Project Shadowblade

Project Shadowblade, also known as the Spectre Program, was a secret research project devised by Terran Dominion emperor Arcturus Mengsk after the Brood War. Using the psi-enhancing gas terrazine, it sought to forge a new generation of psychic super-soldiers, the spectres, who would surpass the ghost. It came to be considered a subversive offshoot of the Ghost Program, and its existence remained classified within the Dominion.

Origins on Demon's Fair#

In 2501, an unmanned Terran Dominion probe discovered the fringe world of Demon's Fair, where protoss ruins of the Tal'darim sect marked a rift that still produced terrazine. A scientific officer convinced Arcturus Mengsk to exploit the psi-enhancing gas for military applications, and Mengsk created Project Shadowblade under level-nine classification, led by General Horace Warfield. The project drew the attention of Colonel Jackson Hauler, commander of Nova Squadron and a secret psychic, who vanished on a supposed secret mission and took on the identity of Cole Bennett, a biomedical researcher. The gas was tested on animals, condemned prisoners, and volunteers; it increased psychic power but was addictive and brought on hallucinations and violent outbursts. To support what they hoped would be the next generation of soldiers, the Dominion began designing specialized equipment for the program, including the phantom infiltration vehicle.

Termination#

Mengsk grew leery of the project and ordered its termination. By Bennett's account, marines were sent in to eliminate the members after Warfield was recalled; other sources hold that Bennett, driven mad by self-experimentation, killed most of them himself. Either way, Bennett used his memory-altering abilities to fake his own death, escaping with a few followers while the surviving members were killed or thrown into New Folsom Prison. He resumed the identity of Jackson Hauler and rose to command Nova Squadron, nursing a hatred of the Dominion. One imprisoned subject, able to resist memory-wiping thanks to terrazine, eventually put Gabriel Tosh on the trail of the gas, while Mengsk quietly preserved a fringe lab on the world of Tartarus to make identity-less spectres loyal to his rule.

The rebellion#

By 2502 the rebels had begun abducting Dominion ghosts, removing their neural implants and exposing them to terrazine; within a year at least a dozen had been taken. The group disabled military and trade targets, assassinated leaders, and disrupted supply chains, with Dominion media blaming the attacks on United Earth Directorate terror cells. A spectre team moved to capture Mengsk and force a public confession, but Nova Terra and a squad of ghosts stopped them at great cost, with all but two of Nova's ghosts killed and the survivors indoctrinated. Bennett then revealed himself, gassing Nova and bringing her and her wrangler ally Malcolm Kelerchian to Gehenna Station to indoctrinate her. Nova broke free, reunited with Kelerchian, and killed Bennett, after which the 22nd Dominion Marine Division destroyed the station with a nuclear missile. Gabriel Tosh escaped with six spectres in stasis, intending to restart the program.

Revival in the Shadow War#

During the Second Great War, Tosh sought to build upon the project by gathering jorium, terrazine, and suitable candidates, establishing a training facility at Avernus Station. He recruited Jim Raynor, and together they retrieved jorium from Redstone III and terrazine from Bel'Shir before storming New Folsom to free the spectres held within. Warned by Nova Terra of how psychotic the spectres could become, Raynor turned on Tosh's operation, helping Nova destroy his jorium stockpiles, terrazine tanks, and psionic waveform indoctrinator, after which Nova assassinated Tosh. When Amon returned, many who had taken the Void-based terrazine fell under his influence, and spectres flocked to the Moebius Corps, fighting against the Daelaam at Ulnar and in the final defense of the Corps at Revanscar.

The Tartarus contingency#

The hidden spectre lab on Tartarus continued to operate even after Mengsk's death, so deeply isolated that it had no word of events outside. When the facility was overrun by the zerg used to test its subjects, its stockpile of jorium drew Nova Terra, who had spent her years as a vigilante removing jorium from the sector. Against Nova's orders, her assistant Reigel released the imprisoned spectres in the hope they would be a weapon for good, but they had been fully indoctrinated to serve the late Arcturus, and they stole a ship and began a reign of terror across the Dominion. With the aid of Nerazim Matriarch Vorazun, Nova hunted them down, and rather than kill the survivors she convinced them they need not remain weapons of the Dominion. They were taken to Aiur under Vorazun's care to recover from the damage the program had done.