Another retro tech image. This is again rendered and constructed (mostly) in Bryce. The astronaut(s) got a Bryce-built helmet and backpack to replace the DAZ Explorer Suit accessories, plus Bryce textures all around. I also added a gas gun for propulsion. The near planet texture has a mask done in PSP to separate the land from the ocean textures (and that got me a river too!) but the water, land, cloud and haze are all Bryce textured spheres. The tether is an imported Carrara object, and the starfield is a plane of dots created in PSP, but Bryce is still what I do most. (I do have the PLE version of Vue, just started learning, and it's looking like I might be able to do lots with the program - enough to justify a purchase, though time will tell.) Thanks for looking and commenting. --- The Six Silver Sisters were a familiar visage in the evening and dawn sky for the sixteen hundred years since Plaguefall brought down the Empire. We knew they were satellites of some sort, but even our best telescopes resolved nothing more than dark reflective spheres. After the first few shakeout flights, the lowest orbiting Sister was the obvious first objective of the space program. We hoped we'd find some lost hightech that survived the Mech Plague, something we could salvage. We were right and we were wrong... "Strange, I can see myself reflected, but I can't see my shadow." "That doesn't even make sense, Kando." "I'm just reporting what I see, Lars. We'll let the brains on the ground figure out what it means. Going in closer now." "Are you sure that's a good idea?" "No. Haul me back if something bad happens, will you." "Sure. Not sure it's a good idea for me to hold onto the tether right now, though." "Wimp." "That's why I'm the one in the cargo bay and you're the one out there." "Cut the chatter boys." "And why they're on the ground. Okay, I'm within a meter now. Closing. Still no detail. It's just a black shiny -- contact. "Kando?" "Yeah, still here. I bounced back a bit. Perfect elasticity. I think I know what this damn Sister is." "Stasis shell?" "Has to be. That sucks. Could flick off tomorrow..." "Could flick off in six billion years." "Yeah, haul me back will you?" -- Flight 4 of the Argotann, Nokaran Transatmospheric Service, 130-6321 CE (OC)