Claiming salvage rights, a fleet of Ferengi ships descended upon Cardassian space late last week.  Little more than a pack of looters, the Ferengi began dismantling the burning hulks in orbit around Cardassia and within days had beamed to the planet below and begun robbing the ruins of Cardassia's once fine cities.  With its military incapacitated and the bulk of its population impoverished and homeless, the Cardassian Empire proved totally inadequate to respond to this menace.  In response to Dominion offers of assistance, Assistant Chancellor Meirut of the provisional government said, "The Cardassian Empire will permit no off-worlders to make land fall on our soil.  The Ferengi menace can and will be repulsed by domestic forces.  Any Dominion troops touching down on Cardassia Prime will be repelled with extreme force."

Despite this boast from the unsteady provisional government, the Ferengi looters were permitted to continue on the planet's surface unchecked.  In response to protests from both Cardassia and, ironically, the Federation decrying this outrage, Ferengi Grand Nagus Rom issued this statement.  "The actions of the Ferengi on Cardassia Prime are not sanctioned by this administration and run counter to our new initiative of establishing peaceful and mutually beneficial relationships with our neighbors in the Alpha Quadrant.  However, as Cardassia Prime can be termed a derelict under interstellar law, their actions are legal and cannot be censured by any interstellar authority."

Undaunted by the legalistic aphorisms of the Grand Nagus, Dominion command, at the behest of the Founder, acted to remove the Ferengi menace from Cardassia Prime last night.  A fleet of Klingon and Jem'hadar ships was sent into Cardassian space on a mission of mercy to deter the Ferengi looters from further pillaging what the Dominion still considers to be an annex.  In order to minimize the carnage, the Dominion fleet broadcasted a warning to the Ferengi fleet, ordering them to disperse while en route to the planet.  However, two Ferengi warships were destroyed while fleeing Cardassia Prime while another four were permitted to escape.  No Dominion or Klingon citizens were harmed in the action.

In a continued display of ungratefulness and disloyalty to their Dominion allies, the Cardassian government broadcasted wide band transmissions to the task force asking the ships to disperse from Cardassian territory.  Ignoring these broadcasts, the Dominion and Klingon ships transported to the ground to assist in the evacuation of the last remaining Dominion installation on Cardassia.  This grateful reporter was among those beamed from the Dominion's subsurface outpost and can testify first hand to the glorious sight of those brave Jem'hadar troops liberating their Dominion brethren from this desolate world.

Not long after the last Dominion equipment and personnel had been withdrawn from Cardassia Prime, the Dominion task force was alerted to Starfleet vessels entering Cardassian territory and the Dominion ships dispersed to regroup in Breen space.  Though Starfleet and the Dominion continue to maintain a terse, undeclared ceasefire, this event suggests that Cardassia will continue to prove itself a thorn in the side of both powers as both lay claim to political rights in this wasted territory.  As an unwilling resident on the ruined planet for some months, I can attest to the fact that the only certain losers in such a conflict are the Cardassian people.

From a Dominion outpost in Breen Space, Eruth