Operation Return

Three months after the Dominion took Deep Space 9 in late 2373, the station's crew inside was working to bring down the minefield that sealed the Bajoran wormhole. Once it fell, thousands of Jem'Hadar ships waiting in the Gamma Quadrant could pour through. Captain Benjamin Sisko gathered a Starfleet fleet of several hundred ships for a desperate attempt to retake the station, an offensive known as Operation Return.

The allied fleet, heavily outnumbered, attacked the Dominion and Cardassian forces guarding the station. The arrival of a Klingon squadron led by General Martok opened a gap in the enemy lines, and Sisko took the Defiant through alone. He reached the wormhole just as the mines were destroyed, but inside, the Prophets intervened at his plea and made the reinforcement fleet vanish.

With its position untenable, the Dominion abandoned Deep Space 9. Gul Dukat, already shattered by defeat, saw his daughter Tora Ziyal killed by Damar and lost his grip on reason.