Angelo Kerman

I don't really have much of a plot for this new series as it's largely preamble for my next story. This is also the first time for me trying JNSQ, and using KSP 1.7.3. I am still setting things up so I expect the visual to change. The goal is for the Kerbal Space Program to reach the Mun and Minmus, something never done before. I currently don't have a space center for the vonKermas to fly from, largely because I don't know if the Kosmodrome works in JNSQ. So I'll just be focusing on KSP's efforts to reach Kerbin's natural satellites. Mods: Chapters Chapter 1 (this post) Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Epilogue --- Bill & Jeb pose for a publicity photo as they simulate a space mission on KSC grounds. I mistakenly have EVE installed It's a bit dark and rainy at KSC today. Bill is about to enter the Drill Hab Simulator as part of the Kerbal Academy's Engineering Boot Camp training. As a result of the science gathering around KSC- practicing making EVA and crew reports, testing new science experiments, and the like- KSC saved up enough Funds to purchase an old trainer airplane. Jeb took the trainer on an endurance flight to the Island Airfield as part of his pilot training. Along the way, Jeb flew over Welcome Back Island (WBI), headquarters of Wild Blue Industries. The trainer barely made the full 550km in about 3 hours of flying time- and crashed onto the airfield. But the science was saved! A few days later, the trainer was rebuilt . Valentina took it out for a spin. The new engine and retractable landing gear made it nearly three times faster than before. And unlike Jeb, Valentina didn't crash it. She landed at Welcome Back Island before heading home.

With lots of help, I finally set up JNSQ in KSP 1.7.3. I'm still working on the fine tuning, but once that's done I can gather up science and do some preliminary missions for my next mission report/story. Maybe I'll do a To the Mun precursor story... Meanwhile, a couple of screenshots: Bill & Jeb pose for a publicity photo as they simulate a space mission on KSC grounds. I mistakenly have EVE installed It's a bit dark and rainy at KSC today. Bill is about to enter the Habitat Simulator as part of the Kerbal Academy's Engineering Boot Camp training. As a result of the science gathering around KSC- practicing making EVA and crew reports, testing new science experiments, and the like- KSC saved up enough Funds to purchase an old trainer airplane. Jeb took the trainer on an endurance flight to the Island Airfield as part of his pilot training. Along the way, Jeb flew over Welcome Back Island (WBI), headquarters of Wild Blue Industries. The trainer made the full 550km in about 3 hours of flying time- and crashed onto the airfield. But the science was saved!

Yup, it was a long time coming. I finally had time to play over the holidays and got the screenshots needed. While this story is done, I'm gearing up for a new one. I'm not sure if it's a continuation of this universe or a new one. I am definitely considering JNSQ, which would require a restart. But I also left some loose threads just in case I come back to the KEEP-verse (Kerbal Elcano Exploration Project was the predecessor to this story). The Annunaki/Norse Americans' are thought to be extinct... as far as anybody knows... MIA: Gene Kerman, Wernher vonKerman, Captain James T. Kerman, and many more of the top personnel from the Kerbal Space Center were lost, leaving people like Bobak Kerman as Flight Director and Linus Kerman in charge of the KSC. Gene and his crew were last seen running through an active stargate...

Chapter Twenty: When We Left kerbin “We’re all bedded down in cryosleep, Kelbin,” Raphia said over the ship’s intercom. “I’m the last. I’ll see you again in a few years.” “Have a good rest,” Kelbin responded. He could hear her mutter something about Atlantis’ cryo-shelter being cold and unfriendly before switching off the intercom. He paused a moment, thinking he should say something… He remembered a quote by Lagatha vonKerman. She and Colonel Parie were working out the details of jointly running Saucer Works. Both nations were also calming down, but neither one could explain the recent “accidents.” “When we left Kerbin, we did not see ourselves as giants,” Kelbin said, “We were humbled upon seeing our world so small… Ok, Marnica, hit it!” A few moments later, Kelbin felt the g-forces build as the engines ignited and pushed him against his seat. He never expected to be in command of the first spacecraft to Jool. But with Valentina still on Duna and Jeb and Captain James… gone… Kelbin was KSP’s most experienced astronaut available for the mission. Whatever that mysterious transmission from Duna was aimed at, they’d figure it out. As the thunder of the burn subsided, DSEV-05 broke away from Kerbin’s grasp. Other ships in the Jool One Fleet followed suit. With the first step of the farthest journey beyond Kerbin completed, Kelbin finally had a chance to relax a bit as his crew began setting Atlantis’ systems into hibernation mode. A lot had happened since his first trip into space: he established Skybase, salvaged spacecraft, tested flying rocket saucers and Deep Space Exploration Vessels, learned about the secret saucer research base on the Mun, briefly became part of the Kerbal Stargate Program, and discovered the fate of the Annunaki. And so much more had happened over the past couple of years. The flight crew completed their chores and headed down to the cryo-shelter to hibernate. As captain of the ship, he was the last to enter cryo-sleep. He took one last look around, then tapped the close button. Unlike the last vision of his “trip” to Eve, where he entered the cryo-shelter, he felt his body grow cold as the glykerol began its work. In a few moments his bodily activity would be next to nothing. But until then, as he fell asleep, he began to dream… Epilogue Giorgio Kerman, resident expert on the ancient aliens, looked at the footage from Stargate Base for the umpteenth time. He couldn’t help but feel sadness for all the people that were lost, all the people that he knew. He saw footage from one camera that he hadn’t checked before. It was from one of the observatory’s entry hatches. It took ten seconds of video before the base exploded. Curious, he decided to look… --- This ends Kerbal Space Program 1.3.1. It’s been a long and fun road. Thanks for reading!

Thanks! I have one more to go... I've had the plot figured out for awhile, but just haven't had the time to actually play...

