"Risks," Osiris spat out the word, his voice sounding exceptionally cold and hard over the comm channel.
"The risks are concentrated on the deployed personnel itself," Valerie's response was swift and precise, as if she had run the simulation a thousand times already.
"A Tech-Priest certainly possesses sufficient capability, but their external form and behavior patterns differ too drastically from humans. It would easily trigger instinctive alertness and rejection, making it hard to blend into the environment and build trust. The same goes for the test subject units, plus they carry the hidden drawback of lacking professional depth.
For this mission, technical capability is just the baseline, but equally important is the ability to 'make people willing to accept help' and 'make people believe the help works.' This requires a high degree of social judgment, real-time adaptability, and a deep understanding of human emotions and decision-making logic."
Her words broke down the situation step-by-step, pointing toward a clear conclusion.
Osiris' optical lens shifted slightly as his internal processor weighed the options at a non-human speed. Valerie's logic was spot-on. This kind of small-scale, high-precision intervention aimed to acquire rare samples, build strategic debts of gratitude, and insert and observe key variables—completely aligning with his usual low-profile infiltration strategy.
Early Zerg infection samples carried immense temptation, and a Raynor outfit that felt gratitude and trust toward the "Far Star Alliance" would undoubtedly offer many unexpected conveniences on the long road ahead to find the Xel'Naga artifacts.
"You're suggesting I go in person," he stated. It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Valerie confirmed without hesitation.
"Only your main body's decision-making authority and comprehensive capabilities can ensure that amid the rapidly changing ground situation, you can accurately grasp every boundary and perfectly balance the multiple goals of tech display, relationship building, and intelligence gathering. Disguise is necessary, but not disguised as a flawless human—that's impossible and actually more likely to trigger deeper suspicion.
What we should present is the image of a human technical expert who underwent deep cybernetic modification out of necessity to sustain life and research capability. While rare in the Koprulu Sector, this image stays within an understandable scope, cleverly shifting external focus from 'what you actually are' to 'what you can actually do.'"
She paused briefly before adding the key point: "Raynor's bottom line is clear: strict quarantine procedures, mission command, and data sharing. We can accept all of these. Our goal isn't to seize control, but to become an indispensable yet seemingly harmless link in their process of solving the crisis in front of them."
A brief silence hung over the comm channel, with only invisible data streams rolling at high speed in the quiet. Osiris' mind core coldly evaluated the possibilities: the risk of the disguise being seen through, the potential fallout of exposing his true identity, and the unknown variables that contacting the Protoss might bring... Yet compared to the potential massive gains, the logical scale tilted undeniably.
"Acceptable," the synthesized voice finally rang out, making the call. "Prepare for execution. I will undergo adaptive camouflage. Gear will be prepped per your suggestion: high-tier bio-analyzer, sterile sampling kit, broad-spectrum suppression field generator prototype, and a fast synthesis module. External markings on all equipment must be unified."
"Understood," Valerie nodded. "I'll handle reception prep on Haven and lay the groundwork for your external persona in advance. I suggest the shuttle flight path bypass regular Protoss patrol sectors and apply to land straight at their surface camp."
The communication cut off.
Osiris immediately began adjusting his camouflage. He dismounted most of the non-essential, visually striking combat attachments, stowed away his signature red robe, and changed into a sleek, dark-gray jumpsuit featuring an inconspicuous "Far Star Alliance" emblem on the left chest.
Through fine plating overlays and dynamic optical coatings, he softened the overly sharp mechanical lines on his body, adjusted the head's primary sensor array so the main optical lens emitted a soft light-blue glow, and covered key facial areas with high-realism bionic materials.
In the end, he formed the outline of a pale, barely expressive, cold-mannered male human who looked to be in his early thirties.
His mind core ran a quick comparison and verification against the image in the mirror: "Camouflage complete. Evaluation result: matches the setting of a 'human technical expert undergoing heavy modification to sustain life.'"
A disguised light shuttle stood ready, loaded with the specified gear crates. Osiris carried no eye-catching weapons, placing only his built-in emergency defense mechanisms on silent standby.
The shuttle quietly glided toward Haven, cleanly dodging known scanning networks, and touched down directly at the designated landing spot on the east side of the camp.
Raynor, Dr. Hanson, Tychus, and Valerie—who had arrived ahead of time—were already waiting. The hatch slid open, and Osiris stepped out. His stride was steady and precise, every step distance looking as if it had been measured.
Valerie stepped forward at just the right moment to introduce him: "Commander Raynor, Dr. Hanson, this is Mr. Osiris, the senior biohazard control consultant urgently dispatched from company headquarters."
Osiris' gaze swept calmly over the crowd before giving a slight nod. "I have read the situation debrief. Time is limited, so let's get straight to work." His voice was clear and steady, yet lacked the warmth and cadence of normal human speech, carrying a distinct texture filtered through electronic gear.
Raynor sized him up, the scrutiny in his eyes not lessening one bit, though the guy standing solo as an expert focused entirely on tech did cut down some direct threat vibes. "I'm Jim Raynor. Thanks for the hand. This is Dr. Ariel Hanson, the person in charge here."
Dr. Hanson's eyes were drawn more toward the faintly visible modification marks on Osiris' body, carrying a scientist's instinctive curiosity. "Consultant, your body—"
"Old injuries. Cybernetics were a necessary price to sustain life and professional functionality," Osiris cut off the topic concisely, steering the conversation back on track. "I need to view the biological samples of the infected, the latest environmental monitoring data, and the Protoss psionic scan results immediately. Equipment also needs to be unloaded and set up as soon as possible."
"The data and limited samples are all in the temporary lab. It's just that sample numbers are low, and they're extremely dangerous—" Dr. Hanson answered.
"Lead the way," Osiris said no more, turning around to lift the heavy equipment crates out of the shuttle with crisp, efficient movements.
The group walked toward the makeshift lab. Tychus leaned in close to Raynor, dropping his voice: "Weird guy. But... looks like he's actually here to get work done."
Inside the lab, Osiris got into the zone fast. He efficiently set up various pieces of equipment, then directly extended thin data probes from his forearm, plugging right into Dr. Hanson's terminal interface. "Direct data stream transfer. Higher efficiency."
In an instant, a massive data torrent poured into his processing core. Beside him, the portable high-tier analyzer automatically began processing the brought-along biological samples. Several screens lit up at the same time, displaying complex analysis interfaces and scrolling code that ordinary people could barely make heads or tails of.
"Preliminary conclusion," just a few minutes later, Osiris looked up and spoke, cutting through the silence in the lab. "Analyzed samples confirm the presence of xeno-gene fragments, displaying partial homology with the known Zerg gene pool, but showing significant environmental adaptation decay and sequence fragmentation traits.
This is not a typical direct Zerg infection; it is more akin to secondary, weakened propagation triggered by 'viable spore residue' or 'free-floating genetic material pollution.' Infection progression is slow, and the probability of an individual fully transforming into a standard Zerg unit is currently evaluated at under seven percent."
He then overlaid and analyzed the psionic fluctuation map detected by the Protoss with the environmental data scanned by his own gear.
"The 'psionic fluctuations' you detected are complex in composition. One part stems from trace amounts of Zerg genetic material in the samples continuously interfering with certain local psionic-sensitive primitive organisms; the other part likely comes from extremely faint, unactivated basic Zerg neural network traces in the environment.
As of now, no formed Zerg collective consciousness or active node signals have been detected."