StarCraft: Ghost--Spectres

“Why, it’s a rescue mission, Jim,” Tychus had rumbled, his blue eyes dancing with good humor as he had filled Raynor in on the plan. “Those poor creds—they’d just be condemned to lining the pockets of some Old Families who don’t need any more money. Or else put to some nefarious scheme that could hurt somebody. It’s our duty—hell, it’s our calling—to liberate them creds to where they could do something that really mattered.”

“Like buying us drinks, women, and steak dinners.”

“That’s a good start.”

“You’ve got a heart of gold, Tychus. I’ve never met such an altruistic man in my life. I got goddamn tears in my eyes.”

“It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.”

Jim grinned as he recalled the conversation. He and Tychus were behind the train, catching up to it quickly. He stayed right and Tychus veered left. Tychus crossed over the maglev tracks, adjusting the magnetic frequency on his bike to compensate so that he, like the train itself, could cross easily. Jim increased his speed, moving alongside the maglev until the right car came into view. He and Tychus had spent hours analyzing all kinds of transportation vessels over the last few years, sometimes simply from blueprints or images, but usually up close and personal, as they were about to do now. They had “liberated” other credits before—it seemed to them like hundreds of thousands over the years, although the liberated credits never seemed to stay with them very long. That was all right too. It was part of the ride that life had become.

***

The year is 2494. Almost five years ago, Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay were members of the Heaven’s Devils, an elite Confederate marine unit praised for its nerves of steeland combat expertise. After making a stand against their corrupt commanding officer, the two men were forced to go AWOL or risk being unjustly prosecuted and resocialized.

Now, Raynor and Findlay are outlaws hounded by an unyielding interstellar marshal. Life, however, has never beenbetter. Each day is another chance to pilfer more credits from the Confederacy’s deep coffers. Each night holds the promise of spending their hard-earned profits in bars, brothels, and gambling halls. But a man can only run so far before the law—and his past—catch up with him. . . .

Yet, in the aftermath of Mengsk's treachery, Raynor is plagued by strange visions of Char -- a deadly, volcanic world haunted by horrifying alien creatures. As the nightmares grow in intensity, Raynor begins to suspect that they may not be figments of his imagination -- but a desperate form of telepathic contact. Convinced that the woman he loves is still alive, Raynor launches a hasty mission to rescue Kerrigan from Char. But deep beneath the planet's smoldering surface, Raynor finds a strange chrysalis...and is forced to watch in horror as a terrible, all-too-familiar entity rises from it.

Before him stands a creature of depthless malice and vengeance...

Sarah Kerrigan: the Zerg Queen of Blades.

Yet Nova wasn't born a killer. She was once a privileged child of one of the Old Families of the Terran Confederacy, but her life changed forever when a rebel militia murdered her family. In her grief, Nova unleashed her devastating psychic powers, killing hundreds in a single, terrible moment. Now, on the run through the slums of Tarsonis, she is unable to trust anyone. Pursued by a special agent tasked with hunting down rogue telepaths, Nova must come to terms with both her burgeoning powers and her guilt -- before they consume her and destroy everything in her path....

“That was not you,” Jim said firmly. “That was the Queen of Blades. What they made you into. You’re back to being Sarah again. And we’re together now. So just hush, honey.”

He had put off touching the strange tentacles that adorned her head in place of hair. Everything else was so human, so much the woman he remembered, but that. . . . Now he did so, keeping her fingers entwined with his as he reached with his other hand to gently stroke back the spiny protuberances. He steeled himself for the contact. To his surprise, they felt warm beneath his touch, like skin. Like Sarah’s skin. And any hesitation he’d had about still loving her—hesitation he had pushed down so deep into his soul that he himself hadn’t been aware of it untilright now—vanished like a bad dream.

But the touch didn’t comfort her. She turned her head, trying to pull away. Respecting her needs, Jim withdrew his hand.

“It doesn’t matter. Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of Blades . . . you don’t understand,” she murmured. “Maybe you can never understand. I’ve always been a destroyer of things. Anything I touch, anything I care about . . . that’s why they picked me, Jim. Because I’m a destroyer of things. . . .”

She closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness. Jim sat back, trying to sort out what she had said. How much of it was real, and how much was the pain talking?

And despite what he had told Sarah—despite what he kept telling himself—he couldn’t help but wonder how much of the massacre of billions had been only the Queen of Blades . . . and how much had been Sarah Kerrigan.

She is the Zerg Queen of Blades. Her name has become legend throughout the galaxy, and that legend is death for all who stand against her. Yet once, long ago, Sarah Kerrigan was human -- the unwilling subject of an insidious clandestine experiment. She was forced to serve as a merciless assassin for the Terran Confederacy until a twist of fate propelled her toward a destiny none could have foreseen. This is the untold tale of Kerrigan's shadowy origin...and the war that was fought for her very soul.

A monstrous act of bloody violence sows the seeds of rebellion in Arcturus, but he is not the first Mengsk to rail against such oppression. Before Arcturus grew to manhood, his father, Angus Mengsk, also defied the Confederacy and sought to end its brutal reign.

The destiny of the Mengsk family has long been tied to that of the Confederacy and the Koprulu sector, but as a new empire rises from the ashes of the past and alien invaders threaten the very existence of humanity, what will the future hold for the next generation...?

Struggling to maintain his own fragile identity amidst the raging psychic storm in his mind, Jake soon realizes that he has stumbled upon a secret so cataclysmic in magnitude -- that it will shake the very foundations of the universe.

FIRSTBORN

An original tale of space warfare based on the bestselling computer game series from Blizzard Entertainment.

Driven by the living memories of a long-dead protoss mystic and hounded by the Queen of Blades' ravenous zerg, archaeologist Jake Ramsey embarks on a perilous journey to reach the fabled protoss homeworld of Aiur.

Seeking a vital piece of protoss technology, Jake finds that Aiur has been overrun by the zerg. Descending into the shadowy labyrinths beneath the planet's surface, he must find the sacred crystal before time runs out -- for him...and the universe itself.

Yet, what Jake discovers beneath Aiur is a horror beyond his wildest nightmares -- Ulrezaj -- an archon comprised of the seven most deadly and powerful dark templar in history....