Kharakian Genocide
From Encyclopedia Hiigara
 Kharakian Genocide
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The Kharakian Genocide, also known as the Burning of Kharak, marked the destruction of the planet Kharak and the beginning of the Homeworld War.
[edit] Overview
A fleet of Taiidan warships entered the Kharak system not long after the Mothership conducted its first hyperdrive test. They immediately attacked all orbital installations, encountering little resistance from the space-based Kushan defenses. Kharak's Missile Defense System reacted almost immediately, taking down several capital ships in a massive missile volley.
The defenses were however not enough to stop the fleet from (almost) fulfilling their mission assignment: Annihilation of the planet's population and infrastructure and destruction of all orbital structures. All orbital facilities, including the massive Scaffold that had built the Mothership, were destroyed by Taiidan fighters and bombers. The planet was bombarded with the devastating Atmospheric Deprivation Weapon, leaving the surface consumed by a firestorm spanning half of the northern hemisphere, presumably killing everyone on the surface in a matter of minutes.
When the Mothership returned from its Hyperdrive test-turned-combat trial to warn Kharak to inform the defense authorities of the threat of the Turanic Raiders they had encountered, the crew found the planet already ablaze. Fleet Command conducted a search for any signs of survivors, yet all signals in the orbit as well as on the surface had been silenced.
The only things that were discovered were, mercifully, the Cryo Trays, containing the hundreds of thousands that were in cryogenic sleep. They had evaded initial detection by broadcasting only on a maintenance frequency. Fleet Command however noticed massive systems failure in one of the trays: The last remaining alien ships that had not left the system for the Great Wastelands were a group of frigates firing relentlessly at the containers.
One of the frigates was captured for studies, the others eliminated or captured for combat use. Flight recorders replayed the events of the Burning to the shocked Kushan crews while the interrogation of the prisoners from the warship revealed the reason for the attack: Apparently the Kushan had broken a 4000 year old contract that forbade the use of hyperdrive technology among their people. Several Taiidan crew members and the captain of the captured frigate would die before the interrogations ended.
Bent on revenge, the Kushan fleet took aboard the remaining colonists and left the system to hunt down the remains of the Taiidan fleet, which they eventually did in an asteroid vein in the Great Wastelands.
[edit] Short Term Effects
The were many horrifying and detrimental effects of the Burning. The short term effects were almost as terrible as the long term ones. One of the most immediate was that the Kushan society on Kharak was almost completely annihilated. All of the other planned Mothership designs were bombed into nothingness, and what little life on Kharak that managed to scrap out a living was probably destroyed.
Adding bitter irony to the Burning was the requirements for cryogenics volunteers. A strict age range, which was set to maximize the survival odds of the colonists, prevented anyone too old or young from entering cold sleep. This meant every experienced elder and expert on Kharak didn't survive. Perhaps most devastatingly of all, no children were on board the Mothership before the Burning.
There was, however, a positive effect of the Burning. It showed the true corruption and tyrrany of the empire, helping to spark the Taiidan Rebellion. Without it, many would-be-rebels would not have been spurred to take arms and end the brutal Taiidan regime.
[edit] Long Term Effects
The Long Term Effects of the Burning were disastrous. Many of them have still rippled to the Homeworld 2 era. One of the most potent, of course, was when the Sleepers were awoken from their pods, and almost immediately shown the fate of their friends and family. All were devastated, and dozens committed suicides in the first couple of weeks after landfall. Many of those that did manage to cope with their grief found solace in a boiling hatred for the Imperial Taiidani.
