One Small Step: Lindor to the Stars [Interlude 1]

[Gojira]

<;-;
their sacrifice will not be forgotten

[Misguided Kerbal]

Chapter 6: The Show Must Go On

Spoiler

10....

9...

8...

7...

6...

5....

4...

Ignition Sequence Start

3...

2...

1...

Liftoff!

Once again, the Lindor VB lifted off from Pad 39B.  But instead of the cheering that had happened for Olympus 9 at liftoff, today's launch was in a more somber, muted attitude. Kongress had begrudgingly approved another Munflight, but if this went wrong, there was no second chance. This might possibly be the last flight of the Lindor VB. But that wasn't today's problem. The current problem was getting to orbit.                                                

The Boosters separated in almost pitch black. The commentator made no comment about the boosters separating in a spiral pattern. It just didn't seem like the right thing to remark.

Space separation occurred with a minor wobbling in the upper stage. Luckily, this was quickly corrected for, and the Lindor continued on its journey, albeit literally having been shaken.

The S-II stage pushed the Lindor into a circular orbit. With a thump, it separated from the S-IIB and was left behind.

Mission Control breathed in a sigh of relief. They were halfway there. But there was still much more to do, including the on-orbit systems checkup. Olympus-10 was bringing a unknown variable: the LM. Sure, it was a tested variable, but it had never been flown on a Lindor VB before. This would later make KASA realize that the Olympus program was a reckless mish-mash of untested components and unknown variables. But nothing had plagued the mission seriously.... yet. 

Astronaut Murden Kerman later remarked that "The Systems Checkout orbit was one of the most tense in my entire life! Mission control wanted us to test everything." 

It was rumored that even the food packs were tested according to rigorous guidelines.

But there was another light on the board.

"Olympus-10, you are go for TLI."
 

The single J-2 engine on the S-IIB spooled up, pushing out an almost invisible blue plume.                                                                                                                              

And then... it spooled down. They had did it. Olympus-10 was on course for the Mun. The Astronauts slid into their scheduled sleeping time with no worries in their heads. 

The Astronauts woke up, the CSM halfway to the Mun. After a quick scheduled breakfast, they got into their places. They would be making the transposition maneuver for the first time.

But there was a problem. Halfway through the maneuver, they ran out of Electric Charge, leaving the docking guidance system dead. They had forgotten to turn on their fuel cells before this maneuver. The CSM spun out of control, to tons of astonished onlookers. The capsule was suddenly pulling 10 Gs, a faulty RCS thruster doing the spinning.

However, Halfield Kerman did some quick thinking and switched it over to manual control. By the time he had finally stabilized the CSM, they were 50 meters further than they were before, with only 50 Monopropellant left.

But Halfield wasn't just any old pilot. Trying to save the MP, he lined up the CSM with the also slightly spinning S-II, and inched forward.

With only 23 units of MP left, Halfield docked the CSM to the LM and pulled it back.

Not wanting this to happen again, they promptly turned on the Fuel Cells. Once again, the crew settled in for the rest of the journey to the Mun.

The Mun slowly got closer...

And closer.

Unlike last time, where it was a near-polar orbit, this time communications blackout¹ occurred during Munar Orbit Insertion. 
 

As they settled in, Murden, the onboard scientist, suited up for a journey outside. He had many things to do on his spacewalk. First and foremost, he would be testing the new A8L Munar Grade spacesuit, and second, he would be inspecting the exterior. He also had a minor job from the PR department of taking some pictures.

Satisfied with his spacewalk, Murden made his way back inside. 

After a few orbits, KSC informed them that they were clear for their next task: testing out the LM. It would be remotely flied by Lodpont Kerman from onboard the CSM.

The LM performed admirably. If everything went well, the next mission would be a landing.

A few more days were spent in Munar Orbit, charting maps and helping Mission Control to scout out landing sites for the next mission. But they couldn't stay in Munar Orbit forever, even if they'd like to. So once more, the CSM fired up its engines. They were returning to Kerbin, hopefully not facing the same fate as the previous crew.

"Communications Blackout."

The atmosphere in the room was tense. The Flight Director, Gene Kerman, had already dropped 5 mugs of coffee in one sitting.

Just then, static appeared on the screen where it used to display the live feed. They would have to wait to see what happened.

However, an unexpected thing happened. On Halfield's console in the capsule, the Overheat button lit up.²                                                                                       

"What? I thought they strengthened the heat shield!"                                                                                           
"I think they did." said Murden in a somber tone. 

