purpleivan

Personally I'd start up the dramatic music, line up some coffee, head for the VAB and go for the RESCUE MISSIONTM

I've got a few images from my 2001: A Space Absurdity and 2010: The Year we Make Kontakt stories that fit this challenge I think. Most of them I can't use as they are too photoshopped, or are vehicles I could never launch it into space. For my first entry here's one from 2010. Here's the original. As for the points, I guess it's Contestant for 20 and Photoshop skills (various tweaks but also noise filter applied to add grain) for another 30, and then Interesting for 35 more. So a total of 85.

I've done both Jool-5 and the Eve return (a few times) and to me they have similar levels of difficulty, but in different areas. The biggest difference is time. Eve return is something that can be done in an afternoon, but Jool-5 is likely to be something that takes a few days, so there's a practical difficulty in terms of commitment of time that it has, that Eve return doesn't. For that reason alone, Jool-5 is something I've only done twice whereas Eve return I've more than a half dozen times. Another big difference is the type of skill demands of the two, with Eve being fundamentally about the design of a single vehicle for the purposes of a difficult ascent, and Jool-5 being more about mission planning and general piloting.

Not too long, maybe about 10-15 minutes, but that includes getting the camera in the right position to match up with where I wanted to put the kerbal in the image. After that it was just a case of waiting until the panic animation started, then hammer away at the F1 key to grab screenshots.

More news has come to light regarding the shocking story of human interaction with alien beings on the moon in the 1960's and 70's. A photo that the space agency had previously said was "lost when sent to the local drug store to be developed" has come to light in unusual circumstances. Janitors clearing up after a particularly raucus Christmas party at the Kennedy Space Center discovered the photo in a folder, stuffed in a half empty box of tequlia bottles. The box of "Limpiador de Cerebro" brand bottles had the words "Space Shots" written on it in thick black marker. As well as the photo itself, the folder contained a transcript of a debriefing of the astronaut seen in the photo. "We were on EVA 2, heading out to Cone Crater and we made a stop near a large boulder, the grade was pretty steep so both of wanted to catch our breath. Ed started started taking panorma photos and I went to take a closer look at the boulder. As I got closer suddenly one of those little guys we saw on EVA 1, trying to take our flag, pops up from behind the boulder. It takes one look at me starts to panic, it's flapping its hands around like their on fire or something, and gives me a look like he was staring at his own ghost. Eventually it stops flapping its hands and started quickly looking around, still with that panicked look on its face. It was turning between looking left and right so fast that its helmet spun round 180 degrees, so I'm staring at the rear of the helmet while the visor's round the back. Well it started flapping its hands again, then it starts feeling the part of the helmet that's in front of its face. I don't know if it couldn't turn it back round, or if it was just confused, but suddenly it turned and started running off to my left. I don't think that little guy got more than 10 feet before it tripped over a rock and landed flat on its face. Then it jumped up and took off again in a different direction, got another 10, 20 feet or so before it was in the dirt again. It kept running and falling like that for about a minute and half, all the time I'm staring at this thing, getting nice clear look of the back of its head through the visor. A lot clearer than that little guy's view of the moon anyway. Eventually it drops out of sight when it dropped into a small crater. I gotta tell ya... you ain't seen physical comedy 'til you seen it in 1/6th G."

I have had the same reaction to some of the new part skins when seen from a distance. I think it's the thick mid grey outline around some of the panel lines on some parts. I'm not sure what that outline is supposed to be, as it's too regular to be grime. When you look at them up close they look fine, but from further away the outlines can make it look as if it's dropped too many mip levels. Up close they look fine though.

Feel free, I won't stop ya Just noticed it's been 2 months since I made the last image... I'll have to correct that sometime soon.

