{COMPLETE} Nightmares: A Jool-Sarnus 10 Story

[MinimalMinmus]

12 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

"Zombie Mun." I have absolutely no idea, except maybe the reduced lighting?

  Reveal hidden contents

"Octavius, this is Gatekeeper. I'm coming in over Anomaly One."

"Roger that, Jeb."

"It just looks so weird, Angela!"

"That's why we call it an anomaly!"

"Okay, I'm coming in lower. It looks - oh my. It looks like the terrain has just ripped apart!"

"Focus, Jeb. Just set down near it, you can investigate later. Your number one priority is landing with as much fuel left as possible."

"Yeah, I get it! Stop bugging me about the fuel budget! It's not my fault that Anomaly One was located directly over the south pole!"

"Jeb, what are you seeing?"

"The terrain... it just stops! I can see through the anomaly!"

"Jeb, are you feeling dizzy at all?"

"Now that you mention it, yes. I am. And I'm going to go in closer."

"Jeb! Stop!"

"I am getting dizzier and dizzier the closer I get to it!"

"Jeb, an old colleague of mine once theorized that at the poles of celestial bodies, spacetime warpage could occur! I think he was right!"

"I can see straight through the planet!"

"Jeb, get out of there! Now!"

"Oh my Bop - It's full of sta- "

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Jedediah Kerman had woken up. And Angela was annoyed.

"Jeb, we need to talk."

"What ever about, Angela?"

"I think you're lying to me." Jeb began sweating a little bit.

"Lying? About what?"

"Your bad dreams - they aren't about cake. They can't be."

"You don't know what happened to me - "

"I'd love for you to prove me wrong here, but I am pretty sure there is no childhood disaster possible that can make you that terrified - "

"Terrified? No, it's really more of - "

"Stop lying to me! Every time you wake nowadays, you just about shake the ship apart with your screaming! Cake can't possibly do that!"

"It's not - "

"Jeb! Every time you wake up you look as if you'd just nearly died! And half the time you change some part of the mission profile almost as if you were seeing a possible future... Wait."

"Okay, I give. You figured it out. But I swear, I have no idea why it's happening!"

"So you really see the future?"

"Sort of."

"Are you going to tell me the whole story or not?" Jeb hesitated, and then spoke when he realized it would be pointless to try and keep his prophetic nightmares a secret any longer.

"The day of the launch, all those years ago, I had a nightmare that there would be a sniper on the roof of the vehicle assembly building. And I decided to go for a walk that morning, and sure enough..."

"But that wasn't in any logs!"

"I decided not to worry you and kept it to myself. Anyway, when we got to Sarnus, I started having more. We crashed into Hale, I got crushed by a meteor shower on Slate, I drowned on Laythe. That's just three of them. And so far, we did almost die on Hale. The meteor did hit Slate. I nearly did drown on Laythe. My nightmares show a possible future." There was silence for a few seconds.

"Well, I don't blame you for lying about it. If I had something that freaky happen to me, I'd never want to tell anyone. It must be useful, seeing the future."

"Useful, yes. Terrifying, also yes. I must have avoided death two dozen times on this mission."

"So, what was last night's, uh, prophetic nightmare about?"

"Without going into too much detail, I do not want anything to do with Anomaly One. We need to switch the landing site to Anomaly Two."

"What exactly was Anomaly One?"

"Well, err, you see, it was a giant mountain."

"We knew that much."

"And near the pole, I started getting sick. The closer I was, the sicker I got! And the terrain - it just looked like someone had ripped Vall open!"

"That reminds me of a theory an associate of mine came up with."

"Yeah, you said that in my nightmare."

"I did? Hmm. I'm glad Bill's not awake. If he knew, he'd probably freak." And then, Bill spoke.

"Uh, well, I have sort of been awake this whole time."

"AAAAGH!"

"I promise not to freak out, though. There must be something wrong with you in order for this to be happening!"

"First off, both of you, promise not to tell the KSC!"

"I promise."

"Me too."

"Bill, ready the Gatekeeper. Angela, check my medical logs to see if anything changed right before the launch."

"Roger."

"Got it." And so, with the biggest secret onboard the ship having been revealed, the crew set to work preparing for Jeb's upcoming landing. A half hour later, Jeb was ready to begin his de-orbit burn.

"Ready, Jeb?"

"Can anyone ever be truly ready to ride a piano sized, slowly exploding bomb down to the surface of a ball of rock so big that it has its own gravity well?"

"Good point."

"Angela, did you find anything?"

"No, nothing. Nothing at all that would cause your, uh, condition, Jeb."

"Angela, we don't know what we're dealing with here. Anything at all, even if it could be a coincidence."

"Well, your overall stress levels went up after the launch, your happiness as well, but that's because you're in space. Uh, your taste is off, but that's from eating twenty year old food. A few other minor things."

"Are you sure there isn't anything else?"

"Well, our ship for some reason is emitting a higher level of negative gravioli particles than any other ship, but they're basically harmless!" Suddenly, a revelation dawned on Jeb.

"Angela, do a gravioli scan now."

"Done."

"I'm off the ship now. Scan again, please." There was a slight pause.

"Oh my... It's less! Jeb, you're emitting negative gravioli particles!"

"Is that good or bad?"

"High doses have been known to disable Kerbals, the same way cosmic radiation does, but we've fixed that. But sometimes Kerbals have received doses millions of times higher than the lethal limit and returned unscathed! Nobody has found a way to harness the particle, but what if someone... or something... has? And is controlling your nightmares? Warning you about the future?"

"That's preposterous!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" A heavy silence spread over the Octavius and the Gatekeeper.

"Well, whoever this "grand controller" is, he, she, or it has not killed me yet, in fact, he, she, or it, has helped us through man dire situations.

"Or it could just be a big coincidence," offered Bill.

"The odds of that being a coincidence, Bill, are about the same odds as a toddler making an efficient algorithm to solve the travelling salesman problem."

"The what problem?"

"Just google it!"

"The internet is millions of kilometers away! It's slower than dial up!" While the crew theorized, the Gatekeeper performed its de-orbit burn and began its descent to Vall - and Anomaly Two.

The argument was finally broken up when Jeb reported that he had a visual on Anomaly Two.

"Octavius, this is Gatekeeper. I have visual on Anomaly Two."

"Really? What does it look like?"

"I can't tell from this distance! I'll land closer. Fuel is looking mostly good, but I'll probably have to use the jetpack again a little bit... I've been doing that a lot lately..." Bill and Angela held their breaths while Jeb got closer and closer to the anomaly.

"It looks like a cluster of buildings! Like, monoliths! But smaller, and taller!"

"Any possibility of it being a natural structure?"

