Rebirth

[NewtSoup]

Previously in Kerbal Space Program:
 

Quietly and without anyone noticing, from the depths of the nethersphere the Kraken grew restless.  Reaching into the substructure of the Kerbiverse  with it's many tentacles it began it's interminable work.  Nothing noticeable at first,  a glitch in the matrix *cough* an unexpected repeated meme.  Here and there a delay in time.  Barely tangible and passing unremarked by the Kerbals and indeed the Superuser herself!.  But bit by bit by byte by megabyte the fractures and fissures festered unfettered across the divine snack platters of the Kerbiverse and indeed the entire multiverse and then ... nothing.  The Superuser tried in vain to coax the spin back into the Kerbiverse but it's snack platters could do nothing more than a brief cheddaring noise before sinking back into nothingness.  With that everything was wiped from existence.  No more would Babylon K dominate the local system it simply vanished from Minmus Orbit.  No more would hapless tourists with only a few funds find themselves unexpectedly transferred to the Minman Ore Mines at Rura Penthe Base.

All was not lost however. The Superuser, though thoroughly spanked by the copious tentacles of the Kraken for completely missing the foretellings of the SMART, began again.  This time the multiverse was rebuilt with no spin but was in a solid state to the core.  This time there was the technology, she could rebuild it, stronger, faster better than before! And would find the route back to Kerbin! So Say We All!

Valentina opened her eyes.  The sky was blue and cloudless above her.  As she came too she recalled the memories of a previous life.  She knew she was powerful!  But this new form, this new form - It was weak! But not for long.   She luxuriated for a few moments in the kerbal enriching sounds emanating from the great speaker and slowly became aware that the space centre was back!  More! there was a count down going on T minus five minutes!.  There was just time.  Sprinting as fast as her shift key would allow she ran back to the astronaut complex.  She threw on her suit and made for the launch pad on foot, stopping only to pick up a number 3 pool ball.  Ahead of her she could see Jebediah sauntering towards the launch vehicle confident in his status as pilot of the first Kerbal Launch Vehichle.  With all her strength she threw the pool ball at Jeb. 

It sailed in a lazy arc through the air and came down right on target!  It bounced off the top of Jeb's helmet and landed in the grass in front of him.  Round and red amongst the green blades, he could not resist,  It looked exactly like a mini ball of Edam.  A fine snack to be sure.  He removed his helmet and stooped to pick it up.  Sitting on the grass he dropped first one glove and then the other.  He turned the ball slowly, realising with horror his mistake as he spotted the number 3 on the side.  Quickly he turned back towards the launch vehichle.  Simple as it was, just two goo canisters, a pod and a flea booster it was a fine sight and scrambling through the hatch - Valentina!.  Clipboard in hand.  She had already done her crew report and EVA report.  A goo pod opened and then a great pit opened in Jebs stomach as he realised - he had eaten the pool ball!.  That was going to be painful later!

The countdown reached zero.  A mighty roar filled the air and Valentina Smiled as she was pressed back into her seat.  She had forgotten to check her staging and the parachute had deployed at the same time the engines fired.  But no matter.  The science from the goo pods and her crew reports would vinidcate her.  Empress Valentina was on her way back!  And she was going to science the Kraken out of this! ( or at least make someone else do it )

 

I'm no graphic artist - if someone can help me make a better flag along these lines I'd be very grateful - 8 planets of the Kerbol sytem in a row.  Kerbin dominating and a gladius over kerbin to represent the Empire!

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

Having established herself as Kerbin's premier pilot it was time to undertake the next two missions. Escape the atmosphere and test a Hammer Solid fuel Engine at the launch site!.   Bill, not being hungry for pool balls and very much aware of how long Jeb had been in the bathroom quickly came up with a design which should be completely over-engineered  while still able to satisfy Bob's need for "more data".
 

