Nova Terra

"The enemies of the Terran Dominion were everywhere and the Ghosts were the best line of defence against them. It was all Nova ever thought about."

November Annabella "Nova" Terra is a Terran Ghost. She was the protagonist of the game StarCraft: Ghost and the novel StarCraft Ghost: Nova.

Early Life
Nova was born into the Terra family, one of the Terran Confederacy's rich and powerful "Old Families". The family lived in the Terra Skyscraper in Tarsonis City, Tarsonis. She had green eyes, blonde hair and liked framberries.

Unknown to Nova at the time she was a particularly powerful telepath and telekinetic, meriting a PI10 ranking. Her father, Constantino Terra, was aware of her talents, if not the full extent of them. Without training she could only sense emotions and at seven years of age was told that she was "empathetic". Normally psychic children were conscripted into the Ghost Program by Wranglers. However her social status prevented her conscription, and her father attempted to prevent Nova from realizing she was psychic.

At her fifteenth birthday party, Nova learned that she was psychic by reading the mind of Morgan Calabas, a "suitor".

Betrayal and Flight
With the rising number of attacks against the Old Families and the escalating war the Confederacy found itself in, the Old Families began planning to send some of their children away from Tarsonis to the relative safety of a resort on Tyrador IX. Nova's parents agreed to send her away. Despite Nova's protests, and Edward Peters support, three days after her fifteenth birthday party she boarded a vessel for Tyrador IX. However, Nova felt her parents' minds as they were killed by anti-Confederate rebels and she disembarked almost at the last minute before the ship departed.

Nova returned to find that Edward Peters, Gustavo McBain, and other rebels were murdering her family and their employees. Peters ordered McBain to shoot Nova but now, with her psychic powers elevated by the mental stress caused by the carnage she had just witnessed, she unleashed her telepathic and telekinetic abilities without any control. A large section of the Terra skyscraper was destroyed, and all of her would-be murderers, as well as many hundreds of nearby people, were killed. Nova then fled to "the Gutter", as far away from her former life as possible.

Such a display of power was all the proof needed to show that Nova would make a valuable addition to the Ghost Program. Ilsa Killiany ordered Wrangler Malcolm "Mal" Kelerchian to bring Nova in. Killiany was so intent on the capture that Nova was given the code X41822N even thought the wayward psychic was not yet formally part of the Program.

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 for her psychic abilities and her wealth (which he figured out from her expensive clothing).

Nova was brought before him, in a suicidal frame of mind due to all the deaths she saw and caused, but she refused to serve him. 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. 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, using her psionic abilities. 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, while Fagin learned who she really was. Suddenly things were different; Fagin couldn't ransom her to her family as the Old Families would simply destroy him. 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 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 men to kill children one by one until she surrendered. His psi-screen could also torture Nova at range. His plan worked.

Escape from Madness
Nearly six months later, Fagin was using Nova as a "loyalty detector" and assassin. However, she never went outside, so she was never seen by Kelerchian's allies in the police force. Instead, people had to come see Fagin, and if he didn't like what Nova told him, the person died.

Fagin was going insane due to overuse of the psi-screen, killing people for no good reason, even his own children. When Markus Ralian contacted Supply Sergeant Morwood about this, he was told that the psi-screen is not to be used for more than seven hours at a time, and using it for even twelve hours causes memory loss. Ralian informed Morwood that Fagin had worn the psi-screen without pause for six months! Ralian really wanted to kill Fagin now, but couldn't bring himself to do this. Nova had no trouble reading this from his mind. Nova knew the psi-screen couldn't protect Fagin from her telekinesis, but she never had the opportunity to use it on him.

Meanwhile Agent Kelerchian discovered her location from contacts with the police force. He went to acquire her, but was ordered by Ilsa Killiany to take Major Esmeralda Ndoci and her "Annihilators" with him. Ndoci and her twenty-one minions were psychopaths who were ill-suited to such a delicate mission. They were more interested in fighting the Zerg or the Sons of Korhal, but they had to follow Killiany's orders. The Sons of Korhal were leading a strike on the orbital platforms over Tarsonis, but the Annihilators (a ground-based unit) weren't suited to fighting up there. 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". The troops were not allowed to injure Nova at all.

Kelerchian, despite wearing a forcefield, 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.

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.

Nova used her powers to rescue herself and Kelerchian, but the later 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. Ndoci was reluctantly forced to agree. That's when the Zerg attacked. The following fate of the Annihilators, Nova and Kelerchian was not immediately resolved.

