Modeling Challenge Thread

[Experiment 442]

*GOBSMACKED*

How did i not find this sooner???
expect some stuff from me, mind it could take a while seeing as i'm swamped!

[Dr Lee]

well the current one finishes this week, so i'd wait for the next one before jumping in......

[knowles2]

Here my entry so far, need to do a lot more by probably will not have time.

Awakening set.jpgAwakening set.jpg

I would keep like it is but my animation is 2000 frames long and its takes thirty minutes to render per frame, ridiculous need faster pc, or rendering farm would be nice.

[Merlin1701]

Here is my entry.

The Earth Vessel Britannia.

History

Spoiler:

The Britannia class is Earths newest vessel constructed from the wreckage of an alien vessel, discovered during a mining operation.

The alien vessel was an old Asgard vessel that was stationed in orbit of Earth to study the progression of its people after ancients had ascended. The Asgard constructed a small orbiting facility to observe the advancing occupants. The station and the vessel sent to transfer the crew was surprise attacked by the once unknown threat, the Goa’uld. This parasitic race had been clinging to the shadows of the galaxy, amassing hosts, warriors and ships.

The Asgard station was bombarded with multiple hits from more than 15 pyramid ships. With its shields down the station and its connected vessel began a devastating decent into Earths atmosphere. As the ships deceleration drive activated the ship was sheered from the station, transforming the scientific station into a mammoth catapult hurling the vessel into the planet.

The vessel lay hidden until the ship was mistaken for mineral deposits. A mine was established to extract the ore, As the miners went deeper and deeper the discovered the wing of the vessel. The MOD took control of the project and began removal of the wreckage. Years of research into the damaged vessels remaining systems, the vessels sensors were implemented on military defence allowing air space monitors to detect all incursions but the biggest breakthrough was the ships hull. The hull composed of a naquadah alloy is impenetrable to rifle fire and took minimal damage to tank fire.

It wasn’t until early 2003 that the MOD found a combined use for the new technologies with the disclosure of the Stargate program and the X-303. To ensure the defence of the UK and Earth the Britannia project was created, its primary objective was to produce a vessel capable of matching the Prometheus. Using all the information from the x-302 and x-303 projects of the USA it was decided that two vessels could be constructed from the vessels hull. Recreating many of the systems found in the crashed ship such as the sensors, thrusters technology and shields; while other systems like the hyperdrive and weapons were beyond repair. In 2005 the project was given two Asgard hyperdrive engines created fro The US’s newest class of vessel the 304. The project was given a further boost when military scientists created an ion cannon from SGC records of the Tollan specs and parts from the Asgard cannons.

The production of the Poseidon class bomber was also underway at Devonport docklands, with both large projects underway the British military was forced to reduce it military force to cover the costs of production. The crews of the decommissioned naval vessels began further training to determine candidates for the new range of ships. The aft of the Britannia class ships were adapted to integrate a huge hanger, allowing a Poseidon class bomber to be carried in the Britannia class vessel.

Specs

Spoiler:

Britannia Class (DSC-306) Specifications

Tauri Intergalactic Deep Space Carrier
Britannia Class (DSC–305)
Technology Base: Asgard / Tauri

Dimensions
Length: 517.50m (including forward antenna)
Width: 252.50m
Height: 75m

Hull
Naqadah/ Trinium alloy.

Engines:
Intergalactic hyperdrive – allows travel to other galaxies
Sub-light Drive
Manoeuvring Thrusters
Deceleration drive

Armaments:
6 ion cannons
8 double barrel offensive rail guns
1 triple barrel offensive rail gun
4 triple barrel defensive rail guns
14 VLS Missile Tubes
Mark VIII and IX nuclear missiles


Shields:
Asgard shield system

Additional Technology:
Subspace Communication System
Asgard Transportation Technology
Asgard Sensor array
Inertial Dampers

Power:
Naquadah generators

Auxiliary Craft:
12 F-302s - 6 in each of the side hangers
An extra 2 F-302s can be carried in the small hanger under the command tower currently this small hanger is used to carry a puddle jumper for special ops teams to use.
The large aft bay is used to carry a vessel up to the size of a Poseidon class vessel. This feature of the vessel to carry small craft with interstellar hyperdrives to other galaxies.

[Dr Lee]

Very nice, Green for you..... what time does this challenge finish?

[boberth2o]

Very nice, Green for you..... what time does this challenge finish?

Midnight EST today

[Dr Lee]

righty.... 5am.... Might be able to finish the post-reveal backstory for this.

Note to self..... Don't go bowling the night before you have a modelling deadline... Done in three fingers on my right hand, which means i've not been able to do EVERYTHING i wanted to do with my submission to the Modelling challenge on here

But i have been able to do these...










Stats-
Ship Class- Stealth Transport (ST) – 920

Operators- Special Air ServiceRoyal Air Force

Crew-Pilot Co-pilot

Cargo- Up to 20 passengers

Powertrain- 2 Smith Propulsion unit, Designed and built from the Lantian propulsion units fitted on the Gate ship.

