StarCraft Chronicles Episode 26: Narud's Face and the Living Prisoner

This is a newly written fan narrative based on the events of the original game. The characters' emotions, dialogue, and scene atmospheres have been reconstructed, and it includes major spoilers.

Shadows of Skygeirr Station

The atmosphere of Skygeirr Station was filled with toxic gas that pierced the lungs. Kerrigan stood at the entrance of the massive research facility secretly operated by the Moebius Foundation, staring at the cold metal walls. In the darkness, the bizarre cries of strange creatures echoed, mingled with mechanical hums. Steeling her resolve to uncover the horrific secrets hidden here, she cautiously stepped inside the facility.

As she passed through a ruined corridor, a strange lifeform slowly emerged from the dark shadows. Half of it retained a human form, but the other half was a grotesque shape covered in hideous Zerg biological tissue. Wearing a tattered, worn United Earth Directorate uniform, the man took heavy steps toward Kerrigan. Kerrigan grew alert, focusing psionic energy at her fingertips.

Without showing any hostility, the man stopped and revealed his name to be Alexei Stukov. Kerrigan's eyes flickered slightly with surprise. In her memory, Stukov was someone who had already lost his life after being betrayed on the planet Braxis. She could not believe that the former UED admiral, whom she had thought dead, was standing before her eyes in such a horribly infested state.

Stukov offered a bitter smile and calmly shared fragments of his tragic past. Having crossed the threshold of death, he was forcibly resurrected and infested by a Zerg Cerebrate, and was subsequently captured by the Moebius Foundation. They dissected and manipulated Stukov's body, conducting biological experiments on him in endless agony. His voice carried a deep, long-suppressed rage.

He raised a crooked finger and pointed to a massive laboratory structure towering in the center of the base. Stukov warned that inside, horrific hybridization experiments were being conducted to combine Protoss and Zerg DNA. They were not merely creating simple monsters, but nurturing seeds of ruin that defied the natural order of the universe. Kerrigan sensed an ominous threat in his words.

A dark, twisted psionic wave emanating from deep within the base scraped sharply against Kerrigan's nerves. It was neither pure Zerg energy nor the noble power of the Protoss, but a horribly fused echo of terror. The energy radiating from the hybrids was so powerful that it made even the primal power she had obtained on Zerus tense up. If this facility were left unchecked, the entire universe would undoubtedly be in danger.

Stukov proposed an alliance, stating he would lead his pack of infested Terrans to exact revenge on the master of this base. He knew the internal structure and defense systems inside out, and Kerrigan possessed a powerful Swarm capable of wiping out the hybrids. Their goals aligned perfectly: to end this horrific experiment and execute the mastermind behind it. An alliance of two monsters who understood each other's scars was formed.

Kerrigan nodded, accepting Stukov's proposal, and ordered the Swarm to break through the outer defenses of Skygeirr Station. Over the twilight-shrouded base, countless Overlords blanketed the sky and began dropping Zerg warriors. An overwhelming force of mixed infested Terrans and primal Zerg began a merciless march toward the Moebius Foundation's fortress, raising the curtain on their vengeance.

The Deceiver's Identity Revealed

As they advanced, staining the base's corridors with blood, Stukov spoke about the culprit who had thrown him into this hell. His eyes sank darkly, as if recalling terrible memories of the past. He uttered the name Samir Duran, explaining how he had deceived the UED and led them to ruin. He said the cold touch of the gun barrel he felt at the moment of betrayal was still vivid.

During the operation surrounding the Psi Disrupter on Braxis, Duran had framed Stukov as a traitor and mercilessly pulled the trigger. The admiral, who had dedicated himself to his homeland's victory, had to fall in vain at the hands of the subordinate he should have trusted most. Stukov recalled seeing a cold, alien madness in Duran's eyes that was not human. It was not a betrayal born of simple lust for power.

