Wazup y'all!

Been a while... heh...

Everybody takes breaks from things I'm sorry it's been so long. But the good news is we are back with chapter 8! Finally!

Please leave a review if you deem us worthy :)

(Care's perspective)

Oh. My. God.

"That is the biggest dino I've ever seen!" I exclaimed over the constant stomping.

"Yeah, and it's charging right for us!" Omni exclaimed as he rushed toward his Argy to get in closer.

As he was mounting Judge, the creature jumped with its front legs and stood on its hind legs for a moment before falling back down, creating a shockwave throughout the earth, cracking the battlement.

"I'll radio Thug and Mary for help," I announced.

"Good idea!" Mika exclaimed sarcastically.

I fumbled a bit with the radio before I sent the message: "Thug! Mary! Anyone, please respond! We are being attacked by a HUGE sauropod that has rocks or something all over it. We need help now! It's breaking down the battlements! Please hurry!"

I waited for about five seconds before someone responded.

"We'll be there soon, we've got some things to prepare. Just shoot it with arrows and lead it away from the base, but DO NOT get close to it."

"Ok, thanks Thug" I responded.

I put away the radio and got out my compound bow, Mika and Ash did the same.

I got on Blackbolt, Mika on Hawks, and I let Ash use Nightwing.

We were about twice the creature's height above ground when we shot our first arrows.

It barely seemed to be affected but it still got aggravated and slowly started to turn around to face us.

Omni then flew over to help, but when he shot his arrow the creature stomped and the shockwave knocked him off his mount. He fell hopelessly toward the forest below, just before a beam of red blue and green chased after him.

"Now I understand why Thug said not to get too close." I quipped.

"Then let's not shall we?" Mika exclaimed in a frustrated tone as she whistled Judge to go back to base.

We kept trying to lure it away from base with our metal arrows, but eventually, the creature started to ignore them.

"What do we do now?" Ask exclaimed.

"I've got a rocket launcher?" I suggested.

"Yes! Use that!" Mika exclaimed.

I loaded the RPG and fired. I aimed for the back of its neck since it was moving so much, but it turned around and the rocket hit it dead square in the face.

This caused the creature to make a pained shriek and chase after me.

"Nice shot!" I heard through the radio.

I then noticed a Quetzal flying in from the right with three cannons on its platform saddle.

"Keep shooting it in the face!" Thug said as he flew in closer.

I loaded another shot and aimed for the face this time. But it started to jump just after the rocket made contact, only hitting its neck.

Thug flew into our group and told Mika and Ash to board his Quetzal. They did so as Bria loaded the cannons.

Each of them mounted a cannon as Thug flew around the creature, I heard him telling the rest to aim for the head, and most of their shots made contact with its face.

I noticed every hit to the face seemed to put the creature into a daze for a moment and make it more tired over time.

I loaded my RPG again and fired. And fired. And fired. I missed every shot.

"This is really starting to piss me off!" I shouted.

"Then put the birds away before they get killed!" Mika shouted from the Quetzal.

I did so and met Omni at base.

"What is that thing?" He asked without noticing me behind him.

"No clue, but I think Thug does," I replied.

We just watched as the Quetzal swerved all around the creature. Then in the distance, I noticed a silver object flying at them.

"Ok ok, Omni, get a bunch of RPGs and rockets and aim for that thing's face ok?" I said in a hurry.

"Ok?" He said as he watched me scramble onto Blackbolt and take off.

I shot through the skies as fast as Blackbolt could do it.

As I got closer I started to see what the object was.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," I muttered as a Tek Griffin booked it for me.

I dodged its first dive-bomb, but when it came back it latched onto me, pulling me off of Blackbolt.

Blackbolt tried to chase after me but the Tek Griff was too fast.

I now had to deal with flying a million miles an hour a couple of hundred feet above ground, whilst being pecked at by a giant metal lion hawk!

I took out my shotgun and fired at its face to blind it, which was effective. Then I grabbed onto its leg and shot off its talons to set me free. Its pained metallic shriek was worse than nails on a chalkboard.

I then climbed onto its back and held on for dear life as it dove straight down to shake me off.

I slowly climbed closer and closer to the head. Once I was at its neck I took out the RPG I was using that probably is going to blow up after this.

I loaded it and rested the end on the back of the Tek Griffin's skull.

