Post by magicmuggle01 on Oct 19, 2018 11:19:18 GMT
"She may have flaws, but she has teeth."
– Benjamin Sisko, 2371 ("The Search, Part I")
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was a 24th century Federation Defiant-class starship operated by Starfleet. This was the prototype of the class and the second Federation ship known to bear the name Defiant.
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was a 24th century Federation Defiant-class starship operated by Starfleet. This was the prototype of the class and the second Federation ship known to bear the name Defiant.
Class: Defiant-class
Registry: NX-74205
Owner: United Federation of Planets
Operator: Starfleet
Status: Destroyed (2375)
History
Origins
Development on the Defiant began around 2366 in response to the Borg threat to the Federation. After initial and hostile first contact with the Borg, Starfleet did what it hadn't done in decades, place greater emphasis on Starfleet's essential role in the defense of the Federation. Drafting plans for such a defense required a starship capable of fighting against the Borg. The Federation's devastating defeat in the Battle of Wolf 359, resulting in the loss of nearly 40 ships and 11,000 personnel to a single Borg vessel, proved that the Federation's defenses were horribly inadequate, and plans were spearheaded for the production of a more combat capable starship. Officially classified as an escort vessel, the Defiant was nothing less than Starfleet's first design of a warship intended to combat the Borg. The vessel featured minimal equipment for scientific research and was not designed to accommodate families. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
The Defiant did not perform well in its initial trial runs. The vessel was overpowered and over-gunned for a ship of its size – so much so that the Defiant nearly shook itself apart when the engines were tested at full power. Ultimately, these design flaws, combined with the Borg threat becoming less urgent, led Starfleet to the decision to abandon the project and place the prototype in storage. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
Service at Deep Space 9
Defiant DS9
The Defiant departs Deep Space 9
After the USS Odyssey was destroyed in late 2370, Commander Benjamin Sisko, who served on the team that designed the Defiant, requested that the vessel be pulled out of storage and assigned to Deep Space 9 to counter a new threat of the Dominion. The vessel was officially launched in 2370, on stardate 47538.5, from the Antares Ship Yards. Arriving in early 2371, the Defiant's first assignment was to attempt to convince the Founders of the Dominion that the Federation posed no threat to them. After a special amendment was made to the Treaty of Algeron, the Romulan Star Empire provided Sub-commander T'Rul and one of their cloaking devices to aid in its mission – in exchange for any intelligence gained on the Dominion. (DS9: "The Search, Part I"; Defiant dedication plaque)
The mission did not go well for the DS9 crew. Shortly after entering the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant was attacked by several Jem'Hadar fighters. During a resulting battle, the vessel was boarded, and the senior officers were captured and placed into a simulation to test how Starfleet might react to the Dominion attempting to gain a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant. Ultimately, the crew was discovered by Bajoran Militia officers Major Kira Nerys and Odo, and were allowed to return to DS9 with the Defiant. (DS9: "The Search, Part II")
DS9's chief of operations, Miles O'Brien, spent two weeks overhauling the Defiant's structural integrity field to overcome the ship's design flaws. (DS9: "Shattered Mirror")
Several weeks later, the Defiant transported Lieutenant Jadzia Dax to the Trill homeworld to receive medical treatment. (DS9: "Equilibrium")
When Major Kira was abducted by the Cardassian Union's Obsidian Order, Commander Sisko took the Defiant into Cardassian space in a rescue attempt. To ensure the Cardassians did not identify the ship, the vessel's shield harmonics were reconfigured to make the Defiant appear to be a Kobheerian freighter. (DS9: "Second Skin")
The Defiant made contact with the planet Meridian during an exploration mission in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Meridian")
Later in 2371, Maquis operative Thomas Riker hijacked the Defiant and used it to attack several Cardassian targets. Commander Sisko was forced to travel to Cardassia Prime with Gul Dukat to help track down the vessel. Although Dukat initially wanted to destroy the Defiant, he agreed to release the vessel and the Maquis crew to Starfleet custody in exchange for the Defiant's scans of the Orias system and Riker himself. After facing overwhelming opposition from Obsidian Order forces deployed from the Orias system, Riker ultimately surrendered and the Defiant was returned to DS9. (DS9: "Defiant")
Later the same year, the Defiant visited Earth, where the vessel's senior staff was to attend the Annual Starfleet Symposium on the current situation in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")
Several weeks later, the Defiant was used to carry out a joint project between the governments of the Federation, Cardassia, and Bajor, to establish communications between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. (DS9: "Destiny")
