The Apiary - #1: One step forward, Two steps back

[Shna_na]

On a little pale green dot in a parallel universe, Kerbals dwell with one aim in mind - science! With a population of however many Kerbals you can be bothered to kill hire, their sole purpose is to explore their solar system and plant flags. Their home planet, Kerbin, is a sprawling trail of mountains, plains, and oceans, interspersed with islands and lakes. A large desert beneath an extensive river is separated from the main continent of the Kerbals by a small strip of water. In this continent lies the only sign of any life on the planet - a modern space centre. A large runway, a launch pad, research & development, mission control, large satellites, and construction buildings are the only signs of sentient movement on this big blue ball of beautiful desertion, with a tiny building nestled in there containing every Kerbin that ever lived - excluding those either tragically deceased or lost in space on a mission. This vast wasteland of untouched, unknown, easter-egg-ridden floorspace makes for great sights and practice site for the most exciting explosions and progressive prototypes. Like the flowers that are missing from the plains of Kerbin, its inhabitants roam around the VAB and SPH like they've nothing better to do. Because, of course, they do have nothing better to do. For this reason: space is the go-to place for a Kerbal looking for adventure and learning.

After several missions to Kerbin orbit, leading to the exploration of most of the planet, Kerbals turned their gaze to the farther reaches of the space just beyond their atmosphere. They reached out to Minmus, their small icy rock, and had then made their first step in their marathon of space exploration. With what they learned, they developed new technology. They came closer to home to explore Mun, their closest companion and ruler of the tides. Kerbalkind moved forward faster and faster with every step, but eventually realised that they had neglected their home: Kerbin.

Back at KSC, plans were being drawn up for the most ambitious mission yet. A home above home, a Mecca for science... a space station.

With much of the surface of both Mun and Minmus still virgin, something was needed to make life easier for the brave pioneers that would withstand weeks of starvation and crazy ideas from their famed pilot Jebediah, and a giant hunk of floating organised debris was just what they wanted. Ambitious designs were lovingly crafted from all the scrap and science from every nook and cranny of KSC, with all efforts focused on making the single best orbital craft to date. Core module - check, housing module - check, power... Power? Ah.

Coming to the realisation that science isn't as expendable as once thought, it was probably time to learn from mistakes. Minmus was one again the centre of attention, with a crazy mission planned to scour an entire hemisphere of the over-sized dessert's lime coating. That was over pretty quickly, with Jebediah really beaming with efficiency on return.

The three-or-so planned modules for the Apiary's start-up were all fitted with newfangled solar panels - little squares of brilliant blue scraping up all the photons it can lay its shiny silicon on. A more permanent power source would have to come later. For now, problem number two arose: propulsion. Minmus and Mun are close to Kerbin, so Kerbals didn't really have a need to go further than your standard rocket engines or fuel tanks, but when it dawned on them that they needed to get this wide load up onto space somehow, these puny fellows wouldn't cut the mustard (let alone the atmosphere). Strap them together? Sure! What could possibly go wrong?

[VelocityPolaris]

Have some of dat rep. Cheers to you, young sir.

[Shna_na]

Have some of dat rep. Cheers to you, young sir.

Thank you very much, kind sir. What, if anything, would you suggest that I do to improve this? (other than adding artwork, that's coming over the course of the week).