Destiny

"The design is clearly Ancient, in the truest sense of the word. Launched hundreds of thousands of years ago. Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace. Who knows how far it's traveled."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny is a ship in the Ancient fleet, constructed and launched around fifty million years ago from Earth. Destiny itself following in their path to explore those planets and piece together fragments of a complex message embedded in the fabric of the universe itself. After beginning this process, the Ancients initially planned to wait until the ship reached a sufficient distance from Earth to board it. However, because of other endeavors, such as Ascension, they never followed through on the plan. Because of this, Destiny has continued on a pre-programmed path on its journey throughout the stars, alone, for millions of years. With the arrival of a Starfleet expedition in 2381, Destiny has a new crew.

Specifications
"It is spectacular, isn't it?"

- David Telford

Destiny itself is relatively flat and triangular in shape. The left and right sides are markedly concave, while the aft portion of the ship is convexly rounded. The ship is very long and becomes more narrow towards the bow. The surface of the ship is covered with layers of textural elements, including a large number of triple-barreled weapon turrets and anti-fighter emplacements. Some doors in Destiny's interior are accompanied by a small control panel. The small blue light on a door panel indicates it is on automatic. Beneath that, the red and amber lights indicate whether the door is locked or unlocked, respectively. Below the large round button, along the bottom of the panel, are eight small buttons with ancient writing on them that allow for manual overrides or door code changes. Destiny is capable of faster than light travel (FTL) but not by means of hyperdrive engines. The FTL drive spans the full rear of the ship. It predates the Ancient Technology Activation gene security feature featured in the outposts and in Lantean technology, instead having an incredibly complex master code based on an advanced Ancient DNA sequence. This access code is required for access to systems such as navigation and advanced power management, but not for basic weapon and shield control.

History
"This ship was launched to solve a mystery, not by arriving at some ultimate destination where all the questions are answered at one time, but by accumulating knowledge bit by bit."

- Nicholas Rush

The Ancients discovered a pattern in the Cosmic microwave background radiation; recognizing that the pattern could not have been natural in origin, the Ancients concluded that its presence suggested an order to the universe never thought possible, possibly some kind of message. However, the message was fragmented and could not be recovered. To that end, they devoted the efforts of an entire generation to the construction of Destiny, the purpose of which was to find and reassemble the fragments, completing the message. It was their intention to further their knowledge of the Universe, but they abandoned the project as they started researching into Ascension. Nonetheless, the Destiny continued to go from planet to planet, system to system, galaxy to galaxy for millions of years. Over its long journey, Destiny sustained significant damage. Though some of the damage is simply neglect, as the ship has been left unmanned far longer than intended, battle damage is also evident, so shown by the numerous hull breaches. Destiny's shields automatically compensate by sealing off the breaches with forcefields; however, the shielding is insufficient for the larger breaches and bulkheads were automatically closed and locked to compensate. With the arrival of a Starfleet expedition in 2381, Destiny has a new crew.

2381
Sometime later, Icarus Base fell under attack from three Ha'tak vessels that were controlled by the Lucian Alliance and 80+ military personnel and scientists evacuated to Destiny via the transporters outside the base. Returned to Icarus Base hours after the battle. When the expedition arrived, most of the ship was either damaged or inaccessible. The ship's power level and oxygen level were also running low. The crew managed to repair the filtration system, keeping themselves alive. After the ship solved its power issues by diving into a sun to recharge, they discovered that a dust creature had affected and was draining their water supply, forcing them to salvage water from a nearby ice planet in order to sustain themselves. It wasn't until Typhuss James Kira reported to Homeworld Command from Destiny via the Long-range communication device, that Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill and others learned that these people were safe, aboard the ship and on their way back to the base. Doctor Rush and Captain Kira found a way to turn Destiny around and returned to Icarus base 11 hours after the battle.

