For Science! (You've forgotten this existed, haven't you?)

[RocketSquid]

Interlude: Blast from the past... That you haven't seen yet:

Gene Kerman finished up his last sip of koffee and went to work. Today they had to move the MinSat's reusable transfer stage, now called the MinBus, into a lower orbit.

Rather boring, but it would be incredibly valuable, providing propulsion to and from Mun and Minmus, and lowering the amount of radioactive materials launched into space. Moving on, they also had to redirect an old, obsolete probe.

Currently it was going to Duna, rather inefficiently. It would actually arrive after the kerbbed mission would, so it was being sent to a new target: The figment of everyone's imaginations, Dres. Due to the logistics dilemas that would result from having two extraplanetary manned missions active at once, and starting at the same time, Dres would wait until a later window. And while that may offend the growing "Dres love" political party, there wasn't much the space program could do. Even with just the duna mission they were pushing the limits.

The probe, however, had a problem: All of its antennae were pitiful low-gains. Operating as an array, they were effective, however, a software problem had shut down all but one. Fortunately, this problem had a solution: MOAR ANTENNAE! While they could do nothing about the probe, they could increase their own broadcast power. The way to do this? Simple: use every antenna in the Kerbin SOI. Long forgotten Mun probes were re-activated, lost satellites were un-lost, and even the recent minmus lander was booted back up from its peaceful retirement. On the MPOS, Karen Kerman received new, baffling orders. "Okay, so we're supposed to change the frequency of the survey antenna and point it at... something. Some old probe. SO GET TO IT!!!"

Minutes later, the probe received its first orders in Munths. Weeks, even. Those orders were simple: burn. The probe knew how to do that. It was very good at it! It felt sad that it wouldn't get to see the red place, but it took some pride in the fact that it would be the first to see the new moon-planet-dwarf-asteroid-whatever™.

It burned so much, it ran out of fuel in the ejection stage that was supposed to have run out a while ago. "Bye, stage!" it thought.

And it still had plenty of fuel. This, of course, was when the Mun decided to block one antenna too many, and it stopped recieving. "Aww," It thought, "It was nice talking to someone for a change. Oh well, back to humming SPACE MUSIC!" (Cue "Also sprach Zarathustra", as that is the only song the probe knows) It sent one last signal, a simple fuel and telemetry readout with all 500 of the accompanying calculations.

Farewell, probe. We shall meet again soon.

[RocketSquid]

Chapter 4: Set Sail for Minmus:

Jeb sat in his new ship, for that's what it was, for the time being. It was a beautiful ship. Very... tube-ish. Perhaps even properly tube-esque. Very nice, very responsive. Not much headroom though. He prepared to launch.

It was him and the gang again, all his friends from the Space Akademy. And they were, of course, heading towards that great mint in the sky, Minmus.

"T-Minus 20 seconds" came the voice over the radio. "T-Minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."

"Liftoff!" shouted the four kerbs aboard the craft. The rocket lurched upwards.

It tilted a few degrees eastward, employing a fuel saving "Gravioli turn".

Jeb was happy with this. Bob was not.

The fourth kerbal in the ship remained quiet as it flew higher and higher

Soon the boosters were emptied and detatched. The main engine kept firing, and broke the atmosphere soon after.

Jeb raised the Mollyguard and pressed the button. Small explosive charges in the base of the fairing engaged, splitting it into pieces.

He then proceeded to reactivate the engines to achieve orbit.

After they achieved orbit, the four kerbals just smiled. Valentina was happier than the other three, by far.

Bob couldn't help but wonder why she was here. Why would they need two pilots?

She was more worried about what was behind his head...

or about the fact that they seemed to be staying in a glorified electrical cabinet.

But before she could learn the answers to these questions, it was time for snacks. They opened up the hatches, and the cabinets. Valentina noticed each of the other kerbals taking a small pill with their meal. "What exactly are those for?" She asked.

"They're to keep us from producing pollen." Replied Bob.

"Oh. Okay. Say, this reminds me of a story..."

"Oh boy. Here she goes." mumbled Bob.

"But I can't remember the details right now."