Norse American is a great way to put it. Not quite our real-life but there are a lot of parallels. It's definitely Cold War era, 1970-ish. The great thing about being on vacation? More time to play! Chapter Nineteen: Revelations As with the green monoliths, Kelbin's view of the world shifted. But this time, it was different. The images flooding through Kelbin's mind were a torrent (as in a lot, not a torent ). It felt like he lived a lifetime as someone else. Several lifetimes. Not as a kerbal, but as an Annunaki... He saw a president give a rousing speech to visit Annunaki homeworld's natural satellite. He saw a spacecraft orbiting a moon, with their homeworld in the background: He saw two Annunaki walking the surface of the moon for the first time: He saw a space station created by several nations: And many more images. He lived as several different Annunaki from many diverse cultures, nations that were at time at odds with other, and other times they worked in unison. Not unlike the nations of Kerbin... That unity proved to be a great strength of the Annunaki. They worked best together, embracing their diversity instead of letting it divide them. And it was needed, for the Annunaki's homeworld was invaded.. Something one of their presidents had hinted might happen someday. As one, the Annunaki fought back: And the conflict was brutal and bloody... Unsure of the survival of their species, the Annunaki reverse-engineered several of the invader's craft and used them to escape.. Two such craft arrived in the Kerbol system nearly two hundred thousand years ago. But the craft were fatally struck by a Kraken strike- a fault line in the local space-time slipped at just the wrong moment, sending one craft crashing into the Mun and the other into Kerbin. There were only a small handful of survivors on Kerbin, and none of the precious cargo needed to restart their civilization survived impact. Facing extinction, the Annunaki built monuments to their legacy, found a promising semi-amphibian species and, they infused Annunaki DNA into the amphibians' own... Kelbin blinked and looked up. He was back on the Moon. Er, the Mun. He checked his watch, then looked around. What felt like lifetimes passed in just a few seconds. "Are you ok, Major," Danrick asked. "Yeah," Kelbin said finally. "I think so." "What did you see?" "Everything," he said simply. He paused a few moments, lost in thought. "There's nothing else for us here, let's mark the location and head back to the Saucer Works." The two astronauts returned to their flying saucer, and Kelbin took one last look at the Annunaki monument. His vision gave him a slight headache, so he pressed his hand to his forehead and briefly closed his eyes to quell it. When it subsided, he looked up again. "Neil Armstrong," Kelbin said. He recognized him as one of the first to walk on the Moon. "Armstrong? Isn't that the name of MSR-1," Danrick asked, "one of the gods from ancient Kerman scripture?" "Yeah," Kelbin chuckled. "I guess the ancients learned some Annunaki names and wrote them down." The gravitic saucer lifted off of the munar surface. A few minutes later, they were back at the Saucer Works. Not long after, they had company... * Major Gedra hit the alert siren. “Action stations! Action stations! All personnel to your action stations! Don your EVA suits! Stand by to repel invaders! Lt. Colonel Parie to the command center!” Immediately, base personnel began scrambling into their space suits and running to their designated areas. By the time the base was ready for combat, an armed rover had landed nearby. “Lt. Colonel,” Gedra began, “It’s the vonKermans. They demand our immediate. surrender or they’ll open fire. They also say that anything lifting off the surface will be fired upon without warning.” “This isn’t the Arctic research station,” Parie retorted. “Let’s show them what we got.” Suddenly, another armed rover appeared, this one from under the konkrete platform supporting Saucer Works. it turned towards its vonKerman counterpart. Both vehicles locked onto each other. * After the wireless signal ended and the base’s computers returned to normal, numerous diagnostics concluded that nothing was wrong. Team Bill tried unsuccessfully to reproduce the signal to no avail. Since they could continue their tests remotely just as well as being on site, they decided to return to the Arcology. Ernst activated the remote controls on the Munbus to guide it on the first part of its journey. She armed the VTOL rockets and taxied the craft away from the campsite before launching the Munbus into the sky. After exiting the atmosphere, she turned the ship around in preparation for landing. A few minutes later, she accidentally hit the emergency chutes, but either Karl or Bobus could repack them. Seconds later, the Munbus was safely on the ground about 8km away from the Arcology. “Not bad, Ernst,” Bill said. “It’s the middle of the night there, let’s taxi the Munbus to the Arcology and give them something to wake up to.” An urgent message on the communications panel caught Bill’s attention. It was Bobak. Bill started the recorded video. He looked very pale. “There’s no other way to say this,” Bobak began. “Our desert research station, where the KSC special project was located…” * The next day, Team Bill woke up early and boarded the Duna Flyer IV, taking the results of their science experiments for further analysis. Nobody spoke; they’d heard the news of the accident at KSP’s project in the Great Desert. There were rumors that it was no accident, but no proof. But so many good people were gone... The flight around Duna took the better part of a day and landed without incident. Valentina gave the whole team a couple of days off to process the news. The next evening, the team got together and deployed the Arcology’s first factory facility and some new drilling rigs. It gave them something to focus upon. With the factory churning out equipment and konkrete, it didn’t take long to accumulate enough resources for the second factory. With both churning out resources, the remaining elements of the Arcology came together quickly. There was nothing more to do to finish the Jebediah Kerman Arcology, but Valentina’s mission to establish Minmus Station taught her to maximize the infrastructure before the next crew arrived. With a year left before they boosted for Kerbin, she set her sites on Duna Tanker Station as well as Duna’s natural satellite… * “The vonKermans are hailing us again,” Gedra said, “they want to talk to you.” It had been several days since they arrived. They must be getting low on supplies. “Put them on audio,” she responded. “This is Lieutenant Colonel Parie Kerman of the Kerman States Air Force,” she began. “To whom am I speaking to?” “I am Oberst Lagatha vonKerman,” the responder stated. Her accent was light. And professional. “The Lagatha vonKerman who went to Eve and landed on Gilly,” Parie asked. “The same,” Lagatha responded simply. “Well, it’s an honor to speak with you,” Parie began. “How can I help you?” There was a brief pause. “I would like to discuss the situation with you in person.” * “… And our atomic forces will launch the moment your orbiting craft do,” Lagatha retorted. “We can verbally spar all day until someone shoots, or…” “Or what,” Parie asked. Lagatha sighed. “My country is going bankrupt competing with yours in this space race,” she began. “How many launches have you seen us conduct of late?” “Not many,” Parie admitted. “What does this have to do with your alternative to a shooting match?” "When we celebrate our diversity and work together, we are at our best," Kelbin said, remembering the images from the Annunaki. Lagatha smiled. He understood. “If we cannot compete,” Lagatha continued, “do you think that we’ll let you keep this saucer? We will fight for it and that fight will escalate. With your orbital atomic ‘Avenger’ craft and our atomic undersea missile boats and planes, the next war will truly be the last war for all Kerbalkin.” Parie looked surprised, nobody knew that the VKR had undersea boats armed with atomic rockets... Lagatha spoke again. “We both know that the World Court will spend years determining who will be able to research the Arctic Saucer,” she added. “If the existence of this saucer were revealed, do you think the World Court look favorably upon your country? I think not.” “Go on,” Parie replied. “But if this saucer were kept secret, both of our nations could reap the benefits,” Lagatha suggested. She looked at Kelbin. "And we can find a way to subtly share what we learn with the rest of the world." “So instead of killing each other, you want to blackmail us to keep our saucer a secret in exchange for what, joint custody and shared research?” “Exactly,” Lagatha responded. Then she pointed to everyone and added, “we are all explorers, yes? We seek knowledge. We seek our place in the cosmos… She pointed to her crew. "When we orbited Kerbin, we saw no borders confining our countries. Instead we saw only a single fragile island in a vast sea of stars. When we left Kerbin, we did not see ourselves as giants. We were humbled as our world became small... Our orders are to secure the saucer through force. But we know where that path leads. “So, before us we have two paths. We can destroy each of our nations over this wondrous technology. Or we set aside our differences, study this technology, share our knowledge, and use it to explore the cosmos. Together,” Lagatha proposed. Parie nodded. Her idea had merit.

