Futuristic ARK: Survival of the Fittest (Closed)

[Silverwings]

"Well.. this it going to be a trick," Roan said, standing still to watch the carnos and other large predators, "We won't outrun those carnos.. I wonder if there's a safer way around them."

He looked around, "Up this hill?"

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As they ventured closer to the swamp, Vera began to question the logic behind going in that general direction, "Wouldn't it be safer to go up the hill?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna rose up to stand on top of the saddle to get a better idea of their surroundings. "Good news or bad news?" The good news was, there was a shorter away around the predators in front of them. Bad news, there were raptors chilling in that path.

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"To get up the hill we've gotta go this direction," Jack explained, pointing at the ledge stopping them from getting up the hill so easily.

 

[Silverwings]

"I have a feeling its not great," Roan replied, "What's the news?"

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"Aren't there leeches here? Anna and I had an issue with them on the way here," Vera commented, eyeing the water near them.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Raptor pack, or carnotaurus," Anna pointed out the two options standing in their way. "There's only a couple routes and they're standing in front of each."

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"We don't know," Jack shrugged, "If there are, they haven't bothered us." They were probably more upstream where there were larger creatures to feed on than a couple humans that wouldn't last very long compared to most dinosaurs. Leeches may not have been an immediate problem, but a colorful blur and an impact that knocked both of them off the parasaurs on succession was. "What the hell?" They couldn't move, their implants flashed yellow. Stunned.

Their assailant was a tiny little birdlike creature. it looked like the unloved offspring of a raptor and a bird shrank down to a fraction of the size of an adult raptor. "Wild Female Microraptor" said the yellow letters in its tag. Its main plumage was a shade of red, while it's feathers and quills were more colorful, shades of yellow, green, and blue, while it's scales were just white. How hadn't they seen this thing before it attacked?

 

[Silverwings]

"How many of each?" Roan asked, prepared to pull his bolas out.

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Vera yelped as she hit the ground, unable to move. She could hear the calls of their parasaurs but it was hard to see past the yellow the implant forced in their vision, "W-what..."

 

[Darkling0096]

"One, two, three..." Anna squinted, trying to pick out any others, "Four, five. Wow, big pack." If Roan was quick about it and sharp with his aim, he could probably restrain all five in short order and get out of dodge before they got free, hopefully.

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"Damn," the microraptor bit and snapped at the two human survivors. It wasn't doing much damage to them, the tiny jaws weren't prepared to bite through the hardened leather they wore. They got the pinching sensation of something nibbling on them more than the sharp sting of teeth.

After a moment, the stun effect wore off and Jack and Vera were able to get up, and Jack answered the tiny beast by smacking it in the head with his club and knocking it unconscious. "Where was that thing hiding?" They hadn't even seen it until it hit them, it had to be hiding somewhere, and if one could hide others might be waiting.

 

[Silverwings]

"And how many carnos?" He asked nervously. He didn't like the odds of five versus two and a parasaur.

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"Maybe we can tame it? I think Roan would be excited to hear we tamed something in his absence," Vera suggested, staring at the tiny creature. How did something so small knock them both down?

 

[Darkling0096]

"I can see one. I can't see past the treeline, but I've only ever seen a couple that were actually alone." Anna wasn't liking the odds either, but they didn't have a choice in the matter. Either they picked a path or turned back.

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"Probably?", Jack picked up the little bird thing by the feet and held it up to examine it. "It's nice-looking, at least." He reached into his bag for some fiber cord to tie the thing's wings down, and fixing the feet to Hardhead's saddle. "If we can't tame it, it'll be a nice meal, at least."

 

[Silverwings]

"What's your call? We can try to bola the raptors, or we can hope to outrun those carnos," Roan said, offering two options.

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"Do we have meat with us?" Vera asked, staring at it, "We could try taming it on the way back if it wakes up."

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna would have liked to be able to hook a rope to the bolas and drag the raptors along until they were too exhausted and beat up to keep fighting, a pack of those things under her control would be more than able to deal with most threats on the island. But they didn't have those ropes on the bolas and she didn't trust that the para had the strength to tow that much. On the other hand, a carnotaurus could possibly eat the parasaur and them on it quickly if they couldn't escape it. "I... we might have to turn back on this one. I don't see it going pretty either way, here."

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"Not raw meat," Jack shook his head, "I've got some on a fire, but we'll have to kill a dodo to tame it before we get back."

 

[Silverwings]

As she began to speak, the now all too familiar call of a raptor signified as who of the five began to charge them. With a quick reaction, Roan threw two of the bolas out, taking out the feet from.the first two and getting the attention of the others. Roan grunted as he jumped down throwing out another two bolas before watching as the fifth raptor turned on a dime, taking off after something else nearby. Roan grabbed his last bola, ready if the thing returned, "Hey. Quick knock those things out!"

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Vera nodded before pointing out a dodo nearby, "We need the hide anyway..."

 

[Darkling0096]

Raising her slingshot, Anna sank down to her knees for stability on he bellowing Parasaur, and started flinging stones at the raptors' heads. "Go, go, go!"

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"Good," An arrow went through the dodo's neck and put it down, and Jack got down to strip it of meat and hide. Putting the hide in Hardhead's inventory, he grabbed his axe again and started on the trees they had been working on when they were attacked.

"I didn't even know those things existed," Jack commented after a while, "First time I encountered one."

 

[Silverwings]

Roan darted, making quick work taking the feet out from under the last raptor, "Knock it out!"

Once the last raptor was unconscious, Roan looked around, taking out some smaller creatures for meat. Upon a closer inspection, he saw under the raptor names was a bar. "Put taming food in inventory to tame."

