Maintenance District by MarkHirst
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Description
Aside from us, only the dead walk the streets of Illaria.
We find ourselves moving into the maintenance district of the main starport. Like the roads and trails that lead to the city, it is eerily silent. Gantries and cranes sit motionless, cargos and engine parts swinging slowly from the steadily rusting chains.
Before us lie many square miles of concrete, steel and refractory, pitted and scarred by decades of starships ferrying cargos and passengers, the essence of interstellar commerce.
For a moment, you can imagine the shouts of engineers and stevedores as they swarm around the ships, the great clouds of steam buffeted by the landing and takeoff of ships from every part of the district.
Each and every one of them is gone.
We are here to locate the source of an energy anomaly that the Nike Athena uncovered during its over watch of our mission. Its search for the Sansica Corporation science team has been fruitless. Instead it has found an enigma, but perhaps the first evidence that life still exists.
Communication is useless of course, the shrieks and jabbering continues to flood our radio channels; so we must explore the area for what we assume is a ship the old fashioned way.
Although we have night vision, we opted to stop at dusk and created an encampment in the shadow of one the vast fuel purification towers. It seemed superfluous to post guards in this place, until one of the motion trackers picked up the first dyybuk.
At first there was excitement, a survivor perhaps who could tell us what had happened. Our heat sensors told us otherwise. This thing looked like a human, and indeed its torn and bloodied body was once a person, but it had no body heat, no eyes or hands. It shambled towards us, stumbling over barrels and coiled cable, an occasional shriek coming from its head.
It never reached us.
Its blind path sent it careering into one of the many cooling lagoons where it disappeared without trace. The second appeared an hour later, a child perhaps since it clutched a doll in its left hand, its right arm largely missing.
It stood at the edge of the light cast by our headlights, its eyeless face turned towards us, the dark pit of its mouth open wide. Nobody moved for an hour as this thing that once was a child screamed at us.
Only as the sun began to rise again did it move away, stumbling slowly into the maze of warehouses and workshops we had explored hours earlier.
Now we know what the interference is on the radio. The dead are talking to us.
Mission log of Lieutenant Ara Mercator, Recon Group
Mission Clock: 25 hours, 17 minutes, 12 seconds
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Buildings and structures created in Hexagon and the Vue terrain editor. Rendered in Vue 5 Pro Studio.
Thanks for looking and for any comments.
Comments (26)
Angelsinger
OH. MY. GOODNESS. Exquisite detail, this is incredible!! The atmosphere and lighting are perfect, casting a sombreness and mystery over this scene equal to the chilling tale you tell. You are fabulous artist, a terrific storyteller! MORE MORE MORE!! (damn, I wish I could vote for this)
Black Rain
wondefull ambience :D
lingrif
Excellent modeling. Fantastic detail and atmosphere - beautifully done!
restif
Impressive Render! Love the volumetric atmosphere effect giving the city a haze.
duncanlong
Wow! The detail in this is truly amazing. An excellent job all the way around here -- and a nice background story to boot.
duo
Fantastic POW!! Realistic lights and ambience! BRAVO!
Odessey
Love everything about this as stated above and to soon be below , misssion accoplished!
MRX3010
Incredible job here. Lighting and mood reflect the story!
leoshades
Quite keen!
Bea
This is getting quite frightening Mark. Excellent
Colin
I've been eagerly awaiting your next posting in this epic - and it's truly chilling! Keep them coming - I'm completely hooked!
BernieStafford
Excellent work!
Danceswithroos
Sensational Mark! A real sense of industry or should I say dead industry. Brillisnt work!
dlk30341
Well done :)
Incarnadine
You tell a great story. Looking forward to the next installment!
Dinoraul
Very nice render!
Denger
Intriguing story episode and illo. Your stage has been superbly set for the next Act!
CardinalBiggles
Excellent spooky image and story.
wingnut55
a grim scene (but i am still holding out for a happy ending.....)
toer
Great works - scifi in a clear way. Cool! :)
Laerrus
Wonderful complexity and great textures. I love the atmosphere; it works perfectly. Very nice work.
Tom-Noddy
YIKES! Mark, this has to be one of yoru best written stories ever...it's definately the crepiest though. Well done. I loved the detail of the story and the image above set the perfect setting for an event like this. This stuff is as ddictive as heroin. Give me more.--A fan, Tom.
Eromanric
I love it! Very cool polluted atmosphere! Is it volumetric fog? Wow!
Mikeall
Very nicely thought out and conveyed.
SeigMancer
wow.. that is quite stunning. Excellent sci-fi. I only wish I could see a higher rez image :)
morin3000
We give priority on the artists who sounds on my gallery and favorites
But I cannot resist of commented on an image which I like Invitation has to see our galleryHave an awesome day ****()A love for art.