• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

What kind of Armaments would be needed to survive the Krell Ambush scenario from ST:Beyond?

A different plot.

Both had similar dangers - a very dangerous entity that can get close enough to touch the Enterprise can destroy it. The OP states that you are prepared for the ambush and thus aware that you should not stay and fight. So it's within the boundaries of the discussion, IMHO.
 
The Photonic Cannon, of course.

I hear it can destroy a Borg cube with a single volley. It's also impervious to sensors.

Kor
 
Both were - a very dangerous entity gets close enough to touch the Enterprise to destroy it. And the OP states that you are prepared for the ambush and thus aware that you should not stay and fight. So it's within the boundaries of the discussion, IMHO.
So Bruce Wayne is the captain? ;)
 
Both were - a very dangerous entity gets close enough to touch the Enterprise to destroy it. And the OP states that you are prepared for the ambush and thus aware that you should not stay and fight. So it's within the boundaries of the discussion, IMHO.

You would need the USS Fanboy to take on the Krell head on. 420 photon banks that each have 999 rapid fire torpedoes, 69 phaser banks each powered by their own warp cores and the Wave Motion Gun for good measure. :lol:
 
So Bruce Wayne is the captain? ;)

Just playing by the rules laid out by the OP.

Most of Kirk's dangerous encounters in TOS worked out for him as he mostly had the benefit of some other captain preceding him getting destroyed ;) So Kirk is a fast learner. :)
 
You would need the USS Fanboy to take on the Krell head on. 420 photon banks that each have 999 rapid fire torpedoes, 69 phaser banks each powered by their own warp cores and the Wave Motion Gun for good measure. :lol:

Why head on?
 
Why head on?

You going to run for days, weeks, years hoping to pick them off one by one? If we're talking a conventional battle, then you'd have to go in with absolutely overwhelming firepower (the previously mentioned USS Fanboy). If we go by TOS, the Enterprise has enough firepower to destroy the habitable surface of a planet, half-a-continent if we go by "The Cage" and they really didn't do much damage to the Krell swarm.
 
You going to run for days, weeks, years hoping to pick them off one by one? If we're talking a conventional battle, then you'd have to go in with absolutely overwhelming firepower (the previously mentioned USS Fanboy). If we go by TOS, the Enterprise has enough firepower to destroy the habitable surface of a planet, half-a-continent if we go by "The Cage" and they really didn't do much damage to the Krell swarm.

The OG TOS Enterprise is way more powerful than the Abrams Enterprise's pew-pew guns but still the Abrams Enterprise's phasers actually were blowing up individual swarm ships. But that doesn't matter as per the OP's rules:

"You only have your one StarShip & whatever Shuttles / Fighters you can stash on board, and enough Weapons / Ammo to last that fight to either Win, or escape in 1 piece."​

So whatever Enterprise was in the fight would have the firepower to eventually "win". :)
 
Last edited:
Actually its quite simple, we see no evidence of these ships having warp drive. So micro bursts of warp drive to keep distance, photon torpedoes to denote at a location or at a time count, and phasers. Ships get close, another micro burst of warp drive for distance rinse and repeat. Now TOS Enterprise could (we see it once) use wide beam phaser, JJ verse we see no indication of that ability, but that would be able to take a could chunk in single shots versus, teh phaser style in JJverse which would make the battle take far more time. Now if you had multiple warp cores, that makes it far easier drop one, bsecond burst of warp drive, and denoted it. Blast radius would consume many in one simply strike.
 
So whatever Enterprise was in the fight would have the firepower to eventually "win".
True, but the path to "Victory" or "Escape in one piece" is up to you.
How do you plan on doing it, especialy if you don't have 24th century or above tech.

Even if you had 24th century or above tech, the USS Odyssey was shown to be quite weak against multiple Dominion Scarab Fighters, especially a Kamikaze attack to the StarDrive. And the Dominion used FAR fewer vessels than what Krall did with NuKirk in that initial encounter with the USS Odyssey.

Imagine having to deal with even more small vessels.

It's a similar modern problem in modern shipping on the high seas.

Many large vessels are by themselves, full of valuable cargos, they get swarmed by many pirates in small boats.

