Starcraft Source Thread

l33telboi · Aug 9, 2012

When it comes to the length/width of the Battlecruiser, it's worth pointing out that it's impossible for the ship to be 650/550 meters long and 82 meters wide. If it were it'd look like a rod.

Shadow Archon · Aug 9, 2012

l33telboi said:
When it comes to the length/width of the Battlecruiser, it's worth pointing out that it's impossible for the ship to be 650/550 meters long and 82 meters wide. If it were it'd look like a rod.

Maybe they meant height?

When I calced the width of the hammer head, it was about 315 meters. The length nearly matched up with the given figure though.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Protoss methods against cloaking

Starcraft Manual said:
Observer
Role: Light Non-combat Scout
Armament: None
These small drones are employed to survey vast
wasteland areas or observe and record battles for study
within the Archives. Their complex sensor array leaves
little energy for defenses, but they can detect cloaked or
concealed units with ease, making them invaluable on
the battlefield.
Observers that are used for deep-space exploration
are often deployed without any defensive systems, but
when used in a combat zone they are equipped with a
micro-cloaking field to hide them from the enemy. Like
the Arbiter, the Observer does not require any additional
energy to maintain the field.
----------------------------------
Photon Cannon
The Protoss revel in the glory of personal combat, but they also
recognise the need for automated defenses to watch over their colonies.
The Photon Cannon fires an encapsulated antimatter sphere similar to
that generated by the Dragoon. It is an effective weapon against both air
and ground targets. The Cannons are also enhanced with special sensor
technology borrowed from the tiny Observer, enabling them to detect
cloaked and hidden units. As with all Protoss buildings, care should be
taken to provide ample Pylon support for Cannons. Should their link to
the Psionic Matrix be broken, they will shut down — thus leaving the
way open to the enemies of Aiur.

These are two examples of robotic Protoss forces with sensor suites.

Ships with Protoss crew don't need sesnors.

Starcraft Comic Compilation # pg 140-141[/quote said:
Technician: Commander Trakken, three ships just warped in.

Trakken: Terran?

Technician: Protoss.

Trakken: What the hell do they want? Helm--disengage docking tube and cut the General Lee loose. Bring us about.

Technician: Heading?

Trakken: It's pointless playing cat and mouse with them, damn mind-monkeys have probably got their mental hooks in us already. Just...put some distance between them and us!

Commander Trakken was in a cloaked vessel. It looks like a Wraith, but is too large to fit the fighter description (it has a bridge with a number of crewman and a hangar with a dropship). Possibly a Wraith Frigate? Unknown if that's a special vessel or not.

Anyways, he knew his ship's cloak was useless.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Protoss Colossus Firepower and Range

Colossus said:
Telbrus was momentarily overwhelmed as the vision overtook his consciousness. The darkened vault faded away, and he found himself within Aldrion's body, resting in the high templar's quarters on Shakuras. However, the familiar building was strangely deserted. His eyes strained to see, and, turning, he moved toward a window. Gazing into it, he saw that the courtyard was empty. Not a single being had emerged to enjoy the peaceful grounds, but he could sense the presence of others across the way—deep within a structure that housed many high-ranking dark templar and their kin.

He felt their fear threading through him, a sharp sensation that bordered on pain.

"Help!" a female voice called to him from the other side of the structure's walls. "Stop them before more die. Help us!"

Telbrus was searching for a reply when the colossi appeared on the horizon, bearing down on a band of shadowy warriors. The dark templar scattered to increase their chances of survival against the machines, running for the shelter of the structure.

The colossi followed.

"Run!" Telbrus thought furiously. "Hurry!"

With a soft mechanical hum, the colossi's twin thermal lances aimed at the dark templar residence and fired. The walls melted in seconds, and those who were not instantly vaporized were reduced to heaps of rubble. Telbrus felt a devastating shock as dozens of lives were lost—innocent lives who had only sought unity. Lives the protoss were not supposed to take.

One of the colossi turned and fired, leveling a second building, and soon all of the colossi were shooting at once, beams crossing through the air in a frenzied pattern. The psionic cries from the dark templar's deaths battered Telbrus with increasing intensity. He had not felt such anguish since the fall of Aiur.

Then stillness. The colossi retreated.

Cautiously, he emerged from his untouched vantage point. Only smoldering ruins awaited him across the courtyard, but he kept walking. Already the wind was beginning to carry away the fragments of ash, and a single powerful gust swept the ground fully clear before him. Then he saw it: the shadow of a dark templar who had stood against the rain of ruin. The owner of the voice that had called to him for help. He knew her: it was Zoraya.

The assault had pinned her corpse to the ground, incinerating every surrounding molecule until a silhouette, loving in its perfection and detail, had been etched into the earth.

He fell to his knees as revulsion and guilt seized him.

Firepower here is rather self-explanatory. With the statement "incinerating every surrounding molecule until a silhouette, loving in its perfection and detail, had been etched into the earth," I think it clearly means that vaporization here is the actual turning matter into gas, and not hyperbole for "zapped" to death.

Secondly, range. "Telbrus was searching for a reply when the colossi appeared on the horizon" We can actually get numbers, because we know the height of average Protoss.

The Protoss says the Colossi appears on the horizon. He could not see past that because of the curvature of the planet. Assuming it has earth like features, we have an equation for this, however it does not take account of atmospheric refraction.

Since Protoss are three meters tall, this means that the Colossi are around 12.7449 kilometers away when he spots them. Unless Colossi are pretty fast or a lot of time expired between sentences, Colossi can fire at objects at ~12 kilomters away. They use LOS beam weapons, so it makes sense. Unknown if the Colossi can fire at what is considered their horizon though.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Protoss Infantry Guns

Generally, Protoss are depicted using Zealots, High Templar, Dark Templar, Archons, and light robotic units on the infantry scale with mainly the robotics and psionics giving Zealots ranged support, but in other materials, they do have guns utilized by certain infantry.

Alternity RPG said:
Reaver Gun
Using the same basic technology of in the Reaver automaton, the Protoss have created a portable ranged weapon that works on the same premise. The reaver gun fires a small, rocket-propelled scarab drone which explodes on contact with it’s target. The drone is selfguided, and is actually capable of slight maneuvers in flight toward it’s target. This gives the gun a -2 bonus to hit. It also means the gun must be tracked to the target before firing, which takes an entire phase. This -2 bonus includes the normal -1 bonus for taking aim. Because the scarab drone ammunition is becomes very volatile when assembled, the reaver gun doubles as a miniature factory, assembling the components of the drone only moments before firing. In game terms, this means that the wielder begins tracking the target with the reaver gun, and the gun immediately begins to assemble the scarab drone to fire. Seconds later (the next phase of the round), the gun fires and the drone speeds toward it’s target.

There is also some concept art, which is canon as well, but no real info on it:

And, one of my favorite pieces, the Super Zealot

:

He has arm cannons, so, that's a thing.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Zerg Ultralisk Scaling

Alright, first I'm using Mr--Jack's artwork from Deviant art. He was hired back in '09 by Blizzard and is now a concept artist. I'm going to assume that his art that was done previously is now assumed to be canon. Blizzard has asked fan-sites to take down art panels of his, so it may be. Not sure, so if anyone can point to me that this is not the case, I'll use something else.

Starspawn10 · Aug 10, 2012

Shadow Archon said:
There is also some concept art, which is canon as well, but no real info on it:
...

The Vindicator was in Starcraft: Ghost, but that game got cancelled :/
The Soul Hunter ( Vindicator on a hover board ) got dropped from WoL. :/
I do hope blizzard reintroduces them in some way, cos they do look distinctive and interesting.

And, one of my favorite pieces, the Super Zealot :
...
He has arm cannons, so, that's a thing.

Again, a concept not yet implemented.
And I'm not sure if it should. It seems to overlap too much with the Terran marauder :/

These look more distinctive: http://phill-art.deviantart.com/art/Protoss-Campaign-Concepts-265659144

Shadow Archon said:
Alright, first I'm using Mr--Jack's artwork from Deviant art. He was hired back in '09 by Blizzard and is now a concept artist. I'm going to assume that his art that was done previously is now assumed to be canon. Blizzard has asked fan-sites to take down art panels of his, so it may be. Not sure, so if anyone can point to me that this is not the case, I'll use something else.

For a source that is confirmed canon, try the zealots vs ulltralisks scene from Why We Fight:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/blargh12/DSCN2122.jpg
( thanks to l33telboi for posting the image in the Master Chief vs Khastiana thread.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Starspawn10 said:
The Vindicator was in Starcraft: Ghost, but that game got cancelled :/
The Soul Hunter ( Vindicator on a hover board ) got dropped from WoL. :/
I do hope blizzard reintroduces them in some way, cos they do look distinctive and interesting.

Legacy of the Void might have them. They still are canon though, like the Leviathan art.

Again, a concept not yet implemented.
And I'm not sure if it should. It seems to overlap too much with the Terran marauder :/

Cmon, Super Zealots look awesome. Impratical, but awesome.

These look more distinctive: http://phill-art.deviantart.com/art/Protoss-Campaign-Concepts-265659144

Now that is awesome. :eek:

For a source that is confirmed canon, try the zealots vs ulltralisks scene from Why We Fight:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/blargh12/DSCN2122.jpg
( thanks to l33telboi for posting the image in the Master Chief vs Khastiana thread.

Just from eyeballing it, it's about half the size. Around fifteen meters high. The Zerg vary alot since they are a biological. Same reason they can have scourge that can fit on overlords and that they can have Scourge around 200 meters long.

There's also the Mutalisks. The one's from the comics and the books seem to have them not much bigger than Marines, while the cinematics have some of them larger than AT-ATs from Star Wars.

Starspawn10 · Aug 10, 2012

Speaking of tentative protoss weapon concepts, there's also Zeratul's "grappling hook" and "mine". The Ihan crystal design was called a "pulse mine".
Likely those were supposed to be Zeratul's tools during the Prophecy missions, ( analogous to the Terran heroes' special equipment in their own missions )
until Blizzard decided to just give him the Blink and Void Prison abilities.

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Terran Terra-forming

The Terrans have crazy terra-forming technology.

The primary example is Mar Sara. Here it is in Starcraft 1, prior to Protoss bombardment:

Then, we see what the Protoss do to the planets during purification:

We have a description from Liberty's Crusade:

Liberty's Crusade said:
The technician continued, “The orange spikes appear to be magma breaches through the planetary mantle. They are located at the locations of the known settlements.” A pause. “Plus at least a dozen other locations.”

“In addition, eighty percent of the atmosphere has been blown off in the attack,” continued the technician.

The word seemed to reak Duke from his steady stream of information. He looked at the reporter. “Atomic delivery systems leave blackened glass and burning forests. Even Korhal had some surviving pockets of clear terrain, for a while at least. Chau Sara has been burned down to the liquid core in places. This is much more deadly than even Apocalypse bombs.”

“Protoss.” Mike shook his head slightly, digesting the data. Something was wrong there. He looked at the tech’s display, showing the deep radar holes punching down to the planet’s magma.
-----------------------------------------
A flash blossomed to one side of the planetary disk, and Mike knew that the Protoss had arrived. Their lightning ships warped into being. A flash of blue-white electricity, and then they were there. The golden carriers with their moth attendants, and metallic bat-winged creations that wove among the larger ships.

They were breathtaking and deadly, forces of war raised to the level of an art form.

Mengsk spoke softly into his throat mike, and Mike could feel the engines engage. The terrorist leader was prepared to get out at the first sign that the Protoss had noticed them.

He need not have worried. The Protoss were completely intent on the diseased planet beneath them. Hatchways opened up in the bottoms of the larger ships, and great beams of energy, so intense as to be colorless, lanced downward toward the surface. The aliens laid down a withering barrage against the planet beneath.

Where the energy beams struck, they burned. The sky itself curdled as the beams pierced through the atmospheric envelope. Air itself was torn away from the planet by the force of the blows.

And where the beams struck the surface, they erupted, boiling the ground where they struck, uprooting both the creep-infested lands and those that had not yet been infected. Deadly rainbow radiation, more brilliant than Mike had ever seen, spiraled out from the impact points, churning earth and water
mercilessly, distorting the matter of the planet itself.