"Huh?" said Bob, louder than he had intended to.

"Huh what?" She said.

"Ummm... I was just wondering... umm... why... umm... you're on this mission instead of commanding your own mission."

"Well, I'm glad you asked. There are a few answers. The first is that I want to, because I'm already going to be commanding something BIG soon. The second is that if I waited for Minmus II, I might run out of time, and have to go to the HUGE command mission first. The third is that this is a four-kerb capsule, so they'd have been paying for an empty seat if I didn't come. The fourth has to do with this vessel's cargo."

"Umm... Does this vessel... have cargo?"

"Not much," Interjected Bill, "Just a single...Mmphmphg"

"Just a single bottle of Bubblyzine," said Jeb, who currently had both hands over Bill's mouth, "to celebrate the first kerbbed mission to Minmus. And since Valentina doesn't like bubblyzine..."

"I'm the designated return pilot!" she finished.

Bob curled himself into a fetal position and spent a few minutes crying.

[max_creative]

For science! For Dres! For cheese! No @DolphinDude3. No cheese. For giant explosions!

[Mister Dilsby]

44 minutes ago, RocketSquid said:

"I'm the designated return pilot!" she finished.

I approve of your safe driving practices  So, did you spring for vintage Valve Click-O, or something cheaper like Astri Sparkmonty?

[RocketSquid]

Just now, Kuzzter said:

I approve of your safe driving practices  So, did you spring for vintage Valve Click-O, or something cheaper like Astri Sparkmonty?

Currently unknown. The compartment with the bubblyzine won't open until they land.

[Delfinus]

4 hours ago, max_creative said:

For science! For Dres! For cheese! No @DolphinDude3. No cheese. For giant explosions!

Aww, I wanted Cheese, looks like I'll have to smuggle it onboard then....

[max_creative]

For Dres! I am a Dres lover here! 

[RocketSquid]

15 hours ago, DolphinDude3 said:

Aww, I wanted Cheese, looks like I'll have to smuggle it onboard then....

The duna mission will definitely bring cheese. The ship is certainly big enough for it, after all...

14 hours ago, max_creative said:

For Dres! I am a Dres lover here! 

The Dres probe has achieved an adequate apoapsis by now, but it will still need to perform a plane change. It should have adequate supplies, at the time of its launch it was the largest purely scientific probe I'd ever built, although I think one of my recent probes has surpassed it.

[RocketSquid]

Thanks to spring break, here comes:

Chapter 5: Course Locked, Ready to rock:

The chapter begins, of course, with shameless science grabbing. This time, it's the gravioli detector and the soil moisture sensor, being tested for the first time.

Unfortunately, there was a problem. "Bob, the scanner isn't retracting! Get on your spacesuit and go fix it!" Shouted Jeb

And so Bob began putting on his suit, piece by piece. Just before putting on the helmet, Jeb shouted "Nevermind! It retracted!"

And Bob began taking off his suit, piece by piece. This is as boring as it sounds, so here's a picture of the outside of the ship:

Just as Bob finished taking off the outermost layer of the spacesuit, a tiny alarm started blinking in the cockpit. "Okay, everyone," Jeb said, "Fasten your seatbelts, because it's time to burn, baby, burn!"

"Wait! Jeb! I'm still trying to... WAAUUG!" *BONK*

Fortunately, kerbals are pretty durable, so Bob was able to start getting into his seat. Unfortunately, the stage ran out of fuel at that point, and he instead threw himself at the ceiling. *bonk*

"Alright, fuel exhausted. Preparing to stage and burn with orbital motor."

"AAH! WAIT!"

*KER-BONK*

"Alright, desired orbit achieved. Cutting engines!"

Bob continued floating near the floor. He had curled himself into a little ball again.

"Bob, aren't you going to get back into your seat?" Asked Val.

"No. If I move, I'll only get hurt more."

"Bob, get your lazyS back into that seat, or so help me, I'll..."

He was back in his seat before she could finish.

They settled down after a while, and decided to have some snacks. It had, after all, been nearly an hour since the last snack break.

