Duna Space Program: Part 24: Epilogue

[Mister Dilsby]

Wow, finally caught up! Honored by all the references to Kenlie and Kenlie, of course  Very interesting what you've done with Martystu: I think you've successfully inverted the trope! And wondering if your Jeb will ever return--and no, I haven't seen him since the crossover, myself  

[Angelo Kerman]

12 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Wow, finally caught up! Honored by all the references to Kenlie and Kenlie, of course  Very interesting what you've done with Martystu: I think you've successfully inverted the trope! And wondering if your Jeb will ever return--and no, I haven't seen him since the crossover, myself  

@Kuzzter Thanks! Martystu has been fun to flesh out, so to speak. Jeb has definitely gone missing, that's for sure. Bill did not want to leave Duna without at least recovering Jeb's body, but even an off-camera trip to The Face and back didn't reveal anything. Makes me wonder what the team is up to now...

Part 21: Planetfall

“Deedledeedledeedle” Valentina awoke from stasis to an alarm playing in her ears. She tried to roll over and hit the snooze button before realizing that she couldn’t turn over. A wave of claustrophobia washed over her before she regained her senses. That doesn’t sound like the Dres proximity alarm, she thought to herself. Val looked over at the status panel. Her eyes went wide. The cryopods were blazing hot! The panel displayed a countdown timer. It read 153 seconds until heat exhaustion and cryo systems failure. Her friends were going to die if she didn’t act fast!

Val immediately tried to revive Surina and Gerbles, but the system would only wake one kerbal up at a time. She cursed and started thawing Gerbles. As he began to wake up, Val tried to thaw Surina. Nothing happened, the ship didn’t have enough electric charge. She tapped a control panel.

121 seconds left. The micro-fusion reactor was slowly replenishing the ship’s power, but her crew would be dead before she could revive them all at this rate.

Val reached for the main reactor controls and tried to start it. Nothing happened. Its power cell was completely drained despite locking it before the crew went to sleep. She had no choice but to wait for the ship to gain enough charge before starting it. Ten agonizing seconds later, the main fusion reactor roared to life.

104 seconds left. Val started thawing Surina. Gerbles took a deep breath. “What’s going on,” he asked. “Why is it so hot in here? It’s like living in a furnace.”

“Take care of Surina,” Val yelled back as she bolted through the crew hatch to the starboard cryopod. “Get her and you into the Hitchhiker and seal the cryopod!”

91 seconds left. She reached for the controls to thaw Bill. The system complained that it wasn’t done with Surina yet. Come on, Deep Freeze, hurry it up, Val thought to herself.

84 seconds left. Val finally started thawing Bill. Val sweat profusely, her body trying to cool down.

64 seconds left. She practically threw a barely conscious Bill into the Hitchhiker as soon as he was out of the pod.

44 seconds. Bob’s turn now. She could hear Bill grumbling about hating the desert. Val’s strength started to falter from all the heat. She shoved him through the hatch, his body floating into Gerbles’ awaiting arms.

24 seconds before systems failure, Val slammed on the thaw controls for Martystu. Her crew was safe. “You’ll still have the record for the longest time in cryostasis, Martystu,” Val said, and promptly passed out.

---

The team huddled in Pegasus’s core modules for the better part of a day while the cryopods cooled off. Bob traced the problem down to inadequate plumbing for the pods; they were too far from the radiators to receive direct cooling.

Val checked on the Dres Tug. It reached Dres orbit yesterday, settling into a 250km polar orbit and it started scanning the planet for resources and the Dres Face. The team would have to wait until Dres arrival for the results, however, the TERRAIN lacked the range to transmit its findings.

With the crisis averted, the crew realized that they didn’t have enough snacks to reach Dres and investigate the Dres Face, so they had no choice but to return to cryosleep. Bill and Gerbles jury-rigged some conduit to help with the heat problem, but they could only slow down the heat buildup. Fortunately, Pegasus would reach Dres before it became a problem again, but the cryopods would definitely need more radiators for the trip to Kerbin.