Then other ships began firing thinner beams with surgical accuracy, adding to the barrage in places. The cities, Mike realized. They were targeting the cities and making sure that nothing could survive there. Any place of human settlement. Including, he knew, the Jacobs Installation itself.

They had cut their timing very close indeed, he thought, and his stomach gave an uneasy lurch.

One of the pulsing beams punched through the crust itself, and the ground erupted in a volcanic upwelling. Magma pushed to the surface, consuming everything that had been uprooted by the energy beams. Most of the world’s atmosphere was burning now, torn away from the orb in a veil that trailed it
in orbit, and what was left spiraled in hurricanes and tornadoes, until destroyed by more beams.

Now red volcanic glows covered the northern hemisphere of Mar Sara like welts. The remainder of the land heaved in a deadly rainbow. Nothing could survive the assault, human or otherwise.

“Exterminators,” said Mike softly. “They’re cosmic exterminators.”

“Indeed,” said Mengsk. “And they can’t or won’t tell the difference between us and the Zerg. Maybe to them there is no difference. We should prepare for departure. They may notice us at any time.”

Mike looked at Raynor. The former marshal was stone-faced and grim, his hands clutching the railing in front of him. In the light of screens that showed the blue lightning of the Protoss ships, he looked like a statue. Only his eyes were alive, and they were filled with infinite sadness.

“Raynor?” said Mike. “Jim? Are you all right?”

“No,” said Jim Raynor softly. “I mean, can any of us be all right after this?”

Mike had no response, and sat there as the planet died and Arcturus Mengsk spoke softly into his throat mike. After a moment, the terrorist leader said, “We are ready for departure.”

“All right,” said Raynor, his eyes never leaving the screen. “Let’s go.”

And that planets look like this after the purification is done:

Two years after this, the Kel-Morines find out something on Mar Sara is worth mining:

Starcraft 2 said:
Mar Sara was the eighth colony world settled by the old Terran Confederacy. Although the planet is considered a backwater, its mining industry was once seen as a key strategic asset. It was overrun by the zerg and later incinerated by the protoss. Intrepid terrans terraformed and re-colonized Mar Sara in 2502.
-------------------------
After Mar Sara’s incineration by the protoss, the Sara system seemed to have little left to offer the terran race. The subsequent collapse of the Confederacy left the system entirely abandoned. Nevertheless, prospectors from the Kel-Morian Combine found that minerals on Mar Sara had acquired unique properties due to the protoss bombardment. Shortly thereafter, the Kel-Morian Combine staked a claim to mining and salvage rights over the Sara system. Independent and indentured contractors soon began strip-mining both planets of their resources.

In a single year, they terraform it and recolonize. The blasts went down to the core, and some pictures suggest that the beams pierced the entire planet from one end to the other, and the Terrans fixed this in a single year. That's insane. It looks like this now:

Also, Terraforming accidents cause planets to explode, so how they terraform planets is very....different from other sci-fi races:

Starcraft Frontline Vol. 3 said:
Kate Lockwell: We turn our attention now to the tragedy of Gohbus. What few survivors managed to escaped the Terraforming tragedy have sought shelter on the Gohbus moon's military outpost, but there's no telling how long the planet's crust will hold together. The moon may find itself hurled out of orbit by an exploding planet where it will die a cold death as it moves further from its sun. The Domion reports that it may not get enough ships to the planet in time to--

Now for the other planet, Korhal.

Starcraft 2 said:
Throne world of the Terran Dominion, Korhal IV is an irradiated testament to mankind’s war-torn history in the Koprulu sector. The fourth world in the Korhal system, the planet (often referred to simply as “Korhal”) was originally lush and temperate, and it was colonized by Tarsonian settlers in the early expansion years. Soon Korhal became a vital member of the thirteen Confederate core worlds, gaining recognition for its advanced science and research facilities and contributing to many key military and technological advances. However, as with all of the core worlds, Korhal IV remained a vassal to the Terran Confederacy and the corrupt Old Families of Tarsonis. Over time, tensions rose on Korhal IV, and agitators called for outright secession from the Confederacy.

I'Mengsk said:
A few heads turned to face him, their faces streaked with tears, then quickly turned back to the unfolding drama on the cine-viewer. The image was fuzzy and dark, but from here it appeared to be showing a large black ball.
-----------------------
Relief flooded him and he disengaged himself from his mum’s arms as everyone in the room continued to watch the image on the cine-viewer. He stood before the flickering image of Korhal, watching the black disc of a world as nuclear firestorms raged across its surface with elemental fury. The once bountiful and green world was now a superheated sphere of blackened glass and phantoms.
--------------------
Even with his limited understanding of the physics of nuclear detonations, Valerian knew that a thousand missiles was an inordinate amount of overkill. Such an overwhelming attack would have killed every living thing on the planet’s surface.

Starcraft manual said:
A salvo of one thousand
Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles was fired
at the planet of Korhal from the distant
Confederate capital of Tarsonis. Over
4,000,000 people were annihilated during
the savage attack. In a single instant, the
prosperous colony of Korhal was reduced to
nothing more than a super-heated sphere of
blackened glass and stirring phantoms.

So, Korhal was a bountiful green world, and than it was nuked into a Superheated glass ball.

The Sons of Korhal manage to terraform it to the state shown in Starcraft and Brood War:

I'Mengsk said:
Arcturus shook his head, quickly masking his irritation at the interruption. “Vast areas of the planet are habitable again and we have rebuilt much of what was destroyed, but even I don’t have the power to undo in so short a time the damage done by the Confederacy. Korhal will be great again. I have no doubt, but it will never what it once was.
-----------------------------
A tingle ran up Valerian’s spine, but he couldn’t tell whether it was one of relief or dread. His father’s words had sounded more like a warning then a promise of protection. The image returned to the soaring spires that were even now being rebuilt on Korhal amid the ashen devastation of the Confederates’s spiteful attack.

Then we see it four years later:

Starcraft 2 said:
Vast fortunes have been lavished on the cleanup and rebuilding of Korhal IV, although portions of the irradiated desert have been left untouched in honor of those who died. The capital city of Augustgrad – named in honor of Arcturus’s grandfather Augustus – is crowned by Mengsk’s own imperial palace.

Korhal IV was subject to a brief occupation during the incursion of the United Earth Directorate, but the planet was recaptured by an alliance of terran and protoss forces assisted by the zerg Queen of Blades – all united by their enmity to the UED. Korhal IV’s defenses have been massively increased since Arcturus Mengsk retook the throne, and he’s turned Korhal into the most heavily fortified planet in the Koprulu sector.
-------------------------------------
# Population: Est. 6,300,000,000+ terrans

# Allegiance: Terran Dominion

# * Diameter/Gravity: 12,248 km; 0.98 standard

* Axial Tilt/Climate: 6.2 degrees; +/- 25⁰ Centigrade, low humidity

* Geography/Major Settlements: 6 continents, 2 major oceans, 72 irradiated areas; 8 major conurbations, 5,592 residential districts, 1,012 industrial zones

* Moon: 2 – Ursa (brown, small sized, >1,100 km dia), Canis (brown, small sized, >900 km dia), within a narrow asteroid ring

* Dominant Terrain Classification: Terraformed urban megalopolis/irradiated desert/wasteland

* Dominant Life Forms: Terran – Terran Dominion

* Indigenous Life Forms: Scantid, glider hawk (introduced), bengalaas (introduced), rhynadon (introduced), urchin lizard (introduced), milot (introduced), shale dog (introduced)

It looks like this two years after that, in 2506. Just a different view of it really:

Shadow Archon · Aug 10, 2012

Terran Apocalypse Nuke Firepower

Now, there are multiple accounts of Apocalypse Nukes. The Manual says it happened via 1000 nukes sent from Tarsonis to Korhal IV, insinuating a FTL drive on them, and that in a single instant, the entire planet was a black glass ball.

Manual said:
A salvo of one thousand
Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles was fired
at the planet of Korhal from the distant
Confederate capital of Tarsonis. Over
4,000,000 people were annihilated during
the savage attack. In a single instant, the
prosperous colony of Korhal was reduced to
nothing more than a super-heated sphere of
blackened glass and stirring phantoms.

Now, while we know that Korhal was a garden world:

I'Mengsk said:
Before Sonyan, Arcturus had seen precisely three other planets. Growing up on Korhal, a lush, temperate world of balmy summers and mild winters, he had assumed that most other habitable worlds in the Confederacy would be much the same.

We don't know the amount of water it had on it's surface. Korhal IV, currently after its terraforming, has two major oceans. For a high-end, I'm going to assume that prior to bombardment, that Korhal had half of the oceans/water as Earth does.

I don't know the amount of energy it would require for them to do off of calculations, but Atomic Rockets has a nice chart of energy requirements near the bottom of this page.

Atomic Rockets said:
2 exatons: Energy required to vaporize all the oceans of Terra and dehydrate the crust

7 exatons: Energy required to melt the (dry) crust of Terra

Now, I don't know exactly how a planet's surface can be fine one second, and get turned into a substance resembling blackened glass the next , but we know that the end result is the same from the manual and I'Mengsk.

So it would be about in this area, but just to get an exact number, let's assume Korhal has half the water that earth does, so you would need 1 exaton. That's one petaton per nuke. This is of course just taking the energy needed for the oceans, not for the energy needed for the crust. Don't know how melted crust and superheated or glass are related, so don't really know beyond that.

We do know that Liberty's Crusade suggests that it didn't happen in a single instant, and that it took time for the Fireballs to consume it:

Liberty's Crusade said:
The word seemed to break Duke from his steady stream of information. He looked at the reporter. “Atomic delivery systems leave blackened glass and burning forests. Even Korhal had some surviving pockets of clear terrain, for a while at least. Chau Sara has been burned down to the liquid core in places. This is much more deadly than even Apocalypse bombs.”

I'Mengsk also agrees that it took time, but that said time was very short and that the planet did look like a superheated glass ball:

I'Mengsk said:
A few heads turned to face him, their faces streaked with tears, then quickly turned back to the unfolding drama on the cine-viewer. The image was fuzzy and dark, but from here it appeared to be showing a large black ball.
-------------------------
Relief flooded him and he disengaged himself from his mum’s arms as everyone in the room continued to watch the image on the cine-viewer. He stood before the flickering image of Korhal, watching the black disc of a world as nuclear firestorms raged across its surface with elemental fury. The once bountiful and green world was now a superheated sphere of blackened glass and phantoms.
-------------------------------------
Even with his limited understanding of the physics of nuclear detonations, Valerian knew that a thousand missiles was an inordinate amount of overkill. Such an overwhelming attack would have killed every living thing on the planet’s surface.

We know that Uprising completely goes against the manual:

Uprising said:
Ailin turned to Arcturus and spoke in a halting voice:
"We received an anonymous transmission suggesting
that we keep on eye on this sector."
Arcturus looked at the sector currently being displayed.
He recognized the planet at the display's center
immediately. "Korhal," he said, to no one in particular.
The superintendent nodded slightly. Arcturus noticed
that the man was sweating heavily. "Yes."
Several smaller objects that looked like orbiting satellites
of some kind surrounded the image of the planet.
Arcturus had an idea, even before the superintendent
spoke, of what the objects really were.
"Battlecruisers," Ailin confirmed. "We make out twenty
of them. We've been monitoring the military channels
and have overheard nothing that might explain this."
------------------------------------------
The holo-image now showed several tiny objects, no
more than minuscule dots. They came from the ships
in swarms, like locusts, leaving the battlecruisers and
snaking their way toward Korhal's atmosphere.
------------------------------------------
On the Spy Deck, a palpable silence pervaded as pools
of brilliant light began spreading across the surface of the
already luminescent image of Korhal. They continued
from multiple locations until the majority of the planet
was engulfed in that brilliance and no one in the room
could question what they had just seen.
"By the fathers, it's gone . . . Korhal's gone. Everybody.
Billions of people . . ." Ailin seemed on the verge
of fainting.
Arcturus felt his stomach tighten and was aware of
nothing but that image in front of him, the image of
Korhal burning. After a short time, the pools of light
began to fade, and the holo-image of Korhal became a
darker, featureless facsimile of its former self.
------------------------------------------------
"You all know what has just transpired. For those of
you who want the specifics-and I think you all deserve
to know-twenty battlecruisers just launched about a
thousand Apocalypse-class missiles from Korhal IV's
orbit. The missiles impacted on the planet's surface and
35 million people will never again see the light of day.
You need no stirring speeches; you need no coercion or
coaxing. You all know the difference between right and
wrong. Now the time has come to fight for the values
you hold dear and to challenge those who would strip
you of your individual freedoms. Are you with me?"

In this novel, Battlecruisers fire the nukes, and it violates it self with billions dead in one paragraph and only 35 million people dead the next.

So, 20 Battlecruisers can fire 1000 nukes in one volley. That's 50 nukes per Battlecruiser, so there's a number, and if you combine that with the manual, since everything is canon, that's 50 petaton nukes with FTL travel.

Now, Ghost Academy Volume 3 has shown us that Apocalypse nukes are used by the Dominion a year after the events of Starcraft and Brood War.

Ghost Academy Volume 3 said:
We'll use a cluster of Apocalypse-class nukes. A dozen ought to do it.

That many? But, sir...?

Don't worry about it. Casualties happen.

Yes, sir.

Now here are the images:

Detonation is not at all close to the original ones.

Nuke mushrooms.The Ghost who had targeted it is behind cover at the bottom so unknown amount of space away.

The fireball now can be seen from orbit? That doesn't set up well with how big Hatcheries generally are compared to the explosion seen earlier. You can even see the planet's curvature compared with it

So, I did a calculation from it.

That doesn't make any sense, as we can see the crater from the next scene. It is neither molten or that deep.Just another point at how people like to make explosions cool with fireballs from orbit and lack to show the same large scale on the ground.

So, the nukes here are smaller than the ones shown previously. They are Apocalypse Nukes and I guess it can be explained via dial-a-yield, but its still another example of canon inconsistency. The Cyrus was a part of the Sons of Korhal fleet at Tarsonis, and it wasn't updated since then. So the SoK fleet had these nukes, and the Tarsonis explosions seen from orbit are also teratons.

I'm guessing that they had to be Dial-a-Yield nukes. They were in two battles, and both yields are very different, even in its own material. If those nukes were really hatchery sized, you should not see a large fireball from orbit that size compared to the world's curvature. Whatever, though. Starcraft makes no sense as usual, one of the many things that I like about it, and am annoyed by it.

Starspawn10 · Aug 11, 2012

Shadow Archon said:
Also, Terraforming accidents cause planets to explode, so how they terraform planets is very....different from other sci-fi races:

Now that I think about it, the author of that story probably had the Mercer class doomsday device in mind when he/she drew the panel.
Likely, some Dominion prospector deployed the device to bring "forth to the surface the natural riches of this world". It caused more destruction than he expected.
To cover up the truth, it was simply reported as a "terraforming accident".

And then there's New Folsom, where the Confederate engineers designed "a platform system to flex and shift with the crust while providing a 'minimally survivable' habitat for the workforce". Later, it was partially converted into a prison world.
Now it looks like this: ( from the Better Tomorrow cinematic in SC2 )

When the Protoss first encountered the Terrans:

pg 77 of StarCraft Manual said:
...The Protoss were alarmed at how quick the Terrans were to access and drain the natural resources from their various worlds. It seemed to the Protoss that the Terrans had no respect for the delicate balance of nature, as they recklessly sped form one world to the next, leaving nothing but barren wastelands in their wake...

Now we know just how alarmed the Protoss were !

Shadow Archon · Aug 11, 2012

Starspawn10 said:
Now that I think about it, the author of that story probably had the Mercer class doomsday device in mind when he/she drew the panel.
Likely, some Dominion prospector deployed the device to bring "forth to the surface the natural riches of this world". It caused more destruction than he expected.
To cover up the truth, it was simply reported as a "terraforming accident".

My roomate always had a line of thought for that part:

"Now Bob, while the machines warming up, whatever you do, don't mess with the gravity control, or the start button. The start button. The start button. Whatever you do, don't press the start button."

"Okay"

"I wonder what this button does..."

"Oh no, Gohbus is exploding! What has science done??!?!?!??!?"

Labeling it a Terraforming accident at least implies the scale of how Terrans work their magic on planets.

And then there's New Folsom, where the Confederate engineers designed "a platform system to flex and shift with the crust while providing a 'minimally survivable' habitat for the workforce". Later, it was partially converted into a prison world.
Now it looks like this: ( from the Better Tomorrow cinematic in SC2 )

When the Protoss first encountered the Terrans:
Now we know just how alarmed the Protoss were !

At least its not as bad as how alarmed they are when Zerg are involved.

Starspawn10 · Aug 11, 2012

Shadow Archon said:
...
"Oh no, Gohbus is exploding! What has science done??!?!?!??!?"
...

hmm, again now that I think about it ...
The Protoss have likely gone through that stage as well ...

We know that Motherships were initially like Protoss analogues of Science Vessels, or Star Trek's Enterprise :
intended mainly for exploration yet in a sense deadlier than some military vessels.
And part of their mission was probably to terraform ( or should we say ... Aiur-form ? ) planets and uncover the "natural riches" of those worlds

In light of what the Terrans, considered less advanced, can already do to achieve those,
the following description now takes on a new significance:

http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/mothership said:
... All Motherships hold a huge khaydarin crystal infused with enough psionic energy to distort the very fabric of space and time. When wielding this force, these vessels can instantly destroy squadrons of enemy ships or even entire planets ...

Looking forward to the scene in LotV where a group of motherships open giant Vortices in a planet's core/mantle. When the vortices rebound, the resulting seismic disturbances pop the planet like a punctured water balloon.
"By the gods ! ... I pray we never need to do this again ..."

That will be real cool to watch

...

At least its not as bad as how alarmed they are when Zerg are involved.

At first the Conclave was "convinced that its strategies are winning the war against the Zerg".
If not for the Overminds' ability to reincarnate its cerebrates "right before our eyes" ( to use Fenix's expression ), the Conclave might have been right. :/

Shadow Archon · Aug 13, 2012

Starspawn10 said:
hmm, again now that I think about it ...
The Protoss have likely gone through that stage as well ...

We know that Motherships were initially like Protoss analogues of Science Vessels, or Star Trek's Enterprise :
intended mainly for exploration yet in a sense deadlier than some military vessels.
And part of their mission was probably to terraform ( or should we say ... Aiur-form ? ) planets and uncover the "natural riches" of those worlds

In light of what the Terrans, considered less advanced, can already do to achieve those,
the following description now takes on a new significance:

Looking forward to the scene in LotV where a group of motherships open giant Vortices in a planet's core/mantle. When the vortices rebound, the resulting seismic disturbances pop the planet like a punctured water balloon.
"By the gods ! ... I pray we never need to do this again ..."

That will be real cool to watch

Yes it would be. Some Motherships were present during the Great War going off of Frontline. Hope we get to use one in LotV (The Expansion I want the most.)

At first the Conclave was "convinced that its strategies are winning the war against the Zerg".
If not for the Overminds' ability to reincarnate its cerebrates "right before our eyes" ( to use Fenix's expression ), the Conclave might have been right. :/

There's a difference in, "Wow those humans are depleting resources fast" and "We will win against this menace, by burning every world they taint. Hah, we can even take them from the ground."

The Conclave is the very image of arrogance and pompousness. They do match the Pharisees in that regard well.

Shadow Archon · Aug 14, 2012

Terran Laser Weapons/Equipment

Alright, the Terrans are very fond with Laser weapons. They use them in a mining role and a combat one. While mostly we see them used on spacecraft and fighters, they do have some of this technology on the ground level.

Infantry/Personal Level:

Mainly, Terrans use Gauss weapons on the ground, but they do use Laser equipment in the form of surgery and

Hand-held Laser:

Liberty's Crusade said:
Before Mike could react, Kerrigan snaked out a hand and grabbed his press tags. With a single smooth motion she tossed them into the air, pulled a hand-held laser, and fired the tags at the top of their arc. The melted remains landed with a sodden splot on the concrete floor.

Laser scalpel:

Firstborn said:
R. M. nodded, her shiny dark hair moving like a silky wave with the gesture. Rosemary? What the hell kind of name is that for an assassin? Jake thought distractedly.

“Eddie,” R. M. continued in a calm and in-control voice, “I need you to do a few things for me.”

The laser scalpel on the table—I could get it before she— Eddie’s thoughts, brave and courageous and incredibly stupid.

Reach for it, Eddie. You’ll be one less person for me to keep an eye on.

Ghost said:
She had a pretty face, the curve did. Even with the tears running down her cheeks and the puffy eyes, Markus could see she was pretty. And it was a natural pretty, the kind that happened from good luck, not from a surgeon’s laser the way it did for most of the curves in the Yorod.
-------------
Clara had her mother’s brown hair and full figure, and she had also done considerable work to make her face perfectly proportioned. She was holding an embroidered handkerchief to her face and dabbing her eyes, though Mal could find no evidence of crying. The surgeon’s laser may have prevented that from showing, of course— with the Old Families, there were lots of ways to buy your way out of feeling emotions, after all.

Laser Saw:

Ghost said:
Pain! It was like a laser saw started drilling through Nova’s head, slicing through her eyes and forehead, like it was trying to split her skull wide open.. . .

Laser surgery:

Ghost said:
Markus put his head in his hands and started rubbing his forehead. Harold wouldn’t have come all the way from Kitsios if he didn’t have an appointment. Hell, you practically needed laser surgery to get Harold’s ass out of that chair he liked so much at that café with the stupid name.

Laser Cutter:

SotXn said:
“These passages are studded with more crystals and other strange objects,
treasures, resources! We could use a pickax or a laser cutter to chop them out of the walls.”

Laser Welder:

SotXn said:
Distracting sounds drifted to him from the rooms surrounding the throne chamber: loud hammering,
buzzing diamond cutters, and sparking laser welders. Now that he had control of the Terran government,
Mengsk had ordered construction on a vast scale to begin on the devastated worlds, such as the
restoration here on Korhal, which remained scarred from previous Confederate atrocities.

Med-Laser:

Broken Wide said:
Maybe this wasn’t deliberate. An alien infection caused by some?? insidious algae? Ha. I doubted that anything could get through the bio-defenses of these monsters, but it was possible. I decided to dissect one of the smaller blisters, an angry green specimen the size of my fingertip. I charged up the med-laser and made a small incision.

Pulse Pistol:

SotXn said:
Many of the other colonists had also run dry of shotpacks for
their projectile weapons or battery cartridges for their pulse pistols.
----------------
The settlers had distributed their stockpile of homegrown weapons, small projectile launchers, pulse
pistols, and rarely used hunting guns.
-------------------------
A murmur of approval and hope rippled through the room. Wes bounced to his feet. “Hey, and most of
us own pulse pistols that we use for hunting lizards.”

Pulse Rifle:

We see Terrans using C-14 Gauss Rifles fire blue beams of light, just like the Wraiths above them. Only have this here because the Wiki has an article on it. I just think its a graphical difference.

Vehicle/Machine level:

FAFNR ( Forward-accelerating fragmentation/navigation rover) :

Stealing Thunder said:
The answer to the last problem, as it turned out, was the FAFNR. If there was one thing the Kel-Morians were known for, it was taking parts from seemingly incompatible objects and machines and cobbling together something functional, if not always completely reliable. The FAFNR was no exception. The acronym stood for Forward-Accelerating Fragmentation/Navigation Rover.

Not many of these contraptions were still in use on Chunk, and in fact this specific beast had been undergoing repairs for a busted seal to the cab. The seat and various other non-essentials were hastily ripped out to allow for Isaac's bulky suit, which Isaac wore not for ventilation in the pressurized core, but for gravity assistance.

The noise of the various motors would have been deafening if Isaac hadn't turned down the gain on his external pickups. The vehicle was being driven remotely as six laser drills disintegrated the solid rock before him and massive side intakes sucked up the debris and shot it out the rear. Normally the waste would have been relayed to a cumbersome bucket/conveyor system that would transport it back for disposal, but in this case there was no time, so the fragments were simply piled up behind the FAFNR as the vehicle bored deeper like some kind of great metal earthworm.

