What If? Stargate Command hits the Jackpot. The Helm Library core.

[Spartan303]

Set Late season 6 to early Season 7. On a shakedown run off the Prometheus, the ship is wrenched out of orbit due to massive gravity well that just suddenly appeared. A follow up investigation finds a planet where it shouldn't be. Curious, the Prometheus, with SG1 leading the investigation discovers and makes contact with the world of Helm; who are just as confused as the SGC is and more than a little frightened. This is the planet of Helm just before Minouri Kurita's expedition that nuked the planet.

After opening a dialogue and negotiations which prove fruitful, Helm and Earth forge an Alliance and a Stargateis giftedto Helm to facilitate relations. It is here SG-1 meets a mysterious man by the name Edwin Keeler who has something wonderful he would like to share with Earth in accordance with the Alliance. He takes them to a facility deep in the the Mountains in a chain of interlocking underground cave systems to the Star League Cache there but also the Helm field library core.

As per the Alliance with Earth, Half of the the Cache will be shared along with a copy of the field Library core.

In this version of Helm, the Star League engineering Battalion under Keeler remained on Helm. The Iridani Light Horses also found themselves on Helm. Helm also has 2 Warships in orbit, 6 Jump ships and 3 dozen Drop ships.

How does this change things in Stargate?

 

[S'task]

In the short term, not much, in the 10+ year period quite a bit.

BattleTech's warships, while tough, are not very competitive with Stargate's stuff. BattleTech lacks artificial gravity, which greatly limits their ability to tangle with any SF setting that HAS artificial gravity. The Stargates are to small to really allow any BattleMechs to be deployed through them. About the only military hardware they're getting that they can use and is useful against their enemies are BattleTech aerospace fighters, which will shred Deathgliders and the pretty much all other small craft seen in Stargate (bear in mind, in SG F-22s were able to tangle pretty well with Deathgliders, now imagine an F-22 with armor heavier than any modern MBT while still keeping similar performance profile and equipped with multiple weapons that are on par with if not superior firepower than the Deathglider's plasma blasters).

All that said, in the ten + year timeframe, things change dramatically. BattleTech fusion reactors offer a cheap and SAFE power source that requires no unusual materials like Stargate power sources, this means that they'll be able to be pushed out to the civilian market without much incident, completely revolutionizing power generation on SG Earth. Likewise as they are able to start replicating myomar and other BattleTech super-materials you'll see a revolution in industry and construction on Earth that will greatly effect the everyday person's life. Safer cars, better prosthetics, tougher buildings, it will all be considerable. BattleTech armor is also superior to anything produced in Stargate and so once it can be mass produced it will grant considerable military advantage to the US on their tanks. The small fusion generators of BattleTech will also utterly revolutionize transit in the US, with fusion powered trains and 18 wheelers becoming very common, and for the military fusion powered tanks will replace the Abrams.

Likewise the weapon Tech of BattleTech will likely be mass adopted, since they have the plans to duplicate it. Laser rifles and such will first see military deployment and eventually make their way to civilians.

You likely won't see BattleMechs developed and used by Earth though.

Another area that will have some short term impact and be felt sooner will be the cross training from the SLDF military officers given to the US military forces, specifically in tactics using aerospace fighters and warships. The aerospace fighters will be especially beneficial and almost immediately applicable, whereas the warship tactics will be more of general given the large technology disparity.

A bigger game changer would be the alternative FTL that the BattleTech factions bring. While slower than SG FTL, it also may well have alternative applications, as it's an instantaneous jump-based FTL system within 30 LYs. This would allow some interesting applications of the technology to bypass planetary defense systems when paired with Stargate's FTL sensor tech.

 

[Spartan303]

In the short term, not much, in the 10+ year period quite a bit.

BattleTech's warships, while tough, are not very competitive with Stargate's stuff. BattleTech lacks artificial gravity, which greatly limits their ability to tangle with any SF setting that HAS artificial gravity. The Stargates are to small to really allow any BattleMechs to be deployed through them. About the only military hardware they're getting that they can use and is useful against their enemies are BattleTech aerospace fighters, which will shred Deathgliders and the pretty much all other small craft seen in Stargate (bear in mind, in SG F-22s were able to tangle pretty well with Deathgliders, now imagine an F-22 with armor heavier than any modern MBT while still keeping similar performance profile and equipped with multiple weapons that are on par with if not superior firepower than the Deathglider's plasma blasters).

