Project Overworld

'The view is really great from up there.' Keith thought while working on his base. It had been a full week since he started assembling his station module by module and consolidating any part that was being faulty. He did a meticulous job because he knew any problem in the structure could sign the end of his plans for the future.

However, he felt really elated to actually accomplish such a job all the way from space. It was such a futuristic way of doing things and yet he realized that he was miles away from having a completed space station for now.

'Well, everything comes in its own time. Last time I checked, the Starise group was reaching orbit at around two hundred miles of altitude. I should be safe for another few weeks or so.' He cogitated.

Keith now had a total of seven module forming his space station. It was the result of a long period of launches upon launches, as well as the dedication of several hours a day to bring them around the same area using the remaining fuel they had in their launchers.

The launcher of his shuttle itself almost ran out of fuel before he could even get to the last module, however, and he has had to transfer a bit of fuel from the extra tanks he launched up there to finish the job.

Among these modules, there was the module that would contain all of his oxygen reservoirs as well as the pressuring gas to maintain his body in an acceptable atmosphere. There were also two modules for the sake of his fuel storage and one which would be used to hold both a radio wave transmitter and a receiver.

All in all, there were only three modules left for his own use, such as a bedroom containing a computer that Keith would be using to communicate with his base and access his giant database, while the other two would be booked for crafting purposes.

Each module was around sixteen square feet, making the base in its entirety about seventy square feet in size. It was not that large, but it would be entirely sufficient for his current needs.

'That's where I'm gonna live for the following weeks.' Keith thought while pacing through the modules of his base. 'I hope nothing bad will happen to it.'

Once he made sure everything was perfectly sealed off, Keith finally plugged the oxygen and pressuring gas reservoirs to the venting system of his base. It did not take long until the base was filled with an habitable atmosphere and Keith tried taking off the helmet of his spacesuit for a while.

It did not seem like his character was having a bad time so he totally got rid of the rest of the suit and enjoyed his unrestrained movements by floating around his base.

It was such an enjoyable moment, being able to experience the weightlessness of space without hindrance. However, he quickly focused back and went back to work. When he was working on his spacesuit, back on Earth, he made a few tests to define the amount of oxygen his avatar was using to be kept alive.

With those three reservoirs of oxygen, he estimated that he would be safe for at least a month and a half. Regardless, his character only consumed about half as much air whenever he was disconnected from the game, so it was even more likely that he would be able to make it through these few weeks of waiting for the Starise group to make it to the Moon.

He felt like he was a bit too early regarding that race, but it was to be expected since he launched his space shuttle with two weeks of anticipation to make sure he would be able to build another one if its launch failed in any way.

Anyways, since Keith was able to communicate with his base from up here, this large delay would not be a big hindrance to his plans. He could still be designing new parts from his personal computer installed within his bedroom module and send them all the way down to his machines. He also made sure he had enough materials in his storage module so he be able to fix his station in case something bad happened.

And, in fact, problems started occuring after a bit of time. Micrometeorites were spoiling the external walls of his base by each day, forcing him to take a few hours off his schedule every week to make sure he would be repairing any damage that has been done to the hull. This was quite constraining, but he was still able to find some time to manage his land base and design some new parts in the meantime.

Keith also made sure he would be working at least an hour a day on the main focus of these following weeks, the space shuttle that is. He sometimes transfered a bit of fuel to it using a long metal pipe connected to his station and made a few test runs around the area to check how its engines reacted in space. After a few weeks of improving its structure and repairing its hull just like his base's due to meteorite impacts, he decided that he was finished with improving its design, only leaving the maintenance job for the time being.

However, Keith now had a lot less to do and even felt somewhat bored. To keep him entertained, he thus started developing a few more programs that he would be using in the future.

He first made a simple program to monitor the various data of his station such as the level of fuel left in the tanks, the amount of oxygen dispersed throughout the various modules and a few more internal data.

He would love to be able to spot the locations of meteorite impacts in the hull using some detectors, but he did not have all the necessary materials in his stocks to make such sensors. For the time being, Keith only started coding the program that would be able to control these 'hull sensors'.

'Ah... When is the Starise group going to reach the Moon?' Keith started despairing. 'I want to have fun!'

_______________

After the fifth edition of the 'Apollo' series, the Starise group launch the sixth and went onto developing the seventh.

'Apollo 5' surprised them quite a lot since they have been able to reach an orbit at around two hundred miles of altitude. Leyla has had quite a large contribution to it, but their motivation surged yet again and it proved quite useful during the elaboration of their next rocket.

And so, 'Apollo 6' achieved an even more impressive feat than the fifth of the series. Not only did the Starise group reach four hundred miles of altitude thanks to it, about twice as much distance from the Earth as the previous launch, but they also managed to reach a stable orbit before landing back on the planet.

It went so smoothly that they immediately started thinking about how they would reach the Moon upon designing the seventh 'Apollo' rocket. Leyla curbed their temper and compromised that this rocket would only serve as a test to determine the distance from Earth that they could actually reach with an optimized design of it.

This design would be about fifty percent longer then the previous ones and Eric even hesitated to rename it for the occasion. However, it would ruin the actual meaning of the 'Apollo' series and he decided not to rename it in the end.

However, he managed to convince them to enlarge the size of the c.o.c.kpit so they could all fit inside of it for the final launch. Leyla got really angry about it but she could not do anything but accept it. She felt like it was such a dead weight for the overall structure, especially since the others have proven quite useless during the previous flights.

- "Everybody on board of the rocket. We're launching in ten minutes." Eric exclaimed. They all connected to the game a few hours earlier and made sure everything was in order for the incoming launch.

In the meantime, Eric teased the incoming livestream on social medias and prepared to show off the event. Once they were all installed within the c.o.c.kpit, he started off recording launch and introduced the changes they had made to the structure of the rocket.

Leyla prepared yet again to take control of the rocket and the engines were ignited on.

'Okay, let's go!' She thought while the structure was lifting off the ground. The rocket was decoupled from the pylons of the launching pad and roared through the skies in no time.

'We should be able to make it quite far this time around. The Moon isn't a dream to reach anymore.' She concluded.

_______________

- "Finally! They're going for it!" Keith exclaimed.

He was just watching Ericality's livestream and noticed the Starise group achieving an orbit in the upper parts of the thermosphere. Since the air composition was so low up there, the friction affecting their flight anymore and only gravity was left to be concerned of. That was why, although the initial few hundred miles of altitude were really hard to reach, the rest of the travel was a lot more manageable.

In fact, gravity was even being useful for such a journey because one could use its effects to speed up and fling towards the Moon. According to Keith's calculations, though, they would only be able to make it a quarter of the distance separating them from the Moon, at most, before running out of fuel.

He was not that concerned about them reaching the Moon yet, however, but he should be preparing himself for their next launch because they may actually do it with their eighth edition of the 'Apollo' series.

'Alright!' He decided. 'I should start launching towards the Moon as of myself and make sure I can actually land there with my space shuttle. I don't want to be late at our appointment after all...'