“Do you require any further aid?” In front of Jean, Nyon was so happy that he was willing to go out of the deal and help Jean do something else. He felt like he got more than he did. As far as he could see, 24 capital ships were worth much more than a weak, almost pointless, piece of mech and some useless information.

As a Tal’darim, he didn’t really value fairness, but an uneven trade was the seed to a fractured alliance. Nyon needed Jean. In fact, after having a taste of her out of the box tactics, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to not have her help. After slaughtering 24 ships with wild tactics and brilliant timing, attacking them straight on and destroying them with pure firepower seemed stupid.

Jean nodded. “I am sending you a set of coordinates. I need a fleet or two over there with sufficient ground forces to take down a contingent of Daelaam templar. I no longer need all your ships, though.” Unlike Glacius, Endion wasn’t really heavily defended. Jean didn’t need ninety ships to take it.

Nyon nodded and passed down the orders before returning to face Jean. “What do you suggest me do next? Challenge someone?”

After taking over all two Daelaam fleets, Nyon’s ambition was growing. Centuries of experience with the chain of ascension demanded him to ascend as much as possible as soon as possible. He wanted to challenge someone, defeat him, and become one step closer to the seat of Highlord.

“You need allies.” Jean hinted. “Establish an alliance with some of the top ascendants. As far as I can tell from the information you gave me, Highlord Ma’lash and Second Ascendant Guraj are in alliance. First Ascendant Nuroka and Third Ascendant Zenish are in alliance. Fourth Ascendant Alarak and Fifth Ascendant Ji’nara are in alliance. You can’t be a force of your own or all the alliances will try to take you out and replace you with someone they can control. I suggest you side with Alarak and Ji’nara.”

“Why?”

“If you join Ma’lash or Nuroka, you will be the one with the least fleet. As a result you will have the lowest status and earn the fewest prize if a victory was achieved. On the other hand, Alarak and Ji’nara are only slightly above you. They don’t have the overwhelming power, so they need to respect you and give you whatever you demand to keep you on their side. Plus, Ma’lash and Nuroka are in direct competition. Siding with one means going against the other. Alarak and Ji’nara are relatively neutral. Neither Ma’lash nor Nuroka will risk making three top ascendants join the other side.”

“But can I challenge someone? I feel like I’m strong enough to crush Ji’nara.” Nyon said, slightly unsatisfied by Jean’s advise.

“It’s risky. If you want to be defeated in a duel and die a painful death, then go for it.”

“Fine.” Nyon finally complied.

Jean turned off the comm and entered a set of coordinates into her dropship. Just seconds later, the ship was gone.

---

Endion.

This jungle planet used to be a protoss research outpost where the top scientists came together and developed new weapons of war. After the Purifiers were defeated, the Purifier vessel Cybros was put into stasis above this planet. 800,000 Khala and a contingent of templar were positioned here with the task of updating the stasis field.

And now they have became a threat to Jean’s mission.

Jean was out of units for the time being. The mercenary fleet was destroyed by the Dominion. The Warden Fleet was still in the process of being upgraded. She didn’t even have a single battlecruiser. All she had was a dropship and a couple warbots and the Warden units in her watch.

Thankfully, Jean had support from a very helpful Ascendant.

One carrier and twelve destroyers appeared in orbit of the planet. The leading ascendant didn’t know why he was tasked with destroying this place, but then again the Tal’darim didn’t need a reason to kill. Plus, it was Nyon’s orders, and that was enough.

The small fleet descended on the planet. Hundreds of Daelaam phoenixes and scouts lifted off into the air and started dashing toward the Tal’darim, but they were quickly overwhelmed. War prisms deployed supplicants onto the planet’s surface. The templar fought back, but they were slaughtered.

As the protoss were pushed back, Jean landed her dropship at one of the stasis web terminals. The Megalith came out. When the Tal’darim seize the mech, the phase smith overwrote the control and gave Jean a way to move it. Otherwise there was no way a human being like Jean could control a piece of protoss technology.

Two Daelaam zealots noticed Jean and charged forward. The next second they were tackled by half a dozen Tal’darim zealots. Jean didn’t even flinch.

The Megalith entered the terminal, and Jean simply waited. Half an hour later, when all the Daelaam on the planet were either dead or dying, Jean finally heard the notice she was waiting for.

