AUGUSTGRAD

Rebuilt in the years after Mengsk’s Uprising, after the Confederacy of Man had torn Korhal apart and nearly destroyed it forever, Augustgrad was now a showpiece of Dominion wealth and influence. Sprawling across a desert plain, framed by a high mountain range to the north and a winding river to the south, the gleaming city glistened under the hot sun, the massive buildings at its core reaching skyward like gigantic hydralisk spines. People went about their business with purpose. Quiet parks and spaces for contemplation were woven among the bustling streets, while vikings and hovercars raced by overhead.

The city was a testament to Mengsk’s determination and vision, Gabriel Tosh had to admit as he crouched in the shadows outside the gates to the emperor’s palace. It was also one of the most heavily fortified locations in the galaxy. Korhal had been one of the original core worlds settled by the Confederacy. A naturally hospitable planet, it had encouraged terran colonization more than any other in the sector, and the settlement had flourished. But as the Confederacy of Man had grown more powerful, Korhal had become a center for rebellion, and had been the target of a nuclear strike that had turned its oceans to desert, flattened all vegetation, and killed millions.

After gaining power and tearing down the Confederacy, as the Terran Dominion had risen from the ashes, Mengsk had rebuilt Korhal. It was no longer the lush, gentle world it had once been, but the city of Augustgrad stood in defiance of what had come before it, a modern marvel of neosteel and glass atop the cracked ground that still bore the scorch marks of the planet’s destruction.

Now, Tosh thought, it would serve as a coming-out party for something else entirely.

Despite the palace’s guard presence and defenses, Tosh and the five other spectres he had brought for this mission had slipped unnoticed right up to the emperor’s front door, thanks to Lio’s help with the checkpoints and pass codes, and then with the defensive turrets and cameras. Dylanna, Sloan, Caleb, Jara, and Karl, formerly known only by ghost numbers, their memories now restored, their freedom granted. All strong and willing warriors who had embraced the cause. They wore their trademark black suits, but they could have worn bright yellow for all the difference it would have made. Even the most sophisticated scanning equipment could not pick up their cloaked forms.

Tosh felt invincible. But the goal of this mission was not to make a show of force. They were not prepared for the battle that would surely come if the entire firepower of the Dominion military descended upon them. His team would be crushed instantly.

But facing the Dominion head-on was never his intent. No, this mission would be a bold statement meant to weaken soldiers’ resolve and confidence, a way of undermining the safety and security of the people by shaking their faith in their leaders and sowing the seeds of rebellion. A quick strike of the knife that would slice through the jugular and then be pulled away to let the blood flow freely.

It was also a more personal act of revenge. Mengsk himself was close; Tosh could feel his presence like a toxic stain on the palace walls. He could remember every moment of the mental and physical torture that the academy instructors had put him through in the name of Mengsk’s new government, meant to turn him into a killing machine.

Tosh had to keep reminding the other spectres to stay focused as they moved closer to their target, particularly Dylanna, who had not learned her lesson after the confrontation over Kath’s condition. Dylanna was buzzing like a live wire, and nothing seemed to calm her down. The terrazine and jorium affected everyone a little bit differently, and Tosh was already starting to wonder if she might be a failed experiment. Time would tell, but for now, he needed her.

As he studied the imperial guards patrolling the courtyard inside the palace gates, his mind kept slipping back to Kath, no matter how hard he tried to keep focused on the task at hand. He’d been reluctant to leave her on Gehenna, but she wasn’t ready yet, and he would not push her.

He remembered the smell of her and the feel of her skin, the electricity between them, so much like the old days, it made him ache inside. She looked almost the same, her beauty undiminished by their time apart. His grandma would have said she had the glow, a way of marking those who were blessed with the presence of the spirits. Tosh had never really believed in all that Hajian voodoo, but he had to agree with that much.

He wanted Kath to be by his side and rejoin Team Blue, but she was still questioning her commitment to the ghost program, as so many of them did at first. They had been through this once before. It had nearly torn him apart when the academy had wiped her memory clean and the truth they had uncovered about her father’s death had been buried once again. Everything they had worked so hard for was gone, and he had run from all of it, leaving her behind rather than facing the fact that he was alone.

But this time he knew she would come around to his point of view for good as the terrazine continued to expand her senses and open her eyes. He had convinced her before, and he could do it again. It would be worth the wait.

Tosh touched the tiny figure hanging around his neck for good luck. When he looked up, his grandma was crouching in front of him in her high priestess robes, her wrinkled brown skin shining, ropes of silver hair lying against her shoulders like fat snakes, and he shivered in spite of himself. I tol’ you a powerful storm be coming, she said, her voice full of the power and wisdom that had always made the children gather and then cower before her. She reached out one clawed hand, gnarled finger extended, and drew a veve diagram in the dust, her tongue poking from a corner of her mouth as she spat in concentration. Storm brings forces you don’ understand. This loa be mighty and she be dark.