Chapter Eighteen: Explorations Marnica and her team were running a simulation aboard DSEV-01 when Enterprise’s flight computer caught her attention. “Huh,” she said. “That’s odd.” “What,” Stelissa, the team’s engineer asked. “Enterprise is saying we have a convergence in ten minutes,” Marnica responded. “With what?” Marnica queried the intercepting object. She looked surprised. “Munar Gateway,” she said simply. “Dicie, can you confirm?” Dicie, the team scientist, ran the numbers. They looked awfully close. “Uh, boss,” she said nervously, “Munar Gateway is pretty likely to land on us!” Marnica cursed she hit the emergency line to KSC. “Flight, Munbase Enterprise. Munar Gateway is inbound to our location. Reason unknown. We are evacuating.” She tried to sound calm but Inside she was frightened. Team Marnica immediately exited DSEV-01 and raced to the Munbus. Dicie plowed through the base’s solar arrays as she fled. Nobody cared. The crew piled into their transport. “This place is cursed,” Marnica said for the last time as she lit the VTOL rockets and boosted to safety. Thirty seconds later, the Munar Gateway space station crashed a scant 9 kilometers away from Munbase Enterprise. * Alzer vonKerman raised her hand and made the “ok” sign, indicating to Bill that she had completed calibration of the Surface Experiment Package. It was one of the last things they needed to do before heading back to the Jebediah Kerman Arcology. Bill gave her the thumbs up and switched on the command core. The system checked out. The two hopped back into the Buffalo rover and drove up the hill to the campsite. Bill then got out and began transferring the rover’s science instruments to the Duna Cargo Flyer IV. It would hunt for more anomalies before winging its way back to the Arcology. Alzer inspected Bill’s handiwork. The exo core drill was mounted upside down, but the laser scanner was oriented correctly. Bill scoffed and went back outside to fix the drill and mount a couple of extra battery packs to the plane. He returned to the habitat soon after. “Looks good everybody,” Bob was saying as he reviewed the EVA. “We’ve got solid telemetry from the SEP. Ground radar is pinging- The Face still looks solid as far as it can go. And the Cargo Flyer’s science gear is ready as well.” Bill looked at the stores list. “Munbus is fully fueled with nearly 3k delta in the tanks. She’s ready for Val to fly her back to the Arcology. Once the Cargo Flyer’s Hexagen tanks are full, it can fly back as well. I think we’ve done all that we can here-“ Suddenly, the intercom screamed- loudly- with a modulated sound like a data transmission. It lasted for thirty six seconds before abruptly shutting itself off. The silence was deafening. “Bob, was that us,” Bill asked. Bob looked stunned. He checked his readouts. The SEP was rebooting itself after suffering an electrical overload. The campsite’s computers were doing the same. A few moments, they both resumed as if nothing had happened. He looked at the logs. Bob shook his head, “That wasn’t us,” he declared. “The power output was way higher than what we can output.” Alzer waited for the translation and heard Bob’s response. She studied the wave patterns on her monitor. She said something in vonKerman. “Tight beam transmission,” the Kerbin-side translater said several seconds later. It was late at night on the other side of the planet and Valentina was asleep… “What was it aimed at,” Bill asked, “Kerbin?” Not waiting on the translator, Alzer understood what Bill had asked. She called up a map of the solar system and shook her head. Kerbin was blocked by Duna’s bulk, as were the other inner planets. But there was one other planet that could be reached… Jool. * “We suspect that the vonKermans are responsible for the recent mishap with your Munar Gateway station,” General Dolores said. She was not happy about justifying her decision. “The K.I.A. believes that despite the rising good will, there are factions within the vonKerman Republic who don’t want our nations to be cordial. As a result, tensions are heating up. Again. So, I need every available pilot-astronaut that I can get in case space becomes the new battleground. That includes Major Kelbin.” “We need him too,” Gene said. “He is critical to our research. We are close to a breakthrough. Kelbin is the key.” “Why exactly is an Air Force Major critical to your research,” General Dolores asked. Gene sighed, then looked at the transmission status. It was secured. “Is anyone else with you?” Dolores shook her head. “No, why?” Gene told her about the Kerbal Gateway Program and how Kelbin was instrumental in translating the Annunaki language. He conveniently left out the part where Kelbin's visions were the real key. General Dolores was shocked and surprised. “Wow, just… wow… ok, Gene, you can keep him. But we want in.” “Fine,” Gene said tersely, “as long as it stays a KSP project.” “A joint civilian and military project works for me,” General Dolores negotiated. “Now, regarding Major Kelbin’s mission. How can we help?” “Kelbin needs to head to the Mun,” Gene answered. “With our Munar Gateway gone, I wonder if you can arrange for a refueling stopover at Groom Lake.” “You know about Groom Lake?” “Even though I'm retired, Dolores, I still hear things now and then,” Gene admitted. “Besides, who do you think made sure that your launches to the Mun didn’t show up on our tracking scopes? We also know about your missile base at the south pole…” Dolores was relieved. The missile base was a cover story for their activities. Gene still didn’t know the base’s true purpose. She played along. “Ok, you got me,” she feigned surprise. “Sure. Kelbin can stopover at the Lake. We can support him at the base as well, seeing as Munbase Enterprise is now evacuated.” “We’d appreciate that, thanks,” Gene responded. “I’ll have my staff work out the details with yours…” * With time on his hands as he flew to the Mun, Kelbin caught up on the news. Hearing about the Face on Duna intrigued him. Then a question hit him: how did JJ Kerman know about the Face? He had his number and no doubt others asked him the same question, but he had to know… “You heard that they found The Face on Duna,” Kelbin asked. “Just like in your story.” “Yes,” JJ Kerman sighed and confirmed. “The reporters have been grilling me about it for weeks...” “If you don’t mind one more person asking, how did you know that it would be there? Was it really coincidence? The details are far too perfect for it to be a coincidence like the media says.” JJ smiled. “When I was at the Kerbal Gateway Program, I read your file…” Kelbin’s eyes widened. “You have visions like me?” “Had,” JJ corrected. That piqued Kelbin’s interest even more. JJ continued. “I had the visions like you. They were vivid. The felt real. I was terrified at first. One moment I would be having breakfast, or staring at a blank page, or getting ready for work, and the next I was… elsewhere… I lived another life, then came back to this one. The only way I could cope was to write it all down. And from that I created stories like the Duna Space Program. “In my case, I kept visiting The Face on Duna. I could see it, but each time I got close, I would return to our reality. I became obsessed with it. In retrospect, the visions tried to steer me in one direction, and I kept going back to that Face… The one time that I finally got close enough to touch it… that’s when I snapped back into my body for the last time. After that, I stopped having visions.” “Wow, sorry to hear that," Kelbin consoled. "I'm not sorry," JJ responded, "Those visions were driving me crazy." "I see... Which character in the story was you,” Kelbin asked. “All of them, really,” JJ answered. “Mostly I saw things from Jeb’s point of view. I really should’ve used fictional characters instead of real astronauts, but it was my first go at writing… My visions were chaotic and disjointed like normal dreams typically are. From what I’ve read, yours are much more continuous, like you’re truly living an alternate life.” That gave Kelbin pause. Was he seeing an alternate reality? Did JJ? “So, the bits about the doomsday devices, the chamber inside The Face, the outer planets were they…” “Not real,” JJ interrupted. “I had to create something to chain the random visions together. I had planned to visit the outer planets that I created for my story but never got around to it.” “I see,” Kelbin responded. “Did you ever have visions of a green monolith? Did you see alien symbols?” “No, never,” JJ said. “Only the Face. It seems that your visions are more… advanced… than mine were, like you passed a test that I did not. Like I said, I’m glad, because the visions were driving me crazy…” * This time around, Kelbin’s munar landing wasn’t as precise as he’d hoped due to a lack of visibility. Flapjack 1 landed behind the crashed Annunaki flying saucer, but still easily within distance of the Saucer Works. After setting the rocket saucer into hibernation mode, he depressurized the cockpit and stepped outside. Activating his thruster pack, Kelbin jetted upwards and towards the research base. When he crested the rim of the crashed saucer, Kelbin gasped. “Holy mulch,” Kelbin said aloud. “You’ve seen our latest project, I take it,” Lt. Colonel Parie said over the wireless. “Uh, yeah,” Kelbin answered back. “It looks nearly as wide as the crashed saucer!” “She’s 30 meters in diameter and 5 meters thick at her tallest,” Parie proclaimed. “Is it flyable?” “Sadly no,” Parie responded. “Excalibur is a structural test article. A mockup.” “Excalibur, eh,” Kelbin said. “Liberated from stone. A fitting name.” “Yeah, we thought so too,” Parie answered. “She’s built to test out large-scale engineering techniques with reverse-engineered technologies. Unlike the A-51D, which incorporates bits of scrap from the crashed saucer, Excalibur is completely home grown. Lodory wants to modify her into a fully flyable prototype, but we have a lot more research to do before we can do that. “In the meantime, let’s get you inside and briefed on the upgrades to LGM 4 so you can continue with your mission.” * Emil vonKerman looked at his control station in surprise. For some reason, Hause 1’s Orbital Space Taxi began firing its rocket motor! He tried to initiate the shutdown command, but it wouldn’t respond. With the engine as a rudder, Hause 1 swung around until the motor fired in the direction of travel, lowering its orbit. If the engine kept burning, the computers predicted that the station would drop out of orbit- and impact the Kosmodrome! Emil reacted quickly and sent an emergency command to shut the fuel tank valves using the backup frequency. It worked, and the engine stopped firing. But it was too late. Hause 1 would skim the atmosphere for a few orbits, gradually lowering its periapsis until it took its fatal plunge. At least the computers predicted that the station would impact the ocean… Emil couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Hause 1’s unplanned de-orbiting and KSP’s reported mishap with their Munar Gateway station. The Kermans must’ve thought that the vonKermans brought down their space station and decided to retaliate. That had to be it. The Kermans were using satellites as weapons. Emil called his supervisor… * Kelbin couldn’t help but stare at the monitors showing the Excalibur. The new saucer was simply enormous! He hoped he could fly one someday… “Hey, Kelbin, pay attention,” Lodory said, breaking Kelbin’s reverie. He was not happy that he had to relinquish control over his saucer for a joyride. Kelbin snapped his attention to Lodory. “As I was saying,” he began, “we’ve upgraded LGM 4. I’ve made a few special modifications myself… Anyway, we’ve increased its maximum acceleration to 20 meters per second squared- a little over 2 gees- which is more than enough to overcome Kerbin’s gravity, let alone the Mun’s. The plasma contactors can handle the extra static charge buildup if you keep the xenon tank filled. We’ve also restored the saucer’s structural reinforcements to be on par with a standard Flapjack- but that’s not an excuse to crash my saucer! I can’t think of anything else. You flew it once before, so the controls should already be familiar to you.” Parie handed Kelbin a navigation map of the Mun, several areas were marked. “Courtesy of the Kerbal Intelligence Agency,” she said. “When they staged the Munar Science Rover 2’s accident, they took over control of it and drove around the Mun in search of anomalies. They cataloged all the ones they found, but you’ll note here and here that they didn’t investigate- finding the saucer put a halt to their explorations. I’m sure the monoliths are of interest to you, but you might want to check the ones that they missed. “One last thing,” Parie said. “I can’t just let you go alone, so Danrick will be going with you. She’ll monitor you for signs of distress and make sure you don’t die out there by yourself.” Kelbin nodded, understanding. “I appreciate the company,” he said. A short time later, they were on their way... * The A-51D gravitic flying saucer carefully lowered itself into a deep crater in the Munar Lowlands in search of an anomaly. Thus far, the anomalies that they’d found had all been black monoliths. That was good for potential graviolium mining sites, but they didn’t help Kelbin have another of his visions. When they finally reached the bottom, they spotted their quarry: another black monolith. Kelbin sighed as he hovered the saucer next to the monolith, then shot straight up and out of the crater. Once clear, he plugged in the coordinates to the next anomaly and floored it. The gravitic saucer leapt forward, trailing plasma discharge as he went. They caught a fantastic view of Kerbin rising above the munar landscape as they sped towards their next destination. Not long after, they arrived. “Looks like another black monolith,” Danrick said disappointingly. “Yeah,” Kelbin responded, “on to the next one.” He tapped in the coordinates to the final anomaly and spun the saucer around while it hovered. He really liked the true VTOL capabilities of the saucer; it could hover upside down if he wanted! Once more the saucer sped off. A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination. “Uh, that’s no monolith,” Danrick said. Kelbin stopped and hovered the saucer a few meters above the ground. He looked up from his instruments- it was pitch black outside. The anomaly lit up by the landing lights was definitely no monolith… “Oh wow,” Kelbin exasperated. He circled around the… monument… and found a plaque with strange writings on it. He recognized the alien language as Annunaki. Kelbin set the gravitic saucer down and the two astronauts exited the craft. “What nation is that,” Danrick asked, pointing at the flag after they took a documentary image. Kelbin shrugged. “Presumably, it belongs to the Annunaki,” he suggested. Whatever this monument was, he knew that it was the anomaly that they were searching for. Without a second thought, Kelbin bent down and touched the “ground” of the monument… * “Say hello to our friends,” Major Tomlin Kerman said. Ever since the vonKermans launched their orbital warship, the Kerman States have kept a trio of Avengers co-orbiting nearby. If it made a move, the Avengers made a countermove. Today, Major Tomlin brought Avenger 18 in close, less than a hundred meters. As others have done in the past, he wagged the Avenger’s wings as they flew by, and as before, there was no response. “I don’t think anybody’s home,” Captain Bertrand Kerman said. He was right, but the vonKermans were watching from the ground. The good will building between the two nations required trust, and after what they discovered, that trust was broken. It was time to place another strategy piece on the board… At the Kerbin Galactic Launch Complex, a new vehicle took to the skies, its payload shrouded inside a large fairing. After a brief time in orbit, the craft burned for the Mun, arriving in orbit a day later. Within an hour the vehicle made a series of burns that made it readily apparent where it was headed...