All but Valentina returned to their slumber nearly two days after waking up. She checked and rechecked to make sure that the heat buildup wouldn’t happen before reaching Dres. Finally satisfied, she entered her cryopod for 190 more days of dreamless sleep.

---

The Duna One Expedition crewmembers awoke once again a day before arriving in Dres orbit and nearly two years after leaving Duna. The team gobbled up snacks to stave off their hunger while catching up on the news. KSC reported that Kerbol’s solar tsunamis stepped up another few notches, and the sun somehow gained additional mass equal to about 42 Jools. They predicted that Kerbol’s mass gain appeared to be exponential; if it reached 5 solar masses then it would naturally collapse into a black hole, but KSC suspected that it will happen sooner, aided by the Ancients’ implosion devices.

KSC also reported that they launched the Icarus, created at the same time as Pegasus as a backup in case of launch failure, and that it was on its way to Dres. The Administrator had every confidence that Valentina and the Duna One Expedition could accomplish the mission, but either way, help was on the way.

Pegasus settled into a 2,071km equatorial orbit, then lowered to 100km in preparation for landfall. Shortly afterwards, Val jettisoned the now empty drop tanks.

Not long afterwards, Pegasus received data from the TERRAIN and relayed it to KSC; the resource distributions looked promising, and it found the Dres Face. It was time to complete their mission.

 “Bill, you’re in command of the Blitzen,” Val continued with the briefing. “I’ll fly the Donner. Surina and Martystu, you’re with me.“

“No,” Bill said sternly, “Martystu, you ride up front with me. You’ll appreciate the view.” He gave Martrystu a nod and smile. “Just don’t touch the controls like last time, ok?”

“You got it, boss,” Martystu said beaming. Bill gave Bob a glance, and the senior scientist nodded approvingly at the seat assignments.

“Ok,” Val continued, “Surina and Gerbles are with me. Bill, you’ve got Martystu and Bob. That actually divides up the team nicely… Donner lands first so I can scout out the terrain and guide you in on remote. Once we’re all on the ground, we assemble the base and then investigate the Dres Face. If all goes well, we shut down the doomsday device, then settle in and explore Dres until the next window to Kerbin.”

“That’s about a year away,” Bob pointed out.

Val nodded and continued. “If we can’t get the greenhouses going, worst case is we shut down the doomsday device, then shuttle back to Pegasus and enter cryosleep until the next Kerbin window.”

“I wonder what Gene’s reaction will be when we finally tell KSC about Martystu,” Bill chuckled.

“Oh, that’s going to be an interesting conversation,” Val admitted. “We’ll worry about that later. Let’s get on the ground first.”

---

A few minutes later, Val activated Donner’s LV-N motors, unlocked its resources, and warmed up the gyros. Soon after, Donner separated from Pegasus and extended her landing gear. “See you guys on the ground,” Val radioed, and then lit the nukes. Donner shot away from Pegasus on her de-orbit burn.

Twenty-five minutes later, Gerbles spotted the Dres Face. It looked quite similar to the Duna Face, but with a similar coloration to the asteroid. With little fanfare, Val set Donner down next to the Face, right on target.

“Switching to remote guidance,” Gerbles radioed. “We’ll be using our console to order Blitzen to lower her shields…”

Back aboard the orbiting Blitzen, Bill gave Martystu an puzzled look. “Uh...”

Val laughed. “Don’t worry, Bill, we’re just going to fly you down. All set?”

“Ready,” Surina radioed. Martystu gave Bill a thumbs up.

“Yeah, we’re ready here,” Bill responded.

“Great. Blitzen is on auto, bringing you guys down now…” via remote, Val unlocked Blitzen’s resources, warmed up the gyros, and activated her LV-N nukes. Everything checked out. Blitzen undocked from Pegasus and extended her landing legs as she backed away from the ship.

