Apollo

"Probably just tryin’ to show off -- you know, bein’ a new ship an’ all."

- John Sheppard

The Apollo is the fourth 304 produced by the United States of America, and the third operated by the United States Air Force, assigned to the Second Tactical Wing. Like its sister ship, the Daedalus, it was deployed to the Pegasus galaxy shortly after its commissioning, and provided assistance to the Atlantis expedition there.

Commanding Officers

 * Colonel Abraham Ellis (2007-Present)

Known Crew

 * Major Kevin Marks - Pilot and Weapons Officer
 * Captain Pat Meyers - Pilot

Ark of truth
The Apollo was rushed into service when several Ori warships made their way towards Earth, with the ship posted to defend the planet. However, the ship never saw battle as the Ori ships stayed outside the Solar system and the Ori were already defeated by the Ark of Truth. Sometime after that, the ship was sent to serve Atlantis.

First strike on Asuras
"I’m here to inform you that in precisely twelve hours, the Apollo -- in consort with your team -- will launch a surgical strike on the Replicator planet."

- Abraham Ellis

On its first voyage to Atlantis, the Apollo arrived ahead of schedule, impressing Dr. Elizabeth Weir. The ship's first mission was to destroy a fleet of ships being constructed by the Asurans, presumably to be used in an attack against Earth. This marked the first use of the Horizon weapons system, which could be deployed from a bomb bay on the Apollo's underside. After observing the weapons' detonation, the Apollo briefly withdrew while Lt. Colonel John Sheppard conducted a battle damage assessment in a cloaked Puddle Jumper, and then returned to Atlantis after retrieving him.

Not long afterward, a small satellite appeared in orbit of Lantea, and the Apollo was dispatched to investigate. Shortly after identifying the satellite as carrying a Stargate, the ship was hit by a powerful energy beam which the Asurans fired through the connecting wormhole, before the satellite focused its attention on Atlantis itself. The Apollo's weapons proved ineffective against the satellite's shield, and with their shields severely weakened, the Apollo was unable to contribute directly to Atlantis' defense. When Weir opted to move Atlantis to another world, M12-578, the Apollo evacuated all nonessential personnel from the city, and did not accompany it into hyperspace.

Search for Atlantis
When the Apollo arrived at the designated rendezvous point, and Atlantis wasn't there, they contacted the Midway space station to notify them of the situation. With the help of Colonel Samantha Carter, the ship's sensor range was drastically increased, allowing it to search for Atlantis along the route between Lantea and M12-578. After successfully locating the city and learning of Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's raid on Asuras to retrieve a new Zero Point Module, the Apollo left for Asuras, rescuing Sheppard and his team. The ship briefly engaged an Asuran cruiser in the process, but quickly withdrew before either side suffered serious damage. Later, after Atlantis safely landed on M35-117, the Apollo remained in orbit for a short time to render any assistance to the expedition that they might require.

Battle with the Hybrid
During an attempt to set up survey satellites to monitor the current Wraith/Asuran war, Apollo recovered a ship containing Angelus, who claimed to be an Ancient and the sole survivor of the planet Eraavis after it was destroyed by the Asurans. However, it was later revealed that he was actually an unwitting 'Trojan Horse' created by the Hybrid, an Asuran experiment to combine Replicator nanites and living flesh that had developed out of control. While Angelus unwittingly infected Atlantis, fragments of his ship hi-jacked Apollo, forcing it out of hyperspace near a Wraith fleet and forcing it to hide around a gas giant with most of its systems offline. Fortunately, the crew were able to drive the Hybrid out through the airlock into the gas giant, buying them time to repair the engines and escape attacking Wraith cruisers. With most of their systems repaired, Apollo formed a temporary alliance with an Asuran ship to destroy the planet where the Hybrid had been created, ending its threat once and for all.

Asgard upgrades
Later both the Apollo and Daedalus traveled to Atlantis to use their new Asgard plasma beam weapons to fight the Asuran fleet. The Apollo and Daedalus destroyed a total of seven enemy ships in this manner before the entire Asuran fleet retreated to Asuras to have safety in numbers and to replace the ships that were destroyed. The Apollo and Daedalus then led a joint strike on the planet, leading a fleet of seven Wraith Hive ships and six Traveler generational ships, including the Traveler's Ancient Warship. The fleet held off the Asuran ships and prevented them from escaping while Dr. Rodney McKay implemented his plan to destroy the Asurans once and for all. The plan succeeded and Asuras and most of the Asurans were destroyed.

Further duties
In early 2008, the Apollo, while in Earth orbit, joined in the search for a human made Replicator loose on Earth and served as a base of operations for the team. The Apollo destroyed the Replicator in the end by beaming it into Earth's atmosphere, causing it to burn up and die.

Later in 2008, Dr. Vanessa Conrad claimed the Apollo transported her to Atlantis. However, after the Atlantis expedition discovered that she was an AI for a Sekkari seed carrier, the Apollo ferried the pod to another planet in the Pegasus galaxy, where it could fulfill its purpose of seeding other planets with life.

ZPM powered hive ship
In 2009, Todd contacted Atlantis and revealed that his underling has mutinied and managed to use several Zero Point Modules to power a formidable new Hive ship. In the Pegasus galaxy, the Daedalus rushed to engage the new Hive ship. However, the ZPM powered vessel crippled the Daedalus before making a sudden jump into hyperspace.

However, the team picked up a weak subspace signal in Wraith code sent, through subspace, from another reality. The Wraith message contained the coordinates to Earth, and the Hive ship was on its way. However, Dr. Rodney McKay was able to calculate where the Hive ship would drop out of hyperspace before reaching Earth. They then notified Stargate Command via Atlantis once the communications array was repaired.

In the Milky Way galaxy, Colonel Abraham Ellis and two of Earth's starships, the Apollo and the new Sun Tzu, failed miserably to stop the Wraith ship, with the Apollo, in bad shape herself, taking on crew from the crippled Sun Tzu. Then they relayed a message back to Atlantis, detailing the failure to stop the Hive.

Major campaigns

 * Battle to save Atlantis
 * Battle of Asuras
 * Battle of the ZPM powered Hive Ship

Behind the scenes

 * The Apollo's early arrival may indicate that its hyperdrive is somewhat faster than that of the Daedalus, or Colonel Abraham Ellis may simply have pushed the engines harder than usual, as Colonel Caldwell often did, given the urgent nature of the mission.
 * Apollo was the Greek God of Art, Beauty, and Health. He was one of the few gods capable of driving the Sun-Chariot.
 * The Apollo missions were the earliest space missions to land on the moon, including Apollo 11 which was the first and Apollo 13 the ill-fated attempt that was made into a movie.