Starting again - From model rockets to the Mun (Chapter XIX added)

[Windspren]

Its the [REDACTED] !!! There's one on [REDACTED] and one on [REDACTED]!!!!!

Edited May 17, 2015 by Laythe Dweller

[Randazzo]

Post stricken from the record.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Randazzo

[Windspren]

Post stricken from the record.

There, I removed the bits about the [REDACTED].

[Randazzo]

---

Yuri looked across the VAB floor and sighed. The main stage and boosters of the Century V rocket were under construction now, occupying a large portion of the interior space. It had been only a few days since he and Yelena had arrived at KSC, but Wernher was true to his word as always, and had given duties to them both. Yuri spent most of his working hours either in the VAB or SPH, keeping part inventories or moving boxes. Cadet work, as Wernher had promised. Yelena was off somewhere in the R&D building. Yuri felt it was important that they not be seen together if it could be helped. He suspected there were more eyes about than anyone was aware of.

"Dunley!" A voice called out. Yuri, ignoring the voice, was right on the edge of drifting off into a daydream. A kerbal walked up and gave him a nudge. "Hey! Wake up Dunley!"

Yuri blinked, staring at the kerbal for a moment. It quickly dawned on him that he was Dunley. "Ah... yes, sorry."

The other kerbal sighed, shaking his head. "We're never gonna get anywhere with you cadets running around with your heads in the clouds. Do you have the bolts I ordered?"

"Oh... yes. Over here." Yuri led the way to one of the cargo racks, pulling a box off the shelf and handing it over.

"Right... better take a look..." the kerbal peered inside, and saw that it was indeed his bolts. "Alright, thanks."

Yuri watched him go, then turned his attention back to the floor. He found it hard to take his eyes away from the construction. The Century V easily rivaled, and perhaps even surpassed, the Medved Series 3 in both size and complexity. Finally, he tore himself away reluctantly and went back to work.

---

Vladimir had been waiting for the chance to approach Milhat privately, but it seemed that someone else was always around. When the opportunity did finally present itself, it turned out to be at Aleksei's whim. The Y-2 had been sitting in the hangar waiting to be decommissioned, and the only thing keeping it from destruction was it's very expensive avionics system. Aleksei had asked him to remove it, and sent Milhat to assist.

Vladimir was already working on the Y-2 when Milhat approached with his work orders. "I thought you were a pilot." Vladimir said before Milhat could speak.

"Yes Sir, I am."

"So, what are you doing 'helping' remove this avionics system?"

"I just thought it best that I be familiar with the systems we use, Sir." Milhat stepped towards the Y-2 , rolling up his orders and stuffing them into his back pocket. "Besides that, I imagine I can learn a lot of other useful things from you." He turned and stared at Vladimir pointedly for a moment.

Vladimir met his gaze and stepped close, reaching around Milhat to grab a wrench from the toolbox. He spoke quietly while he was close. "You will learn nothing until you tell me who are you."

Glancing around, Milhat responded. "KASDI."

Vladimir took a step back and stared at Milhat for a moment, then handed him a wrench. "Well then, let's get to work."

A little over two hours later, the Avionics system had been removed and the Y-2 was one step closer to annihilation. Vladimir went straight to his quarters to think over the conversation he had while working. His mind racing now, he paced back and forth, trying to make sense of it all. KASDI was the Kerbin Aero-Space Defense Initiative, and it supposedly did not exist anywhere except the imaginations of gullible kerbals everywhere, yet Milhat was claiming to be a KASDI agent. Apparently, Aleksei was also an agent, or more accurately, a former agent. He was part of a splinter group that formed after discovering some object of great import, though it seemed that nobody knew what it was. Despite their efforts, Milhat's people were unable to locate the object. Seeing what lengths Aleksei and his superiors were willing to go in order to forward their own goals was reason enough for KASDI to get involved. It appeared that Aleksei's group had extracted information from the object and then abandoned it to focus all their resources on both their own facility and the CEA, reasoning that it's obscure location would be enough to keep it hidden. Thus far, they had been correct.