More 1.6 career pics. Bob goes out to stretch his legs and reset the Moble Processing Lab. Another agency's hapless pilot makes a run for a remotely guided rescue vehicle (their failures keep us in fuel). Val takes this game's first spin in an aircraft, heading north to pick up some tasty science. She stopped off enroute for a quick panic, when she realised that the snacks locker only contained low fat custard creams. Into the blue again, she headed North, scooping up a bit of midair science as she went. Finally she arrived at her destination in the frozen North, and posed for a celebratory snapshot of the end of her trip. She was especially thankful that v1.6 didn't contain any embarrasing sneezing or butt scratching anims.

Agreed about the lander height, I wouldn't normally use one with that kind of desing, but I was making an early grab at landing on the moon, before I'd unlocked docking ports, so had to rely on carrying all the fuel for the return to Kerbin with me. I don't think that the lower stage engine is capable of taking fuel from the upper one, and if you look at the resources in the HUD, you can see that the upper stage tank is full (90 units of LF remaining).

Working my way through the tech tree in my obligatory "new version, new career" game right now. On my first Mun landing of this career I found out on checking how much fuel was in the decent stage, that it was precisely zero. Didn't notice the engine cut out on landing, but must have finsihed off the remaining fuel in moment of touching down.

Another major version, another career game. Mun landing number one for this career. 2 kerbal rescue mission. 3 and 5 Kerbal rescue missions... other agencies failures are mine's cash cow. Really liking the new look of the Poodle.

I generally like to listen to music while I'm working, and here are a few of my current favourites for that. Death in Vegas - The Contino Sessions: I like their earlier albums like this, but not so keen on the later ones. J G Thirlwell (under Steroid Maximus label) - Ectopia: The wierd and wonderful madness of Mr Thirlwell, best known as the creator of the Venture Bros soundtrack. Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes OST: One of his best and drawn from a lot by other composers.