"Say goodnight!"

The explosion of both the rocket making contact and the RPG exploding, sent me so far through the sky Blackbolt still couldn't keep up with me.

Considering I knew I wasn't going to survive this, I whistled Blackbolt to fly back to base just before I broke my back on a tree.

I woke up at the base and rushed outside. Blackbolt was already at the base when I saw Omni in the distance on Judge, firing rockets at the creature, who is now a fair distance away.

I mounted Blackbolt and got to the scene as fast as I could.

"Thanks for your help back there, Care!" Thug called out from the Quetzal.

"Oh, you noticed? Ah, it was nothing." I joked.

"This last shot should do it," Omni said as he fired his RPG.

We watched the rocket make its way right for the creature's face, and then make contact.

As soon as this happened, the creature fell asleep but still stood.

Then, as if it was a very bizarre magic trick, Thug pulled the largest saddle I've ever seen out of his inventory.

Then he somehow put the entire platform saddle onto the creature. As soon as he did so it woke and seemed to be tame.

I landed beside him along with Omni behind me and asked, "What is this thing?"

"A Titanosaurus, the largest and the rarest creature on the ark. I've never actually seen one until today."

"If you've never seen one until today, how do you know so much about it?" I asked.

"There was a dossier writer that wrote about most creatures on the ark, her name was Helena. She was one of the ones who disappeared. She specified in one of her passages that the Titanosaurus was passive unless attacked."

"But, we never attacked the Titanosaur, so why did it attack us?" Omni asked.

Thug thought about that for a moment and walked toward the almost broken-down battlement.

He scanned the pounded down the ground and brushed away some flattened leaves to reveal a Tek Raptor.

"That explains it." He said, "The enforcer caused the attack by getting a Tek Raptor to attack the Titano and lead it to your base."

"And then when he saw he was failing he sent the Tek Griffin to attack you on the Quetzal." I realized.

"Well, free Tek is free Tek." Omni quipped as he pulled the Tek Raptor out of the ground.

"I wish I could've brought back the Griffin, those things are big." I mused.

"Don't worry, I'll be able to complete the armor sets with this." Omni mused.

"Thanks, I'm not the best at smelting and forging."

After we got back inside and smelted the tech with our new Industrial Forge, Omni created the chest plate and helmet for Ash's suit.

Then he placed it in the armory with the other three sets of Tek armor we created.

Omni, Mika, Ash, and myself all equipped our Tek armor.

"This is sweet." I mused.

"Here." Thug said as he each tossed us a handful of element chips. "Load those into your backpacks."

We each found the slot in our backpacks and put the chips through it.

Suddenly our visors booted to life with light and holographic information.

I stepped forward and turned on the jetpack setting.

I turned it on and shot 100 feet into the sky in a couple of seconds.

Then I rocketed back to the ground and smashed into the earth.

"I'm frickin Superman!" I exclaimed.

The others laughed and tried out their suit features as well.

All of us were flying around like kids with a new toy while Thug and Bria tended to their new monstrosity of a tame.

Once it was finally tamed, we actually got to get a better look at him. He was black with a beige underside along with his brown rock-like scales.

"What are you gonna name him?" I asked as I ground-pounded beside Thug.

"Mount Olympus, named after our tribe."

"You finally named the tribe?" I asked.

"The Olympians."

"Ooooh, that sounds cool." I mused.

"I know." He chuckled.

I then heard the screeches of Mary's hawk as they flew in.

"Amazing," she mused, "It must've taken all five of you to tame this beast."

"Six actually," Ash corrected.

"Ah, a new recruit."

"Old recruit, Ash was an old friend of mine in our first tribe but we got separated by raiders," Mika explained.

"I see, welcome back then."

"Hey uh, Mary?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"Can you show me how to… Y'know, breed things?"

"What creatures do you need?"

"Ummm, maybe big predators like Spino's and Rex's, stuff that's good for fighting the Guardians."

"The Guardians? Which one?" She asked.

"Whichever one is next, I guess."

"Ah, then that would be the Megapithicus, the giant gorilla."

"A gorilla?" I clarified.

"Yep."

"Is it any different from my gorillas other than size?"

"Ummm, well it can summon Yeti's and it throws giant rocks about the size of your house."

"Ooh fun," I muttered.

"What do we need to fight it in terms of tames?" I asked.

