CatastrophicFailure

I'm using KSC switcher. It's buggy but workable. I get no sky in the space center view and the clicking is weird, but it does seem to work ok in game.

Thanks. Replies have been a bit sparse at times, so I do get to wondering of I'm rambling a bit too much.

So I'm running RemoteTech & built a rocket. Neglected to put a short-range antenna on it. Fire up the engines. The moment I hit space the launch clamps release, the core engines shut down because no signal, but the solids keep burning... not enough thrust to go up without the mains, just enough to hover... and start lazily drifting towards the VAB not gaining altitude. So I think "cool, at least I'll get a nice explosion!" right? Well... Only a few meters away from the VAB (Bob, bring me my brown pants!), the uncontrolled rocket randomly tips the other way... Does a very graceful pirouette around the launch pad... Finally breaks in half... Does a little of this... A little of that... Some more of this... Bit more of that... Fire and flames and explosions, oh my! The payload is frickin' intact! Not a single solar panel out of place inside!

I figured I just couldn't do this without at least ONE ethanol joke

Sigh. So it's not just me. Dunno if I should be happy or sad about that. Happy I only wasted 20 bucks on this POC joystick that I can't use until Soonâ„¢Maybe I s'pose. I'm getting that same "KSP detects the axis but accept button just throws KeyNotFound" error. Just lots & lots of this in the log: [LOG 22:45:58.048] [InputSettings]: listen target set to None - None; Axis -1, Device -1 [LOG 22:46:10.462] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.0 - Joystick 0; Axis 0, Device 0 [LOG 22:46:10.695] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.0 - Joystick 0; Axis 0, Device 0 [EXC 22:46:15.281] KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary. System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Int32].get_Item (System.String key) InputDevices.GetDeviceIndex (System.String deviceName) AxisBinding_Single.Load (.ConfigNode node) AxisBinding.Load (.ConfigNode node) InputSettings.ApplyAxisBinding () InputSettings.drawListenModeWindow () MultiOptionDialog.drawContent (Int32 id) UnityEngine.GUILayout+LayoutedWindow.DoWindow (Int32 windowID) UnityEngine.GUI.CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.WindowFunction func, Int32 id, UnityEngine.GUISkin _skin, Int32 forceRect, Single width, Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style) [LOG 22:46:18.448] [InputSettings]: listen target set to None - None; Axis -1, Device -1 [LOG 22:46:33.063] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.2 - Joystick 0; Axis 2, Device 0 [LOG 22:46:34.231] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.2 - Joystick 0; Axis 2, Device 0 [LOG 22:46:34.431] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.2 - Joystick 0; Axis 2, Device 0 [LOG 22:46:35.479] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.2 - Joystick 0; Axis 2, Device 0 [LOG 22:46:35.731] [InputSettings]: listen target set to joy0.2 - Joystick 0; Axis 2, Device 0 [EXC 22:46:40.867] KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary. System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Int32].get_Item (System.String key) InputDevices.GetDeviceIndex (System.String deviceName) AxisBinding_Single.Load (.ConfigNode node) AxisBinding.Load (.ConfigNode node) InputSettings.ApplyAxisBinding () InputSettings.drawListenModeWindow () MultiOptionDialog.drawContent (Int32 id) UnityEngine.GUILayout+LayoutedWindow.DoWindow (Int32 windowID) UnityEngine.GUI.CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.WindowFunction func, Int32 id, UnityEngine.GUISkin _skin, Int32 forceRect, Single width, Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style)

hmm, you may be right, it's whatever CKAN last stuck in there so I'll have to take a look. thanx, I'll give it a try this weekend and see how it works (and hope none of my ullageless vessels are now stranded lol)

I think it's absolutely essential. It helps to flesh out both the main character and world in general, and provides a way to explain things in a natural way. Unless, of course, your Kerbals are stranded on a deserted island. But then there's always volleyballs, too.