After a joint Obsidian Order-Tal Shiar fleet entered the Gamma Quadrant on a mission to destroy the Founders' homeworld, Vice Admiral Toddman ordered that the Defiant remain at DS9 to protect the Bajoran sector from any Dominion retaliation. Despite these orders, Commander Sisko took the vessel into the Gamma Quadrant in order to rescue Odo and Elim Garak, who were being held on one of the Romulan vessels in the fleet. Even with sabotage of the cloaking device by security chief Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington, the Defiant ultimately succeeded in its mission and returned to DS9. Admiral Toddman decided not to file charges against Sisko or any of the other officers who had joined him. (DS9: "Improbable Cause", "The Die is Cast")
In late 2371, a Changeling posing as Federation ambassador Krajensky sent the Defiant on a patrol mission of the Federation-Tzenkethi border. During the mission, the Changeling sabotaged the Defiant, causing it to fly out of control towards a Tzenkethi colony that was intended to be attacked; the Dominion hoped it would provoke a second war between the two powers. The crew was eventually able to regain control of the vessel and kill the Changeling. (DS9: "The Adversary")
USS Defiant tractors Vorcha class
The Defiant using its tractor beam
In early 2372, the Defiant fought its way through Cardassian space against Klingon forces – as the Klingon Empire had withdrawn from the Khitomer Accords due to the Federation's failure to support their invasion of Cardassia – to bring the Detapa Council to Deep Space 9. During this mission, the ship once briefly used its tractor beam to reduce the accuracy of a Vor'cha-class attack cruiser's disruptor banks, when it was forced to drop its usual deflector shields to beam the Council to safety. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")
The Defiant was used by Doctor Lenara Kahn and her research team in an attempt to create an artificial wormhole. (DS9: "Rejoined")
Several weeks later, the Defiant traveled to the Gamma Quadrant to meet with a Karemma starship. During the meeting, the two vessels were attacked by Jem'Hadar forces. The Defiant engaged the Jem'Hadar in the atmosphere of a gas giant and took severe damage; several of the senior officers were incapacitated. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, the Defiant was able to destroy the Jem'Hadar ships and rescue the Karemma. (DS9: "Starship Down")
In mid-2372, Lt. Commander Worf took the Defiant to Earth to assist Captain Sisko in foiling a plot by Admiral Leyton which would have overthrown the Federation government and established martial law. While en route, the Defiant was forced to engage the USS Lakota under the command of Captain Erika Benteen, who was operating under the assumption that the Defiant was manned by Changelings. After a prolonged battle in which both ships took significant damage (it was strongly suggested by Major Kira that the Lakota was "in even worse shape" than the Defiant), the Lakota eventually stood down when Benteen conferred with Worf and Kira about her orders to stop the Defiant. Thus, the Defiant was allowed to continue to Earth with the evidence Sisko needed to stop the coup. (DS9: "Homefront", "Paradise Lost")
Major Kira used the Defiant to stop the Klingon Empire from mining the Bajoran sector, later that year. (DS9: "Sons of Mogh")
The Defiant later became home to Worf, who found adapting to life on Deep Space 9 difficult. Captain Sisko gave him approval to live on the vessel, so long as it did not interfere with his duties. (DS9: "Bar Association")
During an escort mission where the Defiant was protecting several Cardassian freighters against Klingon raids, Commander Worf accidentally destroyed a Klingon civilian transport ship. The Klingon Empire requested that Worf be extradited to face justice for the ship's destruction, but was refused when it was determined that the transport ship had been unmanned. (DS9: "Rules of Engagement")
Following an attack on DS9 by Jem'Hadar rebels, the Defiant pursued their vessel into the Gamma Quadrant, and rescued the crew of a disabled Jem'Hadar fighter. The crews of the Defiant and the fighter then worked together to destroy an Iconian gateway that was under the control of the rebels. (DS9: "To the Death")
In late 2372, the Defiant took Odo to the Founder's new homeworld, where he was to be judged for killing the Krajensky changeling the previous year. The Female Changeling allowed the vessel to personally transport him to the Founder's homeworld, so long as one of her pilots entered the coordinates for the planet and wiped them from the ship's memory afterwards. While the vessel was in orbit, Garak unsuccessfully attempted to use the Defiant's weapons to attack the Great Link, but he was caught and prevented from doing so by Worf. (DS9: "Broken Link")
In early 2373, the Defiant tractored a Jem'Hadar fighter captured by Captain Sisko back to Federation space. (DS9: "The Ship")
A few weeks later, Captain Sisko took the Defiant to Ajilon Prime to get his son, Jake, off the front lines of the Federation's war with the Klingons. (DS9: "Nor the Battle to the Strong")
The Defiant was later transported to the 23rd century, where it encountered the original USS Enterprise visiting Deep Space K-7 in 2268. The Defiant's crew stopped Arne Darvin from killing Captain James T. Kirk with a bomb implanted in a dead Tribble. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
The Defiant subsequently rescued Odo and Quark from an L-class planet their runabout had crashed on after being sabotaged by the Orion Syndicate. (DS9: "The Ascent")
While pursuing Maquis defector Michael Eddington, the Defiant was disabled by a cascade virus that Eddington had installed in the ship's computers during his time as DS9's Starfleet security chief. The vessel had to be towed back to DS9 by the USS Malinche. When that vessel was later disabled by the Maquis, Captain Sisko used the damaged Defiant to continue pursuing Eddington. After Sisko poisoned a Maquis planet, Eddington surrendered to Sisko and was incarcerated. (DS9: "For the Uniform")
Defiant, Borg attack 2373
The Defiant bridge receives heavy damage from a Borg cube
Defiant Borg
The Defiant fights the Borg
Under the command of Worf, the Defiant was finally used for what the vessel had originally been designed: fighting the Borg. In the Battle of Sector 001 in mid-2373, the Defiant assaulted an invading Borg cube from the Typhon sector to Earth and took severe damage. Worf was about to order the ship to ram the cube when the USS Enterprise-E rescued the vessel's survivors, leaving the Defiant unmoored though salvageable. Aboard the Enterprise, the Defiant and Enterprise crews followed a Borg sphere to 2063 shortly after the cube's destruction, to stop the Borg from sabotaging Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight. (Star Trek: First Contact) Following these events, the Defiant was repaired and returned to DS9. (DS9: "In Purgatory's Shadow")
Defiant and Enterprise-E
The Defiant dwarfed by the Enterprise-E
When the Dominion annexed the Cardassian Union and invaded the Alpha Quadrant, the Defiant was forced to destroy the runabout USS Yukon, which had been commandeered by a Changeling posing as Doctor Julian Bashir. The runabout was carrying a trilithium weapon which was to be detonated in the Bajoran sun, destroying the entire system. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
In late 2373, the Defiant became trapped inside a temporal distortion surrounding a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. The planet was inhabited by descendants of the Defiant crew, who revealed that the vessel would crash while attempting to escape the distortion. The Defiant crew and the planet's inhabitants worked to formulate a plan that would allow the Defiant to escape back into normal space, while simultaneously creating a second ship that would crash on the planet and land 200 years in the past, thus ensuring the inhabitants' survival. However, it was discovered that the plan would fail and that Yedrin Dax was deliberately setting up the Defiant to crash. The crew eventually planned to allow this event to take place, but was stopped by an elderly version of Odo, who was living on the planet's surface; he changed the ship's flight plan so that it would avoid the distortion that would otherwise have sent them back in time. The Defiant returned to DS9 and the colonists were found to have never existed. (DS9: "Children of Time")
Service during the Dominion War
Defiant and Rotarran at Starbase 375
The Defiant and the Rotarran at Starbase 375
In an effort to stop the Dominion's military build-up in Cardassian space, Starfleet Command opted to mine the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole, a move that was virtually guaranteed to lead to war. Despite coming under fire by Dominion forces, the Defiant was able to deploy the minefield and evacuate DS9's Starfleet personnel before the Dominion took control of the station. (DS9: "Call to Arms")
For the next several months, the Defiant fought as part of the Second Fleet, operating out of Starbase 375. When Captain Sisko was made an adjutant to Vice Admiral William Ross, Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax was assigned to captain the vessel. Under Dax's command, the Defiant destroyed a Dominion sensor array hidden in the Argolis Cluster. (DS9: "A Time to Stand", "Behind the Lines")
Sisko returned to the captain's chair of the Defiant to lead Operation Return in mid-2374. The vessel resumed its assignment at Deep Space 9 after the station was retaken. (DS9: "Favor the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels")
The Defiant was part of a search effort to look for survivors of the USS Honshu, after the latter vessel was destroyed by Cardassian forces. Upon completion of that mission, the ship was immediately assigned to escort a Federation troop convoy near the Badlands. (DS9: "Waltz")
While studying a subspace compression anomaly in mid-2374, the Defiant was taken over by Jem'Hadar forces. Thanks to the efforts of the Defiant crew combined with work by the USS Rubicon, the starship was retaken and the surviving Jem'Hadar were taken to a Federation prisoner of war camp. (DS9: "One Little Ship")
The Defiant rescued survivors from her sister ship, the USS Valiant, later that year. (DS9: "Valiant")
Upon completion of a convoy escort mission, the Defiant responded to a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, who was commanding the USS Olympia. The Olympia had crashed on an L-class planet in the Rutharian sector of the Beta Quadrant. Upon arrival at the planet, the Defiant crew found an energy barrier surrounding the planet which had carried Cusak's distress call forward through time; Cusak had been dead three years. Her body was taken back to DS9 and a memorial service was held for her by the crew. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
USS Defiant firing phaser cannons
The Defiant fights at Chin'toka
The Defiant, along with the IKS Rotarran, led the Federation Alliance fleet at the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. The crew of the Defiant found a way to disable a deployment of Cardassian orbital weapon platforms protecting the Chin'toka system. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")
Under Worf's command, the Defiant spent the next several months on convoy duty. (DS9: "Image in the Sand")
In early 2375, the Defiant made a supply run to AR-558, a planetoid in the Chin'toka system under heavy siege by the Jem'Hadar. The Defiant crew provided a small reinforcement of the planetoid and helped disable many houdinis that had been plaguing Federation troops stationed there. (DS9: "The Siege of AR-558")
Defiant bridge ablaze
The Defiant's bridge during the Second Battle of Chin'toka
The Defiant later served as part of a search effort to look for survivors of the IKS Koraga, which had been destroyed by Dominion forces in the Badlands. The Defiant managed to recover six escape pods, but was forced to call off its search for the Koraga's captain, Worf, after only three days, due to heavy Jem'Hadar patrols in the area. (DS9: "Penumbra")
USS Defiant destroyed
The destruction of the Defiant
The Defiant's short but illustrious career came to an end in mid-2375. Shortly after joining the war on the side of the Dominion, the Breen retook the Chin'toka system using a new form of energy dampening weapon. The Defiant, along with 310 other allied vessels, was destroyed during the battle. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")
The USS Sao Paulo was assigned to DS9 to replace the Defiant after its destruction. Captain Sisko was granted special dispensation by the Chief of Starfleet Operations to rename the Sao Paulo to "Defiant" in honor of this "tough little ship." (DS9: "The Dogs of War")
Unique characteristics
Ablative armor
The Maquis attack the Defiant
The Defiant was equipped with an ablative armor coating that was designed to disintegrate under enemy fire at a controlled rate. It dissipated the effects of directed energy weapons, decreasing damage to the main hull of the ship and therefore providing an extra layer of defense. As late as 2372, Starfleet wasn't informed that the Defiant was equipped in that way. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I", "The Way of the Warrior", "Paradise Lost", "The Changing Face of Evil")
Cloaking device
USS Defiant cloaking
The USS Defiant activating its cloaking device
After the Dominion threat emerged in late 2370, a special amendment made to the Treaty of Algeron allowed the Defiant to be equipped with a Romulan cloaking device. In exchange for providing the cloaking device, the Federation agreed to share all of its Dominion intelligence with the Romulan government. Additionally, the cloak was only authorized for use in the Gamma Quadrant, although Captain Sisko violated this provision on numerous occasions. Use of the cloaking device was initially supervised by Sub-Commander T'Rul, although the Romulans later discontinued supervision. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Defiant", "The Way of the Warrior")
Because of the amount of power the Defiant used, the cloak did not completely hide the ship from Jem'Hadar sensors during normal operation. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
First contacts
Karemma (the Ferengi were the first Alpha Quadrant species to contact them)
Founders, 2371
Seltin Rakal's species on Meridian, 2371
Command crew
The Defiant's permanent assignment at Deep Space 9 as a support vessel meant that it had no specific or dedicated crew complement of its own. Since the vessel was manned by station personnel, their assignments often fluctuated based on the needs of each individual mission, much like a shuttlecraft on a starship. The following listing should be considered a generalization.
Commanding officer
Captain Benjamin Sisko (2371-2374; 2374-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2374)
Executive officer / Tactical officer
Colonel Kira Nerys (2371-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Worf (2372-2375)
Chief engineer
Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien (2371-2375)
Chief medical officer
Lieutenant Julian Bashir (2371-2375)
Helmsman
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2371-2374)
Ensign Nog (2374-2375)
Science Officer
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2371-2374)
Security chief
Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington (2371-2372)
Counselor/Communications Officer
Lieutenant junior grade Ezri Dax (2375)
Engineer
Ensign Nog (2373-2375)
Although DS9: "Apocalypse Rising" established that Worf was the first officer of the Defiant while Kira was the first officer of the station, there was some inconsistency in this arrangement. Based on DS9: "Sons of Mogh", "By Inferno's Light" and "Tears of the Prophets", it would appear that Kira retained the first officer's position when the Defiant was operating outside of Federation space, while Worf took the position during operations inside Federation space. It is also possible that Sisko left specific instructions as to who would command the vessel before leaving the station in the event that the "Defiant" needed to be used. Regardless, since none of this was directly clarified onscreen, it remains speculation.
– Benjamin Sisko, 2371 ("The Search, Part I")
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was a 24th century Federation Defiant-class starship operated by Starfleet. This was the prototype of the class and the second Federation ship known to bear the name Defiant.
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was a 24th century Federation Defiant-class starship operated by Starfleet. This was the prototype of the class and the second Federation ship known to bear the name Defiant.
Class: Defiant-class
Registry: NX-74205
Owner: United Federation of Planets
Operator: Starfleet
Status: Destroyed (2375)
History
Origins
Development on the Defiant began around 2366 in response to the Borg threat to the Federation. After initial and hostile first contact with the Borg, Starfleet did what it hadn't done in decades, place greater emphasis on Starfleet's essential role in the defense of the Federation. Drafting plans for such a defense required a starship capable of fighting against the Borg. The Federation's devastating defeat in the Battle of Wolf 359, resulting in the loss of nearly 40 ships and 11,000 personnel to a single Borg vessel, proved that the Federation's defenses were horribly inadequate, and plans were spearheaded for the production of a more combat capable starship. Officially classified as an escort vessel, the Defiant was nothing less than Starfleet's first design of a warship intended to combat the Borg. The vessel featured minimal equipment for scientific research and was not designed to accommodate families. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
The Defiant did not perform well in its initial trial runs. The vessel was overpowered and over-gunned for a ship of its size – so much so that the Defiant nearly shook itself apart when the engines were tested at full power. Ultimately, these design flaws, combined with the Borg threat becoming less urgent, led Starfleet to the decision to abandon the project and place the prototype in storage. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
Service at Deep Space 9
Defiant DS9
The Defiant departs Deep Space 9
After the USS Odyssey was destroyed in late 2370, Commander Benjamin Sisko, who served on the team that designed the Defiant, requested that the vessel be pulled out of storage and assigned to Deep Space 9 to counter a new threat of the Dominion. The vessel was officially launched in 2370, on stardate 47538.5, from the Antares Ship Yards. Arriving in early 2371, the Defiant's first assignment was to attempt to convince the Founders of the Dominion that the Federation posed no threat to them. After a special amendment was made to the Treaty of Algeron, the Romulan Star Empire provided Sub-commander T'Rul and one of their cloaking devices to aid in its mission – in exchange for any intelligence gained on the Dominion. (DS9: "The Search, Part I"; Defiant dedication plaque)
The mission did not go well for the DS9 crew. Shortly after entering the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant was attacked by several Jem'Hadar fighters. During a resulting battle, the vessel was boarded, and the senior officers were captured and placed into a simulation to test how Starfleet might react to the Dominion attempting to gain a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant. Ultimately, the crew was discovered by Bajoran Militia officers Major Kira Nerys and Odo, and were allowed to return to DS9 with the Defiant. (DS9: "The Search, Part II")
DS9's chief of operations, Miles O'Brien, spent two weeks overhauling the Defiant's structural integrity field to overcome the ship's design flaws. (DS9: "Shattered Mirror")
Several weeks later, the Defiant transported Lieutenant Jadzia Dax to the Trill homeworld to receive medical treatment. (DS9: "Equilibrium")
When Major Kira was abducted by the Cardassian Union's Obsidian Order, Commander Sisko took the Defiant into Cardassian space in a rescue attempt. To ensure the Cardassians did not identify the ship, the vessel's shield harmonics were reconfigured to make the Defiant appear to be a Kobheerian freighter. (DS9: "Second Skin")
The Defiant made contact with the planet Meridian during an exploration mission in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Meridian")
Later in 2371, Maquis operative Thomas Riker hijacked the Defiant and used it to attack several Cardassian targets. Commander Sisko was forced to travel to Cardassia Prime with Gul Dukat to help track down the vessel. Although Dukat initially wanted to destroy the Defiant, he agreed to release the vessel and the Maquis crew to Starfleet custody in exchange for the Defiant's scans of the Orias system and Riker himself. After facing overwhelming opposition from Obsidian Order forces deployed from the Orias system, Riker ultimately surrendered and the Defiant was returned to DS9. (DS9: "Defiant")
Later the same year, the Defiant visited Earth, where the vessel's senior staff was to attend the Annual Starfleet Symposium on the current situation in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")
Several weeks later, the Defiant was used to carry out a joint project between the governments of the Federation, Cardassia, and Bajor, to establish communications between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. (DS9: "Destiny")
After a joint Obsidian Order-Tal Shiar fleet entered the Gamma Quadrant on a mission to destroy the Founders' homeworld, Vice Admiral Toddman ordered that the Defiant remain at DS9 to protect the Bajoran sector from any Dominion retaliation. Despite these orders, Commander Sisko took the vessel into the Gamma Quadrant in order to rescue Odo and Elim Garak, who were being held on one of the Romulan vessels in the fleet. Even with sabotage of the cloaking device by security chief Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington, the Defiant ultimately succeeded in its mission and returned to DS9. Admiral Toddman decided not to file charges against Sisko or any of the other officers who had joined him. (DS9: "Improbable Cause", "The Die is Cast")
In late 2371, a Changeling posing as Federation ambassador Krajensky sent the Defiant on a patrol mission of the Federation-Tzenkethi border. During the mission, the Changeling sabotaged the Defiant, causing it to fly out of control towards a Tzenkethi colony that was intended to be attacked; the Dominion hoped it would provoke a second war between the two powers. The crew was eventually able to regain control of the vessel and kill the Changeling. (DS9: "The Adversary")
USS Defiant tractors Vorcha class
The Defiant using its tractor beam
In early 2372, the Defiant fought its way through Cardassian space against Klingon forces – as the Klingon Empire had withdrawn from the Khitomer Accords due to the Federation's failure to support their invasion of Cardassia – to bring the Detapa Council to Deep Space 9. During this mission, the ship once briefly used its tractor beam to reduce the accuracy of a Vor'cha-class attack cruiser's disruptor banks, when it was forced to drop its usual deflector shields to beam the Council to safety. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")
The Defiant was used by Doctor Lenara Kahn and her research team in an attempt to create an artificial wormhole. (DS9: "Rejoined")
Several weeks later, the Defiant traveled to the Gamma Quadrant to meet with a Karemma starship. During the meeting, the two vessels were attacked by Jem'Hadar forces. The Defiant engaged the Jem'Hadar in the atmosphere of a gas giant and took severe damage; several of the senior officers were incapacitated. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, the Defiant was able to destroy the Jem'Hadar ships and rescue the Karemma. (DS9: "Starship Down")
In mid-2372, Lt. Commander Worf took the Defiant to Earth to assist Captain Sisko in foiling a plot by Admiral Leyton which would have overthrown the Federation government and established martial law. While en route, the Defiant was forced to engage the USS Lakota under the command of Captain Erika Benteen, who was operating under the assumption that the Defiant was manned by Changelings. After a prolonged battle in which both ships took significant damage (it was strongly suggested by Major Kira that the Lakota was "in even worse shape" than the Defiant), the Lakota eventually stood down when Benteen conferred with Worf and Kira about her orders to stop the Defiant. Thus, the Defiant was allowed to continue to Earth with the evidence Sisko needed to stop the coup. (DS9: "Homefront", "Paradise Lost")
Major Kira used the Defiant to stop the Klingon Empire from mining the Bajoran sector, later that year. (DS9: "Sons of Mogh")
The Defiant later became home to Worf, who found adapting to life on Deep Space 9 difficult. Captain Sisko gave him approval to live on the vessel, so long as it did not interfere with his duties. (DS9: "Bar Association")
During an escort mission where the Defiant was protecting several Cardassian freighters against Klingon raids, Commander Worf accidentally destroyed a Klingon civilian transport ship. The Klingon Empire requested that Worf be extradited to face justice for the ship's destruction, but was refused when it was determined that the transport ship had been unmanned. (DS9: "Rules of Engagement")
Following an attack on DS9 by Jem'Hadar rebels, the Defiant pursued their vessel into the Gamma Quadrant, and rescued the crew of a disabled Jem'Hadar fighter. The crews of the Defiant and the fighter then worked together to destroy an Iconian gateway that was under the control of the rebels. (DS9: "To the Death")
In late 2372, the Defiant took Odo to the Founder's new homeworld, where he was to be judged for killing the Krajensky changeling the previous year. The Female Changeling allowed the vessel to personally transport him to the Founder's homeworld, so long as one of her pilots entered the coordinates for the planet and wiped them from the ship's memory afterwards. While the vessel was in orbit, Garak unsuccessfully attempted to use the Defiant's weapons to attack the Great Link, but he was caught and prevented from doing so by Worf. (DS9: "Broken Link")
In early 2373, the Defiant tractored a Jem'Hadar fighter captured by Captain Sisko back to Federation space. (DS9: "The Ship")
A few weeks later, Captain Sisko took the Defiant to Ajilon Prime to get his son, Jake, off the front lines of the Federation's war with the Klingons. (DS9: "Nor the Battle to the Strong")
The Defiant was later transported to the 23rd century, where it encountered the original USS Enterprise visiting Deep Space K-7 in 2268. The Defiant's crew stopped Arne Darvin from killing Captain James T. Kirk with a bomb implanted in a dead Tribble. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
