StarCraft: Queen of Blades


 * This article is about the StarCraft universe novel. For the character, see Infested Kerrigan.

StarCraft: Queen of Blades is a StarCraft novel written by Aaron Rosenberg and authorized by Blizzard Entertainment, the same company that created the hit video game StarCraft. It is available as a softcover and an e-book.

The book takes place during StarCraft Episode II, approximately six weeks after the capture of Sarah Kerrigan by the Zerg.

Prologue
The prologue begins with the Battle of New Gettysberg on a space platform over Tarsonis, where Protoss, Sons of Korhal and Zerg forces clashed. Two Zerg Broods had custody of Sarah Kerrigan; one escorted her Chrysalis, while the other destroyed the forces in front of them. Eventually the Zerg left the planet, using a warp travel rift.

After the betrayal of Kerrigan, Jim Raynor turned against Arcturus Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal. His forced fled the area of Tarsonis, but now Raynor was left without long-term transport.

Raynor launched a raid at Dylar IV, the new Terran Dominion shipyard. General Edmund Duke was waiting for him there in the Hyperion along with a fleet, but Raynor was counting on that. His forces used the dockyard's equipment to grapple the Hyperion. Raynor's forced swarmed the ship and left Duke tied up; Duke's fleet couldn't fight effectively for fear of damaging their own ships. Raynor left with the Hyperion and a dozen other vessels. Acturus Mengsk's Dominion had suffered a defeat before Mengsk had even been crowned.

Meanwhile, former reporter Michael Liberty was spreading propoganda which was favorable to Jim Raynor; Liberty referred to Raynor as "the hero of Antiga Prime." Raynor thought that was bunk; it may have been a reference to battles and the rescue of the civilians on that world led by Raynor. Mengsk spread false rumors about Raynor and put a reward on his head.

A New World
Jim Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk received visions from the slowly transforming Kerrigan. Raynor's second in command, the young Matt Horner, used Raynor's descriptions of his visions to track Kerrigan's location - the world of Char. The world had been visited by Terrans before but never colonized or even explored. The world was described as floating around a relatively cold star and a large red ringed planet was also present in the system. Raynor's troops were bored; since the capture of the Hyperion they had not seen action. Without revealing these visions to anyone, Raynor announced that he believed the Zerg were holding prisoners on this world, and they would try to rescue them.

When his fleet arrived at Char, they found General Duke there as well. Duke's fleet was smaller, just one warship (the Norad III), a cargo hauler, two troop transports, and the Amerigo, a Science Vessel. Conversation with Duke revealed that Duke was here for the same reasons as Raynor was, and that he had sent troops down to the surface. However, these troops couldn't even defend their own landing point; there were too many Zerg down there.

Duke didn't even try to attack Raynor; despite being outnumbered, Duke was so aggressive a general that Mengsk had to "leash" him, preventing him from going on mindless charges in previous battles while Duke served the Sons of Korhal. Instead, he sent more troops down to the surface.

Raynor sent down shuttles from all his ships to the surface, and his troops searched for the Zerg. They found many tunnels, too small to enter, but they knew the Zerg were underneath them. Meanwhile, Horner detected Protoss vessels in the vicinity; they were here early. Usually they only attacked a world that was visibly infested by the Zerg, and yet the Zerg here were hiding.

Raynor led his troops into a large tunnel they found. He used his psychic connection with Kerrigan to navigate. Near the Zerg incubation chamber, they were spotted by a strange massive eye, which was nestled among a massive organic web accross the tunnel. Raynor's forces shot it, but the battle was on. (This eye was first described in StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade.)

Raynor's troops took losses but eventually reached the Chrysalis. Two Cerebrates attempted to defend it. Raynor was able to "hear" their orders. The Chrysalis burst, revealing Infested Kerrigan. She and Raynor had a short conversation, and she ordered the Zerg to stop attacking the Terrans. Outnumbered heavily, Raynor ordered a retreat.

Infiltration
When Raynor arrived at his base camp with his troops, his shuttles were missing. He received distress calls from both Duke's ships and Raynor's own ships. Kerrigan had taken control of the shuttles and used them to board the ships, having read the necessary computer codes from the minds of the pilots (who were now all dead). Kerrigan herself boarded the Amerigo. She displayed a mastery of psionics; she could use telekinesis to stop Gauss rifle spikes fired at her, then use them to impale a soldier, hanging him from a wall. She could also fry human minds with a glance.

Raynor was able to warn Horner aboard the Hyperion... Raynor's own shuttle was boarding at the time, with a cargo of Zerg, and was using an override so it wouldn't be locked out. Horner initiated a warp jump. Normally this process took hours to prevent errors, such as crashes or worse, and only a very large vessel like the Hyperion was even capable of such a maneuver. The Hyperion escaped. The Norad III also made an emergency jump, along with one of its accompanying vessels. All the other vessels were boarded.

