Mystery in a Far Off Land

Maiden Crew
Full Episode can be found here

Kevin Marks and Katana LaBrea are just about ready to launch the repaired Daedalus, but with the Travelers still a little finicky on the controls, Kevin needs some of the EarthBorn for its maiden voyage in Hoag's Object. He recruits Chuck, Dan Drake, as well as Laura Cadman to serve as his bridge crew. He wants Rafaela Esposito as engineer for a time at least until the Travelers can handle it by themselves, but she's reluctant to go anywhere alone with the Travelers ever since the Sylek Incident.

So Kevin goes to Sheppard, whom after a little friendly teasing and confirmation that Kevin is in a relationship with Katana, asks Alicia Vega to come and serve as Rafaela's "escort" during the maiden voyage. Kevin gets a little reciprocity as he teased John over the rumors about the two soldiers.

In a surprise gesture though, John reveals that the Travelers on the mainland have begun to grow coffee and other crops that remained from the Botany labs from before going rogue. As such, Coffee now readily availible again instead of the Traveler Equivalent which is much more earthier. The two soldiers show some camaraderie, but it's obvious Kevin thinks better of himself for remaining as objective as possible. Alicia shows up to John's office and is quite pleased that Coffee has returned to their lives.

Promotions and Upgrade
In a stunning move, Samantha Carter reveals that she's going to give Kevin Marks a field promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, and Katana LaBrea the honorary rank of Major so that there are clear lines of command. Kevin is ecscatic despite the unofficial nature, and the Daedalus is seen off with great festivity. Chuck Campbell is also promoted as he will be helmsman and it doesn't fit for a Sergeant to pilot such a powerful ship.

Before the festivity is over though, Larrin gives Kevin his first mission; Find out what happened to the Hylea.

With that mission in mind, The Daedalus takes off and begins to run through tests of its new systsms and upgrades. Overall ti's power distribution system is less efficient than before due to conduit damage from the final battle of Pegasus, but with new Traveler engines, weapons, and conduit, the ship is as good as it'll get for now.

The ship flies up into the ice ring of the planet Saudade is orbiting, and after some testing of the weapons systems which all meet or exceed their expectations, the Daedalus flies off to the planet where teh Hylea went down.

Exploration
While on the way to the planet, Kevin has a talk with Katana. They both agree that their relationship is a good one, and they decide to continue seeing one another. All seems well on the Daedalus as there appears to be no intelligent or technological life in this galaxy, but despite this, there is certainly danger.

Soon enough, the Daedalus arrives at its destination. The planet has been shattered into an asteroid field and it's impossible to find the Hylea, but there's a problem. The central core of the planet was made of Naquadah, much like Earth's is made of molten Iron, The majority of that naquadah is missing according to scans. Even more, the planet has lost the majority of its heat, going cold and frozen in the wastes of space. Nobody can understand what has happened.

Despite the billions of tonnes of Naqudah missing, the asteroid field still remains dangerous and Chuck carefully pilots teh Daedalus inside. While dodging rocks, the scanners pick up one which seems to have a life of its own.

Intensified scans provide little data, and the Daedalus slowly comes closer. Now within visual range, they detect what looks like a giant beetle in space, latched onto a rock and seemingly feeding off it. It senses the Daedalus approaching and turns to face it.

Close Call
Kevin decides not to take any chances seeign the creature approaching without any signs of warning. He orders the ship to fire. To his shock, the Asgard Cannons proof ineffectual. Despite doing some surface damage, the creature seems to absorb the energy and actually feed off it. It quickly accelerates and latches onto the shields of the Daedalus, draining them as well as its engine potential. Kevin is just about to order Particle Cannons to fire when Katana instead orders Railguns to fire.

The Railguns surprisingly do much more damage, quickly driving off teh creature. Kevin sees the chance and fires a barrage of missiles as well as more railgun fire to try and destroy teh creature. To everyone's surprise though, it doesn't stay and fight, instead just retreating into hyperspace.

Kevin realizes that the Particle Cannons would have simply fed the creature more, and perhaps even destroyed the Daedalus. He's feeling a little guilty, but as they head back to Atlantis with the data and intel, Katana cheers him up. They continue their relationship but Kevin still feels a little shame over his error.

AR-1 Reborn
Once back on Atlatnis, Samantha and Larrin are both quite confused over the intel teh Daedalus brings back, but Alicia Vega is instead called to John's office. After a rather comical confusion on her part where she thinks John is proposing to her, She opens the little gift box he gives her that contain a pair of "Major" rank pins. She is going to replace Evan Lorne as the Deputy Military Commander as she has improved leaps and bounds under John's supervision. A certain sense of unresolved romantic tension is evident between them, but Alicia is too happy to be promoted to do anything but celebrate.

As her assignment, she is going to assist John more directly with the Traveler Training and grading of military tactics, as well as take charge of AR-1 which is being restablished to patrol the Refugee Villages off-world to see if they require any assistance. Other missions will be involved as well

Daedalus rises from the ashes.
Here are the new stats for the Daedalus. It's power distribution grid is less effective, lowering its rate of fire and shield regeneration. Brackets indicate maximum storage of indicated weapon.

USS Daedalus 

32 x 5mm CIWS Railgun Batteries, Both Trinium Armor Piercing and Naquadah enhanced rounds.

4 x Forward Mounted Traveler Particle Cannons

2 x Forward Mounted Asgard Pulse Cannons (modified beams for shield and armor penetration)

2 x Dorsal Mounted Asgard Beam Cannons (No modifications)

4 x Forward mounted missile Launchers

8 x ''Side mounted missile launchers. (4 on each side.)''

4 x Rear mounted missile launchers 

65(96) x ''Mark 4 Naquadah enhanced Trident IV missiles. Yield 20 Kilotons.''

20(20) x Mark 8 Naquadah enhanced nuclear warheads.

10(10) x Mark 9 “Gatebuster” Naquadria enhanced nuclear warheads.

16(24) x F-302 Starfighters.(Five F-302s are on Atlantis for Traveler Study), 3 are destroyed.

Miniature Asgard Core, designed for only combat and research aspects of Asgard Core.

Asgard Beaming Technology, Modified for mining as well.

''Asgard style shields. Intergalactic hyperdrive.''

Extra cargo space above hangers.

Skeleton Crew of 6, Current Crew of 40, full capacity 250.