StarCraft: Ghost Academy: Volume 3 is the third volume in the Ghost Academy series.
Description[]
Ghosts are the Dominion's ultimate weapons - elite terran operatives capable of reading thoughts, becoming invisible, and much more. One location possesses the technology and expertise required to teach these mysterious individuals their unique and deadly talents: the Ghost Academy.
Struggling to forget her harrowing past, Nova, a powerful psionic soldier-in-training, has found strength in her fellow trainees: Tosh, a hard-line Dominion supporter; Kath, a mouthy vice-president's daughter; Delta, a bubbly newbie; and Lio, a scatter-brained technopath. Together, Nova and her teammates undergo brutal physical and psychological exercises as their unique telepathic and telekinetic powers are twisted to serve the Dominion.
Nova and her team are dispatched to an abandoned mining planet for a real-world training exercise. There, they pick up a distress signal from a nearby planet. Following the signal through hordes of terrifying zerg, they rescue what turns out to be friends from Nova's past! But even if the ghosts-in-training escape from the zerg-ridden planet, will the Dominion allow them to keep the memories of their heroic deed?[1]
Summary[]
E. B. James hosted a special edition of The Dominion and You, portraying in an enthusiastic over-the-top fashion the first anniversary of the Terran Dominion and the Fall of Tarsonis. After the cameras stopped he promptly switched gears; he had no respect for his audience.
Ghost Academy trainee Delta Emblock had a disturbing dream, which she believed signified something. Fellow trainees Kath Toom and Aal Cistler, now part of Team Purple, continued to quarrel, leaving team leader Gabriel Tosh the role of breaking them up and keeping the team together.
Director Kevin Bick's finances were under investigation by the Finance Minister, Aldeo Cistler, whose son had been temporarily thrown out of the Academy. Bick said his finances were clean, but he believed the minster would simply invent something. In addition, the ghostmaster general was on his way there to take away his prize pupil, young Colin Phash. Bick and Superintendent Sarco Angelini wanted to keep him at the Academy for further testing.
As Bick gave Team Purple their training mission orders, he seemed distracted and confused about their final destination. He was officially sending them to the fifth planet of The Baker's Dozen but said it might be the fourth one instead. He would send Preceptor Lagdamen with them as an observer.
A battlecruiser, the Cyrus arrived to transport them. Commodore Georg Darabont "greeted" them and restricted them to a single deck. The trainees spend time researching the ship and its commander. They noted the commodore had gotten into trouble during the Fall of Tarsonis and he and his crew had to wear insignia which branded them as cowards. Lio Travski used his powers to learn about the ship: it hadn't been repaired since that battle and most of its cannons were useless. The ship was also undercrewed. Tosh managed to cheer the trainees up, however.[1]
The Battle of Shi[]
In The Baker's Dozen star system, Lio Travski detected the Kusinis Twins transmission. He and other ghosts broke onto the bridge and told Commodore Darabont about this. The commodore was initially uninterested until told there were zerg there too. Over Lagdamen's objections, Darabont intended to travel to Shi and use the ghosts in combat. As they traveled closer to Shi, the ship's techs could also pick up the distress signals. Darabont and Executive Officer Mirne, discussing their motives, wanted to redeem themselves for what happened at Tarsonis.
The marines landed first on Shi, defeating a wave of zerg. However, they were overwhelmed from hatcheries south of Mandible Canyon. Darabont ordered the use of Apocalypse-class nukes, which the Cyrus carried several of. However, these ones had to be guided by ghosts. Lagdamen was given control of their Moebius cloaking devices. Nova Terra targeted the nukes while others guided them. While on the battlefield, Terra was able to sense Morgan Calabas and Antonia Tygore.
The ghosts and marines found themselves inundated with yet more zerg coming from a larger cluster of hatcheries on the far side of Mandible Canyon. Darabont sounded the retreat, giving them six minutes to head to the landing zone. The ghosts were overwhelmed and couldn't cloak until Travski used his technopathic abilities to override Lagdamen's control and cloak them. They discovered Calabas and Tygore. Meanwhile, Terra had located the Kusinis Twins. Terra reunited with the others. The terrans were dismayed, however, as their lander was destroyed by the zerg. The Cyrus moved toward the second cluster of hatcheries, intending to destroy them.
