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 ship was an Ancient battlecruiser used during their war with the Wraith. The Atlantis Expedition first encountered this model of ship in the form of the Aurora, and only four have been discovered since the fall of the Ancients.

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

Offensive and defensive systems
The Aurora class is equipped with powerful Ancient shields and weapons.

Shielding
The shields of the Aurora-class have been shown to mimic the contour of the hull. These shielding systems allow them to withstand intense Wraith fire even with little power being fed into them. They have also been shown to protect the ship from the eruption of a super volcano for four seconds, even though the ship had barely enough power to bring the hyperdrive online for a short jump into the outer orbit of the planet.

Weaponry
The Aurora-class boasts an arsenal of Drone weapons that are capable of destroying a Hive ship in mere seconds, and has shown the ability to bypass shielding systems used by the Asurans. Aurora-class ships used by the Asurans have also shown to be equipped with energy weapons.

Other Systems
The Aurora-class also has many other advance systems in place.

Energy
Although it is unknown what the primary energy source of the Aurora-class is, it is known that the Ancients would sometimes 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 ship, the Aurora, the power had remained active for 10,000 years maintaining the crew's stasis pods without a ZPM.

Stasis Pods
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 brain of each person can be connected through the ships main computer in a virtual construct where interaction is possible. However, over a long amount of time (over 10,000 years,) the pods do not protect the inhabitants from aging, they only slow it down considerably and prolong the life cycle; eventually to the point where the pod is the only thing keeping them alive. 10,000 years in an aurora stasis pod is around 70-80 years of aging, unlike full stasis pods on atlantis and ancient outposts which have a ratio of about 10,000 years = 50 years of aging.

Bridge
The bridge of the Aurora-class battleships controls most (or 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 also features 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 is only present on some variants of the ship, and differs from other Ancient control chairs, such as the ones found on Earth and Atlantis.

Other locations

 * Hangar Bays: For smaller attack vessels or Puddle Jumpers, the vessel contains at least three bays, although more may exist.
 * Auxiliary Control Center: Like a City-ship an Aurora-class ship has a secondary control center in case the bridge is unusable.
 * Chair room: This room contains an Ancient Control chair in the middle which allows the user to fire and control the ship's Drone weapons. It is located towards the rear of the vessel.
 * Brig: Aurora class ships have at least one brig which uses the same technology (horizontal bars and force field) as the brigs on City-ships to hold prisoners.
 * Drone Storage Room
 * Captain's Office

History
It is known that the Ancients once controlled an entire fleet of Aurora-class vessels, which were used in their war against the Wraith, with many ships being equipped with ZPMs. In the end however the Ancients lost the war with most of their ships being destroyed.

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 vessels.

Some times later the Atlantis Expedition made contact with the Taranians, who not only discovered an Ancient 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 super volcano, the population of it was evacuated on the ship, (now named Orion) which then was repaired enough by Dr McKay to escape the catastrophe. Gratefully the Taranians let the Atlantis Expedition keep 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 however quickly responded and destroyed the now shieldless Orion.

About half a year later the Daedalus, while making a test with the new Midway space station, discovered another such ship, traveling at 0.999 times the speed of light. It turned out to be the Ancient ship 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 unrepairable, the ship was presumable abandoned in the intergalactic void.

The currently last know 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 activated the ship. After preventing the Wraith from getting the ship, it was repaired by the Travelers and is now in their possession. This currently unnamed ship later participated in the Battle of Asuras to defeat the Asurans once and for all.

The Asurans, who were able to create replicas of Ancient technology, built their own fleet of Aurora-class ships, consisting of nearly 40 ships. All but one of these have been destroyed when the Asuran homeworld exploded with them in orbit.

Known ships

 * Aurora
 * Orion, originally named Hippoforalcus
 * Tria
 * Unnamed Aurora-class warships