By themselves, they aren't much of a threat, but in a large vessel, you gotta defend, you have to fight many smaller craft while trying to win or escape alive & intact.

It's a tough situation, but it's a very realistic scenario.

I have some crazy ideas, but it requires a bit of "OverKill" in design to accomplish.
 
True, but the path to "Victory" or "Escape in one piece" is up to you.
How do you plan on doing it, especialy if you don't have 24th century or above tech.

Even if you had 24th century or above tech, the USS Odyssey was shown to be quite weak against multiple Dominion Scarab Fighters, especially a Kamikaze attack to the StarDrive. And the Dominion used FAR fewer vessels than what Krall did with NuKirk in that initial encounter with the USS Odyssey.

Imagine having to deal with even more small vessels.

It's a similar modern problem in modern shipping on the high seas.

Many large vessels are by themselves, full of valuable cargos, they get swarmed by many pirates in small boats.

By themselves, they aren't much of a threat, but in a large vessel, you gotta defend, you have to fight many smaller craft while trying to win or escape alive & intact.

It's a tough situation, but it's a very realistic scenario.

It's only tough if you stay and fight. In the Odyssey vs Scarab scenario the Odyssey chose to stay and fight until the rescue is complete so they had an excuse to stay. And unlike your rules, the Odyssey's phasers were completely ineffective against the Jem'hedar ships whereas the Abrams Enterprise's phasers can destroy the Krall albeit at a slower rate.

Pine's Kirk doesn't have a reason to stay and fight and never once ordered any maneuvers leaving the Enterprise a sitting duck to get swarmed. And unlike modern ships, the Enterprise in this case could stay ahead of or even outrun the Krall ships since the ancient Franklin could out maneuver them. If Pine's Kirk could have a redo and a forewarning of the ambush as you stipulate then his first and best move is to maneuver to maintain space to pick off the Krall with phasers and eventually the Enterprise will win.

So what you make out as a significant threat of small craft is only the case if the Enterprise allows herself to be caught and overwhelmed, IMHO.
 
Last edited:
It's only tough if you stay and fight. In the Odyssey vs Scarab scenario the Odyssey chose to stay and fight until the rescue is complete so they had an excuse to stay. And unlike your rules, the Odyssey's phasers were completely ineffective against the Jem'hedar ships whereas the Abrams Enterprise's phasers can destroy the Krall albeit at a slower rate.
I wanted to make the scenario fair, ergo you can destroy the smaller vessels, there just happened to be Ten's of Thousands or more of those little buggers like Krall had. And the assumption is that you have a reason to be there at the location for whatever contrived reason you were sent on a mission to do something over there.

Pine's Kirk doesn't have a reason to stay and fight and never once ordered any maneuvers leaving the Enterprise a sitting duck to get swarmed. And unlike modern ships, the Enterprise in this case could stay ahead of or even outrun the Krall ships since the ancient Franklin could out maneuver them. If Pine's Kirk could have a redo and a forewarning of the ambush as you stipulate then his first and best move is to maneuver to maintain space to pick off the Krall with phasers and eventually the Enterprise will win.
Pine's Kirk was there on a rescue mission to Altamid at the behest of a strange alien who led them into a trap.
The Enterprise tried warping out, but their reaction time was too slow & Krall literally cut off the Warp Nacelles before Kirk gave them the command to warp out. After that it took scotty some time to get the Impulse Engines back online since the Warp Nacelles were ripped off the pylons and something was stuck in the system causing impulse to not work.
Go on YT and watch the battle that took down the USS Enterprise.

So what you make out as a significant threat of small craft is only the case if the Enterprise allows herself to be caught and overwhelmed, IMHO.
That's why I called it a "Ambush" Scenario. You're supposed to be "Surprised & Ambushed" by the bad guys.

The question is, you have training / historical combat data from NuKirk's scenario. Don't ask how we got it even though we're in the Prime Timeline, that's a long story for another day. This scenario is taught to all Captains across StarFleet now, it's importance is almost as high as the Kobayashi Maru. Are you prepared to fight a large swarm of weak little ships / fighters in a worse case scenario. The success rate amongst various Captains & their crews during Holodeck simulations isn't high.