The Eve mission was all in Kelbin's head as far as anybody can tell. However, there is a launch window for Eve opening in about 159 game-days, and I do have another interplanetary expedition gearing up to go... Not sure if I'll depict those or not. I currently have my eye on JNSQ, but that would also mean starting over and explaining all the anomalies encountered in some new way. Kopernicus isn't updated for KSP 1.8 yet (please don't bug the mod authors about that), so depending on when I wrap up this storyline- I have the last three chapters outlined- I might get to finally try JNSQ or update this save to KSP 1.8.1/1.9. Fun fact: When We Left Kerbin was supposed to be an interim mission report until Kopernicus was updated to KSP 1.4.5, but then I got busy with modding and real life stuff. Yeah, the overlayed text is an oops on my part... According to Photoshop the font I used is Angerthas, which looks similar to Futhark. Steal away! The design is inspired by NASA's High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC). I currently don't have an inflatable airship envelope in my Heisenberg mod. I did create an experimental design a couple of years ago but I couldn't figure out how to properly animate the envelope's guidance fins deploying, so I shelved the project. I had to very carefully de-orbit the Skydancer into Eve's atmosphere to keep it from overheating..

Chapter Seventeen: Going Home “I still don’t get the time travel thing,” Kelbin admitted, “and how it’s related to kraken strikes. What if my visions are a form of time travel? Could what I do cause a kraken strike?” “Well, I’m no quantum physicist,” Mosa responded, “but the way it was explained to me, you need a portal- a wormhole is what Munvan called it- to travel back in time. The only known way to do that is with that stargate. Munvan believes that you can only travel back as far as when the stargate was first created. Remember his Superimposed Alternate Variant Existences theory?” “Yeah,” Kelbin answered, “he made it up as a joke over dinner as I recall.” “It’s no joke now,” Mosa chuckled. “The existence of Jeb-Ahn proves that. Anyway, Munvan said that when you travel back in time and alter history, you create a Point of Divergence, a ‘PoD’ if you will. The timeline diverges and a new SAVE is created. It creates a ripple effect as events play out differently. Maybe we land on the Mun before the vonKermans did, for instance. Or as we know, the Green Goo disaster never happened.” “What happens to the other S.A.V.E.” Kelbin asked. “It’s still around, I think? Maybe it's erased, but echoes still exist? When that ripple effect spreads out from the PoD, it creates fault lines, places where in one SAVE things go one way, and in another SAVE they go a different way. I guess that when an event is significant enough, it causes a kraken strike as SAVES grind together and release energy along the fault line.” “So, whenever we get hit by a kraken strike, it’s a point where timelines diverged. Interesting… What happens if you go forward in time instead of backwards,” Giorgio asked. “That’s a good question,” Mosa answered. “I don’t really know. I guess that if you returned to the present and use what you learned from the future, you would create a new PoD.” “You said that you don’t think that my visions are time travel,” Kelbin said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Then what are they?” “The last time you had a vision, you were on Minmus,” Mosa said. “If what you do was time travel, given what your report said, there should’ve been a kraken strike- going to Eve is pretty significant… But there wasn’t any... Plus, time travel involves physically going to the past or future, and you did neither on Minmus. So, whatever these visions are, they aren’t time travel. Personally, I think Munvan is right; your visions are your brain interpreting what these monoliths show you. They’re like dreams.” Kelbin sighed. “Ok,” he said finally. “I guess I won’t destroy the universe then. Let’s get this over with.” He placed his hand on the green monolith… * After Valentina’s crew launched and delivered their Buffalo rover- Bill was not going to walk up and down a half-kilometer hill- Team Bill installed the rover’s science instruments and made their way to the strange structure carved like the head of a kerbal. Bob ran the science instruments through their paces, but nothing stood out. They piled out of the rover, planted another flag, and posed for a publicity picture before getting to work. It was the first official joint mission between the vonKerman Republic and the Kerman States, so the whole world was watching live- or rather, 21 seconds after the broadcast was beamed from Duna… “Ok, guys, let’s spread out and look around,” Bill said. “Nobody goes alone. Alzer, you’re with me. Bob, you take Ernst.” Bill waited for the translators to do their thing. Alzer and Ernst acknowledged their directives. “Bill,” Valentina said over the wireless, “Mission Control would like you to start with the ‘chin’ area of the structure. See if there’s any opening or doorway.” Bill already had that item on his checklist. Val was just saying that for the kerbals back home. He thought that JJ Kerman’s prediction that there was a face on Duna was an incredible coincidence. So did many in the media, and they interviewed him incessantly about it. But he couldn’t explain it as anything but coincidence. In his Duna Space Program story, the explorers entered the structure through a strange door that only allowed kerbals to go inside. Bill stifled a tear, Jeb was the first to enter the structure in JJ’s story… “Copy that, Commander,” Bill answered, bringing him back to the task at hand. Ratings were great and all, but he hated the formality. Bill searched the chin for any signs of entry but found none. He smashed his fist against the stone, but it was as solid as rock. He tried various sensors including ground penetrating radar, but nothing showed up. Either the Face was solid or whatever was inside was too deep to be detected. Bill even took a core sample for good measure. “There is nothing that our sensors can detect,” Bill said carefully, “it appears to be solid rock. We’ll need more sophisticated sensors to look deeper. There doesn’t appear to be any doorway or blocked entrance. Bob, see anything?” “We’re about three-quarters the way around the base of the Face,” Bob answered, “nothing so far. Just carved sandstone. We’ll be right there.” A couple of minutes later, Bob and Ernst rounded the corner with nothing else to report. Not wanting to wait on the translators, Alzer pointed to her eyes and then pointed up. Bill nodded, pointed at Bob, and pointed up. “Bob and Alzer are going to check out the top of the Face,” he stated. The kerbalnaut and astronaut activated their jet packs and slowly ascended to the top of the Face. They noticed that like the base of the carving, there were no chisel marks; the Face appeared smooth. It reminded him of the ground stations that Captain James and his crew discovered during their Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project. Like those stations, the Face appeared well preserved and somehow maintained in pristine condition. The duo made their way across the top of the structure. Alzer suddenly exclaimed something in vonKerman that the translators decided not to translate. The didn’t have to. “Bill, you’re going to want to see this,” Bob began. “There’s writing of some kind carved into the forehead of this thing, and it’s not ancient Kerman. I think it’s the ancient aliens’ language…” * The buzzing in his ears and tingling in his body subsided. Kelvin opened his eyes. He was back on Eve, staring at the green monolith. He looked around. Nobody else was around. The Buffalo rover was nearby. “Are you done, Kelbin,” Valentina called out over the wireless, “we’re packed up and ready to leave. This place has nothing left to teach us, our weather instruments are all calibrated to receive data, and our launch window is opening.” Kelbin looked at the monolith. It didn’t appear out of the ordinary. “Kelbin?” Valentina sounded insistent. Kelbin looked back at the monolith. Still nothing. “On my way,” he said finally. A few minutes later, Kelbin secured himself in the airship that he’d arrived in. Valentina told him to hurry up and strap himself into the capsule. While he sat down, Valentina was already cycling through the pre-launch checklist. “All systems go,” she said finally. “We won’t need to come back here anytime soon. Air envelope is filling. Ascent engine is primed. Crew, standby for liftoff.” It was good that they were leaving, Eve’s corrosive atmosphere was beginning to break down the airship’s outer covering. The airship lifted off Eve without a sound and slowly gained altitude. Since they had a station to catch, Val powered up the airship’s propellers and redlined them. Skydancer leapt into the sky. “Vertical speed is slowing,” Valentina said. “Crew, prepare to drop.” When the vertical speed reached zero at about 26km altitude and the airship leveled off, Val pulled the release lever. Kelbin’s stomach lurched as the airship’s booster dropped away. He yelped when the booster engine ignited early and shot hot exhaust right into the airship’s aft gondola. The crew could hear debris pinging on the engine. “We’re ok,” Val yelled over the noise. The booster dropped rapidly as the engine burned. Just when Kelbin though they were going to plummet to their death, the ship arrested its fall and gained slowly altitude. Then it began to rapidly ascend- so much so that its nose nearly melted from overheating. That too subsided as the booster finally clawed its way out of the atmosphere and circularized its orbit with barely 200m/s of delta-v remaining in its tanks. An hour later, the booster and awaiting Korion spacecraft matched orbits and the two spacecraft docked. And an hour after that, the Eve Departure Stage docked. One by one, the crew settled down into cryosleep until only Kelbin was left. He took one last look around, then tapped the freeze button. The next thing he knew, they were swinging around the Mun and on their way to Kerbin. A day after, Kelbin still had no visions of alien symbols- just a lot of reading to do to pass the time. Finally, the Korion spacecraft approached Kerbin on a re-entry trajectory. The crew transferred to the command module and separated from the rest of the vehicle. The fiery atmospheric entry consumed the propulsion stages and habitat module, but the Korion survived its trip unscathed. It deployed its chutes and dropped its heat shield to perform a gentle landing. They were home. Kelbin looked at the computer monitor. There were no alien symbols to be seen. Disappointed, he looked out the window again. But instead of grass and trees, he saw the curvature of the Mun. “Kelbin, you ok,” a voice asked. Kelbin shut his eyes as the buzzing returned. He opened them again and recognized that he was on Kerbin again. Giorgio looked concerned. “Yeah,” Kelbin answered, “why.” “You’ve been saying ‘go to the Mun’ for the last three minutes…” * “When Team Valentina established Minmus Station,” Lemley Kerman began, “they scrounged everything they could to build out the station as much as possible. The station was only designed for 180 days, but with regular maintenance, Minmus Station far exceeded its design life. Indeed, it expanded into the Minmus Orbital Shipyard. “But today, with great sadness, the core of our station, the original Minmus Station, is being retired. The core has served us well, but even with regular maintenance, it has become unsafe for regular use, and its replacement is awaiting installation. So, we say thank you to our station core and goodbye. But it’s not entirely farewell. “The station core will be broken up in our shipyard along with the aging atomic tug, and their resources and materials recycled to become a part of newer vessels. So, while original core will be gone, its legacy will live on in its progeny.”

