The Retribution was an Orion destroyer that belonged to House Tendi during the late 24th century. By 2381, it was in such a state of disrepair that most, if not all, systems had failed either on their own or due to dependencies, leaving it derelict and non-functional.
That year, Mistress D'Erika Tendi lent the Retribution to the crew of the USS Cerritos for their attempt to penetrate the trynar shield around the Detrion system, in exchange for D'Vana Tendi's agreement to join her forces. However, she neglected to mention the ship's condition, leaving Lieutenant Commander Andy Billups blindsided when his engineering team discovered that the ship was unusable. With insufficient time to restore the ship's systems, the Cerritos used its tractor beam to tow the Retribution at maximum impulse power into a collision course with the shield and make use of the ship's sheer mass. The impact created a breach long enough for the Cerritos captain's yacht to slip into the system. The mutineers who joined Nova Fleet, already disillusioned by Nick Locarno's increasingly controlling and reckless behavior, were so spooked by the event that they abandoned Locarno. (LD: "Old Friends, New Planets")