| This article is about the first hive ship acquired by the Atlantis expedition. For the hive ship previously controlled by Todd, see Atlantis' hive ship. For the other hive ship used by Nightwind's faction, see Hive ship (Allies). |
- "...now would not be a good time to fire on us. After all, we wouldn't want to damage our new hive ship."
- ―John Sheppard[src]
This unidentified hive ship was controlled by Wraith Queen Nightwind during her attempt to reach Earth. The hive ship participated in the Battle of the Void, during which it was captured by the Atlantis expedition; however, it was soon destroyed by the Wraith above M8G-352.
Crew[]
Commanding officers[]
- Under Wraith control (until 2006):
- Under Atlantis expedition control (2006):
Known crew[]
- Under Wraith control (until 2006):
- Under Atlantis expedition control (2006):
- Michael Kenmore — Pilot (briefly, during return from the intergalactic void to Atlantis)
- Teyla Emmagan — Pilot
- Dr. Rodney McKay
- Ronon Dex
History[]
Nightwind's scheme[]
Nightwind's hive ship and her sister on their way to Earth.
This hive ship, commanded by Queen Nightwind, was picked up by the long range sensors of Atlantis in 2006, some time after Michael Kenmore escaped following his temporary conversion from a Wraith. It was the first Wraith ship to arrive at Lantea since the supposed destruction of Atlantis about a year ago. (SGA: "Inferno", "Allies", "The Siege, Part 3")
As it turned out, Michael was on board this ship, and he proposed an alliance with the Atlantis expedition where Nightwind's hive ship will gain access to the Iratus bug retrovirus (used previously to convert Michael himself) for usage against rival Wraith so they could be fed upon instead of regular humans. In return, the Tau'ri would gain all knowledge about Wraith technology. A Wraith delegation including Nightwind herself, Michael, and a scientist left the hive in a Wraith scout ship and landed on Atlantis, where they negotiated with the Atlantis expedition, notably discussing how to deploy the retrovirus on an enemy vessel. They returned together with Dr. Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex who were to oversee a proof-of-concept deployment of the retrovirus: the Daedalus (hidden by the hive ship) would use an Asgard transporter to beam a canister into an enemy hive ship's CO2 scrubbing chamber, where it would release the retrovirus in aerosol form that would spread over the entire ship and convert all Wraith aboard. It was assumed that the Wraith would eventually find their own way to deploy the retrovirus without reliance on the superior Asgard technology used by the Tau'ri.
In reality, Nightwind wanted to gain the knowledge about advanced hyperdrive technology from the Aurora mission reports (that Lantean battleship was visited by the Atlantis expedition earlier on), as well as coordinates of Earth. Among the information on Wraith technology was a hidden computer virus that uploaded all the wanted information onto Nightwind's hive ship and, upon her departure, erased all Wraith technology specifications given to the Atlantis expedition. Dr. McKay and Ronon were taken captive and placed into cocoons, while the Daedalus was ambushed both by Nightwind's hive and the supposed “enemy” hive. After inflicting some damage on the Tau'ri ship, the two hives entered hyperspace, using their newly-upgraded hyperdrives and discovered coordinates to reach and cull Earth. (SGA: "Allies")
Battle of the Void[]
- Main article: Battle of the Void
Nightwind's hive fights the Orion and the Daedalus in the Battle of the Void.
While the Daedalus was being ambushed, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard managed to latch onto Nightwind's hive ship in his F-302 fighter-interceptor, hoping to take out the hyperdrives on them. After the ships emerged out of hyperspace outside the Pegasus Galaxy for regeneration, Sheppard damaged the hyperdrive on Nightwind's ship with his sole remaining missile, but got shot down by the Wraith Darts and picked up by Nightwind's ship. However, he was rescued by Michael Kenmore, who was rejected by Nightwind who deemed Michael no longer be a pure Wraith. Meanwhile, Ronon Dex managed to free himself and Dr. Rodney McKay from their cocoons, eventually meeting Sheppard and Michael.
As the four people were preparing to sabotage the hive ship, the Daedalus intercepted the Wraith fleet, deploying all of its Mark III nuclear missiles in a single salvo. Most were intercepted by the Darts but one missile impacted Nightwind's hive ship. The Daedalus was followed by the Orion, an Aurora-class battleship recently acquired by the Tau'ri, which easily destroyed the other hive ship with drone weapons. However, the Orion was not fully repaired and her shields were sacrificed in order to give power to the weapons. As a result, Nightwind's hive ship was able to destroy the Lantean warship, though not before her crew was beamed onto the Daedalus. Meanwhile, Sheppard, McKay, Ronon and Michael escaped in a Wraith scout ship and were beamed off before it was destroyed as well. Michael revealed that he disabled the hive ship's jamming code, but there were no nuclear warheads left aboard the Daedalus to beam anymore.
