[Writing] Finally, Vall and Back! A story.

[Wayfare]

Dear Jeb,

Thank you for your mission report. I'm afraid it doesn't quite match up to the debriefings of Bill and Bob though. I've marked out some of the lies possible innaccuracies and I'd appreciate it if you could have another look at it.

To Vall and Back – A Tale of Thrilling Heroics and Dashing Adventure from the Life of Jebediah Kerman

(Really? Come on now)

By Jebediah Kerman

Space is not for the faint of heart – but for those whose hearts are faintless (that's not a word, Jeb), it is a calling, a destiny, and indeed, a great place to hang out. Two years ago I and my brave compatriots Bill and Bob accepted a mission to travel to the outer reaches of the Kerbol system and extract ice samples from the icy surface of Jool's ice moon Vall (I get it, it's icy. And as I recall, you were the one who wanted to go there because you wanted "cooler ice" for your drinks). Without hesitation we strapped ourselves into a modified Munshine IX interplanetary rocket, the state of the art evolution of the fiesty Munsine V-VII series that first carried Kerbals to the Mun and Minmas. (You're the only one who calls those old rustbuckets "fiesty". Bill describes them as "suicidal". Bob calls them "Yeeeeaaaargh!")

After a flawless launch, the Munshine's atomic thrusters burned cherry red and placed us on a neat intercept course to Jool. The many months of travel that followed were filled with laughter and merriment as I and my crew passed the time by recalling our earlier adventures (According to Bill and Bob, you were passed out drunk most of the time). Then, finally, the grand green crescent of Jool appeared in Bill and Bob's windows. I deftly adjusted the intercept trajectory to get us a smooth aerobrake through the gas giant's atmosphere. This first aerobrake gave us a highly eccentric orbit, but it was all according to my plan: the second aerobrake was precisely calculated to have the inner moon Laythe slingshot us onto a perfect Vall intercept (That was dumb luck and you know it).

The computerised version of my very own brain conducted the landing without trouble. I popped the hatch, slid down the ladder and for the very first time, Kerban boots crunched into the ice of Vall. I collected the samples with no regard for my personal safety, yet through sheer skill and determination, returned to the lander unscathed (The EVA logs show you were outside for all of five minutes, space hero). I throttled the nukes back up, let out a hearty cheer and parked the ship into a high orbit over Jool.

As soon as the launch window appeared I eyeballed the return trajectory and punched that puppy right back to Kerbal. (I just can't let this go. Mission Command and the secondary crew ran dozens of simulations to get you out of that ridiculous four-day orbit you'd gotten yourself into. We toiled for weeks to get you that return trajectory. You just entered the numbers and went back to drinking!) To save the recovery crews some time, I put us down right inside the Kerbal Space Center. (Hell of a timesaver, Jeb. You crashed four highly irradiated nuclear engines smack in the middle of KSC. I guess a few thousand years of hunting double-headed squirrels will be fun.) As I hopped from the landed command module, the bucket of Vall ice in my hands felt like... Victory. (Oh brother)

The end.

In my office, first thing tomorrow.

Your friend flight director,

Glenn Kerman

Edited October 2, 2012 by Wayfare
Fixed spoiler thingies

[The Destroyer]

Nice! Gj on getting there!