Minmus Explorers (Part 3 12/2: Malcolm In SPAACE!) *Poll Added!*

[Sharkman Briton]

Pic by hellblazer, from left to right: Gemet, Aldvis, Val, Bob, Bill, Lugee, Malcolm.

This is Minmus Explorers, basically I'm going to be doing stuff at Minmus and having a storyline, all the stuff with Minmus is my first time, I've never seen Minmus in-game (apart from the tiny dot you see it as from Kerbin) until now, so I'm going to mess up alot, probably, It's based in my main save file, which plays what I call "Science-Sandbox-Sandbox" what it is is Science mode, but using the TreeToppler mod, I don't have to unlock anything, so you can collect science without unlocking anything, which is awesome. I'm using alot of mods, but no visual mods, except TextureReplacer for Kerbal heads, I'm gonna use ALOT of TweakScale and will definately be using DMagic Orbital Science and SCANSat, and a few more mods, I'm a bit inspired by Minmus Acres and other Mission Report stories, so look out for references to Minmus Acres, Kuzzter's comics and other stories on this forum, kudos if you spot them, lets get on with it then, shall we?

Part 1: Adams. First Kerbal Object To Go Into Minmus SOI.

Aldvis opened the door excitedly, and walked into the bleak yet very important room.

"Take a seat, Aldvis." That Kermany accent, it was Werhner Von Kerman, a very important Rocket Scientist.

Aldvis did as he was told, and sat his buttocks on a rather uncomfortable wooden chair on the far side of the table.

"You do know why you're here, dont you?" Asked Gene Kerman, Sharkman Space Programs lead in Mission Control.

"Of course, Sir" Answered Aldvis, quite bored.

"Don't call me Sir, my name is Gene, alright? And I don't think you know why youre here, It's because of a new mission for us to accomplish" Explained Gene

"Oh, what is it?" Asked Aldvis, now very excited, Aldvis, being a high ranking Engineer was usually the first to know of new missions, and new missions mean new things to engineer!

"We're calling it Minmus Explorers, ze Mun is boring, that cyan dot we see, looming in ze distance sometimes, is now of great importance to ze Space Program! Ve simply MUST learn more about it, ja?" Werhner told everyone at the meeting, with his usual insane and excited face.

"Thats why Aldvis, we need you to do your engineery thing, you're the best Engineer availible next week, as Bill is on holiday and Werhner is going to a party, will you make us a Probe to snap some nice pictures of Minmus?" Gene asked, politely.

"SQUAD YES I WILL!"

And that was the end of that.

"Gene, I have been working all week and have come up with perfect NaNoSat Technology, as I am calling it, weighing in at just twenty-five kilograms and smaller than a Kerbal, I introduce you to.... The Minmus Photographer "Adams"!"

"Wow, it's pretty.... Small, like you said." Gene replied, a bit confused at the size, he walked over to the tiny object and picked it up, it was surprisingly light, for an object made by the Sharkman Space Program, that is.

"Pretty much any old rocket will get this tiny ant of a probe to orbit, and not much will be needed to get it to Minmus from there. It's just so light!" Explained Aldvis, sweating in excitement.

"And I've already made a rocket capable of taking it to Minmus, with massive amounts of spare Delta Vee!"

"We will launch it next week, I need some time to get the Space Program informed and ready." Gene told Aldvis.

"Of course. Though, it won't be a big launch!"

Camera tests were ran later that day, and game surprisingly... Cinematic results.

Later that Week...

"So, you made a tiny probe, so small a baby RatSquirrelFish could carry it? Pfft, get lost!" Laughed Gemet, she was also high ranking in the Space Program, but was a Pilot instead, she was a very good friend of Aldvis, and has been assigned to many missions alongside him.

"I did, Gemet, and it's crazy small! I've ran the calculations and DERP% EQUA X TIONS/SUK = MATH so, this thing will get to Minmus with heaps of Delta Vee to spare!" Aldvis explained, getting a bit crazy in his equations.

"Shut up you, that Gobblegoop is of no interest in anyone who's not a complete NEEERD like you, so shut up and take this Bee-Hydrazine!" She demanded, clicking her fingers as she said "Hydrazine". Kerbol was setting over the horizon, and atop the VAB, Aldvis spotted what looked like a dead pixel in the sky.

"There! There! There it is! Minmus! Minmus! Look up, Gemet! Look up!" Aldvis practically screamed in excitement, and grabbed Gemets head and positioned it facing Minmus with enough force to break a RatSquirrelFish's neck.

"Ow, that hurt, I see it though, pretty boring from here, but you're right when you say it's really cool and interesting to watch, show me that Probe of yours later, okay?" Requested Gemet, before pulling some Bee-Hydrazine out of a bag and gulping it all down in one go, straight out of the Kan, Aldvis copied, and Gemet did it again, and soon enough they could barely sit, nevermind stand.

"Lets get outta here, pretty creepy up here at night, what about the Astronaut Complex, theres stuff going on at night there, it's awesome." Gemet suggested, before standing up to start walking, well, that was a huge mistake because she tripped over and fell flat on her face on the concrete of the VAB's helipad.

"Oh Squad are you okay, that looked a bit painful, need a hand?" Aldvis asked, standing up perfectly fine, if there was one crazy thing Aldvis could do that wasn't sciency-engineery stuff, it was to "swallow" his drunkedness, and be perfectly normal again.

Gemet pulled herself up, using a bar on the side of the helipad as a support. "Nah, I'm *hic* fine, lets go *hic*"

On the way to the Astronaut Complex, Aldvis's mind was full to the brim with stuff about Minmus. "Hey Gem, have you read that novel?"

"Which one?"

"The one where they make a skyscraper on Minmus, have you read it?"

"Oooh, that one, yeah, that was awesome, funny as Squad."

"Yeah, got me thinking, somewhen I wanna make the Space Program a base on that moon, would be very useful, both scientifically and practically, Minmus is full of opportunities!" Aldvis told Gemet, he was going to start another sentence but when Gemet cut him off.

"Stop thinking about that darn Minmus, you're gonna go insane as Werhner full up on Hydrazine! We're here now, so forget about Minmus for a sec and focus on the Par-tay!"

Inside they were greeted by Valentina, another high-ranking pilot and a good friend of Gemet.

"'Sup Gem, Hi Aldvo!"

"Don't call me Aldvo, it's annoying"

"Okay Aldvi-Kins, you two come inside, theres a party goin' on!"

Aldvis sighed, and zoned out a little, he was snapped out of his thoughts by Gemet pulling him through the halls and into a big room full of flashing lights.

"PARTEY TIME, LETS GET BLIMMIN' DRUNK OFF OUR ROCKER MATEY!"

2 Days later, Launch in T-5min.

"This is Gene Kerman speaking from Mission Control, Aldvis has assured us there won't be much of a blast from the rockets boosters. You are safe to come within 20 meters of the Launch Pad"

"No Poop, that rockets pathetic! Are you launchin' a RatSquirrelFish or summin'?" Scoffed Malcolm.

"Nah M-Nine, smaller than a baby one, still got a big purpose though, you know what that is." Replied Val

"He don't know don't the boy? Dey be launchin' a probe to take de pictures o' Minmus' S'what they doin'" Explained Lugee.

Aldvis was closer to the Rocket than anyone else, he sneakily went 19 meters within the Launch Pad, and everyone else was a few meters behind him, except Gemet.

