The Lliman-Crayolan Tension [v. pic-heavy]

[Liam Sheepman]

This is a story based around a sort of space race between Kerbal Russians (the Llima Confederacy) and Kerbal Germans (The Democratic Crayolan Republic). I like having a series of pictures for each part, simply because I find it easier to write with something visual to go on, so pretty much every part of the story will have a little album, plus a bit of other writing from the perspective of the strange Liam Tinkerton McPinkerton. If the text is hard to read, here's a link to the actual album: http://imgur.com/a/L0aZV

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The Diary of Liam T. McPinkerton: Day 1

The Crayolans approached me one day when I was having the last of the freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches I brought with me. They smelled slightly of bleach, and their faces were immaculately clean. Jebediah tells me that their entire nation is surrounded with some great big wall to keep out the neighbours, because all of them seem to be actively at war with their republic except for us. I have spent a decent portion of the day figuring out whether we are kind, or everyone else is just animus, and have yet to decide. They asked me if I knew where Wehrmund is, and so I presently told them - to do so is polite, regardless of any tension or Jeb's outright xenophobia towards the citizens of the DCR. My voice was muffled by the milk biscuit turning back into ice cream in my mouth, but they seemed to understand. Other than the fact they walked off in the wrong direction.

I heard good news from the KSC though. Apparently me and Bob are going to get the chance to test a lander headed for Duna on Minmus and Mun. They say that the interplanetary satellites are picking up strange SSTV signals, some showing strange men stood silently on the flat Dunan plains, some showing the more hilly areas of Duna. The thing that apparently intrigued Gene Kerman was that debris appeared to be visible from the surface of Duna - this Gene, of course, being the one at KSC, not Geneny who stays with us. They say they're alien signals, but despite being a suspected* alien myself, I'm skeptical of how liveable Duna is. Estimates put its atmosphere so thin it's only visible during noon, and its temperatures low enough to cover your mouth in hoarfrost and your skin in freezer burn.

Jebediah has been scaring me a bit with his talk about the Crayolans. Some of it seems to be backed up by fleeting comments Gene makes sometimes. Apparently they're getting ambitious enough to try and send 106 metric tons of metal into orbit to dock with the station. 106 tons! If anything goes wrong, we're done for. I think I should ask KSC for escape pods...

Edited December 21, 2013 by Liam Sheepman