"No possibility at all. This is a localized effect - nowhere else on Vall is it found. Anywhere. Unless an asteroid hit right here and produced these spikes! But the odds of an asteroid creating this..."

"Right, Jeb. We're analyzing the photos. Do you know that computer game, Human Space Program?"

"The one with that humongous extended universe?"

"Yeah, that one... it sort of looks like Stonehenge! You know, from the extended universe!"

"Now that you mention it, it sort of does!"

"I move we name it Vallhenge."

"I don't have any better ideas. But, Angela - this could be, no, it is - evidence of intelligent alien life!"

"Aliens! We already had Eeloo and Laythe aliens! What next?"

"The Eeloo aliens were just probable, Bill. The Laythe aliens probably did not exist. But, this... Jeb, your first words."

"I may be the first Kerbal to have set foot on Vall. But I am not the first intelligent life form to have done so - or maybe I am. Maybe that thing over there is just a coincidence. But, for the first time in history, Kerbalkind has discovered a potentially alien artifact on a moon of another planet! Look! Over there! That could have been built by an alien!"

"No kidding. Get over there, now!"

"Okay, I'm getting closer..."

"It appears to be made up of sixteen towers - five triangular ones, in ascending height, with three identical rectangular ones surrounding the center one. Those are ringed by eight identical monoliths, spaced in groups of two. The tower - No! The five ascending towers - they point to the orbital plane! If I waited long enough, I could look down them and see Tylo and the sun!"

"Woah! You have got to leave a camera there!"

"No kidding! Okay, I'm going to try to land on one and maybe get a sample. We still don't know what these things are made of!"

"They are massive when you stand next to them! This might even be taller than the Octavius!"

"Stop that thought right there! We are not bringing her down to check!"

"I wasn't even thinking about it! But now that you mention it... the TWR might work..."

"Focus! Alien artifact!"

"It's really slippery. It really is a four sided shape, but it has eight to soften the transitions."

"Hmm. Curious. Is it indestructible?"

"It almost seems like it! Nothing is indestructible, though, except Vabolarchium. And that isn't common."

"Are you suggesting we've found another object made from Vabolarchium?"

"Yes. And this one is probably not natural, like the Mun arches. Which means that a race of aliens out there - they figured out how to make Vabolarchium!"

"And didn't live to tell the tale, I suppose. This may be the only thing that remains of them."

"Okay, guys. I have reached the top of the tallest spire. Uh, there's a small hole here. It almost seems meant to be. I can't resist!"

"What a coincidence!"

"The universe if full of coincidences. It itself might even be a coincidence."

Jebediah Kerman took Bill's vial of dirt and emptied half of what remained onto the base of the nearest monolith. He set up a few cameras, did some science, and gazed at Tylo. And, all too soon, it was time for him to leave.

He did have to use his jetpack.

The Gatekeeper, which had still been on a suborbital trajectory when it ran out of fuel, fell back onto Vall.

The Octavius used some of its fuel to rescue Jeb yet again.

Orbital mechanics happened.

Jeb took a photograph that would later be printed on the side of a building.

And Jebediah Kerman boarded the Octavius.

When he got back inside he greeted his crewmembers.

"So, aliens!"

"Nice to see you too, Jeb!"

"Come on! You're as excited as I am!"

"I wish I could have been there!"

"Maybe someday! When we get back home, we'll usher in a new era of exploration! You could move to Vall if you wanted to!"

"If we get home."

"No, when! Seriously, seventeen down and one to go!"

"Wait, what?"

"Oh. Sorry. Where'd that come from? I meant to say, nine down, one to go."

"That's odd."

"What?"

"As you said "seventeen down, one to go" there was a huge spike in negative gravioli particles!"

"Yet another mystery we'll probably never solve. So, Angela, are you read for Bop?"

"I - well, as you said, you can never really be ready to land on another celestial body."

"Well, it is Bop! I mean, really? What could go wrong?"

As it turned out, many things could have gone wrong. And very few things did go wrong. But the thing about failures? It only takes one thing going wrong to cause one.

 

 

 

Nightmares: A Jool-Sarnus Ten Story Will Continue...

 

 

It's because Vall's orbit is fairly unstable. If run in a N-body simulator, after a close pass near Laythe, Vall collides Tylo in less than a month, and provided it escapes the worst another Tylo fly-by swings it out. about 2 months later.

So, it's safe to say that by the time you reach Jool and thus Vall, it shouldn't be there anymore.

In fact, in a little above 150 years, Laythe and Tylo finish their mayhem by ejecting Bop, before ending a bit closer to each other than they used to be.

Edited January 27, 2017 by MinimalMinmus

[Ultimate Steve]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 9:01 AM, MinimalMinmus said:

It's because Vall's orbit is fairly unstable. If run in a N-body simulator, after a close pass near Laythe, Vall collides Tylo in less than a month, and provided it escapes the worst another Tylo fly-by swings it out. about 2 months later.

So, it's safe to say that by the time you reach Jool and thus Vall, it shouldn't be there anymore.

In fact, in a little above 150 years, Laythe and Tylo finish their mayhem by ejecting Bop, before ending a bit closer to each other than they used to be.

Well, I'm glad KSP doesn't use an N body simulation!

Now, for part 12: The part that actually has something to do with Project Intrepid! Also, if you haven't read it, this chapter might not make any sense. Also, second to last part here. Third to last if I make the epilogue separate. Then Project Intrepid will resume.

 

Part XII: The Apprentice

Spoiler

The Octavius sailed peacefully through the Jool system towards the final Joolian moon - Bop. The crew of three was both eager to return home - and sad they would have to leave.

Back on planet Kerbin, there had been a brief freak-out over the prospect of aliens, but this had already happened twice on the mission - whose to say this would be the last? After a week, life had resumed as usual.

A month after the Vall landing, the crew of the Octavius de-orbited, once again dangerously low on fuel, onto the last landing point of the mission - excluding Kerbin, of course.

While on a suborbital trajectory over Bop, Angela Kerman did some more science. Life around Jool was surprisingly quiet - mostly because Jebediah Kerman had not had any nightmares en route to Bop.

"Jeb, seriously! What's wrong with you?"

"I have no idea, Bill! This is not the right time! I'm trying to land a spaceship here!"

"Jeb! Ever since we found out, you haven't had any nightmares. And yet, you look scared out of your mind!"

"Well, maybe I broke it by telling!"

"And whoever gave them to you is punishing you with an unshakable sense of dread?"

"Can we please talk about this when we're on the ground?"

"Angela, shut Bill up, please."

"Sure can do! Jeb, hover around thirty meters from the surface."

"O-kay."

"Bill, how would you like to land on Bop before even a spaceship does?"

"Sure!"

"Actually, I think I'll join you there! Bye, Jeb!"

