Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Alternative Timeline

ACT 4: Snowball Effect

This is a Theri exclusive story.

You do not have to read TAOH to understand this story.

Chapter 10: Mystery Girl

Ah, here we go. Took long enough.

I will be filling in this chapter. :)

~

The Dex told me everything I needed to know. I’m not sure why these stories are here, but, it’s whatever. I have the information I need to take this whole operation down from the inside. I have the knowledge, and I now have my experienced friend here to help me.

It’s going to begin soon. I can’t let those constellations run amok when the story begins. Otherwise, I can’t be sure that he will survive and find the Truth about this world.

There will be a meeting soon between all the major constellations. Once it occurs, they will prepare to watch the story. They may interfere in its storyline if they do. I must stop this from happening by taking away their influence.

I’m here for a reason. I’m not just trying to escape this place, no, I’m going to take down the Walkers of the Void. Once and for all.

~

After a few hours, it turned night time, the sun setting down and casting its orange, warm rays across the horizon. Looking off into the sunset gave me a feeling of nostalgia. Heh, sorry if my writing isn’t good. This is my first time, and usually Ben’s the one who writes these, even if he doesn’t know any better.

There was something comforting about it, despite being a slave for this new empire. Even at the lowest, everything felt so beautiful. I couldn’t even feel mad for the others. How they’d soon be tossed onto that island for that ‘story’. Even if we weren’t real, life was still precious.

Anyway, Ben walked up to me with a pickaxe rested on his shoulder. The others were already preparing to re-enter the facility and head back to their cages, but there were so many of us the guards didn’t notice we were straying off.

“What’s your level right now?” Ben asked me.

“Level 30 or so,” I replied.

“Cool, I’m 35,” Ben said.

“How’d you level up faster than I did? I don’t get it,” I asked, curious.

“Oh, you get a boost in EXP around tribemates. I created a tribe and asked a few people to join, and their work gave me a boost and even a bit of a share,” Ben replied, “Sorry I couldn’t tell you. That guard was staring us down, didn’t want him getting any more suspicious.”

“It’s alright. I already knew that, just joking with you,” I laughed, “Come on. Let’s head back to the cells. I’ve thought of a plan.”

Us two started walking back through the hallways, pickaxes in hand. I looked at the guards leading us. Most only had simple pistols and longneck rifles. I bet that if all of us prisoners banded together we could easily overpower them. Though, we’d have to worry about any other reinforcements that’d come.

Besides, I wasn’t necessarily trying to escape. I was trying to crash a meeting.

“We’re going to stash bits and pieces of raw metal,” I told Ben, “They won’t know if some of it goes missing. We can just store it away in our implants’ space.”

“Hmm, that’s smart, and I presume we’ll use it to make weapons and armor to fight our way through and escape?”

“That’s basically the gist.”

“Okay, I like it, but how will we smelt the metal?”

“I’ve memorized the basic layout of this facility,” I said, “There’s a storage room with any other resources we could use. Guards barely monitor that area because the armory and the outside perimeter are far more important.”

“There’s a smithy in there right?”

“Yes, the door was open when I passed by. That’s how I could even tell.”

“So one of us should sneak out and make some weapons and armor.”

I looked at the metal doors leading to the supply room. We were so close yet so far. But I knew I had to bide my time.

We were escorted back to our cages. The guards left the room, and shut the door behind us, locking it. I peeked out of the cage, and smirked.

“Haven’t you realized one thing? They forgot to take our pickaxes away,” I told Ben, “We could break out of these cages.”

“We could. But that would raise suspicion. Make sure to make a cage for yourself once you come back,” Ben pointed out.

“Got it.”

I took my pickaxe and whacked it at the door. The lock broke, and the door swung open. I looked around the room. The rest of the prisoners were asleep, except for Ben and I of course. I snuck up to the door and afterwards took a metal splinter off my pickaxe. I bent it into a lockpick, and then picked the lock. The creaky door swung open.

CREAAAAK!

“Hey, what was that noise?” a random guard said. A beam of light poured onto my face, and before the guard could react I rushed forward and slammed my pickaxe into his unprotected face. I started swinging frantically, and before the guard could react I had killed him. His body toppled to the ground. I looked around, before taking the guard’s body and pulling it back into the prison area, stashing it away in the crate of metal pickaxes.

“Hey!” Ben whisper-shouted to me. I turned back.

“What the heck did you do?”

I put a finger to my lips, shushing him. I reached into the guard’s pocket and pulled out a pair of keys. This would be useful.

