CatastrophicFailure

Well, they are not completely without a self-preservation instinct, they're just not used to loosing. Like the guy said in Alien, "it's got a wonderful defense mechanism: you don't dare kill it." Cerima and its denizens continue to slowly reveal themselves to me. Silly spoiler:

Flags. Flags. And more flags. Including the one I continually forget to actually use. My game has gone eerily where the story needed it to go. Poor Yuri really did up & disappear. Dibella's de-orbit engine really did fail (RealFuels bug). Several of my Mün landers really did vanish (game thought they weren't landed and deleted them when I switched focus). And most recently... So the, er, "choreography" has been surprisingly limited.

I know, right?? Like it doesn't even seem real. I might have to forsake my old 64k game for a while and go touring around the solar system! And run into things!

The boulders are solid. THE BOULDERS ARE SOLID! THE. BOULDERS. ARE. FLARPING. SOLID! Yes I know all of you know this already and you're all looking at me like I've gone quite mad and probably I have my brains are leaking out my ears right now cuz my mind is so blown and this is my actual face right now because THE BOULDERS ARE SOLID! A All the likes! You get ALL the likes!

Elton... JONton... and rocketmen all over the place! Pretty sure there was a candle in the wind somewhere, too, and I'm not sure about Benny and there's definitely been jets! I see what you're doing here!

Make a mental note of that and file it away for later

Quite. One analogy might be an A-10 trying to hit a stunt plane... Val would have had a real problem if she'd stolen a tank instead. Also, being as how they spend good portions of their day a couple of meters from an unshielded fission reactor, those Ceriman crews tend to be a bit... off. Any sufficiently advanced technology... And also, static electricity and shocking the flarp out of yourself on the doorknob. It's no wonder such scientists are always so mad!

Exactly what you should be wondering about right now. More militaryish things that sound vulgar but aren't: The NASA B-52 that dropped most of the X-15 flights was called "Balls 8," since the last 3 of it's serial number were 008. Many thanx. That's exactly the part I was expecting to be difficult, but this ended up being one of those chapters that practically wrote its self. But I still went back and obsessed over perceived repetitiveness.

