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In terms of size, ships of the ''Aurora''-class are quite large. For reference, Aurora-class ships are several times longer, taller, and wider than a [[Tau'ri]] [[BC-304]], and possess several times the internal space as well. They are far more comparable in size to a [[Wraith]] [[Hive ship]], though even still appear smaller. {{cite|SGA|Inferno|No Man's Land|Be All My Sins Remember'd}} |
In terms of size, ships of the ''Aurora''-class are quite large. For reference, Aurora-class ships are several times longer, taller, and wider than a [[Tau'ri]] [[BC-304]], and possess several times the internal space as well. They are far more comparable in size to a [[Wraith]] [[Hive ship]], though even still appear smaller. {{cite|SGA|Inferno|No Man's Land|Be All My Sins Remember'd}} |
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| − | In addition to being used extensively by the [[Lanteans]], the ''Aurora''-class was used extensively by the [[Asuran]] replicators. Until their destruction in [[2008]], and following the departure of the Ancients from the Pegasus galaxy 10,000 years ago, the Asurans were the only race actively constructing new vessels of the class, using it as their main class of battleship. {{cite|SGA|First Strike|Be All My Sins Remember'd}} Though the Asuran variant appears mostly identical to those used by the Lanteans, it is unclear if they posses all the same attributes; While the Lanteans |
+ | In addition to being used extensively by the [[Lanteans]], the ''Aurora''-class was used extensively by the [[Asuran]] replicators. Until their destruction in [[2008]], and following the departure of the Ancients from the Pegasus galaxy 10,000 years ago, the Asurans were the only race actively constructing new vessels of the class, using it as their main class of battleship. {{cite|SGA|First Strike|Be All My Sins Remember'd}} Though the Asuran variant appears mostly identical to those used by the Lanteans, it is unclear if they posses all the same attributes; While the Lanteans were allowed to make advancements to the class for hundreds of years after 'destroying' the Asurans, the design used by the Asurans remained stagnant in that time. {{Cite|ATL|Be All My Sins Remember'd}} |
==Technology== |
==Technology== |
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Revision as of 10:37, 25 February 2017
The Aurora-class battleship was a series of Lantean battleships used during the Lanteans' war with the Wraith. They are among the most advanced class of warships ever created.
This class of ship was first encountered by the Atlantis expedition in 2005 in the form of the Aurora, with only four having been encountered since the fall of the Lanteans, excluding those built by the Asurans.
Overview
In terms of design, ships of the Aurora-class are visually long and slender, being far longer than they are wide. They possess a light brown hull, with accents of dark brown outlining sections at the front and rear of the ships. While the Aurora-class overall appears rather sleek and symmetrical, the hull of the ships appears visually "chunky", being lined with arrays of weapons turrets, reinforcements, windows, and other systems.
In terms of size, ships of the Aurora-class are quite large. For reference, Aurora-class ships are several times longer, taller, and wider than a Tau'ri BC-304, and possess several times the internal space as well. They are far more comparable in size to a Wraith Hive ship, though even still appear smaller. (SGA: "Inferno", "No Man's Land", "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
In addition to being used extensively by the Lanteans, the Aurora-class was used extensively by the Asuran replicators. Until their destruction in 2008, and following the departure of the Ancients from the Pegasus galaxy 10,000 years ago, the Asurans were the only race actively constructing new vessels of the class, using it as their main class of battleship. (SGA: "First Strike", "Be All My Sins Remember'd") Though the Asuran variant appears mostly identical to those used by the Lanteans, it is unclear if they posses all the same attributes; While the Lanteans were allowed to make advancements to the class for hundreds of years after 'destroying' the Asurans, the design used by the Asurans remained stagnant in that time. (SGA: "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
Technology
Weapons
Drone weapons being fired.
Ships of the Aurora-class boast an arsenal of drone weapons capable of destroying a Wraith Hive ship in a single salvo. They are fired using Control chair. The drones themselves are released from a reservoir located on the top middle of the ship. (SGA: "No Man's Land", "Travelers")
An Aurora-class ship's pulse turrets firing.
