This outline was written more than ten years ago. It is the author’s bold imagination based on the storyline of Homeworld2 and the whole background story, and is loved by many Chinese Homeworld fans. As HW3 is coming, we feel it’s a good time to translate and publish it here.

Background setting of “Crossroads Among the Stars”

1. The Past of the Progenitors

This story begins in the ancient past of the galaxy - a time so distant, not even one person in Bentus can remember.

One day, a long-range expedition fleet arrived in the galaxy. They had very advanced technology which was just like pure magic. In the galaxy they met two indigenous races: one was the Bentusi, and the other was the TMAT. The Bentusi lived in the galactic disc and had only recently been able to carry out space activities around their mother planet, Bentus. The TMAT lived in the companion galaxy next to the galactic disc and had just entered the space age. The expedition fleet had made contact with the Bentusi and TMAT on several occasion and helped them to quickly improve their technology, teaching them the knowledge and secrets of hyperspace so they could freely travel the Galaxy.

The expedition fleet had planned to just stop here for a while, but then it seemed that something had happened to them; they decided to no longer move on or return to their home galaxy, but instead to stay in the Homeworld galaxy and settle down there. They began to call themselves the Progenitors. At this time, because of the advancements in space technology, the Bentusi started to leave their planet and became interstellar nomads. They began to spend their entire lives on their spaceships, selling low-tech, cheap and consumable goods to the Progenitors. Meanwhile the TMAT had used the knowledge the Progenitors gave them to unify their companion galaxy.

The unification of the companion galaxy by the TMAT was opposed by the Progenitors. Being an expedition fleet from a highly developed civilization, when they traveled the universe and met other races the Progenitors always upheld a number of principles. First, they were absolutely forbidden from contacting civilizations that could not leave their planet, so as not to affect their normal development and evolution. Second, in the case of civilizations that had entered the stage of space flight or early space age, they could have limited contacts and moderately help them to improve their civilization. Third, for races whose level of science and technology was similar to their own, they should communicate with them as equals. Therefore, after arriving at this galaxy, the Progenitors gave a little support to Bentusi and TMAT, but did not make any contact with dozens of civilizations in the galaxy which are still in the lower stage, and warned Bentusi and TMAT not to violate the rules of the Progenitors.

The Bentusi listened well to the Progenitors, while the TMAT complied in words but opposed in mind. Since there is a wide space between the companion galaxy and the galactic disc where the cosmic currents are abnormal and cannot be jumped through, the only means to travel between the galactic disc and the companion galaxy is through the huge portal - so the Progenitors constructed the Eye of Aarran in the black hole cluster Balcora. Even the Progenitors felt inconvenient to go to the companion galaxy. Thus the TMAT did whatever they wanted in the companion galaxy, wiping out the five civilizations that were still in the feudal and early capitalist societies. Then they sneaked into the galactic disc and destroyed several low-level civilizations without the Progenitors knowing it. (The Eye of Aarran was also the hub of the entire galaxy transportation network, through which people could quickly travel to any parts of the galaxy, with hyperspace cores used as power sources.)

At this time, the Progenitors discovered the violent nature of the TMAT and decided to limit their range of activity to the companion galaxy. Of course, had the Progenitors not been bound by their code of conduct, they were likely to do to the TMAT what the TMAT had done to those low-level civilizations in their anger and destroyed them all. With the Progenitors’ advanced technology, they could easily eliminate the TMAT if they wanted.

On the one hand, the TMAT were afraid of the Progenitors’ advanced technology; yet on the other hand, they could not resist their ambition to dominate the galaxy. So they had to lurk in the companion galaxy, waiting for the Progenitors to make mistakes.

Meanwhile, the Bentusi were a peaceful race. They combined their ancient philosophy with the Progenitors’ rules of treating alien civilizations, forming two core philosophical concepts of “adherence” and “restraint”. They became loyal friends the Progenitors.

No matter how civilized a race is, there will be a day when it makes mistakes. The Progenitors fell into a civil war. The trigger was the the mysterious disappearance of a weak experimental vessel using inertial propulsion called the “Naggarok”. At that time, the contradiction between the quantum correspondents and the normal people of the Progenitors had become more and more fierce. The disappearance of the Naggarok provided an excuse for the quantum correspondents to start a rebellion. The peaceful prosperity of the Progenitors perished, and the vicious civil war broke out. The intensity of the war was beyond the imagination of the Bentusi and the TMAT, and the battlefield spread throughout the entire galaxy.

Though once omniscient like the Gods themselves, the Progenitors were now thrown into chaos, and the Bentusi was also at a loss. But the TMAT finally seized their chance. They sneaked out of the Eye of Aarran, while avoiding the chaotic civil war of the Progenitors, began to apply their evil plan to every indigenous race in the galactic disc - including the Bentusi. Finally, all the native civilizations in the galactic disc were wiped out by the TMAT, except for the Bentusi, whose technology was comparable to that of the TMAT. But the Bentusi mother planet, Bentus, was also destroyed. Of course, the Bentusi had already moved out of Bentus many years before. At this time, the only home they knew and kept in their hearts was the great mother harbor of Bentus.

As the Progenitors civil war became more and more fierce, some Progenitors began to rethink on it.

2. Preparation for the Reconstruction of Civilization

A man named Sajuuk predicted that after a long and devastating civil war, the Progenitor civilization would be destroyed, and it was likely that the survivors would return to a very low level of civilization. In order to rebuild the Progenitor civilization after the war, he organized a group of like-minded people to start a civilization rescue plan called “Spark”.

