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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Bv5xn.png)
Hi folks.
I just finished reading up Flashpoint, the latest SC2 novel by Christie Golden. It bridges the gap between WoL and HotS. As they have already stated that HotS begins some time after the events of WoL we can assume that the events of this book will either only be kept within or else summarised at the start of the new campaign.
Below is a summary of what happens in chronological numbered order:
1) The book begins exactly at the end of WoL. Raynor lowers his smoking revolver and picks up Kerrigan.
2) Dropship evacs them off Char.
3) Mutalisks attack on route to Hyperion. They divert to the Bucephalus: Valerian's battlecruiser.
4) Kerrigan is drifting in and out of consiousness. She appears to have regained her human speech and personality, in addition to all her memories as Queen of Blades.
5) Confrontation in Bucephalus hanger bay. Valerian wants Kerrigan studied. Raynor does not.
6) Mengsk warps into the battle with the remaining half of the Dominion fleet.
7) Mengsk orders his son to kill Kerrigan and Raynor.
8) Valerian refuses. He says he wants to study Kerrigan so that the zerg can be defeated for good.
9) Mengsk wants to kill Kerrigan at all costs. He fires on the Bucephalus, willing to kill his son in the process.
10) Both halves of the Dominion fleet begin destroying each other. Valerians fleet, already crippled, gets torn apart.
11) The Hyperion and Bucephalis warp out to safety. Mengsk chases. Valerian loses the entire fleet of 25 battlecruisers. Only the Hyperion and Bucephalis remain.
12) They warp to Deadmans Port for refuge. Matt calls in a favour with Mira Han, who shelters both battlecruisers while they wait for the arrival of Valerians chief scientist, Dr Narud.
13) Kerrigan is regaining her senses while bed stricken.
14) Dr Narud arrives in Deadmans Port. They survive an assassination attempt orchested by the Hyperion bartender, 'Cooper', who remains undetected.
15) Both battlecruisers are under attack by mercenary wraiths. They warp out to the Kirekegaard asteroid belt. Hiding within is the top secret Mobeius facility, the Space Station Prometheus.
16) Kerrigan and Raynor reconcile. Kerrigan appears to be completely human, her presonality and looks Ghost-era, but her hair is still zerg like.
17) Kerrigan agrees to be studied at the Space Station so that they can remove the last zerg mutagens. She arrives along with Egon Stemann (Raynors Scientist), Valerian and Raynor. At this point of time Valerian has proven himself to be one of the good guys and wants to overthrow his father for the good of humanity (sounds familiar).
18) Kerrigan rests on a bed in a isolated ward. Raynor has a private dinner with Valerian and Narud. Stetmann goes to the labs.
19) Narud betrays everybody. He is working for Mengsk. Stetmann is captured and tied up. Raynor and Valerian are surrounded by marines. Kerrigan senses Raynor in danger and regains her full psionic abilities and begins destroying everything.
20) Valerian and Raynor kill the guards and escape, as does Narud with the Artifact (All-In, WoL). Kerrigan rescues Stetmann, who hides behind her for the rest of the novel.
21) Narud unleashes hybrids on Valerian, Raynor and Kerrigan, who are chasing him.
22) The final confrontation happens at the Space Station hanger port. Narud loads his artifact onto a dropship and escapes. A giant hybrid protects his escape in the hanger deck.
23) Mengsk's fleet warps in and destroys the asteroid belt. Both the Hyperion and Bucaphalus are under attack and playing warp around the battlecruiser to buy time.
24) A modified dropship from the Hyperion lands on the hanger deck. It is outfitted with manual guns, controlled by the Hyperion female engineer Annebelle (she is in the cutscenes of WoL and has a portrait in game?)
25) Kerrigan unleashes psionic nova. She kills the hybrid. She also accidently kills Annabelle.
26) They all hightail it out. The Bucaphalus and Hyperion picks them up and they evade capture by flying into stardust(?). They warp to a secure space station within the Umojan Protectorate.
27) After killing Annabelle, Kerrigan agrees to be extensively studied. She allows herself to be sealed in a semi gravity chamber and isolated (the same as can be seen in the HotS trailer).
28) The novel ends. Main points is Kerrigan and Raynors reconcilation. Valerian as a good guy. Kerrigan fully consious, self aware and human but retaining all* her memories. The only thing on her mind is revenge against Mengsk.
It can be assumed from the trailer that the immediate events following this is the insertion of Nova and her ghosts/spectres to locate Kerrigan. Kerrigan breaks free and decides that her best bet to kill Mengsk is to reunite the Swarm. Cue Heart of the Swarm.
*I should note that Kerrigan does not remember Narud, and that while I believe that Christie Golden alludes that she can remember everything else, this might not be actually true.
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Thanks for the summary. Few years ago, I would've bought the novel and just read it through, but now I don't have such time anymore. That said, both disappointed and glad how the plot developed: We all can ignore the novel like the plot never happened with the exception of Valerian confirming he wants to overthrow Mengsk once HotS is out. Those who actually play the campaign and didn't read the book won't be missing out much.
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Nice summary.
Wanted to read it but i am not sure about it. Some interesting points tho.
How come that Kerrigan wanted to remove all her Mutagen from her but still becomes the QoB again (in form at least)
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China6329 Posts
Plot hole: how could Kerrigan retain her memories as QoB but doesn't remember who Dr.Narud is? lol.
And for the last part, the stardust created by Mengsk destroying the asteroid belt conceals both Hyperion and Bucephalis from scanners, so they would have time to regain energy and warp further into safety.
