Asuran (Stargate Atlantis)

Template:Stargate race The Asurans are a fictional race in the science fiction series Stargate Atlantis that bear many similarities to the Replicators of Stargate SG-1. These similarities have led the Asurans to most often be called simply "Replicators" by other characters on the show even though the two life forms are technically distinct.

History

Origin

Desperate for more effective means of defeating the Wraith, the Ancients created the predecessors to the Asurans as part of an experiment to create an artificial bioweapon in the form of nanites that would infiltrate and destroy the Wraith from within. To that end, these self-replicating nanites were programmed with an aggression surpassing that of the Wraith. As they grew in numbers, the nanites began to assume the form of their creators. Unable to remove the aggression that had been programmed into them, giving them a rage they could not contain or understand, the Asurans, as they came to call themselves, requested the Ancients remove their innately aggressive behavior; a request which was denied since their creators sought to use them as weapons and since the Asurans' programming prevented them from doing harm to their creators.

Upon concluding their research into the feasibility of nanites as weapons, the Ancients destroyed their creations and deleted all traces of them from their database, except for the planet's gate address. A few Asurans, however, survived. Through their replicative abilities, they brought about a "second birth" - this time, not only taking the form of their creators, but also recreating their city on a far grander scale.

Contact from Earth

The first hints of the Asurans were seen in a lab on Atlantis where the Atlantis Expedition encountered a sinister nanite weapon that infected the humans in the lab's vicinity. The nanites would kill those infected by them, who would begin to see terrifying images of a death-like figure approaching them before they died. The nanites were vulnerable to an EM pulse. They did not affect those with the Ancient gene. (see Hot Zone)

Two years later, they were discovered by the Atlantis expedition. Their population had grown to number in the millions and some, such as Niam, had even began to contemplate ascension. Already they have a plan to destroy the Wraith, though it is a slow, long term plan that does not have the humans' best interests in mind. Believing that the aggressive tendencies the Ancients had programmed into them was what was preventing them from ascending, Niam enlisted McKay's help to remove these tendencies. Although McKay's attempts were successful, they were discovered before the rewritten command codes could be distributed to the others.

Concurrently, at the direction of Oberoth - their leader - the Asuran city ship jumped into hyperspace in an attempt to destroy Atlantis. This attempt was thwarted by McKay, with the assistance of Niam, who used the city-ship's ZPMs to destroy it.

Later, it was revealed that the Asurans had, perhaps due to McKay's early efforts, managed to rewrite the part of their initial programming that prevented them from attacking the Ancients. This allowed the Asurans to capture Atlantis, by surprise, and kill the Ancients who defended it. The Asurans secured the city but faced a delay when a puddle jumper that carried a strike force from the Atlantis expedition who, after defying their leaders' orders, left a bomb in the control tower before leaving. The control room faced heavy damage, however, the Asurans began immediate repairing procedures which took up to several hours. They were also probing the minds of General Jack O'Neill and Richard Woolsey for vital information. The damage dealt to them required the Asuran strike team to dismantle their own warship and use it to repair the damaged parts of the city. Using their own ZPM power modules, the Asurans planned to leave the Lantean system and destroy the Daedalus, which was attempting to destroy the city in order to prevent it from falling into Asuran hands. This Asuran strike force was destroyed when replicator disruptor technology was tied into the shield emitters and thus destroyed all of the Asurans in the city before they had a chance to adapt.

The Asurans decided upon a different way of defeating the threat the humans posed to them. They began constructing warships on their homeworld with the express purpose of fighting the humans in their home galaxy where Earth is located. This preparation was destroyed when the Apollo launched a surprise nuclear strike against the Asuran homeworld. With the devastation they faced, the Asurans began a new strike against Atlantis itself using a powerful energy weapon directed from an orbital satellite Stargate with the sole aim of destroying Atlantis. However, the Tau'ri were able to fly the city several light years away but were trapped due to lack of power. Therefore, with Elizabeth Weir as a part-Replicator, a strike team was able to infiltrate Asuras and steal a ZPM but the Asurans were able to detect their presence and attempt to rewrite the base code to attack the Wraith and managed to override the Anti-Replicator field that repelled them. However, Weir was able to fool them into thinking they captured the humans, enabling them to escape but the Asurans captured her as a consolation prize. But to lighten things up, a fleet of Asuran ships were attacking the Wraith. It is later reveal in the next episode that the Wraith were the ones who turned the "attack-Wraith" subroutine offline.

Characteristics

The Asurans possess much of the knowledge of the Ancients, as evidenced by their manufacturing of ZPMs and by their creation of a near identical city-ship to Atlantis. They also possess the ability to directly interface with the human subconscious - just as human-form Replicators do - and the ability to walk through walls. It is also known that their strength is far superior to that of a normal human, as Oberoth was shown to lift Mckay with one arm and swat Ronon aside with little effort, again just like the human-form Replicators.