According to the plan, they hid Sajuuk’s battleship in the depths of Balcora, then stored information about the Progenitor civilization into its engine system - the three hyperspace cores - and then hid the cores in three different locations in the galaxy. If future generations can redevelop space technology and find these hyperspace cores, they will be able to get part of the records and lessons from the Progenitors. And who collects the three hyperspace cores will be able to restart the battleship of Sajuuk and obtain the complete knowledge of the Progenitors’ history, technology and wisdom from the ship’s database. On their way to Balcora, they kept sending their crew members down to any planet suitable for human habitation in the hope that they could escape the war, reproduce, and ultimately rebuild civilization on these planets.

Within the Progenitors Sajuuk was regarded as a traitor because he broke away from his original faction for the Spark plan. Some others heard of the Spark plan and knew that he had hidden a latest generation warship, and wanted to seize it for their own ends. So Sajuuk and his loyalists were chased after and attacked by many different factions. During one of those battles, the shipyard that built the battleship of Sajuuk was destroyed, and its debris scattered across the galaxy. Two dreadnoughts which were to be used as guides to open the gate to Sajuuk went also missing.

In the end, Sajuuk preduction came true. The Progenitors eventually dried up their last drop of blood, and the whole civilization went back to the lowest stage. Some people were trapped on planets and regressed to a primitive society. Others were trapped in the space stations or space ships; while they could still access and use these high-tech products, they lost their science and technology, and they only know how to use, but not how to develop those products. The crew members of Sajuuk who were sent down to planets during the journey to Balcora also were not able to escape the scourge of the war, and survivors from them also returned to the primitive society.

Some Progenitors tried to save the civilization in another way, called the “Soul Project”. They extracted their souls from their bodies and stored them in a database in the hope of preserving their memories and knowledge, and rebuilding their once-glorious civilization in the future.

Before the Progenitor civilization collapsed, some spacefarers finally discovered the actions of the TMAT. In a joint effort they drove them back to the companion galaxy with the last breath of strength, then sealed the Eye of Aarran. They also build two artificial planets beside the Eye of Aarran, named the Great Wall and the Hadrian, as the guardians and barriers to prevent the TMAT from bringing in further disasters after the destruction of the Progenitor civilization, but also to prevent their own descendants from rashly reopening the Eye of Aarran and bringing in their enemies. (However, Sajuuk didn’t know about this last effort, so in his plan, if their descendants find the battleship of Sajuuk, they should restart the Eye of Aarran to reopen the transportation network and prosper in the galaxy. We will soon see what consequences would this have for the second generation of civilization.)

With the help of the remaining Progenitors, the Bentusi eventually drove the TMATs away. Shortly after the last of the Progenitor civilization had collapsed. As the loyal friends and worshippers of the Progenitors, the Bentusi resolved to help the Progenitor’s descendants rise again.

They happened to find one of the three hyperspace cores of Sajuuk’s battleship and mounted it on their great harborship of Bentus.

3. Bentusi the Guardian

Two thousand years passed since the fall of the Progenitors.

The descendants of the Progenitors had by now forgotten their previous civilization. They had gone through the ages of bloodshed, slavery and feudalism, muskets and steam, gas engines and electronics on their own planet, or they had been driving their ancestors’ high-tech machines with ignorant minds in spaceships and space stations. Yet the name of “Sajuuk” persisted throughout memory, and became their legendary god or demon (depending on which Progenitors faction they were descended from). The legacy of the three hyperspace cores to rediscover the Progenitor civilization also remained, and gave rise to a legend: “the one who united the three holy things will become the Sajuuk-Khar - the Chosen One”. Lastly, the restart of the battleship of Sajuuk survived as a myth or prophecy, that one day “Sajuuk will return to the world”. Some anti-Sajuuk Progenitors believed that Sajuuk hid his warship to launch a strategic counter-attack and defeat them should they rise too high, so their descendants interpreted the legend as “Sajuuk’s return will bring the doomsday and catastrophes.”

During this period, the Bentusi adhered to the ancient principles of the Progenitors and did not contact the budding civilizations.

Until one day. The descendants of the Progenitors who got stuck planets invented their own rockets and returned to space; the descendants of the Progenitors who got stuck on spaceships and space stations no longer treated their ships as tools, and started inventing and creating by themselves. The Bentusi then began visiting them one by one, returning to them the knowledge of hyperspace the Bentusi themselves had learned from the Progenitors. Having forgotten the history of their ancestors, the people just thought the Bentusi was a high-tech alien race, and this historical event was called “Bentusi Arrival”.

Later, the descendants of the Progenitors returned to the galaxy as “different civilizations”.

For 500 years, people lived in peace under the glory of Bentusi. But with the development of technology and the enlargement of people’s vision, they started an uprising against Bentusi. This part of history is detailed in the appendix of the official Homeworld 2 booklet.

The descendants of the Progenitors viewed each other as aliens and different species and civilizations. They called themselves the Taiidani, the Hiigarans, Charazers, Fronians, Red-Rings, and so on.

After the Hiigarans were exiled to Kharak, what happened was the plot of Homeworld 1. The second hyperspace core was discovered on Kharak, and the Hiigarans returned to their homeworld, Hiigara.

In the events that followed, the Taiidan Empire was overthrown and the Taiidan Republic was founded. With the fall of the Taiidan the balance in the Galactic Council changed; greedy members who had always wanted to obliterate the Taiidan world spoke out louder than before, and the Hiigarans also wanted to take back the territory that the Taiidani had taken from their ancestors after learning the history of their past empire. Later, the cataclysm of the Beast broke out. Although the galaxy eventually finally survived the cataclysm, the political situation became worse and worse. Finally, the war known as “the dust war” broke out.

