Archaeologist Jacob Ramsey has spent much of the last two years on a miserable backwater planet wasting his time on a fruitless excavation. It seems like a miracle when he gets a message from Augustine Mengsk himself, son and heir of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, inviting him to join an elite group of archaeologists being sent to excavate one of the Xel'Naga artefacts that are suddenly appearing on various worlds.

When Jake stumbles across a dying Protoss and attempts to revive him, the Protoss psychically bonds to him and begins to violently "upload" its memories. In order to do this, the Protoss must in essence rewrite and rewire Jake's human brain.

Jake soon realizes that the Protoss has shared with him a terrible secret - one so important that the dying alien was willing to pass it on to an enemy in order to insure that the knowledge survives. And what Jake decides to do with the information will seal the fate of worlds throughout the galaxy.