A short time later, the expedition came into conflict with a race called the Nakai, who had been chasing the ship for a long time in an attempt to uncover its secrets. Since then, the crew has had to fend off numerous attacks by the aliens, although Destiny's own defences have proven sufficent to sustain them despite its decades of damage. During its trip between galaxies, the Nakai managed to sabotage Destiny's Faster-Than-Light engine, which required the crew to remove one of the units from the drive section and bypass it. Following the Lucian Alliance invasion of Destiny, Dr. Nicholas Rush discovered the ship's bridge, along with information about its mission. However, he attempted to conceal this information in the belief that nobody else in the crew would be able to understand the implications of his discovery, resulting in the death of Sgt. Hunter Riley when Rush programmed Destiny to stop near a planet and later stranding Colonel David Telford after disconnecting Destiny from a Seed ship, the crew only learning about his control of Destiny when he departed the ship to try and kill the Lucian Alliance member Simeon after Simeon killed Dr. Amanda Perry- as well as her 'host' and former Lucian Alliance member Ginn- while the two were using the Long-range communication stones. With the crew now able to control Destiny's flight path after Rush was forced to reveal his discovery of the bridge, they diverted the ship to investigate a strange signal, only to find themselves caught in a fight between the aliens met on the Seed ship - now identified as the Ursini - and another unknown alien race that Destiny only survived thanks to the timely intervention of the returned Colonel David Telford in the seed ship, only to subsequently find themselves locked in battle with the Control Ship after the Ursini took Destiny to confront it ahead of schedule. Fortunately, the intervention of the Nakai - summoned by Chloe Armstrong using her pathogen-based connection to them- bought Destiny enough time to take out the command ship. The Ursini attempted to contact their colony, only to draw the attention of a second command ship. The Ursini subsequently sacrificed themselves and their seed ship to give the Destiny crew enough time to repair the damage Destiny had sustained to its shield and FTL systems in the fight and jump out of harm's way.

2382
Following the discovery that Dr. Amanda Perry and Ginn- a quadriplegic scientist and a former member of the Lucian Alliance respectively- had survived the physical death of their bodies as imprints of consciousness in the Long-range communication stones, Dr. Nicholas Rush was able to devise a plan to transfer them into Destiny's database, allowing them to project holographic versions of themselves throughout the ship to communicate with the rest of the crew, while also granting them access to the ship's database. However, the crew were eventually forced to transfer Perry and Ginn into a quarantined section of the database after Perry nearly trapped Rush in a virtual simulation and there was no other way to get him out.

After an encounter with the descendants of the alternate Destiny expedition who were sent back in time, the expedition has gained access to the supplies left by their descendants, as well as access to approximately one-third of the Ancient database and the knowledge that the Novus population had harnessed during their years alone. After Earth was attacked by the Lucian Alliance, communication via the Long-range communication device was temporarily cut off. When a connection was made and the consciousness' of Ginn and Dr. Amanda Perry were in Chloe Armstrong's body, the two consciousness were transferred into Destiny's memory banks. They exist as interactive programs but were later quarantined by Eli Wallace after Dr. Nicholas Rush's consciousness becomes trapped in a simulation through the control chair created by Perry.

When the CO2 scrubber's on the ship began to lose efficiency, the ship was attacked by Berzerker drone's again. The ship manages to flee. When the crew stops the ship again to gather supplies, they encounter the People of Novus on one of their colonies. The people are descendents from the expedition that arrived 2,000 years. The crew's homeworld of Novus grew from a rudimentary population into an advanced civilization. The colony was cut off from their homeworld and following an attack by the drones on both the planet and the ship, they returned the colonists to their world. They found the world abandoned, the population having launched in ships towards their near by colony. The expedition crew gathered supplies from the planet, including a CO2 scrubber substance that would work for years to come. The crew also gained a third of the Tenaran archive contained in a bunker. The planet was abandoned by the colonists and the crew when the last city was destroyed. The expedition crew dropped the colonists off on the colony ten days later. Sometime after the crew dropped the colonists off, the ship performed an Aerobraking maneuver prior to recharging. It was discovered after two attempts that the drones were blockading stars. The crew, save Rush, Eli and Dr. Lisa Park, took up residence on a colony while the ship recharged in a Blue giant. The ship recharged, but the garden dome was breached in the process.

Technology
The Destiny has a great deal of advanced technology at her disposal, ranging from the Shuttles, to Energy weapons, the Faster-Than-Light engine, to the Solar Power Collectors and the all-important Energy shields.

Power generation
Destiny reactors are fueled by absorbing and storing stellar material through a series of ram scoops on the underside of each wing. To accomplish this, Destiny dives into the photosphere of a star, absorbing material during its fly-through. The shields allow matter to pass through for the ram scoops to collect while keeping the ship completely protected from the intense conditions. However, large, hot stars (such as Blue giants) are more than the Destiny's protective capabilities can fully handle. Destiny can still use these stars to recharge though not without incurring some degree of damage and putting great strain on its shields. The ship will perform this recharging process automatically whenever power levels drop below a certain point. The ram scoops will also apparently engage at any available opportunity, such as when Destiny followed a seed ship through a star to destroy a group of attacking berzerker drones. During its recharge cycle, Destiny has a theoretically limitless amount of power, since power is replenished almost as quickly as it can be expended. Due to the age of the ship, Destiny can only reach approximately 40% of its originally-designed power capacity when recharging.

