Video Game / UED First Light

UED: First Light is a Game Mod for StarCraft II, featuring a full-fledged campaign with custom units, voices, animations, and abilities. It's also a Spiritual Successor of sorts to the fan-favorite Legacy of the Confederation custom campaign for StarCraft: Brood War.

Starting off 250 years before the events of the original Starcraft, it posits that the what Terrans think they know of Earth history up until the arrival of Gerard DuGalle's expedition is a lie. Taking command of the forces of the United Powers League, the ensuing story seeks to answer many questions about the United Earth Directorate's rise, and why the UED truly went to the Koprulu Sector.

The mod is still a work in progress, with the prologue and the first 11 missions having been released as of June 2022.

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Tropes found in this mod include:

• Action Survivor: Myra Davis, a police officer in Odessa, Texas who not only gets a front-row seat to the Zerg invasion and put into increasingly desperate situations, but manages to survive to tell the tale. At least until she's seemingly killed in a nuclear strike on "August".
• The Aesthetics of Technology: Compared to the Terrans in vanilla Starcraft II, the United Powers League can come off more archaic, deploying helicopters, conventional-looking tanks, and armored infantry that, while still futuristic, are more reminiscent of the modern day than anything else. Even the Z1 and Z2 exosuits look decidedly larger and bulkier than what the average Terran of the Koprulu Sector uses.
• Alien Invasion: As it turns out, Earth itself was invaded by the Zerg in the 23rd Century, long before the events of the original game.
• Aliens in Cardiff: The first encounters with the Zerg on Earth are shown to have occurred in Odessa, Texas. Many of the missions currently available also tend to take place in lesser-known locales rather than familiar backdrops.
• Benevolent A.I.: The UPL is shown utilizing AI to a considerable degree, from adjutants to fairly intelligent combat units, none of which are hostile to humanity.
• Brave Scot: The Routhe Tank's commander has a raspy voice and a thick Scottish accent.
• Call-Forward: The United Powers League has a general aesthetic that, while more reminiscent of the modern day, clearly shows continuity with both the Terran Dominion and UED arsenal seen by Brood War.
• The Chains of Commanding: Admiral Hayes and Colonel Graves are among the only high-ranking UPL commanders who are painfully aware of how dire humanity's situation is, and bear the weight of sending men to die in costly counteroffensives that they both know are nigh-impossible to sustain.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original Legacy of the Confederation.
• Darkest Hour: Within a little over a week, humanity is put on the brink of defeat and is desperately trying to send colony ships out to escape. By the end of Mission 11, the UPL has all but collapsed, said colony ships are destroyed by the Zerg before they could launch, and Earth is seemingly waiting of oblivion.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Downplayed. The bulk of the campaign missions released so far, covering the Zerg invasion of Earth, take place in the course of little more than a week, at best. Which underscores just how severe of a beating humanity has gotten.
• Faceless Mooks: Apart from some named characters and the police militia, most of the UPL infantry wear face-concealing helmets. Oddly Inverted with the Z1 exosuits and their hero variant the Z2s, as you can partially see the face of the former's wearers while the latter have a fully opaque yellow visor.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • The Protoss are revealed to have lured the Zerg to Earth in the hopes of saving their own species and sparing Aiur from the same fate. The Templar tasked with seeing that the invasion goes through, and eliminating anyone who could warn the UPL of it, are noticeably somber, if not outright apologetic about it.
  • The UPL commanders on the ground know that the war is going badly, and that they take no pleasure in sending their men and women to die before a relentless alien foe. Yet they still follow the orders of their increasingly-detached superiors in the hopes of giving humanity a fighting chance.
• Enemy Mine: After the Zerg invade Earth, the remaining nations still fighting off the UPL join forces in a hasty united front. This does little to actually slow the aliens down.
• Fan Sequel: First Light is a Fan Prequel that chronicles the "true" origins of the UED and why it's interested in the Koprulu Sector.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Whatever happens, even as the invasion of Earth gets progressively worse, it's guaranteed that humanity will rebuild, the UED's certain to emerge, and that it'll take the fight to the Koprulu Sector.
  • Aiur will eventually fall to the Zerg rendering the Protoss attempts to lure the Overmind's attention to Earth ultimately All for Nothing.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The UPL's Propaganda Machine extends to how some of the in-universe logs and profiles extol its virtues and Earth's ambitious and ultimately futile plans once the Zerg are defeated.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Overmind, and to an extent, Amon, though Earth doesn't really figure it out until after the invasion.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: The UPL's leadership is revealed to be this, relying on a well-oiled Propaganda Machine and initially believing the Zerg to be an easy target. This become more pronounced as the plot progresses. As it quickly becomes clear that Earth is in a Hopeless War, the UPL instead doubles-down on promises of victory and pointless morale-boosting campaigns rather than finding a way to end the conflict.
• Hope Spot:
  • At parts of Mission 1, the unlucky UPL task force seems to come close to warning Earth of the Zerg, whether through a quick evac which leads to the bulk of said force being fried by a solar flare due to system failure or at the very least, an emergency transmission which never makes it off-base due to the same solar storm.
  • As the story progresses, there are several moments where Earth's forces seem to be getting the upper hand , with the UPL's leadership believing that it's on the verge of defeating the Zerg invasion. Only for the Cerebrate in charge of the swarm on Earth, and by extension the Overmind, to cruelly take those glimmers of hope away.
  • Mission 11 chronicles "Operation Torch", a desperate attempt by the UPL, or what's left of it, to seize control of the abandoned SETI facility deep behind enemy lines to transmit a distress signal. It's revealed, however, that even this was just a glorified propaganda stunt by what remains of the UPL's chain of command to bolster morale, as they had no expectations of it actually working. Moreover, the generators meant to keep the transmitters online are destroyed, placing Earth on the brink of oblivion.