Chapter 14 – The Box “Fuzzy slippers that light up when you walk... no sweat, gimme something harder” – Stranlow Kerman - Chairman - Kerbal Institute for Astronautics (KIA) With backlit Jool resting on the horizon like a giant soap bubble, the members of the LOST team got to work making preparations for the arrival of The Box. For the most part the preparations were just normal day to day tasks; normal for a bunch of kerbals setting up shop on a distant world that is. However Jeb wanted the colony to be looking its best for the final arrival from Kerbin, so had tasked some of the colonists to dusting and polishing the vehicles of the colony. For this “much needed” task Jeb had assigned Coslin and Bill. The pair of them had spent most of the previous evening in a heated discussion (involving the use of ad hoc projectile weaponry) of Kit Kerman, Space Detective. Their “debate” had been about the merits of the episode “It Erman”, in which the titular character was trapped in a strange alternate universe, identical to their own except it lacked the letter K. Most viewers ascribed its plot to writers who were just phoning it in after 7 seasons of coming up with scripts for the show. However ardent fans like Bill and Coslin had their own theories. For Coslin the missing “K’s” were highlighting the lack of of personal identity in Kerbal society, but for Bob the number of these missing letters (167) took a prime place in the complex formula that calculated the end of Kerbin. The upshot of this discussion was that the pair had to be dragged apart by Jeb, who sent Bill (who’d been doing most of the projectile throwing) to the Science Vehicle to cool off. Now with an order from Jeb that the pair of them not discuss “that stupid kids show” ringing in their ears, the pair of them set to work on scrubbing the vehicles. After a couple of hours the two rovers were looking like new (i.e. very slightly cleaner than they had the night before) and Jeb headed over to Rover 1 to take it for a short drive. He planned to position it a couple of hundred metres East of the colony, to provide an outer marker for the landing of The Box. Elson was meant to take the rover out, but as he was busy cleaning the remains of last nights discussion off the walls of the Hab, he decided to drive it himself. As he approached the rover, Gelsey ran over to it, which surprised Jeb, as he’d never seen her run willingly in the 7 years he’d known her. The only times he’d witnessed it were when lab experiments were “not behaving as expected” and was usually accompanied by her wearing a gas mask and screaming some choice obscenities. “Wait... rover... drive” Gelsey wheezed after her uncharacteristic exertion. “Not happening Gelsey, this isn’t like that School Bus of yours, it’s a finely tuned piece of transportation technology and it takes a pilot’s skills to control it” replied Jeb getting the gist of what she meant. Gelsey turned and stomped her way over the where Jeb stood, with a steely look on her face. She didn’t like Jeb’s condescending tone. “Now just wait a minute there, you had Voyler drive this rover back here just yesterday, and she’s not got half the brains...” Gelsey started before Jeb cut her off. “Well I made an exception that one time and after all she’s an Engineer, she’s used to, erm... handling things... er... with wheels... and levers and...” Jeb began, before remembering he’d only let her drive it because she’d been saying “Gooo on, gooo on, gooo on” at him for 3 hours straight. Plus he thought, there might come a time when one of his team of pilots wasn’t available to act as taxi driver, when some scientist or engineer needed a ride. He had to admit, he trusted Gelsey with the machine more than Voyler. “Ok Gelsey, take her out 200m East, that’s that way” Jeb instructed, pointing to the small signpost that was Jool. “Oh East, you mean the direction that the sun is currently rising in” replied Gelsey, with only a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Yeah... that too, I guess you’ve got two things to show you the way. Don’t get lost” Jeb answered, assuming that anyone other than a pilot had the navigation skills of a small rock. Gelsey hauled herself up the side of the rover and made her way into the cockpit. She plopped down into the seat and prepared the vehicle to move off. This was complicated by the scatter of sticky notes that Voyler had attached to various controls and displays, to give her a more thrilling ride on the way back to the colony the previous evening. “Guns” Gelsey muttered ripping a note from the interior lights controls and stuffing it in a suit pocket “don’t think I’ll need that”. This was followed by notes marking such things as “afterburners” , “eject” and “bigger guns”. With the controls cleared of Voyler’s fighter jock fantasy aids, the scientist started up the rover, swung around the mining vessel and headed East. She'd had been looking forward to trying out one of the colony rovers, but the reality of the experience was less than she’d been expecting. Although the rover looked like a little hot rod, it was actually woefully under powered, driven as it was by the RoveMax Model M1. These had started out life as the RollerMate Economy, a wheel for electric golf carts, before the company moved into the sexier (and more lucrative) world of space exploration. But at any rate, it beat driving the Science Vehicle, if Bob’s “Pregnant Whale” description of its handling was to be believed. Once in position, Gelsey put her feet up on the console, pulled a small flask