TheEpicSquared

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The goal that many new players first set themselves in Kerbal Space Program is getting a craft, often crewed, into orbit. Usually there are many failures before success, and the learning curve is extremely steep. However, the feeling of accomplishment when a new player's periapsis finally gets above 70 kilometers is quite satisfying.

2/10 They're only human hands by looks. Rip off the skin, and all you see are wires, motors and other machinery. Of course I'm a human! Why would you say I'm not?

Oh hell no, I'm not pressing. I'd prefer not to get expelled from school. If you press the button, you will invent the first fully functioning EM-Drive that works for sure, but your worst enemy gets all the credit. Will you press the button?

I take your hill. My hill

That space station is made up primarily from the Mark One Laboratory Extensions mod. Check it out, it's great!

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Ah I see

Huh?

As predicted, the positives have retaliated, making @TheEpicSquared subtract yet another number (to make -1) and the number is now -49. We'll keep you updated on the situation.

And we now go live to the battle of numbers, where the valiant 2-person army consisting of @TheEpicSquared and @DarkOwl57! Oh! Looks like they've scored a hit, as the number plummets down to an astonishing -48, which is in fact a subtraction of -1! However, as the positive side is sure to retaliate, it seems that reinforcements are being called in, consisting of @Wildcat111, @Murican_Jeb and @Mycroft! What a smart move, which surely will enable the valiant negatives to gain the edge in this tense mathematical conflict! We'll keep you viewers updated on this situation as it develops. Until then, back to you, studio.

CHAPTER 18: BY SQUAD... A young intern who went by the name of Amelie Kerman was up doing the night shift at the tracking station. Having only arrived a few days ago, she was not yet entirely trusted and only had access to the cameras on K-Sat 2, the second satellite launched by the KSP. The camera was currently pointed at the Mun's horizon. The gray world was boring and dull, with spotty craters dotting the surface. In comparison, Kerbin looked beautiful as it rose over the Mun's horizon. The lazy swirling patterns of the clouds was calming, almost soporific. Before long, Amelie felt the drowsiness take over and her body relaxed. Wake up! she told herself I'm supposed to be tracking satellites, not taking a nap! She yawned and got up, heading over to the break room where the koffee was. Pouring herself a cup, she smiled as strolled back to her seat. She then resumed looking at the view of Kerbin from K-Sat 2. It's so small... so insignificant. "That's the first thing every kerbonaut says when they see Kerbin," a voice said. Amelie jumped. She hadn't noticed Jebediah walk in the door, and she certainly hadn't noticed that she had said her thought out loud. Jeb grabbed a cup of koffee and sat down at an adjacent console. A few clicks later, a video feed appeared on Jeb's screen. It was being filmed by KEOSAT-1, the first keostationary satellite. Kerbin was a perfectly round disk, and the Mun was just rising from behind the thin wave of Kerbin's atmosphere. Amelie looked over. "By SQUAD, that's a nice video." "It's even better when you're out there yourself". Jeb gestured in the general direction of the sky. "So what are you up to..." Jeb peered at Amelie's name tag, "...Amelie?" "Just doing my job, Jeb. I'm an intern, so not much of a job yet. Just to make sure that none of the satellites randomly explode," Amelie replied. After a pause, she said, "What about you, Jeb? Shouldn't you be in bed at this SQUAD-forsaken hour of night?" Jeb sighed and took a swig of his koffee. "I often come here when I can't sleep. Nightmares. The orbit lines are very calming to me." "You? Nightmares?" Amelie asked, surprised. "Yes. I'm not that fearless guy that everyone thinks I am. In fact, remember Merkury 1?" "Yeah, first kerbal in space. Which happened to be you," Amelie responded cautiously. Where's he going with this? "Well, not many people know this, but I nearly bailed out from the flight." Amelie spluttered and nearly dropped her koffee. "But you looked so confident before launch!" "I was, until the week before the flight. Nightmares nightly. First it was the air supply running out, then a fire onboard, then the LES failing to pull me out of danger, then my heatshield disintegrating. The night before, I couldn't get one second of shut-eye. So I came here. It calmed me down. After a few minutes, I regained my confidence. Luckily the mission went off without a hitch..." Jeb trailed off and his eyes narrowed. Amelie quickly looked at the screen that was playing live video from KEOSAT-1. A tiny speck of light, taking up only a pixel on the screen. Many people would have dismissed the spot as a star and gone back to their business. Jeb, however, being a seasoned kerbonaut, knew the difference between a star and sunlight glinting off metal. Amelie asked, "What's that?" "Amelie, check for any satellites close to KEOSAT. Within rendezvous distance, please". "On it." Amelie wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but he judgement told her in was something serious, from Jeb's tone. A few seconds later, Amelie reported, "Nothing close enough for rendezvous. Do you think it could be KEOSAT's upper stage?" Jeb replied, "No, we deorbited that last week. Debris from a collision maybe?" Amelie shook her head. "We've had no collisions as of yet. What is it?" "Hold on... it's coming closer..." Jeb turned on the screen recorder in the console as the metallic object neared the satellite. "It's coming closer... it'll hit the satellite!" Amelie said tensely. Before Jeb could say anything the object whizzed by the camera, missing KEOSAT-1 by mere millimeters. Jeb said, "Play back the footage, Amelie." She nodded and tapped a few keys. Jeb closely studied the slowed-down footage. "Pause it right there!" Jeb burst out suddenly. Amelie hit the spacebar, a few frames too late. "Back a bit.." Amelie obeyed. "Forward a few frames... there!" Jeb exclaimed. "Enhance the image..." The lines and edges of the picture instantly became clearer. The sight on the screen was truly astounding. "By SQUAD..." Jeb breathed, astonoished. "What is that..."

-48 - ONWARDS

-47 (-)

-47 (-)

I just slap on a reaction wheel. Disable it when driving around, enable it when you flip. Works every time

Hey everyone, RL stuff has been acting up a bit so I haven't had time to play KSP, but I don't want that to affect new chapters. Because of this, the next few chapters will probably contain only text and no pictures (if they do contain pictures they'll probably be from google). Oh, and chapter 18 should be out later today or tomorrow.

Granted. You, your high-speed internet and your computer are time-travelled to a village in medieval Europe. Upon seeing your seemingly magical contraption, the villagers accuse you of witchcraft and you are burned at the stake. I wish my Swedish lessons were less boring.

-49 (-) Join the dark side...

@DarkOwl57 Oh hell no! You're not defecting, I forbid it! -50 (-)

The Kossak K-200 just needs a few final tweaks, and then it'll be ready. It'll be added here tomorrow.

What @Gaarst said. Many people (me included) would not be very happy if Squad decided to completely ignore spaceflight, to say the least. That being said, I wouldn't mind having submarine part in the future (and definitely underwater science parts) but Squad should focus on that after improving spaceflight.

Thanks! And I'll only take a few detours to some... points of interest That's all I can say at this time.

Craft reviews? I have one! Note: This was basically copy-pasted from my Crazy Contraptions thread (link in my signature)

As you can see, I've changed the name of this story to Through Hardships to the Stars, which was "inspired" (no, no, definitely not stolen, what are you talking about?) by @KAL 9000's forum title. Thanks, KAL!