Ghost Program

The Ghost Program was a project for the training and use of Terran Ghosts. Originally created by the Terran Confederacy, it was later adopted by the Terran Dominion.

Ghosts are feared Terran covert operatives. They are known for their skill, psionic powers and ability to cloak.

Role
Ghosts are extensively trained special forces with psychic abilities. They are lightly armored and can hide their presence with a cloaking device. Ghosts are generally trained as commandos and assassins, appearing and striking suddenly and silently.

In addition, Ghosts direct nuclear missile strikes against enemy targets. Their stealth abilities make them extremely valuable for this role.

Ghosts channel their psionic energies into their specialized skin-suits which are laced with a form of psi-sensitive artificial muscle fiber in order to augment their natural physical strength and endurance.

The Terran Confederacy Ghosts had limited telepathic abilities, in order to protect their superiors' minds from them.

History
The history of Terran psionic abilities may have begun on Earth even before the existence of the United Powers League. At the end of the twenty-first century, private firms had developed biotechnology which granted human subjects abilities which included advanced telepathy. Unfortunately, Earth erupted in a civil war, partly as a result of these genetic manipulations. By the year 2229, most of the Earth was under the grip of the United Powers League.

The UPL launched "Project Purification" to remove mutations and unnecessary cybernetic prosthetics from the human population. UPL troops scoured the globe, killing over 400 million people and throwing many more into prison. The scientist Doran Routhe, who lived during this period, began a colonization project. He intended to send thousands of prisoners to the world of Gantris VI to mine new resources which could be found there. Many of these prisoners were prey to the mutations that had spanned the human species.

The prisoners were put into cold sleep and loaded into four supercarriers, then sent on a journey. The lead vessel contained ATLAS, a revolutionary artificial intelligence. During the journey, ATLAS discovered something unusual about the prisoners - a relatively high proportion of them had a mutation leading to psionic potential. While currently weak, it would manifest in only a few generations. This information was logged and sent back to Earth. The prison ships missed their target, ending up in the Koprulu Sector. There they founded three colonies, with Tarsonis being the most technologically advanced. Tarsonis founded an interstellar government which they called the Terran Confederacy.

The Confederacy's New Power
About twenty years before the war sparked by the destruction of Chau Sara, the Terran Confederacy had already created the Ghost program. One of their subjects, eight-year-old Sarah Kerrigan, was brought to their attention after her powers erupted in spectacular fashion. The girl appeared to possess telekinetic abilities, but the Confederacy appeared unsure about the existence of this power and demanded incontrovertible proof of this abilty. Even when the girl destroyed her trainer's gun, it wasn't considered acceptable proof. At this time, "neuro-adjusters" were routinely inserted into the heads of uncooperative Ghost subjects ... which was to say, most of them.

Years later, Ghosts used their special abilities to assassinate Angus Mengsk, the father of Arcturus Mengsk, in order to shut down the rebellion of Korhal IV. Angus Mengsk's head was never found. This action may have revealed the existence of Ghosts, although their existence was still officially secret.

Shortly after this incident, the Korhalian Rebellion created an alliance with Umoja. The Confederates feared the alliance and fired a barrage of nuclear missiles at the planet, nearly wiping out all life. Millions of Korhalian colonists were killed, although the rebel movement still survived - with very small numbers. As a political consequence of this extreme action, the Confederates limited their use of nuclear weaponry to tactical nukes. These nukes would be guided to their destinations by Ghosts.

The Confederacy discovered a species of strange xenomorphs among their Fringe Worlds. They conducted experiments with them on the world of Vyctor 5, which was home to the isolated "Fujita Facility". The Confederate scientists discovered that the aliens were sensitive to psionic abilities and could even be controlled. Ghost Agent Sarah Kerrigan had the best control over them, and was the only subject allowed to work with them after a point (the rest of the Ghost subjects were killed). Unfortunately for the Confederates, Arcturus Mengsk and his Sons of Korhal rebel movement raided the facility, discovered the existence of the aliens and rescued Kerrigan. The Sons of Korhal removed her neuro-adjuster, enabling her to recover her memories. Kerrigan led the Sons of Korhal in an attack on the Ghost Academy, the primary Ghost training center, on Tarsonis, destroying it. The Confederates feared that more Ghosts might defect, so in order to prevent their memories from being used by their enemies, they started mind-wiping the Ghosts, a technique that is (at least theoretically) unbreakable.

