Battle of Vulcan

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Battle of Vulcan
Date 2258 Location Vulcan Result Victory for the Narada; Vulcan destroyed; Vulcan race critically endangered
Belligerents
United Federation of Planets	Renegade Romulans
Notable commanders
Christopher Pike Spock	Nero
Strength
USS Enterprise, USS Farragut, USS Truman, USS Wolcott, USS Antares, USS Hood, USS Newton, USS Mayflower, USS Odyssey	Narada, with Jellyfish on board
Casualties and losses
Vulcan, with around 6 billion on planet 7 starships destroyed with unspecified number of dead At least 2 fatalities on Enterprise (Olson, Puri) Capt. Pike taken prisoner, later rescued alive	Two crewmembers

The Battle of Vulcan was a conflict fought on stardate 2258.42 between a Starfleet task force, and the Romulan starship Narada.

[edit] Prelude

In the far future, a supernova had totally destroyed the Romulan homeworld, Romulus, despite the best efforts of Federation ambassador Spock to prevent it. Spock was able to collapse the supernova into a singularity using a red matter device, before any other worlds could fall victim to the supernova, but an enraged Romulan captain named Nero intercepted Spock's ship and threatened to destroy him. Before he could do so however, the singularity's gravity well dragged both ships inside, with Nero's vessel, the Narada being thrown back to the year 2233, while Spock's craft, the Jellyfish was pulled in a few seconds later and arrived in the year 2258. The Narada intercepted the Jellyfish however, having waited 25 years to do so, and Nero captured Spock and marooned him on the planet Delta Vega, so that he would be forced to witness Nero's revenge for the destruction of his homeworld.

According to the novelization, the Federation starship USS Mayflower intercepted the Narada and was subsequently destroyed. The wreckage of the Mayflower was seen in the film.

[edit] The Battle

Shortly afterwards, the Narada arrived at Vulcan and deployed a plasma drilling device in Vulcan's upper atmosphere to burn a hole through to the core of Vulcan. The planetary government sent out a distress call, and shortly afterwards a Federation task force arrived. They proved no match for the advanced weaponry of the Narada however, and were wiped out in short order. One starship, the USS Enterprise arrived later than the others (owing to a rookie mistake by new helmsman Hikaru Sulu) and nearly hit the debris field made up of wreckage from the other starships.

Nero witnessed the arrival of the new starship and was prepared to destroy the Enterprise, when he realized just which ship it was, and that James T. Kirk and Spock's past self would be on the vessel. He ordered the captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike to surrender himself and come on board the Narada, which he agreed to do. Before he went to the Narada however, Pike dropped an assault team comprised of Kirk, Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson onto the Narada's drill platform (interference from the drill made beaming impossible).

In an effort to achieve total surprise over the Romulans; Olson delayed in deploying his parachute until the last possible instant. Unfortunately, Olson badly miscalculated as he crashed into the platform, fell off the side and was incinerated by the plasma drill. This left Kirk and Sulu at a disadvantage, since Olson had been carrying the explosive charges with which they intended to destroy the platform. Two Romulan crewmembers emerged from the drill and a hand-to-hand fight began between them and the Starfleet officers, which eventually ended when one of them was burned to death by flames from an exhaust outlet, while the other was impaled and thrown off the side of the platform. Using captured disruptor rifles, Kirk and Sulu shot at the mining platform's machinery until it ceased functioning.

Unfortunately, their efforts came too late; the Narada had already reached the core of Vulcan. Nero then ordered a bomb made up of red matter from the Jellyfish to be fired into the planet's core, and when it detonated it created an artificial singularity within the planet. Upon hearing of this, and that the entire planet would be obliterated within a matter of minutes, the version of Spock on the Enterprise (now acting as captain) sent a largely futile evacuation order to the planet and beamed himself down to retrieve the Vulcan elders (including his parents). Most of the elders escaped, but several were killed as the surface began to collapse, including Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson. Seconds later the planet completely imploded into the singularity, leaving no trace of its existence, and resulting in the near-total destruction of the Vulcan species.

[edit] Aftermath

The battle concluded with the destruction of the planet and the death of its six billion, mostly Vulcan, inhabitants. The Narada had suffered only minor damage and the loss of two crewmen.

Spock estimated that only some 10,000 Vulcans from the planet had survived the incident and that the species had been rendered endangered. The deep emotional effects Spock suffered as a result of the destruction of Vulcan were later used to justify relinquishing his command of the Enterprise.

Nero was also able to retain Captain Pike as a prisoner and information source. Through the use of a Centaurian Slug, Nero was able to gain pertinent knowledge of Federation defense schemes from Pike. Knowledge of Federations defenses would later be utilized in a follow-up attack against Earth.

The Flight of the Narada
USS Kelvin (2233) • Battle of Vulcan (2258) • Battle of Earth (2258)