[max_creative]

Yay! chapter 5 is here! I hope Bob doesn't get brain damage from smashing around in there .

[Nahim]

Hi! I just read this mission reports and i liked!

 

I will stay tuned 4 moar once you fix these crashing inssues.

[RocketSquid]

2 hours ago, Nahim said:

Hi! I just read this mission reports and i liked!

 

I will stay tuned 4 moar once you fix these crashing inssues.

I fixed the issues already. Also, I have a little nyancat on my loading screen now...

[RocketSquid]

Interlude: Science Never Sleeps:

"Doctor Von Kerman?" Asked Josford Kerman.

"Ja, vat is it?"

"Well, you know the broken telescope?"

"Vat? Our telescope is not broken."

"No, the orbital one. Kerbsat-1, I think it was called."

"Ja. What about it? Did you get it working?"

"Sort of. Follow me."

And so Von Kerman followed the young intern into the little know office of the Kerbin Orbital Satellite Division.

"Okay, so here is the satellite:"

"It has a full set of optics and adequate power. However, it still refuses to take pictures, until now:"

"So why couldn't it take pictures?"

"We weren't originally sure, so we ran the diagnostics. Hardware in perfect condition. So we checked the software. That gave us nothing. So, we reinstalled the software, and it suddenly started working."

"Why only now?"

"It turns out you really have to read those "readme.txt" things."

"Hmm. Who would've thought? So, where is ze picture? Zat is the sort of thing I vould like to hang on my wall!"

"It turns out that... umm... it doesn't have any antennae."

"Vat? How are ve talking to it zen!?"

"It has the antenna in the probe core, but if we tried to have it transmit the full, high-resolution image over that little bandwidth, it wouldn't even have enough bandwidth left for telemetry!"

"Darn! I really vanted zat picture. I assume I'll have to pull some strings. And you Will, of course, be promoted! Er, vell, you'll be in charge of a BIG telescope now."

Sure enough, within hours a new, larger telescope was sitting on the pad.. It was packed in a fairing and placed atop a modified Kerbin-3-V launch vehicle. It was glorious.

The launch was rather humdrum, however.

The boosters fell away without seperatrons, model rocket motors, or any such things.

Soon, the engine stopped, and the fairing exploded away.

The solar panels rolled out.

The massive telescope split off from the launch vehicle.

Josford was dumbstruck. He sat in his office, trying to figure out how they had built it so fast.

Hours later, Von Kerman sat admiring the images it sent back.

He heard a knock on his door. It was Linus.

"Sir, I was wondering, why didn't we get any new data from those images?"

"Vell, we have already seen Mun up close, and from in orbit, and from the telescope on the ground. It's pretty hard to miss. And we had an orbital telescope on the Minmus lander."

"What about the Jool picture?"

"Vat Jool picture?"

Linus pointed to the picture lying facedown on Von Kerman's desk. Wernher grabbed it and flipped it over. It showed a large patch of empty space, with a medium green dot on it.

"Ah. And another thing: are you ever going to tell Josford that we started work on the KerbScope munths ago?"

[max_creative]

For science! Awesome! MOAR!

[RocketSquid]

2 hours ago, max_creative said:

For science! Awesome! MOAR!

I upload as often as my game and IRL schedule will let me. I'm on spring break now, so I have a lot of free time. Hopefully, I'll be able to pump out about 1 or 2 updates per week. I'm really enjoying writing these, so you'll certainly get MOAR soon enough.

[RocketSquid]

Uh oh, here comes MOAR SCIENCE!!!

Chapter 6: Technical difficulties:

Gene Kerman sipped his koffee as he walked into work. Almost immediately, a young, excitable kerbal dashed up to him.

"Mr.KermansirIthinkwehaveaproblemwiththesentineltelescope,theresacomputerglitchthatwillmakeit..."

At this point he ran out of breath.

"Okay, say it again, slowly."

"Mr. Kerman, sir, I think we have a problem with the sentinel telescope. There's a computer glitch that will make it lose telemetry as it crosses the SOI. Once that happens, it's dead. Good as gone."

"Hmm. Is there any way to fix this?"