"How long to launch, Ald?"

"30 Seconds."

"Okay, I'm waiting....."

"T- 10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds, 7 seconds, 6 seconds..... 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second..."

"IGNITION!"

"TAKE OFF!"

The small rocket lunged into the sky, gaining speed in massive amounts, within a few seconds, the small but incredibly feeble rocket was thousands of meters above them, flinging through the sky at over 1000 meters per second! Soon after launch, the two SRB's were decoupled, and a loud BANG echoed through the sky, and hurting the ears of Kerbals, even the ones in the Admindistration Buildings basement, the SRB's had smashed into eachother and exploded seconds after being decoupled, and a fireball was seen in the sky, Gemets face was drained of all colour, but Aldvis was fine.

"Keep watching..." Aldvis told her, "Keep watching..." and a few seconds later the rocket was clearly seen, undamaged, all according to Aldvis's plan, the speedy rocket kept flying through the air, leaving a stream behind it, soon enough, it could barely be seen, and passing the Kerman Line was imminent.

"69km, 69.6km, 69.9km, 70km, we have passed the Kerman line!"

The vehicle dropped it's ascent stage and was soon firing it's circularization stage, bringing the Periapsis to a steady 90km and the Apoapsis to an also steady 150km, at this point only Aldvis, with his tracking device, which he could use to see through the Probe's camera was able to have any clue where it had gone, and Gemet was excitedly watching the gizmo. Mission success, for now.

"Approaching Maneuvre at Prograde, remember, the Probe, including the probe core is placed on the rocket upside-down, so point Retrograde instead of on the Manuevre" Advised Wernher.

"Burning Retrograde, which translated into Prograde, 200m/s to go, 100, 50.... and Manuevre accomplished, now on an intercept course with Minmus, in seven days." Explained Bill, who was controlling the craft. He was speaking through a microphone that beamed the sound out around the Space Center.

"SEVEN DAYS? Minmus must be AGES away!" Moaned Gemet, she had always been impatient, Aldvis smirked to himself upon thinking this. It was time to pack up, go back to the Astronaut Complex, and wait. Wait. Wait. And wait.

That night, Aldvis couldn't sleep, he couldn't take his eyes off of his Tracking Gizmo, he had been watching it ever since he had gotten into his room, for hours he had watched the Probe get ever further away from Kerbin, and his home planet was slowly getting smaller. He used a remote control to turn the probe around, and there he spotted it. Minmus, the cyan dot, now shown as much closer, but still very very far in the distance of the Probes cameras, he could just see it in better colour than on Kerbin, just about, but still barely seen.

"I can see it! I can see it!" Aldvis cheered into the darkness, soon after he heard a knock on his door, and there stood Lugee, with his Manley moustache, with one eye shut and one eye staring him down, he needn't say a word for Aldvis to get what he was silently screaming at him. "BE. QUIET. I'M. TRYING. TO. SLEEP!" Aldvis nodded his head, and shut the door, hearing Lugee walk down the corridor to his room a few doors down, he opened the door a little, just to make sure he was gone, and he spotted Gemet, waiting outside the door, waiting for him to notice her.

"Whats the news? I heard you cheering."

"I'm seeing Minmus closer than on Kerbin!" Aldvis whispered back, like a quiet shout.

"Cool, show me." Whispered back Gemet.

Aldvis showed her the tracking device, the Probes cameras were still pointed at the cyan blue moon.

"Thats it? I can still barely see it." Said Gemet, confused and unimpressed.

"It's still alot closer than any Kerbal has seen it before, I can just about make out colours other than turqoise." Explained Aldvis, a bit agitated about her being so unimpressed about it.

"Yeah, it is a bit closer... Wait, have you been up all night watching it?" Gemet demanded answers.

"Umm... Yes, yes I have" Answered Aldvis, preparing for the storm.

Gemet ripped the Gizmo off of his wrist, shoved it into her onesie's pocket, yes, she has pockets on it. Stared him in the eye and told him sternly.

"You need to sleep and save your insomnia for when the Probe goes into Minmus's Cube of ignorance or whatever it's called."

"Yes Muuum" Aldvis replied, so sarcastic you could feel it.

"Oh yeah, and it's called Sphere of Influence, or SOI. Sounds like you need some sleep too" Aldvis giggled.

"Whatever, I'm taking this Camera watching thingimajigr and in the morning, after you prove to me you've had your sleep, you can have it back, geddit?" Gemet told him, sternly.

"Okay, yessir!" Aldvis chuckled.

"I'm being serious."

"Okay, G'night."

"Yeah, you too."

3 Days later. 4 days until Adams enters Minmus SOI.

"Okay, no bags under your eyes, you've been getting sleep, hered ya gizmo." Gemet handed Aldvis his tracking device, and Aldvis took a glance at it, it had been 3 days since the Adams probe launched, passed the Kerman line and started on it's path to Minmus, Kerbin was now shown as alot smaller than the night after the launch, and Minmus was now easily seen in better colour, but it was still thousands of kilometers away. He thanked Gemet and was on his way, he had a meeting with Gene, Wernher and Malcolm, Squad knows why Malcolm was there, he would have to get there on time to find out.

"Hello Aldvis, take a seat" Gene Greeted Aldvis.

"So, whats the meeting for?" Asked Aldvis.

"Yeah, Gene, whats de meetin' for?" Malcolm asked too.

"Vell, Ve are here to discuss ze Minmus Explorer project, including ze long term goals and vat ve vill do after ze Adamz Probe has done itz job." Explained Wernher.

"Yes, Wernher, thanks for explaining, I had a message to answer, and-"

"Why am I here, guys?" Malcolm cut off Gene.

"Well, being our test pilot I thought you would be good at helping Aldvis with vehicles on Minmus later, but not now, so shut up and let us discuss."

"Alright, I'll go then." Malcolm walked out of the room, with an annoyed face on his head.

"Vow, zat was awkward."

"Anyway, Aldvis, any news on Adams?"

"Well, I'm seeing some closer pictures of Minmus every day, and, even though Minmus is still very far away, I can make out new colours on the moon." Aldvis showed Gene and Wernher his Tracking Gizmo, and they both gasped in excitement.

"Well, this is very good, I haven't been looking at the screen in mission control because I've been busy with reading Kerbfleet com-I mean with planning further missions." Aldvis and Wernher eyed Gene for a second, before a chuckle burst out of the both of them.

"Ahem, anyway, what are we going to do after Adams is in place? Aldvis?"

"I was thinking about just looking through the camera of the probe for a while until we come up with something."

"Dummkopf, ve should send ze Kerbals zere! Are vous with me, Gene?"

"Not yet, Wernher, moving on, what are our goals for the project?"

"Oh, I know! I know! Why dont we make a base there? Do SCIENCE?!" Yelled Aldvis, Excitedly.

"Vy dont ve make a Kerbal cannon zere?" Joked Wernher.

"Oh, and why dont we make a skyscraper there too? Call it Minmus Acres." Laughed Gene

"Like in that Novel, darn, I loved that book!" Also Laughed Aldvis.

2 Days later. 2 days until Adams enters Minmus SOI

Gemet knocked on Aldvis's door, practically pounding on it, causing a few Kerbals to tell her to quiet down, it was still dark, for Squads sake!

"Yeah? Why'd you wake me up, Gem? Did you break my Device or something?" Yawned Aldvis.