BDE-1400 and BDE-1600

I'Mengsk said:
"Yes, we're perfectly safe," he said. "The walls of this refuge are three feet of
plascrete with neosteel reinforcement bars. It would take the Mining Guild's biggest drills
—at least a BDE-1400—to get through. Maybe even the 1600."
"You know a lot about drills?"
"A little," he said, with just the right hint of modesty for her to infer that he knew a
lot about drills. "I plan on becoming a prospector someday."

Funny, considering what a BDE-1600 can actually do:

Ghost Academy Vol. 2 said:
The heavy-duty mobile rigs, they have high pressure mining beams?

Yes, of course! The BDE-1600 units can drill deep enough to hit magma.

Ooh! And they can be focused? Aimed?

See those rings? They turn. You can point the drill any direction you want. Even sideways for carving whole slices out of a canyon wall.

How many heavy duty rigs does this station have?

Well, there are those you see and maybe another dozen down in the maintenance bay plus enough spare parts to build another doze or so.

Dad used to talk about ripping this rock down to the core to get at the heavier minerals. No matter what it took.

Drakken laser drill:

SC2 said:
Tychus
So here's the deal. This place is a morgue. Whatever used to live in these ruins up an' died millions of years ago.

Before they went missin', the Moebius team reported artifact radiation emanating from that big ol' hunk o' rock over yonder. They brought a big damn laser drill to burn their way in.
We just gotta get that sucker working again, and its easy money from there.
Adjutant
Attention. Class ten fusion power source detected.
Raynor
Laser drill? That thing's a monster. If the Moebius team had access to that kinda hardware...
Raynor
I hate to think about what could have wiped 'em out.
Tychus
Reckon we'll find out soon enough, partner.

-------------------
Tychus
"One hundred and seventy four gigawatts - 'the power of the sun at your fingertips.'"

Spacecraft / Aircraft Level

Wraiths:

I'Mengsk said:
The assembled crowd needed no encouragement and bolted for the house.
The two Wraiths tasked with patrolling the skies above the emperor reacted as soon
as their pilots realized the codes they were receiving on their IFF threat panels were a lie,
but by then it was already too late. The first fighter exploded as a stream of bright laser
bolts stitched a path over its fuselage and ripped off its right wing.

The second Wraith avoided the initial volley of gunfire and was able to return fire.
Amazingly, the pilot's shots impacted on one of the attackers, blowing out the cockpit in a
shower of superheated blood and glass.

The enemy fighter spiraled toward the ground, plowing into the grass in a
spectacular fireball, cartwheeling across the lawn, and smashing into the house, drowning
out the screams of panic that filled the air. Shattered glazing and buckled steel caved inward
and black smoke billowed upward from the wreckage buried in the structure of the house.

The Dominion pilot's defiance was short-lived, however, as the remaining three
Confederate fighters boxed him in and blew his craft араrt in a hall of laser fire.
Burning wreckage fell into the river, sending up huge spouts of water as it crashed.

Valerian grabbed his mother from her chair and carried her close to his chest as he
ran for the house, knowing there wasn't time to get her to safety with more dignity. Sizzling
bolts of energy sawed across the lawn as the first Wraith flew in low on a strafing run. Half
a dozen of his grandfather's serving staff were scythed down, bodies blown apart from
inside by the passage of violently hot lasers through their flesh.

Valerian dropped to the ground as the ruby bolts ripped up the ground on either side
of him. He tasted earth and blood and smelted the stink of seared meat. His mother cried out
in pain and he rolled onto his side, seeing her lying helpless next to him. The Confederate
Wraiths screamed overhead, their wing-mounted weaponry firing upon the helpless targets
below them.

His father's marines returned fire on the Wraiths as they fell back toward the house,
but the pilots weren't worried about small-arms fire from the ground. Impaler spikes
sparked from the fighters' fuselages or missed altogether, but they at least gave the
semblance of a fight back.

The gun cutter that had brought his father to Umoja was powering up its engines, but
before it could lift off it was struck by a withering salvo of gunfire from the predatory
Wraiths. One of the engine nacelles exploded, spraying white-hot fragments in all
directions.

Whickering, razor-edged shrapnel cut down fleeing men and women in a bloody
storm as the gun cutter lurched sideways. It plowed a huge furrow in the ground, throwing
up sprays of earth and clods of mud as its one remaining engine roared into life and spun it
around on its axis.

Finally, actual affects of vaporization. The bodies explode as part of the matter is converted into hot expanding gas.

Battlecruisers:

I'Mengsk said:
And the landing shaft was suddenly filled with a cascade of incandescent bolts of
blistering light that slammed down from above. Percussive explosions bloomed skyward
and the cutter rocked backward as a wave of heat and pressure washed over it.
The tremendous impacts shook the damaged vessel so violently its keel split in two.
Arcturus and Valerian were thrown to the deck as the streaming torrent of light hammered
the world beyond the interior of their refuge to oblivion.
Al last the waterfall of molten light ceased and Valerian blinked away the starbursts
behind his eyes. His ears rang with the concussion of the explosions, but he was alive, and
that was something he hadn't expected.
His father lay across from him, looking dazed but otherwise unhurt.
"What the hell?" gasped Valerian, seeing nothing but blackened walls and complete
annihilation outside.
Arcturus laughed. "Told you...." he said.
Valerian looked up.
Blocking the light from the open shaft was an enormous steel behemoth that floated
above the landing hatch in defiance of the laws of gravity.
As a monstrous, rippling heat haze surrounded its engines, Valerian covered his ears
against the teeth-loosening rumble. The insignia of a red arm holding a whip on a black
background was emblazoned on either side of a cavernous docking bay, and it took
Valerian a moment to realize he was looking at the underside of a Dominion battlecruiser.
A voice, heavily accented and with a thick drawl, blared from an external
loudspeaker.
"Someone order a heroic rescue?" said General Edmund Duke.

Said Battlecruiser was blasting the Confederate/UED marines from the earlier segment with the Wraiths. Not much to go on though.

SotXn said:
His men knew the drill. They spread out to build defensive perimeters while the small Wraiths and huge
Battlecruisers provided air support against the advancing Zerg. Using full firepower, the Alpha Squadron
ships struck repeatedly, pounding even the mammoth-sized Ultralisks, wiping out waves of the remaining
Zerglings, crushing groups of Hydralisks.

Not much to go off of there either.

Will update later if I can find anymore mention of them.

Shadow Archon · Aug 14, 2012

Terran Yamato Cannon and EMP

So, just realized something.

SotXn said:
“Targeting, sir,” Lieutenant Scott said. He opened a link to the Napoleon. On cue, both Terran warships
fired their powerful guns, intense magnetic fields focusing a small nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam
of energy. The concentrated onslaught hammered through the Protoss shields. Within seconds, the
Carrier's hull failed and the giant alien vessel exploded.

But Carriers have shields that stop Protoss weapons, which are in the Teratons...

Well, guess that means Yamato Cannons are teraton weapons. :cool:

Or, the "magnetic field" can pierce the shield the same as a Science Vessel's EMP knocks it down.

SotXn said:
As two Science Vessels glided forward, they employed their signature weapon, an electromagnetic pulse
that rippled across space and washed over the battlefield like a tidal wave. The EMP removed the
energy shielding from all the Protoss ships, leaving them vulnerable—if not to the weapons of Alpha
Squadron, then at least to the Zerg.

But seeing it works in space...

Shadow Archon · Aug 14, 2012

Xel'naga Phoenix Creature

Well, actually have something I can post now.

SotXn:

SotXn said:
In a growing burst of light, the three tactical nukes erased the front of the mountain surrounding the
artifact. A flash of spreading disintegration rippled outward.

But faster still, the awakened and hungry artifact struck, drinking deeply of the energy, absorbing it all.
Within a moment—too short for any clock to measure—the outward spread of atomic annihilation
halted, then was sucked inside, drawn deep into the Xel'Naga creation like a whirlpool of power. . . .

Reeling from the sonic boom, not knowing what had just happened, Executor Koronis stood by his
Protoss forces, unable to believe he was still alive. He could not grasp how the artifact had responded to
the nuclear attack from above, but now all the translucent biopolymer convolutions awakened in a burst
of radiance.

The mountainside was gone, like unlocked chains that had fallen away. Recharged and fully awake, the
living artifact at last cracked and broke free, its substance no longer an armor-like material. Now the
whole thing was charged with pulsing electrical fire, a life force.

Alive, and searching.

The Zerg Overlords, stunned by the unexpected atomic blast, reeled, losing control of their ravenous
minions. The bristling, monstrous Roverlisks, based on the genetics of Old Blue, bounded about, tearing
into their Zergling cohorts. Dragonlike Mutalisks flew in circles, out of control and spitting a rain of Glave
Wurm destruction down on all frenzied fighters.

The surviving Protoss Judicators and Zealots stood in awe, looking up at the incandescent, stirring
object buried by their ancient progenitors, as if a thunderous destiny were coming down upon them.
Then the web-laced blazing shell split with crackling lightning bolts as the casing spread wider, opening
up like an eggshell . . .

Or a chrysalis.

As Koronis stared in astonishment, feeling the thoughts of all the Protoss around him swelling with terror
and anticipation, his own brain reached an overload. He thought of how wonderful it had been just to
take his worn shard of old Khaydarin crystal to focus his thoughts, to calm himself and meditate. But this
was too much for his brain, even in the flow of the Khala, to comprehend.

The Dark Templar Xerana had warned them. She had tried to explain that this object was not simply an
artifact, but the seed of a living creature, another prototype race developed through the genetic
machinations of the Xel'Naga. Now he and his armies, along with the Zerg Minions and the Terran
military, had not succeeded in conquering it . . . but in reviving it.

With a squidlike form of incandescent energy barely held within a luminous organic skin, the real
creature, a glorious being, emerged from the broken shards of its cocoon. It rose like a phoenix made of
giant feathery wings, grasping tentacles, and blazing suns for eyes.

Koronis stood watching the wondrous beast. It looked unlike anything he had ever seen, and yet there
was nothing wrong about it. The creature combined elements of Terran butterfly and jellyfish and sea
anemone. This being had a purity of purpose that seemed to reach a pinnacle higher than either the
Protoss or the Zerg, which were the Xel'Naga's other primary creations.

The awakened entity moved quickly, rising out of the shattered chrysalis and hovering over the
battlefield. Koronis felt as if he were a part of it. The creature sang a telepathic melody, a song written by
the long-dead Xel'Naga, infused with a throbbing resonance that felt attuned to every strand of his DNA.
But Koronis sensed that he and his Protoss were not here just as observers. This phoenix monster
needed him, and it needed the Zerg. They were resources to complete its grand metamorphosis. The
buried cocoon had been placed here aeons ago, growing, incubating, waiting . . . until now.

A typhoon of wind and carefully targeted lightning bolts flew around the rising creature like a fury, and it
struck out in a kaleidoscope of color across the battlefield. The Protoss and the Zerg stood helpless as
the Xel'Naga-spawned being flashed them all with its high-powered scanning beams, disintegrating and
absorbing them, gathering up their genetics, all the thoughts and souls of these other children of the
Xel'Naga. The area for miles around glowed, not with nuclear radiation, but with a seething backwash of
life force.

Now more than the sum of its parts, the magnificent phoenix creature rose through the sky, tearing apart
clouds and turning them hot and orange. The adult life-form ascended into space, leaving behind the
destruction and the shell of its chrysalis in the blasted mountainside.

On its way it encountered the few remaining Alpha Squadron Battlecruisers in orbit.

Already on edge, knowing that the ground forces had been wiped out in the titanic three-way battle
around the artifact, the captain of the wounded Battlecruiser Napoleon opened fire with a blast of his
Yamato gun. Seeing the dazzling creature hurtling toward him like a hurricane, he had no time—or
desire—to wait for orders from General Duke down in his command center in Free Haven.

