Alpha 360

To start a new "sub-topic" on this thread, do people prefer to use one or more of the original 4 as their main character(s)? Or do they start over and pick the coolest name in the astronaut complex hiring list and use them as their main character? In my thread, Roni Kerman is a hired Kerbonaut and is KASA's last pilot. Adds a bit of pressure on her to survive. As well as the fact that if she dies, I can never write again without thinking of her and trying to put in a character similar to her in every story.

23rd Installment: An unfortunate series of events around Minmus...... "And we are in orbit!" I cried, gleefully. We made off Minmus a second time. We had plenty of fuel to detach and leave for Kerbin. Then I discovered the first of many things wrong with this hastily designed mission. Billy was here. Assey sat beside me, and the limited space I was in prevented Bill from visiting me this trip. The worst part about it all was that we were going to rescue Irfred. Yet again abandoned on a station around Minmus. At least she had a science lab to work on. "Do you think we'll back it back home without any problems this time?" asked Assey eagerly. I sighed, the broke the truth over her, "The reentry pod holds 2. We are four, including Irfred." It took a second for this evil turn of events to finally dawn on her. Then she clenched her fists in righteous anger. "WHY! WHY EVERY TIME WE COME HERE, THE ENGINEERS MESS SOMETHING UP THAT WE HAVE TO FIX!?" she screamed into the radio. Aimed at Werhner Von Kerman and his engineering team. She continued, smashing the peacefulness inside mission control almost with a literal hammer, "YOU INCOMPETANT ENGINEERS! WHY, WHY, WHY ARE YOU THIS STUPID!?" "Calm down, Assey." I attempted to soothe her. "Calm down! We have been given a death sentence by the stupid, useless, decisions on the ground. They forgot to check how many people were going on the mission, blast it all. When we get back, I'll sue them." "What's the fuss up here?" Billy poked his head up the hatch. "The S******* engineers who designed this rocket have built the reentry pod to carry two. There will be four of us." "What? This can't be happening." I solemnly nodded, "Look around you. This is the return stage. The cupolas are not apart of it. They are detached with the rest of the landing stage." "So, KASA will send us a rescue pod?" asked Billy hesitantly. "There is one problem with this rocket. There is no docking port." "Ah, come on." Assey snapped her fingers in further anger. Luckily she seemed to have most of it bottled up somewhere then. I did not want to be in her way when all the corks on her anger-bottles blew. "We can all EVA?" Billy looked at the rack of three space suits. "Yes. That is one thing to be glad of. If not, we could never have been saved. After all we have only 20 days of supplies without Irfred on board." "Shall we go fetch her while we wait for the KASA escape pod to arrive?" "Yes. Lets." A couple orbits later a maneuver node was set up and burnt. We were going to arrive on time. A dozen minutes later Billy gave us the low-down on our burn. "Alright, the burn was a bit off. But we can easily correct that. Only that we have a very limited budget for the lander stage propulsion." commented Billy. "Watch out!" cried Assey. The Minmus Convertible Lander was a couple dozen meters away. I threw myself at the controls, trying to turn tail and fire up our engine. We spun the capsule around, and then engaged the engine. Only that the engine didn't fire. I looked out the window at the approaching MCL. We were out of electrical charge. "Blast!" I exclaimed, "I need to get out and board the MCL. Then I will use it to completely the rendezvous." I put my suit on as fast as I could, while the others depressurized one of the cupolas for me to use as an airlock. I felt a massive thump and our lander started to go into an uncontrollable pitch I got there while it was still depressurizing. Making a quick decision, I locked the door behind me and then opened the hatch. I was blown out of that cupola like a bullet out of a gun. A piece of debris from somewhere was stuck in my suit. Causing a leak. I readjusted myself to this new angle, and found that we had passed the MCL. I fired up my jetpack and started to fly towards the MCL. Debris was scattered all along the way from the station. It was one of our lander's solar panels. I arrived and quickly found the hatch entry way. I entered the airlock, while it pressurized automatically. I rushed in, my suit still on but my helmet off. "Excuse me, Irfred." I quickly babbled our story to her as I floated up the hatch to the command pod. "Anyway, we need to catch up to them." I summed up. I took the throttle and joystick into my hands and maneuvered around to fire up the engine. The MCL had a small amount of delta-v left, but it was enough. "Didn't this craft have RSC?" I asked. "No. And even then its plum dry." "Shoot. We're both going to have to bail out and board our vessel and leave this thing on a orbital trajectory. " "Alright. I'll follow you." "No, when we get there you have to get out first. You'll know what to do, right?" I looked to her for reassurance. Her blank look gave me none. Finally we came into view of the our lander. Irfred luckily got most of what I had to say, so she jumped ship. Then the Kraken struck. He struck hard and fast. A great blue sphere covered my entire view, almost blinding me. I wondered what it would be like for Irfred. "Slow down, Roni! Slow down!" cried Assey on the other side. We were moving fast. Almost too fast. And we were on a trajectory which would smash into the other ship. "Slowing down!" It was too late and the MCL turned too slow. I felt the entire spacecraft quiver as it hit the lander over the head. "The spacecraft have collided. Thank the kraken there is no visible damage" "And Irfred, is she aboard?" "She's waiting outside the capsule for Billy to get out into one of the cupolas. Then when you come aboard, I will get into the other cupola. And now Billy is in the other cupola and Irfred's aboard. Will get into the other cupola." The radio inside the MCL cut off. I put my helmet on, and went to the airlock in the science lab. "Leaving now." I exited the airlock to be blinded by a ray of bright blue light staring me in the face. An eye of the Kraken. It stared me down as I traveled over to our lander. It was angry. Very angry indeed. I could feel its rage flowing from it, trying to penetrate me and to overwhelm me. Little snake like voices filled my head, voices of the distant past. Voices that changed my life for the worse. "Stop it!" I cried as I grabbed onto the rung on the ladder outside of the lander. I entered, and the blue eye was gone. "Whew. Now to get ourselves off of the MCL." I muttered to myself. I was exhausted, the blue eye plum exhausted me. Irfred was sleeping in her chair. The eye might have conquered her, but I found that unlikely. With careful motions of the lander, I managed to un-beach it from the MCL. I fired a quick burst of the engine and we were far away from the MCL. That poodle could pack a lot of punch. Irfred woke up from the jerk of the engine, and then looked at our fuel gauges. "Roni. The tanks are empty. Dry as a bone now." I looked at our navigation, "And we are on an escape trajectory from Minmus." I sighed in disbelief, "This day couldn't have gone better." I spat. The next installment will be written in third person, about the rescue which takes place in high orbit. I plan to unveil some new technologies as well on the launch. Stay tuned to see how will the crew of four get out of this mess. Happy Explosions Until Then!

Subnautica is one of my favorite youtube games. Can't wait to see how this works out. Also, you can probably do a lot of this using KAS and KIS. Really like where this is going and don't despair on your writing skills. Practice makes perfect!

