in the three years that followed the
disastrous first contact between the
United Federation of Planets and the
Dominion tensions between the two powers
continually built toward breaking point
by mid 23 73 the Dominion had made their
first military advance into the Alpha
Quadrant consolidating with their new
Cardassian allies and beginning to
assemble bases and shipyards across the
quadrant in the months that followed the
Dominion signed several non-aggression
pacts with Alpha Quadrant powers
including the Romulan Star Empire the
Tholian assembly and the Third Republic
of beige or taking full advantage of the
Federation's refusal to strike first
the Dominion spent weeks channeling
fleets of warships and vast quantities
of supplies through the Bajoran wormhole
passing within sight of deep space nine
as they moved to fortify their new
positions eventually the Federation
Council finally accepted the
inevitability of war in a bold and
provocative move they ordered the
deployment of a huge minefield across
the mouth of the Bajoran wormhole
intended to block further reinforcements
and resupply convoys from reaching the
dominions new Holdings as the USS
defiance began the lengthy process of
deploying the self-replicating minefield
the Dominion mobilized their forces to
attack deep space 9 and seize the
station before the minefield could be
activated as the Dominion fleet entered
the bay jaw system the USS Defiant was
finishing their deployment of the last
mines in order to protect them from
attack until their task was completed
general Martok of the Imperial Klingon
starship rotarran assumed a defensive
posture between the incomplete minefield
and the enemy fleet as the Dominion drew
closer to the station they separated
five wings of JEM Hadar attack ships
from their larger fleet and diverted
them to engage the defiance moving the
remainder of their force to engage deep
space nine directly the first shots of
the battle and of the entire Dominion
War were fired by JEM Hadar and
Cardassian vessels prompting an
immediate response from the phaser and
torpedo batteries of Deep Space nine as
their weapons pounded the station's
shields the Dominion commanders were
surprised to discover that the
Federation had in
pants their shield systems to resist the
bleed-through effects of polar on
weapons and in the momentary confusion
ds9 z' weapons were able to destroy a
number of JEM Hadar attack ships and
Cardassian hide-a-key class Corvettes
even inflicting serious damage on one of
the larger Jem'Hadar battle cruisers
exploiting an opening in the engagements
Captain Sisko was able to order a
long-range torpedo barrage to thin the
ranks of the Dominion vessels
approaching the Defiant but several
Jem'Hadar warships still managed to
reach their targets court deploying the
last of the mines
leftenant commander Jadzia Dax was
unable to order evasive maneuvers
due to the risk of inadvertently
detonating the mines aboard her vessel
as the Defiant maintained its slow
deployment pattern the ship suffered
numerous critical hits but was
eventually rescued when general Martok
used the rotor ins cloaking device to
ambush the attacking vessels Martok's
bird-of-prey was able to single-handedly
destroy all nearby attack ships and
protect the defiance long enough for her
to deploy and activate the last of the
mines with their mission completed the
two vessels began to return to the
besieged station though they had
suffered many losses the Dominion had
reduced deep space 9 shields to 35% and
in a final effort to breach them gold
ducat ordered a coordinated fleet wide
strike against a specific area of the
station's habitat ring hoping to pierce
the shields through concentrated fire
through wave after wave of polaron
torpedoes the Dominion were finally able
to drain the shields of deep space 9 and
as they regrouped to begin their final
assault a second wave of Dominion
vessels arrived in system to reinforce
them faced with certain defeat Sisko
ordered the abandonment of deep space 9
beginning a full evacuation and ordering
the deliberate sabotage of the station
to force its Dominion occupiers into
undertaking extensive repairs it was
only after they had seized the station
that the Dominions leaders realized the
larger strategic situation as they had
struggled to capture deep space 9 a
large task force comprised of Starfleet
and Imperial Klingon warships had
crossed the border into Cardassian space
and decimated the Dominion fleet yards
at toros 3 along with the forces
defending them the Dominion warships
lost in this attack combined with the
50-plus
souls lost capturing deep space 9
represented a serious blow to the
Dominion war machine and with some of
their most critical shipyard facilities
destroyed returning the Dominion fleet
to full strength would take some time
though the Dominion had ceased perhaps
the most important position in the
entire quadrant they were still faced
with many concerns the minefield
deployed across the Bajoran wormhole
would take months to disarm and the
Dominions efforts to reopen a path for
Gamma Quadrant reinforcements would
define the opening weeks of the war
however the Second Battle of deep space
9 was indeed a tactical defeat for the
Federation placing them at a
disadvantage at the very outbreak of
hostilities and signaling the start of a
brutal Dominion march into Federation
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