Prometheus (Stargate)
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| Prometheus | |
|---|---|
 The Prometheus |
|
| First appearance | "Prometheus" |
| Last appearance | "Ethon" |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Launched | 2002 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Registry | X-303 |
| Fighters | 8 F-302 Fighters |
| Armaments | Railguns Missiles Phalanx CIWS |
| Defences | Asgard Shields Trinium Hull |
| Propulsion | Asgard Hyperdrive |
| Power | Naqahdah Generators |
- This article is about the Stargate spaceship. For the episode of Stargate SG-1 in which this ship first appears, see "Prometheus (Stargate SG-1)".
The Prometheus is a fictional spacecraft in the science fiction television show, Stargate SG-1. The BC-303 is the production model of the X-303 (see below). The original X-303 featured in the show was named Prometheus. The Daedalus is the sister ship of the Prometheus but due to design changes the Daedalus is no longer of the same class of ship. Prometheus was the only BC-303 class ship to enter service.
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[edit] United States Air Force Vessel Prometheus
The Prometheus, otherwise known as the BC-303 (formerly X-303), was Earth's first capital starship. Although small compared to a Goa'uld Ha'tak mothership, it is a large battlecruiser nonetheless. It dwarfed its two predecessors, the X-301 Interceptor and the X-302, which accommodated only two people each. Despite some difference of opinion (Colonel O'Neill wanted to name the ship Enterprise, on the grounds that Prometheus was "a Greek tragedy"), it was finally named Prometheus, after the Titan Prometheus of Greek mythology. Prometheus was intended to serve as the prototype for a new fleet of space-faring vessels.
Although Prometheus is the first commissioned ship of her class, the BC-303 series has already been rendered obsolete. With adaptations of Asgard and other alien technology the future Prometheus class ships eventually became supplanted by the BC-304 Daedalus class; their upgrades and modifications represented an entirely new class of ship based on the Prometheus design. The Prometheus is the sole BC-303 built. The BC-303 was designed to carry up to eight F-302s for long-range duty, which can be launched and received through a launch bay even when the ship is in flight. Both the F-302 and BC-303 were capable of hyperspace travel, primarily because of advances in hyperspace technology due to the discovery of naqadriah on Jonas Quinn's homeworld.
Prometheus uses Asgard technology in its hyperdrive engine and shields, as well as transport beams and their attendant sensors. (There may have been other uses of Asgard technology installed). This technology was fitted by the Asgard in return for Earth's help in fighting the Replicators. It also relie on some Goa'uld technology. Also present are a set of transport rings, an Ancient design based on the Stargates. Most of the weapons systems aboard the Prometheus are of Earth design.
The vessel is equipped with hyperspace engines, and could also operate in a planet's atmosphere and land on the surface. Research and development for the hyperdrive—powered by naqahdriah—cost the U.S. over $2 billion. Prometheus' main purpose was to serve as a platform for the defence of Earth. The ship could achieve orbit in less than 30 seconds, and utilizing the sub-light engines, could travel at 110,000 miles per second. The corridors of the vessel are constructed of trinium alloys. The ships crew complement was over 115.
As part of an agreement regarding the use of the Russian Stargate following the loss of the American Stargate, Russia has received (in addition to a considerable periodic cash payment) the plans for both the X-302 and the X-303 as well as a completed and fully operational BC-304, the Korolev.
[edit] Service
The ship is operated by the U.S. Air Force, and its crew consisted of Air Force personnel. Operationally, Prometheus, like her following sister ships, is under the Pentagon's Department of Homeworld Security.
Three officers have been shown in command of Prometheus: Col. William Ronson (Seasons 6 and 7), Major General George Hammond (both parts of "The Lost City" and "Prometheus Unbound") and Col. Lionel Pendergast (Seasons 8 and 9).
[edit] Initial Mission
Prometheus was hijacked before completion by rogue NID agents demanding the release of Colonel Frank Simmons and the Goa'uld infested Adrian Conrad, while holding hostage then-Major Carter, Jonas Quinn, and a news reporter. The US Military complied with the demands, but then the ship was launched - Simmons intended to use it to travel to a world supposedly containing a cache of Ancient weapons. Before it made its hyperspace jump, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c boarded the ship using Goa'uld Death Gliders and regained control of it, but not before it jumped to hyperspace. Due to design flaws in the hyperdrive (See: Original Human/Goa'uld Hyperdrive) the ship emerged from hyperspace at an unknown location but was found by the Asgard, who enlisted the help of SG-1 and their ship to help them trap the Replicators within a time dilation bubble. The Asgard thanked Earth by fitting advanced systems onboard the X-303.
[edit] Shakedown Cruise
The ship was subsequently finished and began a shakedown cruise. A problem while in hyperspace damaged the hyperdrive, and a subsequent attempt to jump resulted in the Naqahdriah reactor overloading. The crew were forced to eject the reactor into space where it exploded, stranding the ship over an alien world.
Prometheus remained stranded until she was fitted with the hyperdrive taken from a captured Al'kesh bomber. Unfortunately this meant that the ship was underpowered, since the Al'kesh reactor couldn't generate the power needed to fully operate Prometheus. She set out for Earth, but was attacked by an unknown alien ship en route and suffered damage while hiding from it inside a corrosive nebula. The damage was reparable, however.
[edit] Anubis' Attack on Earth
Prometheus served in the defense of Earth from attack by Anubis's forces, and was almost destroyed before the Ancient weapons found in the Antarctic outpost were activated.
[edit] The trip to Atlantis and Vala Mal Doran's Theft
The Prometheus was heading for Atlantis, when a pirate named Vala Mal Doran, in Kull Warrior armor, kidnapped the crew (excluding Dr. Jackson) and stranded them on a disabled Al'kesh. She intended to give the Prometheus to the Lucian Alliance in exchange for weapons-grade naquadah. Daniel managed to capture Vala, while the stranded crew repaired the Al'kesh and gave chase, ultimately thwarting Vala's plans, though she still escaped.
