Kruge, now with the project summary in hand, ordered a course set for the Genesis Planet, which had only recently been formed. Arriving at that destination, he and his crew encountered the USS Grissom, a Federation science vessel assigned to study the planet. Kruge wanted to gain hostages with which to bargain for the Genesis technology, so he ordered his gunner to target the Grissom's engines in order to disable the vessel. However, in what the gunner described as a "lucky shot," the Grissom was destroyed. Kruge responded by instantly killing the gunner. After Torg found that a landing party from the Grissom had survived on the planet's surface, Kruge led a team to search for them.