I feel your pain, PolarisVelocity. I just did a installment were I realize I didn't have enough seats in the reentry module. And in my latest installment, well, I manage to build a lander which can re-enter with two but will carry four. The engineers must be plotting to end our respective space programs...... Que the aqe-old song : The engineers are ruining your rockets tonight! You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not shout and I'm telling you why for the engineers are destroying your rockets tonight

22nd Installment: Back To Minmus Today, our engineers have decided to attempt to make the most economical lander possible. Here is what they came up with. Only they forgot to take a photo while on the launch pad. Shoot. As you see, there are solid rocket boosters. Big ones. On-board is Roni, Assey, and Billy. But the reentry capsule has only space for two..........Blast those blasted engineers' blasted design!!! WHY?! (I'm just not a competent KSPer) This is the view from one of the cupola, from Billy's point of view. He doesn't realize that he might not be coming back. Yet. A semi-cross with the solid rocket boosters. I hope they have given us enough kick to get to orbit. The first stage has detached with a bang. Quite literally. Luckily, the first stage is planed to land and be recovered. Of course, my plans rarely become reality. The second stage carries the rocket higher in the atmosphere. There is enough TWR to get most of the way into orbit before I had to switch to the first stage. It is traveling at 30 m/s. Not slow enough. Then main chutes are pulled at 500 meters, I was worrying about my main mission. I appears I should have paid more attention to the first stage. Yes, it could have been expected. The first stage smashed into the ocean at 15 m/s. I was late to start the engine. And tada! We have lost 30,000 funds! The second stage ran out at 1800 m/s and that was detached. the lander stage picked up from there to get into orbit. Then I crossed my fingers, set up a maneuver node, and got a fake intercept with Minmus. So then I preformed the maneuver. That stage contains 2,200 m/s before the burn. It was a 700 meter per second burn. And it was completed. Three hours later my prayers were answered and I got a smooth intercept with the real Minmus. So then I burned around a bit, and went into a sub-orbital trajectory. Here is me just right here a couple of meters above Minmus. And, of course, the lander flips over. I'm predictable. Yet another unconventional lander. Please ignore that blue sphere behind our kerbal. It is a graphical bug/kraken showing disapproval of EVAs near Minmus. You will see how it affects everything later. After returning Roni Kerman to the lander, I used the solar panels to leap around until I can get my nose in the air and rocket into orbit. And then I decide to pick up my kerbal in the Minmus Convertible Lander. What happens is a partial catastrophe/success. I think I will write that out in first person since I have no pictures from that moment because I was either too busy raving or bursting with joy. Yet another short installment, but the next one should be a treat. Hopefully. My writing skill aren't the best so I will give it what I got.

21th Installment: The Dres Program "Kerbals of all nations and countries and states on Kerbin." It was a grand statement, encompassing all of kerbality. It was the start of the grand speech Mortimer Kerman spoke to the globe. It told of recent achievements and the results from the achievements. Then it started to tell of future plans. That is where we pick up... "Our chief engineers and financial advisors have conversed about our next destination. Somewhere near, yet somewhere with plenty of transfer windows. Somewhere like Jool, only that its next window is in a hundred days, or like Moho but it takes 3,000 m/s Delta-V to get there." "There will be an interesting Dres Window popping open in 69 days. It is our intent to use this window to our advantage and to send a manned lander and spacecraft there at that window. Given that, the spacecraft might not be assembled in time, we will miss that window. But! During that window we will be sending all the supplies necessary to the operation, as well as communication sats, and scanning sats and miniature bases for the crew to stay at, and orbital supply stations to refuel the spacecraft. All of that is guaranteed to be headed over to that dwarf planet. And, whether in 69 days or for some stretch longer, when our kerbonauts go to Dres, it will be in the finest spacecraft we can furnish, and they will land upon this astronomical body within 3 years!" The crowd went wild over these audacious and awesome commitments of the space program. They, in their life times, would see a whole new world unfold from the vacuum of space. (Here is the interior of the administration building, level 2) Now back to the narrated section, and therefore the preparation section of this thread. The next few chapters will recover the reusable stages post, the 16th installment if I am correct. and start on the efforts to rescue Irfred Kerman and to moderate the orbit of Aphrodite, the MOO, which is currently in a high orbit above Kerbin. The first order of business was to see what Dres looked like and if we could get there. We designed the Valiant Dres probe to reach interplanetary space and to attempt to intercept Dres. Here is a reel of the launch of the Valiant. It was taken at night so the pictures might have not developed correctly.. And then we were in orbit! After a quick trajectory plot to put the perigee at the tip of Dres' orbit, the engine fired up and the first interplanetary spacecraft launched away. The drop tanks run out of fuel and they are detached. And we continue onwards and upwards! The maneuver is completed and the Valiant coasts towards it final goal. Interplanetary Space! The Valiant now has gone farther than any spacecraft in History! Look at that wheel pic. Looks like Kerbin has gained some spokes. From this angle at least. Unfortunately our camera engineers were taking a short coffee break when the Valiant went out of communications range. Sorry, but we just don't have the communications range for interplanetary space. That will be all for this post. Tomorrow Roni, Assey, and Billy are all going back to Minmus! And yet again problems assault them from every angle. It will be written in third person, as people have commented on me writing in first person before. BUT. If I receive to posts asking for first person, It shall happen in great detail and be in honor of the said individual(s). Sorry for the short chapter, but RL is coming more and more influencing. The next post will probably be delayed as well. Apologies in advance. Happy Explosions Until Then! (Or should I say HEUT?)

Great to know. If you want a mod which will greatly help your money problem, get Strategia. It makes the Administration Building very useful indeed by giving options for different Programs. For Example, the Mun Program means that you have to land on the Mun and plant a flag. You will get 25,000 at the end of it, but all world firsts count as double the cash. But if you receive a world first from Minmus, it would be half of what it would be worth. Please consider this mod. It is brilliant!

Hey NCommander, When concerned about launch weights, you can try the traditional, kerbal method of dealing with it. MOAR BOOSTERS. In my Kerbiting System game, to get to Minmus, I had to have 16 boosters in a semi-appagrus staging to get out of the lower atmosphere, then use two main 2.5 meter stages to get to actual orbit. Luckily I had my third and lander stages left over for the rest of the mission. Also, if you are pressed for thrust, you can try to put multiple 1.25 meter engines on the 2.5 meter core stage. To put them on, you have to use the aerodynamic tail spines or whatever they call them, and clip maybe 6 or 8 of them to the side of the fuel tank. On the bottom there is an attachment node where you put the engine. Then tada! A 7 or 9 engine rocket with a lot of thrust. (Mathy stuff here - A Reliant Engine has 280 ISP - produces 230 kilo-newtons of thrust. If there are 7 of them that is 230 * 7, which equals 1,610 kilonewtons or 110 kilonewtons more than a Mainsail rocket motor, but with a lack of gimbaling. Subtract 50 kilonewtons from the equation and 20 ISP from sea level and you have added a gimbaling Swivel engine to the center of the rocket and the rocket has 6 Reliants and 1 Swivel. - End of Mathy stuff which might not be correct because this is all from memory because I could never open KSP this early in the day) I find that very useful, especially as I haven't unlocked those engines yet in my game. Also, as far as I have seen, you haven't been using the 2.5 meter second stages very often. Those are extremely necessary. A Rockomax 2.5 fuel tank + Poodle engine is the best for Delta-V efficiency.

The lucky thing is that that Minmus Station which I put up in the 8th or 9th installment. That thing has saved my bacon multiple times. I can't wait to use it as a core for my interplanetary spacecraft. It would be so great! Or, even better, upgrade it and send it as a depot for the main space craft to use when it arrives. I got to give a formal name for it. It will probably be Aphrodite or something of that sort.

I like the look of your creations. They are all so pretty! Do you have a mod list?

