Ghost: Zero
Chapter 1 By Webmaster Pikachu
Ten years had past, and the last surviving Confederate troops have established a small city on an edge world they have named Tarsonis B. The first colonists to land on this world were few. not more then a thousand. Most of them were in fact civilians, just trying to hang onto their last possession: life. Totally isolated from the swarms of blood lusting Zerg, and the enigmatic Protoss, the Terrans have formed a new government, established as the New Confederacy.
While they may have had their lives, the desperate Terrans had few ways to defend themselves. They had escaped from the last Confederacy and its destruction by using modified civilian space transports, and dashed off to nowhere using the proto-type warp drives that were still undergoing testing. It was by chance they found themselves in a sector with habitable planets. Tarsonis B itself was mostly a water world, with 95% of its surface ocean.
Few scientists had escaped elimination, and there were only a handful that arrived on Tarsonis B. For all the last 10 years they had been reconstructing the plans for the Terran arsenal from the ground up. Over this time they had developed a new Marine combat suit plan to replace the one lost on Tarsonis, and their new capital had a standing army of around 120. Not enough to stop an invasion, but surely enough to keep the peace. Already the evil minds of humanity had formed a somewhat repressive dictatorship over the new capital, and crime was already a part of life. It was only human nature.
Human nature. No one could ever fully understand it. They knew that humans were explorers, able to colonize worlds and expand again in a matter of years with proper funding. Were there was expansion there was pollution. The Terran businessman had little concern for their environment or resource usage. A cloud of noxious fumes had already settled over the capital city of Fairhold, population 11,000.
Over this last ten years, the population had grown by leaps and bounds. Nearly 75% of the population was 10 or younger. Thanks to the scientists, however, the children had plenty to eat. Also thanks to the scientists, children were now in school. They had few options however: study to be in the military, study to feed the people, or study to develop the lost technologies. The earliest born children, now nearing 11 years of age, were being pushed through education at a rapid rate, and would soon be fully capable of working in the sciences field. Children that opted, or were forced into, the military field would be ready by the age of 16 with the help of growth hormones that speed the development of muscle growth and quick thinking.
Now this year, the tenth year after their arrival, a child was born. Her name was Selece, as given to her by her father. A mutated gene had produced unnaturally white hair and pale skin, but these mutations were natural now. Tarsonis B had an especially powerful sun, and the rays it put off seemed to be having an effect on the newborns' genes.
It was five years later that Selece's father and mother noticed her psionic talents. The twin moons of Tarsonis B had just risen over the eastern horizon, and Selece's mother had just cleared the table. Selece's academic report lay on the table where she had just put it. At age 5, she had already completed a year of school thanks to thought-enhancing implants. Selece's father reached for the report to examine it.
"Your marks are excellent, Selece. But what is this? 'Can't handle self in class.'? Selece, what are you doing in that academy? Fooling around?" Her father glared at her. He was always strict, and even the smallest things angered him.
"I have done nothing, daddy. It is those . 'things'. Stupid children, they make it look like I'm bad, and the instructor get mad at me and I haven't done anything." Selece replied. Being a child of solitude, she rarely spoke about her education at home, even if she wasn't happy with it.
"Do you think I believe that rubbish?" her father growled. He obviously wasn't father material, and he pushed his children like he pushed his employees. No excuses. His questions were traps laced with arsenic. Even Selece's innocence in the matter was compromised, and Selece didn't like it when the truth wasn't good enough, and she was blamed for something she didn't do.
"I haven't done anything wrong daddy!" Selece replied, desperately trying to end the discussion. Her father was arrogant, and he was never wrong. Her outburst was punishable.
"Liar!" and with that he struck her to the floor with a brutal slap enough to make even a Marine tear. Selece lay in shock on the floor as her father stared down on her with his cruel eyes. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, afraid of confronting her own husband, who she feared herself.
Selece wanted to hide. She wanted to escape from there. Home had never been a safe place for her. Never. She had no safe places. The world that she knew was only a place of misery, down to the very last household. Her eyes closed, wanting to escape from everything. And then her father saw it. Selece's body grew blue for just a slight moment, and then the blue faded, and Selece's entire body turned nearly perfectly transparent. A split second later, Selece simultaneously passed out and her body appeared normal once more. Her father said nothing, and left the dwelling.
