Kerbiting System: Revelation and closing of Thread

[Alpha 360]

12 hours ago, insert_name said:

cutting it awfuly close with those delta-V margins, do you have to put that giant hab module in,  considering how well your last mission went I would  reccomend trying to get some more dV?

That is just the placeholder transfer stage. I might come up with something a little bit more fancy and reusable in the future though. This is also not the stock solar system, and in this solar system Duna is no more than 1,000 m/s away. 

I believe I can tinker with this mission enough as to complete the entire mission with no more than 2,250 m/s. If even that. Of course, the ideal transfer stage for this mission will have at least 3,000 m/s but I'm feeling good about this mission. 

Happy Explosions!

 

[Alpha 360]

58th Installment: Back in the game

Well, its about time for the next installment, so here it is. 

When we left the Endeavor, it was on an orbit which took it far beyond Minmus, and with a limited amount of fuel. You can imagine what I did, especially with this picture above. 

After an hour of areobraking the Endeavor, finally the Apoapsis reached 250,000 kilometers. 

It took a quick burn to set the orbit in a near circle. Now we just needed to reach them. 

What better opportunity than this to try out the Xerxes Mk2? 

Yes, finally a traditional rocket with M1-2 command pod and a Twin boar powering in all. That Twin Boar is half of the cost of the rocket. So you can imagine that it is reusable. At least, it should be. 

The Twin Boar is a nice, powerful engine with an engine with a 20 m/s impact velocity. 

The solid rocket boosters ensure that the Xerxes would be able to carry the capsule into orbit. Its designed to be an SSTO rocket. 

The sun rises from the horizon. Pretty.

This is the insertion burn into LKO. Unfortunately, the twin boar has an ISP in space of 300. I'm going to now restrict Twin Boars for first stages. 

The SSTO rocket doesn't have enough Delta-v for the orbit, so it is detached to fall into the atmosphere and hopefully be recovered. 

The Service Module Engine has 370 ISP. I'm going to replace the Poodle engine with this. 

Anyway it makes it to orbit and I switch to the landing booster. 

I forgot to put the antenna on it so the engine won't be used. Unless in a very probably emergency. 

Luckily nothing burns up on reentry and the chutes are pulled nice and early. 

The rocket slows down to 12.2 m/s and lands successfully. 

Happy Explosions!

Edited March 5, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Alpha 360]

59th Installment: First Part of Duna Enterprise

We have designed and built a new rocket. 

We call it the Xerxes Heavy Mk2

Yes. We are reusing this name over again. 

We just can't get rid of it because the staff here lack the imagination to name it anything else. It is a serious problem. Also just to mention it, our engineers manning the physicless camera have gone on strike again so we have no footage of the rendezvous and recovery of the Dres Endeavor Mission. The media are going to kill us.  

Without further ado, here is the new and improved Xerxes Heavy launching

The payload is the first part of the Duna Enterprise. This will be a very versatile interplanetary ship because of its sleek and modern design. It weighs just over 60 tons. But the new Xerxes heavy can carry that to orbit with ease. The estimated weight ceiling is about 75 tons. With a little more modifications 100 tons will be probable in the Xerxes Heavy Mk3.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. This is just the first launch and we anticipate good results. As per usual though, it will be a long and painful progress to make it fully reusable, or even landable.

As we have been describing the Xerxes heavy, you will have noticed that the pics have gotten the Xerxes into LKO.

Solid rocket motors fire as the first part of the Duna Enterprise detaches, moving the rocket away from the payload. A picture could not be taken because of the amount of buttons were being pressed at once. 

A pretty picture of the Enterprise when turned on. 

Now, a maneuver has been set and the booster follows it. It looks like the landing will be a bit off, but that's expected for the first attempt. 

The Xerxes tumbles through the upper atmosphere. Unfortunately, we have forgotten to include any monopropellant so the RCS thrusters are useless. Wait, we didn't include RCS thrusters in the first place. Well, doesn't matter now. 

After slowing down to 300 m/s we pull the chutes. Well, we forgot the drogue chutes. Their useless though, so it should be fine.....

The chutes have deployed. Mission Control waits to fire up the engine, wanting to conserve propellant.

Wait, the chutes haven't deployed yet. The engines are turned on to full throttle. Every ounce of thrust is needed now. Even then it will be close. Too close.

.................

.................

.................

.................

Okay. The recovery of the rocket was a failure .

Spoiler

Thanks to the mod, BetterTimeWarp, I slowed down the crash to 0.1x. It made it spectacular and finally I have truly enjoyed the explosions. I strongly suggest this mod if you like prolonged explosions. Such as myself. 

Also to note upon the name. Its name is the Enterprise, but I'll call it the Duna Enterprise because Duna is the target destination of the spacecraft. I will repeat this naming style in this playthrough. 

Happy Explosions!

Edited March 4, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Alpha 360]

60 Installment: A Little Backtrack

Oh, it looks like the crew from the Xerxes Mk2 have given us some pictures taken by themselves. They look pretty professional, so we'll put them up along with the story. 

It was easy to come up with a rendezvous with the Endeavor, since it was in a 250 kilometer orbit. 

On-board is Elibert Kerman, Billybob-mon Kerman, and Obney Kerman. Obney is a recent addition to the space program, being rescued from LKO after the Endeavor left Kerbin's SOI. 

Here is the Xerxes Mk2 approaching the Endeavor. You might be wondering how we are going to fit seven kerbals in a Mk1-2 command pod? Well, if you look closer there's an empty hitchhiker storage container stuck underneath it. 

The Xerxes has now moved into visible range of the Endeavor. Approaching nice and slowly. 

