Cydonian Monk

That was a wild burn. Thankfully the Poodle isn't quite strong enough to break the magnetics of the docking ports, but it sure looked funny. Very bouncy. Or maybe it was just moving to the music.....

There was some considerable kerfluffle about Paid DLC in the rather distant past... around the tine I found KSP but before I started playing. And then somebody deleted the forum and several months worth of posts and that particular controversy disappeared.

Ghosts and Things "Friend of yours was visiting the other day" said the ghost as its voice scratched out of the radio in its usual way. Sieta was busy working on her latest song, lost in its synthetic rhythms, and barely heard it. Come to think of it she hadn't heard from her ghost for quite some time, at least two munths. She reached over and tapped the mic. "Oh yeah? Who?" "Doesn't matter. I've got the activation codes for the Duna satellites worked out, I think. Not sure they'll have enough power to reach all the way back to Kerbin with any regularity, but they should at least start accepting new connections. And might just make contact once your boss gets those new deep space relays out into their interplanetary orbits." "Ok, give me a minute." Sieta tumbled her way out of the cupola and up to the radio console, pen in hand ready to take notes. She repeated the codes once written down, just to make sure she hadn't misheard the specter, and then started punching them in. "Should I notice anything different?" "Not for ten minutes or so, no. And it may not work at all." The voice trailed away into the static. "One other thing, you should consider moving your station. Find another pebble to anchor to." "Move? Why?" "Just a hunch. And if I'm right, things are about to get bumpy. Gotta go. Be in touch in a few days." Move? To where? She had no idea. What a weird suggestion. Could the left over ships docked to Baile Speir move it? Could such an old station even be safely moved? How would the crews on the ground react? Only one way to find out. -- The atmosphere in mission control was different following the theft of the Memory of Tomorrow. And not just mission control, but everywhere at the space center. It had occurred to them they might find survivors, but the idea that the survivors would turn out to be murderous old space pirates was impossible to grasp. Even though they themselves were, in a way, space pirates. Or at best space squatters. Yet now they'd lost three of the most expensive ships they'd ever launched, and could lose more if they didn't act fast. So far they'd seen no trace of the Memory. They'd run the numbers and determined it couldn't do much more than escape Kerbin's SOI. Unless of course Hallock ditched the heavier and now unnecessary parts of the ship, or left behind the two Sulphur shuttles, or refueled from any of the stations orbiting the Mün.... In which case he might be anywhere from Eve to Duna. In that scenario there should be debris where the Memory used to be. Yet there wasn't. And with enough supplies on board to keep a single kerbal fed for thirty years, there was a good chance they'd never find him. So for now the plan was to ignore it and press forward. On the Mün things were a bit more dire. The base had enough food to keep the now stranded crew fed for at least two munths. More than enough time for the ground crews to prepare another Sulphur lander, of which a few were in the pipeline. The base's original lander was out of fuel, explaining why Hallock and gang hadn't left years ago. They were all watching the lander through the base's windows when Macfred brought it online to do a systems check. "I wonder if we could transfer fuel into it from the skycranes in the garbage crater?" "Probably, Gletrix, if we had one of the hoses from the Sulphur lander. Let's see if the RCS still works first." He flipped a switch on the remote operator's console and attempted to hire the forward translational thrusters. The blast from the lander (or rather the impact of parts of the lander) lifted the base several meters off the ground and sent it sliding across the surface. All four kerbals instinctively pulled back from the window and hit the deck. Once the noises and the pinging had settled down and the floor stopped moving Thomlock looked outside again. A new crater, a hole where just moments before sat a solid and useable piece of space hardware. All he could do was laugh. "Guess we're not recovering the RTGs from the lander." Macfred growled and pounded his fist on the controls. "This guy is really starting to get on my nerves." The orders from mission control changed following the lander explosion. Originally part of the crew was to head to the Farside Crater to collect samples. Meanwhile the other two were to harvest parts from the garbage crater and the craft around the base. Now the plan was to just pull any undamaged RTGs they could find from the few craft at the base and wait for extraction. (Leaving one rover for future crews to use.) The experts were convinced there were still more traps waiting for them. Despite the possibility of said traps, they still wanted to verify Hallock's story. So Macfred and Thomlock would get to explore the garbage crater to the South, looking for five graves or grave markers. So they took the better of the two rovers and headed South. As expected they found five flags over five slightly lumpy mounds of regolith. They didn't see the need to disturb the graves, and all agreed the fallen crew of Pioneer Base should remain interred on The Mün for eternity. The details and dates of when the flags were planted were grim enough, showing that three were placed on the same day (some eleven years following the base's completion), with the other two following two years afterwards, separated by only a day. The psychologists were already constructing likely scenarios as to how it all had played out, as were a team from the local movie studio. (The cost for the filming rights was estimated into the millions.) So now there were three kerbals with a good bit of free time on their hands. (The fourth, Agake, was busy with experiments in the lab. Waste not, want not.) They set about harvesting any RTGs they found while waiting for the ride from mission control to arrive. Thankfully they had enough to keep them busy. -- Meanwhile back at Kerbin, tests of the Sulphur LDAV were moving forward. The Jool mission was still a go, even without the Memory of Tomorrow, and they'd already put too much energy into preparing both the aircraft and the Laythe lander to back down. The backup plan now was to use the LDAV as the interplanetary crew shuttle, outfitted with an environment module (and seven more years of food) along with a small, Tantares-built lab. Unlike the Memory this backup would only include enough water and oxygen to kickstart the system - everything else would have to be recycled. The Laythe Descent/Ascent Vehicle therefore needed to be tested. Designed around the Sulphur lander, it included a heat-shielded lower stage, and would land under parachutes. The parachutes and landing legs would be jettisoned prior to returning to orbit, and the lower stage would propel them part of the way there. The upper stage was just another Sulphur series craft. The first test of the LDAV was to see if it could survive reentry and landing on rough terrain. Once landed the second test was to launch to Kerbin orbit. If the LDAV test article survived both, it would remain in Kerbin orbit and enter into service as just another Sulphur-series shuttle. As with all such tests, this operation was to be conducted using automated routines. No reason to risk a kerbal's life just to see if this crazy plan worked. Officially the new heaviest thing ever, the Sulphur 3 LDAV Test Article was launched by three Mainsail-powered boosters, with three Skipper boosters as a second stage. The launch was mostly flawless, if a bit shaky. Once in orbit the craft was rotated 180 degrees, a heading it maintained until the reentry burn point was reached. From there it burned for a landing in the desert, discarding the second stage and arming its parachutes. The reentry worked better than expected, with the slightly offset mass of the lander causing the craft to rotate about its vertical axis. This spread out the shock heating well enough that nothing was damaged. Once the parachutes were out, the heatshields were discarded and the techs continued tracking the craft. It rapidly became obvious the craft wouldn't survive landing without a short burn from the lower stage. It had been expected and designed to land at 6m/s, but was still coming down at 15m/s. Future designs would require more parachutes to account for this speed discrepancy, as once on Laythe every m/s would be critical. Landing completed, the test crews double checked the "launchmath.ks" script, made sure staging was all properly armed and arranged, and let the LDAV fly itself back into orbit. First test complete. The crews had some tweaks they needed to make, but nothing that would require a second test flight. The Sulphur LDAV was marked as ready for Jool. Now the mission planners just needed to find a way to get the crew back from Jool once their mission was complete. Not such an easy task. And maybe they should rescue the crew from the Mün first. -- "Gene? Flight?" A new voice buzzed in Gene's headset. Maclie Kerman? The one that was obsessed with Pol? Too many Mac-anybodies around now for Gene's tastes. Hard to keep them all straight. Still, as the Visiting Vehicle Officer, this Maclie guy had done a bang-up job. They'd created the position at The Boss's insistence following the incident with the mismatched docking ports on Nitrogen TC-14, hoping that having a kerbal responsible for keeping track of which ship had what equipment would prevent a recurrence of the mistake. So far it had worked. Yet there really shouldn't be anything for Maclie to need to bother the Flight Director with... Or so Gene thought. "Go ahead VVO." "Flight, one of the older ships at Baile Speir has undocked and is conducting maneuvers." "It's what?" "Well, near as I can tell it's moving around the station." Now what? "Thanks VVO. Capcom?" "Go flight." "Call up Sieta and see what our space queen is up to now." A few minutes passed before he had his response. "Two word text response from Baile Speir flight. Moving day." Moving day? -- Baile Speir was itself vibrating from the deep bass and the rhythm of Sieta's music, sounding everything like a dance hall in the void wouldn't. She had the volume cranked to eleven, and was bouncing to the beat as she guided the two craft outside through their dance. To use the engines from one of the ships she'd first need to dock it along the main axis of the station. To do that, she needed to move the attitude control module to one of the ports presently occupied by the two old ships. Exactly like a dance. The radio was clicking and clacking with noises from Mission Control, so she fired back a quick text and then turned it off. They'd never hear her over the music, and their beeps and quindars were just messing with the beat. The attitude control module was almost where she wanted it. No time to lose focus now. A few more dance steps and then it was ready. Would it work? She knew where she was going, and had done the math so she knew the station could make it. The question was whether or not the station would survive. Only one way to find out. Navigation: Next Post

