7875.315 Central Command, Baltar's base star. The glass doors parted with a slight glass on glass rubbing sound, and Lucifer the IL series cylon entered the room. "We have just exited the jump corridor Lord Baltar.".

The elevated command chair rotated around, and a gray haired man looked down at him. "Launch patrols and report back anything that they find.".

"By your command." Lucifer said almost smugly. If Baltar didn't know better, he would have thought that Lucifer was being sarcastic. The base ship launched 2 patrols of 4 raiders to scout the system. The first patrol reported back with no findings. The second patrol reported finding a small base located on the moon of the second planet of the system. Scanners showed that the base was manned by 10 humans. When Lucifer reported these results, Baltar's eyes lit up. "Finally Lucifer we have again found the Galactica's trail. Send 3 phalanx of centurions down to wipe out the base. And Lucifer, I want prisoners this time.",

"By your command Lord Baltar.".

On the moon of Rygannon 2, Taryn Cross of the Confederation Exploration Service sat at her desk going over the star charts and scan reports of the Delta system one jump away. There wasn't much there in the system, but a few of the larger asteroid clusters did show promising results. Just then there was a knock on her door. "Come in.", she saw her assistant Julie Finch had a worried look on her face. "What's wrong Julie?",

"We just had 4 unknown ships give us a flyby boss.".

"What do you mean by unknown.",

"I mean that their shapes don't match anything in the data base, and their energy signatures don't match with any Confed, Border World or Kilrathi signatures.".

"Tell me your kidding Julie.",

"Sorry boss not this time.".

"Well we either have a new type of Confed ship that their testing, or…",

"Or another race of spacers altogether boss." Julie said, finishing her sentence.

"So what life signs did you get off those ships Julie.",

"None at all boss. I've got a bad feeling about this one Taryn.". When Julie used her name, Taryn knew that she was scared, really scared.

"So how is that Strakha that your dad managed to "acquire" for you running these days.".

"Just fine, why?",

"Because I want you to launch and see if you can spot those ships again. If you do, I want you to follow them to their base, and then come back and report to me.". As Julie turned to leave, Taryn said, "Don't take any stupid risks Julie.",

"I won't boss, you can count on me.",

"I know I can, now hurry up and get changed.".

Julie quickly changed into her flight suit and headed for her Strakha fighter ship. When her father, the infamous Roman Lynch, had sent it to her, she had no idea why. He had sent a holo-message along with it, in which he told her that he was worried about her. He also told her that his people had made a few minor modifications to the ship. Her ship was probably the only Strakha flying that had a mini jump drive on it. The drive was only good for 1 jump instead of the normal 6 jumps, so she knew that he had had it put in for emergencies only. He had also sent along a supply of the crystals that the stealth cloak used , he wanted to be sure that her cloak didn't run out at an inopportune time. As she walked toward her ship, she smiled to herself at the name she had given her ship, "Cheshire Cat" after a character in an old children's story from earth. Julie climbed in the cockpit and started the ship up., soon all systems were green and she was ready to fly. She turned on the cloak and took off, she had just made orbit of the moon when she saw a dozen of the unknown ships on her scanner. They were on a direct course for the base, and were descending.

"Cheshire Cat to base, I've got a dozen inbound Bogeys coming straight at you, get out of there boss. Just then the lead raider shot at the complex, taking out the communication relay. Julie watched as 3 of the other ships strafed the base. The other eight ships were landing at the base. She took her ship down closer to the moon and watched as what looked like 24 armored men exited the ships and proceeded into the base. The other four ships were now starting to land as well. Soon there were 12 more armored men marching into the base. She took her ship lower and hovered over the base, she could see occasional bursts of light through the bases windows, she knew that it was weapons fire. Then there was a large explosion and she saw body parts floating in space, and she began to cry.

When the armored men marched out of the base, they were dragging a person in a space suit. She couldn't tell who it was, but she was glad that someone had made it out alive. Julie wiped the tears from her eyes and watched as the armored men got back in their ships and took off. She swore then and there to get justice for her friends, no matter what the cost. Julie followed the ships from a safe distance, and soon she saw one of the largest ships she had ever seen. It looked like 2 saucer shaped sections, connected in the middle. This was big, so she activated her scanners and started recording everything about this ship that she could. She knew that she had to get this information back to somebody in Confed, but she didn't know if she would make it. Then she thought about her friends, and knew she had to try. Julie Finch was now a woman with a mission, one that she would complete no matter what. She put the coordinates of the jump point to Xytani in her Nav-comp and took off. "I'll get them for you Taryn, I swear to god I will.".