I snuck back out the door and went to the supply room, unlocking the door and rushing inside. Taking the raw metal that Ben had given me, along with my own, I managed to smelt a few metals in the forge in record speed.

The whole point of this operation is not necessarily to craft weapons. It’d be to sabotage.

After I created a few pikes, crossbows, and arrows, I leveled up my remaining stats into weight capacity and HP. Then, I stashed them away in my inventory space. Before I went though, I grabbed some polymer and cementing paste, and I used the fabricator to craft a very powerful weapon that would be useful in crashing the meeting. Though, I won’t spoil the fun. After all, if I tell you what I’m making, you’ll do something to stop me, no? ;)

I closed the door behind me before leaving, and then I snuck back into the prison room unscathed. I gave Ben some of the supplies I’d crafted, and then I lay down on the ground to go to sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day.

Chapter 11: Austin & Sloth

“Would you care to explain why one of your Shadowmanes was killed while you two were away from base on a RESOURCE expedition?”

“Uhhh,” Austin murmured. He nudged Sloth on the shoulder. Sloth cleared his throat.

“General Moon, it happened out of nowhere. We were attacked by a Bob who pumped ALL his stats into strength! We couldn’t help it!”

General Moon scratched her chin, observing the two soldiers carefully.

“Now, did you manage to at least capture the bob and bring him back? If what you say is true, he could prove a valuable asset to the Mines. Our metal output would increase.”

“Uh, ma’am, we did not consider this…” Sloth whimpered, “We’re so sorry. We shooed him off.”

“Shooed him off, you couldn’t even kill him, okay, so here’s what I’m getting correct,” General Moon calmly said. Her relaxed nature suddenly transformed into anger, and her blue eyes turned green, “YOU IDIOTS LET A BOB KILL ONE OF MY SHADOWMANES AND COULDN’T EVEN BOTHER KILLING THAT BOB?!”

“Ma’am, like Sloth pointed out, that Bob had placed all his stats into strength. We couldn’t risk death-”

“We gave you… GUNS. YOU HAVE GUNS,” General Moon barked, “YOU COULDN’T EVEN USE THEM? You know what, I’ve had enough of your stupidity! I’m demoting you both to guard duty!”

“What?! Ma’am, you can’t do this, guard duty is too boring!” Austin argued. General Moon glared at Austin, and he gulped, shutting up. General Moon sighed, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, they were blue once more.

“It truly is a shame that Moonbeam has been killed… again,” General Moon sighed, “Nonetheless, my orders are absolute. I suggest you head to the living quarters and change out to a guard’s outfit, befitting of your status. Now I must attend to errands. Very, very important errands. The Story begins soon.”

General Moon walked off, leaving the two standing there. Furious.

“This is… STUPID!” Austin whisper-shouted to Sloth. Sloth nodded in agreement.

“That stupid Bob just got us demoted,” Sloth muttered, “What do we do about it?”

“We should find him and kill him, wipe that pest off this world. I reckon that’ll be good.”

“Yeah, good idea, let’s go!”

The two quickly rushed down the hallways. While it was true they had been demoted, nothing was stopping them from taking a few tames along with them to avenge their dignities. As long as they were quick about killing him, then nobody would notice, and most importantly, General Moon wouldn’t be notified with her implant that they had killed somebody (last time they checked, her notifications for such matters had been disabled. She hadn’t questioned them about killing that guy named Gerald).

The men made their way to take-off, where a variety of flying mounts were. There were mostly Argentavis and Pteranodons, though there was one Quetzal.

“Hmm, where’s that huge big bug thingie?” Austin asked.

“I heard General Moon gave Pigeon permission to use it. Something about a tribe uprising in the far Arctic north.”

“What a load of junk,” Austin spat, “Pigeon doesn’t deserve his status.”

“It’s fine. We can take the Argies. We’ll pick him off the ground and kill him.”

The two took the two finest Argentavis available: Brian and Berry (they were both tamed by Pigeon, so it was okay to steal them). They were both mate boosted, which was even better. As they saddled up, they took off to the skies and headed back to where they had fought that dastardly Beach Bob.

~

When they made it back to the beach, they noticed dried up specks of blood down below on the beach. There was a trail leading into the jungle.

“I don’t think a Beach Bob like him would stay in the jungle. He probably made it out the other side to one of the rivers,” Sloth said.

“Good point. Let’s fly above the jungle then.”

The two continued taking flight above the jungle, when they heard a whir come from down below.

“Hey, you heard that?” Austin asked. Sloth nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s anything-”

BAM BAM BAM BAM!

