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| - When the Allies captured the Chin'Toka system at the end of 2374, one of the planets seized was AR-558. The Starfleet contingent which invaded the planet found that it housed a communications array, the largest in the entire sector. Starfleet realised it had a possible way to access Dominion communications over a wide area, gaining vital intelligence. Shortly afterwards, the USS Veracruz arrived with replacement troops. The wounded were evacuated to Starbase 371, leaving AR 558 in the hands of the reinforcements.
- The Siege of AR-558 was a brutal engagement during the Dominion War between the ground forces of the United Federation of Planets and the Dominion in mid-2375. AR-558 was a small planetoid in the Chin'toka system, which was assaulted by Federation ground troops after the system was taken during the First Battle of Chin'toka. The planet housed a Dominion subspace communication array, which the Federation could use to garner massive intelligence on the Dominion's movements.
- The Siege of AR-558 was a ground battle between Starfleet and the Dominion during the Dominion War. In 2375, Starfleet sent Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the USS Defiant to resupply AR-558, a planet in the Chin'toka system that housed a Dominion communication array that the Jem'Hadar had been attacking the Starfleet ground forces to recapture. Seeing the direness of the situation faced by the Starfleet forces, Sisko, Julian Bashir, Ezri Dax, Nog and Quark remained on AR-558. Nog lost his left leg during a Jem'Hadar attack. Sisko later led the Starfleet forces against the Jem'Hadar, a battle which was helped by taking control of the Dominion Houdini mines and using them against the Jem'Hadar. (DS9 episode: "The Siege of AR-558")
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| abstract
| - When the Allies captured the Chin'Toka system at the end of 2374, one of the planets seized was AR-558. The Starfleet contingent which invaded the planet found that it housed a communications array, the largest in the entire sector. Starfleet realised it had a possible way to access Dominion communications over a wide area, gaining vital intelligence. Unfortunately, the Dominion was just as aware of the array's importance. Even five months after the Chin'Toka invasion the entire system was a battleground, with space and surface battles on a daily basis. Starfleet ordered the USS Defiant to land some supplies on AR 558, scene of some of the fiercest ground fighting. The Defiant was attacked by a Jem'Hadar ship on the way in, but was able to destroy it and reach orbit safely. Captain Sisko beamed down to find the situation on the planet desperate. Starfleet regulations require troops to be rotated off the front lines after 90 days; those on AR 558 had spent five months on the planet without relief. Starfleet had assigned 150 troops to protect the array - they were now down to 42, having suffered 72% casualties. Those remaining personnel were both physically and mentally exhausted. Communications within the unit were breaking down, resulting in friendly fire incidents. Both senior officers had been killed, leaving Lieutenant Larkin in command. When the Defiant again came under attack, Captain Sisko chose to stay on the planet and take command of the situation. The Jem'Hadar landed troops some nine kilometres from the communications array and began to organize another attack. When the assault came, it at first appeared to be poorly executed and easily defeated - unfortunately, the Jem'Hadar were using holographic soldiers in order to provoke the Starfleet soldiers into opening fire and revealing their location and strength. Sensor jamming was common on the planet, so Captain Sisko sent out a three man scouting team to locate the enemy. Ensign Nog used his Ferengi hearing to locate the Jem'Hadar base three kilometres from the array. Unfortunately the scouting party came under attack, resulting in the death of Lieutenant Larkin and severe injury to Ensign Nog, who later lost half of his left leg. Meanwhile, Sisko was faced with constant attrition by anti-personnel mines within the compound. The Dominion had deployed devices nicknamed 'Houdinis'. These mines sit within subspace, rendering them invisible and all but impossible to detect. They reappear at random, killing whoever disturbed them. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dax and one of the local Engineers was successful in disabling the Houdinis and gaining control of them. Commander Sisko moved all of the devices to the ravine leading from the Jem'Hadar camp to the communications array. When the Dominion forces launched their own attack they lost one third of their forces to the Houdinis. Despite this, the Jem'Hadar attack on the communications array pressed the Starfleet forces to their limit. There was no attempt at complex tactics - the Jem'Hadar simply attacked en masse. The fighting rapidly degenerated into bloody hand to hand combat, with casualties heavy on both sides. Despite being heavily outnumbered, somehow the Starfleet forces somehow held onto the array. Shortly afterwards, the USS Veracruz arrived with replacement troops. The wounded were evacuated to Starbase 371, leaving AR 558 in the hands of the reinforcements.
- The Siege of AR-558 was a ground battle between Starfleet and the Dominion during the Dominion War. In 2375, Starfleet sent Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the USS Defiant to resupply AR-558, a planet in the Chin'toka system that housed a Dominion communication array that the Jem'Hadar had been attacking the Starfleet ground forces to recapture. Seeing the direness of the situation faced by the Starfleet forces, Sisko, Julian Bashir, Ezri Dax, Nog and Quark remained on AR-558. Nog lost his left leg during a Jem'Hadar attack. Sisko later led the Starfleet forces against the Jem'Hadar, a battle which was helped by taking control of the Dominion Houdini mines and using them against the Jem'Hadar. (DS9 episode: "The Siege of AR-558") Bashir recalled the siege of AR-558 in 2385, remembering his lack of sleep and experience of double vision. (ST - The Fall novel: A Ceremony of Losses)
- The Siege of AR-558 was a brutal engagement during the Dominion War between the ground forces of the United Federation of Planets and the Dominion in mid-2375. AR-558 was a small planetoid in the Chin'toka system, which was assaulted by Federation ground troops after the system was taken during the First Battle of Chin'toka. The planet housed a Dominion subspace communication array, which the Federation could use to garner massive intelligence on the Dominion's movements. When the Federation soldiers landed, the defending Jem'Hadar were pushed out of the relay station; however, they planted dozens of cloaked mines throughout the facility which the Federation soldiers nicknamed "Houdinis". Over 147 soldiers were left to guard the station while engineers disabled the communications array's security grids and gather the intelligence required. Because the Federation hold on the Chin'toka system was so fractured, reinforcing the planet and merely re-supplying it was a massive problem; Jem'Hadar attack ships frequently ambushed Federation ships on supply runs. The Jem'Hadar placed in excess of two columns on the planet, and they frequently attacked the Federation-held outpost. The Federation soldiers stationed there were supposed to be relieved after ninety days, however they were left on the planet for five months. Among the casualties of the defenders were the contingent's commanding officer, Captain Loomis, and later his second-in-command Commander Parker, leaving command of the troops in the hands of Lieutenant Nadia Larkin. By the time the USS Defiant arrived on a supply run, 104 of the defending soldiers were killed; the remaining 43 suffering from combat stress and post traumatic stress syndrome. A small contingent of Defiant personnel decided to stay on the planet, led by Captain Benjamin Sisko, which only bolstered its defenses to a mere 48. The additional expertise of the Defiant crew allowed the Houdini mines to be located, vastly reducing the chances of further casualties. A scouting mission led by Ensign Nog, who had the extra advantage of sensitive hearing, located the Jem'Hadar camp and confirmed the size of the force at two columns, vastly outnumbering the defenders. However, Nog was badly wounded during the mission. The defenders resolved to make a final stand; the Houdinis would be placed in a ravine, where they would catch the Jem'Hadar in a bottleneck. During the final attack, the Jem'Hadar were caught in the ambush by the mines, but they still had advantage in numbers and stormed the Starfleet defenses. Despite being outnumbered, the Federation forces managed to repel the Dominion forces, and the station remained in Starfleet hands. At least seven Starfleet officers and thirty Jem'Hadar were killed in the final assault. Following the battle, the Federation landed a relief force, including an engineering crew to take care of the communications array. The station remained in Federation hands until the Chin'toka system was re-taken by the Breen later that year. (DS9: "The Siege of AR-558", "The Changing Face of Evil")
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