Futuristic ARK: Survival of the Fittest (Closed)

[Darkling0096]

"Let's just get the spino positioned and clear these rocks to put a shelter down," Anna shook her head, "We're better prepared than before, we'll be ready to start progressing again real soon." She wanted one of those lethal bird monsters herself.

 

[Silverwings]

Roan positioned the spino where it was needed before making his way to help Jack, "It'll be easier here than it was back there. Looks like the meanest things we have near here are dilos."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Well your spino ate all the raptors on the way here," Jack chuckled, "I'm almost done with the wall, you and Vera start on those rocks and put these down," he handed over the parcels to assemble a quick one-story two-by-two shelter for the night. "If we've got time before nightfall I'll build another one for the girls," jack promised."

 

[Silverwings]

"Sounds good. With a campfire between the two," Vera agreed, hoping off her dino to help out.

 

[Darkling0096]

Before long, they'd more or less secured the cliff and cleared away the boulders, that stone and flint would be incredibly useful later once they started building something much more permanent than the wooden two-by-twos that appeared before nightfall.

"I'm pretty optimistic about this," Jack confessed over dinner. "We've got a lot more space here, we could build something amazing with time." He took a peek at their building materials and winced, "Do you guys think there's a dinosaur we could tame that gathered wood and stone like the paras do thatch?"

 

[Silverwings]

"Maybe stone, or wood," Roan thought out loud, "We will have to see."

After a moment a big grin came across his face, "This means you're not allowed to criticize me for taming things!"

 

[Darkling0096]

"No," Jack objected, "I asked about a specific task to put a dino to. You try to tame everything you meet." But jack was outnumbered, and even Lil' Chicken seemed to agree with Roan, laughing at Jack.

"Fine, but let's make a rule, only tame it if you have an immediate use for it." Jack crossed his arms, "We've got raptors and a spino, so 'protection' is not an immediate use. If I watch a dinosaur mow down some trees and decide to tame it for wood gathering, that's an immediate use." He looked at Anna, "If she sees a dinosaur rip through a herd and collect as much meat as possible, and decided to tame it to keep food on the table, that's an immediate use." He looked at Vera, "If she grabs a flyer because it's safer to explore from the air, probably, that's an immediate use." He looked at Roan, "But if you're taming just to tame, that's not an immediate use."

 

[Silverwings]

"Taming for collection of berries and other resources," Roan decided, "Got it."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack nodded and sat back down on the bench, "Good." Looking out at the area beyond the cliff, "You know it's probably lucky we built these shelters with those massive birds near," he gestured towards where they'd seen them, which wasn't visible anymore in the darkness, "One of those could easily grab us and kill us."

"But they won't," Anna said confidently, "Too many predators and dangers near us for the birds to risk it." She pulled out a torch and waved it around, "FIRE!"

 

[Silverwings]

"Somehow, I have this feeling at waving a torch around is only going to get their attention.." Roan commented as he watched Anna.

 

[Darkling0096]

"I dunno," Jack shrugged as Anna sheepishly put the torch down, "When we've got fires going everything avoids us. I think the animals are afraid of fire."

"Either way," Anna sighed, "We're probably safe with the fire going and the spino. It's going to take something really big or a whole lot of them to get past it unscathed."

 

[Silverwings]

"Besides, they're far enough off, I'm sure they won't even notice us," Vera added. Roan shrugged, "Well, lets just hope I'm wrong and you guys are right. Even if the spino does protect us, I wouldn't ant to have to put up with the beast trampling our houses to kill it off."

 

[Darkling0096]

"We'll find out in the morning, I guess," Jack shrugged as he stood up and stretched, stifling a yawn, "I'm going to bed, see you in the morning." He glanced around the camp to make sure everything was secure and nothing looked fishy, nothing did, before heading into the men's two-by-two to pass out on his sleeping bag. Once they had the time to build something more permanent, proper beds were definitely happening.

"Good idea," Anna nodded, using her pike for support as she got to her feet. "It's been a long day, getting up here."

 

[Silverwings]

"Yea, we should sleep," Vera agreed, following Anna.

Roan stayed at the fire, watching it burn quietly. He couldn't shake the uneasy feeling as though danger lurked nearby.

