Ultimate Steve Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 On 3/7/2017 at 6:18 AM, rlin said: Ooh, a flotilla! "Sparky". Try renaming it. They didn't taunt it, I hope? And wasn't there a monolith on the original Magic Boulder? Expand Well, they didn't taunt it on purpose, at least! Monolith: Yep. Not on this one. But we'll be seeing him soon enough! Part 37 is long. Really long. But epic. Let's see, one huge story development, two big ones, and one medium sized one. Enjoy! Part 37: Through Fire And Flames Reveal hidden contents ==================================Part I: The Drestronauts "Just stay put, we'll go get fuel for you!" "Well, it's not like we can do anything else, we're sort of out of fuel..." "Haha. See you in a month or so!" That conversation had happened around three weeks ago. During the first week, the Explorer was mining the second asteroid they came across, an odd one: too big to be a class C, too small to be a class D. While the asteroid was slowly being chiseled away at, the crew deployed the Dres Scansat. "Bay one, away!" The Scansat took another week to get into low Dres orbit. During that time, Captain Kazu took the Dres Bike out to Dresteroid number three, another awkward class C-D. "Bay two, away! And Kazu became the first Kerbal to "land" on an asteroid. The second half of the second week was the Explorer flying to Dresteroid 3. At this point the space pirates got bored and begged the crew of the Explorer to pick them up. So, what did the Explorer's crew do? they sent over the Dres Runner, the three person, nuclear powered transport shuttle. They sent it over unmanned. "Bay three, away!" Fast forward to now, week three. "Okay, Homecoming. This is Kathlenna. We're giving you control of the Dres runner." "Roger that, Kathy. Milvy here." "If it's a straight choice between Kate and Kathy, I prefer Kate, but please, call me KATHLENNA!" "Sheesh, you don't have to get so worked up about it. We have control acquisition!" With that, Milvy turned off the communicator and turned to face her two crewmates. "We've got it!" she said. "Excellent!" replied Tomfurt. "Prepare to board the Dres runner!" "Plotting trajectory now," said Carol. And with that, the crew EVA'd over to the Dres Runner. "Starting engine!" announced Tomfurt when the trio was all strapped in. "Runner, this is Kathlenna from the Explorer. You are burning 90 degrees away from the target trajectory, please correct." "We are on our intended trajectory." "You are burning towards Dres! Aren't you coming to - oh. Well played, space pirates. But I told you specifically not to steal - " Kathlenna was interrupted by Tomfurt. "The Explorer. We're stealing the Dres Runner! We're going to beat you to Dres!" "But why?" replied Kathlenna, her voice growing angry and frustrated. "Well, the Scansat results just came in." "We are going to that little white question mark." "Seriously? I mean, you shouldn't go to -" at that moment, Gerdock pulled Kathlenna away from her console and spoke. "Remember the Teddy Monster?" "How could I forget? The thing that gave everyone who went to Dres Space Madness?" "Well, let them go," proclaimed Gerdock. "Wait - oh, I see. You plan to use them as guinea pigs to see if the Teddy Monster is still there!" "Hey, you said it, not me. Just don't let Kazu find out." ==========================Part II: Ice Cream Space Station Epic IV's escape pod descended from the sky down to the surface of Minmus, some 40-odd meters away from the ITV-020 "Philosopher of Time." In case you forgot, the escape pod "Ascension" came from SSE IV, which was teleported in from another universe by Hudson, his intern, and the robot clones of Bill and Bob. And all ten Kerbals from the other universe were helping the 916 Kerbals from the "Philosopher of Time" construct a Minmus base. "Hey, everyone! Wait for me!" said the clone of Jebediah Kerman as he jumped out of the Cupola module. He was shortly followed by the clone of Bob Kerman, who disappeared into the giant metal box that was laying next to the two ships. Jebediah Kerman's Clone stood next to Natalenna Kerman, the mayor of Minmus as they addressed, via camera, the entirety of Kerbin and Minmus. "Hello, everyone, it's me, Natalenna, the Mayor of Minmus!" "And it's me, one of the only two Jebediah Kermans in the universe!" "Well, the 926 of us already know what's inside of that thing, but all of you on Kerbin don't. So, Jeb? Would you like to explain?" "Sure, Natalenna! Folks, of you've been following Project Intrepid, and let's be honest, who hasn't? You know that we landed 1500 tons of supplies and 916 Kerbals here, joined by ten others, including me, from another universe. Now, we never have specifically mentioned it until now, but anyone with a little bit of common sense can tell - we're building a Minmus base." Jebediah paused for effect. The dialogue was picked up by Natalenna. "To all of Kerbin: we have a plan. You have seen phase zero, us exploring the system to learn as much as possible. And phase one: begin building a self sustaining base on Minmus. Phase two? Well, phases 2-4 have been disputed, but we think we generally have them figured out. But they will remain secret for now. Today, however, is a major turning point for phases two and four. A test, if you will." "To all of Minmus: we are sorry we had to prioritize this above the construction of the actual Minmus base. But we are talking about the end of the world here! So, we thank you all for working as hard as you did and getting this ready - with a whopping twelve days to spare!" "Oh, let's stop dropping hints and get to the big picture! We are going to Jool!" "Yes, we certainly are! The ship inside this hangar: It's size does not make it special, in fact it is the smallest main vessel in the Intrepid fleet. It isn't necessarily special because it is carrying a whole space station to Jool! No, ladies and gentlekerbs. This vessel is special because it is the first vessel assembled on another celestial body!" Another dramatic pause. "Natalenna, the results on the raffle?" "Oh, yes! We have the results for the drawing. The crew is already in there, except for Jeb here, but we had room for three randomly selected Kerbals! For each of them, we'll be playing their reaction video to going to being told they won a ticket to Jool on screen. Let me introduce our first winner - Sara Kerman!" Onscreen showed a young engineer being approached by a Minmus base official. The engineer, Sara Kerman, was working on wiring of some sort. "Miss - there's no easy way to put this, but you are going to Jool!" Sara stood in shock for a few seconds before breaking into a victory dance and a shout of joy. "Please state your name and occupation." "Sara Kerman - Junior Electrical Engineer! "And our second winner - Elon Kerman!" Another Kerbal was shown on screen. The official told him. Elon broke into a grin. "Please state your rank and occupation." "Elon Kerman - Engineer, Pilot, and Scientist." "Uh, you can only be one." "Nah. I am Elon! I can be all three!" "And our third winner - " a drumroll sound effect played in the background. "MORTIMER KERMAN!" The video this time showed an office inside the Philosopher of Time. "Hello, sir. There's no easy way to tell you this. Congratulations. You're going to Jool. "Wha - no. Nonononononono. NO! I - Jool? JOOL?!?!?!? I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO JOOL!" "Please state your name and occupation." "I AM MORTIMER! FEAR MY WRATH! I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO JOOL!" "I don't think that will fit in the blank here... Wait, is that your occupation?" "I AM THE FINANCE GUY! I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO JO-" "Pilot, engineer, or scientist?" "FINANCE! HOW FAR DOWN DOES THE LIST GO?!?!?!?" "Don't make me put you down as a tourist!" ========================================================= "So, without further ado," announced Natalenna as Jeb climbed into the hangar, "I present to you:" The roof of the hangar explosively separated from the main body. "INTREPID TEST VEHICLE SERIAL NUMBER TWNETY ONE!" Jebediah Kerman sat in the cockpit next to Kirrim Kerman. In the back seats were Elon Kerman and Mortimer Kerman. "Let's do this! Activate Tri-Vector VTOL!" "And we have liftoff!" Jebediah Kerman reduced the throttle to zero. An apoapsis of twenty kilometers had been achieved. Soon he would burn into an elliptical Kerbin orbit, and then to Jool. He rolled the craft 180 degrees and stared downwards. They were passing over the 1500 ton Phase One lander. Twenty minutes later, he burned for orbit - and then towards Kerbin. A day later, the escape burn began, at the protest of Mortimer, who was still yelling "FEAR MY WRATH!" and "I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO JOOL!" "So what are we going to name this thing?" asked Jeb. "I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO JOOL! THERE IS NO ICE CREAM AT JOOL!" "Well, then it's settled! We shall call this - " "ITV-021: Ice Cream!" =============================Part III: The Casino on the Mun Hudson Kerman, Fred Kerman, Robo-Bill, and Robo-Bob had been roving the Mun for several days in a rover they had found buried in the regolith. It was the "Duna Operational Vehicular Explorer," or D.O.V.E. which is a strange name for a Mun rover. So, where had it all gone wrong? Hudson Kerman, fifty three years ago, was trying to investigate a KSC missile silo on the Mun (which had turned out to be real) and got into a battle with his former girlfriend, Valentina Kerman, and had managed to start a nuclear war which kept all Kerbals underground for fifty years. Then, fifty years later, he was working undercover for the Flat Kerbin Society and had managed to escape to the Mun. From there, he had planned to use the nuclear missiles stored in the old silo to threaten Kerbin into giving him a ship so he could escape the system, and the black hole. Unfortunately, there had been complications. He had gone to the old base with the intent of recruiting two time travelling robots to help him. However, Robo-Bill and Robo-Bob were too obsessed with time travel to help him much. The nuclear missiles in the base had corroded over the years. And the time travel? They succeeded in bringing a space station in from another universe. But then they had hit a roadblock: It wasn't working any more. Whenever they tried to mess with the universe, nothing happened. So, the four of them had dug up the rover and had headed for the nearest old Mun base with the intent of finding a craft to fly off in. It was an ancient resort, decimated in the solar flares, built by some crazy multibillionaire. "Guys, I see it!" "Really? Where?" "ROCK!" "AAAAAH!" "Don't worry, those were just the solar panels! We're almost there, we didn't need them anyway!" In a few seconds, the rover stopped tumbling and resumed its path towards the ruined base. "My question is - how do the lights on it still work?" "Fred, it's simply the fact that they have solar panels and batteries. Really good batteries." "Of course, Hudson. But, Hudson, you said this was huge!" "Emphasis on "was." This is Cloneus Kerman's Mun casino. Fifty years ago, after the Octavius mission, Cloneus wanted to build a Mun casino. He gave the KSC fifty billion funds to do this with. And that was overkill - the entire operation cost under a billion, and the KSC used the extra to usher in the great era of expansion, which, as you know, ended in the war between the KSC and the USKN." "So, why's it so small today?" "This was the art gallery wing, built to be ten times stronger than any other building, at the insistence of Bill Kerman, who wanted to protect his drawings. When the Great Solar Flare hit, it unleashed a tsunami of Mun dust which demolished 95 percent of the casino. The art wing was spared from complete destruction, but the blast was so intense that it partially collapsed and most of the art evaporated." "Sorry, not following this - why would you expect to find any working craft here?" "Ah, Fred. Right before the great war started, Cloneus wanted to add a museum wing to his Casino, with all of the great craft from the age of exploration and before. Construction of the wing had only barely began before the war, but the craft had been delivered - all twenty nine of them. They were stored in several underground hangars which would have been reached via a tunnel that began in the art wing. Well, we're here!" The four got out and began to look for signs of the tunnel. "The solar storm certainly did a number on this place!" "Yes, Robo-Bill. Just try and find the tunnel." At that moment, the sun rose. "I found it!" "Good." "So, Hudson, what's down there?" "Hopefully, something we can get off of this rock in! Only one way to find out, though." The four opened up the large hatch with considerable effort and found themselves on a ramp which slanted 40 degrees downward and ended in a long hallway. "Okay, everyone. Behind each of those hatches is a room with a craft in it. We're looking for anything that can get into space." "Got it!" Fred wandered off forward and tried a hatch to his left. It led to a small hangar with a weird vehicle inside of it. A small plaque mentioned it as the first vehicle to complete the Kerbal Cross Continental Rally. He exited and went further down the hallway and saw that it split into a T and went on for quite some time. The search went on for about ten minutes. Fred had been momentarily excited to find an old missile, but it had long since been emptied of fuel. He had also found the first Mun base module, an early commsat, and the bottom half of the first Mun lander (again, drained of fuel). But then, he heard a robotic yell that must have come from Robo-Bill. He and the two others ran to investigate. "Hudson. Bob. Fred. You will never believe this." "Never believe wha-" "Hush. Showing you will be better than words. Apparently, it survived re-entry. Well, it hit the ground and lost half of its fuel tanks. But it should still be functional." "What survived re-entry?" "Oh." "Guys? We are actually in the presence of - " "The remains of Spaceship OCTAVIUS." ============== Robo Bill had wandered over to one of the small tables. "My creator spent twenty years of his life on that ship! Oh - look! I found the toolbox of SD cards! The actual SD cards!" Bill played the last file on record. "Bill here. Signing off. My, she was a good ship... I'll be sad to see her go. Goodbye. This is Octavius, signing off." At that point, Hudson gasped, sending everyone running. "No way!" "Guys - these are the actual samples! The only samples left from Tetko, Slate, Ovok, and Hale!" "Holy Moho!" "You said it, Fred. Now, just one second..." Hudson reached into the box marked "Eeloo" and pulled out a meter long core sample tube. "Hudson, what is that?" asked Fred. "Fred, I hold in my hand a sample of Eeloo's ocean - the primary candidate in the Kerbol system for extraterrestrial life." ===============================Part IV: The Fourth Force Remember when I said that "Four forces were converging on Eve" in a super dramatic tone? And how the fourth force never came? Like, ten parts ago? Do you remember the Flat Kerbin Society's "Experiment One" probe? And how it's orbit went... inwards? The odds of the following happening were several billion to one. But there are billions of parallel universes. One of them had to have this happen. So, why not this one? Three parts. Three parts... Three parts which would change the course of history... for a second time. The crew of the ITV-018 "Valentina" felt a massive jolt as the piece of space debris impacted the rear portion of the ship. Ten Kerbals were currently on board - four had been sleeping. Commander Leah Kerman was thrown against the glass of the Cupola module and kept there at four gees as the ship spun around. The same happened for the nine others - three were yanked out of their seats and onto the ceiling of their respective Mk3 crew modules. The remaining six had been in the lander docked at the base of the craft and were about to depart for Gilly. They never got the chance to leave. The impact had severely damaged the "GILLY HOPPAH," blown up several of the nuclear engines, and snapped one of the ring rods. But that damage was not important. The important damage was when one bundle of wires came loose - and made contact with another bundle of wires. Commander Leah Kerman felt a second rumble resonate throughout the ship. The sound of two dozen turbopumps spooling up. The acceleration caused another bundle of wires to short out - and the dozen large reaction wheels received the command "ROLL RIGHT" just as the ship had rotated retrograde. And this led - to spin stabilization. "Leah, what the Moho just happened?" "I have no Bopping clue, Gene!" yelled Leah over the roaring river of sound produced by the overloading nuclear engines. She was still smashed against the glass of the cupola, which now had a very alarming crack running down the middle. "I think it was some sort of meteorite impact!" Gene, who had now untangled himself from the mess that was his harness, struggled to climb forward to the Cupola. The six people who were in the Gilly Hopper had come forward. They were all screaming something about an oxygen leak. Gene yelled "Leah, status report!" "We have been hit by something and our engines are on full - so are our reaction wheels. Roll. Orientation is unclear, all controls are unresponsive! Structural integrity dropping! Roll rate, 360 degrees per second!" The crew was experiencing severe G forces and were struggling to get their bearings. "Roger that! Orders, captain?" "Engineering section, get this ship under control! Pilots, prepare the Hopper for immediate evacuation! Science division, gather the records and get to the Hopper!" "But, Leah! The Hopper only has six seats!" "Noted, Gene. I will be staying here, along with a few others." "You'll die!" "Isn't that what I said when you tried to risk your life for me by acting as an ullage motor for the Eve Ascent Vehicle?" "That was different, Leah!" "Gene, get to the Hopper!" "I'm not leaving you here!" "Roll rate 700 degrees per second and rising, Gene! Get to the lander!" At that moment, the roll rate became so high that loose bolts came out of the fuselage. Two more nuclear engines exploded. And the docking port between the Hopper and the Valentina failed. "Gene, you waited too long!" "Leah, calm down!" "What is there to be calm about?!?!? We're now suborbital over Eve!" "Leah, this is engineering. We have managed to regain control over the roll gyros! Requesting immediate action!" Leah immediately thrust the control stick to the left. The roll rate was getting close to 1000 degrees per second - three full turns every second. "Scientific section, I need a trajectory! How soon can we turn around and get back to orbit!" There was a brief pause. "Leah, there's no good way to tell you this." There was a pause. "...Oh. No. Nonononononono. NO! WHY! I just got out of that place!" "By the time our roll rate is zero, and we can turn around, we will already be on an irreversible course into Eve's atmosphere." "..." "Orders, captain?" Leah sat, a look of dread on her face for the longest time. "All hands to the forward crew compartment! Pilots, hold retrograde for as long as you can! Science section, try and get a message to KSC! Engineering, overload the cooling systems!" The crew stood still for a while as the gravity of the words sunk in. "But... But..." said one stunned engineer. "Crew, it's been a pleasure serving with you. We are going down." ========================================================= "...Gene?" "Yes, Leah?" "I love you." "I love you, too." The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlin Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I wonder how our space pirates will get ahold of those tubes... Wow. It survived crashing into Eve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 On 3/12/2017 at 12:01 AM, rlin said: I wonder how our space pirates will get ahold of those tubes... Wow. It survived crashing into Eve. Expand Hmm. Well, they could do it the hard way and fly their ship back to the Mun. But they have a Magic Boulder at their disposal... But Tomfurt already has plans for the boulder (spoilers! ). That brings up the important question: Are Hudson and Tomfurt enemies or allies? *DUN DUN DUN!* Yeah, I was somewhat worried it wouldn't survive! But, actually I can't even shut the cargo bay now. The Cupola exploded! Also, I completely redid the OP! It now includes this image montage! Let me know what you think of the new OP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max_creative Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 On 3/12/2017 at 9:35 PM, Ultimate Steve said: Also, I completely redid the OP! It now includes this image montage! Let me know what you think of the new OP! Expand FOR SCIENCE! FOR DRES! FOR AWESOME MONTAGES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted March 13, 2017 Author Share Posted March 13, 2017 On 3/12/2017 at 10:38 PM, max_creative said: FOR SCIENCE! FOR DRES! FOR AWESOME MONTAGES! Expand Science: Well, we're in sandbox mode, but, still! Yay for science! Dres: See part 38. Awesome Montages: Yeah! Part 38: The Time Traveler Reveal hidden contents ======================= Part I: Vehicle No. 3 ======================= Sixty years before the launch of the ITV-001 Jacob Kerman sat in the Eve Descent Vehicle, in low orbit of Eve. He was part of Eve Lander Expedition Number Three. The first two, four and two years ago, respectively, had failed in different ways. He was to be the first Kerbal on Eve it everything went well. Beneath him was Spacecraft No. 3, also known as the Odysseus. It currently consisted of the nuclear tug that had brought the mission here, as well as the lander. Earlier, the crew return vehicle and the Eve Descent Vehicle had been attached to it. The CRV with Marilyn Kerman at the controls was a safe distance away. Jacob's EDV would not enter Eve's atmosphere until it was confirmed that the Odysseus had landed undamaged - if it crashed, nobody would be hurt. The previous two EDV's sat unused in orbit, remnants of the first two Eve missions. "Commencing de-orbit burn in three... two... one..." "And, we're off! Time for the ten minutes of flop sweating!" "You've got that right, Marilyn. I really hope this goes off without a hitch. Unlike the last two..." "Yeah. Eve is insanely difficult." "Notoriously difficult." "Specifically difficult." "Awesomely difficult." "I wouldn't go that far, Jacob." "Transfer stage has been decoupled." "Inflating heat shields now, Marilyn." "My sensors show that they are fully inflated! I'm glad we got that problem fixed..." "Yeah, mission one was a disaster!" "Okay, we are now subsonic!" "Is it just me or does that heat shield look askew?" "Yeah, it does, Jacob. Huh, that has never happened before." "Okay. Burning off heat shield with engine in three seconds." *KA-BLAM!* "Heat shield has been disposed of properly!" "Another thing that didn't happen in mission one!" "Also, drogues are out! Deploying mains... altitude twenty kilometers!" "So, now we wait and hope that the top shield separation works!" "Yeah, no kidding! We don't need a repeat of mission two!" "Mains have fully deployed! Heat shield jettison was successful!" "But the camera didn't catch it. Oh, well." "The Flat Kerbin Society is going to have a field day because the cameras didn't work." "I don't care about them." "Well, then. Starting engines!" "This is actually happening!" "You might actually get to land on Eve!" "One hundred meters! Fifty! Throttling up! Twenty! Ten!" "No!" "Agh, the camera cut out completely!" "Sensors show that the lander has tipped over. Most of the tanks are gone, and all of the landing legs. Sorry, Jacob. You're not going to Eve today." "Aww, Moho. What is still working? Maybe we can fix it on spacecraft no. four!" "Well, the antenna is still transmitting. At least that worked..." "So now we wait for the transfer window." "Yep." =========================== Present day "And as I was saying, we can't contact Kerbin! Our antenna exploded! Our freaking Cupola exploded! We can't even control the thing! Not that it would be useful!" Leah was getting sick and tired of Anberta's angry, depressing outbursts. It was obvious that they were doomed. She was right. They had no way of contacting Kerbin. For all they knew, they simply had a power outage. Those had happened often. "Well, captain Leah? Do you have a plan or are you just going to keep on acting like you have one?" "I do have a plan, Ann!" "That's what you have been saying for the past week! And we've been sitting on this rock, inside this dead ship, and you haven't said anything about this so-called plan of yours!" Leah had had enough of Ann's negative comments. So she actually tried making up a plan for once. "Bring up the maps of all of the debris on Eve." "So you don't have a plan?" "Yet. And just get the maps for pete's sake!" "Fine." There was a brief pause as Ann pulled up the maps on her slowly dying Kpad. "Okay. The closest debris is about 100 kilometers away. And that is spacecraft number three - the third failed Eve lander. Sixty years ago, it crashed here and the antenna was still functioning. Then the war happened and the probe probably died. But the antenna is probably still functioning and - " "Hold on. You're making up a plan right on the spot and basing it off of the assumption that the antenna is still - " "Shut up, Ann! Let me finish! So, that's one hundred kilometers. At an average speed of 1.5 meters per second for three hours out of the six hour day, with breaks, if one were to walk to the lander it would take about ten days." "You're soooo funny when you're desperate and considering walking a hundred kilometers on Eve!" "I said shut up! I am your captain!" "You're a pretty bad captain, then." "Well, considering that we're stranded on Eve! And the success rate for Eve ascent vehicles is about ten percent I think I have the right to be frustrated! As I was saying, the Kerbin to Eve transfer window is in about forty days. If we leave now, that leaves the KSC thirty days to build something that can save us. We could load the provisions for the walk into that one fuel tank that survived and take turns pushing it so we reach the antenna. Then we contact KSC." "Is that your plan?" "Do you have a better idea?" "Uh, hello? Remember that old piece of advice to not wander around if people are looking for you?" "Kerbin doesn't even know we're gone!" "Yes, they do! We sent a message to KSC before we crashed!" "We don't know that for sure! We were spinning!" "Okay, crew! Who thinks Leah has a dumb plan?" There was a chorus of "Aye's" from the irritable crew. "And who thinks doing nothing is a better option?" All this did was make the crew more angry towards Leah. Suddenly, though, she walked around the cabin and grabbed a ton of freeze dried foods and walked out of the airlock. "Leah? Where are you going?" "To the fuel tank! To Spacecraft No. 3!" "Leah, you'll die out there!" "We'll all die if we stay! Would anyone be interested in joining me?" There was no response. Leah shut off her radio and continued her walk. She arrived at the cylinder and began shoving her supplies in. About halfway through, she was startled by a sudden tap on her shoulder. "AH!" "Gene, you startled me!" exclaimed Leah as she turned on her radio again. "Well, did you think I could possibly stand Ann's outbursts until we ran out of supplies? Nah." Leah gave Gene a big hug. They stood there for several seconds until Gene spoke again. "So, how far did you say we had to walk?" "92.1 Kilometers." "Ah. Um... Well, then. Better get started!" ====================== Part II: Triple Threat Kerbin, in fact, had no idea whatsoever that the Valentina had crashed on Eve. They were, in fact, preparing to launch their new Duna fleet. They had spent several weeks designing their original mothership design, codenamed "Molotov." That design would have been a massive ship that would have launched at the Jool and Duna windows (which were on the same day) and split in two during the transfer burn. However, the structure of the vessel as well as the orbital mechanics did not work out. Luckily, the Minmus colony had covered the Jool window. Now, for Duna... A week before the window, when it was made clear that the "Molotov" would not work, most of the engineers wanted to launch an upgraded Intrepid model two, with Duna capability. However, they had a week left. It would not be built in time. So, what did they do? They took a model two and scaled it down. "And we have liftoff of the Intrepid Test Vehicle Serial Number Twenty-Two!" The launch went nominally. The fans of the space program had seen the blueprints for the Mini-Intrepid and were utterly underwhelmed - it was a one man, two Nerv VTOL lander with drop tanks. Utterly pathetic. But, better than nothing - the usual number of people still attended the launch. But then the fairing came off. And the fans went from going "This is pathetic!" to "WOAH! I DID NOT EXPECT THAT!" In the words of Dave Kerman: "Wait, that doesn't look like - " "No way!" "Three of them?!?!?!" An hour later, all three had performed their escape burns and were due to reach Duna in about 180 days. At this point, the highest ranking space program official, Wernher Kerman (As Gene, Mortimer, and the two Jeb's were in space) made the announcement of the ship's names: "Good evening, Kerbin! As you all know, this morning we launched three spacecraft in one launch, en route to Duna! Ladies and gentlekerbs, it is my pleasure to introduce - " "The ITV-022A "Dr. Wily" piloted by Mayl Kerman!" "The ITV-022B "Marble Machine" piloted by Martin Kerman!" "And - the ITV-022C "Applesauce" piloted by Joey Kerman!" ================================= Part III: The Long Way 'Round "You have got to be kidding me." "Nope, Kathlenna. It's right there. You can see it with your own two eyes." "No. No, Doodard! I am not spending another month trying to find a class E!" "Last time we found one of these, it nearly blew the ship up, Kathlenna!" "Well, Doodard, get Gerdock. I heard he's working on a system to mine these things without disrupting whatever the Bop that mineral is. We now know it comes in two colors. Blue, and orange. Opposites on the color wheel. Maybe it means something!" Doodard did not want to talk to Gerdock again, but if it was a choice between Gerdock and waiting another month to find a class E, he would choose Gerdock. Gerdock agreed to testing his mining methods. And they worked. The second "Magic Boulder" was successfully mined without disturbing the orange stuff. Ten percent of the ore in the asteroid had completely refilled the Explorer. Meanwhile, our space pirates had entered Low Dres orbit. Carol was reading a report on the so-called "Teddy Monster" out loud. "Dres expedition one. The crew reports a strange whispering voice while on the surface of Dres. On the return journey, they get space madness. The re-entry maneuver must be performed by computer. Dres expedition two. The crew brings sophisticated equipment. The whisper is undetectable with that equipment. However, the crew reports the same whispery voice. the crew got space madness. Expedition three. Seismometers were used, to see if Dres had a shifting core that produced the noise. Dres has a solid core. The crew gets space madness. Expedition four. Crew lands at the north pole. Contact is lost. Expedition five. The crew finds an insane expedition four crew. They manage to rescue them, but have to leave Dres after two days on the surface due to a fuel leak. The crew of this expedition develops weak space madness. They recovered due to the short amount of time they spent on the planet. Expedition seven - the crew brings negative gravioli detectors. The strange whisper is recorded faintly on them." "So, why is it called the Teddy Monster?" "Hush, I'm not done yet! Expedition eight. One crew member swears that the whisper is one word being repeated every second- "Teddy... Teddy..." the rest of the crew agree. They all get space madness, despite only being on Dres for a week. The phenomenon is named "The Teddy Monster." Dramatic, huh?" "Yep. Dres appears to be haunted." "So, what's our plan, then?" "We get the sample, and get out, right?" interjected Milvy. "No, Milvy," replied Tomfurt, "We get the sample, talk to the monolith, if indeed that is what the anomaly is, and then we try to find this "Teddy Monster" for ourselves." "How?" "Quite simple, really. Each of the Dres expeditions left a seismometer behind. It is well known that gravioli waves can produce seismic waves sometimes. So, if we network all of the seismometers together, and eliminate the background seismic noise there is a chance we can triangulate the position of the gravioli emitter that makes the phenomenon occur!" "That's... actually a good idea!" "Thank you, Carol! Now, let's see... I have a visual on the anomaly!" "Hello, Tomfurt." "Ah, Monolith! So it is you!" "I have much to tell you! You must land first, however." "Roger that!" "Milvy, do you hear that?" "Uh, yes! I do! Wow, that's really creepy..." "Trdsefsfty... Tsedrfrny... Tedsrtyy..." "So it is real!" "Monolith, do you have anything to do with this?" "I swear, I don't! I only became existant on Dres a few years ago! It's as much of a mystery to me as it is to you!" "Did you hear about our plan?" "Yes. I think it will only succeed if the sound is not coming from Dres itself." "Okay, then! Let's get cracking! You said you had big news?" "Apparently, your friends up in the Explorer have discovered a second magic boulder..." =============================================== "Minmus. Moho. Eve. Gilly. The Magic Boulder. And Dres. That's 6 down, 12 to go." ======================================= "Bay four, away!" "Remind me again why I can't come along?" "Gerdock, if you want me to be completely honest with you, there are two reasons." "Shoot, Kathlenna." "One. You are the only one who knows about your mining Technique. Two. You can be really annoying sometimes." "Bu-" and then Kathlenna turned the Dres Lander's radio off. "Well, then! Apparently the stories about the monolith were true! We hacked the Dres Runner's radios and they are talking to it right now!" "Great going, Kathlenna! So, we have alien computers now!" "We don't know that it is a computer. For now, though, let's just get down to Dres. By the time we're in low orbit, the pirates will have located the source of the Teddy Monster, if there is any. We will land and help them neutralize it. If they haven't found it, we will transfer back to the Explorer and meet up with Gerdock. We will complete our science mission and then leave Dres." "Okay. Sounds like a plan!" ======================================= "4.24 degrees south, 16.96 degrees east!" "Congratulations, Tomfurt, Milvy, and Carol. I did not think your plan would work. Good job." "See you later, Monolith! It may be on Dres, or on another planet, but we'll see you again soon!" "Goodbye, Tomfurt." "The anomaly appears to be next to the gigantic canyon! Plotting landing burn..." ====================================== "Doodard, the space pirates have found the source! It's just south of the big canyon!" "Well, what are you waiting for, Kathlenna? Plot a landing burn!" ================================================== "Okay, the pirates have landed. We need to intimidate them, or else they'll steal this ship!" "Got it. I'll make a dramatic landing right next to them!" "What part of "Dramatic" do you not understand, Kathlenna?" "It's not my fault! It's this 45 degree slope! If we're unlucky, a ship could literally roll into the canyon here!" The two crews of three disembarked from their vessels and stared each other down for a few minutes. Kazu Kerman signed to Kathlenna to talk to Tomfurt on radio. "Tomfurt, this is Kathlenna, speaking for Kazu. We mean you no harm whatsoever and wish to assist you in disabling whatever is causing this dangerous phenomenon!" "Kathlenna, tell Kazu that we do not mean you harm either, but we have an agenda that at times requires us to take drastic measues, such as stealing spaceships." There was a pause as Kathlenna relayed the message. "Tomfurt, Kazu says that we will assist you, just don't pull any funny business. Coming from me, do you hear that? And is it louder than t was at your landing site?" "Roger. About ten times louder, and five times clearer. It now seems to be a series of three similar words, 123. 123. "Trmfetr. Tedtheyr. Tehdrefy." Really creepy." "Yeah, I hear it too! I wonder if proximity to the anomaly affects the severity of the space madness!" "You'll be fine. We should all be if we destroy the phenomenon." "Well, then, let's get to work. We should be within visual distance, unless it is underground. Also, Kazu, being deaf, appears to be immune to the effects of the anomaly." "Huh." The six Kerbals on Dres began searching around the epicenter of the anomaly. Tomfurt was the first to find the epicenter. He was walking uphill. 100 meters away. "Thdenfy. Tdfyr. Tmrft." A sliver of recognition grew in the back of his head. He was filled with dread at the very idea... it couldn't possibly be true! Fifty meters. "Thdney. Tdfy. Tmfooot." No. Impossible! Twenty meters. "Tdneeeeeeey! TdFFFFFrYY! TOMFROOOUIT!" No. No. Nonononono. "Guys, I found it!" said Tomfurt, trembling. Ten meters. "Thudknee! Todfrie! Tombfort!" Tomfurt Kerman stepped over the epicenter of the phenomenon. "Thedney! Tedfry! Tomfurt!" ============================== Ten minutes of digging revealed a figure dressed in a spacesuit - a KSC spacesuit. His lips were moving, producing the now unmistakable "Thedney! Tedfry! Tomfurt!" sequence. He was unconscious, and looked as if he had been buried there for quite some time. "Tomfurt, why is he saying your name!" "Nononononono. Milvy - he isn't saying my name. He is saying all of them." "What?" "There was a mistake on my birth certificate. It said I was "Thedney," but it was meant to be "Tedfry." Later, with the assistance of the Monolith, and to disguise myself from the KSC, it was changed to Tomfurt." There was silence for a bit. "So, what do you suggest we do?" "Wake him up and question him. How does he know my names?" Tomfurt stepped forward and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, spazzed out, and fell over, landing two meters away. His spacesuit looked old and beat up. The Kerbal inside looked even older and more beat up. But that wasn't the most startling thing. His nameplate read "Tomfurt Kerman." Everyone gasped as the repeating words suddenly stopped. The old man rose slowly and opened his mouth. His chin hung for a few seconds as if he couldn't remember how to talk. Evidently having regained his voice, he stood up and said: "Hello, Tomfurt." There was stunned silence for a few seconds before Tomfurt spoke. "Who the Moho are you?!?!" "Me? I am - oh, uh... there was something important I was supposed to tell you! I can't remember! AGH!" "Old man, who are you?" "I need to remember! What was I supposed to remind myself of?!?!?" "Wait. What?" "Oh. I've got it! Just on the tip of my tongue! This was really important! I can't remember - I guess a hundred years does that to you!" "A hundred years? Slow down! Who are you?" "Yes! I remembered! You need to stop the Dres runner from rolling into the canyon or else you'll be stuck here, Tomfurt!" "How do you know about the Dres Runner? Who are you?" "Uh, Tomfurt?" interjected Kathlenna. "Not now, Kathlenna! Who are you?" "Tomfurt, this is impo-" "This is important too!" "Tomfurt! The Dres Runner is rolling down the hill!" everyone turned around. Everyone stared in shock as the Dres runner rolled off the edge of the canyon. Carol ran towards it, knowing full well that her efforts were in vain. Thirty seconds later, there was nothing left of the Dres Runner. "Uh, we have a problem, Kathlenna." "Yeah, Doodard?" "Our lander has six seats." "Oh. And now - " "Seven of us." "Don't worry!" interjected the strange old man. "My craft hold one! It can - but can't really reach orb - oh, fudge nuggets! I can't remember!" At that, the old man promptly fell asleep standing up. "Okay, problem solved!" announced Tomfurt. "I did some scans. His, uh, craft, is just over that ridge." As he pointed, he turned on his jetpack and went over to it. Five minutes later, he returned driving a very strange looking rover. "Look at this! Fully functional! It looks ancient, though! But it has 1.6 kilos of Delta-V!" "That is the weirdest rover I've ever seen. Why add rockets to a rover? And how many gravioli detectors is that? That rover must be worth a million funds!" "42." "What?" "42 negative gravioli detectors - huh. They look weird though. Who cares! None of us are stranded!" "Okay, let's just wait for a bit until this man wakes up again!" "Nah. See you in orbit, losers!" At that moment the old man woke again. "I remembered! Tomfurt, this is important, you must not - " Tomfurt was at this point in the rover and alredy speeding up using the rover wheels. "No! Tomfurt! Come back!" The old man ran after the rover. "Tomfurt! I remembered! If you take that rover, bad things will happen! Terrible things! Break the cycle! Listen!" "Break the cycle?" interjected Kathlenna. "What do you mean!" "Tomfurt! Whatever you do, do not go above 88 meters per second!" But Tomfurt did not listen. He engaged the LV-909 engine and lowered the main landing gear. As the vehicle passed 88, a strange thrumming sound resonated from the 42 negative gravioli generators. And Tomfurt had just enough time to shout "What the -" before he was blinded by a flash of light. =============================================================== "Tomfurt?" "Tomfurt? Please respond." "Hello, Milvy! Hey, I remembered your name!" relied the strange old man. "No. I, uh, wasn't talking about you. Tomfurt just exploded!" "What are you talking about? He's right here!" "Are you blind? My captain just exploded!" "No, he didn't!" "Listen. I don't know who you are, or what you are trying to get out of me, but just stop!" "Milvy! I am Tomfurt Kerman!" "That's preposterous!" ... "I guess I better start at the beginning." "Sure, can't make things worse!" "I was born under the continent of Zealandia, thirty four years after the war! Sixteen ears later, I enlisted as a pilot in the Flat Kerbin Society - the tried to suicide bomb them while defecting! The monolith saved me, and I promised him I'd build him a portal to save him from the destruction of the system in return! I boarded the ITV-013 and went to Moho! I stole a ship and went to Eve, where I stole another ship to land! I became the first Kerbal on Eve! I stole another ship to go to Gilly - and then Dres! I was rescued by the crew of the Explorer and then discovered a Magic Boulder! Then, I landed next to the monolith and tried to find the Teddy Monster! I found him and stole his time machine by accident and was transported 100 years into the past! I set up the Teddy Monster Phenomenon to signal for a rescue! I fall into hibernation after fifty years alone on this rock! I am woken up by my past self who refuses to listen to me!" The man was screaming at this point. His voice suddenly drops to a whisper. "And I'm back now. I've been waiting a hundred years, Milvy. Please. Believe me. You launched into orbit to save me mining struggles aboard a rocket without a parachute that was assembled in the desert - in an EVA seat, nonetheless! You flew to Minmus and Moho, and even Eve with me! Carol. You launched to orbit on board the three stage SRB launcher of the Gilly Hoppah! With an H! I remember! You helped us steal the Gilly Hoppah and go to Eve and Dres because, and I quote, "Space is Boring!" Please. I beg of you, believe me." There was silence for a while after that. "Please. Take me back. And we'll go back to exploring the stars together! I've been waiting a hundred years for this day." "Please." The Story of Project Intrepid will Continue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlin Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Whoa! Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 (edited) Note: This post was an April Fools prank, as evidenced by the two links. Reveal hidden contents So, I was playing Project Intrepid earlier today. And I was dealing with more operations around Dres, such as transferring the crew upwards to the Explorer. I was also in the midst of deciding what in the world to do with the second Magic Boulder. Anyway, I got to the Explorer and found that it was around twenty meters offset from the magic boulder (I had moved it back). Strange, as the game considered the two still as one craft. Me being me, I quicksaved and got Tomfurt out on EVA and jetted over to the exposed Klaw, wanting to see what would happen if you had two parts connected to the same Klaw. It was not pretty - First, Tomfurt completely glitched out and went full spaghetti. The ship/asteroid combo began spinning around the center of the camera, super fast. Suddenly every part began overheating and the spaghettification of Tomfurt increased, and suddenly the whole assembly jumped to a ridiculous velocity. Within seconds, I was past the orbit of Eeloo! So, me being me, I decided to time warp a bit. Eventually I got super far from the sun, and I decided to try unklawing Tomfurt. So, I did, and then the game went full black screen Kraken on me. At this point I was getting slightly freaked out and attempted a quickload. I quicksaved by accident. So then I attempted to open my recent quicksaves menu, but it ended up freezing the game when I tried to load it. So, I forcequitted KSP without realizing that I had a virus scan running in the background. It had currently began rescanning KSP at that moment and for some DUMB REASON decided "Oh, look! Changing files! This is obviously a virus!" and flagged my KSP file. Later, after the scan was over, I directed the program to clean up the viruses. BAM! No more Project Intrepid. All of my save files in that directory are gone now. Including up the game's backup folder. Ugh. I'm submitting a complaint to that antivirus company and never using that antivirus again. The last save I have is way back from 1.1. I don't even think I had the Eve ships built yet. I don't have the heart to redo everything. Sorry, guys. The Story of Project Intrepid Will Not Continue. Which is a shame, I was almost finished with the "Carl Sagan" class of planetary escape ships, which could hold about 7500 Kerbals each. If you hadn't already guessed, the whole idea of this was to use passenger spaceplanes to go to Minmus, build a base, then from there evacuate all of the Kerbals on Kerbin to Laythe, and build a massive Kraken Drive into the moon to push it onto an escape trajectory. This would have required enslaving the Kraken to create such a device. As an added bonus, the Monolith on Laythe would not need his huge portal to escape the end. However, the Kraken would have taken over his own drive and dumped all of Kerbalkind into the black hole instead of saving them. The only Kerbals left in the universe at that point would have been Hudson, Fred, and the two robots, floating in hibernation (long story) in the OCTAVIUS, having accidentally used their time travel device to travel into the far future. I intended the ending to offer a sort of sobering look on the fragility of our species to hopefully spark some interest into actually DOING SOMETHING (Yeah, I know. I was a total idiod to think my tiny mission report could help) to save our planet from future calamities such as asteroid impact, or a big war, or in general anything else. I wanted to include a second big war at around the 50 year mark to show how futile war really is. But, yeah. It's a shame I wasn't able to write it all out. Project Intrepid would have had 100-150 parts totally finished, and I would have aimed to finish it before 2020. Here is the rough outline I had of parts 39-100 ish. Also, here is a more in depth explanation of the storyline that would have been. Please read them. Yes, I know I'm a few hours early, but I'm going to be really busy tomorrow! Edited April 7, 2017 by Ultimate Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max_creative Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 Can I start crying irl now? YOU NEED TO MAKE PROJECT INTREPID 2.0! AND THIS TIME GET RID OF THAT ANTIVIRUS AND SAVE MORE! YOU CAN DO IT! FOR SCIENCE! FOR PROJECT INTREPID! FOR ULTIMATE STEVE! *goes back to crying in the corner* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pxi Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 https://www.piriform.com/recuva Undelete utilities are a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 4/1/2017 at 4:42 AM, pxi said: https://www.piriform.com/recuva Undelete utilities are a thing. Expand Good to know! Although this was an April Fools joke in case you didn't catch it... Now I know what to do if I accidentally delete PI for real! Reveal hidden contents Although I did have a scare a few months back, right after I had landed on Gilly in the story. All of a sudden, things got really slow and choppy and restarts would not fix it. The quickload menu would take a full five minutes to load, if it loaded without the game crashing. Fortunately, I was able to fix it at the sacrifice of moving to another install and removing over a hundred quicksaves from the file. At one point I thought I had lost the files and had considered a backup plan: Having the robots jump between dimensions into a parallel universe (because I feared I would have to rebuild all of the ships and I wouldn't get them exactly right) with slightly different hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pxi Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 4/1/2017 at 4:50 AM, Ultimate Steve said: Good to know! Although this was an April Fools joke in case you didn't catch it... Now I know what to do if I accidentally delete PI for real! Reveal hidden contents Although I did have a scare a few months back, right after I had landed on Gilly in the story. All of a sudden, things got really slow and choppy and restarts would not fix it. The quickload menu would take a full five minutes to load, if it loaded without the game crashing. Fortunately, I was able to fix it at the sacrifice of moving to another install and removing over a hundred quicksaves from the file. At one point I thought I had lost the files and had considered a backup plan: Having the robots jump between dimensions into a parallel universe (because I feared I would have to rebuild all of the ships and I wouldn't get them exactly right) with slightly different hardware. Expand Ah ok so! Well the more you know and all that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAL 9000 Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 You guys fell for it? SUCKERS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laythe Squid Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 You can into April Fools! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKSPBeginner Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 Last post was months ago! Revive time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted August 19, 2017 Author Share Posted August 19, 2017 On 8/19/2017 at 12:01 AM, thekspbegginer said: Last post was months ago! Revive time! Expand Gosh, I knew it had been long, but five months? Yeah, it has been quite a while! I still very much have big plans for Project Intrepid (like redoing the first ten poorly written parts, renaming all parts to chapters, and a BIG finale that will happen around part 100) but IRL has partially taken over (Where in the world did my summer go?) and I'm a bit occupied with Voyage: The Final Warning (which was supposed to run parallel to this, but I got sidetracked). There's also the issue of a very laggy save file (although I'm currently addicted to RO/RP-0 - going back to PI will seem like the game is running fast compared to RO/RP-0). So, not dead. Just slightly dormant. I will *try* to get a new part out before school starts up for me. Sorry for the long delay, the story of Project Intrepid will undoubtedly continue! I just can't say how soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlin Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 On 8/19/2017 at 12:39 AM, Ultimate Steve said: Gosh, I knew it had been long, but five months? Yeah, it has been quite a while! I still very much have big plans for Project Intrepid (like redoing the first ten poorly written parts, renaming all parts to chapters, and a BIG finale that will happen around part 100) but IRL has partially taken over (Where in the world did my summer go?) and I'm a bit occupied with Voyage: The Final Warning (which was supposed to run parallel to this, but I got sidetracked). There's also the issue of a very laggy save file (although I'm currently addicted to RO/RP-0 - going back to PI will seem like the game is running fast compared to RO/RP-0). So, not dead. Just slightly dormant. I will *try* to get a new part out before school starts up for me. Sorry for the long delay, the story of Project Intrepid will undoubtedly continue! I just can't say how soon! Expand I feel for you. My RP-0 install takes an hour to load (actually more than that), and there are lag spikes for me that last minutes at a time. Even my somewhat laggy 1.1.3 install seems fast. We will wait for more PI! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKSPBeginner Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 necr0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 (edited) On 8/21/2017 at 6:18 AM, rlin said: I feel for you. My RP-0 install takes an hour to load (actually more than that), and there are lag spikes for me that last minutes at a time. Even my somewhat laggy 1.1.3 install seems fast. We will wait for more PI! Expand Yeah, RP-0 takes quite a while to load! Although, mine certainly takes ten minutes at most... An hour must be torture! My first 0.90 RO installation took 45 minutes usually, though... and crashed after 30 minutes of gameplay... Hooray for 64 bit! Thank you for waiting patiently! On 8/31/2017 at 5:45 PM, TheKSPBeginner said: necr0 Expand Part 39 will come soon, I promise! I just have to design a 12 person Eve Ascent Vehicle... no biggie! Currently loading up my 1.2.1 install (the Project Intrepid install) for the first time since forever... Time to work on this! BTW I'm thinking of installing KIS/KAS into PI, just so you all know. Also I just realized that the last words of dialogue spoken in Voyage and PI are the same word: "Please." EDIT: Eve hates me. I've spent four hours working on an Eve Ascent Vehicle and I'm starting to hate myself. Edited September 1, 2017 by Ultimate Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted September 3, 2017 Author Share Posted September 3, 2017 I promise, I'm making progress! Teaser image: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted September 4, 2017 Author Share Posted September 4, 2017 (edited) Finally... I'm so sorry that it took so long. Life got crazy. Note1: "Parts" are now "Chapters." Chapter Thirty-Nine - Launch Everything Reveal hidden contents ================Part I - Goodnight, sleep tight "Are we there, yet, Gene?" asked Leah. "Almost, Leah. Just one more kilometer," replied Gene. "It's right over that ridge." For the past two weeks, Gene and Leah had been pushing a cylinder full of supplies toward a crashed lander 100 kilometers away. They were hoping to use its antenna to contact the space center. "I want to rest, Gene." "Me too, Leah. But, we're almost there, and the Kerbin to Eve window is about two weeks away. We're pushing it as is." "Just one more kilometer?" "Just one more kilometer." The exhausted pair of astronauts continued to push the cylinder up the slight incline. A few minutes later, they crested the peak of the hill - and saw the broken old lander from the ill-fated Eve Expedition 3, buried in the Evian soil. "It's there!" exclaimed Leah. "Just like the map said it was!" "Now let's hope the antenna - " "Don't jinx it, Gene! I don't want anything bad to happen, not when we're this close!" "Okay, I won't. So, we get to the lander, send the message, and then go back to the Valentina." "Yes, let me check the supplies levels again. I mean, they are fine for the trip back, I just want to see how long we can stay here and rest..." "Good idea. Wait, where did the fuselage go?" "What - no. Nonononono!" The fuselage full of their supplies - oxygen, food, and water - was rolling uncontrollably down the slope. Gene began, in vain, to run after it. However, the fuselage struck a rock and began tumbling end over end. Gene and Leah watched in horror as the fuselage split apart, spilling the contents over the purple, radioactive surface of Eve. One of the larger oxygen canisters struck a rock, breaking open and creating a spark. The residual fuel from inside the fuselage made contact with the oxygen - and there was a massive explosion. Gene and Leah stood in shocked silence for nearly a minute until Gene spoke. "We can still scevange some of the supplies and - " "No, the oxygen blew everything up," replied Leah. "None of the canisters will be intact after that! The water tanks will also be busted, and the food is probably contaminated with Blutonium now!" "Calm down, Leah! The explosion couldn't have been that bad! The oxygen only had so much fuel to react with!" "No, Eve is pretty much made of fuel, some of the surface blew up with it!" "Nonsense, Eve is not made of fuel!" "Yes, it is," said Leah as she showed Gene a picture on her Kpad. "Gah, it's so blurry! I can't see anything, the resolution is too low!" "Well, my Kpad is sort of stuck on low power mode because we're sort of out of power." "Wait, that propellium line comes out of Eve's oceans, not the surface!" "Yes, but the surface has some too!" "Never mind, this isn't important." Gene stopped arguing for a while. "Maybe the lander has some supplies we can use." The two walked towards the lander. "Well, here it is!" said Leah as Gene climbed on top of it. He then proceeded to rip open the service bay doors. His face fell. "No luck, Leah. Everything in here is either broken or radioactive." "But that means - " "Don't think about it, Leah, let's concentrate on the antenna. Do you see it?" "Yes, I see it, it's over here!" she replied as Gene came over to have a look. A few minutes later, the antenna was functioning properly. "Okay, message time," said Leah. "I'm thinking an audio log, coordinates of the debris, how we got here, our dire situation, and - " Gene cut her off. "Leah, here's the problem. The battery in this thing went dead decades ago!" "Well, we can patch my Kpad into it!" said Leah. She held her Kpad up, just as it died. "Aw, shoot." "We might just have enough power in our suits to send a few sentences." "Okay, but these suits are getting awfully - " Leah's suit lights flickered. "-low. How many characters can we send?" "This is a really bad antenna... by the time we've established a link, maybe thirty, if we're lucky." "And then out suits will be dead." "Yep. The batteries we took exploded as well." The two, pushing aside their despair, eventually came up with a message to send: 18crash25asl200W0N82grp100kSOS 30 characters - although the end wasn't strictly necessary. 18 - serial number of the ship that had crashed. crash - to show they were crashed. 25asl - 2.5 kilometers above sea level. Altitude is key when designing Eve ascent vehicles. 200W - approximately 200 degrees west. 0N - Roughly on the equator. 82grp - two groups of Kerbals, one group of two, one of eight. 100k - separation between the two groups. SOS - universal distress signal. "I sure hope this works," said Gene, as he patched the antenna into their suits. The antenna turned on. The message was sent as fast as possible. Gene yanked the power lines away right after the message had finished. The headlights on his suit turned off. "So, what now?" asked Leah. "We check the surface to see if any supplies survived." And for the next hour, they did exactly that, until the lights on Leah's suit died out as well. They had found nothing. Leah sat down on the surface, exhausted and helpless. "How long until my oxygen runs out, again?" she asked. "Leah, don't say things like that! We still have a chance!" "A chance, Gene? We're stuck on Eve with no supplies and our Oxygen will be depleted in an hour. What chance do we have?" Gene searched his brain, and then remembered something very important. "Leah," he said somewhat excitedly, "remember what Valentina did on Duna? That weird hibernation thing? She survived fifty years without oxygen." "But that's the thing!" said Leah. "Nobody knows how she did that!" "I do," said Gene. "She told me in the report she sent. Apparently, it's a weird mixture of monopropellant and hexagen that you're supposed to fill your suit with." "That sounds dangerous," said Leah. "Monopropellant is nastly stuff - and Hexagen is radioactive, and a trace gas. And where would we get monopropellant? Where would we get hexagen?" "Monopropellant we'd have to substitute for. Our EVA propellant should work for that task. I mean, they are both made mostly out of Nitronite, right?" "Yeah, but the hexagen! That's hard to get!" "Okay, Leah, I'm going to tell you a secret." "What secret?" "The most closely guarded secret of the space program - I am about to reveal to you the compositon of mystery goo!" Leah gasped. She stood in shock and wonder as Gene told her the recipe. Gene produced a small clump of mystery goo out of his pocket, and then dropped it onto the surface of Eve. There was a blight flash and then a strange green gas formed, clinging to the goo as if magnetized. "What even - " "And that's how you make hexagen. Leah, do you want to go first?" "I mean, I have no idea what you're gong to do, so I should probably go first," she replied. "Okay, hold your breath." Leah obeyed as Gene rerouted some of the tubing in her spacesuit, patched it up, and then did the same with his. "Well, that smells nasty," said Leah, seconds before her vision began to blur. "See you in a few weeks, Leah," said Gene. "I sure hope this works." "Me too." "Goodnight, Gene." "Goodnight, Leah." ====================Part II - The meeting Bobak Kerman, the second in command of Mission Control, burst into the meeting room shouting things like "EVE! I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" and "OUR REPUTATION WILL PLUMMET!" The Kerbals inside the meeting room all stood up and tried to calm Bobak down enough to say something. "What is it, Bobak?" asked Wernher Von Kerman. "Yeah, tell us!" said Linus. "Guys, you're not going to like this!" said a hyperventilating Bobak. "We, uh, were monitoring the old antenna channels just for fun, nothing important, because we didn't have anything better to do, and, well, you know that power outage that struck the Eve Mothership?" "Yeah?" "Well, uh, they are actually stranded on Eve." "WHAT?" shouted everyone in the room. "How the Moho did this happen?" shouted Walt. "I don't know. They only sent one distress call, it was only 30 characters long and -" "Thirty characters?" "Yes, thirty characters!" shouted Bobak. "Well, what were they?" "Uh... Eighteen crash, 25 ASL, 200W0N, 82, G, R, P, 100k, SOS." "Why only thirty chatacters?" "They sent the message from the antenna on the ancient Eve 3 lander." "The Eve 3 lander?" "Yes, the Eve 3 lander! They probably didn't have the power for anything more!" "Okay, I think I can make sense of the message... 18 crash and SOS are obvious, 200W 0N are approximate coordinates, and 25 ASL probably means 2.5 kilometers above sea level," said Wernher. "But 82, G, R, P, and 100k I can't make sense of." "It might be short for group," suggested Dave Kerman. "Ah, of course!" shouted Wernher. "Maybe it's groups of 8 and 2 100 kilometers away from each other! Maybe the ship broke in two on descent - wait, how did the ship fall from orbit?" "I don't know, sir!" replied Bobak. "That's the only message we got." "Thank you, Bobak," replied Wernher. "Kerbals of the KSC, we have a major crisis on our hands. DO NOT PANIC!" he shouted as everyone around him started to panic. "Bobak, continue to monitor that channel." "Yes, sir, I'm on it!" "While you're at it, try and get one of the old satelites functioning! I want imagery of the crash site!" "Got it." "Now, everone else! We have two weeks until the Eve window in which to launch a rescue mission - " "Excuse me!" said Rick Kerman (who was standing in for Mortimer, as he was currently heading towards Jool). "We have our hands full working on our fleet of 100 person spaceplanes! We don't have the time for a rescue, let's just drop a can full of supplies and rescue them later!" "Rick, we are heading Project Intrepid," said Wernher. "Not project mediocre. Not project preoccupied. Project Intrepid. And we're going to bring them home - remember, Gene is on Eve! He's our administrative chief! We can't just leave him there!" "Alright, good point. I give it two million funds, since it won't accomplish anything beneficial." "Only two million?!?!?!?" shouted Gus. "My goodness, we can't save them using that! Ten, at least!" "Two." "Ten!" "Guys!" shouted Wernher, "We are trying to save the world here! Money is no object! Now, we need an ascent vehicle, two motherships for redundancy, something capable of traveling 200 kilometers on Eve, and a few rovers for good measure. You have two weeks. Let everyone know - and remember, fail, and ten Kerbals die." "But the money!" shouted Rick. "Are you angry about how much we spend?" asked Wernher. "Just be glad you don't have to see the financial statements from the Experimental Engineering Group. The exact numbers are classified, but last year they spent about a billion funds on whatever it is they're doing down there!" "A BILLION funds?" asked an incredulous Rick. "Fine, take your ten million, but I'm cancelling the third Sagan class!" "Fine, we won't need it anyway!" ===========================Part III - Workaholics The KSC was working its hardest at building all of the hardware necessary for the rescue mission. The thing was - because timing was so rushed, every design submitted was quickly checked over, and if no huge mistakes were found, it was built. Unfortunately, this meant that two of everything was tested and launched in rapid succession. The first thing to go up was the ITV-023. At this point, nobody knew what was going to be sent to Eve on the mothership. However, the need to get something in the sky quickly became apparent, and this ship beat everything else because it was already under construction as a Moho ship. It would have been much larger, but the engineers shortened the design so it would be ready in time for Eve. It had six normal sized docking ports, a questionable choice as they were all off center. Whatever they sent to Eve on this thing, they would have to send two as to not be unbalanced. Four Kerbals piloted the ITV-023 higher into the air as the gravity turn begin. In their haste, the engineers had forgotten to add fins to the rocket. However, the massive gimbal range of the dozens of Vectors onboard proved adequate to keep the beast flying straight. Sorry, can we take a moment here and appreciate how awesome that picture looks? It's like a Phoenix or something. After about ten minutes of coasting, the ITV-023 reached an orbit of about 350 by 350 kilometers, awaiting its payload. The crew unfurled the solar arrays and named the craft "Valkyrie." Two days later, the next launch was ready. This launch happened to be the payload for the Valkyrie. As the KSC was unsure if the Gilly Hoppah had been destroyed, it would be best to launch replacements. Two identical transfer craft, as of yet unnamed, reached orbit successfully and then proceeded to rendezvous with the Valkyrie. The crew of the Valkyrie sat in orbit, preparing for the scheduled departure burn... ============================================================ Three years ago, Dalton Kerman had a really cool idea. He asked a space program representative if he could acquire funding. He was turned down with the response "We are not going to fund a project based off of nothing but a cool acronym." One and a half years ago, when he proposed it again, he was turned down with the same reasoning, plus the statement "It's not even that good of an acronym!" However, Dalton Kerman heard that they needed something on Eve that could travel 200 kilometers and proposed his acronym again. It was accepted - and a few days later, ESREP - the Eve Self Refueling Exploration Plane - was rolled out to the runway with three brave souls aboard. The crew assignments were done by idiots, though - they actually went to an airline and hired a pilot, a copilot, and a flight attendant. Again, this somehow made it to orbit without any problems whatsoever. However, the launch vehicle proved to be too inefficient to do a direct transfer - the crew decided to refuel at Minmus first. With just a week and a half left before the window, the crew didn't dare try refueling the craft using it's own drill - they went straight towards where they knew they could find fuel. ESREP descended towards the surface of Minmus, and by some miracle, the poorly trained airline pilot, Shepsel Kerman, managed to position the craft for an amazingly epic picture without accidentally blowing up two very expensive spaceships. Natalenna Kerman, the Mayor of Minmus, glanced out of her window to see a giant spaceplane thing land directly next to the ITV-020 "Philosopher of Time." Obviously, the was very startled by this sudden unexpected appearance. She proceeded to watch the plane touch down vertically, and then tip over and do an ungraceful belly flop. She quickly suited up to meet whoever was in this strange vessel. "Hailing unknown vessel," said Natalenna as she stepped out of the airlock. "Please state your name, destination, and intent." "This is Shepsel Kerman, pilot of the ESREP. We are heading for Eve." "Well, yeah, I know that! What are you doing here, though? You're supposed to be testing your drills on the other side of Minmus!" "Ahh, sorry. We're sort of pressed for time here, and we had to do a humongous correction burn to save time," replied Shepsel. "We come here requesting fuel!" "Well, if you want fuel, you should have landed seventeen kilometers that way," said Natalenna as she pointed East. "That is where Minmusville is located. We're currently building a huge VAB there in order to build more giant spaceships. We have a designated runway, landing pads, habitation space for ten thousand Kerbals so far, and enough fuel to cause a tsunami." "Oh, sorry. I was unaware of the progress you have made on Minmusville," replied Shepsel. "I'll just make a quick hop over there," he said as he turned to leave. "Wait just a minute, Shepsel," said Natalenna. "We installed an underground fuel pipeline a few weeks back, we can refuel you." "Oh, thanks!" "Current price is 30 funds per gallon." "Wait, what?" "Only joking! I'll call a fueling team down from Minmusville right now." "Wait, you mean you don't have one here?" "Of course not, everyone is working on Minmusville! We just keep about a dozen people here to keep this ship running in case we have some kind of emergency. Really, we don't need this ship here at all, any more," explained Natalenna. "Why don't you send it to someplace, then?" asked Shepsel. "Good point. I know that this phase of Project Intrepid is about learning as much as possible about the Kerbol system - imagine what you could learn about Gilly if you sent, say 400 people there on a massive science expedition. We'd know everything! I've proposed this idea to the KSC before, but they are far more concerned about getting the Minmus base up and running. There would need to be an additional reason for going there." "Hmm. Makes sense. So, the fuel?" "Right, the fuel, just a minute, Shepsel." ========================================================= Meanwhile, Kerlington College had secured a launch contract for an atmospheric probe glider that would investigate an anomaly at Eve's north pole. Also, a polar mapping satellite was launched... ================================================== Back on Minmus, the refueling procedure had been completed and the ESREP was on its way to Eve. Natalenna watched the humongous spaceplane accelerate across the ice flats of Minmus, secretly wishing she could join them in their quest to rescue the stranded Kerbals. Sadly, though, the KSC had denied any request of moving the ITV-020 until at least after the spaceplane network was up and running. As the ESREP passed over the horizon, however, Natalenna's cell phone began to ring. "Hello, Natalenna. I'd like an explaination, you know. There's no service up here!" "This is S.A.M. Kerman, of the Experimental Engineering Division, and this conversation is being directly beamed from Kerbin to Minmus." "Directly beamed? Hahaha. Andy, is that you? You pull pranks like this all the time. Make up a more convincing explaination, please. Kerbin is on the other side of Minmus now! You can't beam a signal through Minmus!" "Did you even hear the words "Experimental Engineering?" Also, I'm being serious here. I couldn't help but overhear - " "Okay, "Sam." If you're real, get Wernher on the line for me." "Okay, sure," said S.A.M. A moment later, Wernher Von Kerman was on the line as well. "Hello, Natalenna," said Wernher. "Okay, I believe you, then. What were you saying?" asked Natalenna. "Well," said S.A.M., "We've been reviewing your proposals to send the ITV-020 to Gilly. We had previously rejected these proposals - " "No duh." " - But we have a new plan." Natalenna perked up. "Do tell!" "Since our spaceplane fleet is almost up and running, we hereby permit you to take four hundred Kerbals from Minmus to the Eve system using the 020." "Really?" exclaimed a hopeful Natalenna. "Yes, really. While you will there, you will establish a city on Gilly much like the one you are building on Minmus. You will build small exploration craft there, and will assist in the rescue of the crew of the ITV-018." "And complete a science mission?" "Yes. Your first task will be to learn everything possible about Gilly." "First task?" "Yes. Your second task is why we're here. Now, you must understand that what I am about to tell you is strictly class 4 top secret. Almost as secret as the formula to Mystery Goo. You hear that?" "Yes, sir!" "Now. Fill your cargo bays with as much silver as you can find, and when you're on Gilly, after you've learned everything..." "Yes?" "Remember, this is a secret." "Got it!" S.A.M. proceeded to tell Natalenna about the massive structure that was to be built... =================================Part IV - The Leftovers One of the construction crews had succeeded in designing, building, and launching two Eve rovers. The rovers were unique in the fact that they had detachable wings so they could glide to their landing site. This meant that they could precision land to within a few hundred meters of their target. The problem was, there was no mothership to carry the rovers to Eve. The Valkyrie's ports were small, and the rover-planes had one large docking port between the two of them - it was designed to be carried in the center of an axis. So, no problem, right? Just launch another mothership! Well, it's not that simple... The Eve window was drawing to a close and there was simply no time left to build another humongous mothership. Except... When the 017, 018, and the 019 got built (the long ones with the ring on the end) there was a need to test things on the ground. So, a Structural Test Article was built, used, and then stored underground for a few years. "Wait, let me get this straight," asked Gus Kerman, "You want us to fly a structural test article into space?" "Yes," replied Wernher Von Kerman, "That is exactly what I plan on doing." "Why? It's insane! There's no way that could possibly work! The normal engines are barely functional dummies, the