Homeworld/Tear Jerker

• Homeworld. The entire Goddamn story, especially in the first installment. The first minute of the "Return to Kharak" mission is especially worth mentioning. When the Mothership returns to Kharak, and the camera pans to see the entire planet being consumed by a firestorm, and Agnus Dei (the choral version of Barber's Adagio for Strings) starts playing in the background...

Fleet Command: No one's left. Everything's gone. Kharak is burning...

• • Not to mention the fact that freakin' Karan S'jet sounds emotional when she says this.
  • Fleet Intelligence is also barely holding it together; you can hear his voice crack a little at the end.

Fleet Intelligence: The scaffold has been destroyed. All orbital facilities destroyed. Significant debris ring in low Kharak orbit. Receiving no communication from anywhere in the system... not even beacons.

• • There's another heartwrenching line in that level: You've loaded the remaining cryotrays on board, the ship is powering up to warp away and then you hear this:

Fleet Intelligence: There's nothing left for us here. (sigh) Let's go.

• The incredibly emotional What the Hell, Hero? delivered to the Bentusi by the Kuun-Laan Fleet Command in Cataclysm, where he claims they are no better than The Beast.