Weapons- 2- Tri-barrel 30mm cannons fitted either side of the main fuselage

Other technology-Cloaking and Shield systems, Both derived from studying the systems on the Lantian Gate Ships and from knowledge derived from recovered Lantian data caches

Entered Service-July 5th 1993

Number in service-Eight

[Dr Lee]

Pre-revelation Backstory PT I

Spoiler:

June 27th 1966 - During the manhunt for the Jules Rimet Trophy one of the search teams stumbled across a small network of tunnels and caverns just south of Heathrow. Inside the network was a treasure trove of objects, ranging from small emerald-like stones to three large hollow cylindrical objects.

Due to the unusual nature of the network of tunnels and the content, the Army was called in and the contents deemed safe, then removed to a secure location in the Devon Downs.

For eight years a small band of scientists and researchers scoured the recovered items, looking for any information on what they were and how they were operated. For eight long years no answers were forthcoming.

March 14th 1974 - A young researcher by the name of Ralph Kenneth was assigned to the complex that held the research and scientific teams that worked in the ‘Red Herring’ program (As the demoralized workers had started to call it). Meer moments after Kenneth had entered the main hanger; ALL the recovered objects came to life, sending the workers into a frenzy.

Some items activated by Kenneth stayed powered up, while others would turn themselves off. On the list of the objects that kept their power on were the three large cylinders, all three opening a hatch on their rear, allowing access to the internal space

March 18th 1974 - Around 0200 hours the second breakthrough with the recovered objects took place. A number of the objects recovered exhibited the same symbols on, or projected by, them. While sat in one of the Cylindrical objects and staring at the projected screen, Ralph idly thought, ‘Why couldn’t this be in English?’ Instantly the blocky symbols before him dissolved into English

October 3rd 1975 - Work on translating the blocky symbols into English, for use on the few remaining objects, is completed and the name for the civilization that created them is revealed: Lantian.

December 19th 1975 - The first test flight of a Gate-Ship takes place on Ascension Island in the South Pacific and goes off without a hitch.

December 29th 1975 - A sub-division of the research group is created. Their main objective is to attempt to re-engineer the flight technology in the Gate-Ships. Two of the three recovers ships are given over to the group for study.

November 1st `1978 - A young theoretical scientist by the name of Gary Smith released a paper describing a theoretical ion drive system based on an idea from Star Trek. Military officials coerced the scientist to withdraw the paper in return for joining the research team based out of the Devon research station .

April 1st 1989 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher approved the funding for ‘Project: Merlin’ an under the table research division that consisted of the re-arranged Devon research team. The creation of Project: Merlin enabled the British Military command to take ownership of any and all technology and patents created from the Lantian devices.

It also enabled the RAF to increase the research team under Dr Gary Smith


June 15th 1980 - Project: Merlin’s first major breakthrough wasn’t by Dr Smiths research team but one of the founding members of the original division, who had been looking into adapting a cylindrical power unit to accept earth-based power couplings. 0832 a light bulb was activated by the cylindrical power unit. 0832 and 2 seconds the light bulb exploded due to the amount of power . Work began on converting Project: Merlin’s small base to run off the power unit.

December 2nd 1980 - Work on converting Project: Merlin to run from the power unit was completed a week ahead of schedule

June 3rd 1981 - Disaster struck Project: Merlin when a researcher studying a Drone taken from a Gate Ship inadvertently set it off, destroying all but two of the Drones recovered, an entire wing of the research station and over fifty members of Project: Merlin.

Military officials passed the resulting explosion of as an accident on the firing range resulting in no injuries.

April 2nd 1982 - Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Despite coming under pressure to use the remaining flight-worthy Gate Ship, Military Officials refused to include the craft in the plans to retake the Islands.

April 3rd 1982 - Military Officials created another sub-division of Project: Merlin, it’s purpose was to create a operational human built craft using the Lantian propulsion unit from the Gate ships. Dr Smith’s division was doubled in manpower after Dr Smith produced a preliminary report into a possible propulsion unit reversed engineered form the Gate ships.

June 14th 1982 - Argentina Surrendered

[

[Dr Lee]

Pre- Reveal Backstory PT II

Spoiler:

B]July 17th 1984[/B] - The first test of Dr Smith’s propulsion unit resulted in a flight of the test mule of four feet in length and five centimeters in height and a duration of five minutes

May 16th 1985 - In amongst the objects recovered back in 1966 was a number of small rectangular L-shaped objects. When the Lantian language was translated these objects were found to personal hand weapons, similar to a handgun. Since that discovery a handful of weapons engineers and a pair of scientists spent a few hours on their own time a day researching a way to reverse engineer these weapons for use in the SAS and other branches of the British Army.

On May 16th 1985 a presentation of their creation was made to the Military Officials overseeing Project: Merlin. The ‘Phasers’, as they were jokingly named, emitted small bursts of energy that could render a healthy person unconscious for five minutes. Unfortunately the system consisted of a large generator worn on the users back with a tube connected to a fire hose sized barrel. The Military Officials granted the small team permission to push forward with the weapon research and testing, creating another Sub-division and tripling the number of the original team.

December 18th 1986 - Over two years after the first test flight of Dr Smith’s propulsion unit the fourth test was the next successful one. The test mule flew for a single mile with a high point of fifty metres and duration of an hour and a half.

June 12th 1987 - The first manned test flight of the ‘Smith-system’ extended the distance by ten metres and shortened the time by eight minutes.

June 13th 1987 - A day after the first manned flight of the Smith-System, the scientist and researchers tasked with the cloaking system recovered from the Gate Ships successfully cloaked a pile of five bricks for a full ten minutes.

