"Sacrifice of Angels" is the sixth episode from the sixth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 130th episode overall. The episode's plot details the efforts of the United Federation of Planets to retake space station Deep Space Nine from the forces of the Dominion. This is the second half of a two-part episode, continuing the story immediately from the end of the previous episode, "Favor the Bold". The episode features a large guest cast and numerous VFX scenes with spacecraft. Story background Deep Space Nine tells the story of a space station near the planet Bajor administered by the United Federation of Planets as the Bajorans recover from a brutal decades-long occupation by the aggressive Cardassians. The station guards a wormhole leading to the distant Gamma Quadrant, home of an expansionist empire known as the Dominion, which is ruled by the shapeshifting Changelings. This episode is part of the Dominion War plot arc, in which the Dominion allies with Cardassia and wages war against the Federation and their allies. This episode is the conclusion of a six-episode story that spans the start of the sixth season. At the end of the previous season, the Dominion captured the titular space station, but the Federation blocked the wormhole with a minefield to prevent reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant. Over the following episodes, DS9's Starfleet crew, led by Captain Benjamin Sisko, continue the war against the Dominion on the starship USS Defiant; the main characters remaining on the station, led by Major Kira Nerys, work to undermine Dominion rule; Dominion representative Weyoun and Cardassian leader Dukat attempt to dismantle the minefield; and DS9 security chief Odo, a rogue Changeling, receives a visit from another Changeling hoping to persuade him to return to his people. By this point, the technician Rom has been arrested by the Dominion authorities for attempting to prevent destruction of the minefield; and Sisko is leading a Federation fleet aimed at retaking DS9 for the Federation before the minefield comes down. Plot With eight hours before the minefield is destroyed, Sisko's fleet engages the Dominion fleet defending DS9. Sisko orders Federation fighters to engage the Cardassian warships, hoping the less disciplined Cardassians will break formation and create a hole in the Dominion lines. Aboard DS9, Dukat sees through Sisko's ruse; he deliberately allows some of his ships to open a hole in the formation to set a