nuclear engines use second rate cores, the entire skeleton is made of scrap metal, and to top it off, we reused the life support systems we found lying around the VAB! They were made, what, sixty years ago now?" "Noted, Linus," replied Wernher. "We are using it not because we want to, but because we need to. Unless something comes up, I promise you, we will retire it right after it gets back to Kerbin." "No way are you launching it! I don't need ten Kerbals to explode!" "Sorry, Linus. It's already launching." "Wait, what?" an ominous voice came out of nowhere. "Three... Two... One..." "And, liftoff of the ITV-024!" "You idiot!" said Linus. "Sorry, we had no choice! It was either this or no roverplanes." "How did you even get people inside that deathtrap?" asked an incredulous Linus. "Torture?" "No," replied Wernher. "We literally have a waiting list of ten thousand Kerbals who would fly anything." "Ten thousand?" "I would, too, but, you know... I'm sort of busy being the chief designer." "Oy vey." "So, that somehow managed to work," replied Linus. "Yes, it did. Docking is underway as we speak." "I'm out of here," said Linus. "Crazy man," he muttered under his breath. Wernher then ran outside of the Spaceplane Hangar towards the Vehicle Assembly Building. He was somewhat worried about the team of engineers who were working on the actual Eve Ascent Vehicle. The end of the window was upon them and as far as he knew they had not completed the actual vehicle. However as he was running towards the VAB, the doors began to open and a large rocket began to roll out. Wernher approached the manager of the ascent vehicle team. His name was Greg. "Greg, quickly run me through the ascent vehicle again, I've forgotten everything." "Okay, um, the plan is to get into a really low orbit around Eve and then burn to a standstill using all of the fuel on board so we don't have to use heat shields, then we land and refuel and take off again. It can carry sixteen. That bulge on top is the extra fuel for the de-orbit burn." "Fantastic, Greg! Uh, I see the lander, but where's the launch vehicle?" Greg hesitated before answering. "The engineering behind this lander was too complex. We went through at least three different failed designs, I think, and this was the first one we came up with that worked. That is the launch vehicle." "Wait, what?" "Our plan is to launch is as an SSTO, fly it to Minmus, refuel it, go to Gilly, refuel it, and then go to Eve." "That thing can SSTO to Minmus?" "I sure hope so. If it can't, we're doomed." "When is launch?" "About now-ish. I'd get inside if I were you." As if on cue, the four mammoths and eight vectors at the base of the rocket ignited. Several minutes later, the ascent vehicle had somehow gotten to orbit in one piece. "Congratulations, Greg," said Wernher. "Now, Minmus?" "Sir?" said Greg in a very hesitant tone. "Yes, Greg?" "I'm so sorry sir. There is nowhere enough fuel left in the tanks to reach Minmus." Wernher froze for a bit. "I'm so sorry, Wernher." Wernher sat down with his head in his hands and began to weep. However, a strange Kerbal in a black suit with dark sunglasses entered the room. "Hello, I am S.A.M. Kerman," said the strange Kerbal. "Wernher, you know me, Greg you do not. I couldn't help but overhear your current predicament. I believe I can help with that." Wernher sat up and stared at S.A.M. "No, S.A.M. Don't even try to suggest Project K! That's nowhere near ready! Remember the time you almost blew up the planet?" "Relax, Wernher, I wasn't going to suggest Project K, I was going to say - " "Excuse me," said Greg, "Who the Bop are you?" "Oh, sorry," said S.A.M. "I am S.A.M. I am the head of operations down in the Experimental Engineering Division." Greg perked up at that. "THE Experimental Engineering Division? Where they work on the future megaships? Where they have cool code names? What does yours mean?" "That is classified," said S.A.M. "Everyone knows it's "Secret Agent Man," Sam," said Wernher. "Wernher, you are dismissed," said S.A.M. Wernher grumbled and obeyed. "Now, Greg, I heard you're in need of some fuel." "Yes - like, ten Kerbodyne tanks worth!" "No need to fret, Greg. I think I have just the thing..." S.A.M. led Greg to the VAB elevator, which descended into the depths of the underground where craft were built and stored. An incomplete model 2 was on the right, several dozen pallets of Vector engines on his left. The elevator descended another level. This level boasted the failed Eve Ascent Vehicles as well as the crew training mockups of many old spaceships. The next few levels were all storage. The elevator hit the bottom floor. "I don't see any fuel here," said Greg. "This layer is all sciencey stuff!" "Greg, although what I'm about to show you is technically declassified, it is in the same room as several dozen projects that are completely classified. So, don't look around too much, and don't tell anyone about anything you see in here, or we'll have to silence you. Clear?" asked S.A.M. "Completely clear," answered an extremely nervous Greg. "Then welcome to the Experimental Engineering Division," announced S.A.M. as he entered a secret code into the elevator. It dropped downward into a massive chasm kilometers wide and several hundred meters tall - Greg could scarcely believe his eyes. Along the walls, many dozens of tremendous spaceships were being worked on - some several dozen times the size of even the Philosopher Of Time! He caught a glance of a spaceship with the words "Twenty Thousand Kerbal Class" printed along the side before remembering to stare at the floor of the elevator or risk being silenced. The elevator reached a sublevel within the chasm. "You can look now," said S.A.M. "What is that?" "Do you not remember that?" "I'm pretty sure I have no idea what that is." "Remember Phase One? Where we had to send 1500 tons to Minmus? We needed a refueler for that ship, so we came up with this. It used a strange new technology called "Advanced Volume Manipulation," also called "Clipping." It allowed us to produce an engine the same size as the Mammoth, but with nine times the mass and thrust. We were so sure the refueler was going to explode that we built a second one. Let's see... at least twelve Kerbodyne tanks. will this suit your needs, Greg?" "Oh - yes! But - why aren't those mega-engines standard issue?" "They cost a hundred times more than just using ten mammoths." "Oh." "Okay, everyone!" said S.A.M. into a megaphone. "I need Maximum Fuel Serial number 002 rolled out immediately!" Greg just stood there in shock and awe - both at how his mission had just been saved, and at the brief glance of the spaceships of the future he had seen. And in that moment, the mission had been saved. It took an entire half hour to transfer all of the fuel that flowed. ====================================Part V - Goodbye, Minmus The fleet of vessels that had been assembled in the space of two weeks left for Eve in what may perhaps be the most daring rescue mission in the history of Kerbin. The crew of people on Minmus had prepared for the launch of the ITV-020, and were finally ready to depart - 400 would leave and 500 would stay to finish the Minmus base. Natalenna handed over the title of "Mayor of Minmus" to Katie Kerman, one of the Kerbals that had been teleported in from another universe along with Jeb #2. She inspected the engine section of the massive craft one last time before jetpacking to the top of the hundred meter tall colony ship. And then, once she was inside, the countdown began... the solar arrays and radiators were retracted, and the colossal beast of a rocket lifted off from the surface of Minmus... ...Rose triumphantly into the sky... ...And ventured into the unknown. The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue... Edited September 7, 2017 by Ultimate Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starslinger999 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) Hopefully, this series will continue! And I was planning on doing a modded graphic novel like this one. With the whole RIP Kerbol system concept and massive colony ships... HOW DID YOU GET MY SCRIPT BEFORE I WROTE IT?!?!?! Edited February 8, 2018 by Starslinger999 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 On 2/8/2018 at 4:31 PM, Starslinger999 said: Hopefully, this series will continue! And I was planning on doing a modded graphic novel like this one. With the whole RIP Kerbol system concept and massive colony ships... HOW DID YOU GET MY SCRIPT BEFORE I WROTE IT?!?!?! Expand It's not dead, it's just in a state where it's dormant and I'm always saying it's not dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starslinger999 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 On 2/8/2018 at 5:13 PM, Ultimate Steve said: It's not dead, it's just in a state where it's dormant and I'm always saying it's not dead. Expand K then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 (edited) Chapter 40 - Untitled Space Chapter Reveal hidden contents The time had finally come. The radioactive fallout from the Great War had decayed to a point where it would not burn out Kerbal eyeballs and cameras over some time. This meant that the radiation filters in suit visors and camera lenses could be removed, and at long last, they could see Kerbin as it truly looked like, not through altered lenses. And several thousand Kerbals took this as a sign and said "Hey! It's safe, let's build aboveground cities again!" Reveal hidden contents I have updated the Project Intrepid save to 1.3.1 finally, and I got a great computer for Christmas so I can run a bunch of graphics mods now. Full mod list: BoulderCo city lights and stuff Distant Object Enhancement EngineLight EVE Hangar Extender KAS KER KJR (it affects stock performance somewhat, but TBH it was getting insanely hard to build ships longer than 70 or so meters without the Kraken attacking, so I consider it justified) HyperEdit (for testing, teleporting sets, off-planet vessel construction, abandoned bases, etc.) KIS A skybox that I'm probably going to change as it wasn't the one I was looking for RealPlume Scatterer SigmaReplacements SmokeScreen SVE Take Command (spawn Kerbals into EVA seats) KAC Transfer Window Planner TweakScale (for absurdly huge things and avoiding clusters of dozens of engines) Vessel Mover (same reasons as HyperEdit) Waypoint Manager Anyway, back to the story! ==========Part 1, Octavius flies again It was now time for Hudson, Fred, Robo-Bill and Robo-Bob to leave the Mun. After several weeks of work, the four had managed to modify the remains of the Octavius into a working interplanetary spaceship. The two robots were only coming because their time travel experiments were not working any more, and after much debate they agreed to go to the Eve system, mostly because it was the only place with an open transfer window. They had removed their radiation proof visors and looked up at Kerbin, seeing clouds and city lights for the first time in forever, it seemed. The Octavius, referred to by the crew as "Octavius Prime," had been modified as little as possible from the wreckage. All of the pre-existing parts were still there, all they did was add stuff and move one of the original landing legs down. They had added three fuel tanks for balance, an antenna, a docking adapter, a new solar panel, and EVA seats for the robots, as Octavius could only seat three. "Good lord, how did they manage it, sitting in this tiny ship for twenty years? A hundred days will be hard enough," said Hudson. "Bill's memories indicate it was extremely difficult, the crew nearly went insane," replied Robo-Bill. "Jeb was already insane," chimed in Robo-Bob. "This engine is probably nearly a hundred years old at this point, are you sure this was a good idea?" "No, Fred, but it's probably the only option right now. Hold onto your snacks, and here goes nothing. You two sure the exhaust won't fry your circuits or anything?" asked Hudson. "Probably not," said Robo-Bill. Robo-Bob nodded in agreement. "Okay, then. Relish this gravity, Fred, it will be the last you feel for quite some time." Fred nodded, sitting in the rear cabin. He noticed a section of the wall where, decades ago, Bill himself had written "BILL WAS HERE. GOOD LUCK." in sharpie. May Bill be with them, he thought. They needed the luck. After several failed countdowns, and several hours, it was night on the Mun. "Engine start in three, two, one..." "And, liftoff of Octavius Prime!" announced a triumphant Hudson. "OOOO, it looks like lava!" said Fred. A few minutes later, they were orbiting the Mun. The engine, although a hundred years old, was still performing remarkably well, although it made an odd sound every now and then. Several maneuver nodes later, they were headed for the Eve system. ==========Part II, At long last Finally, the ITV-011 "Creativity" had arrived at Jool. In case you forgot (holy Jeb it's been a year and a half IRL since I launched it), the Creativity carries several payloads for the exploration of Jool and its mons, including two Laythe airplanes, a Laythe ISRU, a Tylo ISRU, a scansat, an army of Tylo landers, extra fuel tanks, and a Laythe Submarine. One short burn later, it was on track to catch a gravity assist from Tylo. It would take two more gravity assists, a month or two later, to get into an orbit of Tylo, and that's when it will start getting interesting... ==========Part III, Untitled Space Craft It had taken the Experimental Engineering Division many months to scale up the RAPIER and the NERVA, but it had finally happened. This was the first prototype 100 Kerbal Spaceplane, a fleet of which would transport several million Kerbals to Minmus so they could be evacuated on colony ships. This was the first test flight of the "Untitled Space Craft," also known internally as P1KSP3. Powered by two RAPIER XL's and two RAPIERS, as well as one LV-N XL, the Untitled Space Craft took off from the Kerbin Runway in the middle of the night with three pilots and an engineer on board. The remaining 96 seats were filled with supplies. After a short time the plane passed supersonic, and lit the nuclear engine, pushing it into orbit. From there, it burned towards Minmus. A few days later, it arrived and aimed to land at Hope City, which was the facility where the colony ships would be built. The hundreds of Kerbals had made great progress on the city, although they were slightly behind schedule, as almost half of the crew had left for Eve. The three pilots expertly guided the Untitled Space Craft to a landing on the base's massive landing pad. Once the ship had safely landed, Katie Kerman, second Mayor of Minmus, came out to greet the crew. "Hello, Ludemone! Welcome to Minmus!" exclaimed Katie Kerman, incredibly enthusiastically. "Greetings, Katie. It's bigger than i thought it would be!" "So, you need some fuel?" "Actually, the ship overperformed, and we have enough Delta-V to go home and get into LKO without aerobraking, so we shouldn't be needing fuel." "Okay!" "In fact, if we refueled here, we could probably get to Laythe, refuel there, and get back if you really wanted to. There's certainly enough room for the crew, and you could add ISRU without too much