Umoja.

Jean stepped through her mansion that was located on the capital planet of the Umojan Protectorate.

Jean wasn’t given a military rank after she joined the Umojan Protectorate. She was like a mercenary. Then again, just like a mercenary, she was paid handsomely. In exchange for her contributions to the Protectorate, like introducing the Warden units and aiding the attack on the Swarm, she received a large paycheck.

Using these credits, Jean got herself a large mansion on Umoja. She even hired a squad of private security to keep herself save, not that she needed them.

It has been over two weeks since the battle between the Death Fleet and the Swarm. After returning from the invasion on Swarm airspace, Jean found herself with a ton of free time. The process of creating Warden units no longer needed her, and she was no longer needed at the fleet either.

This gave her time to...do things. Fortunately for every living creature in the sector, it wasn’t exactly things like committing mass genocide or sending armies against each other...at least not quite...

Jean walked into a large bathroom filled with more light than the stage of a theatre. The bathtub was already filled with warm water, and the girl stripped down and slowly walked inside. She sank down and allowed the water to cover most of her body, only leaving her head out in the open. As her body hit the bottom of the bathtub, she moaned softly.

“Butler, remind me to get a slave as a maid. It’s getting dull to live by myself.”

A mechanical voice echoed through the empty mansion.

“Ms. Cassidia, slavery is prohibited under both Umojan and Dominion law.”

“Fine. In that case, servants. Call them whatever you want. As long as I’ve got enough money, they’re all the same.” The blonde girl said impatiently. “How much money do I have again?”

The Butler replied with a number.

“Bravo.” Jean smiled and reached out into a counter placed beside the tub and took out a bottle of wine. Just that bottle of drink was worth more than the annual income of a typical Umojan family. She drank straight from the bottle and emptied it. As she finished, she finally closed her eyes and laid back in the tub, nodding off.

As Jean fell half asleep, a cloaked figure retreated from the mansion, which should be private to Jean. As he moved, none of the private security Jean hired sensed anything. The figure got out of the mansion, ran for ten minutes, and got inside another heavily guarded building.

The building belonged to Councilman Jorgensen, the supposed leader of the Umojan Protectorate.

“Sir,” The cloaked figure turned off his cloaking field, revealing a man in an armor similar to the hostile environment suit of a ghost. However, both the armor and the helmet were slightly different in terms of design. Furthermore, the armor was white, in contrast to the red armor of Dominion ghosts.

He was a shadowguard. An Umojan ghost.

Jorgensen nodded. He wasn’t surprised by the sudden appearance of the man. After all, he sent the man. “How is our advisor doing?”

After Jean returned from the expedition to the zerg territories, Jorgensen decided to do something to her. Something wasn’t right about her. Everything just seemed perfect. Too perfect. A couple days after the Umojans were attacked by the zerg infestation, this girl suddenly popped up and offered a perfect solution, and the zerg simply backed off. For a while, Jorgensen thought he might be overthinking this. Jean obviously had the Warden technology all the time, and she only came forward to the Umojans after the infestation because she saw an opportunity for profit. That was who she was. A mercenary. An opportunist. Someone who profited on the disaster and the suffering of the Umojans.

Yet Jorgensen wanted to be sure, which was why he sent the shadowguard. If Jean was who she claimed to be, then great. If she wasn’t, well, shadowguards weren’t only spies. They were also assassins, and they were willing to do anything to protect the Umojan Protectorate.

If that happened, all Jorgensen had to do was decide if a fire was more convincing than a car crash.

“Sir, Miss Cassidia seems to be having a great time. She spent most of her credits on a large house, a large security, and luxuries like lotions and wines.”

Jorgensen frowned. “Any sign of conspiracy? With the Dominion, maybe?”

“Negative.” The shadowguard replied concisely before thinking maybe he was being too impolite. “I have followed her since her return from the expedition. If she tried to do something or send out a message, I would know.” He paused. “Sir, should I continue to follow her?”

Jorgensen shook his head. The longer the shadowguard stayed with Jean, the more likely he would be discovered, and if that happened he wouldn’t be able to explain why he ordered a special operation soldier to tail an accomplice of Umoja. As long as Jean was clean, there was no need to take the risk.

“No. You have completed your mission, soldier.”

The shadowguard saluted and left the room.

Meanwhile, Jean’s earpiece rang.

“Creator, the Umojan shadowguard has departed.”

Jean’s eyes snapped open. Unknown to the shadowguard, she kept a minimized detector on her wherever she went. The moment the shadowguard got beside her, the Warden AI monitoring the detector warned her. Instead of taking the ghost out by force, Jean laid low. Killing the shadowguard was easy. Settling the one who sent the shadowguard wasn’t. Even if she could do it, it would be pointless and costly.

For days she laid quiet and played the part of a lucky mercenary who just got a huge paycheck and was willing to waste it away for some fun. Despite not enjoying a single part of it, she played the role perfectly.

And now the shadowguard was fooled.

Jean tapped her head. In order to be absolutely convincing, all the things she did were real. She actually emptied the bottle of wine, and now her head was spinning. She had some gift, but nothing done to her head made her immune to the effect of alcohol. She was still drunk, and she needed to change that.

The girl silently whispered an order into her earpiece, and the next second all the water in the bathtub was emptied by a sink. They were replaced by ice water, which quickly filled the tub to her neck. She shivered, but she stayed seated for a minute. The cold effectively woke her up. When the sleepiness was gone, Jean stood up, wiped her body clean with a white towel, and got dressed. As she did so, she started a conversation with the Warden AI in charge of the house.

