USS Vengeance

AT: "ar"

USS Vengeance
Owner:	United Federation of Planets
Operator:	Section 31

"That's a hell of a ship you've got there."

– James T. Kirk to Alexander Marcus, 2259 (Star Trek Into Darkness)

The USS Vengeance was an unmarked Federation Dreadnought-class starship under the command of Admiral Alexander Marcus and in the service of Section 31 in 2259. It was launched from the Io Facility, a spacedock in orbit of the Jovian moon Io.

Service history

See also: Battle of Luna

The Vengeance was designed by Khan Noonien Singh for the purpose of preparing the Federation for war against the Klingon Empire and its other rivals and was built at a secret spacedock near Jupiter.

A model of the Vengeance on Marcus' desk

A small model of this starship was displayed in the office of Admiral Alexander Marcus.

File:Enterprise and Vengeance face off.jpg

The USS Vengeance confronts the USS Enterprise

Khan provided the coordinates for the Vengeance's location after surrendering to Captain Kirk on Qo'noS. Kirk then sent Montgomery Scott to investigate. Soon afterwards, Scott was seen piloting a shuttlecraft into the spacedock where the Vengeance was moored. Following the arrival of Kirk and Khan aboard the USS Enterprise, the Vengeance appeared in Klingon space and confronted the starship. Admiral Marcus, in command of the Vengeance, demanded that Kirk hand Khan over to him. Instead, Kirk ordered the Enterprise to warp to Earth so that Khan could stand trial as a war criminal, which would also expose the admiral's secret alliance with Khan.

The USS Vengeance strafing the USS Enterprise

The Vengeance caught up to the Enterprise while at warp and fired upon it, crippling it near Luna. Scott, who had stowed away aboard the ship, temporarily deactivated the Vengeance's weaponry, just as Marcus prepared to finish off the Enterprise.

The Vengeance detonating

Kirk and Khan donned thruster suits and flew over to attempt to commandeer the Vengeance. Following their arrival on the bridge, Khan killed Admiral Marcus and seized command of the ship, taking Kirk and his crew hostage. Acting captain Spock allowed Khan to transport the seventy-two advanced long-range torpedoes apparently containing Khan's fellow Augments to the Vengeance, in a negotiated exchange for the Enterprise's safety and the safe return of Kirk, Scott, and Carol Marcus. Khan returned the three hostages to the Enterprise but resumed firing on the ship as soon as they were transported aboard. Spock had anticipated Khan's betrayal and, having ordered McCoy to remove the cryotubes from the torpedoes, caused the torpedoes to detonate within the Vengeance's cargo bay. This crippled the ship and further enraged Khan, unaware that his people had been removed from the torpedoes.

File:Vengeance going down.jpg

Set destination: Starfleet Headquarters!

The Vengeance was caught in Earth's gravitational pull when Khan, believing his fellow Augments to be dead, directed the ship to crash into San Francisco as a massive act of retribution against his former Starfleet masters, narrowly missing an atmospheric impact with the Enterprise en route. The enormous ship cut through the city and obliterated landmarks such as the Alcatraz Penitentiary. After slamming into Alcatraz and killing visitors to the island, the ship went into the water, then briefly regained altitude. It then crashed into Fisherman's Wharf and Telegraph Hill. The impact of the ship into the city broke the primary hull from the secondary hull. Momentum carried the wrecked primary hull to a point short of the Transamerica Pyramid.

Nearly a year later, Starfleet held a memorial service for the lives lost due to Khan's violent acts, including those killed when the Vengeance crashed. At this memorial, Kirk spoke out against what the ship represented and reminded the assembled audience that Starfleet had risked becoming as warlike as its enemies. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Crew

• Commanding officers:
  • Alexander Marcus
  • Khan Noonien Singh

See also: Unnamed USS Vengeance personnel

Technical data

Main article: Dreadnought-class

The Vengeance was specifically designed to be a combat vessel and was larger, faster, and more heavily armed with more advanced weaponry than other Federation ships. According to Khan, it was "twice the size, ten times the firepower, and three times the speed".

A reference vessel for Khan's comparison is not given, but probably is meant to be the Enterprise.

