[Writing] A standard supply run

[Joshmo]

James was cold. He always got cold on the way to the Mun. His suit\'s biometric readings never showed an actual change in his body temperature, but he was cold nonetheless.

Space was not what he had expected.

James had wanted to go to space ever since he was a child. This was not unusual - most kids want to go to space. James wanted to be a pilot. He wanted to be just like Jebediah Kermin, the greatest - and craziest - astronaut in the history of the Kerbal Space Program. The man who caused, and walked away from, more explosions than anyone in the history of forever. Yes Jeb was a legend, and James wanted to be one too.

The KSP was not what he had expected either.

Gone were the days of plywood and gunpowder. Gone the aluminum foil and duct tape tank patches. No more would anyone leave Kerbin\'s atmosphere strapped to a nuclear missile. Space travel had become...ordinary.

In fact, the Mun was the only thing that came close what James expected.

The Mun was a large grey dusty rock. In fact, the only mildly interesting thing on the Mun, (apart from the occasional deployment of a new shiny piece of mining equipment,) were the Munoliths, and even they had become mundane. They did not give off any sort of radio signal. They did not contain the secret knowledge of an alien race. They were made of a rare mineral, but certainly it wasn\'t a previously unknown one.

James remembered the excitement when the first munolith was discovered, smack dab in the center of what had been described as 'an odd looking crater near the equator.' It was later named Silisko Crater after the one who discovered it. The crater was not that odd, and the munolith was little more than a stone slab with a picture of it\'s creators on it, and five strange symbols that were eventually translated as, 'Is anyone out there?' Several more had been found, and when they turned out to be exactly like the first, they stopped looking for more. They didn\'t even bother to do live inspections anymore. A small telemetric probe could do the job for much cheaper. The space program had become more about money than exploration. James found that deplorable.

He had never been to Minmus, but he expected to be disappointed.

James frequently wondered if there was any excitement left anywhere out here. Would he be doomed to spend the rest of his life bored? He traveled to the Mun every week to deliver supplies to, and transport ore from, the mines. He was a common truck driver, his route was just a bit longer than others.

Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to visit Kerbol - disappointment then death probably.

He quite liked sunsets actually, and in his line of work, he got to see more than just about anyone. He never seemed to get bored with sunsets.

James was startled out of his reverie by an alarm and a large red flashing light. He tapped the silence button and began checking instruments for the problem.

The MechJeb had injected into Munar orbit while he was musing, but the angle of approach was way off. The alarm was indicating insufficient fuel for landing. That was the KSP for ya, send just enough fuel to get where you are going, nothing extra for sightseeing. Save money by sending smaller craft and refuel for the return trip. It wasn\'t actually that terrible an idea, they produced more than enough fuel on the Mun. James wondered if they had to cut it quite so close though.

The MechJeb was humming quietly to itself, as if it had somehow heard his thoughts about wanting to be more like the man it was modeled after. James wondered if it had always made that noise. He couldn\'t remember.

The instruments indicated that the Mun was approaching at a very unsafe rate, and that he should probably do something about that. A visual inspection out one of the port holes revealed that the instruments were understating. James quickly began landing procedures. He figured that he should kill as much of his velocity as he could, and perhaps he would survive the crash. The miners would come pick him up at some point. They would at least show up to salvage their supplies.

James fired up the RCS thrusters to try and assist the now sputtering engines. He strapped himself in and waited for the Mun to come get him.

* * *

James was cold. Had he checked, his suit would have in fact registered a several degree decrease in body temperature. He glanced out the port hole and was shocked to see the wreckage of his ship strewn out for several hundred meters. The MechJeb was silent.

James was alarmed by another flashing light. The ZO2 levels were low - very low. Those miners had better hurry, he thought to himself. He pressed the button that retracted the blast shield that covered the canopy. As the heavy plates retracted, they revealed the barren landscape of the Mun. 'How do you like that for excitement?' he asked the MechJeb.

The ZO2 alarm went off again. Levels critical. There must be a breech in the hull. The light grew dim as Kerbol began to dip below the horizon.

It was the most beautiful sunset he had ever seen.

[Commander Zoom]

Poignant.

[GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca]

Wow. This is almost like EVE Online\'s chronicle called 'inferno'. Melancholic, I must say. :-|

[Joshmo]

It did turn out a bit darker than I expected. All I had at first was that last line. It turned out bleaker than I thought, but sometimes you have to go where the story takes you.