Kerbol's Lament

Chapter 1: The Eight-Headed Serpent

07/23/2037

    "F.S.S. Bellerophon, hailing F.S.S Farragut, Orochi-Duna approach is nominal"

Though he registered the situation at some level, Captain Edward Kerman's attentions did not lie with the approaching  aldrin cycler asteroid, Orochi, nor  with the F.S.S Farragut, which he had been tasked to escort to the Dunian surface. Further still, it did not even rest with his command; the F.S.S. Bellerophon, even though she demanded far more respect than a conventional spacecraft.

Even while rival factions had flirted with armed skirmishes over far flung space colonies, anxious diplomats had, barring a few notable exceptions, prevented the development of combat oriented spacecraft, fearing the inevitable escalation of tensions such a vehicle would stoke. But of course, those in charge of statecraft and warfare were always aware that if one fails to develop a weapon before the enemy, they are like to be destroyed by it. Thus, knowing the tide of progress could not be stemmed, the Federation began to secretly develop and field a new type of spacefaring war-machine, populated with an officer corps of Space Marines. By the mid 2030's, The first Missile Schooners, Lasercraft, and gunships began to take to the void, poised to secure Federation assets across the solar system.

Their pinnacle: The Bellerophon. One of two Federation gunships, she was a flagship fit for an Admiral. Though only launched this past year from the dockyards of Moho, and without a kill to her name, one would only ignore such a machine at their own peril. The Tapered cylinder of her hull measured 214 meters long, and 30 meters wide (though her silicon carbide radiators were 70 meters wide tip to tip), and she had a wet mass of 11.7 kT, on which her four Methane Nuclear thermal engines could muster 6.24 Km/s of Delta V. A Pair of 60 MW thermoelectric plants allowed her the capacity to unleash unspeakable force against her opponents, ether by slag, from her arrays of coil guns, lassed photons from her laser turrets, or sheer ionizing radiation, courtesy of her missiles bays. However at present her bays contained not missiles, but drones. A total of 40 autonomous spacecraft, armed with 22 mm cannons. All of which guarded 90 souls, including his own, from the cold void of space.

From all the combat simulations Edward had experienced, he would have preferred nuclear armaments in his missile bays, but given the close proximity with Duna, and all the civilian presence that entails, he understood commands decision to use conventional weaponry at this time.Hopefully the decision wouldn't end up mattering at all: there had yet to be an armed conflict In space, at least not one perpetrated by kerbals, but still Captain Edward couldn't shake his anxiety. He had felt a peculiar tension, since his launch from Kerbin nearly eleven years ago, a sensation which inexplicably hadn't left him, even when he was back under the gravity of Duna, or even when he had briefly returned to Kerbin for a shore leave. Though the doctors had assured him that this feeling of panic and unease in orbital freefall was completely natural, Edward knew this was not the source of his persistent anxieties.

Upon arriving in space he as if each minor action and manipulation had been tainted. Like he was a too , developed for a specific purpose, and to operate in space not only voided his warranty, but stood in the face to everything his body had evolved to do for millions of years. Which he supposed was accurate.. Even as he grew accustomed to the microgravity and claustrophobia of orbital life and training, he couldn't help but feel that he didn't belong in space.

Everybody assumed that since he was the spawn of the legendary Jedediah Kerman, that he too would possess an innate desire to be among the stars, never feeling comfortable on the ground. Nevermind the fact that his birth had been the product of an interplanetary, extramarital affair, or that he had hardly known his father; he was still expected to carry on his fathers legacy.

Edward, however, was lukewarm on space. Frankly he felt that kerbals didn't belong there. Regardless of what the Artifacts suggested, or the theories the Kerbologists extrapolated from them, Edward was soundly convinced that kerbals were adapted to live on kerbin, without leaving it. In fact, he felt that each second his species spent hurling themselves between celestial bodies was another second they were begging the Kraken to destroy them.. Or perhaps he would have, if he were a religious man.