Carefully, I inserted the final bullet into the magazine. A moment later, said magazine was inside of my designated ammunition crate, which was filled to the brim with ammunition for my planned assault on Broodmother Lysrix.
Fun fact - apparently the engram for crafting rifle bullets also included the magazines. An unexpected, yet not unwelcome discovery.
It'd taken quite a while, but we'd stockpiled enough mounts, weapons, and medicine to face off against the Broodmother. Tomorrow at dawn, we would join our allies at the Green Obelisk and face the beast. Just getting here was hard enough - we'd had beat the crap out of so many critters that we had enough meat to last a few months assuming our preserving bins and fridges didn't break down, including slaughtering a few brontos in the name of stealing their vertebrae (because I was worried diplo vertebrae wouldn't be enough to satisfy the obelisk).
I'd secured enough ammunition that I could probably level a good-sized military base, gathered enough creatures to stomp said base into dust, and with our various allies, had enough able bodies to occupy what was left. Ironically, I was fairly certain people was the rarest resource we had - at most we had fifty people between our tribes, so if the implants somehow failed, we were screwed. Oh, and apparently the implant was also suppressing my various powers I'd gained from my travels, somehow. Annoying, but not unmanageable.
Closing up the storage crate, I made my way back to my bed - a good-night's sleep would be especially important for defeating a spider that seemed to make Shelob look small. Plus it just felt nice. Comfy beds were always my weakness.
As I made my way through our base, I watched as the night-creatures went about their lives. Dire wolves, hyenadon, troodon, and megalosaurs patrolled our campsite, looking for any intruders to devour. Giant bats, meanwhile, searched for prey in the skies, and acted as aerial sentries for our ground-based guardians. Finally, spiders went about climbing trees and trying to argue with our scorpions over where to rest. Meanwhile, pegomastax, achatina, and megaloceros were taking the opportunity to feast on plants while most of their predators were asleep. I watched, somewhat amused, as a titanoboa coiled itself around a fire, and not-so-subtly trying to push aside a megalania doing the same.
Smiling, I made my way into my designated house and stepped inside. Vivian was already passed out, sleeping peacefully in her bunk, arm hanging over the edge, with a dimorphodon curled up on her stomach. Wordlessly, I repositioned her hand back onto the bed, then climbed into my bunk up top. After calmly making sure there were no unwanted sleepers in said bed, I curled up and readied for sleep.
The compy that promptly snuck into my bunk was a mild discomfort, but honestly, I didn't mind.
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Kathikon watched as her creator and commander dreamed peacefully about dinosaurs, robots, and his upcoming battle with an overgrown spider.
No, she did not take pictures of said commander cuddling with a compy while Vivian did the same with a dimoph - the images Synais possessed were forgeries, like so many other images he had of her doing compromising things. Any indication that some of them were genuine was swiftly nipped in the bud.
Still, she had to admire her master's determination and diligence - deprived of his best construction tools, he'd instead assembled a base using only a combination of blood, sweat, tears, and an implant that allowed him to store everything. Somehow. The ARK was weird that way.
Turning her attention away from her commander's adorable antics, Kathikon watched as the various T-Dolls milled about, being somewhat listless. Synais had broached the idea of having them assist the Commander in taking down the Ultimate Lifeforms on the Island, and much to Kathikon's surprise, not only had Fide supported it, but so had Kathikon herself. She'd also approved of Synais essentially mailing them in during their attack on the Broodmother, which was admittedly a crazy idea, but help was always appreciated.
Of course, they were hardly the only issue that the trio had to contend with - many of the new arrivals from the portal storm were also in need of aid. The Legions, Warborn, Chosen, and Wu Lin were just one subset of this. Taken from an Earth that had been rearranged by some titanic cataclysm around 1000 AD, these knights, vikings, samurai, and Imperial Chinese were now dealing with a situation they were not prepared for - finally being free of the war that had plagued them for literally their entire existence. The four had settled on various parts of Origin, as well as other worlds in the Hub, with portals to connect them, but she could tell they had feelings of confusion controlling them. The Legions had taken up residence in a montane region that they had named New Ashfeld (hard to blame them), the Warborn in a region they had designated Avenheim, the Chosen in an area they had decide to name the Yoake wetlands (which was certainly more livable than the Mire they originated from), and lastly, the Wu Lin had claimed what they called the Silent Forest (Jìjìng de sēnlín in their tongue) as their own. Ironically enough, the four were the primary trading partners they dealt with, since they were the only ones in the Hub who they had some familiarity with. They had also made inroads with others on the hub, mainly those from Cetus who had enough similarities to the Chosen for the warriors and their peoples to be willing to lower their guard with. Still, the scars that Apollyon had left on them had yet to fade.