Unfortunately the test was cut short when one of the researchers accidently bumped the table holding the bricks, sending two crashing down onto his right foot.

September 28th 1987 - In conjunction with sub-division creating a vehicle for the Smith Propulsion system a BAE Hawk T.1 trainer aircraft was retrofitted with the propulsion system and operated a short test flight out Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island.

July 1st 1988 - After a number of successful flights with the retrofitted Hawk, Project: Merlin commissioned the construction of the sub-divisions craft design and the creation of a space-focused division.

August 10th 1989 - The first test flight of the experimental craft lasted two laps around Ascension Island before technical problems curtailed the flight. In general, despite the difficulties, the test flight was considered a success

August 10th 1989 – July 21st 1990 - Test flight after test flight took place over Ascension Island, each flight improving on the one before.

November 19th 1989 - The first activation of the Ryan-O’Brian cloaking system aboard the experimental craft took place. Thirteen minutes into the flight the cloak disengaged unexpectedly.

January 3rd 1990 - A ground-side test of the experimental crafts cloaking system resulted in five activations and de-activations in a row over a five hour period. After this test, the retrofitted cloaking system, ten years in the making, was labelled complete and both Dr Ryan and O’Brian received honours that were not included in the New Years honours list released a few days beforehand.

March 29th 1990 - A test flight between Ascension Island and HMS Invincible took place. Invincible was stationed 100 miles off shore of Ascension Island. The experimental craft completed both the outgoing and return flights with only a few small technical niggles to blemish the flight.

July 15th 1990 - The creation of a second, larger, Experimental craft began

August 2nd 1990 - The start of hostilities began, ultimately resulting in the first Persian Gulf War

January 16th 1991 - Operation Desert Storm commenced. Unlike the Falklands war The British military command approved the use of the sole working Gate Ship in a recon-role only. The Intel received via the Gate Ship was instrumental in the rapid victory the Coalition Forces scored over the Iraqi troops lasting only a few days.


July 7th 1991 - The design for the second experimental craft was finalized. Larger than the first, the second craft would be capable of carrying a small number of troops anywhere in the world within a few hours.

July 26th 1991 - Construction began on the second Experimental craft

September 12th 1991 - The first space flight of the original experimental craft took place at 0930. The lone operational Gate Ship accompanied the craft up to a height of 105km

February 12th 1992 - The team overseeing the creation of a human built Lantian disruptor weapon, as the original weapons name was revealed to be, presented their fourth presentation of their work to the Military Officials in charge of Project: Merlin. Since the first presentation in 1985 the team was able to reduce the size of the weapon to that of a small Sub-Machine gun while increasing the rate of fire to a shot every 30 seconds. In addition to the reduction in size, the power source had been greatly updated and a simpler method of creating them was devised.

The Military panel approved the request for field trials with four of the 7 weapons created.

July 4th 1993 - The second experimental craft created from Lantian technology is completed and enters trials. Equipped with only a pair of 30mm cannons the crafts main role would be infiltration and extraction of SAS squads in places they never visit.

July 5th 1993 - The craft is ‘officially’ given a classification, the ST(Stealth Transport)-802 Shimmer.

September 3rd 1993 - The ‘Shimmer’ completes trails and is put into active service with the SAS.

October 8th 1994 - A second ‘Shimmer’ craft begins construction

January 10th 1995 - The first un-official mission involving a ‘Shimmer’ doesn’t take place.

June 6th 1995 - The second Shimmer craft enters service

[Dr Lee]

Pre-Reveal Backstory PT III

Spoiler:

October 28th 1996 - Underneath NORAD Dr Daniel Jackson opens the Stargate for the first time

November 10th 1996 –November 12th 1996 - A team headed by Colonel Jack O’Neill travels through the Stargate to Abydos where they meet Ra, the leader of a parasitic race that controls most of the Milky Way Two days later O’Neill and only a fraction of the original team return after defeating Ra. Dr Daniel Jackson stays on Abydos.

December 18th 1996 - Field trials of the Lantian reverse engineered weapon, known by the SAS teams trialling it as the ‘Stunner’, end with all parties involved claiming a massive success. An order for all SAS teams to be equipped with Stunners goes out.

May 1st 1997 - Tony Blair replaces John Major as Prime Minister of Britain. One of his first acts as PM would be to double the number of Shimmer craft in operation and to approve the creation of an offensive craft using the Smith Propulsion system.

July 27th 1997 - A small squad of Alien soldiers arrive on Earth via the disused stargate, capturing a single airwoman before retreating through the stargate.

July 28th 1997 - Jack O’Neill is recalled to active service to lead a rescue mission to recover the missing airwoman.

The mission fails and propels Earth into a Galactic battle lasting eons. It is also the first mission of the fledgling Stargate Command under General George Hammond.


February 23rd 1998 - Using information from a sleeper inside the SGC Project: Merlin is able to translate the last of the Lantian symbols. A number of seven symbol sequences are revealed as locations in the Milky way that hold, or held Lantian technology.

March 27th 1998 - Work begins on an unmanned drone that would be capable of travelling to the locations revealed over a month before, Scout and record information about what could be at the locations, then return to Earth.

