StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 10

The Devil Himself?

A/N: this chapter was a pain to write, so let me know if you see any redundancies, plot holes, typos etc.

-Hyperion, Cantina-

After long, extensive scans having been made by the Hyperion's medical personnel over the course of three hours, to make sure that the new arrivals weren't carrying any Zerg parasites, Raynor took the returning hero as well as the two female Ghost trainees to the Hyperion's bar/cantina much to Nova and Delta's surprise. To be honest, neither of them had been expecting that particular area of the ship would be the place for Andrew's debriefing. In fact Nova had been expecting it to be in a more private setting, seeing as how that was what most militaries probably did after a covert mission had been completed especially one that was a deep cover operation like the one that Andrew had just returned from.

The cantina was filled with a large number off duty crewmembers who all seemed to be enjoying their time off and a lot of them came up to Andrew and congratulated him on his successful mission by giving a toast. The Raiders raised their mugs up high and clanged them all together.

"To Andrew Cole, our man of the hour" declared the weapons officer, Hector Weiss "For overcoming the odds for the millionth time and pulling off what everyone thought to be impossible!" they all cheered before they lowered their mugs and downed much of the alcoholic liquid in just a few gulps. Once the toast had finally concluded the off duty crewmen went back to their drinks and chatted amongst themselves.

Raynor walked over to the nearest table and sat down before he gestured Andrew and his two companions to sit down as well. Once they all took a seat Raynor grabbed a nearby a glass and began to pour himself a drink from a nearby beer bottle that had the brand name "Starla's Stash" printed on it directly below a picture of a very well-endowed brown haired woman in a scantily clad cowgirl outfit.

After the glass had almost been filled to the brim Raynor took a small sip of the liquid, sending a bit of the alcohol straight down his throat and into his system. Nova then proceeded to look at Raynor more than just a little strangely. Not only was Raynor conducting a covert operation debriefing in their ship's cantina but the man was also drinking alcohol while he did it?

"So what exactly happened out there, I thought that the mission was that you were only going to pick up Colin Phash, not a girlfriend and a few other passengers" he said enjoying the reaction from Andrew and Nova with the whole remark about the whole 'girlfriend' thing which made both Nova and Andrew blush a bit, this made Raynor to grin for a few moments before he finally decided that it would be best to get straight down to business "Now all kidding aside what exactly happened while you were at the Ghost Academy?" he asked curiously.

Not one to waste time Andrew proceeded to explain to Raynor exactly what had transpired during his time infiltrating the Ghost Academy. The rebel leader listened to his subordinate intently even as he refilled his mug with more of that 'Starla's Stash' stuff. Andrew continued to recount every detail from his stay at the Ghost Academy and subsequent flight from it with the others in tow, he exaggerated no detail and listed everything that may have been relevant to the operation that he had just gotten back from.

As Andrew did this, Nova took note of the way that Raynor had acted ever since he had met the newcomers. Raynor didn't seem to be acting at all like the ruthless terrorist leader that she had been lead to believe for the last couple of years. Curiosity eating away at her, Nova began to enter the rebel leader's thoughts, more specifically, the man's memories. Nova searched as far back as the Fall of Tarsonis and after a while she came across a memory that had managed to peek her interest.

Jim Raynor along with several marines that bore the Sons of Korhal insignia were fighting tooth and nail against a group Confederate marines at a small outpost located on the orbital platforms over a planet called Tarsonis. After Raynor and the other crimson painted marines had finished fighting, he was going to report their successful mission on the orbital platform to Mengsk when they all received a very alarming transmission coming from general Edmund Duke himself "This is Duke, the Psi-Emitters are in place and ready for activation." he declared with a high and mighty tone. Although she had met a couple of members of the Duke family, Nova had never once met General Edmund Duke but she had heard that he had been a serious glory hound if nothing else while he was still alive.

Before Raynor could make his objections to this startling revelation known, another voice soon cut in. This person's voice was female and her tone contained a mix between both shock and horror "Who authorized the use of Psi-Emitters?!" the woman's voice who was identified through Raynor's memories as Sarah Kerrigan demanded. A few moments later another voice this one emitting an air of authority that Nova instantly recognized as emperor Arcturus Mengsk himself.

"I did lieutenant." upon hearing Mengsk's voice, the outraged voice of Sarah Kerrigan soon came back on the communications link "The Confederates on Antiga were bad enough, but you're going to use the Zerg against an entire planet? This is insane!" she declared. Jim Raynor was clearly horrified and sick to his stomach at the mere thought of unleashing the Zerg against an entire planet that was filled with over three billion innocent people!

