StarCraft’s ‘Hyperion’: The Best Ship for Betraying and Also Saving Humanity
The Hyperion was, by all accounts, one helluva ship. It can claim to have both betrayed humanity while also saving it. And the galaxy.
For a humble Behemoth-class battlecruiser, the Hyperion has been through more than its fair share of drama. It has been flagship of humanity’s greatest heroes and most reviled enemies, and, weirdly enough, it’s a distinction that could be argued from either perspective. The Hyperion was flagship to an Emperor, a rebel, a traitor, and more. It has fought anywhere from one to three gods, depending on your perspective, and it may well be the reason the Terran Dominion continues to this day.
But where does the story of rebellion into corruption into escape and ultimate saviorhood begin? In an out of the way planet near the Umojan Protectorate’s borders, where the Hyperion began life in a blaze of glory.
The Hyperion – A History Forged in Flames
The Hyperion was like any other Terran Confederacy battlecruiser; heavily armed and armored and equipped with an FTL drive that let it travel through warp space at great speeds. This last part becomes relevant because, owing to a navigation error, the Hyperion emerged near the Umojan Protectorate, which was at this time defiant of the Terran Confederacy. There, the Hyperion subsequently crashed into a world about which little is known, save that it was “fiery.”
Upon retrieval, the Umojan forces began work on retrofitting the Hyperion, removing its tracking beacon and telling the Confederacy that the ship had been destroyed and all aboard were dead. This was, of course, a lie. In reality, the Umojan Protectorate modified and upgraded the Behemoth-class battlecruiser with their advanced (but not alien) technology.
And in 2491 it entered the galactic stage when Arcturus Mengsk led the Rebellion of Korhal. As the Korhalian forces broke out into open rebellion, the Confederacy destroyed the planet with a thousand Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles. Mengsk, who was on Umoja at the time, quickly recruited the Protectorate to the cause of his rebellion. Calling themselves the Sons of Korhal, Mengsk gave the Hyperion its new name (its previous name is lost to history), and made it the flagship of the small but hardened fleet.
Rebellion, Raynor, and Redemption
The Hyperion served as the command center of the Sons of Korhal during their rebellion against the Confederacy. It was personally present during the raid that captured the ghost, Sarah Kerrigan, as well as the first use of a dangerous technology known as the psi emitter, which resulted in the Zerg Swarm attacking the source of the emitter’s psionic signal.
This act led Mengsk to commit terrible atrocities on the planet of Tarsonis, the heart of the Confederacy. Mengsk and the Hyperion planted psi emitters on the planet, which summoned the Zerg but also the aliens known as the Protoss. While the alien forces battled, Mengsk abandoned Kerrigan to the swarm, which would ultimately lead to her becoming the Queen of Blades.
Meanwhile, Captain Jim Raynor defected. And not long after, they would capture the Hyperion, which had been sent by Mengsk to capture them.
Once he and his forces, known as Raynor’s Raiders, captured the ship, Raynor took the Hyperion to the distant world of Char, where he detected the psychic screams of Sarah Kerrigan. The Hyperion enabled Raynor to make an alliance with the Protoss forces, betraying humanity, but working to save both Protoss and Terrans from the Zerg.
During the ensuing battle, the Hyperion helped rescue the Protoss High Templar, Tassadar, from captivity. as well as taking on the Zerg Overmind, ultimately seeing it destroyed in a psionic explosion.
A Second Great War
In the aftermath of the Brood War, the Hyperion continued to serve Jim Raynor and his motley crew. The Hyperion rescued both Raynor and Tychus Findlay from the world of Mar Sara, rescuing them from a swarm of Zerg Mutalisks. And with the captured Queen of Blades aboard, soon to be de-infested, the Hyperion brought the former Zerg queen to Research Station EB-103. There, however, it had to flee to Mira Han.
The Hyperion would eventually aid Kerrigan’s assault on Arcturus Mengsk’s palace. And after the awakening of the fallen Xel’naga known as Amon, the Hyperion would move from toppling tyrannical emperors to fighting against space deities, flying into the Void to battle Amon’s forces of annihilation.
The Hyperion Design and Capabilities
For a Behemoth-class cruiser, the Hyperion was surprisingly luxurious. It was lavishly decorated: paintings, soft lighting, airy gardens, all these and more were hallmarks of the ship’s design and what gave it a reputation as a “floating palace.”
Like any good battlecruiser, the Hyperion was outfitted with a battery of lasers that could devastate targets on both the ground and in the air. It was modified with rapid-fire laser batteries by the Umojan Protectorate, allowing it to attack at a faster rate than its bog-standard capabilities.
With Neosteel armor plating, the Hyperion could withstand intense enemy fire before weakening. And its warp jump allowed it to be anywhere it needed to be on the battlefield.
But the true weapon of the Hyperion was its legendary Yamato cannon, a devastating plasma weapon with enough firepower to decimate a city. Drawing immense power from the ship’s core, the Yamato cannon creates a magnetic field that harnesses and concentrates a nuclear reaction, channeling it into a concentrated energy blast that can destroy almost anything it’s aimed at in short order.
The Hyperion is still in service to the Terran Dominion, having faced gods and monsters alike.