Chapter 76: McQueen, She Ain't Valentina chopped the throttles, and the little jet dropped out of the air as white-hot tracers streaked by centimeters above the canopy. Dazzled by the muzzle flash, she jammed them forward again, but it wasn't enough to stop the craft from smacking back into the pavement with a spine-cracking jolt before bouncing back up again. She shoved the nozzles forward with a curse, pirouetted the cruiser around, and shot off down the alley. Behind her, Anna was screaming again. Have to stay low, no chance up in the open. "Is all right!" Valentina called back, "he can't possibly keep--" More tracer fire shot past the windscreen, tearing chunks of concrete and glass out the buildings ahead. Glancing in the mirror, she saw the gunship bearing down on them with alarming speed. Its glazed dome of a cockpit was flanked by a pair of expansive round intakes, covered in heavy wire mesh screens. The bulk was slung below long, drooping wings, giving the distinct impression of a raptor diving at its prey. A raptor, followed by a billowing trail of choking, black smoke. And, of course, guns. A really silly amount of guns all firing at once. Valentina narrowly jinked out of the way of the barrage, and saw an opportunity just ahead. With a grunt, she made a slight right down a narrower alley. "Is alright, now!" she yelled back, "he cannot possibly fit through--" Bits of building exploded to her left and right, the gunship still right behind them, its wingtips tearing long, undulating gashes in the walls. She jerked the agile cruiser up and down, but this was even worse. She didn't have any room to maneuver in here, either! The alley opened up onto a street, she banked into a hard right turn. Right! Left! RightRight! LeftRight!...RightLeftLeftRightLeft! Then she rolled the stubby wings nearly vertical, pulling into a crushing left turn onto a another street. The airframe groaned in protest, the opposing wall charging up at a frightening pace while G-forces pulled both of them down into their seats as the landing gear scraped along the wall that was momentarily more like the ground. Hurtling down the road pulling out of the turn, Valentina flipped up the gear handle, only to be greeted by three flashing red lights. She frowned, but this time checked the mirror first. "Now is alright," she breathed, "he cannot possibly maneu--" In the mirror she saw the gunship seem to skid around the corner, fishtailing wildly in the air. It slammed right into the building they had just scraped against, tearing a hole in it and causing a rain of debris. Huge chunks bounced harmlessly off the intake screens as it burst through and charged after them faster than ever. PЦTIЙS ЗДЯS! Valentina rolled away from another hail of fire and dived toward the road. Think! ThinkThinkThink! Surely there was some strategy recorded for dealing with Ceriman gunships. She'd spent time around fighter pilots, must have absorbed something... Of course, she was usually fighting with them at the time, and otherwise the only phrases that drifted up were things like "engage beyond visual range" and "expedite egress" and something about nuking from orbit but that might have been a movie and-- Anna squealed her back to the present, "fruit stand! Fruit stand! Fruit stand!" Valentina looked up, too late. ZOOM! Fruit salad. Anna screamed louder than ever, "somebody's guts are all over the nose!" Peering at the chunky red smears, Valentina frowned, "no, is just strawberries." The girl screamed again, "cardboard boxes! Cardboard boxes! Cardboard boxes!" ZOOM! Confetti. A small 'FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE' sticker remained plastered to the windscreen just long enough to get the point across. And because these things always come in threes, "plate glass window! Plate glass window! Plate glass window!" Oh for PЦTIЙS sake! They saw the onslaught coming, of course. Knowing from years of experience that resistance was futile, the two glaziers simply sighed and tensed. ZOOM! Glitter. One of the pair rolled his eyes and handed a bill to the other. They had just turned back toward their truck, where they had stocked plenty of spare window glass, when the gunship came along, caught it with a wing tip, and tore the whole truck in half, too. Meanwhile, Valentina's eyes frantically scanned over the switch panels as more tracers flew past, "doesn't this thing have any weapons??" she called out. Anna briefly interrupted her screaming, "cops with guns, are you nuts?! What'd you think this is, Omork?" Valentina just grunted and did a tight barrel roll around a flurry of shells. Makes no difference, she wasn't combat trained anyway. A quick left, then a dodge back to the right, and another hard right onto... what was this, Market Street? She noted this wasn't exactly combat anyway. This was running away from something big and mean, and growing up in the taiga, she had plenty of experience with that. A dozen things kept fighting for attention in the back of her mind as she jinked and swerved. The other pilot, he was good, but... he should have had them by now. He wasn't used to this either, that was a gunship, not a fighter plane. Keep moving, keep dodging. Break his line of sight, then hide. There was something else, too, drifting around in that infuriating fog just beyond recollection. Something, she'd heard something about those beasts, some Achilles' heel, but what was it? And something else, too, but-- Loud pings and sparks off the left wing jerked Valentina back again. That was close, nothing serious--hard bank to the left, feint right-- but where are we, Third Ave? Fourth, now?