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 battleships 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. The Lantean name for this class of ship has never been revealed.

Overview
Built by the Lanteans during their war with the Wraith, the Aurora-class is considered to be among the most advanced class of warships ever created, with only the Asgard-modified Daedalus-class seen to rival the power of at least older variants. It is unknown how an Ori warship or the Asgard O'Neill-class ship would fare against one of these vessels, but at peak capacity just one of them is more than a match for an entire fleet of Wraith Hive ships or Goa'uld Ha'taks.

Design
There are at least 3 variations of the Aurora-class design:
 * The Aurora variant is the largest seen, but little is known about it's defensive capabilities.
 * The Orion variant was much smaller than the Aurora. It did not have a Control chair on the bridge.
 * The Traveler's Aurora-class was almost identical to the Orion is exterior appearance, but the bridge was larger and had a Control chair in the center.

It is unknown if these variants are actually the same class of ship - it is possible that the Orion and the ship used by the Travelers were not built as Aurora-class battleships by the Ancients and therefore may possess very different offensive and defensive abilities. If they were the same class, however, then it is likely that the variations came as upgrades to the original design, but it is unknown in which order the three seen variants were constructed.

The Asurans use older variations of the Aurora-class battleships. They are most similar in appearance to the Orion, but do not appear to be as powerful as they rely on outdated technology. Their Drone weapons do not appear to be able to destroy Hive ships with the same ease as the Orion's, and their shields cannot withstand as much fire. They proved inefficient against a Daedalus-class ships upgraded with Asgard technology.

Command and control systems
These spaceships contained a subspace communications array allowing them to send out distress signals or communicate at faster-than-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.

Aurora's are also equipped with a more conventional energy weapon, which is unguided and far less powerful than drones but still capable of destroying Traveler generational ships and causing severe damage to Hive ships.

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 supervolcano 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). However, these shields are vunerable to Asgard plasma beam weapons as shown during the Battle of Asuras: many ships are destroyed with that weapon with one ship shown to have its shields penetrated and the ship itself destroyed by the Daedalus with only two hits.

However, the ship's hull appears much less durable, sustaining heavy damage even from Railguns or F-302 missiles and easily being penetrated by Asgard plasma beam weapons. Wraith energy weapons fired from a Wraith cruiser can destroy the bridge in one correctly aimed shot.

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 Zero Point Module 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 .999% the speed of light if the need would ever arise. However, it is unknown if the ship requires a Zero Point Module to travel at this speed.

While no known Aurora-class battleships were equipped with intergalactic hyperdrives, it was possible for the crew of the ship to modify the hyperdrive engines to allow travel to other galaxies. It is possible the original limit was intentional, to prevent the Wraith from reverse-engineering their own intergalactic drive. Either way, even without being modified the hyperdrives on the Aurora-class are far superior to every other form of interstellar hyperdrive, and it's 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 Zero Point Module.

Other systems
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 Control Room
Much like Lantean City-ships, Aurora-class battleships contain a secondary control center where ship systems can be controlled If the bridge was ever destroyed or made uninhabitable. 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.

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard journeyed to the auxiliary bridge after the destruction of the Traveler's Aurora-classes main bridge by a Wraith cruiser weapons fire. Through it, he was able to launch drones at the enemy ship and determine how many Wraith had boarded the vessel. It only has to be activated, then it can be used by anyone.

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 Ancient Technology Activation 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 are used to detain prisoners and appeared as metal bars which could hold enemies. On the Aurora, the brig is an empty room devided into two sections by bars with forcefields between them. On another Aurora-classbattleship, the brig was smaller and used more physical wall and less forcefield. Both brigs are similar in design to the cells on the City-ships. It is also possible that all variations of Aurora have both types of brig, used for storing different types, or different numbers, of prisoners.

Weapons 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. Presumably, the ship's other weapons are also controlled here. 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 Lt. Colonel John Sheppard.

Other locations

 * Captain's quarters.
 * Drone storage.
 * Hangar Bays: For use of Gateships, vessel's of this class contain 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 Zero Point Modules. In the end, however, the Lanteans lost the war with most of their ships being destroyed. It is not known if the Aurora-class' were 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.

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 Lt. Colonel John 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 after the Lantean General 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. Rodney 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 Drone weapons 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 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 Labrea, this Aurora-class ship was destroyed along with a Traveler generational 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 remains unknown.

Known ships
During the course of the Atlantis expedition's tenure in the Pegasus galaxy, several Aurora-class battleships have been encountered or referenced, the vast majority of which have remained unnamed, such as the Traveler's Aurora-class battleship. Known ships include the Aurora, Orion (originally named Hippaforalkus), and Tria.


 * When Niam showed Dr. Elizabeth Weir the Lanteans' attempt to destroy the Asurans, several Aurora-class ships were seen firing either Drone weapons or what appeared to be energy weapons at the outpost.
 * During the war, as many as 38 Aurora-class warships were built, launched and used by the Asurans. Seven of these warships were destroyed by the Asgard plasma beam weapons aboard the newly retrofitted Daedalus and Apollo during ambushes, an unknown amount were destroyed by the Wraith, and the rest of the Asuran fleet was destroyed when Dr. Rodney McKay and Colonel Samantha Carter developed a method of destroying the Asuran homeworld. Every Aurora-class warship orbiting the planet not destroyed during the battle itself was caught in the explosion.
 * The remnants of Niam's faction managed to steal an Aurora-class warship from the Asurans, which they used to escape the Asuran fleet during Oberoth's manhunt for them. It is unknown what happened to the ship. It was either likely left on the planet or the faction of Replicators set the ship to self-destruct.

Behind the scenes

 * The set for the bridge and the auxiliary control room is also used for the Auxiliary control center of Atlantis.
 * The size of the ship is, as with many other vessels in the Stargate universe, hard to determine. The first appearance was the Aurora, which was a derelict floating in space with little reference for size. The Orion, seen next, originally appeared about 350 meters long, which was supported by an official graphic of the ship. The graphic, however, was completely inaccurate (placing the bridge in the nose rather than on the midsection, for example). Later on in the series, the vessel's size stabilized and screen measurements usually come up with the now-accepted value of around 3 kilometers in length. It would likely be logical to assume that the Orion was meant to be the same size as the other vessels, since they shared the same basic design.
 * Of consideration is how a 3 km ship would compare to the rest of the ships fielded by other races. If we use this own site's ship listing as canon, it makes the Aurora-class ship 3 times larger than an Ori warship, approximately 15 times larger than a Daedalus-class ship, consequently 30 times larger than a Traveler vessel, listed as approximately half the size of a Daedalus-class. Each Aurora would also be larger than individual Hive ships, as a Hive ship is considered 13x larger than a Daedalus.