History
The Vimana is a monstrous starship used by Lord Tantalus, the Deviant ruler of the planet Armechadon.[1]
Twenty-five thousand years ago, when Tantalus embarked on his mission to unite the Deviant factions on Earth against their human oppressors, he used the Vimana to transport himself, his four children, his Peacekeepers and Khult from Armechadon to Earth. However, after the Celestials chose to exile him there, Tantalus was unable to use the starship to leave Earth.[2]
The Vimana's transponder, a vital part of a working hyperdrive, was somehow disabled, possibly as part of the exile imposed upon Tantalus by the Celestials. In order for the transponder to be brought back on-line, it required several key components[3] that the crew apparently could not create themselves. This forced Tantalus to wait for millennia until humans reached a level of technology that he could exploit.[1]
Modern Age[]
The Vimana was moved to Pangea after Tantalus had become the new ruler of that area. While the Vimana was berthed there, Id damaged its Hyperdrive Transponder beyond any hope of repair, preventing it from ever again travelling faster than the speed of light. However, after a recently-rescued Skrull warrior informed Tantalus of the existence of a Stargate near Earth's Sun, Tantalus had that Skrull pilot the Vimana so that he could finally escape from Earth and return to his homeworld.[1]
After a short detour into Shi'ar-controlled space, the Vimana emerged from hyper-space in the star system that contained Armechadon. When it landed on the planet, some of the natives recognized it as the legendary Vimana, the lost starship of Lord Tantalus.[4]
Capabilities[]
The Vimana was equipped with a hyperdrive that enabled it to travel through space at many times the speed of light. However, without a working hyperdrive, the starship could only travel at light speed.
Although it has never been seen in combat, the Vimana is presumably very well-armed.Notes
- Although it seems likely that the Vimana was what Tantalus used to travel to the five alien planets that he conquered, including Tebbel, this has not been stated or shown in-story, and thus has never been confirmed.
- Tantalus once described travel by starship as an "archaic mode of transport" and claimed that Armechadon was a place from which he could launch an attack on any planet he chose in a blink of an eye. So, if this was true, then why did he use the Vimana to travel to Earth?
- Since Khult was later revealed to have been secretly working against Tantalus for millennia, it seems likely that he was responsible for the prolonged delay in acquiring the components needed for the transponder and he (presumably) guided Id in his destruction of the Vimana's Hyperdrive Transponder.
- It has never been revealed where the Vimana was located for most of its time on Earth. It's possible that it had been berthed in Pangea for a long time before Tantalus took control but that would mean that it had been there when that area froze over after Terminus destroyed the machines that maintained its tropical environment.