Operation Exodus

3:6 The Last Exodus: Hit and Run - Part II

Two Days Later

Acheron Asteroid Belt

Galactica War Room

"Reports show that the Cylon fleet took the decoy as we hoped after 'finding' our fleet yesterday at the dwarf planet Persephone from triangulating our position through our broadcasted message across all communication channels throughout the Cyrannus system. The Cylons will no longer threaten the defenses at Picon now that they know our fleet is jumping around the colonies independent of defending Picon. They'll be looking around the colonies for our fleet. They would take heavy losses in a fight against the defense grid or our fleet, and currently our fleet will provide the adequate bait to keep the Cylons from focusing on Picon. As planned sir," Lieutenant Gaeta said grinning widely, and beaming at Admiral Adama.

"Not to mention that the Cylons likely don't even know about our evacuation mission on Picon because of our attack throughout the colonies and jamming until the fleet left for Avalon, after which our remaining fleet left Picon undetected. If they don't know that we've already been to Picon to remove many of the people there, they'll still be expecting us to make a move on Picon to recover our people. They'll want to set a trap to nuke our defenses and fleet at Picon now to decimate our forces, so it's likely they'll leave Picon alone as we hope until they can maximize the damage done there at the opportune moment," Athena Eight said hopefully, meeting Admiral Adama's eyes.

Admiral Adama considered Athena silently, weighing what had been said before responding. "All we can do is hope for the best. In all likelihood, the Cylons will want to eliminate our fleet as a more important threat in comparison to Picon. Now we need to begin attacking the Cylons to keep them off balance until the evacuation fleet returns," Admiral Adama said, looking at Starbuck expectantly.

"As ordered, we've compiled a list of targets from intel on the Cylons and the colonies. Scouts confirmed the information Kathy and Leoben gave us of Cylon controlled areas. Stealthstar Banshee also went deep into Cylon space previously, and scouts confirmed some rebuilding of facilities in those areas that we may want to hit," Starbuck said, looking down at the plot table in the center of the War Room and gathered the figurines across target areas.

Finishing laying the figurines on the plot table for fleet targets Starbuck continued, "there are several targets we can easily take out and a few strategic missions we can carry out as part of our overall operation of distracting the Cylons. There's the Danthus system where the Banshee previously went which has several production facilities rebuilt from Banshee's assault. We've located over 30 mining facilities across Cylon controlled territories which are key to their fuel and production lines for their entire fleet. Raptor scouts found several staging grounds for small Cylon fleets that we could exploit. We've also mapped out targets in colonial space where the Cylons have been using our assets; mining systems, tylium facilities, and colonial military/scientific outposts. As requested, Ragnar Anchorage was also scouted out."

"There's also several civilian freighters and liners on Picon that we can use to in the meantime to continue bringing people from the other colonies to Picon as General O'Rilley was doing before. This'll make it easier to evacuate everyone when the fleet returns. There are also some cargo/storage ships we can use in addition to some cargo ships around the colonies we might be able to fix on the cradle docks. We could gather more supplies from the other colonies and maybe recover some cultural artifacts of the colonies to bring home with us," Helo said.

"See that it's done Helo, we'll need all the people and supplies we can gather onto Picon. Remind General O'Rilley of the changed circumstances requiring more caution than ever since the Cylons will be paying more attention to Picon than ever before. Starbuck, begin planning the missions with each segmented part of the fleet. We need to complete multiple subsequent missions over the next few weeks," Admiral Adama ordered sternly.