[AAR] Ibo, a Mission to Duna

[Krevsin]

IBO, A MISSION TO DUNA

Ibo, from ancient Kerbtin, meaning "I will Go." This is the story of the planetary craft Ibo and its journey to Duna, going where no Kerbal has gone before.

If I could, I would write a better intro, but I'm awful at that sort of thing. So I'll just post the prologue.

Prologue

"I spy with my little eye something that begins on letter... K!"

"Huh, I wonder what it could be. Could it be.... Kerbin?"

"Correct! How did you figure it out so quickly?"

"I don't know, Bill, could it have to do with the fact that KERBIN IS THE ONLY FRIGGIN' THING YOU CAN SEE OUTSIDE THIS CAPSULE?"

"Now, now, Bob, You jolly well know you can also see Solar Panels and Fuel Tanks."

There was a loud smacking noise as Bob's palm met his face.

"90 days trapped with you in this capsule... If you weren't my brother, I'd have murdered you and boiled you into a stew."

"Ah, but I know you really wouldn't."

"And why is that?"

"Because you've been stuck in this capsule with Macry for 90 days as well, and you're not related to him, so you could've cannibalised him, but you didn't."

"... true, but at least Macry can keep his mouth shut."

There was a fumbling noise and Macry emerged from the back of the capsule.

"Would you guys please, PLEASE shut up? I haven't slept well ever since we finished that burn from Minmus and I'd very much appreciate it if you two could keep silent." He said and stared at Bill and Bob, bags under his eyes clearly visible.

"Okey-Dokey." Said Bill. "Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?"

Macry's eyes flared with panic and he grabbed Bill by the collar. "NO! Please, for the love of everything holy, DO NOT SING. Just... keep quiet, okay?"

Bill smiled. "Okay, Macry."

Macry floated to the back of the capsule to his makeshift bed, consisting of two unused flags.

For a while, everything was quiet. Bob closed his eyes and he let out a sigh of relaxation. Bill nervously looked around the capsule and twiddled his thumbs. The scene was utterly serene.

"Hey, Bob?" asked Bill quietly.

"Mmrh?" grunted Bob.

"Do you think Mission Control will be mad at us for that unscheduled landing on Minmus?"

"Probably."

"How about Jeb?"

"Oh, I'll get a load from him. I think he's jealous."

"Fancy that. The first Kerbal on Mun, jealous of you, who have landed on Minmus with a craft designed only for orbit-to-orbit transfers."

"Yeah. Well, that message I left there surely wasn't intended to provoke him, not at all."

" 'I landed here using only a Nuclear Engine. Beat that, Jeb!' ?"

"That's the one. I can't possibly see why he-"

"AAAAAAAARGH!" Came a cry from the back. "You two are impossible!" shouted Macry and started donning the EVA suit.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asked Bob.

"Outside. It's the only place where I'll be able to get some sleep." replied Macry, donning the boots.

"You can't do that! The radiation..." said Bill.

"Sod the radiation!" snapped Macry. "I haven't bloody slept well in an entire bloody month. I think I'm entitled to some peace and quiet. And don't worry, I'll be tied to the depot with an umbilical so I won't float off."

"What about pre-breathing?" asked Bob.

Macry hesitated, suit's torso halfway on. "Well, damn." he said and started removing the EVA suit.

Suddenly, the radio crackled into life. "Hello, Long Ranger, this is KSC, the High Orbital Rezendvous and Supply Craft 3 will rezendvous with the Orbital Depot in T minus 5 minutes. We apologize for our tardiness, there were some software bugs to iron out."

Bob turned on the radio transmitter. "Roger that, KSC, preparing for rezendvous in T minus 5 minutes." He turned the transmitter off and turned to Macry. "Did you hear that, Mac? In five minutes, you'll have an entire Horse to sleep in."

Macry's eyes brightened up.

*** *** ***

"Commencing decceleration burn in 3, 2, 1."

"Begin."

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Decceleration burn complete. Switching to RCS control."

"RCS control engaged. Thrusters working perfectly, bringing the Horse in."

"Relative velocity 1 meters per second. Distance to Depot, 300 meters and falling."

"Establishing radio contact with Long Ranger. Gene, you're up."

*** *** ***

"Hey, look! I see the Horse!" exclaimed Bill and pointed at a speck in the distance approaching rapidly.

The radio crackled into life again. "Hello, boys, I hope you are looking forward to this delivery. We're sorry it isn't quite a rescue module, but we're still working on that. The supplies on the Horse should provide you for 2 more weeks and it should give you some much needed empty space."

Bill turned on the transmitter. "Thanks, Gene. We're looking forward to it. Especially the space, Bill was getting mighty annoying."

There was a chuckle audible from the radio. "I can understand that. Anyway, prepare the depot junction for docking."