Tosh willed himself to be still. He knew she wasn’t real, and her religion was long dead and gone too. But her eyes still shone at him like polished stones, and when she laughed, he felt it rattling inside his chest.

Don’ be scared, little Gabriel. It’s a sacrifice she want, and you best give it to her before long. You and the witchcraft you carry be meant to lead your fellow men. But you need to give her that.

Tosh looked away, his heart pounding hard. When he looked back again, she was gone. But at his feet, drawn in the dust that coated the ground, the veve remained. Quickly he tried to rub it out with his palm, but the ghostly impression still floated there, as if burned into his retinas.

If the gods that his grandma had believed in did indeed exist, they had spoken to him now. He did not know what kind of sacrifice this particular deity might require, but he would be ready to do whatever it might take to make Mengsk answer for his sins.

Dylanna had moved closer through the shadows, followed by the others. She couldn’t actually see his cloaked form, but she could sense him more accurately than any machine. “What’s the matter?” she said. “It’s time to move. Give the order.”

“Don’t be telling me what to do,” Tosh said as he stood, but he could not help smiling at her eagerness. He looked at the spectres waiting for his command, and felt a rush of love for them and the cause they had all embraced. He was a benevolent leader, come to bring them home.

We were all ghosts once, he projected outward, touching each of them in turn. Been built like machines to do our masters’ bidding, used the way they saw fit, then wiped clean and put back on the shelf. But we’re free again now, and we learned from our mistakes. Our roots have been restored; our eyes opened; and we been blessed with powers beyond anything we ever imagined. And now it’s time to lead the rest of our kind back from the shadows and into the light.

They were humming like struck tuning forks. He could feel them in his bones. There’ll be casualties of this war. Do not forget that you fight on the side of righteousness, and the blood you spill will not be in vain.

Tosh smiled at them again and nodded. It was a good speech, and they had drawn strength from it. Then he leapt into the air, using one strong hand to grab at the gates and swing himself upward as the power inside him spilled over. He flew in a tucked somersault over the deadly laser wire before extending his legs to land lightly on the stone entryway inside the palace grounds.

The others followed him, Dylanna as gracefully as he had done it, the others a bit more clumsily. Caleb, their last recruit before Kath, just missed catching his foot in the laser and made a slight noise as he landed, and the two guards on patrol, who had almost reached the side of the massive building, paused in the fading light and raised their weapons. But after a moment, seeing nothing, and their sensors calm thanks to Lio, they lowered them again and continued on their way, content that their scanners, laser wire, and auto-turrets would protect them.

Tosh led the strike team directly across the open courtyard and paused at a fountain with a statue of Mengsk with his hands on his hips, staring out at the horizon like a returning hero instead of the murdering slike he had become. Tosh wanted to rip the statue’s head from its shoulders and throw it through the palace windows. Instead, he continued to the front steps and then around the corner, in the direction the guards had gone. This would be the trickiest part of the assault: finding a way in without triggering the palace alarms.

There was a side door for servants and deliveries, an auto-turret and sensor mounted on the roof the only active defenses. Tosh took out his remote console as the sun dropped toward the horizon and the shadows lengthened across the palace walls. “Need to disable the other alarms,” he typed. “Right front quadrant, side entrance, on my mark.”

The screen was empty for a moment, and then: Ready.

Tosh sent Dylanna and Sloan to take positions on either side of the door while the others fanned out to keep watch and wait for their return. He could sense from Caleb that more guards were coming across the courtyard, and time was growing short. “Now, Lio.”

Very well. Go.

Tosh sent a mental push, and Dylanna swung the door open. The three of them slipped silently inside, Sloan letting the door close with the faintest click. Tosh was ready to face a weapon, but the small receiving room was empty except for one man in uniform, who stared with mouth agape at the sight of a door opening and closing by itself. He never had the chance to move as Dylanna crossed the small space, grabbed him by the head, and twisted until his neck cracked and he slipped lifelessly to the floor.

From this point on, things would be getting more complicated. Lio had scanned the floor plans from the mainframe and identified Mengsk’s private quarters. He had also verified that the emperor was inside the building. They had to find him before the guard they had just killed was discovered.

Tosh stood silently for a moment, relishing the fact that they were inside Mengsk’s stronghold. It was hard to believe. And it had been so simple …

But he could not afford to take too long. They moved into the large hallway with several closed doors. Around a bend were two palace workers walking toward them, talking. Sloan flattened himself against a wall, but Dylanna stepped in and threw a series of vicious chops with the side of her hand, crushing one’s Adam’s apple before cracking the spine at the base of the skull of the other. They dropped soundlessly to the floor, a look of shock still on their faces.

Anger rose like a fiery angel in Gabriel Tosh. They had talked at length about the importance of a stealth approach, but three bodies in the course of a few moments meant a greater chance that they would be found inside the palace walls.