In the Dust War, the Galactic Council was disintegrated, and every faction was at war with each other. People recalled the old myths and started calling the Dust War “War of the End Time”, also known as Galaxy War III. (Galaxy War I was the war when every race was trying to expand but was suppressed by the Bentusi by force. Followed by Galaxy War was a period of peace for hundreds of years. Then came the Galaxy War II, which is also called “Pan-Galaxy Uprising”, during which several major races launched wars at the same time in different parts of the Galaxy. After this war, Bentusi’s control over the galaxy was loosened; the Galactic Council was founded, and Bentusi’s influence over the galaxy was limited in commerce.) The Hiigrans took advantage of this opportunity and began to seize the space of the former Taiidani Empire. The political structure of the Taiidani Republic, which was never stabilized, had been shaking gradually and finally collapsed. At this time, a minority of ethnic group in Taiidani territory called Vaygr appeared on the stage of history under the slogan of “Unify the Taiidani World.”

4. The Vaygr and Makaan [Not fully translated yet]

Makaan was actually a Progenitor soul, and the only one survived from “Soul Project”. Found by the Vaygr by accident, he then quickly became the Vaygr Warlord and found the third hyperspace core with the help of his knowledge. He planned to take all three cores by force swiftly, so he attacked Bentusi and Hiigaran, which is the story of Homeworld2. Before Makaan was killed at Balcora, he told Karan part of the Progenitors’ history, his real identity and the threat of TMATs. After the end of Homeworld2’s story, Karan fell into dormancy; her quantized consciousness began to study the knowledge from Sajuuk’s database.

5. Hiigaran Hegemonism

Karan’s dormancy caused a bit of confusion to Hiigarans, but because of the appearance of a self-proclaimed electronic soul of a Progenitor named “Celestial Star” and the lessons coming from the constant suffering since the Homeworld War, the Hiigarans quickly restored order. With the victory in the legendary “End War”, and Karan becoming the fabled “Sajuuk-Khar - the Chosen One”, the self-satisfaction and pride of Hiigarans began to swell, and they began to declare that " The Age of S’jet has begun."

When they had just defeated the Vaygr, the Hiigarans had the highest prestige in the galaxy. Many races and nations stood beside the Hiigarans in the hope of bringing peace to the galaxy. However, as time went on, the “sense of obligation” in Hiigarans’ mind, which had been at a reasonable level, expanded to a “sense of superiority”. With the Celestial Star stirring up the flames and without the leadership of the subconscious Karan S’jet, the Hiigarans began to think that all other races’ inability to resist the Vaygr can prove that Hiigaran civilization and culture are the best in the galaxy. All the ancient myths had materialized in their hands, so the galaxy should be unified under the leadership of Hiigaran. All “good” races in the galaxy should follow the trend, learn from Hiigaran culture, act by Hiigaran code of conduct, and enter the international order advocated by Hiigarans. Therefore, the Great Unified Galaxy Organization was established, whose purpose was to unite the whole galaxy under Hiigaran lifestyle and ideas.

Inevitably, the Hiigarans began to demand that other races should adopt Hiigaran ways of thinking, moral standards, and codes of conduct; otherwise, they would be reprimanded as dissidents, scoundrels, and villains.

As a result, the Hiigarans’ image among the various races in the galaxy began to deteriorate, and their action to unify the galaxy were greatly hindered. More and more frequently, they started to use force to oppress others until they yielded to them. This kind of imperialist hegemonism evoked the people’s disgust, which was used by the mysterious “Progenitor souls” in different nations to incite dissatisfaction with Hiigara, and finally turned into a revolt. Under the interpretation of the Celestial Star, the rebellion was regarded by the Hiigarans as an alien nationalism ideology and was further suppressed, which further intensified the contradictions.

6. TMAT Back to Stage [Not fully translated yet]

While many events had been unfolding in the galaxy, the TMAT had faded from memory. Yet they still had their eyes set on a return to the galaxy. Due to the Eye of Aarran being closed, a crazy decision was then made by TMATs: to jump through the abnormal zone of cosmic constants. To this end they put their brains under the control of artificial intelligence. After thousands of years of unremitting efforts, several spacecraft finally passed through. The TMATs’ electronic lives onboard began to build ships that imitated the style of the Progenitor and Bentusi, waiting for the opportunity to open The Eye of Aarran when the time comes…

7. Souls of the Progenitors [Not fully translated yet]

After Makaan died, the TMATs’ electronic lives began to take actions unscrupulously, assuming leadership of various countries by disguising themselves as Progenitor souls. They cooperated to provoke great divisions among the populace of these countries, with no Progenitor souls remaining in this galaxy to stop them anymore. This indirectly led to the formation of the Galaxy Rescue Alliance among the countries which opposed Hiigara’s new rule. At this time, the electronic lives began to take out the imitated Progenitor and Bentusi style ships while pretending to be the Progenitor warships which remained from ancient times and the Bentusi, who had fled to other galaxies during the Cataclysm of the Beast but now returned, providing further support for the Galaxy Rescue Alliance.

8. The Army of TMAT

After defeating the Vaygr, the Hiigarans, in addition to uniting the galaxy, began to try to figure out how to use the Sajuuk to reopen the Eye of Aarran. Because Karan remained dormant, people could not disconnect her from Sajuuk, and no one else could take her place. Thus people could not release the full power of the three cores of the Sajuuk. However, according to the scientists and engineers of the Great Unified Galaxy Organization, it is not necessary to exert the full power of the three cores to open the Eye of Aarran.

But the problem was that there were two defensive planets near the Eye of Aarran - the Great Wall and the Hadrian, which would attack anyone if they approached.

Later, as the war with the Galaxy Rescue Alliance intensified, the former proposal to open the Eye of Aarran was brought up again. The Hiigarans could not make full use of Sajuuk, as its strategic jumping ability which was enough to change the outcome of the war could not be exerted. The Hiigaran army was at the crucial juncture in the face of its superior enemies. At this time, their only hope was the Eye of Aarran, which, as said by Karan before she went to hibernation, could help people travel to anywhere in the galaxy.