The Xerxes has now flipped over and is approaching the docking port at 0.3 m/s. But then they realize something is wrong. Those blasted engineers had put an active docking port on the Xerxes, and the only open docking port on the Endeavor was active as well! 

Those idiotic engineers! Well, BillyBob-mon decides to change that problem! Luckily the Xerxes came with some wrenches, docking ports, and connection pipes on-board. 

So he gets out and starts to place these items in his inventory. A couple of seconds later he zooms over to the Endeavor to find a place for the docking port. 

Blast it again! Unfortunately we have no pictures of Billy venting his anger on the Endeavor. He still limps today.

The passive docking port requires an empty node, something with the Endeavor lacks. So Billy decides to leave it to Elibert Kerman to decide since he was running low on monopropellant. Also his foot hurt really badly.

So Elibert leaves the Xerxes, grabs some connection pipes and a wrench and precedes to attach them to the Endeavor and the Xerxes. She waits as the Xerxes fires up its RCS thrusts to get closer to the Endeavor. 

Obney snaps a photo of the Endeavor from the cockpit as he moves into range of the connection pipes. 

Elibert grabs the pipe on the Xerxes and then flies over to the Endeavor and attaches it to the other connection pipe. 

*click*

Elibert now enters the Endeavor to join in on the celebration. You can imagine her delight when Mr. Kerman (Roland Kerman for the present) greeted her. 

Spoiler

Now, I have been thinking. You have seen the kerbal alarm clock read that a Jool window approaches in the next year. I will be putting up yet another straw poll for some options concerning this window. Please vote because I cannot make up my mind presently. 

Here is the link. https://www.strawpoll.me/15203614

Happy Explosions!

Edited March 6, 2018 by Alpha 360
Removed link

[Alpha 360]

After looking through the results from the strawpoll, I have decided to take advantage of Jool's transfer window and have designed an interplanetary craft. It will be launched after the Duna Enterprise leaves. The next installment will show the pictures of the landing of the Xerxes and the launch of a Minmus Base or at least the first part of it.

Here is a sneak peek at Trident Base

Spoiler

The results might look different from here. I was forced to use docking ports to connect them all together, but I will be using connection pipes. A lot of them. 

Happy Explosions!

[Alpha 360]

61st Installment: Trident Base Core

Yes, you might have thought that this series would now be completely devoted to interplanetary missions and the like. Well, a sly penpusher signed this document which meant that we would purse a base of at least 5 kerbals on Minmus. You can imagine what we did to the penpusher in question. 

Yes, we are using the Atlantis Booster. Our engineers have forgotten where the new Xerxes Mk2 is, so they unearthed this ancient booster to run it up to orbit. O r near orbit. This is one of the older design which means the first stage is detached while still inside the atmosphere and recovered. Yes, its old. 

It might not look familiar because of the lack of solid rocket boosters. Those weren't deemed necessary for such a light payload to Minmus.

The first stage is ready to detach.

It detaches and the skipper engine pushes the first part of the core of the first ever Minmus Base. 

Now just entering orbit. The second stage is now practically out of fuel. 

When its time for maneuver, the second stage is quickly used up. The lander stage quickly steps in and finishes the job. 

We coast towards Minmus. Our controllers braced themselves for a kraken attack and a misplaced Minmus. Surprisingly, neither happened. It entered orbit, chose a landing spot in the flats and descended. 

Unfortunately, we overshot. A lot. It took several major burns to reach the flat, but we made it. Luckily we packed much too much delta-v. 

The lander was designed to destroy its landing stage. The original plan was to detach the descent stage at 7 m/s while firing four seperatrons to slow down the core just enough to land safely. 

As you can see, it didn't go too well. 

It ended up flipping the core around and around in the air. We had enough reaction wheels to position the core for landing. We had slowed down enough so that the landing was soft enough nothing exploded. 

Yes, the booster was destroyed. It was a textbook example of no coverage. You understand the rest. 

Anyway, back to the subject, the core managed to land. 

So, then we turned the camera around. 

We'll leave you with that. 

Spoiler

Comment on what you want to see  in the next installment. Either you can see the launch of the Duna Enterprise's Transfer Stage, or the launch of several base sections bound for Minmus, or would you like to continue the story of Mr. Kerman with a new first person narrative series called, "Mr. Kerman's Vengeance".  

Happy Explosions

[roboslacker]

I'd like to see Mr Kerman return home, then the Minmus base, and then the Duna Mission

[Alpha 360]

Alright. @roboslacker. One first-person narrative concerning an unnamed kerbal by the name of Mr. Kerman, an appetizer, then a main course of the construction of a Minmus base, then finally a dessert of the exit of the Duna Enterprise. 

Happy Explosions on the side with your Installment Meal!

[Alpha 360]

62nd Installment - Mr. Kerman's Vengeance - Is This a Hero's Welcome?

I grabbed the ladder as I fiddled around with my tools, trying to find the detacher for the connection pipes. Kerbin floated beneath me, tranquil. I finally found it and then used it. 

The pipe disconnected and collapsed into the connection port. Mission Accomplished. 

I entered the Xerxes Mk2. Definitely an upgrade from the Trio missions. So much more sleek and compact. Already Elibert, Obney, Roni, and Billybob-mon, and Rondal were on-board. Obney Kerman was the newbie. Only recently rescued from LKO, he stayed up in the new Mk1-2 Command pod. He was obviously embarrassed, for this was the collection of the most experienced kerbonauts. Rondal went up there to comfort him, being a newbie to even if he landed on Dres. 

Elibert leapt from the interior space. I caught her flying through the air. She smiled brightly, like a child. 

