FusTek’s Arrival at Duna
Admiral Forester had asked them to speed up their arrival at Duna based on the debrief of Finni and the threats of Lord Malbek. Nevertheless, that is not how orbital mechanics work, even with as much Delta-V as they had.
As they got into orbit things had remained unchanged. They linked up with Spirit 04 which was guarding the alien structure and began preparing for their mission. The new sensors they had onboard allowed for more detailed imaging of the planet’s resources.
Strange Readings
600 km below them Spirit 04 began noticing a rising temperature inside the structure, by the time the team bothered to switch to infrared the increase was already significant. Arlan downloaded the data and began the analysis. “It started right after the debrief incident and has been steadily rising, something is generating tremendous heat in there.” Thompwin nodded, “Better warn our big brother then.”
Back on the Linux, the team was studying the classified files that had just been released. So far there was too little information to find any weakness or strong point in the alien’s spaceship. The engine seemed well guarded, and Sean could see why the Dunatians had relied on a ground assault. Hitting it from the outside would be nearly impossible.
Arrival of Linux
That would be the Linux, the crew was rather disappointed that they were overtaken on their trip, but in their professionalism, they would never let you know that. They took a high orbit, in preparation for a refuel at Ike. All systems were nominal and they connected to the FusTek to discuss the data and possible implications. None of the scenarios covered what would happen next though.
Lord Malbek Rises
As the sun rose over the red desert, the heavenly palace of Lord Malbek set itself into motion. It majestically lifted itself off the red soil. Spirit 04’s movement sensors kicked in and sounded an alarm while it tried to keep the craft in camera view, without much result. The ship accelerated up to an altitude of 300 km where the radar of the Linux picked up its echo, from there it moved into a lower circular orbit and was waiting.
The Intercept
With much chatter and tri-angulation, they got a rough idea on the orbit. “We need to know exactly,” Sean commented, “We must assume it is heading for Kerbin and we need to know if it will be a threat or not.” Thompwin concurred, and since the FusTek was in a more convenient orbit they decided on an intercept.
14 minutes later the Kerbals looked upon the huge spacecraft. “Don’t get that close, we are supposed to stay at 2 km,” Dobal said. “We are at 2.6 km, that thing is huge,” Thompwin replied. “Look, it is turning,” Arlan checked the readings. “I think it is trying to align it’s pointy thingy at Kerbin, see?” he showed the team a bunch of numbers that made sense to no-one but her and..”Telo, here, I concur. It will reach alignment in 30 minutes or so, but we won’t get there in less than 45.” Thompwin nodded, “That will be enough lieutenant unless it can fly through Ike, it will have to wait until it moves out of our path, please hurry up though.”
In The Grasp of a God
Lord Malbek was pleased, it had rested long and his heavenly palace had been restored enough to crush these Kerbani. The rise to orbit had gone well, it was just a question of pointing the Kraken drive in the right direction. Then something caught his attention, gravitic displacement? close by? he had not forgotten what had severed his connection with his slave, this felt familiar. He reached out.
“Whoo, the power just went down.” Arlan looked at the instruments. “We lost all gravitic waves, it seems they are being sucked in that alien craft!” Thompwin looked at the instruments, “we are accelerating though, it’s pulling us closer to them, give me some power Dobal!” The engineer looked in panic at the instruments, “can no do Sir, everything is down. I have one fusion generator and ion propulsion for you” Designed as a backup, these engines were really not that powerful, but the glow was magnificent. It slowed their approach to the alien craft though.
“Linux, we need your help!” Thompwin called. “We are 35 minutes out Captain, hang in there.” was the reply, it would be barely enough.
Like clockwork they rendez-vous ‘ed 35 minutes later, with the FusTek dangerously close to the alien vessel.
When the controller deployed the bay doors, however, a new problem arose. “Bay door 4 is not opening,” Henbles looked puzzled. “This means we have only half of the Avengers and one arrow available,” Sean looked at his team.
Hikimo’s Sting
“Henbles, fix the doors, I will take the Hikomi and try to distract the enemy.” Telo stood up, “Respectfully Sir, we need you here on the bridge, I’ll go, this is not a Sci-Fi series.” and with that, the teams got to work.
The Hikomi was a small recon craft, but it was equipped with a single Avenger class missile. It carried a day of life support and about 400 m/s for maneuvres using a pure monopropellant system. The whole thing was untested and wobbly.
Meanwhile, the FusTek was getting awfully close to the alien spacecraft, engines were running at 150% relays were blown and Dobal had managed to get the second fusion generator online, but the thrust of those ion engines simply wasn’t cutting it compared to the power of the tractor beam. “We could really need some help now,” Thompwin said.
Telo moved into a distance of 300 meters and ignited the missile.
The pushback sent his little craft spinning, so she never saw the impact that she made, but Sean radioed it in. “Direct hit, I’m not registering damage, but I think it noticed us, let’s hope it was enough to get its attention.”
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