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	The Mothership short story

The mothership is a powerful protoss capital ship.

OverviewEdit

Motherships are mighty protoss support vessels. At the heart of each mothership is a huge khaydarin crystal infused with an incredible amount of psionic energy. By tapping into this energy, a mothership can warp or crack the very fabric of space-time itself. The devastating power of a mothership can wipe out squadrons of enemy ships in the blink of an eye or lay waste to entire planets.^[1] Other aspects of a mothership's interior include a waking chamber for its commander, crew quarters and a med-bay.^[2] A number of escape pods are also featured.^[3]

A single crew member can pilot the ship for simple warps. More complex operations require a crew.^[2]

HistoryEdit

The motherships were designed by Juras,^[2] and constructed during the protoss Golden Age of Expansion as deep space exploration vessels.^[1] The Templar Caste successfully petitioned for modifications; the final design included weapons and some were eventually converted into military command ships.^[2]

The surviving motherships were not recalled at the end of the Golden Age. Most were left at the farthest reaches of protoss exploration as titanic monuments and holy shrines, commemorating an honored way of life and a proud period of history.^[1] The crews were placed in stasis, although it was expected the ships would not be needed again.^[2]

High templar Rihod's mothership remained active. Its crew assisted lower-technology aliens who had been struck by a disaster.^[4]

The Fall of AiurEdit

The zerg attack on Aiur during the Great War reversed forced a re-evaluation. The motherships were recalled to service^[1] by high templar Erekul. However, it was too late for the ships to alter the course of the war.^[2]

Amongst the reactivated ships was Moratun, the original mothership and crewed solely by Juras. Moratun rescued zealots from a besieged colony before traveling to Aiur. The ship, and other empty motherships, arrived in Aiur's star system only after the Khalai evacuation to Shakuras. The ships were forced to find the Dark Templar homeworld by themselves. The fleet was manned by the few survivors that could be found.^[2] Rihod's mothership was not brought to Aiur, for fear it could be lost in combat.^[4]

The motherships were reunited with the protoss during the Interbellum and taken over by the Templar Caste.^[1]

Game UnitEdit

Mothership
Unit
Race	Protoss
Role	Ultimate protoss vessel
Armament	Purifier beams
Properties
Maximum energy	200 (init. 50)
Energy regen/second	0.5625
Sight range	14
Production
Minerals	400
Gas	400
Psi	8
Build time	160
Produced from	Nexus
Requires	Fleet beacon
Hotkey	M
Movement
Speed	1.4062
Acceleration	1.375
Lateral acceleration	0
Deceleration	1
Collision radius	1.375
Protection
Shields	350
Shield regen/second	2
Hit points	350
Armor	2
Type	Air Massive Mechanical
Armor type	Armored
Purifier beams
Damage	6
Attacks	6
Targets	Ground Air
Cooldown	2.21
Range	7
Upgrade/level	+1
Meta
Target priority	20
Kill score	500
Production score	250
Miscellaneous
Notes	A player may only have 1 mothership at a time.

The mothership is a high-value support unit. Only one may be deployed at a time.

It behaves like the Arbiter: it cloaks and recalls friendly units, and may temporarily disable units. The ship's long ranged attack allows it to contribute firepower from behind the front; it may also fire on the move. The mothership is the only unit able to survive a direct hit from a nuke.

Vikings, corruptors, and void rays, are effective counters. It may also be hijacked by the infestor's neural parasite.

The mothership's use in multiplayer is curtailed by its high cost, position on the tech tree, vulnerability to focus firing, low mobility, and relatively low damage output.

AbilitiesEdit

Cloaking Field
Notes
Passively cloaks nearby friendly units and buildings within a range of 5.
Edit

Mass Recall
Usage Energy 100 Duration 2 Hotkey R
Notes
Summons all units in target area (6.5) owned by the mothership's player to the mothership's location.
Edit

Vortex
Usage Energy 100 Range 9 Duration 20 Cooldown 20 Hotkey V
Notes
The mothership creates a gravity vortex[5] which remove air and ground units, both friendly and enemy, except mothership itself, from play. Units that enter the vortex after it has opened will also be affected. After the Vortex ends all of the affected units will reappear. Vortex removes Force Fields in the area of effect. Units leaving the Mothership's Vortex are un-targetable and immune to damage for 1.5 seconds. The area of effect is 2.5.
Edit

UpgradesEdit

Air Weapons
Researched at	Cybernetics core
Hotkey	E
Properties
Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Minerals 100 175 250 Gas 100 175 250 Research time 160 190 220
Notes
Increases attack damage of protoss air units.
Edit

Air Armor
Researched at	Cybernetics Core
Hotkey	A
Properties
Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Minerals 150 225 300 Gas 150 225 300 Research time 160 190 220
Notes
Increases protoss air unit armor.
Edit

Plasma Shields
Researched at	Forge
Hotkey	S
Properties
Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Minerals 150 225 300 Gas 150 225 300 Research time 160 190 220
Notes
+1 armor to shields per level.
Edit

Heart of the Swarm ChangesEdit

	This article or section contains information from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
	The content may change substantially over time.

In Heart of the Swarm, the mothership will be cut from multiplayer.^[6]

QuotationsEdit

See: StarCraft II Mothership Quotations

DevelopmentEdit

Main article: Mothership/Development

AchievementsEdit

Distorted Reality
Points	10
Criteria	Capture 50 enemy units in a single Vortex in a Melee game.

Known MothershipsEdit

• Moratun
• Purifier
• Shield of Aiur
• Tal'darim Mothership

Known CommandersEdit

• Hierarch Artanis
• Executor Nyon
• Commander Rihod
• Juras

NotesEdit

• The mothership is thus far the only protoss non-hero unit to be voiced by a female representative.^[7][1]

• The mothership's old "Planet Cracker" ability is based on the energy beam from the ship in the introduction video for StarCraft. That ship is the "conceptual anchor" for the mothership idea.^[8][9]

• StarCraft: Frontline: Thundergod depicts motherships as taking part in the purification of Mar Sara.^[10] This contradicts all other sources of information, which establish that motherships weren't recalled into service until after the Great War.^[1][2][4]

ReferencesEdit