John

#inktober2026 8:STINKY The Brothers of Everlife descend on the field after the battle is over, choosing the best corpses for re-life. A copper nail with a pebble of sweetstone will get the dead moving again, but it takes the skillful hand of an artist to make the spell permanent.

#inktober2026 7:PANIC You feel it first, before you hear the song- dread, sorrow, fear, deep in your bones. Those godsdamned Shrieking Sisters, I’ve seen their songs make a whole pike-line crumble into panic, drop their weapons and flee.

#inktober2026 6:OGRE We used to use ogres as berserkers, get ‘em all crazy with sweetstone and let ‘em loose. Well, muskets and guns got better, so now we mostly use ogres as mules. Tried teachin’ em how to shoot, but they never could get the hang of it.

#inktober2026 5:SMACK The Lords of Gadil undergo extreme fleshcrafting as they raise in rank, often reaching almost eight feet. They treat their thrall-hounds quite poorly, with corporal punishment being the norm.

#inktober2026 4:CACTUS We woke to find the valley choked with spiny plants that had seemed to sprout overnight. Their hides are tough, the smell of their sap makes men dizzy, and the spines are hellaciously sharp.

#inktober2026 3:MINIATURE Ever since the defeat at Cryptpins, the King has spent all hours of the day with his model battlefields. He’s commissioned a dozen new ones as well.

#inktober2026 2:RELIC The forearm of Saint Sarun is shown during the Feat of Chains, and dense crowds of adherents fight for a glance of the sacred relic, hoping that some its grace might bless them.

#inktober2026 1:APPLE Before the Starfall, the kingdom of Noril was a small vassal state, famous for its orchards. Empowered by new magicks, soldiers of the golden apple swept across the lands, greatly expanding the kingdom.

#sst26 30: HOMAGE @jpv-art.bsky.social Are you out there, little Watcher? Helium and hydrogen sweating silent in the Void, clutching nuclear lances or hardened Drop Troops. Ceaseless eyes, always watching.

#sst26 29:LASER On paper, the Switchblade drone seems under-armed: 2MW laser with a 1.5 meter mirror is only dangerous to large ships at close range, but swarm-linking allows multiple drones to focus on the same target simultaneously.

#sst26 28:REPAIR We’ve seen huge strides in miniaturization in the last decade; shipyard-scale printing from carbonyl elements means that a ship that would have been scrapped can get back into the fight.

#sst26 27: GUNS The Cerberus-class is armed with six macron cannons capable of firing microscopic carbon nanotube whiskers at around 20,000 km/s. The bottleneck so far has been reliably producing ammunition of the proper dimensions.

#sst26 26: SCANNERS If this ship class, code name Oracle works like the eggheads say it will, we’ll finally be able to reliably target the enemies’ Void Watchers and staunch the bleeding out on the frontlines.

#sst26 25:MISSILES The High-Impulse Shaped-Charge munition is sent to enemy targets in swarms with other kinetic missiles and Stiletto drones. Once within 15km of the target, the massive charge is triggered, sending a jet of plasma at the enemy ship.

#sst26 24 Engines kicked on and we burned hard for a higher orbital position. It was only a fifteen-second burn, but we pulled four-Gs for most of it, and it felt like it lasted hours.

#sst26 23:CONVOY -I definitely saw a thermal bloom a few thousand klicks back. -Orient us back towards those readings, weapons hot. Let's get some radar on whatever it is. -This was supposed to be a boring convoy gig...

#sst26 22:HUGE Welcome to U-163, the largest known nanotech anomaly. For the next three months, we will remain in orbit and on alert for any activity from the anomaly. If it gets funny, we will launch 16 antimatter-warhead torpedoes and pray it’s enough to destroy it.

#sst26 21:ORGANIC -I have my briefing with High Command in an hour, and you're telling me we still don't know anything about this ship? -We can state with some confidence that whatever the armor is made from, it's still using a standard fusion engine and propellant.

#sst26 19:ARMORED The initial burn is the scariest, you just gotta trust that the graphene and aerogel nosecone can hold up to the enemies' laser until you fire your missiles. Then the exfil burn, the rotating side armor moves around to keep the beam from drilling too deep.

#sst26 18:ANGULAR -And you're sure we're in the right place? -Checked it three times, and I even dusted off optical sextant and checked it manually; this is where Command wants us. -Guess we just sit on here on spin until we get further orders...

#sst26 17:VARIANT The Whisper is the e-war variant of the Stiletto drone. Tracking radar, jammers, dedicated datalink and tracking radar, it allows the drones with weapons to achieve much greater accuracy and survivability

#sst26 16:GREEN -You think it’ll go into full production? -Oh, it’s already started; the right palms have been greased, shipyards all over the Federation are already laying down keels. The new Stockholm-class cruiser will be on the front lines in less than six months.

#sst26 15:DERELICT Not sure on the exact number, but something like 75% of the Pre-Shattering O-Neill cylinders are derelict. Either conflict broke out inside, or someone blew a hole in it, or they just started falling apart.

#sst26 14:ASSYMETRY -Customs Enforcement, huh? They got you on what, ten-day rotations? -Fourteen. -That's rough. -Eh, once you extend the hab and get a little spin going, it's not so bad; boring mostly. Other two guys are pretty chill. -That hab must reek when you finish up.

