Battle stations

Battle stations was a general alert status used in the activities of a vessel. When a starship was going into battle. On Federation starships, a battle stations alarm was usually made in addition to a red alert or an earlier tactical alert.

On the Deep Space 9 space station and the USS Defiant (NX-74205), personnel carried Type-2 phasers while a battle stations alarm was in effect. 

This practice was also adopted on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E). Captain Jean-Luc Picard called for this 2373 he ordered the Enterprise-E to the Battle of Sector 001 and again in 2379.