Ad Lunam - Final Update 2015-05-31

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

The solution to set the previously launched probes to undiscovered was genius, I may have to do the same thing for my .90 cycle.

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks. That trick works, for the most part, but I found when I reclaimed a particular piece of hardware by docking that it wouldn't switch back to "owned" like asteroids do. Maybe only the claw can do that? So I still had to go back and tweak the setting manually. (Not really a big deal.)

--

I've been working on the next update, but I've also been having graphical issues with OS-X 10.10... which may or may not be the fault of Apple, flux and/or Unity. It's playable, but just barely at times with lots of stutters. I also seem to hit the 4GB Virtual Memory cap quicker than I did in System 10.9. I'm thinking about building a mid-tier gaming PC anyway. KSP has finally outgrown my meagre integrated Intel HD-4000m..., and my "PC" at the moment is still sporting a Pentium-D.

(I've also been spending too much time playing the Charlemagne expansion to Crusader Kings 2. The idea of playing 1100 years of history [across CK2 and EU4] in a game where 1 turn = 1 day is intoxicatingly addictive. Thankfully the keyboard input no longer works as/of OS-X 10.10, so I've been freed from that dungeon... temporarilly. I'm sure it'll be fixed sooner than my reclaimed sanity would prefer.)

[Cydonian Monk]

Ad Lunam - Nightfall

[And... we're back! At least I think we're back. I've been busy with life, other hobbies (it's National Model Railroad month for another 5 days or so), random colds, work, respiratory cruft, weak excuses, blah, didi, blah, blah, blah, and haven't been playing much KSP lately. Well that's behind us now, so let's see if I can get this ball rolling again....]

Year 76 day 348 - Somewhere over the Ocean

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

Shepgee watched the fuel gauge nervously. Flying low to stay below the radar was eating into the fuel faster than he liked, but there wasn't far to go now. Any minute and the islands should appear over the horizon. Any minute and he might fly over an unfortunate boat or under some other jet out on patrol. Just enough to raise the alarms and force him to abort the mission.

Since they couldn't trust the propaganda-heavy news broadcast by the Government, their only choice for reliable information was to have kerbals in the crowd and eyes on the space center. The first step of Shepgee's plan was to install a listening and observation post atop the tallest of the islands near Cape Kerbal. And it didn't feel right for him to ask anyone else to go in his place. It was his mission, it should be his risk. [Weird glitch time - the island runway was about 50 meters to the north from where it was supposed to be....]

Thankfully the seas and skies were empty today, and Shepgee was able to approach the island unnoticed. He cut the engine some distance out and landed on a glide, turning the plane quickly into the hanger and out of sight. He grimaced when he checked the fuel, but shook it of and set about prepping for the ascent. He didn't have much gear for the climb, just a camera, radio, and satellite uplink, but it would prove heavy enough.

It took him the better part of the morning to make it to the summit. The climb was easy enough as long as he took a break every couple hundred meters or so, and the physical conditioning required to be a kerbonaut certainly helped. He took a few minutes to plant a flag at the top, somewhat surprised to not find one there already. If there had already been a flag here it must have been claimed by one of the many storms that shake the equatorial climes of Kerbin regularly. Hopefully his flag would fare better.

He set up camp and prepared for several days of surveillance. The listening station deployed easily enough, and linked up immediately to one of the new comsats they had launched. It was unlikely it would pick up anything more interesting than a launch, but that would be enough to give them an idea of what Gene and the Government Kerbals were up to. Or at least that was his hope.

---

Year 76 day 348 - Cape Kerbin

19th Kerbal Space Agency

"Hey Gene? Got a minute?"

Gene was deep in a stack of mission reports when Carl knocked at his door. He used a paperclip to mark his spot then waved him in. "Sure Carl. What's up?"

"Well, three or maybe four things. Probably more than that, truth be told. Things we can see but can't see. Well, can't see with the radar at least."

Gene gave him a blank stare and motioned towards the endless stacks if reports on his desk. "Sorry, I'm not following you. My mind's still swimming in these Minmus reports. One guy says it's a ball of water ice, another claims it's frozen CH4. None of them can explain why it's not outgassing or sublimating. Anyway, what is it we can't get a track for?"

"I'm not sure, really. Flares from objects in orbit that I've been tracking visually for the last several munths. There are several around Kerbin that I'm sure of, and perhaps one around Minmus. We've worked out their orbits fairly precisely, but when we do ranging passes there's nothing there. Like these lights in the sky are just hallucinations."

"Hmm. And you're looking in the right place?" Carl nodded. "The radar array is properly calibrated?"

"Of course."

"Are any of these in orbits we could reach?"

"Well, there's one that has a low reflectivity in Low Kerbin Orbit at a rough 30° inclination. The others are harder to get to, either due to altitude or inclination. One of them is in a perfect 90° six-hour orbit."

"That can't be a coincidence."

"Which is why I noticed them in the first place. All of these objects appear to have been placed where they are deliberately."

Gene thought for a moment. "Sounds like a good candidate for a near-Kerbin mission. I'll talk it over with Wernher and see what he thinks. Right now we need to get prepped for tomorrow's Peregrine launch, and I need to make sense of these Minmus reports. Thanks Carl."

---

Year 76 day 349 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

A strange voice was counting down in Neilny’s left ear, some new public affairs kerbal they’d hired that he hadn’t had the chance to meet. Lots of new kerbals around now that they'd settled here in the League of Eight. A dull rumble rang through the cabin when the voice reached five. Neilny wasn't sure they should trust any of them. The rumble grew to a roar and a familiar shudder when the voice reached zero. The clamps released, the ship lurched upwards, and Neilny was pulled violently backwards into the seat cushions. A wicked smile crept onto his face as Luzhin 6 shot forth into the night.

He glanced to the empty seat to the left, disappointed he had no one to share the launch with. Riding the Luzhins was always a thrill, and one likely to be short-lived with the new Tantares launchers nearing completion. A new, different shudder ran through the ship as the three first-stage boosters were jettisoned. No explosions, all good. Shortly afterwards the fairings kicked off, exposing the small cabin window to the empty darkness.

“Couldn’t you boys have launched me when there was something outside to look at?â€Â

“Negative, Luzhin, the station sets the clock. And the Anomaly. Not us.â€Â

'The Anomaly,' as they were calling it on open channels, was presumably another kerbal stranded in orbit. A mysterious courier had delivered this contract to Shepgee and Milzer, the only information provided being a name and an orbit. 'Lem Kerman. 109km x 106km. 0°.' To reach Lem and Bernoulli, the Luzhin would need to perform a 20° plane shift followed by a 30° plane shift and a sizable altitude change. An extra 2000m/s of ÃŽâ€v if done cleanly - not the easiest thing to ask for.

The first burn of the "Block B" second stage ended abruptly, pushing Neilny forward into his straps. He checked the flight profile again, pointed the ship southwards, and set up for his first burn. The plan was to expend as much fuel as possible from the Block B to rendezvous with the Anomaly, then complete the rendezvous with Bernoulli using the Luzhin 6's thrusters. It would leave the craft nearly dry, but the hope was they could refuel while at Bernoulli station.

"Lake, Luzhin. I've set up my plane shift burn and will execute in... 66 seconds. Over." No response but static so he repeated the message. Static again. "Guess we're doing this alone then." Not surprising, as so far they'd only managed to get one of their new relay satellites into orbit, and it was on the other side of the planet.

The plane-change maneuver placed the Luzhin 6 on an intercept trajectory with the Anomaly, on the daylight side and barely 10 minutes out. Neilny armed the RCS and started broadcasting on the various EVA frequencies. "Luzhin 6 calling anomalous EVA. Do you copy?" It wasn't long before he got a response.

"Thank Kerbol." It was a weak signal, but Neilny knew it had to be his target. "I was starting to think they'd succeeded."

"Copy that." Neilny wondered who 'they' were. "I'm about 5 minutes out from you, a bit to the south, ahead, and, uh," he checked the orbital tracks quickly, "upwards. Do you have a visual yet?"

"Not yet. Who do you fly for, Luzhin? Shadow or Flame?"

"Not really sure what you're asking, EVA." Huh? Shadow or Flame? Neilny was already lost. "Can you give me a resource check? O2? CO2? Name?"

