It wasn't a long ride back to the village—with Ignis flying at full speed the ride didn't last more than an hour. Ruggar soon saw the familiar walls of the city. The capital of the Mars tribe was situated in the canyons, surrounded by natural bridges and sloping ledges. It was one of the most defensible sites in the desert—the canyons held a lake and was isolated from the harsh wilds with natural walls. The tribe had reinforced those natural defenses by building adobe walls up to the bridges and placing sentry stations on top, manned by golem wranglers. Automatic turrets whirred to life to scan the two incoming wyvern riders. Ruggar and Salamis' ID numbers were checked against the tribal database and once they were cleared the turrets returned to standby mode. Salamis settled Venom into the wyvern pens while Ruggar landed Ignis outside the infirmary. Sensors on the infirmary's landing pad alerted the medics to their guest and Ruggar was greeted with a stretcher. The veteran soldier eased the woman he found off of his wyvern and onto the stretcher and watched as they wheeled her into the building.
Figuring there was nothing else he needed to do there, Ruggar whistled for Ignis to follow and led him back into the wyvern pens. Salamis was long gone by then—likely checking the main square in the hopes that he didn't entirely miss the trader's visit. Ignis was quick to hop into the pens and return to his own kind. The tribe didn't have too many wyverns to begin with—only two of each kind—since wyverns were dangerous to collect and even more dangerous to raise. Ignis turned back around to his master and looked at him with a pant that made it seem like he was smiling. Ruggar let a rare smirk show on his face. He thought Ignis looked like a happy puppy whenever he did that. Knowing exactly what the fire wyvern was looking for, Ruggar walked over to the feeding trough and pulled out a slab of raw meat. He pulled his arm back and flung it full force toward Ignis. The fire wyvern leapt off of the ground and caught it midair, munching on his snack as he went back to socializing with the other wyverns.
"It's always good to see a rider with such a strong understanding of his mount." A voice called behind Ruggar. The rider turned around to see his superior, Shyomi, standing behind him. Her hardened desert armor shone like a lightning wyvern on fire in the setting sun. It's customary for wyvern riders to dye their armor according to the color scheme of their mounts, so it's harder for enemy snipers to differentiate rider from mount. Ruggar's own gear was black with red highlights to complement Ignis. Wyvern Brigade Captain Shyomi walked up to the edge of the pen next to Ruggar as her lightning wyvern Elecktryia walked up to the side of the pen to greet her.
"I know wyverns are a bit of a special case," Shyomi said as she gave Elecktryia a scratch under her chin. "But I know too many other riders look at their mounts as only war weapons, and then complain why their commands are never obeyed. I'm glad you are not one of them."
"Thank you, ma'am." Ruggar replied sharply. He had nothing but respect for Shyomi. After all, she was one of the tribe's heroes. She once fought off an entire enemy ambush on some of the tribe's workers with nothing but her wyvern and her handgun by funneling them through the dusty ravines northeast of the red obelisk. She had little supplies—like water and ammo—to last the onslaught, not to mention nowhere near enough space to maneuver Elecktryia. But she prevailed without losing any of the workers—and such shows of strength and resilience get one far in the desert.
"How was the mission?" Shyomi asked. Ruggar opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the sound of the city's bell tower chiming. The city's jerboas must have sniffed out an incoming sandstorm.
"Come." Shyomi gestured for him to follow. "We can talk in the war room while we wait out the storm."
The war room of the Mars tribe was an attachment off of city hall at the base of the lake at the center of the settlement. Trophies of tyrannosaurus arms, wild argent talons, and the occasional wyvern talon served as decorations on the walls. A wardrum stood at each of the four corners for visual effect. A long wooden table sat at the center of the room with a war map hanging on the nearby wall.
"All right." Shyomi began as she leaned on the table. "Walk me through what happened." Ruggar explained the events of the mission while especially noting the deathworm's odd behavior around the woman.
"That is definitely something I hadn't heard of before." Shyomi said as she grabbed the war room's radio and started paging the infirmary. "The deathworm attacked you just fine, so it wasn't sick or injured. I really wonder if it had something to do with that woman."
"Do you think she tamed it, ma'am?" Ruggar asked. It was a bit of a ridiculous question, since anyone who has ever tried to tame a deathworm has ended up killed—but then again this was a bit of a ridiculous situation.
"No, you said it killed that morellatops." Shyomi replied. "That wouldn't have happened if she tamed it." The infirmary responded, however the signal was weak due to the sandstorm outside. They reported the woman wasn't awake yet, but they ran the survival ID on her implant and she does not belong to any known tribe—nor any nomadic caravan.
"I don't like this." A voice called from behind the door to city hall. It slammed open to reveal Farwinter, the army general of the Mars tribe. He was never really well liked due to his skeptical nature and harsh tactics, but everyone viewed such behavior was a necessity in the desert so others could have the luxury of a comfortable life. Both Ruggar and Shyomi instantly saluted as he walked into the war room. "I got a report from Salamis." Farwinter continued. "Why are we bringing someone who even a deathworm wouldn't touch within our walls? And her ID doesn't check out? I want her out of this city the moment she's awake and ready."
"You're the one who told me to send my men to retrieve her, sir." Shyomi seemed a little frustrated, but was careful not to show too much of it in her voice.
"The Chief has been talking to his ovi." Farwinter gave an annoyed shrug. "I had to follow my own orders, however absurd they were." Ruggar gave a slight nod. The Chief of the tribe held on to the ages old religion of worshipping the gods of the obelisks. Not everyone agrees with the religion—General Farwinter was a good example—but the general majority of the tribe did. The religion also believed that the wild sheep that appear near the obelisks had the ability to hear the gods, and as such were revered as great oracles. The tribe had a small herd for sacrificial slaughter and prophetic guidance that only the Chief was allowed to handle. An ovis must have predicted the woman's arrival and so the Chief must have commanded General Farwinter to retrieve her. The war room's pinging radio brought Ruggar out of his thoughts. Captain Shyomi pressed the talk button.
"Go ahead." She said.
"Captain!" It was one of the medics at the infirmary. "She's awake."
I'm back! So as you can see I decided to continue! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, favorite, and the like. So I hadn't touched my copy of ARK since the first chapter went up until like last week, and holy smokes did I miss a lot of updates. First I had to sit through some 150 gigabytes worth of updates (with spotty Internet connection), then I opened it up to what felt like hundreds of new dinos with new tools and basically new everything. These updates came with new canon and lore that completely nullified my original plot for this story. So I've been spending a ton of time redoing all my research on Scorched Earth and acclimating to the new feel of the game's atmosphere for this fic. I think I have a new plot that I can run with now, but I won't be surprised if Wildcard sends out new lore by the time I'm done writing the fic.
ARK's storyline got a whole lot more interesting, but for now enjoy the new chapter!
~RisingPhoenix56
