Starcraft: FTL sensors.

[Shadow Archon]

Alright, Alright.

Yes, I know a lot of people are already groaning, but at least hear me out.

I'm not carrying over the last argument exactly, the only thing I'm doing here is proving that FTL sensors exist.

I'm not going to bring up excuses for my past argument, because I was really inconsistent and said some rather bat-shitty things.

So first and foremost, let's explain some things that are my opinions:

A. The canon isn't always consistent. They are some examples that are completely at odds with each other and can't be reconciled. Example A: Norad 2 explodes in Starcraft Liberty's Crusade on Antiga where it crashed, and is perfectly fine in the main game on the Tarsonis level. Example B: The Terran planets were in a single star system going by the manual. This is no longer the case since the games bashed that idea. Example C: Ursa used to be its own planet, while now its Korhal's Moon. Example D: The Korhal bombardment differs in how effective it was. Some state that nothing survived. Other sources say dogs and practically RadScorpions did. Others have oceans boiled off into space, turning Korhal into a black sphere instantly, while in others the fireballs took time to consume everything. I'm not even going to begin about the delivery because that's just another shitstorm waiting to happen.

B. Because canon is canon and the fact there is no hierarchy, you can go off of one of the examples above, and be right. You can also use the contradictory element and also be right. The two can't exist in the same universe, obviously, but they both are separate accounts of what happens, but are still valid accounts.

C. Canon is immutable to a fan. It is rigid. You can not ignore the bits you don't like, and you can not simply declare one canon source is superior to another. At least if you are debating it that is. I mean, I have head-canon like anyone else does, but when you argue it, canon is like the laws of the universe, unchangeable and undeniable, even though it isn't prefect. Now, this butts heads with B when you have separate examples, but at that point, you just have to note that there are divergent paths.

D. A retcon and inconsistent canon aren't the same thing. A Retcon is deliberate. If something says something contradictory to past lore, it isn't instantly a retcon if it wasn't intending to break the past lore. As such, both pieces of lore are still valid, and the older one isn't invalidated. However, arguing what is deliberate and what isn't will definitely cause unneeded headaches.

That about covers that.

Also, since this is a debate, I am going by this rule: "The burden of proof is on the individual proposing existence, not the one questioning existence."

That means that only what are in the passages are in the passages.

So first.

The Claim.

Claim: The Starcraft factions have access to FTL sensors in a myriad of ways.

Proof:

For the Terrans and Protoss:

A.

The ship gave a transdimensional shudder, and the engines shifted back from subwarp. They were in
Sara’s space.

The bridge was now bathed in red light, accented by the green monitors that lined the lower deck.
Colonel Duke was decked out in his own battle armor. He looked like a gorilla at the court of King
Arthur. A gorilla with a pointy head, wearing plate mail. He was surrounded by a small cluster of
viewscreens, each with a different talking head feeding data to him.

“Mr. Liberty, reporting as requested, sir,” said Swallow, managing another sharp salute, even in the
heavy armor.

“Colonel,” said Mike.

Duke did not look away from the main screen. He said simply, “We’re nearing Chau Sara.”

At first Mike thought the main screen was malfunctioning. They were approaching Chau Sara from the
night side. The large disk of the outer Saran world was a messy, rainbow smear of light, like that found
on oily water.

Then Mike realized that this was the surface of Chau Sara he was looking at. It glowed with rippling
bands of colors, moored at a handful of locations, bright spikes of orange.

“What . . .” Mike blinked. “What did this?”

“First contact, Liberty,” said the colonel. “First contact of the most extreme kind. How are the scans?”

One of the technicians reported, “I get no life readings. Most of the surface area has been liquefied and sterilized.
This zone looks to be between twenty and fifty feet deep.”

“The settlements?” Mike asked..

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.”

Mike looked at the swirling, deadly rainbow on the screen. The sun was cresting the horizon ahead of
them, and the world looked no better in the sunlight. Only a few dark clouds, thin as crow feathers,
dragged across the sunlight side.

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

“Any orbital presence?” asked Duke, an armorplated monolith in their midst.

“Working,” said the tech. Finally came the response, “Negative. Nothing of ours. Nothing of unknown
origin either. There may be some fragments on a larger scan.”

“Widen the scan,” said Duke. “I want to know if there’s anything out here. Ours or theirs.”

“Working . . . Definite fragments. Likely ours. Would need a salvage team to confirm.”

“Why did they do this?” Mike asked, but no one answered him. Techs in lighter-weight combat suits
tapped displays with gauntleted hands, and the numerous heads on the screens all talked at once to
Colonel Duke.

Finally Mike came up with a question he thought they could answer. “What did this? Nukes?”