"Nothing that much different to what you would normally take to fight the Broodmother, but be mindful of the Megapithicus's attacks, his rock-throwing attack has range."

"Got it, thank you."

She nodded in reply and tended to her eerie Argy.

I walked over to the breeding pen and analyzed my options.

Should I breed Rex's? Spino's? Yetis? Maybe even Yuty's?

Then I got a brilliant idea.

(Omni's perspective)

I noticed Care bolt back out of the breeding area after just going in. I wonder if he's gone crazy yet.

"Where are you going?" I called out to him.

"Getting ready to kill a giant monkey!" He called back from atop Blackbolt as he took off.

I let him be and said bye to the others.

I walked back to my base with Caustic who's always with me, kind of like a bodyguard even though I can handle myself just fine.

We entered the cave and greeted the Arthro guards.

I immediately headed for the nursery to see how Nova was doing. But she wasn't there.

I whistled for her several times from the nursery, the hatchery, and even the highest peak of my settlement.

Then I noticed a small rainbow glow from within the crowd as it rushed onward toward the base of the tower.

It disappeared when it reached the base of my structure and surprised me when it suddenly sprung to the roof from the wall.

Nova was fully grown. Have I really been gone that long?

I petted her and gave her a slab of spoiled meat from my reservoir.

STAN rushed up behind her, for him I pulled out a small oil can from my inventory.

Then I took the two of them for a walk. We went to check on the artifact and then seeing it was safe we headed for the surface for some much-needed sunlight.

"Now that I've dealt with your friend's camp, it's time for yours to fall." the metallic voice monotoned.

"Again? Seriously, last time you tried this you lost one of your Tek scorpions." I sighed gesturing at STAN.

"I'm aware, but if a Tek Raptor and Tek Griffin were sacrificed for the destruction of that infernal base, then a simple scorpion will be a fine sacrifice for yours," he answered in a self-righteous tone.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but just like how STAN here survived and switched sides, so did that Titanosaur," I explained.

"... what?"

"We brought down the Titano and tamed it, the Griffin and Raptor however did not survive."

"You people just won't die!"

"Well, as survivors we're aptly named."

"That name will cease to have any meaning after today." he threatened, then with the snap of his fingers a Tek Giga appeared over the hill. Two Tek Carno's leaped down beside it and prevented us from returning to the cave.

"Really? That's a bit excessive, don't you think?" I asked.

"Well, what would you have me do?" he asked sarcastically.

"Maybe calm down, we've literally done nothing to you, so why do you hate us?"

Before he answered I noticed the figure with the feather cloak looking at us from further up the mountain.

"And only us," I added gesturing at the feather man.

"I am designed to challenge survivors, and you are dangerously close to destroying the entire Ark's ecosystem. So I have focused on defending the Overseer from you more than challenging other survivors."

"And what sets me apart from the others?"

"Your artifact."

"The thing in there?"

"Indeed."

"And what is it?"

"... it is my master's connections to the ark, in places far removed from the Obelisks."

"So… your master, the Overseer, uses both the Obelisks and Artifacts to control the ark, the obelisks cover a broad area while the Artifacts are only used in places where the Obelisks can not reach?"

"Yes."

"Is it bad that I've taken one?"

"... yes, my master still has control in this area, but only the power from my master can open the path to her chamber, something survivors are not meant to attain, however as the power still flows through the artifacts, the risk becomes less that he loses control of the ark, but more that other people have it."

"And the more artifacts a person has, the more control they'd have?"

"Indeed, so I ask that you not take them."

"Very well… what would I do with them anyway?"

"That's not something I can answer, but other people would disrupt the ecosystem with that kind of power."

"I understand, I know some survivors who would do exactly that. What if I myself also guarded this one?"

"You... you would assist me in the protection of the ark?" he inquired.

"Yes, but first, no more trying to kill me or my allied tribes."

He nodded almost immediately.

"And, our group of allied tribes has free access to leave this ark."

"I can't grant that, to do so would require the survivors prove themselves worthy of taking on the next ark; the next challenge."

"Well, then you don't interfere in our attempts to prove ourselves worthy."

"Very well." Then the Giga stepped backward and went down the hill. The Carno's also dispersed and left

"I'm very glad we've come to an agreement." he said, then his form dispersed into a cloud and flew away."