After his breath ceased, his body fell into the hands of the Zerg, becoming a subject for a Cerebrate's experiments and undergoing a horrific process of infestation. In the agony of his human ego clashing with Zerg instincts, he was reborn as a monster. Stukov looked down at his hideous arm, lamenting his cursed fate where even death was denied. However, that pain had made him a colder and more resilient being.

Even after being infested, his trials did not end; he was captured by Moebius Foundation mercenaries and dragged to this Skygeirr Station. Researchers tore and stitched his body daily to control the infestation and obtain data to perfect the hybrids. The memory of biological experiments conducted without even pain relievers left an indelible scar on his soul. Stukov's voice carried a chilling murderous intent that went beyond anger.

Kerrigan listened to his story in silence, empathizing with his deep sense of loss and pain through the primal Zerg senses she had acquired on Zerus. Having a past where she too was forced to turn into a monster by the will of others, she understood Stukov's feelings better than anyone. Though they had walked different paths, they shared the cruel commonality of having their lives violated as someone else's pawns.

Stukov concluded the conversation by revealing that the chief director of this horrific hybrid laboratory was Dr. Emil Narud. He warned that while Narud posed outwardly as a brilliant scientist of the Moebius Foundation, an unimaginably massive malice was hidden behind that facade. Narud's research was not simple scientific curiosity, but closer to a ritual to resurrect someone.

And then, Stukov delivered the most shocking truth to Kerrigan. Emil Narud was the very same person as Samir Duran, who had shot him in the past. It was the true face of the deceiver who had toyed with the entire Koprulu sector by cleverly hiding his identity by reversing the spelling of his name and changing countless faces. At that moment, all the unpleasant memories associated with Duran in the past flashed through Kerrigan's mind.

Realizing the truth, Kerrigan's eyes burned fiercely with purple psionic energy. The fact that Duran had been leading the hybrid project from start to finish, driving the universe to ruin, poured fuel on her anger. Realizing there was no reason to delay any longer, she quickened her pace toward the deepest heart of the laboratory to cut off Narud's breath.

The Ruin of the Hybrid Lab

With a heavy metal door destroyed, Kerrigan and Stukov entered the massive central laboratory. Inside the giant stasis tubes lined up along the walls, a disgusting green liquid was filled, and bizarre creatures crouched within. They were horrific hybrids, looking as if the elegant skeleton of the Protoss and the ferocious carapace of the Zerg had been forcibly stitched together. The chilling noise of life support systems vibrated throughout the laboratory.

As if sensing Kerrigan's powerful psionic energy, the hybrids inside the stasis tubes snapped their closed eyes open and thrashed violently in the solution. The discordant waves created by the clashing essences of the two races were threatening enough to distort space itself. This was not evolution, but sacrilege itself, born of someone's diseased imagination. Kerrigan frowned, overcome by instinctive disgust.

Just then, Narud's calm and arrogant voice echoed through the laboratory's speakers. He welcomed Kerrigan's visit and leisurely evaluated her primal Zerg form with interest. His voice held no trace of fear, but was filled with the arrogance of welcoming a test subject who had walked into his great laboratory on her own feet. That despicable voice sharply irritated Kerrigan's nerves.

Kerrigan shouted into the empty air, calling him by his old name, Duran, and telling him to stop his cowardly hide-and-seek and show himself immediately. Narud let out a light laugh, replying that the name Duran was also just one of the many masks he had worn. He mocked that defining him by a single name was meaningless, and that he represented the will of a far greater and more eternal being.

Narud began to proudly boast of the grand plan of his master, the fallen Xel'naga Amon. He claimed that these hybrids were the perfect vessels prepared by Amon to recreate the universe, and the key to saving all imperfect lifeforms. He cursed that no matter how much Kerrigan struggled, she could not stop the end of the cycle that had already begun, and would eventually kneel at Amon's feet.

Having finished his mockery, Narud activated the laboratory's control system, releasing the restraints of the stasis tubes all at once. Amidst the roar of shattering glass and pouring slime, massive hybrids roared and landed on the floor. They glared at Kerrigan with glowing red eyes and began to release terrible psionic energy. Narud cut off the transmission, saying the hybrids would make a fine grave for her.