"It's too late for a software update. Even if we tried, it would take more than the one day we have left."

"So how do we save it?"

"Well, I guess if you shut down the nonfunctional program..."

"Good, we'll do that," Said Gene, returning to his koffee.

"But sir, the nonfunctional program is craft guidance and command!!"

"Okay, so we control it remotely."

"But... That should actually work."

And so, minutes later, the sentinel was sent the command to open its main antenna. They would need the hi-gain to fully control the telescope from kerbin.

Yes, the booster was still attached, but they would soon remedy that.

Its cryogenic-fueled engine deployed. It would be used later to move the telescope to a slightly lower orbit where it would have no chance of returning to kerbin.

It still had a while to wait. Fortunately, the space center had plenty of interns.

They REALLY hoped they would be getting kollege credit for this. They decided to take it in shifts, two napped, the other watched. Soon, the one who was watching hurriedly woke up the other two.

"LOOK!! IT ESCAPED!! WE'RE DONE!!"

There was much rejoicing.

Gene had the guidance program re-activated, and sent the command to deploy the solar panels and turn on the scope. It happily obliged.

After transmitting the initial data, it shut off the hi-gain to prevent them from taking control again. This (open revolt on the part of a probe core) would normally classify as an emergency. However, the sentinel was also programmed to protect kerbin from asteroids and was, at the very least, still first law compliant by virtue of actually being unable to kill anything, so they decided to leave it be.

Unfortunately, R&D was having some problems.

"Linus! Come here! Ve haff a problem vith ze computer!!"

Linus came in and inspected the computer.

"Joemon! Come here! We have a problem with the computer!!"

Joemon, the head of tech support, came in and inspected the computer.

"Erhart! Come here! We have a problem with the computer!! Bring paper!"

"Who's Erhart?"

"My intern."

At that moment Erhart walked in, weighed down with roughly three boxes of paper.

"Okay, set that down here. Erhart, my mission for you is to assemble a team of at least three interns who are really good at math."

"Question..."

"No, you may not include Linus"

"Okay, second question..."

"No, you may not include anyone who is currently working on something."

"Well, in that ca..."

"Yes, you may include full time KSC staff that aren't doing anything."

"So, what exactly..."

"...Will your team be doing? I'll tell you when you actually have a team."

Meanwhile, on Minmus 1:

The valiant, and in in some cases *COUGH COUGH BOB COUGH*, not to give any names *COUGH HACK BOB*, not particularly valiant or easy on the ship's supply of space diapers, barf bags, or industrial strength sleeping pills. This was probably at least partially the fault of Jeb, who insisted on "testing the reaction wheels" at 3 points (that we know of). Additionally, Bill had failed to answer the comms, leaving it to go to voicemail. He seemed to busy inspecting the pod interior, which, according to him, was "astonishingly low resolution", whatever that meant. Val pretty much spent the entire voyage reading "Mars, ore bust!" and "Venus: Order Zero", which were graphic novels written by a kerb known only as Kuzzator. She laughed often, probably because the "Humans" in the story were just plain comical, with their ridiculous pink skin, long legs, tiny heads, and even smaller eyes.

(Just a note, mission control has upgraded their kerbonaut monitoring problem with a new software from @DMagic Inc.)

Soon, Bob had an idea, "Hey Jeb! Why don't you *hurk* STOP SPINNING and take a gravity scan?"

"Ha ha Bob. Really funny."

Five minutes later, Jeb had an idea. "Hey everyone! I'm going to stop spinning and take a gravity scan!"

But as it transmitted...

"That's odd. No response from R&D. Normally we get a 'Thank you for your contributions to science, not that you have a choice or anything' message, but this time, nothing."

"Maybe they're having technical difficulties. As usual. " Said Bill.

Little did they know how right he was. Back on the ground, Erhart had assembled his team. It contained three interns, including Erhart himself, plus two full time staff members who weren't doing anything at the time. They waited for Joemon to explain their instructions.

"Okay, team. Your new job is to tally up all of the science that this computer stubbornly refuses to give us. We have managed to pry some of our current data out of this piece of @!^$#&#%*ing, !$#!@%!%$$%!, &#@%!"

