Athena sat in the billet room, her helmet on the table in front of her.

She stared at the half full cup of java in front of her, watching the steam rise from the hot liquid. For some reason, sleep had refused to come to her tonight. That quiet alarm bell in the back of her mind had begun ringing almost four centars ago, and refused to cease. Just as she was about to lose patience and force herself to get some sleep, the blinding red lights of an alert burst to life along with the klaxons wail.

"Frack!" She shouted, spilling the coffee as she sprinted towards the hatch. Backis joined her as she ran down the corridor to the transport.

As the other pilots crammed onto the tiny tram, Milesar leaned forward to her ear.

"Lords, lady," he said. "Don't you ever sleep?"

"No," Athena replied shortly, as she set her helmet on her head.

"Where in the blazes did they come from?" Adama asked angrily.

"Enemy fighters, thirty microns and closing," Rigel reported from her station.

"I don't understand, commander," Omega reported. "One micron the scope was clear, the next, they just popped into view, heading for us!"

"Man all turrets!" Tigh was shouting from behind him. "Prepare for attack!"

"Get those fighters aloft!" Adama ordered.

"Commander," One of the techs said. "I count twelve fighters, total. No more!"

"Twelve?" asked Adama, his face wrinkled in a combination of anger and confusion.

"That's all, sir," the tech replied. "They're coming in at full speed, arcing away from the Galactica!"

Both Tigh and Adama turned to fix the tech with a stern and confused stare.

"Plot trajectory!" Tigh barked.

"They're heading into the main body of the fleet!" The tech replied a few microns later. "Right for - Sir! They're heading towards Agro Ship Two!"

The Raptors and the Vipers vaulted from the Galactica, hurtling to intercept the incoming Cylons, but it was already too late.

The Cylon Fighters never altered their course. They didn't even fire a shot. Two of them were picked off by turrets on a couple of the other ships, but the remaining ten slammed, one after another, into the body and domes of the Agro Ship. The massive explosions ripped into the very heart of the ship, tearing plasteen and supports, shattering the transparent domes, buckling plates, until one of them exploded near the solium storage tank.

As if time itself wanted to embellish the moment, the Agro ship seemed to slowly flare up until the blinding wash of light burst from it, shattering the ship with a thunderous explosion. Several Vipers, not quick enough to avoid the debris were caught in the blast and vaporized.

"My God!" Starbuck gasped as he watched the destruction.

"Break off! Break off!" Apollo's voice burst through the static.

The Vipers and Raptors rolled in opposite directions, taking cover behind the mass of other, larger ships.

"Did you see that?" Backis called in dismay.

"They didn't even fire a shot!" Justi replied, her voice quavering as she and Brie were shook by the outer edge of the shockwave.

"What was the point?" came another voice.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Athena, seething with rage. "We're under siege!"

Adama stared at the place where the Agro Ship had been, watching as the last bits of atmosphere flashed fiery red in the void. The debris spread rapidly, colliding with several other ships, causing a fair amount of collateral damage.

Behind him, Colonel Jodas stood, his face set with grim determination.

"There's only one way we're getting out of this, Commander," he said with a growl in his voice.

Adama turned to look at the old warrior. "How's that?" he asked.

Jodas smiled a smile that sent an involuntary shiver up Adama's back.

"I've been watching this character," said Jodas. "And I think I have an idea."

He gestured for Adama to join him at the table.

Adama stood erect and proud on the bridge of his ship, staring down at the monitor with undisguised contempt. On the screen, the face of the midnight blue IL Series Cylon appeared.

"You understand, now, Commander?" Shadow said. "I can dispose of your fleet, one vessel at a time, should I choose. Will you now consent to the logical alternative, and surrender your fleet before more lives are unnecessarily lost?"

"If I understand correctly, all that I have seen, and all that has been reported to me, then the compliment of fighters aboard a Base ship number around three hundred, yes?" Adama asked.

Shadow froze for a moment. Then his lower lip lights flashed when he spoke.

