StarCraft: Ghost: Nova

StarCraft: Ghost: Nova is a StarCraft universe novel that was released in November, 2006. It was delayed from its original release date of April, 2006, the previously projected release date of StarCraft: Ghost. The novel was authored by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

It covers the events of Nova's early life; most of the story takes place during StarCraft Episode I but some parts extend to the StarCraft: Ghost storyline.

Prologue
Nova, a young Ghost who was finishing her training, had been dropped via degradable drop-pod onto Tyrador VIII as part of the graduation excercise given to her by Terran Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk himself. Her equipment did not include the full loadout of a Ghost (she could not cloak, nor could she use an ability to enhance her speed, as her suit didn't have such circuitry). She was hunting Cliff Nadaner, the man who ordered the murder of her family. She didn't know if Mengsk knew this, but she was eager for revenge. However, she had been hunting him for days without success; now she realized that Nadaner was hiding in a "dead zone" that prevented sensory equipment from finding him. Nova used her psychic powers to find him instead. She realized that today was her eighteenth birthday, almost exactly three years after the murders; she also remembered her birthday party...

The Party
Constantino Terra and his wife Annabella "Bella" Terra are throwing the fifteenth birthday party for their daughter November "Nova" Terra in their skyscraper in Tarsonis City, Tarsonis. It is an extravagant affair attended by at least three members of each of the aristrocratic Old Families and multiple gossip reporters.

During the party, Constantino Terra is distracted by thoughts of the Universe News Network broadcasts on the "alien horrors of the Sara system". Due to his high security clearance, Mr. Terra was cleared to know that there were two alien species, and that the Zerg had been the subjects of Confederate research. Terra had opposed this research, but didn't get his way.

He is then accosted by his vice president, Lia Emmanuel, who has very bad news for him. While something of an anti-social business zealot, she wouldn't intrude on his daughter's party unless there was an emergency. She had two.

First was the destruction of Terra's factory in Palombo Valley by the Sons of Korhal. Arcturus Mengsk had planned well; his forces set explosives in the greatest concentrations of people and in the most expensive equipment. Due to the attacks of the Sons of Korhal and aliens, there was an economic downturn, and even the wealthy Terra was hurting financially, but this plant was producing hoverbikes which were extremely popular and keeping him afloat. He had to rebuilt this factory to stay solvent, but he wouldn't be able to pay death benefits to the families of the dead employees if he did so - which was exactly what Mengsk was counting on. Due to the placement of the explosives, Terra believed this was an inside job. Mengsk made a broadcast at the time of the attack, condemning the Old Families of Tarsonis.

Second, Emmanuel told him about the destruction of Chau Sara's sister planet, Mar Sara, by the Protoss.

Terra had to keep many secrets due to his security clearance. His mistress, Eleftheria, wasn't cleared to know about the Protoss, for instance. He did, however, tell her that Nova was psychic (albeit untrained); Nova didn't know she was psychic (believing she was simply "empathic") and couldn't discern which employees were untrustworthy.

Spooked by the attack on his factory, Constantino Terra comments to Eleftheria that his family isn't safe from terrorism. His home is even less well-defended than his businesses, which were destroyed in part due to collaborators. He tells Eleftheria he will go ahead with "the plan".

Meanwhile, Nova was learning new things about herself when she was able to read the mind of an Old Family "suitor", Morgan Calabas. She hadn't been able to do this before.

Aftermath
Constantino Terra heard about the events at Antiga Prime through a news report by Michael Liberty. Unfortunately, the report had been doctored into Confederate propoganga (this is an infamous doctored broadcast which is featured in StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade). The false report stated that Arcturus Mengsk was using chemical weapons against the civilians and had captured Confederate General Edmund Duke, "reprogramming" him through the use of drugs. Terra knew the report was false, but didn't seem to realize that it wasn't Liberty's fault. He knew the actual details from a more accurate report, which had crystallized "the plan" in his mind ... he would send Nova to a resort on Tyrador IX to get her away from Tarsonis. Unfortunately, he didn't tell his Annabella Terra this; she is quite angry at him because Nova feared she was being sent to a "reeducation center" (due to a false rumor). Fortunately, Annabella agrees with his reasoning, and they explain to Nova the true reason for the trip.

At first, Nova didn't want to go, and received unexpected support in this matter from Edward Peters, but Constantino was adamant that she go. He explained that she was being sent to a resort along with several other heirs to Old Families. Each of the Old Families taking part of the plan would send one person. Unfortunately, the Calabas family chose to send their son, Morgan.