The next day, Selece wasn't at home anymore. In fact, she didn't know where she was.
- ~ + ~ -
Selece was now 15. The capital of Fairhold now had grown to 25,000 people, with smaller cities dotting its perimeter. The children of the colonists were now adults, serving in the military, serving as scientists, or working to feed the ever-growing population.
After 10 years of training and conditioning, Selece was now the first Ghost to serve the New Confederacy. She wasn't any normal Ghost however, as none of the scientists so far were able to rediscover the cloaking ability that the old Confederate Ghosts were once capable of. Selece was the first of any human known that could cloak herself using only her mind. While rash measures were taken to eradicate Selece's conscious, the primitive methods used had little actual effect. Selece, knowing that being able to think for herself was one of her most valuable assets, made sure the scientists believed that their neuro-toxins had some effect. She thanked her mother, which she now had no memory of, for her valuable lessons in self- preservation.
"Zero, report to the briefing room." The officer ordered into Selece's quarters.
"Aye Sir." Replied Selece. She strode down the hallway to the small room she had a certain disdain for. She had to come here when she had to kill someone, for being a Ghost also meant being an assassin, a tool of the authority.
"Lieutenant Selece, your orders are for elimination, as always. We have been monitoring a council member for some time now based on reports that he is planning a coup against the New Confederacy. Our intelligence reports have confirmed this. His name is Uray Havnor, he and his family must be eliminated by tomorrow morning. I suggest you move out tonight."
"Aye, Commander." Selece walked out of the briefing room silently, and returned to her quarters. The door closed behind her, and her heart throbbed.
"Again. they are having me do it again." Selece didn't mind killing the grown-ups with dark hearts, but she did mind having to terminate innocence. the innocence of a child. Selece looked down to the floor, and her white hair hid her face in the pale light. She reached out for her rifle without looking, and slung it around her back. She left the compound shortly later and began to head to the Havnor mansion. Her mind was still lost in thought as she turned into a shadowy alley to sneak upon the mansion from behind.
The mansion itself was fairly easy to penetrate; it was the guards surrounding the perimeter that would cause problems. Selece, wanting not to kill the guards, cloaked herself and flew over the stonewall before racing to the back of the structure. She climbed up the rear wall, and slipped into an open window. The lights in the room were off, and she used her psionic abilities to scan he room. Uray and his wife lay in the bed before her. And most unsuspectingly, their daughter was in the corner, staring directly at Selece.
"You are Zero, aren't you." Asked the daughter, quietly. She seemed to be about the age of 9 or 10. Selece, caught slightly off guard, didn't reply for a moment. This child could only detect her for one reason: she too had psionic potential. There was no point in hiding the truth.
"I am. I have orders to kill your parents, and you." Selece responded, trying to keep emotion out of her voice. The young girl didn't reply, didn't even quiver for several minutes. Selece could tell, as she was only a few feet away. "People make you do such horrible things, Zero. I can read it from your mind. It is not horrible to kill the dark-minded, but to kill innocence. you have difficulty. Am I not right?"
"You are right." Replied Selece. This girl was none like Selece had ever met before. Most children that woke up before their own termination would scream if Selece wasn't cloaked, right before she silenced them for her own protection. It was a cruel cycle.
"Kill them. Kill my parents. I will not be sad. They are evil. I have hated them all my life. All my scars are from their hands. They don't know how to be kind, or gentle. the true way to lead a nation, people, a war." The girl spoke, resolute in her own decision. Again she fell silent. Selece didn't move.
"It is the right thing. Selece, that is your true name, is it not? Selece, do you not like evil? Every person in this world has the right to destroy evil. Just because they are my parents does not make them good." The girl spoke.
"And you? What am I supposed to do? It is not them I am concerned about anymore. It is you. I. I have orders to kill you, yet you do not deserve to die." Selece finally said. Her face was a mixture of emotions now.
"The orders are fate. The choice you make determines my fate. Which is more evil? Killing me, or disobeying orders?"
"You are true to your heart, I cannot kill you." Selece reached into a pocket at her hip and pulled out a small device. She twisted a knob and laid it on the floor.
"You are true to yours as well. Why fight for something you do not believe in?"
"I won't fight for the New Confederacy any more. They are as bad as your father. Now, lets go. I will take care of you now. You are a symbol to me that cannot be lost."