And so, Bill Kerman's faceplate became the first Kerbal made object to touch Bop, followed shortly by Angela's left boot. Jeb gently brought the Octavius down next to them.

And they posed for the final official landing photo.

If it matters at all, the first words spoken on Bop were "Oof! My face!" followed by "So this is it. We are coming home."

But the important scene was taking place in Cloneus's office, back on Kerbin. I know what you're thinking. "What could possibly be more important than the first steps on another world?" Well...

============================================================

"And even after a month, you still don't know who the spy is."

"I'm sorry, sir. It's just that - "

"Marie. This is important. You need to find the spy. Our space program could be in jeopardy here!"

"With all due respect, Cloneus sir, why are you even interested in a space program?"

"That information is classified." As Cloneus said that, his face grew slightly more pale.

"Wait a second..."

"Marie, you are dismissed. I have another meeting in two minutes."

"Wait. So you, Cloneus, the bazillionaire, make a bet with the space program that will end in the space program's demise - and you make a Code Nelson order to end them!"

"Marie. You. Are. Dismissed."

"But then you have an amazing idea - and you realize that you need the space program!"

"Marie, get out now!"

"So you start your own because you can't even go against your own Code Nelsons! And you, Cloneus, are afraid to just ask to change your own rules!"

"Marie, I could fire you right now!"

"No you can't. Say you do fire me - then I blab to the whole world about how we've been infiltrated by a spy! Think of the media backlash!"

"I do not want to argue with you, Marie. Just - go back to mission control. The TS-2 should launch tonight."

"Oh, the stolen Raven 13? Those didn't even work when they were in the hands of RavenCorp! I mean, come on! Couldn't you at least steal a Raven L-1? A halfway decent rocket?"

"For all I know, Marie, you are the spy!"

"Sir, I can assure you I'm not." Secretly, she did know who the spy was. But she really didn't want to betray him.

"A classic lie! You know what? Even if you are the spy, I just don't care! Get back to your job before I fire you!" Marie stormed out of Cloneus's office just as another Kerbal walked in.

"Sir, the Octavius has landed on Bop. I recommend activation of the Automatic Cutoff Device."

Cloneus did not have much of a choice. "That's the one that melts their antenna, right?"

"Yes, sir." Cloneus could here Marie's voice echoing inside his head - "And you, Cloneus, are afraid to just ask to change your own rules!"

But he couldn't. Marie was right. He was afraid. Very afraid. "Do it."

====================================================================

"Jebediah Kerman, where are you going?"

"Nowhere."

"Jeb, we can see right through that!"

"I'm, uh, just going over the ridge to grab a sample. I'll be right back," lied Jeb.

"Well, okay, then..."

"If I'm not back in a few hours, come looking for me."

"How would a jaunt over the ridge take a few hours?"

"Just run your science, Angela!" Jeb turned off his radio and increased the throttle on his jetpack. The truth was that he was afraid. It had nothing to do with the nightmares - after Vall they disappeared. Jeb stopped emitting gravioli particles. And the closer to Bop he got, the more anxious and afraid he felt. But he felt like he had a compulsion to - well, he didn't know what it was. But he needed to find the source of his anxiousness.

Bop grew into a potato below him. Jool loomed over the horizon. Jeb grew more and more anxious. He checked his fuel levels and gasped.

They were still at ninety percent. He should have used over half of it by now.

And he grew closer and closer. Jebediah Kerman trembled with eagerness and reluctance at the same time. And he spotted a small green dot in the distance.

Then, all of a sudden, Jeb was calm. No more trembling. No more fear. Just anticipation.

Jeb approached the strange object - it seemed to be a gigantic, dead squid. An actual alien - and preserved nearly perfectly.

Jebediah stopped about twenty meters from the "space squid." He waited a few more minutes before slowly shuffling towards it.

"Jebediah Kerman."

"Woah. Are you actually alive?"

"Understatement of the millennium. You finally came."

"What? I - I - I don't understand!"

"Well, we'll start over. Hello, Jeb. I am the Deep Space Kraken. I am the force of impossibility in this universe. And you, Jebediah, need not fear me."

"Angela? Bill? Is this some sort of prank?"

"This is no prank, Jeb. I already know your story. All of it. I know everyone's. I see ALL!"

"Well, assuming you are real, what are you dong here? Why do you want me? And what the Bop is happening to me?"

"Oh, the nightmares? Psh. Simple trick I learned millennia ago. I needed to get you here safely without revealing my true form to you."

"What?"

"I can control everything in the universe if I wanted to."

"Okay, act like I'm a kindergartener and don't know anything."

"Welcome to the universe. Well, one of many. There are millions of universes like ours out there. You are nothing special, Jeb. There are millions of yous out there. In each universe, there are a few constants, though. There is the Monolith. You haven't met him - yet. But you will. The Monolith is the entity that makes sure everything goes according to the laws of physics. If something breaks, he fixes it. I, on the other hand, am the one who disobeys the laws of physics. I can change things - for good or for evil. But it must not make sense. I can save lives by giving a ship extra fuel. I can teleport things. I can move planets if I wanted to!"

"So why haven't you?" The Deep Space Kraken was silent for a moment.

"There is a limiting factor. That would be the invisible - well, not entirely invisible element that creates negative and positive gravioli particles. It has a long, drawn out, technical name. I could spend years explaining it, but you wouldn't get it. So, instead, let's call it magic."

"Seriously? That's terribly inaccurate! Magic is just science so complex nobody can understand it!"

"Hush. There is no better term. Now, this magic stuff, there is only a limited amount of it in the universe. And every time the monolith or I does something either way, we use some up. We have very little left. There was an age where I moved planets - there was a great, century long battle between the monolith and I - right before the nineteenth age. And the Monolith won. He shot a projectile into Bop and nearly killed me. I am alive. I am fully functional. But I am lonely out here."

"So that's where I come in?"

"Sticking with the magic theme, it is possible for each "magician" to have an "apprentice." The apprentices must be mortal, but they can use both sides of the magic - both to harm and help. Possible and impossible."

"And you want me? Whatever for?"

"You are Jebediah Kerman, the most influential Kerbal besides Cloneus and the President in this universe. Now, do you want in or not?"

"I - well - "

"You have no choice. You are coming with me whether you like it or not."

Jeb felt a tingling sensation all over him and was blinded by a strong green light. He felt pain all over his body. He shouted out to whoever might be listening. "Octavius, this is Jeb. If you can hear me, do not, I repeat DO NOT - " And then, Jebediah Kerman froze - he stayed in the same spot, but he was somewhere else entirely. And nobody was there to hear him scream.

=======================================================

"Bill?"

"Yeah, Angela?"

"I'm really worried about Jeb."

"No kidding. I don't thing he was getting a sample."