20th Installment: Home at Last We drifted in Low Minmus Orbit. Our fuel reserves were down to 180 m/s. Definitely not enough. Irfred spent her time researching in the science lab, and occasionally Assey went down there to help. I waited in my bunk, waiting until KASA could send an automated supply craft to rescue us. Waiting. We waited for 8 days in low orbit. Finally I called a meeting with the others. We all floated in the stern habitat, waiting for the other person to speak. Everyone wore glum faces, for they knew that we could not get back without help. I spoke up, "I think we can go to the old Minmus Orbital Outpost. We can surely dock there and have more supplies. But it will cost us our remaining Delta-V." "Since we don't have enough to go back, we don't care how you spend our Delta-V." Assey announced. "Alright, then could we have a maneuver in 20 minutes?" "Its possible." Irfred seconded Assey's announcement. We went to work. After twenty minutes, we burned the engine and got our orbit to intercept the station. We coasted up to it. It didn't take much to equal our velocities. Then we discovered a problem. "The station has only passive docking ports. We only have one active one, on board the reentry capsule." "Alright, everyone on board the ferry then." "Assey. The reentry capsule only has room for 3." I stated. Then I slapped myself in the head. "You mean, one of us has to stay behind. And wait for rescue." "Yes. That's what I mean." "You and Billy have to go, so it will be between me and Irfred." "And you are the first person to step on Minmus. If you don't come down, the public will throw a fit." "Irfred might go insane if she is left alone on a space-station around Minmus. It already has happened once, we can't risk it." "We need to call another meeting." Assey went ahead to collect everyone. Bill appeared by my side. "Bill! Why do all the hard decisions fall to me? I have to chose between life and death, well-being and insanity. Why me." I was near breaking down again. "Roni. You're the best at making these decisions. You are a great leader, and you can make it through this. I am sorry that all these decisions have to fall to you, but you must bear up. You are the commander." We all met in the stern again. "We face a problem here." "Obviously, or else we won't be here." Irfred huffed. That was not good. "The reentry capsule with the active docking port has only enough monopropellant for one trip to the station. And it can only hold 3 kerbals." Irfred and Billy looked disbelievingly at the two of us. "We all have to go. All of us." Billy stated. "There's nothing we can do. Nothing." I took a deep breath, "Irfred. It is either me or you. Which one of us will make it back?" Irfred closed her eyes, clearly trying to compose herself. She took a deep breath, then said the bravest words she ever uttered, "I'll stay. I'll stay here and work on the core samples. It needs to be done. I might as well do it alone." "Once we get back, we'll try to get you back as soon as possible." "I know that. Just next time lets make sure the engineers put plenty of Delta-V in their next rocket." We all agreed. Then we had to say painful good-byes to Irfred. Sure she was cranky, but she was one of us. A fellow kerbonaut. Me, Assey, and Billy piled into the return-capsule and undocked from our station. Irfred waved us off from a window, then moved away. I burned the RSC, and started to move towards the MOO. We approached carefully. Slowly inching forward at point 5 meters per second. Finally, I stepped on the gas and speed up the rocket to 1.5 m/s. "To the left, to the left." Billy called from the left window. "To the left, to the left." Assey called from the right window. I maneuvered closer and closer to the station. Then I miexcrements a control, spinning up the return capsule. "Oops." I looked at the monopropellant gauge. It read 3/4 left. Good. "To the blooming left!" cried Assey. I tried to stop spinning, but I couldn't stop. I hit the station with an painful crunch. We bounced off towards Minmus. "Alright, I'm getting it under control!" I cried. I stopped the spinning, then burned slowly towards the station again. The gauge read 1/4 left. Okay, not good. We approached a second time, but missed because of a slide to the right. Luckily it didn't cost much monopropellant, but the gauge was done to 1/6 left. Definitely not good. "Do I have it lined up now?" I asked, trying to stay calm. "I think you do." said Billy and Assey. "Well, third time's a charm." I pushed our capsule forward, slowly. "Everything looks lined up." It better had been. I had 5 units of mono left. "A little higher." Now there was 3 units left. "A touch to the left." 2 units left. Only 1 more burst of monopropellant left. "All clear." We were 5 meters away from docking. We were going to make it. I used our final burst of mono to propel us into the waiting docking port. It worked. *clunk* "We did it!" we all cried. We opened the docking port and entered the MOO. It was cramped. And old. About 2 months old. In other words, ancient. "Now, do we wait?" Wait we did. For a day we lounged around in the station, until I made a discovery. "The engine is still strapped on here." "WHAT?!" cried Assey, "Does it work?" "I hope it does. Because we just found our ticket home." There was 880 m/s left in the tank. Excellent. The station that already saved me last time was going to save our lives again. "What we are going to do, is to put us on a high sub-orbital trajectory, then once we are in Kerbin's SOI, we will undock. I will stay aboard the MOO and put it into a orbital trajectory using the main engine, then I will EVA back to the Reentry Capsule." Billy clapped his hands once, "Lets get to work then." In a days time, we had serviced the engine and fuel lines as well plotted our maneuver node. Bill ghost appeared by my bunk-side by the end of the day. "I see that you have found a way home." "Yes, yes this station must have saved our lives twice now. I would hate for it to burn up in the atmosphere. Hopefully one day it will be useful to somebody. There should be 500 m/s still in it by the time we're finished with it." "I'm proud of you Roni. You should know that, I am proud of you for all you have done up here in space. You have defied the odds and survived using your ingenuity. Thank you for saving KASA from bankruptcy." I smiled, partly embarrassed, "I don't think I have ever been complemented by a ghost before." "The ghosts of the past do tend to haunt you, not thank you." He had become deadly serious now. He then abruptly changed his mood again by asking, "Do you think that the MOO could be used as the base of a interplanetary spaceship?" "Maybe. It deserves that honor, but it is just so old. It wouldn't survive that journey." Bill started to disappear, "I'm keeping you from your sleep. Have a peaceful rest." And he completely disappeared. The next day, I was at the controls. Everyone watched as I flipped the throttle on the Vesta engine, and as it ignited. It propelled us forward. Back to good old Kerbin. Back home. Minmus turned around beneath us. Turning away as well left its SOI. The reentry capsule undocked, then drifted away, out of the way of the MOO. I slowly flipped the spacecraft around, then I hit the throttle once more, pushing it into a higher orbit. I patted the console sadly, as I donned my spacesuit. I depressurized the command module, then opened the hatch. If only the camera crew caught the sight! Kerbin there at my feet, and Minmus behind me and the stars all around. I was engulfed in the blackness of the surrounding night. So far from any large planetary body. I felt isolated from everything else. I saw the Reentry Pod descending further and further behind me. I powered up my jetpack and burnt over to it, all the time in wonder of the majesty of the darkness. I entered the command module, where Billy and Assey were waiting for me. "Is the MOO in a safe orbit?" "Yes. It will stay in this orbit for eons to come. But we are on course to intercept Kerbin! If only we could drink to our success." We ended up drinking water to our success for the reentry. We descended down to Kerbin. Our perigee was at 45 kilometers to be safe from most of the harsh rigors of reentry. We originally went with our heat shield facing the atmosphere. But then aerodynamic forces forced the command module to flip. That was very scary indeed. While our reentry was slow, and not very graceful, we survived and pulled the chutes once at a respectable altitude. We landed with the KSC mountains in sight over the horizon. Minmus hung over the landscape. Reminding me of a fellow kerbonaut that was stranded in orbit of that icy body. "We'll get you, Irfred. We're coming back." "You will get her back. You got us back, so you can get her back as well." "Well, Assey. We don't know anything for certain, but we will try our hardest to get her back."

I am sooo glad to see you again VelocityPolaris! I can't believe this old thread is starting back up again. May you have a working computer and many happy explosions! Happy New Year!

Brilliant. Just Brilliant. I wish I could recover my stages with the same success. Is there a craft file............? I need this in my life.

