Futuristic ARK: Survival of the Fittest (Closed)

[Silverwings]

Roan and Vera, both mounted on their raptors, made their way though, killing endlessly to level the beasts up. They did this for quite some time, eventually getting their beasts to the point that even sarcos stood no chance against them. Each raptor could easily and quickly take out larger creatures with a few bites or a pounce.

"I think we should be safe to travel, what do you think?" Vera said, patting one on the side. She was proud of the quick progress they had made.

"We should travel further inland. We might be able to call out and be heard. Maybe we will find the others," Roan replied. Vera nodded a bit. "We should try the beaches too. They might be along the shores. So which one first?"

"Inland first?" He suggested.

 

[Darkling0096]

Now this part of taming Anna liked, just sitting around safely and waiting for the creature to eat. The pteranodon probably had brain damage from that beating, but she didn’t need it to be smart, she needed it to serve. “I think I’m gonna call you Beaky.” She grinned at how stupid that name sounded, Jack was rubbing off on her.

“Ugh,” she realized how long it would take for this stupid thing to eat when she realized it’s food points were barely dropping at all. In a way she guessed that meant it wouldn’t eat very much? She just hoped it wouldn’t take forever.

By the time it did actually start eating, Anna had taken to shooting a tree just to see if she could bring it down with arrows. She didn’t even realized it was tamed until she turned around from going to grab her arrows. “Oh, sweet.” She put the saddle on the flyer and named him Beaky, and flew him back up to her hut for things she’d need. Some food and arrows, mostly. The pteranodon’s weight was abysmal.

--------------------------

By some miracle, Jack narrowly got through the doorway at the end of the trap just before the thyla’s jaws closed around his limb. It strained at the door before it lost sight of him around the side of the trap until he appeared at the other side to put a doorway there, “Gotcha!”, he laughed, “You’re mine, now!” He pumped his fist and started shooting. He’d check the bag the man’s corpse left behind once eaten, after he’d knocked the thylacoleo out.

“Man, if Roan could see me now,” Jack grinned as the thyla went down and he put his narcotics and meat in its, which he found to be a her, inventory. “I think I’m gonna call you Nike,” he decided as he went to check the bag. Broken equipment Jack didn’t have the means to fix, mostly. The thyla had eaten the meat in his inventory, he just had arrows, a barely-working crossbow, no respawn medal, unfortunately for him, and… “Bullshit.” A thyla saddle? “My lucky day.”

 

[Silverwings]

The two went back to their camp, getting things they may need in their trip. There wasn't much they would need thst they didn't already have. But they did decide to take the rest of the night to relax. They would leave in the morning to try and find the others.

 

[Darkling0096]

During her little flight, Ana realized something about the flyer saddles. It wasn’t that they weren’t built for human use, they’d been using them wrong! When she spread her knees apart she found them sinking into the seam at the edge of the seat, which she could then grip with her thighs for a, albeit still unsecured, more secure seat. She still for sure wanted some kind of harness, but at least now it wasn’t hard to fly. The sun was setting, though, so she’d fly in the morning.

“Get comfortable, Beaky,” she ordered the pteranodon as she went back into the hut to sleep. She wasn’t going to fly at night when she could barely see.

-------------------

It took most of the day for the thyla to be tamed, and when it did Jack was quick to name her, put the saddle on her, and let her out of the structure.

The thyla was easily several times large than Jack, built like a monster. And when it walked, the weight of its steps said Nike was many, many times heavier than he was. He got carried away experimenting with the climbing and jumping, and killing things for meat. He found Nike was an amazing swimmer. About the only thing he could think of that would improve her as a land mount would be if she had wings and could fly! “I think I’m in love,” Jack grinned until he realized it was getting dark. It wasn’t safe to be out at night, so he sent Nike up the tree over his camouflaged hut and went inside to sleep. With her on guard duty, he could sleep a little easier. In the morning, he’d go searching.

