Asuras

From SGCommand

"M7R-227, you were a constant pain in the ass. It's good to see you go."

—Dr. Rodney McKay

Asuras, designated M7R-227 by the Tau'ri, was the homeworld of the Asurans.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The beginning 1.2 First contact 1.3 A triple front war 1.4 The end 2 Behind the Scenes 3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] The beginning

During the war with the Wraith, the Lanteans built a laboratory on Asuras due to the rich deposits of neutronium in the planet's crust, intending to create nanites that could destroy the Wraith on a cellular level. Instead, the nanites eventually took human form. Concluding that they would never be the weapon they wanted, the Lantean Council sent a fleet of Aurora-class warships to devastate Asuras. However, a small number of nanites survived and began to replicate, eventually remodeling Asuras into a new, more splendorous version of Atlantis.

[edit] First contact

In 2006, the Atlantis Expedition came across the planet in the Atlantis database and subsequently sent a team to investigate, where they concluded that the planet was inhabited by unascended Lanteans. Upon leaving the city, the team was restrained and put into holding cells where they soon discovered that the inhabitants of the planet were not Lanteans at all, but a Pegasus Galaxy version of the replicators that had given the Asgard and the Tau'ri so much trouble in the past. When the replicators quickly found out about Atlantis, they launched one of their many city-ships to attack. However, McKay realized that the Asurans were connected through a subspace network and inserted a glitch that paralyzed all of them. The team took advantage of this by programming the ship's ZPMs to overload. Unfortunately, the Asurans began to override the freezing glitch faster than expected and tried to stop the team. Atlantis 1 managed to escape in a puddle jumper, and destroyed the Asurans before they could attack Atlantis. (ATL: "Progeny")

After the Lanteans aboard the Tria reclaimed Atlantis, the Asurans sent another warship from Asuras to attack the city. The Lanteans were overconfident in their victory, due to coding within the Asurans that prevented them from harming any Ancients, which ultimately led to their demise after they reprogrammed themselves to be able to kill their creators. They were able to do this due to Rodney McKay's origional tampering in which he accidently disabled the command preventing the Asurans from reprogramming themselves. The Asurans inflicted serious damage to the city and commandeered it with the intention of flying it back to Asuras. Against the wishes of Stargate Command, Col. Sheppard led a team to Atlantis via the Intergalactic Gate Bridge and, with an improvized plan from McKay, retook the city and destroyed the commandeering Asurans. (ATL: "The Return, Part 1", "The Return, Part 2")

[edit] A triple front war

Main article: Asuran-Tau'ri-Wraith war

After the Tau'ri retook Atlantis, the Asurans (coming to realize that the Atlanteans were a dangerous threat) built a fleet of warships readying for an attack on Earth. However, unbeknownst to the Asurans, the Tau'ri had been conducting routine surveillance on the planet with the Daedalus, and so they knew of the Asuran's scheme. Intending to stop the Asurans before they could pose a threat to Earth, the newly-constructed Apollo was given the mission of launching a preemptive strike using the newly developed Horizon weapons platform, which destroyed the shipyards and caused massive damage to the surrounding areas in the process. In response, the Asurans launched a counter-attack on Atlantis with a satellite weapon, forcing Atlantis to flee the planet, but not before damage was incured that caused the city to exit hyperspace prematurely. (ATL: "First Strike")

With little power remaining, and Atlantis floating helplessly in space, Sheppard, McKay, Weir and Ronon returned to Asuras to steal a ZPM to provide enough power for Atlantis to complete its journey. Using Weir's recently reactivated nanites and a puddle jumper equipped with an experimental hyperdrive, they succeeded in reaching the planet and easily stole a single ZPM. In the process, the team also discovered a deactivated attack command in the Asuran base code that would force them to attack the Wraith, and so they decided to head to the Asuran data core in order to upload the reactivated attack command. They succeeded, but Weir was left behind when she sacrificed herself so the others could escape. They were attacked by 3 Asuran warships, but they managed to escape with help from a timely appearance by the Apollo, which traveled to the planet to help them after re-establishing contact with Atlantis and learning of the team's location. (ATL: "Lifeline")

Eventually, a replicator version of Atlantis 1 and Weir hitched a ride to Asuras on the back of an Asuran warship. There they found that at least one of the destroyed shipyards has been rebuilt, and then some, and stole a ship to get to New Athos in an attempt to rendevous with the real team from Atlantis. There, they gave the real team the core drive of a Replicator warship, giving the Atlanteans a means to track Asuran warships in real-time. McKay eventually managed to get the Aurora-class tracker working, only to discover in horror that the Asurans had at least 40 Aurora-class warships all over the Pegasus Galaxy. (ATL: "This Mortal Coil")

[edit] The end

Main article: Battle of Asuras

After a series of successful hit and run attacks by the newly upgraded Daedalus and Apollo using the new tracker, the Replicator fleet was called back to Asuras, as the Asurans either had no means of stopping the powerful warships of the Atlanteans or had not yet discovered how the Atlanteans were able track their warships in the first place. After McKay devised a plan to destroy the Replicators for good, a fleet of 16 ships consisting of the Daedalus, the Apollo, 7 hive-ships and 7 Traveler ships (including their Aurora-class warship), attacked the planet in a final bid to permanantly destroy the Replicators. McKay, with the help of a Replicator he created called FRAN, turned all the Replicators into a mass of nanites that, after a little improvising with the help of Samantha Carter, he managed to sink into the planet's core, causing it to implode, destroying Asuras and the entire Replicator mass, but not before the Wraith managed to steal several ZPMs: at least three of which would be used to power their cloning facility, at least one would be used by a Wraith scientist to create a more powerful hive-ship, and another two would eventually be used by the Atlantis Expedition to restore Atlantis to its full glory and return the city to its original home. Later, a Replicator warship, commanded by Elizabeth Weir, returned to examine the scattered remains and confirmed that the Asurans were completely destroyed. (ATL: "Be All My Sins Remember'd", "Spoils of War", "Enemy at the Gate")

[edit] Behind the Scenes

The name of the world may have inspiration in 'real-world' religion; in Hinduism, the Asura are power-seeking beings, usually associated with sin, and occasionally referred to as 'demons'. They are also a similar type of supernatural being of the same name in the Buddhist religion (Wikipedia Article - 'Asura')

[edit] External links

• GateWorld's article on Asuras in The Stargate Omnipedia