Dylanna was destroying all that they had so carefully prepared. She had been the leader of Team Red, while he had led Team Blue at the academy, natural rivals before the two teams had formed a fragile partnership. He knew she had been jealous of his relationships with Kath and Nova, and had wanted him for herself. But that was ancient history, Tosh thought. Was she challenging him again now? He could not let it continue, or it would tear them all apart.

Waves of energy prickled his skin, and the familiar craving for terrazine began to nip at him as he grabbed Dylanna’s cloaked form and pulled her close. Although he could not see her with his own two eyes, he could sense her impatience and wildness; she was like an animal trembling from the hunt, and she glowed with an aura of blue-white light visible only to him and Sloan.

Hush. You’ll give us away, you fekking slike.

“Seeing things,” she said. She wriggled in his grasp, but he held more tightly to her. “There’re protoss just around the corner; you feel them?”

Stupid curve. You’re losing your mind. Shut your mouth and clean up this mess before I lose my temper.

“Blood,” she said. “It’s everywhere. On my hands. I can’t get it off.”

She wasn’t listening to him. Tosh’s anger grew. He probed her mind, looking for the soft spots. His terrazine hunger mingled with his rage, building until he felt himself lock into a particular wavelength and begin to vibrate, cooking her brain inside her skull. She pushed back at him at first, but her powers were no match for his; then the wildness changed to fear as he did not let go and the energy grew around them both like an electrical storm.

She let out a tiny shriek, and he felt Sloan clawing at his arms, but still he did not let go, and along with everything else he felt a delicious sense of power and freedom and lust for the kill. He gave in to the feeling and let it wash him away with a gigantic wave of psionic energy coursing down his arms and legs.

Enough, Gabriel.

He opened his eyes and his grandma was staring back at him. He froze in terror. He had his hands around his grandma’s throat, but she stayed calm. Maman Therese will let you know when it’s time, she said. The loa will show you the right kind of sacrifice she requires. This ain’t the way, not yet.

Tosh released her and she slumped to the floor, gasping. But it wasn’t his grandma anymore; he could see Dylanna’s aura pulsing a dull, bloody red. He turned away, slowing down his breathing, regaining control.

Easy now. He took another hit from the terrazine bottle and let it fill him up again, bringing him peace. She wasn’t worth the effort, and they were wasting time. He only meant to show her who was in charge of this mission, and that was enough.

The two dead men were still lying in the middle of the floor; the entire incident had taken less than a minute. Tosh grabbed them by their feet and dragged them back into the receiving room with the other corpse. He closed the door and fused the latch shut. Dylanna had gotten to her feet again, and he could feel the anger flowing off of her, but she made no sound. Sloan was tending to her now. He ignored them and took out his remote console and tried to bring up the schematics of the palace.

Instead, he saw something from Lio that gave him pause.

Message out through private line. Encrypted, difficult to decode.

The words glowed green and then faded from sight. Tosh took a deep breath and tried to keep the anger that once again had quickly boiled to the surface from spilling over. It would do him no good with Lio, he knew; there was nothing for him to get his hands on anyway. Lio was pure energy.

“I thought you blocked all messages,” Tosh typed. “Where from?”

This is a dedicated channel to a ghost wrangler from Mengsk’s private quarters. May be call for help. It’s possible he has a camera on a direct feed to his room, and he’s seen you or the dead bodies. I scrambled all future communication, but prior message may have been received intact.

Either Lio wasn’t as all-knowing as he appeared to be, or he was getting lazy. Or, Tosh thought, he had an agenda of his own. That idea was more troublesome; a lot was riding on Lio’s willing participation. He would have to think more about that later.

But for now he had to focus. A message getting through Lio’s net could ruin their plans. It was impossible to say whether the city’s security systems had sent out an alarm, but he had to assume that somehow they had. If someone had been alerted to their approach, it was only a matter of minutes before the entire Dominion space fleet and marine forces were at their doorstep.

That would be a very bad thing for all of them.

“How much time?” he typed.

Nothing for a long moment. Then: Not sure. May want to abort.

Tosh thought about talking to the general but decided against it. They would only argue over the next steps, something that was happening with more frequency lately, and the spectres would lose precious ground. The fact was, Tosh was in charge of this mission, and there was still time to complete it. But they would have to move fast. If Dominion forces were close, the spectres could all be killed.

Emperor Mengsk, the man whom Gabriel Tosh held personally responsible for so many grievous acts against him and those he loved, was within reach.

Gabriel Tosh strode off down the hall toward the emperor’s quarters, not bothering to see if the other two were following him or not. He ignored the chill that had prickled his neck. The terrazine spread out through his lungs, entered his bloodstream, and lit him up like a siege tank. He felt his mind lift away from his body, expanding over the palace so that he could see and hear everything, a rush of voices babbling from everywhere.

He was like a god looking out over his creation. Nothing could stop him now. Mengsk would pay for his sins, one way or another, and Project: Shadowblade would unveil itself to the universe, bringing the Dominion to its knees.