"It doesn't take two days to get a sample!"

"Correct. And our antenna melted, somehow. Maybe it's related to what the radiators did around Tetko."

"Which is why we haven't looked around the whole moon yet."

"We need to go find him."

"Agreed. I'll look up his flight path... huh. He flew northwest."

"I'm on it! I'm no pilot, but I think I can fly this thing!"

"What do you think Jeb was doing?"

"Well, I don't know, but he owes us an explanation! He lied to us!"

"Well, Angela, what if it was something worse than the nightmares?" Angela shuddered.

"Well, let's help it's not."

"I see his marker!"

"Good. Land there!"

=========================================================

"Please. Please! No more! You're going to kill me!"

"That is where you are wrong, Jebediah Kerman. I am not going to kill you... I am going to use you up first. And then I will relish every scream you make, as all of your pathetic species die! Oh, look! It's your friends Angela and Bill! Why don't we start with them?"

"No, please!"

"That one trick I - demonstrated. It's called the velocity editor. How about we just increase the speed of their ship a little bit -"

"No!"

===================================================================

"Angela, we're coming in fast!"

"This is impossible! We can't be accelerating downward!"

"Angela, the surface is coming closer - oh, no. Angela, I - "

====================================================================

"No!"

"Well, tough luck, Jebediah! I am simply doing to you what the monolith has done to me! I created more of me and the Monolith wiped them all out! I am the last one! Now, remember the "quickload" function I demonstrated to you? Let's see how many times I have to kill them for you to realize - you cannot resist me!"

"I can't -"

"What if we let them bounce? Give them hope? Allow Bill to finish his last sentence?"

"Oh, Angela, I lo - and then he dies again! Just like re-watching a movie twenty thousand times!"

"Twenty thousand? What the Moho do you want from me?" Jeb would cry if he had control of his body.

"Twenty thousand is just the beginning! I am going to kill them over and over until you absorb my power! And then I will rule the universe! How about Bill goes insane and murders Angela? We give them 50g of acceleration and send them into Jool? How about opening a space-time rift! Oh, how I missed this!"

Jebediah Kerman watched his crew - his friends - die over and over again. He lost count. He lost count of how many times he lost count. It grew dark on Bop. It grew light. The explosions blended into an aura of white around him as Angela and Bill kept dying at the hands of the Kraken who showed no signs of mercy and no signs of stopping. Time moved faster and faster and faster - and yet it did not move at all.

Jool spun round and round. Jeb lived a thousand lifetimes. And he failed each time to break free of the Kraken's grip.

"RTG overload? Sudden meteor strike? USKN missiles? A portal to another universe?"

And then, Jeb grew so angry and mad that he couldn't take it any more. And he cried a single tear that rolled down his face, slowly. And the Kraken took notice.

"Ah, finally! I was worried I was going to run out of ways to kill your friends before you broke! Congratulations. You are my apprentice now. Start by destroying the Octavius!"

"No!"

"Very funny, Jeb. You can never match up to my power! I have millennia of experience! You cannot defeat me!"

Jebediah Kerman blinked. And in that one blink, he found all he needed.

In that one blink he saw 916 Kerbals land on Minmus.

He saw a spaceship ascend from planet Eve.

He saw a giant ringship depart for another planet.

He saw himself pilot a plane on Duna.

He saw a landing on Moho.

He saw Dresteroids - exploration! He saw another landing on Eeloo - he saw spaceships a kilometer long! He saw peace. He saw war. He saw prosperity. He saw setbacks. And above all - he saw hope. Hope for a better tomorrow.

 

 

And then, he saw himself - decades older - on a mission that would change the fate of the universe.

Jebediah Kerman opened his eyes. He was back on Bop. But he was powerful. He had a weapon that he could use. The knowledge of the future. He laughed. He found himself relaxing. And the vacuum around him came alive with lights.

"Jeb, what are you doing?"

"Stopping you."

"Very funny, Jeb. You can do both the impossible and the possible, but I am made of Vabolarchium! No possible means can destroy me, and I outclass you in every aspect of the impossible! You cannot defeat me!"

"Well, there's one thing you didn't consider!" Jebediah focused his energy on the Octavius and on the Kraken. The Kraken began shaking.

"No! This is not possible! This is not impossible! What are you doing?" The ground began to shake. A white light descended from overhead. The Kraken screamed in agony.

"This is not possible. Nor impossible. No, this is - "

"UNPOSSIBLE!!!"

=================================================================

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Jeb, what happened?"

"Jeb? Are you there? Are you alive? I think I killed it!" Jebediah Kerman gazed around. He found that he could move again. The Kraken was dead.

"Angela? Bill?"

"You're alive!"

"Me? You are alive! I just saw you die half a million times!"

"What? Are you hallucinating? You were gone for two days, we were safe and sound."

"No! You weren't! You were - " Jeb glanced at his watch. "I watched you die for four years!"

"Impossible! Check your watch!"

"I just did!"

"What the Moho? Jeb, look behind you!" Jeb whipped around.

"AAH!" A rock was floating. Jeb jumped back, and the rock fell.

"Now that is seriously creepy. What happened here, Jeb?" Jeb hesitated, pale faced.

"If I said that it is better that you don't know, would you believe me?" Bill and Angela looked at each other. Jeb took this opportunity to focus on the rock. It began levitating again. He deducted that he had retained the powers he had been given - he was still the Kraken's apprentice.

"Let's talk about it later, Jeb. We have bigger problems."

"I need to talk to KSC!" shouted Jeb. Bill and Angela looked at each other again. Bill was the one who broke the news.

"Our antenna broke. It melted before we came here. And now our radiators - and our solar panel - are broken. Plus another leg. All from landing on whatever the Moho that thing was. We're going to have to be very careful mining here, because of the power and thermal requirements. We cannot talk to KSC. They probably think we are dead."

==============================================================================

 

 

Nightmares: A Jool-Sarnus Ten Story Will Continue...

 

[Alpha 360]

Jeb, put extra fuel into the Octavius! Remember, you can do anything! 

Edited January 30, 2017 by Alpha 360
"Kouston, we have several problems, but that doesn't matter so we want to continue on with the mission."

[MinimalMinmus]

That, or he could simply summon a new antenna/gigantor panel/BETTER SHIP

[Ultimate Steve]

19 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

Jeb, put extra fuel into the Intrepid Octavius! Remember, you can do anything! 

I saw that sneaky edit...

16 hours ago, MinimalMinmus said:

That, or he could simply summon a new antenna/gigantor panel/BETTER SHIP

Hmm. I guess I didn't think about that. I guess I'll think of something!

And now for part 13. The final part - except for the epilogue.

