The Lantean Drone Weapon Discussion Thread

[TechnoWraith]

Spoiler:

Once the drone weapon at the Antarctic outpost was activated, Jack may not have had a way to control the number of drones released. It ran automatically or something. Or maybe Jack did, and he just sent all the drones out just to make sure the entire fleet was destroyed. But maybe in IGtbK the true power of the drone weapon is seen? Or it could be a glitch or an inconsistency.

[Excali5033]

You could argue the point that the 'Atlantus' outpost's weapons were five million years out of date compared to a 'modern' Jumper's weapons. Though I prefer to just go with the idea that it looked REALLY cool. :-P

[cobraR478]

My guess is he had more control over that individual drone than the thousands in the Lost City. So he thought "hit something important" when he fired, and it did.

[IMForeman]

Since Jack was on the verge of death at this point, his control might have been less than optimal. The difference in the effect of the weapon on the Kull and the Wraith in Defiant One could be something to do with the expectation of the usere... Jack had knowledge of what they can and can't do in Lost City, whereas Markham (and Jack normally, and Sheppard) would expect a weapon to go boom.

-IMF

[alz0rz]

It may have taken more drones to be released because of the size of anubis's fleet and his superior shields, i highly doubt in IGTBK that the shield of Ares' ha'tak was even up - but it was still a weak weak Ha'tak compared to what Jack had to fight off in LC.

[Avalar]

Remember that in Lost City, Pt.2, a lot of the Drones that Jack sent up there basically plowed right through Anubis' ships. If you look at the final scene, you see a ton of Drones exiting Anubis' ship after going right through it, so it probably didn't take that many to destroy it.

Plus, in IGtBK, didn't Jack hit the Ha'tak's "primary systems" or something?

[Magnus]

Sorry if this has been gone into before, but i had a quick check and couldn't see it anywhere in s8...

the ancient drone weapons seem to vary in power from lost city to its good to be king, i mean Jack uses hundred or thousands of them to take out nubys fleet (70 or so ha'taks??) in LC, but in IGtbK he only uses two to take down a ha'tak so surely he would have only needed to use a coupla hundred or so in LC...?

It's Jack, why wouldn't he hit Anubis with everything he's got. Nothing wrong with overkill... it's Jack. Also, there were many ships, getting all or most of them at once is better than letting many escape in hyperspace.

Also in LC they seem to have the ability to disassemble matter? they swarmed round a kull and it disappeared? whereas in atlantis they just seem to go boom alot...

Any thoughts?

The drone's probably don't disassemble matter. They go boom in SGA because the ships they attack explode.

[Daz]

I like the idea that in Lost City they acted different to other times as Jack knew with the knowledge downloaded that they could do more than just blow up, but at other times, they seem like missiles, so to shep and jack, they would expect that to happen, being used to Earth missiles blowing up.

Also, if you think your planet is about to be destroyed, you along with it, and you're sitting in a chair with thousands of drones at your diposal, you wouldn't sit there and think ''Oo, maybe save some for later.'', you'd empty the whole friggin lot.

If you were sitting in a bunker with your M16, a load of iraqis run in. Do you empty the whole magazine and do as much damage as you can before you get killed yourself? Or do you sit there on semi-auto, pop off a few rounds because you 'might need some for later'?

[Ancient 1]

I think Jack just had enough mental capacity to release the drones, not control their number, and this did a lot to drain the ZPM. The drones, themselves, seem to have an adaptable intelligence as witnessed in "Rising." Sheppard fired the weapon and as soon as it launched it did a 180 to go target a wraith dart...or so it seemed.

[Dotus5]

So what happened to all of the extra drones after the Lost City? Jack most likely deactivated them but what happened to them after that? Burn up in the atmosphere? And are the reusable?

[Magnus]

So what happened to all of the extra drones after the Lost City? Jack most likely deactivated them but what happened to them after that? Burn up in the atmosphere? And are the reusable?

That's a good point, in Lost City they give the impression they tear through the ships, not explode. So the question is, what happened to them after the fleet was in pieces. A drone should be able to withstand uncontrolled re-entry to the atmosphere. I think those would be reusable, it would make them a more effective weapon.

[Steam]

They are Uber powerful, would love to have couple of those bad boys at my disposal

[Freyrs]

Any idea on how the drones are powered? They seem to glow and some sort of guidance. We know that the chair must control the guidance and they gain their initial power from the ZPM but what about when they are in flight?

[Magnus]

Any idea on how the drones are powered? They seem to glow and some sort of guidance. We know that the chair must control the guidance and they gain their initial power from the ZPM but what about when they are in flight?

There is no telling how much energy was left in the ZPM before getting used in Lost City Pt2. Since the drones have some form of internal energy source, there shouldn't be too much energy used from the ZPM itself. They don't necessarily gain initial power from the ZPM, we only know it's needed to power the chair/outpost. It'd be interesting to find out just how the drones power themselves, though it's probably too advanced for the Tau'ri to ever figure out.

[Enokrad]

Another thing is that Anubis ships where equipped with far better shields that where of ancient design. The Asgard weapons had minimal affect to them. On the other hand, in good to be king, those ships had standard Goa’uld shields and thus more susceptible to get penetrated by just 2 drones (add the lucky hit part). Still i didn't mind the Overkill in LC as someone described it, as well as the fact that it looked much cooler, don't u think?