Bob looked at the dashboard and pressed some buttons. There was a click and the docking port on top of the capsule opened, revealing the inside of the junction, a small, cramped place, barely big enough for a kerbal, with two docking ports which currently led to empty space. The lights on one of them changed from red to green, signalling it was ready for docking. Macry quickly floated into it with the two flags that served him as a blanket. He didn't quite fit all the way into it as his feet were still floating in the Long Ranger capsule. "Come on, come on, come on...." he muttered.

Bob chuckled. "The junction is ready for docking. You may proceed, Gene."

"Roger that, Bob."

*** *** ***

"Docking is a go! Engage RCS thrusters, bring her in gently."

"Relative velocity 0.5 meters per second, targ-"

"Holy carp! The main engine has come online! Relative velocity rising!"

"Turn it off, turn it off!"

"Trying, sir, but the Horse... It's not responding!"

"All RCS thrusters, full power, aim away from the depot!"

"RCS thrusters are not responding, sir! We have lost control of the craft!"

"Collision imminent!"

There was a stark moment of silence in the control room that seemed to drag on forever.

"Collision T plus 1 second. Lost contact with the Depot and Long Ranger....."

"Wait. I got it! We have contact with the Long Range-"

"Sir, the ship is tumbling severely."

"The engine has come online, sir!"

"Detecting structural failure of the engine. The engine broke off!"

"The tank is leaking fuel, sir."

"Sir, the capsule is rapidly depressurizing! Possible collision with debris!"

"Lost biosignals on Macry."

"The fuel tanks have stopped leaking."

"Lost biosignals on Bill."

"The ship is still tumbling!"

"The interior is fully depressurized."

"Lost biosignals on Bob."

"Radio contact... lost. Sir, the Long Ranger is dead, I repeat, the Long Ranger is dead."

The entire room suddenly turned very, very quiet and all eyes turned on Gene Kerman, slouched behind his desk, face buried in hands. The silence was all-encompassing. Gene lifted his face, his eyes red. "Okay." He said quietly. "I will notify the president of this." He said, stood up and slowly walked towards the door. At the door, he stopped. "Oh." He said. "Someone tell Jebediah about this."

He exited the control room.

There were going to be some serious budget cuts after this, he thought to himself.

[KSK]

Nice prologue! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I'm enjoying this, I think you have honest talent!

[Krevsin]

Oh, my, this has ended up on the 3rd page already? Chrissake...

Anyway, the issues I had with the save file have been fixed and this can continue!

Chapter 1

The Mun loomed high above the KSC and although the centre itself was lit up teeming with activity, same did not hold true for the suburbs of the nearby town of Kerbport, known colloquially as the Spacetown. Everyone was asleep and the darknes was interrupted only by the constant glow of the streetlights.

In one of the houses slept Jebediah Kerman, the fabled Kerbonaut and the owner of a successful private firm that dealt in aerospace technology. He was still in active service as a kerbonaut even though that for the last 10 years, the USK Space Program hasn't sent any kerbals into orbit after the catastrophic crash of the Long Ranger and the subsequent deorbiting of its debris which caused quite a panic and resulted in some very surprised farmers in the Kerbstralian Outback and a doubly surprised cow.

He slept in his bedroom, tightly wrapped in blankets and dreaming the same dream he had for the last decade, the dream of returning to the Mun.

Suddenly, he was rudely roused from his slumber by the sound of a phone ringing. He grunted and turned away from the infernal racket, in hopes that it would silence the phone. It did not and after letting it ring for about a minute, he was finally willing to pick it up.

"Yrsh?" he mumbled into the speaker.

"Jeb! Great news, old buddy! You've been selected for the Ibo mission!" Came the reply.

Jeb felt a tiny memory surface in his groggy brain. Ibo, the Britkerbian mission to Duna, made in cooperation with the USK, Deutkermany and Kerbtaly.

"Okay." he mumbled into the phone.

"That's why the KSC is cancelling your vacation. You must be at the KSC tommorow, 9 AM. Be punctual." the call ended.

Jeb stared into the phone for a bit before putting the receiver away. Wow, he thought, he was going back into space, after all that time he spent grounded and teaching new kerbonauts.

He heard a faint meow from somewhere next to his bed.

"Oh, right." he said. He picked up the phone and dialled a number.

After a while, he heard a yawn and a mumbled "Who's there" on the other side.

"Hello. Sue? It's me, Jeb. I know it's late, but would you mind taking care of Mittens while I'm gone?"

*** *** ***

Jeb stared at the massive rocket atop which the Ibo landing module was perched. It was a massive thing, consisting of 7 large orange fuel tanks and 3 stages. He looked at his left, where his flight colleagues, Nelwell and Kelmy stood.

"sooo... It's a big rocket."