Nightwind's hive ship is attacked by the Daedalus.
As Nightwind's hive ship prepared to launch Darts, Colonel Steven Caldwell ordered to fire the railguns at the hive's open hangar bay, destroying some Darts and causing secondary explosions that crippled the hive from inside, causing it to stop firing. However, the Daedalus’ shield was already drained by the sustained energy weapon fire, allowing Nightwind's hive to damage the hyperdrive and life support systems on the Tau'ri battlecruiser. Facing the prospect of suffocation, the Daedalus crew decided to capture the hive ship, beaming their Iratus bug retrovirus canister into her CO2 scrubbing chamber to convert all Wraith onboard, a process that would take multiple hours. Many Wraith died in the conversion process, some killed each other, while Queen Nightwind ended up being immune, surviving until being killed by the boarding party. Her hive ship became the first one ever captured and controlled by the Atlantis expedition. The remaining 200 Wraith, transformed into humans, were placed into several hibernation pods aboard the ship. (SGA: "No Man's Land")
Under Tau'ri control[]
After the battle's conclusion, Nightwind's hive ship was taken to Atlantis, with Michael Kenmore at the helm and the damaged Daedalus inside the hive's massive hangar bay. The faster-than-usual approach of a Wraith hive ship detected by the city-ship's long range sensors caused concern and Dr. Carson Beckett was prepared to fire Atlantis' drone weapons until Lt. Colonel John Sheppard opened communications with Atlantis. Daedalus emerged from inside the hive and landed at Atlantis for repairs, while the hive itself was left on orbit for examination.
With Michael held under guard on Atlantis again, the Atlantis expedition found operating the hive ship problematic due to its neural interface that requires someone with Wraith DNA to actually pilot it, with their closest call being Teyla Emmagan, a Wraithkin, who found the experience to be exhausting, while Dr. Rodney McKay saw little success with implementing a manual override for the controls. To make matters worse, the accumulated battle damage decreased the hive ship's power generation by at least a half, with a significant portion of energy consumed by the hibernation pods that the 200 human-form Wraith were kept in. This prompted the team to leave them (together with Michael, who had been converted for the second time) on M8G-352, a planet without a Stargate where they were placed under quarantine, with Dr. Beckett and a team of soldiers led by Lt. Morrison observing them. Some time later, Atlantis Reconnaissance 1 flew the hive back to Atlantis where they reported their progress.
Atlantis' hive bombards M8G-352 while being attacked by a Wraith-controlled hive.
However, the human-form Wraith began converting back to normal Wraith, wishing to rejoin their “brothers”; they killed Lt. Morrison's team and telepathically contacted a nearby hive ship, whose approach to the planet was observed from Atlantis. With the repairs on Daedalus’s hyperdrive not yet complete, Atlantis Reconnaissance 1 hastily returned to M8G-352 aboard Nightwind's hive ship with a Puddle Jumper inside its hangar. They recovered Dr. Beckett and placed a Mark IX inside the camp to prevent the Wraith from being captured; however, the nuclear warhead was found and disarmed by Michael and the fellow human-form Wraith. With some difficulty, Dr. Rodney McKay fired Wraith energy weapons in an attempt to wipe the camp out, but he was not sure if his fire was accurate enough. Soon, the other hive ship emerged from hyperspace and opened fire on Atlantis' hive, depriving it from power and ultimately destroying it. The crew managed to escape in their Puddle Jumper, which was cloaked amidst the hive's debris until a repaired Daedalus arrived at the planet and brought them back to Atlantis. (SGA: "Misbegotten")
Michael survived the camp's bombardment and was taken by the Wraith, who rejected him for the second time. Driven to insanity, Michael set out to plan his own quest to take over the Pegasus galaxy. (SGA: "Vengeance")
Specifications[]
Outwardly similar to other hive ships, Nightwind's hive was made capable of higher hyperspace speeds than usual thanks to Aurora mission reports stolen from Atlantis, which gave Nightwind's faction an insight into how to upgrade the hyperdrive used by the Wraith. However, no other upgrades were seen so far; the ship was still suspectible to hyperspace radiation and required periodic stops to regenerate the outer hull, a process estimated to take 15 hours. This contrasts with the later Super-hive, which was able, if barely, to cross the entire distance between Pegasus and Milky Way Galaxies in one jump thanks to a stolen Zero Point Module. (SGA: "Allies", "No Man's Land", "Misbegotten", "Enemy at the Gate")
Major campaigns[]
- Under Wraith control:
- Ambush of Daedalus
- Battle of the Void
- Under Atlantis expedition control: