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Ha'tak

Revision as of 00:21, 9 June 2008 by Mister Oragahn (Message Wall | contribs) (→‎Staff cannons)
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"It is a Goa'uld attack vessel."
―Teal'c

The Ha'tak is an advanced starship used by the Goa'uld, Free Jaffa Nation and the Lucian Alliance. The Ha'tak is one of the most powerful ships in use by these species, next to very few larger flagships.

Design

The Ha'tak vessel is of a fairly simple design, consisting of a tetrahedron main structure with a protective structure surrounding it. All of the main components of the Ha'tak are located in the main pyramid core, including the command center and glider bay. The oldest class of Ha'taks, such as those used by the Goa'uld Ra, was ten thousands years old. Some Ha'taks are definitely capable of landing on any type of terrain, while the variant used by Ra's lineage seem to lack this ability, and either rely on stone pyramids used as landing pads, or artificial pads (although it's argued that this is not mandatory, and has more to do with the symbolism of Goa'uld supremacy upon slave worlds). Other variants, notably the larger flagships used by Apophis and Anubis, seem to be limited to space and atmospheric fly, with no evidence of structural ability to land properly (the size not helping at all).

Locations

Pel'tak

The Pel'tak is the bridge of a Goa'uld Hatak vessel. In this room there are mainly two control consoles one for weapons which is usually concealed under the floor unless in use and another console which controls all other ship board functions. In front of this console lies a window which can be used as a view screen. At the back of the room can usually be found a throne for the vessel's commander. There are many different designs for Pel'taks but all usually share the same mandatory elements.

Engine room

The engine room contains the control crystals neccessary for many functions, such as hyperdrive and shields. They only contain one set of spares for the crystals. (SG1: "Exodus", "Nemesis")

Glider bays

The glider bays of Ha'tak's are located on the same side of the pyramid as the pel'tac. The gliders are then "shot" out of launchers that send them out at high speeds. Although the design of such bays can change significantly from one class of Ha'tak to another, all Death Gliders come out from an aperture at the base of the pyramid core, underneath the scaffolding black structure. When docked, gliders are held in racks which allow easy departure (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp", "The Serpent's Lair", "Descent").

Propulsion

Sublight engines

Ha'taks use an advanced form of propulsion which circumvents the presence of chemical rockets or ion thrusters of any sort, and achieve great accelerations. These invisible systems, apparently able to manipulate inertia along given vectors, can easily take a Ha'tak to 5% of lightspeed (SG1: "Exodus") and velocities where planets come in and out of view within a few minutes (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp"), and are the most likely system used to keep them at a stable altitude within gravitational fields.

Hyperdrives

A standard Ha'tak hyperdrive can propel a Ha'tak through hyperspace at 32,000 times the speed of light (SG1: "Enemies"), but this does not necessarily represent a standard, as Apophis' Ha'taks benefited from faster hyperdrives (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp", "The Serpent's Lair").

Defenses

Shields

Ha'tak vessels are equipped with a defensive shield for protection from weaponry and collisions. The Shield generator on a Ha'tak vessel is located at the bottom of the ship in a large chamber. The shields have been shown to protect its crew for 10 hours inside the corona of a blue star, and has shown resistance to Tau'ri naqahdah enhanced nuclear missiles that were rated at 1,000 megatons each (SG1: "Enemies", "The Serpent's Lair"). However, no defence system such as a shield was ever heard of by the SGC, so it's more than likely that the warheads didn't detonate properly while preemptively intercepted by said shield, and exploded before any nuclear reaction could occur. The resulting EMP fizzle being easily explainable by the nature of naquadah regarding electromagnetic radiations.

Weapons

Staff cannons

A Ha'tak possesses a large number of staff cannons for ship to ship combat and orbital bombardment. Despite their size, they are extremely fast and manoeuverable (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp", "The Serpent's Lair", "Exodus", "Enemies").