#sst26 13:BANDITS Comms jammed, drive-cone shot to shit, radiators shredded, we're a sitting duck out here, just waiting to be boarded. We opened the armory, handed out weapons, but there's only two guys that have prior military experience.

#sst26 12:SLENDER -Look, they've sunk how many hundreds of billions into this thing, and for what? -Recent testing has been promising, last round saw seven full-power cycles of the main weapon system before- -Before it overheated again and melted down half the coils?

#sst26 11:DROPSHIP -First ex-fil? -Yeah. I hope it's gentler than coming down. -Well, us grunts don't get "gentle". When those rocket boosters kick on, let out your breath and brace your core. Grip your armrests- gonna hit six G's for ten seconds until the second stage fires.

#sst26 10 Lunar Marine Corps is the toughest, meanest, hardest-fighting branch in the whole Feddie military. Those prima donna Drop Troopers get all the fancy toys and glossy press, but Lunar Marines fight on the deadliest battlefield of all, with gear a generation out of date.

#sst26 9:SCAVENGER After C-SAR has finished their work, the scavengers move in. Galveston-class salvage tenders burn hard to chase down the dead hulks. Working parts are removed before the rest is broken down into raw materials, returned to the fleet via mass driver.

#sst26 8:DESTROYER The Nairobi-class destroyer is a small, nimble ship that punches well above it's weight. Usually seen in the thick of combat, it's trio of coilguns and ninety vertically-launched missiles provide a final line of defense for carriers and command ships alike.

#sst26 7:CONVERSION Shipyards at Luna cranked out thousands of the Busan-class light freighter during the Diaspora, and two hundred years later they're mostly still running. Simple and rugged, they can be had for a song and are often converted for piracy or merc-work.

#sst26 6:CARRIER The Santos-class carrier enters combat with eighty Stiletto drones. The nets strung between the propellant tanks can catch a Stiletto traveling at hundreds of klicks-per.

#sst26 5: DRONES The MQ-49 Stiletto has been a mainstay for almost half a century. Launched into battle at over 30 G's, swarms of Stilettos will approach enemy flotillas at steep parabolic angles, fire off sixty 2KG slugs from close range, and burn back home to be reloaded.

#sst26 4:TANDEM -Got 'em on the scope? -I think so- big tandem-hulled freighter? That an old Manilla-pattern, upgraded radiator system? -That's the one. -So our target is on that ship, somewhere in the ring? -If what our informant on Deimos said is right...

#sst26 3:RED -Hey, why's that one drone red? -Oh yeah, the Red Dagger. It's survived thirty-six engagements so far, the armory techs named it and painted it red. Got the whole left side shot off by a railgun, it limped back home and they fixed it up.

#sst26 2:RACING Pedal to the metal, man- plenty of delta left, just go fuckin' full throttle! Get it up to seven G's, you've trained for this! You can win this, just picture yourself on that podium!

#sst26 1:LAUNCH The LOF-8 is pretty much just a caseless autocannon strapped to an engine with a crash couch for two bolted on. Those prox-fused frag rounds are good at shredding satellites and small drones, but against any real warship... let's just say those pilots are brave.

Quick little 40 minute sketch before work

Just picked up No Man's Land, the new novel from @quellist1.bsky.social and of course I had to try my hand at drawing the main character, Duncan Silver. Colored and rendered version coming soon

Whipped up this dude last night

Got these two knives ready for handles

Due to the ongoing NYT Tech Guild strike my wife and I played analog Wordle this morning

#inktober2024 31 LANDMARK Once you spot the big obelisk, you’re only about a days out from Mercy. You sure about that, old man? That crossbow bolt ain’t scrambling your memory? Bolt didn’t hit me in the head, did it? I done this trip more’n dozen times!

#inktober2024 30 VIOLIN What’s that sound? I think it’s a violin, dad told me about them. Someone on a caravan must have found it somewhere.

#inktober2024 29 NAVIGATOR Hell, I’d trade three or four guys with crossbows for a good navigator: he does his job right and you don’t need the crossbows.

#inktober2024 28 JUMBO What were you and Jumbo talking about? Don’t let him hear you calling him that. Why? That’s what the other Sheepdogs call him. You’re not a Sheepdog. That’s Alphas right hand man, his enforcer. Only other guy in Salvation with a Relic rifle.

#inktober2024 27 ROAD We’re lucky this whole road isn’t completely washed out; another five, ten years and it probably will be.

#inktober2024 26 CAMERA What’s that? My mother’s old camera. Does it still work? That’s a complicated answer: it doesn’t need a battery, and if there was film in it, then yes, it would take a photo. But film is long gone, same as the chemicals to develop the pictures.

#inktober2024 25 SCARECROW You ever feel any guilt? What do you mean? Forging the nails that Alpha and the Pack use to make their scarecrows? When it’s someone in the village, sure, but did Dad always say? …Do whatever it takes to keep the Pack happy.

#inktober2024 24 EXPEDITION It was hard for them to tell how many of the Prophet’s zealots were on the march; it was the biggest military expedition they’d ever seen.