Not wanting to see another massacre like the one on Antiga, Raynor spoke up in an attempt to talk some sense into Mengsk "She's right man, think this through." he pleaded but somehow Raynor knew that Mengsk had already made up his mind and the fate of everyone that lived on Tarsonis had just been decided "I have thought it through believe me, you all have your orders, carry them out," the man said without any real emotion in his voice at all.

Less than a day after the Psi-Emitters had been activated the Zerg arrived on Tarsonis en masse and over the next couple of days the Zerg overwhelmed the Confederate military with very little effort. Just a mere two or three days after the Zerg had arrived a Protoss armada followed in their wake. Unlike with the last several planets the Protoss didn't immediately obliterate the planet by bombarding it from orbit like they had done up until that point. Instead they sent in several ground based strike teams to engage the Zerg head on.

This didn't go over well with Mengsk who quickly became worried that the Confederate Old Families may use the opportunity provided to them by the attacking Protoss to try and escape. He ordered that Kerrigan head down to New Gettysburg and engage the Protoss, thereby buying the Zerg enough time to eliminate the remaining Confederates. Once Raynor and that reporter Michael Liberty had gotten wind about the mission, they immediately raced down to the planet below but they were too late, no trace of Kerrigan or the strike force that had gone with her remained.

The next memory was inside a ship, Raynor, Michael and Andrew the latter of whom was wearing a torn and partially bloodied T-shirt and jeans were looking at a holographic image of Mengsk who had a very pleased look on his face "Gentlemen you've all done very well. But remember we still have a job to do, the seeds of a new empire have been sewn and if we hope to reap-" Mengsk's little speech was cut off by Raynor who had a furious look on his face "To hell with you!" he all but shouted.

The calm, composed political mask Mengsk always wore was finally ripped off, exposing the ugly and evil being that had always lurked beneath the façade. The pleased expression on Mengsk's transformed almost instantly into one of anger "You're making a terrible mistake, don't even think about trying to cross me, I've sacrificed too much to let this fall apart!" he said obviously making a not so subtle threat towards everyone in the room. "You mean like how you sacrificed Kerrigan!?" Raynor demanded with absolute fury in his voice.

"You'll regret that, you don't seem to realize my situation here. I will not be stopped, not by the you, the Confederates, the Protoss or anyone! I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me, and if you even try to get in my way, I will-" Mengsk's rant was then stopped by Raynor who had angrily cut the transmission.

Nova brought herself out of the memories of the fall of Tarsonis and had a difficult time keeping the shock off of her face. Everything, everything that Andrew had said was true. There was no doubt about it now, emperor Mengsk was nothing more than a power hungry dictator. Even after Nova had seen that massacre being perpetrated by Ndoci and those under her command, she still had a few lingering doubts that the Dominion military had actually known about what had transpired on that colony and that the woman had just managed to cover her own tracks.

She was, also up until this point, very skeptical about Andrew's wild claims that Mengsk had managed to cause the destruction of Tarsonis by using the Zerg. But now it was clear that Mengsk may as well be the devil himself while Raynor was the decent human being just as Andrew had claimed.

She looked over at Andrew and saw that he was at the part where they were making their escape off of the planet Shi. Nova stood up and said "Is there a restroom nearby?" Raynor nodded before pointing over towards the door that was closest to them "Down the hall, first door on your right, it should be marked" he stated before Nova all but ran in that direction.

"What's with her?" asked Delta having noticed that Nova had seemed to have zoned out for a few minutes. Andrew didn't answer and instead looked over at Raynor and asked "You do realize that she was looking at your memories right?" Jim Raynor soon nodded as he refilled his glass once, Kerrigan had done something similar while she looked at a couple of his memories once when they were still with the Sons of Korhal as they left Antiga Prime "It was a little obvious that she was doing something along the lines of that, yeah" he said before downing part of the drink.

Andrew sighed, he knew that something like this would happen. For the past two years Nova had been fed the Dominion's lies and propaganda that had surrounded Raynor's Raiders like flies on a corpse. Although she wasn't even close to being as patriotic as Tosh was about the rising power in the Korprulu Sector, she had been under the impression that the Dominion was working for the betterment of all humanity. What she had just witnessed probably had turned her whole world upside down…again. It was obvious that the young woman would need some time alone to process all of the information that she had just been given.