How do you go about winning the Ambush or escaping in one piece once you have to deal with it IRL?

Heck, USS Discovery & SNW/DISCO Enterprise had to deal with the Swarm Scenario at the end of DISCO S2.
 
Initiate an antimatter spread, it won't do any damage but it would be a good cover to confuse their sensors and give the ship a moment to get some distance. Then jettison one of the antimatter pods, hit full impulse and fire a torpedo at it, the resulting shockwave would destroy or disable a larger number of ships than taking shots with phasers and torpedoes alone. Repeat another one or two times to thin out their numbers, give them pause and allow you some chance to manoeuvre as far from the planets gravity well as possible. Have my navigator plot a course to take the ship into a low orbit of the planets northern magnetic pole and have the helmsman perform a split-second warp jump to those co-ordinates, then shut down main power and use the planets natural cloak to give myself some breathing space.

The enemy is too vast to fight with a single ship, our hiding place won't be safe forever, which means the only tactic left is to run. Once essential repairs are complete, restore main power, break orbit and jump to maximum warp, sending out a burst transmission to Starfleet alerting them of the situation and the hostile force at play.
 
The Enterprise tried warping out, but their reaction time was too slow & Krall literally cut off the Warp Nacelles before Kirk gave them the command to warp out. After that it took scotty some time to get the Impulse Engines back online since the Warp Nacelles were ripped off the pylons and something was stuck in the system causing impulse to not work.
Go on YT and watch the battle that took down the USS Enterprise.

You watched the same battle, right? Kirk only ordered warping out after the Krall closed the gap and made physical contact with the Enterprise and damaging the ship. Here is the crucial point: 10 seconds go by after ordering "Fire at will!" before the Krall hit the stationary Enterprise. No one on the bridge did a quick math check and go, there is no way we can shoot them all down in time at this rate and assumed their shields would stop them. Instead, Kirk doubles down and orders "Fire everything we've got!" where the math still wouldn't add up to killing them fast enough while stationary.

But since they would have forewarning in your scenario they would know to not let them get close. Right after ordering "Fire at will!" Kirk's best move is to order "Full reverse! Maintain distance and rate of fire!" and if they can't on impulse then "Warp us out of here!"
 
You watched the same battle, right? Kirk only ordered warping out after the Krall closed the gap and made physical contact with the Enterprise and damaging the ship.
After Kirk ordered Shields Up! Red Alert, Kirk stubbornly orders "Fire Everything we've got" & Spock warns them that they aren't equipped for this manner of engagement (understatement of the century).

Yeah, Krall's swarm basically bypasses the shield somehow (they didn't realize at the time that Krall was Ex-StarFleet & a Turncoat, so it's no surprise that he knew how to counter StarFleet Shielding) & Kamikazed the Main Deflector Dish First which took down Main Shields for good, which made them incredibly vulnerable.

Here is the crucial point: 10 seconds go by after ordering "Fire at will!" before the Krall hit the stationary Enterprise. No one on the bridge did a quick math check and go, there is no way we can shoot them all down in time at this rate and assumed their shields would stop them. Instead, Kirk doubles down and orders "Fire everything we've got!" where the math still wouldn't add up to killing them fast enough while stationary.
Kirk only ordered Warping Out after the Main deflector dish was gone, and that was 42 seconds after ordering Red Alert.

Kirk foolishly thought he had the firepower for that type of battle, obviously he was wrong in that situation.

But since they would have forewarning in your scenario they would know to not let them get close. Right after ordering "Fire at will!" Kirk's best move is to order "Full reverse! Maintain distance and rate of fire!" and if they can't on impulse then "Warp us out of here!"
It's not so much "Forewarning", as much as training for this exact type of scenario. At the end of the day, you will still be ambushed, so the enemy will have the initiative. But fighting a large swarm won't be such a alien concept and your ship will be equipped to deal with it, vs what Kirk had which was double the pitiful amount of Phaser Turrets from his encounter with the USS Vengeance. That was still not enough given that he only fired bolts and not a constant beam which should've sliced through the swarm like a "hot knife through butter".