"Zat is correct." said Nelwell.

Kelmy just nodded and whistled in admiration.

"You know, in my country ve have a saying. It goes: Vat soares high must crash low." Nelwell added after a brief pause.

"Well, I hope it isn't true, Nel." Jeb said.

Kelmy said something in Kerbtalian. Jeb looked at him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"He said that zat Mobile launch platform is taking its sveet time." Nelwell said.

Jeb looked at the platform, slowly inching from the VAB towards the launch pad.

"Eeeyup." he said.

The three watched the massive marvel of kerbal engineering slowly inch forward, attended from all sides by an army of engineers and scientists.

Jeb understood why all attempts at making conversation failed. The three got along great as a group during training (Even if Kelmy refused to speak Kerbglish unless there was really no alternative) and worked well as a team. But on the day of the launch, the nervous anticipation got the best of every Kerbonaut, no matter how well trained. Jeb had seen many rocket crashes and catastrophes and he knew why. A rocket was such massive piece of complex engineering and things often didn't go as planned.

"Definetly taking its sveet time" said Nelwell.

Kelmy added something in Kerbtalian and the two burst into laughter.

The mobile launch platform slowly inched its way forward.

*** *** ***

"Primary systems checked. You're clear to go, Jeb, commencing launch in 10, 9,..."

"Okay guys, this is it. Are you ready?"

"Ja."

"Si."

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Liftoff!"

The rocket engines roared, the capsule shook, the umbilical tower released and the rocket flew off into the air.

"First stage online, all 6 mainsails working at peak efficiency."

"Acceleration within safety limits."

"Detecting slightly increased heart activity in Nelwell, he seems to be having fun."

"Fuel crossfeed working beautifully, no loss of propellant detected in the primary tank."

"Reaching ten thousand meters, beginning orbital maneouvers."

"First stage running low on fuel, prepare to detach."

"Altitude thirty thousand meters and rising steadily."

"First stage detached, no structural damage detected."

"increasing the pitch to 45 degrees."

"Projected apoapsis outside atmosphere."

"We have broken through the atmosphere, flying towards Ibo."

"Projected apoapsis two million meters. Ibo orbit reached."

"Second stage depleted, detaching."

"The craft is in orbit. Handing control over to the capsule."

*** *** ***

"Listen, all I'm saying is that while Von Grun was a brilliant scientist, he was also too big of a dreamer."

"Zat is true, Jeb, but vere vould ve be vithout ze dreamers and naive fools vho dare to dream big?"

"Good point, but-"

Jeb was interrupted by a crackle of static.

"Hello, Ibo Lander module. This is Gene, the control has been handed over to you now."

"Thanks, Gene. How long until we reach the apoapse?"

"Eleven minutes. Listen up, when you reach the apoapsis, you will have to circularize. Estimated burn time is 1 minute 32 seconds. Good luck."

There was another crackle of static and the radio traffic seemingly ceased. Jeb turned towards Nelwell again.

"Now, as I was saying..."

*** *** ***

"KSC, ve have approached ze apoapsis. Commencing burn."

The engine roared silently to life once more.

"T minus 1 minute until engine cutoff."

The engine made no noise, but the three kerbonauts felt the acceleration manifest itself as they were not too gently pushed into their seats.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Mark!" shouted Jeb and Nelwell killed the engine.

"KSC, what's it looking like?"

"Erm... Not to good, Jeb, we appear to have miscalculated. Your burn was too long."

Kelmy let out a swear.

"Now, there's nothing to worry about, You just need to do a small burn. You have the Delta Vee to spare."

"Roger that, Gene."

Jeb smiled. Some things at the KSC never change.

"Nelwell, prepare for correction."

"Yes, Jeb."

"Correction complete. We're going to rezendvous with Ibo shortly."

*** *** ***

"Ve're approaching Ibo. Commencing decelleration."

"Good. Prepare to ditch the third stage after you've killed your relative velocity."

"Roger. Ibo in visual range. Commencing turnaround"

"Relative velocity killed. Preparing to detach third stage."

"Third stage detached. switching over to RCS thrusters."

Kelmy said something in kerbtalian.

"Jeb, Kelmy says he's established radio contact vith ze Ibo."

"Tally ho! This is the Britkerbian vessel Ibo speaking. We are looking forward to seeing you aboard."

"Understood, Ibo."

"Ve're approaching Ibo at 0.5 m/s."

"Killing relative velocity, ve are above Ibo now."

"Setting the docking port as target, rotating to match up ze docking ports."

"Applying thrust tovards ze target."

"Uund... Docking successful. linking up ze lander with Ibo internal systems, turning off secondary systems. Gentlemen, ve are now entirely connected to Ibo."

"Righty Ho, chaps. We're waiting for you in the central module."