Futuristic ARK: Survival of the Fittest (Closed)

[Darkling0096]

Jack rubbed his eyes, trying to think. "The only other places we have stuff is..." the wooden fortress, and the cliff. Both of which were cleaned out.

"Okay, let's narrow down where we obviously won't find her." He put a stone on the island, where the old fortress was, and the cliff. "She probably won't go to any of our bases, she knows we'll look there." He looked again and put another over the snowy region, "We had a barge shelter full of heat, and the cold almost killed us. She's even worse off, she definitely won't be there." There were probably other obvious no-go zones, but he didn't know them.

 

[Silverwings]

"I doubt she would go anywhere near that one mountain since the giga is nearby and would be a threat," Vera added, "What about.. the redwood.. thats where you were when you respawned, right?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"That mountain is definitely evil," Jack agreed, putting a stone over it. "We're narrowing it down..." that just left the interior and eastern side of the map.

"The redwoods is a huge area, though, and full of..." Jack glanced up at Nike. "Everything lethal." Even flying wasn't safe, with thylacoleos in the trees waiting to pounce.

 

[Silverwings]

"But she wouldn't know that, she wasn't there," Vera replied, "She might still go there... maybe search there as a last resort, it is something we mentioned to her when we found her."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack shook his head, "If she didn't know already, she probably does now." If he got taken off of his ride by Nike in the middle of the night, he'd probably have a heart attack.

"That doesn't narrow the search by much, though..." Jack frowned. Two thirds of the island were still possibilities, more ground than can be covered in months.

 

[Silverwings]

"Ok. Well, the likelihood of her sticking with a straight path is very slim as it would make her easy to find. And since the four of us came from the southeast of the island, that only really leaves the northwest." Vera said, "If we keep moving then we should be able to cover all that in a day or two, right?"

The island looked huge, but realistically, it was much smaller than it seemed. They had been able to cover nearly half the southern region in almost a day, with many tames following. With only the three on fast mounts, they could cover about half the remaining island in a day, and knowing she would likely avoid the areas already marked out, wouldn't leave Anna far to go.

 

[Darkling0096]

"That sounds about right," Jack nodded. Of course, assuming they even could do that. The northwest was completely unexplored, to them. They'd be going in blind, way too dangerous on the ground without knowing what was going on. "Think you and Roan should take the argies?"

 

[Silverwings]

"Are you not going?" Vera asked. They might need him if they run into trouble.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack sighed, "Vera... you know I care about all of you, but... well, Anna's been pushing it for a while, even before the gigas. I never said anything, because I'm not the boss, but after this? I'm going to hurt her, Vera. I don't want that on my conscience."

 

[Silverwings]

Vera took that in, "but we could use you out there.. what if something ridiculously strong attacks us?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"You'll be in the air on your argentavis, what's going to get you?" Jack looked down at the map again, "Maybe one can carry Nike, or I can drive the boat and keep her handy, but if a Giga or a rex shows up, we're screwed, anyway."

 

[Silverwings]

"You know eventually the birds would have to land to regen stamina," Vera said with a sigh.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack slumped his shoulders. "You really want me there, don't you?", he asked. He opened his inventory to check his medallion's recharge timer. It looked like they'd recharge by lunch, anyway.

He looked back on the map. "I'll go with you guys from the ground on Nike, but only there to fight if something big shows up," he maintained that he'd most likely hurt Anna.

 

[Silverwings]

"Thank you," Vera said, placing a kiss on Jack's cheek.

 

[Darkling0096]

After some preparations and getting equipment together, as well as making a new raft, due to the beavers claiming the barge for their new dam, the three were ready to move. It was a bit awkward, with Nike, two argentavis, and three humans on the new raft, but with some arranging, they managed to at least get as far as the predicted search area. They couldn't know where Anna was, but based on what they'd been able to figure out, the eastern side of the island was the best bet.

"Alright, let's go." Jack dropped anchor to keep the boat from drifting off and climbing onto Nike, "Everyone's got flareguns, right?" Red for emergency and needing help, blue for meetup, green for success.

 

[Silverwings]

"Got it," Roan and Vera said simultaneously. Vera mounted her bird.

"Are we splitting or running together?" Roan asked.

"Well, we have the flares so we can split but these birds are kinda slow. If anyone needs help it out be difficult to get there fast enough," Vera hummed before looking at Jack.

 

[Darkling0096]

"We can split, but Nike's faster on the ground than the birds are in the air, so if something happens to one of you two I'll be there pretty quickly," Jack offered, "Or we can all stay together, but we'll cover a lot less ground."

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Dammit, dammit, dammit! Now she was properly screwed! Her pteranodon had collapsed, finally too exhausted from being shanghaied into helping Anna fend off predators that he'd simply been ripped apart. Now she was stranded, running as fast as her legs could carry her to higher ground. To somewhere these raptors couldn't reach.

Actually, no. it wasn't the raptors that worried her. The raptors she could deal with, she knew those creatures, she was fairly sure, based on training the raptors the tribe had, that she could dispose of a smaller one if she had a spear. But she didn't have a spear, and her hatchet's reach was woefully lacking for avoiding those claws...

So she ran, straight up the side of a mountain's face. She thought it was the same volcano she'd scouted with the others, looking for resources and supply drops, but the large trees around her said otherwise. She hoped whatever was in those trees wouldn't violently disagree with her presence as she scrambled as far up the side of one as her tools were capable of, her pick biting into the bark, and she prayed it wouldn't break loose until something else came by to get the raptors' attention.

 

[Silverwings]

"How about a vote?" Roan suggested.

"I vote staying together," Vera said. The idea of running off alone made her a little nervous.

 

[Darkling0096]

"I vote split up, but stay close," Jack said, "Kinda pick a region and break to run through it."

 

[Silverwings]

"Thats a good idea," Roan agreed, "I see a mountain over there, lets look there first."

"There? Why?" Vera asked.

"Because Anna could have gone there thinking there were good resources. It's a mountain." Roan said, "Same probably goes for any other mountain."

 

[Darkling0096]

That was smart. Since the pteranodon couldn't carry much, Anna would have to make her equipment entirely on her own, so she'd need metal, flint, and stone, which were abundant on mountains. Or at least, they were abundant on the one mountain they'd been on. So presumably they were abundant on all of them.

"Yeah, but that's a trek," Jack nodded, "We'll have to get back on the boat to cover the distance, unless you two wanna fly, but I'd rather bring some resources back ourselves while we're here."

 

[Silverwings]

"If we fly.. or walk.. to that mountain we would miss coving the ground between here and there," Roan said, "Plus we can take a survey of what resources are in certain areas."

"That.. is actually a really good idea." Vera hummed.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Right, but if we just go now, we'll end up being the entire main island away from the boat," Jack pointed out, "And if we gather any resources or pick up new stuff on the way there and back, that's a long way to carry metal, that stuff is heavy." He looked back towards the raft, "Why don't I take the raft up there," he offered, "You guys can scour the beaches and close inside of the island from the air, and once we get up to the mountain, we can store anything we pick up on the boat, and then do a more intense search on the ground?"

 

[Silverwings]

"Sounds like a plan then," Roan said with a nod.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack nodded, "Alright, I'll get some materials for crates, and get the boat moving." He flipped his hatchet out and set to work as he made his way back down to the raft, Nike following behind him. They started moving.

Unfortunately, they didn't see any hint of Anna's presence on this part of the region. Which did make sense, considering they thought she'd be heading to the island. more than likely she wouldn't have stopped anywhere for longer than was needed to recover stamina for her pteranodon.