The Kryptonian dropship was a combat-ready transport vehicle and part of the Black Zero prison frigate spaceship used by General Zod and his Sword of Rao allies.
History[]
Discovery[]
After Krypton exploded and freed the Black Zero from the Phantom Zone, the Sword of Rao retrofitted the prison vessel into a starship and searched the old Kryptonian outposts scattered across the universe for survivors. Finding no survivors, they scavenged what they could fit on their ship - armor, equipment, a world engine, and two dropships.[1]
Kryptonian attack[]
After discovering Kal-El and the growth codex on Earth, General Zod positioned Black Zero in Earth's orbit and sent the two dropships down, led by Faora-Ul to retrieve Kal-El and the human, Lois Lane, before returning them to the Black Zero.
Showdown in Smallville[]
After searching their memories on the Black Zero for the codex's location, General Zod led two dropships down to Smallville, landing on the Kent Farm. Kal-El, however, escaped the Black Zero and attacked Zod. A dropship, piloted by Tor-An, followed and attacked Kal-El, blasting him away away from the weakened Zod, and took him back to Black Zero before returning for Faora-Ul and Nam-Ek, shooting down several human military planes in the process.
Black Zero Event[]
General Zod later personally flew a dropship to the location of the scout ship in the Arctic to secure the genesis chamber, and left it there on the mountain as he flew the scout ship back to Metropolis.
Post-Kryptonian attack[]
The United States Army discovered the abandoned dropship and moved it back to the United States Department of Defense, where they could properly examine and try to reverse engineer its highly advanced technology and capabilities, with help from LexCorp and S.T.A.R. Labs. They confiscated all the weapons and other equipment aboard as well for examination.[2]
Alternate universes/timelines[]
Flashpoint Timeline[]
Discovery[]
After Krypton exploded and freed the Black Zero from the Phantom Zone, the Sword of Rao retrofitted the prison vessel into a starship and searched the old Kryptonian outposts scattered across the universe for survivors. Finding no survivors, they scavenged what they could fit on their ship - armor, equipment, a world engine, four small dropships and a large dropship.
Kryptonian attack[]
Battle at Edwards Air Force Base[]
After having found Earth and having sent a message, on October 2, the Sword of Rao would descend near the Edwards Air Force Base to get the Kryptonian traitor they asked for. The Black Zero would descend near the base and release 5 dropships, of which 1 was the large one. From the latter, Zod and Faora came out and the general, seeing how the humans had not brought the Kryptonian traitor he asked for, began to attack the military forces, with the dropships taking charge of killing the soldiers and destroying the jets.
Eventually the Justice League would arrive and begin a battle with the Sword of Rao. Zod, who had returned inside the big dropship, would came out on a flying platform alongside two Kryptonians sitting in turrets. The turrets would be destroyed by Supergirl who pushed away the two Kryptonians off the platform. Inside the platform, Zod, with some liquid geo, would show Supergirl how the terraforming was happening and would later be attacked by her after revealing that he killed Kal-El.
Batman, meanwhile, had attracted two small dropships so inside the Batwing, he would throw two hooks which would stick against the dropships and when they reached a hill, the two dropships collided, destroying each other. After Zod and Supergirl had fought for a few minutes, the latter would eventually kick Zod towards the remains of the two dropships that collided with each other and with a piece of one of the dropships, she would begin to hit Zod, sinking him into the dropship until leave him "unconscious." Supergirl would approach him to stop the terraformation with his gauntlet device but she would be stabbed by him. A dropship would land near them from which two Kryptonians with an extraction device would come out.
The extraction device would be used by Zod to extract Kara Zor-El's codex, which would kill her. Meanwhile, Batman fired several missiles at the large dropship but they had no effect as it was protected by a shield. The dropship would fire a plasma bolt at the Batwing, which would cause the ejection systems to begin to fail. Seeing that he had no other choice, Batman drove the Batwing towards the large dropship in a attempt to destroy the shield, killing himself in the process. However, this also had no effect so it was in vain. Zod and the other two Kryptonians, having finished extracting the codex from Kara's body, would board the small dropship and leave the place while the young Flash was coming at them.
After the death of their two teammates, the Flashes would travel back in time through the Chronobowl and go to the moment when they created an electrical explosion. Upon leaving, the older Flash would warn Batman not to shoot at the large dropship with the Batwing since it had a protective shield, which Batman listened to and went to attack Nam-Ek instead. Meanwhile, the young Flash would try to help Supergirl defeat Zod but would fail. Zod would stab Supergirl again as the small dropship descended again with two Kryptonians bringing the extraction device.
Specifications[]
Standard dropship[]
A Kryptonian dropship is a large, black starcraft that vaguely resembles a large round beetle in appearance. It is capable of impressive maneuverability, and great speed of at least 196 m/s, thanks to its two powerful jet thrusters. Given that human passengers on board the ship are able to not only survive, but even stand up and move around during such lethal acceleration, it appears that the ship is also equipped with some kind of inertia-dampening technology to protect the crew and systems. For weaponry, the dropship possesses a single cannon underneath the cockpit that emits thick blue plasma bolts that are capable of bringing down a A-10 Thunderbolt II with a single hit. Indeed, such a shot was powerful enough to send Kal-El flying into a truck with enough force to greatly dent it and cause him a moment of burning pain in the process.
Large dropship[]
In the Flashpoint timeline, there is also a bigger and bulkier variant of the dropship. This dropship can release a floating platform which has two plasma turrets on which two Kryptonians can sit and shoot. This dropship also has more cannons than the smaller version so it can fire more plasma bolts at the same time. Another weapon of this dropship is being able to shoot what appears to be ice or glass in droves. The dropship is also protected by a blue shield that prevents it from suffering any damage.