This was when the Protoss came out into the open. They destroyed all the Terran vessels in the area, even the lifepods. A very angry Raynor was stranded on Char, which was three days away from the nearest world. Three lifepods landed, and wounded crew emerged. Raynor found a lifepod from the Amerigo on the ground. There were three people within, but only one lived, and he was bleeding badly. Raynor professed to help him, but the only thing he could do was inject him with painkiller. Meanwhile, the survivor told Raynor he was a scientist abord the Amerigo, and that Kerrigan had stolen the Ghost program files so she could learn about conditioning process, but the files were encrypted. As the scientist expired, Raynor believed that Kerrigan probably learned how to decrypt the files by reading someone's mind.

Encounters with the Protoss
Jim Raynor wandered alone from his troops, occasionally plagued by visions from Kerrigan. A Protoss vessel landed near him, and from it emerged several troops, including Tassadar. Raynor and Tassadar had teamed up before, but Tassadar was also responsible for the destruction of Raynor's homeworld, Mar Sara. Tassadar immediately headed for a crater where Infested Kerrigan herself awaited. The two sparred, but Kerrigan won the battle. Raynor was able to overhear their entire conversation, and it was obvious to him that Kerrigan knew of his presence. Tassadar was forced to flee. Raynor returned to his troops.

After conversation with Tassadar, Raynor again dreamed of Kerrigan. Now, however, the dreams were pleasant; they showed him and Kerrigan as human civilians. He would have multiple dreams, as well of dreams of what Kerrigan was planning.

Raynor continued to travel by himself, tracking down the Protoss, or more accurately, figuring where they'd go and then meeting them there. He saw the black Dark Templar ship land. He even followed Zeratul into Zasz's cave and witnessed the execution of Zasz by distracting him with his complaints about Infested Kerrigan. This act drove the Garm Brood insane; Kerrigan ordered Senior Cerebrate Daggoth to use his Tiamat Brood to destroy the Garm. Daggoth's Zerg then destroyed both Protoss ships, stranding them on Char as well.

Kerrigan duelled Tassadar, but Raynor rescued him. Kerrigan didn't interfere with Raynor, and even directed her troops not to kill him. While hunting Tassadar, she encountered Zeratul instead.

Zeratul and Kerrigan had a conversation. Zeratul told her "Your coming has been foretold. You are part of the culmination. But you are not the end of it. You shall show the way to the path that must be taken, the realigning of old truths no longer valid. Yours is not the hand, but your very existence provides necessary instruction." This may have been a reference to the events of Dark Origin. Kerrigan defeated Zeratul in the duel, too, but Zeratul fled.

A week later, Raynor encountered Tassadar and Zeratul during their first meeting. It didn't go well. Tassadar attacked Zeratul, who didn't make any serious attempt to fight back. Indeed, he attempted to instruct Tassadar on various aspects of Protoss psychology and combat techniques. Their battle was interrupted by a Zerg attack. Raynor assisted them; this time, Kerrigan was angry. Raynor's dreams of a human Kerrigan began turning violent... During the battle, Kerrigan told Zeratul that when he slew Zasz, the Overmind read his mind, learning the location of Aiur. Tassadar was already angry at Zeratul, now it was worse. However, Zeratul wanted to make amends for his act, which meant he would stay with Tassadar for the time being.

Raynor's Raiders and both groups of Protoss formed an uneasy alliance. Zeratul was polite to Tassadar and spent a lot of time observing him. They faced fewer Zerg, since most had left to invade Aiur, but Kerrigan and her Brood remained. During their time together, Tassadar and Zeratul finally bonded. Tassadar (mostly) put aside his prejudices.

Raynor and Zeratul discussed his dreams of Kerrigan. They agreed that Kerrigan was torturing him with the (formerly) pleasant dreams, but in a way she was torturing herself with what she couldn't have. Raynor asked Zeratul to break the link, but Zeratul refused; he could sense how far away Kerrigan was through the link. Raynor commented that Zeratul was using him, but wasn't upset.

Tassadar contacted Aldaris (his former advisor) on Aiur in order to warn them of the Zerg, but too late; the Zerg had already heavily damaged the planet. Aldaris was cold to Tassadar; he expected Tassadar to return immediately to help fight the Zerg, but Tassadar said his fight was here on Char. He revealed that he was in contact with the Dark Templar, which prompted a scathing response.

After several more battles with the Zerg, Tassadar consented to performing a Dark Templar ritual and symbolically became one of them. (Tassadar would later demonstrate more Dark Templar powers.)

