A Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine, and a Halo ODST in LEGO!!"Seeking adventure amongst the stars? Enlist in the Dominion fleet and be the first to explore the untouched regions of the Koprulu sector!" - Fleet recruitment slogan. The Dominion Fleet[1] (a.k.a. "Dominion Armada"[2] or "Dominion Navy")[3] is the space naval arm of the Terran Dominion military. A portion of the Armada's initial strength derived from former Terran Confederacy units. Upon its inception, the fleet's Behemoth-class battlecruisers were retrofitted with Yamato cannons. Some of the older vessels were not upgraded due to cost and limited supply. Shortly after the establishment of the Dominion elements of the fleet traveled to Char due to Sarah Kerrigan's psionic emanations. The fleet was led by General Edmund Duke and contained elements of Alpha Squadron.[6] It engaged zerg and protoss forces in orbit but was defeated. Many ships were either overrun by the zerg or destroyed by the Protoss Expeditionary Fleet that arrived shortly after.
With the ground forces suffering disaster as well the fleet fell back from Char,[7] and later another fleet was defeated by the protoss. Duke led the fleet against the United Earth Directorate fleet at the Dylar Shipyards but was defeated.[2] The fleet was also defeated at the siege of Augustgrad.[9] The remnants of the fleet were rescued by Raynor's Raiders.[10] Emperor Arcturus Mengsk scraped together a new fleet[11] but was once again defeated by Kerrigan's forces at Char Aleph[12] and retreated to Korhal. In the years following the Brood War, credits that might have been better spent on expanding the fleet were instead spent by Mengsk in his hunt for Jim Raynor.[14] Even so, by the time the Second Great War broke out, the Dominion had been able to construct several large fleets with advanced technology. In 2503,[16] a squadron aided Valerian Mengsk in his endeavour to find and secure archaeological materials. Main article: Second Great War In 2504, the fleet was put on alert when Satellite 1 reported unusual activity in the Char system.
[19] When the zerg invasion began soon afterward, Mengsk pulled the fleet back to protect the core worlds. Plot branch : Raynor's Raiders cooperate with the protoss to purify Haven (B canon) The Dominion was unwilling to help the massive flow of refugees. The fleet was ordered to turn away refugee ships arriving in the Core Worlds. First Fleet participated in Operation Burnout.[23] Second Fleet regrouped at the Dylarian Shipyards following the zerg attack on Tyrador VIII.[24] The two fleets combined to protect the core worlds. Main article: Battle of Char (Dangerous Game) Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk took half the fleet to Char, where it engaged the zerg.[26] The battlegroup suffered heavy losses[27], but with the aid of Raynor's Raiders and a xel'naga artifact the attack succeeded and Kerrigan was made human again. After the battle, Emperor Mengsk demanded custody of Kerrigan; as leverage the emperor travelled to Char aboard the new flagship, White Star, at the head of the Dominion's remaining battlecruisers.
The prince's now-renegade battlegroup and Raynor's Raiders fled and were pursued by the Dominion fleet. The renegades suffered near total losses, but managed to escape with Kerrigan to the Umojan Protectorate. The fleet attacked the Hyperion above Phaethon. They continued firing even when Captain Matt Horner told them that Valerian was aboard, as Mengsk was willing to sacrifice anything to kill Kerrigan. When the Swarm assembled above Korhal, the fleet responded to Mengsk's call to return and defend it. They were held off by leviathans under Broodmother Kilysa. After the zerg assault on Augustgrad and Valerian Mengsk's ascendance as Emperor, most of the fleet that survived the attack were reorganized with the help of Commander James Raynor and Admiral Matt Horner. When Moebius Corps assaulted Korhal and incapacitated the Sky Shield defense platform, at least half a dozen battlecruisers led by the Hyperion were engaged in battle above Korhal against Moebius when the Spear of Adun, a Daelaam arkship lead by Hierarch Artanis, arrived and reinforced the Dominion Fleet.
[32] After Moebius Corps was repelled from Korhal, the Dominion Fleet found itself engaged with the corrupted Golden Armada, which began pushing it back far into Dominion space.[33] The conflict between the two ended with the Golden Armada was recalled to defend Amon's host form on Aiur. Not long after the unified protoss reclaimed Aiur, a Dominion Fleet detachment led by Jim Raynor and Matt Horner met the Spear of Adun and Sarah Kerrigan's Leviathan just outside Ulnar, after receiving a transmission from Kerrigan. Meeting in the Spear of Adun, Kerrigan informed them of a benevolent voice in the Void calling to her, and the group agreed to end the threat of Amon with the Void once and for all. The fleet entered the Void, aiding in the final defeat of Emil Narud,[35] and defending Kerrigan as she ascended into a xel'naga.[36] Finally, the fleet assisted Kerrigan as she launched her final assault against the fallen xel'naga, slaying Amon once and for all.[37] Afterwards, the Fleet was rebuilt under Matt Horner and Valerian Mengsk as the Dominion ushered in a new age of prosperity.
The Dominion Fleet were called upon during the Defenders of Man Insurgency, in early days to aid against the feral zerg attacks on Dominion planets. However, they were usually too slow to respond, and were beaten to the site by the Defenders of Man, a separatist group who insisted Valerian did not do enough as Emperor. Later in the conflict, Vardona was besieged by the Tal'darim Death Fleet, who sought revenge against the Defenders of Man for attacking their outposts and did not care whether the Dominion or civilians were caught in their fury. Admiral Matt Horner sent Gorgon-class battlecruisers to strafe the attack lanes, wiping out the Tal'darim as they approached. However, the Defenders of Man leader, General Carolina Davis, apprehended the Medusa, a ship from the fleet, and escaped. Davis moved on the Cerros Shipyards, hoping to destroy the Gorgons stocked there and thus cripple the Dominion Fleet, making him unable to rule the Dominion effectively. To do this she activated the experimental war machine Xanthos, and began to attack the Gorgons there in drydock.
However, Nova and Admiral Horner discovered her plan, and mounted a defense. Nova destroyed the Xanthos's weapons, while Horner took the Hyperion and attempted to break the lines of the Defenders of Man loyal to Davis. The combined front pushed through the last of the Defenders of Man, the Xanthos was destroyed, and Davis was killed, thus ending her as a threat to the Dominion and its fleets. In 2512, eight battlecruisers from the Dominion Fleet was deployed to Gystt during the One-Day War, headed by the Hyperion. When hostilities broke out between the Dominion and Daelaam forces on the ground and the renegade chitha broods, the fleet maintained orbit around the planet along with a detachment of the Great Fleet of the Daelaam, with yamato cannons ready to fire should the situation escalate. The survey team and ground forces planetside managed to diffuse the situation, and prevent war between the various factions before fleet combat was necessary. By the Battle of Char, the Dominion Fleet had around 50 battlecruisers.