 

Part XIII: The End

Spoiler

Captain's log, Bop plus eight days

Hi, Jeb here. Whoever is reading this. Maybe I'm saying hi to me, far into the future. We've left Bop and are on our way home. Estimated transfer time, however, is just shy of three years - which puts us within 100 days of Cloneus's deadline. So I hope nothing else goes wrong.

I have just finished telling Bill and Angela about my encounter with the Deep Space Kraken. They are in between on the matter. Sometimes they think I hallucinated the whole thing (sometimes I wish I had) and sometimes they do believe me. But we have all agreed that we will keep this a secret from Kerbin. Angela is working on a corruption algorithm to delete some of the audio files without actually deleting them - so we can keep it a secret.

We were able to mine on Bop perfectly fine, but we could not run the drill and the converter at the same time because of the missing solar panel. It got really hot inside the ship (Like, near 50 degrees Celsius or around 120 Farenheit) but that was only for a little bit. The landing legs are okay-ish. If we were careful we could pull off another landing with them, but only on a low gravity world. Ike would be 50/50, but they would collapse on the Mun. Not that we're going to either of them.

Oh, what else... Bill got super freaked out because he thought he lost his last blue colored pencil on Bop. But it was actually in that little corner of the box where you can't always see it.

-Jeb

 

Captain's log, Bop plus twenty days

Today Bill has thoroughly determined that he cannot fix the antenna unit. I wonder what is happening back on Kerbin. They probably think we're all dead, and Cloneus is probably sending surveying teams out already to determine how effectively he can transform the VAB into a casino. Hmm... I wish we could at least send one message to the KSC to tell them we are alive.

-Jeb

 

Captain's log, Bop plus twenty-nine days

I talked to Bill a lot today. He's working on a drawing of me fighting the space kraken. Actually, it just hit me: we discovered an actual, living, space alien. And we killed it. I mean, Kerbin will never know, but still, we made an alien species extinct. But I did absorb some of his power, so maybe I can - wait. I'm an idiot! How come I didn't think of it until now! I should just use my powers to fix the antenna! I really hope this works!

-Jeb

 

Captain's log, Bop plus thirty days

I am such an idiot. I may have ruined the antenna even further and pushed us slightly off course. And when I tried to summon a new antenna, well, uh, there is now a teapot orbiting the sun. Looks like we're flying blind, but we'll get there. Only three years to go!

-Jeb

=======================================================================================

Miscellaneous headlines from the Kerbin Times:

 

(Bop minus eight) KSC loses contact with spaceship OCTAVIUS, crew believed dead!

(Bop plus nine) Bill Kerman's funeral to be held on KSC launch pad

(Bop plus twenty five) Cloneus Kerman seizes KSC, funeral interrupted

(Bop plus twenty six) Cloneus vs. Gene: The trial of the century!

(Bop plus thirty one) Antique teapot vanishes from museum, replaced by model 16 antenna

(B+43) Cloneus relents, KSC will be handed over in two years time

(B+76) Secret satellite launch detected - could this be the USKN?

(B+129) Valentina Kerman speaks about the loss of her brother

(B+195) DISASTER! Antique rocket crashes into Kerlington, collapsing buildings, injuring hundreds. Investigation to follow...

(B+202) Revelation: Cloneus Kerman's secret space program and its demise

(B+329) Private company lands Mundo Kerman and ODYSSEUS 7 on the Mun - first landing in two decades

(B+1y) OCTAVIUS monument erected near VAB

=====================================

(B+3y 143d) Amateur stargazer observes approaching dot in the night sky - ancient space probe or planet killing asteroid?

(B+3y 193d) BREAKING NEWS: Spaceship OCTAVIUS has been found - set to return in less than one week!

=====================================

High above planet Kerbin, the Octavius began its long orbital insertion burn - several kilometers per second of delta v were needed. Nineteen years in space had taken quite a toll on it's systems. Somehow, it held together throughout the long burn required.

At last, the engine shut down, a few hundred meters per second of Delta V remaining. A figure exited the hatch, followed by two more.

"It's just so... so...."

"Blue?"

"Yeah, that's the word. It's a shame I ran out of blue a month ago. Oh, well. I'll have more in a few short hours if everything goes to plan."

"Bill, do you have all of your drawings? You wouldn't want them to burn up in the atmosphere."

"I have most of them right here. I'll go back in and do a sweep of the ship. We don't want to leave anything here. Remind me how much we can store on the way down, please?"

"Well, you've got storage bins on either side of you and as much as you can stuff into your spacesuit. Angela's section is entirely taken up by the science experiments. My section will be the hundreds of terabytes of data, plus knickknacks and components, and yours is sentimental stuff. Got it?"

"Got it." Bill resumed his transfer of items from the Octavius to the Dragonhearted - the Kerbin Return Vehicle. During this time, Angela retrieved all of the experiments and prayed that it was over the ten thousand science requirement.

"One hundred and seventy five experiments? Woah, that's a lot!"

"We'll have ten thousand science for sure!" Jeb had finished unloading the data - which, because of the mass and space requirement, was in the form of about a thousand one terabyte SD cards, carried in a case the size of a toolbox by Jeb. Bill completed his final sweep of the vessel - raiding every single nook and cranny. He found a few scraps of calculations, one of his dial calipers, a few snacks, and a book entitled "Moonquest: A guide to building your own spaceship." He went carefully through every single drawer, and then removed the drawers to find a few more things inside the space behind them. He did a file search on the computers and found a few more logs Jeb forgot to copy, as well as a spreadsheet he made of his colored pencils. And then he bumped the wall in such a way that it opened a compartment in his spacesuit he never knew about - and out floated a single sharpie marker, unused for twenty years. Bill gently grabbed it, removed the cap, and on the wall in big letters, he wrote,

BILL WAS HERE. GOOD LUCK.

He then proceeded to start the Octavius's engine for what he thought would be the final time. It spooled up, remained at full power for 1.8 seconds, and then spooled down again. The Octavius was now on a suborbital trajectory over Kerbin.

Bill and Jeb were inside the Dragonhearted in two of the three external command seats, wedged in by data, science, and drawings all around them. Angela remained outside to supervise the separation.

"This is Jeb. Power couplings have been severed - Dragonhearted is on internal power. Primary docking rings have been released. We are go for magnetic repulsion in ten seconds. Are you ready, Angela?"

"As I'll ever be. She was a fine ship."

"Yes, she was. Goodbye, Octavius. Three. Two. One. Repulsion."

...

"Is it supposed to be not moving, Jeb?"

"Oh no. I think the heat shield material may have, over time, bonded to the docking port. We only have minutes until we hit the atmosphere! We might not be able to fix it in time!"

"Jeb, this is Angela, requesting permission to perform a manual override on the separation mechanism."