Raynor discussed his dreams of Kerrigan and understanding of Zerg "speech", only to discover none of his troops had heard the Zerg say anything. Kerrigan's psychic link was automatically "translating" Zerg thoughts into speech that Raynor could understand, but she wasn't doing this deliberately. Zeratul told him that he could use Raynor's dreams to lure Kerrigan into an ambush, since he could overhear the Zerg battle reports (due to Kerrigan's sloppy use of psychic linking) and Zeratul could sense how far away she was.

During his next "pleasant" dream, Raynor showed Kerrigan the image of the box canyon he was hiding in. Kerrigan was surprised but fell for the trick. A small number of Protoss troops were left there in order to lure the Zerg in. Upon "overhearing" an Overlord bring in the troops, the Protoss/Terran alliance attacked.

The ambush worked. Most of the Zerg troops were killed, and Tassadar used his Dark Templar powers to slay Kerrigan's Cerebrate. This sent her Zerg insane. However, Kerrigan fought on. Tassadar, Zeratul and Raynor would all attack Kerrigan at the same moment, at least that was the plan. Kerrigan easily defeated Raynor and in fact was beating the three commanders when Protoss vessels arrived and opened fire. Kerrigan escaped.

Aldaris and the new Executor, Artanis, arrived. Aldaris attempted to arrest Tassadar, but Artanis read Tassadar's mind and refused to do so. Zeratul departed, announcing he would go to his ship, the Void Seeker. He noted that he had hidden the vessel with powerful illusions (meaning the Tiamat Brood hadn't actually destroyed it).

Shortly thereafter, Matt Horner reappeared in the Char system. He was late, due to trouble warping so suddenly. Raynor and Tassadar weren't going to leave just yet; they knew Zeratul was still on Char and they would take him with them to Aiur.

Differences from Canon
StarCraft: Queen of Blades deviated from the StarCraft storyline on multiple occasions.

When the Zerg captured Kerrigan, they brought her Chrysalis to the surface of Tarsonis in order to avoid the Protoss. There they defended the Chrysalis from the remnants of the Confederacy. This was missing from the novel.

Char was described as being in a system with one visible sun, but both suns are visible in the between-levels artwork; the two suns are also discussed in StarCraft Maps of the Month.

During the early Zerg missions, Raynor confronts Kerrigan as she hatches from the Chrysalis. In the game, the Chrysalis was kept on a platform above lava, accessible only by air/space transport. Raynor did not directly confront Kerrigan, only contacting her from his Command Center. In the novel, the Chrysalis was underground, and Raynor personally led troops to find her and a number of Cerebrates (the latter were not on the same map as the Chrysalis).

Infested Kerrigan travelled to the Amerigo Science Vessel in order to "upgrade" her psionic abilities. This is demonstrated by giving her access to Psionic Storm. However, on the Amerigo in the novel, Kerrigan was powerful enough to fry human minds and protect herself from Gauss rifle spikes by using telekinesis to take control of them and then hurl them back with lethal force before she unlocked her abilities.

The sequence of events around the death of Zasz were very different. In the game, Tassadar and Zeratul had already formed an alliance at this time, but were hiding from the Zerg. Kerrigan detected them with her newfound powers after leaving the Amerigo with the knowledge of the Ghost program. Tassadar lured her into combat with an illusion while Zeratul slew Zasz. Zasz's Garm Brood was then destroyed by Zerg commanded by the player Cerebrate (this would be Kerrigan's personal Brood). In the novel, Zeratul slew Zasz before he even met Tassadar, the Garm were destroyed by Daggoth's Tiamat Brood, Kerrigan faced Tassadar many times before being fooled by the illusion (which happened after the death of Zasz) and used lines that occured earlier in the game (when Zasz was being set up for assassination), and only later did Tassadar and Zeratul form an alliance.

Later during the Zerg missions, Kerrigan destroys a substantial portion of the Protoss base and slew many Dark Templar. She had aggressive conversations with Zeratul. Tassadar and Zeratul both escaped, but Tassadar was left with very limited forces hiding on a space platform over Char while Zeratul would later be captured. Later, Aldaris would sent the new Executor and Protoss troops to arrest Tassadar, but the new Executor chose to join forces with Tassadar instead. The Protoss then fought the Zerg (multiple Broods), sparred with General Edmund Duke's forces, and rescued Zeratul. In the novel, the Zerg lost the battle heavily rather than winning. Kerrigan's only Brood (the one she used to capture Zeratul) was driven insane (at least temporarily) when Tassadar slew her Cerebrate. The Protoss were then immediately "reinforced" by Aldaris and the new Executor, Artanis (who may not have been the Executor during StarCraft Episode III) coming to arrest Tassadar on the surface of Char, rather than on a space platform. Zeratul wasn't captured in the novel and so didn't need rescuing.

Zeratul is repeatedly referred to as Praetor, rather than his correct rank, Prelate.