Named in honour of the Human Colonel Jack O’Neill, who’s actions have saved the
Asgard Race on several occasions, the O’Neill class destroyer is the first Asgard vessel
designed entirely for the purpose of warfare, more specifically for combat against the Invading
Replicators.
Replacing the older Bilskirnir Class Mothership as the primary Asgard combat vessel, the O’Neill
is larger, faster and far better armed than its predecessor.
The ship is centuries in advance of any Tau’ri or Goa’uld vessel and represents one of
the few known craft capable of realistically challenging Ori Motherships.
1,500 meters in length and 700 meters wide, the O’Neill’s spaceframe is sleek, with
smooth curving lines, giving it a starkly different appearance to the blocky and angular
Bilskirnir Class.
Like most Asgard ships, the O’Neill is powered by Neutrino-Ion generators, providing one
billion kilojoules of power to each of the ship’s two sublight engines.
The O’Neill normally carries a small crew, but can be operated entirely by remote if
necessary, requiring no on-board personnel.
In spite of its massive size, the O’Neill class is highly manoeuvrable, capable of making
sharp turns at high speeds and employing dogfight style tactics.
This agility allows the O’Neill to run circles around the few ships larger than itself, such
as the Ori Mothership, engaging them from multiple vectors whilst evading return fire.
At FTL speeds the O’Neill makes use of a supremely advanced Asgard Hyperdrive, allowing
the vessel to reach speeds most races would consider wildly impossible, able to complete
a full intergalactic journey from Earth to the edge of the Pegasus Galaxy, a distance
of 3 million light years, in 2 short days.
The Shields installed on the O’Neill are similarly powerful, able to withstand multiple
direct hits from the Central Beam Weapon of an Ori Mothership, as well as extensive concentrated
fire from Ori pulse cannons, weapons more than capable of destroying a fully shielded
Goa’uld Ha’tak class Attack Vessel in a single hit.
Asgard shields have even been known to survive hits from Ancient Lantean Drone weapons, and
with a Zero Point Module installed the shields have even withstood a close range impact from
a coronal mass ejection in the Lantean system.
Beneath the O’Neill’s shields lies the equally resilient Armor plating, comprised
of a Naquadah, Carbon, Trinium Composite that even the Replicators have failed to acquire,
the hull plating of the O’Neill is the strongest Armor the Asgard have ever created and can
resist almost any bombardment.
The O’Neill is armed with four Ion Guns mounted on the ship’s wings and bow, each
capable of retracting into the ship’s hull to shield them from harm.
The Ion Bolts fired by the weapons are designed to penetrate the shields of Replicator and
Goa’uld starships, capable of refracting to bypass the shield barrier and strike the
target’s hull.
These weapons were they only known energy weapons in the galaxy capable of completely
vaporising the blocks that make up replicator constructs, which were normally considered
to be completely impervious to energy based weaponry.
The first vessel of the O’Neill class constructed never saw active duty, as it was sacrificed
as part of an Asgard strategy to defeat a Replicator invasion of Othala.
The O’Neill was used to draw the approaching Replicators away, as the Asgard and Tau’ri
had correctly predicted that the Replicators would pursue it, hoping to consume its advanced
technologies.
Once the Replicator vessels had been drawn away, the O’Neill engaged its self-destruct
mechanism, detonating its Neutrino-Ion Generators to pulverise both itself and the unshielded
replicator ships as they pursued it through hyperspace.
Despite the loss of the original prototype, the Asgard persevered and went on to build
a sizeable fleet of O’Neill class warships, which would see action across the Asgard-Replicator
war and during the years of the Great Enlightenment.
Even after the mass-suicide and extinction of the Asgard race, elements of the O’Neill
class design would live on in the technical data passed over to the Tau’ri and be used
to improve upon the impressive Daedalus Class Battlecruiser, adding to the already extensive
legacy of the Asgard people.