A New Life
Despite her considerable psychic power, Nova was at a disadvantage in the Ghost training program, which had been moved to Ursa. She had been starved for six months and could barely handle Sergeant Hartley's training regime. Yet she pushed herself. Normally it takes a Ghost four years to get fully trained; accelerating the program didn't work. Nova did it in two and a half years, a record. She was designated Agent 12-862.

Nova was met by Arcturus Mengsk himself, who gave her a final piece of training; kill Cliff Nadaner, a former anti-Confederate terrorist turned anti-Terran Dominion terrorist. Nadaner led the group that sent Edward Peters, Gustavo McBain and others to kill her family. Nadaner was hiding out on Tyrador VIII, and Nova was to descend on the planet via degradable Drop Pod by herself; she had to kill Nadaner using only her mental powers. She was not given all the equipment a standard Ghost carries.

Nova found Nadaner and his troops in their hideout. She swiftly slew them, saving Nadaner for last.

After her training ended, Nova received a mindwipe. She would be used to hunt down the enemies of the Terran Dominion, such as the Koprulu Liberation Front. During a mission against the KPL on New Sydney, she once again met the Annihilators. Ndoci recognized Nova, 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."

StarCraft II
Nova may make a cameo appearance in StarCraft II. Some artwork supports this theory. The artwork suggests that Nova has become a Spectre loyal to Arcturus Mengsk. Blizzard Entertainment employees have stated that they definitely want to continue Nova's story, either in novel or comic format.

World of Warcraft Easter Egg
Nova's tomb has been spotted in a World of Warcraft location (a strange stone in the Netherstorm). A Blizzard Community Manager later stated that "Some say that under certain conditions you can see her ghost... Pun not intended."

StarCraft: Ghost
Nova's role at the beginning of StarCraft: Ghost is as as a soldier in the Terran Dominion, working for Colonel Jackson Hauler in his Ghost squad.

Nova embarks on a mission to uncover the frightening truth behind Project: Shadow Blade - this conspiracy will cause her to question her own identity while embroiled in a struggle between the Terran Dominion and the rebel Koprulu Liberation Front.

The opening video of StarCraft: Ghost shows a group of Terran Dominion Marines (and a few Firebats) assaulting a Zerg-infested "Vespene" refinery (actually a terrazine refinery) on Mar Sara. Captain Bok leads the group, but is incompetent; his forces promptly fall into a Zerg ambush. He pleads for reinforcements, which arrive in the form of the Dropships, one of which is carrying Nova. Two of the dropships are shot down by Mutalisks but the third safely lands, disgorging the black ops unit and Nova.

According to previews of the game, Nova's first mission involves a raid on a Supply Depot on Abaddon, where members of the Koprulu Liberation Front hold a Terran Grizzly they have stolen from the Dominion, along with a captured engineer. Nova is ordered to retrieve the engineer and the Grizzly, but the engineer is murdered before she can save them.

During the course of the story, Nova will visit Abaddon, Mar Sara, Ash'Arak and Vyctor 5.

These two and a half years of physical conditioning and training have made her one of Nova Squadron's foremost assassins. She uses much in the way of new technology and new psionic techniques in her missions as a student in the Ghost Academy.

After Swingin' Ape Studios was purchased by Blizzard and merged into their console design team, Nova's look changed from realistic to more anime-ish looking.

Psionic Abilities
Nova is an incredibly powerful telepath and telekinetic, ranked PI10. In addition to her natural psychic abilities, she can also use psionic/technological abilities, much like other Ghosts.

These psionic abilities include cloaking, psionic sight (which enables her to see heat signatures) and psionic speed (which quadruples her speed). She may also have access to psionic shock (which dazes an opponent and inflicts short-term memory loss, which the opponent doesn't notice).

Weapons
Nova typically carries an AGR-14 assault rifle and a sniper rifle, however, she can use nearly any Terran weapon that she can pick up.

Nova can use a variety of grenades, including lockdown and "sticky" (which "can stick to enemies or can be shot at objects or walls to hit enemies passing by"). As StarCraft: Ghost is still on hiatus, these abilities are subject to change.

Nova can also use the Terran psyblade (sometimes referred to as a cy-blade) as a melee weapon. It is designed from a combination of Terran and Protoss technology.

Calldowns
Nova has the ability to "call for help"; she has at least six calldowns; Identify, Irradiate, EMP Burst, Arclite (which sends down a powerful Siege Tank), Yamato Cannon, and the ever-popular Nuke.