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.”

“This”—Duke pointed at the screen—“is the work of an alien race, the Protoss. From what I’m being
told, they warped in from nowhere, closer to the planet than we would ever attempt. Huge ships, and a
lot of them. Caught a few transports and scavenger ships and blew them out of the sky. Then they
unleashed whatever-it-was on the planet and sterilized it like a three-minute egg. Then they left again.
Mar Sara’s on the other side of the sun right now, and they’re in a panic that they might be next.”

“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.

“You have enough for your report, Mr. Liberty,” Duke said. “We will remain on station in the event of
other hostiles for the foreseeable future. You may mention in any report you file that we will be joined by
the Jackson V and the Huey Long within days.”

The tech reached for his ear, then said, “Sir, we have anomalous readings.”

“Location?” snapped the colonel, turning away from Liberty.

“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.

“Are we within launching range for the Wraiths?” the colonel asked.

“Mark at two minutes,” replied the tech.

“Launch as soon as possible.”

Mike took a deep breath and wished that he had joined in the combat suit drills after all.
Even at long range, the Protoss ships had form and definition. The largest were huge cylindrical
creations, similar in appearance to luminous zeppelins. They were surrounded by hungry moths, and
Mike realized these had to be their fighters, their equivalents of the A-17 Wraiths that were now in the
hangars, just waiting for them to close to within striking range. Other golden ships danced between the
larger carriers, glimmering like small stars.

Then, as Mike watched, one of the great carriers seemed to dissolve. There was a flash of light, a soft
glowing, and then it was gone. Another moment, and another flash, and another disappearance.

“Sir,” said the technician. “Anomalous reading disappearing.”

“Cloaking technology?” asked the colonel.

Despite himself, Mike said, “At this scale?”

“Working.” A huge pause, as deep as a canyon. “Negative. It appears that they are surrounding
themselves with some form of subwarp field. They are retreating.”

Now, one AU is eight light minutes.

That means it takes light eight minutes to travel that distance, and going that far out and back means that light would have to travel sixteen minutes.

Given that the Norad 2 can not accelerate to the speed of light in any of the materials we have seen it in, and the fact that the Norad was not in orbit of Chau Sara for eight minutes, not to even mention sixteen, the only possible way scanners aboard the ship could locate the Protoss ships is if they were sending signals at FTL velocities.

Now, a counterpoint would be that the vessels might have been parked there long enough for the Norad to be picking up on a "relativistic reflection".

However, Twilight shows us this is not the case.

Tassadar gave the order to move to the sister planet of the one he had just destroyed. He kept his thoughts to himself, and Jake did not pry. Tassadar had been in the forefront arguing against the action he had just been ordered to take; it was to be expected that he would harbor regrets.

“Executor, we are detecting terran vessels.”

“I am not surprised, after what we have just done. Display.”

The crystal hummed and an image appeared before them.

“Vessel is identified as Norad II, Colonel Edmund Duke in command. It is a Behemoth-class ship….”

Jake paid little attention as the statistics of the terran vessel were described. The protoss had long kept a watchful eye on the terrans; the Dae’Uhl, the “Great Stewardship,” demanded it. The protoss had watched this young race grow and expand, marveling at how they managed to thrive despite almost constantly attacking one another. It was the Dae’Uhl that Tassadar had cited when he had been ordered to utterly destroy Chau Sara. The protoss knew a great deal about terrans, their weaponry and ships, and what they were capable of. And while the Norad II was a powerful ship by terran standards, it was but a single vessel, and posed no real threat at all. It was a buzzing insect, easily swatted away.

Except Tassadar gave no order to do so.

“Executor?” queried the pilot. “Shall I destroy the terran ship?”

Jake watched both her friend and the vessel.

It was moving quickly to intercept.

No doubt it would begin attacking them as soon as it was within range.

“There are no other ships. It comes to its doom,” Tassadar said.

Jake felt Tassadar’s respect and sorrow wash over her.

“They are…courageous, these humans.”

“Sir? They are almost within range.”

Tassadar’s next words stunned everyone.

“Deploy the subwarp field and give the order to retreat.”

Jake stared at her friend. “You are supposed to destroy Mar Sara, Tassadar. This ship is nothing to us.”

“No, it is not,” Tassadar said, “and you know well it is not fear that makes me choose this course of action.”

Jake nodded, slowly, as every ship in the powerful protoss fleet disappeared to human eyes, and sat back. And waited. And watched.

In the very same circumstance, we see that the events are happening in real time. The Norad has not been in-place long enough for a relativistic reflection to appear to them at such a distance, and they can see that the ship is accelerating towards them. Not only that, actions that take place at the same time in each passage confirms that they are seeing each other in real time.

