Author's Note: This is the boring backstory of the game: Homeworld. Read it if you want, it might make the main story more clear, but the action starts in chapter one. I hope you enjoy "When You Blink."
Prologue and Backstory
Long long ago (5 years) and far far away (Vancouver), the Creators (Relic game designers) used their powerful magic (Sierra Entertainment's money) to create a world (game) that harbored and inspired the birth of a new kind of people (HW geeks). This world (game) was called simply Homeworld. Eons later (a few years) a second world (game) was born (created). It was called Homeworld: Cataclysm.
(There are other games, but here is the backstory of those two.)
Homeworld-
In the Outer Rim of the galaxy, an entirely desert planet (Kharak) is home to a humanoid race known as the Kushan. The Kushans, for hundreds of years, knew only intertribal warfare. Even when the Kushans developed modern technology, the tribes, which evolved into greater Clans, held their grudges. It wasn't until the discovery of an ancient artifact, the Guidestone, did the Clans come together for a common goal.
The Guidestone revealed to the Kushans that the torture that was Kharak, was not their native home. The stone detailed a map, with a path leading from Kharak, to a point labeled by one of the most ancient words. Hiigara, meaning literally, 'Our Home.'
When the validity was proven, the Clans united and began a mass scale task known as: the Mothership Project. For a century, a massive Mothership, the biggest ship ever conceived by the Kushan, was built in hopes that some day, when it was completed, some of the Kushan could return to their forgotten home.
Near the end of the project, a problem arose that seemed insurmountable. There was no computer known to the Kushan, powerful enough to keep track of the Mothership's hundreds of subsystems. But with every problem, there is a solution. A young scientist named Karan S'jet, an experimental neural- interface scientist from the S'jet Clan, stepped forth and offered the solution. She would integrate herself directly into the Mothership computer, so that a humanoid mind (more powerful than any computer) could perform all of the tasks. The day the Mothership was completed, Karan S'jet was further known as Fleet Command.
The day came, when the Mothership would test its experimental hyperspace core. To see the end of the test, the Khar-Selim, a conventional drive ship, had been dispatched 10 years earlier. The Mothership launched its scaffolding and went into hyperspace, bound for the Khar-Selim's coordinates.
When the Mothership arrived, the Kushan found that the Khar-Selim had been destroyed and an alien race was near the wreckage to tell them who. After a skirmish of primitive technology, the Mothership returned home, to report what had happened.
On returning to Kharak, the Mothership crew found that their home planet had been scorched, a ring of fire actively consuming the rest of the oxygen. It was unbelievable, but they would not be permitted a moment to morn. Not far from where they had returned from the hyperspace jump, large, alien 'frigate-class' vessels began assaulting orbital platforms holding cryogenically frozen Kushan, known as the six cryo-trays. The frigates were formidable, but eventually the puny Mothership fleet captured one and destroyed the rest, saving and salvaging their frozen brethren.
From the ship log files of the captured frigate, the Kushans learned that it belonged to a massive imperial race known as the Taidani Empire. The Emperor had sent a fleet to punish the Kushan for violating a 3000 year old treaty that forbid them to develop hyperspace technology. A treaty long forgotten by the Kushan. The Taidan were not the same aliens that attacked the Khar-Selim, but they might as well have been. The nomad, pirating race of the Turanic Raiders were well paid mercenaries of the Taidan. They had attacked the Khar-Selim.
Sorrowful from the loss of their home and families, the Kushan continued on their original task: finding Hiigara. Across the galaxy they traveled, gaining the friendship of the ancient, Bentusi and continually fighting off the Imperial Taidani fleets.
When they finally reached their home-world, Hiigara, it was guarded by the Emperor himself and his Elite Guards. After the long skirmish known only as the Final Battle, the Kushan, now known as the Hiigarans, landed on their planet.
Hiigara was a paradise to the desert born Hiigarans.Homeworl The planet with blue seas and green lands was the greatest reward they could imagine.
Homeworld: Cataclysm-
It is now 15 years after the Hiigarans made their six month journey across the stars and 'paradise,' as it seemed, was an over exaggeration. The Clan system re-established itself and the greater and more powerful Clans, such as Nabaal, quickly seized most of the territory on Hiigara. Unless they chose to exhaust themselves in legal battles, the weaker Clans had no place on Hiigara: an unjust punishment indeed.
In the meantime, the Taidani Empire was officially ended and a new, Taidan Republic took claim to the old territories. The Hiigarans were granted a safety zone of 5 light years for their assistance in the domination of the Emperor and in recognition of their claim to Hiigara.
The Imperial Taidan, however, were impossible to completely assimilate or annihilate. Many rouge generals and captains of the old empire have formed their own factions and have since sought to reclaim the empire for themselves. In addition to that goal, their revenge against the Hiigarans is also prime.
Now is a dangerous time for the smaller Kushan Clans. The story of Homworld: Cataclysm is that of the smaller, Somtaaw Clan; and how one of their two, main Command ships, the Kuun-Laan, becomes involved in one of the most terrifying events of the millennium. And that's where our story starts.
