Destruction of Vulcan

AT: "ar"

Destruction of Vulcan
Date:	2258
Location:	Vulcan
Result:	Decisive Victory for the Narada; Vulcan destroyed; Vulcan race endangered
Belligerents
United Federation of Planets
Renegade Romulans
Notable commanders
Christopher Pike Spock
Nero
Strength
USS Enterprise, USS Antares, USS Armstrong, USS Farragut, USS Hood, USS Mayflower, USS Newton, USS Odyssey, USS Truman, USS Wolcott
Narada, with Jellyfish on board
Casualties and losses
Vulcan, with around 6 billion Vulcans on planet Unknown number of non-Vulcans 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 Minor damage to the drill platform

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

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 twenty-five 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.

The wreckage of the USS Mayflower was seen in the film. According to the novelization, the Mayflower was not part of the fleet sent to Vulcan, but it intercepted and was destroyed by the Narada before they arrived.

The battle

Shortly afterward, the Narada arrived at Vulcan and deployed a high-powered plasma drill in Vulcan's upper atmosphere to drill a huge shaft to the core of Vulcan. The planetary government sent out a distress call, and shortly afterward 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 realizes what ship he almost destroyed

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 this reality's Spock 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 James T. Kirk, Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson onto the Narada's drill platform (interference from the drill made beaming impossible).

File:Kirk awaits Nero's Wrath.jpg

Kirk waits to see Nero's wrath

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 drill's energy discharge. 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.

Aftermath

The aftermath of the Battle of Vulcan

The battle concluded with the destruction of the planet and the death of its six billion 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 Federation's defenses would later be utilized in a follow-up attack against Earth.