"You are attempting to make a point, Commander?" he asked sourly.

"Only this," Adama said. "You may have used twelve of your fighters to destroy one ship, but you do not have sufficient firepower to do the same to every ship in the fleet. Besides, if your numbers fall too greatly, you may also find yourself in the unenviable position of having to defend ourselves from an attack by us."

Shadow stood completely motionless, so Adama continued.

"One ship," he said. "Two at most, and then your fighters would become too precious for you to waste them in suicide runs against civilian ships."

Again Shadow stood still, apparently with nothing to say.

"The Galactica has tangled with Base Ships before, and won," He stood a little taller, as if taunting Shadow. "What makes you think you'll be so different?"

Surreptitiously he flicked his gaze over at Jodas and Athena, seated at her old post, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she tried to trace the signal to it's source.

"I am unlike any adversary you have encountered, Adama," Shadow said proudly. "I have more stra-" He stopped momentarily, and then raised a robed hand, slowly waggling a finger at the screen.

"Ah, ah ah," He said lightly, as if scolding a child. "Good try, Commander, but not quite good enough." The scanner went blank.

"Frack!" Athena said, slamming her hands against the keyboard. Like everyone else, the tension of the situation had begun to wear away at her nerves.

"Fifteen more microns and I would have had that -" She caught herself before cursing again.

"Did you at least get close?" asked Jodas.

Athena went back through the data, looking for the correlation between the signal and the flight paths of the suicidal fighters.

"Nearest possible estimate puts them somewhereà." Her finger reached up to point at the display on the screen. "Here." The word died on her lips as her eyes turned up towards the ceiling. "Or otherwise, up there." She pointed up beyond the steel of the hull, above the fleet.

"He needs to be far enough away for the scanners to be unable to pick him up." Said Tigh.

"Yeah," said Starbuck as he stepped up to the command platform, accompanied by Apollo. "But he has to be close enough to launch fighters at us."

"What if they're running dark?" asked Apollo. "When that mess happened aboard the Celestra, The crew shut down everything except the manual navigation controls and the thrusters. What if the Cylons are doing the same thing?"

"It would definitely allow them to get a lot closer without us being able to detect them," Tigh confirmed.

"Well," said Athena. "We have a pretty good idea where they are, right now," she held her hands up. "My guess is that they won't stay there for long."

"We need to get out there and pulverize them before they move," said Starbuck emphatically. He straightened suddenly. "Uh, sir." He finished.

"Rushing headlong into battle is not something I look forward to," said Adama. "Not after the fiasco with the Gray Talons. We can't afford to lose any more pilots. There are too few of them left."

The voices fell into an ominous silence.

In that moment, Starbuck looked over at Athena, but she was busy thinking, her eyes searching inward.

"Wait a centon," she said suddenly, and she resumed typing at a frenzied pace.

"What's on your mind, Lieutenant?" asked Jodas.

The other four figures on the command deck stepped up to the railing as she worked furiously with scanner.

"Cylon base ships use a gravity drive," she said sporadically as she worked. "Even with all their regular systems shut down, the drive has to remain active, soà" she stopped and then leaned back, her eyes locked hungrily on a spot. "There." She said finally.

On all the monitors, a small blip began to flash red.

"Unless a new planet has formed in the last two centars, that's our little tin boy, right there," she finished.

Adama stared down at Athena, pride in his face.

"Way to go," said Starbuck.

As they watched, the target began to slowly move, heading around at a wide arc, slowly moving to a point, somewhere behind the fleet before it winked out, moving beyond range.

"Send a Signal to the Celestra," Adama said. "Have them scan the aft quadrant of the fleet for any gravity distortions. Tell them to report its position directly to the Galactica.

Tigh was smiling. "With pleasure, sir."

Adama turned to Apollo.

"Do you feel like going hunting?" he asked.

Apollo looked at his father, obviously wary of the next mission. However, he simply nodded.

