The Saga of Emiko Station - Complete

[GDJ]

Oh my.

[kookoo_gr]

[RA3236]

Aweso....

WAIT! SPACE KRAKEN????

[Commander Zoom]

Yup, I knew that little "anomaly" on Bop was going to come into this somehow...

(It rather sharply derailed the direction and tone of my own Jool mission... one of these days, I really need to write that up...)

[Mister Dilsby]

Oh. So Thompberry is the Kraken now. That will end well  And no crew in that prototype, right?

[RA3236]

1 hour ago, Commander Zoom said:

Yup, I knew that little "anomaly" on Bop was going to come into this somehow...

(It rather sharply derailed the direction and tone of my own Jool mission... one of these days, I really need to write that up...)

I know, a story gets very interesting when the dead kraken is involved. 

@Just Jim you consider this to be a spoiler alert? I mean for the explorers, and newbies.

[Just Jim]

44 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Oh. So Thompberry is the Kraken now. That will end well  And no crew in that prototype, right?

Well, actually the old Kraken is dead, and Thompberry is now just a "brain-in-a-jar"...... 
Super-classic, campy, cliché sci-fi.... hehehe.... and I'm fairly sure no-one else had done that yet. 
I didn't find any disembodied brains in the other fan fiction writings anywhere.

Yes, the prototype itself in now unmanned, no pun intended, and almost out of fuel, which presents an interesting problem for Thompberry... perhaps he'll need some assistance at this point?    

 

19 minutes ago, RA3236 said:

I know, a story gets very interesting when the dead kraken is involved. 

@Just Jim you consider this to be a spoiler alert? I mean for the explorers, and newbies.

I'm sorry... after already mentioning the lost space center, arches and saucers, I didn't really think about the Space Kraken.
I apologize if I gave it away.

But I did not, and will not, give it's exact location.  At this point even Thompberry is unsure exactly where he is.

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Just Jim

[TopHeavy11]

Oh boy. This should be fun. So, let me get this strait...Thompberry is now a cyborg (in a sense,) Parka B is undermining KASA, the Elder Kraken is truly dead, and the Rock Lady predicts a darkness approaches. Geezus. There is one thing I still don't understand. Was chapter thirty a look into the future, the past, or just another current event?

[Just Jim]

27 minutes ago, TopHeavy11 said:

 Was chapter thirty a look into the future, the past, or just another current event?

Yes...... 

Thompberry's awaking, so to speak, is occurring around the same time as the rest, if that's what you mean.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Just Jim

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Uh....

[Just Jim]

55 minutes ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Uh....

yes????? 

[Andem]

Oh yeah, there's the Lovecraft! I love it!

[DMSP]

Prepare the bunkers...

[Just Jim]

Oh, I almost forgot!

This last chapter was dedicated to Lovecraft.

But it was also very heavily influenced by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson's Dune: The Butlerian Jihad.
Herbert and Anderson have taught me the secrets of a brain-in-a-jar.... deep, dark secrets known only to hardcore dedicated Dune readers.... 
Secrets I intend to use, and exploit.... and cause havoc amongst the stars... bwaahahahaha

(Oh no, he's monologging again....)   

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Just Jim

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

  <-- me

[Geschosskopf]

15 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Dedicated to The Whisperer in Darkness, by H.P. Lovecraft

Yup, brains in cans   Welcome to Yuggoth, Thomberry...  And you said "gibbering", hehehe

Pol has always made me think it was actually some spawn of Azathoth.  They have a very close family resemblance and Bad Things often happen to my ships there.

EDIT:  BTW, what's making things overheat on airless worlds?

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Delfinus]

So. Thompberry is a Elder Kraken now.... 

[Just Jim]

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Yup, brains in cans   Welcome to Yuggoth, Thomberry...  And you said "gibbering", hehehe

Pol has always made me think it was actually some spawn of Azathoth.  They have a very close family resemblance and Bad Things often happen to my ships there.

EDIT:  BTW, what's making things overheat on airless worlds?

Pol gives me nightmares.  But if there is true evil in this game, it's Tylo.... lol. 

As for the overheating, it's because of the engines I'm using.  These series of landers have 4 ion Dawn engines surrounding one Nerv.  Here's a pretty good up-close picture

The Dawns worked surprisingly well, much better than I expected for a decent weight lander.  I was more interested in using them for cosmetic purposes (the weird blue exhaust) but come to find out I can land on all the small moons, up to Minmus and Bop, just using the Dawns.  The only issue is watching the electricity level and not letting the batteries run all the way down.  When they got low enough I switched to the Nerv long enough for them to recharge, which was only a few seconds with the XL solar panels, so it was fine.

The Mun and Ike weren't bad, I used the Dawns to keep from going too fast, but had to toggle the Nerv on and off to actually slow down enough and land. 
Vall I needed the Nerv. more, and this is where it had problems with it starting to overheat.  I had to toggle it on and off and really pay attention keep it from heating up too much.  I have the small extendable radiators on these, I think that helped.

In the story I said I didn't know about Tylo. I lied. 

Trying to land on Tylo the Nerv didn't stand a chance against the vicious gravity, and burned up before it got below 1000 m/s.  I knew it would, and watched it overheat and explode at something like 7000 meters.  What was left obliterated itself when it hit the surface.  No big deal, like I said, I knew it wouldn't make it... in fact I planned on it not surviving. 

As I said...
Tylo is Evil....

1 hour ago, DolphinDude3 said:

So. Thompberry is a Elder Kraken now.... 

No... Thompberry is something... new..... different..... strange..... and definitely evil 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Just Jim

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Pol gives me nightmares.  But if there is true evil in this game, it's Tylo.... lol. 