Ghosts of War
The Terran Confederacy lost their colony of Chau Sara to a sudden attack by a species of technologically advanced aliens, the Protoss. Shortly thereafter, another species, the Zerg, were spotted on Mar Sara. At the secret Jacobs Installation, the Confederates experimented with a new piece of psionic technology, the psi-emitter. The technology amplified a psychic's powers so the Zerg could detect them from far off - the rebel Sons of Korhal movement would later claim that this technology drew the Zerg to Mar Sara.

The Confederates found themselves facing off against the Zerg, Protoss and Sons of Korhal and were losing ground in the war. Ghosts suffered a high mortality rate. Ghost Program Director Ilsa Killiany believed that the Ghosts were the only thing keeping the Confederacy alive, and went out of her way to acquire powerful psychics for the program. She even sent an agent to track down a fifteen-year-old scion of the Old Families on Tarsonis in order to forcibly recruit her into the program - by this point, the Confederate knowledge of psionics had expanded; they had psionic detection equipment and could "rate" psychic power on a "Psi Index" from 0 to 10. The teenaged girl, November Terra, was retrieved just as the Sons of Korhal defeated the Confederacy at Tarsonis; ironically, the rebels used the psi-emitter technology to lure Zerg to the world and do their dirty work for them. The Confederacy imploded and the Sons of Korhal, renaming itself the Terran Dominion, gained control over many Terran colonies. The Dominion took control of the Ghost Program, relocating its Academy to Ursa; they put Director Kevin Bick in charge of it. The young girl was rescued and taken to the world as part of the new Ghost Program.

Sarah Kerrigan had played a large role in the Sons of Korhal victory, but because she displayed a greater morality than its leader, Arcturus Mengsk, she was abandoned to the Zerg on a space platform over Tarsonis. She didn't die, but was infested. She resurfaced on the world of Char as Infested Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades. One of her first actions was to attack the Amerigo, a Science Vessel. Despite her infested state, the Confederacy's old "Ghost Conditioning", another method used to dampen a disloyal Ghost's powers, was still active. She was able to steal the information on the conditioning from the Amerigo's computers and finally break the conditioning.

The Next Generation
The next generation of Ghosts were trained in several new psionic techniques and given access to new technology. In addition to their previous abilities, they could combine psionics and technology to do things such as greatly increase their speed and reflexes and see through objects with heat vision. They also began using Protoss-derived technology such as the psyblade.

Nova was the Ghost Academy's star pupil for the new generation. She graduated from Ghost training after only two-and-a-half years. The Dominion ordered a new graduation exercise component to the program, and Nova was the first to undergo one. She was ordered to terminate a rebel movement using only the power of her mind. She succeeded.

Approximately three years after the Brood War, Arcturus Mengsk ordered fully half of his government's Ghosts killed in a controlled environment as part of an "overhaul" of the program.

Spectres
The Dominion discovered terrazine gas, a potent psionic reagent, about four years after the Brood War. Terrazine has mutagenic effects on psychic Terrans such as Ghosts. General Horace Warfield was put in charge of "Project Shadowblade", which transformed Ghosts into "Spectres"- shadowy superhuman beings bent on executing the will of their true master. Shadow Blade also uses covertly-collected Protoss technology.

Concept art images of cybered Overlords being used to control Spectres have been located. This may have played a major role in StarCraft: Ghost (especially regarding the "Spectres'" true masters).

Blizzard Entertainment has stated that they are keen on exploring the idea of "this weird new substance" that could affect certain psychic abilities and the Spectres, and they might make it into StarCraft II.