June 3rd 1998 - Two Goa’uld Ha’tak ships appear in orbit over Earth. As luck would have it, all space worthy craft in the RAF are down for maintenance or on missions

Buy the time a Shimmer is available and sent out both Ha’tak ships explode. With their cloak switched on, the Shimmer’s only act in the incident is to watch as two Goa’uld death Gliders are recovered by the Space Shuttle
August 1st 1998 - The British government decide to keep knowledge of Project: Merlin classified, instead of revealing its existence to the USAF and the SGC.

With the knowledge of hostile space-going vessels with earths location roaming the Milky Way the order for a space going missile to be researched and built is sent out from the PM’s office.

October 1st 1998 - The first of the Recon Drones is launched on its two year mission.

Under pressure to present a viable fighter craft design, Project: Merlin produces a variant of the Shimmer. Gone would be the cargo/troop space, and in its place would be a series of missile tubes.


September 9th 1998 - The first test of a missile sized Smith Propulsion unit takes place. The single thrusters powered up for a full 9 seconds before exploding

December 9th 1998 - The last of the Recon Drones is launched.

February 3rd 1999 - Prime Minister Tony Blair approves the creation of a new Division of Project: Merlin. This new division ‘s main objective is to research the Lantian Hyper drive system detailed on one of the numerous Lantian data storage devices recovered in 1966.

The aim of this division is to justify the research and creation of a long range space-worthy craft.

January 2nd 2000 - Still suffering a hangover from the Millennium celebrations the R&D division working on a Smith propulsion Missile successfully fired, flew and struck an intended target with a prototype missile

February 14th 2000 - The first space test took place of a Smith propulsion Missile. The remaining working Gate Ship was retrofitted to carry a single missile. Upon arrival on the far side of the moon, the missile was fired and successfully executed a series of turns before being run into the surface of the moon.

March 10th 2000 - An unknown alien ship arrives in orbit over earth. With the second Shimmer craft in service Britain sends both to intercept the ship. While on-route Project: Merlin receives word from their SGC mole about the true nature of the ships origins and reason for arrival.

With orders to observe from a distance the two Shimmers sat a few thousand miles away from the Replicator infested Asgard ship, only moving in when the ship started its descent to Earth , though their orders were only to shadow the Asgard ship.

April 8th 2000 - Despite heavy pressure Prime Minister Tony Blair refuses to reveal the existence of Project: Merlin and the technological advances it had brought to Britain’s Armed Forces, to the SGC or the USAF.

May 16th 2000 - A test on an Earth built force field takes place at Project: Merlin’s main base in the Devon military firing range. The force field stays activated for over two days and withstands a series of impact tests. A researcher is injured during a firearms test from a ricocheting bullet.

May 19th 2000 - The original experimental craft is used to test the force field technology in space. The resulting force field is strong enough to withstand re-entry into earth’s atmosphere with no damage to the crafts hull.

May 20th 2000 - It is decided to include the force field technology into the systems of all operational Shimmer craft , as well as being built into all planned Shimmer craft.

June 21st 2000 - The final Recon Drone returns. None of the drones record any sign of Lantian technology at their search zones.

The eleven Recon Drones are handed over to MI5 and MI6 and used in espionage operations alongside active units.

September 9th 2000 - On a test flight of the X-301 Fighter-interceptor, Colonel Jack O’Neill and Teal’c are stranded in outer space when disaster strikes.

Insistent that Project: Merlin should remain secret, Prime Minister Tony Blair orders that no rescue mission is to take place using any Shimmer craft or the lone Gate-Ship.

January 9th 2001 - Research into the Lantian Hyper Drive reaches the testing stage. With fears of disaster on a world-wide scale if the test fails, plans are drawn up to create a small base on Mars using the Force Field technology

With the shimmer fighter variant suffering numerous set backs the research division is disbanded and the two craft frames are retrofitted to act as cargo carriers

May 17th 2001 - At 0230 two Shimmers leave RAF Wideawake on Ascension Island along with the two retrofitted Cargo Shimmers, both laden with enough supplies to create a viable base of operations on the Martian surface.

May 19th 2001 - The four craft arrive over the Martian planet.

May 21st 2001 - Construction on a slightly longer variant of the Shimmer begins. The main duty of this Shimmer is to ferry back and forth between the Mars Hyper drive testing facility and Earth.

May 28th 2001 - The Hyper drive testing station, built on the surface of Mars, is brought online.

July 18th 2001 - The first test of a Rail gun for operation on the Shimmer takes place In the Atlantic Ocean. While not a complete success, it is felt that the research team are close to creating a viable weapon.

[Dr Lee]

Pre-Reveal Backstory PT VI

Spoiler:

September 11th 2001 - Four Hijacked passenger planes crash in Eastern United States, Two strike the World Trade Centre, one hits the Pentagon while the final plane impacts in a field after a fight back by the planes passengers.

Within hours the attacks are revealed to have been perpetrated by a group Called Al Quada. Their leader is revealed to be in Afghanistan and numerous Spooks and Special Forces from around the world are sent to the country to search for him and the rest of the Al Quada leadership team.

Four teams of SAS soldiers are orders out to the country along with two of the four Shimmer transport craft and a single Shimmer cargo craft.

Using both the shield and cloaking technology created from the Lantian technology a small Forward Operating Base (FOB) is set up in Northern Afghanistan.

November 1st 2001 - The first physical test takes place of a Human built Lantian hyper drive unit. A hyper drive Drone explodes on activation, sending the research crew back to the drawing board.