The captains of the other Battlecruisers came to the same conclusion. Yamato guns fired at the oncoming
phoenix-thing, unwittingly increasing the being's biological power reservoirs. It glowed brighter, hotter. . .

And as it swept past, the newborn entity vaporized, absorbed, and digested the Terran battleships,
drinking their power, leaving only sparkling chunks of molten debris, which flash-froze in the cold vacuum
of space.

Then it engulfed and absorbed the Zerg and Protoss secondary forces that had remained in reserve
above the planet.

Finally sated and eager to begin its new life, the strange blazing creature departed from its aeons-long
home of Bhekar Ro and soared off through the Void into the vast and unexplored gulf between the stars.

Twilight:

Twilight said:
A bright white zigzag suddenly danced across the top of the temple,
and with a thought Zeratul swerved away from it. What was going on?

From a distance he watched unblinking as the crack spread across the surface, which was glowing even brighter than it had before. Zeratul suddenly recalled Zamara shar ing the story of her death with him and Jacob. She had crashed her vessel into such a temple—but one that was a dull green-brown, not this radiant, vibrant green. Zamara had known by the color that— The energy creature. These temples were eggs—chrysalises.

And Zeratul had arrived just in time to bear witness to the hatching of the being housed within. Perhaps that was what he had sensed—the urgency, the need to arrive soon before it was too late. He watched, enraptured, as the surface of the temple-chrysalis seemed to bow, straining against the white zigzag crack. Suddenly, it shattered, and Zeratul stared at something that was as far beyond his ken as his people must have been to the humans upon first contact. Beautiful. It was exquisitely, radiantly, gloriously beautiful. It burst through its shell as if propelled, this white, glowing entity of pure light and energy.

It should have appeared hideous, displaying as it did tentacles, odd feathery wings, and enormous eyes that shone with a light so bright that Zeratul was forced to turn his head and close his own. But it was not hideous. It hovered over its discarded shell that even now was starting to dim and turn greenish brown, dancing in the air for a moment. Turning back to look at it through slitted eyes, Zeratul‘s spirit soared.

It was powerful; it was potentially lethal, and if it turned its terrible, wonderful attention upon him and destroyed him now, he would die in happiness. But the energy being, so new and fresh, had no concern for Zeratul. It hovered for a moment longer, then shot upward as if propelled, moving with a clear sense of purpose. For a precious second Zeratul was too startled to do anything, but he recovered swiftly and began to follow it.
------------------------------------
Even though the energy creature appeared to have a clear purpose, it seemed to dance as it flew rather than heading on a laser-straight path. Despite the urgency of the situation, Zeratul‘s heart lifted as he followed.

His delight turned to momentary confusion when suddenly his screen was crowded with dozens of blips with readings identical to the creature whose trail he was following. It had to be a malfunction. Perhaps there was some sort of echo that— A few moments later, Zeratul stared in wide-eyed astonishment at what he was able to see with his own eyes. There were indeed dozens—perhaps hundreds—of the luminous, vaguely-aquatic, wholly mysterious creatures swirling and dancing and diving together.

For a long time, this glowing ritual was enacted, and Zeratul simply watched. He enjoyed the feeling of humility that rose in him as he witnessed this spectacle. He knew that if he survived what Zamara feared was coming he would enjoy the feeling again. Abruptly, as if from an unheard signal, they all became very still.

Zeratul waited, watching. And then, more swiftly than his vision could even register, they began to whirl. Faster and faster they flew until they became a blur of glowing movement, growing brighter and brighter still until the dark templar was forced to narrow his eyes and then finally shield them. A blast of light made him jerk with pain and he closed his eyes for a moment. Cautiously he opened them. The energy creatures were gone. In their place was a hole in the very fabric of space—a tunnel, a worm hole, outlined in shining light, its center dark and mysterious and beckoning with the exception of a single world, barely glimpsed, waiting on the other side.

Zeratul knew he could no more refrain from entering that mysterious doorway than he could stop his skin from absorbing nutrients from the cosmos. He was a protoss, and though he knew and understood and practiced intelligent caution, his curiosity would not let him be. He calmed his thoughts, although in truth he was almost quivering with excitement. He would need all his wits about him if what awaited him on that world was not benevolent. For a moment, he forced himself to be still, to go within, and when he was ready, Zeratul moved slowly, steadily toward the wormhole. What was on the other side, he somehow knew, be it beautiful and wonderful or horrific and destructive, would change everything.

Bishop Gantry · Aug 15, 2012

Shadow Archon said:
Shadow Archon said:

Terran Yamato Cannon and EMP

So, just realized something.

But Carriers have shields that stop Protoss weapons, which are in the Teratons...

Well, guess that means Yamato Cannons are teraton weapons. Or, the "magnetic field" can pierce the shield the same as a Science Vessel's EMP knocks it down.

But seeing it works in space...

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

“Targeting, sir,” Lieutenant Scott said. He opened a link to the Napoleon. On cue, both Terran warships
fired their powerful guns, intense magnetic fields focusing a small nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam
of energy. The concentrated onslaught hammered through the Protoss shields. Within seconds, the
Carrier's hull failed and the giant alien vessel exploded.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Even scarier a BC can fire its yamato beam continious for several seconds.

Shadow Archon · Aug 15, 2012

Bishop Gantry said:
Even scarier a BC can fire its yamato beam continuous for several seconds.

Well, the ones in the cinematic and books are described as such. When used Tactically, they fire pulses. (In-game cinematic.) Hope they go more off of that in books.

Shadow Archon · Aug 15, 2012

Terran FTL sensors/communicaton

Liberty's Crusade said:
“Zed-Two, Quadrant Five, one AU out. Numerous anomalies.”

“Bearing?”

“Working.” A pause, and then a defeated shrug crept into the tech’s words. “Heading for Mar Sara, sir.”

Duke nodded. “Prepare to intercept anomalous readings. Launch fighters when in range.”

Mike spoke before he thought, “Are you crazy?”

Duke turned back to the reporter. “That was a rhetorical question, I hope, son.”

“We’re one ship.”

“We’re the only ship between them and Mar Sara. We will intercept.”

Mike almost said, “Easy for you, you’re in a hard-shelled battlesuit,” but caught himself. Whatever could go through a planetary crust wouldn’t be stopped by a few layers of combat armor.

Instead Mike took a deep breath and just gripped the railing, as if he were hoping that this might ease the eventual blow.

“Approaching visual,” said the tech. “Putting on screen.”

The main screen flickered to reveal a scattering of fireflies against the night sky. They looked almost pretty against the darkness. Then Mike realized that there were hundreds of them, and that these were only the main ships. Smaller gnats danced around them.

That's eight and a half light minutes out at the beginning of the quote, and they can put them into visuals moments later.

I'Mengsk said:
Arcturus was about to deliver a withering reply when the door opened and one of
Ailin Pasteur's servants entered. Immediately, Arcturus could sense the man's urgency.
"What is it?" asked Juliana, turning and snapping at the man.
"A communication for Mr. Mengsk," said the servant.
"A message?" said Arcturus. "And you had to interrupt us for that? I'll open it later."
"No, sir," said the man. "It's not a message. It's a real-time communication from
Korhal."
Arcturus frowned. To communicate in real time between worlds was incredibly
expensive and could only be done by those with access to the most powerful and advanced
equipment.
"From Korhal? Is it my mother?" he asked

FTL real time communication. It is expensive however.

I'Mengsk said:
Valerian turned as he heard the crunch of gravel on the path behind him, recognizing
the diffident tread of Charles Whittler, who remained his constant companion still.
Accompanying Whittler was Valerian's grandfather, Ailin Pasteur.
"What is it, Charles?" asked Valerian.
"I'm sorry to intrude, sir, but we've just received confirmation from General Duke."
"And?" said Valerian when Whittler did not continue.
"He wasn't too happy about keeping his ships beyond the outer shipping markers. He
demanded to bring his ships into Umoja’s orbit before allowing the emperor to descend to
the planet's surface."
"And I told him to shove his demands up his ass." said Ailin Pasteur.
Valerian was shocked al his grandfather's outburst, knowing he detested expletives
as a sign of poor upbringing and a lack of vocabulary.
"I'll bet that went down well with Duke," said Valerian.
-------------------------------------------
"I'm going to get us some help," he said. "The only comm unit strong enough to
penetrate a Cassandra screen is on the gun cutter. If we can get to it, I can call in Duke and
his boys."
"I'm going with you," said Valerian. "I'm not running."
"No," said his father. "You're getting to safety."
"I'm going with you," repeated Valerian. "That's the end of it, no argument."
Arcturus looked set to dispute him, then saw his determination. Valerian felt his
heart soar at the pride he saw in his father's eyes.
"The cutter went down the landing shaft, yes?" said Arcturus.
"Yeah," said Valerian, "its engine blew out and it fell in."
"Which means we can reach it from the house.”
"Arcturus, that's insane!" said Juliana. "Edmund Duke's ships are too far away to
reach us in time and for all you know the cutter's comm unit is destroyed.”
"If I know Duke, he'll be halfway here already," said Arcturus. "Sorry, Ailin. You
didn't really think I'd leave my ships that far out, did you?"
"Damn you, Arcturus," said Pasteur. "You go too far.”
Arcturus gave a hollow laugh. "If Duke gets here in time, you'll be glad I do."
Valerian straightened as his father turned and handed him a gauss rifle. “You
ready?”
-------------------------------------------
"I'm sure I am," said his father. "If Edmund has a grain of sense, he'll have been
keeping his sensor suite trained on Umoja since I left the command ship. With any luck,
he'll have come running as soon as he picked up the weapons' discharges."

Sensors that can pick up weapons fire inside an atmosphere. The largest weapons fire was from Marines and Wraiths. While the distance was unknown for the Battlecruiser, we do know that it had to be at least a few AUs away. This is the capital for the Protectorate and they also have FTL sensor suites.

Uprising said:
The Spy Deck was an area where mining foremen
watched image-enhanced holograms of planets within
the system that might be fertile grounds for prospecting.
For the enlistment of its current purpose, the Spy Deck
could not have been more aptly named. Not long ago,
Ailin Pasteur had served under the command of
Arcturus’s father, Angus. Angus had saved the man’s life
on one occasion and Ailin had repaid the favor by being
one of the voting members of the Ruling Council that
appointed Arcturus the rank of general, and leader of
the revolution. The Council also allowed Mengsk to use
the Protectorate as a base of operations, and to use the
Spy Deck as a somewhat archaic means of surveillance.
The imaging program contained detailed charts of all the
planets within the known systems. It was also capable of
charting the progress of freight ships carrying their valuable
cargo through the trade routes in real-time—a
primitive kind of “radar” system to be sure, but more
than adequate for Arcturus’s needs. It was here on the
Spy Deck that the Ruling Council of the Umojan
Proctectorate stood, their haggard faces revealing collective
concern.
Ailin turned to Arcturus and spoke in a halting voice:
“We received an anonymous transmission suggesting
that we keep on eye on this sector.”
Arcturus looked at the sector currently being displayed.
He recognized the planet at the display’s center
immediately. “Korhal,” he said, to no one in particular.
The superintendent nodded slightly. Arcturus noticed
that the man was sweating heavily. “Yes.”
Several smaller objects that looked like orbiting satellites
of some kind surrounded the image of the planet.
Arcturus had an idea, even before the superintendent
spoke, of what the objects really were.
“Battlecruisers,” Ailin confirmed. “We make out twenty
of them. We’ve been monitoring the military channels
and have overheard nothing that might explain this.”
“Nothing they’re willing to admit, anyway,” offered
Mengsk. “But you can bet your bottom credit that the
Confederates are the source of your anonymous tip. And
if those ships are orbiting Korhal on Confederate orders,
they mean to start trouble. Send an intelligence report to
Achton immediately.”
* * *
In Korhal’s capital city of Styrling, Colonel Achton
Feld—the elected leader of the rebel forces in the
absence of General Mengsk—was busy shouting orders,
standing atop a guardwalk at the city’s perimeter, the
myriad antiair missile turrets that served as outer
defenses forming a jagged outline on the horizon behind
him. At one time, this fortress in the center of the city
had been a Confederate post. That was before the revolution.
Now it served as the rebel headquarters on Korhal.