"Good," said Adama. "This is what I want you to do..."

Shadow stood at his command console, silently thrashing himself. He couldn't believe that the Colonial Commander had almost stalled him long enough to give away his position. As soon as he cut the transmission, he gave the orders to move to the trailing edge of the fleet, so he could choose his next target. One of the production vessels would serve in the required capacity.

"We'll see how well you defend against me when you can no longer rely on the firepower of your own Battlestar," Shadow said to himself. Then he gave the orders for the impending attack.

As Apollo, Starbuck, Athena and several other pilots headed towards the launch bay, Starbuck took his chance.

"Uh, Athena?" he asked, grabbing her arm. "Can we talk for a centon?"

"We're getting ready to launch, Starbuck," said Athena, still moving towards the bay.

"I know," said Starbuck quickly. "I just want a centon to talk with you."

"Come on, Starbuck," said Apollo as he passed by.

"Yeah, right," said Starbuck, then he turned and looked at Athena. "Look, uh, I need to ask you a few things, and I don't know where to start."

Athena's gaze bounced from Starbuck to the departing cluster of pilots. Finally she held up her hand.

"Figure out where you want to start, and then come and get me after the mission," she said, and she turned away, jogging after the others.

"Frack," Starbuck muttered, and he followed Athena down the corridor.

The launch bay was a buzz of activity as the Vipers and Raptors went through the ground crew handling stages of preparation. The Vipers sat patiently like missiles in their silos, awaiting the pilots while the Raptors, with a newly designed wing refit, sat in the shuttle launch area, too wide for the tube like launch corridors of the Vipers.

The Pilots and R.O.s ran to their respective ships, as stand by APU's began to kick in with a whine, bringing the power levels up to normal in the ships. External power cables were disconnected and fuel lines retracted as two men stood position at the launch marks for the Raptors.

The calls rang in through Core Control as each ship called in a "Ready to Launch" status. The volume level in the bay rose quickly as each ship was quickly prepped for launch.

With expert ease, Athena rolled her ship to the launch mark, watching the signals of the ground crew operator. She locked the ship in place as the ground crewman brought his hands over his chest, signaling stop, another gesture and she locked the brakes, letting the powerful engines idle impatiently as she finished out her checklist.

"What's the game plan, boss?" asked Backis from his seat behind her.

"We need to figure out a way to detect the Cylon fighters before they hit our ships," said Athena. "They'll be in free fall until they hit striking distance-"

"So set the scanners to watch for inertial displacement relative to the size of the target," Backis finished for her, a smile on his face.

"Great minds think alike," Athena replied. She glanced over at Captain Milesar, sitting at the front controls of his own Raptor. The Captain gave her a nod, which she acknowledged with thumbs up.

Milesar's voice came over the bridge speakers.

"Core Control, the Raptors are ready to fly."

Adama looked over at Tigh, and gave a nod.

"Get them in the air," Tigh said through his headset.

Sgt. Rigel switched channels and gave the order.

"Core Control, Black Raptors are clear to launch."

"Let's light em up," said Milesar, and he hit the throttle, his ship vaulting forward. Athena was right behind him. The remaining raptors flew out, right behind them, ten ships in all. The Vipers of Blue and Red Squadrons burst from the various launch tubes on either side of the Galactica, falling into formation with the bigger Raptors.

"Alright, ladies and gents," said Backis. "I have anew recipe for the scanners, guaranteed to cook up a target or two for you all tonight. Open your channels and be ready to receive," Backis said with a showy air.

"We'll be looking for movement out here tonight, not emissions. Spatial movement only."

"Ah," came Starbucks voice. "I get itàwait a centon, no I don't."

"Should have slept less, and studied more at the academy," said Athena, a smile on her face. "The Cylon ships will be in power down mode, and gliding after the fleet. It will take them longer to get to us, but they can get a lot closer before we know they're here. We're gonna scan for the mass, not the energy."

"Oh, well, if you put it that way, it makes sense," said Starbuck. "Like following someone's shadow."