"I'm so glad you're back." Elibert whispered. I drew her closer and whispered in her ear, "I'm glad to be back to."

I released her and with a polite nod started to talk to BillyBob-mon who had something pressing on his mind. 

"Yes, Billy?"

Billy glanced up at the hatch leading to the Mk1-2 command pod. "Rondal. He's not supposed to be here. We have his telemetry. His lander crashed on Dres, but he survived to plant a flag. He's still there. How is he here?"

"He's a shade. Sent by the Kraken. But he insists that he's kerbal. We're playing along with him now, but nobody but us knows about it." 

He looked queerly at me, "Ghost?"

"I'll explain sometime later. We're readying for reentry, right?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. I'll get to work on it." Billy went up into the command pod to set the maneuver node.

Obney preformed a slight inclination change as to not collide with the Endeavor. Then a maneuver was set. 

Obberty and Assey didn't come with us. There was plenty of food on the Endeavor, and Assey couldn't transfer the delicate science experiments over to the Xerxes so she stayed there to research. Obberty stayed to pilot the ship, and also for another reason which lurked in the back of my mind I smiled at the thought of it.

 

The periapsis was lowered to only 50 kilometers. This was only an experimental spacecraft, so Obney decided to play it safe. 

Just above the atmosphere the service stage was detached to prepare for reentry. 

It was a usual affair. I had experienced this several times before. The tongues of flames that lick at the spacecraft. The vibrations as the heat shield redirects 1000s of degrees of heat away from us.

This time we descended sharply into the atmosphere, resulting in a slight overheating of the spacecraft. Nothing was damaged, but we were slightly frazzled. 

The parachutes deployed on time, slowing us down. But not enough. 

"We're descending fast. At 9.1 m/s." 

"WHY! WHY Is It Always the Engineers who designed this Blasted craft!" Roni spouted angrily. I would agreed with her, but I was an engineer and that insult hurt a bit. 

"Prepare to be flipped!" cried Obney from above.

"What?" I asked surprised. Then he flipped the Xerxes on its head.

"That's a stupid idea!" I called out, hanging upside from my straps. The blood rushed into my head.

"It'll work! Trust me!" Obney replied in kind. 

Surprisingly enough, it did work. 

"Is it a hero's welcome to be returned on my head?" Rondal muttered to himself. 

"Yes it is!" cried Obney from beside him. I couldn't see his embarrassed face after this exclamation. He quickly explained, "I mean, being turned on your head is a hero welcome from the Polar Regions where I'm from. They would balance the kerbal on his head in the snow to give that kerbal a vison from the Ice goddess. In other words, a brain freeze."

There was amused silence in the Xerxes. Then I asked, "What happens when you don't get a vison from the ice goddess?"

"You pass out from the vison of her opposite, the blood god."

I heard Billy snort beside me. Then I felt the Xerxes shake as a klaw grabbed the bottom of the hitchhiker. 

"Hey! Stop grabbing this ship's ***" cried Obney to nobody in particular. 

"You didn't give them any other point to snatch us up. Also, Obney. You're being too talkative." Roni called up. 

Obney didn't say another word for the entire trip back to KSC. 

 

Spoiler

The character in the story is named Obney Kermanbut that is a coincidence. Anything Obney Kerman does in the story does not reflect on the forum user, @obney kerman. Just an assurance. 

Happy Explosions

Edited March 8, 2018 by Alpha 360

[obney kerman]

Well I'm now in 3 stories. Just ONCE I'd like to not be in a story.

Edited March 8, 2018 by obney kerman

[Alpha 360]

63rd Installment: Explosions and Problem-solving 

This is the Minmus Dropship. Manned by Obney Kerman and Mr. Kerman. Our returned hero, Rondal Kerman, decided to not go on this mission to Minmus. He said he had to recuperate after being the first kerbal to land on Dres. We believe him. 

Anyway, as you can see this looks like a mess. But that's usual now in KASA. Mortimer has signed an agreement to fund research into "Forests of Boosters". This is only the first stage of that operation. 

Here it launches off the Launchpad. Obney Kerman struggles to keep it upright. 

"Mission Control. The Minmus Dropship is very stubborn." Obney complained. 

"Well, get used to it. The next rocket will be worse." 

Luckily, Obney managed to keep the rocket upright. The rocket is indeed the Xerxes Heavy Mk2, but unfortunately it doesn't have enough delta-v to reach orbit. The transfer stage should be able to do that. 

Here the Xerxes spends the last of its available fuel. The engines cut off and then the Drop Ship is detached.

Obney Kerman fires up the Vesta engine. The Dropships propels out of the claustrophobic area. And then, Explosions. 

"What in the world happened!?" cried Mr. Kerman. 

"I haven't the least idea." Obney replied angrily. "But its not my fault!"

"Dropship, it looks like you are missing one of your engine clusters on the dropship."

"Oh shoot." Obney lowered his eyes.

"You idiot." Mr. Kerman accused. 

"It wasn't my fault!"

"If you had waited, nothing would have happened."

"But if ---"

"Its your fault, Obney. Now shut-up and you two decide how you are going to get to Minmus and back."

We clicked off. Off course we still listened. The two of them parried and fought with words for a little while, then used the main engine to enter orbit.

We'll jump back to the Xerxes Heavy now. 

We have forgotten to install that RCS system, so there is very little control until it reaches the low atmosphere. But we managed to keep it facing retrograde all the way down.

We pull the chutes at 3750 meters. But its too late. 

We were travelling at 350 m/s at 3500 meters with limited fuel. In 10 seconds the Xerxes would hit the water. We prepared for the explosions that were sure to follow. We fired the engines in a half-hearted attempt to save the rocket. 