Half an orbit later, Val remotely ignited the nukes for Blitzen’s de-orbit burn. It didn’t take long for the lander to go suborbital. Suddenly, the instrument panels lit up, warning lights and alarms all blaring for attention.

"What did you touch," Bill yelled at Martystu.

"Nothing, I swear!"

“V-Val, the a-autopilot just d-d-d-dumped our air, and, and, entered safe mode, and we’re starting to spin,” Bill said over the radio, his hands shaking with fear. His helmet made it sound like he was talking inside a bucket.

“Aw Krak. Gerbles, disable the remote. Take manual control, Bill,” Val responded. Gerbles switched off the remote link.

“I c-can’t.”

“No control?”

“N-No, we have control, Val, I just can’t do it. I can’t.”

“Bill, listen to me,” Val said, coxing him. “You’ve been training for this. You can do this. Just like you did with the Long Flight to pick up me and Gerbles.”

“I’m sorry, Val, I just can’t. I’m terrified. I’m sorry.”

“Bill snap out of it,” Val demanded. “BILL!”

Martystu froze. This is it, He thought to himself, this is how I die. He steeled himself and looked around the cockpit and finally found what he was looking for. He flipped the switch, cutting off his microphone.

“Monolith, I know you can hear me,” he said, knowing that the vacuum would not carry his voice. “We’re going to die unless Bill can get it together. Help!”

Nothing happened.

“Monolith, come on, help! Bob doesn’t have any flight controls. If not Bill, then let me fly this thing!”

Still nothing. He took a deep breath.

“Monolith, we’re about to crash and burn. I’m not a real person! I’m just a placeholder. If I go, so do you! This whole universe will go without me! Come on, Monolith, you know it’s true!”

Once again, nothing happened.

“Fine,” Martystu said resignedly. “I’ll do this myself. I’ll use whatever skill I’ve got. Either I’ll land this thing, or the entire universe will die trying.” He grabbed the controls.

Martystu flipped the microphone back to live. “Crew, this is the pilot. Our autopilot is FUBAR. Our current trajectory is FUBAR. I’m taking manual control. We’re going to perform an Abort Once Around and then land next to Dres Lander Donner. Standby for circularization burn in 3.. 2.. 1… LET’S FLY!”

“Who is this guy,” Bob asked. Bill said nothing and just shrugged.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Angel-125

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Yes, of course the fic of a fanfic character would have sfs modding skillz. Welp, Martystu, Best SCIENTIST, ENGINEER, Pilot of the 'Fleet1

[Angelo Kerman]

While Martystu is persistence-sensitive, that was actually the monolith's doing. If Martystu tried to fly the ship as a tourist, the story would be done, heh. The monolith wasn't going to do anything until it realized that Martystu was right.

[DMSP]

Hey, anything new coming up!?

I can't wait to see what happens next!

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, DMSP said:

Hey, anything new coming up!?

I can't wait to see what happens next!

I had a case of writer's block as I worked out the ending, and have been hard at work on the MOLE, then there's this screen-thingy I did... but I should have something either today or tomorrow. I realized that 1.1 is like real soon now, so I have to wrap up the story so I can focus on getting my mods 1.1 compatible.

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 22: Revelations

“Hurry up, Martystu, plant the flag,” Val said. “We’ve got a base to build!”

“Hey, it’s my first time, ok? Just give me a second.”

“It’s so easy, even a pilot can do it,” Bill chided.

“Oh, I get it, the pointy end goes into the ground,” Martystu joked. He planted the flag.

“Hey, you’re right my friend! Even a pilot can do it.”

“Meh. No more engineering classes for you,” Gerbles quipped. “He’s all yours, Val.”

“Given the way you flew, Martystu. You might not need any lessons. I’m impressed. How’d you do it, anyway?”

“Uh, I don’t know, I just grabbed the controls, and everything was so familiar, like I’ve done it before…” Martystu just shrugged. “Maybe something got jogged during cryosleep. It’s one of the great mysteries of the universe, I guess.”

