Why didn't the ancients fly atlantis back to MW?

[Dodgified]

Ok, we know that the ancients had the technology to win every battle, but saw no way of winning the war. When they decided to leave, why not blow up a few hives at once that are in orbit and fly the city back to earth? They could set off in the wrong direction in case the wraith go after them (the vague direction they went in hyperspace) and then turn around and head back to milky way! They then would of had a better chance at re-building and building a huge fleet and raise their numbers to head back to pegasus and destroy the wraith.
They might not of even had to take atlantis into orbit? just engage the hyperdrive in atmosphere (if that works, the Lost Tribe could exit in atmosphere?) I suppose that would stop SGA from happening but who cares?

[WraithHumor]

Ok, we know that the ancients had the technology to win every battle, but saw no way of winning the war. When they decided to leave, why not blow up a few hives at once that are in orbit and fly the city back to earth? They could set off in the wrong direction in case the wraith go after them (the vague direction they went in hyperspace) and then turn around and head back to milky way! They then would of had a better chance at re-building and building a huge fleet and raise their numbers to head back to pegasus and destroy the wraith.
They might not of even had to take atlantis into orbit? just engage the hyperdrive in atmosphere (if that works, the Lost Tribe could exit in atmosphere?) I suppose that would stop SGA from happening but who cares?

I care because I liked SGA.

The Ancients didn't want to risk the destruction of their last great city, hence why they made the decision to sink it to the bottom of the ocean.

Not to mention the city's shield was under the constant strain of weapons fire. We know there were no other ZPM's found in Atlantis bar the three that were powering the city when Weir's expedition found it. As we saw in EATG, even though it was a super hive I still think the amount of weapons fire from that many hive ships (60+) in orbit would be comparable to the firepower of the super hive, probably the 60 hives would put even more strain on the shield. Therefore I don't think the shield would of lasted long even with those 3 ZPM's.

Also the Atlantis gate is the only way back to the MW, that gate underwater is inaccessible to the Wraith, but if Atlantis were destroyed, even in space by the Hive's it is possible some of the debris could of been salvaged or some of their database (remember it is extremely difficult to destroy as Zelenka said, a virus had to be written to do the job in the Siege if necessary). Therefore they wouldn't want to risk Atlantis' destruction and components or some of the database falling into the hands of the Wraith.

If it did, the Wraith could easily have reverse engineered Atlantis' control crystal, popped it into any of the DHD's and easily dialed the Earth gate.

Also I guess the Ancients felt a responsibility to fix their error in creating the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy, Atlantis would allow them the means to travel back to the Pegasus galaxy in order to fix their mistake in the future. Returning to Pegasus was always their goal, and I really doubt the Ancients took anything that would help them build vessels capable of transporting them back to Pegasus with them through the gate, all they took were personal effects from what I saw in Before I sleep.

But we know that the Antarctic outpost was powered by a ZPM, so the Ancients easily had a method of travel back to Atlantis if they used the ZPM in conjunction with the Antarctic gate.

It was always their plan to return. How exactly did you think they were going to return if they took Atlantis out of Pegasus? And wouldn't you feel responsible for creating a monster that torments the living people you placed on worlds for generation after generation to the point you would want to fix the error that created those monsters?

There is no plot hole here in leaving Atlantis in Pegasus. I've typed out the same answer over and over too many times, this will be the last time. You could of easily found this answer via searching the forums, it has been asked a lot. But for you, like I said I will answer it this one last time.

[Replicator Todd]

I bet while they escaped the Wraith would of spotted them and blasted them to bits!

[BIG_GATE_HEAD]

I think that one of the reasons they did not take atlantis was like wraithhumor said they were 60 + ships in orbit so that would complicate things. I also think that they were not expecting earth to be so primitive. It was said that the ancients were not expecting earth to be as primitive as is was and they had hoped that their kind would someday return to atlantis. I do not believe that it was to destroy the wraith because the ancient were smug,arrogant pricks who dont really care about people less advanced them themselves. If they wanted to destroy the wraith(seeing as how it was their fault that they came to be) they would have destroyed them once they had ascended. And please don't mention their stupid ascended rule book because they wrote it therefore they dont care anything beneath them.

[RepliVeggie]

The super hive was fighting Atlantis with 3 depleted ZPMs due to using the wormhole drive. The shield failing doesn't count.

IMO they left Atlantis cuz they planned on coming back with a fleet capable of destroying the Wraith and having Atlantis there they could easily gate back and start doing sensor sweeps and collecting intel as their ships flew back to Pegasus.

[Mclean]

Yeah the presence of a huge fleet of Hives and Cruisers would have caused problems when taking off (not to mention the thousands of darts that would have been there).

