Meanwhile...

[ColdJ]

Meanwhile...
A game from the KSP forums for creative types.
Create a character, write a paragraph in their lives.
Character can have any job and be in any setting you want.
It is just a paragraph at a time, any length you want.
Your next paragraph can be about a totally different character in a different setting, or you can continue your already started story. It is up to you.
It is asked that you wait 8 hours till your next paragraph if nobody has gone after you.
If someone has gone after you then you can write after them as soon as they have posted.
Please end each post with Meanwhile...
So to set up for the next poster.
Thank you for playing.

 

[ColdJ]

Kenneth had just released their latest mod and gone to bed. He woke the next morning and went to see how it had been received. He clicked the link to his community only to find it was not there. All his work, his friends, his tutorials, his stories, just wiped out in an instant. Kenneth just sat and stared and wondered where to go from here.
Meanwhile...

 

[Kiwi Shark]

Rasgroblin Buildbeard, dwarven artificer, sat solemnly in a dim cell. He had thought that the runaway success of his latest invention, a toaster that toasts rocks instead of bread, was long overdue. However, a trial gone awry after having been sued for patent infringement over his rock toaster put a end to that. Ever the craftsman and certainly too young to be in jail at the ripe age of 140, he began to plot an escape.
Meanwhile...

 

[ColdJ]

Rasgroblin Buildbeard, dwarven artificer, sat solemnly in a dim cell. He had thought that the runaway success of his latest invention, a toaster that toasts rocks instead of bread, was long overdue. However, a trial gone awry after having been sued for patent infringement over his rock toaster put a end to that. Ever the craftsman and certainly too young to be in jail at the ripe age of 140, he began to plot an escape.
Meanwhile...

Excellent.

 

[ColdJ]

Tawny Kittan was almost finished repairing the antenna array when a tiny piece of space junk neatly severed her tether. It was getting more and more dangerous to work in orbit as more and more micro satellites failed and collided with each other, creating tiny shards that were racing around the planet at over 2000 metres per second. Thankfully she had hold of the array when it happened. She really didn't want to float off and die from lack of oxygen. She silently cursed Elton Munsk who had happily flooded the orbital area with these things. Do first, deal with consequences later, seemed to be their motto.
She started to carefully pull herself down to the skin of the station she was working on. There were plenty of things to grab hold of, but 1 mistake would be all it took. When she had a good perch she reeled in the rest of her tether at her end and then attached 1 of her electromagnets to the end of the tether. She had a number of them. They provide extra hand holds when she had to work in difficult places. With a strong hold using her left hand, she turned on and then threw the magnet in the direction she wanted to go. It reeled out what tether she had as it went. She had to calculate it right so that it would contact the skin of the station, otherwise if it reached the end it would spring back towards her. It went as planned and stuck fast to a spot 20 metres away. She gently pushed off in that direction and floated to the magnet. She could not turn it off remotely, so would have to go to it each time and then throw it again. She had just grabbed it when a bigger piece of space junk ripped away the antenna she had almost repaired. She of course didn't hear it, but felt a shudder go through the station and looked back to see nothing where there should be something. Small pieces of junk were speeding past in flashes. If it wasn't for the station being between her and most of them she would have been shredded. Her local comms suddenly blared to life and a frantic voice told her to get her assets back ASAP as they were evacuating. It was Dimitri, one of her fellow crew. She said she was getting there as quickly as she could. She had no time to be extra careful now, so she aimed the magnet at the entry hatch, turned it on and threw hard. When it was half way there she pushed off hard after it and hoped she wouldn't break something when she hit. The magnet bounced rather than stick and headed back towards her. It missed her and had drained some of it's momentum when it hit the hatch. She was almost to the hatch when the tether went taut, but thankfully all it did was slow her down as she currently had the greater inertia. It probably helped her to not crash hard into the hatch. As soon as she had a good hold she reeled it back in and grabbed the other side of her tether that was attached to a ring next to the hatch. She cycled the hatch and went in to a hellscape of red flashing lights.
Meanwhile...