The Hiigarans spent a lot of effort, blew up the two defensive planets, and then opened the Eye of Aarran.

However, before the Hiigarans began to use the Eye of Aarran, the TMATs in the companion galaxy had discovered that the Eye of Aarran was reopened and their army swarmed in. Fortunately, after opening the Eye of Aarran, the Sajuuk was transferred to the front line to solve the crisis there, which saved it from being captured by the TMAT army.

After the TMATs rushed into the galaxy, they quickly contacted the electronic lives and learned of the situation which the electronic lives had prepared. Because Sajuuk was still in Hiigarans’ hands, the TMATs remained wary. They followed the plan of electronic lives and said to the Great Unified Galaxy Organization that they were the livings from the companion galaxy, and had been friends and loyal allies of the Progenitors; because the evil Bentusi had sealed the Eye of Aarran, they were unable to help when the Progenitor civilization was destroyed. Now since the Eye of Aarran was reopened, and the evil Bentusi were organizing an army to destroy the Hiigarans who were the Chosen One by the Progenitors, they would help the Hiigarans selflessly.

The arrival of TMAT gave the Great Unified Galaxy Organization a chance. The TMAT put forward the strategy of “soldiers versus soldiers, generals versus generals”: Their technology level is comparable to Bentusi’s, so they can deal with Bentusi and the counterfeit Progenitor ships made by Bentusi, while the Hiigaran dealt with the betrayed descendants of the Progenitors. The reason why the TMAT did so is to ensure the balance of power between the two factions in the war. They made the Great Unified Galaxy Organization and the Galaxy Rescue Alliance consume each other, while their fleet, the fake Bentusi fleet, and the phony Progenitor fleet pretended to be fighting fiercely without actual effort. When the descendants of the Progenitor dried up their last drop of blood, the TMAT could sit and enjoy it.

The blood of the Progenitors was painting the stars red…

9. Actions of Taiidani (Part I) [Not fully translated yet]

Before the story of Homeworld2, the territory and strength of the Taiidan Republic had been gradually eroded by Hiigarans and Turanic Raiders. On the other hand, the Imperial Taiidan, led by Princess Scandina, joined the Vaygr forces, hoping to secure the revival of the Taiidani with the help of the Vaygr’s military power. Scandina volunteered to deal with the Turanic Raiders and Kadashi, who were the headaches of the Vaygr. During this period, she exerted diplomatic skills, through several battles to deter Turanic Raiders, but also indirectly saved a Kadeshi Mothership and won trust and favor among the Kadeshi.

After Vaygr were defeated, Scandina lowered her stature and joined the Great Unified Galaxy Organization on her own initiative, avoiding the fate of being captured and executed. Later, when the war broke out between the Great Unified Galaxy Organization and the Galaxy Rescue Alliance, Scandina declared that Taiidan remained neutral, trying to make both sides suffer, so that she could enjoy the benefits.

10. Actions of Taiidani (Part II) [Not fully translated yet]

11. Actions of Kadeshi (Part I) [Not fully translated yet]

Until ALF 60s, the Kadashi had been hiding in the nebula and surviving by robbing passing ships. The Hiigaran had never forgotten the Kadashi. After all, “compatriots” is a very precious word for Hiigarans. Therefore, Hiigara had always planned to persuade Kadesh to form a unified country together. After ALF 60s, Hiigara changed from a strategic defense against Taiidan to a strategic offensive. The Hiigarans who freed up their hands eventually sent messengers on a large scale to contact with the Kadeshi.

12. Actions of Kadeshi (Part II) [Not fully translated yet]

Since three motherships were destroyed during the Passage, the Hiigarans had been declared at the public enemy of the Kadashi. When Hiigaran reappeared in front of Kadashi, they were greeted with an intense attack. With the collapse of the Vaygr army, Hiigara wanted to take this opportunity to deal with Taiidan, but Scandina had used the Kadashi as a means to force the Hiigarans to make concessions. Later, the Galaxy Rescue Alliance tried to find breakthroughs and regained the battlefield initiative, so they focused on the Kadesh Nebula. At this time, the Taiidan declared that they were neutral, and Kadeshi should also not be affected by the war. The Kadash Nebula remained a neutral zone through the joint support of Taiidan and Hiigara. Even at this critical juncture, Kadeshi units were still firing at the Hiigarans.

13. Actions of Turanic Raiders [Not fully translated yet]

During the final battle between the Exiles and Taiidan Emperor, the Turanic Raiders did not support the Taiidan fleet as promised, which indirectly led to the collapse of the Taiidan Empire. When the Taiidan world was in chaos, Turanic Raiders occupied several planets in the former imperial frontier. It was at this time that some Turanic Raiders went to the edge of the spiral arm and settled on the planets in frontier areas that the mainstream regimes did not pay much attention to. Although the Turanic Raiders withstood the Vaygr’s attacks by themselves, when the Taiidan joined the fray they seized back many planets from the Raiders that had previously belonged to the Taiidan. After the End War, the Taiidan reinforced their surveillance and pressure on the Turanic Raiders. With that, their golden age of development ended.

14. Actions of Vaygr [Not fully translated yet]

After the defeat of Makaan’s main fleet, his garrison forces and the regimes they commanded were less affected by the failure. A TMAT electronic life called Konse, impersonating a soul of the Progenitors, assumed the top leadership within the Vaygr in an attempt to inherit Makaan’s hegemony of the Vaygr, but he was only able to rally about a fourth of the original armade to his cause. With those forces Konse retreated to the traditional Vaygr areas within the eastern fringes of the galaxy. When Hiigara had begun to unify the galaxy, they had also invited Konse Vaygr to join the Great Unified Galaxy Organization. After the outbreak of the war, the Galaxy Rescue Alliance attacked both Hiigara and Konse’s Vaygr, which led to Konse joining the Great Unified Galaxy Organization.