---

With the ceremony of the first Dres landing complete, the team wasted no time unpacking the base components and assembling them. Dres Base came together in short order. While building the base, Bill grumbled something about filing a complaint with Wild Blue Industries regarding how the airlocks are too close together when modules are mounted to the Switchback. He started talking about things like deployable extensions with overhead racks to attach things to, and a landing gear-like footpad so that builders wouldn’t need to bring along a Saddle.

With the base assembled, Bill & Surina immediately got to work on their geology analysis of Dres. It took most of the remaining workday to compile. After completing their geology report, Bill & Surina delivered grim news; while Dres had ample metal ore, fuel ore, and Dirt, there was no water to be found anywhere, and no minerals. And with no minerals, the crew had no ability to grow crops.

---

The next day, the team assembled to explore the Dres face.

“Ok, just like before,” Val said. “There’s a doorway at the base of the neck, and it only responds to kerbals. Let’s head in.” The team walked through the solid-but-not-solid door and into the Dres Face. As before, they explored the corridors and antechambers. Writings on the walls, floors and ceilings were nearly identical to those in the Duna Face, with only minor differences. But unlike the Duna Face, the Dres Face had a stone divider wall in the left antechamber, and what appeared to be large monoliths laying on their sides in the right antechamber. The team took videos and pictures of everything before centering their attention on the writings on divider wall.

“It’s a message to us. To kerbalkind,” Surina said, reading the translations. She went silent for several long moments.

“Highlights,” Val reminded Surina.

“Oh. Right. Ok, uh, it says that this message is from ‘We Who Reshape What Is,’ the Ancients who created the doomsday weapon.”

“I like ‘Doomsday Ancients’ better,” Martystu said.

“Yeah, me too, actually,” Surina continued. “The message basically says that they could not stop the other faction, uh, they call them ‘We Who Preserve What Is.’”

“Counter-pulse Ancients,” Martystu suggested.

“Yeah. That works,” Surina agreed. “So uh, anyway, the Doomsday Ancients caught wind of what the Counter-pulse Ancients were doing, and tried to stop the Duna Face from draining the doomsday weapon’s power. As we know, they were only partially successful. Then they found out about the Dres Face, and tried to put a stop to that too, but they couldn’t. Apparently that sparked a new debate among the Doomsday Ancients, and they all agreed that kerbalkind should not become collateral damage when they destroyed the solar system. So they gave us an out. It’s something that we can build. The plans are in the computer in the right antechamber.”

“Wait, the monoliths in the other room are a computer?”

“That what it basically says, Bill,” Surina responded.

“Wow. The look just like the markers back home and on Minmus.”

"Yeah, they do," Surina agreed. “It also says that we can access the computer from the console in Duna Face.”

“Wait,” Val said, “just out of curiosity, could we also have triggered the counter-pulse from Duna?”

“Uh, yeah,” Surina answered, reading the glyphs. “It looks like it.”

“Well that’s just swell,” Val quipped. “All this way for nothing.”

“Well, if we’d known we could’ve triggered the counter-pulse from Duna, we probably wouldn’t have found these writings, or about this ‘gift,’” Bob pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess,” Val said and shrugged. “What else does the message say?”

“Uh, let me read a bit,” Surina said. “Ok, uh, it’s basically a plea to us to not activate the counter-pulse, citing the dangers of awakening the Kraken, yada yada yada, and touting the benefits of using their gift to leave the solar system instead of triggering the device. I’m not sure what the gift is, we’ll need the folks back home to translate all this. This looks way more complicated than what we did to translate their language.”

“Ok, let’s send what we got and then figure out how to activate the counter-pulse,” Val said.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Martystu appears to be a larger character than I thought in this.... awesome stuff worth a good 5 replikes (wish we could still do that...)

[Angelo Kerman]

17 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Martystu appears to be a larger character than I thought in this.... awesome stuff worth a good 5 replikes (wish we could still do that...)

Yup! Martystu has been a fun character to work with, I'm delighted that @Kuzzter allowed me to create a fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic character. Speaking of larger roles...