"What? Manual override? I don't think we have a manual - oh. I don't have any better ideas. Permission granted." Angela accelerated towards the Dragonhearted for a few brief seconds. Bill and Jeb felt a thud as Angela hit. The Dragonhearted had separated from the Octavius.

But as the heat shield rotated into the sunlight, Angela noticed that it was melted, black, and scorched.

"Angela, does the heat shield look fine?" Angela paused, taking the scene in. It must have melted during the mining and the Sarnus aerobrake - the ablator level was down to thirty percent.

"The shield's fine, Jeb," lied Angela.

"Good. We are going home!"

The Dragonhearted spun lazily through space - having no reaction wheels of its own. Several amateur astronomers were observing it at this moment through their telescopes. And then, the windowless vehicle - and its infinitely precious cargo - hit the atmosphere of Kerbin.

The tin can spun around a few times before orienting itself retrograde. The shock heating began.

The flames grew in intensity, the three Kerbals inside both terrified and at peace. Bill wished the ship had a window. Jeb held his hand over the parachute trigger. Angela prayed the shield would hold.



The air around the only hope for the space program grew red, then orange, than yellow, before settling at a bright white. The three Kerbals experienced deceleration - a sense of gravity. For Bill and Angela, this was the first gravity over 0.1g they had experienced in nineteen years. The fate of the three Kerbals - the KSC - and the entire planet was now in the hands of nature.

Sometimes even shooting stars
Find wishes that miss their marks
But when the night gets too dark
And the road home seems too far
 

We'll see the sun come up again
We will climb higher than we've been
We got a fire that burns within
We are the Dragonhearted
We are the Dragonhearted
 

Courage to stop a cannonball
Together we stand thirty feet tall
We got a fire that burns within
We are the Dragonhearted
We are the Dragonhearted
 

We are the Dragonhearted

-TryHardNinja/CaptainSparkles
 

The flames died down. The heat shield held. The Dragonhearted fell through the air. The three Kerbals inside heard the wind whistling around them - the most reassuring and terrifying sound any of them had heard in nineteen years. Jebediah Kerman placed his hand on the parachute lever - and pulled.

Twin orange and white canopies were released from their twenty year old containers and caught air. The Dragonhearted plummeted slower.

They were coming in on the same continent as KSC. The Dragonhearted plummeted until it hit one thousand meters. The twin canopies unfurled, slowing the descent by a factor of fifteen. And, at that moment, Bill Kerman, Jebediah Kerman, and Angela Kerman breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe.

The Octavius mission had landed a Kerbal on ten separate moons. Kerbals, for the first time, had entered the atmosphere of a gas giant. Jebediah had swam in two separate alien oceans. One alien had been found. Two more had been suspected. Evidence of one remained. Dirt from Kerbin had been spread on ten different celestial bodies. Oceans on Eeloo had been discovered. The impossible had been done dozens of times - rendering it unpossible. Two words had been added to the dictionary. Jebediah Kerman had absorbed the power of an ancient being - and the future of the planet had been saved.

The Dragonhearted hit Kerbin with a jolt, startling Jeb, Bill, and Angela, who had no windows to judge altitude. The twin canopies fluttered and fell to the ground. And three Kerbals broke into grins.

 

The end.

 

 

VVV

 

 

 

 

 

VVV

 

 

 

 

VVV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry, did you really fall for that?

 

 

That is not the end of the story. Millions of kilometers away, a dying beast eyed the trio with rage - and focused his energy with dying screams. He focused on four targets - each with smaller targets surrounding them. And with a howl, he absorbed the targets - and reloaded the universe.

Jeb, Bill, and Angela looked up. Four bright flashes appeared - accompanied by four points of light that began growing bigger and bigger. Brighter and brighter - until they merged into one and absorbed planet Kerbin.

"What the Moho?"

"AAAAAAH-"

"Jeb, what is happening?!?!"

"I have no idea!"

"Oh no. The Kraken may not be dead!"

"He must have jumped us all back in time! We're travelling faster!" The Octavius was traveling twice as fast as it had been - and was now on a direct course for KSC. The tin can overheated in ten places at once - obliterating the heat shield, ripping apart the paneling, and vibrating so hard that Jeb's hand slipped - onto the parachute lever.

The crew heard one last thing over the speakers before they passed out.

"Mk2-R Radial Mount Parachute was destroyed due to aerodynamic forces and heat."

==================================================================================================

Marie Kerman and David Kerman were sitting in a plane on the KSC runway. Earlier, Cloneus's army of lawyers had insisted that there was no proof that the dot in the sky was the Octavius - so he had sent the duo to evaluate the assets of the KSC. Upon raiding the spaceplane hangar they had sound an SSTO trainer plane - not an actual SSTO, but a plane designed to provide the piloting experience - it had RCS thrusters, rockets, jets, you name it. It even had a cargo bay with a micro docking port at the back to simulate payload deployment!

And what did David and Marie do? They had brought it out to the runway and were now preparing it for a joyride.

"Hey, did you hear that the crew of Octavius might return today?"

"Yeah, I did, Marie. Exciting! I can't wait to see the look on Cloneus's face when he sees the returning crew!"

"Can I tell you something?"

"Sure, Marie."

"Cloneus changed. He secretly wants them to come back alive - he found out he needed the KSC for his next venture."

"Well, yeah. He's not getting very far with his current one. Poor Kerlington."

"That was a disaster! But, seriously, they had it coming to them. Isn't it ironic that Cloneus, the richest Kerbal on Kerbin, can barely put a satellite in orbit, while a bunch of university students landed Mundo Kerman on the Mun?"

"Yes, it is!" There was silence for a few seconds in the cockpit. David started the engines.

"Marie, can I tell you something?"

"Yes, you can, David."

"You know the spy Cloneus hired you to find?"

"Yep. I know him."

"Well, I was the spy."

"I know."

"What?"

"Oh, come on! Wasn't it obvious? You were the one going on about it being an antique Raven 5! Don't worry, I won't tell."

"It's not like it would mean anything now - the Cloneus Space Program was canceled basically right when that rocket hit Kerlington."

"So, zero gravity spaceplane?"

"This is going to be fun!"

The plane rose into the sky propelled by two jets and two rockets. Marie and David were enjoying their flight. But then, suddenly, there was a bright white flash of light as something appeared to enter the atmosphere. The plane was approaching the edge of space by now.

"What is that?" exclaimed David.

"I have no idea!" replied Marie. The holographic heads up display of the plane turned on and analyzed the object. Then, as the flames surrounding the object died down, the plane picked up the object's short range tracking beacon.

"Holy Moho!"

"What the Bop?"

"It's the Dragonhearted!"

"Oh, man! This is going to make for some seriously awesome chase plane footage, Marie! Turn on the cameras, I'm going to try to get closer!"