of coffee from her leg pocket and poured herself a cup. The Box wasn’t due for another 7 hours and 26 minutes, and she didn’t want to get volunteered by Jeb into the colony cleanup crew, so she planned to settle in for the day. As she looked out over the console towards the colony, she saw kerbals scurrying around from vehicle to vehicle, brushes and cloths in hand. The sun glided slowly overhead as the colony became ever so slightly cleaner. This also gave Gelsey a chance to indulge in her favourite pastime, and she grabbed a few hours sleep. “..sey, come in” suddenly squawked in her ear. “Huwhaa” she exclaimed suddenly jerked awake by the sound of Jeb’s voice. “Gelsey, Gelsey, come in” Jeb repeated, sound like he might have been calling for a while. “I’m here Jeb, I hear ya” she responded, rubbing her eyes. “I need you to turn on the rover’s location beacon, set it to channel 3, with high gain tracking.” Jeb instructed, the plan being to do the same with the Mining Vehicle’s beacon and have The Box drop in slap bang in the middle of the two. Gelsey quickly set the controls as Jeb had described and a small antenna popped out of the mid section of the rover and slowly tracked across the sky, as The Box started its fiery descent. Meanwhile the rest of the LOST team stood within the confines of the colony, awaiting the arrival of the last piece of equipment they would ever receive from Kerbin. Fortunately this one would make any future deliveries redundant. As Val stood staring at the sky, listening to the updates on the descent of The Box, she saw a small glow to the East gradually grow brighter and larger, as their much anticipated piece of equipment made its way down to them. 3M (Magical Marvel of Manufacturing) AKA. THE BOX Specification and development plan: Dr Stranlow Kerman: Chairman - Kerbal Institute for Astronautics (KIA) Year 976 Day 341 The What As there will not be time for us to send all the equipment required for a fully functional colony before our planet’s imminent demise, we need to provide a means of manufacturing on the surface of Laythe. So, imagine a box, in which the thing you want most comes true: You want a new engine bell for your rocket motor; it can make it for you. You want a 27m length of corrugated aluminium tubing; it’s on its way. A piece missing from your 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle; we’ve got that covered. How about a six pack of miniature cheeseburgers, with strawberry icing and chilli flakes on top (mmm.. . I really want one of those now... underling, make a note); no problem, this thing is the 3 Kraken M. The How For this we will need a massive joint effort, drawing from all fields of engineering, science, project management and even some of those nutbag fringe beliefs that we’ve fought as a species to rise above for all these centuries. No expense will be spared; we will scour the globe for the finest in their fields and bring them here to the KSC; first class of course. We’ll keep the focus grouping to a minimum, but we need a better name than “The Box”. Efforts on that will start now, including a phone in poll on the prime candidates, to see what kind of mass appeal they have. After all it’s important to keep the public on board with this... for the next few weeks anyway. The When This thing needs to be designed, built and launched in 23 days, so best roll up your sleeves, put your thinking hats on and get cracking. The glow in the sky receded all the while Jeb kept shouting out number letting everyone know how the descent was proceeding. “6000 metres, 165 metres per seconds” read Jeb from the readout on his arm. “5000 metres, 161 metres per second” came another update. “4000 metres, 155 metres per second” updated Jeb. The glow was replaced at first by a small grey dot that gradually grew in size as The Box whizzed down towards down the colony. “2500 metres 117 metres per second” Jeb informed, at which everyone sucked in a deep breath. At 2200 metres the parachutes were programmed to deploy, but the high failure rate of these at that critical moment, had over the years made this step more than a bit hazardous. “Kraken be merciful” muttered Coslin. “In cat we trust” thought Bill. “I just can’t look” thought Bob and slapped his gloved hand over his faceplate. A couple of seconds later and the beautiful sight of four fully deployed canopies billowed above The Box, slowing its descent from a crushing 100m/s, to an only slightly worrying 7m/s. Finally it was down and apparently in one piece. The collection of communication dishes mounted on top of it, moved into their active positions and a low hum became audible from the direction of the large grey block. The dishes didn’t actually server any function, but one of the designers had misinterpreted the name of what they we going to build as being an enormous TV set, so had built in some serious satellite TV capabilities. Some members of the team rushed over to take a closer look at this marvelous device, that when supplied with minerals extracted from the ground by the Mining Vehicle, would be able to make anything that they needed. Others, wary of the “science” that had been used to make possible Stranlow Kerman’s rather ambitious specification, decided to keep their distance for the time being. Jeb stepped forward from the crowd that had gathered around the new addition to the colony and walked up to the great slab of kerbal tech. He could see a small piece of paper stuck to it, next to the large dull yellow door. He leaned in to get a better look at it.

