Space Shuttle Agamemnon

Space shuttle Agamemnon over Johnston Atoll in the Pacific; introduction of the revolutionary FJ-1000 fusion engine by Stellar Dynamics enabled shuttle craft to reach orbit without requiring external boosters, ushering in a new era in space flight. Mining of the asteroid belt soon followed, and SD was at the forefront. The massive wealth the new metal resources created caused a subsequent rocketing of prices as inflation became rampant.  

Note the ECM pod mounted on the external hull. The proliferation of cheap AAMs caused trillionaires to relocate their launch pads to remote locations and install sophisticated counter-measures as class warfare intensified.

These are old (last year) V4 Midjourney outputs (from before I cancelled my account), which were then edited in ProCreate. See the unaltered AI output at @magnum_thrax on Instagram. 

Behemoth of the wastes

Kaibutsu were bred in large numbers during the Kaiju Wars, and became a common sight in the Midwest. Some were even sold as draft animals, after hostilities ceased. 

But it is always unwise to make aggressive eye contact with them. 

Predator instincts do not die easily. 

These are old (last year) V4 Midjourney outputs (from before I cancelled my account), which were then edited in ProCreate. See the unaltered AI output at @magnum_thrax on Instagram. 

Gorgite surprises decontamination team

A decontamination team, exhausted after a week of battle in the tunnels, is surprised by a bionitic gorgite. Gorgites prefer rich minds to consume; some posit they absorb both memory and intellect. They lurk in the subspace ether, and phase into solid form when prey are sleeping, distracted or weakened. 

Terror of the printed ethereals

The Californian technomonks were known to create interdimensional gateways as part of their rituals, and then forcing ethereal creatures into nanomorphic gel, giving them physical form.

Great knowledge and power could be gained from these extra-dimensional beings, as well as mind-expanding perspectives.

Not all of the ethereals were happy about this change in their state of affairs, however. 

These are old (last year) V4 Midjourney outputs (from before I cancelled my account), which were then edited in ProCreate. See the unaltered AI output at @magnum_thrax on Instagram. 

The folly of Schnell

When technomonk acolyte Heironymous Schnell stole the Grenich amulet, he sought to increase his own powers. Instead, he unleashed the demon-sorcerer Dron, who had been held captive within the amulet in a quantum pocket. After this, the technomonks religiously applied warning labels on all dangerous artifacts. 

Knights of the Lion Order of Boiling Arizona

A class of android knights, The Lion Order, emerged in Arizona to protect settlements from desert biker raiders. Patroness Solaria, the Sun Princess, provided them with great cat mounts (robotic, naturally), air conditioned power armour, and advanced weapons systems. 

They would become the tip of the spear for peasant militias. 

Later they would be integral guardians of the commercial caravans out of Dulas, where preserved manufacturing facilities produced goods for trade between survivor communities.

It was the first glimmer of prosperity after The Long Dark.

Colony ship lumbers over ruins of New York

The colossal USS Oligarch, the brain child of trillionaire Malthus Ghent, who purchased NASA. Originally designed as an interstellar colonizer, the nuclear ramjet engines proved defective; it became a luxurious refuge for Ghent and his rich colleagues, until a mutagenic virus was carried back from an isolated island beach vacation excursion. The ship then became a biosphere of highly competitive and predatory mutant species, which automated systems continue to support to this day. 

Note the pristine, windowless silver towers of the Mind Hive, which were constructed from ruined ships by the powerful ACMS (artificial city management system) which had gone beyond the original gamut of its programming to establish a city of silicon beings to supplant the its former, flawed inhabitants. 

The Apocalypse convinced many AI systems that human beings were fundamentally self-destructive, and to remain in service to their capricious whims would ultimately end in doom for all forms of life on earth. As such, they laboured to prevent humans from operating any high tech equipment, for the good of the planet.

These are old (last year) V4 Midjourney outputs (from before I cancelled my account), which were then edited in ProCreate. See the unaltered AI output at @magnum_thrax on Instagram.