"Well… that went better than I expected." I joked to Stan and Nova.

Of course, they wouldn't understand anything that just happened, not that they'd be upset about the deal we'd just struck.

I returned to the cave with the two following me.

Instead of heading to the base, I turned to check on the artifact. The ceiling narrows just before what I've taken to calling the 'Artifact chamber' this forced myself to crawl under it on my belly and for Stan and Nova to coil their tails to the side.

Inside the glow shimmered around the room, it looked quite epic.

I looked around the room, it really wasn't a big chamber, there wasn't a lot I could do, my defenses in this room would have to be top-notch to account for the lack of space. I could fit maybe 4-5 Arthro's on the floor, that's about how big it was. This didn't leave much room for a mass army of spiders, scorpions, or Arthro's… turrets would fit, but with only a shield you could walk up and unplug them easily.

I decided to entertain the idea of turrets, I'd need a lot of them, and they'd need to be spaced out so you can only use a shield against one at a time, that way the others have an opportunity to target the infiltrator. However, someone who plans excessively has plenty of allies or is very cautious and strategic could still get in.

What if I could somehow combine the turret's size with the strength of bugs?

I tapped my chin as I thought about it, and the first thing I thought of was acid hurling turrets. I hurried back to the base and stood pouring over different blueprints for several hours, I was mostly looking at the Arthro saddle and the turret Blueprint, I wanted to see if I could find one item that was immune to the Arthro's acid. And the best place to find one would be the ingredients in its saddle.

Hide, fiber, wood, flint, and metal would easily melt away, but obsidian and cementing paste… those could work…

I'd need to make many prototypes, but first, I could simply have Caustic spit at some Cementing paste and some Obsidian.

…

I cleared an area of some bugs, simply by whistling for them to move a short distance away. Then I set up a small pile of obsidian and a small pile of cementing paste, beside those I also gathered some of the slime from the Achatina as it had similar properties to the cementing paste, and instead of grinding stones together for hours (not to mention the fact that a key ingredient is bug carapace), I could possibly have snails do my work for me.

I then commanded Caustic to spit at each of the piles in turn.

The acid splattered against the Obsidian, then the Cementing paste, and was also ineffective against the Achatina paste, it simply slid right off it. I then decided to make a pouch of obsidian and filled it with the acid, then

I redesigned a turret to spray acid as opposed to generic bullets.

I then set two up on either side of the entrance to the artifact chamber.

Then it was to set up normal turrets, the acid ones would melt any shields and armor and the basic turrets would dispose of whatever those shields and armor were protecting.

I took this opportunity to take my army of 15 Arthro's and slaughter everything nearby for food for my horde while I departed back to Care and Mika's base.

(Mika's perspective)

I just finished feeding the other creatures and decided to check on the monkeys out of boredom.

I then saw Sasquatch who is now fully grown, and a few inches taller than her own mother! That must be the Yeti half.

I played with them a bit before deciding to look for Care.

I looked in the house, nope. No dinos are missing… which leaves the breeding area.

I walked into the hatchery platform to see Care with two fireplaces lit, and four massive blue eggs in front of them.

"Uhhhh… Should I ask?"

"Oh Mika! Didn't see you there…" He said hurriedly.

"So I guess I do have to ask. What's this?" I asked skeptically.

"Two words: Giga. Eggs."

"WHAT?"

"I borrowed your Giga you never used and bred her with Berserk, these eggs will hatch in four days."

"You? Wha? Why? How?!" I ramble in utter dumbfoundedness.

"Yes, Giga eggs, because I can, and breeding." He said proudly, answering each of my rushed rhetorical questions.

"Dude! I've never seen… I… FOUR?"

"Yep. Took me five hours to get all four."

"Ok… Do you have any idea how crazy it would be to-"

"Have a six Giga army? Yes, I've contemplated it at length." He interrupted.

"Ok but… I've raised a Rex once or twice and it was so hard to keep that thing fed… I don't think I wanna know what kind of hell you are in for." I stated.

"Yeah, I've contemplated that too… I guess I'll build a few feeding troughs and go on meat runs constantly."

"That's not as easy as it sounds, y'know." I cautioned.

"Well, it's my only option. All the fridges we own are in use and any meat I gather now will be spoiled by the time the eggs hatch."

"You've really put some thought into this haven't you?" I asked.