Knowing what kind of peoples that the Commander was likely to encounter on the ARK, Kathikon had a feeling that they were going to soon find kindred spirits joining them. Also, it was rather impressive that they were getting along so well already - though the scars that Apollyon had created were still yet to fade, it seemed that they would indeed fade, given time and peace. Hopefully, their time on the hub would accelerate said healing.
Idly, Kathikon wondered what would happen if they encountered fantasy creatures - and she menat straight-up fantasy beasties, not the somewhat grounded in reality monsters from the Monster Hunter universe or the ones from the ARK. Because Kathikon knew her master would eventually seek those out. Eventually.
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When the rosy fingers of dawn finally started tugging on my eyelids, I groaned, before slowly rousing myself from my slumber, careful to esnure the sleeping compy was not disturbed. Those actions were ultimately rendered moot when it woke up anyway and started badgering me for snacks, but you couldn't win them all, it seemed. Besides, they had woken up on their own, not because I had ruined their sleep.
A sudden flapping sound told me that Vivian's dimorph had awakened, as had its owner.
"So, today's the day, huh?"
"Yep - time to squish the broodmother."
"Excellent," replied Viv, a wicked smile slowly forming on her lips. "I am so going to enjoy killing that giant spider. Though I will admit I wish we could do so with giant mechs."
"A mech fan, are you?"
"Of all types. A few of those sworn to me even come from a time where they made mechs instead of tanks at the end of the First World War on Earth."
"Can I see them?
"Eventually. First, though, let's go and crush our big, green, and crunchy foe."
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It took about an hour to get our forces up to the Green Obelisk. We spent ten minutes regaining our strength, passing out bullets, and loading up on individual medical supplies - the battle that we were about to endure was going to test all of our skills, and if we screwed this up...look, obtaining a measure of immortality did not mean I was no longer afraid of dying!
Once we were ready to battle, though, we inserted the artifacts into the obelisk and steeled ourselves - today, we would slay an ultimate lifeform!
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As the Obelisk prepared to transport their commander to face Lysrix, Kathikon, Fide, and Synais latched on to its signal and readied up their own teleporters. As the pods whirred to life, Synais turned toward M4.
"I believe the time has come. If you wish to escape boredom, by all means, enter the teleporters."
The T-Doll did not need any further prodding, and led her compatriots into the teleportation pods. Soon, they were on their way to help the Commander.
...Synais hoped they wouldn't get roughed up too badly.
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AN: Soundtrack Start - ARK Survival Evolved OST: Broodmother
As the teleportation to the Broodmother's Arena faded away, I took a moment to shake off some disorientation - the ARK's teleporters were not very kind to my stomach or head. A quick glance when we arrived revealed that everyone had made it to the arena safely...alongside several very unexpected faces.
"...M4?"
"Yes, command...sir?"
She must have felt uncomfortable referring to me as a commander when I wasn't her commander. "How'd you get here?"
"Your...associates figured out a way to send people to this location. Attempts to retrieve them from here were...unsucessful."
I had a feeling that she was fibbing the last part, but that wasn't important right now. "I see. Quick, dig in."
The T-Doll raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
A very loud hissing sound turned our attention toward the far end of the cavern we were in, where a very large spider had just descended.
"That."
"...Oh."
"Yeah. TAKE COVER!"
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Hastily, M4 pulled back ACR and Spitfire as the giant spider jumped toward them. Immediately, the T-Dolls opened fire, but this only seemed to enrage the overgrown arthropod, which promptly hissed at them before jumping backward. To make matters worse, smaller arachnids were descending from the caves above, and also emerging from the cave walls. The combined fire from the dolls and the humans allowed them to gun down dozens of spiders, but the arthropods were so numerous that this barely put a dent in their numbers.