The Attack
Three days after the attack on the Palombo Valley plant, Nova was set to leave Tarsonis on a shuttle, called a "Puddle Jumper"; she would then be taken by space yacht to Tyrador IX. Once again she was able to read Morgan Calabas' thoughts (unfortunately, he decided to sit beside her) but she also began to feel disturbing thoughts coming from her parents, who were in the Terra Skyscraper nearby.

The Terra family was attacked by a number of rebels; this cell was led by Edward Peters and included some of the Terra servants. Peters ordered his minion, Gustavo McBain to personally kill Constantino, Bella, Zeb and Eleftheria. Then Peters himself pointed a gun at Nova. She suffered a psychic flare of some kind...

The Detective
The Tarsonis Police Force arrived on the scene, accompanied by former TPF detective Malcolm Kelerchian, now a Wrangler (telepath hunter). There were only a few police officers at the scene because six other Old Families were also attacked by terrorists (although those attacks were largely unsuccessful). Hundreds of people near the Terra Skyscraper had been killed through the use of telepathy, and signs of telekinetic attacks were also present. However, there was old-fashioned murder as well; several of the victims had been killed with guns. Kelerchian realized that a terrorist attack had been interrupted by a telepath, and after a brief investigation he realizes that November Terra is the culprit, who probably unleashed her psychic powers after seeing Edward Peters, her "second father" betray her family. Nova had no psychic training, which would explain why no one but her family knew of her powers; only the Old Families could keep a secret like that from the Ghost program.

Kelerchian was removed from the case by his boss, Ghost Program Director Ilsa Killiany, and ordered to hunt the psychic down because the Terran Confederacy desperately needed such powerful psychics. Kelerchian figured that Nova would flee to the Gutter, to be as far from her former life as possible.

Agent of the Gutter
Shortly after arriving in the Gutter, Nova ran into two men who attempted to rape her. They were unsuccessful; Nova severely injured them with her telekinetic abilities. The two goons worked for Julius Antoine "Fagin" Dale, the crime lord of the Gutter. Fagin decided he would "acquire" her and sent his minion, Markus Ralian, to abduct her.

Nova was brought before him, in a suicidal frame of mind due to all the deaths she saw and caused. Fagin immediately noticed that she was richly dressed, causing him to believe she might be worth a good ransom. However, she told him that her family was dead and so she couldn't be ransomed. He also figured he could turn her into his personal assassin and intelligence agent. She read his mind (and that of his minions) and realized that his chief lieutenant, Markus Ralian, wanted Fagin dead. Fagin, however, wasn't scared of Nova, nor could she provoke him into killing her. The various truths she read from his mind (and those of his minions) and then told him did not disturb him either. He told her to leave. He would see her starve (he could watch her over traffic monitors) and then she would have to serve him. After she left, he ordered the shopkeepers not to feed her.

Over the next four days, Nova became weaker due to starvation and partial dehydration, when she stumbled upon a Universal News Network news broadcast, which transmitted another false news report claiming that Arcturus Mengsk and the Protoss had hatched a deal two weeks ago; the Protoss would get the rest of the Terran Confederacy if Mengsk would be allowed to become the ruler of Antiga Prime; Antiga Prime was lost to the Confederacy three days previously. Then she saw a disturbing report involving her sister, Clara Terra, who claimed that Nova was dead. Meanwhile, Fagin saw the same broadcast. Unfortunately, the Terras were one of the Confederate Old Families, a powerful aristrocratic group. Attempting to ransom Nova would be suicidal, as the Old Families would simply destroy him rather than negotiate. He also noticed her stealing food. Suddenly things were different. He ordered one of his enforcers, an exceedingly tough and brutal man known only as "the Pitcher" because of an incident in which he drank a pitcher of grain alcohol without ill effect, to kill her. The Pitcher was so "fogged" by drug use he could no longer remember his real name. Regardless of his physical prowess (no one had escaped a hit attempt by the Pitcher in years) Nova easily killed him by frying his mind. She stole food and decided to go after Fagin. Fagin soon realized he had underestimated her.