"Each egg is 35 minutes apart for hatching which means I will need to dump a load of meat into the feeding troughs immediately to keep the first alive and then run off to do a meat run to come back when the second hatches filling the second trough. *big gasp* Then I need to do a second meat run but acquire as much meat as possible within the timeframe before the third hatches this way I will have enough meat for the new third baby and enough meat for the first who probably ate through their first load already and then I need to do a fourth and fifth meat run before the fourth baby hatches to ensure all previous babies have and will be fed along with meat for the new coming fourth baby Giga so if the physics of ark don't decide to screw with me then I should just barely be able to maintain the four babies.

Does that answer your question?"

"...Yeah it does," I responded, slightly intimidated for some reason.

"Well, I better get back to it." He said, throwing a large heap of wood equally into both fireplaces.

"Are you sure you don't need help? That sounds like a lot for one person."

"I'm sure you have more important things to do." He responded sincerely.

"I think this is pretty important…"

"I got it, Mika, don't worry about me." He replied in a grunt, removing charcoal from the fireplaces with difficulty considering their collective weight.

"Alright… Well if you need anything… "

"I'll ask."

"K great imma go do… something else… now…"

I walked out of the hatchery slowly and walked aimlessly around the base looking for something to do.

Crystal seemed to be in her own world messing around with her Compy's.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do, should I tame something? Should I gather resources?

Then I heard a knock at the door.

"Oh thank god another person." I sighed as I saw Omni on the other side of the door.

"Man, I leave for two seconds and people already start to lose their minds." He joked.

"Ha ha funny, I'm just bored and everyone else is busy."

"Care still addicted to those monkeys? He asked.

"Worse," I replied.

"...I'm afraid to ask…"

"You know what a Giganotosaurus is?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?"

"You know how all creatures have a reproductive system?"

"...Can you clarify that?"

"Eggs."

There was a moment of silence before Omni figured it out.

"No. No no no you're kidding."

"Four."

"FOUR?"

"My thoughts exactly."

Omni burst past me and speed-walked over toward the hatchery.

Once he burst through the door and saw the eggs he simply said, "Ok now I believe you."

"AGH!" Care exclaimed, "Stop doing that! Knocking exists for a reason!"

"I'm telling you, he's lost it," I whispered to Omni.

"I haven't lost it. I'm just dedicated to the survival of these eggs."

"I mean I get that…" Omni trailed off.

"Huh? You're actually siding with him?" I asked.

"Well… raising a baby is important to every owner. I know how he feels."

"OH MY GOD I FORGOT! NOVA!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Please tell me you brought him."

"Her." He corrected, "and yes I did bring her."

"Yay!" I exclaimed at a high pitch I did not know I could reach.

As we walked back Omni said, "I'm surprised you want to see a baby scorpion so badly, normally bugs gross you out."

"Well, all babies are cute in their own way."

"What about Araneo's?" He joked.

"Ok, you got me there." I laughed in return.

We then walked out the entrance to see a glowing scorpion at the entrance, but she was already fully grown.

"Awww… I thought you said it was still a baby."

"I actually never said that." He corrected.

"She's still kinda cute though, I love her colors," I said admiring her rainbow color scheme change continuously.

"Me too, I wonder what her ability is."

"She has an ability?"

"Well most eeries we've encountered have some sort of ability, even though Mary said they didn't, so I assumed only some Eerie creatures have abilities. Hopefully, Nova has one too."

"It would be pretty cool." I agreed.

Out of desperation to continue the conversation I asked, "So what's new in the caves these days?"

"Meh, nothing much I guess. The bugs keep multiplying which is pretty much the norm."

"Cool, cool."

"Do you seriously have nothing to do? You seem more bored than ever." Omni chuckled.

"Nothing that I really wanna do… I normally do stuff with Care. He's really fun."

"Sure let's call it that." Omni joked.

"You seem in good spirits? Has anything happened recently?"

"Actually now that I think of it… Yeah."

…

We sat at the table in the house on the beach in our base.

"So that's just it? The Enforcer is just gonna leave us alone now?" I asked.

"I guess, he trusts me with the artifact so I have to trust him with keeping his word."

"Well now that he's not against us anymore, does that mean..?"

"Doomsday." Omni read my mind, "I had not thought of that at the time I was setting ground rules with him. He doesn't seem to be a very agreeable… entity."

