//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 : Liftoff // Story: Crash Landing: The tale of 3 Kerbals // by Jebediah Kerpony //------------------------------// Year 4, Day 235, Hour 2, Min 56, Sec 23 Kerbal Space Center, Kerbin Pegasus Mk4 SSTO "This is Air Traffic Control to Pegasus 9, do you copy, over." said the relatively tired voice that came through Jebediah's left ear. "Pegasus 9 to Tower, we hear you loud and clear over." said Jeb through his headset. "Just giving you a heads up that the air around 10000m has a 20m/s crosswind relative to your accent path. Nothing you shouldn't be able to handle I'm sure" replied the tower in a slightly uplifted mood, hearing the sound of their most veteran pilot at the controls. "Thanks for the update control, talk to you in a bit." said Jeb. And with that, Jeb turned off the radio inside the Mk2 cockpit and turned to face his colleagues. Well, one of them at least. Bob was standing at the side of the door in one of the few cabinets that this particular model of cockpit had. By the looks of things, he was getting a pre-flight snack. "Bob, what are you doing?" asked Jeb curiously, already knowing the answer. "Nu...fin...much, ju...t getin...a sand...wich." he replied, with a mouthful of bread and jam. Classic Bob. Jebediah sighed, got out of his seat, and then wondered where Bill could be. 'THUD'. There was his answer. He looked out of the hatch on the top of the cockpit and looked over towards the right wing, to see Bill, lying on the concrete floor of the Space Plane Hanger. "Need I ask what you're doing?" Jeb sighed. "Just checking the air intakes on top of the wings and fell out. That's all." He replied. "That intake is 2 meters of the ground, are you sure you're ok?" Jeb questioned him. This wouldn't be the first time they had a kerbanaut in rocket or space-plane with a broken bone. Trust me, with multiple G's being pulled for extended periods of time, it does not end well. "I'm fine." He insisted. Jeb then shrugged and climbed back in the cockpit. He then walked back over to in his seat and checked one of the many LCD screens trying to find the one that displayed the time until the next transfer window with their target. Time Now 02:59:36 Next Launch Window for Goliath Warp Drive 03:27:00 - 03:28:30 Time Remaining until Window 00:27:24 He turned to Bob and told him to be ready in 5 minutes and to tell Bill to remove all the red flags from the pitot tubes that measure airspeed, altitude and AoA. After giving Bob the message, he turned the radio back on to contact the control tower for clearance to take off. "This is Pegasus 9, requesting clearance for taxiway and runway for...lets see...30 minutes? That will give us enough time to troubleshoot any difficulties." Jeb asked. "Yeah, that should be fine. There are no launches set for today and the next ship to enter the planets atmosphere isn't until Friday so yeah, take as long as you need." said control. "Thanks, Jeb out." He turned to Bob, who was now sitting in the co-pilots seat running over a checklist for the different fuel tanks full of liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and kerosene. "Everything look good?" he asked. "The plane is fully fueled, filled to the brim with snacks and all hydraulics are stable." Bill said with a grin on his face. He couldn't wait for the journey ahead of him. 6 months at the newly established Laythe base, and they'd arrive in the new Goliath Warp Drive. "Awesome, lets get this on the tarmac then." Jeb said, all hyped up. 'KNOCK KNOCK'. Jeb and Bob simultaneously turned to see the hatch juddering up and down violently. It suddenly flew open and Bill fell in straight onto his face. Classic Bill. After some banter and a rundown of how things were going to be run, the three kerbals were ready to go. With the go ahead from the ground crew in the SPH, the plane was connected up to a yellow truck that pulled them out of the SPH. After the plane was completely out of the building, the giant metal doors closed, allowing the crew of Pegasus 9 to start up the 2 turbojet engines that each produced 225 kN at max power. The noise of them spiraling up was a familiar sound, but an awesome one none of the less. With all the pre-flight checks complete, the plane taxied towards the runway and then lined up with the center of it. With the engines on idle, brakes awaiting release and the afterburners ready to be engaged, the three crew members looked at each other, then smiled bigger than they had ever before. One final call to air traffic control was made. "Control?" Jeb asked "Yes? What's the problem?" "Look under your desk." "Sorry, could you say that again Jeb?" said the controller in a confused voice. When no response came, the controller did what Jeb had asked him to do. He looked under his desk to find a small, pink sticky note placed out of view. He proceeded to peel it off and then read the 2 words that were written in a very recognizable handwriting. 'Look up' He did just that and saw the massive SSTO fly above the tower with millimeters to spare, shaking everything in the room, knocking the controller off his chair and when the magnificent piece of engineering passed, the hot air from the massive jets and afterburners melted the windows. The controller got up, walked over to his desk and picked up a pencil. He then walked towards the other side of the tower to a piece of lined paper which read 'Damage report'. In the first column which read 'What/who broke'/ He wrote '2 big glass windows from ATC' and in the other column, which read 'Was it Jeb?', he ticked a box and then went to cleaning the place up. 'The managers gonna have my head if Jeb keeps pulling stunts like that' he thought to himself as he began to pick up forms and paper off the floor. Most of the pieces of paper were damage reports...and all of them had a signature that read 'Jebediah Kerman' Classic Jeb.