Fagin responded by acquiring a psi-screen from Confederate Army Supply Sergeant Morwood, then surrounded himself with insane gunmen (most had multiple guns), drug addicts who desperately needed a fix, and children. Nova was ambushed by the gunmen (she almost didn't notice them in time because she couldn't keep the thoughts of the drug addicts out of her mind) but defeated them. However, she witnessed one going crazy and murdering his compatriot. When she finally confronted Fagin again, he ordered his brutal minion Tyrus Fallit to kill children one by one until she surrendered. His psi-screen could also torture Nova at range. His plan worked.

Collecting Evidence
Malcolm Kelerchian was called into Ilsa Killiany's office. Kelerchian was a wreck after trying to investigate the Gutter for six months - nobody would talk to him there. Ilsa Killiany herself was displaying signs of stress. She called in the Army, specifically Major Esmerelda Ndoci. Kelerchian was ordered to work with her, despite her reputation as a psychopath. Because of the desperate situation, which (according to Killiany) would only get worse without Ghosts, who were now in very short supply, acquiring a powerful telepath like Nova was an "Alpha priority" target. Ndoci told Killiany that the Sons of Korhal were about to attack Tarsonis, which came as a surprise to Kelerchian - he hadn't been able to keep up with the news due to Nova case. During the conversation, he received a call from Larry Fonseca, who had some information for him - they would meet at Kelerchian's apartment. Killiany gave Kelerchian three hours to report back.

Fagin was watching another inaccurate UNN broadcast about the war; it claimed that the Confederates were forced to retreat from Antiga Prime and were headed towards Halcyon (between Antiga Prime and Tarsonis), where they would regroup. Arcturus Mengsk was now the de facto ruler of Antiga Prime. (In fact, the Protoss had sterilized Antiga Prime; the lifeless planet was ruled by no one.) Fagin seemed to be going mad ... the psi-screen was slowly driving him insane.

One example of his madness was calling in a pair of drug dealers who were lovers for a "random audit" performed by Nova. Nova reported that they weren't ripping Fagin off and that they were lovers. Fagin replied that everyone knew that and then shot one of the drug dealers because they were thinking of making love rather than working (or so Fagin put it). Later Markus Ralian ordered the corpse of the drug dealer to be put into the alley and not be hidden. He hoped that the police would find the body and eventually catch Fagin, but in his secret talk with Nova she told him it wouldn't work. (Ralian himself believed it would't work... but he wanted it to work.) Ralian told her that Fagin was the boss, and he wouldn't do anything to change that.

The case had nearly driven Kelerchian insane as well. When Larry Fonseca met him at Kelerchian's apartment, Kelerchian complained that he'd been drinking and not cleaning up after himself because of the case. Fonseca told him that Fagin, the Gutter crime lord, controlled "the Blonde", who may have been a telepath. Kelerchian hadn't known about Fagin's existence, however. An angry Fonseca told him that Fagin was the Gutter's crime lord and knew the location of his headquarters. "The Blonde" was said to never leave this complex. Kelerchian realized his strategy of asking questions as a Confederacy agent didn't work, not when the people of the Gutter respected Fagin (rather than the government).

Later, watching a talk show about the war, Fagin looked over to today's sex partner, "Number Six", only to find him dead. Fagin didn't remember shooting him. He gave orders to his daughter, Dani to sort out a minor problem which had cropped up in his organization. However, as she spoke on a communicator, Fagin realized that he had thought she was Sam and shot her "for pretending to be Sam", leaving her body on the ground. Then he destroyed the hologram projector he was watching the news on. He called for Sam and asked him to bring bullets and then call Nova; Sam was obviously fearful that he too could be shot for no good reason. When Nova arrived, she knew about the bullets, causing Fagin to fear she could read his mind despite his psi-screen. Nova told him she overheard him telling Sam to get bullets; Fagin used the torture setting on her. Nova, before being attacked and after recovering from the pain, told him that she was making his position worse, not better, and that a trusted lieutenant would someday kill him. Fagin said telepaths couldn't predict the future and told her to go away.

Markus Ralian learned something disturbing about the psi-screen that Fagin constantly wore when he called Sergeant Morwood - it should not be worn longer than the regulation seven hours, as wearing it longer could cause memory loss. Fagin had been wearing it for six months! Ralian decided to test the theory. He asked Fagin about their problems shipping hab from Halcyon - Fagin told him that he killed a member of the Halcyon crime organization who was "planning something" as a faovr to the Halcyon organization after Nova read something incriminating from his mind. The "ungrateful" organization refused to continue to ship hab. When Fagin asked where would they get their hab from, Fagin told him to stop bothering him, they would get it from Halcyon like they always did. This confirmed to Ralian that Fagin's memory problems were extremely severe. He tried to convince Fagin to remove the device, but Fagin told him that if he did so, Nova would instantly fry his brain.