15. The Hacker [Not translated yet]

16. Jakuul [Not translated yet]

17. The Treasure of Bentusi

The war between the Galaxy Rescue Alliance and the Great Unified Galaxy Organization, which is later called “the War of Sibling Rivalry”, was continuing. But that was not what people call it at that time. The Alliance called it “the War Against Hegemony”, while the Organization called it “the Unification War”.

The Alliance’s attacks on Hiigaran central region through Taiidani territory and attacks on the Kadesh had significantly hampered the strength of the Organization. Although in the beginning, the two sides still showed a state of balance of power, over time, the Hiigaran army, which was facing enemies from different directions, began to show signs of fatigue. As they were the backbone of the Organization, once Hiigaran was at a disadvantage, the morale of the Organization started to decline dramatically. The Organization had always been hoping their TMAT friends could help, but the TMATs rejected the request for reinforcement on the grounds that “the evil Bentusi were so strong that they had no vessels left to help the Organization.”

To stop this decline of morale, the Hiigaran accelerated their search for “the Treasure of Bentusi”. “The Treasure of Bentusi” was a legend that had been told in the galaxy for a long time. It was said that Bentusi hid their technology and wealth somewhere in the galaxy. When Bentusi were still alive, they neither confirmed nor denied such legends. After the extinction of Bentusi, some adventurers began to search for it, but the majority of the people laughed at it they believed it was a fable, and had other things to do as they were busy recovering the destruction of the Dust War and the End War.

There is only one exception, and that were the Hiigarans. While they were busy recovering from wars, promoting their ideology, seeking to reunite different races, and researching the Eye of Aarran, they also sent people to every corner of the galaxy to search for the Bentusi’s treasure. The reason why they were so enthusiastic about this legend was that they knew it was not just a ridiculous rumor - they know the Bentusi did leave something behind. The reason was that during the End War, before the explosion of the Great Harborship of Bentus, the ship sent a message to the Pride of Hiigara: “the future of the past, where the heritage lies - the end of the stars, the beginning of life; the end of the home, the beginning of memory.” The meaning is clear enough: the Bentusi did leave a legacy, and they clearly told Hiigaran where it was. — Yes, for those Bentusi who always spoke unclearly like a fortune teller, that is already very “clear”.

Thus, Hiigara had been secretly sending personnel to find “the end of the stars, the beginning of life; the end of the home, the beginning of memory”. As for the first sentence, “the future of the past”, was understood as the glorious technology of Bentusi in the past would have an impact on the future development of Hiigara. They had used up their imagination and went to all the places of suspect, but it was not in the galactic halo, not in the galactic corona, nor in the Eye of Aarran which was in the center of the galaxy.

With the unfolding of the War of Sibling Rivalry, the search for Bentusi’s treasure gradually stopped. However, since Hiigara was at a disadvantage faced attacks from different directions, and the TMAT refused to provide assistance, as a drowning man will clutch at a straw, people re-started the search for the treasure of Bentusi, hoping to get a new force and change the war again, just like the last time when the TMAT came.

18. The Only Hope

The distance between failure and the Organization was getting shorter and shorter. The attack forces of the Alliance had pushed the front line to a distance of only two light-years from Hiigara.

Hiigara finally sent the Sajuuk to the front line, but it could not change the war in essence. Because Karan went dormant in the hyperspace core control center, people could not exert the power of the warship without full control of the cores, the appearance of the Sajuuk only influenced the morale of soldiers of both sides a bit at the beginning. When it was discovered that the Sajuuk did not show the expected power, even this influence quickly receded. The tide of war continued to flood into Hiigara, ready to push it into the bottom of the ocean and make it disappear from history.

Just at this time, a Hiigaran gunship which had disappeared on the front line in Kadesh entered the headquarters of the Diamid under the protection of the Hiigaran fleet. The gunship carried the hope of survival of all Hiigarans and the entire Organization - they brought back something from the “Treasure of Bentusi”.

It turned out that the gunship had been lost in the scuffle in support of the Kadashi, and had entered the chaotic zone where there were Vaygrs, Tiidanis and Turanic Raiders active. The crew kept hiding from place to place until they finally repaired their gunship and got enough fuel to begin to return to Hiigara. In the course of returning, the unlucky crew once again got lost and came to an uncharted planet.

The planet had lost almost two-fifths of its body, and the rest had turned into a huge, ugly rock.

The crew had thought there was no life in this region, but when they came closer, they found ships of TMAT, the Progenitors and Bentusi orbiting around the planet. The gunboat hid into the dark side of the planet. Since then, they had continued to find ships seemingly from these three different factions patrolling here. It was a miracle that gunship could enter the inner space of the planet without anyone noticing them.

This is an extraordinary situation. Whether from the standpoint of the Organization or the Alliance, the TMAT, Bentusi and those unmanned Progenitor ships are absolute enemies to each other, but here they lived and acted together peacefully.

The gunship crew ventured down to the surface of the planet. After a covert reconnaissance, the crew found out that the TMATs were searching something here. And they also saw a “Bentusi” getting off a Bentusi spacecraft - the halo around him disappeared, and he turned out to be a TMAT.