Raynor however did feel a little bit violated that someone would go sifting through his memories like that but it was to be expected he supposed, Nova Terra had probably been force fed propaganda for a while now anyways and this whole situation was a huge shocker for her. 'Wait a minute' thought Raynor as a new piece of information just hit him, Andrew's lady friend's last name was 'Terra' maybe she was related to the…no that couldn't be, almost the entire Terra family line had been murdered in a terrorist attack back on Tarsonis two years ago and whatever had been left had more than likely been wiped out along with the rest of the Old Families when the Zerg overran the entire planet.

Before the rebel leader could get some confirmation, Andrew spoke up, apparently he had teeped his thoughts just a few moments before.

"In answer to your unasked question, yes she's the last remaining member of the Terra family and some of the additional passengers are members of the Old Families" Andrew explained having 'heard' his thoughts since Raynor wasn't really able to properly shield most of his surface thoughts. Delta knew that a lot of people hated the Old Families and it seemed that Raynor was no exception if his surface thoughts were anything to go by.

The twelve year old girl was about to come to Nova's defense but before she could utter a single word Raynor spoke up having apparently gotten over his initial shock over the fact that there were a few surviving members of the Confederate Old Families on board the Hyperion. "I thought I recognized that kid's name, well don't you worry about your friends we'll keep 'em safe until we meet up with the Umojans, they'll take them I'm sure, if only to piss off Mengsk if nothing else." Raynor explained.

Delta checked the man's thoughts and saw that he was indeed telling the truth, that is if the surface thoughts of his mind was anything to go by. The twelve year old telepath wanted to check deeper just to be safe but she didn't have the level of telepathy that Nova had and was therefore unable to breach Raynor's inner mental defenses. So Delta resolved to just wait and ask Nova what it was she had seen while she was looking in the so called terrorist's head.

Finally Delta gave the rebel leader a response "Thank you." Raynor gave the kid a small smile "Sure thing kiddo," he said before the door that Nova had exited out of just a few moments earlier, she appeared to have finished absorbing at least some of the new truths about the situation with the Dominion and Raynor's Raiders.

Andrew looked at Nova, a little concerned "Nova are you alright?" he asked already knowing that she probably wasn't. Everything she had thought to have been true had just been turned on its head. Nova didn't verbally respond and instead opted to just nod her head a little. Andrew looked like he was about to say something but before he could utter one syllable to Nova he stopped himself.

The girl needed some time to fully digest the truth of what she had just learned. The best thing that he could do at the moment was show Nova and their other guests on board the Hyperion where they were going to be staying until rendezvoused with the Umojans.

-Ghost Academy, Library-

After classes had ended Kath had left for the library in an attempt to get a few minutes of peace and quiet, as well as some time away from her newest teammates. When she had heard about the merging of team Red and Blue she wanted nothing more than to voice her own objections towards the decision, to make some kind of a protest against being on a team with that smug bastard Aal Cistler again.

Thankfully Kath had managed to keep herself from uttering so much as a single syllable in protest. It wouldn't have mattered if every single member of the newly formed team Grey had protested against it. Once director Bick's decisions had been made it was nearly impossible to dissuade him otherwise.

Now that both teams were combined Kath had felt the need to watch her back from both Aal and Dylanna, even more so than usual. The reason that she needed to watch out for Aal was pretty obvious, the guy fit the very definition of the words "son of a bitch" to a T. Although Kath had no proof, she was also more than positive that the bastard was somehow responsible for her father's current legal predicament.

After all he started to taunt her with her dad shortly after he informed her about those accounting irregularities with Sector Nine, even though there was no way Aal could've possibly known about the problems her father was facing. And with this latest news about her dad being arrested she couldn't stop picturing her father in her head, alone in some cold, dark prison cell somewhere.

Kath's eyes closed shut and she shook such thoughts away from her mind, her dad would be fine, he'd done nothing wrong and the cops that were investigating him would definitely find that out for themselves. However those kinds of thoughts didn't lift her spirits as much as she had hoped they would.

"Kath are you okay?" asked a kind yet strong voice that she recognized almost instantly. Gabriel Tosh. Kath's eyes opened and she saw Tosh looking at her with a concerned look. For a brief moment Kath found herself unable to say a word but soon found her voice "I-I'm fine, I'm just, thinking" she stated as she looked at the ground, not wanting to go into too much detail. "About your dad" he said as more of a statement rather than a question.

