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Kerbfleet Canon Reference Files

Mister Dilsby

By Mister Dilsby
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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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Starting this thread partly for myself, so that I can keep things straight as stories build and lore accumulates, and making it public for those interested. I'll put everything in the OP and will hopefully be able to keep it organized. Feel free to post things you would like to be included, errors, etc.

Rough headings:

Characters

Bill Kerman

Service: Kerbfleet Corps of Engineers

Rank: Looty Comder

First Appearance: D,OB! Chapter 1

Description: Began his career in the Command program but was kicked out for cheating on the Kerbahashi Maru test. Never stopped 'cheating', or at at least refusing to let rules get in the way of doing what he knows is right. Demonstrated this trait to epic effect in Eve: Order Zero by masterminding an incredibly complex plot to rescue his best friend, Bob.

Bill has been described as 'force-sensitive' for his ability to detect version updates, make and load quicksaves and other out-of-gameplay events. Other Kerbfleet engineers, namely Clauselle Kerman, have demonstrated similar abilities in more limited ways. On occasion, Bill has even edited the game's persistence file--but only to fix a game glitch or make a situation logically 'right'. So, the power definitely has limitations. It's notable, for example, that Bill never even considered editing the save file to bring Bob home from Eve. A good general rule is that Bill can't do anything to the persistence file that Kuzzter would consider cheating.

Bill's other unique talent is his ability to make an intoxicating beverage (he refers to it as 'hydrazine') on any ship equipped with ISRU.

Quotes:

"...no one gets left behind." (E:O0 Ch4)

Kenlie Kerman

Service: Fleet Pilot

Rank: Junior Looty

First Apperance: D,OB! Chapter 3

Description: A bit of a screwup, often distracted, gullible, but a brave and loyal kerb who's not a bad pilot. Writes stories featuring the implausible hero Martystu Kerman as well as his own versions of real-life Kerbfleet personnel. Big admirer of the 'Duna, Ore Bust!' mission team; still wears the counterfeit mission patch Bill gave him in Eve: Order Zero.

Career Highlights:

--As pilot of Kranefly, assembled much of Micarooni Station.

--Docked with Hummlebee on its return from Duna and used Kranefly's engines to adjust the other ship's orbit.

--Was ordered by then-Comder Valentina Kerman to capture the M7 and force it to de-orbit. Bill and Jeb fooled Kenlie, gave him a counterfeit Duna mission patch and an intoxicant, stole the Kranefly and left Kenlie in low Kerbin orbit.

--After being rescued from LKO, qualified as a Gliido pilot and returned station/surface base crews from the Mun. Performed emergency landing without wheel brakes, promoted to Junior Looty.

--As Gliido pilot, performed contract rescue missions though troubled by strange visions of a really ugly SSTO.

Quotes:

"Um...hi Hummlebee, I'm Kenzin Enlie--I mean, Enzin Kenlie [...]" (D:OB Ch6)

"Well gee, sir, I dunno. I guess I'm just a 'poor, stupid enzin" (E:O0 Ch9)

Craft (e.g. Kranefly, Hummlebee with specs and links to .craft files where available)

Places (planets, bases, 'mysterious backwards locations'

Kerbfleet Rules and Regulations (including General Orders, table of ranks, service branches)

The General Orders (as they appear in the comics--not always quoted verbatim)

0. No one gets left behind

1. Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

2. No dangerous Mission shall risk more than the minimum crew required to accomplish it.

3. A Kerbfleet officer must obey all lawful commands given by an officer of superior rank or appropriate civilian authority

9. No one except a Kerbfleet officer or NCO may operate a Kerbfleet spacecraft, plane, rover, watercraft or other vessel.

12. Senior officer takes command if comms are lost or out of range

13. Ranking Command pilot can override any order for reasons of crew safety

14. Any member of the mission team may stop the launch countdown at any time by repeating the command "Abort" three times.

15. Something about the Captin of a ship not doing an EVA by herself (E:O0 Interlude 3)

20. (not specified but Mort mentions it.)