Prelude to War
Malcolm Kelerchian was introduced to the rest of the Annihilators in a cloaked spacecraft near Fagin's headquarters. Despite wearing a forcefield, Kelerchin was afraid of Ndoci, for good reason. He figured he could talk to Fagin first, and if that didn't work, then he would "summon the Marines". Unfortunately, Fagin had lost his mind and was in no condition to bargain. As he ranted, Nova used her powers on Markus Ralian, forcing him to shoot and kill Fagin. She and Kelerchian talked a little; Kelerchian let Nova scan his mind (by turning off his psi-screen) and she learned that if she went with Kelerchian, she would become a Ghost. A mindwipe was a standard part of the training program lately, which Nova saw as an incentive. She didn't want to remember the deaths and murders. Kelerchian said that normally wasn't an incentive to join, which angered Markus Ralian; Ralian said that the people of the Gutter were treated so terribly that many turned to drugs to forget their terrible lives, at least for a time.

Colliding Forces
At the same time, the Sons of Korhal had penetrated Tarsonis' orbital defenses, so Killiany ordered General Ledbetter to in turn order Ndoci to take over the operation. Ndoci told her troops to kill everyone but Nova. This included Kelerchian. Her troops stormed Fagin's compound, causing it to collapse. Ralian was killed, while Nova and Kelerchian were trapped together, and Ndoci was trapped elsewhere in the building. Kelerchian threw himself on Nova in order to protect her, and his forcefield kept the building from immediately crushing them to death; however, the forcefield started running out of energy. Nova temporarily lost her mind due to the stress, but Kelerchian got her to concentrate; she used her telekinetic powers to relieve the crush but Kelerchian was severely wounded.

Ndoci entered the room and gleefully noted Kelerchian's state. Nova summoned her intimidating voice from her Old Family days. She ordered Ndoci to seek medical treatment from Kelerchian, rather than kill him. She could get Ndoci into serious trouble because her operation (causing the building to fall on Nova) went counter to Ndoci's instructions. Ndoci was reluctantly forced to agree. That's when the Zerg reached the surface of Tarsonis; Nova coudld read their minds. The following fate of the Annihilators, Nova and Kelerchian was not immediately resolved.

Regaining Strength
Malcolm Kelerchian woke up on a hospital ship which used to belong to the Terran Confederacy. He was told that the ship belonged to the Terran Dominion, a government he had never heard of; the Sons of Korhal had won the war but had to abandon Tarsonis to the Zerg. Kelerchian was shocked; he assumed the Sons of Korhal would conquer Tarsonis. He also learned that Arcturus Mengsk was now the Emperor of the Dominion and that Ilsa Killiany had not cooperated with Mengsk.

Several weeks later, Kelerchian was taken to the world of Ursa, now training Ghosts since the Zerg destroyed the Terran civilization on Tarsonis. He was able to watch Nova train under Sergeant Hartley. He had a meeting with Arcturus Mengsk, but they didn't get along because Kelerchian pointed out Mengsk's hypocrisies; Kelerchian didn't know if he would keep his position as a Ghost Wrangler.

Nova was trained as a Ghost, and despite her disadvantages (weak due to a life of aristrocratic laziness and later six months of starvation) she quickly rose to the top of her class. She was driven to graduate and receive a mind-wipe, an "antidote" to the hard life she had lived recently (the alternative being death). She quickly advanced in her telekinetic skills as well.

During her training, she had a meeting with Kelerchian, who said that Mengsk would keep him in his old job. However Kelerchian really believed that Mengsk wanted him dead; Nova was able to read this from his mind (along with the fact that he hated waffles). Nova had breakfast with him (making her late for Hartley's class for the first time); in a way, she was saying goodbye to Kelerchian.

Graduation
The prologue of the story covers part of Nova's "graduation exercise" - to kill the terrorist Cliff Nadaner using only her mind. He was the man who ordered the attack on her family, which made Nova eager to kill him. Arcturus Mengsk personally gave her the assignment, saying all Ghosts would have to undergo a graduation assignment; hers was the first. Because Mengsk wore a psi-screen, Nova could not tell if he knew that Nadaner had killed her family.