If there was ever a specific battle scenario to argue in favor of Beams over Bolts, this exact scenario is one of them where a strong enough Beam could potentially slice through multiple ships as you move about the beam.

Kirk's first move after "Shields Up! Red Alert" should've been to run at Warp and maintain a giant constant distance gap between it and the swarm. Then start firing back and running away at the same time through where he came from and asking for backup. Also order a shuttle pilot or two to hop on board a shuttle, and go through the spatial phenomena that blocks COMMs with StarFleet, then make sure to warn StarFleet Command of the trap and ask for backup ASAP.

If that means dragging the battle back out into normal space where you have COMMs access, so be it, but maintain that gap and keep on fighting while engaging in a running battle that you run away towards Federation / Allied space and call in for backup constantly and warn them of the situation.
 
Last edited:
After Kirk ordered Shields Up! Red Alert, Kirk stubbornly orders "Fire Everything we've got" & Spock warns them that they aren't equipped for this manner of engagement (understatement of the century).

Kirk only ordered Warping Out after the Main deflector dish was gone, and that was 42 seconds after ordering Red Alert.

Kirk foolishly thought he had the firepower for that type of battle, obviously he was wrong in that situation.

Right after Kirk orders "Fire at will!" in those seconds afterwards and before Chekov tells him, "Sir our phasers are having a minimal effect..." it was pretty obvious the number of phaser bolts that can be fired could only take out a small amount of the Krall. Kirk should've done the numbers in his head or any of the bridge crew could've pointed out the problem and Kirk back the ship off. Instead Kirk went dumb and ordered "Fire everything we've got!" which didn't increase any weapons fire :P

That dialogue happens here and Kirk (and Spock!) had plenty of time to go, we fire phasers at x per second and they number y thousands. Nope, can't shoot them all down in time if we sit here. Let's buy us time by flying in reverse and keeping them away from us! :)
2rJeqRx.png
 
Go immediately to high warp, limiting their lines of approach and drawing them into the inevitable stern chase. Then detonate several EMP-tweaked photon torpedoes in your wake, drag them through a star's corona, shed them like fleas in an asteroid belt or the icy rings of a gas giant where you have navigational deflectors and they don't (too small)- whatever it takes for however long it takes, as long as you can stay ahead of them and they don't give up.
 
Right after Kirk orders "Fire at will!" in those seconds afterwards and before Chekov tells him, "Sir our phasers are having a minimal effect..." it was pretty obvious the number of phaser bolts that can be fired could only take out a small amount of the Krall. Kirk should've done the numbers in his head or any of the bridge crew could've pointed out the problem and Kirk back the ship off. Instead Kirk went dumb and ordered "Fire everything we've got!" which didn't increase any weapons fire :P
I concur, Nu-Kirk being a DumbAss isn't new to us & he has a tendency to make bad decisions & have plot armor save him in the end. We both agree that he screwed up from the outset the moment he started the battle at "Shields Up! Red Alert". The major difference is that I wouldn't have even waited to see if my phasers were effective or not, I would've run away and maintained a running battle while firing back at them simultaneously.
The main point would be to run back through that extra dense Asteriod Belt that was blocking COMMs and get help, also send in shuttles to the Asteroid belt to ask for help in case the main ship fails for whatever reason.

That dialogue happens here and Kirk (and Spock!) had plenty of time to go, we fire phasers at x per second and they number y thousands. Nope, can't shoot them all down in time if we sit here. Let's buy us time by flying in reverse and keeping them away from us! :)
2rJeqRx.png
That was WAY too late IMO, the best move in NuKirk's scenario was to run-away first, then shoot back.

He made the fool hardy decision to stand his ground and then run when it was too late.

Ergo, Krall's Ambush worked.

Go immediately to high warp, limiting their lines of approach and drawing them into the inevitable stern chase. Then detonate several EMP-tweaked photon torpedoes in your wake, drag them through a star's corona, shed them like fleas in an asteroid belt or the icy rings of a gas giant where you have navigational deflectors and they don't (too small)- whatever it takes for however long it takes, as long as you can stay ahead of them and they don't give up.
Warp Speed Cat & Mouse while dragging them through natural phenomena, I like that idea.

That could work as long as you maintain the lead and have initiative.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top