The heavier Staff cannons are placed around the superstructure that surrounds the pyramid, which can be used to on attack ships and to orbitally bombard planets. The various observed levels of firepower, rates of fire and even projectile ejection speeds indicate that these weapons can be recalibrated at will. The maximum observed range thus far has been orbital. Their maximum firepower is unknown, but indirect evidence would put them at least at 200 megatons per bolt.

Several point defense lighter cannons are notably present around the base of the pyramid core. On Sokar's Ha'taks, such cannons could even fire homing projectiles. How this was achieved is unknown. Considering the nature of the projectiles, it's likely that their trajectory was altered by ranged systems on the Ha'taks, possibly a form of advanced electromagnetic fields (which would provide an explanation as to how Goa'uld ships could capture drifting objects if they had to).

Bombs

Some Ha'taks also seem to come with a small complement of roughly two feet high spherical and heavy bombs. As Samantha Carter was deploring the lack of nukes that would be beamed onto an Ori mothership to destroy it, Cameron Mitchell asked Teal'c if there were any "fancy Jaffa bombs", to which he replied that they had "explosives that should be effective" (SG1: "Flesh and Blood").

Sensors

Communications

Ha'taks in general possess the capacity to transmit and receive high quality FTL communications over short ranges measured in lightyears.

Detection

Like many ships, Ha'taks come with a variety of passive and active sensors. FTL capable, they've been shown capable of picking starships in hyperspace transit seconds before they'd arrive in a system. Sensors are also capable of picking up and engaging target immediately upon exciting hyperspace (SG1: "Homecoming", "Camelot"). In general, all sensors are eluded by cloaking devices, no matter the size of a target. But the upgrades brought by Anubis to his own fleet enabled his Ha'taks to notice the presence of cloaked ships such as Tel'taks. These same Ha'taks were shown incapable of reading through a stormy, dense and ionized atmosphere, and had to rely on the relayed feed from Death Gliders sent into the chaos in order to obtain better readings. Globally, sensors obey line of sight principles, since planets, moons and suns (including coronas) are all capable of masking the presence of ships to an Ha'tak's attention.

Users

Goa'uld

The Ha'tak was one of the main means of power in use by the Goa'uld Empire due to their strength, especially in large numbers. The Goa'uld System Lords typically invaded planets using small numbers of such ships, and counted on orbital supremacy to constrain generally inferior civilizations into rendition. Rarely would they wipe them out unless it would be absolutely necessary. More than anything else, the Ha'taks would be used as a demonstration of the Goa'uld's power. However, in a handful number of cases, certain battles to be fought could only be won with larger fleets (SG1: "Lost City", "Reckoning").

Free Jaffa Nation

With the fall of the Goa'uld, a number of Ha'taks were absorbed into the Free Jaffa Nation. The number of Ha'taks were initially minimal, but their numbers kept growing over time, despite the increasing threat of the Ori, Lucian Alliance and Ba'al (SG1: "Beachhead").

Lucian Alliance

The fall of the Goa'uld also saw part of the missing power to be handed to the Lucian Alliance, who had already started to take control of various Goa'uld technologies in 2005. The fall of the Goa'uld presented further opportunities for the acquisition of more Ha'tak vessels, beyond the commodities of Al'keshes (SG1: "Off the Grid", "Camelot", "Bounty").

Tau'ri

Acquiring technology to fight against the Goa'uld and other threats was a major goal for humans with the Stargate program. One of the greatest goals was to acquire a Ha'tak class vessel. This goal has been achieved twice, with assistance of the Tok'ra, however both times the acquired vessel had been destroyed (SG1: "Enemies", "Descent").


Ha'taks in Service

Goa'uld Ha'taks

Free Jaffa Ha'taks

Lucian Ha'taks

References and notes

  1. ↑ Stargate SG-1: First Steps: The Stargate Unexplored Worlds Roleplaying Sourcebook
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Stargate SG-1: The DVD Collection 29

External links

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