Their interdependent organic constituents consist of over three billion chemical base sequences. EMP weapons are a threat to the nanites' base forms. However, they are somehow able to integrate organic technology into themselves to make them somewhat immune to this vector of attack .

Nanites

The Asurans are actually made entirely of nanites that were created with the express purpose of fighting the Wraith. Eventually, it evolved into their current human-shaped form and their appearance is only a mask which hides the true nature, as well as abilities, of the Asurans. The nanites themselves are self-replicating machines that can survive as long as a minuscule amount functions. This makes them very resilient as a small number of nanites managed to survive orbital strikes from Lantean warships and were enough to continue their species. The nanites are capable of using any material for this task, be it mechanical or biological in origin.

The nanites provide them with several advantages, the first of which is that they can penetrate solid objects. This allows them to pass through doors via the smallest openings. Another ability is one they share with the Human Form Replicators which is moving their hands within the skull of humans. The nanites allows the Asurans to experience the memories and knowledge of the person they are subjecting the 'interrogation' to though the pain suffered varies on whether the Asuran does the task in a brutal or kinder fashion. Whether they share the Human Form Replicators ability (or more likely affinity) to fashion bladed weapons from their body parts is unknown currently.

A more sinister nature of the nanites is that, once in contact with a human body, they can be left in trace amounts which can be directed by the Asuran mind. The presence of such nanites within a human body can leave the human in a coma-like state while the Asurans mask themselves as being part of the immune system. The nanites work to circumvent the human mind while they use the human biology to incorporate organic components into their selves. This can possibly potentially result in the birth of a new Asuran in quite a brutal fashion for those infected by the host. The infected body remains in a coma-like state, however, their minds are active and put through an imaginary world in order to lull the body into a compliant state in order to allow the nanites to continue their work. Somehow when Dr. Weir managed to overcome this by walking through an image of Niam in her mind and then Gating back to Atlantis the nanites in her system shut down. In Lifeline McKay said Weir exhibited some amount of control over them so its possible that this was a battle of wills and when Weir won she had at least some control over them and shut them off herself.

An interesting observation is that the nanites themselves in their smaller state are vulnerable to EM pulses however once they incorporate organic components within the system this weakness is quickly erased. In addition to this, the presence of Wraith tissue can result in the nanites to go immediately to the 'infected' part and exterminate the Wraith DNA. Though they appear to be intelligent enough to leave parts of themselves in certain locations in order to ensure that they survive..

Apparently at least some of those nanites survived deactivation as McKay reactivates them to save Dr. Weir's life. This has the side-effect of giving her access to the Asurans' subspace network (similar to how Teyla can tap into the Wraith's) and even allow her to use the mind-probe as she uses this on Oberoth in Lifeline to freeze him and the other Asurans to buy Sheppard and Ronon more time. Once activated Weir showed great control over them even managing to somehow override the kill switch and using them to act using the Asurans own abilities against them.

Mention is made when the Asurans manage to gain a foothold on Atlantis of disassembling their ship for additional parts to repair the cityship. Whether this was done through their nanite means or other is unknown. However, it was done in a short span of time which suggests that they accomplish this feat at an extremely fast and efficient rate.

Subspace link and the Collective

Like their Replicator cousins, the Asurans are all tied to one another through a sophisticated subspace network that connects each and every member of the race. Despite this though, they seem to be somewhat more individualistic compared to the swarm mentality of the Replicators with each Asuran being an entirely independent entity. This is, ironically, very similar to the Wraith, the race the Lanteans created the Asurans to combat. The benefits of the subspace link allows the Asurans to keep up to date with anything another Asuran experiences. This allowed the race to realize the betrayal by Niam against their kind and allowed them to 'reset' him to his original state. As such, the link serves as a form of control mechanism for their kind and he was subsequently 'reset' which suggests that his more peaceful attitude was not always there but something learned during his existence and he was thus returned to his more aggressive root behavior.

Furthermore, the collective mind of the Asurans is capable of storing the essence of the different kinds of Asurans. This essentially allows a deceased Asuran to be replicated again, as was the case with Oberoth..

This collective will is also subject to periodic updates known as Merges where all Asurans are updated with new information that is disseminated among the various Replicators. Though this is the primary method of data being shared among the race, there exists a hard drive copy that exists outside in a physical form. This is seen in the presence of Central Data Core on their homeworld of Asuras.

In Lifeline, Elizabeth Weir gains access to this network after the nanites in her blood are reactivated to save her life. She uses the information she gathers from it to lead Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard and Ronon Dex on their mission.

Base code

The Asuran base code is the underlying program that governs the race and was created by the Lantean species when they first made the original nanite virus. In "Lifeline" its revealed that there are thousands of command directives present within the Asuran Base Code.

One of the important aspects of the base code prevents the Asurans from striking against their creators. They were also prevented from altering their own base code which severely limited their behaviour in regards to changing as a species.