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Btw, Kerrigan hasn't the whole memory of the QoB time. That's nonsense. She doesn't remember Narud and she stated that she has forgotten many things. "What was i like? I remember doing terrible things...." Kerrigan with Izsha
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China6329 Posts
On December 30 2012 23:22 Denda Reloaded wrote:
Btw, Kerrigan hasn't the whole memory of the QoB time. That's nonsense. She doesn't remember Narud and she stated that she has forgotten many things. "What was i like? I remember doing terrible things...." Kerrigan with Izsha
Yeah that makes sense.
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It is implied in the novel that she has retained her memories and that they are indeed vivid. The only part which she doesnt remember is Narud, of whom she can only remember because he has a very familiar "psionic presence".
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On December 30 2012 23:24 digmouse wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2012 23:22 Denda Reloaded wrote:
Btw, Kerrigan hasn't the whole memory of the QoB time. That's nonsense. She doesn't remember Narud and she stated that she has forgotten many things. "What was i like? I remember doing terrible things...." Kerrigan with Izsha Yeah that makes sense.
irony?
It was confirmed many times that Kerrkerr has amnesia and doesn't remember everything. not only narud.
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Russian Federation1612 Posts
Thanks for the summary!
I wonder how Blizzard will describe these events in the beginning of the HotS campaign...
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Is annabelle the blonde or the brunette? One of them has the visor hat right
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On December 31 2012 02:30 Jenia6109 wrote:
Thanks for the summary!
I wonder how Blizzard will describe these events in the beginning of the HotS campaign...
Maybe it'll be described in an optional 4 part terran mini-campaign
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Russian Federation1612 Posts
On December 31 2012 03:00 Purind wrote:Show nested quote +On December 31 2012 02:30 Jenia6109 wrote:
Thanks for the summary!
I wonder how Blizzard will describe these events in the beginning of the HotS campaign... Maybe it'll be described in an optional 4 part terran mini-campaign
I guess not because Blizzard talked nothing about it while they talked about Protoss mini-campaign in WoL for a long time.
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524 Posts
On December 31 2012 02:30 Jenia6109 wrote:
Thanks for the summary!
I wonder how Blizzard will describe these events in the beginning of the HotS campaign...
Maybe they will explain this during you install the game.
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As far as I am aware Kerrigan remembers everything except Narud. At the end of the book she perfectly recites some random words she said to Zeratul, and particurly this line:
"She had brought her memories with her."
She even despairs because she is able to remember everything.
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So she just randomly forgets darun so that they keep him in that 'mysterious character' role. terrible
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I think you missed a couple of the plot points, though most of your point was accurate.
+ Show Spoiler +
1. Kerrigan is teetering on the edge of insanity. Multiple times, Kerrigan let out gutteral screams when she would remember particular things she did as the Queen of Blades. She tried to hurt herself multiple times while she was being attended to on the way to the Prometheus space station.
2. I don't think that she is able to remember everything, at least throughout most of the book. It seems to me that she can only recall particularly powerful moments as the Queen of Blades: killing the mother and daughter and feeding them to the zerg, being physically changed into the Queen, her mind and heart being "expanded" by the swarm. That also explains why she doesn't remember Narud; she "recognized" him psionically and felt in danger when he was aboard the Prometheus. She does retain all of her memories as a human being.
3. Kerrigan has regained most of her personality back, but she is a woman completely torn in two: on the one hand she is still the newly independent freedom fighter trying to make the universe a better place, a woman who is in love with Jim Raynor. She even tells him that she still loves him. On the other hand is the remnants of the vengeful Queen, intent on destroying Mengsk for his betrayal. The last lines of the book summarize perfectly though: "Jim's bearded, beloved face drew farther and farther away. And then Sarah Kerrigan was alone with her thoughts and memories of love. Of love and the desire for revenge. And she could not have said which one was the sweeter."
4. The book also does go into detail of the circumstances of the relationship between Raynor and Kerrigan. It explores their first meeting, first date, Kerrigan revealing her true motivations for joining Mengsk, the pair entering a physical relationship, and Mengsk's reaction to the pair growing closer to each other (and less dependent on him).
5. Jim has deep, deep regrets throughout the novel about having to kill Tychus to save Sarah. As they leave Char and go to Deadman's Port, Raynor recalls several instances of his adventures with Tychus in the past and laments that there was no way to save his love and his friend.
Btw, Annabelle is the "Thatcher" portrait in WOL. She was the one whose brain exploded in her skull when Kerrigan killed the hybrid with her psionic powers.
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On December 31 2012 03:43 a176 wrote:
So she just randomly forgets darun so that they keep him in that 'mysterious character' role. terrible
You could try paying attention instead of making assumptions, idk.
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The entire storyline with Tychus is poor anyway. I have read Heavens Devils and the followup. He was only post-BW included into the story as a char of apparently major historical significance to Raynor just so that someone was there to replace Kerrigan. Just not as pretty.
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Hey Man! Thanks for this summary 
Sounds like a fun story to start HotS off with
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Wasn't Warfield on Valerian's side? How come he is in charge of Dominion forces on Char (according to the HotS previews) if his forces actually fought the Emperor's?
I'm disappointed that the Arcturus/Valerian relationship ends up being "Arcturus shoots Valerian, Valerian joins Raynor". It could have been a lot more interesting if Arcturus had cared for his son, or if Valerian himself had his own plans. Simply having a Valerian that is friendly to Kerrigan and Arcturus as a super bad guy willing to kill his own son feels... underwhelming.
There is also the notion that if the hated Emperor sends half the Dominion fleet to destroy the beloved prince's other half, that means Dominion civil war, but I have a feeling the story will never speak about this again. Arcturus has lost over half his armada around Char and the people are against him since Media Blitz, yet I bet the Dominion will still be stronger than ever in Heart of the Swarm. Anyone cares to wager?
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EPT