26. Any officer accused of a crime or misdemeanor gets a JAK lawyer

27. Probes go in first

34. (never revealed in the comic, but may have something to do with blankies)

35. We do not even talk about General Order 34.

53. All craft about to cross an SOI boundary shall notify Mission Control, and be actively tracked through the boundary.

Ranks (equivalent grades read horizontally)

Fleet Air/KSMC US Navy/Starfleet US Air Force Kerbulan
Admiral ??? Admiral General ???
Captin Kernel Captain Colonel Commander
Comder Looty Kernel Commander Lt. Colonel Sub-Commander
Looty Comder Majer Lt. Commander Major Centurion
Looty Kaptin Lieutenant Captain Legate
Junior Looty 1st Looty Lieutenant, JG 1st Lieutenant Sub-Legate
Enzin 2nd Looty Ensign 2nd Lieutenant ???

Also: KSMC 'Sarjint', equivalent to a USAF Sergeant or Navy/Startfleet Chief Petty Officer (can't figure how to add a row right now)

Branches of Service

Unless stated otherwise, all Kerbonauts are part of Fleet Service, i.e. the 'space navy'. Kerbals in a particular Branch will have speech balloon and action tags appear in the color of that Branch, which generally follows the Star Trek Original Series color scheme. Fleet ranks follow the same format as the United States Navy and Starfleet. The Air Service and KSMC follow the United States Air Force and Marine Corps, respectively.

Command (Lime Green)

Command officers are Pilots in-game, typically in charge of a large ship, station or base. When multiple craft are involved a Command officer is almost always placed in charge of that flotilla. Command rank typically has precedence over equivalent, or in some cases superior, non-Command ranks. For example Dilsby Kerman, at the time only a Looty, was placed in command of Eve surface operations despite the presence of Looty Comder Bill Kerman, an engineer. A Command pilot's authority may be very broad, including responsibility for entire planetary SOIs (see General Orders 12, 13 and others) Almost all officers ranked Comder or above are in the Command branch.

Notable Command officers:

Captin Valentina Kerman

Comder Dilsby Kerman

Fleet Pilot (Yellow)

These Pilots have an equivalent rank structure to their Command colleagues but are typically in command of a single ship, and will only issue orders concerning the operation of that ship. In instances where no Command pilot where none is present, the senior Fleet pilot may assume that authority.

Notable Fleet Pilots:

Jr. Looty Kenlie Kerman

Jr. Looty Gregmore Kerman

Air Service Pilot (Yellow)

Air Service pilots are trained to fly any craft, but specialize in atmospheric operations. Due to the difficulty of landing a ship on wings and wheels, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one" is the unofficial motto of the Air Service. During atmospheric operations a senior Air officer typically takes command even if a fleet Command officer is present.

Notable Air Service Pilots:

Lt Kernel Jebediah Kerman

Kaptin Tedus Kerman

Kerbfleet Corps of Engineers (Red)

In addition to the in-game functions of mining/refining bonuses and equipment repair, Kerbfleet engineers also have varying abilities to sense and even modify KSP game events. (some readers refer to this phenomenon as being 'force-sensitive') This provides an in-story explanation for things like quicksaving/quickloading, version updates, and even persistence file editing.

Notable Engineers:

Lt Comder Bill Kerman

Sous-Leuti Clauselle Kerman

Kerbfleet Science Corps (Blue)

Pretty much what it says on the tin: Kerbfleet scientists are responsible for experimental equipment and data, and have general knowledge about things like orbital mechanics and physics. Some scientists, notably Bob, also dabble (and kibitz) in engineering topics.

Notable Scientists:

Lt Comder Bob Kerman

Looty Lisa Kerman

Kerbfleet Surface Mobility Corps (Tan)

KSMC members are Pilots in-game, tasked with driving rovers. To date KSMC drivers have not yet appeared in a Kerbfleet mission.  A KSMC driver first appeared in Chapter One of 'Jool Odyssey'. Typically the most 'martial' members of Kerbfleet, KSMC personnel serve as guards or bailiffs when required (though it should be stressed that like all Kerbfleet kerbals, the concept of violence is completely unknown to them). The only Kerbfleet character to appear so far who was not an commissioned officer or officer cadet is a KSMC member.

