STARTING A NEW SCI-FI ILLUSTRATION SERIES
Due to the rapid progress of technology in the 21st century expansion of human presence beyond Earth is literally skyrocketing. Mars is becoming a functional colony, but it’s still a treacherous place. Earth is a dysfunctional mess, hotter then ever, overpopulated, polluted cesspool. The new frontier for humanity is further out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Harsh, dangerous and cold place, not for the faint of heart. A place with a large amount of minerals and rare metals like gold, platinum, iridium, and many others. This new, space age “gold rush” is attracting the brave, greedy, desperate and those who want to disappear…
Let’s meet some of our asteroid miners. No better way to do that then by showing some colorful portraits.
BLAZE
He is an experienced mercenary working for COSMA Corporation. Countless scars and body modifications are a testament to his toughness and resilience. Cold, calculated and deadly, he’s been serving the corporate interest from the shadows for a decade.
Cosma Corp. has its greedy tentacles in many industries but one major profitable field is exploitation, transport and trade of raw materials from the asteroid belt to Mars and Earth. Blaze is overseeing the security aspect of the business and making sure it all goes smoothly. Lately he is spending more time in the asteroid belt, protecting the corporate mines and training a team of bounty hunters to deal with the banditry.
Cosma Corp. Main Headquarters is on Mars, where their biggest port is located. Crucial for development of a new large settlement located on the bottom of Valles Marineris, the biggest canyon in the solar system. C.C. is a mayor player on Mars financially helping separatist groups with a goal of making Mars independent from Earth. Not from a humanist perspective, as they like to present it, corporation stands to gain almost absolute power on a new world and rewrite trading agreements with Earth in their own favor.
CANDY
Candy is an independent trader and she runs a supply line fleet between Asteroid Belt and Mars. She started as a miner and still owns a small mining operation. As an ambitious entrepreneur Candy grew a network of AI operated ships moving goods to the farthest corners humans reached. She lives on her main ship usually carrying the most precious cargo. Ship is a fortress heavily armed, accompanied with smaller drone battleships. Extremely intolerant to bandits and pirates who are dumb enough to try and jack her cargo. Privately Candy is a mellow stoner, introvert and a loner with a seriously sweet tooth. She loves chilling in zero gravity and playing her favorite immersive virtual reality simulation.
COLT
Meet Colt, a true space cowboy, seasoned space colonizer, tough, fearless, resourceful and a little wacky. This man is a real redneck that took the rural living idea to another level by moving to the outskirts of the asteroid belt. A place where no one makes the rules but him self. He is an authoritarian leader of a select group of misfits, ruled by his iron fist, literally. This group of semi-civilized, high-tech crooks, is always ready to hijack a supply ship or raid a noob base and have a blast while doing it. Yes, they started as asteroid miners, but a long the way they figured it’s easier to take the goods from others. This group of space outlaws is feared by many and banditry is their calling.
Colt likes to say: “When freedom is outlawed only outlaws will be free.”
Danijel Matanic 