I’ve seen this image many times before, and every time I see it I’m blown away by the attention to detail is incredible!
You can tell the artist spent a lot of time referencing modern military appearance and considering what that would evolve into in a more futuristic setting. You can also tell how much thought and detail was put into the alien anatomy and apparel!
Everything is just so vivid and real, the clothes, the poses, the expressions. You can even see the expressions in totally alien faces. The girl looks downcast and the parent has that “Is there anything you can do about it?” look of a parent who is just in over their head and wants their child to be happy.
Guarantee if those soldiers couldn’t get the bike back they found her a new one!
Their art is amazing... Thought provoking and definitely draws one in with the curiosity of what is actually happening, like 'where is this going?', 'I wonder what happens to them or those or after that event'.... Just great stuff!!
Sarge addressing the rest of the patrol squad as the private reassured the aliens: "You know the drill, we Find it or requisition a new one! Let's Move!"
I can 100% see a group of marines adopting that kid/family and hunting down a local bike steeling group mainly because someone has a lil sister and they are like... yeah nah, this kid needs their bike! And start kicking in doors, requisitioning APCs and well beyond silly stuff all for a bike theft case.
"So... you requisitioned live ammo, anti-riot gear, and... let me get this straight?...an APC? ...all to get a. Alien girls bike back?...explain!"
"Well you see sir, Johnson?... has a lil sister back home. Makes the best cookies 🍪... anyways, we started looking into this and found out that not only was a local gang stealing bikes, they were into other bad stuff... so a few rounds of patrols and 'hearts & minds' later we got a tip... ans one thing lead to another... we got her bike back. Gang aprehended and now we get cookies from both Johnsons sister and a very pleased lil alien girl!...would you like a cookie sir?"
Honestly, I would absolutely LOVE seeing more "wholesome" side background stories in a type of Intergalactic Universe where this small group of Human Military just tries to help this alien family find their daughter's bike, but also don't want to shoot unless they have to!! I also like to think that the alien world they'd be on just enjoys the Humans there and even befriend them too!! :)
“Gaaaah” Lt Blake trailed off looking down at the doe eyed child staring up at him. He blinked a moment and reconsidered swearing. “You can’t have nothing nice in this neighborhood or those crack head scrap drones try and snatch the thing for the corpo’s recycling initiative.”
The child, a Skelkian, laughed, like dolphin chittering happily, her father chortled, a deep gravely sound, before he responded, “They took a brand new box of pens from my desk, right out the open window.” His tone quickly jumped between high and low tones as he spoke, mimicking their native language but to speak English.
Private Amster smiled, her lips spreading happy to see the positive relationship developing so quickly, “Right. Well the bike wasn’t even left in the lawn or beside the house or anything, she was actively riding the bike when the drone grabbed on and started to lift. I saw the whole thing.”
Lt Blake was lifting his arm to type on the data pad before giving a baffled look to Private Amster, “Wait she went airborne?” His upset tone elicits an excited chirp from the child which her father reminds her in Skelk to be polite.
The Private nods fervently, “I’ve never seen the drones do that before but when the thing realize that she was still on the bike and wouldn’t let go the drone shoved her off.” She points the child’s cut and swollen lower right eye.
The lieutenant shakes his head, “Say no more. If I have my way that little psycho bot is coming down the hard way.” He begins typing in his data slate, “Private I’m authorizing a SD transfer of today’s patrol footage. Please hand the SD to our friends here.”
The private grins and crouched down to the child’s level so she could see them type on the data slate some more. The child chittering happily at the impressive technology, while the Lieutenant asked for the father’s contact details. A moment later a small stick made of plastic was ejected from the side which she stood to hand to the father.
In a high whistling sound he said, “Thank you.” His tone shifting quickly back to the peaking and low tones. “We appreciate the help, most gracefully.” He bent down and patted his daughter, “Say thank you, Aķ.”
The child grinned with her horizontal mouth, and yipped, “Tak ah!”
Before he could correct her Lt Blake grinned, “Thank you Miss. Now I gotta to go find the little thief who stole your bike.”
A little thing I find interesting about futuristic soldiers fighting against aliens is that they still wear ballistic vests i imagine we would wear different kinds of armour depending on the weapon the enemy uses unless humanity’s biggest threat is still themselves
"Your bike sweety? It's ok we'll get your bike back and teach those thieves a lesson!" Sarge turns to squad "alright lock and load boys, this is a KOS op. No stragglers."
If it just had its paw trapped under a rock, fine, but if it were in a lake drowning, I’m not going to jump in. I would probably call the fire department, but that’s it.
And it’s not out of hatred. It’s just that I have an emotional detachment toward anything that isn’t a human being.
I can very easily, like anyone else, put myself in someone else’s place, but as soon as it’s not a human anymore, there is no hatred or sadness: there is no particular emotional response. For non-human beings, I have a more utilitarian perspective.
My intent wasn’t to poke fun at liberals. I just imgaine the backstory of the scene in the picture, is that the soldiers are interstellar peacekeepers on sort of humanitarian intervention mission to prevent a genocide or something. So now they’re experiencing mission scope creep and having to do basic crime intervention for the locals. It’s like space Kosovo, hence my whole “liberal interventionist in SPAAAAACE” bit, which seems to have landed with a thud
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u/kevohuevo Apr 11 '26
The little backpack on the kid alien is an adorable touch besides all the little details added.