"You're gonna love this! Lemme show you the Device!" Gemet rummaged in her pockets for a while. "Darn, Ermm... Be right back." Gemet said. worried, before running back to her room, leaving Aldvis to ponder on whats happened to the Device, a few minutes later Gemet was back, with the Gizmo in her hand.

"Look at it! I can see Minmus easily!"

Aldvis hadn't looked at the device for a couple of days, being too busy with planning and the like.

"Woah, it's rather close, this is awesome! Lets go show Bob, sure He'll be able to squeeze some new data from this!"

"SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!"

"Sorry, come on, Aldvis, lets go!"

The two of them tiptoed but did it so fast it was like normal walking, until they reached the Orange suit part, Aldvis glanced up at the name "JEB" hung over a door, Jebediah Kerman had been missing for ages now, he was last seen bailing out of a failing plane, standing up and then dissappearing. (He fell through the world, tracking stations shows him as Splashed down, can't get him back because if I click him the game freezes.) Aldvis pondered on what could've happened to him, but was disrupted by a knock, he walked over to Gemet before Bob answered Gemets knock.

"Bit early for knockin' innit'?" Said Bob.

"Sorry, but Aldvis's tracking device is showing Minmus close-u-" Bob snatched the Gizmo from Gemet's hand and stared at it, in disbelief.

"Woah, thats awesome, whats those weird darker blue areas?" Bob asked.

"No clue, obviously, see if you can get something out of it, data or whatever." Aldvis suggested. Bob took a picture of the view, and gave the device to Aldvis.

"Thanks, Bob, good luck with the science." Gemet and Aldvis said.

"Thanks to you too. Good luck with the probe."

Gemet looked Aldvis in the eye.

"If anyone messed this mission up, tell me, I will personally rip them a new-" Aldvis cut off Gemet.

"I know, but you'll be in mission control to make sure that don't happen, right? Because I'll be with the group on the Launch Pad taking pictures of Minmus with the cameras." Aldvis told her.

"Okay, and meet me atop the VAB again tomorrow night, alright?" Asked Gemet.

"Sure, but..." Gemet was gone the moment he said 'Sure'... "why?"

"Nevermind, off to Mission control it is." Aldvis talked to himself.

1 Day Later, 1 Day until Adams enters Minmus SOI.

"So, whats up?" Asked Aldvis, he had dont as he had promised, and met Gemet atop the VAB.

"Well, it's the night before Adams goes into Minmus Cube of Ignorance, and I thought it's the perfect excuse for a mini-party, right?"

"Of course, and it's Sphere of Influence, you ding-bat!" Aldvis didn't even finish his sentence before Gemet ripped one of many cans out of her bag.

"Guess."

"Hydrazine?" Aldvis clicked his fingers as he said the word.

"Yes, Hydrazine." Gemet clicked her fingers, too.

Lets just say those cans were empty pretty quickly and even Aldvis couldn't stand after that amount of Boo-'Hydrazine'.

"Thats the *hic* last of the *hic* stuff, pretty *hic* dark, so, *hic* before ya go, *hic* I wanted to *hic* say...*hic*... Have a good *hic* time with the *hic* space thingy. *hic*"

"Yeah *BURP* you too, see ya tomorrow."

The next day.

"Time until Minmus Intercept, T-16, 15, 14... 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, aaand, We have entered Minmus SOI!" Gene Cheered, quickly followed by everyone in Mission control.

"I hope nothing bad happens now." Gemet whispered under her breath.

"Plotting capture burn at Minmus periapsis, 32 minutes. I'm waiting, lets do this." Val said, loudly, but not shouting.

At the launchpad.

"These pictures are GOLD! We are learning new things by the second! Aldvis you are a genius!" Bob complimented.

"Thanks, but theres something weird going on with the camera, its turning even though SAS is supposed to be on, as if it's ran out of... ELECTRIC CHARGE!"

Aldvis, Bob and the whole rest of the crew taking pictures burst into Mission Control. 60 Seconds until burn.

"Yes?" Asked Gene.

"WHATS THE MATTER?!" Screamed Gemet, panicking.

"The Electric Charge! Check the Electric Charge! The Probes ran out! It's spinning!"

Mission control had been too busy watching the time until the burn to notice the NavBall.

This was the end of the Adams Probe.

Gemet ran up to a dusty corner of the big control room, and pressed ALL the buttons. A robotic sounding voice boomed through the room.

"Powering up emergency transmitters"

Another Voice.

"10 seconds until manuever burn"

"Transmitting Power in Nine seconds."

Mission control was silent, par for these two announcers.

"8 seconds until maneuver burn"

"Transmitting Power in 9 seconds"

"ITS STUCK! OH SQUAD OH SQUAD NOOO!" Lugee, walked over to the dusty corner, and in a fit of rage kicked, punched hit with a RatSquirrelFish toy, the Transmitter console.

"3 seconds until Manuever burn"

"9-Power Transmitted. Electric Charge full"

Val leapt to the controls, and utilized all the Electric Charge to execute the burn with close to perfect precision, something Val had always been good at.

"Burn complete, now in orbit of Minmus."

A Massive Cheer roared through Mission Control.

End of Part 1

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Edited August 19, 2015 by Sharkman Briton

[Geschosskopf]

Quite a story. I take it that keeping the camera pointed at Minmus caused the fuel tank to shade the solar panels?

[Sharkman Briton]

Quite a story. I take it that keeping the camera pointed at Minmus caused the fuel tank to shade the solar panels?

Well, no, as it happened Tweakscale must've messed up and made the Probe core 0.650m, while everything else was smaller, meaning the probe core was using more electricity (I think) and even though the sun was shining, only one panel was getting sunlight, and was generating power much too slow, so when the story says they 'transmitted' power what really happened in the game was I hyperedited myself the electriccharge, thanks for the reply!

[Mister Dilsby]

Hey, great start and love that cute little probe. Did you orbit Kerbin wrongway? (heading 270 from pad not 090) That gets bonus silly points (and also leaves debris in orbit capable of intersecting something traveling in the orthodox direction--hilarity ensues!

Like the use of Squad for G-d in various epithets, makes more sense to me than 'Kod'.

[Sharkman Briton]

Thanks! The probe was placed on the launcher upside-down so it got confusing sometimes, I had to quickload alot of times when I forget to point retrograde on a prograde burn, I picked up the Squad thing from oceans of eve, and considering the fact the probe core was upside-down then everything appears opposite of what it really is, so 270 should be 90, but I did go over the KSC on the launch so It must've been a Retrograde orbit, thanks for the comment!

[Sharkman Briton]

Update

I know this is pretty early for an update, but I thought I might as well, so, the next probe bound for Minmus is the mapper "Marie" I've told myself that from now on I'm going to name my missions after characters from Everybody Loves Raymond, because I love that show, so here it is, it will do low-res altimetry scans of Minmus to determine future points of interest, studying locations Adams has spotted that Mission Control thinks looks interesting, here it is.

And

Also a shot of the main characters so far (Obviously excluding Wernher and Gene)

Left to right: Gemet, Aldvis, Val, Bill, Bob, Lugee, Malcolm.

Hope you're enjoying the story so far! Leave any suggestions for the series. Thanks for reading!

Edited August 16, 2015 by Sharkman Briton
Misspelt Val

[Wallygator]

I can't read this. Too long to comfortably read in detail on my mobile device.