December 9th 2001 - The larger Shimmer Variant, classified as the ST-802-B, enters service as transport between Earth and the Mars Hyper drive base.

December 21st 2001 - A ninth test of the Rail Gun Weapons system takes place and is deemed a complete success.

The dismantled team researching a Fighter variant of the Shimmer is rebuilt with the rail gun weapons system as a basis for its offensive capabilities.

February 21st 2002 - The second Hyper drive test takes place. Unlike the first test, which exploded upon activation, this test is able to travel to Pluto before exiting hyperspace and exploding moments later.

April 5th 2002 - The SGC mole alerts Project: Merlin to a large Asteroid that is set to collide with Earth. The Mole details the SGC’s plan to destroy the Asteroid before it destroys Earth.

Once again, despite immense pressure from Military Chiefs, Prime Minister Tony Blair demands that the Shimmer craft, and Britain’s small reserve of Space worthy missiles, are ordered to stay on stand-by rather than assist the SGC’s attempts to save earth. Blair goes as far as to re-assign Project: Merlin’s second in Command for voicing his dis-pleasure at the continued secrecy around Project Merlin.

It is only when the SGC mole alerts Project: Merlin to the apparent destruction of the Goa’uld cargo ship carrying SG-1 that Blair approves a strike by the lone Gate-Ship equipped with the external missile rail, still attached from the missile test back in February 2000, loaded with a nuclear missile.

Upon arrival at the Asteroid the Gate Ship picks up chatter between O’Neill and the Cargo ship. When the news is radioed back to Whitehall, Blair repeats his order not to reveal themselves to the USAF team.

The Gate Ship is forced to watch as SG-1 flies the Asteroid through Earth via a short hyperspace jump.

May 19th 2002 - Officially Dr Daniel Jackson is killed after being exposed to a lethal level of radiation, in reality he ascends to a height plane of existence.

June 13th 2002 – Earth comes under attack from Anubis. Using a particle emitter the Goa’uld causes the Earth Stargate to gradually build up energy to a point where it would explode and obliterate Earth.

With the fact that Britain has no ships capable of transporting the volatile Stargate far enough away from Earth, Prime Minister Tony Blair once again refuses to extend any assistance to the US and the SGC.

Instead he orders all four working Shimmers to transport VIP’s to the Mars research base, while the modified transport shimmers would carry supplies.

As Blair arrives at Project: Merlin’s Devon base to take a Shimmer to Mars, a large flash is seen in the morning sky. Word comes through moments later that the SGC’s efforts were successful and Earth

With operations through the Stargate ceased Blair debates revealing the existence of Project: Merlin. Before a decision is made, the SGC mole reveals that the weapon still thought to be targeting an active stargate on Earth is, in fact, destroyed.

June 21st 2002 – A Goa’uld mother ship arrives in orbit above Earth. A single Shimmer is dispatched to intercept the large craft, but while on-route, the SGC mole reveals that it is not a hostile craft and the Shimmer is ordered back to base.

Hours later the Goa’uld Ha’tak falls into the Pacific Ocean before exploding.

June 28th 2002 - The SGC mole reveals Intel that the SGC is researching and building its own space worthy ship using knowledge and technology form recovered Goa’uld ships

June 29th 2002 - Prime Minister Tony Blair hands finalises a directive that stats that all Project: Merlin assets were to refrain from contact with USAF personnel or space craft unless an act of last resort or specifically ordered to by the PM’s office.

A separate announcement orders the active Shimmer fleet to be doubled and the research into the offensive variant of the Shimmer tripled.

August 13th 2002 – The first of the offensive Shimmer variants begins construction.

A new fighter craft design is approved and work on a prototype begins construction

August 23rd 2002 - A small group of Terrorists posing as a TV crew gain access to the X-303, Earths first hyperspace-capable space ship. When word reaches Britain that the ship has left its construction berth, Three Shimmers are despatched to a position to intercept the ship if it attempts to attack British soil.

A with other extra-terrestrial incidents the ST-820s role is that of an observer only.

February 14th 2003 – The USA and the SGC reveal the existence of both the Stargate Command and the numerous space-worthy craft in operation by America to representatives from China France and Britain.

[Finger13]

What's involved with being able to judge this challenge?

I'd like to participate in the judging for this one if possible.

[boberth2o]

There are 6 hours remaining! Be good and get your submissions in and label its your final. I see that everyone is doing a spectacular job and I hope you luck in the judging process!

I edited the First Post with everything today.

[knowles2]

Final Entry for challenge 5

Ancient Computer Room

Awakening set.jpg

History
[SPOILERS]I have just relies in the 28 years I been writing this diary I have never written about my life work beginnings, well where did it all began, the first recorded discovery of the cavern was made in 1901 a Edward Radcliff why exploring his country house grounds. As he ran into a cave he came across something the artificial structure (shame the greatest discovery in archeology had to be made by bloody kid). Too young to fully understand what he found he convinces his much older bother to come see the structure him. The structure itself was heavily damage, except for a flickering crystal risen up from a slot in the ground. The ceiling has partially collapse.

Eventually both relies they have found something important, they contacted their local police officer, who after hours of nagging, they finally manage to convince him to come to the cave. Shocked and frighten of what had discovered he alerted the local military commander.