 

[Silverwings]

Roan and Vera went to bed early. They had a long day ahead of them the following day. With fitful sleep, the two woke early to start wandering. They ate their breakfast and took up some extra food before taking off. They knew that crossing Weathertop to go inland would be the quickest way to get toward the center of the island. They knew because everything else seemed to be beaches.

It took killing some piranhas and sarcos to cross the swamp, but after a little bit, the two were in a whole knew territory. The redwood forest.

"Think we will find anyone here?" Vera asked. Roan only took a breath, "I hope so.."

 

[Darkling0096]

When morning came, Anna got out of bed, yawned, went outside, and got something to eat before checking everything again and going to climb onto Beaky. “Let’s make this happen.” And she started flying to look for the others. She found a pteranodon’s stamina was just as abysmal as it’s weight, but it was fast and as long as she looked before she landed she could stay out range of raptors and sarcos on the ground, and she started heading towards the old fortress.

--------------

When morning came, Jack stretched and yawned, walked outside, and whistled for his new thylcacoleo, Nike. “Goddess of victory,” jack grinned, taking out his map one he was in the saddle, making sure to mark this are for later use if he needed to, and plotting the general route to the beach. “Come on, sweetie.”

As Jack was heading out of the redwoods for the edge of the swamp, he saw some humanoid shapes on riders at the edge of the swamp. His bright white and red thylacoleo wasn’t stealthy by any means, so he just held up a torch to make sure he was visible. So far every human he’d seen that wasn’t part of his group was either a naked running from dinosaurs or a well-equipped but unfortunate man that got eaten. Hopefully these were neither.

“Hello?”, Jack called, praying they were in his group.

 

[Silverwings]

They heard it.

"Hello?" Someone called. Vera knew the voice, "Jack?"

Then she saw the torch, lighting up a human on the back of a large cat. She lead the way, Roan following after her to the man, "Jack, is that you?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Someone responded. A woman's voice. Jack's woman's voice. "Vera?" And then a man, "Roan?" He flicked the reins on Nike, shooting towards them as fast as the thylacoleo could run, faster than the raptors, anyway, since the thyla didn't worry about what objects were in the way. As soon as he was close and he could confirm, yes, it was Vera, he jumped off of the thylacoleo and rushed up to swoop Vera off of her raptor, pulling her into a crushing hug.

 

[Silverwings]

Vera giggled as her man pulled her up into a hug. She littered his face in kisses and nuzzled, "I've missed you. I'm so glad you're ok."

Roan hopped off his raptor and stepped closer, "Have you seen Anna?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack smiled and embraced Vera under the oral assault on his head, "I missed you too," he smiled and stroked her hair as he looked to Roan, "I haven't seen her, I've been busy trying to get a mount and not get killed." Almost on cue a carno came down the beach looking for a fight. "Hold on," Jack turned and whistled at Nike, pointing at the carno, and the thylacoleo went to work, making short work of the thing. "NIke's a beast," Jack smiled. He hadn't even put any levels into her, yet, and she was already queen of the jungle.

"Come here," he took Vera's hand and led her over to the thyla, climbing into the saddle and then offering her a hand to carry her on his lap on the beast, "You're never gonna believe what she can do."

----------------------------

"Well, that's not how we left that," Anna frowned as the fortress came into view, smoke from campfires reaching into the sky. Inhabited. That meant people, and now she knew that her, Roan, Jack, and Vera weren't the only humans on this island. "Please be my humans not other humans," she whispered as she landed down in the yard. "Roan? Vera? Jack?" No answer. But when she went to check the storage boxes she found that these things inside were made by Roan and Vera. "YES!", she cheered, she found them! She just had to wait for them to get back.

 

[Silverwings]

"What does it do?" She asked. It just looked like a big cat to her. She couldn't imagine anything too crazy. But she could be wrong.

