Battlestar Olympia
Episode 2-Hermes, the Messenger of War
As the Basestar appeared, the Olympia jumped. No need getting into a fight when you had little ammo. After a few hours, Hermes went to sleep.
Commander Hermes lay on his bed, sleeping. It wasn't a restful sleep though. He'd been having nightmares of people burned to death, decapitated. Quite a few of the dreams also involved the blonde woman he had saved on Picon. Finally, he woke up, breathing heavily and sweating. He looked at the clock on his desk. 0450 hours. He'd had better get up and get ready for reveille. After a shower, he got dressed and walked to the CIC. Along the way, a young officer, maybe about 20 fell into step alongside him. "Good Morning, sir. Captain Thomas Vier, sir. I guess I'm the new CAG aboard this ship, sir." Hermes looked at Captain Vier. "Welcome aboard, Captain. I think you'll find that our Mark V Vipers will get the job done for you. As a matter of fact, in the CIC, you'll find a folder containing today's mission and sorties. I'd like to get them started by 0830 hours, but I'll be willing to let it slide a little, considering many of our pilots are injured or exhausted." Vier nodded. "Yes sir. I suppose I should read the folder before reveille." Hermes laughed. "Yes, I suppose you should. That will be all, Captain." He accepted Vier's salute and walked into the CIC. He was again greeted by Captain Argus, who looked slightly better than he did the previous day. "What's been happening?", Hermes asked. Argus shook his head. "Well, apparently nuclear bombardment has ceased in the colonies…we are still fighting…apparently the Battlestar Hercules and its strike group have been holding out about Aerelon for several hours, and several Cylon landing ships have been shot down during an aborted landing attempt on Geminon. On a bad note, Admiral Nagala was killed; his ship, the Battlestar Atlantia was destroyed over Sagittaron. We don't yet know who has taken control of the fleet…we've heard reports that Commander Adama is the leader of the fleet, but we don't know where the Galactica is, so therefore we should just assume that we, the Hercules and maybe the Galactica and our respective support ships are the remainder of the fleet, sir." The Commander took all of this in, thought for a minute and then responded. "I believe that we and the Pegasus are the only Battlestars left. I personally think the Galactica's already been destroyed, so we shouldn't waste our time trying to find it. Try to contact the Hercules. We're going to go try and save it." Captain Argus nodded and turned to the Petty Office in charge of communications, Lila Rusel. "Rusel, try to shoot off a beacon signal to the Hercules." Rusel turned to the beacon controls. "Yes sir," she said and started punching in buttons on the console. "Battlestar 56 Hercules, this is Battlestar 89 Olympia. Please respond." After a few seconds, a light flashed. Rusel pressed another button and a voice came through. "Battlestar 89 Olympia, this is Battlestar 56 Hercules. Glad to hear a friendly voice. We've lost most of our strike group..we need to get out of here!" Rusel spoke into her microphone. "Don't worry. We're going to help you." Commander Hermes walked over to her. "Give them our coordinates and tell them and any other FTL capable ships to jump to that location." Rusel repeated his directions and then bade the Hercules good luck. "Now lets see if they can make it", Hermes said to himself.
A few minutes later, the unmistakable shape of a Battlestar and several ships reappeared in space and headed for the Olympia. The Hercules looked battered, and there was smoke trailing from several engine pods, but Hermes had seen worse. He immediately got onto the beacon frequency with the Hercules. According to the Commander of the Hercules, Commander Luson, the Hercules had 75 Mark VII Vipers, and about 25 Mark V's. As the Hercules needed repairs, the Vipers would be transferred to the Olympia, and would stay there until the Hercules was repaired and it could finish de-networking its computer systems; it had started when it was attacked, and that was why it had survived as long as it had. Captain Vier looked out of the observation deck and looked at the procession of Vipers flying into the hangar bay…100 new Vipers…100 new pilots….100 better chance of beating the toasters. As for the Hercules and its support ships, several of the ships needed repair, but they were nothing compared to the Hercules. Its engine pods, already damaged, were completely blown following the FTL jump. They had to vent some of their compartments into space because of fire, and food supplies were dwindling. Commander Luson was in favor of just blowing the Hercules up, but Commander Hermes said he had a use for the Hercules. Could that be the reason why two Raptors went over to the Hercules a hour ago? Vier thought so, but the project was apparently top secret. As for the crew of the Hercules, they were safely on the Olympia or other ships, again leading Vier to think the ship was going to be blown up. An alarm went off all of a sudden. Vier got up and ran to the CIC. There, he found Commander Hermes and Captain Argus standing in front of the DRADIS console. He walked up to Hermes. "What's going on, sir?", Vier asked as he gave a salute. Hermes turned to look at him. "Cylon Basestar. Probably the same one we tried to lose over Picon." Vier nodded. "Should we launch Vipers?" Hermes nodded. "Go ahead and launch, but don't go for the Basestar, just handle the Raiders." Vier saluted. "Yes sir!" Around the ship, the PA announced, "All pilots get to the hangar bays. Condition one." Vier got into his Viper, and launched. One by one, all 135 Vipers on the Olympia launched. They got into a wall formation and flew over the Hercules. Immediately, the Cylon Raiders launched from the Basestar, and engaged the Vipers. Explosions all around. Vipers and Cylon Raiders went up in balls of flame. Some Mark VII's stalled-They weren't de-networked in time. All of a sudden, the Hercules came out of nowhere and rocketed towards the Basestar. The toasters apparently realized what was going to happen, but the Hercules smashed into the Basestar. Both ships went up in a gigantic fireball. The Cylon Raiders, with nowhere to go, were quickly wiped up. Several managed to jump, but they weren't important. Vier turned back and landed on the Olympia. He was satisfied, but unfortunately, 32 pilots had died…but he guessed he would have to get used to loss….they were now probably the last humans alive…he walked into the CIC. "Nice job, Captain!", exclaimed Hermes., returning Vier's salute. Vier smiled. "Same to you, sir. That was brilliant, using the Hercules as a bomb. How did you get it to fly at the basestar?" The smile on Hermes face went away. "Commander Luson flew it…I tried to stop him…but he said he wanted to die a hero…he was the one who destroyed the Basestar…." Vier looked down. "I'm sorry sir…" Hermes looked at him. "At least it was a small victory for us…revenge for what they did to our colonies…Luson died a hero." Vier nodded, and saluted , then turned and walked away.
Hermes stood over the map with Argus. The plan was to try and find the Galactica…apparently they had gotten a message from Commander Adama telling them to go to Ragnar Anchorage…Ragnar was six days away at sublight..and they were trying to conserve fuel, so they would not execute a FTL jump. Hermes looked up…he was now the commander of a fighting force 12,000 strong…and as he learned, a leader of 7,000 refugees as well…he was Commander Hermes…the leader of peace..and the messenger of war.
TO BE CONTINUED