Hi All & Good Luck ! 
phew…a lot of amazing artists around here. Its faszinating, inspiring and fun to see so many creative people showing Ideas & Artwork, so I decided to enter the challenge. This is my very first Artcontest ever and im eager to learn a lot the next few months. 
Ill start with a little backgroundstory wich will lead u ( and hopefully me as well ) to my final Idea/Concept :
The Meritreans, a peaceful nation of traders, are attracted by the existence of a still unclaimed planet far outside their own solar system. What makes this far away planet so attractive? Easy: A vast amount of natural ressources, in particular a huge quantity of mukra-chrystals, craved for by traders all over the galaxy.
The decision to send a scouting-unit for further terrain inspection is a quick one, and soon SU 17 is on its way to the new promising planet.
hey pssssst: its actually “SU 17 on its way” not SU 13 …oops
hehe i was too excited when uploading
the story will continue soon…
Upon arrival they note that the overall terrain condition ranges from dry and sandy deserts to huge junglelike forests with an all present grid of deep canyons, concealing an intricate and far stretching maze of caverns. And beside an enormous presence of underdeveloped reptilian lifeforms, there are no other indications of intelligent habitation.
Soon the first scout drones report, that most of the precious mukra-chrystals are located inside the cavernmaze and the 8 man team of SU17 sets off for the nearest canyon to investigate…
I really like the expression on that dude’s face in the fore…
i guess its early to be putting up crits for anyone at this point but i think what i will do is big up what i’m seeing that i like… 
anyway nice stuff…
I really like the expression on that dude’s face in the fore…
i guess its early to be putting up crits for anyone at this point but i think what i will do is big up what i’m seeing that i like…
The “underdeveloped” reptilian lifeforms turned out to be pretty hostile. They succeded in killing 2 careless members of SU17 - Walter S. Rydberg & Robert Coleman - while the other 6 were still exploring the caverns.
They only found out 2 hours later via video playback of a scoutdrone that witnessed the cruel massacre.
To the regret of all present, a decent burial was impossible, as no remains of the 2 victims could be found.
Downhearted by this incident but nevertheless careful, the rest of SU17 made their way back to the ship unharmed, and soon they were back in space heading towards communication range to report back to meritrean HQ.
....hehe thx … ill be telling this story in 3-5 more little pics and then i can start sketching my final idea…i hope ull be putting up crits then
The Meritreans claimed the planet - now named “Goldrift” - for themselves. The population already counts over 2 million settlers, most of them working in the new mines.
Also the reptilian problem has been solved, as meritrean “Beastmasters” control most of the creatures with the help of special brain-wave-manipulating gear, that makes the reptiles calm and easy to handle. Now they are used for transport - be it human riders or heavyweight resources.
Mukra-chrystals are sold all over the galaxy and the prosperous meritrean trade draws more and more settlers to Goldrift…
Advanced space civilization and pre-historic life forms, thats a great concept. Will be checking back on how this will develop 
strange … the colors of my last pic got inverted here in the forum… in the cgnetworks entry page they show up right… sry 4 spamming with the last image i hope i can fix this somehow :sad:
I fixed it by changing the imagelink from medium to large… Hoooooraaaay
thx dgpilot But i guess our prehistoric friends wont play a big role in the final pic … im not sure yet …well see :shrug:
good sketches Vahn! i like the spherical drones a lot, you should stick to this concept in any case. i’m looking forward to see your further ideas.
good luck for the challenge.
Salamander
[ich wünsch dir viel spaß & elan für dein studium… aber die grand space opera geht natürlich vor! :)]
Some time later a strangely shaped alien structure crashed on Goldrift. How or when exactly it entered the goldrift atmosphere could not be cleared as the “ship” used some kind cloaking technology unknown to the meritreans. Within minutes hundreds of little scoutbots spread out of the alien structure killing every living thing on first contact.
Altough the meritreans are a peaceful nation, their defensive weapon technology is superior to many others and within 6 hours they managed to eliminate the alien threat and isolate the ship for further research.
With help of meritrean HQ - wich now stood in direct communication with the planet - they found out, that the shiplike structure belongs to a yet pretty unknown alien race called " Nissen" .
@SalamanderCoral: thx
[ naja ich hab keinen studienplatz bekommen und hab jetzt erstmal viel viel Zeit ]
@El Toro: I changed the name a little bit but the sound is the same thx
