The Wisdom of the Ancients: A KSP Story- Prologue: Year Zero

[Mrcarrot]

I recently had an idea for a KSP story, and decided to try it out. I'm not sure how far it'll go, but I've got sufficient material for at least a few chapters.

Without further ado, here's a little prologue, to establish the backstory.

Spoiler

The warning light flashed on, then off.
"Ah, it's nothing." Jeb dismissed it, tapping the console. "I thought they told us this thing was state-of-the art." Their vessel was indeed state-of-the-art, the best ever constructed. Their mission was to land on the Mun, but it seemed as though that would never happen, perpetually delayed by minor technical problems. They'd already been sitting in Munar orbit for five days.

"Hermes 1, our boys on the ground have given you the go-ahead to land. The engineer who designed your computer has expressed his fullest confidence in its performance."
"Roger that, KSC," Jeb replied with a sigh. "I was beginning to think they were never going to let us go down there."
The Hermes 1 lander had been designed to be a fully-functional spacecraft in its own right. It seated two astronauts, with room for all the supplies they would need on the surface. It also came equipped with a heat shield and parachute, for the return to Kerbin. Sure, the thing was ugly, but it got the job done.

 

* * *

Back in the Mission Control facility, Gene Kerman was nervous. He'd just told two of his finest crew members that nothing was wrong, but he wasn't completely sure of that. Sure, the computer guy had insisted that his device would perform flawlessly, but Gene doubted that would be the problem. He knew too much about the capsule's fragile design to be so naïve. Any number of the dozens of subsystems could fail at any moment.
"Alright, beginning deceleration burn." Bill's voice sounded cautious as he relayed what Jeb was doing.
The craft began to descend, just as it was supposed to.

Gene watched as it fell, its altitude going from 25000, to 10000, to... 16000? The altimeter started to go crazy,  the numbers retreating from the realm of plausibility to madness.
"Light...crazy...help..." came the increasingly weak radio message.
The video feed began to cut out.

And then the signal was gone.

Gene swore, throwing his headset to the ground. "We've lost them."

 

Edited October 20, 2019 by Mrcarrot