Conscription
Theoretically, any Ghost was to be trained from an infant, all children born within Confederate space having to report for a PA Profile within nine months of birth., The system was far from foolproof however, and it was not uncommon for children to slip through the system, especially those born in the Fringe Worlds or, in rare cases, those born to the Old Families, defy the system. When it came to taking such children, cover stories such as "special schools" and then "died in an accident" were used, at least for those not privy to the program.

Wranglers
PA Profiles aside, telepaths who could be useful to the Terran armed forces (either as Ghosts or performing other roles) are usually tracked down by "Wranglers", mildly psionic agents whose powers are generally only useful for finding other telepaths at close range. They can use equipment to help them in their search, but the equipment is itself limited.

Psi Index
All Terrans have a "Psi Index" rating of 1-10, ten being the highest. It progresses through a few key stages, often with linguo attatched'


 * PI1-2: No psychic powers. Most humans fall into this category.
 * PI2-5: A "psych"." Psychic powers are possessed, albeit very limited. Wranglers fall into this category.
 * PI5-8: A "teep." Telepathy is possessed. Most Ghosts fall into this category.
 * PI8-10: A "teek". Telekenesis is possessed. An extremely rare level.

The PI ratings of Wrangler Malcolm Kelerchian and Nova are known; 3.5 and 10, respectively.

Implants
The Terran Confederacy decided to limit Ghosts through at least four methods.

The first is a surgically implanted psi-dampener, also known as a neuro-adjuster (some of which also suppress or reshape a disloyal Ghost's memory) or neural inhibitor which weakens their powers. Mindwiping was (according to Arcturus Mengsk) introduced by the Terran Confederacy as a result of Kerrigan's defection from the Confederates. Emperor Mengsk did not remove this excellent (or horrendous) training technique.

The second are neural processing treatments. The third are aggression inhibitors (which prevent a Ghost from attacking his/her superiors) and the last is Ghost conditioning, a powerful form of hypnosis which restricts the use of their psionic abilities. This conditioning was so powerful that even after Sarah Kerrigan was infested, she did not immediately lose this psychic hindrance. The wide array of anti-psionic control methods may indicate that Blizzard Entertainment did not have a clear vision of how telepaths were controlled in the StarCraft universe.

Ghosts are given some training in psionics, but not much. Their abilities are generally limited to personal augmentation and mind-reading. Their abilities have expanded since the end of the Brood War, since the mind-wiping technique is seen as superior to the neuro-adjuster.

In physical training, Ghosts are trained in target shooting, close-quarters combat (martial arts and possibly other techniques) and vehicular expertise. Artificial environments and simulations are also common, which include;


 * Artificial High Gravity Environment
 * Scenario A11-X93: The most popular exercise in the Ghost training regimen, commonly referred to by trainees as "Nukes Away". In this scenario, Ghosts practice a variety of covert infiltration techniques while gaining the technical knowledge necessary for the proper guidance of field-standard tactical nuclear weapons. Since nuclear weaponry is too expensive to be used in live fire training, the exercise is performed using an extremely lifelike holo-projection simulation. The competition between the teams of Ghosts can be extremely intense, and all too commonly we see recruits spending what little leisure time they have inside the simulation, honing their skills."

Psi-Screens
Ghosts (and their instructors) frequently use "psi-screens", devices which prevent telepaths from reading their minds and also cancels out a telepath's mind-reading abilities if worn by a telepath. Psi-screens, which are so rare that it was harder to acquire than a nuke from the former Confederate army, come in various versions, including touch-activated ones (which are lower-quality) while newer ones can be activated without touch. Some psi-screens can produce an effect which inflicts pain on telepaths; the Confederacy used such psi-screens to keep telepaths in line. Higher-ranking people get to wear more powerful devices. The device is harmful, however, if worn for more than seven hours, causing memory loss, brain damage and paranoia. Some wearers undergo brain scans to check for damage.

