The al'kesh - bomber or capital ship?

[aAnubiSs]

Many of us know alot about the ships, but we're too lazy to write something that massive like your most impressive BC-303 report. Although I'm working on something myself

[SilverHawk]

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I have never saw a ep where the Al'kesh had it's shields on.

So does it have shields? The death glider does not but the cargo ship does have shields, so in size steps the Al'kesh should have shields but how did we take them down in LOST CITY, PART 2.

I remember it was established in the beginning of Season 7 that a ship's shields are only 40% effective while the ship is within planetary atmosphere. This is how the System Lords were able to destroy Anubis' dreadnaught while it was over Kelowna's capitol.
I would have to assume the same goes for Ha'taks, and Al'kesh, possibly even moreso, considering the reduced power of the ships.
Gliders are too small to incorporate shielding systems.


Justin
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[donnie_darko]

I understand that the primary shields on a large mother ship would be for space and would weaken in an atmosphere but the bombers are meant to strike ground forces should their shields, if they have any, be made for an atmosphere.

If they used space based shield teck on a low ground ship the Gou'uld are very stupid.

[Lostinmyownvoid]

I understand that the primary shields on a large mother ship would be for space and would weaken in an atmosphere but the bombers are meant to strike ground forces should their shields, if they have any, be made for an atmosphere.

If they used space based shield teck on a low ground ship the Gou'uld are very stupid.

The Goa'uld are scavengers, unless they found atmospheric sheilds on a planet and stole them, they don't have them.

[aAnubiSs]

Wrong Lostinmyworld, we've seen the Goa'uld come up with, or redesign stuff.

[Ancient 1]

It can do both. Much like real military vessels, they can be configured differently to suit different needs.

OOOhh! That would almost be a "cop-out" if I wasn't starting to agree.

[Crazedwraith]

The Goa'uld are scavengers, unless they found atmospheric sheilds on a planet and stole them, they don't have them.

TERs. 'nuff said.

[donnie_darko]

The Goa'uld are scavengers, unless they found atmospheric sheilds on a planet and stole them, they don't have them.

Like aAnubiSs said we have seen the Goa'uld come up with advance tech, like the PERSONAL CLOAKING DEVICE,TRANSPHASE ERADICATION ROD, PERSONAL SHIELD, SYMBIOTE-MASKING DRUG, ete....... this is not counting the Tok'ra and the spy devices they have made.

The mindset of the Goa'uld are scavengers but because they take on human hosts they gain more than a body to walk around in to steal they gain our ability to create.

[Xzyl]

If the choice is between a bomber and capitol ship I would have to put it into the bomber catagory. If I were to put it in a diferent naval context I would think of it as a torpedo boat. An Al'kesh with a cloak could be thought of as a sub using stealth and ambush to win against a more powerfull ship.

I have never been a fan of the Al'kesh, I always felt that it was too big, too under armed, and too fragile for its own good. Its way to easy to shoot down and dose not take too many shots to do so. I always felt that they should have made the Tel'tak the bomber and the Al'kesh the cargo ship.

My reasoning:

For a cargo ship, a Tel'tak does not really hold a lot of cargo. Yes, the cargo area of a Tel'tak is probly bigger than a storage room at the SGC; but lets think of it in terms of how well it is able to resupply a Ha'tak. Lets say that a Ha'tak is running low on food for its crew and 1000 troops and needs to be resuplied. If the average Jaffa needs to eat as much as Teal'c has been implied to then it becomes obvious that a Tel'tak could not even supply enough food for one meal for all of the Ha'tak's occupants. Even a fleet of Tel'taks would have a hard time supplying one days worth of food.

An Al'kesh on the other hand appears to have a large enough internal storage volume to hold several days worth of food for all of a Ha'tak's occupants.