Meaning both have to be using FTL sensors at the distances they are at.

Now, some proof just for the Terrans:

B:

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.”

Pretty self-explanatory. A sensor station was able to see events in another solar system in real time, as a bombardment occurred. It states that the Spy Deck is the surveillance system, and no relay system is shown. As such, this has to be utilizing another form of FTL sensors.

Many people said that it uses "a kind of radar" to detract from this. Because, yes, Radar is in no means FTL. In truth, this is entirely irrelevant. It doesn't matter what the limitations of real life technology are when the fictional technology clearly displays it does not have those limitations.

C:

The Hyperion detects multiple enemy vessels, while they are in Warp-Space moving at FTL velocities, and the deck officer alerts everyone verbally before they can even arrive in real space.

This is pretty much FTL sensors outright.

Not only do they detect them, IFF is involved, which we do know is a form of signals between two parties. Here, one is at FTL and one is in real space.

Because IFF is involved, this is not the Hyperion detecting distortions in real space. The sensors have detected the vessels already.

D:

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 UPL/UED could watch events in the Korpulu Sector while they were 60,000 light years away.

Again, since no hardware can actually monitor all these events at once given the distance, the limitations of the original colony ships/ATLAS, the lack of any party aligned with their cause in the Sector before the Expeditinoary Fleet's arrival, the low speeds of Warp Drive ships when the colony vessels left, and so on, this has to be some form of FTL scanning from what we know about the events in question.

E:

He had no idea where he was. He sat up cautiously, looking around. The words “escape pod” swam into his brain and he cringed and covered his head as the memory seared him:

“What the... ,” Jake whispered.

“Well, good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” came the voice of a human female.

Jake blinked, gasping for breath as the memory receded. He turned to see a petite woman sitting at the controls of the escape pod. She looked back at him, slightly concerned. The fall of her hair as she moved enraptured him.

“I was wondering when you were going to wake up. You’ve been out cold for twenty-one hours.”

----------------------

Jake stared at the vastness of space yawning before him.

------------------------

Jake looked at the console. “Any sign of pursuit?” he asked, trying to distract himself.

“None,” R. M. said. “I kept a good eye on it the first few hours, believe me, and I’ve monitored all communications. Last I saw of the Gray Tiger it was dead in space. Before we left I was able to mess with the ship’s systems enough so they’ll have no idea where our pod might have been heading. If I’d had a little more time, I could have entered a fake flight path, but I was trying to get out as fast as I could. Even so, I bought us a few hours.”
------------------------
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN’T RAISE THEM?”

Valerian’s voice was low and carefully controlled. His father had taught him this. There will be times when you’ll want more than anything to shout at people, and to follow that up with a good throttling. Resist the impulse, son, Arcturus had said. If you scream at them, all they’ll hear is the volume. And if you throttle them, why, and he had laughed and taken a sip of port, it makes it hard for them to talk.

So now, when Valerian wanted very badly indeed to shout at Whittier and then throttle him—or perhaps execute both maneuvers simultaneously—he curbed the impulse and kept his voice and manner calm. Such was not the way of a true warrior, nor a future emperor. He knew from the way the color drained from Whittier’s face, however, that he hadn’t managed to control the fury in his eyes. He would have to work on that.

“Simply what I said, sir. According to our charts,they haven’t moved from their position in several hours. And no one is responding to our queries.”
Valerian breathed deeply. A vein in his temple was throbbing and he put a manicured hand up to physically calm the agitated vessel. He inhaled the scents that he loved: the smell of leather and polished wood, the spicy aroma of pipe tobacco. It calmed him. A little.

“I see.” His voice was composed now, and he lowered his hand. “Well, it sounds like something has happened. Was there any evidence of an attack?”

Relieved to see his employer calming, Whittier turned back to the screen. His long, thin fingers flew as he called up image after image.

“Negative, sir. There is no debris in the area, no trace of enemy vessels. If the protoss had hit, we’d be seeing energy residue; if it was the zerg... well, sir, you know as well as I we’d be seeing floating debris and nothing else.”

He knew his aide was right. The Gray Tiger had not been attacked.

Not from the outside, anyway.

“Call up the bios of Ramsey’s team again,” he said. Whittier wisely did not remind Valerian that this was the fifth time he had asked his assistant to do so, and simply obeyed the command. Valerian’s jaw tightened as his gray eyes flickered over the information. But this time, he was reading the little reports with an eye toward who in Ramsey’s team might have tried to instigate an escape.It was a collection of brilliant, but not criminal, minds. None of them should have been able to stage any kind of escape or even disruption sufficient to stop a battle cruiser dead in space. What, then, had happened?