"We... might be able to tame these." He said, looking to Anna.

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Helping with the trees they were working on, Vera shrugged, "First for me too so its.. beyond me."

 

[Darkling0096]

At the mention of being able to tame these things, Anna's face lit up as she looked around, "Do you think we've got the time?" The purple bar for being unconscious was steadily going down, albeit slowly by comparison to when the compies had gotten Jack. "And I thought you and Jack were scared of raptors?" They had gone to such a great extent to avoid them, after all.

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"If those are common on the route where we're going," Jack shook his head, "We're gonna have a bad day." He had to make a trip back to Hardhead to unload wood and thatch into the parasaur's inventory a few times before the microraptor woke up. They were actually on the way back to resume construction before the thing woke up and loudly squawked its displeasure and hunger.

"Time to see if you're right," Jack commented, ripping a piece of meat free and offering it to the tiny thing. The bird-raptor thing eyed the hand and then shot its head forward to snatch the meat. A brown bar appeared over it's head. Taming progress. Vera was right.

 

[Silverwings]

"I dont think we are on much of a time crunch," Roan said and started putting meat into the raptors' inventory, "We have good reason to be afraid of them. Im just glad we could down them before they ate us."

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"Hey, look at that," Vera chimed, "We'll have it tamed in no time!"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Anna got off of Dummy to inspect the raptors. The big male of the pack had bright plumage on its head. She rather liked that one, "Do you think you could put a saddle on one?"

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The microraptor squawked at Vera's exclamation. It had figured out at least that it couldn't really hurt the humans, especially restrained as it was. "I don't know what use it's going to be, though," Jack shrugged. The parasaurs were obvious, mounts and beasts of burden. The pegomastax took things from the survivors and other dinosaurs, and was nimble. This thing... knocked you off your mount, and was small. "At least it's nice-looking."

 

[Silverwings]

Roan looked into his engrams, taking the raptor saddle. He whistled seeing what it took, "I can work at it, but we need at least one hundred ten hide to make it."

Soon the raptors stood, each being tamed and ready for names, "Take your pick then."

He personally liked the looks of a black and white raptor, one of the first two to attack, "Think we should head back? This is a lot to try to lead through the woods. I think we will be able to travel by foot now that we have raptors."

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"Maybe it can stun predators?" She suggested, "If not it can probably hunt smaller creatures im sure."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm, I like this one," Anna stroked the neck of the big one that was in charge a few minutes ago. She looked at some of the scars from its previous fights for food and dominance within the pack, and ended up giving the blue raptor with the white and yellow plumage the name "Occisor," going for a fancy name like Roan had with Figaro. "I think they're going to lose it when we get back with these five behind us," Anna smiled.

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"I guess we'll find out when the time comes," Jack untied the thing's legs to move it from Hardhead's saddle once they were back in the fortress, giving the para's a break from all their work today. He made sure to check on Figaro's bite marks from the snake to make sure nothing was infecting the wounds, but the parasaur seemed to be healing alright. "We've got the wood and thatch," Jack said as he started transferring it into the wood crate, "We can carry fiber on our own, it doesn't weigh very much."

 

[Silverwings]

"They might think we're being chased," Roan chuckled, naming the raptor "Cicero." He turned to Anna, "Let's take these back to the others. We will see how they're doing,"

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"Right, So what now? Make the rafts or wait for Roan and Anna?" Vera asked, looking into her inventory. She had a good bit of fiber already.

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna nodded and climbed back on top of Dummy. She offered one hand to help Roan up and whistled at the raptors with the other.

The road back was a whole lot safer than before, now that they had a pack of raptors on their side. Sheer numbers were in their favor by a wide margin now.

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"We'll need fiber and hide for other things even if we do go on foot," Jack shrugged, "Storage crates, building materials, solid walls for this fortress." After a while of handfeeding the tiny raptor meat, it had calmed down considerably, "Wild Female Microraptor" turned from yellow to green. "Huh, that actually worked," Jack raised an eyebrow as the creature hopped up to his shoulder once it was untied. "What do you think we should name it?", he asked Vera.

 

[Silverwings]

As they rode along, the raptors would occasionally veer off, attacking and eating what they could until they had their fill. By the time they returned to the shelter, each had an impressive amount of meat and hide in their inventories.

"Call it-" Vera started, only to be cut off by the sight of their allies returning with a pack of raptors behind them, "Uhhh.... Jack?"

"Hey, the path should be super safe now," Roan called as they approached, "We- uh- did some taming.."

 

[Darkling0096]

"They're friendly, we promise!", Anna called, laughing at Jack's reaction of jumping on top of something and taking aim with his bow.

"Friendly my ass!", Jack barked, "Roan what the fuck!"

 

[Silverwings]

"They made the mistake of coming two at a time," Roan laughed, hopping off Dummy. He patted Cicero on the back, "We knocked them out and too advantage of the situation. Now we have some powerful beasts."

"I like the red one," Vera said, going to a blood red one with pink and white plumage, "I'll call you.... Cherry."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Cherry," Anna giggled, "I like that." She moved Dummy into the makeshift paddock, Jack hadn't finished plotting out the full stable yet. "The blue and white one's mine, his name's Occisor," she pointed at the largest raptor.

"Y'all can keep them," Jack shook his head, relocating to the second floor of the structure.

"I see you tamed something too," Anna commented, "What's that colorful thing on your shoulder."

"A pain in the ass."

 

[Silverwings]

"It's called a microraptor," Vera said, "It knocked us off the paras while we were working."

"Jack, you should take one of these too," Roan said, joining his friend, "I think having these with us will be most helpful in the long run. I mean, we could take out larger creatures and get more hide easily. Look how much hide are on those things right now."