Battlestar Hermes: Salvage (D5)

Battlestar Hermes: Salvage is the first major story in the Battlestar Hermes series.

Themes
The Battlestar Hermes has survived 'The Fall' of the Twelve Colonies and with an influx of over three thousand civilians supplies are a real issue. The main bulk of the story covers the desperate attempts by Commander Bowman and his crew to continue to survive.

Personal stories include;

1. The hostility between Commander Bowman and Colonel Dytto.

2. Chloe Burmeister's illegitimate pregnancy and self harming.

3. Melissa Saunders leaving her civilian life behind to join the military.

This is against a backdrop of a plot by the Cylons that involves the Hermes and the overall Cylon plan.

Act I - The Hellenic Traveler
The first Act involves a mission by a Raptor from Hermes to the wreckage of the transport ship Hellenic Traveler and the disappointment that comes from being unable to salvage anything of use. Unbeknown to them they have acquired something very useful to them; a dead body belonging to a Cylon Number Six. The Act ends when Bowman decides that they must return to the Colonies in search of supplies.

Act II - The Road to Scorpia
The second Act covers the journey to the nearest colony, Scorpia. The bulk of the Act covers the planning and preperation for the initial operation. Suffering from depression Chloe Burmeister has secretly begun self harming. A disastrous attempt to salvage fuel from a damaged Hangar Pod ends with the death of three crewmembers leading Bowman and Dytto to a confrontation in Bowman's office. Dytto is relieved of duty and replaced by Major Adonia. 'Stinger' is promoted to CAG in order to replace Adonia.

Act III - The Erebus Belt
With the Hermes hiding in The Erebus Belt the first Raptor is sent down to Scorpia with a group of Marines lead by Lt. Nester Adrastos to secure the Caprimart Distribution Centre in the Serena Valley. During a prior reconnaissance mission the crew discover D'Anna Biers posing as a resistance fighter and she informs them of the Cylon evolution to human form as part of a disinformation exercise. The plan to use Raptors to secure the supplies proves costly in fuel and time consuming. Chloe Burmeister discovers she is pregnant and savagely injures her arm while self harming. She is temporarily relieved of duty. Cylons are frequiently encountered in The Erebus Belt and during the rescue mission of a downed Viper pilot the Colonial Heavy Liner Alexis is discovered on a planetoid. Realizing that the plan to use Raptors is too costly in terms of fuel Bowman decides to use the Alexis in a more aggressive operation to recover the supplies.

Act IV - The Operation
Nester Adrastos and D'Anna Biers mount a reconnaissance mission to the University of Scorpia sports stadium in preperation for the operation. During the mission D'Anna is killed by a damaged Centurion. Footage recovered from the Colonial Heavy Liner Alexis reveals that a Cylon operative almost identical to the woman they discovered aboard the Hellenic Traveler was responsible for the deaths of the passengers aboard the vessel. Three Raptors are sent to destroy the three Baseships orbiting Scorpia using nuclear weapons acquired from damaged Cylon Raiders. Only 'Stinger' and 'Walleye's Raptor survives. Just moments after the Baseships are destroyed the Hermes and Alexis jump in. Hermes battles with the Cylon forces in orbit while the Alexis lands at the University of Scorpia. Nester Adrastos has to drive a convoy of trucks carrying the supplies to the university. During the second supply runb the convoy is ambushed by Centurions and it is presumed that Adrastos is killed but not before he learns that D'Anna was a Cylon.

Act V - Epilogue
Loaded up, the Colonial Heavy Liner Alexis jumps away to rondezvous with Hermes. Bowman meets with Caleb Dytto and offers him his old post back. The two of them strike an greement amongst themselves that allows Dytto to say what he likes when he and Bowman are alone but in front of the crew he must keep quiet and maintain discipline. In one final scene it is discovered that Nester Adrastos has not been killed but has been taken prisoner. One of the last chilling lines of the story regards the Number One saying to him ''"...Your mission is about to begin." ''

Public Response
In general the reviews posted for the story were positive. Towards the end of the story's publication it achieved a following that averaged 150-200 hits per new chapter within 24 hours of it being posted. The inclusion of a timeline of events that compared the story of Hermes with the canon story of Galactica at the end of the story was also well received.

The biggest criticism of the story was its often poor grammar. The most loyal of Hermes readers simply ignored this preferring to concentrate on the story but it was something that was addressed before the start of Battlestar Hermes: Faststar.

A Word from the Author
''Looking back now, I find it hard to believe that Hermes has come so far. It started off as an idea I had one day while walking the dog (a humble beginning if any). I invited a friend of mine to to work on stories regarding the Hermes and despite a positive start this arrangement failed to materialize into anything leaving me to write the story on my own. ''

''I plotted out a timeline of events for the Hermes and picked and chose what to write about. The first of these short stories covered a mission to the Hellenic Traveler and this subsequently became the start of 'Salvage'. For a long time I left it at that but then one day I wrote a scene between Bowman and Dytto following the mission as a way of passing the time with no real aim to continue. It received such a positive response on FanFiction.net that I felt compelled to keep working at it. Before I knew it I was turning out one Chapter a week! The biggest coup for me in those early days was when a fellow author, Wes Imlay, asked to include Artimus Bowman in his prequal story Ride of the Valkyrie. That was really the start of the Dimension Five crossover stories.''

''There were times when I felt like I would never finish 'Salvage'. Then sure enough one day I realized that the story was complete. I couldn't believe it and felt lost for a little while until I started writing Battlestar Hermes: Faststar. By the time the story was complete my writing style had evolved and improved. Faststar is in a totally different format with better grammar. It was all made possible by my experiences writing 'Salvage'. In many ways 'Salvage' was my pilot episode that allowed me to test the water and see what worked and what didn't.''

''I would like to thank everyone who has read the story and offered their kind support during 'Salvage' and I hope you enjoy 'Faststar' even more. I would especially like to thank the following people;''

Wes Imlay - my partner in crime from Dimension Five

Allen Knott

CKLammar.

Wilkybarkid 01:27, July 24, 2010 (UTC)

Exernal Link
Read Battlestar Hermes: Salvage at FanFiction.net