Jean Turner’s eyes snapped open. A surge of memory entered her brain. Her purple pupil turned as she processed the information.

She was chosen by someone with ultimate power. She was given the blessing of having the chance to travel into different dimensions and, potentially, receive amazing benefits from these dimensions. As a result, she had to complete the missions she was given. Refusing to complete the missions was punishable by death.

A silver device was on her right wrist. She looked down and tapped it. She didn’t have it before she was knocked unconscious. According to the memory, the watch was the only way she could receive missions from the one that sent her here, the Supreme One.

The watch turned and projected a few lines of words.

Name: Jean Turner

Dimension: Starcraft

Current location: The Hyperion.

Mission: Terminate Amon, the dark god.

Jean looked away up the watch and scanned the surrounding. She should’ve panicked. She would’ve panicked if she was the girl she was months ago. After all, she was taken away from her normal life and thrown into a world with chaos, aliens, and death. The background and the future of Starcraft was inserted into her mind, along with the information of the Supreme One. But a while ago Jean realized something was wrong with her. She could no longer feel any emotions. Things that would usually make her laugh or cry no longer had the same effect on her. She once tried to watch a horror movie in bed twelve AM at night and she didn’t feel a single scent of fear. It was as if the part of her brain that controlled emotion was ripped away from her.

She felt empty, but she learned to live with that. Getting rid of emotion was actually quite beneficial. She was efficient in what she did.

Jean was in a room with metal walls. The room wasn’t nicely decorated. Any room of a member of Raynor’s Raiders wasn’t decorated. Unlike the wealthy officers of the Dominion ranks, the rebels were more focused on practical use than colorful decorations. In any case, the Raiders didn’t really pay wages and, even if they had the money, the soldiers didn’t have a place to buy stuff. As a member of the most wanted terrorist organization in the sector, the Raiders weren’t the most welcomed guests in Dominion territory.

Another wave of memories hit Jean, and she realized who she was. The Supreme One gave her an identity in the Raiders to help her complete the mission.

She was Jean Turner, a lieutenant of the captain of The Hyperion, Matt Horner. Jean knew very well she wasn’t this soldier of the Raiders, but the memory was so real. She remembered everything about this made up character, from the memory of her parents to her having sex with some boy in college to her parents dying at the hands of a group of drunk Dominion soldiers who got away without a scratch because they were the guards of the director of the planet to her leaving her home planet and joining the Raiders, seeking vengeance.

Jean’s mind turned as she processed the newly gained information. If the Supreme One was powerful enough to alter the realities in this dimension and literally create a person out of thin air, then why did he or she need her to complete this mission. Couldn’t he just wipe Amon out with the snap of a finger?

Suddenly a projected figure appeared on the table before Jean. It was the figure of a mechanical computer with a female voice. An adjutant.

Adjutants were AIs the Terran commanders used to control their army. They could provide informational support for the commanders and help them control the battlefield as precisely as possible. Always calm and unfazed even in the worst situation, they were usually more reliable than human advisors and were generally the most trusted helper of terran commanders.

“Lieutenant Turner. Captain Horner requires your presence on the bridge.” The adjutant spoke in a mechanical, emotionless voice.

“Did Captain Horner say why?” Jean took half a second to scan through her memory and find out how the old Jean spoke and acted before finally speaking in a similar tone.

“The leader of the Raiders, James Raynor, is aboard. Captain Horner wants you to participate in the discussion of future missions.” The adjutant replied.

Jean learned from her memories that Captain Matthew Horner treated her like a student and taught her all she needed to know to command an army. It was as if he was training a future commander for the Raiders.

Instead of walking out directly, Jean closed her eyes and went over the habits of the old Jean once again. Realizing something, she turned and walked to the closet. The entire time, she was wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. It was fine when she was alone, but it wasn’t exactly the standard equipment of a military officer. The Raiders were technically terrorists, but Matt Horner was a young, and somewhat strict, officer. He was quite by the book in terms of maintaining the discipline of his men. He wouldn’t be satisfied if Jean wore her casual suit to attend a formal meeting.

This was just a small thing, but that reminded Jean to be careful of similar events. From the closet, she took out a female military uniform and quickly put it on before walking out of the room. A sidearm rested in the holster on her belt as she walked.

Jean navigated to the bridge with ease. Men and women she crossed nodded at her kindly. The Raiders were a family, united under the same cause and against the same enemy. Their members were like brothers and sisters to each other. Jean nodded and smiled in return.

Walking through a metal door and two marines in blue armor, Jean entered the bridge. As the metal door closed behind her, Jean scanned the room. Officers and crew members were in the bridge, working, but she wasn’t here for them.