• Hopeless War: It becomes increasingly evident that the fight against the Zerg is going horribly against the UPL. It's strongly implied that the UPL leadership knows their efforts are failing, but instead try to suppress that fact through futile propaganda campaigns. By the end of Mission 11, Earth is on the verge of being overrun.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: By the time Mission 1 takes place, the UPL has been the dominant hegemon over Earth for generations, and seemingly on the verge of victory over the rest of humanity. By Mission 11, it has been reduced to scattered holdouts and a hodgepodge collection of mercenaries, army remnants and paramilitary units, with the rest of the military either dead or having abandoned their posts to save themselves. The task force deployed for "Operation Torch" is pretty much all that's left under the UPL's direct command.
• Husky Russkie: The operator of the TR-17 self-propelled artillery has a fairly strong Russian accent.
• In-Series Nickname: Z1 power armors are referred to as "Battle Buddies" by UPL infantry on account of their relative toughness and ability to screen and provide heavy armor support for them in places that a tank might struggle to reach or fit in.
• Ironic Echo: The UPL had previously used colony ships like the ones that eventually wound up in the Koprulu Sector as a convenient way to remove criminals, political dissidents and "undesirables" than anything else. As the Zerg overrun Earth's defenses, the UPL is forced to attempting the same thing to save themselves.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: By the time the invasion takes place, the UPL had already finished Project Purification, purging hundreds of millions of people in the name of purity and upholding its rule. It's also fighting for survival against a Zerg swarm that's killing everyone in its path.
• Mini-Mecha: The Z1 and Z2 suits, which are designated as Power Armor, but unlike the Marine and Marauder/Firebat exosuits of Koprulu, they are bulky and armored enough to count as mechanical instead of biological units, and are built at the vehicle instead of infantry production structure.
• Narrator All Along: It's eventually revealed that Myra Davis is the recurring narrator of the campaign, recounting the events long after the fact.
• Nicknaming the Enemy: At no point are the Zerg or its spawn referred to as such by the UPL unless playing as the Zerg. Instead, they're called either "Xenomorphs" or "Roaches." Meanwhile, Slohr, the Cerebrate managing the invasion, is called "August." This is justified in that humanity at this point in time has no idea of what they're actually called, and are too busy trying to survive to care.
• Nintendo Hard: On top of being generally long, the missions can be considerably difficult compared to the canon campaigns.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The prologue shows that the Protoss encountered something that promises power, yet will threaten Aiur and their entire species one day. It's strongly implied to either be the Overmind or Amon.
• Nuke 'em: Upon identifying the Zerg Cerebrate overseeing the invasion, codenamed "August", the UPL tries nuking it in the hopes that it'll stop the aliens in their tracks. It doesn't work, with the Overmind subsequently reviving "August".
• And Now for Someone Completely Different:
  • The prologue's introduction focuses on the Protoss Conclave on Aiur around the 15th Century, amidst the Discord.
  • The campaign in general stands out from most other Starcraft mods by mostly taking place on Earth.
  • Mission 10 is played from the Zerg's perspective as the swarm overruns the colony ship launchpads.
• The Greatest Story Never Told:
  • The bulk of the campaign features certain events and heroes that never made it to the history books in-universe. Or at least, the ones publicly released by the UED.
  • The prologue suggests that the Discord, the Protoss Civil War on Aiur between the Conclave and those who would become the Nerazim, was the unintended consequence of someone discovering an unspeakable entity. It's implied that whatever they learned was so horrifying that the Conclave sought to bury all evidence of it.
• Propaganda Machine: The UPL tries to present a confident front to the rest of humanity as it fights off the Zerg invasion. As the story progresses, however, those efforts not only get increasingly detached from reality, but eventually devolve into desperate attempts to bolster morale.
• Pyromaniac: The Incinerators, good god. They make the Koprulu Terran's Firebats look like completely sane and well-adjusted members of society.
• Just Before the End: Despite its best efforts, the United Powers League is starting to creak at the seams at the start of the campaign. The subsequent invasion by the Zerg, meanwhile, dramatically accelerates its eventual demise.
• Reporting Name: Almost all the Zerg units (except maybe Queens) and structures are referred to by the UPL differently from what they are called by the Koprulu inhabitants. Zerglings, for example, are called "Rodents", Mutalisks are "Screamers", Overlords are "Blimps", and so on. In Mission 10 because you play as the Zerg, their original names are used.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The UPL eventually resorts to a hasty evacuation of Earth through colony ships in order to escape the Zerg. None of them are launched in time.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • Mission 1 has the survivors of a UPL task force, originally sent to investigate a mining colony gone dark, trying to transmit a distress signal to warn Earth of the Zerg. A solar flare, however, ensures that the message is never sent.
  • Mission 9 is a desperate Last Stand by a UPL force to try to ensure at least some colony ships have a chance of launching. Mission 10 has you play as the Zerg and infiltrate and successfully destroy those same colony ships anyway.
  • The UPL's entire war effort during the Zerg invasion of Earth keeps meeting setback after setback, no matter how many they kill. It ultimately leads to the UPL's destruction and Earth itself on the brink of destruction.
• Start of Darkness: The UPL is already an authoritarian dictatorship by the time the Zerg invasion happens. The ensuing chaos, however, is heavily implied to lead Earth down an even worse path, resulting in the UED.
• The Strategist: The intelligent CARR robots deployed by the UPL serve as both tactical advisors to field commanders and as extra muscle with their heavy firepower.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Gameplay-wise, the UPL/UED bears more than a passing resemblance to the Global Defense Initiative in contrast to vanilla Terrans.
• Written by the Winners: First Light suggests that the history behind the rise of the UED was rewritten to erase the harrowing stain of the Zerg's invasion of Earth.