Exodus Inspired by
and
Mods used so far: Lazor, Guided Missiles, Firespitter PROLOGUE War. Resources depleting quickly. Pollution changing the planet. Kerbin in the 31st century was sometimes an unpleasant place to live on. Yet these problems did not result in unity. Quite the contrary. 1. Keuropa, 2. United States of Kermerica, 3. Kanada, 4. Krussia, 5. Kaunee Confederacy, 6. Kexico, 7. Kartarktika (borders undefined, southern ice fields), 8. Kerbe, 9. Kerzil, 10. Kippon, 11. Kerindi The world was divided, as it always had been, into various states. Some of these, naturally, were more powerful than others. For the vast majority of the Space Age, the two greatest were Kermerica and Krussia, who sparred with each other during the decades long Kold War. However, with that war's end, the new rival became Keuropa, a new unified group of countries that emerged from the war's conclusion. Kermerica concentrated on consolidating its military position, sending troops south to spread its influence, meanwhile the Keuropeans were busy building a business empire in the desert regions of the Kagreb, on the other side of the Middle Sea. Spheres of influence of Keuropa and Kermerica: Keuropa; Kuba, Kunisia, Keorkia, Kukaine, Union of the Kagreb. Kermerica; Kanada, Kexico, Keru, Keropinia, Kolumbia Both of these ventures laid waste to the planet, and caused yet more wars, but also created the seeds of Kerbalkind's salvation. New technologies like regenerative RCS fuel systems, nanotech resource harvesting, radiation shield emitters, more efficient engines and ever better ballistic computers would prove absolutely essential to the survival of the species. By the time of the start of the Age of the Exodus, spaceflights had been ongoing for 70 years. Kermerica had successfully and repeatedly landed on the Mun less than 20 years after first going into space, and probes from various countries had flown through the entire Kerbol system. However, budgets meant that the space race slowed to a crawl for many years after the end of the Kold War. That changed with a military project by the USK. The FreedomStar project was to be the USK's greatest military and scientific achievement. A huge space station, with large living quarters and a missile battery of sixteen space-to-space/ground rockets, when launched, it created a storm of anger not seen on Kerbin. The triumph was complete, and the station went up despite the protests of other governments. The project sparked the Keuropeans into an attempt to one-up their rivals, and so the Kratos-Nike Programme was born. The objectives of the programme were numerous, namely to provide some form of counterbalance to the FreedomStar project, to demonstrate a greater technical ambition and capability than the USK, and to land Kerbals on the Mun once again after fifty years. The first stage of the programme was the Kratos Military Station. Named after the Kreek divine personification of strength, it was designed with new superlight materials and radiation deflector shielding, and the station's goals were to provide a cyberwarfare location against the FreedomStar, to act as proof of concept for the next stage of the programme, and to provide a platform for further experiments into long term Kerbal habitation of low gravity environments. As the name suggests, its operation was handled by the military. The station proved a great success, and two years later, the Nike Station was launched. Nike was more than twice the size of Kratos, and it was launched into Munar orbit with two landers. Named for the goddess of victory, her designers took inspiration from the Kermerican original programme, but instead of a module that would then return to Earth, the Keuropeans created a permanent Munar presence, albeit in orbit. The crew stayed in Munar orbit for three weeks, adjusting its orbit and performing astronomical observations. Afterwards, Karl Kerman followed Neil Kerman's footsteps, and entered the Aigle lander to finally land on the Mun. In a historic moment for Keuropa, the Aigle landed without incident. The rest of the world were shocked at the huge achievement, none more so than the USK, whom had just witnessed the myth of their technological superiority being blown out of the skies. The whole programme was also a massive political coup for the Keuropeans, as they had refrained from placing weapons on board their stations and made much of this fact, making the USK look like warmongers. The Kermericans however were not simple minded fools, and the number of possible projects waiting to once again up the ante was very large indeed. The most viable project for a return to the Mun was then approved, and the short Kashington Programme began. The USK, using its technical brilliance, landed their first Kerbonauts on the Mun in fifty years a mere three years after the Keuropeans had arrived. It was not an entirely hostile gesture though, as relations had warmed in the period between, and the Nike Station had relayed video from the landing live. However, it was now clear that the race to colonise space had begun, driven by both the rivalry of the superpowers, and the ailing planet.