-- There! Break his line of sight... End of the street... the glassed-in lobby of a skyscraper--must be downtown, now--oh, why not? What's a few more plate glass windows, at this point? Anna screamed over the engines as they roared ahead. Impressive set of lungs on that girl. Time had the odd impression of stretching out again as the little VTOL smashed through the window, turning it into tiny, glimmering pebbles that flew in every direction. Startled business professionals in their tailored suits and skirts gaped at her, and Valentina seemed to have plenty of time to gape back and consider the bewildered looks on their faces. She did a slow roll around a support column and mulled over the very attractive marble mosaic on the floor. Quality workkerbship there, all right. Must've cost a fortune. Oh, they have a coffee cart, too! She could really use some coffee right now. And one of those delicious pink cookies. Pity Tercella didn't patent her machine like Valentina told-- plate glass window! The cruiser crashed back out onto the street again, pulling up abruptly to miss a concrete support column for the elevated train track. They found themselves hurtling along another narrow passage between the track columns and dozens of store fronts. Valentina backed down on the throttles. He'll have to go up and around, only have a few seconds, at best. Stay low, find a parking garage or alley before-- Through a cloud of brown dust and black exhaust, the gunship burst from the now-ruined lobby, smashed through the support column, and shot forward on the other side. As the cement beams raced past between them in a grey blur, it pulled even with Valentina. Sneering, she raised a hand, and, in the way of the Foreigners, gestured to the other pilot that he was 'number one.' All her snark disappeared, however, when he grinned beneath his black, bug-like visor. PЦTIЙS ЗДЯS, his teeth...! They were filed down to sharp, interlocking points like shark's teeth. Then, with an equally vile grin, the gunner opened up with the side-mounted autocannon. Stout cement pilings simply disintegrated before the onslaught, and a ragged gash chased Valentina along the facing structures. She dove down out of the way, scraped the dangling undercarriage along the pavement, dodged honking kars left and right. Madness! This is madness! In the mirror, she saw the trackway begin to collapse behind them in a ribbon of chaos. And of course, the train was just up ahead. Snapping the wings vertical again, hearing more unsettling pings, she turned off down the next alley, hoping the remaining track would hold. Think! Think! There must be some way to-- The pursuer was on top of them in an instant. More brilliant white tracers flew past. This time one caught the right engine with a metallic thump, followed quickly by-- "We're on fire!" Anna screamed. Valentina spat a curse, turned down the next street, the VTOL now trailing oily black smoke to match its hunter. She struggled with the controls as the airframe shuddered and groaned, red lights popping on all over the instruments. Extinguisher! Extinguisher! her eyes raced over the unfamiliar switches, where is the STДLIЙSКI-- They shot wide open. Extinguisher. She flipped the switch and called back, "Anna! We need to get to the river!" Anna, however, was cradling her head and screaming, always screaming. "Anna!" Shells whizzed by, leaving faint trails of smoke in the air. "Anna!" Left, then another right. Valentina had no idea where she was anymore. The wounded engine spewed an ever louder cascade of grunts and bangs. "Anna, I know you are scared," she pleaded, "but I need you right now!" A large chunk of concrete, dislodged somewhere high above, fell against the canopy with a resounding crunch, leaving a snaking crack in the plexiglass. "You know the city better than I do--" Something took a piece out of the tail. "--we have to get to the river!" An alarm began buzzing. "R...river...?" Anna's face strained against her own panic. "Yes, yes, the river!" bangTHUD! "how do we get to the river?!" Somewhere in Valentina's head, she realized she was tiring. "Um... the... the parkway..." Can't keep this up much longer, "which way?" Anna's wide, terrified eyes darted about, for a moment she seemed sure to lapse back into shock, but then-- "No... NO! We'd be sitting ducks up there!" she cried out, "the tunnel! We gotta take the tunnel! Go left!" Ungh! "Right!" Mmmf! "Another right!" Guh! "Crap!" They shot out onto Tunnel Street, and there it was all right. All four lanes jammed with rush-hour traffic. Instinctively, Valentina pulled back the throttles. Something in the bad engine let go with a shudder. Nowhere to go, now... "No, faster!" yelled Anna, "must go faster!" "What?!" Valentina did it anyway. "Faster! Aim for the middle. And hit the lights, center switch!" Anna pointed. Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! "Just trust me, give it everything you've got! Balls to the wall!"(actual asterisk)* Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! There were only a couple of meters to spare between the mass of kars and tunnel entrance. Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Now craters began to appear in the decorative bas-relief surrounding it. Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! This was going to end badly. Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Valentina resisted the urge to shut her eyes, and just plowed for the center of the tunnel. Suddenly, as if by some miracle, the flood of vehicles simply parted, like the waters of a certain colorfully-named sea. The ragged cruiser rocketed into the tunnel in its own little tunnel of space. Just behind, Valentina saw the gunship pull up and away at the last second. She stared in disbelief at the blur of steel whizzing by on either side, "how... how is this even possible?" "Running code," Anna slumped against her seat, "lights and siren. It overrides the AutoPark systems in heavy traffic and makes everyone pull over." Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh! "Auto-park?" "Um, yah!" She rolled her huge, pretty, tired eyes, "MechJeb DriverAssist's been standard equipment for a couple years now, on everything but--" she pointed, and screamed again. "Trucks!" There was a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, it was mostly blocked by a pair of tractor-trailers that hadn't quite managed to pull out of the way. As they crept forward, angled away from the middle, the gap between the back of their trailers actually got smaller. "Duck!" At the last possible instant, Valentina snapped the wings vertical again and tried to kiss the instrument panel. This time, she did shut her eyes. With a screech and a crunch, the plucky little craft burst back out into daylight. Valentina looked up just in time to pull a hard turn and avoid the building looming in front of them. Squinting against the windblast, she took stock. The canopy was gone. The mirror was gone. Because of that, she couldn't see what else might be gone but since they were still going more-or-less where she was pointing, she figured it couldn't be anything that important. By some inviolable rule of the cosmos, she still had her sunglasses. She craned around to Anna, "are you all right?" "I'm ok," Anna poked her head up, then more surely, "I'm ok!" She'd had the good sense to lower the helmet visor. "But... where is river?" They were hurtling down yet another nondescript urban canyon. "We went under it!" Anna called back, "it's just on the