Aurora-class battleship

"Believing their ships were unbeatable, they sent them deeper and deeper into Wraith-controlled territory, trying to weed us out."

- Todd

The Aurora-class battleship was a series of Lantean battlecruisers used during their war with the Wraith. The Atlantis Expedition first encountered this class of ships in the form of the Aurora, and only four have been encountered since the fall of the Lanteans, excluding those built by the Asurans.

Overview
Built by the Lanteans during their war against the Wraith, the Aurora-class is considered to be among the most advanced series of warships ever created, comparable to the O'Neill-class and Ori motherships in power.

There are at least 3 variations of the Aurora-class design, and they are distinguishable not only by the size of the vessel but by the differences in the bridge, corridors, and brig as well. It is likely that the Asurans utilized the older (and presumably weaker) version of the Aurora-class that was a similar size to the Aurora, as they would only have had access to the Lantean technology that had been developed by the time the Lanteans abandoned them. The newer and smaller "luxury" vessels, such as the Orion, likely replaced the larger vessels by the time the Lanteans abandoned the Pegasus Galaxy. The luxury vessels seem to be able to withstand significantly more hits than the older versions and are likely more powerful as well, as the technology would have been upgraded as the war progressed. The Aurora-class used by the Travelers appears to be somewhere in between the two designs, but has an interior more similar to the Orion; its bridge, however, is far larger.

Command and control systems
These starships contained a subspace communications array allowing them to send out distress signals or communicate at faster-that-light speeds with other vessels at interstellar distances. They can also project stable holograms onto other ships capable of also projecting sound, however sound cannot be transmitted back to the projecting ship. This may just be because of the massive difference in speed and the distance it was being transmitted and that when they are closer and travelling at a similar speed it may be possible.

Offensive and defensive systems
The Aurora-class boasts an arsenal of drone weapons that are capable of destroying a hive-ship in mere seconds, and have shown the ability to bypass shielding systems used by the Asurans and Goa'uld with great ease. They are very accurate and can hit multiple targets at a time, even after their host ship is destroyed.


 * Its currently speculative whether Aurora-class battleships have energy weapons as there has been no on screen or dialogue evidence on the show to suggest that they do.

The shields of the Aurora-class have been shown to mimic the contour of the hull. These shielding systems allow Aurora-class battleships to withstand intense weapons fire even when little power is being fed into them, and they have also been shown to protect Aurora-class battleships from the intense heat and pressure of the eruption of a super volcano for slightly more than four seconds (even though the ship in question had barely enough power to bring the hyperdrive online for a short jump into the outer orbit of the planet).

Energy and power systems
Although it is unknown what the primary energy source of the Aurora-class is, the Lanteans were known to occasionally install a ZPM to give them an extra 'boost'. Even without them the ships are capable of remaining active for long durations of time. In the first ever encountered Aurora-class battleship by the Tau'ri, the Aurora, the power had remained active for 10,000 years maintaining the crew's stasis pods without a ZPM.

Hyperdrive and propulsion systems
The Aurora-class possesses the fastest sublight engines known to exist. Although they typically operated at speeds similar to those of Asgard and Tau'ri ships, they could be modified to travel at 99.9% the speed of light if the need would ever arise.

While Aurora-class battleships were not equipped with intergalactic hyperdrives, it was possible for the crew of the ship to modify the hyperdrive engines to allow travel to other galaxies. Even without being modified the hyperdrives on the Aurora-class are far superior to every other form of interstellar hyperdrive, and it possible that these hyperdrives are capable of achieveing speeds comparable to an Asgard hyperdrive, especially when considering that many of these ships were equipped with a ZPM.

Other sysems
To protect the crew in case of critical damage, the ship is equipped with several hundred stasis pods, at least enough to contain the entire crew. While in stasis the mind of each person can be connected through the ships main computer in a virtual construct where interaction is possible; however, over a long period of time (10,000 years), the pods do not protect the inhabitants from aging, they only slow it down considerably and prolong the life cycle to the point where the pod is the only thing keeping them alive. It is known, however, that the stasis pods aboard an Aurora-class battleship were not as efficient at slowing down the aging process as those in Atlantis and Lantean outposts.

Auxiliary bridge
Much like Lantean city-ships, Aurora-class battleships have secondary control centers in case the bridge was destroyed and made unusable. From this position, a crewman was capable of tracking the activities of individuals throughout the ship, scan life signs, and control access to corridors. Numerous control terminals were present in the room, which mimic the consoles on a city-ship in appearance.