[edit] Last Mission
Prometheus attempted to intervene after one of two nations, the Rand Protectorate, locked in a generations-old Cold War ("Ethon") began building Ori-designed satellite weapons technology. Shots by Prometheus to disable the satellite proved ineffective, and the advanced weapons on board the satellite were able to cut right through Prometheus's shields. Because the satellite took several minutes to reload before firing, Prometheus was able to send its compliment of F-302's into space as well as buy time for some of its crew to beam down using Asgard beaming technology. It took three shots from the satellite to fully destroy the ship.
Out of the 115 crew members aboard during the mission, only 76 survived; its commander, Col. Lionel Pendergast, was killed in the third and final energy blast that destroyed the Prometheus. Its wing of F-302's successfully made planetfall in Caledonian territory, along with the survivors of the Prometheus. Its final mission was unsuccessful as subsequent peace talks failed, and a major war was launched, leaving the Stargate on that planet inaccessible and presumed buried under rubble.
[edit] Technology
[edit] Hyperdrive
[edit] Original Human/Goa'uld Hyperdrive
The X-303 was the first Hyperspace ready, Earth-human-built capital spacecraft. Its main engine was reverse engineered from Goa'uld technology and powered by an unstable variant of Naquahdah called "Naqahdriah" found on the planet Langara by SG-1. Jonas Quinn provided a small amount of Naqahdriah when he defected to the Tau'ri, and this Naqahdriah was at the heart of the Prometheus' hyperdrive core.
However, the technical difficulties in extracting a stable energy flow from Naqahdriah meant that while the hyperdrive worked, the unstable hyperspace window produced made accurately plotting a course impossible (a problem shared by the hyperdrive on the F-302). Before it was completed, the ship was hijacked by rogue members of the NID and used to travel to a planet with a supposed cache of Ancient weapons. The hyperdrive on the Prometheus was adjusted by the Goa'uld who had taken Adrian Conrad as its host in exchange for its freedom. After dropping out of Hyperspace, the ship found itself not in orbit of the planet in question, but at an unknown position in interstellar space. Fortunately for SG-1 (who had infiltratred the ship before it made the hyperspace jump and had since regained control of it), the Asgard detected the hyperspace event and rescued the ship.
A buffer system was later incorporated into the hyperdrive which successfully stabalised the power output enough for accurate hyperspace travel. While testing the upgraded drive on its shakedown cruise, Prometheus passed through an intense gravity wave from a collapsing star - this caused a power surge in the Naqahdriah reactor so large that it destroyed the buffer. With no way to repair the buffer, the ship attempted a short range hyperspace jump to a nearby planet that was believed to have a buried Stargate. The jump, while successful, proved too much strain on the reactor without the buffer, and it overloaded. The reactor and hyperdrive module was jettisoned over the planet (Tagrea) where it exploded, thus stranding the vessel on the inhabited planet until a new reactor could be fashioned for the ship.
[edit] Goa'uld Al'kesh Core
The second hyperdrive core installed in the Prometheus was salvaged from a Goa'uld Al'kesh that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c stole from Baal's Jaffa. This engine core was not designed for a vessel of Prometheus' size, and required that it be operated in short hops, to prevent the core from overloading.
[edit] Asgard Hyperdrive
Following the return of the Prometheus to Earth, the Asgard refitted the Prometheus engines, for the third time in the ships service life.
[edit] Weapons
[edit] Installed Weapons
The BC-303 used conventional missiles as weapons, as well as Vulcan/Phalanx CIWS as point defense weapons. Additional advanced weaponry such as point-defense railguns and one main railgun were also installed on Prometheus. The Prometheus was given some Asgard technology, primarily for shields and teleportation as well as a weapon of some sort (possibly removed since).
[edit] Asgard Weaponry
A year after the initial launch of the Prometheus at the hands of the Rogue N.I.D., Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, arrived at Earth and informed the delegates of an international conference that he had arrived to install Asgard-designed weapons and shields on the Prometheus as a reward for SG-1 helping trap the Replicators in a time dilation field. It is unknown whether the weapons Thor was referring to were energy/particle based weapon systems similar to those on Asgard ships, or whether they were technical augmentations to Prometheus' existing human-made arsenal.
[edit] References
| Technology in the SGC | Edit | |
| Tau'ri | GDO | IDC | Stargate Iris | Kull Disruptor | P90 | MALP | The Seeker Project | Naqahdah Generator | Wraith retrovirus F-302 | Prometheus (BC-303) | Daedalus (BC-304)-class Battlecruiser |
 |
| Goa'uld/Tok'ra | Al'kesh | Death Glider | Ha'tak Mothership | Hand Device | Healing Device | Intar | Sarcophagus | Staff Weapon Tel'tak | TER | Tunnel Crystals | Zat | Zatarc detector |
|
| Ancient | Ancient City Ship | Ancient Control Chair | ATA Gene | Atlantis | Aurora-class Battleship | Dakara Weapon | DHD DNA Resequencer | Drone Weapon | Healing Device | Project Arcturus | Puddle Jumper | Repository of Knowledge Ring Transporter | Stargate | Time Dilation Device | Zero Point Module |
|
| Asgard | Beliskner-class ship | Daniel Jackson-class ship | O'Neill-class ship | Thor's Hammer | |
| Other | Wraith Dart | Wraith Hive-Ship | Supergate | Ori Battlecruiser | |
| Lists by race | All | Tau'ri | Ancient, Aschen, Asgard, Goa'uld, Ori, Tok'ra, Tollan, Wraith | Other | |