The training plane turned around and accelerated to match the speed of the Dragonhearted. It got to within a hundred meters, and then the cameras zoomed in on it.

"Oh no."

"What, Marie?"

"Their parachutes - they appear to have melted!"

"What?"

"You heard me! Look!" Marie zoomed in on the holographic interface. Sure enough, the parachutes appeared to be melted.

"We - we've got to save them!" David punched the button for the cargo bay doors. "Marie, manage throttle! Keep us even with them! I'll mange controls!"

The plane maneuvered close to the Dragonhearted. Their altitude at this point was around ten kilometers.

"I've got it! I've got it! I - oh. I missed, darn it!"

"David, the ground is getting dangerously close!"

"Noted, Marie!"

"Altitude five kilometers!"

"Their lives are at stake! I'm coming around for another pass! Keep us even!"

"But we cannot possibly catch them! Nobody has done this before! It's impossible!"

"To quote Jebediah Kerman, it is unpossible!" David turned on the radio. And a dramatic, sad song began playing.

"Target within twenty meters. Keep us even with RCS!"

"Got it! Altitude four kilometers!"

"Almost there... NRRGHH!"

"Three kilometers! Closer... a bit to the right... too far... two kilometers..."

"Pull up now!"

There was a brief clank as the docking clamps engaged. The cargo bays closed.

"Altitude five hundred! Pull up!" David pulled the stick as far back as it would go.

"We were going too slow! We're stalling!"

"Pull in the airbrakes! Punch the throttle!" David and Marie frantically tried to regain velocity. The plane carrying the most valuable cargo in the history of the universe was now two hundred meters above the surface of Kerbin. The plane had now fully stalled. The nose dropped to face the surface of Kerbin. The controls seemed to have no effect. The vehicle accelerated. Marie looked at David. David looked at Marie. There was a look of desperate sadness upon their faces.

And in their final moments, they embraced one another, knowing only that they had tried to save three Kerbals - and not knowing that, in doing so, they had, in fact, saved the entirety of Kerbalkind.

=======================================================================================

Angela Kerman woke up to find herself in a charred tin can. Her head hurt - actually, all of her hurt. She felt like she had been rolled over by a steamroller. She groaned and tried to sit up, only to have her head hit something. No, her head didn't hit something - her helmet had. Helmet? She realized she was wearing a suit. A spacesuit. Suddenly it all came back to her. The mission. The landing. The Kraken. And the second re-entry that should have killed them. Wait, was she dead? Was this heaven?

Angela looked around. She was in the forward pod of the Dragonhearted. She looped her fingers around the emergency escape lever and pulled it, releasing the doors. Sunlight streamed in. Angela stepped out. She was in a... cargo bay?

"This can't be right," she thought. She climbed over the edge of the bay and fell onto the ground. She got up.

She surveyed her surroundings. She was on Kerbin. She briefly reconsidered the possibility that she was dead, before looking behind her at the mangled skeleton of what appeared to be a model 8C SSTO training vehicle. There was a massive field of wreckage, culminating in a large section of intact fuselage - where the Dragonhearted had laid. She looked at the nose section where a cockpit should have been. There was none. Angela quickly pieced together what had happened.

She was startled by another noise, but it turned out to be Jeb climbing out of the bay, followed by an equally confused Bill. Jeb spoke.

"Wha?" Then he glanced around, and came to the same conclusion as Angela: the Dragonhearted had been caught in midair by a plane - which had crashed, killing the two pilots. Bill deducted that as well.

Finally, Bill spoke.

"Well, then. I - I don't know what to say."

"Kasjunsalaoe?"

"Yes. Kasjunsalaoe - Thank you and I'm sorry."

"We all are." There was silence for a short while. Angela spoke again next.

"We may have just explored ten moons. We may be three Kerbals. We may have retrieved over ten thousand science points. There were dozens of inspiring and hilarious quotes on this mission. In total, we went around thirteen separate celestial bodies. But none of those numbers matter. The only number that has mattered, matters, and will matter - is two. The two Kerbals that gave their lives to save us today."

"Well said, Angela. Well said." Jebediah Kerman wanted to rewind the universe again - stop this from happening. Land normally. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not. He presumed that there was no longer enough gravioli sources - or, as the Kraken had called them, magic, left in the universe to allow him to do so.

"May you rest in peace." Bill rose his hand, which contained a pole. So did Jebediah. They both planted them firmly into the Kerbin soil. And then,

There were two.

 

 

 

Nightmares: A Jool-Sarnus Ten Story Will Be Concluded...

Epilogue coming soon...

 

 

[Ultimate Steve]

And, after a few months, it is finished!

Nightmares: Epilogue

Spoiler

 

Epilogue I - How the world was saved

 

 

Jebediah Kerman straightened his bowtie. Or, at least, he tried to. In the end, he had to get Angela to do it for him. Jeb, Bill, and Angela were standing behind the curtain of the administration building's auditorium. They were preparing to give a post mission speech to the press. Also present were Cloneus Kerman, to present the twenty million funds, Gene Kerman, Mortimer Kerman, Bob Kerman, and Dignad Kerman, the sound person. Why a sound person? Well, Jeb had remembered, all the way back twenty years ago, when there was a debate over when to use "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "The Final Countdown." The Final Countdown was to be played as the DragonHearted landed triumphantly near KSC - but that had not happened, because of the whole loss of communications thing. So, Jeb had decided that it was to be played as the curtain opened.

Gene Kerman began giving the introduction as the opening chords of the song played. Jebediah glanced at his fellow crewmembers, relieved to find that he wasn't the only one sweating buckets. He fumbled around with the script in his hand. The song began approaching it's first climax, and the song guy placed his hand on the curtain lever. Five seconds. The curtain rose as Jeb, Bill, Angela, and Cloneus stepped forward before a thousand clapping Kerbals, many more watching on television.

"Hello, Kerbin! Thank you, thank you very much!" After the clapping and screaming died down, Jeb began his "speech."

"Well, we made it! It was a long and strenuous journey, but we made it. I know some of you had doubts that the space program should continue, especially after the Space Station Epic V disaster, but we did. And someday, people will be glad we did. I mean, oh, well, darn it, I'm terrible at speeches, aren't I?" At that, Jeb tore up his notecard.

"We would like to take this moment to honor the two Kerbals who gave their lives to save our own, Marie and David. Bill and I both knew Marie, and we are all thoroughly devastated by this great loss. May their names live on forever. We are pleased to announce that we will be building a monument to their sacrifice on Duna, as soon as we are up and running again - and, boy, do we have things planned. A whole Duna base, another Jool expedition, and a probe Eve submarine, just to name a few!" The crowd applauded. "Now, without further adu, Cloneus Kerman, everyone!" Cloneus, who you would normally see in a suit woven from gold, was just in an ordinary suit.