"Lem Kerman. My tanks are fine. Who do you fly for?"

Neilny scratched at his chin. "Well, we fly out of the League of Eight, but honestly? I'm not really sure we fly FOR anyone." The line went static-y for several seconds and Neilny was wondering what this was all about. Finally the 'Anomaly' responded.

"Ok, guess beggars can't be choosers. I've got a visual and am headed your way now."

---

Year 76 day 349 - Cape Kerbin

19th Kerbal Space Agency

Gene glanced over the control panel one last time. All lights green, all stations a Go. This was a big mission, sending Anny Kerman off to slingshot around the Mun using an unproven launcher and a large stack of batteries. Wernher had tried to talk Gene into delaying the mission until they'd finished certifying the OX-STAT photovoltaic cells, but Gene was insistent. "If we don't launch now, we'll be in second place for the Mün. And besides, we need the science."

And now that they were ready to launch, Gene wasn't so sure. Something about the ship just wasn't right, didn't 'ring.' Nevertheless, all stations were Go. Gene leaned into the microphone. "Ok, Peregrine 1, you are Go for launch. Begin the terminal count."

Things wen't wrong immediately, as though physics had been waiting for the countdown to begin before it cast judgment. Gene watched as the Peregrine started to rock, and then tilt. Then something exploded. He was rapidly pounding on the Abort button, to no avail, and all he could do was watch as the entire world turned to fire in front of him. He put his arm up to shield his eyes as the shockwave hit the windows, but the windows held. Gene was glad this time he was _inside_ the blockhouse.

All through this he could hear Anny screaming on the radio from the Peregrine. After a few seconds the screaming became a cackling laughter, followed by an audible gasp. Gene was about to key his mic when Anny's voice boomed across the feed.

"Wooo Hooo! What a thrill!"

The worry on Gene's face melted into anger. "Peregrine, Flight. What's you're status?"

"A-O-K! Wow! Can I have another go?"

"Negative, Peregrine." Gene glanced over at the Medical officer who waved his hand sideways a bit then gave him a thumbs up, "Are you clear of the blast site?"

"Am I clear of the blast site? You better believe it! I staged like mad when that big rocket of yours started tipping. When the world exploded I shot out of those fires sideways like a bat out of Kerbol!"

"Calm yourself, Peregrine. We're sending an evac bus. Prepare for immediate extraction." Gene turned away from the microphone and started issuing orders to those gathered in Mission Control. He glanced up at the slagpile that was once a launchpad and wondered how anyone could have survived. Then he wondered how much this was going to cost to fix.

---

Year 76 day 350 - Low Kerbin Orbit

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

"Luzhin 6, Lake. We show you on approach to Bernoulli. Be advised we've been unable to reestablish communication with the station and suspect electronics may be non-responsive."

Neilny shifted in his chair and pulled the RCS controls forward from the main panel. "Copy that, Lake. Preparing for rendezvous now." He spun the tiny craft around to prepare for the final rendezvous burn. He tapped the fuel gauge for the main engines, but it still read 1%. "Guess we're doing this on monoprop."

"Luzhin 6, the flight surgeon would like an update on your passenger." Neilny glanced over to the kerbal in the seat next to him. Lem Kerman.

"Lake, the Anomaly is still taking and extended nap." Thankfully. Neilny had heard all the conspiracy theories, wacky robot tales, and strange psychological mind benders he needed for the rest of his life. If anything was certain, this stranded kerbal had an active imagination. He checked the time and started his RCS burn, bringing his velocity down to match the station. The ship twisted around to give Neilny his first look at Bernoulli in more than a year. He grimaced when he saw the damage.

"Lake, Luzhin 6. Think I know why the station has been unresponsive. There appears to have been a seal failure between the lab and the central docking node. I can see a bit of daylight through the gap." He used RCS to maneuver around the station, looking for other holes. "Good bet that whatever happened also ripped the power system apart."

"We copy Luzhin, proceed with caution. Make sure both you and your passenger are suited up before attempting to enter the station."

No, really? He almost responded as such, but decided against it. Enough useless chatter on the line already. The station might be salvageable if they could seal off the habitation module and fix the bits that were torn to shreds. Neilny would've preferred to have a mechanic with him instead of, well, whatever Lem was, but any extra set of hands should suffice.

First order of business was to move the docking adapter form the lower, now vacuum-exposed port, to the one on the hab itself. Lem woke up as soon as the Luzhin and the station clanged together. He glanced around, looked at that station, looked to Neilny, and was about to start into another tirade when Neilny stopped him.

"Look, I get it. Your world is all kinds of messed up right now. Can we just cut the psycho nonsense and concentrate on fixing this station?" Lem stared at him blankly for a moment then started off into his spiel anyway. Neilny shrugged, ignored him, and moved up into the orbital module so he could unhook the docking adapter. He closed the hatch behind him so he could suit up - and get some peace and quiet.

The docking adapter itself was in good shape, but a quick check of the pressure beyond showed what Neilny had feared - the station internals were exposed to the vacuum. So he unlatched and undocked, moved the ship around to the port on the hab module, and docked back up.

He keyed the cabin microphone. "Lem." Silence. "You've got to hit the big blue button next to the speaker."

"Ok. What now?"

"Get suited up. I'm going to head into the station and try to stop any leaks. To do that I need to equalize the pressure between the orbital module and the station, which probably means venting the cabin into space."

"Ok."

The damage wasn't as bad as Neilny first thought, aside from the lack of an atmosphere. There was no way they'd ever be using the lab module again, at least not without serious repairs. He radioed the damage reports to mission control, sealed the habitat module off from the rest of the station, and headed back into the Luzhin. If he was right, they had just enough supplies onboard to repressurize the station and keep them breathing good air for a few days. Maybe a full munth.

At least they'd have more room to spread out. Maybe that would shut Lem up.

---

Year 76 day 352 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

Milzer and Haloly were reviewing the Bernoulli damage reports when Shepgee sauntered into the conference room. Milzer glanced up at him and did a double take, not expecting Shepgee to return so soon.

"You're back?"

"Hello to you too, Milzer. And here I thought you'd be happy to see me."

"Just didn't expect you back so soon. Any news on what our amnesiac flight director and his famous rocket scientist cohort are up to?"

"Well, they're not up to much of anything much after the launchpad explosion." Shepgee slumped into one of the large, overly-comfortable conference room chairs and started poking through the reports scattered around the table. "They're busy cleaning up the mess and I didn't see much need to stick around to watch dirt move. Hmm." Shepgee pointed at a particular diagram in one of the Bernoulli reports. "Is Neilny sure about this?"

"Yeah. Blew a hole big enough to squeeze your hand through. We were planing to replace the station anyway, but not this soon. So, is Gene really sending a crew to the Mün?"

"Looks that way." He nosed through another report and tossed it back on the table. "I say let them have it. We've been there, done that. I want Duna." Shepgee motioned towards Haloly, who had all bit ignored him so far. "Any update on this idea of yours? 'It's for Kerbals' and whatnot? Is it possible to get it built in the time we have?"

Haloly shook his head. "No. Not without larger parts and a station in orbit to build from. I've worked out a smaller version that should suit our needs in the interim. Only big enough for a crew of eight though."

"Eight? Hmm." Shepgee leaned back in the chair, almost to the point of tipping over. "Ok. So let's do this. We'll scrap the station and concentrate on this Duna thingy Haloly here has cooked up."

Milzer didn't like that. "We were already sending a new module up for Bernoulli. A small Tantares-built hab. Plan was for Neilny to salvage as much from Bernoulli as he could and move it into the new hab. That's already built and being prepped for launch."

"Ok, we'll keep that one then. When does it go up?"

---

Year 76 day 356 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

"Gads, that thing is ugly." Meldo turned to Milzer and made a deliberately sour face to try to get his attention. He failed. "How is that thing even aerodynamically stable?"

"You tell me. You designed it." Milzer flipped over to the next page on his checklist, then looked around the control room. All the lights were still green. "Aspdin 1 is go for launch. Begin the count." One of the newer kerbals hit a button and the large clock in mission control started counting down from 5 minutes. Uncrewed flights had a shorter terminal count for some reason having to do with impatience.

"Why do we always launch at night these days anyway?"

