Saul Tigh felt alive again. The thrill of planning an attack mission again, designing the proper statregy and the units he needed, was all making him feel young again. The ship was in the state of combat readiness, leaving the first layer of living space empty, just in case the hull was compromised. All the people will dress the colonial space suit, except the gloves. If a sudden decompression happened, they could minimize the losses.

The data about the beta system was...scarce, just to be polite with Chihaya. The system has eight planets and two large asteroid rings. Three small planets, similar to Mercury, are too close to the star and may be rich in metals. The asteroid rings could be good targets. What kind of defenses might they have?

Admiral Tigh leaned back slightly, staring at the tactical map provided by Chihaya. System Beta was illuminated on the display in front of him. "Machines don't retreat. They fight to the end. That makes them predictable and stubborn but they have been changing and adapting to our tactics," Tigh thought. If he and Gal were going to strike at the heart of the enemy, it had to be a surgical blow, something that would destabilize the machines and buy time for the fleet.

He watched the orbit of each planet again. He had all his trust in Gal, but the machines had shown that they would ram their enemies if necessary. The best weapon in this case would be the fold drive. It would work once or twice, but if the enemy presence was too strong, he would leave. No more dead heroes.

Tigh said, "I want precision. We take out their key installations and pull back before the rest of the fleet realizes what's happening. I need you and Lee to start planning the attack vectors."

Gal nodded and turned toward Lee, who had been silently observing the exchange. "What do you think, Lee? We need the right opening."

Lee frowned as he examined the map on the holotable. "We'll need to coordinate the Raptor squadrons to act as distractions. If they focus too much on Galactica, the entire mission could go sideways. We can't afford for them to concentrate their fire on us."

"We'll manage that," Tigh interrupted. "The machines are predictable but not to be underestimated. We've seen what they did to New Europe. They'll throw everything they have at us once they realize we're targeting their core installations."

Gal required his attention. "Yes, Gal?," he asked. "I can blow the star's photosphere," she said easily.

"Excuse me?," Tigh said. A few CIC crewmen turned to the duo after listening to her proposal. Blowing stars?

"I can use my SGC to release the photosphere from the gravity anchor. The coronal discharge will destroy all installations in a sector of the star," she explained. Tigh looked at her, analyzing the idea. "Please, show me the complete plan," he said.

A few minutes later, he and Lee were fascinated. "Well, it could be called the 'Galactica maneuver,' " Lee said, joking. "Nice name," Tigh replied. One of the officers told them, "I understand this as a last attack, but if the machines copied the idea, we are fried."

"Frak, you are damn right," Saul said, recognizing the danger. "Good thinking, boy," Saul said, while Gal pouted like a little girl.

"Ok, but now I don't know what to do," she said. "We can fold a Raptor into the system and get a look," Lee said. "It's old school for our standards, but they can jump and return in seconds."

Tigh considered the idea. It had all the advantages of speed and simplicity. "Well, we will leave in six hours. We will defold here one light year from beta, launch and recover the Raptor, and then leave. We need time to plan, and I don't want to remain static for too long."

"Understood, please notify Alex that we are leaving in six hours," Tigh said to the comms officer.

Planet Forge – Six Hours Later.

The hangar bay was alive with activity. Galactica's crew was preparing for the jump, loading weapons, prepping fighters, and ensuring the SGC system was ready for deployment. Raptor squadrons lined the deck, each armed with tactical warheads designed to punch through the advanced shielding of the cubes.

Tigh stood in front of a large holographic display, his face illuminated by the cold light of the battle plan. Around him were commanders, pilots, and crew chiefs—all of them veterans of numerous battles, and all of them keenly aware that this mission was a do-or-die scenario.

"We are targeting System Beta," Tigh began, pointing at the glowing star on the hologram. "This system is heavily fortified. The machines have multiple factories and orbital defense platforms, and Gods know what else. But our objective is simple: to eliminate their industrial base."

Tigh continued, "We'll be coordinating with Iona and her submarines. They'll hit the Machines' outer colonies and cause as much confusion as possible. We attack, blow everything to Hades, and we fold again. The Raptors will jump around like crazies, and they will attack other stations. Our fleet will do the same. I want their fleet dispersed and far from us. That gives us the opening to strike at the heart and hopefully interfere with their ability to send reinforcements. Everyone knows their role. Galactica will be attacking alone. When the reinforcements arrive, and they will, trust me on that, we join the fleet and leave."

Tigh took center stage. He straightened his posture and addressed the room, his voice clear and commanding. "We've been through hell and back, and this is no different. We're fighting for everyone who can't fight for themselves, for New Europe, and for the colonies that haven't yet fallen. When we hit them, we hit them hard, and we don't stop until their defenses crumble."

The crew cheered, rallying around him. The energy in the room shifted from uncertainty to determination. The plan was set, and the path forward was clear.

Galactica – Fold Point.

The stars outside the ship's windows changed as Galactica moved into position for the fold. Tigh took his seat on the command deck, eyes fixed on the swirling stars before him. "All ships, prepare for folding," he ordered.

In five minutes, Galactica folded away to her first destination. The Raptor left and returned in one minute. It captured pictures, depending on light speed, since the Raptor couldn't use any active system to avoid detection.

The system showed a lot of activity. Six big space stations were identified, and two planets, the second and the fourth, had activity on their surfaces. A lot of heat signatures, probably mining activity, were on the surface of the three rocky planets close to the star. A more detailed analysis showed that one station was a shipyard. Something vaguely cubic in shape was being built inside.