Kombat station testing! Brent May have a new benefactor, but at what price...?

Life happens. I have had little time to mod for the same reason. Nice to see Jeb getting his S together.

I did some more testing with robotics in KSP 1.8.1: Same vessel docking and interactive part collisions is proving quite useful.

They already exist. You can deploy a graviolium dust collector into orbit, use the refinery at the KSC (see app button), or mine asteroids. With Pathfinder installed you can use GoldStrike to prospect for deposits

They are needed for the IVAs. There aren’t any stock IVAs. If you can live without IVAs that are detailed with controls then you don’t need them. Right now I have little time to mod (gotta play too or modding is just another job), so things are on hold, but I have not abandoned Kerbal Flying Saucers. I expect to finish it early next year after moving and my job settles down. The cockpit IVA is almost done, and hopefully the rest will go quickly. But for now the smaller Flapjack is fully completed.

I experimented with spaceplanes. this one is inspired by the old Kerbin Orbital Shuttle System: It works but there is trouble with circularizing the orbiter’s orbit before the game deletes the booster for being sub-orbital. I know FRMS can get around that. The stack can SSTO, which led me to wonder why I need a booster and orbiter. That led me to: This is the Hyperion space plane, inspired by @Rocketology’s Zeus Type H, found on KerbalX. Hyperion isn’t as capable but that’s ok. Part of my testing involved making a robot arm via More Servos mod. I got the texture fixed but need to tweak the UI a bit...

Finally got a bit of time last night to check on the robotics parts. Life has been VERY busy of late. I fixed the texture issue on the More Servos, should have a patch later this week. I also noticed that the ultra flex joint isn’t being controlled by my plugin, so I will take a look and see what’s going on. I do like the new “Return to build” button on the stock joints, I should have the Home button in my GUI use that if it doesn’t already. Like I said, I have been very busy and don’t remember where I left off... Meanwhile, I am still running into the “wet noodle” issue with robotics joints. I think turning on per-part collisions will help along with InnerLock. That will help lock a robotic arm in place and keep it from flopping around in flight, but I don’t know what to do with the floppy joints when moving stuff around. It would be nice to have a part that can lock to another part of the same type without touching, so you could move the arm then tell the two parts to create a strut between themselves to hold the arm rigid.

Stunning pictures!