The water came closer and closer. There was nothing we could do but hope and pray. It was all up to the Kraken now. 

Suddenly the rocket slowed to 10 m/s at 200 meters above the water. We quickly throttled the engine down and started to hover down to the water. We did it! How our scientists are still trying to figure out, but it managed to slow itself down enough to land. 

And it started to tip over. Of course it would.

But by another miracle, it survives mostly intact. 

Back in orbit the squabbling has died down mostly. A maneuver node is made and the transfer stage fires up its engine.

This burn will drain the outer tanks which will be detached. 

And here they are detaching. The maneuver node is completed and the dropship is headed to Minmus. As you can see, there's a missing engine mount. The engines we are using are called "sparklers". They are a modded engine set to fill in the gap between terriers and sparks. Very useful in large quantities as seen here.

The dropship will have to land using two opposite engine clusters, meaning that there will be only half the thrust as well as asymmetrical weight. 

Here is it arriving at Minmus a couple of hours later. This is in an alternate system, so it takes very little time to reach Minmus. 

An insertion burn is carried out by the transfer stage. And then another burn is completed which puts the Drop Ship into a polar orbit. Obney has decided to rename the ship from "Dropship" to "Ugly Duckling." Don't ask us why.

Here is the transfer stage being detached. The Ugly Duckling now has an orbit which will pass over Trident Base. The landing was plotted and the Ugly Duckling readied itself.

 Here is the descent burn. As you can see, only two engine clusters are being used. 

It descends down towards the Trident base, slowing down from the orbital velocity of 250 m/s. But our thrust to weight ratio is half of what it should be. 

Getting closer. Still outside of visible range of the base.

Now its in view. Not much right now but it will grow, step by step. 

A little farther from the base than I would have liked. But we can move it closer. 

Just about to land on Minmus. It moves closer to the base core, and then lands. 

There we go! We did it! The crew of the Ugly Duckling will stay here and hook everything up during the next two weeks, and then they'll return to Kerbin to see the celebration of the launch of the final part of the Duna Enterprise. 

 

Spoiler

Sorry for the late Installment. The Forums had some issues which effected me so I was unable to post.

Happy Explosions! 

[roboslacker]

How badly did the missing engines affect the center of mass?

[Alpha 360]

2 hours ago, roboslacker said:

How badly did the missing engines affect the center of mass?

Not too much. It only weighed a total of about 1/2 a ton so I could land it without white knuckles. That doesn't mean it was a walk in the park, but it was manageable. Also, I am debating to update to 1.4, only that I don't think Kerbiting Systems would be compatible with it. I will be lagging behind then in the "latest stuff". 

Another question to ask is whether or not to buy the expansion. Take-two Interactive is starting to make its presence known in the forums in a negative way, so, should I throw my money at them? I'll decide later. Posts will be getting more and more infrequent as I am entering the late game. Things just take longer than they used to. Combined with RL makes less Installments. Maybe I'll reach 75 Installments, then call it quits. Just warning y'all.

Ending on that sad note,

Happy Explosions! 

[Alpha 360]

Another Flag for Another Mission

Yes. I forgot to mention it but there is a Dres Window in the next three hundred days while the Jool window is a Year plus some away. The design board has come up with the Intrepid Spacecraft to visit this planet once more, and this time in a better and less stressful manner. This time we will get science data from the surface, as well as landing on Gilly. 

Once again many, many thanks to @cratercracker for designing and creating flags for this space program. Here is the Dres Intrepid Flag.

 

The I signifies the landing which will occur on Dres, and the II and III represent the Intrepid's  focus on Gilly's surface and orbit. I will be posting this up on the main page along with two other flags created by @cratercracker. Thanks to him, we have a more in-depth space program which benefits all. Please visit his thread here.

Sorry for lack of content. For RL reasons and the fact that the Duna Enterprise Transfer Stage slows down frame rates to about 15 frames a second, and has been very, very aero-dynamically unstable in the testing save. 

I will fill in the time with a couple of, hopefully, entertaining Mr. Kerman's Vengeance installments. 

Happy Explosions!

 

[Alpha 360]

64th Installment - Mr. Kerman's Vengeance - "I believe I have met you before?"

We stepped out onto the shore, just outside of the KSC. It seemed the entire population of the surrounding cities had emptied and flooded the small peninsula. Reports from every nation on Kerbin were there, yelling into their microphones to make themselves heard over the noise of the loud crowd.

We returned heroes. Presidents and global leaders had the best seats. Literarily a small army of black suited kerbals kept the common crowd away from their sacred political representative. A red carpet led all the way to the astronaut complex entrance. They were forcing us to walk all that way even though we in space not six hours since. 

I was stunned at the reception by the nations of the world. We were in the spot light now. We marched through the daunting crowd, shaking everyone's hands whether they were the president of United Kerbal Emirates, or a person who waited two days in line in order to be in the front row.

A quarter of the way towards the astronaut complex something caught my eye. The flag of Ollusionia next to a group of officials waiting. I remembered their faces. I seen them before. The ringleaders of the revolution on Ollusionia.

Each one had a multitude of medals on their military outfit. Armed guards surrounded the half-a-dozen rebels. At least that's how I saw them.

"Roland. You don't look too well." Elibert said at my elbow. I wasn't feeling too well. I was going to have to shake the hands of the people who murdered my family.

I breathed deeply. Suddenly I was there.

"Hello. I am Mr. Kernian. We are representatives of the Communist Republic of Ollusionia. Meet my comrades." I walked by them in a daze.

There was the kerbal who led the armed men across the country searching for my father. I shook his hand unsteadily, but I did it. He called himself Mr. Jabed. I quickly moved on to the next kerbal.