Part 23: End Game

The team filed into the “Brain Room” which held the facility’s main console. There were no lights; the room was only lit by the console and their suit lights.

Bill checked the console’s readouts, with Surina translating as he went. “If I’m reading this right,” he began, “We tap these lights over here to arm the counter-pulse devices, then pull this lever,” he said, pointing to one of the mechanical controls, “to activate it. After that, poof! Everything blows up.”

“What happens then,” Val asked.

Surina studied the walls for a few minutes. “Found it,” she said finally. “Once you arm and fire the counter-pulse… Oh, that’s not good…”

“What,” Bob asked.

“Well, we know that triggering the counter-pulse immediately triggers the implosion devices. All the devices buried in asteroids in the belt detonate simultaneously, including one buried in Dres. The counter-pulse devices vaporize the asteroid.”

“Can it be triggered remotely?”

“Yes, Val, from Duna,” Surina answered. “Apparently that’s how you’re supposed to do it. The controls here are the failsafe.”

“No, I mean, can we rig up some kind of drone to trigger the devices?”

Bill stepped away from the console and pulled out a rock sample grabber. He assembled it and stood out of arms reach, using the grabber to touch controls. None moved. He tried grabbing the firing lever. It didn’t budge. Then he moved within arm’s reach of the lever, and he could move it easily.

“I thought so,” he said. “Just like how the rock door was solid until we got into close proximity, these controls won’t respond unless there is a kerbal within arm’s reach. One of us has to remain behind.”

“That will be me,” Val said, “and I want no arguments. End of discussion. What is the minimum safe distance the Pegasus needs to be at?”

Surina read more glyphs, then stopped. “Bob, can you help me with the number crunching?”

“Yeah,” Bob answered, pulling out his kPad. The two worked together for a few seconds. “…And carry the two… Ok. It’s actually not that bad since they’re shaped-charges. The blast mostly goes towards the outer solar system. If we cross Dres’ SOI, we’ll be fine. We can do it a bit before, actually.”

“Ok, we can manage that. How soon until we get a transfer window to Kerbin?”

“Three months, Val” Bill responded. “Icarus is five months out,” he added, anticipating her next question.

“Great,” Val said sarcastically. “More wasted effort. Better tell them to turn around and head home. Last question. Can the Dres Face last that long? The lights are out here…”

Gerbles checked the control panel before responding. “Unlike Duna Face, which runs on geothermal energy, the Dres Face has a power cell, and it’s pretty low. But if I’m reading this right, we have another year, give or take, until the power cell runs out. I think we’ll be fine as long as we don’t mess around.”

Val thought it through for a few minutes before speaking up again. “Ok, here’s what we do: we fire up the dills and Brew Works to refuel the landers. Then we explore as much of Dres as we can. While you guys are exploring, I’ll run Martystu through some simulations to check him out on the Pegasus. When we run low on snacks, we head back to Pegaus to take a nap. Since we need to conserve Glykerol, only myself, Bill, and Martystu will be awake when I… head back to Dres and complete our mission. Bill, you’ll be in command- no offense, Martystu.”

“None taken,” Matrystu said, “just happy to help.”

“Good. And don’t worry guys, we’ll have three months to share one last adventure and say our goodbyes.”

---

“Beep beep beep.” The alarm sounded in Val’s ears. She groggily woke up and immediately begin to panic as she thought that the cryopods had malfunctioned again. The moment passed as she realized that her wake alarm went off and that the pod had revived her. It was time to revive Bill and Martystu for the last leg of their journey at Dres.

Valentina cycled Bill’s cryopod and waited 20 seconds for him to thaw and wake up. As he was coming to, she floated over to Martystu’s pod and cycled it. Another 20 second later, the pod opened.

It was empty.

Must’ve started it up again by accident, Val thought to herself. She hit the intercom. “Martystu, this is Val. Where you at?”

No response.

“Martystu?”

“What’s going on,” Bill asked.

