3D illustrations...

[wizard509]

Sorry but I still cannot see the difference.

[handrawn]

Vapor Kine are a kind large, floating, invertibrate creature of unusual biology, about the size of an imperial mammoth. It is native to Mini Neptune type, small gas giants with rocky cores,
and extremely high pressure of mostly-hydrogen atmosphere, but it's metabolism absorbs lithium-6 from the atmosphere and metabolizes it into tritium, which it excretes and eventually decays into helium-3. Although the creature is inoffensive and somewhat less intelligent than an Earth cow, the helium it produces has valuable uses, causing them to be herded in vast ranches in certain gas giant's dense atmospheres, tended by special robotic herders designed to withstand the gravity, pressure and temperatures they need to survive.

I like this - vaguely reminds me of surrealism, Yves Tanguy for example....

[Gamerprinter]

Calling this one - Cylindrical Serengeti.

While it's not the Serengeti, though the animal life seems very similar to Earth counterparts - an antelope specie, a large rodent, something very similar to a rhinoceros, which only adds to the mystery. The Gaea system was declared banned from colonization until further notice by the Colonial Academy of Science. Any system where a sapient developing, non-starfaring species is found, it is declared off limits for colonization and resource exploitation; a kind of prime directive. Also systems with anomalies or mysteries, as the Gaea system is. All it's inner planets are missing, presumably dismantled and used as the material to construct a cloud of over 100 Oniell cylinders, each over 1,000 miles long, slightly more than 100 miles in diameter with millions of square miles of interior space. They aren't easily detectable however, seeming to be shielded from revealing power and operations of each cylinder. When these were found, it was expected to host billions of humanoid inhabitants. Which they do not. Our teams have only managed to enter one, and only allowed to send in probes to film the interior, however, each one appears to have a unique ecosphere, with a defined niche of lifeforms from simple to advanced and filling every niche in the food chain, from grazers to predators and scavengers. We believe these represent different epochs of time on the world of it's builders. Aside from knowing these were constructed 3800 years ago, we have yet to find out anything regarding the builders. Who are they? What happened to them? Why build the cylinders and not inhabit them? Too many questions...

GP

[wizard509]

Thanks GP I like it.

[Gamerprinter]

This is my second attempt at this image, and I'm still not satisfied, though it's better than my first attempt. This is Red Cliff House, of the Chacoan Ancestral Pueblo culture, on the desert planet of Chaco. They were brought here by the "sky people" from their home on Earth long ago. Around 100,000 now live in various communities across the planet, and keep in regular contact with the "sky people" alien humanoids, who led them here...

GP

[wizard509]

This is my second attempt at this image, and I'm still not satisfied

GP

I would not be either.

[Gamerprinter]

Improved version...

[wizard509]

This is Wa Station, located on a water world that features two small islands and extensive shallow continents for the ningyo (merfolk) and same-bito (shark shapechangers) that inhabit this sea world. The Kaidanese have built Wa Station to both study the seas, and have a secret hiding place within orbit of Jigoku, which this like many of the worlds presented are moons of the gas giant. The Kaidanese have recruited the same-bito into a fighting force of armored ashigaru... enjoy!

Attachment 123528

I like this one, well done!

[Gamerprinter]

On Delphi II there exists an unincorporated city of pirates, smugglers, and a small mining and processing operation of alcubierrium (element 174), an exotic element that all FTL science is based - though it's completely illegal, unlicensed, and with some large bribes paid so the star system authorities look the other way. However, any attempt for major operations would be shut down.

A retired pirate captain is mayor of this off-the-books town, he calls. He once operated a fleet of pirate vessels whose crew called themselves "the Cowboys". Now outlaws operating in a system governed by a theocracy has been a difficult task. However, everyone knows that the planet is restricted, and that it's illegal to be there, but they seem to be getting away with it...

[Gamerprinter]

I needed at least one illustration for the picturesque Colonial capital of Vespa, which is from a planet with more water than Earth, but not a water world, perhaps about 80% surface oceans and small continents. It's the second most successful colony with a population of 420 million. Communities are widely spread out in mostly forested terrain, some mountains. This planet is Earthlike and in many ways a vacaction world for the wealthy, with regions of glorious beaches. This planet features weather control. With snows on the mountain tops, afternoon rains in coastal regions. While the Colonial Navy and Bureau of Naval Intelligence is based at New Dublin colony. The rest of the Colonial bureaucracy exists at Vespa.