There was fast, quick gunfire. The two Argies were instantly shredded, and the Argies fell into the thick jungle. The two let out cries of pain as they were hurtled off their saddles and onto the ground. Austin felt his arm snap, and Sloth felt his foot roll and sprain its ankle.

“Ah, f##k!” Austin swore as he looked at his implant and the death messages of their Argies, “Pigeon and General Moon will be so pissed…”

“What the hell was that though? Who got turrets built up so fast in here-” Sloth was interrupted by clanky footsteps. They turned to see a man in flak armor with a sword standing before them, an aura dissipating from his body. He must have taken an Enduro Stew.

“Hey! We meet again,” the man said. His voice was familiar. Sloth’s eyes widened.

“No way! You are-”

The man grinned.

“That’s right. It’s me, Will. Now. Are you ready for Round 2?”

Chapter 12: General Moon

It was soon.

In approximately a day’s worth of time in her world, the Story that was so profoundly teased would begin. Constellations were already brewing, shuffling. More importantly, Moon had been scheming. She knew if she was quick, she could get her influence over the Story. She could have power over the characters. Get what she wanted. After all, it was no fun if you couldn’t pull some strings.

In this dream world, though it’d take another month. The time dilation was weird, but luckily, she and the other Constellations who had wanted to view the Story unveil as it was still being developed had managed to enter the dream world and personally gain their influence.

Still, it was quite difficult. They could only ever show up in the game they were linked to. ARK. And they had to entrust their influence and power to each ARK in the game. It was easy work though. Taking over the Walkers of the Void was simple, especially with the true leader’s absence.

General Moon waited in the meeting room. There was a timer there, counting down until the Story would begin. She was waiting for the others to arrive. It’d be quick. They had a TEK Transmitter.

Suddenly, the door clicked open. General Moon turned to see the first Constellation enter. It was General Sun, of Scorched Earth. She had short orange, fiery hair, and glasses. General Sun gasped as she saw General Moon.

“OMG, your human form looks so pretty!” General Sun commented. General Moon laughed.

“Thanks! I based it off my Biggest Fan.”

“Ohh, that’s sweet. Skyler? She’s nice.”

“Yeah…” General Moon blinked, and her eyes turned brown, “Skyler.”

General Moon blinked once more, and they turned blue. General Sun frowned.

“I still can’t believe you split into three when we entered. That must be so annoying.”

General Moon smirked.

“It’s nothing, really. I view Irae and Amaree as sisters, if anything.”

“Hey, long time no see!” a man said as he entered the room. It was General Apex, of Ragnarok. He was quite tall, yet skinny.

“Good seeing you here once again, how has your Story been treating you?”

“Seen better days. But I’m soon to catch up to you!” General Apex teased, “Will General Wyv of Lost Island be attending?”

“I got his message the other day. He won’t be here for the beginning, he’s going to join when the tensions start rising.”

“Hey! Wait up for me!” a voice said. They turned to see a young boy with gray hair and a short stature enter, “Man, can’t believe SunnyFox57 got here before I did.”

“MrGhostGamer, you’re always late to whatever we need to attend,” General Sunny rolled her eyes, “How’s Crystal Isles?”

“Eh, boring. People barely come by, nothing happens. Can’t believe you guys got story ARKs.”

“We called dibs, you should’ve got something like Aberration,” General Sunny teased.

“I already claimed Aberration, so that’s not happening,” a magenta-haired woman entered the room. It was General Syl, of Aberration.

“I think that’s everyone then?” General Moon said, glancing at the timer again. Just twelve hours left. Time was a strange essence.

“What about the Creator of this Story? Usually Creators of smaller Stories attend the watch party with their fellow Constellations,” General Apex asked.

“Apparently not this time,” General Moon replied, “Now, enough. Let’s think about how to spread our influence in this Story-”

There was a ding on all the Generals’ implants. They seemed confused, before looking at their implants. Two messages showed up.

“Brian (Argentavis) was killed by Turret!”

“Berry (Argentavis) was killed by Turret!”

General Moon sighed. She got up from her seat.

“That must be Austin and Sloth. I demoted those two just an hour- no, a few minutes ago,” General Moon explained to the others, “I’ll have to deal with this. Don’t worry. I’ll be back.”

“You better be. The Story’s about to start any minute!”

~

General Moon rushed to the take off, and quickly reached into her inventory and pulled out a cryopod. She threw it to the ground, and a Fire Wyvern dropped onto the helipad. General Moon put the cryopod away and hopped on the Wyvern.

“You two are so dead,” General Moon glowered, her eyes red, “To the skies, Jether.”

The Fire Wyvern took off.