Milzer just shook his head and half ignored Meldo as he punched in a few settings on his panel. "Station sets the schedule..."

"Yeah, yeah. Station sets the schedule, not us."

The five minutes were gone quickly and the Aspdin 1 was away. Aspdin was the planned expansion program for the Bernoulli Station, meant as a stepping stone back into space. Pressure from the worsening political situation and the damage suffered by Bernoulli [by shrinking 0.25 parts] had turned it into more of a planned mothballing operation. The module being sent up today would instead serve only as a storage unit.

The launch had gone exactly as planned, right up until the core stage of the Luzhin booster separated from the orbital stage. The base of the fairing shroud caught the exhaust from the retro rockets and it to exploded into a thousand bits of shrapnel.

This time it was Milzer who gave Meldo a nasty look.

"Hey, don't look at me. I just designed the thing. Oh."

---

Year 76 day 357 - Low Kerbin Orbit

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

A couple days later and the Aspdin 1 had caught up with Luzhin 6 and Bernoulli Station. [Ten days later here on Earth..., more than a month ago now.] First order of business was for Neilny and the Luzhin 6 to undock from Beroulli and head over to meet the Aspdin.

Once docked and secured, they transferred some of the fuel from the Aspdin's orbital stage to their own ship (which was running on fumes). When he finally was satisfied with the fuel situation, Neilny decoupled the Aspdin orbital stage from the new habitation module and installed it on Bernoulli.

"Good news Lem!"

Lem, already irritated by his longer-than-desired stay in space, glared at Neilny. "What?"

"Moving day! Time to move all that cruft from the old station to the new!"

"Can't that be left to the next crew? We've now got enough fuel to return to Kerbin, yes?"

"Nope! Plan is to remotely deorbit the old Bernoulli once the new power system is here, and the guys in charge would rather not send another crew up until that's done. So it falls to us. Aren't you excited?"

Lem wasn't.

They spent the next several hours moving what they could salvage form Bernoulli into the glorified storage unit that was the Aspdin 1. Meanwhile the discarded orbital stage was parked nearby, waiting for the docking port used by the Luzhin to free up. It had jettisoned its stack decoupler to expose a docking port. Once everything was packed Neilny made sure the station was battened up tight, then closed the Luzhin's hatch. A quick RCS burst and they were away. He glanced over at Lem, who was suddenly all smiles.

"Glad to be away from that station. It carries a strange odor."

"Don't like space much, huh?"

"Not really. Space is a dreadful place. No up, no down, no sideways. All up, all down, all sideways. Confusing and disorienting. Probably why they punished me by flinging me out into it."

Neilny set up the remote link to move the Aspdin's orbital stage in to dock with the station. "Who's that?"

"I already told you, several days ago. The Shadow Council. My fake news reports were not to their liking, and they claimed they gave out too much information to you rebels."

Neilny agreed silently, trying to avoid more of Lem's crazy-talk, and finished the remote docking. Once done he checked the orbital maps and found they were in a good position to return directly to Lake Fortunate. [big thanks to the Trajectories mod here. Another plugin I can't live without.]

"Well, good news for you, since you like these Shadows and all. Seems this mission gets to end just like it began."

"How's that now?"

Neilny punched the maneuver into his flight computer, spun the Luzhin around to face the burn marker, and punched the throttle forward.

"In the dark."

---

Year 76 day 369 - Cape Kerbin

19th Kerbal Space Agency

"And Kestrel 3 is away!" Barting could hear the announcer in his earpiece as the small rocket leapt from the new launchpad. It had taken several munths to repair the damage from the failed Peregrine launch, and they still hadn't completed the work on the fuel and water plumbing. Yet there was a launch window coming up to rendezvous with some strange object Carl had spotted in orbit, and Gene didn't want to miss it. Barting already knew exactly what they were after.

Just a few minutes into the flight and the first stage was away. These launches had become old-hat for Barting. What was he up to? Twenty? Nineteen? Who could say for sure with all the old records they'd destroyed. No matter. This flight would be no riskier than any other.

The numbers radioed up from mission control told him the rendezvous would be just before the terminator. Just before he would slip over to the dark side of Kerbin. That should make it easier for him to spot the mystery object, hopefully flared against the dark planet and dark sky. He finished off the last burn to match orbits with what the mission planners had projected, and started spinning the craft to get a look around.

Barting almost jumped when Bernoulli Station loomed large into his tiny window - the launch had placed him practically inside it. "There you are." He performed a quick station-keeping burn then keyed his microphone to report back to the ground controllers. "Cape, I'm at the desired orbit but I'm not seeing anything from inside the cabin. Permission to EVA to get a better view?"

"Permission granted, Kestrel. Be advised you're coming up on the terminator."

"Roger Cape." Exactly what he wanted. Barting made sure his helmet was sealed before he vented the cabin, and released the hatch locks once the atmosphere read nil. "Cape, still no visual on your orbital anomaly. Maybe Carl needs some glasses like Wernher?" He pushed off of the capsule and jetted the rest of the way to the station. Someone had installed a new module since he had last seen it. A new hab and a very useful set of thrusters. A plan started to form in his mind, but he thought it best to check inside first. No need to needlessly kill any kerbals that might be onboard.

---

Year 76 day 369 - Gene's Office

19th Kerbal Space Agency

Gene, Wernher and Carl watched as Barting jumped from the hatch, oriented himself to face the target, and fired his pack thrusters to head to the station. The station he couldn't see. He jetted about, inspecting this non-existent station, casting a long and ominous shadow on that which did not exist.

"Does he know we have installed the camera alongside the capsule?"

Gene sighed. "No, Wernher, I'd guess not. Which is good for us, as who knows what he would've done otherwise."

Wernher pulled back as Carl snatched at his glasses, but was too slow. Carl back away and tried on the thick-rimmed black spectacles, then started making weird faces. "Nope, not that blind." He handed them back to the highly irritated chief designer.

They watched as Barting worked open the hatch to the station and disappeared inside. The station had passed into the shadow of Kerbin before Barting reemerged. His lamps cast a strange glow over the station. In the dark it reoriented itself, fired its main engines, then disappeared off camera. Two lights spun into view and started moving towards the camera.

Wernher scratched at the side of his head with one hand and pointed at the screen with the other. "Did he just deorbit the space station?" Gene turned off the screen and pounded his fist on his desk. Everything jumped (including Wernher and Carl), and a stack of reports slid off of the desk and into Wernher's hands. "At least now we know Barting is in on this... conspiracy," Wernher handed the folders to Gene and continued, "or whatever it is that is going on here."

Gene signed, then tossed the folders back atop the stack. "I think it's time we give these so-called 'rebels' a call."

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[ElJugador]

So, (almost) every main character who was in the space program, but not an astronaut (who made a flight??), got 'reset'? Intriguing.

[Cydonian Monk]

So, (almost) every main character who was in the space program, but not an astronaut (who made a flight??), got 'reset'? Intriguing.

Not entirely, though something along those lines. More will be explained in time.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Whoaaaa stuff is happening. Excellent posts.

[Cydonian Monk]

A quick update as this next story-post is taking me a little while to get composed....

First, I bought a new gaming PC! I finally grew too weary of KSP on my OS-X machine needing 2.7GBs of memory _just to run without mods_. And there are other games I want to play that I've not been able to, and with this being the shopping season there were some good deals on off-the-shelf systems. So I picked up a sweet little thing that has a rather nice GPU (Nvidia GTX-770) and an i7 that should be enough for several years to come (i7-4790). So... KSP runs really well on this setup! My Mac will always be my main PC, but it can now return to the video rendering, virtual machine running, code compiling, photo editing, trying to take over the world-ing, and all the other things I bought it for in the first place instead of being abused by games that weren't meant to run on it.

Next, the save file I was using for the alternate space program, the "19th" KSA as run by Gene from Cape Kerbin? Well, it ate itself and did a good enough job of it that I can't even find a working copy in the previous versions stored on Dropbox. Even the quicksave is borked, which loads directly after Barting's landing in the Kestrel 3, as shown here, and refuses to do anything else:

I spent some time trying to figure that one out, came up empty, and have decided to just scrap it and move on. Instead copying over the R&D node from the old persistence file, I just granted myself a bunch of science when I started the new save and unlocked most of what I already had unlocked. And then I unlocked some more, as a form of reparations taken from KSP for glitching my save. The other save file, with all the Ad Lunam / 18th KSA stuff is still in good shape, and I have plenty of backups of it should something happen. Though honestly I've not yet built anything big that would be missed or difficult to copy over. (At least not until you read the next post....) And all the stuff Remote Tech glitched out of existence has already been deleted by whatever Kraken RT2 prays to.