Selece had the girl climb onto her back, and they made their way back down the wall, both of them cloaked with Selece's psionic abilities. They raced far into the alley behind the mansion, but Selece didn't stop. She ran until the concrete jungle turned to the forests of Tarsonis B. She dropped her cloaking and instead used her remaining psionic energy to run faster, and deeper, into the wood. It seemed like hours, which it was, before Selece decided to stop. When they did, that had reached the far west coast, still uninhabited as it held few natural resources, besides trees and water.
Selece, now feeling the effects of travel and near complete psionic energy usage, set the girl upon the soft sand on the beach, just under an over cropping rock, before collapsing herself.
"I am grateful, Selece. Let me introduce myself. I am Miira." Said Miira softly. She too was tired, but heard Selece groan as she remembered the tracking device she was still wearing.
"We don't have much time before my old commander wakes up. He can track me to this location. Quick, take my knife. here. See that panel on the back of my jumpsuit? Cut it off."
Miira complied, and using the knife in a fairly refined manner removed the plate. It was about half a centimeter think, and it glimmered slightly in the fading moonlight.
"Quickly! Place it on the sand and step back, Miira. Far back. If I am not wearing it, it will detonate if it is jostled to prevent enemies from acquiring it. I will throw a boulder from the edge of this earth cliff, here." Selece pointed to the outcropping. Using the last bit of energy she had, she jumped up the cliff, picked up a large rock, and threw it with all her might at the cursed panel. Miira, now some distance off, was still blasted by a wave of hot air, but little more.
"Come, Miira, let us spend the night under this outcropping." Selece called down the beach, and Miira nodded. As Miira neared to within a few feet of Selece, she spoke once more.
"How can you trust me so much?" Miira asked. It was an honest question, but Selece had already made up her mind.
"Because I have no one else to trust. If I cannot trust anyone, my spirit will die. Another lesson from my mother." Replied Selece.
No human is immune to the effects of loss, and Miira was no exception. Even though her parents were evil, and she knew it, they were still her parents. Selece could tell Miira was suddenly becoming distraught, even without her psionic abilities.
"I'll be your family, Miira. I have lost mine as well. Sister?"
"Right. Selece, you are my sister now."
Chapter 1 By Webmaster Pikachu
Ten years had past, and the last surviving Confederate troops have established a small city on an edge world they have named Tarsonis B. The first colonists to land on this world were few. not more then a thousand. Most of them were in fact civilians, just trying to hang onto their last possession: life. Totally isolated from the swarms of blood lusting Zerg, and the enigmatic Protoss, the Terrans have formed a new government, established as the New Confederacy.
While they may have had their lives, the desperate Terrans had few ways to defend themselves. They had escaped from the last Confederacy and its destruction by using modified civilian space transports, and dashed off to nowhere using the proto-type warp drives that were still undergoing testing. It was by chance they found themselves in a sector with habitable planets. Tarsonis B itself was mostly a water world, with 95% of its surface ocean.
Few scientists had escaped elimination, and there were only a handful that arrived on Tarsonis B. For all the last 10 years they had been reconstructing the plans for the Terran arsenal from the ground up. Over this time they had developed a new Marine combat suit plan to replace the one lost on Tarsonis, and their new capital had a standing army of around 120. Not enough to stop an invasion, but surely enough to keep the peace. Already the evil minds of humanity had formed a somewhat repressive dictatorship over the new capital, and crime was already a part of life. It was only human nature.
Human nature. No one could ever fully understand it. They knew that humans were explorers, able to colonize worlds and expand again in a matter of years with proper funding. Were there was expansion there was pollution. The Terran businessman had little concern for their environment or resource usage. A cloud of noxious fumes had already settled over the capital city of Fairhold, population 11,000.
Over this last ten years, the population had grown by leaps and bounds. Nearly 75% of the population was 10 or younger. Thanks to the scientists, however, the children had plenty to eat. Also thanks to the scientists, children were now in school. They had few options however: study to be in the military, study to feed the people, or study to develop the lost technologies. The earliest born children, now nearing 11 years of age, were being pushed through education at a rapid rate, and would soon be fully capable of working in the sciences field. Children that opted, or were forced into, the military field would be ready by the age of 16 with the help of growth hormones that speed the development of muscle growth and quick thinking.