But we already have the rules for MohoBall. Jeb posted them five months ago in the Eve: Order Zed thread....

The villainous (Nmore). Landed at somewhere long enough to line break in a 1200 part ship. May have also kidnapped Bill, Bob and Jeb.

Unfortunately it's only available through Steam. I wouldn't rush out to buy a Steam copy just to get it though, as it sounds like it might hit release in the next week or two based on today's devnotes. While the performance boost is nice, there are still bugs in the prerelease that could potentially break saves.

Yes and no. I own KSP both through the store and through Steam, though I generally only play the store-bought version. I've dabbled at the pre-release to see what works and what doesn't, and the performance increase is quite nice. Really just waiting on mods to be updated amd for the final, official release before I switch this save over. And I also plan to finish a few things that are in motion before doing so....

Usually two or three times a week. March and April have both been busy months, and I've been doing things in KSP that take longer, so updates have been less frequent. As the schedule thins out and with the looming KSP 1.1 release, updates will likely start to appear more often once again.

There was more "universe hacking" going on there than I admitted. First, the three small hardpoints the legs were attached to were jettisoning off, because the absence of an ACTION node in a PART entry apparemtly means the ACTION should be taken, even though you don't know it exists. In this case it caused all three legs to get blown off. (Thus the explosions.) Next, the legs themselves were still screwy, as they pre-date the "new" leg system. (I don't recall offhand which version Hudwin landed in (it was before flags and back when the Mun was less pockmarked), but he was rescued in 0.21.1.) So those needed some tweaks too, just to avoid NRE spam, though I opted to leave them retracted. Finally, for some reason the lander was now embedded 3m deep into the surface while everything else was where it used to be. I guess the math for finding craft centers changed? Or more likely the borked-up legs were confusing the game. Had I known the old small hardpoint had been butchered for the sake of porkjet-prettiness, I probably would've swapped out the new part for the old one, too. This all looked better back when it first landed.... ... though Hudwin was a bit less graceful than one would like. The thing I've long since given up trying to save is the descent stage of Ronton's lander (the second kerbal to land on the Mün and first to leave it). It was "perched" a bit too precariously on the rim of this new crater and just continued to tumble to its demise. I could probably go back to the original pre-0.21 save and copy it up, but it'd still be misfigured from three years worth of part improvements. It's visible to the left of this photo of Hudwin and his two rover toys. Remarkably both rovers look almost identical now. The one on the right is nearly-physics-less krakenbait though....

Good question. Much like Thomlock he's from a time before the kerbals implemented the caste system (though just barely). He may not understand the "advanced" kOS autopilot stuff, but getting engines to fire when the ship is pointed in a specific direction should still be basically the same. Provided the ship stays off the network of course. One blip in mission control and I'd imagine Gene would have it remote piloted back to Kerbin. Or at least have it burn off all its fuel while placing it into an inconvienient orbit. We'll see.

The role of Hallock isn't played by Matt Damon.