"Sure, Starbuck. Sure," Athena said.

"Athena," Starbuck continued. "About what I wanted to talk to you about..."

"We're in the middle of a mission, here, Starbuck," said Athena, cutting him off. "Get back to me later on that, okay?"

"Uh, sure," said Starbuck.

"Captain!" Came a call from Raptor 3. "Fen here. I have a small cluster of objects in a free fall path on the prescribed route. They look like asteroids, but there's no random orbit of the objects?"

"Those are our targets," Milesar replied. "Raptors three through six, form on me, Raptors seven through ten, stay with Athena. Go to Talon Formation and prepare to engage!"

Apollo watched as the Raptors peeled away, forming up into an X shaped formation, with the arms fanning up and forward from the central ship. The ten Raptors took on a claw like look, named in memory of the lost Gray Talon Squadron.

Apollo counted down the microns and then keyed his com.

"Okay Blue Squadron," he called. "Let's go to work!"

The Vipers also turned, forming up their ranks as they moved to support the Raptors.

"Talk to me, Back," said Athena as she looked around them for the incoming targets.

"I'm looking, I'm looking!" Backis called back.

"According to my readings," said Fen in confusion. "We should be seeing them by now!"

"What the hell is that?" came Lt. Nagon's deep voice.

"Cap!" came Justi's shrill voice. "This isn't right! We should be in the middle of them. According to my readings, we're in the middle of their formation!"

"I need a call, Captain?" Sgt. Tarrils voice was tight with pre combat nerves.

"Backis?" Athena said in numbing horror. "Are you in my mind right now?"

"Yeah," said Backis dryly. "And I'm not liking what I see." His hands danced across the keypad, running various scans of the surrounding sector.

"Heste, here, Captain!" came another voice over the com. "I have several small objects ahead, emitting pulse signals along the spectrum we were scanning. They look like decoy markers."

"Just as I thought," Backis replied. "Captain, I have no large gravity target in the assigned sector. I repeat, no target!"

"Frack!" Milesar cursed, hitting the broad channel com. "Blue Squadron! Return to base! This mission is a wash! I repeat The mission is a wash! Return to defend the fleet immediately!"

Apollo bit back a curse of his own. "Blue squadron acknowledges." He answered, and the Vipers turned back, with turbos blazing.

"Core Control!" Athena called. "This is Raptor two! Do a scan for a large gravity disturbance! They've moved again!"

Adama caught his breath. His eyes darted to Tigh, and then he leaned over Omega's shoulder.

"Do the scan!' He barked. Then he looked down and keyed his intercom. "Recall the flight crews!"

No sooner had he said it, than the Galactica was rocked backward by a head on blow.

"Suicide bomber!" Tigh called out. "We have targets appearing all around us!"

"All batteries commence fire!" Adama said quickly.

"I have a large gravity anomaly one quarter hectar from us Commander, dead ahead!" Omega barked a short while later.

Meanwhile, Rigel keyed her com, her usually singsong voice, wavering with fear.

"Galactica to all fighters, we are under attack!"

Athena froze when she heard the call. In one mind, the ten Raptors turned in unison and blazed back toward the fleet.

"Core Control!" Athena called. "Did you find that blasted base ship yet?"

"Affirmative," came Rigel's reply. Approximately one quarter hectar distant, dead ahead."

"Transfer precise coordinates to the Raptors immediately!" Athena replied.

"Uh, boss?" Backis asked tentatively. "What are you thinking?"

"What?" Athena replied. "You're not in my head any more?"

"Oh, no. I'm still in there. I just can't believe what I think you're thinking,"

"It's the only way to get those fighter to pull back from the Galactica," said Athena. Her scanner blinked, and she transferred the coordinates to the rest of the squadron while informing Milesar of her plan.

"I like it," he replied. "But we need to make a statement when we do it. We'll plow straight through the battle, and then head off towards the Base Ship, that way, the tin heads can't miss us."