I now really want something like alphabetti spaghetti, but with little kerbals in delicious tomato sauce to throw down the hatch. Behold, I am become Kraken, eater of little adventurers!

I think the first mod I added, after a few months playing the game vanilla, was Chatterer. Now I barely notice that the mod's installed, but back in the day, hearing the crew happily chatting away really gave the game some extra character. First useful mod was KER for the readout in the VAB, then Planetshine and EVE for some pretty visuals.

Thanks for the suggestions from @Deddly @HebaruSan and @TriggerAu I verified the install, set contol to forward, but In the end it was toggling torque to disabled in the right click menu that pretty much fixed it. There are still some very small turns of the vehicle (right when accelerating, left when braking) from time to time, but nothing I can't live with. The strange thing is that I've built dozens of rovers in the past (versions 0.23.5 onwards) and I've never had to think about the SAS settings, just built the things, launched them and rolled into the sunset... no problems like this. Additionally the problem (with torque enabled) was only showing up for me with the Mk2 Lander Can variant. It just seems twitchy somehow, at least for me.

Didn't do a verify but it was a fresh install, not over an existing one. Away from my PC for next few days but can try that when I'm back.

Although I tend to play in the latest version (after a week or two waiting for some mod updates) I still use 1.3.1 for my LOST on Laythe story series. The reason is that it's the latest version that I know has working mods for changing suits textures with fully working helmet reflections. However I will need to move to at least 1.4.1 fairly soon, as I plan to make use of the Making History suits in the story.

I'm liking what I've seen of 1.6 so far, especially the removable neck ring and kerbal idle anims. The Mk2 Lander Can variant is a cool addition to the part too. However I've notice some strange behaviour of the Mk2 Lander Can rover variant, when driven around. I've posted a bug about this, but thought I'd post here in case others have noticed the same behaviour. The behaviour is that when powered is applied the vehicle veers strongly to the right, as if the center of mass of the Lander Can is off center (although it appears centered in the VAB). The detail of the behaviour is that from a standing start the vehicle pulls a few degrees to the right, then continues straight ahead until a certain speed is reach at which point it steers continuously in a steady right turn. I tried out both the RoveMax Model M1 and the TR-2L wheels and both had the same behaviour. I tested out the RoveMax with some different bodies for the rover (Mk1 Cockpit with a Structural Fuselage as well as Mk1 Lander Can and some girders) and those behaved normally. Something else I noticed was that the Mk2 Lander Can based rover exhibited much stronger movement of the suspension that the other designs, regardless of whether it was lighter or heavier than them. It was generally bouncy as well as a pronounced dive down at the front when accelerating (opposite of what I'd expect) and at the back when braking. All the wheel settings were default and the wheel positions were definitely symmetrical (positioned then snapped into place after to be sure) for all vehicles tested. Here's a couple of pics of to show what I mean. Braking. Accelerating.

Some Christmassy pics from Manchester.

Something from The Tinfoil Times

A few more from LOST on Laythe.

Looking at your list @Kerbalstar it looks like there's plenty of planets to send some brave little explorers to, and then bring them back from. My suggestion would be to do a Jool X (as opposed to Jool 5 challenge) mission, with X (0 - 5) being the number of moons that you decide to send your crew down to. Even if all you do is orbit Jool waiting for a return window, it's the best place in the system to hang out in. If going down to the larger moons is pushing your designs limits, then you can always drop in on Bop or Pol for an easy to access surface location.