“Creator, there is something you might want to know.”

Advanced Warden units, like the Warden Command Units, had the ability to think independently. This allowed them to distinguish what was useful from what wasn’t.

“Speak.”

“After staying quiet for over two weeks after the battle of Tyrador VIII, James Raynor has been back on the move. He has retrieved the last piece of artifact fragment from the Tal’darim in an attack aided by the Moebius Corps. According to sources, he is hiring mercenaries. Signs indicate he is planning something.”

“He wants to attack the Swarm.” Jean deduced from her memories. Narud must’ve combined the fragments and reassembled the Xel’naga Keystone. The Keystone was capable of undoing all zerg genes, basically reducing them to ashes. This would kill every zerg in its blast radius. It wouldn’t kill the infested Queen of Blades, but it would exterminate every drop of zerg inside Kerrigan and turn her back to the terran ghost she used to be. She would still be deadly, but she was no longer a threat to the sector.

Raynor thought he would be saving his love. He didn’t know his action would awaken a menace even worse than Sarah Kerrigan. All the zerg essence the Keystone collected would be stored inside the artifact, and after a few modifications, these essence could be used to forge a shell of the dark god, allowing him to enter the material world.

Jean needed to return Kerrigan back to a human state, as it would allow Jean to set up an alliance with her and therefore the Swarm, but she had no reason of allowing Amon to enter the material world. Her plan was to take out all of the dark god’s helpers in the sector, whether they were the Tal’darim, the Moebius, or the feral zerg, and then make her way into the void with the entire Koprulu Sector behind her back.

If she simply sat back, first of all, she didn’t think Raynor could purify Kerrigan. In the original history, Raynor and half the Dominion fleet made their way to the surface of Char despite having very little air control, set up a defensive formation despite being attacked by the full might of the Swarm, and held that position against the attack of the Queen of Blades herself and the majority of the Swarm long enough for the Keystone to be fully charged. During the entire time, Kerrigan practically sat back and watched. She launched a couple attacks, but all of them were deflected.

Jean couldn’t promise this would happen again this time, and she wasn’t the type that would take the chances. If she wanted something done, she would do it herself.

In addition, if she didn’t intervene, there was no way she could keep Narud’s hands off the Keystone. Raynor thought Narud was his ally. He wouldn’t stand a chance against a strike team from the Xel’naga.

But Jean needed to be careful as of how she intervened. She couldn’t bring the Umojan Fleet there. Even if she could convince the Ruling Council, the Umojans and the Dominion were enemies. They didn’t exactly engage in a full scale war, but covert operations went on all over the sector. A large portion of the Umojans were those who fled from the oppressive Dominion. If she brought the Umojan fleet to Char and hoped they would fight side by side with the Dominion, she might start a fight between the two terran fleets even before engaging the zerg.

She considered taking the avatar of a mercenary, but she couldn’t gain command to a mercenary group in time, and even if she did, a couple mercenary battlecruisers couldn’t give her enough leverage to do what she needed to do.

She needed to bring in the Umojan Fleet, but it would be a tough process. Thankfully, she wasn’t afraid of hard work.

“Butler, contact Senator Jorgensen and ask him to summon the Ruling Council. I have a suggestion to make.”

Unfortunately for Jean, this time the Ruling Council wasn’t as satisfied with her proposal.

“Miss Cassidia, might I remind you that the Protectorate is created with the objective to secure liberty and freedom from oppressive governments. The Terran Dominion is the prime example of oppressive governments. We will never fight side by side with the Dominion.”

A councilman replied mockingly.

The man’s words were righteous, but Jean knew this was just an excuse. To the Umojan leaders, there was no point in taking the risk by going to Char. If the fleet was defeated, well, all would be lost. Even if the fleet was victorious, the relatively small Protectorate could never recover from the damage. Even now, the Umojans could barely keep themselves safe from the Dominion. This mission would be even more impossible if half the Umojan Fleet was overwhelmed by the zerg. The Dominion had the resource and the manpower to quickly replaced their losses. The Umojans didn’t.

It was a right decision on the part of the councilmen. After all, as leaders of the Protectorate, it was their job to think for its interest. Unfortunately, Jean had a different objective, and that objective couldn’t be fulfilled by being careful.

Still, she made one last attempt.

“This is not about the Dominion. This is about the fight between the zerg and the terran. Destroying the Swarm is a just thing to do for every human being in the sector…”

This was an argument Raynor used to convince his Raiders to side with the Dominion. Jean figured if Raynor could turn an army of rebels to become temporary allies with the entity they rebelled against, then she could do the same to the Umojans. Unfortunately, Jean didn’t have the level of command over the Umojans as Raynor did over his Raiders.

She was cut off before she could even finish.

“Mind your tone, miss Cassidia. You are merely an advisor. Your job is to give advices when we ask for them.”

Another councilman replied.

Jean glanced at Jorgensen, who dodged her glance. Just like his colleagues, Jorgensen didn’t felt the need to take the risk.

Normally, this was a good decision, but this time it might be the worst decision possible. Jean wasn’t the type that would take a no for an answer.

“Yes sir. I understand.” Jean smiled, showing no sign of anger or frustration of being rejected, before backing out. As soon as she left, her smile disappeared.

The Umojan Ruling Council was in her way. She needed to change that.