Notable KSMC:

Sarge Kerman

--Songs and Poetry (my own plus selected reader contributions)

Tropes (citations per tvtropes.org with links to pages where the tropes were invoked. This one should be fun :))

A Kobra Maneuver? What's that? It's Ambiguous Syntax, but that's not important right now.

Armor-Piercing Question: Deeman Kerman asked a lot of these during the trial in Eve: Order Zero, such as this one to Tedus.

The Artificial Gravity trope is Averted by frequent scenes of unbuckled bridge crew floating around aimlessly.

The Bridge: Built into a Mk3 cargo bay, with seven seats and lots of greebles--where things tend to happen on the K.S.S. Intrepid.

Brick Joke: Jeb escaped custody just to complete one of these.

Cool Ship:Well, all of them, I hope--but most especially K.S.S. Intrepid. It's a huge carrier ship that a spaceplane can land inside, because space is an ocean.

Counter-Earth: Kerbulus is most likely a 'counter-Kerbin' based on several clues given in Eve: Order Zero

Crowning Moment of Awesome: The author does try his best to provide these with some frequency. Hoping for reader feedback on the best examples for some of the main characters.

Mildly Military: Seeing as Kerbals have no concept of war or violence, Kerbfleet is definitely this. 

No Seat Belts: Inverted and (mostly) averted on the bridge of KSS Intrepiid

No One Gets Left Behind: The entire basis of Eve: Order Zero

No One Could Have Survived That: Jeb crashing a plane into Bill (with Walt referencing the trope) during the Kerbfleet-Kappa Crossover

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Val telling Mort 'the truth' at Bill and Jeb's court-martial.

Villanous BSOD: Mort, quite literally, after Val's speech on the value of a Kerbal's life in Eve: Order Zero 

OK, back to writing the story :)

Edited by Kuzzter
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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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[quote name='SpaceplaneAddict']Jeb should be a full Kolonel.[/QUOTE]
Well, besides the little thing with him barely beating a whole bunch of really serious criminal charges Kerbfleet doesn't have a billet right now for a full Air Service kernel. I'm sure he'll get that full bird at some point though :)

Added a character entry for Kenlie. Any interested parties who want to contribute character writeups in the same format (or list tropes, quotes, etc.) I'll add it to the OP subject to editorial oversight :)
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  • 3 weeks later...
Starhawk

Starhawk

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Fleet Air/KSMC US Navy/Starfleet USAF
Captin Kernel Captain Colonel
Comder Looty Kernel Commander Lt. Colonel
Looty Comder Majer Lt. Commander Major
Looty Kaptin Lieutenant Captain
Enzin 2nd Looty Ensign 2nd Lieutenant

Here's the reconstructed rank table.

Happy landings!

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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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One area where I'd really like some reader input is in trope tagging. I'm thinking this could be a fun exercise. For those who aren't aware, tvtropes.org is a great resource, and the perfect place to go if you have a computer and would like to not do anything productive for a few hours. 

If you go to any creative work's page on that site, you'll find a list of tropes used in that work. (and conversely, if you go to the page for any trope you'll find links to the works that use it) Ideally, of course, Kerbfleet comics should become so famous that we have our own page on tvtropes; until then, we have the OP of this thread :) Readers who find tropes they like in the comic could make an entry in this form:

 

Quote

Villanous BSOD: Mort, quite literally, after Val's speech on the value of a Kerbal's life in Eve: Order Zero 

...and I'll edit them as necessary for the master list. Hoping this will be fun to do, and that it'll provide a nice set of 'greatest hits' links for readers to enjoy. Thanks! 

Edited by Kuzzter
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Mad Rocket Scientist

Mad Rocket Scientist

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5 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

One area where I'd really like some reader input is in trope tagging. I'm thinking this could be a fun exercise. For those who aren't aware, tvtropes.org is a great resource, and the perfect place to go if you have a computer and would like to not do anything productive for a few hours. 

