Brownout: Pythagoras Chase
For a couple of weeks now, Nick Royer (A.K.A. HJ Media Studios) has been teasing a new Ideas project involving a ragtag group of spacefarers in a beat up old freighter. You can draw your own conclusions as to the influences (probably pretty quickly) but the end result is equal parts nostalgically familiar and incredibly unique.
You may recognize the username and/or style of the proposal, but for those of you who need a reminder, Nick Royer is the creator of the incredibly popular "Space Troopers" (née "Space Marines") project, easily one of the most supported non-IP-based proposals of its time.
Here's an excerpt from the project description:
There's also a flickr group dedicated to the project.Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the dried-up, burnt-out dust ball the locals call Brownout Colony. The desert stretches as far as the eye can see, and shimmering waves of dry heat on the horizon seem to cloud out the stars. Into this still air comes the whine of high-powered engines straining for speed, and the suns are blotted out momentarily as the beat-up old freighter Pythagoras roars overhead. Engines constantly adjusting to scrape out every last bit of speed as the crew make their desperate escape, the weathered ship screams toward escape. With her turrets scanning around for signs of threat, the Pythagoras rumbles through the sky, trying to gain enough altitude to escape the vicious bounty hunters on the tail of the crew.
Inside the cockpit, Captain Jack Freeman clenches at the back of the pilot's seat as "Crash" Wu, perhaps known space's worst pilot, tightens his grip on the control. He knows the hunters are closing in, and the bounties on his head and those of his crew may come due sooner than he imagined. The reason for all the excitement, renegade android Bravo 88, mans the guns from her control station on the starboard side, and the muffled curses of Kam Collins' grumbling can be heard belowdecks as the engineer struggles to hold the rusty death trap of a ship together.
Why not give him your support? And while you're there, have a look at his other project, Hyperborea which is equally imaginative and impressively presented.