M4 had the misfortune to run out of ammunition as one spider leapt toward her. Before it could reach her, though, the arachnid was intercepted in-flight by a dinosaur of all things (a raptor, to be precise), which quickly tore the spider's head off. The beast screeched in victory, before retreating behind the firing line. M4 watched it for a moment in shock, before continuing to fire upon the giant spiders.
"Heads up," remarked the Commander, "the cavalry is about to charge in, check your targets!"
M4 had a feeling that would mean not shooting the various creatures charging into the spider horde. She was still surprised when a horde of ground sloths, mammoths, wooly rhinos and dinosaurs charged the hordes of spiders, reducing some to mush on impact. She soon shook off her stupor, though, and continued to thin out the ranks of the eight legged freaks.
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Vincent rammed his lance into a leaping spider, emptying its abdomen in a single strike. His mount, Crassus, took another spider in its jaws and used it to pulp three others, before sending several more retreating with a mighty roar. One straggling spider had the misfortune of being too slow to escape from Carol, who road atop her Daeodon mount, Maw. Said pig-monster reduced the unfortunate spider to mush, healing its compatriots as it gobbled up the arthropod.
Vincent barely managed to duck in time to avoid the corpose of a spider flying at him, which was soon joined by over a dozen others. The source was a group of ground sloths, commanded by a Viking raider known as Harald. Vincent was not the most accepting of heathens, but Harald had earned his respect mastering this beasts. Unhorsing the knight in a joust had also raised his respect for the pagan. For now, though, religious and philosophical questions were behind them - killing this mighty beast was their first priority.
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Loading another set of bullets into her rifle, Grease-Rag took aim and managed to down another spider. Nearby, the one known as Spitfire was firing off her own pistol, managing to score kill shots with every bullet. Such accuracy was practically inhuman, but then again, the exposed circuitry along her arm indicated that Spitfire probably wasn't human - at least, not entirely. Whether she was a cyborg or an android (gynoid?) was a question to answer later, though - Grease Rag wanted to kill this giant monster off first. Roasted spider actually tasted really good!
Unfortuantley, Grease-Rag's gun ran dry yet again, and before she could reload, a spider fired a mass of silk at her, leaving the girl pinned to the ground. Without missing a beat, Spitfire blew the arthropod's head off, then ripped away the silk and helped Grease-Rag reload.
A loud roar turned everyone's attention toward the broodmother, who was calling yet more spiders to attack them, and even seemed to be spawning newborn arachnids to kill the group. This, however, only served to anger her opponents, who focused all of their fire on her after quite literally disintegrating her minions under volume of fire. The day would be theirs, even if this cavern flooded!
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I watched as Lysrix slowly weakened under our volume of fire, which was furthered along when we started shooting rockets at her face. She tried firing off silk, but had the misfortune of facing a horde of Cryolophosaurus, which literally froze the silk in midair, allowing us to shatter it with gunfire and eviscerate Lysrix with the shards. The end finally came when Lysrix let out one last roar, only for me to shoot a rocket down her throat. A moment later, and her abdomen exploded, killing the giant spider and sending its minions into retreat, though all were slain before they could escape.
We managed to gather up all the spoils in time before being returned to the ARK, where a few minutes later, we erected a trophy of a victory.
We'd have to use it later to beat the Overseer, I knew, but this felt good while it lasted.
Of course, that night was more interesting to me, for a few reasons.
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'Commander, this is Fide. Do you read?'
'Yes, this is me. Why didn't you contact me via thoughts earlier?'
'It literally slipped my mind. Also, I think we've figured out how to access your inventory.'
'Interesting. But why is that important?'
'Maybe we could study element with this?'
'...Point made. If you can pull a sample out of my inventory without evaporating it, yay. Make sure it doesn't get into the wild, though - no telling what Rockwell would do with it.'
'True. Also, Celempheros allowed us to patch into the ARK's computers, and while he's preventing us from interfering too much with it, we can determine when new survivors will show up.'
'Are there any coming now?'
'A few. Marking locations and time of arrival. Make sure to pick them up later.'
'Done. Though, really, I don't think they'll be anyone too important.'
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Somewhere, a purple eyed boy, his paraplegic blind sister, and their japanese maid all felt as if someone was talking about them. They didn't know why, though they felt it involved something that was impossible.
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AN: I am now finished with school forever! So this story is alive again!
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!