Still. Rep to you for such an effort!!! Wow!

[Sharkman Briton]

I can't read this. Too long to comfortably read in detail on my mobile device.

Still. Rep to you for such an effort!!! Wow!

Thanks! I kinda get a bit carried away when I write, hope you can read it on a computer though.

[Sharkman Briton]

T-5

T-4

T-3

Ignition!

T-2

T-1

Liftoff!

SRB Seperation confirmed!

Main stage seperation confirmed!

BANG

BOOM

CRASH

Circularization stage seperation confirmed!

"KEBLOOEY"

KABOOM, Craft destroyed.

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"Testing finished, results: positive." The robotic announcers' voice boomed throughout Mission Control. The new Sharkman Launch Sloth had been being tested, it handles well, flies well, seperates well, all is good.

"All tests have positive results, I think we're done here, amirite, Gene?" Malcolm asked, a little bored of doing the same thing over and over again.

"Awwright! Seems like a good rocket, we'll be launching Marie tomorrow, to map Minmus and possibly determine future landing sites, have a good night everyone." Gene yawned, it was pretty late and the whole crew was pretty tired, he walked off toward the Admindistration Building, where his room was located.

"Nice one, Ald, ya rockets a fine piece a work, should definately get that thing up there, anything about it by the way? Nobody's told me about it in detail." Gemet asked Aldvis.

"Of course, Gem, it's going to go to Minmus, and do low-res altimetry scans on it, might find some future landing sites and will investigate some interesting sights spotted by Adams." Aldvis answered, already excited about tomorrows launch, unlike Adams, there is little notice for everyone to get ready.

"Awesome, like what?"

"Well, Adams has spotted some weird black marks on the surface, kinda look like scorch marks on an oven mitt, it's interesting because they're completely different from the surrounding terrain."

"Wow, weird, how big is this one? The probe, that is."

"It's not "The probe" it's Marie, and it's several times the mass of Adams, so still tiny for SSP standards, a bit bigger than a Kerbal I reckon."

"Cool, better get some sleep though, you, everyone else has gone off to the Astronaut Complex to sleep, better get going too, it's kinda...Creepy here in the dark in this room, yeah, this is giving me the chills, lets get outta here." Gemet is a little afraid of the Dark, but only admits it to Aldvis, not even Val."

Gemet and Aldvis were on their way to the Astronaut Complex when suddenly...

"Hey Gemmeh!"

Gemet almost jumped out of her skin.

"Hi, Val." Gemet answered.

"Sup, waitin' for the launch tomorrow, or the lunch tomorrow? Cause' Catgie's servin lunch while we serve launch!" Val was obviously excited at this.

"Wait, Catgie? Ain't she that quiet girl thats always in the medical room? Why is she always in there?" Aldvis was confused.

"Cause' she works there, Duhbrain, she's the Medic." Val and Gemet both answered at the same time.

"Oh, how was I supposed to know, then? The medical room is on the other side of the complex."

"Well, you could have some exploring urge and look around, anyway, we're here." Val pushed the door open and soon they were in the nice, warm, indoors Astronaut Complex, as compared to the creepy, cold, outdoors outside, on their way to the 1st room hall, they passed by a room with a Kelevision, SnaK dispenser and Koole table, Aldvis doesn't remember this.

"Whats that?" Aldvis asks.

"That? Thats the entertainment room, we're going a different way, why dont we go in there?"

"Yeah, awesome idea Gem, c'mon you two." Val insisted.

Aldvis was playing himself at Koole, Gemet was watching Everykerb Loves Kermond and Val had broken into the SnaK dispenser and eaten everything.

"Hey girls, hey... Whoever that guy is."

"Oh, hey Catgie, whats up? *burp*" Valentina greeted Catgie.

"Nothing much, just-" Catgie was cut off by the loudest laughter any of them had ever heard, Squad darnit Gemet.

"As I was saying, I'm just baking some cake for tomorrow, it's choco-" Catgie got cut off AGAIN.

"WHERE" Val demanded answers.

"Not telling you because you'll eat it, anyway, whos this guy?"

"Him? He's Gemets' friend, Aldvis is his name."

"Oooh, hi, Aldvis, think I saw you earlier..?"

"In mission control watching the tests? Yeah, that was me." Aldvis replied.

"He made the pro-I mean Marie, the Rocket, and Adams." Gemet said, without looking away from the KV.

"Woah, awesome! So you're one of the leading engineers then? Darn, I love that rocket, extra cake for you tomorrow! :wink:" Catgie said, impressed.

"Hey, Val, you know this?... Oh." Catgie asked in vain, because Val was fast asleep, snoring, with the odd burp.

"That reminds me, *yawn* I should get some sleep, especially you, Gem, youre controlling Marie tomorrow, remember?" Aldvis suggested. He didn't want Gemet to be tired and ruin his launch.

"Okay, let me just finish this episode."

"How much longer?"

"About 20 minutes."

"Alright, come here."

Aldvis walked over to Gemet, picked her up, dropped her on the floor infront of the door, and practically DRAGGED her to her room, where he pushed her in, shut the door and said "G'night" but by that time Gemet was already snoring. Aldvis walked back to his room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning.

Gemet walked over to Aldvis's door, the usual morning routine of waking him up, except when she knocked there was no reply, she knocked again, again, again, no reply. Confused, the started thinking where he could be, until she realized.

"Mission Control."

She paced over to there, it was very early but the sun was shining bright, and warm. She opened the door and...

"There you are, Ald, why are you here so early?"

"Launch, why aren't you here already? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago to prepare to control Marie, and wake yourself up but it seems you're still half awake judging by your one eye closed." Aldvis picked up a water sprayer and sprayed a mist of cold water all over her face.

"Aah! Don't do that you farigug!" She now had both eyes open.

"I had to, because if you mess up on controlling this thing I will have to drive you over to the lake of RatSquirrelFish poop and throw you in there, I heard the taste will stay with you for months!"

"Oh, whats this?" Gemet picked up a full water gun, and pointed it at Aldvis's face.

"Don't you-" SQUIRT

Aldvis picked up another one, and soon enough the whole floor was soaked, Gemet's hair was dripping and Aldvis's shirt was drenched. Wernher walked into the room.

"Look o-"

Slip "AARGH" Wernher slipped and fell flat on his face.

"Sorry..." Gemet muttered, guiltily.

"Nevermind, it vas not as if I vas carrying anyzing important, vas it?"

"Alright, excited for the launch?" Aldvis asked.

"And the lunch." Gemet added.

"Vell, of courze, for both!"

Suddenly, a loud noise followed by even louder beeps and a continuous buzz. Aldvis and Gemet looked out of the window and saw a huge railway machine getting a rocket carried off of it by an even bigger crane. The rocket was here.

"Nice, ze noise of ze hard vorking machinez, beautiful, ja?" Wernher admired the huge rigs. The railway machine carried rockets from the VAB, over the crawlerway to have the rocket placed on the launchpad by a crane.

Soon, a small bus arrived and a few engineers walked out and climbed a ladder up to the top of the rocket, opened a hatch in the fairing and inspected the payload, checking that every last detail was in place.

Many footsteps were heard, and within a few seconds Mission Control was full, and also full of people slipping and hurting their backside.

----------------------------------

A few hours later.