"Well, we have the old camp set up for now. Vera and I have been there the last few days. We spawned pretty close. Our Cliffside base is nonexistent at this point." Roan said with a sigh. "Oh, and Meatloag is safe. She made it out alive. She's at the camp."

 

[Darkling0096]

"As long as everyone's alright," Jack smiled, and put an arm around Vera, "Whatever you do, don't try to get off the saddle." He turned Nike around to face the woods and she ran them into it, straight at a tree. The thyla coiled like a spring before jumping at it, and then they were climbing up the tree. "Pretty cool, huh?", he asked Vera with a smile. He had to hold the saddle and her, so he couldn't do anything else at the moment, but hang on. "She can climb just about anything, and watch this," the thyla turned around on the tree to face upside down, he pointed her at another tree, and launched at it, and then another, and so on, until they were back on the ground.

 

[Silverwings]

Vera squealed in excitement, "Where did you get this thing!"

Roan was impressed. This was quite the beast, "Nice."

 

[Darkling0096]

"She almost ate me," Jack laughed, he pointed out another in the trees, "They hide in the trees, you gotta be careful around here or you'll get eaten." He smiled and patted Nike's side, "Her name's Nike, goddess of Victory." He went back over to the raptors with Roan, "You wanna head back to the fort and see if we can find Anna?"

 

[Silverwings]

Vera nodded, "Yea, we should, so we can set you up a bed and all before we head back out."

"Good idea. Let's go back to camp." Roan agreed.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jack nodded, "Let's go then." Having two in the thyla saddle wasn't ideal for a long journey, so Vera had to get back on her raptor so they could travel again. Jack also showed in the watery bits that Nike was a good swimmer, "I don't think we're gonna have to worry about meat or hide for a while," Jack said once they were on the beaches again, "I wanna tame a few of these, have them with me when I leave the house!"

When they did get back to base, there was an unfamiliar pteranodon on top of the wall, wearing a saddle. "Is that..."

 

[Silverwings]

"Its gotta be," Vera said quietly.

"ANNA!" Roan called out, hopping off his raptor to run to the fort. It had to be her. It had to be.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Roan?", came Anna's voice inside the fort. They could hear someone scrambling down a ladder as the gate opened a crack, and Anna's face poked out, then lit up when she saw Roan. One second, he was running, the next he was on the ground with Anna on top of him, squeezing the lift out of him.

"That's Anna," Jack smiled.

 

[Silverwings]

Roan didn't mind. He hugged her just as tight. He kissed her cheek and smiled, "Youre ok."

"Well, looks like the teams all here. " Vera said with a smile, "But we are definitely not alone."

 

[Darkling0096]

"No, we are not," Jack shook his head, "I pulled Nike's saddle off of dead man's implant." He sighed and opened the gate to let Nike and the raptors in the old fortress.

Anna giggled and poked Roan's nose, "You don't get to hide from me like that anymore."

 

[Silverwings]

"Deal," He said softly before kissing her, "I missed you. I'm glad you're back."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Me too," Anna smiled and closed her eyes as they kissed, before getting off of him to let him up. "I think that's the last time we help, strangers, though."

"So," jack said, inside the fort once he turned Nike loose to go find somewhere to be, "How's the baby?"

 

[Silverwings]

Vera hung her head, "Its gone..."

"Probably a good idea," Roan agreed, "However, they did run right through our camp either way, we would have been screwed."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Gone?", Jack looked down at Vera's belly, even though she hadn't been pregnant long enough for a bump, "What do you mean 'gone'?" The gestation bar was gone, the baby was gone. They had mate hearts again, but everything else... gone. "No..."

"Come on," Anna smiled, "I gotta show you something about the flyers." She led him back into the camp and whistled for Beaky.

 

[Silverwings]

Silent tears fell on Vera's cheeks as she hugged herself. She sniffles, "The baby is gone.."

"Sure," Roan said and followed her. "Vera and I leveled our raptor to take out just about any large creature. Big guys hardly stand a chance."