He continued like this for nearly a minute, stomping his foot at odd intervals. His face turned a bizarre shade of red, previously thought to be unachievable by a living kerbal. Fortunately, kerblish does not contain more than about 47 seconds of swear words, so he soon had to switch to lighter, and mostly nonsensical language.

"... We rebooted that zarking son of a potato SEVEN TIMES!!! WE UNPLUGGED IT TWICE!!!! AND THAT ZOOBLING SOCK STILL WOULDN'T WORK!!!!"

His face had gone to plaid at this point, and he immediately passed out. A nearby assistant, Meria Kerman, was prepared and took over while the interns fetched the smelling salts.

"We've distributed a software patch to all existing ships that will alter their transmission behavior. They will transmit their data as kerbal-readable ASKII text, along with a total science score. If for any reason that fails, we have also created a program that can convert the data on our end, plus a handy calculator to tally up the total science points."

"How will we distribute the data to the relevant departments?"

"By foot. Or, if you have time, you can get one of the engineers to make you a rover."

"Oh dear..."

 

And before you ask, yes, I do have to tally up science on a spreadsheet and add it using the debug menu. And yes, Joemon really does know every swear word the kerbals have come up with, and then some.

[RocketSquid]

Hmm. This is odd...

MetaChapter 1: The ruler of the universe:

Far from Kerbin, Beyond even Eeloo, is the third of sixth barriers. Past that lies the colossal machinery supporting this universe, and others. Past that is the fourth barrier.

Sandwiched between the fourth and fifth barriers, in an ancient, nameless panopticon lives the ruler of the universe. He was unimaginably old. He had outlived several universes, and currently controlled fourteen. He was young for his kind.

He had not created this universe, that was the job of the machinery. They created it, sustained it, repaired it, took it apart, and put it back together. The ruler can open these machines to alter them, and by extension, the universe. He does not like to open them. He prefers more subtle ways. Some things, however, force his hand.

He looks upon the universe and scowls. He calls out for help, but receives none. So he takes matters into his own hands. "Jedburry Kerman". He clicks the button. A kerbal appears on screen, eating lunch in the astronaut complex cafeteria. He sets the KerbalController to "Idea", and suggests that they try recovering science from the runway. Fortunately, there's still some science available there. After various scans, the ruler, and by extension Jedburry, learns that the universe seems to be preventing science transmissions from giving any science. He shall investigate further... soon. He has other things to do, for now.

[RocketSquid]

Interlude: A preview of coming attractions:

Gene Kerman, koffeekup in hand, strolled into the R&D department. Wernher and several flight controllers had been missing for the entire day, and some of the other staff said they were probably in here. He walked into one of the larger buildings and saw...

Krud. He had thought they would start simtesting tomorrow.

"Hello, Wernher. I see you've just finished the glider testing. Thanks for inviting me!"

"But herr flightdirektor, I did! Didn't you get ze message?"

"Oh. My kPad's broken."

"Ah, vell. You haff missed little. Start ze orbital sim!"

While Gene slurped his koffee, the controllers pushed some buttons and pulled up the new sim. Gene turned around.

"Herr flightdirektor, would you honor us with a check and a countdown?"

"Alright. Booster?"

"Check"

"Guidance?"

"Check"

"Nuclear?"

"Check. Safe mode."

"KAPCOM?

"Check."

"We are go for launch. Commencing in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...

2...

1..."

"Wait! How are Jeb and Bill in there?"

"Ah, nein. Zey are not in zere, zey are just ze only kerbals whose faces are in the system. It's being controlled by... umm... I'll get back to you on that."

The stupendous vessel began its gravity turn shortly before Wernher said, "Alright, switch data to small screens. Just give us visual."

Gene watched silently as it worked its way into orbit. Soon, he shouted, "So it is an SSTO! It worked!"

"Ah, vell, it isn't quite in orbit yet," said Von Kerman as he gestured at the flight controllers to call up telemetry.

"Like I said, SSTO. That has more than enough fuel to reach orbit."