Now this year, the tenth year after their arrival, a child was born. Her name was Selece, as given to her by her father. A mutated gene had produced unnaturally white hair and pale skin, but these mutations were natural now. Tarsonis B had an especially powerful sun, and the rays it put off seemed to be having an effect on the newborns' genes.
It was five years later that Selece's father and mother noticed her psionic talents. The twin moons of Tarsonis B had just risen over the eastern horizon, and Selece's mother had just cleared the table. Selece's academic report lay on the table where she had just put it. At age 5, she had already completed a year of school thanks to thought-enhancing implants. Selece's father reached for the report to examine it.
"Your marks are excellent, Selece. But what is this? 'Can't handle self in class.'? Selece, what are you doing in that academy? Fooling around?" Her father glared at her. He was always strict, and even the smallest things angered him.
"I have done nothing, daddy. It is those . 'things'. Stupid children, they make it look like I'm bad, and the instructor get mad at me and I haven't done anything." Selece replied. Being a child of solitude, she rarely spoke about her education at home, even if she wasn't happy with it.
"Do you think I believe that rubbish?" her father growled. He obviously wasn't father material, and he pushed his children like he pushed his employees. No excuses. His questions were traps laced with arsenic. Even Selece's innocence in the matter was compromised, and Selece didn't like it when the truth wasn't good enough, and she was blamed for something she didn't do.
"I haven't done anything wrong daddy!" Selece replied, desperately trying to end the discussion. Her father was arrogant, and he was never wrong. Her outburst was punishable.
"Liar!" and with that he struck her to the floor with a brutal slap enough to make even a Marine tear. Selece lay in shock on the floor as her father stared down on her with his cruel eyes. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, afraid of confronting her own husband, who she feared herself.
Selece wanted to hide. She wanted to escape from there. Home had never been a safe place for her. Never. She had no safe places. The world that she knew was only a place of misery, down to the very last household. Her eyes closed, wanting to escape from everything. And then her father saw it. Selece's body grew blue for just a slight moment, and then the blue faded, and Selece's entire body turned nearly perfectly transparent. A split second later, Selece simultaneously passed out and her body appeared normal once more. Her father said nothing, and left the dwelling.
The next day, Selece wasn't at home anymore. In fact, she didn't know where she was.
- ~ + ~ -
Selece was now 15. The capital of Fairhold now had grown to 25,000 people, with smaller cities dotting its perimeter. The children of the colonists were now adults, serving in the military, serving as scientists, or working to feed the ever-growing population.
After 10 years of training and conditioning, Selece was now the first Ghost to serve the New Confederacy. She wasn't any normal Ghost however, as none of the scientists so far were able to rediscover the cloaking ability that the old Confederate Ghosts were once capable of. Selece was the first of any human known that could cloak herself using only her mind. While rash measures were taken to eradicate Selece's conscious, the primitive methods used had little actual effect. Selece, knowing that being able to think for herself was one of her most valuable assets, made sure the scientists believed that their neuro-toxins had some effect. She thanked her mother, which she now had no memory of, for her valuable lessons in self- preservation.
"Zero, report to the briefing room." The officer ordered into Selece's quarters.
"Aye Sir." Replied Selece. She strode down the hallway to the small room she had a certain disdain for. She had to come here when she had to kill someone, for being a Ghost also meant being an assassin, a tool of the authority.
"Lieutenant Selece, your orders are for elimination, as always. We have been monitoring a council member for some time now based on reports that he is planning a coup against the New Confederacy. Our intelligence reports have confirmed this. His name is Uray Havnor, he and his family must be eliminated by tomorrow morning. I suggest you move out tonight."
"Aye, Commander." Selece walked out of the briefing room silently, and returned to her quarters. The door closed behind her, and her heart throbbed.
"Again. they are having me do it again." Selece didn't mind killing the grown-ups with dark hearts, but she did mind having to terminate innocence. the innocence of a child. Selece looked down to the floor, and her white hair hid her face in the pale light. She reached out for her rifle without looking, and slung it around her back. She left the compound shortly later and began to head to the Havnor mansion. Her mind was still lost in thought as she turned into a shadowy alley to sneak upon the mansion from behind.