The Ghost Academy
Ghosts receive an average of four years of training at the "Ghost Academy". Attempts to train Ghosts faster simply results in "bad" Ghosts. Ghosts who aren't proficient enough to pass their training are "eliminated". Nova made a record during her training; it only took her two-and-a-half years to pass her training despite her numerous disadvantages. She was the first Ghost to be put through a "graduation exercise".

Much of their training comes from non-psychics, such as Mr. Rumm, Commander Richard Walker and Sergeant Hartley.

The Ghost Program was run by non-psychic directors, such as Ilsa Killiany and Bick.

The first Ghost Academy, also used to research Zerg, was on Tarsonis but this was destroyed by the Sons of Korhal in an action which made their leader, Arcturus Mengsk, notorious. It was later rebuilt. The second Academy was then destroyed during the Sons of Korhal and Zerg invasion of Tarsonis during the latter part of StarCraft Episode I and the early part of StarCraft Episode II. It was later rebuilt on Ursa by the Terran Dominion.

Other Government Training
The Terran Dominion has adopted this program, but perhaps choose their subjects differently. The Kel-Morian Combine also uses Ghosts, but it is unknown if the Umojan Protectorate does as well.

The United Earth Directorate has used Ghosts, even though its predecessor the United Powers League tried to wipe out mutants, including psychics.

The UED seems to have used psychic scientists who had not received Ghost training in their efforts to control the Zerg.

Ghost Suits
Ghosts are issued with a Hostile Environment Suit with a cloaking device powered by a personal Moebius fusion reactor and psionic powers (which stimulate receptors in the Ghost's suit). A Ghost can attack while invisible.

Ghost suits are sometimes equipped with infra-red sensors.

Weaponry
The typical Ghost is equipped with the C-10 Canister Rifle, which normally fires 25 mm HE rounds but can also fire specialized munitions such as lockdown rounds. The rifle is equipped with a target painting laser device. By using it on a site for 10-15 seconds (real time) a ghost can provide targeting information to a friendly nuclear silo, enabling it to fire a tactical nuclear warhead. Ghosts may use the psyblade, a weapon devised using Protoss technology.

Cybernetic Eyes
Ghosts are frequently augmented with cybernetic surgery, especially their eyes. These cybereyes enable them to see objects much further than a regular human could.

Major Ghosts

 * Atticus Carpenter
 * Samir Duran
 * Sarah Kerrigan
 * Nova
 * Alexei Stukov (possible, see below)

Stukov was represented in-game by a Ghost. It's possible that he was a Ghost, was psychic but had not received (extensive) Ghost training, or that was simply used as a placeholder unit. The events of Resurrection IV suggest that he really was psychic.

Other Ghosts

 * Agent X81505M: One of the few Confederate Ghosts with telekenisis, he spent most of his time drooling in the basement of the Ghost Academy. He died (exactly how is never explained) about a week before the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis.


 * Ghost No. 24506: One of the Ghosts who assassinated Angus Mengsk and his family. He infiltrated the Hyperion in order to retrieve Sarah Kerrigan, who'd defected to the Sons of Korhal. He displayed a remarkable resiliance, able to shrug off being shot with a pistol with seemingly no side effects. However, using fire suppressant to reveal his cloaked form, Kerrigan was finally able to defeat him, plunging a knife into his chest.


 * Ghost No. 24718: One of the Ghosts who assassinated Angus Mengsk and his family. He fought against the Sons of Korhal raid on the Tarsonis Ghost Academy but sufferred a wound to the head, making him unconcious and thus allowing Sarah Kerrigan to capture him easilly. He was brought in front of Arcturus Mengsk, who achieved his vengeance for the murdur of his father, courtesy of a pistol round to the chest.


 * MacGregor Golding: A Ghost of Alpha Squadron.


 * Kare Vaessen: A Ghost of Raynor's Raiders.


 * Jenn the Vivacious: Leader of a mercenary unit. Appeared in Mercenaries II.


 * Devon Starke, #25876. Starke possesses the powers of remote viewing and psychometry, and works directly under Valerian Mengsk.

2005-11-29. Ghost. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-06.