via a warp gate can be projected to any part of the battlefield that lies within the psionic matrix.
When used in combination with the mobile phase prisms, warp gates allow the protoss unprecedented flexibility in their force deployment. Warp gates can transport protoss warriors directly to the front lines, send defenders to a beleaguered outpost, or build up attack groups in unexpected sectors. Enemy commanders must be constantly on the lookout for phase prisms or they can quickly find an entire protoss army deployed on their doorstep.
Zerg
The zerg are a race entirely unlike the terrans or the protoss. They are composed of many different species integrated into the Swarm via zerg infestation. These creatures are rapidly and selectively evolved into deadly and efficient killers to further the driving zerg imperative of achieving absolute domination. The zerg make no use of technology to create their weapons, armor, or starships. Instead, these functions are efficiently fulfilled through biological adaptation and planned mutation of the zerg strains. Even zerg buildings are in fact specialized organs within the living, growing organism of a zerg nest.
When the zerg first arrived in the Koprulu sector, they were unified by their absolute obedience to the zerg collective sentience known as the Overmind. The Overmind ultimately directed the actions of every zerg creature in the Swarm, functioning through a hierarchy of lesser sentiences. The first and most important tier of these consisted of the cerebrates, each entrusted with direct control of a sizable section of the Swarm. The cerebrates' commands were disseminated in turn by the overlords, which directly ordered and controlled the mass of zerg creatures both in their nests and on the battlefield.
Although the Overmind was primarily driven by its desire to consume and assimilate the advanced protoss race, it found useful but undeveloped material in humanity. Taking a powerful terran psionic, Sarah Kerrigan, the Overmind evolved a new and unique creature: the Queen of Blades. When the protoss destroyed the Overmind
Units of the Zergs
Multalisk
Type: Medium Attack Flyer
Core Genus: Mantis Screamer
Primary Attack: Glave Wurm
The mutalisk has been little changed from its original form, the roving mantis screamer of the desolate Dinares sector. In their original forms these creatures were capable of atmospheric and deep-space flight, although how they accomplished such a feat is poorly understood. Apparently they were even capable of migrating between stars, presumably while in some kind of larval form.
Proof of this amazing interstellar capability can be observed from the towering aeries of the mantis screamers that are a common sight on lifeless worlds across several star systems. Most such nests are empty and abandoned now that this highly successful and adaptable species has been infested by the zerg and evolved into mutalisks.
Mutalisks form the primary flying forces of the zerg, making hit-and-run attacks against vulnerable installations and wheeling across the skies in prodigious numbers above zerg nests or land-based forces. Many attempted engagements with the zerg have collapsed due to the rapid arrival of large numbers of mutalisks before any meaningful air defense could be mustered. Under these circumstances the total loss of the forces involved is virtually guaranteed.
Conversely powerful air defenses have succeeded in keeping mutalisks at a distance, for the creatures are limited in vitality. However, they remain agile and dangerous opponents. A mutalisk can attack foes both in the air and on the ground by expelling a glave wurm: a voracious symbiote that can rapidly strike at several opponents as it explosively disintegrates. In large numbers or against weak defenses, mutalisks will always be a deadly threat.
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