Chapter 10: Changes It had been another long day of questions, but this time surprisingly few. Director Kermanev was already on a train heading west, where he would receive a State funeral as a national hero, and be interred in the wall of the Fort with heroes past. This went unquestioned by Valentina, Dibella, and Tercella, as they sat around the simple wooden table in the small kitchen of their barracks, contemplating their untouched supper. Valentina stared at it vacantly. Dibella looked at her, concerned. Tercella just looked angry. -Er than usual. Valentina stirred her food listlessly back and forth, not really seeing it. Seeing. Had she really seen... anything? Stress could do funny things to a person's mind, she knew that. And there had been the bottle too, a particularly good one, she had thought. Maybe she imagined it. Or maybe you have the madness they warned you about, something whispered in her mind. Space madness. It sounded patently ridiculous... and she knew it was. The mind is an incredible thing... Her Deda's voice drifted up, it can show you what you cannot see, and hide what you can. She remembered him saying that. Long, so long ago, they had come upon a scene deep in the taiga so horrible that she hated to think of it even now. Look, he had said, in his steady, comforting voice as she clung to his leg, look. And see it for what it is. See it in all its awfulness. See, and know. She had seen, and been sick there at his feet while he patiently held her. The mind is an incredible thing, he had said, wiping the corners of her mouth with a rag, it can show you what you cannot see, and hide what you can. It does this latter to protect its self, but like a seed under a rock, a mind forever sheltered cannot grow. So see this horrible sight before you. See it until you know it. Do not be numb, know it for the horror its is. Be sick, if you must, for growing is sometimes unpleasant. Then he had looked down into her tiny, wet eyes, you will see awfulness in life. Know, when your mind does this thing. Know that what is really there may be far worse than what you see. Only when you know this, can you face it. And then, you will be stronger than it. And, my Tinka, you are already so strong. So together they had looked, for a long time. It was that thought that so unsettled her now. What if what had really been there was far, far worse? "Tia?" Dibella said, putting a comforting hand on her arm, "are you all right?" "I am all right," Valentina said absently, "thinking..." "I cannot believe he is gone," Tercella said to the table, "just like that." "They say it was a heart attack," said Dibella, "chronic exposure to rocket fumes." "Bah!" Tercella snapped, "a load of PЦTIИSКУ that is! You know where he really came from." Dibella glowered, "you should not speak of such things." "Pfft, I want to punch something," Tercella crossed her arms, "speaking of Sergei, where is he anyway? I have not seen him all day." Sergei, of course, chose this very moment to burst through the door, eyes wide, "have you heard the news?" "What?" "What?" "We're being relocated!" "Wwhhaatt??!!" "Where?!" "To a new cosmodrome, near Kermangrad." Valentina finally looked up, "the Capitol?" "We're going home!" Dibella squealed. "Yes... Home..." Tercella studied the table. "Yes, back to civilization!" Sergei said triumphantly, taking a seat at the table, "and not a moment too soon. Everyone here smells of yak." "What an awful thing to say," Dibella snapped at him, "the people here have never been anything but kind and welcoming to us, and after we were just dumped on them too!" "Well they still smell of yak," he countered. "It's how they live! They can't help it." "They could bathe." "They do