Dominion Intelligence Section had tracked Nadaner to Tyrador VIII; Nova was dropped onto the least populated continent of Tyrador VIII. The rest of the exercise takes part at this point of the story. Nova had spent a few days hunting Nadaner until she found a "dead zone" that would prevent sensory equipment from finding Nadaner. Nova confronted Nadaner's troops, killing all but Nadaner herself. Reading his mind, she was disgusted at what she saw within. She told him that his troops failed to kill her; Nadaner knew he couldn't bring her family back but he desperately tried to bribe Nova. Nova fried Nadaner's brain as he made the offer.

New Sydney
Nova was now a fully-trained Ghost who had undergone a mind-wipe; Nova and the Annihilators were sent to New Sydney to deal with an attack by the Koprulu Liberation Front on a new munitions factory, led by Valley Johannsen. The KLF leader, entrenched in an extremely defensible factory stocked with cutting-edge military technology, intended on receiving reinforcements and then conquering the whole planet. Nova was ordered to capture opponents so the Dominion could find out from them what weakenesses they exploited to carry out this action. Nava was so efficient she ended the attack by herself before the Annihilators could join in; she captured Johannsen alive (preventing Johannsen from committing suicide). Annihilator leader Major Esmerelda Ndoci was not happy about being cut out of an operation (again). Ndoci recognized Nova, saying she was "still stupid" but due to the mindwipe, Nova didn't know who Ndoci was, nor did she particularly care. "After all, the enemies of the Terran Dominion were everywhere, and the Ghosts were the best line of defense against them. It was all Nova ever thought about."

Accuracy
StarCraft Ghost: Nova made relatively few errors, strictly adhering to canon. A short list of errors follows:

A fake version of Michael Liberty made his Universe News Network reports via flat screen. Arcturus Mengsk, who was working with Liberty at the time the first false report was made, said that he always used holographic reports because they were much harder to fake. In StarCraft Ghost: Nova, Liberty's fake broadcasts were available in holographic format. It is possible that Mengsk underestimated Confederate technology, however. In addition, some of the fake broadcasts are nearly identical to the ones in StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade but have information removed; this impacts mildly on the well-connected Constantino Terra's thoughts and words. (For instance, Mr. Terra can't tell his mistress about the Protoss, even though, according to Liberty's Cruasade, limited information about the Protoss was available to everyone almost as soon as the real Michael Liberty made it to Mar Sara.)

The Annihilators used a "stealth" Valkyrie to assist in their raid of Fagin's headquarters. The Valkyrie was a spaceship introduced by the United Earth Directorate after the fall of the Confederacy. According to Chris Metzen, however, The UED Expedition Force used primarily technology stolen from the Terrans in the Koprulu Sector, so it is possible that the Valkyrie is originally designed by the Confederacy but later stolen by the UED.

The Annihilators were armed with wrist cannons instead of the typical C-14 Impaler Gauss rifles. They may have been equipped differently from regular Marines, however.

Characters in StarCraft: Ghost: Nova

 * Fagin – crime lord of the Gutter
 * Larry Fonseca – honorable elderly police officer of the Gutter
 * Malcolm Kelerchian – former detective turned Ghost Wrangler
 * Ilsa Killiany – Director of the Confederate Ghost program
 * Gustavo McBain – Korhalian welder turned terrorist
 * Arcturus Mengsk – leader of the Sons of Korhal and later Emperor of the Terran Dominion
 * Cliff Nadaner – leader of anarchist terrorist cell
 * Esmerelda Ndoci – psychopath turned military officer and leader of the Annihilators
 * Edward Peters – Terra family employee and member of Cliff Nadaner's terrorist cell
 * Markus Ralian – Fagin's right-hand man
 * Clara Terra – Nova's elder sister
 * Constantino Terra – Nova's father
 * November Terra – a young aristrocrat with enormous hidden psychic potential

Trivia
The "22nd Infantry Division" is also the name of a top military unit in Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, a novel by Keith R. A. DeCandido. Several characters in the novel are named after characters in StarCraft: Ghost: Nova, such as Kelerchian, Ndoci and the medic Lt. Scheeler.

A reporter, Annabella Wu, a main character of Tiberium Wars, bears the name of Nova's mother as well.

In the Firefly episode, Safe, Simon reads a letter from River, in which she says that the d'Arbanvilles' ball, which was "duller than last year." The ball causes social discomfort for both Nova and her brother, as neither of them had dates. DeCandido wrote the novelization of the film Serenity, which included a novelizing and expansion of this flashback scene as part of the novel's background.