Chapter 16: Loop de Loop “He fought to the last,” Valentina said. “Most would’ve bailed out well before he did. But that wasn’t Jeb. He tried to save his plane right up to the millisecond where there wasn’t any more that he could do…” her voice wavered. She didn’t like Jeb one bit, but he was a coworker- and a fellow pioneer. The first into space. The first to set foot on the Mun. And now, the first to die on another planet… She tried to say something more but couldn’t. “You were my best friend,” Bill said somberly, breaking the silence. “I’m going to miss you, buddy. Keep climbing.” Jeb despised the vonKermans. Ironically, they were the ones who painstakingly combed the crash site and beyond for days on end to finally find his mangled remains. Near as they could tell, he tried to bail out at the last second but to no avail. His body had been savagely thrust into the desert. They carefully recovered his remains and brought them back to base. And now he laid to rest at last. It was time to let go. Valentina finally spoke again. “Jeb was not one to dwell on the past. So today, we look towards the future. Let it be known to all kerbalkin that from this day forward, Duna Base, now the first permanent settlement on Duna, will be known as the Jebediah Kerman Arcology.” It was too long between the crash and the funeral, but Jeb was finally at rest. They had closure. With the funeral proceedings concluded, the Duna Expedition One team got back to work. There was always work to do. * “She’s not the Akron, but she’ll do,” James said as he looked at the aircraft. The large cargo plane, dubbed the Starlifter, had four enormous tiltrotors that gave it VTOL capability and combined it with high speed. It had both front and rear cargo ramps for easy loading and unloading. Today it carried a new experimental fusion reactor along with the equipment needed to assemble it at the destination. And given the distance they had to travel, it also carried internal fuel tanks as well. James wasn’t particularly happy about being a transport pilot, but KSC’s special project was short on pilots and they needed all the help they could get. On the plus side, both he and Kelbin, his copilot for the trip, were finally going to be let in on the big secret. “We’re headed over the Whoops Too Short Mountain Range,” Kelbin said as he checked the flight plan, “then off to the middle of the Great Desert- I think I know where we’re headed.” That piqued Jams’ interest. “Oh?” “Remember that giant pyramid that we discovered during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project?” “The one with the graviolium mining and the murals of those aliens? Is that where we’re headed?” “It looks like it,” Kelbin answered. “Well we better get started then,” James said. *** An hour- one-sixth of a Kerbin day- was a long time for a kerbal. Kelbin and James took turns flying the new cargo plane and listening to the drone of the tiltrotors. It was a boring flight, but the Starlifter was considerably faster than the Akron. They made the long trek from KSC to the Great Desert without incident. Following the coordinates, the transport arrived about 30 kilometers short of the Great Mining Pyramid. The two pilots immediately recognized the landmark but were puzzled by all the activity… “Why would they set up a base next to a movie set,” Kelbin asked. During their exploration project, Kimgee discovered what appeared to be a large stone ring out in the middle of the desert. She thought it was the set for some science fiction movie. “I’m guessing we’ll find out,” James said simply. “Is that a Castillo facility? Why does the base look... bent?” “Let’s land this thing and ask someone,” Kelbin answered. The Starlifter eased its way onto the ground. After shutting the plane down, James and Kelbin disembarked and met with the gathering crowd. “Gene! Wernher! How are you guys doing,” James asked. “Just fine, Jim,” Gene said, “I heard about your ‘Magic Boulder’ that you guys found. Is it true about the graviolium?” “Yup, about 29% by mass.” “Wow,” Wernher whistled and said. “That’s a lot.” Kelbin looked at Samalla and Munvan. He also noticed Wernher's new glasses. “Hey you guys, long time no see! Uh, what’s with the glowing arm guards?” “Dude,” Munvan responded, “they’re totally awesome! We call them Omni-tools. We can reconfigure them for whatever tool we need. And they’re a personal communicator and a digital assistant! Mine does science instruments, Samalla’s is an engineering tool.” “That’s seriously advanced tech,” Kelbin said approvingly.” “It was aliens,” Samalla said. “We built them based on similar alien devices. They’re really handy.” “Do pilots get one,” James asked. “Eventually,” Gene lamented. “So uh, why does the base look so… disjointed,” James asked. “Let’s get inside, I’ll tell you all about it,” Gene answered. As the group filed into the base, Samalla got to work unloading the Starlifter’s cargo and setting it up. She setup one of the walkways and then grabbed the packing box for the base’s new experimental A.R.C. fusion reactor. It self-assembled- another miracle of alien tech- using the equipment and konkrete stored in the cargo plane. After transferring fusion pellets to the reactor and starting up one of the Starlifter’s gas turbines, she was able to jump-start the reactor. She checked out its systems and certified that it was working properly and then went back inside. Finally, the base’s tracking station and observatory had the power that they needed to come to life. * “You’re now officially a part of the Kerbal Gateway Program,” Gene began after everyone got seated. “As of now, you cannot discuss anything about the program with anyone outside of the program.” He let his statement sink in a bit before continuing. “What we’re about to discuss is highly confidential. For the better part of a year now, we’ve been studying the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Anh, the pyramid that Jim and his crew found during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, as well as the Great Mining Pyramid, also discovered during K.E.E.P. Our language experts have been slowly piecing together the writings of the ancient kerbals as well as a language that’s much older, that of the aliens themselves. Thanks to Kelbin’s… visions… we’ve cracked the code on some of it. There’s still a lot of missing pieces, but we’ll get to that later. “We stumbled upon a secret entrance to the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn, and eventually made our way into the burial chamber. You may recall that Tut Jeb was the gatekeeper to Paradise, according to legend. That word translated into Gaia, among other things… Anyway, inside the burial chamber we found glyphs describing the device next to our base…” “What is it,” Kelbin interrupted and asked. “It,” Wernher responded, “is called a ‘stargate’ according to the ancient language. It forms a Harvestr-Mu bridge to…” “It’s a portal to other worlds,” Gene interrupted and translated. “We think that it can go to many different worlds, though Gaia appears to be the most-often traveled. We don’t know why it was moved from the burial chamber out to here, or who did it, only that it’s been sitting out here for thousands of years...” “Maybe somebody wanted to use it,” James suggested. “That’s our speculation as well,” Gene nodded and said. “But this story is just beginning… When we realized that the ‘movie set’ that you guys found was the stargate, we packed up and set up shop out here with the intent of opening the gate. We didn’t get very far, so Samalla and her team went back to the Pyramid to try and find more clues…” “I was a tomb raider,” Samalla interrupted and joked. “We decided the Moho with it and opened the Tut’s sarcophagus. We found more clues all right…” “What clues,” James had to ask. “Jedediah Kerman’s flight suit,” Samalla deadpanned. James looked dumbfounded. “How…” Gene held up his hand to silence everyone. “Samalla’s discovery happened three months ago, well before Jeb’s crash on Duna. She also found a diary of sorts from Jeb. He carved stone tablets describing his life in the past- our past- and that he’d had a good life…” “But they found his body on Duna,” Kelbin interrupted and pointed out. “True,” Wernher confirmed, “but past Jeb… uh, Jeb-Ahn- is not the same Jeb that died on Duna. Jeb-Ahn traveled into the distant past…” “This hurts my brain,” James lamented. “The stargate is a time machine? I thought it opened portals go Gaia.” “It does both, dude,” Munvan explained. “like, the portal goes through space and time. But like, I think Jeb... Jeb-Ahn, connected the gate from his present day to itself- it’s past self. Which totally blows my mind, dude. Like, I don’t know how Jeb or whoever figured that one