19th Installment: Bring Him Home “Everything checked out?” I asked Irfred. “Everything is ready, commander.” My respect from the crew had returned. Irfred now called me commander and trusted me to my decisions. Assey constantly burst with happiness at being the first person on Minmus, hugging me or Irfred spontaneously. “Take-off in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Blast-off!” The service bay doors opened, catapulting the Trio up into the perpetually night sky. "500 meters above Minmus, commander." Irfred announced. "This is Mission Control, we are wishing you well on your return journey." the radio crackled. We rose like a graceful bird above the icy plains. We stopped the engine burning after 20 seconds on full throttle. We watched below the landscape circle away beneath us. "Injection burn in 50 seconds." Assey now announced. I hit the throttle and we rocketed into a circular orbit. "We can pull up the maneuver node for a return trajectory to Kerbin." "Wait, what about Billy-Bobmon Kerman?" I asked. Assey breathed in deeply. Silence filled the capsule. Even Irfred didn't say anything. "Mission Control, what about Billy-Bobmon Kerman?" There was silence on that end as well. "Can we rescue him?" "Roni, we just don't have the Delta-V margins." "Then we'll make them, we did it last time to save you, Irfred. And we did it successfully and returned home. We can do it again." I pleaded. They looked guiltily at the floor. "Roni, you have 300 m/s delta-v, less than that actually. You have just enough Delta-V to squeak by into the upper atmosphere. We've done the calculations down here. Trust us." "What about Billy-Bobmon's parents and friends. Will they accept that he died because our delta-v margins were too slim?" "Death happens all the time here on Kerbin. It is a part of life, it is acceptable for a kerbal to die because of a failure." "It is not acceptable to me!" "Roni, you're outvoted this time. There's nothing we can do." Gene was on the radio now. "I won't allow a kerbal to die because we failed to pick him up!" I was raging now. Back to my old selfish self. Only that I was campaigning to save a life, not to pass it by, to let it die." "Roni. Just let us do it." Gene consoled me, "You accomplished all your objectives." "I don't care about objectives! I care about kerbals lives!" "I am caring for your lives! You are our only crew! If we lose you, we are finished. Forever. Are you going to risk this entire investment just to save an insignificant life!?" I looked back at Kerbin hanging from gravity in the night sky. I thought of all the kerbals on that planet. They were ordinary, who did not worry about living or dying. It was apart of life back there. Now I was losing a battle to save a life. A kerbal life. "I will resign from this mission as commander if we don't go get him! We need to bring our kerbal home. No matter the cost." "Miss Roni Kerman. You are disobeying the rules set in place by myself when I founded this space program. If you don't stop this nonsense, we will be forced to fire you when you return to Kerbin." It was Mortimer Kerman himself. What a surprise. "I resign from this mission as commander." I said it quickly, and then hurriedly flew down to the science module. Ghost Bill was waiting there for me. "You don't have to go fetch Billy. You have to get back home. It is in interest of the program,." "Bill! Did you influence the Kraken to have Minmus appear the next day? Please say no." He smiled, "No, no I did not. I looked up at the orbits, and apparently they just needed a little time before it happened." "Bill. I am going to get Billy-Bobmon. He deserves it." "Roni. I act in the interest of the program. This is a bad idea." "The goal of the program is to save lives through technology, right?" Bill nodded to this assertion "We have the technology to save this kerbal's life. Your brother. And you tell me to forget him when you yourself had made me vow to bring him home." "I will overlook that vow. Your life is at stake her, Roni." "Then I will chose to sacrifice it for this poor kerbal's sake." Bill stayed floating through the air, his mouth shut. Finally he said the three words which would spur me on when the going got hard latter on, "Bring Him Home." I had armed myself with a wrench as I crept through the passage ways towards the command module. I saw Assey in a room, almost crying to herself. I dropped the wrench and floated in, saying, "Its a pity that we have to leave him behind." She looked up, "I agree. Well. Our departure burn is in a couple of hours." "Can you come up with a maneuver node which would intercept with his debris?" I decided to tell her the truth, "I'm willing to sacrifice myself to save this kerbal." "Are you, Roni?" "Yes. Now help me convince Irfred." We both arrived at the command module. Irfred was running through some finally calculations for the maneuver node. "Irfred. We want to rescue Billy-Bob. We need to." She looked up from her work, "Alright. Can you show me some math to tell me we can pick him up, then leave on our engine?" "No. We can't." "Then why are you two petitioning me?" "Irfred. Please let us get the poor kerbal. He needs us." "Assey. Listen closely. We are the Program's best and brightest. We can afford to be a little immoral and let this kerbal die because he will die for a good cause." "No we can't. He is still a kerbal like us." I protested. "No. You are not dragging me into this!" "If we are going to do this democratically, it is two against one. We win." "On board this ship, I have been just nominated commander of this vessel. That gives me three votes, it says so officially. It is two against three. Guess who wins." "Well, I'm sorry." I launched out and snatched her from the air. She screamed. I attached myself to the floor and wrestled her into a seat and Assey started to duck tape her to it. "We're sorry, Irfred, but this had to be done." Assey apologized. We turned off the radio, then started to get to work. An hour later we had the window of opportunity to reach the stranded kerbal. "Its all yours, Roni." I smiled thinly, then hit the throttle. We were burning away from home to save a kerbal who could be asphyxiating right then . Thirty minutes later we arrived at a piece of junk metal. I burned our precious fuel to slow ourselves down to 0.5 relative meters per second. "Hello? This is the Trio, standing by." We waited, afraid that he was already dead and that we wasted our fuel for nothing. But then the hatch opened, and vented out a kerbal in a space suit. "Yes! He's alive!" cried out Assey. He jetpacked over to our ship, and climbed onto it. We already pumped out the interior oxygen in our command module, so we opened the hatch for him. Assey then closed the hatch and I turned on the oxygen pump. (We moved Irfred to the science module to review our science points.) When it was pressurized inside, we took off our helmets. "Thanks. Thank you for saving me." He thanked up profusely. He then stuck out a hand, "I'm Billy-Bobmon Kerman, but you can just call me Billy." I started to tear up. Billy looked exactly like Bill, plus a small brown beard which he had probably grew in isolation. "I met your brother before. You look just like him." I commented. He laughed, "Ah, is the old boy still kicking? I still haven't met him personally, but I have many, many second hand reports on him." I started to tear up further. Assey answered for me, "Roni here was on the mission which Bill died on. She managed to survive, but Bill didn't make it." He looked crestfallen. "Excuse me." I said hurriedly. I pushed myself down to the stern module. Bill again was waiting for me. "Bill. I saved him. He looks just like you and everything!" I almost started to cry. "There, there Roni. Everything is going to be alright. You know that I saw him the moment he entered this spacecraft." "Yes. And now, and now we can't bring him home, back with us!" I finally broke down into sobs. "Don't worry. You'll bring him home somehow. Somehow you will bring him home."

Interstellar trajectories! Wow. I just don't have the words to describe the sense of awesomeness that comes form that pair of words and the accomplishment it signifies. Wow.

Unconventional Landers. Landers that sometimes work and mostly don't. Show them off here. To start things, I will show my own unconventional lander. Impressively Useless. It is the core of a space station in LMO with extra fuel. I landed it first, then got it off into orbit to attempt to complete a contract. I didn't get it.

Well. I have landed more unconventional landers before. I am a person who views landers as a crew modules with an engine with extra delta-V. In other words, there isn't much designing for a lander other than basic landing functions or none at all. About 25% of my landers land with landing legs. The others flop on the ground where I struggle to get them up right using all the "cheats" in KSP, including opening solar panels, service bays, antenna and using RSC to attempt to flip the rocket upwards. You can tell I haven't landed on anywhere other than Minmus or the Mun.

18th Installment: Being Second Never Hurt Anyone I was flung against the wall, far below my fellow crew. "You killed him! Do you realize you have deprived my mother of all her sons! You were supposed to save people! Not kill them with your idiotic decisions" "I'm sorry Bill. I couldn't give up on the mission." I protested. His hand was once more around my neck, but it had materialized much more. It now was almost a hand now, but see through. "You gave up on the mission when you made that stupid decision to keep the engine burning because you couldn't deal with the stress!" Bill screamed. I wondered if Assey would come down to see what was the fuss. She didn't. "You killed him!" He repeated, his grip on my neck continued to tighten. This day was really going badly. "I didn't kill him intentionally! I was trying to save him, but I might have failed. It was not my doing! I was incompetent!" I pleaded. "You are the last pilot of KASA! You have to be competent all the time. Failure is NOT an option! I repeat it to you because you seem to have forgotten! Failure is NOT an option!" He banged my head against the wall, making my head ring. I deserved it. "Okay, I made an idiot of myself, nearly costing a kerbal's life, but as long as we rescue him. Everything will be okay?" I asked. Bill withdrew his fingers, and sighed a disappointed sigh, "Yes. That is the kerbal's philosophy, but we must be beyond kerbal. We must be able not to shrug off incidents, saying that they are repairable. They must never happen." "Okay, Bill. I'm sorry." I answered, "I really am." He sighed once more, then said, "I shouldn't have roughed you up. Since you are KASA's last pilot, you are vitally important. But you seem to need roughing up in order to get the point across. You need to go up and help your crew." I nodded, and climbed back up the ladder to reach the command pod. Assey and Irfred were both working on the next maneuver. They didn't notice that I had entered. "I'm sorry for losing my nerve." I said, slightly embarrassed to apologies to my crew. Assey leapt up from the floor and gave me a hug, "We're sorry for losing our temper with you. we understand that the weight of the entire mission is on your shoulders. right Irfred?" Irfred gave a little shrug, and continued with her work. "What do I need to do?" I asked, moving over to the pilot's console. "Position the Trio at ........" and we were a crew again, granted a little resentment from Irfred, but still a crew. "Ready for burn, Mission Control." I announced into the radio. "Alright, burn on my mark." I noticed they brought in a different Capcom. "Fire!" The Poodle engine purred to life, pushing us into an intercept with Minmus. Hopefully. "Where's Minmus?" I asked. "It, it should be there." Irfred pointed to a nondescript part of space. "It's not there." "Aren't we supposed to be in its SOI?" "The Nav-ball hasn't flipped yet......" "Mission Control, aren't we supposed to be in Minmu's SOI?" I asked into the radio. "Yes. The Nav-Ball hasn't flipped yet." "What!?" there was silence on the Mission Control's side. "Minmus is no where to be found." "This doesn't make any sense." he unhelpfully pointed out. "It has to be the Kraken. There is no other explanation." "Is there anything we can do?" "Well, I'll check." It took him ten minutes to check. "Well, I'm told to tell you that you might intersect Minmus if you put yourselves into an orbit very similar to Minmus'. I agree with them on that." I nodded. Usually the Capcom was a junior kerbonaut who knew what he was talking about. We did so. As we orbited around Kerbin we saw glimpses of Minmus. But when we were scheduled to intercept it, we missed it by hundreds of kilometers. We once attempted to burn towards it, with Mission Control's permission, but we failed to reach it. 10 days later "Bill. We have tried, but we just can't rendezvous with Minmus." "Blast and Damn it!" Bill punched through the wall of the capsule again. "I'll need to petition the Kraken for this." Bill looked up into the sky. Through the capsule. "What does that mean." "It means, that if you all come down to the surface of Eve, I won't be there to you to pick up." "WHAT!? This is just a simple mission! Don't sacrifice yourself just so we can reach Minmus!" "My brother, my long lost brother is in orbit around Minmus. You would do anything to save a sibling, would you." I nodded. "Alright. Expect Minmus coming your way in a few days." "Don't do this! I save your brother no matter what you do. I will do this for you, you don't have to sell your soul permanently to the Kraken. I swear I will deliver your brother back down on Kerbin." "Alright Roni. I will hold you to your promise." The next day Assey woke me up in a hurry, "RONI! Minmus is just right there!" "What!?" I unzipped myself from the wall and floated towards the pilot's consol. "We're on a collision course with it. The nav-ball has flipped as well if you wanted to prove it." I looked out a window. There was Minmus in all of its icy glory. "Wake Irfred. She needs to see this!" "Mission Control. We have sighted Minmus. We are ready for a landing and already on a suborbital trajectory. Tell us what we need to do." I heard cheering coming from the radio. We done it. We reached Minmus at last. It grew larger and larger in the window. I was ordered to do a suicide burn to conserve fuel usage. "1 kilometer before burn." Assey's eyes were glued to the window. "500 meters before burn." I broke out in a cold sweat. "100 meters before burn." Irfred strapped herself in. "NOW!" I hit the button, the poodle below firing up. "Detach the transfer stage and use the main engine!" I hit the staging button twice, and the transfer stage fell down towards Minmus. "100 m/s." I relayed. "50 m/s at 200 meters." "20 m/s at 50 meters." we were inched away from landing. "5 m/s at 10 meters!" I cried out in joy. Then I cut the engine, allowing the Lander to fall. I hit the button retracting solar panels in case of a hard landing. It was. The lander landed on its engine moving a meter per second to the right. It tipped the entire lander over onto its side, smashing a pair of solar panels. "We needed those." Irfred observed. "Don't be a wet blanket! We landed on Minmus!" Assey scrambled to the airlock. I waited inside. I was going to be the last kerbal out, I knew that. Assey deserved the title of first kerbal on a body other than Kerbin. Irfred patted my shoulder, "Being second never hurt anyone." I nodded slowly. I understood. "This Assey. We have landed on Minmus! We have completed the greatest goal in Kerbal kind. I ask all those watching to complete their own goals, as we did ours. For life is for completing the goals we set out for ourselves. I say this as my footprints are placed on the surface of Minmus." I could envision the audiences cheering Assey on. The first kerbal on the surface of another world. She would receive that title. I wouldn't. We all exited with our own speeches to kerbalkind, but those weren't received as well as Assey's. She was the one who planted the KASA flag on the moon, and who all kerbettes would look up to. I will not regret my decision to let Assey go first. I never will.

Wellll. Sorry if I didn't meet the expectations of the crowd. I had only received one vote, which was to dive back into Roni's perspective. Though I didn't mention that, that is my intention. When there is a "big, important mission" I will switch into Roni's prespective, then afterwards, there would be some chapters narrated from the third person. I'm sorry again if I am disappointing anybody, but I have to continue on with the current perspective until the end of the mission, but when that happens I will stick to narration until the first manned interplanetary mission. Compromise? See, Roni hasn't changed a bit, and there's a vengeful ghost out there waiting for this.... Roni has changed, she used to be like this most of the time. Now she is like this when under the immeasurable pressure from everybody telling her that she has killed herself and her crew. I would be like this if this happened to me. And about the vengeful ghost..........That will be covered in the next chapter. Well, you see. I am an "expert" of one-launch space stations. Its one of my favorite things to do, because its simple, easy and usually completes the contract. For example, when I launched the rocket into orbit, I had picked up a contract to put a station into Kerbin orbit, and so I completed that contract and earned Fifty Grand. Soon though, I will be adding more to the Minmus Convertible Lander once it had fully transformed into a space station, and use it to, well. I shouldn't be sharing secret information about future plans that will be revealed. Happy Explosions Until Then!