It did, and then left the boosters behind.

It then fired its LV-N to deorbit. Reentry was nominal...

...but the landing attempt...

...left a lot to be desired.

"Reset ze sim! I can't vatch!"

"Wernher, what happened? I thought you ran the gliding test!"

"Ja, but zat vas done with most of ze fuel removed. This one had too much fuel inside. Ve vill just haff to modify the design so zat ze wings are further back."

"Okay. Do you have a sim of the Duna Interplanetary?"

"Ja! Everything except ze engine block! Ve still need ze actual specs for ze new engines!"

"Well, pull it up!"

He did. Gene looked. It was glorious.

 

Meanwhile, I'm prepping for 1.1 like some people prep for the end of times. Only 112 (approximately) mods, a random bit change thing, and some other whatevers to go!

[max_creative]

Yay! This is awesome! For science! For koffie! More please!

[RocketSquid]

6 hours ago, max_creative said:

Yay! This is awesome! For science! For koffie! More please!

Ask and you shall receive... but only on Friday.

Chapter 7: Minmus ho!:

Gene walked into the mission control center. He was out of koffee, as was the space center, as were three of the five stores within an hour of the space center. He was not pleased. Soon, two nearly identical interns ran up to him.

"Mr. Kerman! Mr. Kerman!!!"

"What is it?"

"While they were mounting an LV-N to the test rack, it fell off and... ruptured." Shouted Munford

"They're calling in the radiation squads now!" Added Minford.

"Mulch! I have to get over there NOW! Wait... actually... Is anyone hurt?"

"No, they all got out in time. But we won't be able to use that building for years... munths even."

"How could this happen?"

"Oh, its simple..."

"MAYPRIL FOOLS!!!" the twins shouted in unison.

Gene got close to throwing his koffeekup at them, but, after a moment of consideration, decided he might need it. Instead he told them,

"Don't bother coming back on Munday. Your internships are cancelled."

They were predictably devastated.

Gene walked past them to talk with Gus, who was, oddly, waiting in the building.

"What happened, and how long will it take to fix?

"Well, this morning a nuclear engine fell off of the test rack..."

"I'm not falling for this again."

"Falling for what?"

"You're going to tell me it broke, and that we can't use the building."

"What? It didn't break. This is one of the new reinforced models. Jeb responded to our request and made us a few."

"Nice. I still find it confusing, with the two Jebs and everything."

"Yeah, but what else would we expect?"

And speaking of the other Jeb, he was, based on his position in the Minmus I, about to become the second kerbal to enter Minmus orbit. Bill would technically enter several milliseconds before him. Either way, he was the commander of the first kerbbed vessel to enter the minmus SOI. He was also the first kerbal to enter the minmus SOI while awake.

Because at this distance the day-night cycle of kerbin had no effect, the Minmus I had an artificial sleep schedule. Because of the long mission time and low communication, thanks to Bill's volume knob modifications, the crew's sleep cycle drifted. At first it had been a simple on/off schedule desynced from kerbin's time.

But soon the individual kerbonauts adopted different schedules. Sometimes they were all awake. Sometimes only two or three were. Rarely, only one was awake. And so the vessel crossed into Minmus's SOI without so much as a sound from the other crew. Jeb, however, needed them to see what he saw. He accomplished this by spinning the ship. Three times. With sudden stops. They were all awake soon, especially Bob.

"What the zark is this about, Jeb?!" he shouted.

"Look"

"It's... it's beautiful." said Valentina.

Bill had started salivating at the sight of all that minty goodness.

"Let's take a picture!! Get some science!!" Shouted Bob.

Wernher chimed in over the radio "Ve already haff a picture of Minmus. We vont be getting any science from zat."

"Well then lets do ALL THE SCIENCE!!"

"Okay, sure."

Jeb pressed the button labeled "SCIENCE". Nothing happened. He then opened the console, and typed "ship.doScience(allExperiments). Still nothing. He typed out all of the experiments individually.

"Okay, Bob, they're done. Go out and get the stuff!"

"Why me?"

"Because you're the scientist!"