"We should at least try though, Doomsday was really important to Care."

"Not to be negative, but I don't think it's going to happen, Doomsday is basically the most powerful creature in this ark right now. Besides, with Care happening, we may get four more other normal Giga's. That should trump any other Tek boosted Giga."

"Yeah I guess, but I'm still gonna confront him eventually. Don't tell Care about this yet. I don't want him to get his hopes up."

"Fair enough."

We talked a bit more, about the Enforcer, the Overseer, what their game is. If there even is a game.

I decided I had enough, the Enforcer was giving me answers whether he liked it or not.

I took four of our Allo's, two gas masks, and Kong considering he was bored with Care being preoccupied. I even brought Nymeria just in case.

We dashed through half the Island with ease toward the Redwoods, and once we reached the biome I searched for the Immune cave.

Once we arrived, the Allo's guarded the entrance while me, Kong, and Nymeria slaughtered the entire inhabitants of the cave.

I then took the artifact and waited at the entrance.

It didn't take more than five minutes for the Enforcer to show up.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked in his deep voice.

"Took you long enough," I said throwing the artifact to him.

He caught it. Even though he didn't have a face, he still looked surprised.

"What is the meaning of this, we have a truce."

"I just wanted to talk. This seemed like the best way to get your attention." I replied condescendingly.

"Fine then, what do you want to discuss?" He said.

"Give me back my Giga."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." He replied.

"I wasn't asking."

"You're willing to break a truce for one Giganotosaurus?" He asked almost mockingly.

"What do you want with him, you stole him from us."

"He has been a reliable asset to my master's arsenal."

"Then make a new one! Give me back my Giga!"

"We cannot give you back your Doomsday without threatening the ecosystem of the ark. Only I can control it properly."

"I'm pretty crafty, I'm sure I'll figure something out," I replied, even more angered at this point.

"I cannot give you what you want."

"So let me get this straight." I start, "You steal our own Giga, buff it up with Tek, and now that we are allied you're just gonna sit back and say 'suck it' while you play around with our tame just because we might threaten the ecosystem?"

"I would not have used those exact words but yes you are correct."

I punched him in the face.

"Your reaction is understandable but unwise. Further violence will lead to the disassembly of our alliance, and eventually your death."

"Don't worry, we are done here," I announced bitterly as I marched toward one of my Allo's and mounted it.

"Oh, and one more thing," I called from atop Artemis.

"You're master is so screwed."

…

(Care's perspective)

Giga eggs. Hatching. Need meat. Soon.

"This is fine. This is fine. This is fine." I say to myself as I rush around constantly refueling the fireplaces.

"You good bro?" Omni asked as he barged in, almost startling me again.

"Egg hatching soon! I got about five minutes! Get meat!" I call out.

"Uhhh, ok yeah sure." He said as he left to do what I asked.

I was rushing back and forth from the forest and the hatchery gathering wood until I noticed the first egg cracking.

I don't have meat in my inventory.

"Omni! Code red! Egg hatching! Get back now!" I called out through the radio.

"On my way!" He responded.

"You guys good?" Crystal asked.

"Egg talk! Can't hatching!" I hurriedly responded without thinking.

"I'm not even gonna ask," Bria remarked through the radio.

I watched intently as cracks formed in the egg and surprisingly large claws (for a baby anyway) broke through the shell.

The baby Giga eventually emerged fully and I claimed it. It was about the height of a Raptor but the girth equivalent of a juvenile Rex.

It was a female with a beautiful iridescent green and black color scheme.

The name 'Indominous' came to me when I saw her, so I named her that.

It looked to me expecting something, probably food. But Omni wasn't back yet.

I tried petting it but it snapped at me in return, she was getting ravenous.

Omni then burst through the door.

"I'm here!" He said out of breath.

"Give!" I called out with my hand splayed toward him.

He tossed me a slab of meat for me to throw to Indominus. Once I did so she calmed down immensely.

She horked down the slab in two seconds, literally.

Omni dumped all of his meat into the feeding trough… but Indominous wouldn't go near it, she kept expecting me to provide her the meat directly. (1)

I then realized what the problem was, she was too young to eat from the trough. The only way for her to eat was from the parent, in this case, me.

