ORI WARSHIP

Ori warships are enormous in both size and power, dwarfing any known ship in the Milky Way Galaxy. In Ver Isca and many other villages on a world among dozens like it in the Ori galaxy, the followers of Origin built the colossal ships in preparation to carry tens of thousands of human warriors into the Milky Way on a holy crusade. Despite a failed sabotage attempt by the anti-Ori underground, the ships were completed and were successfully activated by the Priors. As the Day of Reckoning arrived, four warships entered this galaxy through the supergate, easily decimating an allied armada of Tauri, Jaffa, Tok'ra, Asgard, and Lucian ships. The Odyssey suffered significant damage in the battle, and the Korolev was completely destroyed.

Occasionally referred to as starcraft, the Ori warships are constructed in the elongated oval shape that signifies the religion of Origin. The rounded front draws to a forked point at the back, and the center of the oval is empty, allowing for a massive central ring, the hollow inside of which glows when the power source is activated. A vast room within the ship houses the power core. The bridge of the ship contains a single command chair, similar in design to the Ancient defense weapons platform in Antarctica, suggesting a similarity between Ancient and Ori technology. The command interface is keyed to the unique brain physiology of the Priors, and it is the Priors who pilot the ships and activate ship's systems using mind control. Adria, too, is capable of flying the ship using the power of her mind without the need to interface with the command chair. Additional control panels along the wall on the bridge maintain a link with certain ship's systems, and Carter has been able to bypass some of these systems by interfacing her laptop with the alien technology.

The weapons system of the warship is incredibly powerful. It fires a penetrating beam of energy that easily pierces conventional defensive shields and can destroy a BC-304 or a ha'tak with a single blast. Entire civilizations, too, have been devastated from orbit by the warship's weapons. The ship's shields are far superior to those used by Earth or its allies. In battle, the BC-304 and ha'tak ships had almost no effect against the Ori starcraft, and even the impact of a direct collision with Bra'tac's mothership did not breach the Ori shields. The Ori shields do show evidence of a slight fluctuation that coincides with the firing of the main weapons, but attempts by the Korolev and by Bra'tac to exploit this apparent vulnerability in order to penetrate the shields failed. The warship is also capable of carrying squadrons of smaller fighter craft which can exit the ship in space and which are more maneuverable in battle.

The starcraft rely on the supergate to enter the Milky Way from the Ori galaxy, however the ships also have hyperdrive capabilities. Despite their enormous size, the ships are capable of landing on a planet's surface. They are equipped with ring transporters as well, similar to those of Ancient/Goa'uld design, but engraved with distinctly Ori markings. Mobile ring transporter platforms can be deposited on planets by fighter craft, allowing individuals, equipment, or even ground forces of warriors to ring between the ship in orbit and the planet's surface.

Following their arrival in the Milky Way, the four Ori warships moved nearly unopposed though the galaxy, laying waste to all that stood in their path, then moving on. SG-1's early attempts to destroy or capture a warship failed, but an alternate plan was put in place to open a wormhole between the supergate and the Pegasus Galaxy, temporarily preventing additional Ori ships from entering the Milky Way. The success of that plan did unexpectedly result in the destruction of an Ori warship that was caught in the developing kawoosh as the supergate activated. Later, SG-1 commandeered one of Adria's ships and succeeded in completing and activating Merlin's weapon, then they disconnected the wormhole blocking the supergate in order to send the warship and the weapon into the Ori galaxy. Although there was no way to know if Merlin's weapon had been effective, the supergate activated soon after, and at least a half dozen more Ori ships entered the galaxy to continue the crusade.

When the Asgard passed on their legacy to the SGC, an Asgard computer core was installed on the Odyssey which was fully integrated into all the ship's systems. This new technology provided shields that withstood the Ori weapons fire far better than before as well as a far superior weapons system that was able to destroy two Ori warships. However, the new Asgard upgrades also gave off a unique energy signature detectable from subspace that allowed the Ori ships to track the Odyssey through hyperspace. Only by remaining trapped in a time dilation bubble, then channeling the power from an Ori weapons blast to reverse time and sever the Asgard core from the hyperdrive controls, was the Odyssey able to escape into hyperspace. The SGC expects that keeping the Asgard core and hyperdrive controls separate will make it possible to use the new advanced weapons technology against Ori warships in the future.

Cross Reference: Day of Reckoning, Korolev, Odyssey, Ori, Ori Fighter, Ori Warriors, Prior, Prior Staff, Supergate

Episode Reference: Crusade, Camelot, Flesh and Blood, The Pegasus Project, Counterstrike, The Quest, Line in the Sand, The Road Not Taken, The Shroud, Unending