Games - Kushan Mothership

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	Games - Kushan Mothership

In the 1999 Game of the Year Homeworld and its sequels each fleet is commanded by a large sort of mothership which functions both as a flagship and as a mobile shipyard. While these vessels do not have particularly practical applications in regular space warfare the implications are that the invention of the hyperdrive makes the mobility of a large stationary object like the Mothership possible and the advances made in engineering that allow capital ships to be produced in mere weeks make a mobile shipyard very useful on the battlefield, constantly replenishing vessels lost in battle, reconstructing an entire squadron of fighters in perhaps a week and a frigate in days.

The game focuses around the story of one particular fleet and its Mothership, that of the Kushan
. That is to say, the Mothership as it is often referred to or the "Banana" as many fans jokingly call it thanks to its curved and elongated shape. This Mothership, of immense size (far larger than most Mothership-class vessels) was actually designed as a colony ship, not as a weapon or mobile ship factory. Its purpose was changed due to events that unfolded as the story moved along.

In the stand-alone expansion pack Homeworld: Cataclysm the idea of large motherships was dispensed with, on the basis that the main characters of the story in Homeworld: Cataclysm would not be able to afford such a massive vessel or have the resources to operate it. In fact, the ad-hoc 'mothership' of the game--the Somtaaw "Explorer"-class Deep Space Mining Vessel Kuun-Lan--was built within the original game's Mothership. For most of Homeworld: Cataclysms story, Somtaaw fleets resort to using carrier groups not dissimilar to modern-day aircraft carriers and their escorts. These carrier vary in design though most follow the "Imperator"-class design used in Homeworld by the Mothership Fleet. The Mothership from the original game is converted into a space station manned by a skeleton crew.

In the game Homeworld 2 the Kushan Mothership returned, or the basic design so to speak. Though the actual Mothership in Homeworld 2 is smaller than the one used in the original Homeworld its design is obviously inspired by the original and its name Pride of Hiigara reflects the Kushan pride in their homeworld. Its purpose now is for something that cannot be supported by a mere scattering of carrier groups, for it is to carry the bulk of the fleet on a single mission to stop the enemy.

Other common mothership designs include the Taiidan Imperial Flagship
, the Beast Mothership, the Somtaaw "Explorer", and the Vaygr Flagship. For more information on motherships in general, in other science fiction universes, or for some other purpose see Mothership.
The Original Mothership (The Banana)
This describes the original Mothership and trademark icon of the Homeworld Universe
. Nicknamed the "Banana" the Mothership is close to the only character in Homeworld, made even more accurate by the fact that the main character of Homeworld, Karan S'jet
, is Fleet Command, an organic, living central processor for the Mothership's subsystems. And, like the main character in many other games, if the Mothership is destroyed, you lose the game.

The Mothership in this game, unlike the other two, serves its purpose as a colony ship, designed to recolonize the planet Hiigara, the original Homeworld of the displaced Kushan people. It later serves as flagship for a ragtag fleet of survivalists who have to fight their way light year by light year to their homeworld. After it has served its purpose, the Mothership eventually becomes an orbital scaffold from which to build super-capital ships such as the later design, the "Explorer".
Purpose and Mission
The Mothership was built in the years following the discovery of Khar-Toba
, the first colony founded by Kushan in the wake of their Exile from the world of Hiigara by the Taiidan Empire. Khar-Toba was a significant discovery, proving the existence of starships on Kharak
's surface in prehistoric times (the existence of ships in the system had already been discovered in the form of debris fields). Further more, the Khar-Toba also contained within it a hyperspace core and other technological wonders which allowed the Kushan to leap forward several centuries in science and the Guidestone, which provided the Kushan with the final proof that they were not natives to their world, but aliens.
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