"Let's load em up!" came Tarril's voice.

"Save the missiles for the big daggit," Milesar said. "Switch to cannons until we clear the fight."

The responses came back instantly.

Starbuck wheeled his Viper out of the path of an oncoming Cylon, bringing his ship around on the bandit's tail. He quickly and expertly dispatched his latest target. Then he risked a quick glance at the Galactica. Fires raged in several compartments, sending orange tongues out into space from breached bulkheads.

"Apollo!" He called. "The Galactica can't take much more of this!"

"I know Starbuck! I know!" Apollo replied sharply.

As they both fought their relentless enemy, they saw help coming in the form of ten wicked ships.

"Raptors!" Apollo called. "We could use an assist here!"

There was no answer.

"Raptors, do you copy?" Apollo called again. Still nothing.

"Uh, Athena?" Starbuck called.

The ten ships fanned out and in one burst, opened up with their laser cannons, firing relentlessly before them, clearing a path through the Cylon fighters before whipping past the Galactica and out into deep space.

"What the hell was that?" asked Starbuck. He watched the drive tails as they faded from sight.

"Watch your back, Starbuck!" Boomer called.

Starbuck wheeled his ship over, just missing being the latest Cylon casualty. The Cylon never got another shot as another Viper quickly dispatched it.

"Thanks Bojay!" Starbuck called out.

"No problem!" Bojay called back.

Kadal entered the command chamber and found Shadow standing at his console, observing the data coming in from the battle.

"By your command," Kadal intoned.

"An interesting turn of events," Shadow replied. "It appears that several of the Colonial fighter craft have broken off, heading directly for us. Can you explain that?"

"I cannot," Kadal replied. "The Colonial Warriors should not be able to detect our ship in its current operation."

"If there is one thing I have come to learn about humans, is that when they should not be able to do something, that is when they usually do it." Shadow entered a few commands and brought up a form scan on the approaching ships. They were the modified ones that had destroyed Darnos's Base Ship. Ten of them.

"Oh Felgercarb," Shadow said dryly. "Issue recall commands to our fighters. Tell them to withdraw at once and return to defend us."

"But we have not yet destroyed the Galactica," Kadal reminded his superior.

"It only took five of those ships to destroy Darnos and his centurions. We now have twice that many coming directly for us. I feel the time for stealth has past." Shadows voice began to take a panicked edge. "Bring all systems back on line, charge laser batteries, and bring electronic defense fields to maximum strength!"

"By your command," Kadal said, and he turned to leave.

"Hurry, you golden oaf!" Shadow bellowed after him.

"Hello!" Backis called out.

"What?" Athena asked.

"The target just lit up like a spotlight!" Backis responded. "It looks like they just kick started the whole ship at once!"

"I think it's safe to say that they know we're coming," said Milesar. "Spread out, and get ready to fire. Switch to missile targeting system, arm all warheads."

The Raptors once again assumed the ominous Talon formation and made ready to fire.

"As soon as you fire, break off!" Milesar. "Get clear of the Base Ship's guns so we can make a second run if we need to!"

"Cap!" Ensign Mira's voice rang in. "I have a large number of craft approaching from behind us. Looks like the tin heads withdrew their whole attack when they made us!"

"I wasn't planning on that!" said Athena.

"I think they've already learned to respect these machines!" Milesar said.

"Let's not disappoint them. Prepare to fire!"

Shadow strode into the command center and stood at the tactical monitor, watching the X shaped formation approach.

"Our fighters?" he asked.

"Fighters returning at top speed," the silver centurion droned.

Shadow resigned himself to the fact that his beautiful Base Ship was about to be damaged. "Lock all turrets on the Colonial formation and open fire the micron they are within range."

"By your command," the centurion replied. A few microns later he droned.

"Commence firing."

"I think they've seen us!" Nagon called out. His ship lurched wildly as it absorbed a glancing blow from the laser bursts. His ship wobbled unsteadily as smoke belched from the fuselage.