Chapter 13 – Field Trip “It’s all great surf, from here up to Magnus point” – Valentina Kerman “Hey kids, don’t forget your lunch box and make sure to hold your travel buddy’s hand” chuckled Val, delivering the latest in a long line of gags about their upcoming trip in the science vehicle. “If you get lost, find a grown up and...” began another Val zinger (in her mind at least). “Val... shut it, or you can walk to that Lifter of yours” snapped Bob, uttering more words than he’d done in the last two days. He might be in the depths of his own dark thoughts, but that didn’t stop the pilot’s juvenile taunts sinking through. Having run out of field trip related quips, Val decided to call it a day. For now at least. “Right Bob, see you inside” she said, heaving the hatch of the vehicle open and dropping down inside. Once inside Val made her way to the rear seat of the vehicle and strapped in, while Bob and Voyler dropped in one after the other, through the hatch. Bob made his way forward to the driving seat and Voyler took up the 2nd seat in the lab with Val. Once Bob had gone through the procedure to start up the science vehicle, it left the colony site at a steady pace to the North West towards the location of the Lifter. “Are we there yet” whined Val, in as childlike a voice as she could muster and pulled a wide grin at Voyler. This was followed by Voyler screeching “Booob... are we thar yet Booob” and breaking into a loud giggle. Val could tell that Voyler wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but they did at least share a sense of humour. “Bob... I’m tired, and I want a glass of water” Val hollered, continuing the childish goading of their driver. Bob turned in his seat to look back through the hatch from the driver’s cab, back into the lab, a deep scowl lining his face. “You want me to wreck this thing, just say the word... I’ll do it” he retorted, again more verbal than he’d been in weeks, but not in a way that made Val comfortable with continuing the game. “Booob, I wanna...” started Voyler, before Val landed a well aimed kraken plushy (one of Sindley’s collection) to her face. “Shhhh... cut it” Val demanded, making it clear that her partner in crime had to give up on the game too. The science vehicle trundled across the seemingly endless brown dust of Laythe’s surface. Another 10 minutes went by, followed by another, then another. Val had finally had enough. “Bob, seriously, can this thing go any faster... we’ve got the hook up and fuel transfer to do and at this rate we’re going to be heading back to camp in the dark” stated Val. No reply was forthcoming from their driver, so Val tried again. “Bob” she yelled. The vehicle suddenly lurched to one side, followed by a gut churning rocking motion, and Val wondered if Bob had been serious about wrecking this thing. “This is no hotrod, it’s built to protect the research gear, not racing” Bob finally yelled in reply. “No hotrod, you got that right” muttered Val before asking “do you have a rough time for us getting to the Lifter?” “We’re about ½ distance, so 30 minutes” Bob answered. 30 more minutes! Val could smell the geeky science in this thing. It smelt of lab equipment, chemicals and a lack of excitement. She need out and she needed it now. “I’m going up top to check... something” informed Val, before unbelting herself from her seat, jamming on her helmet, then climb up to and out of the hatch. She hauled herself out of the top of that school bus, with the joy of a 12th grader skipping gym class, something she’d never actually done, loving as she did, any kind of physical pursuit. The pilot in her wanted, no needed some excitement and judging by the rocking motion of the school bus, this could be just what the doctor ordered. Val jammed her boots under the ladder rungs that lined the top of the vehicle, stuck one arm out in front of her and the other behind, before crouching slightly. She closed her eyes and imagined she was surfing the big breakers that hit up the coast from the KSC. Suddenly without warning the wave she was riding felt like it slammed into rocks, as Bob hit the brakes. Her eyes jerked open and in front of her was the Lifter. She thought that they were about to smash straight into it, but as her vision cleared she realised that the vehicle was going “school bus fast”, rather than any real speed, and it slewed gently over to the side, parking few metres from the her baby. She hopped off the top of the vehicle and made a perfectly braced landing in the brown dirty beneath it, before racing over to the Lifter. Val remotely retracted the ladder attached to the base of the Lifter, to allow the lab access to the docking port. “Bob, I’ll make the port ready and you line yourself up” Val instructed, wanting to waste no time getting back in the air. She walked over to the docking port and adjusted the settings on the control panel next to it, setting it to “remote receive” before snapping panel cover shut. It seemed to