bathe!" "The people I mean, not the yaks." Dibella opened her mouth, then closed it again. "You know, he does have a point," Tercella said matter-of-factly. "Why?" Valentina said, looking down again, "why are we being moved?" "I suppose the Imperium thinks all the secrecy is no longer necessary, what with the Foreigners having been here and all. Having the entire space program on Ussari soil would solve certain... internal problems too." "How soon?" Tercella asked. "Immediately," Sergei said, "the trains to begin deconstruction have already arrived, I would imagine we'll be on the first one that leaves, in a day or so." "But... the launch manifest... this will delay everything. A new launch facility will take months to build, at least!" "It's finished. Mostly." "What?!" "There have been a number of launches of the new ethanol-powered rocket already." "Wwwhhhaaattt???!!!" Dibella slumped back in her chair, incredulous, "how do you know all this? How did we not know?" "We're stuck in a hidden valley surrounded by impassible mountains and empty yak pasture," Tercella said flatly, "we're probably the easiest people in the Union to keep secrets from. Another reason they put us here." Dibella gave her a look. Sergei sat back and smiled with the smugness of a know-it-all who, for one horrible moment, actually does. "And one more thing--" he began, but then Igor came through the other door, his face ashen. Dibella looked at him with concern, "what? What's wrong?" He was looking directly at Valentina. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, and looked at the floor. He opened his mouth again, raised a finger, then reconsidered and studied the floor. He opened his mouth again trying weakly to smile, spread his hands, then returned to watching the floor. Finally, with obvious difficulty, he met Valentina's confused gaze. "I see Kommissar," he said grimly, "he say... he say... you no fly again." "What?!" Shouted Dibella. "It wasn't her fault!" Screamed Tercella, "she had no control, she couldn't--" Igor raised a hand, "Kommissar say, you too valuable now, to risk. You remain in training and support role." He looked as if he wanted to say more, but no more came out. For a moment, all eyes turned to Valentina. Then, without a word, she fled out the door. "Tia!" Dibella yelled, but she was already gone. Sergei's smile nearly encircled his cylindrical head. "You knew," Tercella turned to him, "all this time... you knew!" Sergei now opened his mouth to say something, then closed it rapidly as Dibella began rhythmically driving the point of her knife into the table. Thock. Thock. Thock. He turned to Tercella and opened it again, then closed it as she drew her fork across the table, the tines gouging deep grooves in the wood and pulling up furrows of splinters. Screeeeeeeeeeee. He then looked at Igor, turned very pale, and quickly fled out the opposite door. Dibella and Tercella looked at each other. "Should... should we follow?" Tercella asked. Dibella thought for a moment, "no. No, let's give her some time." "I meant Sergei." Dibella returned a smile as cold as a Kerberian winter, "yes, let's." They rose. Igor cleared his throat. Loudly. They sat. And watched the door as the day's last light faded in the windows. *** Valentina Kerman sat on a rusting rocket stage, still embedded in the ground where it had fallen months ago. Around her, a herd of yaks lowed complacently. She hugged her knees and looked up at the stars in the satin sky, her eyes watering from the odor. That's what she kept telling herself. Not far away, concealed in the shadows and prudently upwind, Igor kept silent vigil. He had a job to do, and like always he would see it done. But he didn't have to like it.