The Crater of the First Kerbals Macfred and crew spent the next several hours talking to their host, Hallock Kerman. Well, Macfred, Thomlock and Gletrix did. Agake had crawled off to the nearly pristine lab module and was busy churning through a few quick experiments. (No reason to waste time when a perfectly working lab was on hand, right? Especially when it produced good numbers.) Hallock meanwhile was good for conversation. First he wanted to know everything there was to know about the famous Thomlock Kerman. Sure, he'd heard of him, who hadn't? One of the first kerbals to ever be launched into space, presumably long dead. For the old and white-haired farmer it was a bit of a shock to learn Thomlock was neither dead not lost. Strange new world. As it turns out Hallock had been alone on the Mün for nearly three decades. Towards the end of their first tour the base lost contact with Kerbin. At first they thought it was due to equipment failure, but a quick drive over to Hudwin's old Mün lander (and its spare transmitter) disproved that theory. As far as they could tell there was nobody listening on Kerbin. The base couldn't support six kerbals long-term, so they waited until the last of their reserves were gone. They drew straws to determine who would stay behind to keep the farm running. A simple task that should be enough to keep one of them alive indefinitely. Hallock drew the short straw, so the other five said their farewells and returned to Kerbin without him in the backup lander. And that was the last he'd heard from any other kerbal. Sure, he could've returned to Kerbin at any time using the original crew shuttle, but as he'd lost all contact with the crew and Kerbin he figured something cataclysmic had taken place. Guessed that he might have even been the last kerbal alive. And so he kept farming. Eventually he grew tired of maintaining all the different large plants in the greenhouse modules and switched to just growing their hybridized bananas. Normal bananas require a large tree to grow, so these were cross-bred with a few other strange fruits to produce something akin to a flowering banana-producing cactus. It was a strange fruit that _almost_ worked, but was just close enough to be annoying. As for why his hair was so white? "I was old when they sent me here. The years and the radiation and these strange yellow fruit probably haven't helped." After they had all rested up and traded stories, Macfred telling Hallock of their Jool ship awaiting them in orbit, the elder kerbal suggested they take the two rovers for a drive to Hudwin's Landing and Ronton's Perch. These were the first two places where kerbalkind set foot upon the Mün, both very historic, though only Hudwin's lander remained. They were both located in the Crater of the First Kerbals, just a bit to the NorthWest of Pioneer Base. Less than an hour's drive if one was careful. Macfred took a few minutes to report their status back to mission control, also informing them of the presence of their host. The Boss was insistent about bringing Hallock back to Kerbin with them, promising they would send up a replacement caretaker at the first opportunity. Hallock, however, was stubbornly refusing, suggesting he would never leave the base unattended, but would consider their offer while the other four were out on their trip. So they all climbed aboard the two Rothar rovers and rolled to the NorthWest in a small convoy. They made it about three kilometers from the base before Thomlock came up with a better idea. The two rovers individually would be difficult to control on the steep slopes of the craters. If they docked them together, however, they would increase their stability and possibly improve their traction on the loose regolith. So they hitched together the two little buggies and continued on their way. The descent into the crater was slow. One slip and the rover could easily get away from them, crashing down to the very bottom, never to be seen again. Thankfully there was an obvious gully they could drive through. Though it would come out somewhat lower than their first target, the reduced downslope was considered to be worthwhile. The rover was holding up well on even the steepest parts of the gully, but Macfred didn't want to challenge fate just yet. Eventually they reached the bottom of the gully and were forced to head out onto the crater rim itself. The transition was a bit... nerve-wracking, to say the least. And once they were over the edge there was nothing they could do to stop. It was all in the sure hands of Thomlock to guide them down to a place where the slope lessened and they could pause to catch their breath. The ancient one handled their descent with skill, and in no time they were climbing again, heading towards their goal. A goal that at first was indistinguishable from the other boulders in the crater. Yet soon the light of the Sun glinted of of various pieces of metal. (Macfred thought he saw an explosion, but blinked and the ill vision was gone.) And then they were there. And thing looked very strange. Instead of resting on its legs, the lander appeared to be resting on its engine bell while its legs were stuck way up in the air and disconnected from the rest of the lander. Macfred radioed their findings back to mission control, and was told to hang on while they looked at a few things. -- Indeed, something was a bit strange. Back in mission control one of the techs had Gene run to the gift shop and grab a copy of his "First Kerbal on The Mün" book. (Gene still had the only keys to the gift shop.) It was objectively a children's book, but it included the only known diagrams of the Mun Lander flown by Hudwin. Diagrams they had lifted from old, discredited history books, and which no one was certain were right. (The idea that kerbals had gone into space more than 90 years ago was not widely accepted as fact.) While poking through the book on his way back to MC-1, Gene decided to stop by the VAB. After some discussion with the techs, who had met him there, he had Wernher whip up a quick mock-up. Sure enough, there were some strange changes at work between what was supposed to be and what was now. Structural changes having to do with a decoupler that wasn't. Changes were needed. Changes, and a system reboot. -- Back on The Mün Macfred was busy poking around the old lander when the message was relayed up from Gene. "Sulphur crew, be advised we're going to attempt to reboot the system. We think what you're encountering is another glitch." "Another glitch? When was the other one?" "The most recent one was just a few minutes ago. Nothing much to worry about, just hold on for a few seconds and everything will be A-OK." And then they were there. And the thing looked amazing. Macfred was surprised