Prologue and Backstory
Long long ago (5 years) and far far away (Vancouver), the Creators (Relic game designers) used their powerful magic (Sierra Entertainment's money) to create a world (game) that harbored and inspired the birth of a new kind of people (HW geeks). This world (game) was called simply Homeworld. Eons later (a few years) a second world (game) was born (created). It was called Homeworld: Cataclysm.
(There are other games, but here is the backstory of those two.)
Homeworld-
In the Outer Rim of the galaxy, an entirely desert planet (Kharak) is home to a humanoid race known as the Kushan. The Kushans, for hundreds of years, knew only intertribal warfare. Even when the Kushans developed modern technology, the tribes, which evolved into greater Clans, held their grudges. It wasn't until the discovery of an ancient artifact, the Guidestone, did the Clans come together for a common goal.
The Guidestone revealed to the Kushans that the torture that was Kharak, was not their native home. The stone detailed a map, with a path leading from Kharak, to a point labeled by one of the most ancient words. Hiigara, meaning literally, 'Our Home.'
When the validity was proven, the Clans united and began a mass scale task known as: the Mothership Project. For a century, a massive Mothership, the biggest ship ever conceived by the Kushan, was built in hopes that some day, when it was completed, some of the Kushan could return to their forgotten home.
Near the end of the project, a problem arose that seemed insurmountable. There was no computer known to the Kushan, powerful enough to keep track of the Mothership's hundreds of subsystems. But with every problem, there is a solution. A young scientist named Karan S'jet, an experimental neural- interface scientist from the S'jet Clan, stepped forth and offered the solution. She would integrate herself directly into the Mothership computer, so that a humanoid mind (more powerful than any computer) could perform all of the tasks. The day the Mothership was completed, Karan S'jet was further known as Fleet Command.
The day came, when the Mothership would test its experimental hyperspace core. To see the end of the test, the Khar-Selim, a conventional drive ship, had been dispatched 10 years earlier. The Mothership launched its scaffolding and went into hyperspace, bound for the Khar-Selim's coordinates.
When the Mothership arrived, the Kushan found that the Khar-Selim had been destroyed and an alien race was near the wreckage to tell them who. After a skirmish of primitive technology, the Mothership returned home, to report what had happened.
On returning to Kharak, the Mothership crew found that their home planet had been scorched, a ring of fire actively consuming the rest of the oxygen. It was unbelievable, but they would not be permitted a moment to morn. Not far from where they had returned from the hyperspace jump, large, alien 'frigate-class' vessels began assaulting orbital platforms holding cryogenically frozen Kushan, known as the six cryo-trays. The frigates were formidable, but eventually the puny Mothership fleet captured one and destroyed the rest, saving and salvaging their frozen brethren.
From the ship log files of the captured frigate, the Kushans learned that it belonged to a massive imperial race known as the Taidani Empire. The Emperor had sent a fleet to punish the Kushan for violating a 3000 year old treaty that forbid them to develop hyperspace technology. A treaty long forgotten by the Kushan. The Taidan were not the same aliens that attacked the Khar-Selim, but they might as well have been. The nomad, pirating race of the Turanic Raiders were well paid mercenaries of the Taidan. They had attacked the Khar-Selim.
Sorrowful from the loss of their home and families, the Kushan continued on their original task: finding Hiigara. Across the galaxy they traveled, gaining the friendship of the ancient, Bentusi and continually fighting off the Imperial Taidani fleets.
When they finally reached their home-world, Hiigara, it was guarded by the Emperor himself and his Elite Guards. After the long skirmish known only as the Final Battle, the Kushan, now known as the Hiigarans, landed on their planet.
Hiigara was a paradise to the desert born Hiigarans.Homeworl The planet with blue seas and green lands was the greatest reward they could imagine.
Homeworld: Cataclysm-
It is now 15 years after the Hiigarans made their six month journey across the stars and 'paradise,' as it seemed, was an over exaggeration. The Clan system re-established itself and the greater and more powerful Clans, such as Nabaal, quickly seized most of the territory on Hiigara. Unless they chose to exhaust themselves in legal battles, the weaker Clans had no place on Hiigara: an unjust punishment indeed.
In the meantime, the Taidani Empire was officially ended and a new, Taidan Republic took claim to the old territories. The Hiigarans were granted a safety zone of 5 light years for their assistance in the domination of the Emperor and in recognition of their claim to Hiigara.
The Imperial Taidan, however, were impossible to completely assimilate or annihilate. Many rouge generals and captains of the old empire have formed their own factions and have since sought to reclaim the empire for themselves. In addition to that goal, their revenge against the Hiigarans is also prime.
Now is a dangerous time for the smaller Kushan Clans. The story of Homworld: Cataclysm is that of the smaller, Somtaaw Clan; and how one of their two, main Command ships, the Kuun-Laan, becomes involved in one of the most terrifying events of the millennium. And that's where our story starts.