Shields
Destiny possesses a yellow energy shielding system which may be localized to retain the atmosphere in damaged parts of the ships. However, shield strength is dependent on power levels and the number of localized shields currently active. Destiny's shields are capable of resisting the intense heat and turbulence of a star's corona, using only reserve power, to the point where neither is at all noticeable to anyone inside. They were rapidly depleted by energy weapons during a battle with the Nakai, though this is most likely due to a power transfer problem rather than a less advanced design as damage to defensive systems is very significant and most of the ship is not operational. Both shields and weapons might get their power from the same source at the moment due to damaged relays, and so the ship may have automatically diverted more power to one and less to the other to keep it balanced to allow both to run at the same time. The shield strength can also be attenuated to allow things to pass through them. After further progression of Starfleet repairs to the ship, according to a simulation performed by the ship's computers, its shields are now able to resist fire for over 44 minutes from nine Nakai motherships. It is likely that even this does not represent the full capabilities of the ship when it was first launched, as it still suffers from extensive damage. Destiny's shields are capable of protecting the ship while flying through a O-class star, although the interior of the ship will get past 300 C in the process. This does not seem to damage the ship's systems, but the crew were forced to temporarily evacuate the ship to ensure that they were not killed by the heat, the ship being temporarily manned by a three-person crew using the Ancient space suits. Destiny's shields change frequency constantly in the hope of matching enemy fire. The closer the frequency, the less damage Destiny takes, making it a weaker shield overall, but a general type shield able to take fire from all types of energy weapons. The programing on the Destiny forces it to keep the shields on a constant frequency change, but they can be override to be of a specific type of frequency (or close to it) making the shields strong against that specific type of energy, but leaving it vulnerable to all other types of attacks. Since the Starfleet crew came on board, Destiny has only taking hits from what appears to be low to mid-level energy weapons, which has put its shield under strain to the point of failure on numerous occassions. (the ship is very old and damaged, however). Although speculative, extremely advanced and powerful energy weapons, such as the quantum phasers, would probably not only deplete Destiny's shield, but penetrate it and tear the ship apart.

Weapons
Destiny possesses a vast array of yellow energy weapons, which is comprised of a large number of double-barreled weapon turrets located all along the ship's hull. These turrets appear to be anti-fighter weapons, capable of rapid-fire and tracking to destroy smaller ships. Given enough time and under the right circumstances, they are capable of greatly diminishing Destiny's power reserves. The weapons draw power from the shields while active, diminishing defence in favor of offense. However this could be because most of the ship is not operational, suggesting that it might not be a power problem but a power transfer problem. Destiny is also equipped with four larger energy cannons located on the underside of the hull. Capable of significantly stronger blasts than her standard weapons, these cannons are designed for use against larger vessels such as motherships. Like the standard weapons, Destiny's energy cannons run the risk of depleting the ship's power reserves, and can even cause the weapons systems to overload if used in excess, which can destroy the ship. This is most likely due to the damage the ship has taken over its journey. Destiny's main weapon appears to be capable of destroying a berzerker drone command ship with only a few shots, although a Nakai ship's shields can resist more firepower.

Faster-Than-Light engine
Destiny's Faster-Than-Light engine, or FTL engine, is capable of faster-than-light travel without entering hyperspace. Destiny had sixteen individual FTL engine units, but now only has fifteen after a damaged one was removed. The drive can operate normally using only fifteen or perhaps even fewer. So long as shields are enveloping both ships, other ships can jump into FTL while attached to Destiny, but they must be securely attached to the ship- such as via the shuttle docking clamps- or they may be ripped apart by the resulting stresses. When entering and exiting FTL, it disrupts the Long-range communication device for a few seconds. Unexpected anomalies, such as the gravitational pull from an Uncharted star, can cause Destiny to drop out of FTL; but the automated navigational systems can adjust the Destiny's course using sublight engines to prevent a collision and get back on course to engage FTL again once clear. The FTL engines must remain active for four hours after a jump and inactive for three hours when they are disengaged. Jumps made earlier than this can cause damage to the engine.

Crew

 * We're going to have to be tough, disciplined. The road may be longer than many of us hoped. We will have to sacrifice, compromise, work together without exceptions. We are going to survive. We are going to make it home. Make no mistake.
 * — Everett Young

Senior staff

 * Captain/Vice Admiral Typhuss James Kira (Expedition Leader and Commanding officer)
 * Colonel Everett Young (Former Expedition Leader and Commanding officer)
 * Lieutenant Matthew Scott (First officer)
 * Dr. Nicholas Rush (Senior Scientist)
 * IOA Camile Wray (IOA official and Civilian contingent)
 * Lieutenant Tamara Johansen (Chief medical officer)