17th Installment: The Responsibility From Messing Up "Roni, look at this!" Assey hurried me into the VAB once more. There stood the largest rocket I had ever seen. I had a feeling that they were just getting bigger. And more expensive. "Isn't 175,000 a lot of money to spend?" I asked, in awe of the rocket. "Maybe, but the contracts we are going to accomplish will make it worth it all. And to infrastructure. The lander carries a science lab on it so it can process the reports from Minmus before sending it back to us. Can you imagine the science we will harvest from Minmus. It will launch us on a trajectory to reach Duna, or Eve, or even Dres." "Bah." I waved aside the comment about Dres, "Nobody wants to go to Dres." "Every planet we visit will send us farther and farther, do you realize that!" "Now you are starting to make castles in the clouds. Come back to reality." I held onto her shoulder to keep her from bouncing off the walls. "How are we going to fly that forest of boosters?" I gestured towards the 16 boosters circling the rocket, "It must have a high thrust-to-weight ratio." "Its at 2.2 gs. The highest TWR since when we used solid rocket boosters instead of liquid fueled ones." "Will it get us there to Minmus? I mean, last time was a near disaster because of lack of Delta-V." "This one has 6,000 m/s. I believe that is enough. Anyway, there is the station in Low Minmus Orbit in case we need anything." "You realize we don't have fuel transfer yet?" "Oh, it'll come from the profit made on this mission." "Alright. You win." I shrugged my shoulders, "Why didn't you become an engineer, Assey, they could have used you well." "Oh, you see. I'm a rocket scientist, half-engineer and half scientist. Well mostly scientist. I work on engineering research while the engineers do all the on hand stuff." I nodded, then returned to the exterior of the VAB. There a dozen engineers were around a kar, wishing fare-well to a person who purposed to go around the globe with it. The Kar fired up its seperatrons and zoomed away towards the distant mountains. "To think that I have inspired such enterprising kerbals to risk their lives." I whirled around to see Bill floating just above the ground. "Yes, I am getting used to being a ghost in gravity. It is very interesting how I am still affected by gravity when I am a ghost." "Why have you reappeared?" "Because, you are about to rescue a kerbal in Minmus orbit. Once again, it will stretch out your fuel reserves, but I have faith that you will do the right thing and rescue this kerbal. I am particularly interested in him because he might be my long lost brother." "You had a long-lost brother?" "Yes, Billy-Bobmon Kerman. He was the youngest of our Trio, me and Bob included. Or so I was told. He disappeared by the age of 2 and neither me or Bob remembered him. I hope you find him alive, for it would be a pity for my parents to lose all their sons." With that, he disappeared. Into thin air. Literally. 2 days later "This is Roni, Assey, and Irfred on the launch pad, ready for lift-off." I reported to the radio. "This is Mission Control. Launch in T-20 seconds." 20 seconds later the rocket engines ignited, thrusting the rocket upwards. It was a very shaky lift-off, with the entire rocket vibrating, numbing my arms and legs. "This thing packs a kick!" cried out Assey. I heard Irfred moaning in the background, the noise of the rocket motors though concealed most of it. 30 seconds into the flight the first stage was detached. The SRBs. A picture of the SRBs spiraling down from above appeared on our screens. "Wow. Look at those boosters." breathed Assey. "Its a waste, they were strapped on for 30 seconds and then detached to smash into the ground at 500 m/s. That cost us 10,000 credits right there." Irfred commented. A minute later the second stage detached. The rocket shook, and then fell back into pace at a lower G. "This is Mission Control. There was an explosion. We are checking to see if it harmed anything." After a few seconds, they replied, "Nothing damaged." Another minute and another vibration of the rocket signified that the third stage detached. "Trio, you are now on the final core stage. We wish you luck on the journey." And they tuned out. Two minutes later, a massive thump propelled us even further into orbit as the core stage detached. We were nearing orbital velocity now. The second core stage kicked in, carrying the Trio fully into orbit. "Mission Control, we are in orbit with 2,300 m/s left in our tanks. Do we have permission to continue our mission?" "Sure, we have another kerbal to save, Roni. Bring him home." A maneuver node was created. It was a 700 m/s burn to extend our orbit to Minmus', then a 100 m/s burn to intercept Minmus. The burn was started 2 minutes before the actual node for the next stage to finish it. The second stage exhausted its 100 m/s, then detached. As it detached, it knocked the Trio into a tumble. "What in the world is happening!" The engine kicked on, further exaggratating the spin. "We're wasting propellant!" cried Irfred. "I'm trying to stop it!" I bit back in return. I hit the RSC and struggled to align the engine prograde. I shut down the engine to continue the aligning. The window for the transfer burn had passed but I didn't care. I was not waiting another damned orbit. The poodle engine ignited, finally pushing us further on in the orbit. Irfred and Assey were yelling at me for something, but I didn't care about that either. I closed off their radio channels, and continued firing the engine. As our orbit crossed Minmus' orbit, I stopped the engine and unstrapped my helmet. "Roni! You absolute idiot! You could have just ruined the mission completely!" Irfred attacked me "Roni! You have nearly destroyed our Delta-V margins! We have almost no reserves left, and we only have 20 minutes to come up with a maneuver node or we will miss the descending node!" Assey supported her, angering me further. "Roni! This is Mission Control. You have been remarkably short-sighted and risked this mission completely. Why did you do this!?" This just was the cake. "SHUT UP!" I screamed. I glared at the two others in the capsule. Then I returned my glare to the radio. "Mission Control, I was attempting to complete the node which you arranged for us to use." I turned the radio off. "Roni! We need them to calculate our next node!" Irfred looked at me as if I was crazy. "We can formulate it ourselves. We almost always do it that way." "Roni, please." It was Assey this time. I groaned irritated. "I don't care!" I shouted. My voiced echoed inside of the tin can we sat in. Assey and Irfred were both as far a way from me as possible in the capsule we were in. I shoved pass them down to the next habitation section, nearly crying in irritation and anger. All these reactions in me were to the same accord, to blind me from the responsibility from messing up.

16 1/2 Installment: To Narrate or Not to Narrate I'm going to set up a brief poll lasting the day while I gather the stuff for the 17th installment. Here was the link - http://www.strawpoll.me/14872400 - canceled I need to know what the readers thought about my change to first-person in the mind of Roni Kerman and whether or not they want to do so again, back with Roni. I am fully prepared to go either course, but the first-person mode takes about twice as long to show the progress. Would folks want to wait about a week until the end of the mission from Roni's point of view, or would they want to do the narrated version in two or three days. You decide.