The young psionic looked back up at Tosh with a surprised look on her face and was about to ask him if he had taken a peek inside her head when he put up his hands defensively "I didn't exactly look in your head Kath, you were practically screaming it in your mind, I wouldn't be surprised if people in the other room could 'hear' you," he explained. Kath sighed, it seemed she needed to put some more time into improving her mental barriers.

"Try not to worry too much, your dad will probably be fine, I mean, from what you've told me, he doesn't really seem like the criminal type. Maybe an overstressed businessman but that's about it," Tosh said in an attempt at reassuring his friend. Kath almost sighed, it wasn't that she didn't believe that her father was the type to commit crimes for his own personal gain. No, she was much more worried about those who were investigating him.

Somehow she knew that when the Finance Minister's henchmen didn't find anything that could implicate her father, then they would quite possibly just manufacture evidence against her father from thin air. Besides even if they didn't do that, everyone knew that Aldeo Cistler (Aal Cistler's father) had a lot of sway in the Dominion government, especially in the judiciary courts. If her father's case did make it to court, Kath doubted that he would stand much of a chance.

Once again Kath shook those negative thoughts out of her mind. She needed something else to think about other than her dad's legal problems. In an attempt to clear her thoughts of her father's current legal predicament Kath turned her attention to Tosh "Hey Tosh what are you doing here exactly?" she asked.

For a moment Tosh looked somewhat hesitant to reply to that question. After a few seconds he took in a deep breath and responded "I just wanted to see how you were holding up after everything that's happened over the past week," he explained. It was true, ever since the deaths of their three other friends in that damned accident, she had bottled almost everything up inside her and didn't talk to anyone about how she had felt about what had happened.

Kath sighed "Honestly it's been a hell of a lot to try and take in, I mean Nova was just finally starting to act like a person rather than just some unhinged loner with a one track mind. I didn't really know much about Delta but she seemed like a good kid, and I think that we both know what I'm going to say about Andrew…" she trailed off letting Tosh fill in the blanks.

It was true, Andrew was a nice guy and he didn't deserve to die in some stupid accident, neither did Nova and Delta either for that matter. The dark skinned girl then continued "And director Bick and superintendent Sarco are only making things worse by making us have to deal with Dylanna, Aal and their little gang almost constantly" she finished with a sigh.

Kath also didn't bother mentioning the fact that Dylanna had been making it obvious during the past couple of days that she didn't like Kath. This was odd, considering that Dylanna had originally focused almost all of her anger out on Nova rather than Kath, why was Dylanna targeting her now?

As she tried to come up with some kind of a reason as to why Dylanna was being more of a bitch than usual to Kath lately, the dark haired young woman was brought out of her thoughts by Tosh whose face had an unusually nervous expression on it. For a brief moment Kath wondered why that was considering that Tosh almost never looked nervous.

However her unasked question was soon answered by the next sentence out of Tosh's mouth "I was kind of wondering if you wanted to go and hangout in the courtyard for a little while?" he asked hopefully. Kath looked up at the big guy and gave him a playful grin "Oh really, and is the fact that the sun is just about ready to set have anything to do with this request of yours?" she asked teasingly.

Tosh all but sputtered out a small "Yes" to which Kath let out a small giggle, the rare look of nervousness on Tosh's face was nearly priceless "Alright big guy come on before we miss the sunset" she said before grabbing one of his muscular arms and proceeded to drag him towards the entrance to the courtyard.

-Hyperion, Guest Quarters-

Andrew had just shown the Hyperion's new guests to their temporary housing. The room that the surviving Old Family members had been given wasn't all that much to look at. There were two sets of bunk beds, a dresser, a moderately sized bathroom with showers and a sink, and last but not least a small kitchen that had a small table placed in the middle of it.

After allowing the guests a few moments to take in their new temporary living arrangements Andrew spoke up "I know it's definitely not a five star hotel but it's probably a hell of a lot better than your previous living conditions." Antonia Tygore let out a small chuckle "Considering that we had to live in very small cramped spaces for the past several months and be hunted by the Zerg for several weeks, this room is a five star hotel in comparison," she joked. Everyone shared a small laugh at that one.

Despite the fact that they were safe for the moment, the four remaining members of the Old Families still had a lot on their minds. Where were they going to go from here? Who would take them in given their family histories? And the most pressing of them all: How were they going to stay alive with their parents' number one enemy in charge of perhaps the most powerful Terran faction in the Korprulu Sector who would probably like nothing more than having all of their heads mounted on pikes?