The next second the stasis field that surrounded the Cybros was nowhere to be seen.

---

The Tal’darim fleet has already been sent back to Slayn. Jean didn’t think they would try something they shouldn’t be trying, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She had no intention of going through all the trouble to activate the Purifiers just so a Tal’darim ascendant could backstab her and take the Purifiers for himself.

After she gained control of the Cybros, she warped it to a set of coordinates in a remote area. For what she needed to do, she needed privacy, and she wasn’t exactly ready to be jumped on by the entire Golden Armada, which was surely on the way. The Tal’darim were ruthless, but even they couldn’t slaughter 800,000 Daelaam without letting a single one of them send out a distress call.

As Jean walked down the bright yellow floor of the Cybros, she was thinking about how she could put the Purifiers under her total control.

There were two types of Purifiers. The first type was made up of the personalities of fallen warriors being installed into Purifier shells. They were the strongest ones, but Jean knew there was no way she could make the proud templar serve her. Ancient warriors, like executor Clolarian, the commander of the Purifiers and the one that lead the rebellion against the conclave, would die before serving a terran.

It was the second type of Purifiers that intrigued Jean. This type consisted of simple AIs. They could fight and have a decent type of intelligence, but that was it. In the end they were still machines, and Jean was good with machines. She was confident she could alter some of their codes and make them loyal servants of her, just like the Warden units.

Thankfully, these units made up 99.99 percent of the Purifier army. Type one Purifiers were commanders, captains, and strike teams, whereas type two were actual foot soldiers. Jean could easily replace the type ones and still have a functional army.

Jean started digging into all the resources she had. She already had some general knowledge about the Purifiers, a gift of the Supreme One. The Glacius facility was created to do research on the Purifiers, and Jean had all the knowledge it held.

It didn’t take Jean long to come up with a way.

Purifier units were linked to each other via a Purifier data web. Every Purifier was connected to each other. When one Purifier shell fell in battle, the conscious it held could be passed through the web into a fresh shell. It was also how Purifiers communicated with each other and how their commands were delivered.

More importantly, type two AIs were designed to obey the command of type one personalities. This was their top priority. This was how they were programmed. During the rebellion, it was the type one Purifiers that felt they were unevenly treated and decided to rebel. In fact, type two AIs didn’t really have the intelligence to do an uprising. But the moment Clolarian turned against the Khala Conclave, his will was passed down to every single unit within the Purifier army, and every single type two Purifier obeyed his order without a single question.

If Jean could put one of the type one personalities under her control and designate him as the leader of the Purifiers, she could effective command the Purifier legions. That personality might not get the maximum level security clearance, but all the type one AIs were in stasis, which should allow him to advanced unopposed.

But Jean knew very well there was no way she could make a type one AI submit to her. She had no leverage. Purifiers couldn’t be tortured. They couldn’t be manipulated by love or hate. They rarely have any desire. Even if they did, Jean wouldn’t be the one to help them achieve it. If they found out what Jean did, killing the Daelaam and allying with the Tal’darim, she would be the first person they purify. The Purifiers rebelled against the Khala, but in the bottom of their heart they still considered themselves as proud templars.

However, if she could make up a brand new personality, one that doesn’t belong to protoss, the story would be different.

Jean turned to the data she had and started working.

It wasn’t an easy process. Jean was extremely clever. In fact, she was a genius. Her talent surpassed the best of the terran scientists and engineers, but the task she had in front of her was simply enormous.

Days turned into weeks. Jean spent most of her time working and only ate and slept when it was absolutely necessary to keep her mind clear. Luckily, she kept a ton of food and other living supply in her watch in case she was stranded, and these items kept her from starving to death.

---

Meanwhile, a dropship landed at a space platform in a remote area.

As soon as the ship landed, dozens of mercenaries surrounded it. Their weapons were raised, but the next second all of them was lifted into the air. Their rifles fell on the ground, and their bodies were paralyzed.

A female ghost walked out of the dropship. Her eyes were blue from using psionic energy.

“Bring me Tosh...”

“Miss Viper.” Half a minute later, when the marines were gradually choking to their death, a deep male voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Tosh’s figure emerged from the shadows immediately after. “I don’t recall inviting you here.”