There was the kerbal who set fire to the hall. I started to breath quickly. I started hyperventilate.  I shook his hand and then let go of like a hot potato. I couldn't take this. I was introducing myself cordially to the kerbals who had put my father on the floor. Dead.

He caught my eye. It was him. The kerbal who killed my father stood only three meters from me. I quickly shook the hands of two other kerbals. I started to sweat profusely. 

Then I looked him in the eye. "Hello. I believe I have met you before." He said. 

"Yes. I do believe we have met each other before." my face grew red from a mixture of shame and anger. 

"Then you know my name." 

"Yes. Your name is Kyleigh Kerman. You were the ambassador from Communist Kussia." I gripped his hand hard, trying to at least make an impression on him. He smiled, "Well. Its time you move along. People are going to ask about you and your relation to Ollusionia. Worst of Luck." He thrust me away and then preceded to introduce himself to the next kerbonaut. Eli.

Elibert Kerman smiled at him bemused. I heard my name come from his lips easily. My real name. He took my name, and now introduced himself to my kerbette using it. I didn't realize what was happening. I winced visibly. I saw Kyleigh's face light up at my pain. 

I moved on, sweat drying on my hair making it matted. I looked back. Elibert Kerman stayed with him a little bit longer than usual, and then when she had finished she looked back. Sweetly. Innocent of the knowledge of what that kerbal had done. 

I passed the rest of the march in a daze. I managed to reach the entrance. Inside I quickly said good-bye to my fellow kerbonauts and went to the living quarters. I literary ran to find my room. I needed down time. I needed rest after meeting him. 

I entered my room and locked the door behind me. I sighed and leaned up against the door, breathing hard. I walked over to my bed and collapsed. I started to cry a little, but stopped at a knock at the door. 

"Roland. Are you all right?" It was Elibert. I breathed in deeply, controlling myself.

While I was calming myself, Elibert continued, "There's going to be a party, a come home party soon. Kerbonauts go out with their kerbette and stuff like that. Are you willing?"

I sighed but responded as cheerfully as possible, "Sure. I'll come. Just let me prepare myself." 

I listened to her departing footsteps. I couldn't trust Elibert now. I thought I would tell her everything, but now that was an impossibility. What was Kyleigh's words to her? 

I went to the bathroom and shaved. I looked back into my face. Another kerbal wore my name proudly where I hid it away in shame. The name that my parents had chosen for me now belonged not to their darling son, but to their destroyer. 

I got myself properly dressed an hour later, then exited my room. Elibert waited for me, smiling. I smiled back, "I'm only a bit tired, but I'll be okay." 

"Good. Lets go." I took her arm and she guided me to the room where the party was held.

Unfortunately, word of this party had reached reporters. These reporters dotted the room, one of them interviewing Roni Kerman. I smiled when I saw the disinterested look on Roni's face and the distress of the reporter. 

"Roland?"

"Oh. I believe that reporter over there is getting a hard time." I nodded my head towards Roni. Elibert chuckled softly. There were trays and trays of food laid out of a multitude of tables. I believed that at least half of the food here wasn't healthy food to eat after living in space for a couple years or a couple days in Obney's case. In fact, I saw him throw up into a bin. 

I made a mental note not to touch anything containing an ounce of sugar. I saw a reporter make her way towards me. Worse, she had at least half-a-dozen kerbals following her with camera equipment. 

"Elibert. Those reporters are going to make us a hard time. Please leave these reporters to me. I'll keep them occupied." She smiled back. "I'll be here. Don't worry I can swat reporters too." 

The reporter came up with us with a microphone. Of course they were going to set up a video interview. 

I held up one finger to stop her. She stopped. 

"If you don't mind, we wouldn't want to interview. You wouldn't grill an exhausted kerbonaut who needs his rest." I smiled disarmingly.

The reporter was a professional. Whatever news agency she worked for knew I was going to be a difficult target. She replied, "Oh, it shouldn't take too long. We promise it won't be exhausting to answer a couple of questions, especially to a kerbonaut who has just gone to Dres and back."

"I'm kerbal as well. The stress from a-" I almost said failed mission, but I managed to eliminate my mistake, "successful mission. Rondal should be the one answering these questions."

"Didn't you know? Rondal is claiming to be sick presently. Our reporters have tried and failed to locate him." She replied. 

"Alright. Would it be okay for me to claim sickness? I just encountered a crowd of individuals who have germs which I haven't been exposed to for the last few years so I am probably infected with something."

"You look perfectly healthy. If you would just answer these questions, we'll leave you two alone to have a great evening. This way its painful for both our viewers and your evening."

"Every kerbal needs his privacy."

"Alright. All these questions ask is for you to prove yourself a regular kerbal, and not some non-approachable super kerbal. We want kids watching this interview to say, 'I want to be like Roland Kerman' and feel like they can become like him." She persisted. 

"Nobody wants to be like me." The words slipped out. Too loudly. The interrogator paused. The entire room paused. Elibert looked strangely at me, then angrily at the reporter. 

"Miss reporter. You have just ruined our evening." She exclaimed to the reporter. 

"There must be a story behind this." The reporter ignored Elibert and thought aloud, "I noticed you looked very out-of-sorts when you introduced yourself to the Ollusionian Ambassador." 

"Cut this **** out." Roni marched up to the reporter. Now the reporter looked really interested. Also I knew that this reporter was completely unflappable. 

"Defending Roland Kerman here? Now this is stunning news. Looks like there is a past behind you, Mr. Kerman." The last words slipped out of her mouth. She was working with Kyleigh. I was sure of that now. The pointed attacks, drawing of attention to me 

 "There's a reason there's a past. It keeps one from reliving hell." I gave the reporter one last quote, and said to Roni, "Its okay. Thanks for that." Then I took Elibert's arm and we walked out of the room. The room was silent as we left.