So that's where we are.

Now that I have a shiny new system I've been spending some time doing things other than playing through this save. Such as loading my "Unity" save that has everything I've ever launched in it. Amazing what you can do when you're not up against the RAM wall! Remarkably all the old, large stations and bases I've built now are a smooth as silk with barely a framerate drop. All that from running on a real graphics card instead of the Intel HD4000 that lives inside my MacBook Pro's i7.

I've also been toying with Kronal Vessel Viewer, which is one of my new favorite toys. The very first thing I did was load up the two vessels from when I was playing the Demo in May of 2013, shown below:

This is the Falcon 1, the very first ship I built in KSP, and the very first ship to kill Jedediah in a freak staging accident:

And this is the Hawk 3-2, the first vessel to achieve Kerbin escape velocity, sending Thomlock Kerman to his forever home among the stars:

As you can see, I left the reaction wheels at their now-resized KSP 0.25 size.

Following that, I went on a trip down "Apollo Memory Lane", and quickly reviewed all my old Apollo-style launchers. Several of these wouldn't open because of the Procedural Fairings part change a year or so back, and I'm missing the one I used for my Apollo-44th reenactment. Otherwise everything cooperated.

Most of my 2-stage Munar landers have used a mono-propellent ascent stage, the exceptions being the Apollo-44 lander and the newer Hawk lander. Monoprop may be less efficient, but it's enough to get the job done for these types of landers and avoids some potentially complex fuel piping requirements.

Changes in the underlying KSP parts and my increasing understanding of the game have allowed efficiency gains over the year(s), with the C/SM shrinking noticeably. I also now tend to "hide" parts alongside the engine on the bottom of the C/SM.

Most of my early launchers were of a Parallel/Asparagus-style staging, while the advent of the Aquila saw a switch to an exclusively serial-staged launch vehicle. The 3.75m "SLS" parts have only made that more common. (Along with the broken radial decouplers in stock KSP.) The overall delta-v budget of these craft have not changed, however, though some of the older ones were flown less efficiently.

Note the massive amount of external struts on the older launchers. Older players will remember that until the attachment-node rework a few versions ago, that much strut-age was needed just to keep things from coming unglued. (Or that plugin of Nova Silisko's that fixed it.) Only with the larger, 3.75m "SLS" parts did that become less of a concern.

To finish this little update, here is a sneak peak of two things that are coming in that next story post I mentioned.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[meve12]

EDIT: So I take it the nuclear one is from another space program entirely?

The Apollo one is at least recognizable. IS that from the rival space program?

[Cydonian Monk]

Yes and no. The earlier ones (from last year such as the various Fios craft) have nothing at all to do with this save. The Apollo one (Hawk) is for the "19th" program, that run by Gene, while the later one, the nuclear one, is for the "18th" at Lake Fortunate. Lots of tech unlocks and science contracts to get to that one.

[ElJugador]

Is it a sign of dangerous fanboyism that I looked up what Fios/Cuairt mean a long time ago in the days of Null Cycles?

And NOTE: Did you have spinning gravity in mind when you designed the nuclear (Duna?) ship?

[Cydonian Monk]

Is it a sign of dangerous fanboyism that I looked up what Fios/Cuairt mean a long time ago in the days of Null Cycles?

He he he he. I dtír na ndall is rí fear na leathshúile. Though I prefer having two.

And NOTE: Did you have spinning gravity in mind when you designed the nuclear (Duna?) ship?

Absolutely. Though because of the way I docked it up it's causing problems with the Rotate mod, which preserves angular momentum during timewarp. Seems Rotate wants to keep every ship moving based on it's "Normal", positive-Z direction, and one of the probe cores on that ship is facing backwards. That's causing some severe phantom physics when exiting tinewarp, and given how simple that mod is code-wise I'm not sure there's a way to fix it.

But that's just the first generation of Centrifugal Ships I have in mind. Such engineering mistakes will be resolved on future constructions.

[ElJugador]

Okay, but /jeeeze/, look at the size! Holy moly, how much does it /cost/??

_{I have a feeling you don't want to show us because said cost can only be expressed with exponential notation.}

[Cydonian Monk]

The Munlit Silence

Year 76 day 371 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel 18 Kerbal Space Agency

Shepgee looked at those gathered in the briefing room, making note of who was here and who wasn't. Podoly, Lengee, Jorble, Genekin and Bobbo were still missing, no one had heard from them since the raid on Sky's Reach. Dudry and Barting too, but they turned up as two of Gene's new crews. They really could use the veteran pilots right now. A few others were on stage with Shepgee. Milzer, the wayward program's interim flight director, Meldo, who somehow became design chief. Haloly, the astrogator and mission director who Milzer had rescued from orbit so many Münths ago. How did kerbals get to space anyway? He meant to ask Haloly someday. Shepgee stepped forward and gave his microphone a tap.

"Thanks everyone for getting here on such short notice." The lights dimmed slightly and Shepgee heard the slide projector whirr to life. "As you are no doubt aware, two days ago contact with Bernoulli Station was lost. No crews were present and the station itself was already severely damaged from the, ahem, 0.25 upgrade." The slide projector ka-clunked, and one of Neilny's photos came into view.

"As you can see, there was a visible gap between the docking node and the laboratory module. The explosive decompression appears to have been clean on the outside, yet the internal wiring and insulation were severely damaged, not to mention the sudden sublimation and freezing of any liquids. Our initial thought was this new loss of contact was just another electrical fault, at least until our radar team did a ranging pass. Bernoulli station is no longer in orbit. And to make matters worse, we have confirmed the station was not deorbited accidentally." Ka-click, and another slide dropped.

"So much for Milzer's 'first act of space piracy'" jeered someone from the crowd. Shepgee ignored them and continued.

"This is a screen capture provided by agents in the new Space Agency. This individual, Barting Kerman, one of our former crew members, was seen entering and exiting the station shortly before it began a deorbit burn." Shepgee took a quick sip of water. "We have discussed this incident with officials from the, *cough*, other space agency, and have concluded the destruction of Bernoulli was not their intent. Incidentally Barting is missing, again, as he was not in his capsule when the recovery crews arrived."

"So. Bernoulli is behind us. We had planned to use it as a stepping stone for our next big project, but...." Shepgee grinned. Ka-clunk.

"This is the Munlit Silence. Or will be in several Münths time. We had planned to use this vessel for a trip to Duna, but our good friend Haloly has just discovered an interesting planetary alignment we'd like to abuse: A fly-by of Jool that allows for a free-return to Kerbin. The window for this mission is only 86 days out, ands a result we've accelerated the construction of some elements of the Munlit Silence and pushed others back to a later mission."

He paused and glanced around the room again, taking in the crowd. Whispers and hushed questions permeated, until a new recruit by the name of Hudrim spoke up. "So, how are we going to afford this? And where are we getting the parts?"

"Well, we're beyond the point where funds are an issue. I admit we were almost bankrupt when we launched the Smeaton 3. Had that launch failed..., well, it didn't. We're not yet sure of the total launch cost for the Munlit Silence, but the vessel itself weighs in around 148,000 Roots. As for the parts, Jeb has graciously offered us a contract to test the NTRs, which we'll gladly complete once we've launched all of them we need. The only other component that's not presently available are the RTGs, but we've got a plan for those."

"So, the next order of business. We're going to need a second ship for the Duna mission, but M and M will have another year to get those details hammered out. By then we should be able to do justice to Haloly's plans for a general purpose, long-duration spacecraft." Someone whispered a joke about Haloly's 'It's for Kerbals!' ideas, and half the audience descended into incoherent snickering.

"That brings us to the real reason we're all here today. Crew assignments." That got everyone's attention.

"The good news first. Every one of you in this room will be on either the Jool or the Duna mission. All of you. The bad news is obvious. These two missions will be our last for some time. Those of us going to Jool won't be back six years. Those of you going to Duna won't leave until late next year. And with the current unpleasantness on Kerbin, it's hard to say what the political landscape will be when we return."