For secondary weaponry, Aurora-class ships feature at least 16 pulse weapon turrets placed around the ship, allowing for complete coverage of the vessel. While these weapons are far less effective than drone weapons, they are still capable of heavily damaging a Wraith Hive ship and destroying a shielded Traveler generational ship after sustained fire. Though the turrets for the pulse weapons appear to be present on all Aurora-class ships, they have predominantly seen use on those Aurora-class ships utilized by the Asurans. (SGA: "Be All My Sins Remember'd", "Progeny")
Energy and power systems
Though the primary energy source of the Aurora-class is unknown, the Lantean's were known to occasionally supplement the ship's main power supply with a Zero Point Module. Under such power, the Tria was able to travel at .999 the speed of light for over 10,000 years. (SGA: "The Return, Part 1") Even without a ZPM, an Aurora-class ship may remain fully powered and operational for thousands of years. (SGA: "Aurora", "The Return, Part 1", "Spoils of War")
Shielding
The shields of the Orion.
Aurora-class ships possess extremely powerful shields. They are capable of repelling sustained weapons fire from a Wraith Hive ship with minimal bleed-through. In terms of color, the shields appear a dark, translucent brown. Unlike the "bubble" shields used by the ships of most races, the Aurora-class's shields closely couture the hull of the ship. (SGA: "No Man's Land")
Though powerful, they have proven susceptible to Asgard plasma beam weapons; The shields of the Aurora-class ships utilized by the Asurans have shown to fail after a mere handful of shots. (SGA: "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
The Hull of the Aurora-class is highly durable as well. The Aurora remained operational after having experienced battle damage so severe that the entire front end of the ship had been destroyed. During a battle, the bare hull of the Orion was similarly able to survive a massive barrage of weapons fire from a Hive ship for several minutes before succumbing to the assault. In contrast, during the same battle, the Daedalus' hull was able to survive only six single shots before becoming critically damaged. (SGA: "No Man's Land")
Hyperdrive and propulsion systems
- "There are two different types of Ancient hyperdrive. There's the more basic interstellar kind, like the one the Aurora has, and then there's the more powerful intergalactic kind."
- ―Dr. Rodney McKay[src]
The Orion opens a hyperspace window.
The Aurora-class possesses the fastest sublight engines known to exist. Though they are typically operated at conventional sublight speeds, the Tria's engines were modified to be able to sustain .999 of the speed of light for 10,000 years. (SGA: "The Return, Part 1") The sublight engine units are located at the rear of the ship. There, a grouping of four individual and roughly triangular-shaped engine units are located on either side of a central grouping composed of three smaller circular units. Furthermore, further up along the ship's length, there is a single circular engine unit present on both sides of the ship positioned on a section of the hull that protrudes away from the ship's midsection.
The original design of all Aurora-class ships included an interstellar hyperdrive, limiting the vessel for operation only within the Pegasus galaxy. As the Ancients clearly possessed intergalactive hyperdrive technology at the time that the Aurora-class was created (as such hyperdrives were present on city ships which had originally been created millions of years prior) it is possible that this interstellar limit was intentional, perhaps to prevent the Wraith from reverse-engineering their own intergalactic drive. Despite not possessing them natively, the interstellar hyperdrives of Aurora-class ships may be modified to traverse intergalactic distances. (SGA: "Aurora")
Other systems
A grouping of stasis pods in a hallway of the Aurora.
Aurora-class ships possess 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. (SGA: "Travelers", "The Return, Part 1")
To protect the crew in the event of critical damage, ships of the Aurora-class are equipped with several hundred Stasis pods. While in stasis, the mind of each person can be connected through the ship's main computer as to allow for virtual interaction with the other crew members in stasis. While these pods significantly slow aging, they do not fully stop it; Over the course of 10,000 years, the adult crew of the Aurora was severely aged to the point that removing them from stasis would have immediately resulted in their deaths. (SGA: "Aurora")
Interior layout
Auxiliary Control Room
The auxiliary control center.
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 of the Traveler's Aurora-class ship after the destruction of the main bridge by a Wraith cruiser's 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. (SGA: "Travelers")
Bridge
The bridge of the Aurora.