Lodpont opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the capsule made a sickening sound. Everyone was pressed backwards into their seats.

At last, the reentry ended. A crackling occurred over the speakers in the KSC. "KSC, this is Olympus 10. Do you copy?" They were met with cheers. 

With a thud, the drogues deployed.

And the main parachutes blossomed into being.

Splash!

They had done it. 

Spoiler

1. Actually it was a near-polar orbit, but imgur had a fit and wouldn't upload the screenshot.

2. This scared me a ton:

 

 

[Misguided Kerbal]

Welp this kinda died.  

But don't worry, I'll get another update up at least by the end of January! Yeah I know that's a long time but what are you supposed to do when you have holiday stuff to do.

[The Dressian Exploder]

Very noice my dude!

[AeroSky]

Nice photography! Interesting to see a person's perspective on what would have happened in an alternate Apollo timeline. I really need to organize my story like yours cause its so nice and organized.

What are those boosters strapped onto the Lindor VB? Are they from BDB as well?

[Misguided Kerbal]

5 hours ago, The Dressian Exploder said:

Very noice my dude!

Thank you!

4 hours ago, AeroSky said:

Nice photography! Interesting to see a person's perspective on what would have happened in an alternate Apollo timeline. I really need to organize my story like yours cause its so nice and organized.

What are those boosters strapped onto the Lindor VB? Are they from BDB as well?

I stole the organization thing from @Angel-125's to the Mun thing. 

The boosters are also from BDB, they're the Titan boosters. I can't remember exactly what. Honestly, I only put them on because: 

1. It looked cool

2. My flying skills can't get the Saturn V with it's stack into JNSQ LKO, so yeah.

[Misguided Kerbal]

Chapter 7: Go for Landing

Spoiler

They had about a 90% chance of survival. A 50% chance of landing. That also meant they had a 10% chance of death, and a 50% chance of not landing. Or crashing. Or dieing a painful death. Their survival wasn't guaranteed. But they went on anyways. 
 

Olympus 11 was go.

Once again, the Lindor VB sat on LC 39B. Once again, it was bound for the Mun.

Once again, the 5 F-1 engines and the Titan boosters pushed it towards the sky. Spacebound. Munbound. The LIndor rattled and shaked throughout the ascent, but it continued on.

The Boosters separated.

Moments later, the huge S-I stage separated too.

They continued onto orbit. Elming settled the stack in a 130*150 orbit. After a checkout orbit, KSC gave them the go for TMI.
 

The Transposition maneuver occurred without any problems. This elevated the spirits of everyone a little. Perhaps they would succeed! Scratch that. They had to succeed. If they didn't, Kongress would cut the spaceflight budget once and for all. And plus, succeeding had the added bonus of science, and the Kerbals not dieing. After all, they carried Kerbalkind's most esteemed scientist on this journey, Bob Kerman. 

The Mun grew bigger and bigger in the distance, while Kerbin shrinked behind them.

With a few burns, they settled into a low Munar orbit. KSC gave them the go for undocking. Bob and Elming Kerman clambered into the lander, while Chadwell stayed behind. 

"It's quite cramped in here." Bob mused as they floated away from the CM. "Roger" replied Capcom. "Next time we'll pack less snacks."

They performed their deorbit burn flawlessly. This was it. The one. The time. The big shot. They were landing on the Mun, or bust.

"15,000" announced Elming. A flurry of 'go's issued from Mission Control. "Olympus 11, you are go for Piloted Munar Descent."
 "Copy That." Elming switched on the Lander Engines, and they were both pushed back into their seats. The empty snack packets stopped floating and settled onto the floor of the lander.

"10,000" Elming called out again. 

"5,000" he called out again. Bob could spot various surface features. He thought he spotted an arch of some sort, but it was gone before he could take a second look. He panicked a bit. Were they going too fast?
 

Rather abruptly, the engines cut off. The lander, however, was still a few feet above the terrain. It settled down onto the surface with a few creaks and a crunch noise. But they were on the surface. The Munar surface.

"Contact Light." reported Elming. Mission Control was silent, but then the cabin was filled with deafening cheers over the radio. They had made it.

With a woosh, Elming made his way out of the airlock. He climbed down slowly, rung by rung. The whole of this was transmitting live to millions of Kerbals. Sure, it would be a rather short fall, but it wouldn't be a very dignified one.
 