The cloaked ghosts were discovered by overlords, but Kath Toom's superior shooting skills enabled her to kill them. However, trainee Andie Dessai was killed. The Cyrus was itself shot down by spore cannons. The zerg invaded, killing both Darabont and Mirne.
Gabriel Tosh and Nova Terran rekindled their relationship while Travski used his powers to track the Cyrus. It was damaged but still "alive", and he believed he could use his abilities to repair it. However, making it there and keeping it safe would require time and protection. Nova Terra's psionic abilities, which could inflict massive damage in a four-block radius, would be useful here. Aal Cistler suggested she lure the zerg, but Lagdamen and Tosh disapproved of the plan. Terra decided to go through with it. She would attack the hatchery cluster. Tosh decided to go with her.
The terrans headed to the Cyrus while they were cloaked by Travski. He then used his powers to begin repairing the ship. Toom used her shooting skills to take out overlords.
As Tosh and Terra headed out, Lagdamen gave the cloaking device controls to Tosh. Along the way they encountered walking spore crawlers, which they had to avoid. The Cyrus fell under attack, but eventually the zerg retreated as Nova Terra was "powering up" her psychic abilities there.
Tosh had to flee the area as Terra was charging up. He ran out of energy for his cloaking device and had to fight zerg. As he struggled to get clear, Terra was also under attack. When she alerted him to this fact, he told her he was clear but he hadn't actually made it out of the blast radius. Terra unleashed her power, frying the zerg and hatcheries. She found a crippled, barely alive Tosh.
The Cyrus, now repaired, picked up the two ghosts. Tosh's brain was scanned. The Cyrus was able to leave Shi now that the zerg had been reduced in number or eliminated.[1]
The Ghost Academy[]
Meanwhile, back at the Ghost Academy, Colin Phash had disappeared. Sarco Angelini initiated a search, and eventually found him. Angelini told Phash he realized there was little trust between them, but thought they could be friends.
The ghostmaster general arrived. Angelini and Kevin Bick set up a test using holograms. Phash would use his astral projection ability to find them. However, he failed, and an angry ghostmaster stormed out, saying he would tell Emperor Mengsk about this.
Angelini asked Phash why he had failed the test. Phash had lied about the location of the holograms and came to that decision by himself, as he didn't want to go with the general.
Bick was worried by Mengsk's reaction, but when Mengsk contacted him, he was more interested in the details of the trip to Shi. He ordered Bick to memory wipe the trainees (about their Shi experience) and hand over the Old Family heirs to the marines. Bick happily complied. However, Tosh wasn't wiped due to his injuries.
UNN confirmed the deaths of the four Old Family heirs, claiming they died on Tarsonis. Nova Terra visited Tosh in the infirmary. He telepathically told her what had happened on Shi, but she didn't believe him, having been told by Lagdamen that he was suffering "delusions". Tosh said everything would be like before... as if nothing ever happened.[1]
Characters[]
Team Purple[]
Aal Cistler | Andie Dessai | Delta Emblock | Winlaleah Martine | Obi Minaya |
Dylanna Okyl | Nova Terra | Kath Toom | Gabriel Tosh | Lio Travski |
The Survivors[]
Other Main Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
Notes[]
- This issue was initially planned to have been written by Keith R. A. DeCandido as with Volume 1, but differences in the creative direction with a new creative development team at Blizzard Entertainment led to Keith's departure from the project, and it was then taken over by David Gerrold.[2]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Gerrold, David (w), Fernando Heinz Furukawa (p, i). StarCraft: Ghost Academy: Volume 3 (paperback binding). Tokyopop, March 8, 2011. ISBN 978-1427-81614-6.
- ↑ The Inspirational Quarterly. (June 30th, 2022). Spotify.com Thanks Again, Keith. Accessed 2022-08-30.
The next article in this series is StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres. |