
"The Changing Face of Evil"
When the Dominion forces broke through their lines at Chin'Toka, the Allies sent a combined fleet of 312 ships to counterattack. The Breen's energy dampening weapons disabled many starships, allowing them to be easily targeted and destroyed. The Defiant took a severe beating, forcing her crew to abandon her. Before she could be finished off, the Founder was persuaded to have the starship captured as a symbol of the Federation's, and in particular Benjamin Sisko's, failure.
The Defiant was taken to a Cardassian space station in the Trivas system, where it was refit to be part of the Cardassian fleet. It was then placed under the command of the Founder's new ally, a man who had vowed to use it to destroy their mutual enemies of the Bajorans, the Prophets and Captain Benjamin Sisko: Gul Dukat.