Milhat explained that he was here to try and discern either the location of the object or the splinter cell's next objective, or both, if possible. Despite a few excursions into both Aleksei's office and quarters, he had turned up nothing. Until he saw the map flutter to the ground in Vladimir's room. Realizing what it could be, and being fully aware that Aleksei had sent assassins to the Mun (a truly mind-boggling concept) to kill Yuri and Yelena, Milhat decided that Vladimir could be trusted not to betray his secret. He could have simply taken the map, but it could have led to a confrontation and there was little he could do with it from the CEA anyway. The photo of Yuri and Yelena arriving at KSC was intended as a show of goodwill, something to ease Vladimir's mind.

Vladimir finally stopped pacing in front of his desk, sitting down and pulling the map out. He stared at it for a long time, memorizing it's latitude and longitude. Milhat wanted to find a way to get the map itself to someone who could potentially use it to scout the area and find out if anything was in fact there. Vladimir imagined it might be far easier to relay coordinates, but it didn't matter at the moment. For now, he was forced to continue to simply wait, but at least content in the knowledge that his friends were alive.

---

Several weeks later, the Century V was ready for launch. Bill, Bob, and Jeb would all be heading for the Mun once more. This mission would be rather more involved than the KSC's previous landings. The first KSC mission to rely on a vehicular outing to complete mission objectives, the Century V lander carried a rover to be deployed on the surface. Unlike the Medved Series III, the rover and crew were carried by the same lander. Jeb and Bob would deploy to the surface while Bill once again stayed behind in the return capsule to await the arrival of the lander ascent stage. As the launch approached, the usual activities were taking place. Most of the ground crew had finished scurrying about once the rocket was securely on the pad and had cleared the area. Wernher was in mission control along with Jim and Almund. Yuri had also asked permission to be there, and Wernher agreed. Yelena was still making herself scarce.

MC: Tee minus one hundred twenty seconds, Century V. All systems are go here. Launch is a go.

CV(Bill): Understood. All indicators are good on our end.

CV(Jeb): Ready here!

MC: Tee minus sixty... [pause] Tee minus five, four, three, two, one... Ignition!

The Century V boosters and main stack roared to life, burning wide open. The powerful engines shook the mission control building as they began to rumble upwards, carrying the massive vehicle towards the sky. This was the very pinnacle of KSC's engineering and production expertise. Unfortunately, the glorious moment lasted only a moment. The rocket wobbled slightly, then began to oscillate back and forth with increasing severity.

CV(Jeb): Jeb to mission control! We've got a problem! I can't hold it!

CV(Bill): The stability assist is totally out of control.

CV(Bob): Listen! What is that?

Inside the pod, the trio could hear the steel support structures groaning under the strain as the rocket flailed back and forth, trying to tear itself apart. Suddenly the groan turned to a whine followed by a loud twanging pop. Something had given out. The oscillation got worse.

CV(Bill): We need to Abort!

MC: Understood, Century.

CV(Jeb): Hitting the big red button!

Jeb finally got to push the big red button labeled "Do not press". The pod decoupled from the main stack and the launch escape tower fired a split second later. The trio were slammed back in their seats hard as the LET pulled them through nine G's to get the pod clear of the stack. A few seconds after that, the shroud and LET decoupled from the capsule, freeing the parachute which immediately deployed. The main stack itself continued to wobble up into the sky, eventually breaking apart and crashing down into the ocean. There would be no Mun missions today, and naturally, this launch had been televised. Soon enough, the capsule landed gently on KSC grounds. Recovery crews were out already, sirens and lights blaring. Yuri watched all this silently from the control room, wondering in the back of his mind where Yelena was. Wernher made eye contact briefly as he rushed out to perform damage control, both literal and figurative. He was going to have to placate the press if possible. At least the crew had survived and nothing had exploded, though he suspected the latter would have thrilled the press.

---

Aleksei was watching the coverage of the KSC launch from his office with a smug satisfaction. Though he no longer officially considered KSC's program to be threat to his own goals, deep down he still enjoyed seeing the competition fail. The past few weeks had been trying, with very little to focus his energies on. Without Yuri and Yelena around to make trouble, the CEA was running smoothly. Vladimir appeared to be moving on, carrying out his duties without complaint. His phone rang.

