Futuristic ARK: Survival of the Fittest (Closed)

[Darkling0096]

"We'll be fine, probably," Anna smiled as Occisor and Cicero tore the corpse apart, "As long as we avoid trouble they should have plenty of time to rest and recover between fights. It's not like we're going all the way upriver, right?"

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"There," once the final part of the ramp was laid down, they were free to move up and down it to transport resources. "Let's get this wood." With an easier path between point A and B, they were actually able to get the wood where it was needed faster. Jack laid down fence foundations in the ultimate shape of the fortress while Vera dumped the contents of her inventory into a chest. Once the foundations were laid, they resumed digging at the woods.

 

[Silverwings]

"Not quite, no." Roan answered as they continued, "We're breaking off the path a bit, up where we found the raptors."

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Getting the wood was a long tiring and repetitive task, but one that needed done anyway.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Oh," Anna frowned about that, "What are we going to do if something bigger's moved in?"

 

[Silverwings]

"Hope for the best," Roan replied, "Hopefully, we will only have to worry about getting metal."

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna nodded, "Should one of us stand guard to warn if something shows up when we get there?"

 

[Silverwings]

Roan nodded, "Yea, probably. I can let you use this metal pick if you want me to stand guard."

 

[Darkling0096]

"It's your pick," Anna shrugged, "And you've probably got a better Melee Damage stat than I do, you'll be able to gather more metal faster than I can." And if this trip worked out, everyone would have these tools as well. "Besides, I've got a bow and arrows to shoot with." They were coming up on the point now, where the path split. Down one path was a carno feeding on the corpse of a parasaur. It seemed busy. The area the raptors had occupied seemed empty at the moment. it had only been one day, so it wouldn't have been likely something had moved into that spot anyway.

 

[Silverwings]

"Ok, I'll mine the metal then," Roan agreed as he led the way down the old raptor path. It looked pretty barren now. Nothing had the chance to move in yet, except for a few bugs. Leading the way up the path, some boulders with massive amounts of metal mixed in came into view, "Jackpot."

 

[Darkling0096]

"I'll take point," Anna nodded, climbing down off of Dummy and up into a tree where she had a good vantage point of the area. If something did come in, it would have to be very sneaky to get past without her seeing.

 

[Silverwings]

Roan nodded, "Be careful."

He got off the parasaur and made his way to the boulders, making slow work of them as he got the metal out of them.

 

[Darkling0096]

Not much came to bother them for the first few hours. Their goal was metal, so stone was discarded. But flint was useful to make arrowheads, which they'd probably need a lot of in the near future.

 

[Silverwings]

After a few hours, Roan stopped to take a break, "My hands are so sore."

 

[Darkling0096]

"You wanna switch?", Anna asked, climbing down to take a look at Roan's hands. His palms were raw. "You need a break." She took a look at the metal that was in the dinosaurs' inventories. Dummy was laden with all the metal she could carry and not be slowed to a crawl with her rider, and Figaro was about halfway there. Cicero and Occisor looked up from where they'd been lazing in the sun, enjoying being in their old stomping grounds as a cluster of titanonyrma soldiers came flying at them out of the woods.

 

[Silverwings]

"Switching sounds good," He replied, looking at his reddened palms, "I think we should almost be done."

As he spoke the bugs began to nip at the dinosaurs, causing them to bellow and chirp angrily. Roan when over to the few, crushing the bugs with a large stick.

 

[Darkling0096]

Occisor and Cicero likewise reacted to the titanonyrma with violence, jumping up and down and snapping at the bugs. It was only a small group, but if there was a nest in the area there might be more.

"Let's get this over quick," Anna took the pick and went to town at the ore rocks, filling the rest of Figaro's inventory and adding to Cicero and Occisor before the sun started to lower in the late afternoon.

 

[Silverwings]

"Let's head back," Roan said as the sun began to lower, "We got enough to last us a while I think. I need to put... Something... On my hands.."

 

[Darkling0096]

"You okay?", Anna asked as she mounted Dummy again. "You're talking funny."