to find the lander looked a bit different than in the old history books. Perhaps it had suffered from some recent impact? No way to know, really. He jumped off of the rover and bounded over to read the nearest flag. One strangely marked with the word RESCUE. Apparently some kerbal named Jebediah had rescued the mighty Hudwin from this very crater some years back. Now all that remained was Hudwin's lander and one of the two rovers the experimental crews sent up to keep him company. The others were already busy climbing over everything and poking their mittens into one of the oldest and most valuable sites in all of kerbal history - the first landing on the Mün. Thomlock was busy checking out the strange old rover while Gletrix was busy reading the plaques at the two flags. Agake was doing whatever weird stuff it is scientists do. Deciding the lander was safe, Macfred climbed aboard. So strange to sit in the very first Mün lander, a thing that until a few munths ago had been pure legend. A legend so tenuous and impossible that every kerbal had thought it was fake. Even the World's First kerbals were shocked beyond belief when the newly formed space program had started finding artifacts in space, but this would absolutely floor them. The chronometer in the lander was still running and showed an elapsed mission time of 83 years, 391 days on the dot. He found it more than a bit odd that the lander's communications system was missing. There was an antenna just outside the cabin window, yes, and he could find where it appeared to have once connected to something in the cabin, but there was nothing there now. Very strange. He decided to take a look outside. Maybe the radio was rigged up on the roof? The upper airlock was easy to open, so he climbed out to look around. Gletrix began reciting Hudwin's First Plaque just as he emerged onto the top of the lander. And then he looked up and saw it. Kerbin, just barely over the rim of the crater. The Crater of the First Kerbals. What a view. He was still crawling over the old lander when mission control radioed up to ask him about the Sulphur 2's radio. Apparently they had lost contact with it five to six minutes ago, roughly around the time of the system reboot, and had been unable to reestablish a connection. And they were wondering if he'd remembered to leave the telemetry radio turned on. "Did I leave the radio on? Yes, I think so. Gletrix?" "I didn't turn it off." "And if she didn't turn it off, I'm pretty sure none of the rest of us did." A few minutes passed before they called them again. This time it was The Boss on the other end. "We'd like you to wrap up your evaluation of the First Lander and head back to Pioneer Base to check on the Sulphur 2. We suspect, well, we have reason to believe something unusual is going on. Your new friend may be tampering with things." "Seems like a harmless old kerbal. Why would he do that?" "He's been up there alone for several decades. He could be space crazy." And with that their short adventure to the Crater of the First Kerbals was over. Macfred rounded up the other three, got them all aboard their Rothar and made tracks up what appeared to be the smoothest exit. Except on the way up they spotted something else perched atop the rim of their smaller crater-in-a-crater. "It's just another flag?" Gletrix bounded off of the rover before anyone could tell her to stop. "I'll check out the plaque!" Another first landing, this time by one Lars Kerman. Nothing obvious was left except the plaque, so she hopped back aboard and they made their way SouthEast. The rest of the trip back to Pioneer base was relatively uneventful. In climbing out of the crater they first drove directly towards the rim, then angled so as to pass over the lip of it at an angle. They still caught a bit of "air" when they fired over the top, but came down at an angle the wheels were more than capable of handling. Nothing seemed particularly out of place until they got back within sight of the base. There, where there had once been a lander and a flag, now there was only a flag. Their flag. Thomlock drove up next to it and stopped. The Sulphur 2 was nowhere to be found. "Say, any of you kids remember where we parked the lander? No?" Macfred was too angry to reply. He took control of the rover and sped over to the base itself. He was off the rover, up the ladder, and into the base's outer airlock before anyone could stop him. A quick cycle of the airlock and he was back inside. There, taped to an overhead bunk, was a message he somehow expected yet couldn't believe he was reading. Macfred tossed the note on the inner airlock floor and rushed to the radio room. A quick check with mission control confirmed his fears - not only had they not picked up the launch of the Sulphur 2, but they had now lost contact with The Memory of Tomorrow. Which meant they were stuck. Thomlock slipped silently into the radio room just as Macfred pounded his fist on the desk. The ancient one had the note from Hallock in one hand, shovel in the other, and something of a wry grin on his face. He tossed the note down on the desk in front of Macfred then knelt and offered up the shovel, mockingly. "I pass it now to you, along with its murderous ways." Macfred just waved him off with a frustrated "Bah". "Hey now, kid, don't be so hard on yourself. We all wanted to be space pirates once upon a time. At least I did. Guess this Hallock kid just beat us to it. Sort of." He sat the shovel in the corner, propped up against a bend in the wall. "You've learned an important lesson today: Never trust anyone over forty." "Heh. Guess I shouldn't trust you then?" "Well, I don't feel that old, even though I technically am." He laughed his dry laugh then continued. "Relax, we'll find this farmer clown. Then we'll drag his white-haired behind back down to Kerbin and force him to stand trial for what he's done. It's not like he can go very far in a half-fueled ship that barely has enough delta-vee to leave the Mün's orbit. And The Boss will have a supply ship up here for us in no time." "All the same, I'd rather the Memory not end up as some ghost ship like that pod of your's. We've got enough crazy old kerbals floating around in the void." "You can say that again." He was about to leave Macfred in peace when he stopped. He picked the shovel up again and gave it a spin, handle in mittened hand, blade resting on the floor. "And besides kid, I've got nothing to worry about. I'm not in any danger." The shovel whistled as its metal blade spun against the metal flooring. "No, I'm not in any danger at all. When the time comes..." He grinned a dark grin Macfred had never before seen and gripped the shovel firmly. The room went deathly silent. "I'm the one who digs." Navigation: Next Post