And the 'political landscape' was rapidly deteriorating. The League of Eight, which had split from the Unified Government of Kerbin for a myriad of reasons, was increasingly nervous about Unionist forces attempting to retake their lands by force. And the Westlanders seemed more than eager to restart the war they'd lost seven decades before, even if under the banner of the Unified Government. And with what Lem had told him, Shepgee was pretty sure it would come to open warfare.

"Now, the details. I'm leading the Jool mission aboard the Munlit Silence. Haloly will be joining me as navigator. Laning was as giddy as a mortician when he realized he could study first-hand the effects of radiation exposure on living kerbals, so he'll be joining us as chief medical officer. Meanwhile, Milzer and Meldo will be leading the Duna Expedition. It's up to the rest of you to sort out who goes where. We need three Engineers on each ship, at least four pilots for the Duna landings, and the science teams to perform the required analysis work on each mission. So, argue it out amongst yourselves and let us know within two days. Any questions?"

"Yeah! Will there be more snacks on the Jool mission or the Duna mission?"

"Very funny Dean. Any real questions? Ok, get to it!"

---

Year 76 day 374 - Cape Kerbin

19th Kerbal Space Agency

"It's called Archimedes."

Gene looked up at the interruption that waltzed into his office unannounced. Unless Archimedes was Wernher's new way of saying 'Hi', he was probably about to get an earful. Whatever ears were. "What's... called Archimedes?" His chief designer tossed a stack of blueprints on his desk. Old ones by the looks of them. Dated several years back. All signed by Wernher von Kerman.

"The Mün rocket your rebel friends talked of. It was named Archimedes. Well, the rocket was named something else, but the mission was called Archimedes. And apparently I designed it, though I must admit I have no memory of doing such." Gene tried to make sense of the very large rocket he was looking at. "And it was using parts that do not yet exist."

"Hmm. Where'd you dig this old mess up?"

"Oh, in one of my hiding places. I had just finished the designs for the Hawk, or at least I thought I had, and was busy hiding a copy of them when I found these." Wernher flipped to a page in the designs and pointed at the booster. "These parts do not exist. I called the Kerbodyne representatives and my other contacts in their company, and they know nothing of any of this. They were happy to listen to what I had in mind, however."

"I bet."

"They think they can build a tank of this size, but are unsure about the large engine. I did some tweaking and found an, uh, interesting solution using the Rockomax Mainsail. So I've set about redesigning the Hawk."

Gene sighed. "Wernher, we're trying to get to the Mün, and fast. All these redesigns, well..."

"We can still use the Falcon for the orbital mapping missions, ja? Besides, we already have the coordinates for the first two landings. The ones your rebel friends gave us."

"We've scrapped the mapping missions, so no. No funds for it. The crews from the landing missions will handle that now." Gene still wasn't sure about those coordinates. One was in a fairly rugged part of the Mün, the other... very dark and cold. His contact had told him he'd find the truth of their space race at either site.

"This new design will increase our payload capacity. We can use a heavier lander. We can send two kerbals to the surface. Here." Wernher handed him a new set of blueprints. "And maybe we even launch a Duna mission, in a years time, of course."

"Ok, ok, fine. Go ahead with it. But too many delays and we'll use the Falcon Lander instead. Got it?" Wernher thanked him and scurried out of his office.

---

The Münar Flybys

19th Kerbal Space Agency

The Mün provides a remarkable amount of science if you've got the right contracts and the right experiments. My tech focus so far with the 19th KSA had been more on the top of the tree, so not much was unlocked in the way of science parts. And at the time I was avoiding Home-Grown Rockets for reasons of RAM and TGA files (both issues have resolved themselves). That's how the hodgepodge of a ship like the Peregrine came to be.

The first Peregrine exploded on the launchpad, nearly killing Anny Kerman. That failure was due in no small part to two very small parts: a decoupler and a sepratron. I hadn't yet unlocked launch clamps, and the contracts for testing both those parts would provide enough science to unlock clamps and several other nodes. The result was the explosion that almost bankrupted the program. (Launchpad repairs are crazy expensive!)

Peregrine 2 solved two of those problems: no random parts tests and it was held down by a few big red clamps. I hadn't yet unlocked solar panels, so the Peregrine's service module was mostly comprised of AA batteries. The Goo canisters and the Science Jr were used for experiments around the Mün, and with my chosen strategy they really paid out. (Too bad those strategies are all so obviously overpowered....)

Anny seemed to enjoy the trip, too, though he spent most of his time on EVA taking notes of the darkened Münar surface. "Yep, dark side of the Mün is still dark." Sweet, sweet science. Of darkness.

Or perhaps the whole "EVA" thing was just what he had in mind.

Regardless, he returned enough science from one fly-by to unlock several of the nodes at the top of the tech tree. And a few in the middle for fairing upgrades. And then the savefile ate itself. No attempt at cleansing it would work, producing only the space center screen with a broken interface. Clicking on anything failed. The logs were unhelpful, blaming plugins such as Kerbal Alarm Clock (which I removed), then the Docking Port Alignment plugin (which is nonsense), and then everything at random. This save file had gone mad, even the Quicksave was bugged, and no amount of cutting could stop the gangrene.

So I started over. I totaled up the tech nodes that had been unlocked in the previous iteration and granted myself enough science points to unlock them again. And then some more, as reparations for causing the headache. Then I awarded the save a bunch of Funds to unlock the parts I had been using. And then I switched from Mac to PC, installed HGR and a bunch of other shiny mods, and set the 19th back on its path to the Mün.

And then I went replica crazy.

The Falcon is my HGR version of the Gemini and the Titan II GLV, modified to include a third stage for Münar Orbit Insertion. (Not unlike some of the plans for Gemini....) After some quick tests in my SkunkWorks save, the Falcon and all its snazzy new parts were ready for their maiden fly-by of the Mün. I queued up two of them in Kerbal Construction Time, Falcon 1 and Falcon 2, as the mission involved a rendezvous test between the two in Kerbin orbit following the first's return. A few days later and KCT spat out the first of the ships from VAB High Bay #1.

Falcon 1 Launch

Year 76 day 377 - Cape Kerbal

19th Kerbal Space Agency

Along for this flight were Jack and Jervan Kerman, Jack a raw recruit and Jervan on his second flight, having flown previously on Kestrel 2. The launch of the Falcon 1 went perfectly according to plan. I decided to not use ejector seats like the real Gemini, and instead built a simple launch escape system into the nosecone. Also, the first stage uses the RD-108 inspired HGR 4-chambered engine, as it was the best-available in the thrust class needed for the vehicle.

Stage 1 separation included a set of down-rated sepratrons hidden inside the structural fairing. Stage 2 used a single LV-T45, guaranteeing Jebediah would still have some sales for the foreseeable future. (Have to keep the local junkyard in business afterall.) The nosecone and launch escape system are jettisoned shortly after Stage 2 ignition.

Jack gave Jervan a big thumbs up once it became obvious they'd make orbit, and a few moments later the second stage cut out and the Falcon was drifting. Sweet, sweet microgravity. Stage 2 separation was similar to Stage 1, and involved a set of retrothrusters to (hopefully) deorbit the second stage. (They didn't.)

A few quick EVA reports (to double-dip a bit on the science that was lost with the old save), a quick orbit, and then J&J set up the Trans-Munar Injection for their slingshot around the Mün. A surprisingly long burn with the little Rockomax engine, but they had more than enough ÃŽâ€v to make it work.

Everything was going great so far. Jervan jumped out to make some quick high-orbit orbit observations of the Mün, but then everything started to go dark. And then they started cursing the mission planners.

Oops. Nothing like flying by the Mün when it's completely dark. Everywhere. Bloody eclipse. Lots of "Yep, the surface is still dark" EVA reports this time around, too. And yes, I was once again double-dipping on the Mün science, as J&J were repeating some of the experiments Anny did on the maybe-it-existed maybe-it-didn't Peregrine 2.

A bit later and they were back around the Mün and back to the lightside of Kerbin. A couple aerobraking passes and they were sitting cleanly in a 120km orbit. Time to launch the Falcon 2!

Falcon 2 Launch

Year 76 day 379 - Cape Kerbal

19th Kerbal Space Agency

Same deal as before, this time with two rookies along for the trip: Enlan and Herhat. The plan was to rendezvous with the Falcon 1, trade one crew member, then splashdown off the coast of KSC. (KSC, which keeps moving on me, as KSCSwitcher sometimes can't decide if I've selected a launch site or not. My fault entirely.)

Just a quick orbit to let the Falcon 1 catch up (I launched a bit too soon) and we had a nice rendezvous over the big crater and the desert continent.

As planned, the two ships docked up, traded a crew member (Herhat for Jack), and then went about their business.

Falcon 1 reentered first, having already spent more than 2 days in space. I have to admit that after the flames from the aerocapture, I was disappointed by the lackluster reentry of these two. Splash down was just a bit northeast of KSC, well within the range of the recovery teams. Wherever or whatever they are.

Falcon 2 soon followed suit, and had equally uninteresting reentry effects. I'm strongly considering Deadly Reentry again, though I'm still a bit soured on ModuleManager.... Oh well, weak flames are better than none, I suppose.

Another safe splashdown, and not far from the Falcon 1 recovery point. Next stop: Mun!

---

Year 76 day 380 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Space Agency

"Ok, so I get the assembly business, but how do we get the crews up there?" Shepgee had cornered Meldo and some of his assistants in the workshop and was busy grilling them on the plans for the Munlit Silence. "We've only got so many days to get this done."

"The Luzhin isn't an automated craft, and only seats 2. So if we send up six of them to dock with a specially built armature, we can get the Silence loaded in only seven launches."

"Seven!" Shepgee almost squeaked. "We've only even launched six of the things to date!"

"Well, if you've got better ideas, then I'm all ears. Assuming I actually have ears."

"Hey! Dudes!" A kerbal none of them had noticed was standing at the far end of the workshop, lit blowtorch in one hand, gnarly-looking metal... thing in the other. He flipped up his welding glass, exposing the rapidly aging face of the veteran astronaut. Jebediah. "Why don't you just use the Hydra. She seats 24 with a crew of 4."

"Jeb, what are you talking about?"

"The Hydra Shuttle, man. I built three of the things a decade ago, but the buyer disappeared at the last minute, so they've been sitting in my junkyard ever since. Needs a big launcher to reach orbit, but it can take 28 up or down, and get to the Mün and back if you refuel it. They're yours if you want em."

Shepgee looked quizzically at Meldo. "M? Think you can make this work?"

"Well," Meldo scratched at the back of his neck, "I guess we can take a look at it."

"Make it happen Meldo." Shepgee thanked Jeb, who returned to making whatever weird thing he was making out of rebar and steel plates. Shepgee wasn't sure he wanted to know. He made his way off towards the administration building, but was ambushed by Lem just outside the VAB.

"You should have let me talk to your crews, Shepgee." Shepgee didn't break stride and made the rescuee catch up to him.

"Why?"

"I'm supposed to be the author avatar. You know, the random guy that swoops in and explains everything?"

"Look, Lem. No disrespect, but we've got enough crazy around here now that Jebediah, Bill and Bob are camped out in the workshop. The last thing we need is that crazy spreading like wildfire, fueled by two madkerbs like you and Jeb."

"That's the same attitude _they_ take. That's what led _them_ to keep the people ignorant, to sort out the crazies and put them in the space program in the first place! Who would believe the crazy ones anyway, right? The easiest kerbals to control are the ones that think they're free!"

"See, now that's just what I'm talking about. Crazy."

Lem shook his head. "Fine. Whatever you want. I've got better things to do then argue with a hardheaded pilot. The League's Commissioner wants me to prepare a history, a true history of the space programs and how the Unionists have kept everyone in the dark. He wants me to start at once. Just not here."

"You're leaving? I thought you wanted to go to Duna?"

"Not if I have to be in space between here and there. Build me a transporter and I'm beaming over today. But I can't stand space travel. It's, well, it's unnatural."

"Unh huh. Riiight." Shepgee stopped, turned to face Lem and stuck out his hand. "Lem, it's been a pleasure working with you. Let us know if there's anything you need." That took him by surprise.

"Th'thanks, Shepgee." Lem smiled and shook the old test pilot's hand. "I best be going now. Good luck with Jool."

Jool. Shepgee was going to Jool. The sheer coolness of that had just hit him. "Thanks. Good luck with that history of yours. Somehow I think that's more dangerous."

---

Munlit Silence - Core Section

Year 76 day 387 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Space Agency

I launched the Munlit Silence in three sections, with two resupply launches afterwards. For Kerbal Construction Time I upgraded the high bays of the VAB so bay 1 and 2 were equivalent, and rather fast. (I've ignored the SPH.) Building the core stage of the Munlit Silence took quite some time, but not near as long as the armature stage (which we'll get to later). That allowed the drive stage to catch up to the other two. Only 11 days build for the relatively simple core, with 27 days for the arms and 18 days (29 total after waiting for 11 days) for the drive.

Regardless, the core stage went up first. This one fit neatly and cleanly atop a Tantares ALV-series launcher, and also fit cleanly inside the fairings. (Wish I could say the same for the rest.) The core of the Munlit Silence is small enough that the first stage made it to altitude before cutting out, mercifully leaving quite a bit of excess fuel in the second stage. That saved me from needing to launch a refueler.

Munlit Silence Armatures Launch

Year 76 day 395 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Space Agency

This launch wasn't as pretty. If it wasn't for the weak physics around docking ports, I would have launched the heads of the arms separate from the arms themselves and docked in orbit over 4 launches. At least that would have fit cleanly inside of a fairing. Orbital assembly is a really nice thing, but I'd never be able to get the kind of stability this ship or ships like it need. So I suspended disbelief for this launch and just went with it.

Another Tantares ALV launcher, but this time with an asparagus/parallel-style set of six liquid boosters. These arms are HEAVY. More reason they should have been split over multiple launches.

A quick orbit and we had a rendezvous with the Core Stage. I sent along a little assemble bot to move the arms around, and the arms themselves were attached to a specially-built mount. A quick zip out and back and the bot was attached to arm #1.

A bit of wrangling and we were all lined up and ready to install the arm. This took a bit of twisting to get the docking ports aligned to 0°. Something I've already fixed in future versions.

Wash, rinse, repeat, and the second arm was attached just before sunset. The bot jetted back to the ship that brought it, which would then hang around to become a fuel tanker. Just in case.

Munlit Silence Drive Section Launch

Year 76 day 400 - Lake Fortunate

Rebel "18th" Space Agency

The third and not-quite-final piece of the puzzle was the Drive Section. This one was tough to figure out, as I'm still running under the Kerbodyne and Rockomax ban for the 18th KSA. Tantares meanwhile has introduced a big grey version of the Big Orange Tank that will serve my uses well.

Once again we're launching atop a hybrid ALV and Tavio parallel/asparagus launch vehicle. And this one sort of had a fairing! Kinda. Ot at least had a nosecone.

The idea here was to lob this thing far enough up into the sky that the Drive Section could burn itself into orbit without falling too far back down. Worked like a charm.

Unfortunately I timed the launch slightly wrong. While I did manage to get into the same 20° inclination as the rest of the Munlit Silence, I was a great deal behind it. So I left my orbit low and took some time to play catch up. A bit later and I was down to only one orbit until rendezvous.

And then I got to play "musical docking ports". Because the upper stage of the Core Section's launcher was still attached, and because I needed to drain it of fuel before it could deorbit, I had to dock the Drive Section on the forward docking port. Which naturally happened right at sunset. (When else?)

The sun had come up by the time the fuel was balanced and the Drive Section was installed where it belonged. Afterwards the two construction bots (the one from the armatures and one that rode up with the Drive) moved the upper stage of the armature launcher into a higher orbit, where it'll be used as a mooring for later projects. Meaning _this_ is the completed Long-Duration Rotational Spaceship LDRS-01 Munlit Silence. All it needs now is the Jool science package, the towed-antenna array, and a crew.

---

Hawk 1 Launch

Year 76 day 402 - Cape Kerbal

19th Kerbal Space Agency

"Hawk 1 has cleared the tower!" No easy feat for a craft the size of the Hawk. Even with a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.5 it took half a lifetime to claw upwards into the sky. Anny was just happy he wasn't flying out of it sideways this time.

