Edmund Duke

General Edmund Duke was the Terran Confederacy officer in charge of Alpha Squadron, a military force in the fictional StarCraft universe. A 53-year-old man in 2499, Duke claimed to have been a Terran Confederacy general for decades. Following a series of events narrated in the first episode of the original StarCraft game, Duke and the Alpha Squadron joined the rebel group Sons of Korhal in their crusade against the Confederacy. After the leader of the Sons of Korhal, Arcturus Mengsk, overthrew the Confederacy, establishing the Terran Dominion, Edmund Duke became a Dominion general. He, along with Protoss Praetor Fenix, were later betrayed by Sarah Kerrigan and killed by Zerg forces under the control of her Cerebrates (see below, as well as StarCraft Episode IV).

Personal History

Early History

A loyal citizen of the Terran Confederacy, Duke personally joined in the fighting at Chau Sara against the Zerg, but eventually left before the Zerg could conquer the entire planet.

Duke next joined action over Antiga Prime, a Confederate colony, which was beset by the Sons of Korhal and the Zerg. During a battle in low orbit, his battlecruiser, the Norad II, was crippled by the Zerg and crashed onto the planet. Duke survived the crash, however. His forces on the planet tried to rescue him, but the Zerg made this very difficult. They were forced to turn to the Sons of Korhal for help. Arcturus Mengsk took the opportunity to rescue Duke and get him to join his rebel movement. This signaled a huge victory for the Sons of Korhal in their war against the Confederates.

Transfer of Loyalties

Duke assisted Mengsk in conquering Tarsonis, the capital world of the Terran Conferacy. He personally led an attack against a space platform defended by the Confederate Delta and Omega squadrons in order to cause enough of a "ruckus" (in Duke's own words) to divert the Confederates' attention and enable a small force to descend to the planet itself.

A number of psi-emitters were installed on Tarsonis and activated to attract Zerg to the planet. As a result, a huge Zerg force attacked Tarsonis, destroying most of the Confederate infrastructure and people on the planet, effectively ending the Terran Confederacy.

General Duke also participated in the battle against ex-Sons of Korhal operative Jim Raynor. In order to prevent Raynor from fleeing from Tarsonis, Duke reactivated the Ion Cannon, revealing his startling knowledge of the inner workings of the former Confederate military. Raynor was forced to destroy the cannon in order to escape.

The New Dominion

General Duke became Mengsk's right-hand man, and in the opinion of Sarah Kerrigan, he was the real tactician in the new Terran Dominion established on Korhal, the successor to the Sons of Korhal, despite Mengsk's impressive military resume.

When Kerrigan was infested, she called to Mengsk from the planet Char. Duke was sent to retrieve her, but failed and was nearly killed by the Zerg. Duke continued to remain near Char, as Mengsk wanted to use Char as a colony, bringing him into a battle with the Protoss Executor Tassadar. He lost this battle as well.

The Iron Fist

Eventually the Terran Dominion gave up on Char and Duke left to pursue other duties, such as building up a powerful defense network over Korhal IV, Arcturus Mengsk's throne world. The defenses included a large number of battlecruisers in orbit and large numbers of nuclear missile silos. However, the United Earth Directorate sent an expeditionary force to the Koprulu Sector, intent on defeating the Zerg, Protoss and Terran Dominion. Duke and Mengsk were forced to flee. Mengsk struck an alliance with his rescuers, Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan, in order to build up a force strong enough to take back Korhal.

General Duke took part in the battle to retake Korhal from the United Earth Directorate and was shortly afterwards assassinated by Kerrigan's Zerg.

References

• StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment
• Battle.net StarCraft Compendium
• Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.