The rebels had of course known about the presence of
Confederate ships in their orbit, but their limited
surveillance systems had been unable to uncover what the
recent intelligence transmission confirmed: that the
orbiting ships numbered twenty—quite a number, especially
with the capacity of each ship to hold hundreds of
marines, dropships, siege tanks, even armored Goliaths.
And those were just the ground forces. They were sure
to be bombarded from the air first. But none of that mattered
now. The rebels had spent almost a full cycle beefing
up their antiair defenses and had recruited enough
of the planet’s population to form an army that was
more than just sizable—it was huge.
The confrontation with the Confederate forces was
inevitable. And even now, in the midst of all the fear and
the panic and the anticipation, Achton was glad. He was
glad that the waiting was over and that the battle was
about to begin. The Korhalians were about to send a
message to the Confederates: that they were the citizens
of a free planet, and that they would fight to ensure that
freedom. Let them come, thought the Colonel, let them
bring their armored walkers and their cloaked fighters, but just
let them come.
Colonel Achton smiled and waited for the first dropships
to appear.
* * *
The holo-image now showed several tiny objects, no
more than minuscule dots. They came from the ships in
swarms, like locusts, leaving the battlecruisers and
snaking their way toward Korhal’s atmosphere.
“Dropships?” Ailin responded to the unasked question
on everyone’s mind. Mengsk shook his head. “No. Too
small. They look more like . . . no, no that couldn’t be,
just could not—“ Mensgk continued shaking his head,
refusing to believe, because he knew that if he believed,
that just might make it all the more real.
He watched with the others as the scores of tiny, luminescent
dots began descending into Korhal’s dense
atmosphere.
* * *
Achton waited, looking out at the array of defenses
beyond Styrling’s walls. A lieutenant raced up onto the
guardwalk, out of breath. He had the harried look of a
man who suddenly wished he were somewhere else.
“Sir, we’re tracking hundreds of incoming objects that
have locked onto several positions across this side of the
planet. I’m not sure, but I think we got a report from the
Underside that they’re tracking objects as well.”
“Hundreds, you say?” The colonel’s calm veneer was
slipping, and the naked fear began to become apparent
on his face.
“Yes, sir. Too small for us to identify just yet, but
they’re coming fast.”
Just then the colonel heard a low hum, barely
detectable, like the whine of a small insect. Then he
looked to the horizon and saw a swarm of small objects
descending, trailing tails of smoke from behind, and he
knew. “Not fair . . .” he whispered.
But the lieutenant did not hear him. The hum/whine
had become almost deafening now. As the lieutenant
looked up and saw more of the objects descending on
them from directly above, he began to scream.
* * *
On the Spy Deck, a palpable silence pervaded as pools
of brilliant light began spreading across the surface of the
already luminescent image of Korhal. They continued
from multiple locations until the majority of the planet
was engulfed in that brilliance and no one in the room
could question what they had just seen.
“By the fathers, it’s gone . . . Korhal’s gone. Everybody.
Billions of people . . .” Ailin seemed on the verge
of fainting.
Arcturus felt his stomach tighten and was aware of
nothing but that image in front of him, the image of
Korhal burning. After a short time, the pools of light
began to fade, and the holo-image of Korhal became a
darker, featureless facsimile of its former self.
In the midst of his shock and denial, Arcturus managed
to speak three words: “Gather the men.”

They see the entire bombardment of Korhal in real time from another Terran power completely separate from the Confederacy.

Starcraft said:
The UPL had borne silent witness to the founding of the Terran Confederacy and the myriad conflicts between the various Terran Militias. Overall, the UPL was content to observe their unwitting colonists without directly interfering in their affairs. It was only upon the discovery of alien species within the Koprulu Sector that the UPL finally committed to decisive action.
Never before had humanity encountered alien species of any kind. Thus, this unprecedented event caused a widespread panic throughout the UPL. Regardless of what happened to the expendable Koprulu colonies, the UPL could not afford to let aliens invade Earth. The momentous occasion brought many dissident countries into the UPL fold, thus expanding the powers of the organization and causing it to be renamed the ‘United Earth Directorate’. Taking a more proactive, militaristic stance in regards to alien affairs, the UED bent all of its considerable resources towards studying the aliens and their maneuverings. After monitoring the Protoss and Zerg for several months, the UED gathered data on the strengths and weaknesses of the two races. Believing that they were capable of countering any of the aliens’ attacks, the UED formed a military expeditionary force to put an end to the Koprulu conflict by any means necessary.
The expeditionary force, led by the brilliant Admiral Gerard DuGalle, had a secondary objective as well. Admiral DuGalle was ordered to take control of the Zerg Broods and use them to pacify Protoss activity in the Sector. In so doing, he would assure the survival and prosperity of Humanity throughout the galaxy…

The UED/UPL could watch the events unfold in the Korpulu Sector 60,000 light years away.

Will post more later.

Shadow Archon · Aug 15, 2012

Terran Science Vessel Scaling

So, the main picture to go off of is here:

I'm going to assume that the pod sticking out is as wide as the BCs hammer head. The vessel moves with this group in the same direction at the same speed, so it can be grounds for an estimate.

Battlecruiser hammerhead.

Science Vessel. Alot bigger than I expected. 7.98 kilometers is a lot larger than I had speculated. I originally thought it was going to be 3 kilometers, but whatever. So the Science Vessel going by this is 7.98 kilometers by 7.98 kilometers going from one pod to the opposite pod on the other side.

However, this is at odds with the Amerigo trailer:

Look at the shuttle compared to the Science Vessel.

Unless its another case of relative location, and the shuttle was going to connect with the spire in the middle thus being closer to the camera, than this vessel is much smaller. Another point about visual inconsistency. That's all on the relative shots of a calculable Science Vessel however.

It should be noted that Wraiths are about the same size of these shuttles, so the Amerigo trailer shows a Science Vessel smaller than a Battlecruiser, while the UED trailer shows them larger than a Battlecruiser.

Shadow Archon · Aug 16, 2012

Protoss Held Worlds

Starcraft Manual said:
Although only fragmented
documentation remains,
ancient Protoss texts speak of
a highly advanced race that ruled over
thousands of worlds in the galaxy, tens of
millions of years ago. This enigmatic race,
often called the Xel’Naga,
--------------------
Over the course of only a few hundred years,
the Protoss conquered hundreds of worlds
within their corner of the galaxy, and spread
the fruits of their great civilisation to many
of the more advanced races that they
encountered. All in all, the Protoss
inadvertently succeeded in reclaiming an
eighth of the worlds once presided over by
the Xel’Naga.

That gives you on the low end, 2,000 Xel'naga worlds, thus becoming 250 Protoss worlds, or high end, 9,000 Xel'naga worlds, thus becoming 1,125 Protoss worlds. Unknown on current worlds, but there's a good range for you to go off of.

Or, if you want to go for something ridiculous, you assume thousands could include hundreds of thousands.

Thus about 900,000 Xel'naga worlds, mean the Protoss have 112,500 worlds.

Of course that's ridiculous, and doesn't stand up to snuff.

Shadow Archon · Aug 16, 2012

Zerg Held Worlds

Starcraft Comics said:
Thats...just crazy enough to be true! But where? There are a hundred Zerg infested worlds, more!

The Zerg have more than a hundred worlds after their appearance in 2500.

Starcraft manual said:
"The swarms traveled in the direction of the protoss homeworld. For thousands of years, the zerg wreaked havoc upon the galaxy, destroying or assimilating countless of species it encountered and laid hundreds of planets into smoking ruin."

The Zerg seemingly took their sweet time to build itself up to take on the Protoss though. Burned through hundreds of worlds. They still don't occupy these though.

Shadow Archon · Aug 17, 2012

Zerg Weapons As Technobabble

Alright, one of the standard things that people like to point out is that Starcraft ships are weak durability-wise because of sub-kiloton Mutalisks, Guardians, and Scourge doing damage to them. (Will get to Siege Tank scene next) However, Zerg weapons don't operate on the normal firepower scale, and are similar to how Tyranid weapons work. First, let's have some quotes.

Starcraft Manual said:
Mutalisk
Type: Medium Attack Flyer
Core Genus: Mantis Screamer
Primary Attack: Acid Spray
The Mutalisk has been little changed from its original
form, the roving Mantis Screamer of the desolate Dinares
Sector. Capable of both atmospheric and deep space
flight, Mutalisks are the primary flying force of the Zerg.
They attack by spewing forth a highly concentrated acid
spray that will burn through even the thickest of armour.
------------------------------
Guardian Form
Mutalisks can also metamorph into
another form, which is believed to be based
on the nesting form of the Mantis Screamer.
The Zerg Guardian has a thicker armoured
carapace and attacks by lobbing explosive
gobs of acid which have a much longer
range than the Mutalisk’s spray. This acid
can only be directed at targets on the
ground below. Guardians have no natural
defenses against aerial opponents.
-----------------------------------------
Scourge
Type: High Speed Attacker
Core Genus: Unknown
Primary Attack: Plasma metamorphosis
In stark contrast to the lumbering Guardian is the tiny
Scourge. These blind terrors seek out enemy starships
and dive into them. Catalytic agents found within the
body of the Scourge cause it to explode like a living
plasma bomb when it smashes itself against the hull of a
larger vessel. Large numbers of these creatures can
cripple a squad of fighters or even a Battlecruiser. Like
the Zergling, the simplistic genetic makeup of the
Scourge allows two of them to hatch from a single egg

A general description of how Zerg fliers use acid as a primary weapon and how Scourge are similar to plasma bombs.

Starcraft Shadow of the Xel'naga said:
Hideous Hydralisks patrolled the perimeter of the colony, some of the most fearsome of the Zerg minions. Flying, crablike Guardians soared overhead, ready to spew acid that would destroy any
ground-based threat.
-------------------
The Protoss Carriers launched more waves of Interceptors that sought out and attacked all of the Zerg
creatures within reach. At first the robotic Interceptors were like a swarm of stinging insects,
concentrating on the massive Zerg Overlords. Nearby, they made quick work of the crablike Guardians,
whose ability to hurl corrosive acid would have been devastating against ground targets but who were
almost defenseless in space. The Interceptors moved fast, striking, destroying, then searching for new
targets.
---------------------
Seeing the carnage, the loss of numerous Overlords and Guardians, a group of flying Zerg creatures
known as Scourges broke through and attacked the Carrier itself. Reckless but determined, the group of
Scourges careened into the Protoss ship and exploded on impact, sacrificing themselves to take out an
opposing alien vessel.
-------------------------
Then the hordes of small but suicidal Scourge's slammed into them. The tiny Zerg beasts were like living
cannonballs, thinking bombs that chose their targets and crashed against hulls, exploding and wiping out
Wraith after Wraith
---------------------
The Wraiths pounded them, damaging their shields and hulls, taking out a handful of the vessels with their
Gemini Missiles. After heavy pummeling from the Terran weapons, the Protoss Scouts retreated,
inadvertently passing close to a mass of dragonlike Mutalisks that completed the slaughter with an attack
move that Duke's earlier briefings had called a “Glave Wurm,” expelling waves of symbiotes that chewed
and sliced their way through any hull they touched. The Protoss Scouts were doomed.
---------------------
Additional squadrons of Wraiths rallied around General Duke's ships, trying to change their tactics to
deal with the new threat, but the flying Zerg Mutalisks launched repeated, insidious Glave Wurm strikes.
A Glave Wurm struck one Wraith, ripping into the systems, then ricocheted off to another single-man
fighter, causing primary and collateral damage
-----------------------
Alpha Squadron entered the dirtside fray like a bull in a china shop, striking at anything that moved,
though making an effort to avoid anything that appeared human. Ranks of airborne Zerg—a subspecies
that General Duke recognized as Mutalisks— flew upward, spitting green acid slime through the air. For
some reason, though, the Mutalisks did not engage the Battlecruisers. Instead, the flying monsters pulled
away, ascending toward the orbital conflict. They had probably been summoned by the Overlords in
space to engage the Protoss forces, now that the Terran military had broken off from that particular fight.
-----------------------
With the flying, acid-spitting Mutalisks gone and no enemy air attack imminent, Duke's assault became a
one-sided rout. After hours of absolute slaughter, he ended up losing only eleven Wraiths, five Goliaths,
and a handful of Marines and Firebats, all of whom would get honorable citations signed by Emperor
Arcturus Mengsk himself—if the Dominion had new stationery printed yet.
--------------------
Newborn flying-dragon Mutalisks took to the
skies, ready to launch aerial attacks with hurled acid.
---------------------
Flying Mutalisks, a few stragglers not directly engaged against the Protoss, came after them. Splitting up,
the three Dropship pilots engaged in evasive maneuvers. Though the acid spray of the Zerg attackers
pitted and damaged their thick hulls, the ships arrived at the broken mountain range and descended to
where the huge pulsing alien artifact lay exposed.
-----------------------
As Lieutenant Scott prepared to follow, he looked up and was dismayed to see the Dropships fleeing
from a concerted enemy attack. Mutalisks converged on two of the quirky vessels, and though the pilots
dodged and put on a fantastic show of aerial combat, the Zerg attackers proved too much for them.
Before long, acid cut through the engines, and the armored hulls split open.
---------------------
Dragonlike Mutalisks flew in circles, out of control and spitting a rain of Glave Wurm destruction down on all frenzied fighters.