If you go to any creative work's page on that site, you'll find a list of tropes used in that work. (and conversely, if you go to the page for any trope you'll find links to the works that use it) Ideally, of course, Kerbfleet comics should become so famous that we have our own page on tvtropes; until then, we have the OP of this thread :) Readers who find tropes they like in the comic could make an entry in this form:

 

...and I'll edit them as necessary for the master list. Hoping this will be fun to do, and that it'll provide a nice set of 'greatest hits' links for readers to enjoy. Thanks! 

Sure!  The kerbalus planet is a text book Counter-Earth

Edited by Mad Rocket Scientist
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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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12 hours ago, Kuzzter said:
Quote

What the heck with this editor anyway? Well, I added Counter-Earth. Of course I was probably looking at the Tropes page when I wrote that section, so no surprise there :)  Anyway, if folks want to contribute other tropes, please do--most helpful way to do so is give me the link to both the tvtropes page and the example from the comic. Thanks!

 

 

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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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Added a couple Tropes and updated the KSMC entry now that Sarge has been to the Mun. Also, inviting readers to nominate their favorite "crowning moments of awesome" for the major characters who have had them--I have my ideas, but really it's not up to me what was awesome, it's up to you :) Link to the Forum post where the CMOA occurred is helpful, but don't worry I know it can be difficult to wade through all those pages. 

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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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2 hours ago, Starhawk said:

To start with, I'll post my CMOA for Jeb.  It's the moment when we get to see a different side of the famous pilot during some night flying on Duna in this post and finishing in this post.

Thanks for posting that one, it's one of my favorite Jeb moments :) And it's quietly awesome, whereas most CMOAs involve exploding rocket stages and dramatic speeches. I looked for other tropes that might be even more appropriate than CMOA, and didn't find any. It might be an inversion of the Seemingly Profound Fool -- Jeb seems to be a fool, but he's actually profound... or else this is a non-warrior example of the warrior poet. Taken along with his flagpole Hamlet speech, Jeb could in fact be a cultured badS! Hm, going through all those links is getting me closer. There are certainly elements of obfuscating insanity here, as well as cloudcuckoolander. But if I had to name the trope I was going for when I did that bit, it would be called something like "Crouching BadS, Hidden Poet." :)

For Bill, I think it has to be either the launch from KSC2 punctuated by his "The Reason You Suck" speech to Mort, or the "Ride of the Billmobile" atmospheric entry/air deployment over Eve.

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Mister Dilsby

Mister Dilsby

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20 minutes ago, Starhawk said:

Kerbfleet General Order 66.

Every ship crossing an SOI boundary must be the current focus of KSC Control at the time.

Maybe that's not canon.  Your call, of course.

In any case, it's all due to Dilsby's command skills that this General Order was put in place.

Happy landings!

Oh right, I forgot about that! Thanks for finding it. 

You're right, 66 is not canon, I'm pretty sure I only mentioned it in the comments. I thought '66' because Hell Kraken, but then I didn't want to bring in connotations of the Order 66 that caused the clones to attack their Jedi officers in the Star Wars prequel.

Anyway, thanks again for finding it! I'll pick a better number and put it on the official list.

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Starhawk

Starhawk

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On 2015-12-09, 9:35:59, Kuzzter said:

For Bill, I think it has to be either the launch from KSC2 punctuated by his "The Reason You Suck" speech to Mort, or the "Ride of the Billmobile" atmospheric entry/air deployment over Eve.

That's interesting.  I've been thinking about Bill a bit since you posted that.  It seems I tend to blur your CMOA's with Bill's.  Like the moment when the docking ports finally connect on Minmus in D,OB!, or even the design phase of the M7.  Of course, the launch from KSC2 was definitely a true CMOA.

I've also been thinking a bit about Lisa.  I want to try and do a full write-up on her later, time permitting.  In the meantime, I think Lisa gets a couple of CMOA's.  The obvious one is this great moment from Interlude 3 in D, OB!

But, I've always been partial to this:

N2CAqRX.png

Happy landings!

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