Chapter 1

Consumed by the blinking lights and dials, lieutenant
Robert "Meatball" Mitchell sat in the seat of his
Goliath MK-2. The darkness of the hanger covered
everything outside the glimmering lights of the
controls in his cockpit. He had turned the auxiliary
power on to do a systems check on his unit after it
had been delivered to the star-port earlier that
afternoon. His eyes were tired and the effect of the
coffee he had had an hour ago was wearing off. At
thirty years it seemed that his body did not react to
sleep deprivation as well as it used to in his

As the combined forces of the Protoss, the Terran Dominion, and the UED were defeated atop the space platforms above Char, a man watched in terror. He saw the remnants of the United Earth Directorate flee the platform, only to be chased by the Zerg. He saw the bright flashes of the Protoss psychic abilities, and the deep blue spherical warp portals as the Protoss warriors began to retreat via recall. His own men, being relentlessly slaughtered by the Zerg. He had been defeated, once again. The words echoed through his mind.

James Raynor awoke with a startle. He was dreaming about what had happened to him throughout the past. He dreamed about his long lost friends, like Fenix. He dreamed of happier times on Mar Sara as a Marshal. None of these had been anything new to him, however there was one thing he dreamed about...The Zerg. They were not as he saw them in real life; savage butchers of Humanity. Instead they seemed intelligent, like maybe they knew and had control of their actions after all. Raynor assumed these weird dream would have to have been some effect of the sleep pills he takes now.

Matthew yelled loudly, smoke filling the room. The building had turned into an inferno, so hot even metal was melting away. He ran through a hallway and into a small room, but cried out in dismay when he saw the window was blocked. He gave up then, not knowing what to do. He sat down in the corner, hoping for a miracle, that he would be saved by someone. It was then he realized that miracles do happen.

STARCRAFT2: The War of Ecumene.

Prologue: The sleeping power.

It was night. Perhaps the events would have fitted better a dead planet but this one was not. It had a developed ecology and there, in a quiet, deserted place, stood sarcophagi.

Thousands of them.

A single creature stood in their midst and reflected. He thought of the past. His most recent name was Samir Duran, of the Terrans. Before that, He had, as he said, many names.

He recalled the most important ones.