other side of those office blocks, to the left. There's a gap coming up in another kilometer or so." She turned around and looked behind, "but it's ok, I think we lost--" "NO, DO NOT SAY--!" The wall just ahead exploded, the gunship came roaring through the hole trailing fire and smoke like the proverbial infernal chiropteran, and turned right at them, eponymous guns blazing. Valentina joined Anna in screaming. She yanked back the stick as hard as she could, the weary cruiser groaned in protest but darted upwards just missing the attacker. Arcing high across the sky, it left a dotted trail of smoke as the right engine coughed and wheezed but somehow kept going. It sailed over the row of office mid-rises, and finally the greenish waters of the river beckoned. The edge of the city was visible just beyond. Valentina swooped down over the water, zig-zagging back and forth. At each turn, she could look back and see the gunship making its own high, drawn-out pirouette. Still trailing thin ribbons of smoke from its wings, the black exhaust belching from its huge engines seemed thicker, the turn not as fast. She plowed straight ahead down the middle of the channel. On either side, the banks grew higher into a shallow canyon as they left the city behind. "He's gaining on us!" Anna squealed. Valentina spared a quick glance back, causing the VTOL to wobble and threaten to flip over. Cannot look back, too low now, have to concentrate. They skimmed among just above the river, their slipstream throwing up a faint wake of widening mist. The riverbanks seemed to close in as they raced further into the countryside. "Wait, why... why isn't he shooting?" Anna gave voice to the thought in Valentina's head. "Out of ammo," she yelled back, "or flying through building made guns jam." "He's--he's getting closer!" "Good!" "What?!" Concentrate... have to guess his approach... Anna glanced back, "he's gonna ram us!" "Counting on it." "Are you crazy?!" "Probably." Closer... need him closer... But... there's something else... something I am missing... "He's right on top of us!" Almost there... almost there... Distantly, probably just a hallucination brought on by fatigue, a voice whispered in Valentina's head... Apply the product of mass and acceleration... She brushed it away, she didn't even know anyone named Luke. Closer... closer... In her mind's eye, she could practically see the pilot's horrible, eyeless grin. NOW! She jammed the engine nozzles down, and the cruiser shot up like a rocket in a titanic eruption of spray as the gunship passed underneath it. Valentina struggled, fought with all she had to bring her destabilized craft back under control and keep it reaching skyward. What?? What am I not remembering?? She looked back in time to see the gunship lurching back and forth just above the river, white smoke now pouring from its engines. A drooping wingtip caught the surface, sending it cartwheeling across the water shedding parts and flames. It came to rest upside-down, and immediately began to sink. But what am I missing?! And then, she remembered. "Shut your eyes!" Valentina yelled, but it didn't do much good. The flash seared through her sunglasses and filled the inside of her head with a reddish glow. It lasted only a moment, the world becoming eerily quiet as the engines and instruments died. Then the shockwave hit, and the intrepid little plane finally disintegrated. She was vaguely aware of the cockpit spinning through the air as reality became a blur. Sky........ground......sky....ground...sky..ground.skygroundskygroundskygroundskygroundskygroundskyground splash! The impact nearly took her breath away. As Valentina's senses congealed, she was filled with a very clear memory... of being surrounded by murky, green water and ominous forms, and the waiting panic of struggling to the surface. Oddly enough, she didn't have to struggle long. Perhaps buoyed up by air trapped in her stiff layers of clothing, her head quickly broke the surface even as her feet kicked at the remains of the cockpit below. "Anna!" she called, "Anna!" A tall wave brushed her towards the nearby shore as she craned to see. "Anna!" The waves lapped in pregnant silence. "Ptooi! Ew! Ewewewewewewew! Do you know where this water's been?!" Anna bobbed to the surface just a few meters away, "this is so gross! I, like, can't even!" Valentina quickly moved to her, "are you all right?" That phrase was becoming far too common, today. "Um... I think so," she pried the flight helmet from her head. It was sporting a large crack now. A few moments later, two bedraggled forms crawled up muddy, debris-riddled shoreline, coughing and panting. As mud squelched between her fingers, Valentina mused that finally, she couldn't possibly get any dirtier. She collapsed onto her back in a squishy, lakeweed-covered heap. A deep, penetrating weariness seemed to pull her into the muck. The darkness can have me, if it wants, she thought with exhaustion, I could use the rest. Right on cue, the sun suddenly grew dimmer, and the world was cast in crimson hues. Anna looked up, "like... is that what I think it is?? What the flarp just happened?!" "Sodium." Valentina panted. "Huh?" "I remember now. Molten sodium-cooled reactor fueled with weapons-grade blutonium386," she said with a breathy, bitter laugh, "get spray in engine heat exchangers, and coolant tubes, they shatter. Molten sodium hit cold water, one thing lead to other..." She sighed, "and you get very interestingly non-linear feedback loop." "A wha--?" Without looking up, Valentina pointed to the small but rising mushroom cloud that just blocked out the sun, "big bada-boom." "Ooooooohhhhh," Anna still looked nervous, "are... are we gonna be ok?" The weariness felt like it was seeping into Valentina's bones the way the mud was seeping into her rags. That, or she was simply sinking. She didn't much care, at the moment. Her back hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her teeth hurt. PЦTIЙS ЬДLD PДTЗ, when had she done anything to her teeth? "Low yield, not efficient. Maybe half a kiloton. And wind is blowing out to sea." The cloud roiled and congealed, casting an ever darker shadow. Or maybe that was just her eyelids. Was she sinking or... floating? "Now, I think maybe I just lay here and glow in dark for a while." (actual asterisk)*Historical note: This phrase hails from World War II when running at full power meant pushing the throttle, mixture, and RPM levers all the way forward, to the firewall. They were typically topped with little spheres. It is not actually as vulgar as it sounds.