Stockalike w/ stock revamp. Everything else about the system works exactly as it should, some engines are just "easier" than others.

Just curious, how will this new update mesh with RealPlume? I added the latter back when there was that bad no-plume bug, so now I have a grab bag of engines that need ullage & ignitions and engines that don't. It's quite odd.

Now I would counter this advice a bit, even with "expendable" characters, the more development you give them, the more connection the reader will have to them. That alone can make your bad guys seem badder. Nothing toys with the reader's emotions like making a character they like then doing something perfectly awful to them. Stephen King is a bit of an expert on this. Yes, accents are very tricky to get right. If you google "how to write in xxx accent" there's alot of material to give you some input.

That would be Spain:D Hmm, and I see the RatSquirrelFish seem to be expanding their territory.

Well this looks like an interesting read to keep subbed. Tho I appear to be the odd man out in not having written anything about Jeb

Chapter 9: Reclining at Table "...And so she says... she says... she says..." Director Kermanev fought through bales of laughter, then shifted his deep voice up a few octaves, "but honey, this one's eating my golubtsy!" Valentina joined in now, the pair of them howling with laughter across the small table. Director Kermanev slapped his hand on the table, making the half-empty plates clink and knocking over the empty bottle in the middle. "But seriously," he said, coughing and chortling, "vile, vile creatures. If ever you find yourself there, never sleep by water. They say the taste lingers for days." More laughter erupted. "Days?" Valentina asked, wiping away a tear. "So I am told. And speaking of taste, you really must try the okroshka, the chef has truly outdone himself this time." The chef chose this moment to appear with fresh plates and a full bottle. The look on his face seemed like he took the compliment as a personal insult. He roughly exchanged plates then returned to the kitchen. "Oh, no, thank you," Valentina said, still giggling, "I never did gain the taste for soured milk. In Kerberia, milk never sours, it just freezes." All expression suddenly left the Director's face. "DД," he said, staring intently at something very far away, "DД." Sensing the awkwardness, Valentina took a mouthful from another plate, "but the humidity is excellent, and so early in the season, too." Director Kermanev shook himself, "er, yes, from a collective farm outside Kermangrad. They're expecting a bumper crop so I was able to pull some strings. Hard to come by this time of year." The dinner had been quite pleasant so far. The Director's residence was typical of buildings on the facility: simple, stout, and hastily constructed. He had few decorations, but good, solid wood furniture that showed the scars of years of use. As one of the Four, Valentina always ate well, but this had been a veritable feast! Borscht, of course, and shchi, and pelmeni and pirogi. Black bread, and stuffed roasted this-and-that, with plenty of kvass to wash it all down, and of course, being Kerbals, the two knew how to eat. It was all a welcome relief. As she had expected, it had been days of debriefings and reports and questioning. The Imperium, the Academy of Sciences, the design bureaus, even the Ministry of the Interior, who weren't happy about several kilos of hydrazine dumped in a critical fishery. The pair of officers from the NKOTB were actually the most agreeable. The Director, as it turned out, was wonderful company was filled with amusing stories that sent them roaring with laughter until he broke into another coughing fit. He sighed and sat back for a moment, "it is a great thing you have done. You've single-handedly saved the crewed space program. If you'd wound up like that Foreigner- what was his name, Edmund?" he shook his head, "the Imperium wouldn't tolerate a propaganda loss like that. Even the Academy couldn't turn that around." "I almost didn't," she said with a touch of irritation, "if I hadn't got past the control lockout--" "Hah-haah!" The Director clapped his hands and shook a finger at her with a smile, "I knew you would figure it out!" Valentina blinked, then took a long quaff of kvass. "The Kommissar insisted that there be a code, but he didn't say it had to be a good one! So I picked something simple, easily guessed. The same one I use on my luggage, and-- my dear, are you quite all right?" Valentina was gagging and choking on inhaled kvass. "--Fine," she croaked. "Swallowed wrong," she coughed. The Director pinched his eye... bulges, "oh... well... At any rate, that formality has been done away with. There will be no control lock on Dibella's flight. The abort system has been configured to automatically trigger if gee-force exceeds expected levels as well." Valentina was still choking, "the flight is going ahead? After what happened?" "It is. The Kommissar was quite insistent. Learn what we can from failures but keep forging ahead," he glanced around the room, then