August 6, 1999
Past and Present
The young woman sat in her guest room and cried. the woman didn't even know who she was. Was she Ke'ra a genius in science and medicine who wanted only that which was the best for her people? Or was she Linea an ancient bitter old crone who hated every living thing and only wanted them to suffer for some slight, real or imagined from several decades ago.
She tried so hard to consolidate her two diametrically different personalities. But in the end she couldn't so she wrote a note explaining that she could not risk Linea ever getting out to create havoc again and quietly took her own life.
The people who had grown to care for her wept for her and her tortured choice, even as they understood that that was the only way to be sure the monster would never awaken.
August 13, 1999
Foothold
SG-1 returns from a mission to the scene of controlled chaos. It seems that SG-6 had stirred up a hornets nest on their last mission causing the aliens to begin chasing and then firing at them. Only their enhanced armor allowed them to return to the base relatively unscathed but they reported that the race was at least nominally spacefaring.
How advanced they were, was as yet unclear. The one piece of information they were able to glean from this particular species was their rather ingenious chameleon tech.
August 20, 1999
Tangent
After much interest in the stargate. NOVA as well as other science programs worldwide was given general information on the goings on in and around the gate to be distributed to the public. The first few programs dedicated to the history and politics behind the gate were interesting but the most anticipated episode in the mini-series was the tech show about to start.
"Hello. My name is Dr. Daniel Jackson you've seen earlier that I'm an archeologist and linguist. In today's episode we are going to be going over some of the technology being developed because of the stargate program.
One of the main technologies discovered and being deployed is the planetary shield matrix."
A holographic planet appeared on a device beside him showing a soccer ball grid around the planet.
"Creating these forcefield generators will be our primary defense against any hostile aliens. However we cannot complete the grid until world war three has been won because of the potential disaster that could happen if not everyone on the planet is willing to participate in our mutual defense.
To plug the holes both figuratively and literally we are developing space ships reverse engineered and built from the ground up.
The first ship up for testing is the X-301."
The hologram changed to a sloped wing fighter craft.
The X in the title stands for experimental. And that is all this plane will be. The X-301 project is merely a test bed to find out what works. What doesn't and what works best together.
Once all those systems have been thoroughly tested the X project will move on to the next stage."
The hologram changed to a more refined looking fighter craft.
"The X-302 will take everything we have learned about small craft space flight and put it together into this craft to iron out all the last minor bugs found in every new design. Once finished the craft will, in America at least be given a name change to the F-302. F being the military's designation for fighter.
The third ship I'll show you the general overview of today will be the X-303 Prometheus. Like the X-301 the Prometheus is going to be a test bed ship. Testing all of the tech we have created in our attempts to take our first real steps to the stars when creating larger large crew ships.
Once all testing is done the X-304 yet to be designed will begin production.
Back to the 301 the general layout of the ship is simple a two man canopy, energy source or sources, engine or engines for propulsion modular weapons for mission specific load outs as well as defensive systems. We have quite a few of our enemies Death gliders so we can be pretty sure we can out preform and out survive our enemies craft.
The show cut to other scientists as they began to go over the science in detail over the possible systems of the 301.
August 27, 1999
In news from the capitol today the latest controversial bill dubbed the Minute Man bill has passed. This bill makes it mandatory for every head of household in the country to own at least an Intar stun weapon. And while there are several exemptions in the bill, proponents point to the several state towns that have similar laws in place. Pointing at the crime rate being at less than five per-cent and the ability for everyone in the town to be able to defend their homes in the event of war either from planetary or extra-terrestrial threat.
In world news another country has fallen to the Allied forces allowing engineers access to the land to begin erecting the next in the planetary shield matrix.
Area 51 X-301 testing area.
Scientists were arguing as usual, this time it happened to be about the power sources available to put on the ship. Some were arguing for the sheer power available to them from the ZPM. But were generally shot down due to the sheer time it took to charge one of those things up. The general argument was over a mana capacitor with or without a darksteel ingot charger and whether or not to add backup naquadah generators.
The final decision was capacitor with ingot as well as two backup reactors.
The next argument was over propulsion. Which engines would be going into the craft? The jet and aero-spike configuration was scrapped for the fuel-less engine developed for the naquadah transport jets. This provided thrust for in atmosphere flight. The sub-light engines were decided on the Novin design to max out on speed potential. And finally a small hyperdrive window generator was installed the greater power of the mana capacitor allowed short in system hyperspace windows to be used which was something no other race yet encountered had the ability to do.
Aside from the other needed systems like life support and inertial dampers. The next systems installed and tested were the defensive ones.
Armor was generally better material then death glider hulls but was still generally unimpressive. The best defense was the Novin repulsor shield which hovered a few inches from the hull in its characteristic hexagonal framework. And covered by a second shield similar to the Ancient design in that it allowed two modes, the general shield mode, and the cloak mode.
The military was so impressed with the cloak mode that they ordered the system to be installed on a new spy/ sensor probe being built and dubbed the Observer. This new tech would house a mana capacitor and be constantly cloaked as well as have the most powerful sensors the Tau'ri were able to produce as well as sub-light engines. Allowing it to go through the gate and scan any planet without being detected.
The modular weapon systems were giving the technicians the biggest headache. It was finally decided to install rail guns and the new micro missile systems as standard as well as hard points for the upgraded nuclear naquadah missiles, or any other chosen missile. But the energy weapons could be interchangeable. Four hard points allowed for every energy weapon type the Tau'ri currently had access to two of those hard points would be on turret style blisters on the wings allowing a full field of fire all around the craft.