Tag: illustration

Despite pouring countless hours over every photo, drawing, and recounting of the ancient structure, even the most accurate of those facsimiles paled in comparison to the real thing when Dr. Tareste first laid eyes upon it: a moon-blue dagger of a tower rising out of the undergrowth, flanked by a pair of eroded statues, almost luminescent in what watery light filtered through the verdant canopy.

The better part of xir academic career had been dedicated to the study of these sites–the remnants of an obscure culture, the bones of another people, of xir people–and now xe stood within hiking distance of this one. All those dreams of reaching out and touching the same walls that xir ancestors might have once touched, standing where they might have once stood… The thought inspired a burst of energy, and the doctor walked on with renewed determination.

Above: the beginnings of a village established on KHEPRI-1c. Though most of the planet’s population were transient researchers, some found their calling among the icy peaks and igneous valleys and sought to become permanent residents. Powered by geothermal activity beneath the crust, their massive radar tower was the main source of communication with the outside world, and it expanded into one of the biggest outposts on the planet. However, less than a decade later, misfortune struck: a major earthquake followed by a particularly harsh storm wiped out most of its population, and the remaining survivors elected to abandon the crumbling town to the mercies of 1c’s eternal winter.