The mansion itself was fairly easy to penetrate; it was the guards surrounding the perimeter that would cause problems. Selece, wanting not to kill the guards, cloaked herself and flew over the stonewall before racing to the back of the structure. She climbed up the rear wall, and slipped into an open window. The lights in the room were off, and she used her psionic abilities to scan he room. Uray and his wife lay in the bed before her. And most unsuspectingly, their daughter was in the corner, staring directly at Selece.
"You are Zero, aren't you." Asked the daughter, quietly. She seemed to be about the age of 9 or 10. Selece, caught slightly off guard, didn't reply for a moment. This child could only detect her for one reason: she too had psionic potential. There was no point in hiding the truth.
"I am. I have orders to kill your parents, and you." Selece responded, trying to keep emotion out of her voice. The young girl didn't reply, didn't even quiver for several minutes. Selece could tell, as she was only a few feet away. "People make you do such horrible things, Zero. I can read it from your mind. It is not horrible to kill the dark-minded, but to kill innocence. you have difficulty. Am I not right?"
"You are right." Replied Selece. This girl was none like Selece had ever met before. Most children that woke up before their own termination would scream if Selece wasn't cloaked, right before she silenced them for her own protection. It was a cruel cycle.
"Kill them. Kill my parents. I will not be sad. They are evil. I have hated them all my life. All my scars are from their hands. They don't know how to be kind, or gentle. the true way to lead a nation, people, a war." The girl spoke, resolute in her own decision. Again she fell silent. Selece didn't move.
"It is the right thing. Selece, that is your true name, is it not? Selece, do you not like evil? Every person in this world has the right to destroy evil. Just because they are my parents does not make them good." The girl spoke.
"And you? What am I supposed to do? It is not them I am concerned about anymore. It is you. I. I have orders to kill you, yet you do not deserve to die." Selece finally said. Her face was a mixture of emotions now.
"The orders are fate. The choice you make determines my fate. Which is more evil? Killing me, or disobeying orders?"
"You are true to your heart, I cannot kill you." Selece reached into a pocket at her hip and pulled out a small device. She twisted a knob and laid it on the floor.
"You are true to yours as well. Why fight for something you do not believe in?"
"I won't fight for the New Confederacy any more. They are as bad as your father. Now, lets go. I will take care of you now. You are a symbol to me that cannot be lost."
Selece had the girl climb onto her back, and they made their way back down the wall, both of them cloaked with Selece's psionic abilities. They raced far into the alley behind the mansion, but Selece didn't stop. She ran until the concrete jungle turned to the forests of Tarsonis B. She dropped her cloaking and instead used her remaining psionic energy to run faster, and deeper, into the wood. It seemed like hours, which it was, before Selece decided to stop. When they did, that had reached the far west coast, still uninhabited as it held few natural resources, besides trees and water.
Selece, now feeling the effects of travel and near complete psionic energy usage, set the girl upon the soft sand on the beach, just under an over cropping rock, before collapsing herself.
"I am grateful, Selece. Let me introduce myself. I am Miira." Said Miira softly. She too was tired, but heard Selece groan as she remembered the tracking device she was still wearing.
"We don't have much time before my old commander wakes up. He can track me to this location. Quick, take my knife. here. See that panel on the back of my jumpsuit? Cut it off."
Miira complied, and using the knife in a fairly refined manner removed the plate. It was about half a centimeter think, and it glimmered slightly in the fading moonlight.
"Quickly! Place it on the sand and step back, Miira. Far back. If I am not wearing it, it will detonate if it is jostled to prevent enemies from acquiring it. I will throw a boulder from the edge of this earth cliff, here." Selece pointed to the outcropping. Using the last bit of energy she had, she jumped up the cliff, picked up a large rock, and threw it with all her might at the cursed panel. Miira, now some distance off, was still blasted by a wave of hot air, but little more.
"Come, Miira, let us spend the night under this outcropping." Selece called down the beach, and Miira nodded. As Miira neared to within a few feet of Selece, she spoke once more.
"How can you trust me so much?" Miira asked. It was an honest question, but Selece had already made up her mind.
"Because I have no one else to trust. If I cannot trust anyone, my spirit will die. Another lesson from my mother." Replied Selece.
No human is immune to the effects of loss, and Miira was no exception. Even though her parents were evil, and she knew it, they were still her parents. Selece could tell Miira was suddenly becoming distraught, even without her psionic abilities.
"I'll be your family, Miira. I have lost mine as well. Sister?"
"Right. Selece, you are my sister now."