"Hello?" He answered somewhat absent mindedly.

It was one of the controllers who was currently monitoring the scanning satellites over the mun. "Yes... Hello. I'm sorry to bother you sir, but I think the satellite has found something."

Aleksei was on his feet in an instant. "I'll be right there."

Forgetting to switch off the television, he hung up and rushed out of his office, leaving the door open. He actually ran down the hall, bursting into the control room. The controller was still holding the receiver, looking confused.

Aleksei took the phone from his hand and hung it up. "Show me."

"Of course, the data is right here." The controller stepped aside. Aleksei peered down at the console. "It's a little hard to tell, but from the combined data from our own scanner and the RADAR mapping device... I think this area here, near the south pole, has an object with a similar composition to what you gave us."

"You're positive of this?" Aleksei glared hard the kerbal, who reached up and tugged at his collar.

"Well... no sir, I can't be certain... but it's the best we can do without actually seeing, well, whatever it is." The controller swallowed hard.

That was enough for Aleksei. He scrawled the coordinates down and he left as quickly as he had arrived, leaving the controller just as confused as ever. Entering his office, Aleksei was surprised to find Milhat standing there.

"What are you doing in here?" Aleksei demanded, forgetting to put on his pleasant charade.

"Oh!" Milhat jumped a bit, startled. "Sorry... I came looking for you, but you obviously weren't here. Then I saw the television..."

Aleksei glanced at the television, realizing he had forgotten to turn it off. Coverage of the KSC launch was still airing. "I see." Clearing his throat, Aleksei forced a small smile. "No harm done, but please, excuse me. I have an important call to make." He placed a hand on Milhat's shoulder, guiding him to the hallway.

Not offering resistance, Milhat found himself with a closed door in his face before he could say another word. "Well. I guess I'll come back later." He said aloud, before making a show of tromping down the hallway.

Caught up in the moment, Aleksei did not bother to wait long or check to see if Milhat had left. He snatched up his phone and dialed a familiar number. It range twelve times. Finally, a gruff voice answered. "Raven."

"Perch."

The line clicked several times. "Hello Aleksei."

"I've found it."

"Excellent. We have a team on standby now. Send us the coordinates as soon as possible."

Before Aleksei could respond the line went dead. He hung up slowly, knowing he had taken another terrible risk by not confirming just what it was on the surface before calling it in. In the hallway, Milhat had heard everything.

---

On the far side of Kerbin...

---

"Vladimir! Open the door!" Milhat knocked impatiently. It was after midnight, and he was undoubtedly disturbing others, but he didn't have time to care.

"I'm coming!" Came the muffled reply. After a moment, the door opened. Vladimir was in his pajamas. "What? What do you want?"

Milhat brushed past him. "Close the door."

"I do not care who it is you think you are, it is late and I am..." Vladimir was beginning to get angry.

"They've found it!" Milhat said in a hushed voice. "Now close the damn door!"

Vladimir moved slowly, but he did finally close the door. "What do you mean, they found it?"

Both Kerbals were speaking quietly now, though if they were going to wake anyone, they had already done it. "That is all I know. Aleksei made a call. Said he found it. Do you still have the map?"

"Of course I do."

"Then get dressed. We have to leave."

Vladimir stared at Milhat intently. "I have not decided to trust you yet. Why should I go anywhere with you?"

Milhat sighed. "I will tell you everything you want to know on the way, I swear it, but we have to go

now

. We can't wait to find someone else to recon the site. I can't trust anyone else."

"And how will we be doing this?" Vladimir asked groggily, walking to his dresser and pulling out a flight suit.

"Oh, that part is easy." Milhat responded. "We're going to steal an Orel."

---

[Acemcbean]

Another stupendous entry. I can't wait for the next installment!

[JonDahm]

I'm loving this story, Randazzo. I can't wait for the next entry! Keep up the good work!

