So, I was on an island inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, which was actually on a space station orbiting an Earth that was covered in evil crystal matter (well, crystal-esque matter) that essentially created a horde of zombies.

'Pretty much,' noted Celm. 'And I apologize if my psychic communications scared you.'

Eh, I could deal with this.

...Wait, could I get a specimen implant? I mean, those did help you get all the tech in ARK, and I had a feeling I could not bring my commander here.

'You have a point. Be warned, this will hurt. A lot.'

Then I will scream. A lot.

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One horrifying scream later.

Eh, even if that had hurt beyond description, I had endured worse. Now to get to work on trying to survive. At least I had Vivian to help.

...Why was she staring at me that way. We hadn't show up in just our underwear, and I could tell for a fact that there were no dinosaurs trying to eat me.

"Not looking at you, my former pawn. You should look behind you."

Into the ocean, why...oh.

Well, that was funny.

Note: apparently the very friendly Basilosaurus had its limits - namely, don't steal its fish, as one unlucky Pelagornis found out the hard way. Said bird was now soaring into the distance, owing first to being body slammed and then tail-slapped by the primitive whale.

This did not stop another Pelagornis from trying the same thing, only to promptly suffer the same fate. This one, however, ended up pancaking a dodo as it landed.

As the giant bird moved to fly away, I turned my attention toward the accidental kill it had made...and the various scavengers roaming the beach. I could already see some Dilop hosaurus searching for food.

Time to start taming dinosaurs.

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My initial plan was to try and capture one of the Dilophosaurus and gradually earn its respect via snacks. That plan got slightly derailed when I decided to pick up some berries for a snack, and promptly find a hairy dinosaur trying to steal them - a Pegomastax, if I remembered correctly. The somewhat ugly looking dinosaur somehow managed to give me puppy-dog eyes, which netted it a berry. This promptly made it decide I was a friend, and it began to use my shoulder as a new vantage point. Somewhat annoying, but it immediately started repaying me by gathering a bunch of seeds from the nearby bushes. Also, Vivian thought it looked cute, and to a degree, so did I.

One of the Dilos tried to eat my new companion, earning it a punch to the face, then a piece of dodo meat. Plan Tame a Dilo then went exactly as planned.

Also, I somehow got enough experience to 'level up' - several times, in fact. It was weird being in a non-magical universe where experience points were a thing. Oh well.

After a moment of thought, I quickly selected the engrams I wanted and started building up a base - I highly doubted we were alone on this island, so getting a camp set up for new arrivals would be paramount. Plus I wanted a bed to sleep in. Preferably bunk beds so Vivian and me wouldn't have to fight over where to sleep.

Now let's get to work!

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-POV Shift: Vivian-

I watched as the piranhas tried to tear at me, only to easily get their skulls caved in. The carnivorous fish clearly thought we were appetizing, but sadly for them, we could easily fight them off.

My former pawn had managed to build us a small thatch home to last for the first night we spent on the island, though he had made a point of assembling two separate rooms for sleeping in, alongside sleeping bags. I assumed he was worried that Celempheros or one of my former coworkers would steal our clothes in the night to create a moment of awkwardness between the two of us - not that I would have cared. The Commander was naturally on the thin side, and even his time in the world of Monster Hunter had done little to amend that.

Though his fears about getting his clothes stolen had been vindicated. Fortunately, we at least got confirmation that they were simply returned to our hubs, and Celm had made sure that said theft had been the limit of humiliation put upon us.

Eh, my Commander needed to learn to make clothes for himself at some point. Better sooner than later.

The next day we spent on the ARK consisted of trying to gather as many supplies as possible, and converting our small camp into a 'tribe' of sorts, if only because this island was a big place, and having accommodations for others was polite, if nothing else.

Slowly, we tamed more animals - I managed to convince an otter and a dodo to come over to our side, while Flame managed to net a Dimorphodon and Hesperornis for our cause. We buffed that up further when an errant raptor tried to eat a parasaur, only for an angry stego to try and swat down both before getting killed by a wandering allosaur pack, which wisely decided to drag their kill way to eat in peace. Those two critters made our lives a lot easier - having a decent combat mount and a pack-animal made it far easier to carry supplies to and from our base.

And all of that in one day. Wow.

...Eh, this kind of luck was normal for Commanders. Odds are tomorrow we'd have to deal with a Giga trying to eat our base.

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-POV Shift back to Flameal15k-

The next day...

I stared at the Rex.

Then I stared at the Spino.

Then I looked to Vivian, who was staring at the absolutely mangled carcass of a Giganotosaur.

Looking up from the carcass she was currently butchering, Vivian gave me a knowing glance.

"So, are you going to tame them?"

"Um, yes?"

"Okay. Dibs on the Spino."

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!