A Horus in Strange Lands (Horizon Zero Dawn SI) Chapter 24

Kael Paktu, the captain of the ship, Khar-Selim, stared in awe and fear as his communications officers ran about on the bridge, and multiple alerts rang across the ship’s computers.

It was supposed to be a grand journey for their people. The very first journey undertaken by the very first interstellar ship of their people to pave the way for the Mothership in its journey towards their original home, Hiigara.

And yet, the ambitious journey of 10 years to the edge of their star system was thwarted just after seven years as their ship picked up incoming objects to their star system.

From the telemetry data and long-range scans, it is quite clear that these things were not some celestial bodies, natural phenomena, or anything of natural origin at all.

They were clearly artificial, and they were headed straight for Kharak.

Ever since then, the crew of Khar-Selim has been keeping a close eye on the anomaly and changing course to match the incoming objects, which has led to their current situation.

Watching the eight colossal ships, seven of which rivaled the Mothership in size, and the last one being nearly twice its size, the captain of Khar-Selim could not help but shudder.

Thankfully, whoever was using these ships did not seem hostile as they had been using their reverse thrusters to slow down during their entry into the star system for the past few months, reducing their speed rapidly from the ridiculous sub-light speeds of nearly 70% the speed of light, something that his people had considered nearly impossible without some kind of exotic drive like the Hyperspace core they found in Khar-Toba all those decades ago.

And during the entire time they were decelerating and finally stopped near Khar-Selim today, they had been sending data-packets containing various algorithms and decryption keys along with vast amounts of data that the crew of Khar-Selim had figured out to be their language and the key to decoding said language. A clear attempt at communication from this alien civilization.

Of course, being new to the galactic stage, the Kushan could not come across as barbaric simply due to fear, so Kael Paktu had their communications officers reply in a similar manner to these unknown beings, hoping to establish a dialog with this new potential ally in the starts that their species had stumbled upon during their very first voyage across the stars.

Watching the ships out of the window from his ship, Kael Paktu could not help but feel extremely excited.

He had a feeling that this new potential ally could prove to be a great boon for all of Kushan.

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….it is official, the universe really hates me. Either that, or I am its chew toy.

How else am I supposed to interpret this new development?

After we intercepted the stray laser communications originating from this system, we headed straight for it, hoping to find some kind of alien civilization and initiate first contact.

After all, who did not dream of being the one to meet aliens in the flesh?

But, when we reached the star system and initiated the reverse burn of our anti-matter drives, we were surprised to see that a ship traveling at speeds of roughly 300 to 400 m/s was headed towards the edge of the star system.

Needless to say, we were very much excited at the prospect of making first contact earlier than anticipated and directly sent data packets on open channels towards the ship. The data packets contained our first contact message in English and the algorithms required to decode said language into their own language.

While we waited for their reply, we also accessed their data streams and tried to learn as much as we could about the new people we came across.

It was when we were browsing through the data that I came across terms that felt very familiar and filled me with worry.

Kharak, Kushan, Khar-Toba, Khar-Selim, Mothership, The Jaraci object, the list went on and on.

Leaving Vast Silver and Seth to keep monitoring these people, I retreated deep within my memories, trying to find the source of my worry and the sense of familiarity with these words.

It did not take me long before I figured out where we were.

We were in another fucking game world, specifically, the universe of the Homeworld series, which is filled with all sorts of crazy things.

The Taiidan Empire, the Turanic Raiders, the enigmatic Bentusi, the stupid Galactic forces, The Progenitors, and most importantly of all, The Beast.

And then, there is the Hyperspace itself which was once hinted to be a realm with entities living within it.

Thankfully, we were not unlucky enough to drop out of that stupid vortex near the Taiidan territories, or worse yet, near a ship infected with the Beast.

From what I gathered based on what little we were able to decode from their language, this ship in front of us, the Khar-Selim, is still on its voyage to the edge of the system and it has been seven years since it left Kharak.

This means that I have at least three more years till the Mothership makes its first jump and fucks over its people completely.

Now, here is the problem, do we intervene in the fate of these people? Or do we take on the role of observers and traders like the Bentusi do most of the time?

A part of me wants to help these people out, especially since the countless innocents that would be killed during the scouring of Kharak in the coming years did not deserve such a fate.

On the other hand, I am afraid that I would once again have my expectations betrayed by people who see me as nothing more than a machine.

….Perhaps, I should ask for advice from my companions?

Yeah, that seems like a good idea.

With a decision made, I called for my companions to gather in the virtual space.

Within seconds, Vast Silver and Seth appeared in front of me.

[what happened?]

{…..I need your help in making a decision about these people.}

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Author Notes: Yup, we are in the Homeworld universe, specifically, three years before the start of the first game and way past the Desert of Kharak game.