DS9: "Heart of Stone" suggests a possible class name for this ship type, the Maquis had obtained and modified Template:ShipClass courier ships that could be operated by a crew of one. However the ship was not seen in the episode.
Fighters attacking the Dominion Fleet during Operation Return
Large numbers of these ships were used by Starfleet in the Dominion War. During Operation Return, eight successive waves of fighters were sent to attack the Cardassian ships of a Dominion fleet, hoping to provoke them into breaking formation and creating an opening for the Federation fleet. (DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels")
The script states the attack fighters were firing quantum torpedoes. The effect used for the phaser and quantum torpedoes was not however what is normally associated with those Starfleet weapons.
The attack fighter was capable of carrying an impressive arsenal. When used by Starfleet in 2374, the ships had several forward torpedo launchers and at least one phaser bank with two forward emitters.
The torpedo launchers were mounted on the wings and on the nose of the ship. In some shots the wing torpedoes seem to be launched from the same spot where the pulse cannons were located in "The Maquis, Part II" and in others they seem to be coming from the three small visible tubes on each of the wings. These tubes would seem to be much too small to launch full sized torpedoes. In one shot, one of the fighters is seen firing a bluish white beam from the one of the two forward phaser emitters on the extended phaser bank under the nose of the ship. When a fighter fired the phaser from the same location in "What You Leave Behind" the regular Starfleet phaser effect was used.
The script of "The Maquis, Part II" calls for the fighter to fire phasers from its pulse cannons. The initial phaser blasts however seems like regular phaser fire from the extended bank under the ships nose. Photon torpedos are seen fired from the tube at the nose of the ship. When the torpedo tubes are damaged the fighter opens fire with phasers from two wing mounted banks that are not visible on the model. These shots look more like the pulse cannons called for by the script.
Later in 2370, according to GulEvek, the Maquis attacking his ship were armed with photon torpedoes and type 8 phasers acquired from an unknown source. (TNG: "Preemptive Strike")
Visual effects show phaser fire pulses coming from the wings, where there are three visible tubes on each wing. Fire is also seen coming from close to the front ends of the embedded warp nacelles in the nose section of the craft. These banks seem to be targetable instead of firing straight ahead like the Pygorian pulse cannons in "The Maquis, Part II". No torpedoes were seen fired by any of the ships.