Ah so. You have truly embraced the zen of MOAR BOOSTERZ!. "I don't really need this booster but it'd be MOAR of a pain to remove it so I'll bring it along just in case."

Great write-up on your build process. Why go with a solid motor, tho, where weight is such a concern?

All. The freakin'. Time. So I end up just using my working title which is usually some obscure bit that no one will get like "McQueen, she ain't."

I think that rapidity and totality of change is really the point. It's a sentiment echoed in Robert Jordan's work, and arguably the core belief of some (most?) spiritual philosophies: "no man can walk so long in the Shadow that he cannot come again to the Light." Spiritually the concept is called "Metanoia," or a "complete change of heart." It's often there specifically to challenge the reader and their justifiably outraged sense of justice.

Oooooohhh does that mean he'll do a cameo?? quite. Had a good day today, tho, put down a good thousand words or so without anything overly emotionally devastating from the other end. Maybe by the end of the week, if the research doesn't sink me too far into wiki-land.

Despite all the flack this flick gets, I thought the portrayal of Anakin as a whiney, petulant kid in over his head was actually very well done (not to be confused with well acted), and not at all what I had expected from info from the original trilogy. Since the topic swung this way, it's a good literary model of one way a good person can turn to the darkness, even when they think they're doing the right thing.

This sounds awesome! Any idea if it'd work on 1.0.5... Maybe with a Russian accent?

Indeed. That last one was a definite departure from my usual... well, pretty much everything (there is a reason for that). Given the current state of the world, I was hesitant to go that route at all.

Ah, KSP... come here to see exploding rockets, learn about trains. is that 2ft gauge rig you mentioned something you're actually building yourself? Must be a Scatterer update(?) Just gotta say, I love your stuff. Do you paste all the images together manually or have some app to do it?

Perhaps, but also quite unlikely to actually fix anything, unless you're complaining to your ISP. Who's still charging you for something you're not receiving. Unless you're getting your internet for free, in which case I guess you really can't complain, since then you are getting what you paid for. No trouble at all, there. Looks good on PC and on mobile for me.

Can't take any credit for that one, the guy who created the map I've been using, @Pds314 came up with it. I've simply been blatantly ripping off er, borrowing what he started and running with it. I see the OP needs a link to reflect that here, too. Oh, perfect, I needed a good soundtrack. So, sorry for the delays in replying. The real world has taken me from "looking for a house" to "trying to buy a house." If you've never been thru the process and want to know what it's like, go beat your head against the nearest wall until there's a good-sized hole in it, then contemplate how much that just cost you. Then repeat a couple times. The next chapter promises to be very technically challenging (action sequences always are), so between everything I think it's gonna be one of those long gaps again.

Accidentally made a kangarover:

@XB-70A

Yup, your 1.0 works great in 1.0.5. What about v 1.1 with the slightly scaled back effects?

Hm. FOOF & HOOH. Methinks one sound is typically followed rapidly by the other... Yes, I suppose that is more palatable than "due to the rapid pressure change, the monkey's insides exited through its mouth at a high rate of speed." Did you have to copy by hand?? Things you've probably already tried and have a perfectly valid reason for not working but I'm going to mention anyway: Using your phone as a wifi hotspot to bypass the temperamental landline. Changing providers. Finding someone at your current provider and beating them soundly for charging you for something you're not receiving as agreed.

Ah, pity. Well if it does happen again (and it probably will), you don't need to be a programmer to edit the save. All you need is Notepad, come critical thinking, and a couple of backups. Orbits, particularly, are fairly easy to change.