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The Saga of Emiko Station - Complete


Just Jim

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6 hours ago, WanderingKid said:

Hey, @Just Jim, just wanted to drop a line and say I've really enjoyed your story, and thank you for posting it.

Thank you! I'm having all sorts of fun writing it! I'm glad you like it!

8 hours ago, Emperor of the Titan Squid said:

Uh-oh. This is a very well-written mystery.

Thanks! Truth be told, my original intention was to make it like an old Jonny Quest cartoon... :wink:

Oh, and before I get yelled at for making old, obscure references.... again.... lol.... this is Jonny Quest.
In fact, when I say I grew up on this cartoon, it might explain a lot... :rolleyes:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited by Just Jim
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Hey everyone...

So I'm hoping to get most of the screenshots wrapped up today and tomorrow, and over the weekend I added 2 more mods into the mix. First is @Angel-125's M.O.L.E mod. Lots more fun parts for Angelo Kerman to "invent".... and a couple in particular I really want to put to good use.  :wink:

The other mod I re-installed is Asteroid Day. I had but once, but I just hadn't gotten around to loading an updated version until this weekend.  And sure enough, soon as I did, the game started messing with me again, and giving me freebies...

The first Asteroid day related contract isn't to map incoming asteroids near Kerbin... Oh no..... @max_creative, you are going to love this..... The first contract I get is to map them near Dres!!!

Spoiler

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This plays really nice with what I'm already doing, so yeah, I accepted it.  :)

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18 hours ago, Commander Zoom said:

You all need to STOP.  Right now.

This is Just Jim's story, not yours.

Some of you have already been told this.  You should not have to be told again.

It's OK, I have to admit, I sort of started it this time. But thanks!  :D

Why I brought it up was how perfectly it meshes into the story. It was about time for me to bring Asteroid day back in because Thompberry is more than a little worried about the appearance of the Dres-deriods. Then as soon as I do, the game says "hunt for asteroids around Dres..."

The timing is so perfect it's almost spooky... 

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Wow... it's been a busy few days, but the screenshots for the next chapter are finally done. But I can't give y'all a spoiler this time without... well... spoiling things. Sorry... 

 

On 2/14/2017 at 7:55 PM, SpaceplaneAddict said:

You're right. In fact, I predict that the consequences might be... DRESTRUCTIVE!

Sorry, I'll go now.

I saw what you did there.... :)

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OK, I got all the screenshots sorted, photoshopped what needed to be, and everything uploaded. I'll write up the next chapter tomorrow.

 

10 hours ago, Zhetaan said:

@Just Jim:

It's nice to see that you put Asteroid Day back in.  Honestly, I'm a little surprised you don't have more asteroid mods, considering.  Are you running 1.2.2?  I've been wondering whether the 1.2 version of Asteroid Day works well in 1.2.2 of KSP.

I am currently running version 1.2.2, and so far Asteroid Day seem to be working. :)

And mostly I was just procrastinating about re-installing it. :rolleyes:

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“Do not call up that which you cannot put down.” 
                                                                                                 H.P. Lovecraft, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"

 

Chapter 76
Pandora's Box

 

"Piper..... Piper Kerman..... Can you hear me? Piper?"

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"Piper? It's me, Thompberry, your favorite brain in a pod.... Piper?"

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"Piper... wake up.... Come on... wake up....."

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"Piper... wake up.... don't make me come out there... I'm not sure either of us would like it...."

For several seconds Thompberry waited, trying not to panic, until Piper's mouth slowly began to move.

"Ewwwww....." she whispered softly, and Thompberry felt a rush of relief surge thru his processors.

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"Whew.... that's better. And what do you mean by Ewwwww??? I happen to be a quite handsome brain."

"I..." Piper said groggily, still half asleep. "I prefer my evil brains with mustaches..."

Several meters behind Piper, running as fast as she could in the low Mun gravity, the Rocklady finally caught up to Piper and Thompberry, only to find the two of them softly laughing. 

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"Are... are you OK?" the Rocklady panted, a little confused.

Once Piper had been spotted near the dead magic boulder, everyone dropped what they were doing to try and stop her. But Thompberry, calculating they wouldn't reached her in time, undocked himself and took off like a small rocket, managing to land in front of Piper and bring her to a halt before she could reach the strange boulder. He then called to the others to stay back, but the Rocklady didn't care, and ran as fast as she could to try and help.

"I... I'm OK," Piper answered as she switched her helmet lights on. "What happened?"

"It looked as if you were walking in your sleep," Thompberry explained. "Do you remember anything?"

"No.... yes.... I was in the cockpit, and it was quiet, and I remember nodding off a couple times.... and there was...." Piper faded off, not sure if she had been dreaming at that point. "I... I think I heard singing. And..."

"Yes?" the Rocklady asked gently. "And?"

"The song... the music.... I don't know how, or where it came from, but I know that song.... it was that same beautiful weird song Emiko keeps singing."

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Under normal circumstances Thompberry would have said she was dreaming. But this place, and these circumstances, were anything but normal, and Thompberry was genuinely worried.

"I think it best we all get back to the compound."

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About an hour later, once everyone was inside the habitat dome, and had a chance to catch their collective breaths, Kerenna Kerman, along with Thompberry and the Rocklady, explained their earlier findings to the rest of the crew.

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"So that... thing... out there, it's the remains of a Magic Boulder... that smashed into the Mun?" Kuzzter shook his head in awe. "And these smaller floating boulders... they're fragments blown off of it when it impacted?"

"This is what the evidence suggests, yes," Thompberry answered, still reeling himself a little from the implications. "But the real asteroid experts are Harfield and Jandolin Kerman, and they should examine our findings as soon as we can transmit safely."

"As soon as?" Kerenna asked. "What do you mean?"

"I know," Kuzzter said with a sly smile. "He's worried about that saucer out there..."

"Yes, Captain, you are very astute." Thompberry sounded impressed. "I do not know for certain, but there is a high probability it is watching, and listening, and I think it wise we not transmit what we've found until morning. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Kuzzter turned to Chuck. "We'll need a couple hours to finish up outside. The rest of you should stay in here. And no-one goes anywhere alone, understood?"

"Yes, sir," the crew answered unanimously. "Understood."

"Good," Kuzzter smiled. "Then we best get at it. Thompberry, we'll signal you when we're ready..."

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*          *          *

 

Approximately 4 kilometers from the Pandora, deep down in the base of a nearby crater, the saucer once known as Gamma-77 waited patiently for sunrise.

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Once it's batteries and capacitors were fully charged, it gently lifted off and headed towards a flat area along the crater rim where it could safely launch it's attack.

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But once the saucer was landed, it scanned the crater, and discovered something was quite out of place... The base was deserted, and the Pandora, along with her crew, were gone!

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This couldn't be right, the saucers seismic equipment should have detected the Pandora lifting off... the infrared scanners seen the heat bloom of her engines. How could it be gone without the saucer detecting it? Unsure how to proceed, Gamma-77 decided it needed more data, and slowly lifted off and down to the deserted base.

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Nothing... empty... deserted.... The saucer scanned out in all directions and found nothing... No, wait... there was something. A faint signal.... perhaps a small rover, was near the large boulder, and heading slowly towards the base, and Gamma-77.

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As it got close, the saucer scanned the small rover, and detected only science and testing equipment, along with a small probe core... all quite harmless. Perhaps it could provide some clues as to the current situation? And so the saucer did not attack the small rover, and instead waited for it to get closer before proceeding.

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But when it was close enough, it was the rover which communicated first.

"You've been altered... upgraded.... <gurgle blurp> Fascinating" A strange voice bubbled weirdly. "Gamma-77 <gurgle blurp>  You are commanded to <Bubbling gurgle> stand down. <gurgle gurgle> This is your creator <bubble boil> Thompberry Kerman!"

"Non-Sequitur, your data is uncoordinated." Gamma-77 replied. "No life signs detected, This unit cannot be Thompberry Kerman."

"Ahhhh, but I am <bubble gurgle> I am your creator..." the weird voice laughed. "And I am also your destroyer! <Boiling gurgles> Prepare to be obliterated, Gamma-77!"

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The chem-cam laser wasn't terribly powerful, but Thompberry knew exactly where to aim it, burning thru the outer casing and into the sensitive wiring beneath in a matter of seconds.

And the saucer, sensing this as an attack, lashed back with a devastating burst of energy!

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"AGGGGGGGGGGGgggglllllllllllllll............" Thompberry screamed hideously....  "You.... killed..... me..... <gurgle> Noooo... no.... nooo........" 

And slowly the small rover lost all power and went dark...

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But as Gamma-77 scanned the rover, it found a faint signal, and discovered the rover's small external hard-drive was apparently still intact. Not only was the saucer intrigued as to how the hard-drive had survived, it was also a much needed opportunity to gather valuable data. And without hesitation the saucer remotely connected itself to the drive and started scanning and downloading it's contents.

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But instead of finding scientific data, Gamma-77 discovered several folders, each containing the recent events.... the events of Thompberry Kerman!

And as it scanned thru the folders contents, Gamma-77's semi-sentient brain discovered the terrible truth of how Thompberry had become a disembodied brain, and realized to it's horror that it had, in fact, just murdered it's creator!

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A normal computer might not feel emotions, but Gamma-77, like it's cousins on Kerman, was more than just a normal computer, and found itself conflicted, and unsure of how it.... felt? Could it have... had it just committed... murder? And while it wrestled with what felt like a strange sense of guilt, it also continued to scan and download the rover's hard drive...

And in it's confused state, it downloaded and began to scan a small, unassuming folder named "Pandora's Box", containing several odd, but innocent looking enough, algorithms.... and one equally innocent looking auto-run file. But before it realized, it was much too late. For these files were anything but innocent... written by a vindictive ghost named Sanny, who once excelled at creating especially vicious computer virus's. And Gamma-77 quite literally screamed as the saucer's systems almost instantly began to break down, and it's programming started to fragment.

Then Thompberry's eye-camera lights flashed back on, and the rover powered back up... and he began to laugh and laugh and laugh..

"You can't hurt me!" Thompberry cried out. "I made you!!!" 

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Now disorientated and desperate, Gamma-77 tried to lift off and escape, but only survived a few more seconds before going completely dead... and crashing back down into the Mun in a nasty fireball.

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"Kraken's krap.... I was hoping to salvage it." Thompberry said to himself as the remains of the saucer rolled down and blew up again before finally coming to a stop.

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Thompberry waited to verify the saucer was quite dead, then switched frequencies and called out towards the empty base.

"It's OK, you can come out now!"

And slowly, inside the array of satellite dishes, the Pandora became visible on Thompberry's cameras!"

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In the Pandora's back cabin, the Rocklady looked over at Captain Kuzzter and smiled.

"So that's how your 'blanketing system' works... Brilliant, sir. Brilliant."

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And in the cockpit, Kerenna called looked over at Piper with a grin.

"Now you have to admit, dear... Thompberry did good."

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"Yeah," Piper sighed. "He did... but please don't tell him I said so. He'd never let me hear the end of it."

"OK," Kerenna smiled before switching on her mic. "Thompberry, are you all right?"

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"I am quite undamaged, Kerenna Kerman." Thompberry answered back. "How is the ship?"

"Piper is checking now," Kerenna radioed as she checked over her instruments. "But it looks like those big dishes absorbed that saucer-blast like you planned, and everything seems to have survived. Nice work."

"Outstanding." Thompberry sounded pleased, but also a bit worried. "But we should make hast, and leave this place as soon as possible, before whoever was helping the Gamma-77 saucer discovers what has transpired here. I'm heading over to inspect the saucer remains, I recommend we prepare for immediate launch. And Captain Kuzzter... we should leave nothing behind"

"Understood." Kuzzter replied as Thompberry drove over to the charred remains of the saucer.

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Once he was close enough, Thompberry looked over the wreckage, and was overjoyed to find the upper probe core was still more or less intact.

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"Captain Kuzzter, Chuck Kerman," Thompberry called back to the ship. "I require your assistance, gentlekerbs. One of the memory core's is intact, and I believe can be salvaged for later examination."

When they reached the saucer, Chuck took a quick look and whipped out his socket wrench.

"I'll have it unbolted in just a sec..."

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Then Chuck used Thompberry's rover to haul the damaged core back to the Pandora while Kuzzter stayed behind and attended to the rest of the wreckage.

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Like the old colony base before, the plan was to leave nothing of value behind, And when Chuck and Thompberry were far enough away, Kuzzter attached a timed explosive charged to the saucer remains and then rocketed back to a safe distance and watched the fireworks.

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By the time Kuzzter got back to the Pandora, Thompberry was once again docked to the top of the ship, and Chuck had just finished loading the probe core into the rear storage area and was turning his attention to dissembling the rover.

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But before the two could start tearing the rover apart, Thompberry radioed softly. "My friends, I think we should leave... now!"

"What is it?" Kuzzter called back quietly.

"I... I don't know." Thompberry said, sounding quite worried. "Up on the crater rim.... I'm picking up life-signs...I think... but they're erratic. I think we have company."

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"Understood. Commander Piper, we need to leave, now!" Kuzzter whispered, then turned to Chuck. "Get on board."

"We're ready up here, Captain." Piper answered back, quite eager to leave this place.

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Once Chuck was safely, Kuzzter turned and set his final explosive charge, knowing this one was more than capable of taking out the Pandora if they weren't far enough when it blew...

He took a deep breath, pressed the activation button, and began counting...

"30.... 29.... 28....."

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"26... 25.... 24....."

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"23.... 22.... 21....."

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"20... 19.... 18...."

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"17.... 16.... 15...."

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"14.... 13.... 12.... Piper, punch it!" Kuzzter screamed as he slammed the hatch door shut and frantically strapped himself into his seat.

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"11... 10... 9...."

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"8.... 7.... 6...."

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"5.... 4....."

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"3.... 2..... 1.... Brace yourselves..."

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"I think we survived.... wow.... even with Thompberry on board," Piper grinned and looked over at Kerenna. "Let's go home."

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But back on the Mun, on the rim of the crater they had just left, two lone figures were watching all that had happened with great interest.

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"My lord..." The minion once known as Carlenna Kerman whined, "Why can't I slay them?"

The other figure remained silent, and watched the smoke clearing in the crater below.

"Please... my liege, why do you let them escape? Did they not destroy our saucer? Let me destroy them in turn!!!"

"Hold...." the Kraken Lord growled softly. "You will do nothing."

"But, why? I do not understand!" the Carlenna-minion whined again.

"No, you do not... and that is why you will always remain a thrall."

"But..."

"No!" The Kraken lord spoke even softer, but much more menacing then before. "You believe they have won... do you?"

"Have they not, my lord?" the Carlenna-minion asked meekly.

"No, they have gained little..." The Kraken Lord turned and looked down into the now empty crater again before continuing with a diabolical grin...

 "They have gained little. But I, however..... I have learned much this day."

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The Saga of Emiko Station, and the Tale of Emiko Kerman, are far, far from over.....

Go to Chapter 77
Return to Index

Edited by Just Jim
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19 minutes ago, DualDesertEagle said:

now this is where I feel like I need to correct:

On a body with no atmosphere there's no medium to carry any shock waves from an explosion, so no one aboard the pandora woul've felt or even heard the explosion on the ground.

What about the shrapnel?

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45 minutes ago, DualDesertEagle said:

On a body with no atmosphere there's no medium to carry any shock waves from an explosion, so no one aboard the pandora woul've felt or even heard the explosion on the ground.

25 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

What about the shrapnel?

 

He's right... but it's easily fixed... I just took out the sentence, and problem solved... :wink:

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11 hours ago, RocketSquid said:

Impossible!! No ship that small has a cloaking device!!

I didn't know there was a size limit... :sticktongue:

No, seriously, this isn't a cloaking device, in the traditional sense. It's a blanketing device, which is a little different. First off, bear in mind this is fictional, so you have to take all of it with a grain of salt.  :wink:

A cloaking device, according to Mr. Spock in the original Balance of Terror, is based on "the selective bending of light around an object." There is no way my Kerbals have that kind of technology yet.

But a blanketing device, as explained by Geschosskopf (the character, not the forum member) a couple chapters ago, works quite differently:

"You see, Emiko, several years ago, in our pirating days, the captain and I came up with a device that we used to hide ourselves from other ships. Simply put, it can trick another ships sensors and computers into thinking nothing is there... that our ship literally disappeared. It's based on a device Thompberry Kerman came up with a year earlier, but was never actually used. A device that could turn a ships sensor beam back upon itself and blow out it's electrical systems. Our "blanketing system" works in a similar fashion, but instead of re-directing a ships sensor beams, it alters them and send back a blank signal... hence "blanket system".... to fool the ship into seeing nothing."

So they are quite different... I suppose my blanket could be best described as a "Poor man's cloak"... and not really the same thing. Most important, the blanketed ship is not really invisible. If a kerbal, or human, looked directly at a blanketed object, they would still see it. But any kind of electronic device, or a Kerbal looking thru a camera, or Thompberry, who doesn't have real eyes anymore... if they look at it, or scan it, they would see nothing.

11 hours ago, RocketSquid said:

(With that being said, I am impressed by the special effects needed to pull that off. How did you do it?)

It's not terribly hard, but you need both HyperEdit, and Photoshop.

First I saved everything, and made a backup to revert to when I was done. Then I took a screenshot with the Pandora in it:

Spoiler

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But I wasn't "flying" the Pandora, I was playing Thompberry's rover. Anyway, I took the first screenshot, then without moving the screen in any way I used HyperEdit to send the Pandora into orbit.... and it instantly vanished. So then I took a second screenshot with no Pandora in it.

Spoiler

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The real trick is to not move anything, so the first and second screenshots are identical, except for the Pandora itself.

Then I used Photoshop and layered the screenshot with the Pandora over the screenshot without it, set the transparency of the one with the ship to 50%, and Viola, transparent ship! And from there I can just adjust the transparency up or down until it looks about right.

And once everything was done, I reverted back to my saved game so the Pandora was where it belonged.

Edited by Just Jim
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On 3 November 2016 at 7:31 PM, Kuzzter said:

And now, back to my day job as my company's intellectual property manager (yes, really)...

I thought your previous posts on the subject were unusually well informed - that explains a lot. It's what keeps the roof over my head too - same role but in academia.

And back on topic - I'm seeing new chapters after @Just Jim's autumn break, so fingers crossed everything's going OK there! And - I'm almost caught up with Emiko. Pretty sure I need to go back and like a couple of chapters though - my only excuse for missing them is that I was generally in too much of a hurry to get to the next chapter. :) 

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@Just Jim:

Given Thompberry's need to add drama in the form of gurgles that shouldn't really be there, and now this 'Blargh!  I am as dead!' line, I have to ask:  is he a fan of campy 1950's sci-fi B-movies, or are you?  That's not a complaint, mind you--I think it's brilliant, actually--but it seems an homage to the genre and if so, my hat's off to you, sir.  If not, then my hat's off anyway.

Also, this 'making of' part is almost as good as the story itself--and normally, the special features come on a separate disc!  I wonder whether you'll put together a blooper reel, as well.

Of course, that begs a bit of a philosophical question.  Normally, this kind of effect would be called double exposure and is an example of something called practical effects, or special effects done in reality.  But since this whole story is being done on a computer, do we now have an example of practical CGI?  :P

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25 minutes ago, Zhetaan said:

Given Thompberry's need to add drama in the form of gurgles that shouldn't really be there, and now this 'Blargh!  I am as dead!' line, I have to ask:  is he a fan of campy 1950's sci-fi B-movies, or are you?  That's not a complaint, mind you--I think it's brilliant, actually--but it seems an homage to the genre and if so, my hat's off to you, sir.  If not, then my hat's off anyway.

Thank you!   I would say it's mostly Thompberry's attempt at (bad) acting to try and throw the saucer off. But the truth is, I'm a huge fan of old sci-fi movies... the campier the better... and Thompberry is a huge example of it leaking thru. :)

 

25 minutes ago, Zhetaan said:

Also, this 'making of' part is almost as good as the story itself--and normally, the special features come on a separate disc!  I wonder whether you'll put together a blooper reel, as well

I wish I had thought of this sooner... I've had all sorts of opportunities to get bloopers. Setting up things like smoke and fire effects take a lot of time, and on most occasions I've had all sorts of disastrous fun trying to get everything balanced. And things like trying to get an EVA shot from a good angle, but not paying attention and taking out the solar panels... Or getting parts to overheat when you need, but not explode... Or not landing an asteroid on top of a base or ship.... Oh yeah.... good times, good times.... :rolleyes:

25 minutes ago, Zhetaan said:

Of course, that begs a bit of a philosophical question.  Normally, this kind of effect would be called double exposure and is an example of something called practical effects, or special effects done in reality.  But since this whole story is being done on a computer, do we now have an example of practical CGI?

Hmmmm...... :huh:

Edited by Just Jim
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