Given that they had no training in keeping their thoughts private to any telepath that may be listening in, Andrew 'heard' every word that they were thinking about. It was probably an endless nightmare for them. They found themselves rescued from one group of monsters only to find themselves being hunted by another one that was more determined that they die. Eventually Andrew decided to try and calm their nerves as best he could and spoke up "Don't worry, Raynor's already contacting the Umojans, I'm sure that they'd be willing to give you all political asylum from the Dominion"

The surviving heirs to the Old Families looked over at Andrew with surprised looks on their faces "Did you-" started Rockham before Andrew held up a hand in the universal sign to stop "I didn't have to, you're practically screaming those kinds of thoughts in your minds that I'd be surprised if the walls couldn't hear you," Andrew stated. Rockham and the others didn't really know how to respond to that but Morgan still had a question "But how do you know that the Umojans will be any happier to see us than the Dominion would be?" he asked.

Andrew gave Morgan a shrug "I can't really say that they'll end up throwing you guys a party or anything but they hate the Terran Dominion almost as much as we do and so they'll probably be willing to give you political asylum if only to annoy the hell out of Mengsk some more," he said almost nonchalantly as he turned to leave the four other teens to their thoughts.

Right before he took a step outside the door he said "If there's anything you need to know just ask one of the Hyperion's crewmembers" that having been said, Andrew walked out the door, letting it slide to a close right behind him. Andrew then headed for his own quarters that was only a dozen meters down the hall from where he was standing. It had been a long day and he was more than content to go and get some much needed rest.

In another room near the one that Andrew had only just left, Nova and Delta were attempting to settle into their new environment. While Delta had already fallen asleep on the lower bunk within a few minutes of getting into it, Nova was still on top looking up at the cold, hard, metal plated ceiling that was just a few feet above her. Her mind still swimming through the information that she had been given. After she had excused herself during Andrew's debriefing she went to the restroom because it would allow her the chance to gather her thoughts and try to come to grips with what it was she had just seen.

Now that Nova had though, she knew that she had to join the Raiders, to fight the Dominion. What Mengsk had done on Tarsonis and everything that followed was appalling to say the least. That insane bastard needed to be put down before he could destroy anyone else's life in the name of his mad ambitions. Nova had to tell Andrew and Raynor about her decision to stay aboard the Hyperion and help fight against the Dominion before they rendezvoused with the Umojans. That only left Delta, who Nova was unsure would stay with them despite Nova having told her what she had seen while in Raynor's mind.

Despite the dangers, Nova actually hoped that the girl would join Raynor's Raiders as well, mainly because Delta had become something akin to the little sister that Nova never had. Then there was Andrew Cole, he had saved the two of them from a lifetime of mindless service to a ruthless dictator and because of the near suicidal missions that Ghosts were sent on they were given a very short life expectancy, with this in mind, Delta would probably be dead within a couple of months after her graduation from the Ghost Academy.

The moment that that disturbing thought entered her mind Nova immediately started to make her way off of the bunk as quietly as she possibly could, so she wouldn't inadvertently wake up Delta. Once she was at the door leading into the room she pushed the open button on the side of the wall and walked out into the hallways of the Hyperion. The hallways had much better lighting than the ones of the freighter that they had been living in for the past several days. However it wasn't nearly as quiet. There were many stray surface thoughts of people being broadcasted. From those that were already sleeping to those who were working part of the graveyard shift.

However Nova managed to block out most of these thoughts and simply continued on to Andrew's quarters and as she got closer she once again started to think of the young man she had met a little over a month earlier. Lately, Nova had begun to just feel happy merely by being around him. It was like his presence of being near her had an uplifting effect of some kind and whenever she felt this way, her heart rate would increase by a small margin. It was a strange feeling and it felt confusing at times.

Nova, realizing that she was close to Andrew's room, pushed those thoughts out of her mind and walked over to the door before proceeding to knock a few times on it. As the blond telepath did this she hoped that Andrew wasn't already asleep and that she was just waking him up. A few seconds later the door slid open and Andrew stepped out of his room with a curious look on his face.

"Nova, What are you doing up? I thought you'd be asleep by now" he asked curiously. For a moment Nova wondered the same thing, he didn't look like he had been sleeping and he was still clad in his Ghost armor. However Nova shook those thoughts from her head and instead decided that it would be best to simply get straight to the point of why she had come.

"I want to join the Raynor's Raiders" she declared, certainty and determination in her voice.

To be continued

A/N: I know it's shorter than most of my chapters and I hate to leave you at a cliffhanger but I thought that I'd kept my loyal readers waiting long enough.