“Just looking for Martystu,” Val answered. “Go aft, check the lab and aft hitchhiker.”

“You got it, boss,” Bill responded, and headed for the lab.

Val pulled herself through the cryopod hatch and into the forward hitchhiker cabin. No sign of him. She headed for the cupola, its hatch closed, which was standard shipboard procedure when a pilot was flying. Val undogged the hatch.

“Hey Martystu, getting some practice in?“

Nobody was home.

Val sat into the command chair and looked around. That’s when she noticed that both landers were gone.

“What the kraken!” She checked Pegasus’ current position.

Val immediately reached for the radio to call Dres Base.

“Martystu, what the kraken were you thinking!”

 “Hi Val,” Martystu radioed back with a quarter-second time lag. “Pegasus is on course for an intercept with kerbin. Lots of fun flying her remotely, she's a good ship! Don’t worry, I’m about to complete the mission. You can rely on me. I won’t fail you.”

“Martystu!”

“I’m the logical choice, Val,” Martystu radioed. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing. I’m sure you’ll come up with an explanation of how you detonated the devices remotely at the last minute. I have to tell you something. You guys took me in when I literally appeared out of nowhere, with no clue how I got there. You made me a part of the team. You didn’t have to do that, but you did. I want to thank you for that, it’s been an honor.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Martystu,” Val yelled. “I’m turning the ship around, we’ve got enough time to do this right!“

Thousands of kilometers away, Martustu stood at the controls of the Dres Face.

He pulled the lever.

---

Next: the conclusion of Duna Space Program!

[SpaceplaneAddict]

2 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

He pulled the lever.

............

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 24: Epilogue

Jeb slowly woke up and rolled upright. He looked over at a black stone marker resting in the sand, then at the kerbal exiting the Ponderosa airlock. Neither one made any sense.

“Haven’t seen you since you brought me back here a couple months ago, right after the explosions started,” the kerbal conversing with the stone marker said.

“Yes, nice to see you too,” the stone marker replied. Odd, black stone markers generally don’t do that… “Say, this place has changed. The Long Flight is gone. And what’s that plane over there?”

“Oh, I made some changes after you dropped me off,” the kerbal said and shrugged.

“But I made you a pilot. Only an engineer can- You modified the Persistence, didn’t you! I told you, that’s forbidden! One curly brace out of place and the whole S.A.V.E. can come crashing down!“

“Oh, I didn’t modify the .sfs directly,” the kerbal replied. “There’s a better way.”

“Then how?”

“I practiced and got better,” the kerbal responded simply.

“HOW!”

“But,” the monolith stammered, “that’s custom runtime code! Not even I can do that! Who are you?”

The kerbal shrugged and smiled broadly. “I’m Martystu, the, bravest, smartest, most BadS Pilot, Engineer, Scientist- and Tourist- in the Fleet. Bar none. Oh, if you want the SuperKerbal.dll file, holler and I’ll hook you up. I bundled the source code and project in with the zip file, just in case.”

The monolith looked dumbfounded, which is pretty impressive for an expressionless slab of stone.

Martystu Looked at Jeb and prompted the monolith. “Time for me to go? Conservation of Information?”

“What? I- You- Uh, yes. Yes it is. I’m afraid so.”

“Bummer. I just got her fusion turbofans working properly and was hoping to take the Kenlistar Awesome II on a non-stop flight around Duna. Oh well, it’s been a good run. Nice vacation. Gotta get back to the Fleet before I go AWOL though.” Martystu gave Jeb a quick salute.  “Nice to meet you, Jeb, welcome home. And you owe me one. Ok, Monolith- can I call you Mono? LET’S FLY!” Martystu took a few running steps into the monolith and vanished without a trace.

Jeb blinked several times, not sure what he just saw. The monolith would’ve done the same thing if it had eyes.

“Um, ok then. Hello Jeb,” the monolith said, finally regaining its composure.

“Who or what are you? Who was that?”