Going to Tylo doesn't make for a pleasant trip.  It's like rounding Cape Horn in a windjammer, something separate the bluewater sailors from the coasters.  But that's just the way it was born, an accident of fate.  It's not imbued with inherent, eldritch Evil like Pol

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

As for the overheating, it's because of the engines I'm using.  These series of landers have 4 ion Dawn engines surrounding one Nerv.  Here's a pretty good up-close picture....

Ah.  So why not use either radiators (2 medium retractables  per NERVA) or fuel cells (to keep the battery charged)?  IIRC, a 6-pack fuel cell will run 2x ion engines full throttle for a net Isp of about 1800 (Xenon + LFO consumption).

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

No... Thompberry is something... new..... different..... strange..... and definitely evil 

Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
And nothing of him doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something new and strange

 

[Just Jim]

48 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

 

Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
And nothing of him doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something new and strange

 

Ahhhh.... nice!   That is definitely Thompberry.

48 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Going to Tylo doesn't make for a pleasant trip.  It's like rounding Cape Horn in a windjammer, something separate the bluewater sailors from the coasters.
So why not use either radiators (2 medium retractables  per NERVA) or fuel cells (to keep the battery charged)?  IIRC, a 6-pack fuel cell will run 2x ion engines full throttle for a net Isp of about 1800 (Xenon + LFO consumption).

It's going to take that plus a much more powerful engine, I think.  Or more than one Nerv.  I'm not sure, doing it stock and just guessing. 
But that's OK, I don't want to land on Tylo yet.  I have plans... and plans within plans... 

48 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

It's not imbued with inherent, eldritch Evil like Pol

I concede... Pol reminds me very much of somewhere else... somewhere dark and unforgiving...

There are mighty cities on Yuggoth - great tires of terraced towers built of black stone. The sun shines no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light.  They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples.  Light even hurts and hampers and confuses them, for it does not exist at all in the black cosmos outside time and space where they came from originally.

H.P. Lovecraft: The Whisperer in Darkness

 

Edited February 6, 2016 by Just Jim

[Geschosskopf]

20 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Ahhhh.... nice!   That is definitely Thompberry.

Well, it was actually Shakespeare   But I'm sure Lovecraft was quite familiar with that play ("The Tempest").

20 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

It's going to take that plus a much more powerful engine, I think.  Or more than one Nerv.  I'm not sure, doing it stock and just guessing. 
But that's OK, I don't want to land on Tylo yet.  I have plans... and plans within plans... 

Tylo is VERY sensitive to descent profile  Because it takes so much dV to land there (about 3500 IIRC), it's possible to start the descent with a local TWR of (slightly) less than 1.0, (which is about 0.85 TWR on Kerbin IIRC) provided you start high enough to burn off enough fuel so you end up over 1.0 TWR by the time you get close to the ground.  Another low TWR option, if you don't care what timezone you end up in, is to start low and burn most of your fuel skimming the surface while killing your horizontal velocity.  But if you want to end up at a specific point with some margin for safety to alleviate the sensitivity to descent profile, you need high TWR from the get-go (plus, of course, 3500 or so dV).

About a month ago, there was a long thread in the gameplay questions topic about single-stage Tylo return landers.  This defined the workable engine combinations for such a thing.  Now, such a ship is only needed if you plan on colonizing the place and need to rotate crews, make frequent supply runs, etc.  However, even a 2-stage, 1-and-done, flags-and-footprints Tylo lander, or a down-for-keeps probe lander, still needs to land once, and the thread shows what that requires these days.

20 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

I concede... Pol reminds me very much of somewhere else... somewhere dark and unforgiving...

There are mighty cities on Yuggoth - great tires of terraced towers built of black stone. The sun shines no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light.  They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples.  Light even hurts and hampers and confuses them, for it does not exist at all in the black cosmos outside time and space where they came from originally.

H.P. Lovecraft: The Whisperer in Darkness\

But on the upside, the canned brains of the Fungi from Yuggoth can "ride along" with beings from any time and place.  But on the downside, that usually is worse than being a canned brain

[Just Jim]

17 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Well, it was actually Shakespeare   But I'm sure Lovecraft was quite familiar with that play ("The Tempest").

hehehe...  I'm a big fan actually... But you don't want to get me started on Shakespeare, or we'll have witches and ghosts showing up all thru the story... 

17 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

But on the upside, the canned brains of the Fungi from Yuggoth can "ride along" with beings from any time and place.  But on the downside, that usually is worse than being a canned brain

That was actually the idea.  In Whisperer in Darkness, the reason for becoming a canned brain is to survive the long voyages across space, which fit nicely with Thompberry's plight.  When you run out of snacks, remove brain and insert into empty snack jar??? 

I figure the old Kraken didn't think of it in terms of good or evil, it only thought to preserve this strange little green creatures life. 
Strange and alien as it was, it probably never considered a canned brain as something morally wrong, just a tool... a means to an end. 
Then, thinking it had done a good deed, it lied down and died in peace, not realizing it had, in fact, created a great evil.

I think I like the tragic irony of it....   

Edited February 6, 2016 by Just Jim

[GDJ]

Thinking about it, Chapter 30 reminded me of a old Shakespeare quote:

If you prick us do we not bleed?

If you tickle us do we not laugh?

If you poison us do we not die?

And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

 

Problem is, who is the wronged? Thompberry, or poor Gene and crew?
I, in some ways, pity Thompberry. He still has to pay for his actions, but he didn't deserve to become this.

 

Edited February 6, 2016 by GDJ

[GDJ]

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

I have plans... and plans within plans... 

Ooh! How very Dune! Just like Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

Don't tell me that the rock speaking lady is an analog of the Bene Gesserit?

[Dobelong]

Hey Jim, I'm Popping by Bop for some science, so yeah.

Hope nothing happens.