Possibly later today. Currently rovering around The Mün, which takes a bit of time to do safely.

Can confirm: it's something else entirely, and incredibly difficult (both logistically and mentally) to destroy one of your own ships as a plot point, especially if you spent 8-10 launches building it. The Kraken can lead us to do terrible things.... And it took several attempts to get it "right". Had anyone died in that particular collision... let's just say there aren't any red priests in the Ad Lunam kerbal universe. (Except there kind of were....)

Agreed. I'd go so far as to suggest just dropping the "from modders" verbage from the end of the rule now if only to save you mods from having to make said tweak in the future.

Very nicely done. After my flights this past Thursday I'm starting to wish commercial aircraft had cryofreeze, even if it means the occasional shaman appears to guide the unpopped to AncestorLand. So instead of dissections I suppose they now get vivisections?

Not going to have time to play until next week, but I just loaded up this save in the KSP 1.1 pre-release to see how things work. Had to copy over mod parts and ignore the plugins, but so far everything is smooth as silk. (Though Pioneer Base is still a tad bit laggy.) Much improved. Now just have to wait until most of the mods are updated.... Some I might just drop anyway. We'll see.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello!_Ma_Baby I'd love to have bulldozers and deformable terrain, but that seems like an entirely different game than KSP. Still, one can dream.

Yes. A tapdancing alien frog will burst from Thomlock's chest and start singing "Hello! Ma Baby" while tapdancing off-stage. (Not really, no.)

Hudwin? No - he should be safe and sound back on Kerbin, assuming he hasn't died of old age or just been otherwise lost in the mix. First kerbal on the Mün and all that, gotta keep him safe. The old kerbal's identity will be revealed later. (Hint: it's one of the six from the first Pioneer crew.)

That basically agrees with my findings. Pioneer, being on a mostly flat plain, only has a bit of ground clipping at the edges. (Not sure which module is root, though I could check the persistence file.) At phys-load, the few ground clipped parts apply their various forces (phantom clipped or torsional) and the base jumps about 5m, and moves laterally about 1m. Eventually it will run over the flag planted in front of it. I'm still not sure how I managed to get the two double docks to work in the figure eight, but 0.23.5 (and/or 0.24) handled it properly - no broken docks, no dock seeking, just docked. Compare that to the Kraken's Harvest from Ad Lunam where fewer than half of the double/triple docks in its ring worked.... Though it was a hub and spoke style of build versus the ring of Pioneer. Any bases I build going forward probably won't be this large, and will likely rest entirely on a single-craft underchassis.