 

[Spaceman3d]

Elton Munsk LOL

 

[ColdJ]

Tawny looked to the rack of spare oxygen tanks. Their EVA suits took 4 across the back. Each was used up 1 at a time and you couldn't change them by yourself unless you took the suit off, which was not something to do in the current crisis. She grabbed 2 as she was half way through her second tank by the time she got in. She then headed in to find crew frantically zooming about, trying to save what mattered most to each. As most were scientists performing zero G experiments, they were trying to save their data rather than try to save their own lives. She was a mission specialist and engineer/mechanic and part of the core crew, so knew that time was of the essence and if she didn't act now they would lose people, if not everybody. She opened the general channel that would broadcast across suits and the P.A system. "Everybody!! If you have been doing your regular data backups as you should then all your work is saved to the escape craft. Now get your suits on, check each other to make sure they are on right and that your oxygen is full, and then get your assets into the escape craft before you get all of us killed!" This had the desired effect and everybody stopped rushing, some looking very sheepish, and started to go through the escape checklist. "Now Dimitri. Get your asset over here and help me change my oxy bottles." Dimitri was of course already suited up and floated over quickly. She handed him the spare bottles and he immediately went to work replacing the 2 used at her back. He handed her the half used one and she plumbed it to her emergency line so as not waste the fresh ones before needed. The Mission Commander was in the escape craft, prepping it for launch. She and Dimitri set about getting all the scientists sorted and then getting them in it. The escape craft was kept inside the very centre of the station in a launch tube designed to eject the craft rapidly away from it. In this way the rest of the station became ablative material, sacrificed first in order to give the escape vehicle it's best chance of survival. They were just getting the last scientist to the hatch to get in when half the station ripped away. The scientist got pulled by the sudden outrush of atmo and started floating off. Tawny didn't stop to think and just reacted. She shoved the magnet still attached to her tether in to Dimitri's hands, said "Hold this" and flung herself after the scientist. She had served with Dimitri for years and had absolute faith that he would react well and could be trusted with her life. She flew at the scientist and tackled them around the waist. Then immediately grabbed the other half of the tether that was looped on her tool belt and quickly got it around them, tying it tight. As soon as she did this the tether leading to dimitri pulled taut and they started being pulled back in. She looked around and saw Mission Specialist Garfield helping Dimitri to get them back in. Around them was chaos. Bits of metal and who knew what, spinning everywhere as shards went shooting past what was left of the station. They got back to the hatch and were pulled inside. The scientist was looking rather green and she hoped they wouldn't throw up in their helmet. Garfield got everybody squared away and said "I could really go a Lasagne right now." Tawny smiled, Garfield really loved Lasagne but she could see he was trying to lighten the mood. With everybody strapped in and checked the Mission Commander, Felix, started the coundown. It was a really short one. 3... 2... The explosive bolts blew the exit doors off 1... They shot out of the tube like a projectile, trying to get as far from the station as possible. There were no windows back here. Too risky, but they could all see a screen with a rear feed and see what was left of the station. There was no grand explosion, in space there is nothing extra to burn so anything going up is quick and muted. But there were a myriad of pieces of station everywhere. They watched their dreams die and then held tight for the journey back to the planet.
Meanwhile...

 

[ColdJ]

Everything was shaking and she could feel the seats pushing up into them from the initial launch. You may think of space craft being layed out like like an aircraft but instead everything was set up so that the point of thrust was under the floor. While under thrust that meant the floor pushed up to meet them. They could see on the monitors what they were leaving and where they were headed. It would have made for a great ride at an amusement park, but for right now it was life and death. The tube had of course not been aimed where they would like to be going when they launched. No plan survives when it hits the wall of reality. So Felix was doing his best to course correct and bring them back to heading for the planet. All modern suits came with a neck restraint/support system that could be inflated for times like this. It enclosed the area around your neck, supporting your head. Helping to prevent whiplash and stopping your skull from crushing or breaking the vertabrae in your neck when under extreme shifts in force and direction. Everybody had theirs inflated. It meant not being able to easily turn your head, but was better than quadriplegia. And so like beans in a thrown can they shook and shifted as Felix wrestled them back on course. Tawny took the time to think about what must of happened, a sort of Domino cascade affect where 1 out of control micro satellite hit others until many then hit bigger things and so on. It seems that the race to flood the orbit may have just made it unlikely that they could ever send manned craft up here again unless a major clean up operation was taken. Tawny couldn't help but snort." Yeah I am sure that they will take responsibility and put in the effort to clean up their own mistakes!" She felt pressure on her glove and shifted her eyes enough to look. Dimitri was holding her hand tightly, which in these suits meant noticeable. She turned her eyes to see his looking at hers. She smiled and watched as he mouthed the words "I love You." She mouthed back "And I you." They were a rare pair. They had got married 3 years earlier. Usually the program didn't like married people to be on the same missions, but they had convinced them and proved through their dedication to the job that it had been a good choice. They never let their personal feelings get in the way of what they were doing but both knew that the other would always have their back when the Shitaki Mushrooms hit the fan. Just as was happening now. Just then the craft suddenly went into a lurch and spin. A string of expletives came across the open channel from Felix. "Sorry folks, we just got a hole through one of our control surfaces." Then the atmosphere reached out to touch them. They started to skip across it as Felix worked hard to turn in to the skid.
Meanwhile...