her that Bob was taking forever to get the science vehicle lined up with the port, does he need half a planet run up to it, she thought to herself. “You having some problems there Bob, you’re backing way off for this?” she asked. “This things not built for maneuverability, plus it’s full of fuel for that ship of yours” Bob responded. The science vehicle finally stopped its retreat from the Lifter and started heading towards it, lining up with the docking port as it did so. Bob move the vehicle steadily forward, looking ahead through the main window towards the Lifter, as Val who stood by it, waved him in. He’d planned to use the docking assistance system for his approach to the docking port, but annoyingly it just displayed the message... VEHICLE NOT IN SPACE CALL TECH SUPPPORT 09 – 16 weekdays. As the science vehicle edged forward Bob wondered why anyone would trust him with this. He wasn’t much of a driver; he wasn’t much of anything anymore. He’d been a scientist once, but look at what that had caused, he shouldn’t be here, he should be back on Kerbin, where he deserved to be. “... OFF, BACK OFF” yelled Val over comms. “What? Bob mumbled “back of...” before a massive clang echoed through the vehicle as he and Voyler were thrown out of their seats. “Kraken’s teeth, what are you doing Bob!” Val shouted, before rushing to the docking port to see if it was damaged. Fortunately the long history of docking mishaps in the KSP had forced vessel designers to build them to be ready for pretty much any kind of approach speed. Resulting in them being almost indestructible. “Sorry Val, I er... I sneezed, it was a really big one and I was distracted for a moment” lied Bob, not wanting to discuss what had been in his thoughts a moment earlier. “Ok , ok, looks like there’s no damage, just bring it in nice an slow next time” replied Val, remembering how a really big sneeze had resulted in the loss of the first kerballed Mun mission. “Don’t worry about it, just focus” she continued. Bob stared intently out of the window and carefully lined up with the docking port again and very slowly moved forward. “3 metres” informed Val. “2 metres”. “1 metre” “Half metre” Finally there was a gentle thud as the two docking ports met, both Val and Bob waited for the familiar sound of capture latches ringing out, but none were to be heard. “You’re too low” yelled Val, seeing that the docking port of the science vehicle was a good 20cm below that of the Lifter. Bob thoughts suddenly drifted to the more profane kind as he thought about why that could be. “It’s the fuel” Bob exclaimed “the Lifter is empty and we’re half full”. Val was not impressed. Back on Kerbin some lazy engineer was not getting the business end her boot for not thinking about these vehicles needing to dock with different fuel levels. Ah well... just four more days and Tiddles’ll do the booting for me. “Bob... you’ve still got the landing pack engines attached, you can use those to lift that thing enough to dock” instructed Val, feeling a little smug at her ingenuity. That might work thought Bob, but there might not be enough thrust to actually lift the lab, just burn fuel trying. Ah well, not point in not trying. Bob armed the engines, switched the fuel flow before yelling “stand well back Val”. Val stepped back a few metres and Bob lit the engines, first at 25%, then raised the thrust until finally at 70% the vehicle started to lift up on its suspension. “Come on science boy... baby needs some fuel” muttered Val, willing Bob on in his effort to finally dock. Suddenly the capture latches rang out and the two vehicles rocked lightly, as the docking ports firmly attached. The landing engines on the Science Vehicle cut, and its front wheels dangled a few centimetres off the ground. “Nice flying there Bob, she’s attached” congratulated Val, “just start the fuel flowing and I’ll do the rest”. Sometime later the tanks of the Science Vehicle were empty and those of the Lifter half full... plenty to get it and its eager pilot into the air for a landing at the colony site. “Right back off nice and slow” instructed Val. What was she saying? “Put the pedal down Bob, like your life depends on it. I’ve got some flying to do and you don’t want to be in close when I lift off” Val continued, giving just the right degree of urgency. Bob wasn’t about to have another mishap due to not taking care with his driving, so the Science Vehicle continued its steady retreat. “Come on, come on, come on” Val muttered, almost able to feel the controls of a vehicle fit for a pilot in her hands again. Eventually the vehicle was far enough from the Lifter for Val to be confident that her departure wouldn’t result in a science flavoured barbeque. Well maybe a light toasting, but she had a ship to fly. Val raced to the foot of the ladder, clambered up it, and then used the exterior panel controls to retract it, before continuing up the hull mounted rungs towards the capsule. Each rung on the