The crew sneaked into the excavation site of TMATs, and then found a secret chamber under their continuing extreme luck. Inside the secret chamber, the crew found the answer to the mystery. This dead planet is Bentus, the birthplace of the Bentusi thousands of years ago. The TMAT were coming here to discover the “Treasure of Bentusi”. In fact, the reason why these ordinary Hiigaran soldiers had such good luck had always been the help of Jakuul. Although his primary focus was on the database of TMAT, he also made some efforts to secretly change the course of the gunship and protecting them to approach the Treasure of Bentusi without anyone noticed.

The Treasure of Bentusi - a vast database - showed them all the truth behind history. After the initial shock, these Hiigarans began their mission. The storage devices they brought with them could not store all the scientific and historical data here, and it is not feasible for them to venture back and forth to copy all data back to the spaceship. They only have the opportunity to take away some of the treasures. Finally, the captain decided to abandon the scientific and technological data and take historical records! With the secret help of Jakuul, the Hiigaran gunship escaped safely from the blockade of TMAT ships in three different styles, despite a large number of enemies pursuing behind it.

After entering the line of defense of Hiigara, the gunship briefed the situation to the Diamid immediately. Although Diamid was equally shocked, they quickly decided to order the fleet to do their best to protect the gunship back to Hiigara; as for the TMAT ships behind it, avoided fighting with them until the truth was clear; but the fleet needed to try to prevent them from following the gunship. If the TMAT started firing, they should counterattack immediately.

When the TMAT approached the line of defense of Hiigara, they withdrew both the “Bentusi ships” and “Progenitor ships”, allowing only the TMAT-style ships enter the Hiigarans’ vision. Faced with those neither humble nor arrogant Hiigarans who would not step back a foot, the TMATs decided to take off their mask of hypocrisy, because if the gunship published the truth recorded by Bentusi to the whole galaxy, all the lies they told before would be exposed, and then they would need to fight with Hiigarans anyway. They would like to destroy all evidence now when only Hiigarans knew the truth.

Hiigara was now in more danger. In addition to the Alliance, the fake Bentusi and the fake Progenitors, they now had another strong enemy - the TMAT. Even allies in the Organization were angry at Hiigara, thinking the Hiigarans must have done something wrong to bring the attacks of TMAT.

When Diamid showed their allies the records of truth from the Treasure of Bentusi, everyone was both angry and happy. The anger was that they and the Alliance had been deceived into killing each other by the TMAT - the criminal back from the time of Progenitors; The joy was that they are really brothers of the Alliance, and as long as the truth is published, the critical situation on the front line could be reversed in one fell swoop. All people of the same blood should put aside their prejudices, which are entirely instigated by the enemy, and unite against their real enemy.

The Organization began to work together to resist the attack of the TMAT and sent out the message of reconciliation to the Alliance, while also desperately broadcasting the truth of the treasure of Bentusi to every direction in the galaxy.

However, what made the Organization heartbreak is that the Alliance refused to accept the “so-called truth” from the Organization.

19. Awakening from the Dream [Not translated yet]

20. The Mantis Stalking the Cicada [Not translated yet]

21. The Bloody Million-Second Battle [Not translated yet]

22. The Return of Bentusi (Part I)

In the battle of all descendants of Progenitors in the galaxy united against the overpowering invasion of TMAT, the Taiidani surpassed Hiigarans and the Alliance and became the core force. This is because they have been onlookers during the War of Sibling Rivalry. They had been developing silently and preserving their power; and because they had been keeping away from the international politics, and Queen Scandina intuitively refused the help of those “Progenitors souls”, less electronic lives had infiltrated into Taiidani military and government departments. Thus, after the explosion of “bombs” and “embryos”, the Taiidani army had the least “mutinies” in the galaxy.

In the Bloody Million-Second Battle, the Taiidani were in the bloodiest parts of the battlefield - the perimeter of the Sajuuk and the middle defense line. After decades of endurance and humiliation, the heroism and courage of the ancient Eight-Banner Taiidani Fleets have reappeared in today’s Taiidani. The Taiidani had bought much time in the face of the more technologically advanced TMATs. However, human’s initiative is not omnipotent, and the defense line of Taiidan was on the edge of collapse. The innermost defense line was established by the remnants of the Organization and the Alliance. If the TMATs broke through here, they could only launch kamikaze attacks.

At this critical moment, the TMATs suddenly suspended their attacks. Taiidani, the Organization, and the Alliance immediately re-organized their defense line, and at the same time sent scouts to the back of enemy to see what happened. The mystery was solved: a Turanic Raiders fleet were attacking TMATs on the other side of the battlefield. But it was not enough to hold back TMATs if it was just the Raiders. And soon people found the answer of the mystery behind the mystery: followed by the Raiders was a fleet of Bentusi!

These Bentusi ships were not the fake ones made by the TMATs, but authentic and genuine Bentusi vessels! And unlike the Bentusi ships which people had been familiar with, they all have offensive weapons!

Here’s how the story began:

As early as more than a hundred years ago, out of fear of the Beast, the Bentusi had planned to move the whole race into other galaxies. After the first few ships left, the Kuun-Lan fleet of Kiith Somtaaw persuaded the Bentusi to change their mind to stay in the galaxy and fight against the Beast together.

Even the Progenitors who had such advanced technology could not jump to another galaxy directly. For thousands of years, Bentusi had been collecting the high-tech relics of the Progenitors, which had brought them some technological progress, but they were still far from the level of the Progenitors. Thus the jump gate Bentusi wanted to use to jump to other galaxies was a rather immature product. Although it could provide enough energy to let ships jump far enough, people could not control the jump destination at all. That is to say, whether the other side of the gate was another galaxy or the void in the universe was utterly uncontrollable. If it weren’t because Bentusi was frightened out of their minds by the Beast, they would never try to use such a device.

