Alternate reality
(split 2233)
(split 2233)
A drone launched from USS Vengeance
The Mark VII phaser sphere array drone was a type of armed unmanned spacecraft, two of which were carried by the Dreadnought-class starship on either side of the navigational deflector. It was capable of launching several photon torpedoes.
In 2259, USS Vengeance deployed one of these drones during its assault on USS Enterprise over Luna. (Star Trek Into Darkness)
The drone was not identified onscreen, but its name and operational details appear on art produced by Industrial Light & Magic. It was designed by Bruce Holcomb's team, who also called them "phaser drones", "phaser spheres", "phaser sentrys [sic]", and "drone phaser balls of death". According to their notes, the drones allowed Vengeance to "triangulate positional target threat" and "attack from multiple positions on multiple targets". (Star Trek: Designing Starships The Kelvin Timeline, pp.92–96)