[Randazzo]

I'm loving this story, Randazzo. I can't wait for the next entry! Keep up the good work!

Oh the guilt!

I'm not trying to abandon this, I've just been busy. It -will- continue at some point.

[AlexinTokyo]

You and George R. R. Martin both

[Railgunner2160]

I just found this & I'm already looking forward to more!!!

[Acemcbean]

*guilt trip mode activated*

[jake9039]

I just finished page one, great story! looking foreward to reading the rest!

[Railgunner2160]

I'm looking forward to the next chapter, Can't wait to see how the story unfolds....

[Randazzo]

I'm looking forward to the next chapter, Can't wait to see how the story unfolds....

It might be pertinent to link this thread to this one.. hard drive death. There will be no more images, unfortunately.

Since I put it off for so long and screwed the pooch because of it, I hereby declare that I will have the next chapter out by this weekend, though it will be only writing.

[Randazzo]

At the End of the Rainbow

Milhat peered around the corner, signaling for Vladimir to wait. They were nearly to the most flight ready Orel, but there was a complication. A member of the overnight crew was in the hangar and milling around near the plane they needed. Milhat leaned back from around the corner and stood next to Vladimir with his back to the wall. It was a short sprint to the Orel, but if someone were to raise the alarm too soon, it would be an even shorter flight.

"Why are we stopping?" Vladimir whispered, looking over his shoulder back the way they had come. Milhat raised a finger to his lips to indicate silence, then gestured for Vladimir to stay put.

Slipping around the corner and breaking into a brisk walk, smiling, Milhat called out to the crewman, "Hey! How's it going tonight?" He gave a small wave.

The crewman looked up, obviously tired. He returned the wave and smile. "Oh, I can't complain. Not much to do, you know. Just keeping an eye on things."

"Oh yes. Somebody has to watch her!" Milhat gestured to the Orel. The crewman turned to look at the plane, and began to say something, but Milhat clubbed him at the base of his skull. Catching the crewmans limp body as he slumped backward into a ragdoll, Milhat dragged the unconscious kerbal behind some boxes. "Vladimir! Let's go!"

"What happened to quiet?" Vladimir asked as he trotted out into the open. Milhat shrugged.

"It worked! Get the plane ready. I'll get the doors." Milhat said. Vladimir clambered up the ladder into the Orel's cockpit while Milhat went to the chain hoist that operated the manual gears for opening the hangar bay doors, which were huge. He gave the chain a heave to get it started, and the door began to slowly creak open on it's tracks.

Without warning, another crewman poked his head through the opening. "Hey, what's going on? Where's Dilman?" Milhat jumped.

"Oh! I... don't know. I'm just supposed to be getting this door open." Milhat blinked. He had been caught totally off-guard, but he came around quickly. "That Orel is supposed to be on the runway in ten minutes, and there's nobody here to help me."

"What? Nobody told me the mission was..."

"What is going on here?" Vladimir had seen the impending disaster, and was leaning out the open cabin door. Milhat was new, but Vladimir expected to be recognized.

"Oh... sorry, Sir, I wasn't informed that you were leaving early. I, uh... I'm supposed to clear the flight first." The crewman stammered.

"First the crewman who was supposed to be assisting us is missing, and now you are delaying us as well? Very well, please, call Aleksei and clear the flight. I would like to speak with him when you are done." Vladimir said, beginning to climb down the ladder. The crewman looked at Vladimir helplessly, then at Milhat.

Milhat just shrugged at him. "Maybe you should get in here and help me with this door?"

"Right! Of course, sorry." The crewman scurried over to the other chain and joined in. The door began to open more quickly.

"Thank you." Vladimir said pointedly, then got back into the cockpit, where he nearly collapsed into one of the chairs. He wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. The pressure was incredible. He began checking over the systems.

With the aid of the crewman, they had the hangar doors opened in only a minute or so. After thanking the other Kerbal, Milhat jogged over to the Orel's ladder and climbed into the cockpit. He retracted the ladder and sealed the cabin door, realizing he actually didn't know if this plane was going to be flying anywhere or not. They were not generally stored with full fuel tanks.