out, but, like, it worked…” “What was Jeb doing in the past,” Kelbin asked. “According to Jeb-Ahn,” Gene continued, “Kerbin, uh, his Kerbin, was dying. There was an ecological catastrophe that began long ago. Something called the Green Goo was spreading across their world. Their space program discovered that the Green Goo originated from the ancient aliens. It was used to ‘grow’ devices from a supply of resources. The Goo ran amok after our ancestors tampered with it. Jeb somehow dialed the gate in the distant past, stepped through, and stopped the disaster from happening, which subsequently altered the timeline…” “Wait,” Captain James interrupted, “is mystery goo the same stuff as the ‘Green Goo’ that took over the planet?” “We believe so,” Wernher answered. “We think that Jeb altered it to be mostly inert though. Mystery goo can make more of itself, just not very quickly. And unlike Green Goo, mystery goo is easily contained...” Gene again continued. “After averting disaster, Jeb began experimenting with the stargate by dialing addresses left by the ancient aliens. Most didn’t pan out. Towards the end of his life though, one of them did…” “Gaia,” Kelbin blurted out. “Exactly,” Gene confirmed. “Jeb-Ahn had the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn built as a sort of time capsule for us to discover. Presumably, he also included the Gaia address, but as we mentioned, someone removed the stargate from Jeb-Ahn’s tomb and apparently took the gate address with them.” “And kraken-strike on Duna,” James asked. “Was that you?” “No,” Gene said and shook his head. “But it happened at the precise date and time that Jeb-Ahn said that he stepped through his stargate. The kraken-strike happened here as well. It warped and distorted our base. A section of it, including our atomic reactor, was just… gone… along with some good kerbals…” “Because he altered the past, our past,” Wernher added, picking up where Gene trailed off, “the result was a… clash… in space-time…” “Like, dude, a kraken-strike,” Munvan chimed in. “I’m, like starting to think that, like, kraken-strikes, are totally points in space-time where divergent timelines grind up against each other like tectonic plates and cause quakes.” “You’re not going to use the gate for time travel, are you,” Kellbin had to ask. “Oh no,” Gene put up his hands and explained. “Now that we have the new fusion reactor, we’re going to try and open a gate to Gaia though. No time travel, thank you.” “With your help, Kelbin, ja,” Wernher added. “That’s where you come in, Kelbin,” Gene took over the conversation. “We need to you have more of your visions. Munvan says you triggered one when you touched a green monolith on Duna. I recall that you guys found one on Kerbin that I want you and a team to travel to. See what you can discover. It could be the key to unlocking the alien language- and the Gaia address.” “I’ll do what I can, Sir,” Kelbin agreed. “You said that some of my visions were already helpful?” “Oh yes,” Wernher said, beaming. “We know the name of the aliens. We confirmed that they called themselves the Annunaki…” “That’s a name that Giorgio used,” Kelbin recalled aloud. “And one of the reasons he’s here,” Gene responded. “his knowledge of ancient kerbalkin helped fill in some of the gaps.” “What happened to the Annunaki,” Kelbin asked. “That part is still vague,” Gene admitted. “But we know from ancient kerbal writings that the Annunaki had a war and then came here, but little else. But with luck, your visions will help us unlock their language, and we can translate their writings… * The Arcology’s new storage depot was nearly ready, and the factory was coming along nicely as well. Future researchers would also like the upcoming observatory. There were other components to build, but once the bare minimum could be constructed, the team would be free to pack up several Pathfinder base components and ship them to The Face. Getting them there would be another challenge. After the latest accident, KSC designers began to rethink the problem. They suggested building a Munbus and filling it with the needed equipment and sending it unkermanned to The Face. After completion and loading, Valentina took remote control of the craft and powered up its systems. The craft lifted off and went through its ballistic arc briefly losing communication during atmospheric re-entry. Valentina held her breath until she regained control. She landed it a good 4 kilometers away and taxied the remaining distance, with a scant 57 meters per second remaining in the tanks. It worked, but it was a little too close for comfort. KSC’s engineers went back to the drawing board. Several days later, they completely redesigned the Duna Flyer. Since the thin Duna atmosphere required dangerously high landing speeds, the engineers went around the problem by inventing new tilt-fans that provided both horizontal and vertical thrust along with a new larger atomic reactor to power them. Extensive testing on Kerbin along with simulations using an updated Duna atmospheric model proved that the new Flyer designs would work. Still, Valentina insisted upon several unpiloted test flights before risking any more crew. After completing the new storage depot and packing up several of the Pathfinder components, Bill loaded them into the new cargo flyer. In addition to hauling the base to the Face, the cargo flyer gave Valentina another opportunity to verify the new design. It proved to be safer to fly and landed near the Munbus. Three weeks later, the investigation team, consisting of Bob, Ernst, Alzer, and Bill as the team lead, boarded the new crewed Duna Flyer IV and made the trek. Valentina really wanted to go but she knew that if anything happened, she still had to make sure that the rest made it back home. She found herself biting her lower lip for their entire flight. But like the cargo flyer, Bill and his team reached The Face successfully. Before long, they set up shop. * “It’s good to see you guys again,” Kelbin said as the Starlifter floated into the air. They were headed back to KSC to pick up fuel and cargo for their flight up to the arctic. Raphia and Mosa, the team’s engineer and scientist, had been Kelbin’s instructors during the initial phases of K.E.E.P. They’d met Giorgio, Kelbin’s copilot and the resident expert on ancient aliens, during one of their investigations. “Likewise,” Giorgio said, “It’s nice to get the band back together, so to speak. Plus, I’m excited to be helping you with your visions!” Kelbin looked embarrassed about that last part. He didn’t like the attention drawn to his “superpowers” as he put it. He shrugged it off; he had a mission to fly. It took an hour to launch another Starlifter after stupidly recovering it fly back to KSC to refuel and pick up their science outpost, then another hour to reach the field refueling point- the player didn’t give the thing enough fuel Starlifter lacked the range to travel non-stop in its current configuration, and there were no airports to refuel at. The team waited a good ten minutes before another Starlifter arrived from the North Pole Research Station and gave them some gas. After the tanker headed back to base, Kelbin powered up his Starlifter and continued onto their destination. The crossed over to the Northern Ice Shelf and flew on for a half hour, passing 26km near the World Court UFO Research Base. They could go no closer; an international coalition fiercely guarded the alien spacecraft against anyone who tried to approach the site. The lawyers were still arguing over how research should be conducted, who would pay for it, and how its secrets would be distributed. If they only knew about the crashed saucer on the Mun, Kelbin mused… Still they flew on. Kelbin recognized the mountain range they passed over as the same area where the Akron discovered the atomic-powered alien “V-GER” probe. He thought about paying a visit, but their destination was less than 100km away, and the crew was tired. If there was time, perhaps they would stop on the way back. Then he remembered that the site was contaminated. At long last, after half a day of flying, they spotted their destination. Kelbin set the big cargo plane down gently onto the grassy plain and taxied back around to the green monolith. With the sun setting, Raphia wasted no time getting the outpost set up while Mosa checked her omni tool. “The radiation is far lower than expected,” she noted. “It’s like it’s dormant. Will that be a factor?” Kelbin shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Are we safe here or do we need to back off further?” “We’re fine,” Mosa answered, double checking her omni tool. “We can stay here for days.” Not long after, Raphia put the team to work setting up all the buildings.