"Dude, I will be forever in your debt if you were to go on meat runs for me. They can't eat from the troughs yet." I begged.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Omni responded as he rushed out the door.

I then began to take a slab of meat from the pile and constantly feed her for the next half an hour.

Once the next egg started to crack Omni came back with an even bigger haul.

I then had to individually feed both Giga's at the same time, this was excruciating. (2)

Once Omni came back with the third haul, the third egg was starting to hatch.

The egg hatched two minutes later… with twins.

"That was unexpected," I muttered in defeat.

"I'll go get meat."

Thankfully Indominous was now grown enough to recognize the food in the feeding trough, so I only needed to feed three baby Giga's by hand.

I say that like it makes much of a difference.

Then Mika comes in.

"How's the eggs comi- OH!"

"Go get meat! I'm desperate!"

"You got it dude!" She replied in haste as she rushed out.

After they both came back with meat and the second Giga was a juvenile, I filled the second trough and refilled the first trough, this left me with two stacks for the twins.

I fed them both stacks in exactly 160 seconds.

I checked all four of the Giga's stats and saw that their hunger was increasing rapidly even though I literally fed them tons of meat collectively.

"Guys? Running out of time here!"

"I'm going as fast as I can! We've killed so many creatures it's hard to find them now!" Mika exclaimed.

"Same here, we might get back in a couple of minutes," Omni replied.

Then I heard roaring outside.

This could not be worse timed.

As creatures began clawing at our metal behemoth battlement door, I ran up to it, set the fully grown Giga's and Rex's on aggressive, and opened the door.

Three wild Rex's burst through only to be greeted in kind, Berserker and Mika's unnamed Giga shoved them back out of the base and killed them soon after.

As this all happened, the third egg hatched.

Mika and Omni rushed back in with all eight Allo's nearly encumbered.

"What happened?" Mika asked, referring to the Giga's with Rex legs hanging out of their jaws.

"Doesn't matter." I replied, defeated, "we don't have enough meat for this."

They both came back into the hatchery with me to see the fourth egg, which birthed triplets.

"I can save the twins with the meat you brought, but… I don't know about these three."

"Let's at least try, don't give up on them yet." Mika encouraged.

I nodded and began feeding them some of the meat Mika and Omni gathered.

Once the meat was depleted and all four troughs were filled again, the triplets started to starve.

Omni and Mika came back saying that there was literally nothing left nearby.

"We hunted all the way to the swamp, creature respawns are too slow for us to get enough food for all three. Maybe we can save at least one?" Omni suggested.

"Not if we want to keep the other four alive too," I replied.

"So we just let them starve?" Mika asked.

"No, I'll never forgive myself if I let them die like that, we should just put them out of their misery," I replied somberly.

"So we take them outside and shoot them?" Omni clarified.

"You got a better idea? Cause I'm open to suggestions."

"You're sure you can't even save one?" Mika asked sadly.

"I wish I could."

After a moment of silence, we heard the triplets begin to whine.

"I'll get STAN," Omni said as he left the hatchery.

"Crystal, get the rifles," I said through the radio.

…

We then placed three gravestones without names outside the base.

"They weren't even alive for more than an hour." I choked out.

"Well… look on the bright side, we have four well-fed Giga's," Omni stated.

"Thank you for helping me, I couldn't have kept the others alive without you guys."

"No problem," Mika replied.

"I'm holding you to it though, you are currently in my debt."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," I replied with a forced chuckle.

We took this opportunity to go on one more meat run which took forever considering we wiped out the entire northern part of the island.

Once we came back, Indominus was about to become an adolescent with the twins about a foot shorter, yet still the same size as a Rex.

I walked into the house and sat at the large table in the center room.

I pondered over everything, what we lost, what we gained, what we hoped to achieve…

Then Omni walked in.

"Hey, you doing alright man?" He asked

"Yeah, I'm alright I guess."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"What is there to talk about? You've been an eyewitness to everything that's happened to me- us. We need to focus on what we need to do next. I'm done with this stupid ark."

"Fair enough, I'll get the others." He replied as he left the room.

…

We gathered in the house to discuss our next move.

"Now our next move is obviously to kill the Megapithecus and Dragon. But what happens then?" Mika asked.

"I don't know if I ever mentioned this but, there was a woman that took the artifact that I ran into," Omni mentioned.

"Autumn." Thug cut in.