Lucifer looked at the young human male on the interrogation table. His clothing didn't match any of the known types of colonial uniforms that were in their data base. He was also having a hard time understanding the language that this human was speaking. He was an IL series cylon leadership droid, and he was having difficulty with this prisoner, unbelievable. He thought to himself, "Perhaps Lord Baltar would be able to do better with this human.". He was about to leave the interrogation chamber, when he stopped and asked the lead centurion, "Did you download the computron from the human base centurion?".

"We were unable to establish a link with the computron on the base, an unknown form of encryption was being used by the humans.".

"Most curious indeed.", Lucifer pondered as he made his way to central command. As he was about to enter Lord Baltar's Command room, a Gold centurion spoke to him.

"We have detected a scanning beam just off the port quarter of the lower fuselage.".

"Really, what is out there?",

"Nothing sir.",

"That's impossible centurion, rerun scans of the area.".

"Scans have been rerun twice on the area. Full diagnostics have been performed on the scanners as well. They are performing at maximum efficiency.".

The circuits in Lucifer's 2 brains began to analyze this information, and concluded that there was insufficient data to postulate a reason for this anomaly. "I will inform Lord Baltar of this information at once, this may be a new human trick. Return to your duties centurion.".

"By your command.".

Lucifer entered Baltar's chambers, "By your Command." he intoned, "The centurions of the landing party have managed to capture and return with a human male.".

Baltar grinned, "Good work Lucifer, what has the colonial told you?".

"Nothing Lord Baltar, the human is speaking a language that we can not identify. Also, there are many unusual things about this human and the base he came from.".

"What do you mean by unusual Lucifer?".

"Well Lord Baltar, first there is the uniform he is wearing, it does not correspond to any known colonial designs in our data base. Second, the type of weapons that the humans were using are not of colonial design as well. And finally the computron on the base was using an unknown form of encryption, our centurions could not establish an uplink with it.". Lucifer pondered if he should also tell Baltar of the sensor scan, then decided not to.

"Perhaps Lord Baltar, you should interrogate the prisoner yourself. Maybe seeing another human would get him to relax and he would then answer our questions.".

"No Lucifer, this is a trick by Apollo. I am sure that the colonials are behind this. After all he is Adama's son , and Adama was a very crafty old daggit. Continue patrolling the system, and report back any other "unusual" happenings.".

"And what of the human prisoner?",

"Dispose of him.",

"By your command Lord Baltar.".

Julie Finch made the jump to the Xytani system, but just barely, so she set her course for the relay station in this system. She knew that she could land there and repair her ships systems, and she could send a message to the CES office in the Palan system. She arrived at the relay station just after 6 P.M. T.S.T. and powered down her ship. The relay station wasn't much more than an asteroid in orbit of the 4th planet of the system, but it did have an emergency shelter and equipment there. But more importantly, it had a communications rig which she could use. Julie sat down in front of the monitor and logged into the Unisys computer. Then she prepared a holo-trans for the CES office in Palan.

"This is Julie Finch of the Confederation Exploration Service. I was stationed at the Rygannon base of operations. The base has been attacked by an unknown force and destroyed. The attackers were flying an unknown type of ship, and their energy signature was unlike any on record. I was able to follow the ships when they left the base, and I followed them back to their base-ship. It was a design I have never seen before. I have some scans of the ships and their base-ship. My fighter wasn't originally designed for jump travel but I was able to make the jump to Xytani, although just barely. I need immediate rescue and retrieval.".

She hit the transmission button, and then she realized just how exhausted she was, Julie Finch fell into a fitful sleep in front of the monitor.

One of the patrols from Baltar's base-star showed a momentary spike of energy at the limit of their scanners. "Set course for the energy reading." the lead centurion intoned,

"By your command" the pilot responded.

At the location of the energy spike, the cylons found nothing unusual, but scanned the area thoroughly. Then the flight of raiders returned to their patrol pattern. Once they returned to the base-star, they downloaded their report to the central computron, which noted the unusual energy reading and passed the data along to the command centurion on duty in the command center. He in turn passed the information on to Lucifer, his immediate superior. Lucifer reviewed the data from the report.

"This is most curious indeed, these energy readings are similar to the readings of a jump tunnel entrance. But there is no jump tunnel entrance in that section of the system.". Lucifer's 2 brains processed the information and he decided that he still did not have enough data to make a proper decision.

"Centurion, continue patrols, and report any further anomalous readings to me.",

"By your command.".