I haven't been modding in awhile due to real life stuff, but decided to do some concept art today: At best this is a backburner project as I need to finish up my flying saucer mod's mothership.

Now I'm curious to know what is going to happen to those Duna probes. And once a fuel tank is spent refueling the OK Corral, what happens to it?

Perfect, thank you!

I have BDA installed in an old KSP 1.3.1 save. For story purposes I want to have a fusion reactor go supercritical and explode mightily. I know BDA has bombs and missiles, so I could patch the reactor with explosives, but is there a way to right-click the part and cause it to explode? If not, I guess I can make some kind of rover to run into the reactor and make it explode... Are there guidelines on how fast the part needs to go to trigger the explosion? Lastly, is the size of the fireball proportional to the amount of explosive force?

Due to lots of IRL stuff, I haven't done much modding of late, but I did manage a small mission today. The expedition crew took one of the new Starlifter cargo planes and flew a long way: Despite having extra fuel in the cargo bay, the plane couldn't reach the North Pole Research Station. So, they set down about 100+ km away at the refueling point. A tanker configured Starlifter took off from NPRS to rendezvous and refuel the expedition's plane: It arrived without incident and proceeded to refuel the other craft: After the tanker returned to base, the expedition team continued on their mission. After a long day of flying, they arrived at their destination. The team's engineer then proceeded to set up their outpost while the rest of the crew inspected a strange monolith: They finally got their outpost established and provisioned with several days of snacks:

Do your craft use LiquidFuel or LqdHydrogen as a resource?

You can use the artwork in 1.7.3 but not the plugins due to the need to recompile them.