The bridge of the Orion.
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 receives input from the user's hand, much like those on Puddle Jumpers. (SGA: "No Man's Land", "Travelers")
Brig
A holding cell on the Aurora.
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 divided 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 the Aurora-class have both types of brig, used for storing different types, or different numbers, of prisoners.(SGA: "Aurora", "Travelers")
Weapons control platform
The chair room of an Aurora-class battleship.
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. (SGA: "Travelers")
Other locations
- Captain's quarters.
- Drone storage.
- At least 3 Hangar Bays. (SGA: "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
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. (SGA: "Spoils of War")
Aurora as a derelict.
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. (SGA: "Aurora")
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. (SGA: "Inferno")
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. (SGA: "No Man's Land")
About half a year later the Daedalus, while conducting a test with the new Midway space station, discovered another such ship, traveling at .999 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 irreparable, the ship was presumably abandoned in the intergalactic void. (SGA: "The Return, Part 1")
The last currently 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. (SGA: "Travelers", "Be All My Sins Remember'd", "The Lost Tribe")
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. One was sent to destroy the Asuran copy of Atlantis and the Organic Asuran copy of the First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team and Doctor Elizabeth Weir hitched a ride on it to Asuras. Using a core drive gotten from Niam's faction, the Daedalus and the Apollo were able to launch first strikes against these ships before they could destroy more human worlds. With the two BC-304s upgraded with Asgard plasma beam weapons, these ships were destroyed easily and the rest retreated to Asuras. There they came under attack by a fleet of Tau'ri, Wraith and Traveler ships during an effort to destroy the Asurans once and for all. The Asuran Aurora-class ships were no match for the fleet despite outnumbering it and were easily held off though they did destroy one Hive ship and one Traveler generational ship in the battle before the Asurans were pulled from their ships and into one huge blob of nanites. The ships that survived the battle were destroyed when Asuras exploded. One ship remained under the control of Niam's faction until they asceneded to subspace. The fate of the last remaining Asuran-built Aurora-class battleship remains unknown. (SGA: "This Mortal Coil", "Be All My Sins Remember'd", "Ghost in the Machine")
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. (SGA: "Progeny")
- 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. (SGA: "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
- 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. (SGA: "Ghost in the Machine")
Notes
- 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.
- The set for the bridge and the auxiliary control room is also used for the Auxiliary control center of Atlantis.
- The MGM Tech Journal describes the bridge as being in a structure at the very front of the ship. However in Allies, the bridge of the Orion is unmistakably shown as being in the domed structure atop the middle of the ship. As such, Stargate wiki describes the bridge as being at that location.
- The Lantean name for this class of ship has never been revealed. However, Replicator Keller called them Aurora-class as well though she may have been using this name as it was the one the Organic Asuran copies of the team knew.
- "Aurora" is the Latin for "dawn".
- All Aurora-class ships appear to be armed with an array of pulse canons. However, the Atlantis expedition has only made use of the drone weapons on those Aurora-class ships that have come into their possession; The Orion used only drones in No Man's Land, and the Traveler's Aurora-class ship used only drones in the episodes Travelers and Be All My Sins Remember'd. The first instance of pulse weapons being used on an Aurora-class ship occurs in the episode Progeny, where they are arguably seen being fired from the Lantean Aurora-class ships at the surface of Asuras. The next instance of these weapons being used is by the Asuran-controlled Aurora-class ships in Be All My Sins Remember'd during the Battle of Asuras (though similar weapons also seem to be equipped on the Asuran cruiser in Lifeline.) It is unknown why the Atlantis expisdeition has never made use of or mentioned Aurora-class ships being armed with pulse weapons, or why the Asurans seem to make heavy use of them on their ships.
External links
- GateWorld's article on Ancient_warship in The Stargate Omnipedia
References
| Capital ships | Alteran ship · Aurora-class · City-ship · Destiny |
| Other ships | Cruiser · Freighter · Puddle Jumper · Science vessel · Seed ship · Shuttle · Transport ship |
| Asuran Aurora-class battleship · Aurora · Orion · Traveler Aurora-class battleship · Tria | |