Gal only said, "So many targets."

"The question is, how long until we receive reinforcements?," Lee asked. "I say we can have no more than ten minutes, based on calculations about their warp drive speed," Gal replied. "We can obtain a lot of information about their communications and encryption techniques just by listening to them," she added. Tigh looked at her, "Be very careful. They are machines and they could be very good at cyberwarfare."

"True, I am already preparing an isolated system to receive and analyze the data," Gal admitted.

"Well, we will destroy the mining installation first. Then we jump to the closer station and destroy everything. At the same time, we will send the escorts and Raptors loaded with nukes to far targets to keep them off balance," Saul said.

Galactica began her first combat run. Her immense fold sphere left her at fifteen kilometers from a huge space station, as big as a small moon, an immense complex of modules joined by pipes and conduits. The station, almost thirty kilometers high and fifteen kilometers wide, was a hive of activity. Drones were carrying ore to the complex, and something similar to an orbital elevator was working, too.

Tigh didn't waste time. "Fire all main batteries at the station. Fire missiles at the orbital elevator. Launch Raptors."

The first surprise came to the colonial ship when the cargo containers were used as crude slugs. The installation on the ground used some kind of magnetic accelerator to move cargo from the surface. The containers, accelerated at 10G, collided with Gal's shields. They didn't damage her, but the physical impact was transmitted somehow to the hull.

More or less at the same time, Galactica opened fire with all her main batteries, equal in power to those of heavy battleships. The station had shields, but they were inferior to the cube's shielding. After the first broadside, the station exhibited many hull perforations and explosions. The orbital elevator, a weak design, collapsed immediately, falling on the ground installations, adding more damage.

In just two minutes, the engines keeping the station in orbit were destroyed, and dozens of Tsar bombs pushed the station out of orbit.

"Guys, I would like to watch the spectacle, but we need to keep moving. Gal fold!" Tigh ordered. The immense hybrid battlestar folded to its next target.

They folded close to the orbit of one factory planet, as Gal had named the targets. On the main screens, the bridge crew could watch all the space and the planet around them. The overall effect was like the bridge's walls were made of glass. Now, the tactical display showed a myriad of red crosses, identifying targets. Since the beam weapons would require too long to destroy them, Tigh ordered Gal to open the hundreds of launching cells on her hull. Ballistic missiles left the cells, and the surface erupted in big, orange, and brown mushrooms from the warheads. The main batteries fired too, the plasma lances perforated the atmosphere and splashed high-energy plasma on the factories and cargo silos on the surface.

At the same time, the Raptors jumped closer to the shipyard. The optical analysis had revealed that a cube was being built. Only the general structure was done, and it would be useful to identify structural weaknesses.

The pilots' orders were simple: jump, lock targets, fire, and get out of there. Sixty Raptors launched two hundred antiship missiles with corrosive warheads. The little ships launched four broadsides, disabling the engines. One Raptor was equipped with two Tsar bombs. When the station lost its engines, the two bombs reached the station, literally pushing it out of orbit.

The battlestar repeated the same pattern with four stations, facing little opposition. So far, they have completely devastated four planets, using the orbital installations as planet busters. Finally, twenty cubes arrived at the system. They had arrived quite close to the battlestar, so they switched targets.

The battlestar banked widely to put all its batteries into action, and plasma rained on a cube, destroying the shields and leaving a dead hull behind. Just in case, a Tsar bomb directed by Gal went inside the hull and detonated. The cubes retaliated with their own beams and torpedoes. In a matter of seconds, energy and explosions splashed against Galactica's shields.

Galactica, CIC.

The mighty ship trembled under the attack for the first time in its existence. On the screen, a number appeared, a flashing red 320. "Admiral, this is the estimated time in seconds to lose shields," Gal announced. She was controlling her missiles' trajectories and achieved an impressive rate of eight percent success. Her turrets tracked a pair of cubes each time, guaranteeing maximum fire volume per cube. The victims had to withdraw or risk being destroyed, but they could move away from the battlestar, regenerate their shields, and return for another round.

She had intercepted and stored a considerable amount of communication traffic, but it would be transferred to a secure station for analysis. Several cylons exhibited impressive abilities in analyzing encrypted information.

The fight continued for another four minutes, and the shields began to lose integrity under the attack.

"Gal, reroute auxiliary power to dorsal and ventral shields," Lee ordered. He had observed that the aliens were focusing their attack on both shields, presumably to destroy the long row of main batteries located there.

The shield began to slow down the decaying strength, but they couldn't reach a stationary state. Another pair of cubes died in big explosions, and the shields were starting to back up. However, this situation couldn't last forever. A flight of Raptors attacked the last installation on the asteroid ring, demolishing a processing ore factory. The altered asteroids' trajectory caused by the Tsars will make navigation and operations impossible for months.

When the Raptors returned, Gal had destroyed another cube, and the others were keeping their distance, no doubt waiting for reinforcements. The escort fleet of heavy cruisers arrived behind the cubes, and facing the storm of plasma from both sides, the cubes began to disintegrate as the hulls were breached, and reactors or ammunition exploded.

"Sir, the Raptors are back," Gal said gratefully. "Back to the cage and get out of this place. Let's return to Alex, Gal," Tigh said. The Raptors performed an emergency landing on the flying pods, and as one, the fleet engaged their fold drives and went back to a safe harbor.