The Vengeance had been built to allow for a minimal crew and was largely automated. It was designed to be controlled by a single person if necessary. Its advanced phasers could be fired while the ship was at warp. The ship was also equipped with additional technologically-advanced features including better shielding, more advanced transporters, and enhanced warp capabilities. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Weaponry

One of the Vengeance's advanced torpedo launchers

The weapons systems of the Vengeance included an array of powerful advanced phasers and two massive swivel-mounted torpedo launchers that could be deployed from beneath the saucer section. The ship could also launch drones which were in turn capable of launching several photon torpedoes before reaching their target. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Appendices

Background information

The Vengeance is only referred to by name once on-screen, by an unidentified crewmember over the radio as the crew shuttles prepare to enter the Io Facility. Even the displays aboard the Enterprise only refer to the Vengeance as "Unidentified Vessel", and do not specify it as a Starfleet or Federation ship.

Analysis of a current San Francisco map suggests that the final resting place of the Vengeance's hull was in Jackson Square. For those unfamiliar with San Francisco geography, this implies that the Vengeance came to a rest several blocks short of Starfleet Headquarters.

After the design of the USS Vengeance was conceptualized, the writers of Star Trek Into Darkness conceived of ways that the ship could be utilized by imagining Admiral Marcus' devious plan. (Cinefex, No. 134, p. 75)

Devising ways to illuminate the vessel was a task given to Industrial Light & Magic. "The tricky thing about the black ship was, of course, lighting it against the background of space," noted ILM Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett. ILM's look development team created turntable studies of the Vengeance, experimenting with lighting effects which enabled the mostly black object to be sufficiently viewable against the interstellar darkness. As well as using rim-lighting and specular values to highlight surface details on the ship's hull, the vessel was shown illuminated by subtle backlit effects generated from nearby luminous gas clouds. (Cinefex, No. 134, pp. 75 & 84)

The model prop of the USS Vengeance created for the movie

QMx FX Cinema Arts, the prop and model shop of Quantum Mechanix, was asked to illustrate Star Trek's "history" of space flight by creating a series of physical models. QMx constructed fourteen models which were featured as props in Admiral Marcus' office. [1] Roberto Orci opined that having a desktop model of the Vengeance in the film was a mistake and would not have happened if he had been on set that day. He suggested "that one could argue that a pre-existing design was recommissioned and altered to be a weapon of war," potentially justifying it. [2]

The Starfleet Top Secret Security Review, page 1

The Starfleet Top Secret Security Review, page 2

According to the non-canon Top Secret Security Review-31 Command, the Vengeance was the product of the Praxxis Project. Agent John Harrison (Khan) was retasked to the Io Facility to conclude testing on the ship. Once at the facility, Harrison compromised the project by not reporting the final report on the project to Admiral Marcus and abandoning his assignment. If he had received the report, the admiral considered sending the Vengeance on a mission to defend the Federation colony on Ganalda IV, which was threatened by a Klingon fleet.

Replicas and toys

Quantum Mechanix has announced plans to retail twelve and thirty-six inch long replicas of the ship in "Collector's Scale" and "Artisan" editions.

Mattel released scaled Hot Wheels six-inch replicas of the USS Vengeance to retail in May 2013. They were also included as premiums with retailer exclusive sets of the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D in September 2013. A smaller three-inch version was also released in 2014.

Hasbro released a Kre-O toy version of the ship and Hallmark released a USS Vengeance Christmas ornament in 2014. Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection also released a replica as a "special issue" in 2014.

The thirty-six-inch QMx replica of the USS Vengeance

The twelve-inch QMx replica of the USS Vengeance

The six-inch Hot Wheels USS Vengeance

The six-inch Hot Wheels USS Vengeance with Walmart's Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray set

Hot Wheels USS Vengeance with Play.com's Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray 3D set

The three-inch Hot Wheels USS Vengeance

Hallmark USS Vengeance

Kre-O USS Vengeance

Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection USS Vengeance

Apocrypha

According to apocryphal sources, two 23rd century starships in the prime universe have also been named USS Vengeance. The first was a Miranda-class USS Vengeance at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works, mentioned in the 1983 FASA sourcebook Federation Ship Recognition Manual (p.13). The second was a refit Constitution-class USS Vengeance at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works, one of several Federation starships defending the Sol system in the 2000 video game Star Trek: Klingon Academy.

The 2013 virtual collectible card battle game Star Trek: Rivals has the USS Vengeance as card #109.

External links

• Template:NCwiki
• HMS Vengeance at Wikipedia