He glanced up at the two "rookies" riding to orbit in the window seats: Enlan and Herhat. Neither were true rookies, each had completed as many missions as him, but they'd not been to the Mün like Anny. Then again not many had. He relaxed and listened to Enlan calling the launch events down to the ground controllers. "Clear on planned ascent trajectory." "Approaching max dynamic pressure." "Mach 1." The cabin was quieter now, quiet aside from the deafening rumble transferred through the frame.

"Central engine burnout, just on time." The loss of 1/5 of their thrust wasn't noticeable. "MECO." That was. Freefall! All three of them floated forward into their straps and were pulled violently backwards a few seconds later. "Ooomph! Stage 2 Ignition."

A sudden roar and the sound of heavy rain hitting the cabin filled Anny's ears as the launch escape system shot away. "No going back now!" The second stage was much quieter than the first, producing far fewer violent vibrations. Still enough to pin a kerbal into their seat, though. Anny almost unstrapped when the stage throttled down, thinking they were in orbit. Herhat looked back and said "No, still another couple minutes of this Slow Burn." Do _NOT_ start singing David Bowie songs....

The world was dark when the second stage burned out, with only the faintest light to see by. Anny checked their telemetry and set up the Münar transfer burn. "Most of the way around Kerbin again and then we're headed for the Mün, boys."

"You know," started Enlan, "we've got enough ÃŽâ€v to go to Duna. Maybe we could take a little side trip?"

"Wrong time of the year, E. We'd get there, yeah, but there'd be no Duna. Maybe next trip."

"Bah. All that fourth-dimensional logic takes the fun out of space travel."

Herhat smacked at Enlan with the back of his glove. "Hey! We're going to the Mün! The Mün! How cool is that? Duna can wait!"

Half an orbit later and the transfer stage burned for all it was worth. The initial trajectory placed them on a collision course with the Mün, by design, so any debris would clean itself up. And debris was exactly what they created when the jettisoned 8 pieces of fairing, the inter-payload connector, a bunch of tie-downs, and the spent transfer stage.

MEM-extraction completed, the Hawk and her crew of three turned to face prograde and completed their transfer burn, placing them into a free-return trajectory. Anny moved into the MEM cabin and started bringing the lander online.

A day later and they were in Münar orbit. The Hawk Command Module was more than up to the task of completing the Münar capture. The rest of the crew took a few orbits to take photos and draw crude maps of the surface, while Anny spent most of the time in the lander. Making sure everything was in place and ready to go. If he was going to land it, then he was going to be familiar with the ship. His ship.

Sometime later Herhat pulled the hatch closed, sealed it, and made sure the life support systems were ready to go. Anny hardly noticed him, having been already strapped into the lander's seat for an hour. "You ready to go down here? Thought so."

They wasted no time backing away from the Command Module. "Keep our seats warm, Enlan. We'll see you in a couple orbits."

"Copy, Hawk Lander. Take your time."

"Ok," Herhat called forward form the jumpseat. "I've got our trajectory plotted. First burn coming up in, T-45 seconds."

The descent went perfectly according to plan. Two small burns to target the landing coordinates Gene had been given by some unknown agent, and then one long burn to make the actual landing. Everything was fine, up until the point when they blew past the Arch at only half orbital velocty.

"Woah. Now that's a big arch. Hey Herhat, what'do'ya think that thing's made of?"

"Abort!"

"Relax, I've got this."

"We're going 250m/s! There's a crater wall directly ahead! Abort!!"

"Herhat relax. I'm swinging back around to the Arch." Anny did think the ground was rushing up at them a bit faster than he'd like.

"We're going too fast! Abort or I'm jumping out!!"

"Stay in your seat or I'll throw you out myself!" The proximity alarm was beeping. Then it started beeping much, much faster. "See! Now you've ticked off the ship, too!"

"The wall!"

"Enough! I see it already!!"

Anny brought the lander to a slow hover, mere meters from the crater wall. Close enough to kick up a small dust cloud even. The sounds of small particles ricocheting off of the lander filled the cabin, a bit like driving through the desert during a sandstorm. He reset the proximity alarm and spun the lander around to face the Arch, gaining a bit of elevation in the process. "Ok, lets try that again."

Anny angled the lander towards the Arch and nudged the throttle. "Would you look at the size of that thing! Wow!"

"You should have aborted. The checklist says we should have aborted!" Herhat's voice was enough to tell Anny he was still more than a bit shaken.

"Pfft. No way José! I told you I had that!" Anny glanced over his shoulder at Herhat and took his hands off of the controls for a second, holding them in the air mockingly. "You ing-gah-neers are all a bunch of chicken****s when it comes to real flying." Anny could see the panic in Herhat's eyes so he turned back to the task at hand: landing on the Mün. They passed through the arch and came down gently, the sound of the sandstorm intensifying until Anny cut the main engine. Silence, lit only by the glare of reflected Münlight.

"Cape, Big Scary Arch here. The Hawk has landed."

"Copy you down, Hawk. You had some guys turning pink down here for a few minutes, glad to see you down.

He glanced back at Herhat, who was still a bit on the pale green side. "Was that fun or what?"

---

Cape Kerbin - Mission Control

Gene's hands were still sweating, along with everything else, but his hands were noticeable. He had been gripping the arms of his chair so tightly that his fingerprints were most likely permanently embossed in the leather. He looked around mission control and risked a smile when he saw all the cheering and relieved faces. No, no time for mirth just yet.

"Ok people. We may have landed on the Mün, but the day isn't done. Let's get back at it." Higher resolution images were being beamed back from one of the "spear" cameras. The idea was for one of the crew to fly over to a spot, throw a spear in the ground with a camera mounted on top, then fly back and take the publicity photos that would go in all the newspapers. That way nobody misses the first steps on the Mün, no reenactment is needed with some kerbal already on the ground, and some extra ammunition is given to the Mün-Deniers.

Gene watched as Anny and Herhat both descended the ladder stairs and set about playing in the thin Münar regolith, giant arch looming in the background. Why did all this seem so familiar? The memory of the photo of their first launch came to mind. Such a similar feeling. "What am I missing?"

The flag planting ceremony left a bit to be desired, and the photographer in Gene's head was screaming about proper light angles, poor lighting, high sun, and the poor composition. He motioned Carl and Wernher over to his station.

"Cape, we think the target site is just over the small hill we landed on. Headed that way now."

"Roger that, Hawk Lander. Proceed with caution."

"Caution? What's that? Hawk out."

The three of them watched as Anny jetted out of view of the first cameras. Wernher leaned in and asked quietly "What is it you think they'll find?" Gene motioned for silence and pointed at the screen, where the feed from the new camera had just come online.

"I think they just found it."

Herhat was giving them a rundown on the hardware. "It appears to be the lower stage of a lander, not unlike our own. No identifying marks otherwise, but several of these parts are exactly the same as those on the Hawk Lander. There's a fine coating of dust on everything. Looks like it's been here awhile."

Anny chimed in. "There's a plaque on the flag. Reads: 'Shepgee found this strange stone arch on the Mun. What could it mean?' This flag appears to be identical to our own."

Gene hmmm'd. Carl and Wernher were both scratching at different places on the backs of their necks. The rest of mission control was a flurry of activity, with every image downloaded birthing a new conspiracy theory.

"They said we'd find the truth of our Space Race at each of these two sites." Gene tossed a scrap of paper to his console. "What truth is this? That we got there after... who? Us?"

"Gene" Carl and Wernher both started at the same time. Carl won the silence battle and restarted. "Gene, think about it. That's one of our flags. Why has no one, at any time, ever, mentioned this? 'You're going to the Mün too? Talk to Lenber, he's been there already.' Out of the millions of places we could have set down on the Mün, out of the billions of possible things we could find, we found exactly what we took with us. Ourselves."

A long, pregnant pause permeated mission control as a close up image of the plaque was radioed back. Gene stared at the screen blankly, thoughts elsewhere. Thinking of a framed photo, and a strangely intense sensation of Deja Vu.

"Now we _have_ to know what's at the other site."

---

Shades and Spectres

"We can NOT allow them to land again. They already know too much."

