San Lucas

by on January 28, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

Mount Inferno expels ash into the air almost every day on San Lucas. It rumbles and grumbles and threatens to bury the continent of Hankou with ash and lava on a weekly basis. The Chinese maintain permanent installations in orbit, and surround the volcano with force field projectors and air purifiers to keep the ash and lava at bay. It is enough to keep Hankou habitable, but the reasons for why the Chinese cared was a mystery. Until we performed the DNA analyses and learned that the cats who lived there had been genengineered from Chinese lions and tigers. The Chinese ethos is that anything or anyone who was once Chinese will always be Chinese. So these cats are Chinese. Which makes Hankou Chinese. And perhaps all of San Lucas. The San Lucan government disputes all Chinese claims to any part of their system, but they do not have the military strength to expel the Chinese “aid workers.”

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Jack

by on January 27, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

I was a know it all. I thought I was three meters tall and bullet proof. I got into fistfights over stupid things. And some real important ones. I was stubborn as the sky is wide. I never did know when to quit. I lived my life at full throttle, never slowing down for a breath I didn’t need. I fell for sky-blue eyes under small town lights. I fell for deep brown eyes under dark woods canopies. And God Almighty, those green eyes were something to behold. I never had everything I exactly wanted, but that’s part of what was so beautiful. Life was good. Life was great. And I was…fantastic. Because I had a name to live up to. A name I’d earned, and one I very much was not going to let go to waste. I was Jack. Still am, I suppose, but I’ll always remember the Jack I was when I was fifteen going on eighteen. When I was eighteen going on thirty. When everything was right in the world.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Lucas Cats

by on January 26, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

Life for the jaguar-derived Uaithni of San Lucas is better than it once was. They once ruled their entire continent of course, but then spent centuries as a suppressed underclass in the empire they created. The general dissolution of that empire has created a dozen or so small Uaithni nations, in a loose alliance with each other. Citizens of any nation can quickly and easily travel between any of the others, for business or pleasure. Rising levels of industry have increased their productivity and the amount of time they have for leisure. Uaithni space-based construction of everything from civilian products to spaceships is a young but growing industry. The Uaithni lead the rest of the San Lucas cats in their drive to recreate themselves as a true spacefaring culture. We’re helping of course, but they are doing the bulk of the work themselves.

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San Lucas

by on January 25, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

Mount Inferno’s eruption nearly ended life as we know it on San Lucas. Nearly all life was wiped out in Hankou’s lowlands within weeks of the first blow, and the survivors fled into the low mountain ranges. But respite was only temporary for them. The ashfall would have killed everyone and everything in time if the Chinese had not gone to ruinous expense to fill the skies of Hankou with air purifiers, tied to power satellites holding station above the continent. It was a Herculean humanitarian effort to save an alien civilization from death. Many were mystified by their uncharacteristic generosity. Then we found out that the cats living on Hankou had been genetically engineered from Chinese tigers and lions and it all made sense.

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Jack

by on January 24, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Music was my first love. Until I discovered girls, and realized that music could be used to woo them. Then I loved music even more. The feel of guitar strings under my fingers brings back so many memories of growing up in Northern Minnesota. Dipping my toes into cool spring waters while playing a lilting tune. Add a girl or two sitting next to me, maybe more, and it was pretty much the perfect way to grow up. Some people accused me of having a one-track mind on that account, but I always knew they were wrong. Blonde. Brunette. Redhead. My mind was always good at multitasking. But thinking back on it, I suppose some people had a point or two on the matter. I was wild and free, driven by hormones and thinking I was all grown up. I thought I was ready for life back then. I thought I had everything I needed. I sure did think I was all that and more.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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