Valerian got his answer twenty-seven hours later.

Hector Santiago, the fleet admiral with whom he spoke, looked shaken, even for a hardened military man.

“Sir, we have boarded and secured the Gray Tiger,” Santiago said. “I regret to report that all aboard are dead.”

“What?” Valerian couldn’t help himself. This time, he shouted.

“All aboard are dead,” Santiago repeated. “We are investigating now. It appears that one of the marines opened fire on his own shipmates. His name was Marcus Wright.”

-------------------
“By gunfire alone, certainly not. The others would have neutralized the threat before then. So far we have located only nine who were shot to death. The rest died when Wright sabotaged the vessel’s life support systems. He also destroyed their communications systems as well, so they couldn’t send out a distress call.”
-----------------
Santiago nodded. He was handed a report, and his eyes played over it quickly. His black brows rose slightly as myriad emotions darted over his face.

“Sir... ,” he began. “I’ve just been informed that there are two of the archeological team unaccounted for.”

“What?” demanded Valerian. “What are you saying?”

“All the gunfire casualties were marines. The archeological teams remained in their cells and died there. But—”

“Wait, what... cells? What was the team doing in cells? At least one of them was badly injured and should have been in sick bay!”
--------------------
“Admiral Santiago,” he said calmly, smiling the smile that always charmed his audiences . . . the same smile his father used as a weapon in his arsenal. “If you can tell me truthfully that one of the two missing prisoners is Jacob Ramsey, you will please me very much.”

Clearly Santiago hadn’t known how Valerian would react, and the man’s features brightened with pleasure.

“Then, sir, I have very good news. One of the two cells that were opened was Ramsey’s.”

He was alive! All they had to do was track the escape pod. A wave of elation washed through Valerian, and he had to force it down. Suddenly curious, he asked Santiago, “You said two cells had been opened. Who was in the second one?”

Santiago glanced at the report. “Dahl, R. M.”
-------------------
“Well, sir, I won’t take that bet,” Santiago said. There was a hint of nervousness in his demeanor. “The systems have been completely scrambled. Whoever did this knew what he was doing.”
---------------------
Santiago was definitely looking a bit worse for wear as he nodded. “Correct, sir. I will have my best people on this. The prisoners only have so much food and life support on an escape pod. They’ll be forced to make landing soon. We’ll investigate all possible planets they—”

“Negative, Admiral,” Valerian interrupted smoothly. “Your best people won’t be good enough. I will set my best people on this. In the meantime, you are to destroy the Gray Tiger and purge all records of this particular assignment. Is that clear?”

Similar to the UPL/UED, the Dominion are capable of viewing areas of space from FTL distances with (supposedly) the nearest ship hours away.

We know that this is in real time, because the escape pod Jake and RM are in left over a day before the Dominion start looking for the ship, thus if they were looking at past events through relativistic effects caused by light, they would be able to track the Escape Pod. The ship is also crippled, and they state they would be able to see if rubble or energy signatures from Protoss weapons were about if it was destroyed.

As such, given that no hardware was around to observe what happened, or record the entire event, meaning the Dominion only knew what was there when they scanned there, FTL sensors are at work.

A Zerg one.

F:

The Zerg left the lifeless, burning world
of Zerus and laid waste to every planet
they found along their path towards the
Protoss Homeworld. As they progressed
slowly through the trackless dark between
the stars, the Zerg assimilated only the
strongest of the races that they came
across. The swarm continued to build
steadily, ever-increasing in size and
power. As they progressed, the Overmind
sent out numerous deep-space probes
that scouted ahead of the swarm,
searching for new worlds to plunder
-----------------
On the verge of despair, the Overmind
made an amazing discovery. One of its deepspace
probes had relayed the location and
vital statistics of a race that occupied a series
of nondescript worlds, right under the
shadow of the Protoss.

The new race, called Humanity, was mere
generations away from developing into a
formidable psionic power. But the Overmind
also knew that Humanity was still in its infant
stages, hardly capable of defending itself
against the ravenous Zerg. Although a shortlived
and seemingly frail species, the
Overmind knew that Humanity would be the
final determinant in its victory over the
Protoss. If it could assimilate the psionic
potential of Humanity, the Overmind would
have the ability to combat the Protoss on its
own terms.

