Prometheus (Stargate)
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| Prometheus | |
|---|---|
 The Prometheus orbits Earth |
|
| First appearance | "Prometheus" |
| Last appearance | "The Road Not Taken" |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Launched | 2002 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Registry | 303 |
| Fighters | F-302 Interceptors |
| Armaments | Close-in weapon systems Railguns Conventional missiles |
| Defences | Asgard Shields Trinium Hull |
| Propulsion | Asgard Hyperdrive |
| Power | Naqahdah Generators |
The Prometheus is a fictional spacecraft in the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. The Daedalus (304) is the sister ship of the Prometheus. The Prometheus is the only BC-303 class ship to enter service.
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[edit] USAF Prometheus
The Prometheus, otherwise known as the BC-303 (formerly X-303), is Earth's first capital starship and the first ever human-made battleship in the series. Although small compared to a Goa'uld Ha'tak, 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 is finally named Prometheus. The Prometheus had been 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 Daedalus class; the 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 is designed to carry up to eight F-302s for long-range duty, which can be launched and received through a hangar bay even when the ship is in flight. Both the F-302 and BC-303 are 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 relies on some Goa'uld technology. Also present are a set of transport rings, an Ancient design based on the Stargates.
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 United States in excess of 2 billion dollars. Prometheus' main purpose is 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 (or Mach 520221.350229). The corridors of the vessel are constructed of trinium alloys.
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 304, the Korolev.
[edit] Service
The ship is operated by the U.S. Air Force, and its crew consists 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 the Prometheus, Colonel William Ronson during Prometheus' shakedown cruise, Major General George Hammond when Anubis' attacked Earth and Colonel Lionel Pendergast for the remainder of the ship's life.
[edit] Initial mission
Prometheus is hijacked before completion by rogue NID agents demanding the release of Colonel Frank Simmons and the Goa'uld infested Adrian Conrad, while holding hostage 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 the ship emerged from hyperspace at an unknown location but is found by the Asgard. Thor 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 on-board 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 serves in the defense of Earth from attack by Anubis's armada and is almost destroyed.
The BC-303 battlecruiser is presented by military advisors to the President of the United States, Henry Hayes as the best chance Earth has at defeating the Goa'uld attack. President Hayes places the Prometheus under the command of Major General George Hammond.
It is decided to keep the battlecruiser in its hangar when the first wave of Goa'uld ships approaches Earth orbit. The small contingent of Ha'tak Vessels and Alkesh is determined to be only a small portion of Anubis' fleet. The President, his advisors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff make the decision not to show their hand just yet. Once the remainder of Anubis' ships arrive and begin taking out key power grids and communication centers, Prometheus is launched in order to defend the planet.
Upon the recommendation of Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Prometheus is redirected to Antarctica along with a large quantity of F-302 Interceptors Earth has at its disposal. They arrive in the nick of time as SG-1, in a Tel'tak is about to be overrun by Al'kesh and Death Gliders. Hammond gives the order to "Protect that scout ship at all costs".
While SG-1 defends themselves from Kull Warriors who used the rings to enter the Antaractic Outpost, and Colonel O'Neill begins to operate the Ancient Chair Device, Prometheus comes under the direct attack of Anubis' Mothership. Hammond orders the ship to begin attacking the Goa'uld vessel. It takes an increasing amount of damage as it gets closer to the mothership. With weapons expended, Prometheus prepares to ram the enemy ship. However, before it reaches its target the Ancient Weapons System is activated and thousands of Drones are released, destroying the Goa'uld Armada.
[edit] Theft of Prometheus
On route to Atlantis, a pirate named Vala Mal Doran, in Kull Warrior armor, kidnaps the crew of the Prometheus (excluding Dr. Jackson) and strands them on a disabled Al'kesh, intending to give the Prometheus to the Lucian Alliance in exchange for weapons-grade naquadah. Daniel manages to capture Vala, while the stranded crew repaired the Al'kesh and gives chase, ultimately thwarting Vala's plans, though she still manages to escape.
[edit] Last Mission
The Prometheus attempts to intervene when one of the two nations of the planet Tegalus, the Rand Protectorate, who are locked in a generations-old Cold War, begin building an Ori-designed satellite weapons platform. Shots by Prometheus to disable the satellite prove ineffective, and the advanced weapons on board the satellite are able to cut right through Prometheus' shields. Because the satellite took several minutes to reload before firing, Prometheus is able to launch its compliment of F-302's into space as well as buying time for most of its crew to beam down using Asgard beaming technology. The Prometheus is destroyed by the satellite after three shots.
Out of the 115 crew members aboard during the mission, only 76 survive; its commander, Col. Lionel Pendergast, is killed in the third and final energy blast that destroys the Prometheus. The ship's squadron of F-302s successfully make planet-fall in Caledonian territory, along with the survivors of the Prometheus. Its final mission is unsuccessful as subsequent peace talks fail, and a major war is launched, leaving the Stargate on that planet inaccessible and possibly buried under rubble.
[edit] Alternate reality ("Air Force One")
In an alternate universe visited by Samantha Carter in "The Road Not Taken", the Prometheus remains intact in 2007, and has now become the new "Air Force One" for President Hank Landry.
[edit] Technology
[edit] Hyperdrive
[edit] Original Human/Goa'uld hybrid
The X-303 is the first hyperspace ready, Tau'ri 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 is completed, the ship is hijacked by rogue members of the NID and is used to travel to a planet with a supposed cache of Ancient weapons. The hyperdrive on the Prometheus is 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 finds itself not in orbit of the planet in question, but at an unknown position in interstellar space. Fortunately for SG-1 (who had infiltrated the ship before it made the hyperspace jump and had since regained control of it), the Asgard had detected the hyperspace event.
A buffer system was later incorporated into the hyperdrive which successfully stabilised the power output enough for accurate hyperspace travel. While testing the upgraded drive on its shakedown cruise, Prometheus passes through an intense gravity wave from a collapsing star - this causes a power surge in the naqahdriah reactor so large that it destroyed the buffer. With no way to repair the buffer, the ship attemptes 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 are jettisoned over the planet, Tagrea, where it explodes, thus stranding the vessel on the habited 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 is salvaged from a Goa'uld Al'kesh that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c stole from Baal's Jaffa. This engine core is not designed for a vessel of Prometheus' size, and requires 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 refit the Prometheus' engines, for the third time in the ship's service life.
[edit] Weapons
The BC-303 uses conventional missiles as weapons, as well as close-in weapon systems as point defence weapons. The Prometheus is given some Asgard technology, primarily for shields and teleportation, though the Asgard, Thor, states the "package" to include a weapon of some sort, which is, however, not seen.
[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, arrives in Earth orbit and informs the delegates of an international conference that he has 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. Col. Steven Caldwell states in "The Siege, Part 3" that the Asgard did not install advanced weaponry on the Daedulus-class, because they did not want to give weapons to other civilizations, which could then potentially be used to harm them.
[edit] References
| Technology in Stargate | Edit | |
| Tau'ri | GDO | Horizon | IDC | Stargate Iris | Kull Disruptor | P90 | MALP | The Seeker Project | Naqahdah Generator Wraith retrovirus | F-302 | Prometheus (BC-303) | Daedalus-class Battlecruiser |
 |
| Goa'uld/Tok'ra | Al'kesh | Death Glider | Ha'tak Mothership | Hand Device | Healing Device | Intar | Memory Recall Technology | 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 | Sangraal | 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 Mothership | |
| Lists by race | All | Tau'ri | Ancient, Aschen, Asgard, Goa'uld, Ori, Tok'ra, Tollan, Wraith | Other | |