Aldvis, Gemet, Bob and Malcolm stood upon the crawlerway, eyes on this small but very capable rocket, Gemet had a basic remote control and joystick in her hand, once she ignites the engines with a button, she will use the joystick to navigate it as she runs into Mission Control to take on the proper controls.

"Okay, for real this time"

T-10

T-9

T-8

T-7

T-6

T-5

T-4

T-3

Ignition!

T-2

T-1

Liftoff!

Gemet sped to Mission Control, running almost as fast as the rocket was gaining velocity.

"Look at her go! Squeezun, she could hold up on a race against a RatSquirrelFish in the matin' season, I tell ya!" Bob announced.

"My rocket! Look at it! it's gone so far up already! It's amazing, look at the gravity turn! Gemet is amazing at this!" Aldvis yelled, just loud enough to be heard over the massive noise of the rockets engines.

Gemet needed to get to Mission Control before the SRB's needed to be seperated.

She didn't need to open the door, Wernher and Lugee had been holding the doors open for half an hour, and they were relieved to see Gemet speed past them. Seconds before the SRB's ran out of 'Juice' as everyone called it, the was at the controls and the seperation, that utilized Seperatrons for the first time in the Space Program, was perfect, forming a slight 'Korolev Kross'. (Sorry, no pictures were taken in time:blush:)

quickly, the apoapsis was sitting at a comfortable 90 Kilometers and the rocket's engines were cut, not a minute later, the main stage was burning again, using the last of it's juice to circularize, but the job had to be finished by the circularization stage.

after that was done and Aldvis, Bob and Malcolm were watching Aldvis's tracking Gizmo, Gemet created a maneuvre node, to plot a burn to get a Minmus intercept, but no matter what she did, she wouldn't get an intercept, happiness quickly turned to frustation and she was scared, not because she cared about Aldvis's RatSquirrelFish lake joke, but because she didn't want to dissappoint him. Eventually though, with a bit of help fiddling around with the nodes by Val, an intercept was plotted. 52 Minuted until burn, time to play the waiting game.

Catgie walked into the room with a cake in both hands. Val lunged at her trying to get some, but Gene managed to hold her off.

"Well then, someone's hungy" Catgie chuckled.

"Catgie, why don't you put the cakes back in the back room and serve them in an hour when the burn should be done?" Gene asked.

"Of course."

"Nooooooooo!" Val screamed in remorse.

----------------------------------------------------

51 Minutes of keeping Val off the back room door later...

Aldvis, Bob and Malcolm were in the room now, and Lugee was still stood infront of the door to the back room, even though Val was now watching the huge monitor.

"Burn in T-10 seconds." The robotic voice echoed through the hall.

"SAS on, pointed at the manuevre, stable aaaand... Burn, baby, burn!" Gemet started singing to herself after doing her mind checklist.

soon enough the Circularization stage (even though it didn't do much circularizing) was drained of fuel and jettisonned, and the Minmus stage, powered by a Round-8, Oscar-B and "Ant" Engine was finishing off the burn, slowly, but soon enough they were on a steady course for Minmus.

"It will go into Minmus's Cube of Ignor-Sphere of Influence in... 21 DAYS?!" Gemet couldn't believe what the Monitor was telling her.

"Vell, Minmus ist very var avay, and zis is taking a longer time zen Adamz becauze ze course is less divect, ve must vait." Wernher explained.

"Well, time for cake then!" Catgie announced, before whispering to Lugee, "Keep Val off of these plates, okay?" Lugee nodded. And was quickly wrestling Val off of Catgie, as promised, Catgie gave two slices of cake to Aldvis.

"Good engineering that rocket was. :wink:"

Gemet couldn't believe she was hearing this, she did the hardest bit, after all! And her job wasn't even finished! She was entitled to that extra slice, she knew it! So...

She grabbed the second of Aldvis's slices, Aldvis was quick to react though, and was on it as well, both of them, holding the cake narrowed their eyes and stared at eachother, as if it was a Kexican standoff you see on KV.

"Pull!" Gemet screamed.

"En garde!" Aldvis accepted this challenge.

With them both pulling it in different directions, the slice broke in half, it was now time for the Crumbfest, Gemet collapsed to the floor and started hoovering up the crumbs, but she didn't think it through, and Aldvis just picked up the slice she left down before she started the Crumbfest, and ate it but now Gemet was staring like him like Kuss in Koots, and eventually he gave in and handed her a slice, so now they both had one and a half slices and a bunch of crumbs each.

-------------------------------------------

Many days later.

This time, Gemet was in Mission Control before Aldvis.

"What are you doing? It's barely even daybreak!"

"Executing the burn of course." Gemet answered.

"What?"

"The burn is in 10 seconds, youre just in time to see it."

"What burn?"

"We were in Minmus SOI as soon as midnight last night, I plotted the capture burn and here I am."

"Well burn then!"

"Burn in T-2 seconds."

[Z]

2 Minutes Later.

[X]

"Finished, we're now in a stable orbit around Minmus, we got a circularization burn in 21 Minutes, lets wait. Except it won't be circular, still highly eccentric."

"Alright then, Gem, theres still some cake left, if you want it."

"Squad yes!"

---------------

21 minutes of gratituous cake-eating and lots of crumbs later...

"Nomnomnomnom, very nice! Wow, this stuff is deli-" Gemet was cut off.

"T-5 seconds until circularization-ish burn." The robotic announcer's voice echoed through Mission Control.

Gemet leapt to the controls, quick as a flash orientating the probe in the right direction.

[Z]

"*Yawn*, another 2 minute burn, I see?"

"Yes, Ald, this engine is slooooow."

"one two three four.... 120." Aldvis counted the seconds.

[X]

"We're circularized-ish!" Gemet put her fists up into the air in joy.

"Yep, starting the altimetry mapping now, deploying the antennas, too."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And thus Minmus Explorers project won their second victory against the void of space, putting the first Mapping Satellite into Minmus orbit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bzzrt HelloAdamsPhotographer Bzzrt"

"Bzzrt HelloMarieMapperNiceToSeeYouAtLast Bzzrt"

"Bzzrt YouTooAdamsPhotographerThisIsTheHighLifeIsntItUpHereAroundMinmus Bzzrt"

"Bzzrt IndeedMarieMapperIndeed Bzzrt"

"What? They're talking!"

"Yes Gemet, they are, I programmed them to be able to talk to other probes, and even Mission Control if I push a button to turn it on." Beep

"Bzzrt HelloCreatorAldvisIAmAdamsPhotographer Bzzrt"

"Bzzrt HelloCreatorAldvisIAmMarieMapper Bzzrt"

"And hello to you two, too."

"Alright, now lets get drunk off our rocker, race you to the hidden Hydrazine bag atop the VAB!" Gemet sped off.

"Bzzrt ByeByeCreatorAldvisHaveANiceTime Bzzrt"

"Bzzrt CyaLaterCreatorAldvisHaveAGoodOne Bzzrt"

Needless to say there was alot of confusion when everyone got into Mission Control and found everything was said and done.

Hope you like it!

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[Mister Dilsby]

Honestly, it's a bit hard to pick a favorite for the poll yet--there are many characters to choose from and a LOT going on at once in the text. I think I'll be able to differentiate better between them all once your Kerbals get into space and start doing stuff there

[Sharkman Briton]

Well thats lucky, I'm planning on doing a little mini-part today and later doing part of station bulding, congrats on your 1000th post!

