"Somo," she says quietly. "His name was Somo. He's the first person I ever remember being nice to me."

Sarah sighs, her shoulders slumping. She's never had to lay out to anyone just how bad the ghost program really is. Everyone in the sector already has some idea, if only from the rumors, and hardly anyone in the Sons of Korhal had wanted to be her friend, anyway. She's looking somewhere in the vicinity of Garviel's boots while she explains.

"It's standard procedure to mindwipe ghosts after every mission, for 'operational security'—and to keep us from breaking out of the program's control. The tech isn't that precise, and if you get wiped often enough, it starts to interfere with other memories, ones that have nothing to do with the mission. I remember almost nothing from before Arcturus—Mengsk—got me out...but the parts I do remember are bad, and I wasn't a volunteer. The Confederacy conscripted me when I was eight."