The commander alerted London, and after much convincing sent down a team of scientist, who after several days of exploration, confirmed that the structure is unlike anything they have ever seen, and is artificially built, and way beyond any known technology. The ministry immediately bought the country house and all surrounding land and set up a army base to the un informed, one of Britain top research bases to the people in the know.
Over the course of twenty years various came and went, all studying the structure, all made little to know breakthroughs. At the height of the project during world war 1 over a hundred scientist work on the project with little success, apart from one scientist who manage to light up one of the control panels this shorted out the crystals and a power overload, whatever was powering the device stopped, I believe the American have named is a ZPM, (a highly inaccurate name if I may say so, any way it stop functioning shortly afterwards) the scientist was electrocuted and died shortly afterwards. No activity from the structure was ever reported again during this period of research.

The project was put on hold during the twenties and early thirties. It was rapidly reactivated after the spread of Nazism’s across Europe, with the ministry believe it could provide some new weapon (they had no idea what they were dealing with). During the war the scientist were beginning to gain a basic understand of the technology they were dealing with, this process accelerated after the war when Tommy Flowers Allen Coombs, Sid Broadhurst and Bill Chandler all reassign from Bletchley Park to study the device.

They quickly formed the theory that the crystals, many of which were damage, perfume something similar to the valves in Colossus, although the technology was way ahead of anything on earth; the device was like a giant computer. They spent a full two years working nonstop on the device, abandoning their own computer research and focusing all their efforts into understanding the device.

Although they knew they were near to a breakthrough (what this breakthrough was I have never been able to discover, it seem they took it to their graves has revenge for the cancellation of the project).
After connecting up an electricity generator to the structure, and managing to achieve some success in sending electricity into the system they could never get it to work. The government short on resources and funds cancel the project after the power generators overloaded and exploded, causing way more damaging to the cave and more importantly the device (Making my job even harder). Although they knew the core of the system survive were never given a chance to carry out repairs.

It would not be until the 1981 until the project started up again. A PHD student (the writer of this diary) at Liverpool University computer department developed ideas for a light base computer system, that would operation entirely on light instead electrical impulses (revolutionary at the time), operating everything at the speed of light tens of trillions of calculations could be done per second, with the data stored in crystals, I theories that crystal base storage device could hold tens of thousands of terabytes.

My dear friend, James Shuttle, just a lab assistance in the forties, working under Bill chandler, and my work reminded him of the device and the crystals. He kept a sample of one of crystals, which he stole (well he gave it back eventually, took him forty year through). Me and James spent many months working in the lab with lasers, telescopes, spectrometers, we succeeded in accessing some of the information stored on the crystal but much of it seemed be either encrypted or damage be young recover. They knew if they could get access to more of the crystal and even the structure itself they could further work. (Okay, here I am going to be honest we did not technically succeed in getting the data off the crystal,, we just made it look like we did so we could access to the site, would not achieve this breakthrough until, the year 1990).

After months of meetings with the Department of Defense, and a demonstration our research (which was faked), we gained access to the structure and more importantly the device. The structure at this time was even more damage now than in the forties, with the cave collapsing around us and many of the consoles heavily damage. (I knew it was bad but well I did not think it was as bad as it was)
The scientist knew themselves that they would to effectively have to rebuild the structure and eventually the device from scratch, using what was left and designing and building replacements parts as they went.

The project was slow; the structure itself was so unstable that it took almost two years before it was safe to working in without helmets. An additional five years was spent taking part the device, bit by bit noting each bit as we went, slowly building up schematics of the device from the outside to inside of the device. Apart from the engineering crew there to stabilize and repair the structures and to build new power facilities, (the device suck power like there was no tomorrow) most of the research was carried out by us, at first we had to get to the stage that the big wigs thought we were at too stop other scientist from spilling the beans and getting us chuck off the project. After ten long years we finally developed their interface technology for accessing the crystals.

Unfortunately James died in 1992, just after we successfully tested the interface. Leaving me, of all people, in charge of the project, a brave decision. Although we suffered a great lost, me and the other scientist were slowly making progress in rebuilding and repairing the device, much of it was having to done with earth built components, we replicated from the device as close as possible and it was slow progress.
Through the study of device alone had advanced our knowledge of computer engineering by a couple hundred years ahead of anyone else on the planet. In 1995 when we successfully grew our own crystals and manage to record information onto them.
By 2003 the device has been fully repaired, well there was one or two glitches that needed to be iron out, their remain one challenge through, we have made much progress in the hardware, and even built our own crystal based computers 1996 is when we achieve 20 petaflops per second, 12 years before public systems, except theirs took up an entire warehouse, ours was the size of a fridge. I hear GCHQ made good use combining several dozen of these together to enable them decrypt all encrypted communications on earth. That remind me must listen to tapes we have on former president Clinton, I hear they contain some rather juicy conversations.
We were nowhere near translating the Ancients language, which was needed to be done to enable the team (me) to write the data access protocols needed to bridge the earth technology with the alien operating system, it seem the system is capable of rewriting it own code to enable communication but not enough to make accessing the information possible. We could access raw data; ones and zeros, and turn them into symbol. Translating this into English was our next major challenge. Little did we know that the UK American ambassador would be bringing us some much needed help.

Soon after the American disclosure of their Stargate program, and no we will not be telling them about our little project here, much of the information made available to us was non military, although most of the info we was not really interested in, what we wanted was Daniel Jackson notes on the ancient language and how to translate it. This was quickly obtained; through we had to use a MI6 contact inside the Trust to get it info.

