[IMAGE HEAVY] "The Marathon"

[OrbitusII]

Note: The Marathon is played in a sandbox world. That said, I am doing things on a harder difficulty level than straight sandbox. Kerbals die forever, rockets and planes take time to build, and I will revert as little as I can when I play and make progress.

This is a prologue, explaining some of the history of my time with KSP, which is assumed to be one continuous timeline. It transcends game versions, going as far back as 0.16, I think.

137 days ago, a space station began construction. It used new techniques and parts not used before by the global space programs. The station, now known as ILKOS, was a small thing consisting of a power module, docking, and a tug as of the first mission to expand it with the KSO Resolute, one of two smaller shuttles in use at the time.

However, the space program had been going on for decades. Kerbals have been on Mun many times, exploring and visiting probes that had already landed, as well as developing some rudimentary bases.

The Maiden-series rockets, famed around Kerbin for their reliability and simplicity, have been in use for around 50 years with a track record unmatched by anything before or since.

Space stations were built, expanded, deorbited, and built again.

Concept rockets and planes galore have been built, trying to get the coolest and most effective systems around.

Things have gone wrong, but never so wrong that Kerbals were lost. It's a miracle that the world went as long as it did without any major accidents.

There were certainly wars in which Kerbals were killed, but somehow there were almost never any accidents that posed harm to the Kerbals flying planes and spacecraft in the name of science...

It was as if something was protecting the ones who dedicated their lives to exploring and learning. It was messy work at times, but the Kerbals involved would always survive.

This brings us to the present day, a time when space exploration was hitting its peak for the first time in decades. Mun had been colonized once again...

ILKOS was a beacon of scientific exploration flying high above Kerbin...

and the first-ever manned mission to Duna was being prepared.

It seemed like the space program had never been better, interest in space among young Kerbals was skyrocketing, funding to the program was the highest it had been since its creation, and safety for the brave astronauts was barely a concern.

Naturally, that's when things decided to go wrong.

A new rover was scheduled to go to the Munar colony to allow for exploration of the beautiful terrain around it. Bartemone Kerman, a relatively new recruit to the space program, was piloting and would join the colony as the head of exploration. Either through the carelessness of the engineers, the age of the rocket used to launch the rover, or some unknown factor, the launch went terribly, horribly awry. The rocket cleared the tower as it normally did, it flew up to 5km and began its gravity turn as it normally would, but the turn didn't stop. The rocket carrying Bartemone Kerman and his shiny new rover for the Mun base began to spin out of control and Bartemone bailed, but he couldn't escape.

The design of the launcher involved in the crash omitted any sort of LES. While manned missions in the past normally used a LES in case something went wrong, but the Maiden series had an unmatched safety record and so it was considered unnecessary. Being destined for Mun, the rover didn't carry any parachutes, so Bartemone bailed and jumped out of the rover, hoping to be able to exploit his own durability.

Let it be known that Kerbals, while durable, are not invincible. Bartemone's best bet would have been to stay in the rover, but as with any tragic accident, nothing would have saved him.

The space program came to a screeching, obnoxious, terrifying halt.

The Maiden series was immediately declared "unsafe" and all future missions to orbit or beyond were put on hold until a solution could be found. The Kerbals on Mun would remain until it was necessary for them to leave and those on ILKOS would stay until they could be retrieved. The station, of course, lacked return capsules because space was previously seen as nothing if not safer than the ground. The Duna Rocket was docked to ILKOS so it could be monitored along with extending the supplies of both vessels, which were manned.

New spacecraft under development by the nation of Kerus would not be able to transport Kerbals for at least a year, not that program administrators would tolerate using another nation's resources to continue their progress in space (oh, the irony of this). Fortunately, there was one thing that could allow the space program to achieve orbit again: spaceplanes.

The Vortex 1, a fighter jet developed by Marathon Aeronautics, was one of the most famous aircraft built by the company. Its flight capabilities made it second to none in both low-speed and supersonic categories, making it ideal for adaptation into an orbit-capable plane.

Multiple prototypes of a spaceplane based on the Vortex 1 were constructed and given the titles of V2X-1 through V2X-4. Sadly, none of them were capable of achieving the speeds necessary to achieving orbit.

Then, suddenly, Marathon engineers presented a crazy idea to their superiors. It looked nothing like the Vortex 1, which was intended to be the inspiration for the new spaceplane. The new design would have been scrapped, if not for the decision makers at the top of the space program. That design was chosen as the next prototype for the SSTO and given the name "V2X-5."

This is the story of the Kerbals in the space program: test pilots, engineers, administrators, astronauts, and colonists. They may not all appear, but they are all important.

Thus ends the prologue and history lesson and begins a call to arms or whatever. What I need from readers is names! There are currently two unnamed entities in this world: the nation in charge of this space program and the space program itself. Post any ideas you have, I'm open to anything at this point.

Next Chapter: The First Flight of V2X-5 (With Dialogue!)

Introduction to the Cast

Mod List