2671.239 Cylon relay satellite one: Hera and her wingman sat patiently near the destroyed satellite. At 13:00 hours, they picked up a cylon shuttle coming from Terra on their passive scans. Hera looked at her scans, and thought for a moment.

"Ok Ensign Tigh, this bogey is yours. Do it by the numbers."

"Roger that Captain."

Tigh moved in behind the shuttle, and painted it with his targeting sight. He decloaked and fired three blasts from his lasers. The shuttle pilot barely had time to notice a new blip on its scanners before the bolts of energy ripped through the armor of the ship and ignited the fuel pods. The shuttle exploded in less than a second, and Ensign Tigh was already reactivating his cloak. As he moved his ship back to position, the young man felt his heart pounding and actually started to shake a little.

"Captain Hera."

"Yeah Tigh"

"Is combat always like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when we flew out here I was fine. But when I got behind the shuttle, my heart was pounding, and I actually felt scared."

"How do you feel now?"

"Well a little scared still."

Hera smiled to herself. "Welcome to the human race Ensign. Every pilot feels scared in combat. If you ever meet a pilot that tells you he or she isn't scared, don't you believe them. And if you ever get to the point that you're not scared, it's time to stop flying."

Tigh thought about that for a moment. "Captain Hera."

"Yeah Tigh"

"Thank you."

As the two of them sat in their ships waiting for another shuttle, Hera's scanner alert went off. She looked at her passive scans and saw a cylon battle group coming toward them.

"What do we do Captain?"

"Pipe down Ensign."

Hera knew that if the group hadn't picked them up, then most likely they were running with passive scans only as well. The two of them watched as the battle group went past them and then saw the lead Destroyer fire an energy blast at a point in space. Hera and Tigh saw a jump tunnel entrance forming in front of the Destroyer. Then they watched as the group passed into the jump tunnel. Once they were gone, Hera activated her active scanners for a three second sweep. What she saw scared her, three more battle groups were vectoring toward this same location. They watched as the three other battle groups did the same as the first group. She decided that the fleet had to know about this new development. The Beta battle group was closest,

"Tigh, here are the coordinates of the Beta group. Turbo on my mark, 3, 2, 1, mark." the two ships then flew toward the Beta group at full speed.

On the bridge of the Pegasus, the scanner tech was calling to the Commander. "Ma'am, the second battle group is not here."

"Are you sure about that corporal?"

"Yes Commander, I've checked twice now. There are no cylon ships in full scan range."

The comm. tech then called for the Commander. "We're receiving a tight beam signal from Surprise flight leader"

Athena came over to the comm. station. "Lets hear it."

"Attention Papa, attention Papa. Surprise one and two inbound. We need to talk. Over"

Athena picked up a headset, "Surprise one this is Papa actual, say again."

Hera felt a feeling of relief come over her. "Papa we need to talk. ETA is 3 minutes."

"Roger surprise one we're standing by."

Athena then got on the comm. to flight bay. "Attention flight bay we have two incoming Anubis. I want the pilots escorted to the bridge as soon as they land."

"XO, I want a speed course to the rendezvous location as soon as they land."

"Yes Commander."

As soon as Tigh and Hera landed, Hera pulled the data card from her scanners, and then they were escorted to the bridge. As Athena saw them arrive, the two pilots saluted her, and then Hera proceeded to tell Athena what they had seen.

"So the 4 groups went through a jump tunnel?"

"Yes Commander"

Athena activated the monitor on her command station. "Let's see if we know where the jump tunnel comes out, and how long it will take them."

After a few minutes, Athena looked at the two pilots. "It seems that this jump tunnel ends up one system away, and that the trip will take them 18 hours."

Athena thought for a moment. "XO, how long to rendezvous with Alpha group?"

"Just under an hour Commander."

"Comm., I want a tight beam signal to Mother."

"Yes ma'am."

Athena looked at Hera; "Your father will want to know about this right away."

On the bridge of the Galactica, Apollo listened as the bridge crew was trying to find any sign of their second set of targets.

William came up to him, "It looks like their not here Apollo. Do we set course for the rendezvous?"

Apollo didn't like this at all, the second cylon battle group wasn't here, and he was starting to get a bad feeling.

"Ok William, set a speed course to the rendezvous point." soon Alpha group was moving toward the rendezvous point.

"Commander, we're getting a tight beam signal from Beta group."

"Patch it up to my station."

Apollo activated his command station monitor, and saw Athena's face.

"Mother, we have a development, sending Intel."

Apollo and William watched the data, and just looked at each other.

"Get Intel and CAG up here now."

Apollo looked at the monitor now. "Papa this is Mother, will discuss this at rendezvous. Over." then he closed the channel.

Apollo looked at William, "The marines on the planet aren't going to launch their attacks until 1700, but if the main groups of the cylons have already left the system, then we only have the battle group around the planet to deal with."

The head of fleet Intel and the CAG arrived on the bridge.

"Col Taylor, General Blair, we have a new development." then he showed them the data.

After thinking for a moment, Chris looked at the two men. "Well we'll have to rethink the attack on Terra."

"Any ideas Chris?"

"Yes sir, a few. Since we're pushing up the timetable, we recall the rest of surprise flight. Then we launch all remaining Anubis, with orders to head toward Terra. By the time they arrive, the marines should be about set to attack, so we have the Anubis flight attack the raiders on the ground. The marines can use this as a diversion to launch their own attacks."

Apollo looked at him, "We won't be able to get all of the Anubis back to the fleet in time for that Chris."

Col Taylor looked at Apollo, "Commander, that shouldn't be a problem."

The three men looked at her, "Commander, we should do as the general suggested, and recall the other 4 surprise pilots. And we launch the other Anubis's toward Terra. They can tight beam a signal to Col Tucker before they arrive, about the timetable adjustment. The 4 Anubis's will arrive before the fleet reaches Terra, we just rearm them with EMCOM missiles and use them to lay down the jamming."

Apollo looked at the three of them, "Sounds like a good plan. Lets get things rolling."

The three of them started moving then. Apollo sat there for a moment thinking "The fates can be so fickle sometimes." then he said another silent prayer.

The necessary orders were sent throughout both battle groups, and the recall signal was sent to Surprise flight pilots. This next two hours were going to be hectic to say the least.