"How's she look?" Milhat asked, slipping into the pilots seat.

"Good. I think this plane was going somewhere, sometime very soon. We have a full load of fuel, more than enough to get where we're going." Vladimir responded, buckling in. "Don't we need someone to tow us out?" He asked as an afterthought.

"That guy down there mentioned something about a mission... and usually, yes. But not tonight." Milhat released the gear brakes and fired up the turbines, which spun up quickly. He powered them down again as the plane began to roll forward.

The crewman on the ground stumbled out of the hangar in shock, the sound of the turbines quickly growing to almost deafening proportions. He scrambled to get out of the way as the Orel rolled out. As it rolled down the serviceway, the sound grew more tolerable, but it had left his ears ringing. From inside the hangar, the first crewman Milhat and Vladimir had encountered, Dilman, came staggering outside.

"What's going on? That plane isn't supposed...oh..." He swayed a bit, feeling sick. He was dizzy and his head hurt.

The other crewman looked at him. "WHAT?"

Milhat deftly guided the plane down the serviceway and whipped it hard onto the runway. No sooner than he had aligned the nose of the plane in a straight path down the strip, the radio began to crackle to life. Someone in mission control had noticed something had gone awry. Vladimir listened quietly as the Kerbal from mission control first repeatedly ordered them to stand down, then began pleading instead. Milhat of course paid it no mind, and pushed the Orel to full throttle, roaring down the runway at a blistering speed. They were already in the air by the time someone had been sent to awaken Aleksei.

Aleksei was not pleased to be bothered so late at night, or perhaps early in the morning depending how one looked at it. "This had better be an emergency," He growled as he yanked his door open to see who was banging on it. "What?" Aleksei thought he recognized the Kerbal standing there, but did not know him well enough to know his name.

"Sir, you're needed in mission control, right away." The Kerbal responded. He didn't seem afraid at all.

"What is the problem? Can't it wait until morning?" there were no missions being run by the CEA, so Aleksei couldn't imagine what demanded his attention so urgently.

"Someone has just stolen an Orel, Sir." The Kerbal said plainly. Aleksei stared at him blankly for a moment, his mind racing.

"Yes, very well." Aleksei stepped out and began walking down the hallway, leaving his door open. The Kerbal closed it for him, and rushed to catch up. "Why is it so dark?" Aleksei asked, noticing the lights were out about halfway down the hall. They were the last words he would speak, and perhaps more poignant that he would have realized.

The Kerbal did his job with nary a sound, and walked out of the far side of the darkened hallway alone. He walked directly out of the building, and vanished into the night.

---

"Well?" Vladimir said aloud. Milhat looked at him, confused. They had been airborne for half an hour now, and with the only plane the CEA had capable of catching them in a state of disassembly, it wasn't likely they would have company. Most of the time had been spent in silence, but Vladimir intended on holding Milhat to his word. "You promised to explain everything if I helped you. Here we are."

"Oh, right. Where should I start?" Milhat sighed, making a small adjustment to their heading. "Well, as I told you before I

am

a KASDI agent, and no we aren't make-believe. For the most part we do our best to stay under the radar as it were, but after they found that... thing... everything changed. There was sort of a coup, and a bloody one, but it didn't stick for long."

"Who is 'they'? And what did they find?" Vladimir interrupted.

"'They' are Mikhail and his cronies. Aleksei was one of his most trusted people. I imagine that's why he was sent to oversee this whole charade. Though I admit I don't really understand the point of the deception. It doesn't make sense to take over a legitimate agency when they have hidden assets that could do the job." Milhat paused, thinking. "Maybe they thought it would be easier to find whatever it is they are after up there with the CEA. I don't know. I don't know what it is they are looking for either, or precisely what they found. I only know that it leaped some technology forward by decades in less than a year. Weird stuff too. Wireless technology." Vladimir thought back to the device Nikita had found installed in the control panel shortly after the first attempt at a Mun landing went wrong. Milhat continued, "Shortly after Mikhail took over, he diverted all assets to getting a space-vehicle launch capable site operational. So far as I know, he managed to get things running before he was deposed. For some reason, it became very important to get off Kerbin. It seems as if they're after something extremely important, and with the way the last discovery led to bloodshed, I think it would be better if it was never found."