16th Installment: Can Rockets Be Responsible Enough to Land Themselves? The answer to that question is yet to be seen, even after this Installment.... So, we are low on cash and our new rocket costs 100,000 credits. So the engineers decided to try out reusability. This is part one of three parts which contain the reusability experiments. Will they work, saving hundreds of thousands or will they fail, ending the program forever? Try 1 We built a new capsule which can carry about 8 kerbonauts to orbit with Docking, Life-support, and Power generation. We call it Trio. We then shoved all of our kerbonauts onto this new, untried rocket to see how it would do. Surely it has enough Delta-V to reach orbit. All the numbers check out. And Trio rockets into the sky. Um. Could you move just a little bit faster? Oh shoot. It has exactly 1 G of acceleration. Who would have guessed that? 1 minute later....... Ah, that's better. You might be half-way out of fuel but still, you're going up. Slowly but surely...... ANNDD we are out of fuel. This is NOT good. Eject! Good thing that the ejection went cleanly. The KSC engineers have decided to try to land the booster stage, lets watch the scene unfold... I had set the Trio to retrograde and fired up that engine and pulled the chutes. Then I switched over to the booster to see how it would land. Luckily I had a bit of fuel left over for the landing. About 200 m/s. After watching it descend, I pulled the parachutes on it. But it still fell at 20 m/s. So I prepared for the ocean landing an hit full throttle. This is what happened. (Hint to self - Just use central engine for landings.) After leaping around I finally failed to hit Z and the rocket smashed into the ocean. After screaming to appease the tearing of my heart in two, I switched over to the Trio command pod in a dark mood. There I had put TOO many chutes on. Well, anyway it ended up like this below. The recovery of the booster failed, but at least I recovered 60,000 funds from the upperstage + capsule. Man that is expensive. The first launch of Trio was a partial failure costing us 40,000 funds. Ouch. Now our engineers decided to strap solid rocket boosters to the sides of the rocket and see how it preforms. Unfortunately, the camera man could only get so for back. And look at that price tag. Ouch once more. Again we placed our kerbonauts inside and whooshed away into the sky. I have no idea how Kerbal Alarm clock got into that photo. That has got to be a bug. Oh, those are not dangerous explosions. Just the flashy ones. That explode. Now we cross our fingers to see if the second stage can get Trio into orbit before the first stage smashes into the ocean. Well the first stage did crash into the ocean. The engineers controlling the physics-less camera rage quitted so we don't get any pics other than this beautiful sunset from orbit. Now that we were in orbit, we decided to test out Roni's rendezvousing skills and rendezvous with a satellite in high Kerbin orbit. Well, that looks pretty good. Lets go with that. Positioned for the second maneuver. Roni hits the button and the engine fires up and put them at a 1.3 kilometer intercept. Could be better but pretty good. Here is the comms sat zooming towards Trio. AANNDD closest approach to the Trio. Except there is no Trio on the Trio. I probably need to fix that.... After firing up the engine at the highest point in the orbit, the Trio is going to come down fast and hard back to Kerbin. Just about to hit the atmosphere at 2,500 m/s. With a peri of 16 kilometers. With the second stage. I'm starting to rethink this..... Well, too late now. Roni, your hands hold the fate of the Trio. Except that there are two of you. I MEAN THE ROCKET, NOT A THIRD GHOST PERSON LIKE BILL! This is at 50 kilometers. This is not good. The engine is starting to overheat. Roni started to burn the engine to slow them down. It helped, but the bar was slowly rising higher. It explodes. Roni quickly detach the second stage and starts to panic. Fire rages over the entire exterior of the capsule. The second stage starts to overheat and explode rapidly. But the crisis has passed. After slowly down pass 2,000 m/s the going is easy. The parachutes are pulled and the Trio descended on the east side of the KSC Peninsula. And touchdown of the Trio. THE ROCKET! NOT THE TWO OF YOU! I KNOW THAT A TRIO IS THREE KERBALS NOT TWO SO STOP TELLING ME ABOUT IT, RONI!! Anyway, they were recovered for 44,000 funds. They also completed a contract to put a station with a docking port, antenna, and power generation in orbit for 50,000. Finally, we got 40,000 funds for launch something over 120 tons from a Stratego mod goal or whatever you call it. The next launch will go to Minmus, dock with the station there, recover a specific kerbal in orbit to make the Two a Trio at last, and return with more glory and money. Also we will recover the booster from that launch as well. Hopefully. Expect this next Installment tomorrow or the next day as per usual. Happy Explosions Until Then!

Thanks for those tips. I did not want a repeat of the Minmus Mission Disaster and attempt to fly through the moon. Both times, though, I was on the "farside" of Minmus and every maneuver node from there didn't work so I came up with the creative solution of using the Station Engine to move into an equatorial orbit and leaving from there. Just to tweak your curiosity, here are two interesting pictures. I'll get the 16th Installment to y'all in a day or two!

15th Installment: The Epic of Neptune Part 6 - Saving Private Ryan Two days later all the kerbonauts, excluding the 'busy' tourists, met in the largest space in the space station. "We have ran the numbers and we cannot return to Kerbin using the Neptune." I nodded to confirm I understood. Irfred and Assey had been working on the trip home. But they had came too a dead end. You just couldn't leave Minmus from a polar orbit with 350 m/s. "So we are stuck in this station with you, Irfred." "I'm afraid so. But at least we won't starve." she replied. We called it a day and everyone went to their respective bunks. The ghost of Bill reappeared by my bunk. "What are you going to do now? You have arrived at MOO, but you have been unwise in your fuel reserves and you can't get back. You haven't unlocked the technology of fuel transfer so the station is useless." "We are trying to get our butts off this station trust me." "KASA as no money whatsoever to get you home should you fail. You are their last hope and failure is not an option. If you don't figure something out soon, then all of you will die!" I realized something then about the ghost of Bill, "Bill, you are on our side, right?" "Of course, I always on the side of the KASA. I might be against you, but that is because we needed the genius of Jeb or Val. Not a selfish pilot who just wants fame." "But I have to do." Bill sighed, "Yes, you'll just have to do. That's why I can't kill you." "I have changed. I came here to pick up Irfred, even if my fuel margins were nonexistent." "You were afraid that I would kill you if you didn't." I shrugged in bed, "That happens if a ghost decides to threaten you." My hackles had failed to rise on his return. That was a bad thing if I was getting used to his haunting me. "Anyway. You will be launched back out here soon as KASA scraps together enough funds to land on the moon. If you return." "I will survive. That might be all that matters to me, but I will survive." "You have to survive." Bill passed his hand through the bed. He rolled his eyes, still not getting used to being a ghost. "You are KASA's last hope." "What about Assey or Irfred?" "They are just scientists. They don't have the knowledge or the training to become a pilot. No. You are going to be the sole pilot of the administration for a while." "Are you taking my side?" "No, hell forbid. I am supporting your evidence that you are needed for the space program to continue. Because the only way the gates of Hell can open is when you reach the surface of Eve. That is where we all are. Jeb, me, Val, and Bob. It is the Kraken's domain and we are imprisoned on that forsaken rock." "We can get you back!?" "Yes. Or I hope so. We are seem solid around here." "Alright. Then can you see a solution out of my problem here with Delta-V issues?" Bill shook his head, "No. I don't see any solution. But you must try!" With that he was gone. The next day we all met, even the tourists, in the stern cabin of the Neptune. "Has anyone gotten any ideas of how to get out of Minmus orbit." There were general mutterings in the tourist crowd while Assey and Irfred shook their heads. "There must be a way." I scanned each face, "There always is." "No, sometimes you just have to give up." "NO!" I hit my fist on the wall. I regretted it. I showed a sign of anger which now discomforted the crew, meaning that their ability to come up with an idea had weakened. That night Bill reappeared again. "Why is it you, not Jeb or Bob or Val?" I asked interested. "Because if you are indirectly responsible for killing somebody, the Kraken gives permission to that kerbal to haunt them. I imagine that some poor engineer who designed the docking mechanism down on Kerbin is being haunted by Jeb and Val presently, and that Bob haunts the kerbal who placed the wheels on backward on his plane when the accident happened." "We haven't found a way yet to get out of orbit." "I've listened. You have a lot of madcap ideas up here. None of them work though." "If only we could get more monopropellant. All we have here is that stupid liquid fuel for the engine attached to the back of the station!" It dawned on me. "Assey! Irfred! I figured it out!" I cried. Soon everyone was awake and the plan was made. The station was to use its engine to flip the orbit into a equatorial one, then we would detach with everyone aboard and burn 220 m/s to arrive at Kerbin in a day after that. It would work. "The engine on the Station will work." Assey reported that same day after a brief EVA, "We have roughly 500 m/s in that tank. Much more than enough." "Good work." We hugged, then moved on to our other tasks. "Station Engine firing up in 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1!" I slammed down the button. The engine roared to life and shoved the station into an equilateral orbit. We cheered inside. I believe even Bill joined into the clamor. Then we detached and burned away to set our node to return to Earth. Then the engines on the Neptune were fired up and it pushed on. Beyond Minmus' SOI. Lower than LKO. And finally inside Kerbin's atmosphere. Again we cheered victory over the delta-v problem. We were going to make it home! We fell towards planet Kerbin. We joined into the poker games the tourists played onboard and regulated everything onboard. As we turned in to rest for reentry, Bill appeared by my sleeping bag. "You did it. You have defeated my challenge. I believe that you have changed now." Bill admitted. "Did I?" I asked, not understanding this new turn of events. "Yes. I now believe that we have some hope left for the space program. I believe that you will help carry the program to Minmus' surface and Beyond." I went to sleep with that encouragement in my ear. The rest of the story I will gloss over for now. We did reenter cleanly and land on the plains near the KSC. The parachutes deployed high up in the atmosphere to ensure that we would land safely. We had one scary moment after touch-down when the heat shield and the life-support tank both exploded. We were travelling at 15 m/s, which made the landing VERY uncomfortable. More parachutes will be added, but to a new generation of safer, and better designed capsules than the Neptune. We were recovered, and this was the money we had left over from the tourists. Plenty to start over with a new rocket design. Now, KASA looks forward to interplanetary probes as Me, Assey, and Irfred train for the Minmus landing in the near future. End of The Epic of Neptune