"But what if I fall off? I'll be lost in space forever!"

"Bob, you will leave this pod and get the science because if you do not, I'll have no choice but to..." He left before Val could finish.

"Darnit! Why do I always have to go on EVA? It's always me, never Bill or Jeb or Val."

A HUD flashed on his helmet "Thank you for recording an EVA report"

"What? No! Delete that!"

"Searching. Unable to find a file or program named 'that'"

"Uggh. Whatever."

He grabbed the science and climbed back in.

For the hours remaining until the capture burn, spirits were mostly high. They considered singing something, but they had run out of songs on the way there.

Soon, it was time to capture. Minmus's low gravity and small size meant that this burn would leave them traveling more slowly than most planes.

"Aaannd circularized. Welcome to minmus orbit."

"Mission control, permission to open the bubblyzine?"

"Negative, this is one of Wernher's favorites, so with the sort of fancy flying Jeb's been doing..." said Erwell

"I wouldn't open that thing unless you're prepared to deal with a hull breach by a high velocity cork." Chimed in Bobak.

Back on kerbin, after the festivities (including three bottles of bubblyzine), Munford and Minford approached Gene.

"Mr. Kerman, sir."

"We're sorry for the prank we pulled earlier."

"Nuclear radiation is nothing to joke about."

"But could you please... not take away our internships?"

"We really need the credit."

Gene was no longer able to contain his laugh.

"What are you laughing about? We're being serious!"

" MAYPRIL FOOLS!!!" He shouted.

Both of the twins groaned, then facepalmed.

[Angelo Kerman]

I think I missed something, there are two Jebs???

[RocketSquid]

6 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I think I missed something, there are two Jebs???

One is from the real world, the other exists only in the sim, simply because his expressions are so easy to simulate. This is because I do my sims in a separate save, so with all of the main four in space, sim-flights will either use kerbals that don't exist in the real world, or lead to a simulated duplicate.

[RocketSquid]

MetaChapter 2: SQUAD Awakens:

The sixth barrier flexes and stretches. It will open soon. It has been growing thinner for months. A week ago, something slipped through. A change. An update to the machinery that controlled the universe. It was not yet ready, but an early form had been released.

The ruler had already applied it to one set of machines, the set holding five universes. But not the one our story follows. The one our story follows exists in a larger set of machines, modified far past their original form. If he tried to update this before it was ready, all would be lost.

So he waits. He waits, knowing that soon, the sixth barrier will open, and from behind the fifth would come new versions of these modified machines, ready for the update. The sixth barrier is thin enough for full communication. Previously, the Creator SQUAD could watch through it, and send down messages and repairs for broken machines. Now, they were monitoring it. Testing the update they released early. Gathering data from many things.

The fifth barrier, already the weakest, was shaking and flexing from all the information being exchanged. Machines were built, fixed, and distributed. This ruler, and many others, exchanged stories of their kerbals, stories they themselves had orchestrated.

The three highest realms were awash with information, passing from one ruler to the other. Anticipation filled the air.

It won't be long now

 

So, on a serious note, this save will stay 1.0.5 until a vast majority of the mods that need to be updated are updated. Then there will be a 1-2 week hiatus while I switch everything over. All the USI mods, KER, RealChutes, and a couple others are already updated. There are numerous mods that only add parts and do not need to be updated. Everything else I just have to wait for.

[Geschosskopf]

Your writing style is very entertaining and so are your mutinous proboes.  I also like your conception of the higher planes of existence

Good luck getting updated and back online.

[RocketSquid]

24 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Your writing style is very entertaining and so are your mutinous proboes.  I also like your conception of the higher planes of existence

Good luck getting updated and back online.

Thanks. I'll probably be playing 1.0.5 for months. Currently, 39 out of 85 mods or mod clusters (A group of mods that update simultaneously, eg USI) will technically work in 1.1, but of those, only a few have actually been updated, the rest are just there because they don't have DLL's, and thus do not need to be updated.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the hiatus starts once most of the mods are ready. Until then, I'll just keep going in 1.0.5

Edited April 3, 2016 by RocketSquid