Offworld: A Tale Of Space Travel

[NASAFanboy]

CHAPTER PORTAL

N/A

PROLOGUE

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. Five months into the year on the first day of the weekend, New Hesenburg escaped destruction by three hundred kilometers, a margin infinitesimally small compared to the universe. The great meteorite of the century, as some had called it, had denotated in the atmosphere, three kilometers from the ground, levelling an entire forest and destroyed three whole towns with an explosion rivalling that of the recently developed thermonuclear weapon. Only two hundred years before, another meteorite of similar yield had also missed the same city, this time by 700 kilometers. The small trading settlement near the blast site had been completely obliterated, and it was this act by the heavens that had stalled Kerbal colonization of their western continent by a furhter sixteen years while the Kings and Queens of the old world wondered in puzzlement.

In those days; the Universe could afford to take potshots at Kerbin, and the Kerbals could do nothing. Luckily for their civilization, however, the "Great Meteorite" and its predesscor had struck in an sparsely populated area, only claiming three hundred lives - but by the end of the same decade, another one was headed toward Kerbin, and this time, they had run out of luck.

At 6:00 AM on the morning of the Kerbal New Year, an dazzling bright fireball awoke many of the inhabitants of Kerbin. It moved across the sky with tremdenous speed, and soon outshone the sun. It flew with an determined but utter silence, leaving behind a trail of smoke and fire. Somewhere above the United Proviences, it began to disinegrate, breaking up into three different shards, producing a series of concussions and a blast that permanently damaged the hearing of several thousand Kerbals. They were the lucky ones. Moving at sixty kilometers a second, all thousands of tons of ancient metal and steel impacted the Southeastern Plains, delivering an blast more powerful than every nuclear explosion in history combined.

The great city of Westair was immediately oblierated in the seconds following the blast, wiped forever from the face of the Earth. Following Westair was the small island nation of Tierra Roboda, followed by the Great Union's 24th Fleet, who had the misfortune to be stationed in the area, the charred steel hulls of their migthy battleships sinking below the waves.

Half a million Kerbals died followed by twenty two million with injuries. The entire 24th fleet was destroyed, and entire nation of Tierra Roboda was no more - for their islands and cities had sunk below the waves. The loss was massive, almost even incomprehensible. Entire years of effort was lost, but most of all, the lost to art, culture, the sciences and the histories were all beyond computation. Few could draw councilation from the fact, that as the dust settled into the atmosphere, the world experienced the most colorful sunsets ever recorded in history.

There was no summer that year.

After the inital shock, Kerbalkind reacted with an determination and unity that no earlier age or crisis could've ever realized or shown. Such a disaster might not occur for a million years - but it might occur tomorrow. And next time, the consequences could be worse. Except, there would be no next time.

And so, the space programs of the greatest nations of Kerbin were born.

Edited April 2, 2014 by NASAFanboy