In the previous "Why hasn't Kerrigan attacked?" thread, the topic of Stukov came up. Here are the facts: Alexei Stukov was shot by Duran in the Psi Disrupter. (I believe it was twice.) It wounded like a pistol, and Duran definitely didn't shoot him with his canister rifle. No confirmation of his death was given, but his unit underwent the typical ghost death. He was reported to have died "heroically" on Char, facing the zerg, but DuGalle admitted to his wife that he had killed Stuov. A living Infested Stukov turned up in a Confederate installation (in Deception). The installation contained numerous files, some of which may have been relevant to Stukov's infestation: "Zerg/Human Genome Manipulation." "Saving Human Mental Faculties In Zerg/Human Hybridization Experiments." "Reanimation Using Zerg Infestation Techniques." "Mecha Unit Skullder 001 Design and Specifications." (Yes, this is relevant. Kind of breaks the pattern.) Oh yes, and then there was Morik, a terran the Confederates were experimenting upon. He became an insane infested terran, visibly much nuttier than Stukov, but also retained at least some intelligence. (Blizzard later said most of these experiments would have ended in failure.) The base blew up as the Kimeran Pirates left. They were followed by cloaked Wraiths. Later, Stukov appeared in Mercenaries II, in which he hired various mercenaries to destroy "his enemies" on the dark planet below. The enemies included an unnamed force led by the Kimeran Juggernaut. There's very little lore in this mission, however. One of the mercenaries used the Skullder Unit 004. Even later, Stukov appeared in Resurrection IV, a Nintendo 64-only map. A few PC conversions have been made. (None are strictly official, but several are complete.) Artanis seemed to know much about him, including how a zerg cerebrate Kaloth brought him back to life. (How a cerebrate was even alive after the Brood War was unexplained.) Here, the protoss gave him anti-zerg nanites to de-infest him. Stukov was bitter, but escaped with Raynor and the protoss. The forces he worked with included a Skullder Unit 001 pilot who said that Stukov had gone mad (and so rebelled against Stukov and joined sides to Raynor). Blizzard comments on Stukov: "There's a fascinating subject in the realm of infestation. It's something that gets touched on with Kerrigan. It's kind of interesting to investigate it with other characters. So Stukov is kind of ... that was an experiment really, for the zerg in terms of infesting other humans as leaders." (Was Andy Chambers suggesting Kerrigan brought him back? That basically wrecked my theory that Duran wasn't finished toying with him.) Blizzard has declared Infested Stukov to be canon. So, where is Stukov now? Possibilities: 1) With Raynor's Rangers. I rather doubt this, due to the friction between him and Raynor. However, Stukov may have no place else to go. 2) With Confederates. Somewhat unlikely, as not only did the Confederates not seem to trust him (and those with him all died ... the ones in the Deception station were killed, the protoss melted Braxis) but Stukov was introduced to the Confederate remnants by ... Samir Duran. However, he could be keeping up the alliance. 3) WIth the UED remnants. First, Stukov had to find the UED remnants (they're hiding from the Dominion, which would make it hard for anyone to find them, although Stukov has a big brain), then he has to explain a few embarrassing things like why he isn't dead (and if they believe that, then why wasn't he at the Battle of Omega, etc). 4) With a small mercenary firm, eg one of the ones he hired in Mercenaries II. Note that the possibilities section is speculation and my opinion. There are also other possibilities that haven't occurred to me (yet).
Yeah, Stukov's fate is one of the most interesting things that I'm looking forward to learning about in SCII. Its been my hope and idea that he would have united various of the lesser terran factions into one major one, with Raynor as his second in command, and naturally Raynor's raiders making up a significant unit within the new faction. Other factions that might have been brought into the fold could be any personal troops stukov had left over in god knows where, or the confederates, UED remnants, or any number of the other Terran factions, such as perhaps the Kel-Morians.
Wouldn't putting Stukov in charge of all those forces be a bit ... much? He's not even from the Sector.