  

Spoiler

I would like to know people's opinions of my writing style. I want to become a better writer, so all the support helps. 

Happy Explosions

 

Edited March 11, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Alpha 360]

65th Installment - Mr. Kerman's Vengeance - Confessions and Explanations 

I left the party, or disaster in my case, and walked upstairs. Elibert was equally alarmed at the reporter's insolence. 

"How can she get away with that? That's just despicable." Elibert complained. My mind was racing. 

Tell her. Then finally you can have an ally. You can't do this alone anymore. 

I couldn't make any argument with Val. 

"Elibert. Could you get Roni, and BillyBob-mon? I need to tell you all something." My resolve to stay secret was broken now. I needed to explain myself to someone. 

She looked a little surprised, but she walked away quickly to get them. 

I decided my room wasn't safe. Who knows what Kyleigh Kerman would do to kill me now. I waited outside of the kerbonaut lounge. Harrigh and Obney Kerman emerged from it, leaning on each other as they staggered away to their rooms. 

They didn't notice me. Later, Eli arrived with Roni,  and Billy in tow. 

"Roland. What's wrong?" asked Roni, concerned. 

"Lets go in here." I breathed in, trying to restore my confidence, "I need to tell you all something." 

We entered the room and seated around the main table. I then turned on the large screen and commanded it to call Obberty and Assey up in the Endeavor. Their faces appeared on it. I briefly introduced them to the meeting and then I went silent. I watched the faces of each kerbal, trying to decipher what each one thought of this meeting. Roni and Obberty looked expectant. Billy looked confused, but Elibert's face chilled me to the bone. She looked at me quizzically, but now there was the slightest hint of distrustfulness. Like she had the feeling I was going to lie. 

Kyleigh must have told her something important. Something which made her put a barrier between me and her. 

"Fellow Kerbonauts. You have undoubtedly observed the mess downstairs. I want to explain myself." Several leaned forward, wanting to hear every word I said. Elibert wasn't one of them. 

"I am the crown prince of Ollusionia." There gasps, but none came from Elibert. "The communist republic of Ollusionia declared a revolution against the kingdom five years back, when I was still a boy. Kyleigh led the rebellion. He was well known at the courts, being the ambassador for the Communist Republic of Kussia. I discovered too late that his intents were not noble. I was about to tell my father when armed men in black masks appeared. They held us up in the main hall. After they stripped us of our valuables they set fire to the hall. Then the royal guard arrived and a fired fight began. I, my father, and a dozen other kerbals of the royal family escaped. The other hundred people in that hall died."

I continued, "We escaped. But at the cost of our power. We wandered away from the ruins of the palace, hopeless without anywhere to go nor anything to do. We managed to find somebody who would take us in. Communism had taken over the land. A mockery of a government stood up, calling themselves the successors to our kingdom. It didn't take long for the communists to find us."

"Some one talked, probably to save their life. Anyway, Kyleigh Kerman arrived at our house with a gun. He had armed guards outside, ready to rush in a kill everyone. My father bequeathed the crown to me. He named me the heir to the throne. He gave me the name, Mr. Kerman, in order to hide my identity. And to remember the royal family." 

I tried to slow myself down, but I couldn't. I had to get this out of me, it threatened to overwhelm me with grief if I lingered. 

"My father hid me in a secret closest with a peep hole. I wish I didn't see it happen though. Kyleigh entered the room with his gun in his hand. He asked my father where I was."

"I won't tell you. He will survive! He will be the last of the royal family no matter what you do. He knows that you are behind it all. He will come back to avenge us!" my father replied.

"Kyleigh cursed and put the gun to my father's head. He didn't resist. Kyleigh fired the gun and killed him. Killed him. He then preceded to kill the rest of the royal family there. I saw it all. I wish I hadn't." I sighed. "He took my name. He renamed himself. Now, I was nameless, peopless, crownless."

"When he left, I exited the closest and took my father's signet ring and put it on. I put it back in my pocket, but I had claimed the right to be king. I managed to leave Ollusionia and roomed around the globe. I went to every country I could, trying to learn how to lead a revolution and a people. I couldn't find many tips. Anyway, I was taken in by a sign looking for kerbonauts. I went there, signed up and then the next week I was on a rocket headed to Minmus." I gestured to Elibert and Obberty. 

"They picked me up on the way home. On the way back to Kerbin. Now you know the complete story behind me." There was silence.

Then Roni asked, "Your true name is Kyleigh?"

I shook my head, "No. I refuse to name him by the name rightfully mine. I call him Kyleigh because that was the name he used to bear." 

"Wait. You met him again. Kyleigh Kerman. The Ollusionian Ambassador." Billy said intrigued. 

"You wonder why I am such a state. What else?" 

"But his name is...." I quickly interrupted Roni, "No. His name is Kyleigh. Do not use my name in his context. Don't say it while I'm here. I vowed I will say take my name up again only when Kyleigh is DEAD." I hit the table. 

They went silent again. Musing over the true identity of their companion. 

"Wow." Obberty chuckled to himself on the screen, "That's all I can say. I mean, our fellow kerbonaut is a member of a extinct royal family who vows vengeance upon the kerbs who did it."

"That must be Jebediah talking." I replied. There were a few nods from around the table, while Billy looked even more confused. 

"I don't understand this ghost business." 

"We'll explain." Roni said. Then Roni started to relay the events that took place on the Endeavor. 

Happy Explosions!

Edited March 13, 2018 by Alpha 360

[roboslacker]

Looks like things are about to step up a notch.