Pretty self-explanatory. Mutalisks are described as acid-spewing at one point and spitting a rain of Glave Wurm the next. Perhaps the Glave Wurms are some form of living acid? It would seem weird if Mutalisks had two forms of weapons inside themselves.

Starcraft Queen of Blades said:
Normally the zerg left ships alone, targeting
the people, or they sent their massive mutalisks and
tiny, explosive scourge up to attack the vessels from the
outside. How could they be in one now?
-----------------------------------------
Mutalisks dove into the crowd, spewing their acid on
their fellow zerg, and scourge exploded against overlords
and ultralisks alike, their suicidal detonations
destroying the larger zerg and spreading ichor and
blood and flesh everywhere.
------------------------------------------
The zerg had been pacing and shifting and fluttering,
clearly under orders and impatient to attack but unwilling
to disobey. Now, with their queen’s permission, they
charged, their bloodlust no longer held in check.
Raynor saw a mutalisk dive toward a protoss, its mouth
open as it flew, and then it was past the warrior and circling
back around. The acid it had spit at him as it went
past ate through the warrior’s armor, though his flesh,
and apparently even through his bones, causing the
body to collapse in pieces like a loose jigsaw puzzle.
--------------------------------------
—as a mutalisk lashed out, its long snakelike tail
scraping acid across Zeratul’s shoulder and chest where
the Executor’s head had been an instant before. Blood
from the resulting wound spattered Praetor and
Executor both, and Zeratul twitched in obvious agony
but refused to topple. He reared up instead, sending
more blood fountaining from the whole in his side,
and pivoted to face his attacker, which had wheeled
about in midair for a second attack. Then the darkness
between the Dark Templar’s hands connected with the
mutalisk’s arcing tail and sliced clean through it as the
mutalisk jerked back, wailing in pain. The effort must
have exhausted the Praetor, however, and he dropped
to his knees in a pool of his own blood. Tassadar was
already up again, having rolled free of Zeratul and
vaulted back to his feet, and he sliced the mutalisk
apart with his blades before helping the wounded Dark
Templar to stand.
------------------------------
The first shot struck the farthest overlord, causing it
to writhe in pain. His second burst missed because of
the creature’s motion but the third hit right near the
first, widening its already gaping wound. Stunned by
the sudden attack from nowhere, the overlord reeled
back, unable to control its flight—
—and slammed into the overlord beside it.
Crushing the resting scourge between them.
The explosion threw Raynor back, his pistol slamming
into his cheek and leaving him with a ringing
head and a throbbing face. But the devastation on the
plateau was far worse. The scourge were the zerg’s suicide
bombers, bred to explode upon impact. They detonated
with enough force to destroy a shuttle or a
fighter craft, and a handful of them could breach a
starship hull. This had been a row of them, the explosion
from the first adding to the impact on the others,
and there was nothing here but flesh and bone. And
the hard rock of the plateau reflected the blast back up,
causing even more damage to those stuck upon it.
The zerg caught the worst of it. There were more of
them, and they had less outward protection than the
armored protoss. Zerglings were shredded by the explosion,
as were the other two overlords. The mutalisks
and hydralisks and ultralisks had thicker hides, but still
those closest to the blast were torn apart, while those
farther away were battered and bruised and broken.
Not that the protoss escaped unscathed. The explosion
caught them by surprise as well, and several of
them were hurled from the plateau, smashing into the
rocks below. Those closest to the blast center were
shredded, armor and flesh both, and all of them were
tossed about like leaves on a strong wind.
Not even Kerrigan escaped.
Her back had been to her brood, all her attention
focused on her captive, and the blast had caught her
full force, knocking her to her knees, her wings lancing
forward like a spider’s legs to keep her from being
smashed into the rock.
-------------------------
The High Templar either didn’t hear him or didn’t
care, so Raynor turned to Zeratul instead. “We’ve got
to get out of here!” he urged, firing a barrage to take
down a cluster of approaching scourge that exploded
just shy of the plateau, the shock waves almost tossing
all of them off their feet. “When the rest of the brood
gets here we’re gonna be swamped!”

Starcraft Queen of blades. Scourge small enough to rest on Overlords in rows. Unknown how small or how big thier boom is but this is definitely not large explosions.

Twilight said:
The mutalisks attacked from above, spitting out their insatiable, horrific symbiotes. Ulrezaj‘s form pulsed, and with seeming casualness a wave of shadow spread off of him, like a pool of oil but one that moved unnaturally fast. The mutalisks were struck dead instantly, their corpses and those of the voracious symbiotes falling heavily atop their comrades, crushing several of them. Ethan caught glimpses of zergling legs wriggling frantically from beneath the mutalisk bodies. Others dropped on Ulrezaj and were turned to ash on contact.
-------------------------
Cold sweat broke out on Ethan‘s smooth, gray-green skin. He had failed his queen once before. He could not fail her a second time. He had hoped to save this final attack for later, but he realized he had to call out the guardians now. Crablike creatures that were even more powerful than the mutalisks they had once been, the guardians began bombarding Ulrezaj with globules of acid. Accompanying the huge creatures were dozens of tiny scourge. They dove suicidally toward Ulrezaj, their sole purpose to explode like small, living plasma bombs. This, finally, seemed to rattle the dark archon. He stopped and roared with pain, and his glowing dark aura seemed dimmer and more erratic. He turned his terrible attention to the guardians and the scourge. Some of them perished instantly, but others darted away from Ulrezaj, coming back in for another attack.
------------------------
The mammoth dark being froze. Rosemary frowned and kept peering through the sights. What was going on? The mutalisks and various Dominion craft continued strafing him, but he simply…stood? Sat?…right where he was. Suddenly Ulrezaj‘s mass quivered and spasmed, extending an arm of darkness here, bulging out there, as if something was inside a sack and struggling, kicking, flailing to get out. Her hair and skin prickled suddenly and her gut clenched as energy crackled around her, intense enough to feel but not powerful enough to incinerate or harm. Slowly, she lowered the rifle, staring

Self-explanatory.The Zerg acid and plasma affects from the Guardians and the Scourge actually affect Ulrezaj, who has been pratically been unaffected by physical impacts.

Starcraft I'Mengsk said:
"Did it work?" asked the armored figure standing in the doorway of the ship's
bridge. The voice was muffled by the helmet, but the aching need was clear.
"It worked," confirmed the tech in oil-stained overalls hunched over a battered, juryrigged
comm unit. "The stuff we got on Braxis was the real deal. I've been able to decode
all the Dominion datalinks. We got it all: his flight plan, IFF codes, full manifest, and
arrival point. Pilot's already plotting us a course.”
The figure nodded, hands curling into fists. "Good. Stay on it: listen for any more
chatter."
"Will do."
The figure turned and made its way along a metal-framed corridor that led deeper
into the starship, the CMC-300 Powered Combat Suit emblazoned with the red and blue
flag of the Confederacy painted on several of the armored plates. A gauss rifle was slung
over one shoulder and a long-bladed combat knife was sheathed in a leg holster.
The corridor's walls were denied from small-arms fire, scorched by the impacts of
ship-to-ship lasers, and corroded from bio-organic weapons of the zerg. The interior of the
ship had clearly seen better days.
It was a miracle the ship was spaceworthy at all, considering the damage it had taken
during the battle around Tarsonis when Mengsk had unleashed those hellspawn monsters on
them all.
The figure made its way into the depths of the ship, passing barrack rooms where
Confederate marines cleaned their armor and stripped their weapons down for the
hundredth time. There was no garrulous banter between these warriors anymore: the fall of
the Confederacy and death of everything they held dear had seen to that.

It should be noted here that the Terrans seem to note that the damage from ship-to-ship lasers, which act like plasma weapons, are different than the Zerg's bio-organic weapons that cause corrosion.

SCC said:
Believed to be the nesting form of the Mutalisk, this is a secondary stage that has a much thicker armored carapace and a longer ranged plasma attack. The Guardian is, however, noticeably slower than the Mutalisk, and as such is used primarily to defend the vulnerable Zerg Larvae.
Producible once the Spire is evolved into a Greater Spire, the Guardian is morphed from the Mutalisk. Once the transformation is complete, the Guardian form is permanent and the Mutalisk is no longer recoverable. --------------------------------
Bred from the Mutalisk strain, the Devourers are a deadly addition to the Swarm. These large, flying behemoths are capable of spewing their vile acid at any airborne ships or creatures, causing significant corrosive damage. The venom of the Devourer consists of toxins that can eat through any known substance, including the reinforced armor plating of Terran and Protoss capital ships. The venom also contains Acid Spores that hinder the fighting ability of the target, and these Spores often splash off the target to hit additional nearby enemy craft.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Frankly, the Mutalisk is an enigma. It is not known how they are capable of maneuvering through a vacuum, or even of controlled flight within an atmosphere, but they have been able to stand toe-to-toe (so to speak) against Wraith fighters along the Coreward border worlds. The Mutalisk's attack is quite unusual. The Mutalisk produces and projects much smaller, voracious creatures that rapidly fly between enemy targets as it disintegrates explosively.

And here is something interesting. The Guardian's attack here is described as a plasma attack, and in other sources, an acid attack. Everything in Starcraft is equally canon, which means that the Guardian's attack is both acid and plasma.

Shadow Hunters said:
A bubbling, liquid sound came from the door and a harsh, acrid odor assaulted her nostrils. Coughing violently and holding the psi-screen net in her hands, Howard turned. The door was melting into a steaming puddle, the acid that had dissolved it now starting to eat through the floor. Framed in the hole that was now the doorway to the operating room were creatures straight out of nightmares. Zerg.
----------------------------
Ethan would have kept that sort of thing carefully locked up in his head. Which, sadly, had likely been ripped from his shoulders or dissolved in acid. No one had been left alive, either in the compound or in the ships in orbit above the planet.
-------------------------
“Good.” Rosemary looked edgy, and he supposed he could understand why. She was extremely
competent in her own environment, but now they were surrounded by aliens that they had never beheld until a few moments ago. The technology with which she was so familiar and a master at manipulating had been melted to a puddle of acidic ooze, and she‟d come within centimeters of being melted right along with it. They were stuck at the mercy of said aliens, on a strange planet.
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That was a break, then. At least this part of Aiur would be free of zerg flyers. No hideous, nightmare-based creature spewing acid or launching tiny little symbiotic things at them while they flew. Jake wondered how many protoss had given their lives to eradicate the airborne zerg. The thought gave him a headache.
-------------------------------
He was still alive. She skidded to a halt and caught her breath, picking her way swiftly but carefully to avoid the pools of acid that some of the dead zerg had left as a final attack. Ethan hadn‘t been so lucky. His mount had fallen into one of these pools, and where he wasn‘t scorched, the acid was eating through him.

Self-explanatory.

