The Fate of Jebediah Kerman (a tragedy)

[caba111]

0.21.1 had been going pretty well. I installed FAR, and decided to play with a bit of responsibility this time around. No more wild killing of my Kerbals. No colony ships packed to the gills on their trial run. No vessels without parachutes or fail-safes. And most importantly, no abandoning Kerbals. At this point, I didn't realize that the recovery function had been added. I launched a few mun missions to kick off my campaign. There were 3 attempted manned launches.

Mission 1 was a failure- it had to be ditched in orbit. Our brave kerbal Edery lived however, and awaited rescue.

I have no pictures of mission 2, but it also had to be ditched during the gravity turn. Fererny survived.

Mission 3 was a complete success!

Jebediah came down safely only a few kilometers off the coast of KSC.

Not realizing I could reclaim ships, I developed a recovery blimp for rescue.

A few revisions later, I set off to rescue the crew of the first blimp (structural failure) and the crews of flights 2 and 3 (1 was too far away to be bothered with).

All the kerbals got aboard safely.

To celebrate my success, I put the engines on high and went back to base at full speed.

I looked away from the screen for a minute, and realized that I was descending extremely fast. Before I could touch the keyboard, the airship crashed into the water, obliterating the cabin- I didn't even have time to take a screenshot.

All aboard were lost- Jeb, Fererny, and Edery. I was shocked. Seriously... This game made me legitimately upset.

I knew I had to remember them somehow.

I give you... The Jebediah Memorial

I put it next to the old mk1 pod... It was dangerous and unstable.

Just what Jeb would've wanted.

Goodbye Jeb. May you always be remembered (until you regenerate, at least).

Edited July 28, 2013 by caba111

[SoldierHair]

You could have reverted the rescue mission.

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

Good but sad story, space flight is a dangerous business.

[katateochi]

That was tragic!! At least he will be remembered.

Good but sad story, space flight is a dangerous business.

The ironic thing was the space bit went ok, it was the blimp that was the problem! It's the hindenburg all over again.

[caba111]

You could have reverted the rescue mission.

I had already selected the rescue airship at one point through the tracking station, so that wasn't an option. I didn't realize that at the time though, so it was a bit of a shock when I realized I couldn't revert.

[FlamedSteak]

Poor Jeb may he forever be remembered.

I currently have him stranded on the Mun in an over-powered, under-fueled mini lander. He's not dead yet though, a rescue mission is the next thing on the flight roster and Jeb's return stage is now an alternate fuel supply in Munar orbit.

[Cesrate]

So the brave Kerbanauts died on Kerbin, near KSC?

Ironic.

[TheLastMonkeylander]

Jeb may go missing, but he can never die. He merely lies in the shadows, Waiting, for his time to come again.

[samstarman5]

Several missions into 0.21 myself, and I haven't lost a single kerbal yet. Jeb, however, currently sits a couple meters from the space station I placed in Kerbin orbit. I had him as pilot, and intended to send him homeward for a new mission. I forgot, however, that I had taken all the fuel from his pod to top off the station's own tanks for emergency and maintenance maneuvers. I then discovered that the hitchhiker pod contains zero control in itself. So now I have a controllable pod with no fuel, and an uncontrollable station with lots of fuel, currently unconnected to each other in the same orbit.

I think that blunder alone covers my kerbal quota for the next month.

[caba111]

As of now, Jeb's regenerated. Miraculous. Maybe I can seal him in a cage or something and place him in his own memorial.

[StarVision]

If you feel like making it even more dangerous you can turn on 'death' by going into your persistence file and changing

MissingCrewsRespawn = True

to

MissingCrewsRespawn = False

[caba111]

I think I'm going to try that. Bittersweet or not, it kind of ruins the mood of the game when your fallen hero, subject of much mourning and memorial, just kind of saunters back from the grave with a smile on his face.

/time to get my REAL morality on

[Masked Turk]

You could have reverted the rescue mission.

Where's the emotional sacrifice in reverting ;-;