Asuran Stargate satellite

"It’s a satellite, but in the middle there’s a ... Stargate."

- Abraham Ellis

In response to the destruction of much of their fleet, the Asurans launched the Stargate satellite at Lantea as a means of ending the efforts of the humans once and for all. This weapon was nothing more than the bare components of a ship &mdash; more or less a Stargate (the only one known to possess eight chevrons instead of the usual nine) strapped to a hyperdrive with only the most minimal equipment and just enough power for it to arrive at a destination and protect itself.



On its own, the Stargate satellite was not dangerous; it was only after the Stargate was activated that the satellite revealed its true potential as the median for the most powerful energy weapons thus far encountered by the Tau'ri. This allowed for a large power source (ZPMs) to create a sustained and fixed energy beam which could be sent through a host Stargate from a stationary emitter. Once the beam reintegrated through the satellite's Stargate, the beam could be redirected in any direction. The sheer force generated by the beam not only carried enough power to sustain the satellite's shields, but also allowed the wormhole to remain open so long as substantial power was channeled into it; since the Asurans had an unlimited number of ZPMs they could sustain the beam indefinitely.

The beam was able to cause heavy damage to the Apollo in mere seconds and could depleate the near-full ZPM in Atlantis in around thirty hours.

The eight chevron Stargate built into the satellite was specifically designed by the Asurans to override the normal wormhole system of the Stargate network and assert itself as the dominant Stargate of a planet so as to prevent the beam from travelling through Atlantis's gate instead of the satellite's, which would have simply impacted with the Stargate's shield or shot out of the control tower and harmlessly into the sky (though the former seems more likely).