[Sharkman Briton]

Minmus Explorers: Part 3 1/2, Blaze & Amber

"Vell, ve must make a vay to get ze Kerbalz to Minmus in ze future, ja?"

"Well, Wernher, it would be a good idea to get the crew acquianted with zero-G and general space, as we haven't sent anyone up there yet." Gene explained.

"Why don't we make a station?" Val said. "I mean it's not rocket science to figure that out, is it?" Val laughed

"It isn't, but it IS rocket science to actually make it, we need to plan everything, the core, the service craft and the rockets of course." Gene told her.

"Vell, ze Zharkman Launch Zloth has ludicruous amounts of Delta Vee, doezn't it?" "Ve could build a stronger rocket with conceptz from zat, it might vork!"

"Good idea, Wernher." Gene praised.

"'Cause when ya need a rocket for da program, who ya gonna call? ALDVIS KERMAN!" Val started giggling hysterically at her own joke.

-----------------------------------------------------

"So, Ald, how big's this rocket gotta be?" Gemet asked, interested in Aldvis' new project.

"Quite big, I'm going to use 2.5 meter fuel tanks for it, and four Reliants, It needs to lift a heavier payload with good control." Aldvis answered happily.

"Is this the thing thats gonnae bring the Kerb's up into space?" Lugee overheard some conversation, and was interested.

"Well, Lugee, it will do that, but later in the project I will try to design a more complicated machine to get us there with less danger, but for now, yes, it will."

"Yeah speakin' of that whats de next mission for us?" Lugee asked.

"Well, we're not going to Minmus this time, but it's a test to see how well the machines support Kerbals in space, we've got to prepare for sending us there ourselves."

"Well then, I yam off, g'luck with the rocket, matey!" Lugee was back on his way.

"Wannna continue this conversation walking? I have pins and needles!" Gemet suggested, before standing up and doing a little dance to get rid of the annoyance.

"Ok, why don't we go check out the tracking station? I wanna see whats up with Adams and Marie." Gemet didn't have time to answer, because Aldvis was already headed in that direction.

"Race ya." Gemet challenged, Aldvis nodded his head and was off, Gemet quickly caught up with him, though, and then Gemet caught her boot on a bit of plating from a fairing, and fell flat on her face.

"You okay, Gem?" Aldvis asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm... Fine." Gemet looked ahead, and under the plating was a small creature, Gemet made a big "AWWW" sound.

"A KITTEHKAT! I adore Kittehkats! And it's a baby too!" Gemet squee'd.

"Really? Let me see... Aww, it's adorable!" Aldvis peeked under the plating, the Kittehkat made a faint "Mrow" sound.

"What are ye two doin', eh?" Lugee again. He has always been a bit scary, with that macho mustache, bulk, short temper and how tall he was.

"Nothing." Gemet answered.

"Are ye?" Lugee looked under the plating too, and jumped away from it, and went into a fit of "AWWWWW" and "It's so CUTE!"

Aldvis Looked at Gemet, Gemet looked at Aldvis, and they both shrugged. Lugee heard the Kittehkat's faint "Mrow."

"It's scared, it's only a Kitten Kittehkat and it's lost it's mother, c'mere ye." Lugee lifted up the fairing shell fragment and picked the Kittehkat up, cradling it in his arms.

The Kittehkat made a louder, more enthusiastic "Mew" now, it clearly liked Lugee.

"Lets find ye mother, shall weh?" Lugee said to the Kittehkat, holding it out infront of him, "Mroaw!" The Kittehkat was very excited now.

Lugee walked off with the Kittehkat, again, cradling it in his arms.

"That was unexpected." Aldvis muttered.

"I know, right?" Gemet replied, they both started chuckling.

-------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, getting dark, -Grasslands near KSC-

"Where's yer wee mutha, ye poor Kittehkat?" "Mrow." The Kittehkat was worried now. Kittehkats are afraid of the dark without their mummy.

"Aye know, I used to be scared o' the dark, too, but aye learned to love it after me older brother locked me in the pitch black shed all night, with nothin' but the dark and the wee spiders to keep me company, that was many years ago, in the ol' highlands on de west continent, aye, t'was a lovely place, indeed, beautiful views, all year around."

"Mreow." The Kittehkat was feeling better, now.

"Ey, whats dat o'er dere?" Lugee spotted a big wreckage, on fire. "Dem folks at mission control been testin' again, ain't dey?"

Lugee went over to investigate, it seemed like a fairing shell, in many pieces and a few fuel tanks around.

"MROOW"

"Ey, t'was that you, wee Kittehkat?" Lugee asked. The Kittehkat shook it's head. And his attention was brought back to the wreckage by a huge BOOM.

Lugee quickly but the Kittehkat down, and left his torch with it, on, so it didn't get scared. He rushed into the fire, desperately searching for any source of the sound.

"ARGH, we 'stache, it be on fire!" Lugee yelled, but he ignored the pain, pressing on into the blaze.

"MROOW"

It was much louder this time.

"MROOW" "MROOW" "MROOW"

It was coming from INSIDE the rocket, Lugee entered through the cargo bay, it was some kind of plane. He pushed through the fire, with only a grunt when it touched his skin, and eventually got into the cockpit, where he saw two glowing amber eyes watching him.

"MROOW"

"There ye are, ye poor Kittehkat, c'mere." Lugee got onto his knees and crawled under a desk, picking the KittehKat up, suddenly, a big creaking noise was heard, and then a SMASH.

Part of the top of the plane had collapsed, blocking the exit of the cockpit. Lugee banged on the windows, suddenly a rock fell through a small hole in the cieling, and a small face looked in, it was the baby Kittehkat.

"Ye idiot! Ye coulda gotten yerself killed! Now go back to where I left ye, away from the fire!" The baby Kittehkat obeyed, and was off. Lugee grabbed the rock and smashed the window with it, but it wasn't big enough for him to fit through.

"Well then, de Kittehkat come first, dunnit?" and he flung the Kittehkat so far through the window, it completely flew over the small field of flames.

CREAK

CRACK

"Well, there goes da cieling, and me bones. Dunnit?"

SMASH

-------------------------------------------------

"Oh, look, a baby Kittehkat, and it's mother! How cute, whats that? It dropped something... Lugee's torch?" Catgie was confused, two random Kittehkats had walked up to her, and dropped Lugee's small torch infront of her.

"Mroow" The baby Kittehkat got Catgie's attention, and raised a paw in the direction of the wreck.

"What? Wait, is that... Smoke? FIRE?! Lugee's torch... LUGEE!" Catgie, ran over to the flaming wreck in the distance, she was the Medic, she could help, on her way she screamed out "SOMEBODY COME WITH ME! LUGEES IN TROUBLE!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

20 Minutes later, pitch black outside, -SSP Medical Bay-

"Tis' but a flesh wound, aye'll be fine, lass."

"No, Lugee, it's a massive gash over your chest, a broken leg and a scorched moustache, and Squad knows what else!" Catgie yelled at him, while others looked on, worried.

"*Sigh* Tis not as if it would kill meh, one tiyme aye got into a fight o'er in the town of Keddinburgh, and got me throat cut, badly, t'was, aye ignored it, and da pain went away, me mum saw, and told me aye'm goin' to go live with the rich part o' the family in Kel-air, the only thin' that came from the wound was de skin grew back a darker green, and sometimes aye feel a lil' wrigglin' there, but aye ignore it."