Thus, the Zerg swarms slowly made their
way towards the burgeoning worlds of
Humanity. The journey lasted for sixty years,
but eventually the massive, extended Zerg
Swarm reached the outskirts of the Terran
Sector of Koprulu. Sending in a scouting
Brood, the Overmind soon discovered that
the Humans dwelt on over a dozen different
worlds within the Sector.
------------------
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 from one world to
the next, leaving nothing but barren
wastelands in their wake. Bidden by the
strict dictates of the Dae’Uhl, the Protoss
were forbidden to directly interfere with the
reckless Terrans, no matter how much they
wished to do so. This disjointed relationship
lasted for many years between the two
races. Yet a routine Protoss scouting mission
found evidence that spelled certain doom
for the hapless Terrans.

The High Templar Tassadar, accompanied
by his renowned Templar expeditionary
force, found a number of small biological
constructs floating near the borders of
Protoss space. Upon close inspection,
Tassadar deduced that the rather
nondescript alien organisms were in fact
deep space probes. Although Tassadar
could not discern their point of origin, it
was clear that they were heading towards
the Koprulu sector of Terran colonies.
Tassadar brought the living probes back
to Aiur for immediate study. The strange
aliens were unlike anything that the Protoss
had ever seen before. The respective
physiologies of the probes were apparently
engineered for deep space travel and
reconnaissance. In an attempt to discern
their primary quarry, the Protoss focused
the energies of the Khaydarin Crystals
through the tiny minds of the probes. The
Protoss were shocked to discover that the
alien probes responded quickly and
naturally to the powerful energies of the
Crystals. Their shock was garnered from the
fact that only creatures born of the
Xel’Naga’s proto-genetics could properly
process the energies of the great Crystals.
More alarming was the vague thought
stream that kept repeating, over and over,
through the tiny brains of the probes;‘Find
Humanity’…‘Eradicate’…‘Learn’…‘Evolve’...

The Protoss speculated that the probes
were the harbingers of a bold new threat
to their section of the galaxy. If the creatures
were engineered with Xel’Naga
technologies, they would be very advanced
and extremely powerful.

It seemed clear to the Protoss that this
new race constituted a palpable danger to
all living beings, and that wherever the
greater bulk of the race was, it must still be
searching for the unsuspecting Terran
colonists.

The Protoss began to send out advance
scouts to scour the surrounding space-ways
for any sign of the alien invaders. Tassadar
claimed that under the dictates of the
Dae’Uhl, it was the chosen responsibility
of the Protoss to protect the races under their
watch. The Conclave, however, argued that
if the ‘worthless’ race of Terrans had already
been infested by some new threat, they must
be put to the flame and eradicated. A great
debate began between the Judicators and
the Templar as to how they should involve
themselves in the Terrans’ imminent plight.

The one fact that both castes agreed upon
was that the creatures were undeniably
engineered through Xel’Naga sciences. And
if they were indeed created by the Ancient
Ones, the Protoss had best be on their guard.
It was agreed to send Tassadar and his
expeditionary force to monitor the Terran
worlds and attempt to discern the severity
of the impending danger. To this end,
Tassadar led his command ship, the
Gantrithor, and an escort of massive Protoss
warships towards the Terran sector of
Koprulu.
-----------------
Upon arriving in the Terran Sector,
Tassadar’s scouts found evidence that the
mysterious alien threat had already begun
to take its toll upon the Terran colonies.
Upon closer inspection, Tassadar found that
the fringe-colony of Chau Sara had indeed
been infested by alien organisms.

Sixty years before any physical Zerg actually reach the Korpulu Sector, the deep space probes discover the Terrans.

The Protoss do not encounter the Probes until the Zerg are already in the sector, meaning that the sixty year trip is over. We know this because when Tassadar is sent back to the Terran's space, Zerg infestation has already occurred, and no major time skip has happened.

That's about it for now. I'll post more later if I can find anymore.

[Shadow Archon]

G:

Another example of Terran FTL sensors:



Just noticed this from Wings of Liberty, during the beginning of Maw of the Void.

We can see them zoom up on the Worldship, clearly from at least light-minutes away in real time. This was in a "large, unexplored tract of space," so a relay wasn't likely, nor was it mentioned. Valerian even brings up "long-range scans" that detected the Protoss on the Worldship.

[Gradius]

We can see them zoom up on the Worldship, clearly from at least light-minutes away in real time.

That looks more like a telescope than a "sensor".

Hell of a telescope though. :P

[Shadow Archon]

That looks more like a telescope than a "sensor".

Hell of a telescope though. :P

They have "visual" sensors that can see stuff from way away, basically just like viewing things with light, but you know, being faster than light. So it isn't a form of "radar" per say. They have that too, but the visual sensors are there too.

[Turalyon]

They have magical sensors that can see stuff from way away, basically just like viewing things with light, but you know, being faster than light.

Fixed.

[Shadow Archon]

Fixed.

That was obvious.