lowered his voice, "someone in the Imperium is breathing down his neck. They're anxious to use this... lull... to gain parity with the Foreigners." Politics again. She brushed it aside, "but Dibella... sir, what happened?" He sighed again, and put his hands on the table, "I wish I knew. Right away, I had the upper stage from her rocket pulled and test fired, the next three in storage too." He paused, and lurched into another bout of dry, hacking coughs. "Izvinitye, izvinitye, too many years breathing rocket fumes," he thumped a fist against his chest, then shook his head slowly, "every firing was perfect. Exactly on the numbers. Zero anomalies. I've read your report, it just doesn't make any sense." He raised a hand before she could protest, "I believe every word of it. I just don't understand." "But... what could cause something like that?" Asked Valentina. "The only thing I could surmise would be a flaw in the engine casing," he absently twirled a hand in the air as he spoke, "the flaw allows the casing to buckle and balloon, the expanded casing allows more propellant to be exposed to the flame front, more burning propellant raises the internal pressure and thrust and the casing balloons more, exposing more propellant to the flame front... and so on until the motor either burns out or ruptures." Another round of coughing. "It's possible I suppose, but the RT-10 is one of our oldest and most reliable engines, and I've personally inspected every one that comes in and never found a defect. It's very simple to manufacture." "So there's no way to know?" She asked. He gave her a pained look, "not unless more debris is recovered. I have teams out searching but it's spread over a wide area, most of it taiga, so any debris that survived reentry will be difficult to find, if it hasn't already been eaten by something." He cough-sighed, "so without something more concrete, Dibella's flight goes forward. But I don't think you should be worried. This is rocket science, after all. Failure is how we learn, and I did learn from this incident, and made what corrections I can." "You are sure?" Valentina asked. "As sure as I can be. Listen, many things are about to change. I can't go into much detail, but... very shortly any problems with the Strannik series will become irrelevant. We march ever onward. But there are still two unassigned orbiters left. Flight-worthy test articles, leftovers. Since we have them anyway, I'm going to lobby the Academy for two more long-duration orbital flights before the close of the series. You and Dibella will each get your time in orbit. I just don't know how your rocket could have malfunctioned in that way unless something was tam--" he stopped, wide eyed, and looked furtively around the room again. Valentina blinked, many questions in her eyes. Director Kermanev laughed. It sounded forced. "But, that's just the paranoid ramblings of an old man! Whatever happened on your launch was surely just a fluke." "Well, I suppose you are right," Valentina said uneasily, "if there was a defect, that inspection the night before would have caught it." "What?" "Sir?" "What did you just say?" "The prelaunch inspection... I saw a scaffolding around the upper stage the night before the launch. I assumed it was another inspection." "I did not authorize..." he said, mostly to himself, "are you sure?" "Well, no, it had been a long day and I was very tired and--" "Are you sure?" He looked at her with an intensity she had not seen in him before. "Yes." "Troubling... most troubling," he said to the table, and coughed, eyes wandering this way and that, then produced a little black book and thumbed through the pages, "no, no work was authorized on the rocket. The area should have been secured, sealed off. This means..." He looked around the room again, laughing awkwardly. "But, there I go rambling again! Just a misunderstanding I'm sure, perhaps I did not get the memo. Certainly some simple explanation." He rose, "I am very sorry to cut our evening short, my dear, but I really must speak to the Kommissar at--" He coughed. But the timbre... something was different. He coughed again, and again, followed by horrible gurgling sounds. "Comrade?" Valentina said, "are you all right?" The Director coughed and retched, bending low over the table. Something black and unpleasant splattered on a half-finished plate. The tablecloth bunched in his balled fists. "Comrade?!" He coughed, and coughed, hideous, wet, ripping sounds, his entire body convulsing. Then gasping for breath he looked up and his eyes, what's happened to his eyes?! In the distance, she heard horrible screaming. His eyes! He took a long, rasping breath, dark veins standing out on his face. The screaming drew nearer. "D'yavol," he said in a rasp, then fell to the table with a clattering of plates, and was still. Valentina stared, uncomprehending, and realized the screaming was coming from her own mouth. "Help," she said weakly. Where was that damn cook?! "Someone please help." But she knew it was pointless. Director Kermanev's last word hung in the air like smoke from a pyre. D'yavol The devil.

Could someone by chance help me with figuring out launch windows? I'm launching from a space center at about 42 degrees latitude, so I can only launch into 42 degree orbits or higher. This makes getting to the Mun (or Minmus) quite a bit more brain-aching, well at least doing so efficiently. I need to plan my launch so that I'm in the right plane where after the TMI burn the Mun intercepts my AN/DN about the same time I reach it. So, how do I go about figuring the right time to launch so I don't end up sitting in orbit for days with my fuel boiling off? Equatorial DN after launch is usually right about over stock KSC if that halps.

Your level of detail, as always, is staggering. What did you ever settle on for thermal settings? I did my first high-orbit reentry recently and it wasn't nearly as toasty as it should have been, I need a reference lol.

Chapter 8: Starry Night Valentina Kerman sat on an old driftwood log, on an empty gravel beach, before a roaring fire, kilometers from anywhere, with the stars spread out overhead like diamonds on the black felt of the sky, picking mosquito out of her teeth. They really weren't bad if you just knew how to cook them. Bit stringy though. She had prepared it with some wild onions and fresh kelp. The kelp was a nice surprise, she'd never had it before. Its salty fishiness complemented the mosquitoiness of the mosquito. Her pressure suit and flight clothes were hung up to dry next to the fire, and she could feel the chill in the air as the frost crept in. She didn't mind, the cold never bothered her anyway. You didn't last long in Kerberia if you didn't tolerate the cold. Kerberia. Could she really be home? Well, not home home. That must be hundreds of kilometers to the east still. She wondered if it was even there anymore. It would have been abandoned and empty for years now. Ever since she left to join the Air Force. The cold crept in a little more. So did something in the underbrush behind her. She tossed it a bit of mosquito. It chittered happily and scurried off. Until something else found it, chittered happily, and scurried off. Until something else found it, garrumphed loudly, and crashed off back into the forest. Such was life in the taiga. Eat or be eaten. Do what you must to survive, and never make noise. Her deda had always been emphatic about that. Valentina sighed softly, and looked up at the stars spread out overhead. In the taiga, it always seemed that the colder it was, the clearer it was. Unless it was snowing. Or freezing fog. Or freezing rain. Or a blizzard. It was on nights like this back when she was just a kerbling, that she would sit with her deda on the sod roof of their little cabin, wrapped in layers of warm fur and his wiry, old arms, his perpetual old-kerb stubble scratching at her cheek, and he would name the stars for her. "...that one is Harry, and that's Dave, and Bob, and that blinky one is Jeb..." He could be a little senile at times. They would sit like that, sometimes for hours, until long after their faces had gone numb and that old scar over his eye had turned as white as the snow. She missed him now. Never make noise noise, that's what he'd always said. Well, she had made plenty of noise today. The first of her people in space. However briefly. And it had been a disaster. Kerbin, from space, was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She'd never felt closer to home, like she belonged. She had to get back up there, she had to. And yet... Valentina looked up at the pale, bright disc of the Mün. It seemed to be silently mocking her. Why had it terrified her so? Like a child. A child, afraid of the dark. She wasn't one to give in to such childishness. But for that one awful moment, she could have sworn that the Mün was... looking at her. Like the creatures in the forest were looking at her now. On cue, some unpleasant hairy thing with huge teeth and tiny eyes crept out of the underbrush towards her. It gnashed its terrible teeth and rolled its beady eyes and showed its terrible claws. Valentina gave it a look. It quickly retreated back towards the underbrush. Until some other unpleasant hairy thing with smaller teeth but bigger eyes found it. The Mün. She supposed that would be the new goal, now that the Foreigners' lead had been narrowed. Today's flight was a major accomplishment, after all. Just had a minor mechanical defect, that's all. The Strannik series was the Union's most reliable launch vehicle, this must have been just a fluke. Dibella wouldn't be in any real danger... would she? The scaffolding Valentina saw the night before the launch must have knocked something loose. Just a simple mistake, nothing to be concerned about. In fact-- She blinked. She was doing it again. She closed her tired eyes and rubbed the wide, flat spot between them. Fatigue? Exhaustion? Nerves? No. It was like there were competing whispers in her head, all vying for attention at once. And at the back of it all, formless and indistinct just below the murky surface, was a memory she couldn't grasp. Valentina sighed again, and laid down on a pile of fresh spruce boughs nestled between the fire and the log. It blocked her view of the Mün, thankfully. She stared up at the stars. Growing up in the taiga, you learned to see the things just out of sight, hear the things just beyond hearing. To recognize the patterns. She could sense... something. But couldn't focus on it. That wasn't like her, and that, she realized, terrified her. Never make noise, her deda had always said, do what you must to survive. And never, ever take sides. He would never talk about it. Only a word here or there when groggy with tea and asked just so. But over the years, she'd pieced enough of it together. Her parents had done something awful. And one day Kerbs from the Imperium had come and taken them away. With that thought lingering, Valentina drifted off into a troubled and restless sleep beneath the light of the full Mün. Occasionally through the night, strange furry things crept out out of the forest, but none of them dared come near. *** She was awoken by a familiar low, rumbling whine in the distance. She quickly stoked the smoldering fire and threw some fresh spruce branches on, sending a thin pall of grey smoke into the clear morning sky. It wasn't long before the drone began getting louder. Ki-24 VTOL transports, called "Converters" for their unparalleled ability to convert fuel into noise. Sounded like half a dozen, standard search pattern. The hellacious noise sound grew and grew, drowning out the morning cacophony of the taiga and sending waves of terrified furry things scurrying and leaping, occasionally right into the mouth of some other furry thing, which was quite a surprise for both. Whoever the pilot was, he was flying extremely low. Finally the airborne leviathan lumbered into sight over the treetops and then out over the water, perhaps a hundred meters up the beach from where Valentina was standing. Its wide tandem wings and stout, bumpy form gave it a bizarrely organic look that was unique among typically utilitarian Ussari aircraft. She waved. A red flare fired from a dorsal turret indicated she'd been spotted. The aircraft continued to circle, the others joining up one by one or flying low passes over the beach. Until yesterday the noise would have been staggering, but now Valentina thought nothing (sound) could compare to (the world became sound) that rocket blast. The lead aircraft broke off, rounded back towards the beach, and then grew even louder as its weight transferred from the wings to its straining engines. In a bold maneuver, the pilot nosed in directly at the tree line, deftly setting down on the narrow strip of beach between the trees and surf while avoiding the scattered driftwood. Before the engines had even spooled down several figures were running towards her. The largest one quickly outpaced the others and in an instant Igor had scooped her up and was turning her over roughly in his huge hands. "Are you well are you hurt where is wound I bring bandage have you eaten I bring food--?" "Igor! Igor," Valentina protested, "I am fine! Put me down." He gently set her on he ground, looking slightly abashed. She smiled, "there is leftover mosquito by the fire." Igor's eyes lit up as he set off. She had only a moment's respite, though. "TIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Dibella glomped into her, nearly knocking her down, the dangling oxium mask from the other's pilot helmet smacking her in the face and offering a teasing promise of breath as her lungs were squeezed, "I knew you were ok! IknewitIknewitIknewit!" Dibella bounced up and down to a percussive symphony of popping joints. Just when Valentina thought she would black out again, Tercella showed up and peeled the other Kerbal off. "You scared the PЦTIЙ out of us," ("Language!") she said, her own hug enthusiastic but without the messy dislocations and crushed vertebrae, "when we lost the telemetry feed, we feared the worst." "How did you find me so soon?" Valentina asked. "Emergency beacon in the pod," said Dibella, "when we lost that signal too, the panic really started." "Valentina." PЦTIЙ. "Sergei." He wore his typical smug look, "so it seems you have survived after all." He looked around at the simple campsite and once-deserted beach, now swarming with more and more security and recovery crews fast-roping down from the other hovering Converters. Shockingly, he held out his left hand, "nicely done." Valentina shook it awkwardly, the other one did indeed look like an eggplant. "Comrade Pilot!" The four turned and quickly saluted the Political Officer, "or shall I say, Comrade Kerbonaut," then he held out a hand with a vice-like grip, "the Kommissar sends his regrets that he could not be here personally, but he is a busy Kerb. Yet it is a wondrous day! A glorious day! You have reclaimed our pride by being the first Ussari in space!" "So... I did make it to space, then?" He grinned widely beneath his huge mustache, "Indeed! You were tracked on radar to an altitude of just over 140 kilometers. Of course, we weren't sure at the time if you were actually alive or not or which track was you, but since you are here now, you must have survived, DД?" "Now, where is the pod?" He asked, scanning around the area. Valentina sheepishly pointed to the sea. His grin faded, "oh... well, then... I shall have to modify my report..." he scratched his chin and mumbled to himself. Then he noticed the others staring at him, and clapped Valentina roughly on the shoulders. "This is a great day, a Great day!" He leaned in and whispered to her, "never speak of it again." "AIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" A security Kerb suddenly burst from the tree line nearby with his arms flailing wildly. Something that looked rather like a hairpiece with feet was making little barking noises and trying with surprising success to eat his rucksack, "get it off me, get it off meeeeeee!" Dibella took a step closer to Valentina, eyes wide. The Political Officer sighed and put a hand to his face, "ah, a Political Officer's work is never done. Tonight, we celebrate, Comrades! Glory to Arstotzka" and he set off towards the screams. The four Kerbals stared. "Why does he say that?" Asked Valentina. "You there, furry thing, papers, please!" "I haven't the slightest..." Said Dibella. "I can feel it chewing! Aaaaaaahhhhh!" "What is an Arzotska anyway?" Asked Tercella. "Quite the grip it has!" "Perhaps a kind of cheese, DД?" Said Sergei. "No that's my hair!" "DД, definitely some sort of cheese." Rustling in the brush drew their attention. They watched, silently, as a headless mosquito blundered past, feeling its way along the ground. Dibella edged closer still. "Such strange things here..." Mused Sergei. Chittering drew his attention the other way, and there, sitting on the end of a branch, was yet another small, furry thing. This one was tiny, covered in fur that looked luxuriously soft, with a long, bushy tail, oversized, bright, beady eyes, short, floppy ears, puffy cheeks, and long whiskers that gave it a perpetual welcoming smile. It circled the end of the branch one way, then the other, then chittered some more and waved its whiskers at Sergei. He approached. "Ah, Sergei..." "What an endearing little creature..." He poked a stubby finger at it. It stretched its nose out at him. "I would not do that if I were you..." "Pfft," he turned to Valentina, "you can't possibly expect me to believe this adorable little thing is dangerous." "Well, no, not really him," she said, looking up, "but his kin on the branches above you could strip you to the bone in less than a minute." Dibella hid behind her. Sergei looked up into dozens of pairs of bright, beady eyes. One of them chittered. "I... think... I'llbegoingnow--" he bolted for the nearest Converter, going up the dangling rope with impressive speed considering he had to climb over the two Kerbals climbing down. "Is... is that true?" Said Dibella from behind Valentina, "to the bone?" Valentina rolled her eyes, "well, they mostly hunt at night. Mostly." Dibella's huge eyes darted nervously back and forth. Tercella wrapped her arms around both their necks, "bah, enough with the scary-scary! Let's go home, before I actually start to miss the smell of yak." She led them off towards the waiting Converter. Valentina noticed she was actually starting to feel normal again. Had all this craziness really been less than twenty-four hours? She knew there would be days of debriefings and questions and interrogations ahead, but such was the way of things. She was beginning to look forward to that dinner with Director Kermanev. Yet in the back of her mind, something still whispered.

After finishing this next chapter, I've come to realize, you may be on to something there.

In Shadows, Chadvey mentions they even impressed him. Now just imagine the polar bears

I've got the big shiny collector's edition of the manga... but for some reason I just couldn't really get into it. But, I'm also so old that "Warriors of the Wind" will always be the original story for me even though I know what a horribly act of butchery it was (heresy, I know). I s'pose the design does have some potential, it did get off the ground after all. I think it's mostly stock with a couple of procedural parts, lemme see if I can figure a way to post the craft file. Maybe someone with more skill and less dislike for Kerbal aircraft could do it justice

heh, you even used the same render I did. Yours came out much better, tho. Forgot the engines were in the wing stub things like that. Need to watch it again.

Apparently one part riding inside another part has an extremely low coefficient of friction: