10 Greatest Fleet Arrivals In Star Trek
2. The Defiant And The Rotarran Join The Fleet - Call To Arms
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine offered some of the earliest, meatiest scenes when it comes to fleets in Star Trek. Focusing on Starfleet specifically (although to be fair, this scene does include Klingon vessels as well), the finale of the fifth season, Call To Arms, offered the single largest collection of ships that had ever been seen in the franchise.
Having lost the station to Dominion and Cardassian control, the Defiant and the Rotarran escape thanks to their cloaking devices. After several days at high warp, they rendezvous with a large Federation-Klingon task force, heading back the way that they came.
It was the beginning of a new era for Star Trek, although it wasn't quite what the audience was led to believe. The revelation in A Time To Stand that the Dominion had almost entirely wiped out this fleet was a crushing blow. Following the triumphant and energetic ending of the previous episode, this was a fantastic, if dark, way to impress upon the audience the true threat of the Dominion.
The Defiant may have been a tough little ship, but there was little to no chance that it could have survived a prolonged assault alone. This fleet, enormous and full of righteous anger, probably saved it from an early destruction, though at the cost of hundreds of ships and thousands of lives.