Hey all, this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic at all. I'm not an experienced writer, so constructive criticism is more than welcome. The story will be updated sporadically, as I have the memory of a goldfish. To all of my readers that have played ARK, (which I'm assuming you have) I will keep the story completely in line with all mechanics of the game. Well...besides the glitches, unless almost everyone wants it...but I don't want another "Matrix with dinosaurs" thing. The series will start on the Island, going in order of expansion releases. Custom maps can be included at the mod author's request(but I doubt any will even read this). Enough rambling, let's jump in!
Prologue-The Beginning of the End
January 17, 20XX
Secluded Neighborhood
Oregon
The figure stirred in bed as the sun glared through the window. It was the beginning of another day. He had no idea what was coming. As usual, the TV was blaring the news, and his parents were getting ready to go to work. The boy glanced at his clock. 7:30. "Crap." he mumbled to himself. "Not like I can get ready for school in a half an hour." The TV downstairs wasn't blaring the news anymore. Strange. He turned to look at the TV, and it was broadcasting a national emergency. In red text the TV was scrolling something about the Earth becoming uninhabitable within 2 months...and then the reason was just a bunch of university-level math and science mumbo-jumbo. All he got out of it was "something something climate change something something pollution something something next mass extinction". He wasn't smart enough to understand most of it. But he was smart enough to understand something was up. His dad had recently been having massive asthma attacks, and it was burning hot outside. In winter. That did not make sense. The whole family was of a skeptical sort, but all this combined spelled one thing. Humanity's doom. The next day there was hysteria in the streets, and the reporter was laughing like crazy. When another person tried to calm him down, he ripped off his clothes and yelled "Fuck life! Yay!" Soon after, the channel was taken down due to technical difficulties. The boy's mother and father took him to the dinner table to have a talk, when all of a sudden...
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
There were three strange alien-looking artifacts embedded in the driveway. Something clearly had a plan. The boy walked closer, and a holographic keyboard appeared out of nowhere with a prompt. "Enter your preferred name." These aliens somehow knew English. The mother and father approached the other two respectively. They entered their names.
Karri.
Robert.
As they pressed ENTER on the keyboard, the artifacts opened up to reveal a padded interior. The boy then noticed the thrusters on the bottom. "I think that some alien race is trying to save us!" the boy announced. Karri was perplexed. "How do you know that this isn't some trap?" "I've watched enough sci-fi movies that I just know these kinds of things. And besides, there are thrusters on it too." Robert already knew they were dead anyway. "Look, we're going to die. We may as well go out making a discovery." "Then what's with the thrusters?" the boy asked. "Maybe you're right..." Robert replied. Karri retorted with "Only one way to find out." They climbed inside the pods. All of a sudden, they took off into the sky at blinding speed! The boy realized he hadn't yet entered his name. He tapped the name of his online persona onto the keyboard. That's who he wanted to be.
Skitter.
He pressed ENTER and climbed inside. There was only one button inside. Unlabeled. It was green and glowing. He pressed it. The pod took off with the same blinding speed. All of a sudden, he heard a strange mechanical noise. There was a gray tube with a nasty looking needle on the end. And it was looking right at him. "Oh...cra-" He didn't finish his sentence before the needle entered his arm and everything went black.
"Hmm...the mind-wipe system has had a 100% efficiency, before those three. They just refuse to let go of memories of each other." "Maybe they are family." "Separate them. The specimens cannot have memories of their past lives."