Correct. Which I'm pretty sure the Romans didn't have a good way of noting either, unless there were immortal, regenerating soldiers amongst their ranks that I'm unaware of. (Though one could argue these kerbals survived "near scrapes with death", but.... in at least one case they blew up on the Mün. So regeneration it is. Or was.)

Sorry about that, this terrible forum software won't let me edit that last post and won't let me enter anything outside of that quote, and it won't let me select the quote again to remove it. Hopefully this stacks replies and consolidates the posts. [edit - yay! Merged!] I'm well aware of how roman numerals work. The problem here is there are two (or three, or four) sets of certain kerbals per "cycle", so two Jeb IXs, etc. I'll just change the subsets [back] to Arabic numerals.... which is how I had it originally.

Thanks. To answer your question: Gaze into the distant past of 0.23.5.... (And no, I'm not fixing the broken non-ASCII characters in my old posts.... You'll just have to accept that MAfA1/4n is the same as Mün... [edit - Ok so I fixed the title... that's it.]) If the game were more cooperative all the skycranes would still be parked in the next crater over. When 1.1 hits they may well be again. The biggest downside is this thing MOVES every time physics loads. And by MOVES I mean "jumps several meters into the air." The box trusses are a happy accident in that regard as legs would break.

The Mün of Our Youth Kerbals have been observing the Mün since time immemorial. The earliest of their kind decorated everything from the most venerated objects of worship to the most primitive of soup bowls with the phases of their Great Messenger, Mun. Snacks were offered to the flames with the hopes The Mün would bring good news. The scribblings and the scratching and the cave paintings and the tattoos and the everythings soon revealed the truth. The truth of the message. The true length of a Munth. A new cycle every six and a half days, roughly. Two cycles for any single stationary kerbal to see the complete story of the Great Messenger. And every thirteen days an ill omen. For every thirteen days it would do battle with The Sun itself, hoping to shield the kerbals from the worst of its fires. (Or every six and a half days, for those kerbals unlucky enough to live where the eclipses occurred very early or very late in the day.) Great religions rose and fell to the rhythm of its cycle. Its Münth. Its Munth. Arguments over its name, Mun, Mün, its article, The Mün, just Mun, its pronunciation, Moon, Muun, Muhn, Mon, and its spelling, Mün, Mun, escalated from heated debates to incidents of violently spilled milk. Friends were insulted. Tattoos were removed. Fires were started. Snacks were destroyed. In short, it drove the kerbals mad. -- The Sulphur 2 was halfway to the Mün before anyone on Kerbin saw fit to alert the crew of the Memory of Tomorrow. Nearly identical to the previous Sulphur Shuttle, this one included legs. And a couple extra lights. And ladders. (Can't forget the ladders.) The launch, as always, was controlled by kOS script and went perfectly according to plan. The second stage of the LV-06A Cadence launch vehicle even had a few hundred extra delta-V, used to propel the Sulphur 2 on its way to The Mün. Between the time the S-2 launched and the Boron 5 arrived in its polar munar orbit, the OSI interns had identified at least three interesting looking places for Macfred and crew to land on the Mün. One of them even featured a possible (highly-likely) structure of unknown origin. Something an even earlier satellite had claimed to see. A Thing on the Mün. And in orbit, low, low orbit, one new Thing had also been discovered, this time by the crew of the Memory themselves. This new object was in far too low of an orbit to have been spotted from Kerbin, nearly 10km, but based on observations of its passes below the crew was confident it was another station. Instead of wasting fuel to get to it now they would instead rendezvous with it once leaving the surface. A Thing around the Mün. -- On the remote Island of the Mün some many years ago, a lone kerbal decided to build a tower that would reach beyond the heavens and up to this wayward messenger. Many mocked the kerbal, often pelting him with pebbles "to add to the pile". For years and years this simple hermit attended to his work, toiling on under the scorching equatorial Sun. In time his tower of stone grew to rival even the greatest of mountains, stretching ever upward. And then, just as he was about to reach up and pluck the tiny pebble from the sky itself, the great powers took notice. The ground shook, his tower shifted, and the mountain of his hubris was pulled out from under him. He stumbled, slipped, and awoke dazed and confused hours later atop his rubble pile, now reaching no more than a few meters. The Tower of the Mün was forgotten, its island slipped into distant memory. Yet the dream persevered. -- The S-2 completed its capture burn using the RT2 Flight Computer, entering into a 50km by 200km orbit, just enough to allow the Memory to catch up to it before completing its first orbit. The rendezvous was completed remotely by Gletrix, who was getting the hang of this remote operation thing. And so Macfred, Thomlock, Agake and Gletrix quickly climbed aboard the Sulphur 2 when it arrived. There was no equipment to transfer as it housed everything they could ever need. Every science experiment they could find was strapped to its side, which was to say not many. Funds were still tight at the space center, though The Boss had been dropping hints that they might have a sponsor lined up. A wealthy, interested party