Attack on Yorktown The attack on Yorktown was an engagement between Yorktown , the , and a massive fleet of 250 , 000 swarm ship s commanded by Krall . Prelude . After the United Federation of Planets was formed , Balthazar Edison was given command of the and sent on exploratory missions , something he despised as he was a soldier and he thrived on war , not peace . Eventually , while on a mission in the Gagarin Radiation Belt in 2164 , the " Franklin " disappeared , presumably through wormhole displacement , and crash - landed on Altamid . Although Edison and his surviving crew sent out a distress call , the Federation never responded and Edison believed the Federation had deliberately abandoned them . Driven insane by the Federation ' s perceived abandonment and his desire for revenge , Edison used the Ancient Ones ' energy transference technology to survive and became the alien warlord Krall , with the two surviving members of his crew becoming known as Kalara and Manas . The three were mutated to the point that they no longer appeared Human and they re - purposed the drones and ships left behind by the Ancient Ones for their own purposes . Learning of the Ancient Ones ' weapon , the Abronath , Krall , Kalara , and Manas spent " lifetimes " searching for the two halves . They were eventually able to acquire one of the halves on their own , and , through a captured Magellan probe , they managed to hack into Yorktown ' s database and learned that the possessed the other half . Krall sent Kalara to Yorktown under the pretense of seeking help for her distressed crew and was able to successfully lure the " Enterprise " into the Necro Cloud and to Altamid . In the battle that followed , the " Enterprise " was destroyed , but Captain was able to keep the Abronath half out of Krall ' s hands by hiding it with Ensign Syl . Having captured the " Enterprise " crew and threatening to kill them all , Krall was able to force Syl to reveal she had the second half of the Abronath . After testing it on Syl , Krall and his forces prepared to depart for Yorktown to use the Abronath on the population and then to possibly use Yorktown as a base from which to launch further attacks upon the Federation . Before he could do so , Kirk , , Jaylah , and were able to rescue the " Enterprise " crew and kill Manas during an attack on his camp , but Krall got away with the Abronath and his Swarm ship fleet . Knowing of his intentions , the " Enterprise " crew repaired the " Franklin " and used it to pursue Krall to Starbase Yorktown . Battle . Krall ' s Swarm ships emerged from the Necro Cloud and were detected by Yorktown ' s satellite network . The Swarm ships began attacking Yorktown ' s defense satellite s and easily destroyed them while the satellites and Yorktown fired all weapons at the Swarm ships , to little effect . Emerging from the Necro Cloud behind the Swarm ships , the " Franklin " detected the attack along with distress signals from Yorktown on all frequencies . While the ship began to arm all weapons , Jaylah objected , stating that they could not defeat " the bees . " As Kirk attempted to figure out a way to buy Yorktown time to evacuate , Spock realized that the Swarm was too organized not to be communicating with each other and coordinating their movements . Spock and Lieutenant suggested that figuring out a way to disrupt the communication between the Swarm ships would enable them to defeat the Swarm . After a brief discussion , Spock decided to beam onto one of the Swarm ships with McCoy in order to learn more about the cyberpathic connection between the ships . After hijacking a Swarm ship , McCoy took over piloting while Spock located the cyberpathic connection and sent the signal to the " Franklin " . Discussing their options , Spock suggested that they send a disruptive communication signal into the cyberpathic link which would sever the Swarm ' s ability to coordinate . Chief Engineer suggested that the Swarm network might be vulnerable to VHF radio signals , giving Kirk the idea to broadcast something " loud and distracting " to the Swarm to drown out their link . Hearing Kirk ' s words , Scott came up with the idea of using Jaylah ' s classical music from the " Franklin " s archives . As Scott and Jaylah rigged the " Franklin " to emit the signal , the Swarm ships finished destroying the last of Yorktown ' s defenses and started attacking the base ' s main entrance . With the signal ready , Uhura reported that they would need to get very close to the Swarm for the signal to work . Kirk ordered the " Franklin " flown into the middle of the Swarm . Following Kirk ' s commands , Sulu piloted the " Enterprise " into the Swarm , firing the " Franklin " s pulsed phase cannon s . Noticing the attack from his old ship , Krall had the Swarm double back to destroy the " Franklin " instead . Once the Swarm was nearly on top of them , the " Enterprise " crew started broadcasting a song at 57 . 