Kerrigan spread her wings wide and charged at the fiercely lunging hybrids. As psionic storms and the ferocious power of the primal Zerg collided, the inside of the laboratory was instantly engulfed in a vortex of destructive energy. The hybrids' attacks were lethally devastating beyond imagination, but the power of Kerrigan, reborn on Zerus, was more than enough to overwhelm them. Her sharp claws tore through the hybrids' thick armor.

After a fierce battle, as the last hybrid collapsed to the floor with a death rattle, a heavy silence returned to the laboratory. Catching his breath, Stukov focused on disabling the remaining security systems and securing an escape route with his remaining infested forces. Kerrigan fixed her gaze toward the deepest sanctuary where Narud was hiding, and walked alone into the darkness for the inevitable final showdown.

The Cruelest Illusion

The place Kerrigan stepped into was a massive underground cavern resembling an ancient temple, completely different from the standard areas of the base. In the air, a dark energy so thick and heavy that it made breathing difficult pressed down. Unknown runes glowed faintly on the floor, and the entire space pulsed unpleasantly as if it were alive. She sharpened her senses, searching for Narud's presence.

In the middle of the empty space, Narud emerged along with a mist. However, his appearance was neither the grotesque alien lifeform nor the face of Duran that she had expected. Standing where the mist cleared was Jim Raynor in his worn combat suit. Kerrigan's eyes shook violently, and her heart pounded uncontrollably. The face of the lover she missed the most had appeared before her as a cruel illusion of the enemy.

The fake Raynor stared at Kerrigan with his characteristic sad and disappointed eyes, speaking in Jim's exact voice. He asked if she knew how much blood he had shed to save her, and reproached her for why she had returned to the form of that terrible monster. That voice, blaming her for abandoning her humanity and choosing the path of slaughter, pierced Kerrigan's heart like a sharp dagger.

Kerrigan knew clearly in her mind that the entity before her was a cunning illusion created by Narud. However, faced with accusations poured out in the face and voice of the man she loved, her psionic concentration began to waver slightly. She unconsciously stepped back, her lips parting as if to make an excuse, but her voice would not come out properly. Narud was piercing her most vulnerable guilt with precision.

As Kerrigan writhed in pain, the illusion distorted grotesquely once more, this time transforming into another form. It was Sarah Kerrigan from her human days, with her red hair neatly tied and wearing the clean uniform of a Ghost agent. Confronted with her past self, Kerrigan gasped. Human Sarah looked the current primal Zerg version of herself up and down with a cold, contemptuous gaze, letting out a sneer.

The illusion of human Kerrigan poured out cruel venom at her current self, saying she was nothing but a horrible monster who could never return to the light. She mocked that no matter how much she struggled to take revenge on Mengsk and save the world, the blood of billions on her hands would never be washed away. Narud was trying to completely shatter her mind by visualizing the self-hatred and fear deeply rooted inside Kerrigan.

Amidst the accusations of the constantly shifting illusions, Kerrigan clutched her head as a headache struck. It was clear that Narud had meticulously prepared this vicious psychological warfare to break her will before any physical battle could take place. The ghosts of the past whispered despair into her ears continuously, gnawing away at the mental barrier she used to control her primal Zerg power.

However, Kerrigan squeezed her eyes shut and pulled herself together, recalling the pain and resolve she had experienced in the primal spawning pools of Zerus. She knew clearly who she was and what burden she had chosen to bear. Snapping her eyes open, she radiated a purple glow and declared that she would no longer be toyed with by his shallow tricks. A psionic wave released as if tearing the illusions apart swept violently through the cavern.

Clash of Void and Primal

When his psychological warfare failed, Narud withdrew his abominable illusions, returned to his original form as Dr. Emil Narud, and wore a cold smile. From his body, a dense void energy that seemed to suck in light radiated ominously. The air inside the cavern grew rapidly cold, and a suffocating pressure dominated the space. Unleashing the transcendent psionic power hidden behind his human shell as the agent of the Xel'naga, he began to pressure Kerrigan.