that wanted to help finance their reconquest of space. As for their chosen landing spot.... -- ... The dream persevered. More towers were built by more kerbals. Different towers. Taller towers. Sleeker towers. Towers of fire. Towers of smoke. Towers that would detach themselves from the ground and rise into the sky. Free from the dangers of an angry Kerbin, free to reach up and touch The Mün itself. Yet much like the Hermit of the Island of The Mün, these kerbals too were cursed by their hubris. And many kerbals died. Their names were etched into the back pages of the holy books, their memories woven into the fables of the Great Messenger itself. Jebediah D, Bill D, Bob D, Nelsey, Thomlock*; Jebediah IV*; Milbas, Chading; Jebediah VIII, Bill VIII, Bob VIII, Seeburry, Jonbald VIII, Ludzor, Seesy, Kirbas, Kirbert, Kenke, Henzor, Luke, Charlie, Billy-Boblong, Corcott, Geneton, Newdon, Gusnard, Mitgard, Hudbald, Lobree; Jebediah IX, Bill IX, Bob IX, Patnard, Neilnard, Raylie, Geofrick, Seebro, Tomely, Ludoly, Sigdan, Harbal, Albor, Wilvey, Herdon, Thomfert, Tombert, Nelzon, Tom, Sherzor, Charlie IX, Chadfen, Lenfrey, Sammy, Sonsby, Landan, Will, Phildred, Desbretr, Jedbrett, Philtop, Elbal, Cormin, Ferfrey, Melbrett, Donmund, Danwig, Harbrett, Fredgee, Lubro, Dunsy; Jebediah IX-2, Bill IX-2, Bob IX-2; Jebediah IX-3, Bill IX-3, Bob IX-3, Mitbro, Ellong, Merkin, Dudwin, Matner, Milry, Bursel, Joelong; Jebediah IX-4, Bill IX-4, Bob IX-4, Franklin, Albrett; Jebediah X, Bill X; Jebediah X-3, Bill X-3, Bob X-3, Dofrey, Patbro, Hudfry, Philemone, Lancas, Gushat, Bartfred, Ludvey, Romin, Gusgan, Lobald, Sherdan, Luke X, Harbas, Matley, Ribrey; Kelgee, Jeddon; Bartley, Kirmon, Harsby; Hally. So many names, so many lost, all so a few could reach up and touch The Mün. And touch The Mün they did. Kerbals from all walks of life had stumbled and skipped across its great grey plains. Rolled over its ripples and curves. Read the messages it left for them in the regolith. Short trips. Long trips. Vacations. Meditations. Holidays. Many took joy in its three hundred ninety hour days. Some even chose to stay behind. Yet the great powers took notice. -- "Three hundred meters. Flight computer still has control." Gletrix was reading off numbers as the Sulphur 2 slipped down to the Mün's surface. Their first landing spot provided a spectacular view of Kerbin, hanging just above the ridges and mountains along the Mün's prograde face. It also happened to be a short distance from one of their suspected Things. "Two hundred meters. Leveling out. Gear down. Now under manual control." She could've let the machine land itself, but at this point it would be hard to botch the landing, and she needed the practice. So Macfred had ordered her to finished the landing by hand. Not that it made Macfred any less nervous knowing a kerbal with a sense of self preservation was in control and not some dead computer. He was already a bit worked up, mostly because he drew the short stick and was dangling upside down in his seat in the rear cabin. Sure, the chair could spin around to face forwards, but he had been distracted, heavy in conversation with Thomlock about the ancient Mün stories, and before he knew it they were under too much thrust for him to even dare to fix his seat. "Twenty meters, still have control. Kicking up a bit of dust. Ten meters." "Contact. We're down. Cutting engines." The craft rocked back and forth for a moment, a moment during which Macfred wasn't sure it would right itself. Yet it did, and there they were, on The Mün. He unlatched his safety harness and promptly fell on top of Thomlock before bouncing the rest of the way to the back of the cabin. He rubbed his forehead as though it might bruise, but otherwise seemed unhurt. "Ok, now what?" "Now, kid, we go for a walk. I've waited 96 years to be here. Let's get moving." There was no debate as to who would be the first to walk on The Mün - that task fell to the lander pilot Gletrix. The cockpit was the only way in or out of the Sulphur Shuttles without going through one of the docking ports. Docking ports which mysteriously don't open unless docked. Though she _could_ decide to move into the lower cabins and allow any of the others to take the first steps, there was really no reason for her to. So Gletrix would be the first here, and quite possibly the first on nearly every planet and moon this happy band traveled to. The others watched from their cabins as she climbed gleefully down the ladder, bounding out into the dust and regolith. No doubt future generations would write ballads about the bravery of the tiny test pilot. Once everyone had extricated themselves from the lander, run their basic science experiments, (and planted their temporary experience flags), Macfred planted the official mission flag. In a fit of incredible unoriginality he named the landing spot "Base View Plains", and made sure to note all four of their names on the message plaque. Needless to say the World's Firsters back on Kerbin were all over the place with the platitudes and the funds. With the flag ceremony done and the important science tasks complete, the crew made their way over to the base facilities. First up were two stand-alone facilities, one of which obviously a habitat, while the other appeared to be rather a bit... "Strange." Thomlock was peering into the bluish windows of the module, kicking some dust out of the way with his boot. "It looks green." "Plants?" Agake was doing the same, trying to clean the glass with her mittened hands. She aimed her helmet light into the module but could only see a thick green wall, likely some growth run amok. "I think this might be a greenhouse of some