The programming, however, could be altered by other species as members of the Atlantis Expedition demonstrated. Unfortunately, this had the effect of allowing the Asurans access to their own base code and allowing them to alter it to suit their needs. Such as altering the programming that prevented them from attacking their creators.

In Reunion, it's revealed that the Wraith have encountered and fought the Asurans in the past (how long ago isn't stated) and that the Wraith managed to shutdown the attack directive within the Replicator base code (which would normally force the Asurans to attack the Wraith). The Wraith attempt to shutdown the directive once again with a virus but weren't able to, possibly due to safeguards the Asurans put in place or Rodney's tampering.

Terminating an Asuran

The Asurans' nature of being a cloud of nanites makes them very resilient to physical harm, and even weapons, whether they are projectile or energy, seem to have no way of harming them. Conventional guns appear to have minimal effect on them. Ronon's Gun, however, can temporarily stun them (as opposed to the original Replicators and Human Form Replicators, which were immune to any energy weapon used against them). Human-built 'knockoffs' of the Ancient/Asgard Replicator disruptor weapon have been designed to destroy them. As of the episode "Lifeline" the Asurans have built up an immunity to the human Anti Replicator Weapons. This was through sacrificing their numbers into an Anti-Replicator Field til the point they could overcome the weapon.

A single pulse from the weapon will reduce an Asuran into its component blocks by severing the connection that holds each block together. However, there is worry that the Asurans can adapt to the frequency of the weapon and thus develop an immunity to its effects. In the concluding part of "The Return", it is also shown that the Asurans require some input of energy, which, after being denied a power source for long periods, makes them vulnerable and incapacitated. However, it only takes them a short amount of time to adjust and become a deadly threat once again.

As seen in the case of Oberoth, the Asurans are capable of replicating a destroyed member of their kind, thanks in part to their subspace link. This can effectively make members of this race immortal for as long as part of their race survives.

Society

Little is known of Asuran society and culture except that they have somewhat mimicked the Lanteans in appearance at least. Most of the race seemingly have a cold hatred towards their creators due to the attempted extermination of their race. The entire race seems centered around their homeworld of Asuras which is dotted by vast cities. They seem isolationist and regard humans as lesser beings. They also demonstrated no fear of the Wraith and claimed that they have a plan that will nullify the Wraith threat but the details of this plan were never explained.

Despite this, there does appear to be a small enclave among their kind that still admires and respects the Ancients. This group would go as far as imitate their makers to the fullest extent by Ascending. However, the group has had little success in achieving this goal with the possible explanation being their aggressive natural programming which may be the only thing preventing them from achieving their goal. This does not appear to be a natural state as Niam was reset by the Asurans and he reverted to a far more aggressive state compared to his calm demeanour when he was first encountered. The fate of this group after the destruction of the Asuran cityship is unknown.

The vast majority, however, seem to wish to continue their isolation until they encountered the Atlantis Expedition. After this encounter, the Asurans seem to be bent on destroying the 'favored' children of the Ancients as a last act of revenge.

Tactics

Little is known of Asuran tactics but they seem to favor conventional manner of defeating opponents through the use of force and their advanced technology. It is known that when this is not available, the Asurans resort to other means of achieving their goals such as the deployment of a satellite weapon to destroy Atlantis.

When facing a threat that could destroy them, the Asurans have shown, as of Lifeline, to willingly sacrifice their number til they are capable of overcoming the problem. In the face of an Anti-Replicator Field, the Asurans sent forth pairs of their numbers into the field which killed the units until finally they were able to overcome the affects of the field.

Technology

See Asuran technology in Stargate

The Asurans are perhaps one of the most advanced races within the Stargate universe and have owed much of this to their replication and imitation of the technology of their creators, the Ancients. While the Asurans are quite capable of building advanced Warships, quite probably duplicates of Lantean warships, they are vulnerable insomuch as the Warships are purely conventional technology. Unlike Replicator ships which are often partially or wholly made up of Replicator cells making them all but immune to energy weapons, Asuran ships are just as vulnerable to conventional anti ship weapons as Ancient ships...which given their sophistication, is not that much comfort given their Replicator-like industrial capabilities.

Mythological inspiration

Presumably, they are named for the Asuras of Hindu (or simply Indo-European) mythology, who were the arrogant and violent adversaries of the rulers of Heaven, the Devas, much as the Asurans are with regards their creators, the Ancients. However, in Vedic Hindu mythology the Asuras are simply the guardians of the law, whereas the Devas are the guardians of life, although this definition doesn't seem to apply.

However, unlike the impersonation of Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, and various other cultural deities by the Goa'uld, the Asurans do not appear to be based on or the basis for any race in Human or Lantean mythology, so their naming is quite likely an arbitrary one by the show producers.

See also

• Asuran characters in Stargate