Kerbfleet: A Jool Odyssey-CHAPTER 22 pg 2: Yet >another< narrative device!

[Starhawk]

Oh you cruel, cruel author!

I so wanted a panel under that last spoiler.  Aaargh.

I mean I should have known, but...

'Creepy pet', indeed. 

So, unless cheks has invisible pieces, it's hard to see how learning the game, even at master level, could help Kenlie in his dealings with the Kerbulans.  (Also, learning chess has never helped me solve a real-life problem, as far as I can tell).

Happy Concerned Nervous Anxious Frightened Alarmed landings!

2 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

Is the ghost Evil Jeb?

Well, no.  Jeb Kermulan is on the bridge of Despair.  The Ghost is Gregmore Kermulan. 

Who, you ask?
That's right.  And don't you forget it.

Happy landings!

[Geschosskopf]

@kuzzter

"BOB: "I'm trying to make that stupid 'live long and prosper' sign but it's just not working--seriously, there's half a dozen separate animation controls for our lips but NONE for our fingers? Arrghh!""

Plus Kerbals don't have enough fingers anyway

[KAL 9000]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

@kuzzter

"BOB: "I'm trying to make that stupid 'live long and prosper' sign but it's just not working--seriously, there's half a dozen separate animation controls for our lips but NONE for our fingers? Arrghh!""

Plus Kerbals don't have enough fingers anyway

LOL. The reason I couldn't take any pictures for the latest part of Outer Planets Adventures is that there's no way I could make the two Kerbals shake hands!

Edited November 22, 2016 by KAL 9000

[Starhawk]

And another thing...

Oh, never mind.  I guess the speed of plot supersedes the speed of light.  Or that panel took place over a much longer time span than usual.

I hope Gene and Wernher have been using their time wisely.

Happy Concerned Nervous Anxious Frightened Alarmed Terrified landings!

[Mister Dilsby]

15 minutes ago, Starhawk said:

Oh, never mind.  I guess the speed of plot supersedes the speed of light.  Or that panel took place over a much longer time span than usual.

Yeah, this bears explaining--it's the latter possibility that's true. Communications in Kuzzterverse are indeed limited by the speed of light, that's canon going back to Duna, Ore Bust! But when there's nothing going on that would bring any consequences for the signal delay, I ignore it in the comic. I suppose we could just assume that while they're waiting for their last transmission to be heard and answered, the kerbals and kerbulans are doing...well, whatever it is they do when you hit time warp or go and make a cup of tea or otherwise ignore them  

I haven't measured the distance recently from Kerbin to Jool, but assuming it's five light-minutes the conversation with the Ghost really happened like this:

0:00:00 GHOST: Hello, Despair... Do you read me?
0:04:40 EVIL_VAL: Excellent...then we're finally ready to execute this so-called plan of yours, Bob?
0:04:55 EVIL_BOB: Yes, Commander! Just as soon as our glorious leader's creepy pet finally gets into--
0:05:00 [GHOST'S hail arrives]
0:05:01 EVIL_BOB: Gaaah! It's him!
(doo de doo doo...)
0:10:01 GHOST: You sound surprised, Centurion. Perhaps you'd forgotten about me? [...]
(doo de doo doo...)
0:15:01 EVIL_VAL: Your timing is impeccable, Legate. In fact, we were just talking about you.
(doo de doo doo...)

Etc.   Rest assured terrified, signal delay will be a thing when and if it matters. 

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Kuzzter

[Dman979]

The Ghost! It's The Ghost!

@Deddly Yes.... yes... let the hate flow through you.

Hmmm....

On a serious note, I recall Kuzzter leaving Gregmore off this mission. He said it was because he was planning a second mission (possibly to Dres, which then got canceled), but it now happens that both Gregmores (who?) are at Kerbin at the same time. Coincydink? I think not!

[rlin]

1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Etc.   Rest assured terrified, signal delay will be a thing when and if it matters. 

Hmm...

From Duna, Ore Bust!:

Spoiler

 

[RA3236]

8 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

I guess that depends on when I get around to updating to 1.2.  

... I hope you have a comm on Inteprid, otherwise some problems may occur...

8 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

DUN, DUN, DUNNNNN!!!!!

_{I wonder what the Kerbals reaction would be}  

[greenTurtle1134]

12 minutes ago, RA3236 said:

... I hope you have a comm on Inteprid, otherwise some problems may occur...

About the speed of light and such - what if the 1.2 update cuts off the Kerbulan communications? And that's how Kerbin is saved? And Bob times it correctly?

Yeah. That might be true, in which case @Kuzzter will just have to think some more.

[StupidAndy]

how would the mechanism of bloaking work, i mean, nothing can really not be detected by radar, and the ones that can use the structure of the plane/anything else that can stealth to bounce the radar signal away from the radar tracking station, so they don't get not detected (DOUBLE NEGATIVES!) they just bounce the signal away so it cant be recovered, so it doesn't get tracked, another way would to deploy chaff, which is some sort of pieces of tinfoil like stuff, that big bombers deploy so the bomber doesn't get detected until its too late, so how would the boaking work?

it might be the first option, but that would make it extremely expensive to design and build, but chaff would make it have lots of space junk, basically giving them away.

or did you just think it up

i think the third option 

cant wait for chapter 16!

