Tales of the Groundbound: Preface and Table

[steuben]

Preface:

"They also serve those that stand and wait.", John Milton

Everyone talks about  those magnificent kerbals in their flying machines. What about those who stay behind building the machines, kerballing the bureaucracy, or sliding a cold one across the bar? These are their tales. The stories about how they put Jebediah, Valentina, and the rest up there, among the planets and the stars.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1&2 First Small Steps

Chapter 3 Why

Chapter 4 The First Payment

Chapter 5 A Simple Set of Problems

Chapter 6 The Blue Side

Chapter 7 Two Eggs in a Basket

Chapter 8 Linus and the Computers

Chapter 8.5 Counting and Accounts

Chapter 9 Scimon and the Mün

Chapter 10 A New Bird in the Flock

Chapter 11 By The Pale Münlight

Chapter 12 A Hand Into The Black

Chapter 13 A Coming Drought for the Prairie

Chapter 14 Pause Turn Go

Chapter 15 A Perfect Answer?

Chapter 17 Broken Bird

Chapter 17.5 There and On The Dock

Chapter 18 KOL Black

Chapter 19 A Leap

Chapter 20 Ready for Their Closeup

Chapter 23 Simple Difficulty

Chapter 26 Opening A New Path

Chapter 27 Münbound, Groundbound

Chapter 28 Frozen Skin Worth Mining

Chapter 35 Unproven. Experimental. Prototype.

Chapter 50 New and Old

Omake: The Birds of the Flocks

Omake: The OST

Omake: The Creed and The Crest

Q&A:

- Where is chapter <insert number here>?
Certain chapters didn't jell or come out as I would like. So rather than hold up the whole chain I've posted them out of order. Each chapter is fairly independent they can be read in any order. As the chapters are finalized they will be posted in the appropriate slot. This may end up having the side effect of changing chapter numbers as I go along.

- Isn't that character name a reference to somebody?
Maybe, some of the names are pulled from real NASA folks, some are authors. The character isn't the same as the person. The most aren't very subtle. But, just to prevent confusion, the list is:
Khenry - Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.
Katherine - Katherine Johnson
Kisney - Mostly The Walt Disney Company
RKO - RKO Pictures, I have yet to figure out what those initials stand for. The actual company's initials are Radio-Keith-Orpheum
WBnWS. - Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Though here I've renamed it to Warner Brothers and Warner Sister. The period at the end is part of the name.
Universal - NBCUniversal, though here I'm referring to the production arms over anything else.
Kerne - Jules Verne
Kurroughs - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Kuttner - Henry Kuttner
Kells - H. G. Wells
Kalerie - Valerie Thomas
Kriedrich - Caspar David Friedrich

- Are the designs real?
Yes, except the helicopters in "Broken Bird". I had considered a jet VTOL for that chapter, but I didn't think they were suitable for Search and Rescue work. <hand wave> The SAR choppers are on loan from and staffed by the local Coast Guard equivalent and aren't really part of the program, so they don't count. </hand wave> There are some liberties taken moving from in-game design to the story. Usually windows and doors where there aren't any on the in-game design.

- I noticed grammer and/or spelling and/or continuity error, what can I do?
Tell me the chapter and the location and I'll review it.

- I want comment or ask a question. Where is the best place? 
There are two good locations. One is this thread. The other is the general writer's thread. If it is focused on the Groundbound story line, then here will be the better of the two places to comment.

Edited August 17, 2020 by steuben