A Tel'tak modified to be a light bomber, fighter bomber, or heavy fighter (whatever term suits you) would probly be more effective. Even though its bomb capacity is very small (maybe a dozen energy bombs) its small enough, fast enough, and manuverable enough to evade Death Gliders. Its shields allow it to survive several direct hits. Add 4 or 6 glider cannons to it and it could actually fight its way to a target and survive to complete its mission. Since they are small enough to land on board a Ha'tak; you could have a sqaudron of them aboard and use them to launch a premptive strike against an enemy mothership in another system before bringing in your own mothership.

Now a souped up Al'kesh could be pretty nasty in its own right as well. All it needs are shields and 7 more cannon turrets. One on the underside rear and another on the underside front. The remaining 5 turret cannons should all be on top. Top front, top rear, top left, top right, and top center. Configured like that an Al'kesh would then be a very nasty light destroyer. Put some decent armor on it and it could qualify as a heavy destroyer.

My thoughts as to why the goa'uld made the Tel'tak and Al'kesh the way they did:

For the longest time I have been wondering why they would give shields to a cargo ship but not to a warship. It then suddenly occured to me why. A Tel'tak is not really a cargo ship except in name. In function it really is a courier ship. Goa'uld couriers are always other goa'ulds. They are either transporting something of value or are acting as an emisary from the system lord they serve. This would explain why the Tel'taks have shields and escape pods. Al'kesh like Death Gliders are crewed by Jaffa. Jaffa are considered disposeable by System Lords; this is why they would not equip a Jaffa only craft with any life saving devices such as shields or escape pods.

[aAnubiSs]

the bombs on the Al'kesh are pretty useless, nothing the normal cannons can't do. And yes, the Al'kesh seems waaay underpowered for it's size.

I also don't see a Tel'tak as a "cargo" ship, I see it as a scout/small cargo vessel. I really don't see a reason for the Goa'uld to use cargo vessels. They have rings and stargates everywhere in the galaxy, and Ha'taks are able to enter the atmosphere.

Beefing up the Al'kesh with atleast one more turrent on the lower section would be good, 8 turrets are a bit overkill for the show as we know it.

I'd gladly give up 1 meter cargo room in the Tel'tak for a weapons reactor. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a few cannons.

Heck, infact all Goa'uld ships are poorly armed. a Ha'tak can't hit sheet, and doesn't do much damage to the ground, however Ha'taks have no problem shooting down other Ha'taks. Apophis' flagship(guess it was Sokars before) had some major firepower, seemed 2 billion times more powerful the regular Ha'taks... I'd rather have 10 of these then 50 regular Ha'taks in terms of firepower. 50 Ha'taks could cause some major damage en masse though

The Al'kesh in... Exodus, I believe, did major damage to the Ha'tak when the shields were offline, so the Ha'tak got a crappy hull too.

The Gliders... well they just suck, non-turreted slow moving plasma bolts that doesn't do that much of damage.

The goa'uld got far superior engines and shields and very poor weaponary... shape up baddies!

[Crazedwraith]

Guys you can't just slap guns on a craft any way and squeal in delight there are other considerations.

http://web.archive.org/web/200304021...deckplan.html: Nice article on the subject of ship design. (Yes, it's Star War orientated but the engirneering facts remain the same.

As to the bombs being useless? What have you been watching, we've seen those bombs complete disable Ha'taks and collapse tok'ra bases. The deffinately have more power behind them that staff weapon turrets.

[Mr Prophet]

I'm well aware that there is a distinct troop transport vessel, but the shot I was thinking of clearly showed both al'kesh and barques landing, probably in Last Stand; I'll check the episode itself sometime. From that image,the al'kesh looks to be at least thirty yards long.

Of course, as a CGI it's possible that the size of the al'kesh is not 'fixed', as it were.

On the other hand, it's clearly an independent vessel; it's too big to dock with an al'kesh to judge by The Lost City. I guess even a bomber designed for independent action would need a lot of supply space.

I think I like the torpedo boat/submarine analogy. The thing starts to make sense as a sub-capital vessel; a sort of corvette or frigate perhaps.