Colonel Sheppard journeyed to the auxiliary bridge after the destruction of the Aurora's main bridge by a Wraith cruiser. Through it, he was able to launch drones at the enemy ship and determine how many Wraith had boarded the vessel.

Bridge
The bridge of the Aurora-class controls most (if not all) basic systems required for the battleship to function. It is situated in the middle of the upper side of the ship with the front side being a large window. The bridge consists of panels and displays similar to those of the Atlantis control room, but some designs also feature a Control chair for navigation that allows a person with the ATA gene to control most if not all functions of the ship. This chair differs from other Lantean control chairs, such as the ones found on Earth and Atlantis, and is likely less advanced as it only recives input from the user's hand, much like those on Gateships.

Brig
These vessels contain brigs which were used to detain prisoners and appeared as delicate looking bars which were adequate in holding enemies. In the virtual environment of the Aurora, Sheppard was placed in one such facility. On another Aurora-class battleship, the brig appeared less advanced but made use of force fields to hold its prisoners, these are similar to the cells on the City-ships.

Weapon's control platform
Many of the qualities of an Aurora-class battleship are similar to that of a Lantean city-ship. This includes the chair room, where a Lantean control chair, also known as a weapon's control platform, is present in the middle which allows the use of the ship's complement of drone weapons. It is located at the rear of the vessel and contained a visual screen on the wall which contained a display of certain systems. It was possible for a person to be sealed in the room as was the case with Larrin who was locked in the room by John Sheppard.

Other locations

 * Captain's office
 * Drone storage room
 * Hangar Bays: For smaller attack vessels or Puddle Jumpers, the vessel contains at least three bays, although more may exist.

History
It is known that the Lanteans once controlled an entire fleet of Aurora-class battleships, which were used in their war against the Wraith, with many ships equipped with ZPMs. In the end, however, the Lanteans lost the war with most of their ships being destroyed. It is not known if the Aurora-class was the most powerful vessels in the Lantean fleet other than the city-ship; however it has been implied that the Lantean fleet was more diverse than just warships.

10.000 years later, the Atlantis Expedition became aware of these ships when they detected the Aurora via Atlantis' long-range sensors. After traveling to the location of the ship with the Daedalus they found the Aurora as a badly damaged vessel floating in space and the crew in stasis, infiltrated by a Wraith. To prevent the ship from falling in the hands of the Wraith, the captain of the Aurora gave Col. Sheppard his code so that he could activate the self-destruct which destroyed the vessel. Later all such ships were designated as Aurora-class battleships in the crew's honor.

Sometime later the Atlantis Expedition made contact with the Taranians, who not only discovered a Lantean outpost on their planet but also a hangar with a damaged but repairable Aurora-class ship, named Hippaforalkus. Since the planet was threatened by a supervolcano, the population was evacuated on the ship, (newly named Orion) which then was repaired enough by Dr. McKay to escape the catastrophe. Grateful, the Taranians "loaned" the Atlantis Expedition the ship, which was then repaired to help fight against the Wraith, which were again on their way to Atlantis.

After the Wraith gained access to intergalactic hyperspace technology, the Orion and Daedalus followed and engaged them in a battle at the edge of the Pegasus galaxy. Although the Orion had shields they could not fire Drones until they sacrificed their shields to fire them, taking out one hive-ship in the process. The other hive-ship however quickly responded and destroyed the shieldless Orion.



About half a year later the Daedalus, while conducting a test with the new Midway space station, discovered another such ship, traveling at 99.9 percent the speed of light. It turned out to be the Lantean warship Tria, which was damaged by the Wraith. The crew of the ship was then evacuated by the Daedalus and brought back to Atlantis. Since the hyperspace engines of the Tria were irrepairable, the ship was presumably abandoned in the intergalactic void.

The currently last known Aurora-class ship was found by a space traveling human race known as the Travelers. They abducted Col. Sheppard so that he would help them activate the ship. After preventing the Wraith from getting the ship, it was repaired by the Travelers. This currently unnamed ship participated in the Battle of Asuras to defeat the Asurans once and for all. According to Katana, This Aurora-class ship was destroyed along with a Traveler ship, and a colony of 3,000 people when a Stargate exploded; an unfortunate side-effect of the Attero device.

The Asurans, who were able to duplicate much of Lantean technology, built their own fleet of nearly forty Aurora-class ships, but using older Ancient technology. All but one of these have been destroyed when the Asuran homeworld exploded with them in orbit. The fate of the last remaining Asuran-built Aurora-class battleship is unknown.

Known ships

 * Aurora
 * Orion, originally named Hippaforalkus
 * Tria
 * Unnamed Aurora-class battleships