way felt like a week, as she climbed up the side the vehicle. “They should have installed a lift” she complained. Finally at the top she swung open the hatch and climbed inside. Once there with the hatch closed, Val pulled off her helmet and took a deep breath of pure pilot zone air. Immediately an acrid smell filled her nostrils, followed by the pungent aroma of something on the very rotten side of “no longer edible”. She’d forgotten that this had been her home for the trip from kerbin and had more than a little of a “lived in” smell to it. Rotten apple cores, urgh... sweaty socks, blurgh... oh no, oh no... rotten milk shake. She couldn’t bear it any longer and traded the “sweet” smell of pilot freedom, for the interior of her helmet, as she jammed it back over her head. Ok, she thought... urge to throw falling and urge to fly rising, so let’s get this bird in the air. Back in the Science vehicle Bob patiently awaited the announcement from Val that the Lifter was prepped for lift off and that she was starting the procedure for her departure, so he could back off to a safer distance. Suddenly the vehicle was rocked as if a giant baby had grabbed it like a rattle and started shaking it. Beyond the main window Bob saw the blinding flash of the F12 engine on the Lifter bust into life, as the vessel shot up into the sky. A blast of brown dust sprayed onto the windows of the vehicle, from the force of the Lifter’s engine, as its pilot use maximum thrust to climb into the air at great speed. “Damn pilots” Bob yelled as the Lifter rapidly rose before disappearing from view. Back in the lab section, Voyler was busy getting ready for her own departure, as she was tasked with bringing Rover 1 back to the colony site. She’d searched supply lockers for the tastiest looking snacks she could find, before heading for the ladder to the hatch. “Booob... I’m reeedy ta gaw now Booob. I see ya back at the cooolany” drawled Voyler. With no reply coming from the driver she assumed that all was good for her to leave the Science Vehicle and make her way to Rover 1, which secretly she’d been wanting a turn at driving since Val had turned up at the colony in Rover 2. She didn’t have the usual disdain for pilots that most engineers and scientists had, in fact she quite fancied herself at the controls of powerful machinery. Once out of the hatch Voyler lowered the ladder, made her way down it, then retracted it again. She starred for a moment at the rover parked about 50 metres away, before hurrying over to it. The engineer clambered up the suspension on its left side, then grabbed one of the recessed handholds on the cockpit section and hauled herself up to the canopy, before opening it and jumping inside. She looked across the instruments, many of which were superfluous, as the cockpit had been designed for aircraft. In the rush to prepare the LOST fleet for departure, it had been the only thing available at short notice for the driver’s section of the rovers. Voyler flicked the switches that brought the necessary systems to life, as well as arming missiles, retracting flaps and turning on jet engine reheat. This wasn’t a mistake that Voyler had made for once; she just wanted to play at being a hotshot pilot. With the rover ready to leave, she pushed the drive lever forward and swung the wheel sharply to the left, leaving the Science Vehicle and a spray of dust behind her. Finally alone at the Lifter landing site, Bob stared out across the brown expanse of the Laythe terrain. Maybe he shouldn’t go back, he could just stay here; have his own colony. But no, he had to go back, the rest of the science team had done no wrong and who was he to deprive them of their lab. Nobody, that’s who. He took a last look at the scorch mark that Val had made in her hasty departure, put the vehicle into drive and headed off in the direction of the colony. After 40 minutes of driving he’d come to an important conclusion... the Science Vehicle sucked as a means of transportation. The pilots gave the science team a hard time about it being a School Bus, but at least those could make their way up a slight slope without struggling. This mobile lab on the other hand was useless on all but flat terrain For that reason Bob had decided to avoid the steeper hills he’d encountered on the way to recover the Lifter and Rover 1, so was approaching the colony site from the North. Finally reaching the top of a long slope, Bob stopped the vehicle. He had a great view over the shallow valley that the colony was located in and could see the low sun reflecting off the solar panels of the Mining Vehicle. But more interesting was something in the distance that caught his eye. On the horizon, was a bright sparkle, probably a reflection of the sun that hung just above the horizon behind him. Bob made a note of the direction and apparent distance of the sparkle, and then headed down towards the colony.

A couple of images from the lastest chapter of LOST on Laythe.