All that said, in the ten + year timeframe, things change dramatically. BattleTech fusion reactors offer a cheap and SAFE power source that requires no unusual materials like Stargate power sources, this means that they'll be able to be pushed out to the civilian market without much incident, completely revolutionizing power generation on SG Earth. Likewise as they are able to start replicating myomar and other BattleTech super-materials you'll see a revolution in industry and construction on Earth that will greatly effect the everyday person's life. Safer cars, better prosthetics, tougher buildings, it will all be considerable. BattleTech armor is also superior to anything produced in Stargate and so once it can be mass produced it will grant considerable military advantage to the US on their tanks. The small fusion generators of BattleTech will also utterly revolutionize transit in the US, with fusion powered trains and 18 wheelers becoming very common, and for the military fusion powered tanks will replace the Abrams.

Likewise the weapon Tech of BattleTech will likely be mass adopted, since they have the plans to duplicate it. Laser rifles and such will first see military deployment and eventually make their way to civilians.

You likely won't see BattleMechs developed and used by Earth though.

Another area that will have some short term impact and be felt sooner will be the cross training from the SLDF military officers given to the US military forces, specifically in tactics using aerospace fighters and warships. The aerospace fighters will be especially beneficial and almost immediately applicable, whereas the warship tactics will be more of general given the large technology disparity.

A bigger game changer would be the alternative FTL that the BattleTech factions bring. While slower than SG FTL, it also may well have alternative applications, as it's an instantaneous jump-based FTL system within 30 LYs. This would allow some interesting applications of the technology to bypass planetary defense systems when paired with Stargate's FTL sensor tech.

How far was Helm from Earth again? About 200 LY, right?

 

[Spartan303]

Also, I ask because the jump Ships and Drop Ships could deliver the Mechs to Earth.

 

[S'task]

Also, I ask because the jump Ships and Drop Ships could deliver the Mechs to Earth.

Sure, they can get the Mechs back, but they're of really limited use in Stargate. That's why they're not a huge game changer.

Really, the most valuable thing on each Mech is it's fusion generator, which can be pulled out to provide electrical power...

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Nothing much?

I mean for all of the core technologies, the Stargate tech is just better.

Probably the biggest issue with SG-1 is that the writers were entirely wedded to their formula and had zero interest in really changing it.

For power generation, a Naq generator blows anything in BTech out of the water. A single one of those backpack generators has an output that dwarfs a supercarriers reactor.

The power generator in the Prometheus is enough to turn Nevada into a crater.

 

[S'task]

Nothing much?

I mean for all of the core technologies, the Stargate tech is just better.

Probably the biggest issue with SG-1 is that the writers were entirely wedded to their formula and had zero interest in really changing it.

For power generation, a Naq generator blows anything in BTech out of the water. A single one of those backpack generators has an output that dwarfs a supercarriers reactor.

The power generator in the Prometheus is enough to turn Nevada into a crater.

Sure, the Naq reactors produced more power, but they required an exotic offworld fuel AND were fail deadly devices. Those are fine for military application, but they also raise a lot of problems for civilian deployment.

BattleTech fusion reactors could simply be released to the public, don't require exotic materials, and can easily be claimed to have been produced by, say, DARPA or some other military research effort that was previous secret. They're also fail safe reactors and sure, Naq reactors can be smaller and produce more power, you don't want a Naq reactor in every 18 wheeler going down the highway. Meanwhile tossing BattleTech fusion reactors in just about everything is quite safe overall. Plus we know BattleTech reactors are quite scaleable, smaller lighter ones for smaller applications, bigger ones for bigger.