Liberty's Crusade said:
They looked like great, misshapen flowers
from some giant’s garden, and the cannon-like mutalisks danced among them. There were other flying
monsters as well, including the starfish squids, the lobster-jellyfishes, and the great flying crabs.
----------------------------------------
Then came reports from the ships farthest out. Warps were opening in space, and through the warps
were coming hordes of Zerg. The lobster-brain-jellyfish, the queens, the mutalisks, and the strange flying
crabs were all erupting from space and descending on Antiga, summoned forth and trapped by its siren
call.
------------------------------------
Now the Zerg were rising from Tarsonis. The great flying cannons, orange with purplish wings, came
aloft and splattered in the hundreds against the Protoss carriers. They were followed by the larger flying
crab-things, which seemed less affected by the small fighters than the mutalisks were. As Mike watched,
one of the crab-things flew into the intake of a carrier, and the entire Protoss ship went up in a ball of
blue-white flame.
------------------------------------
They weren’t going to make it, Mike realized, and braced for the impact with the Zerg acid-spittle.

Self-explanatory. Guardians to me look more like great flying craps. But it depends I guess.

From Starcraft the game:

The Downing of Norad II

One, gigantic Scourge, takes down the Norad II. The Norad is around a kilometer long, so that Scourge is possbily around 200 meters long. Not as spectacular as Protoss beams or Yamatos is it?

And from Stacraft II:
Card to Play

See how the Mutalisks blast was not big, at all?

Mothership said:
he clouds erupted as winged zerg spiraled out to surround the ship. Devourers dived in, spitting corrosive acid, while mutalisks circled to the flanks. Dozens of tiny scourge crashed into the shields and exploded. More of the mutalisks banked, wings flapping and circular mouths pulsing as they tried to find the right vector to do more damage.

“Contact!” cried one of the crew. “Shields are dropping faster than the crystal can regenerate. We must destroy these beasts!”

“We shall,” Martul said, her hands flying across the console. Then she stopped. “Weapons are not responding. Juras, what is wrong with your ship?”

“Nothing,” he said calmly, guiding the ship through the swarming zerg. “I have overridden the weapons systems. We are here to find out what happened to our people and to offer assistance. We do not yet know enough about the zerg to simply consign them to genocide.”

“I was right: you have gone mad! Those scourge will destroy the shields, then the mutalisks and devourers will be all over your precious ship!”

“Shields at eighty percent.”

“The Moratun can take a good deal more damage and survive. We are almost through the cloud cover,” Juras said. He accelerated, leaving some of the zerg behind. A new squadron of the creatures dove out of the sun in an attack pattern.

Juras banked as hard as possible. The enormous mothership was not designed to be maneuverable, and the zerg compensated easily.

“Shields at sixty.”

“Release weapons, Juras!”

“My creation will not be used for genocide!”

Dozens of the creatures emerged from the clouds on an intercept vector. Juras put the ship into a steep dive, straining the inertial nullifiers. The zealots had to grab onto their consoles to avoid being knocked over.

They entered the lowest cloud layer only to be met by more tiny scourge that slammed into the ship, giving their lives to do a little more damage.

“Shields at fifty – forty!”

Juras leveled out the Moratun, picking up more speed and gradually losing altitude. “Almost under the cloud layer,” he thought, and then he froze, feeling a pinprick on the back of his head where his nerve cords met his skull. In the reflective surface of a console, he could see Martul behind him, standing stiffly, one arm outstretched, holding a psi blade very close to the back of his head.

“Our homeworld is under attack by the zerg, and we are going to fight them,” she said coldly. “Activate weapons systems.”

“I will not do it, Commander. There is another way.”

Zerg of all shapes and sizes chased them. Dozens more swept down to intercept them. Even more rose ahead to meet them.

“Shields at twenty.”

“I will kill you.”

“Then the weapons systems will be locked forever, and you will have returned us to the Aeon of Strife.”

They emerged from the bottom of the cloud layer. The surface of their homeworld lay revealed.

A roiling mass of grey organic matter covered the ground from one horizon to the other. Lumps appeared here and there, the remains of once-proud buildings: temples, homes, universities. Forests, lakes, mountains, all were gone. Veiny, pulsing matter covered everything. Tiny creatures trundled along the surface, burrowing into and out of it, moving mindlessly.

Martul was wrong; their homeworld was not under attack. It was under occupation.

“Shields at ten.”

“Activate those weapons!”

New hordes of zerg flew at the ship, destroying the shields, trying to get at the armored surface underneath.

Juras’ eyes were drawn to motion on the surface below: a protoss was running toward them. She’d been hiding but had broken cover at the sight of them, hoping for rescue. Juras brought the ship in low, toward her. He could see from her markings that she was of the Khalai caste, likely an artisan or craftsman.

Zerglings boiled up out of the ground around her, cutting her off. Juras accelerated, knowing he could not make it to her in time. He let out a wordless cry of horror: this protoss was no threat to the zerg. She was not a warrior, not a templar. She would not even be able to fight to defend herself. They didn’t need to kill her. It would gain them nothing.

They swarmed all over her, and a plume of protoss blood shot up from the squirming mass of zerg. She was gone.

Time slowed for Juras. He sensed the urgency of those around him, felt the ship shuddering under the relentless attacks, felt the tip of Martul’s blade pressing harder against the back of his head. But it all had a disconnected quality, as if it couldn’t possibly be as important as what he was seeing through the console.

The zerg had killed a fleeing, defenseless being. And they’d done it for no gain; it simply had to happen because she was not zerg.

Juras had known that other intelligent life might be hostile, that it might put its own interests ahead of all else. But he’d believed that behind any intelligence was a guiding spirit, an understanding of commonality. In this moment Juras finally understood. There was no empathy in the zerg, no compromise. Anything that was not zerg must be destroyed. Sentience came in many forms, and this one was the opposite of all that he cherished.

This one was his enemy in every way possible.

Juras activated the weapons systems – including the vortex, the temporal rift, and the wormhole transit, which Martul likely didn’t know about. “Go!” he roared. “The systems are online. Kill them; kill them all.” Martul stumbled back to her console, and all the zealots began to do what they did best: fight.

Juras guided the ship lower so its weapons could take out the disgusting creatures on the ground as well. Light and power blazed from the Moratun in all directions. The full power of the mothership was finally unleashed. Zerg writhed, combusted, exploded. Zerg ichor showered the Moratun’s shields; zerg meat and viscera dripped from the bottom of the ship.

“Shields are stabilized.”

“More incoming,” another zealot reported.

“Bringing weapons systems to bear,” Martul said.

“Take the helm,” Juras said. “I have another task.” He moved to another console and accessed the scan readouts. He noticed that other motherships, having received the same burst transmission as the Moratun, had begun to arrive. They sat quiet and empty at the edge of the solar system. But that wasn’t what Juras was looking for. He scanned the surface for life. A massive number of readings came back, but he sorted through the data, looking for anything not zerg. There had to be survivors hiding or fighting somewhere. There had to be someone who could tell him the fate of his people. Juras would rescue them and withdraw. Aiur belonged to the zerg now.

And now we see that these weapons, Acid, Acid/Plasma, and what not affect Protoss Shields. These weapons do not cause biggaton affects, yet we know that Protoss shields can sustain hits from biggaton weapons.

Twilight said:
Jake closed her glowing eyes and hung on desperately with her four-fingered hands. It was something she had never expected—an attack by her own people…or by beings from another race who had commandeered protoss vessels. She didn‘t know which; none of the ships had responded to hails. They had only come out of nowhere, encircled the carrier, and with no explanation, opened fire.

The Xa’lor lurched and shuddered, evidence of the severity of the attack it was trying to withstand. Despite everything the skilled pilots could do, the valuable passenger was thrown to the metal plating of the ship. Before she could reach up to grasp the railing and pull herself to her feet, hands were there to assist her. She accepted the help with no arrogance, merely as something that was her due.

She was a preserver, and she, more than anyone or anything else on this ship, had to be protected at all costs. Jake felt blood trickling from a cut on her head, right below the jeweled band that held back her nerve cords. She felt the concern of the crew wash over her in a warm wave, tinged with their own fears and the cold set of their determination. Executor Amur‘s mind brushed Jake‘s. ―Zamara, I can only think that this inexplicable attack has something to do with the knowledge you harbor.

Jake nodded, grieved but stoic; she agreed. It was the only possible explanation. ―We are outnumbered by our own ships, he continued. ―I doubt there will be an escape for us. But you must survive. What you carry must endure. You know where the escape pods are; go there.

Jake felt the deep pain of sympathy wash through her as the words entered her mind. But she also knew that the executor was right. She, the individual named Zamara, was no more important than any other protoss aboard this vessel, but what she carried could not be permitted to die with her. It was ancient, it was secret, and it had to survive. It would be noble to die with her companions on this ship.

It would be a good death—but she did not have that luxury. She would have to live…live long enough at the very least to transfer her precious burden to another. She had fled from similar encounters before; at least, she remembered doing so. Jake sent back an affirmative, laced with subtle nuances of care, concern, and grief. Then she fully realized what he had said. ―Escape pods? Surely I would be safer in a shuttle.

―The shuttles are much more heavily armored, that is true, but they are also larger and will attract more notice. ―Yes…I understand. En taro Tassadar, Amur. The executor returned the blessing and war cry in one, then she felt his attention shift. It would soon be time. Jake hastened down the corridor, her gossamer-fine lavender and white robes that marked her revered status as preserver billowing around her. She had no armor, no weapons; she was not expected to have to defend herself.

There was now and always had been a line a hundred deep of those who would die for what she carried. And soon, those aboard the Xa’lor would die. But she would be alone. I must stay alive! she thought fiercely as she reached the escape pod and eased herself into it. Her long fingers moved over the controls quickly and calmly, the absolute necessity of her survival overriding her instinctive urge to panic. Soon now…be ready, Amur thought to her. There was more, but it was not in words, but in images. Jake sensed the activity throughout the vessel.

In other bays, the fighters would be soaring into space like golden, glowing insects, darting about quickly and powerfully. The Xa’lor itself, of course, was massively armored, but Jake had had no illusions that a single carrier would be the victor.
Jake knew what the executor was going to do, knew that the timing of the desperate attempt was crucial. She let her gaze go soft, the better to focus her powerful brain, to open her thoughts. Amur was going to let the attackers destroy them, and Jake was to depart mere seconds before the ship exploded. There would be scattered debris littering the area, and the enemy—fellow protoss, the enemy?

The thought was agony—would have their hands full for a few precious moments attempting to locate her. In those few seconds, with luck, Jake could make good her escape. She waited for the instant when she would depart, and it came. Now! Jake thought with a stab of pain that Amur‘s thoughts had never been so focused, so pure, in all the time she had known him. With a clarity and calmness that would have surprised her had she not been so secure in the serene confidence that what she was doing was necessary, Jake hit the controls.

The little pod was propelled into space. The pod, small but as beautiful and graceful and golden as any other protoss vessel—the khalai were proud of their handiwork and made everything aesthetically pleasing as well as highly functional—began moving swiftly forward. It had company; to cause further distraction, all of the escape pods had been launched.

A few seconds later, Jake‘s mind cried out and her hands flew to cover her glowing eyes as she felt the deaths of her crewmates, her colleagues, her friends. Their pain made her dizzy and ill. So many lifetimes of memories bombarding her was almost too much to handle. She summoned her will and with an effort got her thoughts under control. She chose not to look at the devastation behind her. She did not need to see it to know.

So, we know that at least two, or three depending upon how you look at encircled, Protoss ships opened fired on this vessel. It holds out for awhile, and we know that Protoss firepower are in the biggatons. For story speculation, we know of one main enemy Protoss faction who has ties to Ulrezaj and have ships. The Tal'Darim.

The main point here is Zerg weapons, that do not act in the same way as Protoss DEWs, still bypass these shields. Ergo, Zerg weapons are technobabble bio-organic. They pierce shields through their unique super corrosion and such and melt through ship's armor that would otherwise require biggatons.

Starcraft Source Thread

Local Rocket Surgeon

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Unbound

Protoss Preserver

Unbound

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Unbound

Protoss Preserver

Unbound

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

General Edmund Duke

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver

Protoss Preserver