We made quick work on programming the interfaces to the device and in a little less than a year worth of work the Ancient/human hybrid computer was bought fully online, with an interactive hologram to guide and teach its users, okay I will admit I rebuilt the holographic emitter without knowing what they were, same as the sensors, at first we thought most of the knowledge/information was lost. Lucky for us an Ancient recovery algorithm recovered much of the knowledge up to 98% of the data was recovered, there was know way to be certain exactly what was lost.
Through we discover that the early history of the ancients and knowledge of Merlin cavern was either never there or was lost in the repairing and rebuilding of the device.
The ancient core, as I have named it, okay so I may of borrowed from the Asgard here, so sue me, contained many other functions, such as a matter conversion device, still non operational, having access to the Asgard core may help in making repairs, I have been told MI6 are working on gaining access, the subspace sensors are partially operational, we should have them fully operational by the end of the year, quicker progress could been made if Groding did not sacrifice himself on that satellite and receive the design spec from Atlantis database. The full potential of the core has still not been fully relies but progress is moving faster than expected.
The project will soon be relocated to an alternate facility currently being built on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean at the beginning of 2009, project Valiant is currently under construction at several sites and will be relocated to the new base of operations shortly afterwards, early February. Expected date of completion 2010, we are so going to pissed off well everyone the Americans, Chinese and the Russians and well the French to.
Especially considering the shields I have design using the core, will make the Asgard weapon systems obsolete. I think I will leave that detail out until the first war games are arranged. I hear Colonel Ellis of the Apollo is rather arrogant; it should be fun seeing his face when his vessels Asgard weapons are off no use.
Through I must give credit to Merlin and Janus for designing a great AI for the core, it put the Asgard version to shame.
[/QUOTE]

[Dr Lee]

Righty... decided to stop my post-Reveal Backstory at Camelot (S9E20)...

Part I

Spoiler:

February 14th 2003 – The USA and the SGC reveal the existence of both the Stargate Command and the numerous space-worthy craft in operation by America to representatives from China France and Britain.

With the increasing threat to Earth form Anubis the SGC and Russia invites representatives from Britain, China and France to a meeting where the existence of the SGC is revealed to France and China. With the standing order to not reveal the existence of ‘Project: Merlin’ to the US or the SGC, the British Ambassador is forced to play along with the shock exhibited by China and France.

February 20th 2003 – After reading the report from both the ambassador and the files given out by the SGC in accordance to the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to share information on the SGC, Prime Minister Tony Blair reluctantly agrees to reveal Project: Merlin to the US.

March 5th 2003 – Project: Merlin is revealed to the US and the SGC. Understandably furious at the lack of trust from a trusted Ally the US demands access and details on the ST-820 while placing Britain at the bottom of the BC-303 customer list as punishment for standing idly by during the many global incidents that have occurred since the start of the Stargate Program.

Britain’s request for a SAS Off-World Team is also denied. Britain’s request for a recovered Alkesh Hyper drive is granted in return for the Martian Research base being upgraded to include a number of American Scientists.

March 12th 2003 - The Prototype Fighter plane completes test trials and is brought into service with the RAF. Classified the F-290 Sparrow, the single sweater craft is equipped with a cloak generator that can be modified with a flick of a switch into a shield, two 20mm cannons and four space-capable missiles.

A single squadron of 15 fighters is created and based out of Ascension Island.

March 21st 2003 - A joint US British team of scientists start work on possibly upgrading the F-302, one of the two types of space-worthy craft built by the US, engine layout to the proven Lantian thruster from the inefficient aero spike/thruster layout on the F-302.

March 28th 2003 – With the knowledge that Britain is last on the list to receive a BC-303, and with the Alkesh hyper drive unit recently delivered to Project: Merlin’s secondary base on Ascension Island, Work begins on the design phase of a counterpart to the BC-303.

April 15th 2003 – Work into integrating the Smith Propulsion system into the F-302 is completed. Instead of two aero spike engines and a rocket thruster, the F-302 is powered by two Smith Propulsion System thrusters.

June 13th 2003 – The first flight in anger of an F-302 equipped with the Smith Propulsion system takes place against Anubis’ mother ship.

July 14th 2003 - The design for a British counterpart to the BC-303 is finalized and construction begins. Early estimates put the completion date as August 12th 2004

July 18th 2003 - The US orders ten ST-820 transport craft while the Prime Minister orders eight more F-290 Sparrows.

August 1st 2003 – A hyper drive test from the Martian research base does not end with the test mule exploding after it travels almost a million miles through space.

September 4th 2003 – the construction of the Fighter variant to the ST-820 is ceased and all research for this is stopped. The teams involved are spread across all the separate divisions in Project: Merlin.

November 28th 2003– Dr Daniel Jackson and Dr Bill Lee are captured during a mission in South America. With the majority of the SGC marines recovering after the mission to capture a Kull Warrior, A new soldier clone created by Anubis, the SGC requests a SAS team accompany Colonel O’Neill to South America on the rescue mission. A single ST-820 is used to transport the team to the remote location.

December 1st 2003 – The rescue team return to the SGC with both Drs Jackson and Lee in tow.

January 4th 2004 – A fourth hyper drive test form the Martian research base takes place without incident. Plans are drawn up for a manned test.