Edited November 22, 2016 by StupidAndy

[Dman979]

6 minutes ago, StupidAndy said:

how would the mechanism of bloaking work, i mean, nothing can really not be detected by radar, and the ones that can use the structure of the plane/anything else that can stealth to bounce the radar signal away from the radar tracking station, so they don't get not detected (DOUBLE NEGATIVES!) they just bounce the signal away so it cant be recovered, so it doesn't get tracked, another way would to deploy chaff, which is some sort of pieces of tinfoil like stuff, that big bombers deploy so the bomber doesn't get detected until its too late, so how would the boaking work?

I know a foolproof way to remain undetected by radar, and it's very Kerbulan.

Kill the radar.

[StupidAndy]

yes...YES! give into your hate! and your journey to the dark side shall be complete!

wait! wrong thing!

[Torgo]

Chaff is deployed to distract an incoming missile with a more attractive target. Chaff is pretty much the opposite of bloaking. Chaff announces your presence with authority. If there's nothing, and then there's a ginormous cloud of chaff, your opponent probably figures there are strange things afoot at the Circle K. 

Bloaking is all about fooling the sensors. If they are looking for light, show them dark. If they are looking for pattern, show them background noise. If they are looking for heat, show them cold (like Arnold covering himself in cold mud when fighting the Predator).

For a Kerbulan, though, I can see them going the opposite way to an extreme. We'll take out your radar, and you're going to know we're coming, but we don't care you know we're coming. The element of surprise is best left for those weak minded Kermans' birthday parties, teaching babies, storytelling and the Spanish Inquisition. (No, not linking that one. Do I look like google to you?) 

[FlyingPete]

11 hours ago, StupidAndy said:

how would the mechanism of bloaking work....[snip]

or did you just think it up

i think the third option 

Just like the Klingon/Romulan cloaking device (which somehow masks all heat output from the ship too) it works because @Kuzzter says it works. Just like how everyone has a near-exact counterpart on the other world (and, in the case of Kurt and Not-Kurt, is also completely insane) despite the huge societal differences. The details aren't too important

 

Looking forward to the next chapter!

[Araym]

On 22/11/2016 at 3:05 PM, KAL 9000 said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Is the ghost Evil Jeb?

I was guessing too...

... but as far I remember (and my memory is "swiss" **, in regard), evil-Jeb is actually within the Kermulan "Despair", with his fighter complements...

... and even evil-Jeb was involved in talking about the "misterious Legate".

 

Who is he really???

** Araym's "swiss" memory: not to be meant as "precise", like watches, but "full of holes" like the cheese. Because I'm probably a bit of both "Kurt" and "not-Kurt"...

[Geschosskopf]

19 hours ago, Araym said:

Who is he really???

I'm pretty sure he's the guy Kuzzter forgot about even more than the cheese-obsessed moron twins

 

[StupidAndy]

2 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

I'm pretty sure he's the guy Kuzzter forgot about even more than the cheese-obsessed moron twins

 

what about the guys that kept saying "i am _____" and "i am also not ________"? 

[Mister Dilsby]

I'll confirm, the Ghost is Gregmore Kermulan. For those who haven't been following, it's an in-joke that comes from Gregmore Kerman's failed efforts in "Order Zero" to get noticed enough to become an "A-team" major character. Gregmore Kerman also tried and failed to get noticed by joining the present Jool mission, taking advantage of his (non-literal) invisibility to stow away on a Derpstar flight. Kenlie convinced Gregmore to return to Kerbin with Air pilot Samantha.

And it's Thanksgiving here in the US! Wherever you are in the world, I'm thankful to have you as a reader  

[Dman979]

Wait, what? When did all that ^^^ happen?

And Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.

[Starhawk]

3 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

And it's Thanksgiving here in the US!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and to all in the US.

Satiated landings!

[max_creative]

On November 22, 2016 at 1:58 PM, RA3236 said:

_{I wonder what the Kerbals reaction would be}  

My reaction: @Kuzzter, now is a good time to get out the missiles and fuel tank cannons and other explosive stuff, right? 

[StupidAndy]

1 hour ago, max_creative said:

missiles and fuel tank cannons and other explosive stuff,

YAY! WE ARE GO FOR BOOM!

[greenTurtle1134]

4 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

I'll confirm, the Ghost is Gregmore Kermulan. For those who haven't been following, it's an in-joke that comes from Gregmore Kerman's failed efforts in "Order Zero" to get noticed enough to become an "A-team" major character. Gregmore Kerman also tried and failed to get noticed by joining the present Jool mission, taking advantage of his (non-literal) invisibility to stow away on a Derpstar flight. Kenlie convinced Gregmore to return to Kerbin with Air pilot Samantha.

And it's Thanksgiving here in the US! Wherever you are in the world, I'm thankful to have you as a reader  

Gobble gobble.

(later)

Thank you for writing, Kuzzter!

Edited November 24, 2016 by greenTurtle1134
the "(later)"

[RAINCRAFTER]

Gobble Gobble. Thanks for making all these great panels, @Kuzzter. This whole entire novel saga is really cool, between your unique style and the actual mission going on.

[Dman979]

Wait just a cotton-picking second!

The title of this thread is now "Endgame Studies complete"

END GAME = Ender's Game

STUDIES = Ender studies fighting wars

From this, we can easily see that the final battle will be controlled by Gene Kerman and Kermulan. They are both on their own own planet, just like Ender was. Ipso, facto.

See what over-speculation can do? It's fun!