There were three men beside the mission projector. One of them was wearing a clean suit. He was the captain of the Hyperion and Jean’s direct superior, Matt Horner. A man in a blue armor stood beside the captain with a cigarette in his mouth. He had a tough appearance, and Horner occasionally threw him some disgusted look. Jean quickly realized why as the man in blue tapped his cigarette, and small clumps of soot fell on the clean carpet.

The third man wore short sleeves and had a beard. He had a tattoo on his arm and a revolver strapped to his side.

“Captain, Lieutenant Turner reporting for duty.” Jean saluted formally, playing the role of a young but formal officer.

“This is Lieutenant Turner. She’s a great commander and a helpful officer.” Horner introduced the two sides. “Lieutenant, this is our leader, Jim Raynor, and this is his friend, Tychus Findlay.” It wasn’t a surprise Horner didn’t expect Jean to know her real boss. Jim Raynor, despite his legendary past, had been laying low for the recent years after the Brood War, and Horner was the one handling the affairs of The Hyperion.

“Lieutenant…” Raynor’s gaze trailed off as if he was sunk in some sort of memory. Jean knew his memory flew to another woman who once had the same title.

“Damn Jimmy, I never knew your officer is such a pretty, otherwise I would’ve came to you a while ago.” Tychus groaned as he scanned Jean from top to bottom. Respect and modesty were unfamiliar to the fugitive.

”Sir.” Jean ignored the criminal and acknowledged Raynor, who smiled apologizing in return for his friend’s disrespect. “How may I help.”

“The zerg, lieutenant,” Horner explained as he put up a footage. In the footage, piles of bodies were put into bags. A reporter was explaining the sudden attack the zerg forces on Char launched on surrounding terran territories before suddenly being engulfed by a wave of flame.

The footage went dead. Jean bit her lips. Things weren’t going well for the human beings.

“As you know, lieutenant, The Raiders have been short on supply for quite a while. We had to act as mercenaries just to keep the ship operational. New weapons are nothing but a dream. At this rate we need a miracle to stop the zerg invasion. We need to make sure our hardware and ammunition are up to the challenge.”

Jean nodded. This was the problem with fighting for freedom. While the Dominion forces had constant reinforcements in terms of both weapons and soldiers, the Raiders could only gain more men by count on the Dominion to drive away their own people and do mercenary missions and earn credits to purchase outdated weapons. The power of the rebels shrunk with every clash whereas their enemies could easily replace the fallen with ten times the reinforcements.

Then again, if the Dominion couldn’t stop the zerg, what chance did the Raiders have?

Of course, Raynor, the hero he was, didn’t bother to let that small problem stop him.

“I’ll check in with Swann down in the armory. Knowing him, he’s already got upgrades for us.” He assured.

“We’ll need money for upgrades, sir.” Jean suggested, not afraid to break her leader’s hope. Raynor wasn’t the type of person that would blame someone for telling the truth. “Last I checked, our finance can barely pay for the maintenance of the current assets, much less buying new ones. In fact, we only have enough ammunition for a small engagement.”

Before anyone could answer, the comm blinked, and Horner touched the screen.

“What’s the status, Matt?” Raynor asked.

“We’ve picked up a distress call from the planet Agria. There’s a colony there under attack by the Zerg.” Horner replied and pulled up the transmission. A woman in white suit appeared on the large computer screen. A pair of glasses made her seem clever.

“To any ship receiving this transmission...the Zerg are invading Agria...The Dominion abandoned us here...We’re just a small farming colony. We’ve got to evacuate before we’re overrun. If you’re hearing this message, please help us!” She was desperate.

Jean calculated the statistics. The benefit of going on this mission was, well, present. The colonists, abandoned by the Dominion, would gladly join the Raiders that saved their lives. Colonists weren’t professional soldiers, but in a world of drafting, civil wars, and aliens, every colonist could easily adapt to the life of warfare. Hand them a CMC armor and a gauss rifle, and they would be the standard marine. The farming colony had some resources, and the Raiders could harvest them.

On the other hand, the risk wasn’t low either. Best case scenario, the Raiders empty their arsenal and hold the zerg off with minimal losses. Worst case scenario, the Raiders were cut off and ripped apart. Either way, if it was left to Jean to decide, she would go to Agria but make sure she was open minded about what to do, whether it was to save the colonists or just get in, gun down the colonists and take whatever resources and weapons there were in the colony, and get out of there.

Then again, she was just a soldier. The decision was Raynor’s to make, and he wasn’t called a hero for nothing.

Just like she imagined, Jim Raynor didn’t hesitate to open up a transmission with the woman from the distress call.