[Alpha 360]

18 hours ago, roboslacker said:

Looks like things are about to step up a notch.

Prepare for a rough ride. 

I believe a revolution might come in later on. 

Happy Explosions!

[Alpha 360]

66th Installment - Mr. Kerman's Vengeance - Rondal vs. Roland

"Let me get this straight." Billy's face displayed concentration while he repeat the gist of what we told him. "The Kraken copies the soul and body of a deceased kerbonaut, and then imprisons the copied body on Eve while letting the soul room around the solar system. This soul is called a shade and so far the shades of the original four have been found and now are co-existing with Roland, Roni, and Obberty. The shade of Bob is talking to Assey right now, but hasn't merged with her yet."

"Rondal is a, evil shade which believes that its kerbal, and has come here to mess things up by receiving honors and things for landing on Dres. The only way to get rid of him is by nuking him?" He looked at the three of us quizzically. 

"Precisely." I replied.

"Wait. You guys are going to try to nuke me?" We all turned around to see Rondal Kerman standing in the doorway. He entered the room smiling with disbelief. 

"I know, I know. I am a shade, but still that seems like a drastic measure."

I stood up from my chair, "Rondal's Shade. You are a shade which refuses to act like one. You are dangerous."

Rondal's shade laughed, "Yes. I am very dangerous. Why can't I be who I want to be. I want to live again. I have this fake body here." He gestured to his pulsing, see-through body. 

"I wonder if I kill you, Roland that is, and take possess your body then I will be technically him. Right?" He looked around at our conjugation. 

"I can fight." I replied. 

"I know. You are quite a fighter. But then again you never fought a shade like me." 

"Listen Rondal. Do you want the good of kerbalkind? Or do you want kerbalkind to falter and fall short. Stuck on a planet where millions of people are oppressed? You're a visionary. Think. Maybe we can reach a deal." Half of the room, including Assey looked at me aghast. 

Rondal guffawed. "A deal? A deal? Really I overestimated you." 

"No, Rondal. You see, I have evidence that you are a shade. I have to keep that evidence on a leash, and I have to put in my passcode twice a day to restrain it. If you kill me, you will lose the passcode and then that evidence will get out. Once that evidence gets out, then most of the world governments will be out against you and the space program."

"The governments will close down the space programs, because ghosts like you can only happen in space. They will live under the fear of the Kraken until the Kraken finally decides to crush kerbalkind in one fell swop."

Rondal's happy face steadily fell. 

"Rondal. Listen. If we make a deal, you will disappear back into space as the pilot of one of our vessels. We need to accumulate enough funds and science to be able to make an Eve landing. You will be picked up on Eve and you will be returned a hero. It might take many years, but for those years I will still be typing in my passcode every day and every night to prevent that evidence from leaking out." 

Rondal deflated. "Roland you.....you *******." I smiled back. 

Rondal walked up to the table and sat down. He looked sideways at me for a minute, then faced me. "Roland. You drive a hard deal. But I am afraid that I have to accept. Let's shake hands."

Roni shook her head slowly at me. I had to. I reached over and grasped for his hand. He grabbed mine. Then in one motion he broke it. 

I swiftly withdrew my broken hand. I grimaced with the pain. 

'We have a deal. I will break your hand every year you make me wait. Then when we go to Eve, I will be rescued by you and be returned back to this blessed Kerbin." Rondal stood up, ignoring my groans of pain, and left the room. 

Elibert looked at my hand in horror. Roni found a first-med kit and started to apply it to my hand. 

"Are you okay?" asked Obberty from the screen, peering through it at me.

"I'm fine. Thanks." I replied frostily. It hurt badly. "Roni, will my hand be able to survive multiple breaks over the next ten years?"

"I'm not a nurse." Roni replied grumpily. "But I will say is that Rondal is not good for your health. Gosh its bad." Indeed it was purple with bruising, which didn't look well on my dark green skin. 

Something else pressed on my mind. "Back to matters concerning me." I winced as another shot of pain jerked up my arm, "I don't want to stay in my room, due to its location near the gas tanks which power this block and the likeliness of an accident now that I met Kyleigh Kerman is much higher....." 

They understood. 

"Maybe you can just sleep here." Elibert suggested. "Its perfectly safe." She took a deep breath, "Also, I still don't know whether to fully trust you." 

Looks were passed through the lounge. 

"I understand." I glared at some the kerbs about to talk, then continued, "What did Kyleigh Kerman say to you to get these notions in your mind?"

Roni gasped and glared at Elibert. 

I quickly cut her off, "I have lied so many times to you all so its natural someone would doubt." 

Elibert answered my question, "He told me that you were of the royal family who were apart of the Global War eighteen years ago which committed those atrocities."

Control yourself, Roland. You knew about these. About the Noonday Massacre

The Noonday Massacre was when Ollusionian soldiers were ordered to kill all POWs due to the death of the imprisoned Duke and Duchess of Ilichies by the Fascist Empire of Jijbone. My uncle and aunt. But in their place a million POWs were killed.

"I might be of the same family, but I was two years old when that happened. Indeed the sins of the father are inherited by the son, but why should you dislike me. I am a well-meaning individual."

"My Grandfather was one of those POWs." Elibert left the room. 

 

Spoiler

Yet again, there has been too long of an interval between Installments. I think by now, it should be standard that there will be an installment every two days instead of everyday. 

Happy Explosions!

 

[roboslacker]

1 hour ago, Alpha 360 said:

"My Grandfather was one of those POWs." Elibert left the room. 

This doesn't bode well.

[Alpha 360]

67th Installment: Back to Rocketry!