The Defiant subsequently rescued Odo and Quark from an L-class planet their runabout had crashed on after being sabotaged by the Orion Syndicate. (DS9: "The Ascent")
While pursuing Maquis defector Michael Eddington, the Defiant was disabled by a cascade virus that Eddington had installed in the ship's computers during his time as DS9's Starfleet security chief. The vessel had to be towed back to DS9 by the USS Malinche. When that vessel was later disabled by the Maquis, Captain Sisko used the damaged Defiant to continue pursuing Eddington. After Sisko poisoned a Maquis planet, Eddington surrendered to Sisko and was incarcerated. (DS9: "For the Uniform")
Defiant, Borg attack 2373
The Defiant bridge receives heavy damage from a Borg cube
Defiant Borg
The Defiant fights the Borg
Under the command of Worf, the Defiant was finally used for what the vessel had originally been designed: fighting the Borg. In the Battle of Sector 001 in mid-2373, the Defiant assaulted an invading Borg cube from the Typhon sector to Earth and took severe damage. Worf was about to order the ship to ram the cube when the USS Enterprise-E rescued the vessel's survivors, leaving the Defiant unmoored though salvageable. Aboard the Enterprise, the Defiant and Enterprise crews followed a Borg sphere to 2063 shortly after the cube's destruction, to stop the Borg from sabotaging Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight. (Star Trek: First Contact) Following these events, the Defiant was repaired and returned to DS9. (DS9: "In Purgatory's Shadow")
Defiant and Enterprise-E
The Defiant dwarfed by the Enterprise-E
When the Dominion annexed the Cardassian Union and invaded the Alpha Quadrant, the Defiant was forced to destroy the runabout USS Yukon, which had been commandeered by a Changeling posing as Doctor Julian Bashir. The runabout was carrying a trilithium weapon which was to be detonated in the Bajoran sun, destroying the entire system. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
In late 2373, the Defiant became trapped inside a temporal distortion surrounding a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. The planet was inhabited by descendants of the Defiant crew, who revealed that the vessel would crash while attempting to escape the distortion. The Defiant crew and the planet's inhabitants worked to formulate a plan that would allow the Defiant to escape back into normal space, while simultaneously creating a second ship that would crash on the planet and land 200 years in the past, thus ensuring the inhabitants' survival. However, it was discovered that the plan would fail and that Yedrin Dax was deliberately setting up the Defiant to crash. The crew eventually planned to allow this event to take place, but was stopped by an elderly version of Odo, who was living on the planet's surface; he changed the ship's flight plan so that it would avoid the distortion that would otherwise have sent them back in time. The Defiant returned to DS9 and the colonists were found to have never existed. (DS9: "Children of Time")
Service during the Dominion War
Defiant and Rotarran at Starbase 375
The Defiant and the Rotarran at Starbase 375
In an effort to stop the Dominion's military build-up in Cardassian space, Starfleet Command opted to mine the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole, a move that was virtually guaranteed to lead to war. Despite coming under fire by Dominion forces, the Defiant was able to deploy the minefield and evacuate DS9's Starfleet personnel before the Dominion took control of the station. (DS9: "Call to Arms")
For the next several months, the Defiant fought as part of the Second Fleet, operating out of Starbase 375. When Captain Sisko was made an adjutant to Vice Admiral William Ross, Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax was assigned to captain the vessel. Under Dax's command, the Defiant destroyed a Dominion sensor array hidden in the Argolis Cluster. (DS9: "A Time to Stand", "Behind the Lines")
Sisko returned to the captain's chair of the Defiant to lead Operation Return in mid-2374. The vessel resumed its assignment at Deep Space 9 after the station was retaken. (DS9: "Favor the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels")
The Defiant was part of a search effort to look for survivors of the USS Honshu, after the latter vessel was destroyed by Cardassian forces. Upon completion of that mission, the ship was immediately assigned to escort a Federation troop convoy near the Badlands. (DS9: "Waltz")
While studying a subspace compression anomaly in mid-2374, the Defiant was taken over by Jem'Hadar forces. Thanks to the efforts of the Defiant crew combined with work by the USS Rubicon, the starship was retaken and the surviving Jem'Hadar were taken to a Federation prisoner of war camp. (DS9: "One Little Ship")
The Defiant rescued survivors from her sister ship, the USS Valiant, later that year. (DS9: "Valiant")
Upon completion of a convoy escort mission, the Defiant responded to a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, who was commanding the USS Olympia. The Olympia had crashed on an L-class planet in the Rutharian sector of the Beta Quadrant. Upon arrival at the planet, the Defiant crew found an energy barrier surrounding the planet which had carried Cusak's distress call forward through time; Cusak had been dead three years. Her body was taken back to DS9 and a memorial service was held for her by the crew. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