14th Installment: The Epic of Neptune Part 5 - A Bargain with the Damned "Mission Control. Our maneuver node lied to us. We are burning as fast as we can, but it is unlikely that we can rendezvous with the Minmus station and return to Kerbin. Please council us." I stopped the message and leaned back in the seat. Assey nodded beside me, "You needed to do that." The noise of the tourists playing a game of poker down in zero-gravity echoed up the hatch. "We have 800 m/s right now and dropping since the engine is firing. I estimate that we will burn about 300 m/s to reach Minmus, 150 m/s to orbit, then another 150 for the rendezvous. From there we will need 300 m/s to reach Kerbin. We don't have enough. We could lose the life support on our final burn and hope we don't die of asphyxiation." The radio crackled, then Gene spoke, "Roni. At Mission Control we realize that you are pressed for fuel since the launch trajectory wasn't efficient as projected. But even then we have one message for you, bring our kerbal back." It went silent. The burning of the tiny terrier engine purred in the background. I turned to Assey, "We can't. We don't have enough fuel. We will fly-by Minmus so that the tourists are happy, then we return to Kerbin. That's the plan." She nodded slowly, "Can we just try?" "You may fiddle around with trajectories, but unless you can prove definitely that we can do it, we will just pass by." She nodded, taking it better than I expected. She suddenly stood up and climbed up into the airlock. I could just hear her trying to contain her tears. "If only you had followed those instructions when my life was at stake." I didn't turn to see the phantasm of Bill standing over the hatch. It was purely a figment of my imagination. Surely. "When I begged for help you ran away. When I needed you, you left me behind. To die." I felt his ghostly hand around my neck, "Do you realize that you took everything away from me, my family, my job, my life. You sent me to Hell! I have come to make you pay your debt." I could feel his mouth right next to my ear. I broke out a cold sweat. My body trembled, "I'll pay anything. Just don't send me to Hell." "I could do so in a flash. I wish to do so. So that you will know the pain of losing everything." He stalked around my chair, his hand still around my neck. He thought deeply for a minute or more, then he said, "I so wish to do so. The Kraken will rejoice at the death of yet another Kerbonaut. But, I have a mission." He looked out the window with the shadows of eyes. Minmus hung there, suspended from the cord of the Kraken himself. Gravity. "Roni. You deluded, sad excuse for a kerbonaut." He thought out his next words, "You are still the selfish, self-serving kerbal that you were before you joined the space program. You came to the KASA to climb up the next social rung of the ladder. Why do you persist. Why aren't you content?" I stayed silent. Not saying a word to correct him. He was dead. I was to wake up at any moment. To speak was to break the spell of sleep. "Because you came from the bottom? Because the common people deserve somebody to stand up for them? These are just childish fantasies, Roni. They never happen. When a commoner climbs the ladder up, he is despised by his fellow companions for climbing it and despised by the people higher up for attempting to climb up there." "You are belittling me. I have done what no other kerbal has done, from a beggar to a kerbonaut." I muttered. I wished I did not say that. And he gave me no mercy. "Roni. For what reason? To become better than your friends, to spit on them when you are up here and they are down there? Or to spit in the faces of the rich, showing that a commoner can become rich as well? Or are you simply a greedy kerbal who cries for more?" "No. I did not come here for any of those reasons." "Then why is your father languishing in prison broke as my body when you left it inside Neptune!?" I stared absently through Bill. "But my father is dead......." I murmured. "You are disgusting, Roni. Filthy. I'll be sure to see you down here soon. Actually I should finish the job right now." The hand tightened its grip on my neck. "Wait!" my windpipe expanded once more. I coughed, then answered, "Kerbals can change. I can change, Bill. I promise." He scoffed, "A Kerbette such as you can never change. Never!" He slammed his nonexistent foot through the floor. I wondered if the poker plays from below noticed the white foot protruding from the ceiling for a second. Bill turned his eyes from to the controls, changed for a second, "Turn off the engine." I reached over and shut off the engine. The purring stopped. "Here is my bargain." He said with his clinching my throat, "Save ten souls in the next munth. As soon as you do so I will leave you until the blessed day arrives when I show you the gates of Hell. For you are damned!" He disappeared in a blinding flash of light. Assey exited the airlock module and sat back in her seat. She started to say something when she saw my face, "Roni. You look like you seen a ghost." "Oh, its nothing." I waited for a second, then the two of us in unison said, "We should change our plans." "Sorry, you go first commander." I waved it aside, "No, say what you have to say." She took a breath, "I believe we cannot leave Irfred on the MOO. It would kill her to know that we decided not to come and get her just because of fuel requirements." "Assey. I agree. Let us find a trajectory to rendezvous with the station." 1 day later "Just you look at that Kerbinrise." I stared out the window. Assey looked out the opposing window. "Its beautiful." We embraced the moment, then we returned to work. The Neptune 2 had entered into a equatorial orbit of Minmus while the MOO was in a Polar orbit of Minmus. We were planning a maneuver to get an encounter with the station and change our inclination at the same time to save delta-V. "Yes! I found it!" cried Assey a moments later. She showed me her paperwork. It all checked-out in my head. "Preforming rendezvous burn in five minutes!" It was a 120 meter per second burn. After that we would only have 425 m/s. Was it enough? An hour later we were coming in sight of the Minmus station. We were down to 374 m/s. Approaching the target. The clock was ticking down. As well as the mono-propellant. "Coming in to dock." We inched the docking ports together. The mono was also running down. Down to 350 m/s. "Turn off the mono and glide into the docking port." I ordered. The red light appeared over the RSC switch. We slid closer. Were we on course? "Come on!" I also screamed. There was only a couple of meter between us now. It looked solid enough. We might have done it. Then the docking ports kissed and we were docked. The hatch opened and a haggard Irfred Kerman floated out to greet us. "Thank you." She embraced me, then started to cry. I let her cry for a five minutes straight. Then she was saying how she should have spotted the error which killed Jeb and Val, and how she had felt so lonely on a station around that icy moon called Minmus. "There was nobody but the echo of my voice." She summed it up. She swiped her face on her arm, then said one more time which almost broke my heart, "Thank you for saving me." My mind traveled to Bill and his last words. What would have happened if I had let him escape the falling capsule with me? "Bill. I can change. I have just showed you." Bill stood beyond Irfred at the hatch. "The change is temporary." He turned his shadowy back on me and a invisible shadow fell over my face.