ATLAS IV: Blinded

"When the deposits close to the surface were mostly depleted, Command shifted focus towars deeper-laying veins of resources that were increasingly difficult to access. Drones were used to cut shafts down to a selection of underground ore clusters and equipped with chemicals to etch out the bores to fit our harvesters. Slowly but steadily, the surface of Atlas became speckled with holes close hundreds of meters in diameter. Despite rising concerns of destabilising the already brittle ground of the sun- and melting the soil on the night-side, harvesters were refitted for underground operation and personnel moved down into the hellholes, myself included. Many wouldn't see the surface again.

Inevitably, sooner or later something had to go gravely wrong. In the process of cutting a tunnel, operators hit a gas vein lighting up the whole deposit with a blinding flash illuminating the freezing night, while the shockwave dug its way through the surface and the escaping gasses, set off by the pressure, burnt Atlas to a crisp. It wasn't until after I woke up barely breathing, that I realised that what life was left for me was going to be a lot different."

 

Part IV and end of ATLAS, a collaboration hosted in The Workshop. The collab channel with loads of WIP and BTS pictures went public along with this post - join here to check out how ATLAS came to life: discord.gg/uzZy7cV

 

This scene, like all in this series, was captured entirely in camera. Screen background & brickbuilt foreground, with complementary lights.

 

Let me know what you think!

 

And lastly, thanks again to the tagged folks for being part of this project. It was quite a journey.

Done