Operation Return

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Operation Return

USS Majestic destroyed during Operation Return

Date	mid-2374, Stardate not given
Location	Bajor sector, on approach to Deep Space Nine
Result	Federation Alliance victory

Combatants

United Federation of Planets
Klingon Empire

The Dominion

Commanders

Captain Benjamin Sisko
General Martok

Gul S.G. Dukat
Female Changeling
Weyoun

Strength

Approximately 600 Federation ships and an unknown number of Klingon ships

Over 1,254 Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships

Casualties

Unknown

Dominion War
Deep Space Nine – Bajor – First Chin'toka – Second Chin'toka – Cardassia

In the fictional Star Trek universe, Operation Return was a major battle and a turning point in the Dominion War. It is depicted in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Favor the Bold" and "Sacrifice of Angels".

[edit] Prelude

Five months prior to the battle, Starfleet abandons starbase Deep Space Nine to the Dominion and its newest member, the Cardassian Union. However, before Starfleet's withdrawal, the USS Defiant mines the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole. These cloaked, self-replicating mines effectively prevent the Dominion's leaders in the Gamma Quadrant from sending reinforcements through to the Alpha Quadrant.

Recognizing the need for both a strategic and morale-boosting victory, Captain Benjamin Sisko begins planning to retake Deep Space Nine. While amassing the necessary fleet, Sisko receives a message from his son informing him that the Dominion is nearing completion of an effort that will bring down the minefield and allow thousands of Jem'Hadar starships to pass through the wormhole into the Alpha Quadrant. Such reinforcements would tip the balance in the Dominion's favor, effectively ending the war in a Federation-Klingon defeat.

Sisko, aboard the Defiant, takes the assembled fleet of approximately 600 starships – not at its planned capacity, and lacking Klingon forces entirely. The Dominion sends a force of 1,254 Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships to intercept the Starfleet group.

[edit] The battle

In the initial stages of the battle, Sisko ordered the attack fighters to attack only the Cardassian forces, hoping to anger the Cardassians enough to get them to break away; Sisko knows that the Jem'Hadar will stand their ground. Dukat eventually orders six Cardassian squadrons to pursue the fighters, hoping to bait Sisko into a trap. Jadzia Dax and Julian Bashir spot the trap, but Sisko recognizes that it is also an opportunity; pressed for time, he orders the fleet to advance into pitched battle.

Due to the Dominion's overwhelming numbers and their jamming all Starfleet ship-to-ship communications, the battle goes poorly for Starfleet for hours. However, their fortunes are reversed by the timely arrival of a large group of Klingon warships led by General Martok and Lieutenant Commander Worf. The Klingons' arrival and outflanking of the Dominion's lines occupy the enemy forces long enough for the Defiant – and only the Defiant – to break through and reach Deep Space Nine.

The Defiant arrives at the station just as the Dominion detonates the minefield. Sisko orders the Defiant into the wormhole on an apparent suicide mission to engage the Dominion reinforcements. Once inside, the ship's sensors detect an inbound fleet of thousands of Dominion ships. The wormhole's alien residents, known to the Bajorans as The Prophets, choose that moment to contact Sisko. He pleads with them to intercede on Bajor's and the Federation's behalf. They reluctantly agree, but inform him that in exchange for their assistance, a penance would be exacted from him.

Moments later, the entire Dominion force vanishes, removed from existence by the Prophets. Sisko takes the Defiant out of the wormhole and attacks Deep Space Nine. Realizing that their reinforcements aren't coming, and facing the Defiant and 200 other Allied ships that are en route after the Klingons' arrival turns the tide for the Federation, the Female Changeling orders the station abandoned and all Dominion forces to fall back to Cardassian space. Dukat, distraught over his daughter's murder by Glinn Damar, suffers an emotional breakdown and is captured aboard the station.

For his actions during the battle, Captain Sisko is awarded the Christopher Pike Medal of Valor (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets").

The battle in "Sacrifice of Angels" is one of the largest space battles shown in television or motion picture science fiction^{[citation needed]}. The Battle of Cardassia is supposedly larger, but much of its on-screen footage was reused from previous episodes. The Battle of Bajor also notably features one of the rare appearances of Federation fighters (Peregrine-class starships).