 

[ColdJ]

If they thought it had been shaking before, now it had turned into a tumble dryer. Left, right, up, down and spin. Not a cheat code, just their current ride. Any sailors listening to Felix would have fainted dead away by now. The rear view monitor showed a trail of sparks and fire as they tore threw the atmosphere. Felix was attempting to get the rear end to be the leader, as it was better shielded from extreme heat, but with the uneven control surfaces he was also fighting it wanting to twist them into a tumbling mess. Dimitri had had to let go and grip the arm rests, as if he had stayed holding her hand he probably would have pulverised it by now. They were all holding their rests for dear life and when/if they landed the rests were likely to be mangled into works of art. Felix suddenly said "Well if I can't fight it, then go with it." and with that suddenly threw the ship into the direction it was trying to twist them. This confused the laws of physics and aerodynamics just long enough to get the ship rear to direction of travel. Felix slammed the throttle to full in attempt to bleed off speed. Physics is a wonderful thing. You can be going full out in 1 direction while travelling in the opposite. Just like running full tilt down a moving train from front to rear. You know you are running hard but stationary trees outside the windows are catching and passing you. Felix deployed the air brakes and hoped nothing would melt off. These were basically panels that would come out at angle from the ship, roughly 45 degrees with the furthest out section being closer to the rear. The extra drag would hopefully help slow them more. Now it was just a waiting game and watching the air speed readout. This was slightly false as it wasn't reading the speed of air going past, but rather a pulsed signal was constantly being sent to a ground station and each return measured in femtoseconds to get an idea of speed in relation to the tower. After an agonising length of time that was probably just a couple of minutes, the readout slowed enough that they were passed the worst of it. Then it got down to a speed that the drogue shoots could deploy. These would just help slow them more. The full chutes would wait till they were closer to the ground and slower still. The same signal that gave them a speed readout also told them at what height they were. There was a small moment when everybodies hearts headed for their mouths, as the drogues cut loose and then their hearts headed for their intestines when the main chutes deployed. Now they were driffting down at leisurely pace. Dimitri went back to holding her hand and Tawny checked the monitors to see where they were going to land. She saw water and groaned. It was always a chore to be picked up at sea.
Meanwhile...

 

[Spaceman3d]

average KSP reentry

 

[ColdJ]

They hit with the usual splash, then keeled over. This was expected though and as soon as the theromocouples registered that they had bled off enough heat, hatches blew and inflating bladders expanded out to make sure they didn't sink and stayed close to the right way up. As is the want with most living creatures, as soon as it was safe to do so they cracked the exit hatch and got slapped in the face with the sea air. They didn't mind that, it just re-enforced that they were safely down and could breath without their helmets on. There would already be a heavy lift helicopter on the way. They would have been tracked all the way down. Some heads were going to roll. Many many millions of dollars and years of work to get everything into orbit, had just been destroyed because of a lack of forethought and a rush to monopolise space. If the authorities didn't do the right thing then she might have to hunt down the culprit herself. Everybody was grinning and hugging each other, just glad to be alive. In the distance the heavy thud thud of the helicopter approaching could be heard. The core crew got out and when the copter arrived they attached the lines to the correct places and then got back in and strapped down for the journey to the nearest carrier or base, depending on where they had splashed down. Now she had her helmet off she leaned over and gave Dimitri a big kiss. Hopefully tonight they would get to sleep in a real bed. Anything would be luxury after what they had been through.
Meanwhile...

 

[ColdJ]

Jason Kerman was on a space walk, doing repairs to an antenna on the IKS (International Kerbin Spacestation) when the cosmic wave passed over them. It left him feeling fuzzy and ready to throw up. He called the station and said he was coming in, could someone please meet him at the airlock? His vision was blurry and he caught a glimps of Kerbin as he climbed across. It didn't look right, as if it was bigger and the continents had moved. He shook his head and thought that that wave had done a real number on him. He made it to the airlock, almost blacking out. A suited figure was there to catch him and bring him in. They cycled the airlock and brought him inside. Once the lock was sealed, the suited figure removed their helmet to reveal a hairy face with pointed openings on top and great big black saucer eyes that you could drown in. It asked if he was ok and he promptly fainted.

Meanwhile...

 

[Sumessefui]

I remember that one!