Here is a Xerxes Mk2 launching the Duna Enterprise Transfer Stage!

It is slightly modified to have (hopefully) recoverable side boosters. I'm glad to get back to rocketry after so long. Though I must say that these rocketry installments are going be fewer than they used to be. I have designated Friday as KSP day where I play as much of the game as possible and record it all. This is my first recording day so I unfortunately didn't do as much as I would have liked.

Launching into the sunrise. I am, as I said before, a sucker for beauty shots. 

The rocket is launching fine. I am surprised by the stability of this rocket, aka "Forest of Boosters 2". Named after the first "Forest of Boosters" which launched the transfer stage for the Dres Endeavor. 

The outer boosters run out of fuel and they are detached. 

Oh. Looks like I won't be recovering that booster. (I didn't recover any of the boosters anyway )

Leaving them behind and pushing into orbit.

Orbital Insertion burn. There's enough fuel sloshing around in the booster that I believed it was possible to land. 

Here is the transfer stage moving away from the booster. Ignore the seperatrons firing. Apparently if one time warps right after the engine fires and separation the engine resumes firing. Why would I want to time warp out of the clutch of the boosters? Well, some engineers clipped the poodles into the fueltanks on the booster. Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about.

So the new transfer stage has four poodles extending from the core fuel tank which is not detachable. Four other fuel tanks are connected to the center stage, feeding into it. This transfer stage has 750 kilonetwons of thrust along with 350 ISP, so it is the best transfer stage we got. 

Anyway, I set up a maneuver node for it to rendezvous with the Duna Enterprise at a steep angle in 4 days. Plenty of time to attempt to land the Xerxes Heavy Mk2 Booster. 

On course for the sea just on the other side of KSC island. As I had put the exterior boosters on, there was no room for elevatrons, meaning the booster has very little control authority. 

Entering the atmosphere steeper than I liked. 

I guess this is pretty..........if a little dangerous.

A nice sunrise! I don't think though, that red suits this rocket. It still amazes me that kerbals have come up with a paint which changes color when heated. 

Yes, descending too steep. The bottom wild-boar and the skipper are both heating up. Not a good sign.

I deploy the parachutes early, then fiddle around with deployment altitudes and stuff. Managed to get the parachutes to deploy at 1850 meters than 700 meters. The later height caused me a couple of disasters......

The parachutes deploy and I fire up the engines to land. 

Coming in at 35 m/s. A bit faster than I would have liked...

Oh, the parachutes weren't fully deployed yet. Shesh, those parachutes take their time deploying. Quite a nuisance.

Taking a nice beauty shot before landing. I do land it and recover at 85% cost back. Since this was a 150,000 fund rocket, it get........125,000 funds back!

Take this hint folks, reusability works in this game really well.

Spoiler

No, I haven't updated to 1.4 yet. I don't want to for a little while, I need my mod list fully updated first. 

Happy Explosions!

[Alpha 360]

Status Update

Looks like I will be posting once a week, on Fridays. I know it seems like barely anything, but I am losing time. I'll be able to keep this thread afloat if I do it this way. I haven't even opened the game since Friday. No I still haven't updated to 1.4. I will finish this thread, and then update and probably make a new thread about another planet pack. 

Sorry for the lack of posts. 

Happy Explosions!

Edited March 20, 2018 by Alpha 360

[roboslacker]

How far done is the story, by the way? It looks about halfway complete.

[Alpha 360]

8 minutes ago, roboslacker said:

How far done is the story, by the way? It looks about halfway complete.

The story has reached the climax of the second part. There was planned 3 parts. The first one about the Dres Endeavor Mission, the second about the interval in time between the Endeavor mission and the Enterprise mission, and the last one is a BD Armory/warfare mission report. That will come in its own thread, as it will take place on Kerbin in a sandbox game devoted to it. 

I will leave the Mr. Kerman's Vengeance series for another week though. I want to get back to focusing on rocketry and interplanetary missions, as I don't do those very much. 

Happy Explosions!

[Alpha 360]

68 1/2 th Installment: Trident Base Crew Alpha Return

Here is the return of Obney & Co. After a productive week on the surface, forgetting about the fact no research has been completed because of the lack of a scientist, here they are returning. 

Kerbin hangs in the background. I just love how close Kerbin is to Minmus. Its a wonder that Minmus isn't tidally locked yet......Well I guess that proves that Minmus is a recent addition to the Kerbin System. Trident Base's purpose is after all to confirm that theory. 

You can see the Trident Base core with all the windows. Windows are expensive in space so that cost a pretty penny. You can also just see the supplies module the Ugly Duckling (Don't ask us, ask Obney) brought here. 

Everyone is on-board so the Ugly Duckling takes off on time. I can't resist beauty shots like this. Too pretty. 

Orbital Insertion Burn. Just a small one because Minmus is a small planetary body. 

Now leaving Minmus behind. The fuel drainage from the tanks now makes the skycrane a little unwieldy, but its still able to burn in a straight line........That's an awkward sentence. 

 

Burning the remains of the fuel to slower the encounter velocity. Don't want to burn up in the atmosphere and lose two experienced kerbonauts!

The empty sky-crane stage is detached to prepare for re-entry. 

And Reentry! Boy that fire's hot. 

Spoilers. They survive reentry and then slow down to a reasonable speed to deploy the chutes. 

Thanks to the power of coincidence, its a beautiful sunset on the water. As you can tell, I am still myself and take lots of beauty shots. I guess its the main reason why people read this thread.

 

Splash-down of Trident Base Crew Alpha! Next week there will be the launch of Trident Base Crew Beta where Elibert and Roni leave for Minmus with the science module.

Happy Explosions!