He turned back, and gazed at the pristine Munar surface. And then he leaped onto the ground.
 

"It's one small step for a Kerbal, one great leap for all Kerbalkind." he declared. "We come here in the pursuit of science, exploration, and technology. We come in peace, for all Kerbalkind." He clicked his radio off. Those words were what the PR department had ordered his to say. In fact, it was actually engraved on the inside of his helmet so he wouldn't forget.
 

Bob made his way out of the lander and jumped onto the surface. The low Munar gravity made the jump akin to a light hop.  "These fields are ripe for science!" he declared. He made his way over to Elming, carrying the flag.

Live on television, he planted the flag, and placed the plaque down at the foot of the flag. 

"Cool." said Bob. "Now let's get sciencing!" And sciencing they did.
 

However soon Bob might have thought it was, however, Mission Control ordered them inside after 2 hours. Bob trudged sack after sack of Mun rocks into the lander.  

"Goodbye Mun." he declared while he climbed the lander. "May future generations of Kerbals collect more science from you." He made his way into the airlock, followed by Elming. And then, however short it seemed, it was time to leave.
 

3....

2...

1...

The SRBs weren't guaranteed to work. But once they started, there was no way to stop them. They were leaving the Mun.

They soon made it into orbit. As the LM's thrusters seemed to be malfunctioning, Chadwell guided the CM to dock with it instead.

After making sure they were both docked correctly, Elming and Bob heaved the huge sacks of Mun Rocks into the CM. And then that was it. A few hours later, KSC gave them the order to depart from the Mun.
 

Kerbin got bigger...

And bigger...

And bigger. All that separated them from home was reentry. 

The settled into their chairs for a fairly intense reentry. Other than a single sensor malfunctioning, they had no problems.¹

And they made their way out of the atmosphere. The drogue chutes opened wide, slowing them down. 

A few minutes later, they cut the drogue chutes and deployed the main chutes.

They opened up wide.

Splashdown! They had made their way back from the Mun. They had did it. 

 

Spoiler

1. I hope ya'll will forgive me for doing this:

I had that heating bug again, and I couldn't figure out how to survive it without blowing up. I swear, I tried at least 5 reentrys before giving up. I hope ya'll understand.

2. Sorry for the long wait since the last chapter. I was busy over the holidays, but now that they're over, I look forward to having more consistent updates!
 

3. Fun Fact: Imgur had a fit, so these images are actually all hosted on my discord! 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Misguided Kerbal

[JoeSheridan]

Nice story so far   And i like your Screenshots 

Edited January 8, 2021 by JoeSheridan

[Misguided Kerbal]

3 minutes ago, JoeSheridan said:

Nice story so far   And i like your Screenshot

Thank You!

[Misguided Kerbal]

Interlude 1: The Meeting

Spoiler

Halfield was supposed to be dead. But he wasn't. Perhaps it was just his defiant nature, perhaps it was external forces. Whatever it was, nobody had noticed yet. That played to his advantage, he thought as he got in an Aerobee training plane. Nobody even noticed he wasn't supposed to be there, and he had even ended up on Olympus 10, even though he was supposed to have died on Olympus 9. And even though there was tons of coverage, nobody in the public seemed to notice either. Perhaps they thought it was a coincidence. But it wasn't any coincidence, because Halfield Kerman was alive and well. And taking off from the runway.

It would just be a routine flight to the island airfield and back. The KSC needed to pick up some spare parts stored there for the next mission. In hindsight it was a stupid idea, but the new parts storage facility wasn't finished yet, so they had to make ends meet in the meantime.

Halfield liked flying the Aerobee. It was fast, and it was also a decent mix of both propeller and jet technology. 

Suddenly, the instruments started going wack. The navball started acting weirdly. The compass started spinning. According to the altimeter, they were currently in orbit around Moho. Halfield felt a weird sensation in his body. And then... time stopped. But Halfield was still alive. And thinking. It was like he was frozen in the air. And then he felt like.. he was going.. through a vortex.

His insides churned and toppled over. And then the world turned black.

He felt like he was being moved by an invisible hand.  Then he fainted.

...

A lone voice echoed out of the darkness.

NO.

HALFIELD.

YOU MUST PERSIST.

LISTEN.

HALFIELD! WAKE UP!

YOU MUST PRESS THE BUTTON!