I think they expected to go back and find us at the level of technology we are at the now (without the 304's and alien advancements).

[braetac]

probably in the wrong forum...but atlantis expedition have access to the ancient DB, so why havent they found the plans to make new ZPM's in there and used the asguard tech to "materialise" new ones (like they used in Unending to create celos's and food and stuff)

[jelgate]

probably in the wrong forum...but atlantis expedition have access to the ancient DB, so why havent they found the plans to make new ZPM's in there and used the asguard tech to "materialise" new ones (like they used in Unending to create celos's and food and stuff)

This has been discussed in muliple threads but I will answer it anyway. Knowing how build a ZPM and having the technology/resources to build a ZPM. Notice in Before I Sleep Janus was a little surprised when Weir called them ZPMs which implies that the Ancients called it something else. Given the sizr of the database it would take years to read the whole thing including how to make ZPMs.

[ph30nix]

This has been discussed in muliple threads but I will answer it anyway. Knowing how build a ZPM and having the technology/resources to build a ZPM. Notice in Before I Sleep Janus was a little surprised when Weir called them ZPMs which implies that the Ancients called it something else. Given the sizr of the database it would take years to read the whole thing including how to make ZPMs.

ya know you think wier woulda been smart enough to go "Hey what do you guys call them?"

and gave the expedition that info as well as the gate adresses

and how come they never asked the hologram room about the citys power generation? i mean yea they cant ask directly about ZPM's cause we dont know what they were called but there are round about ways to do so.

[Ouroboros]

I bet while they escaped the Wraith would of spotted them and blasted them to bits!

This is probably the best explanation now. If you assume that the older war era Wraith ships had more power generators and less of things like human storage or hibernation chambers then they might have more firepower that modern hives. Not superhive level but enough that the entire Wraith seige force would have had atlantis reentering the atmosphere as a few million meteors in a matter of minutes if they actually tried to just run past them all instead of hiding under the ocean like they did.

They might also have been afraid that the Wraith could possibly track their hyperspace course somehow and, even though they couldn't follow them right then and there, would know where they went and might come knocking again one day.

[WishIwasJoes]

and how come they never asked the hologram room about the citys power generation? i mean yea they cant ask directly about ZPM's cause we dont know what they were called but there are round about ways to do so.

lol wow good point.

[Dodgified]

I've been thinking and i know they might of not been able to get past the wraith ships in orbit because the shields would fail before getting past them. But in Redemption part 2, O'Neill uses the X-302 to fly the stargate away? he opens a hyperspace window in atmosphere. So all the ancients needed to do was fire drones up in time with them coming up above the ocean? hit a few hives that are closest to the planet and fire the stardrive and open a hyperspace window. Escaping with the wraith stuck without a way of tracking them (as atlantis doesn't need to drop out of hyperspace and the wraith can't track them!) and then they can fly back in a cloaked aurora class to do intel. and bring a fleet back. That way they would of also found the Tria in the void on the sensors (I'm guessing they can scan real space whilst in subspace?)

[Mclean]

I've been thinking and i know they might of not been able to get past the wraith ships in orbit because the shields would fail before getting past them. But in Redemption part 2, O'Neill uses the X-302 to fly the stargate away? he opens a hyperspace window in atmosphere. So all the ancients needed to do was fire drones up in time with them coming up above the ocean? hit a few hives that are closest to the planet and fire the stardrive and open a hyperspace window. Escaping with the wraith stuck without a way of tracking them (as atlantis doesn't need to drop out of hyperspace and the wraith can't track them!) and then they can fly back in a cloaked aurora class to do intel. and bring a fleet back. That way they would of also found the Tria in the void on the sensors (I'm guessing they can scan real space whilst in subspace?)

It's a good idea but would it work for Atlantis given the size of it. The strain of opening a hyperspace window in a planets atmosphere might tear it apart.

[Lt. Col. John_Sheppard]

I think the best answer to this question is actually a series of answers.
One, there was a large wraith fleet in orbit;
Two, I believe the Ancients thought they were going to come back;
Three, they wanted to save Atlantis, without risk;
and Four, Stargate Atlantis wouldn't exist!

[ciannwn]

and how come they never asked the hologram room about the citys power generation? i mean yea they cant ask directly about ZPM's cause we dont know what they were called but there are round about ways to do so.

In the Pegasus Project we're told -

http://www.stargate-sg1-solutions.co...%22_Transcript

WEIR: The program was designed to teach very young children the Lantian systems.

You'd think a teaching system for young children would have included a beginner's guide to Lantean power sources. As TPTB didn't want the expedition having a lot of ZPMs the way round it would have been saying that the place where they were made was destroyed in the Wraith war or constructing them is beyond Earth human capabilities at the moment.