A/N

It's hard to say about how I feel about the storyline of StarCraft: Ghost. On one hand, we're set to recieve it either way in the novel Spectres, which is a relief for me. On the other, I would have loved to play the game too. On one hand, it's being written by DeCandido, who did an excellent job with Nova. On the other, DeCandido's strength lies in world building rather than action-based narrative and having a Division of 22 individuals makes me wonder... Still, he fixed up his knowledge of such matters in time for the novelization of Tiberium Wars.

Regardless, this is a fanon take into the nature of Project Shadow Blade, that which leads/has led to the creation of the Spectres. It's been a bumpy road (the full story is in my profile) but I've decided to post it.

StarCraft: Shadow Blade

Subject: Project Shadow Blade

From: Commander Richard Walker

To: Classified

Entry 1: Arrival

Relative Date: January 8, 2502

The following is a report on Project Shadow Blade as per the request of Dominion Intelligence Section (DIS). This report has been made by Commander Richard Walker.

/Begin Transcript/

Even now I can recall the stale air of the Dropship, the air scrubbers either not working or being so ineffectual that the result was just the same. Dr. Alexander Ashcroft sat opposite me, though for all intents and purposes, he may as well have not been there, caught up in the research paper he was reading. Even in the gloom of the ship, I could make out his emerald eyes and gray hair. Dyed, of course. Nature occasionally throws defects into human development, but having gray hair at the age of twenty was something that I'd never heard of.

And considering what evolution has gifted the human mind with, if such a condition did exist, I think the trade would still be more than fair…

The pair of us had been assigned to the facility only a few days ago. The facility was nameless, not existing on the official level. The planet itself was somewhat more difficult to hide, but lacking a name in turn or even an alpha numeric designation, it wouldn't be appearing on a star map anytime soon.

Of course, I'd gotten used to this cloak and dagger stuff long ago. That was how the Ghost Program operated, developing psychic assassins to serve the Terran Confederacy. The existence of the Program had never been hidden from the general public but its intricacies weren't advertised either. Rumors of the Confederacy possessing psionic special forces spread throughout the Koprulu Sector but the Confederacy was already far ahead of its Umojan and Morian counterparts in technology, weapons among them. What did it matter if it had one more?

I can only guess that the Dominion considered it a vital matter, considering the overhaul that Arcturus Mengsk gave the Program. Completely confidential, relocated to Ursa, mind wipes becoming SOP… A former virtual simulation supervisor in the Confederate era, I was lucky to avoid the firing squad of the Executioner's Guild. It was thus even more surprising when I was assigned to an even more secret project, one that would take the Ghosts to the next level…

This was Project Shadow Blade, administered by General Horace Warfield. And as Ashcroft's notes no doubt told him, the key to its success was a gas known as terrazine…

We got off the Dropship together, having landed in an underground hanger. The Director was waiting for us, going by the name of Jones. I didn't ask any questions and nor did he. We walked 

as one and headed into a lift that would take us deeper into the facility. I don't recall exactly how long it took for us to reach the bottom level and didn't bother to watch the display, my mind on other things. Ashcroft had his head in his notes, acting as if neither of us were there. I don't think he intended to snuff us out of his little world, but he never had time for the little people. And given the subject matter, I could understand his interest.

Terrazine was the subject matter, a substance that borders between gas and plasma. In layman's terms, its atoms were ionized, but the electrons were not free from the protons and neutrons. However, electricity is still generated in terrazine and for some reason seemed attracted to the human brain upon ingestion of the gas. The theory held that it moved through iron in the blood to the brain where much of the body's electric energy is generated. This is similar to the process of active transport as opposed to the likes of diffusion and osmosis. Yet this was electric energy as opposed to matter.

Even now terrazine's properties continue to baffle our scientists, but its results back then could not be questioned. Inhaling terrazine was often fatal to a normal human, his or her brain frying itself due to the amount of electric energy. With those of a Psi Index of 5 or higher however and therefore possessing true psionic powers, there was a marked increase in their psychic abilities. However, the gas was too unstable to give any lasting effect, the individual's PI always returning to its original level after a matter of minutes.

Terrazine was useless as a chemical weapon due to the issue of reacting with surrounding elements. Similar in effect to cesium or francium coming into contact with oxygen, but without the lightshow. However, the concept of increasing a human's psionic ability was an enticing one. Much of the human body is kept in a state of equilibrium through homeostasis. And if that equilibrium could be adjusted to allow terrazine to bond with the subject's blood stream and consequently increase their psionic potential in the long term…

That was what Shadow Blade was all about. To create something even more powerful and deadly than what the Ghost Program could offer.

Of course, it would take time to make terrazine stable enough for this to occur and no short amount of test subjects would be required, all of them psionic. Mengsk had understood this and still given the go-ahead "for the good of humanity". Truth be told, I can't say that I possessed the same amount of conviction. The Ghost Program was a necessary evil. This however, was something else entirely…

We finally reached the bottom level, walking through a high security corridor before reaching our core test subject. Although cryogenic hibernation had made it hard to see, I could tell that the subject was male, in his early teens. According to Jonas, he'd been conscripted into the Ghost Program from a Fringe World, but an accident had landed him in a coma. Considering that Mengsk wanted results ASAP, he must have seen fit to hand the boy over to our own project, hoping to make good of him rather than let him spend the rest of his life as a vegetable.

Ashcroft had finally looked up from his notes by this point, uttering something that was either a curse or praise. As for myself…it pains me to say this, but looking at the kid made my doubts 

evaporate, coming to believe that there was little moral ambiguity in experimenting on someone…no, something so helpless and unaware. I knew that there was no turning back from here. I'd shook hands with the devil, but the ice of the child's tube could lessen the burns of hell's fire.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Warfield had this planned?