"Wait, a wriggling feeling on a healed wound that you ignored? Look over there!" Catgie pointed out the window, and as soon as Lugee looked away she injected him with some chemical that made him fall fast asleep.

"I suggest you all look away, because it ain't gonna be pretty." Bob, Malcolm and Aldvis lookd away, but Val and Gemet carried on watching.

Catgie cut the darker green patch of skin open and ripped out a huge, maggot a few feet long, Gemet instantly threw up and Val fainted.

"I told you to look away!" Catgie said before snapping the creature in half over her knee, with a disgusting CRRRACK.

-----------------------------------------------

The next day, light outside. -Meeting Hall, Astronaut Complex-

"I've called you all here for a very special occasion, the joining of two new employees! They have both saved a life, and are now assigned to the role of therapy and keeping people calm in case of bad things happening. I present to you... Blaze and Amber!" Gene Pulled the sparkly red sheet off of the box, and out hopped a baby Kittehkat and it's mother, they walked into the crowd, right up to Lugee, who had refused to have a wheelchair despite his broken leg, and they both jumped onto his lap and started licking his face.

"Ey, ye cheeky lil' Kittehkats!"

Gene clicked his fingers "Here Blazey Blazey Blazey, here Amber Amber Amber!"

"Ye two wee lil' ones, go back to Gene, den." And they both followed the command.

"And here are the two badges for this special occasion, Lifesaver for both of them!" Gene picked up two collars, with sparkling orange badges with a silver edge, and letters made of small solar panels spelling out 'Lifesaver Award', Gene put them on the two Kittehkats, and pressed a button on the badges that turned on a small torch, then he turned them off again.

"The solar panel letters generate electricity, stored in a small battery that is used to power a torch, and Blaze and Amber can turn the torch on just by shaking their head a little." Aldvis explained, "Of course I made them."

----------------------------------------------------------

And so SSP Gained two new members Blaze and Amber the Kittehkats, who both share a room with Lugee.

This part is 1/2 of part 3, and is focused on story stuff, part 2/2 will have launches, have a good day, and I hope you like this series!

[Sharkman Briton]

Minmus Explorers Part 3 2/2: Malcolm In SPAACE!

"You do know why you're in here, right?" Gene asked.

"Nope, no clue." Malcolm Answered.

"Well, you're going to be the first Kerbal in space for the Minmus Explorers Project."

"WHAAA?!" Malcolm had no clue HE would be the first one!

"Yes, You're a good pilot, and since you're our Test Pilot, you know what to do in emergency situations."

"Okay, send me up, Skotty!"

"Not yet, you need some briefing."

Malcolm sighed, he'd rather jump to the launch.

"We're sending you up there to be the foundation for the future space station, you're going to go up, get into a stable orbit, bring you apoapsis and periapsis to an about one hundred kilometer orbit, and try and get the nodes as similar as possible if you can, then, you are going to rest up, do diddly-squat because you're going to be in a cramped MK1 Lander Can, and get some sleep and we will send up another kebal and their ship to rendezvous with you, thus forming the first part of the station, then, the first servicer will go up, which will dock onto the station, bringing an engineer on-board, who will add some parts to the station, before bringing you and the engineer back down in that servicer, leaving the second Kerbal involved up there with two lander cans of living space. Oh and don't you dare forget to take beauty shots along the way!" Gene explained in great detail.

"Okay, okay." Malcolm walked over to the announcement stage, jumped up on it and shouted "I'm pumped!"

"Malcolm, the Kerbin election votes are old news, stop making jokes about it." Gene demanded.

"Okay, Okay! Hehehe."

"Oh, and you will be able to take ONE small item with you in the lander can, what do you want?"

"I'll have a Kartini, shaken, not stirred and on the rocks!" Malcolm was crying in laughter now.

"Haha. Funny. Now, seriously, what do you want?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next meeting: Admindistration building small-scale meeting hall. Mid-day.

"So, I'm going up in that BadS rocket, to spend three days with Malcolm? I'll go insane!" Val protested.

"Do you want to go up or not? I can schedule Gemet to go instead." Gene knew how to make Val do anything.

"Fine! I'm a better pilot then her, I'll go, just give me some earplugs, air freshener or deoderant, and I'll be ready, I've spent days with him in a cramped space before, he stinks. He doesn't even bother to do something about it!" Val explained.

"Of course, so, earplugs and deoderant, thats about, uh..."

"Eins kilogramz, dummkopf!" Wernher shouted out from another room.

"Yes, thank you, Wernher, anyway, Val so, after you go up there and dock with him, a servicer crew craft will come up, with an engineer, who will install some things on the station, then go back down with Malcolm in the servicer, then you have a while to yourself, we will be able to keep in contact with you through radiowave transmission, and since it's a rather low orbit, there won't be much if not no delay at all."

"Gotcha. Who's the engineer gonna be?" Val asked.

"Guess."

"Aldvis? Like it always is when you say engineer?"

"Yeah, either him or Bill, haven't decided yet, though Bill is telling us he's getting rather bored with Aldvis doing all the work."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, Lugee's room, red sky at night. Shepards delight.

"Aye, Blaze, 'ere Kittehkat! Ye too, Amber!"

"Mroow"

"Mew"

"I got ye wee Kuna, for yer supper."

Soon enough two cats, one small, one quite larger, chewing on Kuna, their favourite food.

"Prrr, Mroow? (Hey, Blaze, do you think these come from Duna? They sound similar.)"

"Mew, Mreow. (Don't be ridiculous, Mum!)"

"Prr, Mree, Mree! (Hah hah, joking, I know they aren't!)"

"What are ye two goin' on aboot? Ye adurable lil' Kittehkats!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Communal Room, red sky at night. Shepards delight.

"So, theres two muffins in an oven, one muffin says to the other, 'Good grief, it's hot in here!' and the other muffin says 'Good grief, a talking muffin!' Hah." Gemet joked, the whole room made a cringe-y fake laughing noise.

"Zho, uh, Bob'z up next!" Wernher announced.

"A Koala's driving a Kar, and a Kar full of Kandas hit his mirror with the side of their Kar, the Koala rolls down his window, and shouts out 'Oy! You calipped us!' The pandas say 'Nah, prefer Bamboo.'" The whole astronaut complex was in tears. Bob leapt off the stage.

"Vell Zen, heh, zat's everyvone, who vants zome more, Hydvazine?" Wernher proposed.

All the Kerbals yelled "Heck yes!"

This night was a celebration night for Malcolm's upcoming launch, the rocket, named the 'Sharkman Launch Sloth 3' was designed by Bill and Aldvis together, and utilizes two point-five meter 'ingredients' as Bill calls them. Whil'st the lander can is not soundproof, providing a case of 'bleeding ears' during take off, the seat has a cushion on where you're supposed to put your head, at least, so the G-force wont be crushing your head against a metal pole that makes up the seat's skeleton.

-------------------------------------------------------

That night, nighttime (obviously), Astronaut Complex.

All is dark, sleepy-time for Malcolm... "ZZZ"

Suddenly, a huge metal CLANKing sound is heard, all the lights are turned on by awoken Kerbals, and the Meowing of Blaze and Amber is heard. Followed by another massive CLUNK. Malcolm's rocket was delivered, and he did not remember that Gene told him it was going on in the middle of the night!

