Ark: Survival Evolved - Sunset

Training

The dangers of the expedition meant that TEK Armor was necessary. Helena had never had the chance to use it before, so Mei had suggested that it would be best to practice using it before leaving. The next day, Mei and Helena had gathered in a section of the forest near the village. Close enough that it was still technically within the city, but far enough away from all the commotion, so that they could focus. Diana had joined them as well. For the next few days, they would be teaching Helena how to use the armor.

At first, Helena had trouble getting used to it. While the jetpacks were no longer functional, and had not been since they moved to the caverns, the armor was still useful. You could run faster, and jump higher than normal. While her time in the desert gave her some skills for fighting ,and surviving in dangerous environments, the first time she used the armor, was still a challenge. She had tried to jump over a rock, but had instead crashed into it. Many of her first attempts involved crashing into and tripping over things, rocks, trees, herself, and once, an irritated lystrosaurus. 

 "You look like a drunken dodo," Diana laughed. It was the second day, they were in the training yard and fighting a raptor. Or at least, a robotic TEK raptor. Created by Santiago to act like a real raptor for training purposes, but to also be less deadly. 

She had imagined the fight as an epic battle between them and the robot, like the sci fi movies she'd watch on Earth, but it mainly involved a lot of flailing. However, Helena was not hurt by this comment. She was laughing too. And it made her feel less silly, when they were all laughing. It helped her focus on the fact that she didn't have to get it right the first time, and they were having fun. Even Mei was laughing, in between the times she gave advice on how to fight the raptor. 'Drunken dodo' was such a hilarious image, they were soon all laughing while talking about why a dodo would even drink in the first place.

The conversation was quickly interrupted by the mechanical screech of the raptor. It leapt at Helena, but she dodged out of it's way. She then grabbed a rock, throwing it at the robot. When it hit, the raptor screeched in alarm, and then backed away. That had been enough to "defeat" the TEK  raptor, and it now just watched them.  

"Ha! I knew Helena could do it!" Diana said, laughing and looking at Mei expectantly. They were walking back to the nearby building where all of their TEK equipment was.

"Fine," she said, and handed Diana the red crystals that were in her bag.

"Did you two make a bet?" Helena asked.

"It was Diana's idea, nothing serious,  just some of the crystals from her most recent trip to the element caverns," Mei explained, "I didn't doubt your skills, but somebody had to bet against you. Besides, I like raptors." At this Helena laughed. She had a whole pack of them back on the island. They were all cheering when someone entered the room.

"Salutations! I hope I am not interrupting... whatever this is," there was a slight hint of annoyance in Rockwell's voice that few noticed, which suggested that he didn't care if he was interrupting anything. He was looking at the storage boxes near the wall, trying to find something. 

"Are you working on one of your recipes?" asked Helena. "I am working on a much more important experiment, Helena" he said, still searching through the boxes, "chili is trivial compared to this"

"What is it?"

"Nothing much."

"When I return, we'll have to talk all about it," They both seemed busier these days, and Helena missed their conversations and tea on the Island. 

"I don't think you'd be interested." And then he left, having found what he was looking for. 

"Did he just take some of our Element?" Diana asked. They kept Element in some of those storage boxes so that there was enough for all of the Tek equipment in that room. 

"Should we be worried about that?" Mei wondered, Rockwell did seem to avoid Helena's question, if it really was 'nothing much' then why did he act like it was important?  Sometimes she had a bad feeling about Rockwell, and wondered if the others noticed. 

"It's probably fine," Helena said, "the scientists probably needed it."

"Then why didn't he just ask for it?"

"He probably didn't want to bother us." But Mei still wasn't convinced. Something seemed different about him, compared to how Helena described him on the Island. However, they all decided to let it go, so that they could continue preparing for the expedition. Mei could talk to him about it later. 

"You are getting good at using that Tek, Helena," Diana said, "tomorrow, we can meet here one more time, and then you'll be ready!" Helena hoped she was right. However the whole expedition did not rest in her hands, fortunately. Mei would be there, and while she didn't know Santiago well, she knew he was on the station before the surface became a fiery wasteland, and that he had gone to the obelisk before. So he had experience, and he knew a lot about the technology.