Battle of Aothea

The Battle of Aothea was a battle that took place near the beginning of the Dominion War.

Prelude to battle
The USS Vesta was an Akira class starship in orbit of the planet Aothea.

At 15:41 ship's time, three Dominion ships decloaked. The Vesta entered into battle with the ships a few minutes later.

Events
At 15:43 ship's time, the Vesta opened fire for the first time. Damage to the black box prevents confirmation of existing damage to the ship at this time.

At 15:56 ship's time, two more Dominion vessels decloaked, in positions that cut off any escape route the Vesta could have taken. Shields were at 50%

At 15:59 ship's time, the first Jem'Hadar landing party beamed onboard.

At 16:05 ship's time, a distress call was sent out. Remaining shields went down 4 minutes later.

At 16:12 ship's time, the hull was breached and the black box stopped recording

Aftermath
At 16:12, a nearby hospital ship arrived on the scene. Rapid responses led to the survival of nine members of the crew, who were all questioned afterwards.

According to the ship's navigation officer, the captain refused to withdraw, as doing so would result in Aothea being unprotected. Instead, he ordered the crew to hold their position until after it was too late to flee.

Reports conflict on which side opened fire first.

The deaths of 493 of the crew were registered.

Of the nine survivors, three resigned their commissions due to permanent injury.

Whilst the other six survivors were also permanently injured, they remained in active service, although were given some recovery leave.

An inquest was launched to determine if the captain could have done anything differently, without resulting in potential deaths of the Aothean population.