# Shepherd r7b

## Hypothesis

Block order: global first, then faction, then ship, reverses whatever r6d gained from ship-first.

## What changed

Against r6d, order only: G2.1, AU block, ship prompt, frame clause. Text identical to r6d.

## Agent verdict

A chunkier, more compact hull with the eight turrets, but heavier weathering and a protruding round thruster can on the flank where r6d drew flush grilles. Ship-first honoured the thrust wording better; block-first gave a sturdier mass.

## Render record

- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:3, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
- Request id: 6128ecc9-52b9-4131-82c2-6b5064374031
- Date: 2026-10-08
- Composition: global block G2.1, faction block (livery and register only), ship prompt, frame clause, separated by blank lines, exactly as below

## Prompt

Concept art of a small working spacecraft from the Aetheria universe, built by a named manufacturer for one pilot or a small crew; a human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a cockpit window no wider than a person set its scale. It is a vacuum hull: it never flies through air, so it has no wings, fins, tailplanes, vanes, airfoils or streamlining of any kind. It moves only by rocket thrust from nozzles and thruster grilles built into whichever faces of the hull need to push, the stern, the flanks, the belly or the bow, each one opening in the direction its exhaust would leave; thrusters are part of the hull's own surface, never separate pods or packs bolted on. Its silhouette comes from its job: the working equipment is the largest shape and the hull is built around it. Hatches, recessed round sensor apertures and a docking collar are legible. It carries weapons only where its description names them. A stencilled registry number and a maker's plate sit beside the cockpit; engines are cold. The body is thick and closed with rounded edges, every part swelling out of the main mass through wide smooth fillets, so the outline reads as one solid silhouette. All surfaces are matte and opaque, painted metal, ceramic and rubberized composite, with interior light shown only through small round opaque ports. Its paint is exactly as clean or as worn as its maker's description says; where no wear is named, it is factory-new. Rendered as a crisp studio concept render.

Aeronautics Unlimited livery and register: serious frontier work gear, plain geometry, nothing for show. Matte powder coat over bare brushed aluminium: chalk white on the main body, slate blue on the cockpit section and module doors, bare aluminium on clamps and rails, small ochre safety panels around lifting points, concise black technical lettering and stencilled bay numbers. Pale mineral dust in the creases and scuffed lower edges from long shifts in asteroid fields.

Design the Shepherd, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited point-defence picket that circles a worksite and shoots down anything fast that comes near it. Its body is a short, plain, rounded-rectangular hull. Eight small turrets on raised rings are spread evenly over its faces: two on the bow, two on each flank edge and two at the stern, each a compact boxy turret with one short light barrel and a small round sensor aperture, each clearly able to turn fast. There is no larger gun. A short survey mast with a tracking dish rises from the middle of the back. The cab is a rounded-rectangle block at the front with a wide, low window. Two rectangular drive grilles are set flush into each flank so it can hold a tight orbit. Stencilled turret numbers sit beside every ring, and ochre safety panels mark the lifting points.

One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