I think you might be underestimating BattleTech armor and weapons though, while yes they're weaker than the later enemies like the Ori and the like, for the scale of things like Deathgliders and such, BattleTech weapons are considerably better, appear to be more powerful, and their armor is worlds better than the stuff used in Stargate. Sure, a high end Stargate uses shields, and those are game changers, but that material science BattleTech provides has applications well beyond the military. Very little of the stuff the SGC brought back from offworld could safely and reasonably be deployed to the civilian world without raising way to many questions. BattleTech armor, myomar, and fusion reactors? Not so much, and those would provide considerable benefits to the world at large.

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Sure, the Naq reactors produced more power, but they required an exotic offworld fuel AND were fail deadly devices. Those are fine for military application, but they also raise a lot of problems for civilian deployment.

BattleTech fusion reactors could simply be released to the public, don't require exotic materials, and can easily be claimed to have been produced by, say, DARPA or some other military research effort that was previous secret. They're also fail safe reactors and sure, Naq reactors can be smaller and produce more power, you don't want a Naq reactor in every 18 wheeler going down the highway. Meanwhile tossing BattleTech fusion reactors in just about everything is quite safe overall. Plus we know BattleTech reactors are quite scaleable, smaller lighter ones for smaller applications, bigger ones for bigger.

What you do for civilian deployment is use the Naq power cells from a staff weapon. One or two of those will produce enough energy to drive an eighteen wheeler at highways speeds and is good for hundreds to thousands of years of use, and has never been shown to be fail deadly.

More realistically speaking, civilian tech was an irrelevance to the Stargate program. Or to be more precise, civilian tech while keeping the gate program black was an irrelevance.

Whenever the program goes public you simply change everything on such a scale that the comparatively small changes from what you could do pre disclosure are entirely irrelevant.

I mean just take the F-302. That is a space superiority fighter that can go Earth to Jupiter in something like nine hours and is capable of lifting into orbit at least 32 tons. A single F-302 would be enough to conquer real life Earth both economically and militarily.

Or take Ring Transporters. What happens to the shipping industry when a single ring transport is allowing you to move (being incredibly conservative) a pallet of goods across the ocean every five seconds

I think you might be underestimating BattleTech armor and weapons though, while yes they're weaker than the later enemies like the Ori and the like, for the scale of things like Deathgliders and such, BattleTech weapons are considerably better, appear to be more powerful, and their armor is worlds better than the stuff used in Stargate. Sure, a high end Stargate uses shields, and those are game changers, but that material science BattleTech provides has applications well beyond the military. Very little of the stuff the SGC brought back from offworld could safely and reasonably be deployed to the civilian world without raising way to many questions. BattleTech armor, myomar, and fusion reactors? Not so much, and those would provide considerable benefits to the world at large.

And what is the real gain? I mean everything on Earth is a sideshow, it won't have any impact on the war with the Goa'uld.

 

[Spartan303]

I personally forsee alot of gains for both. Civilian Nuclear reactors and Civilian Star League technology to keep the people happy while the Military uses advanced hybridization of both.

I also forsee the US Army adopting BattleMechs in addition to superior tanks of the Star League. BattleMechs are just so damn good at what they di that its unavoidable, despite how Tankers may feel on the matter.

Stargate command and the US can also leverage the Star League Data core for political support of allied and even competitor nations to garner their support. Its certainly achievable and makes disclosure that much easier to deal with.

 

[Battlegrinder]

While I'm sure the BT stuff will be useful-ish on a tactical level, I don't think it will change a lot since stargate was already winning those engagements, particularly by the mid-series. Having aerospace fighters that utterly dominate death gliders instead ones that just have a massive advantage over them doesn't change the core issue that the SHC had of being totally outmatched strategically and logistically.

A pre-unending BC-304, as far as the series shows, cannot engage a gould capship 1 on 1 and win, let alone the fleets of them that the system lords have. Maybe one with naval PPCs and space LRMs or some other battletech space gear could, lets go nut and say it can even take in two at once. Earth can build one, maybe two of them a year, and battletech tech will not change that significantly. Maybe the fusion reactor tech and whatnot can grow the economy enough that governments can hide the cost of 3 304s a year. Wooo. That's still not enough to actually engage anything in the series in full on warfare.