"That ship is long dead and has been evacuated for generations. So what if they find an empty husk? Who else would know? Who would believe them?"

"Valid point. What of this Jool mission?"

"There's nothing for them to find at Jool other than old debris. It's Duna we need be concerned about." The scene on the conference table changed to that of a hexagonal ship near a red planet. Duna. "This MUST not occur."

"Our guests may have temporarily left, but if one of their scouts finds them, or they happen upon the surface base, well, I don't want to be the one who has to explain why we can't control our own populace."

"On that we're agreed. This one flame, this thirst for that which has always been unknown. It may be that which is feeding the wildfire. Douse it."

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Cydonian Monk]

As an aside, I've updated the Second Post with lots of information: Launch histories, some program details, crew photos (some of the missing ones will be updated today), some Wikipedia links, and a list of the mods and plugins I use, among other information. I tend to keep that post up to date, though I will generally avoid spoilers or not list things that haven't completely happened yet. Generally.

Of note on the launch histories: I stopped recording all of the 1-shot science and part test launches sometime during Ad Lunam save #16 (2 saves before this narrative began). That list for the 16th gives a good indication of just how many part tests I conduct vs actual missions. I just don't have the energy anymore to record static and/or systems tests in as detailed a manner as I do the myriad of things I test at work. I do keep records of the occasional "hey, this blew up" launch, and all of the crewed launches, of course.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Cydonian Monk

[ElJugador]

I'm going to admit I spoiled myself on the Munlit Silence and Hydra beforehand by checking your Twitter account. I even saw a picture of them docking. (/shame)

He he he he. I dtír na ndall is rí fear na leathshúile. Though I prefer having two.

I don't know. Being KING OF THE BLIND and having a cool eyepatch may or may not be worth your depth perception.

(and, well, the inevitable hassles you will have trying to lead a bunch of blind people)

Edited December 14, 2014 by ElJugador

[Cydonian Monk]

I'm going to admit I spoiled myself on the Munlit Silence and Hydra beforehand by checking your Twitter account. I even saw a picture of them docking. (/shame)

Occasionally even the things I post in the Google+ KSP group end up in my core saves... most just get scrapped though. Some things I experiment with in sandbox get reworked again later, Hydra being one of those examples. The base of Hydra (which is a Hitchhiker with 3 of those cylindrical structural members aligned at a specific distance) was something I was testing back in KSP 0.22, if not earlier. I could just never get the crew capacity up to where it needed to be so I put it aside. SpacePlane+ changed that. More on that sometime later in the week (or perhaps next weekend).

I'm also looking at a month or two lead time on some of the parts of that last update and the next, as I was too busy in November to play KSP. (National Model Railroad "Hype Train" Month, if you will.) I've been playing catch-up with the "19th KSA" save in particular.

[CrazyJebGuy]

I am into model railways too. And this story.

[Tangle]

Okay, how do you set up the KSC-switching capabilities without causing a full RSS?

[Cydonian Monk]

Okay, how do you set up the KSC-switching capabilities without causing a full RSS?

Since I've had several folks ask now I might as well write up an explanation. Understand, though, that by doing this you're probably violating one of the "rules" on the RSS instructions (which may or may not constitute a license term), if not more than one. Please don't go bothering Nathan or any of the other RSS maintainers when this fails.

First: Download RSS. Just the plugin will suffice.

Second: Install both the RealSolarSystem folder and ModuleManager into GameData (obvs).

Third: Delete the "Compatibility" folder in GameData/RealSolarSystem. (Or keep it, if you like. Just don't expect RealHeat, SCANSat, or CustomAsteroids to be very happy with you.)

Fourth: Update the configuration files. There are three left that we're concerned with, as detailed below:

LaunchSites.cfg: In this config file there are two nodes we care about: %LaunchSites (leave that alone), and the Site nodes inside of it. You can copy and paste the lists of Site nodes from the LaunchSites.cfg file I posted earlier (link) into the %LaunchSites node, just don't copy the LaunchSites node itself. (I had to update the format of that as I don't use ModuleManager.)

Edit, or just extract the configs from this file here: http://0div0.org/files/RSS-AL-Configs.zip

It should look something like this once you're done:

@REALSOLARSYSTEM:FOR[RealSolarSystem]
{
  %LaunchSites
  {
        Site
        {
	    name = ksc
            displayName = Kerbal Space Center
            description = When Kerbals dream of space their dreams start at KSC, the birthplace of spaceflight.  Located on Kerbin's equator and sporting top-notch facilities, KSC is a perfect location to start any interplanetary journey. Now includes complimentary coastal erosion!
            PQSCity
            {
                KEYname = KSC
                latitude = -0.097
                longitude = 285.3
                repositionToSphereSurface = false
                repositionRadiusOffset = 41 //41
                reorientFinalAngle = -17
                lodvisibleRangeMult = 6
            }
            PQSMod_MapDecalTangent
            {
                radius = 6000
                heightMapDeformity = 57 //57
                absoluteOffset = 11 //11
                absolute = true
                latitude = -0.097
                longitude = 285.3 //285.542
            }
        }
// Other launch sites go here.

  }
}

RealSolarSystem.cfg: Delete everything in this file except the root node. It should look like this once you're done:

REALSOLARSYSTEM
{
}

RealSolarSystemSettings.cfg: Delete everything in this file except the root node. It should look like this when you're done:

REALSOLARSYSTEMSETTINGS
{
}

Fire up KSP afterwards, and you should have a list of Launch Sites (and the launch site selector) appear in the Tracking Station on all of your saves. A Quick Note: You may actually need some of the settings in those other two files, so these instructions may not be foolproof. I only use a fork of KSCSwitcher, not the full RSS code, so I'm not sure what some of those settings default to. I only gave this a quick test to see if it still worked like it used to, I didn't check to see if timewarp was x10,000,000 or any other insane mechanics were active. Let me know any issues and I'll update these instructions.

Known Issue(s): On my KSCSwitcher install, the above settings cause the Island Runway for be strangely offset. I've not tried to track this issue down, and it might be "fixed" in the main RSS branch. It doesn't seem to affect any of the other Easter Eggs on Kerbin.

Enjoy!

Edited January 4, 2015 by Cydonian Monk
Solr? Typo. And apparently timewarp = timeworm to my Mac's spellchecker.

[Cydonian Monk]

I am into model railways too. And this story.

Thanks!

Model railroading has been my hobby since birth, so it takes precedence. Especially when we have a big group of open houses here in town spread across the month, several of which I assist with. It's a nice "social" antisocial hobby that has taught me some of my most useful life skills.

[Railgunner2160]

Dang, always loved trains. Pity I could never really afford to get a set going. Excellent chapter as always!!!

Do you still have those green HGR retextures lying around??? Green's sorta my favorite color, and also literally my last name.....

[Cydonian Monk]

Do you still have those green HGR retextures lying around??? Green's sorta my favorite color, and also literally my last name.....

I'd love to be able to distribute those, but HGR's license is sadly "All Rights Reserved." They were fairly easy to make, just a semi-transparent green layer (that I sampled from an old Tantares green texture) over the default texture, though I seem to recall I had to cut out the orange bits.

I think HGR switched to using MBMs with the latest update to get around the TGA issue, so I'm not sure that approach will work anymore. I've not used those green textures since 0.24.

Edit: I'll check when I get home to see if I still have the XCF Gimp files I used to make those reskins. If so, I don't see any issue with providing a link to those (without the HGR texture underneath). Would be an easy copy-paste and export then.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Cydonian Monk

[Railgunner2160]

Great!! I don't mind doing a little grunt work to get them working!

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

I don't recognize the hexagonal duna ship from the null cycles, did you just add that in for storyline purposes?

[Cydonian Monk]

Great!! I don't mind doing a little grunt work to get them working!

Sorry, but I'm even having trouble finding the green textures themselves, let alone the XCF file. I'll give my fileserver a look-over this weekend and see if there's anything there. I do recall that one of those parts was fairly resistant to retexturing, apparently due to how it was exported from Unity. I ended up copying that as a completely new part. (Where as the others were ok with just an extra config file.)

I don't recognize the hexagonal duna ship from the null cycles, did you just add that in for storyline purposes?

Hexagons: The Shape of Things to Come.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk