The Saga of Emiko Station - Complete

[Just Jim]

30 minutes ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

Location: Thompberry's Alcove.

Me: zzz-WAIT THOMPBERRY?! 

Oh really??? Cool!  

And yes, it's entirely possible. While I can't deny I changed a few of the character names, Thompberry is 100% game generated.

So he might show up anywhere... 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Just Jim

[DualDesertEagle]

9 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Oh really??? Cool!  

And yes, it's entirely possible. While I can't deny I changed a few of the character names, Thompberry is 100% game generated.

So he might show up anywhere... 

Just like I got "Cerenna Kerman" once in my game. Sure, not QUITE the same, but still very close.

 

This just gave me a truly evil idea: Hire tons of Kerbals but use everyone except the Emiko Station cast as targets in a game of BRRRRRRT! (And once again would I need an evil smiling kerbal here and can't find one.)

Edited October 26, 2018 by DualDesertEagle

[Just Jim]

I probably should toss out a quick update...  

The screenshots for Halloween are done and uploaded...

What horrors await poor Emiko???  

[Thedrelle]

nothing good, by the look of the architecture.

[Mr. Peabody]

We'll be looking forwards to seeing what ya' got for us. Though I maintain nothing is more horrifying than a bag of flavored veggie chips.

[Just Jim]

Only a woman can break his spell
Pure in heart who will offer herself...
                                                                      Blue Oyster Cult "Nosferatu"

 

Chapter 99
Day of the Poofed

 

It was the morning after Grand Kerbal Samantha Kerman's unbelievable proclamation to reform KASA into the KSP, and then her subsequent visit to Bop, where she had stood face to face with the Kraken Lord, and the insane Empress, and came to realized how terribly, terribly wrong she had been.

Kerbol was now rising over the Eastern Sea, and the space center was scurrying around like insects, while one ridiculous request after another came from the Grand Kerbal's airship. But little did the staff know it wasn't the Grand Kerbol making these insane demands, but the twins, Gem and Theo, locked in the Grand Kerbal's private chambers, having all sorts of fun pretending to be Samantha, and running the crew ragged.

As for the Grand Kerbal herself, once the Magic Boulder returned them to the space center, she had been quietly driven down to Sanny the ghost's beach-house, where she could recover in private.

But before they arrived at the beach, Grand Kerbal Samantha witnessed one more miracle, when Sanny the ghost suddenly appeared in front of Thompberry's rover, demanding to speak to Emiko.

"Sparkles!!!" Sanny cried out. "You in there??? It's me... Sparkles... Hey, I need to talk to you!!!"

Up front Piper Kerman, the only one allowed to drive Thompberry's rover, looked over at Valentina, sitting next to her, and sighed.

"Oh, your mother is going to love this..." Then she reached down and hit the intercom button. "Emiko... I'm sorry. But your... your presence... is being requested outside... The floating idiot is back."

A minute later Emiko and Chibi helped Samantha Kerman outside to see what Sanny wanted. Sam was weak, and still quite disorientated, but insisted she see this.... ghost???

"Hi, Sparkles!" Sanny seemed in an uncharacteristically good mood. "Did you miss me?"

"Emiko was worried," Emiko nodded. "Sanny-ghost was gone a long time."

"Well... I'm back!!!" Sanny giggled. "So tell me, is it true? Did you really kill off one of the monolith thieves???"

"Yes..." Emiko sighed. "The Kraken handmaiden is... gone."

"See??? SEE???" Sanny called out. "I told you she was awesome!!! Now get out here!"

For a moment nothing happened... then Emiko and Chibi both gasped when next to Sanny... Saffron suddenly materialized... and was now also a ghost!!!

"Saffron?" Emiko whispered. "What... what happened?"

"I'm sorry..." Saffron whispered back. "I am sooooo sorry. I... I never meant to hurt you, or your friends. I just wanted the ship..."

"It's OK..." Emiko shook her head. "No-one was hurt... But Saffron???"

"Yes...I have paid for my crimes... I have seen a Kraken..." Saffron sighed, then looked sadly at Sanny. "May I go now?"

And without waiting for a reply, Saffron smiled softly, then began to fade... becoming thinner and thinner... until in a brilliant flash... she was gone...

Saffron Kerman was no more.

For a moment no-one spoke... even the Platypus's and Moonkrickets down at the beach fell silent, until Sanny laughed softly.

"OK, gotta go..."

And she vanished in a blur, leaving Emiko and the rest standing in a stunned awe...

"Día de Muertos, Emiko..." Chibi whispered... "Día de Muertos"

"Yes..." Emiko whispered back... 

"This is... is... the Day of the Poofed..."

 

 

"So... that really happened?" Samantha Kerman shook her head, looking out the beach-house window at the coming dawn. She had tried to sleep, but the second she nodded off, the nightmare of that... atrocity... violating her mind snapped her back to consciousnesses.. and twice made her run off to the little Kerbettes room and throw up in sheer revulsion.

Emiko felt terrible, and did her best to comfort her daughter as best she could.

"Emiko so, so sorry..." she tried not to start crying... again. "What Emiko did was cruel... But was desperate... didn't know how to get Samantha to believe her."

"No... mother..." Samantha shook her head weakly. "I... I was a fool. I wouldn't believe... couldn't... But then that... thing... Oh... Goddess save me... It was... inside me!!!"

And she ran to the little Kerbette's room one more time.

When she returned Emiko and Chibi picked up where they had left off, trying to explain as gently as possible what had happened to Emiko on Chibi's home-world, the weird planet called Earth. 

They had just finished telling Samantha of the fall of Badie Noir... and how she miraculously survived by clinging to the spirit of the Kraken handmaiden!

"Horrible... horrible..." Samantha whispered. "That Kraken... Empress??? The insane one... she cut own servant down, just like that???"

"Yes..." Emiko shivered at the memory... "Right in front of Emiko..."

"What... what kind of monster can do something like that???" Samantha just couldn't wrap her brain around such coldness. "What exactly are these... things???"

Emiko and Chibi looked at each other, and Chibi reached over and squeezed Emiko's hand before she began.

"I... I asked the Dark Witch that exact same question after she saved me from the Kraken Empress..."

 

*          *          *

For Chibi time seemed to... pause... in the castle fortress of the Dark Witch, and she wasn't sure how long had passed when she was summoned to the Witches study, a room made completely of stars... 

Inside Chibi found the witch stroking her "Spirit-cat", and talking softly to it. 

"Fascinating..." she said to the strange, glowing feline while she rubbed it's ears. "Continue to observe from the shadows... Good girl."

And with that the strange cat ran off, and the witch turned and stared out her window for several seconds before whispering softly.

"Your friend Badie has fallen to them."

 "Noooo..." Chibi burst into tears. "Nooo... not her... She never hurt anyone..."

But then Chibi was stunned to see the witch turn, and smile softly!

"Do not weep, young one," The witch whispered in... awe???  "Do not despair... for this Badie has done something... quite remarkable."

The witch paused, and shook her head, while Chibi tried desperately to recompose herself.

"Your friend... what a fighter she must be," the witch shook her head again in something resembling disbelief...

"She's taken one of them with her!!!"

And then the witch explained what her cat spy had witnessed, how Emiko gave Badie the strength to resist the Kraken handmaiden that was possessing her, only to be struck down by the Empress herself. But... something had gone wrong... The Kraken handmaiden did not return to possess another victim... It was... gone???"

"Remarkable.," the witch whispered one last time.

"But what... what are they?" Chibi whispered through her tears. "What exactly are these... things?"

For several minutes the old witch said nothing, then she sighed, and replied softly.

"Thousands of centuries ago, and halfway around the galaxy, a vile races of monsters slithers it's way to the stars... and immediately sets forth to conquer all that would dare stand before them. They have no real name... we only know them as...

"Krakens..."

"In ships the size of a small moon they crossed the vast gulf of space between systems, laying waste to everything in their path. Many brave fools tried to stand against them, only to have their worlds decimated before the Krakens unimaginable power."

"And for many ages, it seemed if nothing could stop the galaxy from falling to the hideous usurpers."

"But after thousands of years, these Krakens made a terrible mistake, and stumbled upon another race just as powerful, and malevolent, as they were... This race has no name pronounceable in our tongue... We just refer to them as... the ET's."

"And back then... back then..."

"The ET's were also at the height of their power... and they fought back... oh, did they fight back..."

"Who know how long that first terrible battle lasted, or who really won???"

"All we know is the war raged on for thousands of years... across thousands of star systems."

"Until it suddenly came to a startling and cataclysmic end.... and to this day no-one knows how, or why..."

*          *          *

 

"But..." Chibi tried to find her voice... "I don't understand what all this has to do with Emiko..."

For an agonizingly long moment the dark witch said nothing, then her voice dropped, almost in awe...

"Beyond all logic or reason... I don't understand how..." the dark witch whispered. "But I now believe... Your companion Emiko...  I now suspect that the Great War... It ended in Kerban Space... Right over Emiko's home-world!!!"

"What???" Chibi reeled! "How???"

"I... we... don't know." the witch sighed. "My sisters and I have our theories... and we've known about these creatures for nearly a century..."

"You... knew there were Krakens on Earth?"

"My sisterhood knew of... something... possessing Raven's Rest, long before your father relocated it here to Belladonna Cove. these creatures were drawn to Raven's Rest's... uniqueness... like moths to a flame. But we didn't know what they were. Not until your friend Emiko drew them out into the open."

"But now that you know, why not call the military or...." Chibi began, then remembered how easily the Kraken handmaiden had possessed an entire police squad in a matter of seconds. "Oh... oh, yeah...."

"Exactly," the witch nodded. "If they gained control of a high ranking officer... a general or admiral??? No, this is our fight... the mortals can never know."

"But Emiko... we have to save her!!!"

"Relax..." the witch sounded remarkably calm, given her nature. "All is in hand. One of the minions... possibly the worst... has fallen. And another is about to make a fatal mistake."

"Then you attack?" 

"No..." the witch chuckled softly and stood up. "Not me... You, Chibi... of the family DeBateau... You are going to save your friend."

*          *          *

 

Meanwhile, at Raven's Rest cemetery, Emiko was still wracked with sorrow at the loss of Badie, who in just a matter of days had become a dear friend of Emiko.... and had fallen before Emiko's eyes at the hands of the insane Kraken Empress just days ago. Chibi's uncle Nick was still with her, and doing all he could to comfort the poor girl.

"It's... It's Emiko's fault!!!" she bawled... "Why???"

"No, Emiko, please," Nick said softly. "What happened was NOT your fault. It was that... monster... that murdered her. You just gave her a chance to fight back... and I... I think she did just that!"

 Nick and Emiko were sitting quietly in a crypt below the small Raven's Rest chapel where Badie had fallen, and after two days the raging above them continued. While they couldn't make out the words, it was clear something Badie had done.... something... And the Kraken's plans had gone very, very wrong... 

But as she sat there listening to the ranting above, Emiko thought she heard something else... soft... weak... not Kerban or English... but somehow still familiar... just on the edge of her mind... it was almost like... singing?

No... not singing... praying???

"Get thee back, return, get thee back, thou crocodile-fiend Sui; thou shalt not advance to me, for I live by reason of the magical words which I have by me..."

Trying her best to block out the sounds around her, Emiko focused... and realized the voice seemed to be coming from the weird pod thing the Krakens had stolen from Professor de'Alain's lab, and then seemingly abandoned down here.

And that voice... that hauntingly sad voice... Then Emiko recognized the language, and gasped...

Kergyptian?????

"I do not utter that name of thine to the great god..."

It was!!!

It was ancient Kergyptian, nearly identical to one of the scrolls she had discovered and translated years early at the pyramids of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn back on Kerban...

Slowly Emiko rose, and walked towards the strange floating orb, listening to the sad, ancient voice coming from within...

Then Emiko stopped, and listened more with her mind than with her ears ...

"Who will cause thee to come to the the two divine envoys; the name of one is Betti, and the name of the other is 'Hra-k-en-Maat'..."

And Emiko replied softly, quoting the scrolls she deciphered so long ago. 

"Heaven hath power over it's seasons, and the magical word hath power over that which is in it's possession..."

"Let therefore my mouth have power over the magical word which is therein..." the sad voice finished...

"Can... can it be??? Who are thou, little lotis flower???"

"Lotis Flower named Emiko. Who is sad Kergyptian lady?"

But instead the strange voice within the orb replied:

"O my heart, my mother; O my heart, my mother! O my heart of my existence upon earth. May naught stand up to oppose me in judgement in presence of the lords of the trial..."

"Please, Lotus Flower, sing to me... lend me thy strength for my journey...

And Emiko did her best to remember all the scrolls she had translated, and sing them as best she could in her mind to the sad, ancient Kergyptian voice in the pod.

"Emiko... what is it?"

Emiko hadn't even noticed Nick as he walked slowly up to her... she just sang, and sang, and sang, trying her best to give what she could of herself to the strange Kergyptian...

And then, in a flash, the Orb began to glow, and power back to life!!!

And the voice inside the pod screamed!!!

"Come forth, thou crocodile fiend... Come forth!!!"

And at that moment, somehow realizing the ancient Sentinel had miraculously returned to life, the male Kraken Minion appeared...

And walked straight into it's own doom!!!

As soon as the minion materialized, the strange floating orb turned towards it, and a voice thundered silently in Emiko's mind.

"I am she who sendith forth terror into the powers of rain and thunder, of scorpion and serpent, and I ward off from the great divine lady the attacks of violence..."

Suddenly a strange droning buzz filled the room, and out of no-where thousands... no, millions... of flies and locust appeared, and tore into the now helpless minion, while Emiko and Nick could do nothing but stand watch in horror as the late professor de'Alain was torn to shreds...

"I have sung praises to those who dwell in darkness... and I have raised up those who have wept... For I am thy Pharaoh Nitocris... and thy doom!"

 

Above them, the Kraken Lord and Empress were instantly aware their second minion had just been vanquished, but at that exact moment their attention was drawn to to the gaping hole that used to be the chapel entrance...

And Chibi DeBateau calmly standing there, staring directly at the Empress!!!

"Oh, what is the little abomination playing at now???" The Empress laughed softly as Chibi calmly turned and walked away down the stairs. Her minion already an after-thought, she watched as Chibi walked further into the ancient cemetery. This was a curious move, and instead of attacking, the Empress decided to watch and see what the Hive-Queen's spawn was up to this time. If she were attempting to rescue her friend, she was walking in the wrong direction.

As she walked down the stairs and towards their family crypt, Chibi did her level best to remain calm, and remember the what the Dark Witch had told her just before she left... 

"You are truly a DeBateau, of the family DeBateau. The story of your adoption was a lie... a fiction, propagated to protect your true identity... But how far are you willing to go??? What price would you pay to save your friend?""

"Anything... My life... gladly," Chibi replied without hesitation.

"If your words are true, and you will risk your life for hers, then perhaps..." the Witch had replied. "Perhaps you have a chance... Now let me tell you of your true heritage... and the real reason why your father, and I, went to the effort of saving and relocating Raven's Rest all those years ago."

Then she turned, and faced her family's sacred burial vault... and the terrible family secret hidden deep within.

Chibi stopped, and looked up at the ancient stone structure.

"Your family history goes back millennia... as far as the fabled Nestorius the Seer, who... died... under mysterious circumstances Damascus in 738 AD." 

Not looking to see if the krakens were following her or not, Chibi drew a deep breath, and walked towards the crypt. But instead of scaling the stairs to the temple above, she turned, and headed towards a dark and aged door instead.

Using the rusted key the witch had given her, Chibi managed to unlock the rusted door, and with an ominous creak, forced the vault door open, and walked silently inside. Then she pushed to door shut, and in a clear, calm voice, whispered through the barred window...

"Emiko... I'm here..."

 

Back in the other crypt, Emiko and Nick were still in shock at what they had just witnessed. The mysterious Kergyptian speaking orb had gone dark and silent again, but it appeared to have not just killed de'Alain, but vanquished the minion possessing him as well... But where we the other two Krakens?

Then Emiko turned and screamed...

"Chibi... No... NOOOO!!!

But as she ran for the door, Nick thought he heard a faint moan and called out after her.

"Emiko... I... I think he's alive!!!"

Nick wasn't sure if she heard him or not, but as he turned and looked at the fallen body lying before him, he realized the moaning wasn't coming from it... it was de'Alain's voice... but coming from inside the floating pod!!!

 

It only took Emiko a few seconds to reach Chibi's family vault, and bursting inside, she immediately put herself between Chibi and the insane Kraken Empress.

No... NO!!! Do NOT touch Chibi!!!" Emiko screamed.

But Chibi just smiled softly... sadly.

"Emiko... sweetheart," Chibi said in a calm voice. "It's OK. There's... there's someone I'd like our ... friends... to meet."

Turning towards a locked, barred coffin, Chibi pulled out a small needle, and pricked herself ever so slightly...

Just enough to draw a small drop of blood...

DeBateau blood...

It only took a second... The blood is the life...

And suddenly the coffin braziers flared to life, and the coffin lid began to raise...

And something... something... woke from his centuries long sleep... 

And something looked out to see intruders... intruders... on his sacred ground!!!

 

"...he is far more powerful than you can imagine," the dark Witch had warned her. "And would slaughter me in seconds were I to accompany you. But you are the blood of his blood, and if you are very careful, and clever, and extremely lucky... this just might save you from his wrath!"

Emiko didn't really understand what she was seeing... and the Krakens woefully underestimated the situation. But the Empress was slightly impressed when this new human seemed to walk right through the gates of his tomb, and stalked slowly up to Chibi.

"Lord Nestor," Chibi bowed as low and respectfully as she could. "Grandfather of my grandfathers... Blood of my blood. Forgive my intrusion. To disturb your rest is unthinkable, and I accept my fate. But my lord... these... these aliens...they have invaded our home, threatened our family... and most unforgivable... they have desecrated and defiled our sacred grounds. Blood calls for blood... But forgive me, Grandfather... for I am not strong enough."

"Awwww, too bad..." the Kraken Empress scoffed from behind her.

But then the vampire Lord Nestor snarled, and waved Chibi aside... and power seemed to ripple through the air around him... and the Empress paused...

"Am I supposed to be...." she started to laugh... but then a scream ripped from her lungs as the vampire raised his arm, and with the slightest gesture of his hand, the Empress was instantly and totally engulfed in hideous flames!!!

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."

She howled as agony ripped through every nerve of her possessed human body... and her Kraken mind as well!!! This was no illusion... nor was it any human fire. No, this was hell-fire itself, the agony of the grave, amplified by the screams of a thousand thousand dead... all tearing her mind apart from the inside out...

"Release her..." the Kraken Lord snarled and floated to face this new enemy.

But the Vampire Lord didn't move, or utter a word... other than to close his eyes ever so slightly... 

And the Kraken Lord was suddenly engulfed as well!!!

Emiko clung to Chibi's side, and the two watched in horror and fascination, the Vampire Lord let them hang in unspeakable agony for several seconds...

Then he flicked his wrist slightly, as if shooing away some insignificant insects...

And the Krakens...

The Krakens were instantly banished from the face of the Earth!!!

 

"My Lord..." Chibi whispered in awe, and bowed as respectfully as she could. "I... I do not know how to thank you. I accept my fate... gladly."

And Emiko, not really knowing what to say, just tried her best to match Chibi's bow as best she could.

For several seconds Lord Nestor just looked at the girls, and still without uttering a word, walked over and hugged Chibi.

Then he turned and began to walk to his coffin... but for a second paused, and looked back... and whispered softly, like a wind over an empty grave...

"Take care of my granddaughter, Emiko Kerman."

And without another sound, the 1,200 year old Vampire Lord Nestor went back to his centuries long sleep...

 

"I... I can't believe that worked..." Chibi whispered... "I was so scared..."

But Emiko screamed, and hugged Chibi as hard as she could...

"Chibi DID IT!!!" Emiko laughed and cried and twirled Chibi around and around... "Chibi saved Planet Earth!!!

 

*          *          *

 

"That... that's it?" 

Back at Sanny's Beach-house on Kerbin, Val shook her head in disbelief... "THAT's how you saved Earth???"

"Emiko, dear," Werhner said from the monitor. "You know I love you... But this doesn't help us at all!"

"An... Earthanoid vampire... Seriously??? Val laughed sarcastically... "What are we supposed to do, fly out to the desert and capture an Uomocapra?"

"What's an Uomocapra?" Chibi whispered over to Emiko.

"Mythical vampire-platypus..." Emiko whispered back.

"Yeah..." Chibi rolled her eyes... "Ask a silly question...."

"I'm having a hard time processing this..." Val grumbled. "Gramiko, are you saying that whole time on Earth... These ET's took you back... Just to be bait???"

"We... we honestly don't know." Chibi said sadly.

"But... what about the other Earthanoids? Your uncle, Nick... I like him."

"And this ET that took you," Werhner asked over the monitor. "Did she... they... bring you right home?"

Emiko and Chibi looked at each other before Chibi answered slowly.

"We... we don't know what happened to Uncle Nick... or the weird pod thing. When we went back, they were gone."

"Emiko stayed about a year... and looked and looked... but nothing."

"We laid the bodies of Badie and professor de'Alain... and Mary-Sue Pleasant, whom the Empress had possessed... to rest. But we searched the world over... Uncle Nick had just vanished... gone..."

"Then one day Emiko took a nap..." Emiko sighed... "And woke up back in a sleepy tube. But didn't know Chibi was also in one."

 

Sitting quietly while the others talked, Samantha Kerman was trying to work something out. Granted, her mother was a brilliant, albeit a little... broken. And her daughter Valentina was an expert pilot... and von Kerman a groundbreaking engineer...

But Samantha... her talents were politics... and intrigue... She had clawed her way through the royal court to become Grand Kerbal. And now she was starting to put all the pieces of this Kraken mystery together, like some monkey-spider's web. And while she didn't see the purpose... yet... she was beginning to see just who was pulling all the strings... and she realized no-one was asking the right question... the most important question of all...

 

*          *          *

And out on Bop... the Empress and Kraken Lord were also putting pieces of the puzzle together, and starting to ask themselves this exact same question.

The little monster, Emiko, and her abomination of a friend, the hive-queen's own half-daughter... here, now... in the Kerbol system.

There could be only one explanation, no matter how impossible. The ET's had shattered the laws of physics... laws even the krakens respected out of self-preservation.. somehow the ET's had gone against the arrow time... and then returned.

Even the Empress shuddered at the implications, but it would explain how the one named Emiko's mind had been so fractured, and why she was so impossible to possess, or even read. 

"Nothing... nothing..." the Kraken Lord muttered, sending his thought probes as far and wide as possible through out the Kerbol system.

"Keep searching..." the Empress growled... She still burned with the desire for revenge... but the primitives could wait. She had a much more important target now... the one who took Emiko to Earth, and returned with her... and with a daughter... the princess of abominations.

And at that exact moment, millions of kilometers apart, the Grand Kerbal and Kraken Empress asked themselves the exact same question...

The question no-one so far had thought to ask...

If she had taken Emiko to Earth, then returned with both Emiko and Chibi to this time and place... 

"Where was the ET Hive Queen now?"

 

 

The strange tale of Emiko and Chibi Kerman has now ended...
But the Saga of Emiko Station is still far, far from over...

 

A quick note about the "Kergyptian" text, and Pharaoh Nitocris:

Spoiler

 

All the "Egyptian/Kergyptian" quotes except two are real, and drawn directly from the E.A. Wallis Budge translation of the "Egyptian Book of the Dead."

Pharaoh Nitocris (Greek: Νίτωκρις) has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt's Sixth Dynasty. 

According to Herodotus (Histories ii-100), she invited the murderers of her brother, the "king of Egypt", to a banquet, then killed them by flooding the sealed room with the Nile.

... [Nitocris] succeeded her brother. He had been the king of Egypt, and he had been put to death by his subjects, who then placed her upon the throne. Determined to avenge his death, she devised a cunning scheme by which she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a spacious underground chamber and, on pretense of inaugurating it, threw a banquet, inviting all those whom she knew to have been responsible for the murder of her brother. Suddenly as they were feasting, she let the river in upon them by means of a large, secret duct. (Herodotus)

Then, to avoid the other conspirators, she committed suicide (possibly by running into a burning room).

 

Feliz día de Muertos!!!!!!

Go to Chapter 100
Return to Index

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Just Jim

[Chel]

Oh good! A new Emiko chapter! (A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one)

[TeslaPenguin1]

I can't express how glad I am for this new chapter with typed words, that's how hyped I am. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[Angelo Kerman]

Very cool to read the origin story of the Kraken! To hear that the war ended above Kerbin.. makes me wonder if there are landmines and unexploded shells that the kerbals have to deal with, much like people have had ro contend with decades after WW II..

[adsii1970]

Haha... Great chapter. This is well done! So much fun stuff; and love how Lord Nestor kicked butt... then went back to bed! 

[obney kerman]

Feliz Dia de los muertos! And good job. That was worth the wait.

[roboslacker]

Is it just me, or does de'Alain look like Jim Pickens?

[RealKerbal3x]

Ah! Emiko is back!

That was a brilliant chapter @Just Jim, and I love the little KSP team references:

16 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Lord Nestor

16 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Uomocapra

Should we expect another long wait for the next chapter? Sorry to be nagging, but I love this fanfic way too much!

[DualDesertEagle]

Something's tellin' me uncle Nick may have ended up somewhere on Kerbin, too, most likely to protect Chibi, but why a year before them?

[SchwinnTropius]

2 hours ago, DualDesertEagle said:

Something's tellin' me uncle Nick may have ended up somewhere on Kerbin, too, most likely to protect Chibi, but why a year before them?

Would not be surprised to see Uncle Nick show up just before the upcoming big boss fight.

[0111narwhalz]

19 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Spoiler

 

 

"'Sup."

[Ho Lam Kerman]

Aww, I'm late for two whole days?

Impossible! I must catch Chapter 100!

[Just Jim]

On 10/31/2018 at 2:10 PM, RealKerbal3x said:

Ah! Emiko is back!

That was a brilliant chapter @Just Jim, and I love the little KSP team references:

Should we expect another long wait for the next chapter? Sorry to be nagging, but I love this fanfic way too much!

Thanks, but unfortunately, yes. I can't promise when the next chapter will be. I promised "Lord Nestor" I'd only work on Emiko on the weekends. 

Actually @nestor is just about the nicest guy you could ever meet, and I'm super honored he let me bring him into this chapter. I couldn't think of a better person to finally banish the Krakens from the backstory... 

[greenTurtle1134]

I haven't really caught up, but just gonna ask @Just Jim - have you considered doing this for NaNoWriMo?

[Just Jim]

4 minutes ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

I haven't really caught up, but just gonna ask @Just Jim - have you considered doing this for NaNoWriMo?

I'm familiar with it, but there are 2 reasons I can't. Mostly it's because Emiko is an illustrated novel. Playing and progressing, and gathering up the screenshots, takes 90% of my time.  I wouldn't be able to keep up.

The other reason is working for Squad now, I just don't have the time to devote to it. NaNoWriMo is not easy, and requires a lot of time and dedication, and I have huge respect for those that can successfully do it.

Maybe someday... it's quite a challenge. But unfortunately I can't right now.

[Zhetaan]

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

Maybe someday... it's quite a challenge. But unfortunately I can't right now.

It gets faster when you condense long and complicated terms such as National Novel Writing Month to short acronyms such as NaNoWriMo.

Right now I can save you a bunch of time:

Quote

The StraTEmChiKe has now ended,
But the SagEmSta is far, far from over....

On a much more serious note, I'm glad to see that you're still at it.  I admit that I was curious to know how you would tie the backstory back into the main plot in such a way that the backstory would be satisfying, wouldn't feel rushed, and yet would still leave enough questions unanswered to keep the main plot full of suspense, but it was only curiosity, never doubt.

To be honest, I'm wondering why Squad isn't tapping you to write a bunch of story-type Making History scenarios--unless they are and I should speak no more of it.  

[Lithobrake]

OMG, what if the Kerbals went underground to hide from the war,  and the destruction above is why there are so few visible structures on kerbin!

[Just Jim]

RIP Stan Lee...

This story's continued success owes more to you than words can possibly describe.

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

RIP Stan Lee...

Excelsior. 

[Chel]

With all the sadness going on right now, there's only one thing we can look forwards to: Emiko chapter 100