The Best Ship to Try And Steal Fire From the Gods – We Breakdown the USCSS Prometheus
The Prometheus was a starship designed to take humanity to its origins among the stars. Or so the Weyland Corporation thought.
In mythology, Prometheus is credited with uplifting humanity. He stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, but at a terrible cost. Perhaps the designers tat the Weyland Corporation should have kept the end of his story in mind when they designed a ship to follow an ancient star map found hidden within some of humanity’s earliest artwork.
But if they had, Humanity might never have known that the stars were full of ancient threats. For the alien species known as the Engineers had more than just fire waiting to be stolen—something just as deadly and just as volatile awaited on the moon of LV-223, and it took the USCSS Prometheus to discover it.
USCSS Prometheus – Design and Capabilities
The USCSS Prometheus was a Heliades-class J Scientific Exploratory Vessel designed by the finest engineers at Weyland Corp. When the ship launched, in 2091, it was the single most advanced ship of the day—capable of faster-than-light travel, this ship would be given an incredible mission. And to answer that call, it was outfitted with the best humanity had to offer.
The Prometheus was 130 meters long, almost 49 meters wide, and 36.5 meters high, giving it plenty of room to contain the complex systems within. With a powerplant consisting of four nuclear-powered ion plasma engines, the Prometheus was capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) in both atmospheric and interstellar conditions. In space, the VTOL thrust translated into “hybrid vectoring” making the ship extremely maneuverable.
The ship itself was also designed with massive cargo capabilities, for a long journey. It carried twenty vehicles all in all:
- 5 RT Series Group Transports
- 4 ATV NR6 Runabouts
- 2 Heavy Mineral Extractors
- 8 Class-A Individual Crew Ejection Pods
- 1 Class-D Crew Escape Module
And that was all in addition to its advanced navigation systems and communications technology. All told, the ship cost more than one trillion dollars to manufacture.
Mission to LV-223 – Engineers and Invitations
The Prometheus’ journey began in 2089, when two archeologists, Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discovered an ancient star map hidden in early human artwork. The map was unmistakable, but its purpose unknown. Prevailing theory at the time believed the map to be an invitation from a species known as the Engineers.
These were the forerunners of humanity, an ancient alien species in possession of extremely advanced technology. With the map discovered, it was only a matter of time before Sir Peter Weyland, the founder of the Weyland Corporation decided to seek it out.
Thus the faster-than-light ship was designed. And outfitted to travel to LV-223, a moon in the Zeta 2 Reticuli star system, orbiting a gas giant known as Calpamos. LV-223 was a distant world, and the ship took two years to arrive.
Naturally with a long and secret mission, the Weyland Corporation withheld the ship’s true purpose. And not until the crew arrived in 2093, were they informed of the mission to locate the Engineers.
On LV-223, humanity learned that sometimes, the gods are just as flawed, or worse, than humanity. The situation on LV-223 was grim. As the crew of the Prometheus explored a massive alien structure, they discovered an urn containing black goo known that was in fact a powerful mutagen originally developed with the intention of wiping out all life on Earth.
Several mutated crewmembers later, the Prometheus saw one of the Engineers board it, trying to complete the original mission of wiping out the violent species known as humanity. In the end, the Prometheus was sacrificed to try and save the Earth.
But who can say for how long?