As Narud reached out, dark void energy surged like a massive wave, engulfing Kerrigan. Kerrigan also spread her wings and leaped, concentrating the powerful primal psionic energy she had obtained on Zerus to counter him. When the powers of the two transcendent beings collided head-on, the ceiling and floor of the cavern began to collapse with a tremendous explosion. It was not a simple physical brawl, but a horrific struggle on a psionic dimension that ground down their minds and souls.

The battle raged brutally without a single concession. The dark void magic unleashed by Narud burned as if to melt Kerrigan's tough primal carapace, while Kerrigan's ferocious claws continuously tore at Narud's barrier. The two beings pushed each other to their absolute limits, draining each other's life force. Kerrigan's breathing grew ragged, and Narud's energy also began to scatter little by little.

At the climax of the battle, Narud suddenly transformed into Jim Raynor. While Kerrigan hesitated and let her guard down for a split second at the unexpected appearance, the fake Raynor, with cold eyes, swung a sword condensed with void energy and pierced deep through Kerrigan's body. Kerrigan screamed in the horrific pain of burning flesh, and Narud, in Raynor's voice, mocked her, saying Amon's resurrection was already an assured future.

Yet, even the horrific pain of being impaled through the shoulder could not silence Kerrigan's rage. Ignoring the blood pouring from her wound, she gathered all the primal Zerg essence she had absorbed on Zerus into the wings on her back. Narud tried to back away in panic, but Kerrigan gripped his arm tightly, locking him in place so he could not escape. Her eyes burned with rage, and overwhelming energy stood ready to explode.

But even the horrific pain of being impaled through her body could not break Kerrigan's resolve. Narud transformed again into Sarah Kerrigan from her human days to shake her heart, but Kerrigan, ignoring the blood pouring from her wound, extended the sharp wing bones on her back and mercilessly impaled Narud's chest. Black blood poured from Narud's mouth, and the void energy surrounding him began to fluctuate wildly and scatter.

Even as he lay dying on the floor, Narud flashed a grotesque smile at Kerrigan. In a gasping voice, he left behind cryptic and chilling dying words: that Amon was already alive, and that she had seen him. His words were not a mere curse, but a declaration full of conviction that an irreversible doom had already begun. An inexplicable, chilling fear rose up from deep within Kerrigan's abyss.

Finally, Narud's breath ceased completely, and his body turned to ash, scattering into the darkness. Panting heavily, Kerrigan stood tall, covered in blood, in the middle of the collapsing cavern. Although she had executed Narud and completed one stage of her revenge, her heart did not feel lighter in the slightest. This victory was not the end, but merely a tragic prelude announcing the war against the true darkness to come.

Infiltrating the Moros Prison Ship

Having completely destroyed Skygeirr Station and returned to the Leviathan, Kerrigan instructed Izsha to analyze the information seized from the Moebius Foundation's database. While decrypting numerous encrypted files, a highly suspicious communication record exchanged over the Dominion's top-secret network was discovered. It was a piece of the truth that had been thoroughly hidden as a class-one secure document managed directly by Emperor Mengsk.

When the encryption was fully cracked and she checked the document displayed on the screen, Kerrigan's heart sank as if it had stopped. Contrary to the Dominion's official announcement, clear evidence was there that Jim Raynor had not been executed and was still alive. Mengsk had concocated a cruel lie to psychologically control Kerrigan and plunge her into despair. She trembled all over at the fact that her lover, whom she had thought dead, was alive.

According to the data, Raynor was imprisoned on a Dominion maximum-security prison ship named the Moros. The Moros was a massive mobile fortress that constantly moved through space without a fixed location to evade tracking. Kerrigan immediately mobilized all of the Swarm's intelligence networks to calculate the Moros's current orbit and focus all efforts on identifying its projected path. It was a tense moment that did not allow for even a single second of delay.

