I was once a person, just like you. Well, I guess you're a person. After all, I'm not anymore. I used to me a marine for the Umojan Protectorate. I was part of an expedition to a planet called Jarban Minor. I'd tell you what the expedition was doing, but that's highly classified.

That's not the point though. The point is what happened during the expedition.

"We'll arrive in Jarban within a day, Commander," navigation officer Zates reported.

I looked to the commander's face to see relief spread across it. It was rare when you could lead an expedition across enemy space and not have any issues. In fact, the Umojan Ruling Council had been rather harsh on Commander Russ. Four of his last five expeditions had resulted in utter failure. Old age, they surmised. I'd heard rumors that this was his last chance before they put him out of commission--forced retirement. As his First Officer, it was my duty to put these rumors to rest with the crew. They were uneasy as it was.

"That's good." Russ said, the relief apparent in his voice. "Captain DuPonte, keep tactical teams ready for anything, and have the science team prepped and ready for our arrival."

"Of course, Commander," he said with a nod to the communications officer, who began relaying the orders. Before he'd finished, a siren erupted in the bridge. The lead tactical officer called out, gaining everyone's attention.

"Energy readings indicate multiple warp signatures, Zerg in origin!"

Now, while a ceasefire had been called between the Swarm, protoss, and Dominion, there was no such truce with the Protectorate. The Swarm was our enemy.

To cut a long story short, we were attacked. Some of us were killed. Most of us, like me, were infested.

I didn't know I was infested. At least, not at first. I spent several years hovering between sleep and waking, like that space you're in when you feel you're falling, then wake up. Only, I couldn't wake up. Not fully. There were brief moments when I'd wake up, but the images I saw were horrific.

My arms, disgustingly mutated by the Zerg mutagen, ripping people apart.

Landing on planets full of families knowing that the Zerg were going to ravage them--rip them apart.

In the beginning, I was a grunt, nothing more than a zergling. Most of infested terrans, like my brothers-in-arms, were disposable. I was different. No matter what situation I was ordered to be in, I survived. It took years, but I eventually rose through the ranks. The mutagen slowly augmented the miniscule amount of psionic potential in me. The Protectorate had detected it within me, of course, but I barely registered on their scale. Certainly not enough to be made a ghost.

I actually found out way later that this dramatic of an augmentation is almost literally impossible.

But back to the main point. I was soon a general of sorts, second-in-command of my brood. I was mainly commanded to handle the brood's more psionically capable foes.

I'm not exactly sure why, most likely because of my slowly growing psionic potential, I became a little more aware every day.

One day, one of my more lucid days, I stood on the edge of my hivecluster and observed the barren red moon we were on. It's landscape was covered in hills, permeated often by deep valleys. The voice of my brood's leader, Kor, rang out in my mind.

SEEK OUT THE GHOST WITH THE BLUE HAIR. TAKE HER LIFE FOR THE SWARM!

I wasted no time. I commanded and overlord to my side, along with two zerglings and two Hunter Killers. We climbed into the overlord's ventral sacs and upon my command, he took to the skies.

Locating the ghost was no problem. Psychics have a way of detecting one another. I could feel her psionic imprint. She's powerful. As I felt us getting closer, I ordered the overlord to keep low, so as to avoid detection. Visually, of course. I was far more powerful than her and could shield myself. When we were on the other side of a small mountain range from their camp, I had the overlord deposit is in mountains, where we'd be hidden. The zerglings took off, scouting the camp.

I sat in waiting as I sent in the swift zerglings. In almost no time, I saw a campfire in the zerglings' eyes, a Umojan marine and medic, along with the ghost, circled around it. As they got closer, I noticed something weird--the three of them were sitting perfectly still. But that didn't last long.

The marine rolled on to his side, pulling his rifle. A pop pop erupted from his firearm, ending the first zergling. The ghost was on her feet. The fire behind her, her black silhouette contrasted with the flow of her blue pony tail in the wind.

As the second zergling lunged at her, she rose her hand, gathering psionic energy above it, then brought the psionic energy slamming down, killing the zergling instantly. She whipped around to see the marine fighting the hydralisks. One shot two spikes, both deflected by the ghost's powers. Those same powers help to propel her, as she jumped across the fire to her teammate's side. The medic was hanging back, waiting to be needed. The marine had just enough time to pull out his gun and with another couple rounds, put the hydralisk out of commission. He was then thrown to the ground by the force of a spike, shot by the other hydralisk. Their medic jumped to action, kneeling beside the marine as the ghost turned to engage the other Hunter Killer.

She's used quite a bit of her psionic energy, and was probably exhausted, as she pulled out her gun, and fired once, twice on the hydralisk, then jumped out of the way as it fired back. As I drew nearer to the camp, I realized the first hydralisk wasn't dead.

He had just enough life left in him to fire a spike into the face of the medic.

The ghost realized immediately, and destroyed the standing Hunter Killer with a psionic slam, and fired into the dead body of the other, just to be sure. She called out and and turned to face me, as I allowed her to sense me. We made eye contact and both froze.

For one moment, one long, antagonizing moment, I woke up as I stared into her face I knew that face. I'd looked into that face a million times. I joined the Umojan Marine Corps with face. Her face--Tera's face--the face I loved.

"D-Damien?" She asked, a quiver in her voice. I blinked, but I couldn't move. I felt like I was fading, about to lose control. And I did. I blacked out, and the next thing I knew, Tera and I were kneeling on the ground, her hands placed on either side of my head. She was absorbing my psionic energy and using it against me. I could see through the pain for a moment and even with what was happening, a chill ran down my spine.

My hand was buried in her chest, wrapped around her heart. The pain in my head grew and grew until I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes to see a large expanse of stars stretched out above me. My body was weak, and my head ached worse than I could ever remember. Then it came back to me.

Tera!

I jumped over to her, and knew immediately that she was dead. Her chest was a void and her eyes were blank, staring into infinity.

I grabbed her body and held it close to me, an ever tightening pain growing in my chest. I did this--I killed the woman I loved.

Suddenly, I came to another realization. My head was clear. Pounding, but clear. My thoughts and actions were my own. There was no voice in my head, ordering me to return to the hive now that my mission is complete. I looked down at my arms--still infested.

Somehow, Tera removed my connection to the Swarm. She freed me.

Looking down at her body, I came to a resolution, a renewed sense of purpose. I would use this body and the powers that came with it.

I will take down the Swarm.