February 15th 2004 – While on a normal recon mission SG-13 is ambushed by a small group of Jaffa. As part of preparations for a SAS off-world team a number of SAS officers are at the SGC when the distress call is received and are granted permission to join the rescue team.

Unfortunately the mission is FURBAR’d and the rescue team encounters a large number of Jaffa, as well as Goa’uld Death Gliders and Alkesh. During the fight to SG-13 and back to the gate, a single SAS officer is KIA while two SGC officers are WIA and the CMO of the SGC, leading the medical team to the wounded SG-13 officer, is KIA.

March 5th 2004 – William Hayes takes the office of the President of the United States and becomes aware of the existence of both the SGC and Project: Merlin during his first morning in office.

Wiping the slate clean over Britain not revealing Merlin to its closest Ally, President Hayes approves the creation of two British more SAS teams, over the single team recently created, once a major investigation into the SGC is completed.

March 12th 2004 - As part of the investigation into the SGC President Henry Hayes replaces General George Hammond as head of the SGC.

Only a day before this, Colonel Jack O’Neill is brought back through the Stargate after placing his head inside a Lantian data repository.

March 16th 2004 - A few hours after Dr Elizabeth Weir, Hayes’ replacement for Hammond. takes office, Master Bra’tac, Teal’cs mentor and leader of the Jaffa Rebellion, arrives on Earth with a stark warning.

Anubis is on his way to Earth…. And he’s not happy.

March 17th 2004- Alerted to the approaching threat. The order is given by Prime Minister Tony Blair to move all important research and personnel involved with Project: Merlin to the Martian Research base.

Four ST-820s are used to ferry personnel and much of the research to Mars, while the two Cargo ST-820s are employed for the larger items.

SG-1 uses a Goa’uld Cargo ship to fly to Procolrous Taonash , a planet that O’Neill, suffering from complications from placing his head in the Lantian data repository, believes contains technology that can stop Anubis.

March 18th 2004 – Anubis arrives in Orbit over Earth and starts taking out communication stations and a US aircraft Carrier Group.

The F-290 Sparrows are placed on immediate alert while two ST-820s are employed to scout the Goa’uld attack fleet and relay information back to both Britain and the US.

March 19th 2004 – SG-1 return to Earth from their mission to gather technology to defeat Anubis with Intel that a weapon is on Antarctica on Earth.

All 23 Sparrow fighters are Launched form their Ascension Island base as the Cargo ship carrying SG-1 descends to the Antarctic plains. A few minutes later both the BC-303 and a large number of F-302s are launched from McMurdo.

In an amazing stroke of luck both the Sparrow squadron and the F-302s reach SG-1 moments before a large attack force of Alkesh and Death Gliders arrive in attack range.

The battle for Earth is started.

With the BC-303 arriving and taking station above SDG-1s cargo ship both the Sparrows and F-302s dance across the Antarctic skies with the Goa’uld gliders and Alkesh.

With Anubis launching Ha’tak strikes from orbit on the BC-303, General Hammond, temporarily in command of the Earth battle cruiser, decides to take the fight to Anubis and starts a run on the Goa’uld fleet.

With Ammunition levels and craft dropping fast both the Sparrows and F-302s start to become overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Goa’uld ships. Just as all seemed lost, a massive body of glowing golden shapes burst out of the Antarctic tundra and starts flowing up into space. Any Goa’uld ship that comes too close to the objects is destroyed. Moments later large flashes are seen in the sky and the BC-303 sends down a report that the Goa’uld fleet is being ripped to shreds.

March 20th 2004 - The day after.

Out of the 23 Sparrow fighters that entered the battle only 8 survived intact, with another 7 suffering heavy damage. Eight Sparrows were destroyed, with just one pilot surviving.

The BC-303 is heavily damaged while the majority of the F-302s are damaged or destroyed. Colonel Jack O’Neill is entombed in a Lantian stasis pod deep beneath the Antarctic tundra.

Using the two Cargo ST-820s and a transport ST-820 British and US forces comb wreckage of the Goa’uld fleet for any salvageable technology. While combing the wreckage a pair of Cargo ships are found heavily damaged along with innumerous numbers of Zat’nit’a’tels and Staff weapons floating in Earth’s orbit.

The Cargo ship SG-1 used to travel to Proclarous Taonash and back to earth is taken to Area 51 for both British and American scientists to study the upgrades O’Neill made while under the influence of the Lantian Data repository.

While the BC-303 put up one hell of a fight during the battle, it is decided to create a new class fo Space ship with the numerous Asgard technologies currently in Earths arsenal built into the design, rather than bolted on after construction.

April 10th 2004 - Negotiations begin over the Antarctic subterranean Lantian installation. A small group of international Scientists is assembled and based at the Lantian facility in an attempt to uncover any, and all, information from the technology below the Ice.

June 1st 2004 - The frame for the first British Battleship is completed. Work on the internal systems continues

July 9th 2004 – Earth has a new foe….. The Replicators.

Colonel Jack O’Neill is revived from the Lantian Stasis Chamber he had entered moments after the battle for Earth a few months previous, and promoted to Brigadier General and given Command of the SGC. General Hammond, The SGC’s first commander is promoted and given command of Home world Security, The American counterpart to Project: Merlin.

General Hammond’s first official act is to approve the creation of the Daedalus and work begins on construction the framework of the new ship.