hassle." "Interesting, I'll keep that in mind for future plans. Want a tour of the base?" "Uh, I'm not - " "Let's go!" she said enthusiastically, pushing her jetpack as fast as it would go. Ludemone struggled to keep up. "This is the first wing, where all of the living quarters are, as well as kitchens, computer rooms, and other stuff are. We also have laboratories and mining equipment in there." "Okay, nice, and - " Then Katie took off again. "This is our biology dome, the trees haven't finished growing yet, but we're planning on adding several farms once we expand the city. Beneath this is the utility section, which has storage, materials processing machines, and our nuclear reactor." She flew around some more. "On the other side is a massive fuel tank where we are currently storing Liquid Fuel." "And this is Jebediah Tower, which is used for administrative purposes, fun, the views, and the giant antenna on top!" "It certainly is a nice view." "And beneath us, beneath the landing pad, is the assembly hangar, were we are currently building a large ship to test off-planet construction, then we will move onto the first prototype colony ship once we have a bigger VAB." "Can I see the ship under construction?" "We'd like to keep it under wraps for now, if you don't mind," said Katie. "Now, to unload the cargo..." A few hours later, the cargo was unloaded. Thirty of the five hundred at the base decided to take the ride back to Kerbin, as they had missed it. The liftoff was eventful, as the plane had not been built for quick maneuvering, or VTOL. It swung around to point East, narrowly missing the ground, and flew by the now empty 1500 tons to Minmus vessel. Unfortunately, the base had been built next to a mountain, and the Untitled Space Craft barely missed hitting it upon ascent. A few days later, the plane entered a Low Kerbin Orbit and then de-orbited, aiming to land at KSC. (Author's note, I'm going to try to turn up ambient lighting, the graphics mods made everything way too dark) Re-entry was uneventful until the plane spun out due to being aerodynamically unstable, even with the remaining fuel pumped forward, probably due to the massive engines. This meant that the plane could not land at KSC, both due to lack of fuel, and the fact that if the rest was burned, it would become even more unstable. The pilots eventually managed to regain partial stability and carefully landed on the nearest patch of flat land they could find. While they waited for the recovery crew, they compiled a list of changes they needed to make to the vehicle. 1. Move wings backward or use smaller canards. 2. Use actuation toggles on control surfaces to prevent the rudder from trying to roll, etc. 3. Add either RCS or more reaction wheels to make turning easier 4. Replace side nose cones with intakes 5. Add drogue parachutes for landing ==========Part IV - The Pole After about a hundred days in transit, the three ship Duna flotilla was beginning to arrive. The ITV-022B Marble Machine, piloted by Martin Kerman, arrived first, managing to score a field goal with Duna. Entering tail first (and with lots of screaming) Martin was able to aerocapture on the first pass, and make his final descent on the second pass. The first target for the flotilla was Duna's north pole. Unfortunately, due to misjudging Duna's atmosphere, Martin overshot the pole by about ten kilometers. Perhaps it was for the better, as close enough there was very little flat land, and the ships were hard enough to land already. Martin was finally on Duna. And not only that, but he was near the north pole - a source off mystery and wonder, as were the poles of all of the planets. He said something dramatic, planted a flag, and then began unpacking what little science equipment he had. The current plan for these miniature Intrepids was that they would all three land near the pole to start with, and jointly explore it. Then, they would use their remaining fuel - one ship would go to Duna Anomaly One, one to Duna Anomaly Two, and one to the South Pole if fuel permitted. They would then return to Kerbin at the next available window. In the event that one of the ships did not have the fuel for Kerbin return, two ships would dock in orbit and the fuel would be transferred. As the ships had two seats, one could steal the other's fuel and return to Kerbin safely. And far away, one massive spaceship performed a plane change burn as it prepared to take 400 Kerbals to Gilly... The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue... Unfortunately, I had to use ignore max temperature on the Duna entry because of the solar panels... There really should be a shielded variant. I really do try to keep that sort of cheating to a minimum. Sorry. However, except for glitches, I'm pretty sure I never had to use quickload in the making of this chapter. That doesn't happen very often, especially when an untested Duna lander and an untested SSTM are concerned... I'm going to try and transition to shorter chapters so I don't keep putting them off. Also, if people are interested, I might occasionally stream some of the gameplay if I get into that kind of stuff. Edited February 17, 2018 by Ultimate Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 I feel like I need to say something: the balance between round and flat characters is pretty hard, especially when you have over 100 characters to keep track of. So I'm just going to keep most of the new ones flat except for a few. This chapter reactivates a few medium characters who will hopefully become round soon. During interplanetary journeys (and a year in real life of playing this save) I forgot their personalities (what little they had). I will try to avoid that problem in the future, both by posting more frequent chapters and using faster trajectories. I also took a look at the Eeloo ship... It's going to take a while to arrive and a course correction is too costly, unfortunately... But, guess what? New chapter! Chapter 41 - Interplanetary Mountain Climber Reveal hidden contents ========== Part I - Closer and closer Duna. That one annoying spot of red that has an unjudgeable atmosphere that is too thick to do a careless entry and too thin to land using just parachutes. Nukes worked, but they had a bit of a TWR problem. These were the thoughts of Mayl Kerman as she neared Duna piloting the ITV-022A Dr. Wily. Like Martin, Mayl would complete an aerocapture pass before attempting a landing - hopefully closer to the north pole than him. During the orbit before the final entry, the Eve Ascent Vehicle completed its plane change burn, about 300m/s. Later on, Mayl managed to land closer to the pole than Martin by a factor of almost two. She did, however, feel slightly sick to her stomach due to her proximity to the pole, a fact documented on most of the celestial bodies. She would wait for Joey in the 022-C Applesauce to see if he landed any closer before she began to head for the summit. Besides, there was plenty of other science to do, and maybe she would walk over and see Martin. The ITV-024 Avalon performed its plane change burn, somehow managing to stay in one piece (this was the STA not designed for launch, after all). So did Kerlington College's Eve Polar Exploration Glider. And the ITV-011 Creativity began a series of intricate gravity assists that would eventually place it in a near polar orbit of Tylo. Then Joey Kerman entered - and managed to land really close to the pole on a flat-ish ridge rather than the valley. Unfortunately, well... Sideways. Joey Kerman stared at the Applesauce, which lay on its side. On its side. Sideways. Horizontal. How could this have happened? He was coming down perfectly straight, he had thought. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" he shouted to nobody in particular. He could, if he was lucky, pilot it off of the ridge and pull up in time to land in the valley, but the TWR was so low he didn't really want to risk it... He could always return home with Mayl or Martin, however. Their ships had two seats for a reason. The ITV-009 Intrepid entered Kerbin's sphere of influence at last, after nearly three years in space. However, it was travelling backwards and high due to the fact that Jeb said "Ehh, close enough, who needs course correction burns anyway?" and left the trajectory up to orbital perturbations. Enough fuel remained to do it the hard way, though, more than enough. They could almost do the entire journey over again with the amount of fuel that remained. The Creativity flew by Laythe. The Valkyrie performed her correction burn. As did the Octavius Prime. Nearly a dozen ships were approaching Eve, the first encounter less than a month away. Rescue was coming, but will it be enough? ========== Part II, the life of an interplanetary mountaineer "Okay, is this thing on?" asked Joey to nobody in particular. "I hope it is, Mayl? Martin? can you hear me?" There was silence. "Okay, then, I think it's recording, but Mayl is probably sleeping again and Martin's probably writing another song, but, okay! Here goes nothing! Time to climb Mount Death or whatever we're calling it..." He paused and looked around. "The nerds back on Kerbin developed this new instrument, the nauseometer, which measures spacetime distortion due to proximity to the north poles of some planets. It currently reads 1.05, for the record, and I guess I have to start walking now. Here goes nothing!" "Okay, it's flat here." "Okay, it's not flat here." "Okay, it's weird here." "It's getting a bit sharp. Nauseometer 1.08 and rising." "I'm going to call this the devil's backbone, if I don't stay perfectly centered I'm going to fall to my death. Who's idea was this again? I should have started from the side to my right, it would have been so much easier." "Great. I'm not even going to try going around, I'll just jetpack over." "And devil's backbone ends here, and it ends in something worse. That's like five hundred meters until the next resting point, why in Jeb's name did I agree to this?" "AAAAAA!!!" "This is steep, man. Nauseometer 1.49." "A pickaxe or something would have been ni-AAAAA!" "Phew." "If I stop *pant* climbing I'll probably fall. Nauseometer 1.86." "Don't look down." "Don't look down." "Mayl, wake up! Martin, I know you can hear me!" "Don't look down." "Nauseometer has passed 2.00." "Don't look dow - AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" "It's a bit less steep here, so there's that." "Almost. Almost." "And, sunrise! This part is actually probably permanently lit. "Phew, I can rest now! It's only 45 degrees, well... Ehh. Whatever." "Nauseometer 2.92. 2.93. 2.94." "Hey, it sort of looks like chopsticks!" "Aaaand that's the void. Great. Another thing to worry about." "Nauseometer 4.59. 4.63. 4.69." "Almost in the final phase of the summit. Almost there. Maybe that bit's flat up there..." "Nope. That's void and death. Weird, the planet is transparent from behind." "If I slip to my left I get tossed down a hill with a slight possibility of jetpacking to safety. If I fall to my right I enter the void. I can seriously feel it in my stomach now. Nauseometer is now - wow. 7.6 and the last digit is flickering." "The highest point of the mountain, the part that is the pole, is on the other side. My stomach is really jumping and I feel extremely dizzy. I can't go around that corner without falling into the void and it's probably too steep anyway. I'm bringing out the jetpack." "Nauseometer 11. 12. 13." "Rising, going around to the other - ooh. ooooh. That's messed up. Nauseometer 24." "My stomach is on fire!" "Can't... fly... straight...." "Nauseometer 147. 295. 576!!!!" he screamed in agony as he drew closer and closer to the very point where reality collapsed. "One thousand. It's over nine thousand. Left. Right. Left. Right. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The camera recording went crazy. It spun like a top as it began to fail. Joey was on the verge on unconsciousness. The nauseometer read about thirty thousand a second away from the pole and grew exponentially as his stomach did flips. One million. One billion. Seven quadrillion. Googol. The nauseometer broke as Joey's unconscious body passed over the pole by momentum. His foot dragged against the pile of rock and there was a bright flash. Mayl and Martin had, in fact been able to hear Joey, but Joey had his speakers muted so he couldn't hear them. Mayl remotely piloted Joey back to his ship. Martin began running over to see if Joey was okay. They guessed he hadn't remembered the briefing - if the nauseometer ever got above 50 he was supposed to abort, set down, and try and throw it as close to the pole as possible. And that was how Joey Kerman became the first - and probably last - Kerbal to summit Mount Death. A few hours later he regained consciousness. His foot was messed up, but other than that he was fine. He could walk. The nauseometer was found twisted and melted reading a final value of infinity. ==========Part III - The first of many "Anyway, back to the crew! Podpont and Angie are recruits, straight out of College. They have demonstrated very excellent plane flying skills. Bobwig is a mining engineer known for his invention of radiation-bypass ventilators. Mojorie is from the country of Karniaire, and is well known for her theories about negative gravioli particles. However, all of her papers are in Karnieries, and haven't been translated yet. Miteny is just an ordinary Goo-ologist, and we don't know much about Gemma. She just showed up here one day." "Did I mention I was scared of heights?" inquired an obviously frightened Mojorie. "Mojorie? I am also scared of heights!" exclaimed Bobwig. "Well, Bobwig, I am commander of this vessel, and I order both of you to stop shouting!" proclaimed Angie. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" shouted Miteny. "Not you too, Miteny!" replied Angie. *beep* Wow, Bobwig. You don't know about the sound dampeners on the hatches?" "Nope. I do now, though, Angie." -Project Intrepid, Chapter 14 (slightly edited for of grammar and clarity) The ITV-011 Creativity was now orbiting in a low, highly inclined Tylo Orbit. In addition to the crew listed above, there were two more. There was Stabel Kerman, Engineer, who piloted the ITV-002, ITV-003, and ITV-004 back in the beginning of the Intrepid Test Vehicle program. However, she died in the launch of the ITV-004 but was successfully regrown after a long procedure (which is successful about 70% of the time). She was an older Kerbal, she had been a pilot in the Great War. There was also Patfrey Kerman, who piloted the ITV-005 and was the first Kerbal to reach space after the Great War. However, when decoupling his launch abort pod from what was left of the ship after re-entry, something went wrong and it smashed into the ship, killing him. The regrowth process worked, and here he was - an ordinary miner with a knack for video games co-commanding a spaceship. "Okay, and for the last time," said Stabel, "I'm leaving Gemma in charge." "But - " "No Buts, Bobwig. She was basically the only one of you lot that isn't scared of heights." "Okay, then. Have a fun excursion on Tylo! I'll be wishing you luck!" replied an ever cheerful Angie. "Will do!" replied Patfrey." "Tylo and fun?" asked Miteny, the general scientist (as opposied to the specialists). "Tylo has eaten nearly as many landers as Eve has. Tylo's only saving grace is that we eventually managed to do it with crew all those decades ago." "Well, luckily we have six tries! TYLO ARMY for the win!" cheered Angie. "And don't forget, we all get to go down eventually," said Stabel. "I'm dreading that," whispered Miteny under his breath. "Hmm," said Gemma. The crew turned expectantly towards her as if she was going to say something. She looked back and shrugged. She had said very little in the years of transit. She was a strange Kerbal, indeed. "Main engine startup. TYLO ARMY one is go for landing. We're just getting our periapsis lower so it's easier," said Patfrey. "We're going to have gravity again!" exclaimed Stabel. "You remembered the preliminary experiments, right?" asked Mojorie. "The gravioli detectors?" "Yes. However the bulk of it's going down with you on ARMY Two. Also, engine cutoff," responded Stabel. "Don't die!" shouted Angie. "Oh, no..." muttered Miteny. About thirty minutes later, TYLO ARMY One lit its engines again in an attempt to land. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" shouted Stabel. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" shouted Patfrey. "Bet you five funds they die," said Miteny absently to Angie. She lightly slapped him and replied. "Don't say things like that!" She then turned to Mojorie. "How are they doing?" "They are two veteran pilots and commanders, and they certainly show it. Fuel consumption is a bit high, but they are doing well. Altitude is also a bit higher than preferred, ideally you want to be right above the surface. We'll make the changes on the next landing." "Patfrey!" shouted Stabel over the roar of the five engines. "We have a bit of a problem!" "Problem?" "We're going to need to detach the side boosters before we land and that will mess up or TWR." "Okay, um... Mojorie, any advice?" "You could activate crossfeed right as the sides are about to burn out." "Okay, will do. Altitude 1000. 900. 800." "Remember the camera!" shouted Bobwig. "Sorry, Bobwig," said Patfrey, "I didn't quite get that!" "400. 300. 200. 150. 100. 60. 30. Hovering, aaaaannnndddd....." "Contact! Stabel, welcome to Tylo!" Stabel let out a sigh of relief as she jettisoned the empty side boosters. "They exploded!" said Miteny. "No they didn't, they just detached the side boosters!" replied Angie. "And they're on TYLO! Time to party!" "Okay, who didn't add ladders?" said Stabel. She then unbuckled her seatbelt and tried to gently lower herself down the lander. She did her best not to cry out when she hit the ground. She stood up and proclaimed "Hey, Miteny! You owe Angie five funds!" Far, far away, the ITV-016 Explorer departed from one of the negative gravioli asteroids, which for some reason had turned green. They were going to refuel the Homecoming. The Eve Self Refueling Exploration Plane, or ESREP, performed its plane change. ========== Part IV, The Homecoming Jebediah had forgotten how beautiful Kerbin was without the radiation filters. So had Bill. So had Bob. And Val, although she never had the filters in the first place. Shercott and Gidrien had never known a Kerbin like this. "Space Station Epic IV. It happened so long ago... I never thought I'd see it again!" said Jebediah. "I thought I'd never see Kerbin again," said Valentina. "Soon I'll be there... I'll take a long vacation, see all the sights, fly a kite, go swimming, visit the old pyramids..." "I have no words," said Shercott from the Cupola, where Gidrien was also looking out with her. "What's the story with Space Station Epic IV?" asked Gidrien, too preoccupied with the beauty of Kerbin to pay much attention to the answer. "A long time ago, we built the first ever multi-modular space station, Space Station Epic. It was tiny, but it worked. Then came two and three, slightly larger. Then, there was this - Space Station Epic IV, the biggest thing built in orbit at the time... The clone of myself that somehow was teleported from another universe was inside of the station a while back. He was from that time period. However, the original, our version of the station, fell out of orbit a long time ago, several decades I believe. And Space Station Epic V... Ten times larger, but it de-orbited and caused the famine, which caused Octavius, which caused a new space program... And then there was the war, and..." Jebediah trailed off. "I don't see any suitable re-entry craft," observed Bill. "I do! Wait, that's the one the Flat Kerbin Society built, isn't it? And it only seats three, so that's off the table," replied Bob. "And I'm going to go horseback riding, sledding, mountain climbing, boating, submarining, watersliding, sailboarding..." continued Valentina. "And drawing. Most definitely drawing." "I guess we'll wait for the KSC to send up a return craft," said Jebediah. "Okay... I want to get down there as fast as possible, but I want to have this view forever..." "Don't we all, Valentina. Don't we all." ================================================================== "It's here!" announced Gidrien. "Looks like it's too wide to dock, though. EVA time!" "She's a great ship," said Bob, tearing up a little bit. "Agreed. You have served us well, Intrepid," replied Bill. "The ride to orbit was a little rough, though," said Shercott. "I'm technically a stowaway, so..." said Gidren. After a second or two, everyone on the ship burst into laughter. They gathered their things, the samples, and data. One by one they EVA'd over to the strange return craft. Jebediah was the last, writing a thoughtful message for the next crew to occupy the ship. He made a note that lights should be added. And more docking ports. Where would it go next? Jool? Eve? Dres? Wherever it went, it was sure to be an interesting and beautiful journey. He sealed the letter, and with misty eyes, powered down most of the systems and exited the airlock. "Okay, I think that's a bit early," said Bob. "It's been fifty years since my last Kerbin re-entry, but I'm pretty sure the instructions are off." "They said reduce periapsis to 20 while Manley Crater is just fully over the horizon. They are probably off by a bit, but we'll compensate," said Valentina. "Does anyone else think it's a bit weird that KSC hasn't contacted us since they said they're going to launch something to bring us home?" inquired Shercott. "Yeah, that is a bit odd... Maybe they're planning a surprise party," said Gidrien. "I'd forego a thousand parties to smell the Kerbin spring air once more," said Valentina. "Atmospheric contact. Something is seriously wrong, that's the desert up there, there's no way we're making it all the way to KSC unless they moved it in the fifty years since I've been here!" said Bob. "Ehh, no biggy, I'll just burn upwards a bit. It's happened to me before," said Jeb as he reached for the control stick. He pulled it up. There was no response. "Huh, that's funny. Are we out of electrical power?" He tried the RCS. "Okay, major problem, the controls are not responsive." "Let me try," said Val. She moved her stick to no avail. "Yep, the controls are locked, I can't see a cause anywhere..." Gidrien and Shercott got panicky. "You mean we can't control this thing?" said Shercott. There was a sudden lurch as the plane dove rapidly, the flaps jerking in all directions. "No, but somebody else can!" shouted Jeb. He struggled with the controls to no effect. "Even the freaking light switch is unresponsive!" shouted Shercott, desperately flipping it back and forth. The first fringes of orange appeared outside of the windows. The spaceplane began a very rapid and bumpy descent, the roar of the atmosphere louder than the panicked exclamations of the crew. They hit suborbital. Their trajectory no longer reached KSC. Then the continent. The plane dove, and then leveled out in the middle of the ocean. "We are going to drown!" said Bill. "We won't, everything floats, remember? I'll get to go swimming sooner! And breathe the air! And go boating!" exclaimed Valentina. "I don't want to die!" shouted Shercott. "I'm in the same boat with you!" shouted Gidrien. "Soon to be a literal boat!" The plane pitched downward rapidly. Valentina peered out the front window. "Guys, look!" she shouted. "It's a carrier!" shouted Bill. "A what?!?" exclaimed Shercott. "A landing pad of sorts!" "It looks too short!" said a panicked Gidrien. The plane began pitching and yawing violently to bleed off velocity and dive, making the passengers sick to their stomachs. "The idiot flying this thing is worse at flying than Gene!" said Jebediah. "You got that right!" said Val. The plane stalled and fell into a spin. There were more screams as the altitude alarm sounded. One kilometer. 900 meters. 800 meters. They were all tumbling down towards the ocean. "Please!" shouted Jebediah. "If you are listening - for the sake of the six souls onboard - please, just let me land!" Bob and Bill were shouting prayers. Gidrien and Shercott were screaming and holding each other. Valentina had a look in her eyes so sad - she had survived Duna, oxygen starvation, the attack by Hudson, the war, and a Duna Plane crash - to die upon impact with Kerbin. Two seconds later there was a loud click as the controls unlocked. Jebediah wasted no time pulling back on the stick at the cost of a ten gee maneuver, expertly righting the plane, which was still going way too fast. "Hold on tight!" he shouted. The plane hit the carrier hard, destroying one of its engines. Both tires popped. The brakes activated full force and the drogues had been deployed even before touchdown. The crew of six decelerated rapidly, screaming. The plane pitched forward and the ocean came into view, but the plane stopped just centimeters before it would have plunged in. There were a few seconds of stunned silence. Then, Shercott and Gidrien visibly relaxed and began laughing. "Jeb, you are a freaking god!" said Shercott. "I wouldn't go that far, Shercott," replied Jeb. "We aren't out of the woods yet, we've just been kidnapped from orbit. We don't know by whom yet. Everyone stay back, I'll go deal with this." Jeb, with a grunt of exertion, popped the hatch open and stuck his head out. He stepped and looked about, and eventually descended down to the deck. A figure had emerged from the tower. "That is the flag of the Flat Kerbin Society," he said. "This could get pretty bad." He pulled a pistol (!) from a hidden compartment on his belt. "Try to look intimidating," he said to the other five. Behind him, Valentina emerged and immediately took her helmet off. She looked around and a grin broke onto her face. "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" she exclaimed as she ran around the deck, jumping and spinning without a care in the world. "KERBIN SMELLS AMAZING!!!" "So much for that idea," muttered Jeb. There were now four figures on the deck, and Jebediah approached them slowly. "Jebediah Kerman," the one on his left said. "At long last, we meet." "What do you want?" "My name is Albert. I am with the - " "Flat Kerbin Society," interrupted Jeb. "I saw your flag." Albert's face fell. "Well, no, not really. Kay over here is," he said gesturing to the one on Jeb's right. "At least, she was." "I am no longer a believer in Flat Kerbin," said Kay. "Looking back on it, it was a really dumb theory." Jebediah visibly relaxed, but only slightly. "You will not be needing that," said the man on the right, next to Kay, gesturing to the pistol. "I would feel better with it." "Our intent is not to hurt you," said Albert. "Well, you near bout killed us to death!" shouted Shercott from across the carrier, listening in. "I apologize," said the man on the right. "I haven't flown in years. The name's Gustav. Sorry about that." "So who are you, exactly?" asked Jeb. "I represent the Order of the Two Poles. We are a relatively new venture aimed at harnessing and stabilizing the energy formed by the rifts at the poles of the planets. Nice to meet you, huge fan," said Albert. "So why the Bop did you kidnap us from orbit?" he asked, somewhat impatiently. "We need your help. We rose out of the ashes of the Flat Kerbin Society, acquiring most of their assets, which are surprisingly extensive. Due to our background, when we proposed our plans to the KSC, they laughed and said "Yeah, no" and got exceedingly hostile seeing as most of our members are Ex-FKS. Nobody else would help - you know all about rockets and stuff." Jeb was taken aback, he had not expected this. "Harnessing the power from poles of planets, that doesn't sound legitimate." "Jebediah, do you really think objects cease to exist when they pass through terrain and polar rifts?" "Yes. I lost a ship to one once." "What if I told you there's a chance the individual atoms ended up other places? We know next to nothing about how these work, it's very possible - and we can only study the poles of planets which have deformed ones. Kerbin's are flat." "I'm not convinced." Still, Albert pushed, getting rather desperate. "Something made Joey Kerman's nauseometer melt! The double-A batteries inside couldn't do that! And it didn't even touch the pole! If we could harness this power, think of what we could do! The nauseometer read infinity. With that sort of power, we could power the starship production plants! Beam energy across the system! We could even do ground based laser intergalactic vessels! Please, Jebediah! In the name of escaping this doomed planet, please teach us how to build rockets!" Jebediah remained silent for several seconds. He considered the facts - Albert was desperate. What he was saying at least made a little bit of sense. He didn't seem like the violent type. And he was right - a breakthrough in interstellar propulsion was sorely needed if they were to escape the star system. He was also slightly ticked off at the KSC for rejecting the idea. "Yes," he said. Albert broke into a grin, relieved. "Welcome to the order of the Two Poles!" They shook hands. Jeb called the others over and explained to them what was happening. "This is Albert, this is Kay, and this is Gustav," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name," he said to the fourth Kerbal. "Reyma." "Nice to meet you, Reyma!" he said. "So, what now?" he asked. Albert opened up his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted by the sound of a splash. "Don't worry, I got the samples and stuff out first!" said Bill. "Question," said Shercott, "If you don't know how to build stuff, how did you get the spaceplane up to rescue us?" "Well," replied Albert, "That was actually a leftover X-21 from the days before the war. The KSC was getting rid of it so we snuck in and stole it." "How exactly does one steal a giant spaceship?" asked Gidrien. "With great care," he said, "And a deal with the guy at the junkyard. That helped too." "Huh. Maybe we need to beef up our security," said Jeb. "Anyway, as I was saying," continued Albert, "Onwards to our base!" "One question," giddily asked Valentina. "Go ahead!" "Can I go swimming there?" The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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