In front of a groggy Halfield lay a big red button. Underneath it lay the words R-E-B-O-O-T.  "Robot?" he asked sleepily.

NO. PRESS THE BUTTON!

"Whh- Why should I?"

DO IT.

A sleepy Halfield slammed his head on the button.

...

...

Halfield liked flying the Aerobee. It was fast, and it was also a decent mix of both propeller and jet technology. 

Suddenly, the instruments started going wack. The navball started acting weirdly. The compass started spinning. According to the altimeter, they were currently in orbit around Moho. Halfield felt a weird sensation in his body. And then... time stopped. But Halfield was still alive. And thinking. It was like he was frozen in the air. And then he felt like.. he was going.. through a vortex.

His insides churned and toppled over. And then the world turned black.

He felt like he was being moved by an invisible hand. And then he felt the plane rattle. And shake. And the universe seemed to move around him.

Halfield shook his head, and his vision cleared.

He was on a runway, and his plane was moving forward slowly. He engaged the brakes.

"Might as well take a look" he thought.

He climbed out of the cockpit and made his way down the ladder.

He looked around. The place seemed similar to the KSC. It had a VAB, a launchpad, and he was on a runway. But wait. It seemed like there were 2 runways. He continued looking around, until... no way. That's couldn't be him. Was there more than one saved by the Kraken?

He took a long look at the blue-haired kerbal. He only remembered one kerbal with blue hair. "M-Murden? Could it be you?" 

The Kerbal nodded. "Yes, I happen to be me. What brings you here?"  

Halfield shook his head. "No... I think... I glitched here. There was a... red button. And this-"

Murden shook his head, and held his hand up. "There will be no need to explain. I brought you here."

"You... brought me here?"

Murden nodded. "You weren't the only Kerbal saved by the Kraken. I believe the only one who died was poor Milvin Kerman."

"So you're saying.... the Kraken taught you that?" Halfield seemed half taken aback.

"Of course." Murden said as if it were just a simple matter. "But there is no need to talk about that now. We have much more important things to talk about. I brought you here for a reason."

"You see," Murden began. "The Kraken has saved us for a reason. He wants us-"

"I know, I know." Halfield interrupted. "He wants us to activate the monoliths."

"Correct." Murden said. "But there is more. You see, the Kraken needs us to return to his physical form. But that isn't all. We must find the relics."

"Relics?" Halfield looked skeptical. "What do you mean, relics?"

Murden nodded. "The Arches on the Mun, the Monoliths, the Face on Duna, and many others we haven't discovered yet. We need to collect all of them."

Halfield shook his head. "How is all of that possible?"

"We will." Murden said simply.

Halfield looked uncomfortable. "Listen, I need to get back to the KSC. Are you coming?"

Murden said nothing.

Halfield saluted Murden and made his way back to the Aerobee.

He started his way up the ladder. Then, his body froze. And he fell.

He landed with a sickening crunch. He got up and shook his hands, then turned back to look at Murden.

Murden stared back at him creepily, with a grin on his face. Then, he opened his mouth. "Take me with you. Or else you will suffer the consequences."

 

 

Spoiler

I know that I said I would try to do consistent updates in the footnotes at the end of the last chapter. However, I didn't, so sorry about that. This interlude was a lot of fun to write. Don't worry, though, the next Chapter should be up in about 2 weeks! Or not! We'll see.

 

[Edit]: Looks like I accidentally misspelled Halfield as Hayabusa, who is a different character from an entirely different and unrelated RP. I've fixed that now.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Misguided Kerbal

[Misguided Kerbal]

I just want to say that this isn't dead, I have plenty of story ideas but real life has gotten in the way. I should have a new chapter in a week or two.

Spoiler

2 weeks? More like 2 months.

 

[Misguided Kerbal]

Stuff is coming along!

 

Spoiler

A little teaser:

Spoiler

Empty promises no more! Frick I've locked myself in now

 

 

[Souptime]

question: are you ever planning to do videos for this, if so maybe i can make music and art for it

[Misguided Kerbal]

Welp.. I'm afraid this is officially over for now. I ran out of disc space on my laptop, and I had to clear some stuff. Of course, the 10 GB JNSQ install that I never really use was a prime target, and coupled with the fact that I don't have any motivation for this anymore and that activities on my main save are ramping up, this gets the short end of the stick. Hopefully I'll find time to continue it once more, but it'll probably be a (much better!) version from scratch.

[Maria Sirona]