7 megahertz , causing the Swarm ships near the " Franklin " to fly into disarray and crash into each other . The " Franklin " then flew through the Swarm , broadcasting the signal and destroying all ships near them . Seeing the success of their plan , Uhura sent the disruption signal to Yorktown , which began broadcasting it as well , attacking the Swarm from two sides . The disruption signal destroyed all of the Swarm except for Krall ' s ship and two other Swarm ships , which were able to break through the damaged entrance way and into Yorktown . Realizing that Krall was continuing his mission to use the Abronath on Yorktown , Kirk ordered Spock and McCoy to follow the three ships and stop them at any cost . Spock and McCoy ' s hijacked ship and the " Franklin " followed Krall ' s ships through the docking door , damaging the " Franklin " further . After encountering three police vessels , Krall flew his ships from the space lane into the interior of the Yorktown , followed by Spock and McCoy , who unsuccessfully attempted to stop them while the " Franklin " followed them . Examining Yorktown ' s schematics , Kirk realized that Krall was headed for Yorktown Headquarters . After Sulu and Chekov determined that Yorktown Central Plaza was being cleared , Kirk ordered McCoy to make sure Krall headed for the plaza and ordered Sulu to get the " Franklin " to the plaza . By flying straight at Krall ' s ships , McCoy forced them closer to the ground as the three ships flew into the plaza . The " Franklin " suddenly arrived directly in front of Krall , causing Krall and his ships to crash into the " Franklin " s hull . The " Franklin " then came to a final rest in the plaza . Chekov detected three hull breaches from the impacts of the Swarm ships , and Sulu , Chekov , Kirk , and Uhura split up to check them out . Near one of the breaches , Kirk and Uhura found a crewman dead and Uhura recognized it as being the energy transference Krall used . Believing that Krall was still on board as they would have seen him leave , Kirk ordered Chekov to contact Yorktown Security to help secure the ship . However , as they passed through the mess hall , Uhura spoted an old recording of the " Franklin " crew playing and , after reviewing the recording , deduced that Krall was actually Captain Balthazar Edison . Kirk had Scott search the ship ' s database for information on Edison . Scott learned that Edison was a soldier in the United Earth Military before the Federation was formed and he was given command of the " Franklin " . Watching Edison ' s last captain ' s log , they discovered that his belief that the Federation had abandoned him had driven him insane , and that he intended to use the Ancient Ones ' technology to survive and get revenge . Kirk realized that Krall was looking for a place to inflict maximum damage with the Abronath and Scott informed him of Yorktown ' s atmospheric processor and the maintenance tower at the station ' s gravitational hub that Krall would have to use to access it . Kirk headed to stop Krall while sending Uhura to contact Yorktown to get the processor shut down until the situation was resolved , and sent Scott and Jaylah to ensure it . Meanwhile Krall , having resumed the majority of his Human appearance as Balthazar Edison , escaped the " Franklin " in a stolen Starfleet uniform with the Abronath and made his way to the maintenance tower . While Scott and Jaylah worked on disabling the processor , Kirk made his way to the top of the tower , where he confronted Krall with a phaser and asked what happened that turned Edison into Krall . Krall admited that he and his crew lost their former selves , but believed that with the Abronath , they had found a way to bring the galaxy back to the struggle that made Humanity strong . Krall explained that he was disgusted that he fought in wars that cost millions of lives and was then forced to break bread with those former enemies as the captain of a Federation ship . Kirk insisted that they had to change with the times , but Krall attacked him and attempted to deploy the Abronath . Fighting Krall , Kirk knocked them both out of the glass chamber they were in and into open air . Krall and Kirk landed on a nearby roof , where Kirk attempted to convince Krall to stop , as he won the war he was fighting and gave them peace . However , Krall felt that all he was meant for was war and launched himself into the station ' s gravitational slipstream to return to the maintenance tower , followed by Kirk . Krall activated the weapon before Kirk could stop him , but Kirk was able to subdue Krall . Scott informed Kirk that the only chance of saving Yorktown was for Kirk to flip four switches in the chamber that would open a sealed construction hatch in the processor . If Kirk could open the hatch in time , the Abronath would be vented into space , but if he failed , it would be sucked into the processor and everyone in Yorktown would die . Kirk was able to flip three of the switches , but the last switch was jammed as Krall recovered and attempted to kill Kirk with a shard of glass . Kirk kicked Krall into the Abronath cloud and both the Abronath and Krall were sucked towards the processor as it cycled . Before the Abronath and Krall could reach the processor , Kirk flipped the final switch before getting sucked out himself . Krall and the Abronath were harmlessly vented into space , where Krall was consumed and killed by the Abronath , while Spock and McCoy rescued Kirk in their stolen Swarm ship . Aftermath . Following the attack , the case regarding the " Franklin " was officially closed and Kirk was offered a promotion to vice admiral . Kirk , who had previously sought the position , declined after rediscovering his passion for exploration and adventure . After the was finished , the crew of the " Enterprise " resumed their five - year mission in their new ship . ( )