sort." "Let's go check out the larger base before we head into these smaller ones. Hard to say what's inside." Once they were there and gathered at what appeared to be the entrance, Macfred made his way up to the flag and read the small plaque at the base. "Pioneer Base. That's it, no descriptive text of any sort." "This place is huuuuge. How many kerbals do you think lived here?" Macfred thought about Gletrix' question for some time. She was right, the base was rather large, and more then half of it appeared to be glass-covered canopy modules... probably more greenhouses like the smaller structure. None of the top modules were directly connected, the internal corridors instead appeared to be along the base. As were the connecting points between modules. At the front sat two trucks (or rovers), each with a small, one-kerbal cabin and seating up top for two. Macfred suggested the small cabin was needed for refreshing supplies on long-duration treks, or perhaps so one kerbal could rest while another drove. No doubt they would try to get one of them running in a few hours, just to see if it worked. Best of all, both of the smaller structures and two rovers were loaded with radiologicals. RTGs. Lots of them. Macfred was nearly salivating in his suit at the prospect of harvesting this seemingly abandoned Mün base of its more precious scrap. Still, they needed to make sure it was truly abandoned before they could start cutting it apart. So Macfred climbed up to what appeared to be the entrance and made his way inside. The small airlock meant only one kerbal could enter at a time. An old airlock, not unlike many of those in use at the stations above them. No fancy electronics, just simple, obvious gauges to show when the air was safe and when it meant a quick death. He checked his suit gauge before removing his helmet anyway, just to be sure. The airlock opened onto an empty cabin. An inner air lock where suits were hung and helmets stacked. At least he thought it was empty. He turned to sit his helmet on a shelf and was unlatching his space mittens when a sound behind him perked his ears. He turned just in time to watch a banana sail through the air and splat onto the ground in front of him. It had emerged from the feeble fingers of an old, very old kerbal, who was now smiling at him from inside an EVA suit at the opposite side of the room. The elder kerbal started to charge at Macfred, managing only to stumble and fall backwards. He sat up gingerly and then removed his helmet. "I knew you would come. My strength has left me. In years past that fruit would have met its mark." "Who are you?" "The last of six brothers who swore an oath to grow the crescent Münfruit and to guard it." Macfred picked up the remains of the banana, poking a mittened thumb through its peel. It was ripe, not overly so, and larger than a banana should be. Fresh. "This? Münfruit?" The elderly kerbal nodded, his shockingly white hair catching the light of the room as he did so. Macfred sat the banana down and moved to examine his host. "You took a bit of a spill there. Are you ok? How long have you been here?" "Many decades." He motioned towards Macfred's EVA suit. "I see they still use the old model. Though it's still a strange choice for a farmer." "Farmer? I'm not exactly a, farmer. What do you mean?" "I was chosen because I was the bravest. The most BadS. The greenest thumbed. The farm was mine until another came to challenge me to a foodfight." He offered up a shovel Macfred hadn't seen, kneeling now and lifting it high, as though surrendering. "I pass it now to you, who have relieved me." Macfred raised his hands in protest. "Wait, wait. I'm not here to relieve you. I'm just here to..." Rob you, really, but he obviously couldn't say as much. He was about to continue when the airlock opened behind him and Thomlock stumbled in, still suited up. "See you've found a new friend, kid. Anybody I know?" He stumbled around a bit before focusing on a small, yellow shape on a nearby shelf. He grabbed the split open banana, held it in front of his faceplate, looking at it from strange angles. "What's this?" A piece fell to the floor at his feet. "A fruit, one of many. And a choice. You must choose, but choose wisely. For just as the true fruits will bring life, the false ones will take it from you." Thomlock took his helmet off, placing it atop one of the nearby shelves. He ignored the gasp from the farmer, and returned his attention to the yellowness in front of him. His mittened hands worked the peel loose. He sniffed. He nibbled. And then the banana was gone. The shovel dropped to the floor with a loud clang. "You, you, you're, Th't'th'...." "Good banana there, old kerb. Organic? Local? Use any antibiotics or crazy somesuch? What, cat got your tongue?" "But, Th'th't, you, you..." the elder kerbal stuttered, pointing at Thomlock, "you're dead!" The loud burp from the remains of the fruit disagreed. Thomlock laughed. "Oh, that. Yeah, that's me. Famously dead." "Maybe we didn't get off on quite the right foot here." Macfred extended his mittened hand towards the now standing, and retreating, white-haired kerbal. "I'm Macfred Kerman, Captain of the Memory of Tomorrow. This is my helmskerb Thomlock Kerman. We discovered your base some days ago and decided to investigate. See if anyone was here. See if everything was alright." "So you're not my replacement crew?" "No." "$*#% %£*&@*!!!" The shovel went flying across the room, propelled by a swift kick. "I've been waiting entirely too long for those #$%&¥$ kids to come back with the replacements. Do you have any idea how boring it is to grow bananas for twenty-six years!?" Navigation: Next Post