 

[bullethead]

Honestly, I can see the Battletech stuff being more of a game changer for the Atlantis expedition. Having a lot of directed energy weapons and durable, non-exotic resource intensive power generation would make their lives a lot easier.

That said, BattleMechs wouldn't ever be a worthwhile investment for the SGC. They require the kind of heavy lift and planetary deployment capacity they won't have until they get Asgard transporters, and even then, they'd take up too much space to be worth lugging around. Even something like the Firestarter, which would be a nightmare for Jaffa or Wraith groundpounders, would take up room better used to haul a bunch of fighters or tanks.

 

[Spartan303]

That said, BattleMechs wouldn't ever be a worthwhile investment for the SGC. They require the kind of heavy lift and planetary deployment capacity they won't have until they get Asgard transporters, and even then, they'd take up too much space to be worth lugging around.

For Stargate Command? Correct. For the United States Army? They most definitely would disagree. Thinking long term the Army and Marines are going to want Mechs and advanced tanks to beef up armored forces into something Hyper Lethal against any space born or contemporary forces on Earth. And in a post disclosure world you can bet the Army and Marines will throw their weight around to get what they want.

 

[bullethead]

For the United States Army? They most definitely would disagree. Thinking long term the Army and Marines are going to want Mechs and advanced tanks to beef up armored forces into something Hyper Lethal against any space born or contemporary forces on Earth.

Honestly, I think the Army and Marines would be smart enough to realize that Congress isn't going to appropriate money for mechs when there's so much other stuff that they'd kill to have. Even if the Helm Memory core doesn't have specific info for creating power armor, spending the time and money putting together the various techs to get it would be cheaper and probably faster than setting up for BattleMech production.

Going for hovertanks and power armor also wouldn't require them to field/requisition spaceships to move their giant robots to combat theaters.

 

[Spartan303]

Honestly, I think the Army and Marines would be smart enough to realize that Congress isn't going to appropriate money for mechs when there's so much other stuff that they'd kill to have. Even if the Helm Memory core doesn't have specific info for creating power armor, spending the time and money putting together the various techs to get it would be cheaper and probably faster than setting up for BattleMech production.

Going for hovertanks and power armor also wouldn't require them to field/requisition spaceships to move their giant robots to combat theaters.

They actually wouldn't need to fund building mechs right away as there are plenty in the Helm Cache for them and enough spare parts to keep em operational for years. But yes, you are correct. They would prioritize.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

I just want to ask: what about the die-hard greens, the ones who demonized nuclear energy? They will throw a fit over cheap mass-produced reactors. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to turn one into a bomb to "prove" they are too dangerous to exist.

 

[Spartan303]

I just want to ask: what about the die-hard greens, the ones who demonized nuclear energy? They will throw a fit over cheap mass-produced reactors. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to turn one into a bomb to "prove" they are too dangerous to exist.

Won't be an issue.

 

[Husky_Khan]

I just want to ask: what about the die-hard greens, the ones who demonized nuclear energy? They will throw a fit over cheap mass-produced reactors. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to turn one into a bomb to "prove" they are too dangerous to exist.

Die Hard Greens who resort to terrorism shall be reduced to their most basic form by the very plasma they irrationally fear so much.

 

[Aaron Fox]

That would be something to explore, but then again the biggest stumbling block for Battletech is the lack of grav (and thus inertia dampening) tech. Their drive engines are just ludicrous, especially if you think of them as using water as a propellant and not hydrogen...

 

[Spartan303]

That would be something to explore, but then again the biggest stumbling block for Battletech is the lack of grav (and thus inertia dampening) tech. Their drive engines are just ludicrous, especially if you think of them as using water as a propellant and not hydrogen...

Funny enough, this idea has generated quite a bit of interest. Talking with some guys about maybe making this story happen.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Funny enough, this idea has generated quite a bit of interest. Talking with some guys about maybe making this story happen.

My B-tech is... passable back when I was making a Battletech/ME cross (kind of crashed and burned with that one, ME3's ending didn't do any favors though)... and I'm focusing on GATE: ... and so the Iron Pact Fought with an MLP:FiM/XCOM sidedish well off to the side...