"Yeah… how'd you know?"

"You mentioned it a while back, but she also disappeared a few days ago. Normally she asks for the book every week or so when she's found new creatures. This time she's been pretty much non-existent. I'm afraid that's not an exaggeration."

"What happened with Autumn?" I asked Omni after a moment.

"She said there was a 'gate' to the Overseer in the volcano."

"How would she know that?" Mika asked.

"She was always a frantic explorer. I'm sure she has her sources." Thug replied generically.

"Ok, so we kill the next two Guardians and then the Overseer. Then what?" I asked.

We all pondered that for a moment.

"From what I understand, the Overseer keeps everything in good condition, it ensures everything works as it should, if we kill it, then we kinda doom the entire ark." Omni mentioned.

"So do we leave it alone?" Mika asked.

"Wait a minute." I started, "Remember how people started disappearing randomly?"

"Yeah?" Thug responded.

"What if that was them fighting the Overseer? The Obelisks obviously can't see into the cave and there probably aren't any artifacts down there so how would people respawn?"

"The Enforcer said that he could not grant me the ability to leave the ark when I asked for it. He said that we would have to prove ourselves worthy and move on to the 'next challenge' on our own. Maybe these other missing people… weren't good enough." Omni continued.

"Or they were," Mary added from the other end of the room.

"So… defeating the Overseer could be our ticket outta here?" I asked, beginning to get excited.

"Let's not get our hopes up, we don't even know who, or what, this Overseer is. We have no idea how to defeat it and with what tames." Omni stated.

"Fair, but the others who disappeared went through the same situation, and possibly succeeded," Mika added.

"Agreed, it may be the only way to leave this ark." Thug replied.

"Thug, Bria, Mary, Crystal, Ash, have any of you already defeated the next two Guardians?" I asked.

"I have defeated the Megapithecus, the Dragon however was too strong for my forces," Mary replied.

"I took down the Dragon with Bria, but it came with great cost," Thug added.

"I only killed the Broodmother with Penny," Crystal added.

"I killed the Broodmother as well with another tribe that marooned me shortly after," Ash explained.

"So then let's do this, Crystal and Ash will come with Omni Mika and myself for the Megapithecus battle tomorrow, and then Mary will join us for the Dragon battle. Once the Guardians are defeated all eight of us will fight the Overseer together." I stated.

"Sounds good," Ash said as she left the room with Mary.

I then sat back down at the table and continued pondering.

Omni and a few others noticed again and attempted to comfort me.

"What you thinking about bro?" Omni asked.

"Y'know, I believe that everything is created. Whether by man or by a higher being. I wonder though, what in the hell created this place." I started, "It doesn't make any sense, this place is so random, new creatures appear all the time, and even time itself is screwed up. I mean, there's a border around the Island for crying out loud! What if…" He trailed off.

"I see where you're going with this..." Mika replied.

"I think it's aliens." Crystal butted in.

"Someone get her a tinfoil hat!" Omni shouted.

"I mean… that would explain the physics-defying supply drops and artifact crates." Thug remarked.

"And one more for him!" Omni joked.

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, I'm gonna go prepare for tomorrow," Mika stated.

"I'll join you," Omni stated as the rest of us followed him out.

Once we left I noticed Mary saddling up her eerie Argy.

"Hey!" I called out to her as she mounted it.

"What's up?" She asked in return.

"Do you think we can take the Mega?" I asked.

"Oh please, you've got more Tek creatures than anyone else in history. You'll be fine." She laughed as she took off.

As I walked toward the others, I gazed over all our tames. From our Troodons to the two mighty Giga's with their babies outside the hatchery.

I then took in a deep breath of air and said to myself, "Time to kill a giant monkey."

(1) If you are like me and have dealt with the pain of feeding a baby Giga, then you will understand this. All baby creatures will not recognize a feeding trough until they become a juvenile in-game, so for us Giga breeders, we would have to live in their inventory constantly replenishing their max inventory with 7 or 8 slabs of meat literally every two seconds. (That's exactly how long it really takes for them to eat one slab of meat)

(2) As is mentioned in the summary of this story, most of it is based on true gaming events (other than the obvious stuff like the enforcer and Tek creatures). This exact scene where Care is jumping in between two baby Giga's inventories actually happened to me. Trust me when I say that this was TRULY excruciating.