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StarCraft: The New Order

Chapter 5: Ghosts of Koprulu

They're out there. Messages. Ghosts of radio transmissions drifting forever, wanders among a sea of stars, echoes of worlds and lives gone before. Sometimes they're detected. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're transcribed. Sometimes they're discarded. Sometimes they're lengthy, sometimes they're brief.

And sometimes they go like this...

Coronation of Emperor Arcturus I, Emperor of the Terran Dominion

Terran Dominion Throne World Korhal

Fellow terrans. I come to you in the wake of recent events to issue a call to reason. Let no human deny the perils of our time...

This is a message meant to be heard. Like most of them, it is sent to live and die among the stars, to live on in the minds of Men, to be recorded by human hands and technology. But some messages are not meant for this. Some recordings are far more personal. Recordings such as...

"Personal audio log of James Raynor, March 4th, 2500."

And thus the messages play...

While we battle one another, divided by the petty strife of our common history, a tide of greater conflict is turning against us, threatening to destroy all that we have accomplished.

"I don't know why I'm doing this. Why I'm fighting Mengsk. The zerg are still out there with the protoss right behind them. What good will fighting fellow terrans do?"

It is time for us as nations and as individuals to set aside our long-standing feuds and unite. The tides of an unwinnable war are upon us, and we must seek refuge upon higher ground, lest we be swept away by the flood.

"Mengsk has the Koprulu Sector united with him as their ruler. I'm in the oddity. It doesn't matter whether they're truly loyal to Mengsk or not, all that matters is that they are. And in light of all that's happened, who can blame them?"

The Confederacy is no more. Whatever semblance of unity and protection it once provided is a phantom, a memory. With our enemies left unchecked, who will you turn to for protection?

"Protecting people...that's my mandate, or at least was back on Mar Sara. And right now, the Dominion represents the largest armed force in this sector. So if I go against it, doesn't that mean I go against my mandate?"

The devastation wrought by the alien invaders is self-evident. We have seen our homes and communities destroyed by the calculated blows of the protoss. We have seen our friends and loved ones consumed by the nightmarish zerg. Unprecedented and unimaginable though they be, these are the signs of our time.

"And what's the greater evil anyway? Mengsk sparked genocide, but the zerg have done that many times over. And while the protoss don't seem to want us out, or at least Tassadar didn't back on Antiga Prime and Tarsonis, there's no guarantee he's the rule rather than the exception. So how much of a threat is the Dominion anyway?"

The time has come my fellow terrans to rally to a new banner.

"But then again, I asked myself that about the Confederacy."

In unity lies strength; already many of the dissident factions have joined us.

"And I fought against it. Not because of a grudge, not because I owed Mengsk for saving me back on Mar Sara..."

Out of the many we shall forge an indivisible whole, capitulating only to a single throne. And from that throne, I shall watch over you.

"I fought the Confederacy because it was the right thing to do. Because it was an empire governed by the few at the expense of the many. Because it was a regime founded on the blood of the innocent. It was something akin to the Dominion...something that can't last.

From this day forward let no human make war upon any other human.

"Yes, I'll be fighting my fellow Man."

Let no terran agency conspire against this new beginning.

"Yes, I'll be labelled as a terrorist."

And let no man consort with alien powers.

Yes, I know I'm not a leader.

And to all the enemies of humanity, seek not to bar our way.

"But I have to do what's right. I have to put humanity before myself. I have to do what Mengsk refused to do."

For we shall win through, no matter the cost!

"And if I do that...I can live with myself. I can keep my dreams at bay..."

These are the messages of humanity.

These are the ghosts of Koprulu.

These are the signals which stand in contrast to others. Others such as a telepathic message originating from Char. A message which goes like this...

"Jim...Jim..."

Such are the words of Sarah Kerrigan...

The End

A/N

Update (2013-10-13): Changed Raynor's date from July to March, as per Blizzard's timeline retcon.