 

[Silverwings]

"Exhausted but I'm fine," he said and got onto Figaro, "Lets go."

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna nodded and flicked the reings on Dummy. "You should get your hands looked at when we get back," she said as they rode. Fortunately the path didn't have much on it on the way back, so they didn't have to deal with some kind fight on the way back. It was dark by the time they got back, and the outside of the fort had changed drastically. There was now a high wall outside the fortress, which was a different shape from before, with spike walls on ledges all the way up to a level before the top, with railing to keep from falling over. There was a solid gate in the front where dinosaurs and people could pass. Jack and Vera had been busy.

Inside the fortress, which now looked the part to be called that, there were two new paddocks, built to save space for other things. One was a pseudo-stable for the raptors. Small pens they could sleep in, with their own exit to the outside world. The other was similar, but larger because of the larger beasts going into it, the parasaurs and hopefully soon to be at least one triceratops. The rest of the considerable space had been completely opened, down to the water, where Jack was halfway through building a boat dock for ease of transport of goods in and out of the fortress by water. They couldn't defend against anything coming in through water yet, which seemed to be why Jack had spikes in place of what he hoped would later become a larger gate where they could bring in their waterborne tames and move boats through.

"Well you two have been busy," Anna noted.

"We've had all day to work, and most of this has been crafting for a few days now," jack shrugged, "The trouble was putting it down, things kept coming up and resources were being drained on.

 

[Silverwings]

"It took a while, but Jack here is a building genius," Vera commented, "He made this look like building it was easy."

Roan nodded, bringing in the dinosaurs close in order to get the metal and flint into their storage. His hands ached and were beginning to blister in some spots. We was tired, but still got to work putting the metal into the forges. He was quiet, seemingly aggravated.

"Is he ok?" Vera asked quietly.

 

[Darkling0096]

"He uh," Anna looked up at where Roan was working at the forges, "He tore up his hands on the rocks when we were out mining." She gestured for Vera to help unload the metal from the dinosaurs into boxes that could be moved up into the area with the forges. Jack helped on that front to lift up and slide the boxes onto the platform.

"Roan," once he was up on the platform, "Roan, sit down, you need to calm down. What happened?",

 

[Silverwings]

"Nothing, I'm fine. I'm just tired and sore," He answered, leaning on the smithy, "My hands are beat up so handling things is kinda just making it worse."

"Why doesn't he take a break then?" She asked as she carried things in.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Yeah," Jack agreed as Anna led the dinosaurs into their paddocks. "We'll handle it, you're just putting metal in the station and lighting a fire, anyway. The implants handle the hard part." He gestured towards a bench, "Take a break and let your hands heal."

 

[Silverwings]

"You guys sure?" He asked, looking at the rest.

"Go lay down. You look like you're gonna drop dead," Vera said, earning a soft chuckle from Roan, "I feel it. I'll be in my room."

He made his way to his room, plopping down on his bed. His exhaustion allowed him to easily fall asleep.

"Well, you guys got a lot of stuff, huh?" Vera said.

 

[Darkling0096]

"If we'd gotten any more metal or flint we wouldn't have gotten back until morning, the dinosaurs wouldn't be able to move quick enough," Anna replied with a smile as she climbed up onto the platform. "Hopefully we won't need to do that again for a while."

"If metal becomes an issue," Jack said, looking at the numbers on all the stacks of the stuff, "It might be a good idea to make regular runs every few days, gather as much as you can, come back, and store it." He did look up from the stacks, "I can get recipes for stone structures, I'm holding some Engram points in reserve just in case." Stone structures were probably much sturdier than wood, and harder to damage. "If we could find a way to get a massive amount of stone at once I could make stone walls, they'd be stronger than wood."

"But the wood works, doesn't it?", Anna asked, "We don't need stone stuff right now, and even if we did, there's other things more important." Like tools, crafting recipes. They needed stone to make Sparkpowder in order to fuel the preserving bins that kept their food from going bad.