"Thank you, everyone! So, Jeb! How was it up there?"

"It was absolutely amazing, Cloneus."

"It must have been, seeing Sarnus up close! Okay, let's cut to the chase: my conditions were ten thousand science points, a landing on each moon, and under 250k funds. How did you do?"

"Well, as almost everyone knows by now, the Octavius was under budget by less than a single fund! And I did land on every single moon of Jool and Sarnus - plus, Bill and Angela landed on Ovok, Hale, Bop, and Pol!" Something seemed wrong with Cloneus. He normally acted as if he despised the space program - but here, he was actually acting decent. Jeb concluded that it was probably for the cameras.

"So, the science points?"

"Yes, of course!" Jeb retrieved a small remote from his pocket and pressed a button. An image filled the screen behind him.

"We have recovered 13,986 science from the mission itself, plus about eight hundred from world's first awards!"

"Excellent job, Jebediah! I have to admit, I only challenged you so I could see desperate people fail. Yes, I know, that makes me sound like the worst person ever. And the truth is, I was. I was the worst person ever, I admit it. But as your journey progressed, I found myself actually rooting for you guys - I'm sorry for any times I've done anything wrong." Cloneus pulled out a giant check, a check for twenty million funds. "Here is your twenty million, Jeb. Take it, you've earned it." Cloneus, amidst a tsunami of applause, held the check out to Jeb, who took it with open arms.

"Thank you very much, Cloneus."

"No, thank you, Jeb. You were the one who made me realize that anything is possible. You were the one who made me realize how to not be such a jerk." At this point, Cloneus whipped out his actual checkbook, and a pen. "And, of course, here's your check for fifty billion funds - "

"What?"

"You heard me! Fifty billion funds!" Jeb stood in shock.

"Whatever for?"

"Shush. I want a casino on the Mun. You can use the rest for whatever you want!"

"Oh my - I can't even - "

"Shush. Mun casino. Get on with it, I expect it to be up and running in, say, a month?"

"Oh my - Yes. We'll have it up in half the time with that sort of budget!" At that point, Jeb almost looked as if he were about to faint. Mortimer actually had fainted. Gene came forward to direct Jeb off the stage. He then spoke into the microphone.

"At this time, Bill will make a statement." Bill and Angela stepped up to the microphone. And then, Bill Kerman retrieved a small box from his pocket, got down on one knee, and opened it to reveal a spectacular ring made of ten separate stones - one from each moon.

"Angela Kerman, will you marry me?"

================================================================================

Epilogue II: The lost stars

"So, what's our story going to be?"

"I have no idea. You were the one that went to Sarnus, not me."

"Well, the truth is that an alien being blew up the outer planets to try and kill me. But that's not going to fly."

"Wait, you met an alien?"

"Long story, Phil. So, how are we going to explain Plock, Urlum, Sarnus, and Neidon just vanishing?"

"What if they exploded? Like, if they had high quantities of radioactive materials, and a gravity wave brought them all to critical mass?"

"I don't have any better idea. It'll be a stretch, but Walt can do anything."

"Do you know what this means, Jeb?"

"No, not really."

"Those samples you have are the only parts of those five moons left in the universe."

"Four. Eeloo was ejected from Sarnus, remember? Funny, the Kraken destroys everything but Eeloo... remember to upgrade its status from moon to dwarf planet.

"Oh, right. Still, those four surface samples are very important now."

"Yes, they are, Phil. Yes, they are."

==============================================================================

Epilogue III: Conspiracy

Hudson Kerman climbed into the cockpit of the Protector I - the USKN's first operational space fighter.

"Protector, this is mission control. We are go for launch."

"Roger that, mission control. The USKN shall crush the KSC! I mean, come on! Space casino? Nobody's going to buy that! We will liberate the world from the clutches of KSC and their Munar military base! For Kerbin! For peace!"

"3... 2... 1..."

"Control, this is Hudson Kerman. Protector is ascending."

==============================================================

Epilogue IV - Project Intrepid

Jebediah Kerman was testing a prototype - not just any prototype. But the biggest spaceship ever launched. The funding was made possible via the excess from the Mun casino. It went as planned - ending up in high Kerbin orbit. Unfortunately, only two photographs were taken of the mission - doomed to be left alone in a file folder for several decades before any eyes saw them again.

======================================================================

Epilogue V - War and peace

Decades later, a KSC ship and a USKN ship met in orbit.

It ended with the USKN ship being de-orbited onto Kerbin.

It fell onto KSC. The radar operators thought it was a nuclear missile from the USKN. They launched missiles back.

The USKN retaliated with missiles of their own. And for thirty minutes, the sky was filled with fire.

Jebediah Kerman was on an exploration mission to the swamplands. He escaped the destruction. Bill and Bob were safe in an underground bunker on the Mun. Angela Kerman perished when the first missile hit. Nobody knows what happened to Cloneus. Valentina Kerman managed to escape to Duna.

The nuclear war and the resulting fallout sent all of Kerbalkind underground - the surface of Kerbin was uninhabitable. Ten years later a massive solar storm killed most of the Kerbals remaining in space.

Forty years after that, it was discovered that the Kerbol system was on a collision course with a black hole - and Kerbin only had 200 years left. A folder was dusted off, an escape plan written up. Jebediah Kerman was found alive. In time, so were Bill and Bob. Val, too. A series of gigantic spaceships began launching from Kerbin in a desperate attempt to save Kerbalkind. Kerbals landed on Moho. Crews went to Dres. Eve was ascended from. 916 Kerbals were landed on Minmus.

 

But what if the Octavius had not succeeded? There would have been no KSC for the USKN to fight against, and therefore no war. But there would also be no space exploration - and Kerbin would have no chance at all.

Nightmares: A Jool-Sarnus Ten Story Has Concluded.

 

The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue.

Yes. Yes, it will.

But the real question is - for how long?

Until I destroy everything.

Until Shercott opens the portal.

It may be - but if it goes my way, Project Intrepid will not end until the unpossible has been achieved.

 

The Story of Project Intrepid Will Continue...

 

 

[Garrett Kerman]

I KNEW it was a space casino!

[Xemina]

@Ultimate Steve I am friends with @Monkey Taylor and he said he loved this, and that if he could go on the forums he would like these posts, so take the likes as his. 

[The Minmus Derp]

I’m making a movie about this!

[Maria Sirona]

On 12/30/2016 at 6:26 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

I think that a huge Kerbin threatening disaster might even be beneficial to the welfare of the planet at this point.

Be careful of what you wish for, Jeb!

[Vagrant203]

What a ride.

[SSTO Crasher]

Maybe the supernova in the beginning created the black hole in project intrepid, explaining why no one saw it earlier