Editing Doomsday Machine (section)

== Discovery ==
Around stardate 4202.1, the ''Constellation'', under the command of [[Rank|Commodore]] Matt Decker, encountered massive destruction in [[System L-370]]; all seven planets had been utterly destroyed.  Proceeding to [[System L-374]] (stardate 4202.3), the ship found three intact planets, and a fourth in the process of breaking up.  Orbiting the fourth planet was the planet killer, firing a beam of pure [[antiproton]]s at the planet and consuming the planet's rubble as fuel.

As the ''Constellation'' approached, it was attacked by the planet killer.  The ship's deflector shields were quickly overwhelmed by the onslaught, and the machine proved completely invulnerable to counterattack, because its hull was composed of pure [[neutronium]].  The ''Constellation'' sustained heavy damage; the main bridge was destroyed, the [[phaser]] banks were exhausted, and the [[warp drive]] was destroyed, impulse drive severely damaged.  In addition, the machine projected a powerful dampening field, cutting off all communications with [[Starfleet Command]], and somehow deactivating the ''Constellation'''s [[antimatter]] fuel and leaving the ship nearly powerless.

[[File:USS Constellation 1017.jpg|thumb|250px|left|''Constellation'' adrift]]
Unable to continue the attack or escape, Decker ordered the crew to evacuate to the third planet in the system.  Decker himself remained aboard as the last man.  However, having finished consuming the fourth planet, the machine then turned towards the third planet.  Decker tried to beam his crew back up, but the machine attacked again, damaging the [[transporter]].  He could only watch helplessly as the machine consumed the planet below and killed his entire crew of 400 men and women.

[[File:Doomsday Machine 2.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The "planet killer" fires its anti-proton beam]]
A short time later, the ''Enterprise'', under the command of [[Rank|Captain]] [[James T. Kirk]], received a faint and garbled distress signal.  Unable to make out any words aside from ''Constellation'', she entered system L-374 and found her sister ship drifting and abandoned, with Commodore Decker the sole survivor aboard.  Assessing the situation using the ''Constellation'''s sensor records taken by [[Science Officer]] Masada, [[Spock]] projected the weapon's origin.  He also determined, based on its present course, that it would enter the most densely populated regions of the [[Alpha Quadrant]], including the nearby [[Rigel X|Rigel system]].