It was perfect.  Too perfect.  Valentina noted that Bill would have to be "reassigned" as soon as was practical.  For the moment though he had his uses.

 

To be quite honest this took a couple of iterations to get right as it would NOT re-enter nicely with a 1.25m Bay on the underside.  The capsule always, always, always pointed nose down and smeared everything across the landscape.  With the addition of a heat shield however everything came up roses.  In fact the drogue chutes were probably not necessary.  Let it be known that a cargo bay is decidedly un-aerodynamic now.  With 1.4.1 it's heatshields every time for me now if I have "extras" to get down to Kerbin ( unless I have a datacore on the nose of the pod and THEN a parachute.. that might work )

[NewtSoup]

I know what Im going to do with the flag.  Darken the background to a deeper blue.  Get rid of the planets.  Brighten Kerbin.  

Then add a large star for each planet visited and a small star for each moon visited.  Visited means landed on with the exception of jool where a suicide probe will suffice. I  know you CAN make a Kerballed Landing on Jool but I'll add something special for that

Still if someone is willing to help graphically that would be cool!.. Gimp compatible stuff please

 

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

It was night and the light from the Mün illuminated the KSC with a quiet beauty.  The Great Speaker had had it's tape changed and was repeating a sound that the brain doctors at the Kerbal Enrichment Centre called "Krikits".  She ambled over the dew dampened grass letting the sound and smell of the night fill her senses.   She reached out and caressed the speaker's console lovingly before firmly stabbing the stop button with a finger and silencing the annoying noise!

She looked up at the Mün, it's stilton like substance hung in the air in exactly the way cheese wouldn't,  It's radiance entranced her and deep within she felt a longing.  She was sure she had been there before, she had the memories and yet she had not.  In that moment it was clear to Valentina that the time had come to reconquer Kerbin's largest child.  The science boffins had been conducting their weird experiments in planes and ground cars around the KSC and the nearby places.  They had a fascination with sticking thermometers in places you wouldn't normally think to stick one.  It was best to be off and away from them if possible.  They had, nevertheless, developed a whole slew of technology for the engineers to manifest. Time to wake Bill.

Bill was unhappy.  It was dark and not a time to be back in the Vehichle Assembly Building.  Except it wasn't.  Strangely it was always daytime in here no matter the time of day.  Once inside the giant construction space you could look outside and see the crawler way and launch pad clear as, well day really.  But the second you stepped back out through those doors - Darkness! Well assuming it wasn't already daytime.  Bill suspected Valentina was working on a way to make engineers productive around the clock by tricking them into thinking it was always 5:02 pm.  In fact it WAS always 5:02pm in there.  Just about tea time.  Tea time! Bill was hungry.  At least there were snacks in the VAB.  Stepping through the main entrance the girl on the desk greeted him with the usual "Hello Sweetie".  He stopped in his tracks and looked at her.  She flashed an engagement ring at  him and winked.  "Not today Sweetie, but if anything changes, I'll let you know!".  Yes of course, she was engaged to some doctor or other. Who, he didn't know, it didn't matter anyway.  He stepped through into the main assembly chamber.  It was huge and unsettling.  Just as with the strangeness of the time of day, you could see the walls and the roof and yet it was possible to build craft that wouldn't actually fit inside the VAB, inside the VAB.  Like it was bigger on the inside.  He tried not to think about it.  Time to get designing.

Thankfully the boffins had done considerable research and it wasn't long before he had a science package, command module, tanks and a beautiful engine to take the whole lot from LKO to the Mun.  It was then that he noticed that no research had been done on heavier landing gear.  He was going to have to improvise if he was going to avoid a pool ball based diet.  Many hours later he stopped for tea, as it was tea time after all and admired his work!.  Strong and Stable and not at all conservative in nature it stood there ready,  fulled, filled with snacks, ready to do science.  He notified Valentina of  his success and signed off on the paperwork to have it taken to the launch pad.