A wave of relief and a boiling rage toward Mengsk, who had thoroughly deceived her, rushed over her simultaneously, threatening to paralyze her reason. Mengsk had tried to manipulate her by holding Raynor's life hostage, but that would prove to be his most fatal mistake. Clenching her fists, Kerrigan swore she would raid the Moros immediately, rescue Raynor, and reduce the Dominion fleet to ashes.

The Leviathan, its neural network pulsing, tore through space-time and warped to the deep space coordinates where the Moros prison ship was located. It was a surprise attack timed precisely for the fleeting moment the prison ship lingered in orbit to prepare for its next warp. The Leviathan's tentacles tightly wrapped around the outer hull of the massive prison ship, securing the vessel, and the Dominion's warning sirens began to blare as if to tear through space.

Leading her swiftest and most ferocious primal Zerg strike force, Kerrigan breached the prison ship's armor plating and infiltrated the interior. The steel outer walls were torn like paper, and the Swarm poured into the vessel. Dominion Marines hastily established defensive lines and unleashed a barrage of bullets, but they were powerless to stop the advance of the enraged Queen of Blades. She marched straight toward the deep security sector where Raynor was held.

The battle in the narrow corridors was close to a one-sided slaughter. Every time Kerrigan's psionic energy flashed, heavy security doors were shattered, and Marines were flung into the air without even being able to scream. The prison ship's internal systems were paralyzed, and its communication network was cut, plunging the Dominion soldiers into extreme terror. Kerrigan did not even look at the enemies around her, chasing only Raynor's faint psionic signature.

Finally arriving in front of the maximum-security solitary cell located in the deepest area, Kerrigan ripped away the massive metal door in a single motion using her psionic power. Amidst acrid smoke and flying sparks, the interior of the dark cell slowly came into view. Exhaling a trembling breath, she cautiously called out the name of the man she had searched for so desperately. It was the moment the two finally faced each other again at the end of a long, long despair.

A Bitter Reunion and Scars

Under the emergency lights pouring through the shattered doorway, Jim Raynor, who had been sitting slumped against the wall, slowly raised his head. Due to his long imprisonment and torture, his face was stained with dirt and dried blood, and his eyes were exhausted. Amidst the explosions and acrid smoke that had breached the cell, he strained his blurry vision to identify the silhouette of the savior who had come to rescue him.

As the smoke slowly cleared and the identity of the silhouette became clear, Raynor's eyes widened in disbelief. He had firmly believed that the person coming to rescue him from Mengsk's clutches would be Sarah Kerrigan, the human with flowing red hair. He had imagined that the beautiful, fragile woman he had risked everything to purify with the Xel'naga artifact would smile and reach out her hand to him.

However, standing before his eyes was the evolved form of the Queen of Blades, who had tormented him countless times in his past nightmares. Her purple eyes flashing with bloodlust, the hideous spine-wings extending from her back, and the tough carapace of the primal Zerg covering her entire body pressed down upon him. That horrific appearance, devoid of any human warmth, struck Raynor's chest like a sledgehammer.

Kerrigan's heart sank as she saw Raynor's frozen expression, but she forced a tender voice, calling his name as she approached. Cautiously reaching out her hand with its sharp claws, she told him that it was all over now and they should leave this place together. Though her eyes were as affectionate as the Sarah of the past, they contrasted with her hideous appearance, creating an even greater sense of alienation.

Instead of taking her outstretched hand, Raynor instinctively shrank back and retreated. His face was thick with a deep sense of betrayal and horror rather than relief. In a trembling voice, he muttered, asking what she had done, as if wishing this entire situation were not real. He could not accept the fact that the miracle he had spent his life restoring had been shattered by her own choice.

He poured out his anger, mentioning all the efforts and sacrifices of his comrades as he roamed through hellish battlefields across the Koprulu sector to turn her back into a human. It was a resentment over how she could throw away the human life they had barely obtained through all those hardships and become a monster again. His voice carried not just a rejection of her altered appearance, but a deep despair and sense of loss over her choice to abandon her humanity for revenge.