That is to say, the first few Bentusi ships could not come back, and where they went was unknown. A group of Bentusi volunteered to enter the gate to search for the missing ships. The volunteers jumped away, and the other Bentusi did not expect to see them back. In the War of the End Time, the Bentusi in our Galaxy became extinct.

Fortunately, the volunteers jumped into another galaxy and found several missing ships. Although there were still some ships missing, the volunteers were still happy.

These Bentusi planned to go back to our galaxy. When the volunteers set out from our galaxy, they brought with some outstanding scientists and engineers to find a way home after finding their compatriots.

The built another stargate. Though there was no guarantee that they would be lucky enough to jump back home immediately, they decided to bet with probability. But they couldn’t find enough energy to launch it. They thought of black holes. The fleet went to the core of that galaxy and ready to use the energy of the black holes there to launch the gate. However, after reaching the center of the galaxy, they found some massive debris of space ships that could rival the remains of the Progenitors.

Strangely, the wreckage was painted in a typical Turanic Raiders style. After a preliminary survey, the oddity turned into shock: the debris, apart from its different appearance, had all the same technical standards as the early technology of the Progenitors!

23. The Return of Bentusi (Part II)

Out of respect and curiosity for the Progenitors, the Bentusi decided to settle down for a while and take a closer look at the wreckage and tried to find why they had become wreckage.

Repeated investigations confirmed that these ships must have a very close relationship with the Progenitors. But they couldn’t know what had happened to such a huge fleet. The Bentusi also found some relics on the sizeable surrounding debris, in which there were signs of both high and low technology, just like those Progenitor relics where crews in space ships had survived the collapse of civilization but had retrograded to primitive society. According to the Bentusi’s analysis, these compatriots of Progenitors had also experienced a great regression of civilization, so their descendants left on the space ships had retrograded to primitive civilization. But the evidence of activity of this primitive civilization had stopped after some time. Some traces of them activation pointed to the black holes in the center of this galaxy.

Careful astronomical analyses showed that there are several tiny wormholes in this black hole cluster.

In general, the Bentusi’s guess was not far from the truth. These Raider-style ships did come from the same place as the Progenitors. They were both space exploration fleets, but with different destinations. This fleet came here through the central wormhole of the galaxy. (In a sense, the Eye of Aarran is also an artificial wormhole.) However, some kind of disaster had happened to them, and their civilization collapsed and retrograded to primitive society. For their descendants, the history of coming here from their homeland through the wormhole had become a myth. The harsh environment here stimulated them to venture back to the wormhole, trying to find a way back to the home in their legend. But they did not have the technology to explore wormholes, and their only clues were some vague descriptions in the legend. Most of their expedition fleets had jumped to nowhere, but one of them jumped out of a tiny wormhole in the Turanic region in our galaxy and had been called the Turanic Raiders since then.

The Bentusi began to believe that one of these wormholes must lead to our galaxy, and they started trying. To avoid separation from other fleet members again, they kept exploring together and examined the wormholes one by one. They had been to many different galaxies, but none of them was our galaxy, and they didn’t meet any intelligent being. They traveled through these new galaxies, came back through the same wormhole and then tried the next wormhole. In this way, it took them more than a hundred years to return to our galaxy.

The Bentusi fleet jumped out in the Turanic region. After finding out where they jumped out, they confirmed their guess - they solved the mystery of the origin of the Turanic Raiders!

However, the joy of returning home did not last long. The Bentusi found their race had been extinct here, and the cruel TMAT, whom they had not seen for a long time, were attacking the descendants of the Progenitors. (This is the time when TMAT just broke with Hiigarans and began their conquering of the whole galaxy.)

The Turanic Raiders found these Bentusi. The Bentusi told them the long-lost history of their origins with detailed archaeological data. In modern times, there had been two different parties of Turanic people: one of them thought they were not a race of this galaxy, and should not participate much in the politics of the galaxy, and this is the guiding ideology of the inner-Turanic; the other party thought since they had already forgotten where their home was and had no way to go home, they should just live here and treat themselves as a member of the society of the galaxy, and this is the guiding ideology of the outer-Turanic. Except for the previous invasion to the Taiidan territory and the later self-defense against the Vaygr, they tried their best to stay away from galactic affairs, especially during the War of Sibling Rivalry. However, the evidence brought back by the Bentusi made it clear that they are not really “raiders”, but brothers with the same blood of the other races in this galaxy.

The pride of learning about their ancient history excited all the Turanic people, and they wanted to go out and fight alongside their brothers immediately. But the Bentusi told them to put it on hold.

This was not because the Bentusi would forgive the crimes of TMAT. On the contrary, their philosophy of “adherence” to the descendants of Progenitors had been their core code of conduct for thousands of years, for which they did not even care about their survival. However, the power of the Turanic people alone would not solve any problems. Although Bentusi’s technology was comparable to, or even slightly beyond, that of TMAT, none of their ships had offensive weapons. Their defensive weapons were useful facing opponent of lower technology, but almost useless to someone like TMAT.

As a result, the Bentusi made their decision: they decided to break their promise of never using weapons again. Four thousand years ago, they solemnly vowed never to use weapons again because their guns had deeply hurt the descendants of Progenitors (that was when they defeated the old Hiigaran Empire and caused the Kushan been exiled by the Taiidani). But today, to defend the blood of Progenitors, they were willing to break their vows! The reason why they stop the immediate actions of Turanic people is that they were equipping their ships with weapons that had not been touched in thousands of years, and they were also helping Turanic people to modify their ships with high-tech devices.

Seeing that the Organization and the Alliance were on the edge of death under the attack of the TMATs and the rebels, the Bentusi had to finish their equipping of weapons hastily and began their attacks from the region of Turanic.

The surprise attack caused some chaos for the TMATs at the beginning, and the return of the real Bentusi made the TMATs uneasy. But as the TMAT fleet turned back and began to battle with Bentusi, the Bentusi started to fail because of their unfinished weapon systems.