“I am… I compute all there is. And, well I’m not really sure right now who or what he was. I guess you can call him a guest star.”

“Uh, right… Are you real? Where was I? Was it a dream? Was it real?”

“Yes, Jeb, all too real, I’m afraid. It took some serious CBC error correction and packet switching to sort out, let me tell you. Sorry for the delay in bringing you back, a router went down, you got stuck in a store and forward database, and the Kerbfleet monolith hadn’t seen you since the crossover. It thought it might be a client software problem on my end…”

“What?” Jeb looked around. “I’m back at Midlands Base?”

“Yes, you are at Midlands Base on Duna. I brought you here because I thought it would be a familiar location for you.”

“Actually, KSC would’ve been nicer…”

“I’m sorry, Jeb, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve lost contact with my server blades on Kerbin.”

“Uh, Ok… No idea what you mean by that. Where’s the rest of the team?”

“They went to Dres, Jeb. You’ve been gone awhile. Over two years, in fact.”

“Dres? Oh right, the counter-pulse thingy. Well, then I’m alone on Duna. Stranded. I’m at a base designed to last eight months, with no hope of rescue for years. The only way I’ll survive this is to science the Kraken out of it!

“I AM… THE DUNAN!

“Oh wait, who am I kidding? I don’t know mulch about engineering. I better call KSC so they can tell me what to do.”

“That will do you no good, Jeb, the Kerbin you know is already gone. Your team succeeded in activating the ‘counter-pulse devices’ as you call them, but they woke up The Kraken as a consequence. They’re resetting space-time as we speak. This world will be affected soon, and if I hadn’t found you just in time, Martystu would’ve become one of the Original Four in your place. And once the S.A.V.E. resets, even I will be affected.”

“So, we failed? The world’s about to end?”

“After a fashion, but also born anew, with new choices and outcomes. Maybe even a graphic novel, time permitting. But hey, you also get wheels that actually work!”

“Um, right… So, what do I do now?”

“Come find me when you wake up...”

============================================

Thanks again @Kuzzter for allowing me to use Martystu in my story! And thank you readers for reading the story. Duna Space Program started out as just a test base for Pathfinder, and it succeeded in showing me some of the challenges of base designing with the mod. That was invaluable experience. But then it morphed into a really great exercise in story writing and character development. Great learning experience!

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Heh, no, that's dust in my eye, yes, I can fake tears........ oh........ who am I kidding.... That @Angel-125, is one of the most tearjerking endings I have ever seen... 'gratz

[Geschosskopf]

Oh boy, how do I miss things like this?  Great story and implementation  Sadly, ran out of likes.

BTW, I really liked how we seem to have come up with similar sorts of ideas for similar problems, and great flying on Duna!

[loch.ness]

This has been a fantastic thread for so many reasons.  Thanks for the ride - looking forward to future adventures.

[Mister Dilsby]

Great, great stuff! Love the TNG control panel, the Heroic Sacrifice overtones, and of course am very honored by the nods to the Kuzzterverse. I really hope you will make another graphic novel, time permitting  

[Geschosskopf]

OK, finished reading.  BRAVO.  Still out of likes at the moment, however.

18 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

The kerbal shrugged and smiled broadly. “I’m Martystu, the, bravest, smartest, most BadS Pilot, Engineer, Scientist- and Tourist- in the Fleet. Bar none. Oh, if you want the SuperKerbal.dll file, holler and I’ll hook you up. I bundled the source code and project in with the zip file, just in case.”

Brilliant on the SuperKerbal :).  If I understand the snippet of source you showed, I can use this to change the Kerbal's class on the fly?  Excellent!  I'll have to make this standard equipment.  I am totally not at all a fan of class system so have tried to circumvent it as much as possible.  I edited my traits file so that all 3 classes have all 3 skills, which helps to some extent.  For instance, any Kerbal can now fix a flat tire.  But instead of looking for the presence of a skill, most stock and mod functions look for class name, so pilots with the engineer skill still can't do any KAS stuff.  So this mod looks wonderful.  I'll have to make it standard equipment.

