A lone Kerbal plane flew about twenty kilometers away from the Kerbal Space Center. It was an Albatross 3, a long-ranged aircraft with a huge wingspan.

Its mission? To scout out land features capable of building an air base.

There have been lots of aircraft failure recently, due to the inexperienced pilots. That meant they didn't have a place to land, since there were no airfields this far out. The only building this far out was the abandoned Kerbal Space Center 2, and it didn't have a runway.

"This is the Albatross 3, we are currently at 3,000 meter altitude and steady. We might have found suitable terrain for a runway, over."

Below them was a valley, and its inside was very flat.

"This is the KSC Tracking Station, we acknowledge. Take a few screenshots of the area; we need to survey it in its entirety. Over."

"Affirmative, I'm going in for a few short dives."

The airplane dived once and snapped about three pictures with its in-built camera. It was about to dive again and take another one, but something caught the pilot's eye.

"This is the Albatross 3. I have in my sights a strange, tall structure. I do not recognize it and it does not appear anywhere on my map as a landscape. Should I screenshot it? Over."

"This is the KSC Tracking Station, please screenshot it and send it to us immediately, over."

The Albatross 3 was about to nosedive again for another screenshot, however a long, pointed stick found its way into the wing. A few more flew by.

"This is the Albatross 3, there are weird sticks being flung at my plane and they're doing minor damage. Orders?"

"This is the KSC Tracking Station, retreat now. Our orbital satellite has detected a huge force right below you. We repeat, retreat now."

"Affirmative, I'm pulling out."

The pilot of the aircraft looked down at the masses of creatures below.

"This is the Albatross 3, I'm picking up on visuals of weird creatures down there. It looks like they're holding EAS-4 Strut Connectors with pointed ends."

"Alright. This is the KSC Tracking Station, we are launching a Stratolauncher aircraft, a Thunderbird, and a Velociteze to your position to survey and attack the enemy, over."

The pilot of the Albatross 3 was confused.

"What are you talking about? Isn't the Stratolauncher a drone carrying a satellite launcher? And the Thunderbird is just a high performance plane; what good would it do? And the Velociteze is just a commercial jet, what are you sending it for?"

"At the last second we replaced the satellite rocket on the Stratolauncher with a missile payload; we also replaced the drop tanks on the Thunderbird with bombs, and the Velociteze has a few reconnaissance observers on it."

"Oh."

The pilot of the Albatross 3 watched the three aircraft fly by his plane.

"One more thing: How did you manage to equip weapons on these aircraft so fast?"

"Oh, those aircraft were designed in case a hostile army were to attack. It was originally a top secret project, but it's not so secret anymore and the aircraft are now on standby."

"What are we going to do now that an army appeared out of thin air and tried to attack me?"

"Bomb them with planes."

"And if the planes don't work?"

"Nuke 'em from orbit."