 

[Darkling0096]

Anna and Vera closed the door behind them, used to sleeping in total darkness as no one had made any wall-torches to light the inside of rooms yet, and there were no windows. The parasaurs seemed to share Roan's unease, rising up to their highest and looking around at intervals, quacking their observations to their fellows.

 

[Silverwings]

Through the night, Roan stayed awake, crossbow in hand, waiting. He could hear the parasuars shifting uneasily. They sensed danger nearby but it wasn't close enough to pick up. He watched the horizon, scanning for predators or any signs of danger, though he couldn't see much. It wasn't until the first rays of light began to shine and color the mountainside that any signs began to show.

Thud... thud... thud...

The ground rumbled as something large began walking nearby. Roan stood, going to the spino, ready to take off with it if need be. Whatever it was, it had to have wandered toward them from the mountain top. Soon the parasaurs bellowed, showing the red dot that indicated a predator nearby.

"Shii...." Roan hopped onto the spino, racing off to keep whatever that thing was away from their new camp. Within moments, he was face to face with the the Rex that had kept him up.

 

[Darkling0096]

The raptors seemed just as eager as Roan to go deal with the threat, but that spino had just hopped over the spike wall and unlike Lil' Chicken or the Pegomastax, they couldn't squeeze between the spikes, nor jump the wall like the spino, so they resorted to running around the camp loudly barking for their masters to wake up and let them out.

Anna woke up and found that she could walk on her leg again, so that was a plus, but she'd been woken up to the sound of raptors loudly demanding freedom and panicked a bit, jabbing Vera awake with the butt of her spear, "Wake up!" She peeked out the door to see what was going on and found Cicero prancing around the camp, circling the huts, while Occisor and Gaiah were trying to find a way through the spike wall and Thunder and Cherry were running up and down the slope trying to find a way around it.

 

[Silverwings]

"What?" Vera groaned, "I'm up. What is going on out there?"

Meanwhile, Roan began to shoot at the Rex, jumping off the spino so it could attack. Mistake number one. In the hurry to deal with the beast, Roan hadn't noticed the other smaller predators running around. As the spino fought with the rex, Roan had to make quick work of the things coming at him. Dilos, compies, even a few weak raptors. Shots to the face were enough to deal with most of them, but not fast enough to leave Roan unharmed.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Something with the raptors," Anna exited the hut and climbed onto Cicero, "Take me to the problem!"

"What's all the- oh, shit, I knew this was gonna happen," Jack groaned as he saw the raptors running around and reached for his crossbow, "And they ate Roan!"

 

[Silverwings]

"Oh yea. Totally" Vera mocked running to get to another raptor, "Theyre totally not trying to get to wherever the Spino disappeared to?"

The spino wasn't getting away unharmed either. With the rex becoming more damaged, it let out a terrifying roar that froze Roan in his place. Thst was one last hit from a dilo that made Roan pass out. Within a few more moments, the spino took out the rex, leaving the body in favor of protecting it's owner from the tinier threat that was still trying to go at him.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack frowned at the insult and whistled for Hardhead. Anna shot towards the gate on Cicero and opened it to let the raptors out. The raptors all shot out the gate, whether they had riders or not, following the spino's scent to arrive like cavalry on the scene and aid in Roan's rescue from small predators.

Jack, being on the back of a parasaur, was nowhere near as quick as the raptors, and took a while to catch up.

 

[Silverwings]

Racing after the other raptors, Vera was the first on the scene. An unconscious Roan, the spino beside him, and, "What the hell is that thing?"

Before they could get much of an answer, the raptors devoured the remains of the rex and every other small predator that lay dead in the area.

 

[Darkling0096]

"We'll get the story later, grab the boy," Anna got off of Cicero to try and get Roan up off the ground, letting the raptor join the feeding frenzy. Unfortunately, dead weight was harder to move, and Roan already weighed more than she did, "Jack, help me," she ordered when the larger man and his parasaur finally arrived.

Jack had a much easier time moving Roan than Anna, by virtue of being much larger and stronger, "The hell happened here?"

 

[Silverwings]

"Dont know, we can ask when he wakes up," Vera said as she got off her raptor, letting it also join the fun, "Whatever happened, Roan looks pretty beat up."

 

[Darkling0096]

"We'll patch him back at camp," Jack laid Roan over Hardhead's saddle, "We've gotta get out of here before something bigger comes around."

"I don't think there's anything bigger than that, though," Anna protested, the size of that corpse was massive!