Feeling a heart-wrenching pain from his wounded gaze, Kerrigan made a hurried excuse. She appealed to him that she thought Mengsk had killed him, and that she absolutely needed this power for revenge and to protect the Swarm and herself from the massive threat to come. She tried hard to prove that she was still Sarah Kerrigan, but her excuses only echoed hollowly, failing to open Raynor's closed heart.

Raynor shook his head in agony, turning away coldly and ignoring her excuses. A massive emotional chasm had formed between the two, transcending any physical distance. Kerrigan slowly withdrew her hand, which had stopped in midair, swallowing bitter regret and sorrow. Though she had succeeded in rescuing Raynor from the brink of death, she had lost the heart of the person most precious to her.

An Irreversible Decision

The path leading out of the Moros prison ship toward the escape zone where Jim Raynor's transport was waiting was filled with a suffocating silence. Raynor walked with a stiff expression, looking only ahead without trying to make eye contact with Kerrigan, and Kerrigan, unable to urge him, followed silently behind. Around them, Zerg forces were clearing the wreckage of the destroyed Dominion ship, but the world of the two was frozen cold.

Kerrigan felt a cold emptiness in her chest, as if a part of her had been hollowed out. Looking at Raynor's cold back now was thousands of times more painful than when she had been pierced by Narud's void sword. It was a price she had somewhat anticipated when she accepted the primal Zerg power on Zerus, but the sense of loss that had now become reality was too heavy for her to bear. She swallowed silent tears inside.

To save Raynor and to execute the monster Mengsk, she had chosen the path of becoming an even greater monster. It was an inevitable decision for survival, but consequently, that choice had permanently killed the human Sarah whom Raynor had loved. In this cruel cycle of fate where she had lost love in exchange for power, Kerrigan was feeling her karma with bone-deep clarity.

Finally arriving in front of the transport that would return him to the Hyperion, Raynor stopped his heavy steps and slowly turned around. His eyes were filled with a hollow emptiness that went beyond anger. In a low, cracked voice, he declared that they were finished, and that the Sarah he knew was dead. That short, resolute sentence was a cruel sentence that put an end to their long relationship.

As the transport's hatch closed and the engines ignited, Kerrigan watched in silence as the ship carrying Raynor receded into the dark expanse of space. A sorrow that felt like her heart was being torn out washed over her, but she forced herself to suppress it, steadying her wavering gaze. She now had to stand alone, not as a man's lover, but as the ruler of the Swarm responsible for billions of lives.

Looking at Raynor's departing figure, she realized once again with bone-deep clarity that she could never turn back from the path she had chosen. The burden she carried was the massive and tragic fate of the universe itself, far too vast for Raynor alone to comprehend. She did not even have the luxury of time to indulge in sorrow. Amon's threat was slowly approaching, and there remained an old, bitter grudge that had to be settled before then.

Returning to the Leviathan, Kerrigan stood in the center of the massive neural network and ordered all of the Swarm's Broodmothers to prepare for battle. The sorrow cleared from her eyes, replaced by a cold, sharp desire for vengeance. Now, all the lingering attachments and weaknesses that had bound her were gone, leaving only a blood-stained goal. The Swarm let out ferocious roars that seemed ready to swallow the universe, awaiting their Queen's command.

Kerrigan stared at the endless starlight beyond the Leviathan's transparent membrane, fixing her gaze on the planet Korhal, the heart of the Dominion. The time had finally arrived to make Arcturus Mengsk pay for all his deception and evil deeds. In a low, chilling voice, she gave the final order to head for Korhal. The true blade of vengeance began to march, cutting through the darkness to choke the life out of the Dominion.

References

Blizzard Official StarCraft Chronicles

StarCraft II Official Campaign Introduction

Developer Lore Q&A: Connecting Characters and War

Blizzard's Kerrigan Lore and Official Appearance Reference

StarCraft II Official Download and Campaign/Nova Purchase List