Orion

"Yeah, well, it appears to have been named after an Ancient general... Hippaforalkus."

- Rodney McKay

The Orion, originally Hippaforalkus, was an Aurora-class warship constructed by the Lanteans during their time in the Pegasus galaxy. The Orion was largely identical to the Aurora itself, though it may have been a slightly upgraded variant.

Discovery on Taranis
"We've found a sister ship to the Aurora called the... Orion. McKay's trying to get the sublight drive online."

- John Sheppard

Originally named Hippaforalkus after a Lantean general of that name, the ship suffered damage and was berthed in a subterranean hangar on Taranis. It was never fully repaired, however, and remained in the hangar after the Ancient outpost was evacuated ten thousand years ago. Eventually, the native Taranians discovered the ship, but lacked the scientific knowledge to repair it or the Ancient Gene to operate it. In 2006, however, AR-1 visited the planet to help repair the outpost's shields generator. Seeing the knowledge of Ancient technology the Atlantis Expedition possessed, the Taranian chancellor Lycus took AR-1 to the base's main hangar where the ship resided, hoping they could get it operational once again.

The ship quickly found itself needed as the formerly dormant super volcano in which the Ancient outpost had been placed showed itself to be near a massive eruption, capable of destroying all life on the planet. While the Daedalus was commissioned to evacuate the Taranians to Atlantis, four trips were to be needed due to the ship's insufficient life support capacity. As the time necessary to evacuate every Taranian via the Daedalus would be too great, Col. Sheppard evacuated the remaining Taranian refugees onto the ship, which he rechristened Orion. However, because of the damage the ship had previously sustained, the Orion's sublight engines were inoperable.

Despite Rodney McKay's best efforts to correct the problem, there was too much damage to be able to get them operational before the volcano erupted, resulting of the death of everyone onboard. Therefore, Dr, Mckay devised a sort of a patch that, in effect, diverted auxiliary power to the shields, albeit only enough for approximately 4.1 seconds. With the plan that Dr. McKay devised, the Orion was be ejected, along with the magma and steam, several thousand feet into the air when the volcano erupted. With the shields and inertial dampeners at full strength, the ship was able to survive this for exactly four point one seconds. At that point, the hangar around the ship disintegrated. The moment that happened, a brief hyperspace window was opened, allowing the ship to jump to space before the explosion depleted the shields. The plan was successful as the ship was able to establish a stable orbit, resulting in the evacuation of the remaining Taranian refugees.

Loan to Atlantis
"The Chancellor has graciously allowed us to use the ship in exchange for our help."

- Elizabeth Weir

In gratitude for the Atlantis Expedition's help in evacuating their people, the Taranians agreed to loan the Orion to the expedition, who proceeded to effect repairs. These efforts, however, were slow going. After several weeks, the ship was, once again, fully capable of space flight. However, the shield and weapons system were in need of more attention. None the less, under Col. John Sheppard's command, the ship joined the Daedalus to defend Atlantis against an approaching Wraith Hive Ship three weeks later. However, the ship was positioned beyond sensor range so as not to reveal its existence to the Wraith. Dr. McKay remained skeptical about the ship's hyperdrive capabilities and doubted the weapons would work in any case, rendering it of questionable usefulness. Upon arrival, the Hive Ship showed no ill-intentions, thus neither the Daedalus nor Orion were needed.

Battle and Destruction
"We sacrificed our shield capability for our first salvo! This ship is going to blow any moment, Major!"

- Radek Zelenka

When the Atlantis Expedition was soon after double crossed by the Wraith, Dr. Elizabeth Weir ordered Orion's deployment after two Hive Ships discovered the location of Earth and modified their hyperdrives in order to get there. Commanded by Major Evan Lorne, the Orion, accompanied the Daedalus, was sent to intercept the Hive Ships in the massive void between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies.

Upon the ships' arrival to the battle, Dr. Zelenka had some difficulty simultaneously transferring power from the Orion's shields to weapons. When the problem was corrected, the Orion fired a massive salvo of drone weapons. Upon leaving the Orion, the hundreds of drones raced toward one of the Hive Ships, weaving in and out of the massive wave of approaching darts in order to reach their target. After just a few seconds, this massive salvo of drone weapons bombarded the hull of the Hive Ship, blasting thousands of deadly holes as these lethal and resilient weapons propelled themselves into and out of the craft several times. This brutal attack was more than enough to completely destroy one of the Hive Ships. However, in order for that deadly salvo to be launched, the Orion's powerful shields were sacrificed. The remaining Hive Ship then shifted its attack toward the Orion and the ship's hull began taking multiple hits. As the Daedalus was too far out to intercept, Orion's crew was beamed over to the Daedalus by the request of major Lorne. As the force of the attack was too much for the unshielded ship to bear, the Orion finally succumbed to the intense firepower of the Hive and was, moments later, destroyed in a massive, fiery explosion.