USS Defiant firing phaser cannons
The Defiant fights at Chin'toka
The Defiant, along with the IKS Rotarran, led the Federation Alliance fleet at the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. The crew of the Defiant found a way to disable a deployment of Cardassian orbital weapon platforms protecting the Chin'toka system. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")
Under Worf's command, the Defiant spent the next several months on convoy duty. (DS9: "Image in the Sand")
In early 2375, the Defiant made a supply run to AR-558, a planetoid in the Chin'toka system under heavy siege by the Jem'Hadar. The Defiant crew provided a small reinforcement of the planetoid and helped disable many houdinis that had been plaguing Federation troops stationed there. (DS9: "The Siege of AR-558")
Defiant bridge ablaze
The Defiant's bridge during the Second Battle of Chin'toka
The Defiant later served as part of a search effort to look for survivors of the IKS Koraga, which had been destroyed by Dominion forces in the Badlands. The Defiant managed to recover six escape pods, but was forced to call off its search for the Koraga's captain, Worf, after only three days, due to heavy Jem'Hadar patrols in the area. (DS9: "Penumbra")
USS Defiant destroyed
The destruction of the Defiant
The Defiant's short but illustrious career came to an end in mid-2375. Shortly after joining the war on the side of the Dominion, the Breen retook the Chin'toka system using a new form of energy dampening weapon. The Defiant, along with 310 other allied vessels, was destroyed during the battle. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")
The USS Sao Paulo was assigned to DS9 to replace the Defiant after its destruction. Captain Sisko was granted special dispensation by the Chief of Starfleet Operations to rename the Sao Paulo to "Defiant" in honor of this "tough little ship." (DS9: "The Dogs of War")
Unique characteristics
Ablative armor
The Maquis attack the Defiant
The Defiant was equipped with an ablative armor coating that was designed to disintegrate under enemy fire at a controlled rate. It dissipated the effects of directed energy weapons, decreasing damage to the main hull of the ship and therefore providing an extra layer of defense. As late as 2372, Starfleet wasn't informed that the Defiant was equipped in that way. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I", "The Way of the Warrior", "Paradise Lost", "The Changing Face of Evil")
Cloaking device
USS Defiant cloaking
The USS Defiant activating its cloaking device
After the Dominion threat emerged in late 2370, a special amendment made to the Treaty of Algeron allowed the Defiant to be equipped with a Romulan cloaking device. In exchange for providing the cloaking device, the Federation agreed to share all of its Dominion intelligence with the Romulan government. Additionally, the cloak was only authorized for use in the Gamma Quadrant, although Captain Sisko violated this provision on numerous occasions. Use of the cloaking device was initially supervised by Sub-Commander T'Rul, although the Romulans later discontinued supervision. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Defiant", "The Way of the Warrior")
Because of the amount of power the Defiant used, the cloak did not completely hide the ship from Jem'Hadar sensors during normal operation. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
First contacts
Karemma (the Ferengi were the first Alpha Quadrant species to contact them)
Founders, 2371
Seltin Rakal's species on Meridian, 2371
Command crew
The Defiant's permanent assignment at Deep Space 9 as a support vessel meant that it had no specific or dedicated crew complement of its own. Since the vessel was manned by station personnel, their assignments often fluctuated based on the needs of each individual mission, much like a shuttlecraft on a starship. The following listing should be considered a generalization.
Commanding officer
Captain Benjamin Sisko (2371-2374; 2374-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2374)
Executive officer / Tactical officer
Colonel Kira Nerys (2371-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Worf (2372-2375)
Chief engineer
Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien (2371-2375)
Chief medical officer
Lieutenant Julian Bashir (2371-2375)
Helmsman
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2371-2374)
Ensign Nog (2374-2375)
Science Officer
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (2371-2374)
Security chief
Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington (2371-2372)
Counselor/Communications Officer
Lieutenant junior grade Ezri Dax (2375)
Engineer
Ensign Nog (2373-2375)
Although DS9: "Apocalypse Rising" established that Worf was the first officer of the Defiant while Kira was the first officer of the station, there was some inconsistency in this arrangement. Based on DS9: "Sons of Mogh", "By Inferno's Light" and "Tears of the Prophets", it would appear that Kira retained the first officer's position when the Defiant was operating outside of Federation space, while Worf took the position during operations inside Federation space. It is also possible that Sisko left specific instructions as to who would command the vessel before leaving the station in the event that the "Defiant" needed to be used. Regardless, since none of this was directly clarified onscreen, it remains speculation.