"Kerbonauts, please report to Mission Control, and Malcolm Kerman, report to the Launch Pad immidiately, thank you." The robotic announcer requested. And soon enough, many half-awake (or half-asleep?) Kerbals were filling up Mission Control, looking through a Camera on the launchpad, showing Malcolm sat infront of the rocket, tapping his fingers on it's sharp orange plating.

"I wonder if this tastes like orange, too?" Malcolm said, before licking the orange fuel tank leading to him promptly licking the ground to get the taste of Oxidizer spilt by the fuel loader out of his mouth.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

A large crane came out of the VAB, going down the Crawlerway's rails and infront of the rocket, where it dropped down a fittingly tall ladder, Wernher was at the platform ontop of this engineering feat, making a gesture with his hands telling Malcolm to climb up. Malcolm did that exactly and there he was on a rather high up platform leading to the Sharkman Launch Sloth 3's fairing.

"Have a nice vlight, comvrade!" Wernher said.

"Will do, and hopefully I can catch up on some sleep I've just lost up there." Malcolm giggled.

"Nein, vous vill be vide awake avter ze rockets enzines have vinished carving into your ear drumz!" Wernher explained, with a half-serious look on his face. He walked over to the fairing, and opened a little hatch in it, revealing the Lander Can's, Malcolms residence for the next few days hatch.

"In vous go!" Wernher opened the hatch and pushed Malcolm in.

"Bit more cramped than I expected."

"Vell, it must do, see vous later!" Wernher closed the hatch, and then the hatch in the fairing, then held onto the side of the crane whilst it brung it's ladder back up and went back into the VAB.

"This is Malcolm to mission control, I'm ready."

"Roger that Malcolm, ignition in T- 60 seconds."

"Roger that Mission Control, begin the checklist."

"Comms?"

"Check."

"Flight computer?"

"Check."

"Navball?"

"Check."

"Stability assist?"

"Check."

"Countdown?"

"Starting now."

"T- 10 seconds."

"Nine seconds."

"Eight seconds."

"Seven seconds."

"Lets do this! I'm goin' to space!"

"Five seconds."

"Four seconds."

"Three-" "IGNITION" The noise was so loud that Malcolm couldn't hear the countdown, he had to finish the countdown off in his head.

"LIFTOFF"

The boosters shot the rocket up into the sky, although the rocket was noticably slower than the Sharkman Launch Sloth 1, it was still very fast, the SLS 3 was designed to outclass the SLS 1 in most ways, including moar DV, moar Boosters, moar size and moar payload. After about twenty seconds of roaring, deafening sound, the boosters shot away with the speed of 'Adams' rocket.

The sound was now noticably less, but Malcolm was still in pain from the boosters drilling into his eardrums. But soon enough, his apoapsis was at one-hundred kilometers, and the fairing was jettisoned.

Quickly after, they were onto raising the periapsis and making the orbit stable, and almost all of this was done by the launch stage, and the last tiny bit was done by the circularization stage. (seems to be a running thing with this series, circularization stages being mostly useless.) Boom! Orbit, though rather eccentric, the Periapsis was at ~90 kilometers, and Malcolm needed to make this a circular, ~100kmX~100km orbit, menuevre plotted at apoapsis, will raise periapsis to 104km.

"Comms back on, you should be in space now, I don't hear any boosters, so hopefully you ARE in space, 'cause there's no abort function on this." Gene's voice suddenly echoed through the cramped Lander can, startling Malcolm.

"Roger, Mission Control, as you should see on your monitor, I'm on an eccentric orbit and have a manuevre plotted to get the periapsis in the right spot, burn in about nineteen minuted." Malcolm explained.

"Roger, seems good, hope you like the thing you packed."

"Wait, what did I pa-" Malcolm was interrupted by liquid splashing into his face in Zero-G.

"You asked for a Martini, shaken, not stirred, and on the rocks, now it's on your face." Gene smirked, although nobody could see if because there was no facecam in the lander can and everyone in Mission Control was either fast asleep or just dozing off.

"Copy that Mission Control, I have new orders to tell you something, good game, Gene, good game."

"Heh, I have a humor, too, now slurp up that lovely Zero-G martini and do your spacewalk."

"*Slurp* Space *Burp* walk? What spacewalk? Why?"

"Beauty shots, thats why."

"Opening the hatch now, EVA suit on, woo-hoo! Here we go!"

"Bit dark, that pic, nothing we can do about it, though, nice one, this'll be good in the Daily Kerbin!"

"Thanks, can't talk now though, gotta focus on the manuevre, only twenty-one m/s DV, though, 10, 9...... Burning!"

"Finished burn, plotted new manuevre at Periapsis to raise Apoapsis to one-hundred and ten kilometers, Periapsis is now one-hundred and four Kilometers, I'm gonna take a nap, wake me up at the burn..."

"Roger that, Malcolm, catch up on that sleep we've took away from you."

----------------------------------------------------

DING DING DING DING

"Pointed retrograde, burning in three, two, one..."

"221 m/s, 100m/s, 50 m/s, 10m/s"

"Burn finished, 3.2 m/s DV left, Apoapsis around one-hundred and eight kilometers, Periapsis one-hundred and three kilometers, all traces of martini slurped, Mission accomplished!"

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Both parts of Part 3 done, hope you like this series so far! And for goodness sake vote on the poll for your favourite character! Next part is focused on station building, will be using MJ. (I can't rendezvous at all, never done it successfully.)

Have a nice day!

[Mister Dilsby]

Well done Malcolm! Once you clean yourself up, maybe see if they'll launch you in daytime next

And heh, kittehkat. I saw that.

[Sharkman Briton]

You should've read part 3 1/2, it was all about Lugee and two Kittehkats, the whole thing says the word a few times every sentence. Heres a sneak peak of Val's ride next time on Minmus Explorers (after the break!)

Basically a station core.

[Sharkman Briton]

So, I'm a bit busy playing around with space battleships and stuff, so I can't be bothered to launch a rocket ATM, but don't worry, I will be launching Val at some point, hope your all enjoying the story so far, and don't forget to vote on the poll! Thank you.

[jackboy900]

Really cool, loving it so far. I voted on the poll but was a bit indecisive.

[Sharkman Briton]

Glad you like it! I looked away for a few hours while there were only two votes, now theres loads!

[Sharkman Briton]

Minmus Explorers on hold until Val and Bob respawn (I was messing around okay?!) not gonna edit the Persistent.sfs becase last time that went horribly.

[Mister Dilsby]

Minmus Explorers on hold until Val and Bob respawn (I was messing around okay?!) not gonna edit the Persistent.sfs becase last time that went horribly.

Too bad! This is not a hard thing to edit though, you only need to change their status from DEAD to AVAILABLE, IIRC. Just make a backup first and you'll be fine.

[Sharkman Briton]

They're M.I.A, but anyway I'll do it and part 4 either this evening or tomorrow, as right now I'm going crazy with space battleships, but just a reminder if anyone has already forgot part of part 3 2/2, on part 4 Val is gonna go up and (MJ assisted as I can't do it for my life) rendezvous with Malcolm, forming the first part of the station, then station building.

[jackboy900]

Most of those votes were me. I Liked them all

[Sharkman Briton]

Yeah, since I've mostly lost interest in this series, the story is continued somewhat in Project Genesis Uno, same characters and all. Thanks.