Viper’s eyes returned to her normal color, and the marines collapsed on the ground. Some of them reached for their weapon once again, but Tosh merely waved his hand, and the marines backed off, leaving the scene to the two psionic warriors.

“Jean was captured by the Dominion. Dominion Special Forces hit our place two weeks ago. They obliterated our fleet. I got out, but Jean...she was captured.”

Tosh frowned, silently calculating the benefits and price. “Then we should stage a rescue mission, but if the capture happened two weeks ago, Miss Turner is either dead or held under heavy security. We can’t…”

“Jean is dead.”

During the last moments before the Special Forces reached the bridge, Jean told Viper she would pretend to be captured and then break out. Viper didn’t agree and wanted to fight a way out. She knew they couldn’t make it out in one piece, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, especially for someone she loved. She would rather fight until the end than leave Jean behind to face danger by herself.

Jean knew that as well, which was why she didn’t give Viper a choice. Viper was knocked out by one of the blood hunters from behind. When she woke up again, she was inside a crimson Tal’darim vessel.

When she heard what happened from the blood hunters, Viper was devastated. Jean had her knocked out and proceeded with her plan. A part of her was pissed at Jean for ignoring her opinion, but the rest knew it was the wisest decision.

The ghost had the blood hunters take her to a secondary mercenary platform. For days she waited for Jean’s return. She told herself there was nothing to worry about. Jean will survive. She always survives. Orlan didn’t stop her. New Folsom didn’t stop her. A couple Dominion fleets couldn’t stop her either. Sooner or later she would return to her with a smile on her face. It was just a matter of time.

That hope was cruelly shattered when she got tired of waiting, hacked into the Dominion security network, and found a report. The battlecruiser transporting Jean was under attack in warp space. Viper was glad when she saw that. She was less glad when she saw the part about the battlecruiser being piloted to crash into the Sky Shield. It was destroyed in the process. The only survivors from the ship were hundreds of Special Forces personnel.

Agent Nova reported the prisoner, Jean Turner, still being on the ship when it was blown to pieces.

Jean Turner was dead.

Vper didn’t know what exactly happened, and she knew it didn’t matter. The love of her life was gone, and there was nothing she could do but stay back and watch.

A normal girl would be in tears, but Viper was a highly trained ghost operative. Instead of taking that pain out with tears, she turned the pain into her weapon.

A weapon she would use against the Dominion. Against Tosh. Against Raynor. Against anyone and everyone that turned against her love.

There was a special bond between Jean and Viper. For most of Viper’s life, she was being treated as a tool. An instrument. Ever since she was a child, a neural inhibitor sealed off any sense of feeling she had. She didn’t know love. She didn’t know pleasure. All she knew was how to kill someone most efficiently.

When the neural inhibitor chip inside her failed, Viper fell into a wandering state. She had no purpose. She no longer had a mission to accomplish, a target to terminate, an order to obey. All she had in mind was enjoy her life in a bar and drown herself with alcohol until someone finds her and kills her.

And then Jean came.

Jean was the first entity that went into Viper’s hollow heart. Like a knight in shining armor, she came down from the sky and entered her life. Immediately, Viper had someone. Someone who cared about her. This was no longer a commander who desired her ability to kill, or a man who wanted her body, or a comrade who she was tasked with working with. This was someone who she could joke with. Someone she could flirt with. Someone she trusted.

At first the relationship between Jean and her was purely out of interest. Jean made Viper a mercenary leader. Viper helped Jean with her mercenaries. But things changed as they worked together more and more. They turned from allies to friends to lovers.

The desire for the flesh was just a small part. What really connected them was the emotional attachment Viper had on Jean.

And now Jean was dead, killed by the Terran Dominion.

Coming here to Tosh was just the first step to avenge her.

Tosh rose his eyebrows and touched the rifle he carried on his back. “That’s unfortunate.” He didn’t know what the heartbroken ghost would do. If she suddenly attacked him with everything she had, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Viper smirked sadly. “Jean died because she helped you.”

Tosh looked into Viper’s blue eyes. “She knew the risk. It was a deal, and the consequence was hers to pay.”

The ghost tilted her head. She was tired of seeing the large man’s face, and she decided to skip all the words and get to the point.

“I want to enter Project Shadowblade.”

“I want to become a spectre.”