In spite of the increasing pressure, the Bentusi were fighting fearlessly. The hostility between the two races from nearly ten thousand years ago made TMATs use up all their main forces on the siege of the Bentusi, and even highest flagship of TMAT named the Black Blood of TMAT, which just moved to the battlefield from the companion galaxy, had joined the siege.

However, no matter how brave and unyielding a lonely tiger is, it can not withstand the attacks of a team of wolves. Three thousand seconds before Karen woke up, the last Bentusi ship in the universe collided with the Black Blood of TMAT and died with the imperator of their foe.

Bentusi, the kind native race of the galaxy, had been keeping their adherence and protecting all races in the galaxy for thousands of years, all driven by their thankfulness to their friend and teacher - the Progenitors. When the last Bentusi lost their life in the explosion, did they feel satisfied with the selfless history of their race? Did they blame themself for failing to stop the TMAT completely? Was they feeling happy to be able to die with their enemy, or worrying about whether the civilization of Progenitors would finally survive this ordeal?

Once upon a time, it was thought that the Bentusi in this galaxy was extinct. Now, there is no such race in the whole universe…

Ironically, however, the end of the race of Bentusi was also the opening of the finale of another native race - the TMAT.

24. Attitudes towards AI [Not translated yet]

25. The Plan Behind the Plan [Not translated yet]

26. TMAT civil war [Not translated yet]

27. True Power of the Sajuuk (Not fully translated yet)

The one million seconds countdown clock on the bridge of the Sajuuk finally returned to zero. Karan S’jet, the miraculous woman who really became “the Chosen One” after numerous and disorderly interactions, transformations, and interferences among masses of mathematical variables in history, ended the mysterious journey of the quantum state and opened her eyes.

People and Karan did not have time to greet each other or even discuss the battle plan. Karan took all the command of Sajuuk and began to rescue the human from the crisis.

Karan showed the world the real strength of the Sajuuk, the masterpiece of progenitors. This strength is not a huge hull and heavy armor, not even a terrifying gun and unlimited long-range jumping capability, but a very different way of fighting: hyperspace jumping warfare! Whether the Bentusi, TMATs, or the descendants of progenitors, they all jump once and fight in the normal space. Under the control of Karan, who had learned the basic battle skills and techniques of progenitors, the Sajuuk made full use of the energy of three hyperspace cores. Employing hundreds of artillery shelling within each moment between dozens of jumps per second, in a few minutes, the Sajuuk swept out the 100 light-years thick enclosure of TMATs, creating more than a dozen areas with no living creatures. As the opponent, TMAT could not observe and calculate the number of jumps made by Sajuuk, let alone predict where it would jump in advance. More often than not, their ships just blew up after the perception of a flash of bright light, and before the light could even hit the ships’ armor, the Sajuuk has attacked another ship several light-years away.

This attacking method, which goes beyond all the concepts of time and space, is the standard mode of operation during the civil war of progenitors. At that time, this kind of battle happened everywhere in the galaxy. The warships of both sides flickered and disappeared in space. Each flicker was a jump. Each flicker was accompanied by tens of millions of different types of attacks. Some spacecraft could jump more than ten light-years in the short period between they getting shot and exploding. The fighting intensity and pattern of Bentusi, TMAT and the descendants are the same level as the game played between naughty juvenile children of progenitors driving a second-hand private spacecraft.

TMATs’ siege of the largest human cluster centered on Hiigara was thus defused. The Sajuuk, on the one hand, led the main army in its search for the main forces of TMATs. On the other hand, it used the passive jumping function of unlimited distance to continuously transmit the fleet to the planets that might still have survivors to rescue them. Unfortunately, there is only one such warship powered by hyperspace core. Even if in best cases, it can not solve all the problems in the whole galaxy at the same time. The surviving fleet of descendants also has to undertake heavy tasks to fight against the TMAT fleet.

28. The End Time (Not fully translated yet)

Thanks to the struggle of the crew of Sajuuk and the descendants of progenitors, TMATs now holds only their last important stronghold, the Eye of Aarran. Military forces of the descendants among the entire galaxy are about to cross the Eye of Aarran and enter the companion galaxy. However, TMATs were not so easy to admit defeat and could not tolerate the entry of other races into the companion galaxy, so an idea came into being: to blow up the Eye of Aarran.

Facing the crazy TMATs, no one can stop the tragedy. The Eye of Aarran, the great miracle of the progenitors, was destroyed by the suicide attack of TMATs. Although it did not completely explode, the fragmented structure could not be repaired unless the descendants reproduced the glorious technology of progenitors.

The war that stirred up the whole galaxy ended in a way that did not really make people feel comfortable. Anyway, the descendants have united again, inspired by the glorious history of progenitors, and radiate infinite enthusiasm, not only to repair the wounds of war but also to reproduce the great glory of progenitors. Despite concerns about how long this unity can be maintained without external pressures by the long-separated and antagonistic descendants, at least it is still an ideal era. Under the leadership of Karan S’jet, a direct descendant of progenitors, people are fully enjoying the warmth of the great harmony of the galaxy. The attitude of the Kadashi towards the Hiigarans eased a bit, which made Hiigarans ecstatic; the Taiidans regained honor and self-confidence because of their heroic performance and outstanding contributions in the last bloody battle; the Turanic Raiders were also accepted by the whole galaxy, and they were reassuringly integrated into the galaxy, the word “outlander” became a historical term. All kinds of countries were disbanded, and the "Galactic Alliance of Progenitors’ Blood " was established. People do not fear any enemies from the past, the present, and the future.

Finally, the Time of S’jet has arrived.