Oh, and I'm really looking forward to the proposed changes to Pathfinder, especially the repositioned airlocks on the radial pods .

 

[DMSP]

It's been so great reading all of this.

I remember the first chapter a few months ago, and it has been an honor to stick till the end.

Wonderful conclusion, and can't wait to see that 'Graphic Novel' if it comes around.

[Angelo Kerman]

13 hours ago, loch.ness said:

This has been a fantastic thread for so many reasons.  Thanks for the ride - looking forward to future adventures.

Thanks! It was both fun and educational on many fronts.

2 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Great, great stuff! Love the TNG control panel, the Heroic Sacrifice overtones, and of course am very honored by the nods to the Kuzzterverse. I really hope you will make another graphic novel, time permitting  

21 minutes ago, DMSP said:

It's been so great reading all of this.

I remember the first chapter a few months ago, and it has been an honor to stick till the end.

Wonderful conclusion, and can't wait to see that 'Graphic Novel' if it comes around.

Yeah, it depends upon a few things like how long it will take me to get my mods ready for 1.1, stuff happening outside of the game, and so on. I still have to finish the IVAs for Pathfinder, and those take a long time. Plus, I need some mods updated for 1.1 before I can try anything new.

45 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

OK, finished reading.  BRAVO.  Still out of likes at the moment, however.

Brilliant on the SuperKerbal :).  If I understand the snippet of source you showed, I can use this to change the Kerbal's class on the fly?  Excellent!  I'll have to make this standard equipment.  I am totally not at all a fan of class system so have tried to circumvent it as much as possible.  I edited my traits file so that all 3 classes have all 3 skills, which helps to some extent.  For instance, any Kerbal can now fix a flat tire.  But instead of looking for the presence of a skill, most stock and mod functions look for class name, so pilots with the engineer skill still can't do any KAS stuff.  So this mod looks wonderful.  I'll have to make it standard equipment.

Oh, and I'm really looking forward to the proposed changes to Pathfinder, especially the repositioned airlocks on the radial pods .

 

Yup! That code actually works. All you do is install it anywhere in your GameDirectory folder, and your kerbals will gain the ability to switch their character trait. It requires KIS so that I can update the skill trait on the KIS EVA inventory screen. If people want a version that doesn't require KIS, I can create that too. I wanted to leave things so that Martystu was indeed the best pilot, engineer, scientist, and tourist in the fleet, and the SuperKerbal.dll makes that happen.

 

Edited February 17, 2016 by Angel-125

[Geschosskopf]

On 2/17/2016 at 10:15 AM, Angel-125 said:

Yeah, it depends upon a few things like how long it will take me to get my mods ready for 1.1, stuff happening outside of the game, and so on. I still have to finish the IVAs for Pathfinder, and those take a long time. Plus, I need some mods updated for 1.1 before I can try anything new.

Well, no worries.  Each new version, I always do a stock game to get the feel of any changes, which is how I pass the time waiting for my favorite mods to update

On 2/17/2016 at 10:15 AM, Angel-125 said:

Yup! That code actually works. All you do is install it anywhere in your GameDirectory folder, and your kerbals will gain the ability to switch their character trait. It requires KIS so that I can update the skill trait on the KIS EVA inventory screen. If people want a version that doesn't require KIS, I can create that too. I wanted to leave things so that Martystu was indeed the best pilot, engineer, scientist, and tourist in the fleet, and the SuperKerbal.dll makes that happen.

You need to make a thread for this, so folks can find it.  I bet there are many who detest the class system as much as I do.  I would call the more public release "Multi-Classed Kerbals" instead of "SuperKerbals", however, so as not to make it seem like all you'd get is 100% courage, 0% stupidity, and badass.

I understand that Kerbals are now completely editable (IOW, class doesn't remain tied to the spelling of the name after initial generation), so I suppose you could include a full stats/name/gender editor in there as well.