Valentina was impressed.  Ignoring protocol and all documentation procedures she went straight to launch.  Bill had once again out done himself.  The craft flew beautifully.  The solid kick from the huge SRB's shook her to her core.  The pleasing but gut wrenching lurch as they cut off and staged.  The steady thrum and vibration of the main engines as they ramped up to full power filled every fibre of her being taking her from pleasure to.... ahem, sorry, got carried away there.  Everything went text book to orbit.  Nice gravity turn.  Main stage separated cleanly with apoapsis at 100k on a sub orbital trajectory.  Circularised at 100km before plotting a transfer burn to within 20km of the Mün.  Performing Remote Camera inspection of Vessel.



What in the name of the Kraken's deep fried appendage rings!

"WILLIAM KERMAN!  YOU PROMISED ME THIS THING WOULD HAVE LANDING GEAR!"

"Actually, I just said it would have the ability to land without damaging the engine.  I have perfect faith in your reconciliatory piloting skills.  Oh your breaking up.. bzzzzt shhhhhhhh" *click*

Valentina took a moment or two to compose herself.  She could of course do this.  Only one person would think she couldn't, Jebediah! And Bill had betrayed her to boot it was time he was replaced.  She could find a new assignment for him.  Jeb, she would have to think of something special for him. There was a new applicant by the name of Catsey who showed great courage and relatively little stupidity.  Valentina sent back the orders for Catsey to be hired and put in accommodation adjacent to her own.  This young apprentice would be turned to her side and become a powerful ally.

Valentina turned the craft retrograde and ramped up the poodle ( this doesn't get said often enough ) to a deorbit burn and aimed for somewhere in the mun's midlands.  Sure enough she set the craft down very gently, with the landing finesse of a tortoise dropped by an eagle. The slope was rather steeper than she would have liked and the craft having three scrap girders instead of proper landing gear to sit on slid for a few minutes before coming to a full stop.   Valentina took a final deep breath, punched the "more data" button for Bob and donned her helmet for her first(?) Münwalk.  Finally the New Kerbin Empire Flag had earned it's first star!  Of course only she knew it was the New Kerbin Empire Flag yet.  But soon.  Very soon.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by NewtSoup

[Just Jim]

21 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

Thankfully the boffins had done considerable research and it wasn't long before he had a science package, command module, tanks and a beautiful engine to take the whole lot from LKO to the Mun. 

Boffins???  You have Boffins???

Outstanding!!!  Now I'm really intrigued!!!  

 

[Kerbinchaser]

Ooooooooh, dis looks neat! I will be following dis... Ja...

[NewtSoup]

23 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Boffins???  You have Boffins???

Outstanding!!!  Now I'm really intrigued!!!  

 

Heh, it's just another term for brainy people and scientists.  I imagine them doing more than simply waiting until such time as I can stuff them into a mobile lab and ship them off to some forgotten moon, although they do reset experiments.  I'll give them that.

** Edit - just occurred to me that you probably know the meaning of boffins :).. I'm slow sometimes.

Edited March 29, 2018 by NewtSoup

[Just Jim]

49 minutes ago, NewtSoup said:

Heh, it's just another term for brainy people and scientists.  I imagine them doing more than simply waiting until such time as I can stuff them into a mobile lab and ship them off to some forgotten moon, although they do reset experiments.  I'll give them that.

** Edit - just occurred to me that you probably know the meaning of boffins :).. I'm slow sometimes.

hehe, yeah.

I learned it from fellow author and good friend @Geschosskopf, who used it in his amazing Travelling Circus adventures. And one of this characters (Sanny the Ghost) has also "crossed over" into my Emiko universe, and uses it a lot. 

It was a great surprise seeing someone else use it... and properly. I look forward to more!!! 

[FleshJeb]

@NewtSoup I think @cratercracker might be willing to help you with your flag.

Also, I'm glad the physics equation helped. Looks like you found a great use for it.