"Break and head for home!" Milesar ordered.

Cursing, Nagon turned his ship out of the formation, heading a round about course back to the Galactica.

Rodin and Doer in Raptor nine, were not so lucky. A single torpedo slammed into the nose of their ship, burning through the shields and bursting the ship into a brilliant fireball.

Milesar cursed. Then his scanner lit up.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" He bellowed.

Missiles leapt forward from beneath the wings of the Raptors, streaking towards the massive target.

The Raptors pulled away before they could witness the results of their attack.

Shadow leaned over the monitor and watched with horror as thirty-two plumes of smoke homed in on his ship. "Send out an electro-magnetic pulse," he ordered quickly. He watched with satisfaction as the majority of the missiles detonated well out from his ship, but several were still coming, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Oh dear," he said.

The impacts rocked the ship from top to bottom, and alarm claxons sounded as the base ship absorbed eight direct hits from the Raptors lethal volley.

"Kadal!" Shadow called in a shriek. "Damage Report!"

"All weapons systems and shield power supplies off line," Kadal replied without emotion. "Hull ruptures are numerous on the lower hull and command core. Secondary and tersery computer backup systems off line."

Shadow looked over at the Centurion sitting at tactical. It sat smoking, deactivated from the exploding monitor that had blown out its primary processor.

Quickly, Shadow pulled up the tactical image on his own monitor, observing that his Raiders had engaged the Colonial fighters.

"All fighter, return to base," Shadow said. "Prepare to retreat! All fighters return to base immediately, prepare to retreat!"

He watched in satisfaction as the remains of his forces broke off from the Colonial rabble, and had a micron of satisfaction when his tactical display registered a hit on one of the Colonial ships.

"Frack!" Athena shouted in fear as her panels arced and burst into flames. "Talk to me Backis!"

"We're bad boss!" Backis replied. "Real bad!"

"Captain?" Athena called.

Milesar pulled alongside and then coasted around Athena's ship, surveying the damage.

Most of the aft quarter of her ship had been slagged, or was burnt through, revealing melted and arcing circuits and components.

"Oh man<" he said. Then he keyed the mic. "There's no way in Hades you'll be able to land this thing on the Galactica. Rega, find them a place to set down."

"Already on it." Rega replied from behind him. Then a few microns later. "I have a small, delta class planet, roughly half way between here and the home base. You should be able to dump it there, Athena."

"Take me in, Cap," said Athena, feeling a horrifying sense of deja-vu. This had been how she and Michas had gone down in the first Raptor. Now history was repeating itself with her at the controls.

They found the planet without too much trouble. A lush, green world covered with thick clouds.

"Got it," said Athena. She looked over at Milesar, still flying on her wing.

"Better get going, Captain," she suggested.

"Once I know your down, sure," Milesar replied. "Good luck."

Athena's Raptor slammed into the friction of the atmosphere and began its long, inevitable plummet towards the surface. The tail end of the ship smoked as the Raptor bounced, ripping itself apart.

"Ready?" Athena called behind her.

"Give me the word!" Backis replied, his hands hovering over the eject controls.

Athena's eyes bounced between the view outside and her altimeter. Once they reached the safe lever, she keyed her mic one more time.

"This is Raptor two! We are punching out, now!" She let go of the controls and leaned back. "Hit it Backis!" she screamed.

The two seated blasted from the dying ship, tumbling through the air as the chutes deployed, slowing their decent.

Athena watched the thick jungle canopy rushing up to meet her feet. Looking about, she could see Backis's chute, also falling to the ground. Then she saw the spectacular fireball of her ship as it plowed into the ground below, erupting in a cloud of superheated metal and fuel.

The trees swallowed Backis's form, and then microns later, hers as well as she felt the branches of the tree snapping beneath her, pummeling her from all sides.

"This is really gonna hurt," She thought, then something slammed into the side of her helmet and sent her into unconsciousness...

END
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