"Where does Yelena fit in to this?"

"She was just a sucker, really. After Mikhail took over he started this whole propaganda program about how conventional wisdom was leading us down a naive path, and since he was on the way to making a monumental discovery that could change the world, he was the only one who could be trusted to handle it properly. Keep the big dangerous artifact, or whatever it is, out of the wrong hands. I didn't buy any of it, but a lot of people did. Hook, line, and sinker. Mostly people who weren't happy with the way KASDI went about things in secret, and trying not to get involved in big affairs. I didn't stay long after that, so I can't say what happened, but she was a pretty fervent believer right away." Milhat peered down at the map fragment Vladimir had brought, and made another correction. "At any rate, I hightailed it outta that crazy house as soon as I could, and found another KASDI cell that hadn't been taken over. They already knew what had happened and agents were being mobilized from all over, and a couple of days after that, Mikhail had been run out. He survived though, as did many of his people."

"I don't understand how things could have happened this way. We knew Yelena for years. Since long before the CEA came to be." Vladimir frowned, looking out the window as he spoke.

"Yes, and all that time she was spying on you and the people involved in the formation of the CEA. We knew it was going to be created before you did, that much I can tell you. KASDI won't get involved unless it has to, but we like to keep an eye on things. At any rate, if you recall her taking an extended leave shortly before the first secret CEA launches, that's when she was with Mikhail. Have I told you everything you wanted to know? Because we're almost there."

Vladimir glanced at the heading, and then looked out the window again. "Where? This is not the location on that map."

"I don't plan to try and land this thing on a mound of snow if I can help it. We're going to see an old friend of mine. Former KASDI. Now he runs a small research station in the polar region." Milhat began to bring the Orel to a lower altitude. "I'm hoping he'll lend us one of his polar exploration vehicles to get where we need to go."

Vladimir began to speak again, but the radio came to life suddenly. Wherever it was they were going had noticed the Orel incoming on RADAR. He listened quietly as Milhat communicated with the station, and finally a different voice came across. This Kerbal sounded happy to hear from Milhat, and agreed to let them land. The two of them continued to chatter over the radio, and Vladimir looked out the window yet again, staring into what seemed to be an endless abyss of bright snow and black sky. He wished things had not taken such a strange turn. Yuri and Yelena were both made of much sterner stuff, and though Vladimir was no creampuff himself he had the heart of a builder, not an explorer or soldier. Milhat seemed strange to him, he had a light attitude now that they were away from the CEA but Vladimir suspected it covered a much darker and dangerous person. He had shrugged off his assault on the unsuspecting crewman Dilman as if it were nothing. At this point Vladimir had no recourse but to continue down the path he was on and hope he had chosen the right people. Or that the right people had chosen him.

---

With the coordinates in hand from the KSC's mapping satellite technology, the rogue KASDI capsule had landed nearby. The two kerbals manning the vehicle had the undesirable task of performing a foot search on the Mun, but had been assured they would not have far to go. Still, it had been at least an hour since they had departed the pod, and they had found nothing. The going was slow due to the rough terrain and the strangeness of the gravity, but at last the two crested a small hill and stopped dead in their tracks.

"My god."

"Is that...? I didn't think we would really find it."

They stood there in awe for several minutes before finally approaching the object. "This has to be it. We need to get back to the capsule with these coordinates."

Though the trek back would take at least another hour, the endgame was clearly afoot.

I didn't intend to put this out until I had the whole chapter complete, but since I goofed and accidentally made a new post... well, enjoy. And those were the last two images I uploaded to imgur before losing everything else.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Randazzo

[Windspren]

I know what they're looking for.... Hehe.....

[Randazzo]

I know what they're looking for.... Hehe.....

Heh, it should become apparent to all soon enough.

XIX extended.

[AlexinTokyo]

Yay! It's back.

But my notification didn't work