Perhaps it might be a bit much, but not because he's not from the sector, but simply because he hasn't really been developed into that big of a character, especially since a lot of starcraft fans still think he's dead. But Stukov is the most qualified to lead a new terran faction, and if the writers are looking to perhaps kill off Mengsk, then Stukov's new fleet would be a good replacement faction that kept the Terran relevant in the war. As for his personal motivation for such a grand comeback attempt, perhaps he knows or at least believes that the UED will send a second fleet to finish the job of the first, perhaps with different objectives, no doubt their work would be made easier if they already a decent foothold in the area, or even a small insurgency going, a possible role of the UED remnants if they aren't joining with anybody else). Another motivation could be a more metaphysical one, where he has become aware of the dangers and he feels it his duty to do something, other motivations that could fall in here would be pride, honor, revenge, etc. On the flip side a reason why he might have little role in SCII or not even appear perhaps would be because maybe he's had enough and went into exile or perhaps making some kind of attempt to return to earth, though I doubt it, if for no other reason than that it seems that this kind of technology would be very hard to come by unless the protoss supplied it to him. Flip the coin again and maybe his experience while he was infested might be driving him. These assumptions are apply loosely to my original post, I wrote with the thought of mainly why he might be trying to vie for power at all, even if its not trying to become the #1 terran faction.
I think it would be interesting if Raynor and Stukov to teamed up in SC2, and the de ifestation thing adds options for how to deal with Kerrigan.
Just me, but I'd rather Stukov play a more personal role than a leader role. He may be a good war leader, but there are others in the sector, including others who are more likely to draw trust. The UED did arrogantly swagger into the Sector and convinced some people that Mengsk was better than them. (Perhaps in the sense "better the devil we know than the devil we don't".) If it weren't for the backstabbing of Duran, I could see the UED remnants allying with the Confederate remnants, and one or the other factions could ally with the Koprulu Liberation Front. (Until we know more about the KLF, I don't see any downside, there's [extremely scanty] evidence that the KLK may have allied with the UED in StarCraft: Ghost.) However, I think the terran inability to unite is a big deal. It doesn't help that most governments are corrupt at minimum, with only the Umojans being "good guys". (The KMC, for instance, seem like corrupt robber barons, although I suspect they take better care of their people than the Confederacy ever did, preferring to screw everyone else instead.)
i jsut thought off something: since most peopld ont know stukov's fait, maybe the first terran mission will be freeing stukov from teh zerg?
First off, it would never be the very first mission. Early Terran campaign you'll be fighting Mengsk and other Terrans. Remember that the Zerg have been dormant for years. Not until a specific point in the game will they initiate their first attack, making them viable enemies in missions. Secondly, I don't think they wanna change the timeline. Stukov's already been uninfested and rather than uninfesting him again I think a good explanation would suffice.
Freeing Stukov wouldn't be part of the campaign, as explained above. He could be part of a mini-campaign or single map of the month (a remake of Resurrection IV perhaps?) or explained in a novel or comic book.
First off, Duran's men, were just that, his men, they identified themselves as Confederate Freedom Fighters/Remnants, but that could've just as easily been a lie or even stretching the truth. In addition them joining with the UED seemed like an isolated incident, its rather unlikely that Duran would've notified his Confederate commanders if he answered or even kept in touch with any that he had joined the UED to help them out. So I don't think one can judge that the confederates would be less likely to work with Stukov or the UED Remnants on the basis of their alleged encounter with the UED via Duran. I think that Stukov's research with the confederates in the bonus mission supports this claim somewhat, for if they didn't wish to work in conjunction with him, why would they be doing so at the stage, only excuse I can think of is they still have a fetish for expiramenting with Zerg and Stukov was clearly trying to find a way to do something with his own personal zerg infestation, possibly find a way to keep it under control so that he could reap the rewards of being infested while still remaining human, and keeping his priorities as such.
No, they're actually Confederates. Confirmed in I, Mengsk. They actually performed a mission for the UED too (don't want to say more to avoid spoilers).
Wow, i cant imagine that there are pretty lots of people that really went deep with the storyline... i remember myself years ago just drooling over SC on how innovative and eye popping was its appearance since i've 1st saw it in 1998 and it was really great to play that with others win or lose... ive just kinda strolled down the missions with mr. archons quote "power overwhelming" haha but i did tried it doing legally cheatless at some times.. and found that the late missions were impossible without taking hours and hours to finish... Oh and about Stukov - i wonder what role he will play during this campaign.. is it another Science experiment like last time with the emitters?? lolz, maybe they could come up with something else instead of wasting funds for massive Transformer-like units a.k.a. thor... sorry thor... IMO
