AN: Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long. Life happened. Luckily, the current crisis that we are going through gives me more time to write! Stay safe, don't horde toilet paper, and enjoy!

Chapter 2

Harry's head was pounding. That was a good sign, he was alive. His left arm hurt too. He groaned as he opened his eyes, he saw grass, large boulders, trees and a... ruined city? Harry looked down at his arm, the left one and saw to his shock, that imbedded in it was a greenish gem shaped a bit like a diamond. Harry looked down. Ahh, so that's what the girls shrieked about. He was sitting in a ruined future city, in white boxers. Then he heard a groan,

"Ow, damn, I'm never going to get used to that." Harry whipped his head around, sitting up, dressed in a similar manner, was Centurion. The now adult, turned around and helped the groaning pinkette off the ground, again, dressed in a similar manner, except with a cloth bra on. "Moka, are you alright?" Centurion spoke to the pinkette. The now named Moka answered him, in a soft but sweet voice, "Yes. I'm fine." Around them the others began to wake up. Soon enough the only ones that were still out were Fleur, Hermione and a long black-haired girl.

As they waited for the other three to stir, Harry got an introduction to the others. There was Tsukune Aono the brown-haired male, Kurumu the bluette, Mizore the one with purple hair, Yukari the kid, Gin, a black-haired man, Rowsdower, another male survivor. While this was going on, Hedwig fluttered down, landing on Harry's shoulder. The other group looked surprised. "Been a while since we've seen an owl," Rowsdower remarked.

Soon enough, Fleur stirred along with Hermione. Luckily, the larger group was prepared and handed over several packages, which turned out to be clothes. Quickly dressing, party looked around as the final girl woke up. "Greengrass!" Hermione growled, her eyes sparking, "What are you doing here?" The new girl hissed back, "What I want, getting away from stupidity, Granger. And it is Daphne, got it?" The two girls looked ready to throw down then and there until Centurion and Rowsdower stepped in.

"Enough!" Centurion barked out, "This is no place for arguing. Nor is it the time. We need to set up a camp and get basic weapons before something else finds us." The two girls stopped, but they were still glaring at each other. Of course, that's when something found them. The group heard a low growl behind them. As they turned, they saw slinking through the still working lampposts, boulders and trees, was a large ginger cat. It was about the size of a large lion or a tiger, with a long panther like tail, ruffled scruff around its neck and two very distinctive saber teeth. Centurion cursed, "Fuck, Sabertooth." Everyone began backing away from the cat.

Just then, Hermione tripped over a small rock and froze as the cat neared her. Everyone was frozen in horror, especially the experienced survivors. They knew what was coming. Hermione squeaked as the snarling face of the sabertooth neared her own. However, when she looked into the cat's green eyes, she said, "Crookshanks?" The sabertooth gave a small meow, and started nuzzling the witch, purring away. "Crookshanks what did they do to you my poor baby?" Hermione stood up as the survivors relaxed, it was obvious that the cat was trained. Crookshanks sniffed at Harry and moved on, but started growling at the others until Hermione called him off.

Moka laughed a bit, "I guess that means we have some protection at least. Now if the rest of you can get along," she glared at Hermione and Daphne, her green gaze cutting into them as the rosary on her breast glinted. The girls gulped. For some reason the pretty pink haired young woman made them feel like a piece of meat before a hungry tiger.

Centurion cleared his throat, "Very well. Get those clothes on. After that we'll look for a more secure place to set up a base of operations. And don't eat anything unless one of us tells you it's fine." The girls scrambled to get dressed and then were handed each a stone pick, hatchet, and a few spears. Rowsdower quickly taught Hermione some basic whistles to give Crookshanks commands and then the now larger tribe set off.

The group quickly fell into a distinct formation, the men and a few of the women moved into a protective screen on all sides. Harry found himself being prodded into the center of the formation as the group moved through the abandoned city. Every once in a while, strange and primal screeches, hoots and calls were heard echoing. At one point, a very loud roar made the outer screeners tense up and looked around warily, raising their spears defensively.

Little metal things flew through the air and at one point a metal lizard like creature seemed to teleport in from out of nowhere. The ground was a mess of grass, roots, stones and boulders along with a strange metal in areas. Lampposts dotted the edges of what looked like long abandoned streets and skyscrapers where everywhere as well as roads in the air several stories up. Soon enough, they stopped in an area with several large trees and a fountain. Large boulders where strewn about and they were at the base of one of the skyscrapers. Centurion signaled a halt and said to two of the survivors, "Scott, you and Beth scout the area a bit while we hydrate. If you find anything interesting, hoot." The survivor in question nodded, "Understood. We'll be back before sundown." He waved to the woman in question and the two moved off.

Meanwhile, some of the other tribe members gathered the newbies together and started teaching them the basics of life. Things such as, "Yes, there is a crystal in your arm, don't pull it out. Use it to access your inventory as well as craft, repair and learn engrams." They were also told that after a certain point, they were expected to pull their weight. Then crafting class began. They were pointed to a tree and told to punch it. Needless to say, Daphne and Fleur both had something to say about that. Harry didn't argue, and while it did hurt, he was able to gather fifteen pieces of thatch and two pieces of wood. He was then told to pick up some small rocks in the area and then craft it into a pick.

"But we each have one already," he remarked. "They don't last long," their instructor, a burly man named Julius said, "Always have a back-up. After you make the pick, learned the stone hatchet engram and gather the needed resources for that. Then drink water and craft several spears." At that last bit, Hermione interjected, though she had finished her task, "But that water hasn't been boiled or sterilized! We'll get sick!"

A rumbling laugh came from behind them as Centurion approached, "Aye, that's true, but with the ARK's things are a bit different. Water doesn't need to be boiled, and the wild creatures are generally simple to tame. Berries are also easy to identify by their colors and other little things." "Alright, Centurion," Harry replied. He quickly gathered and crafted another hatchet and drank from the fountain. The water was cool and refreshing, and extremely pure. By this time, even Daphne and Fleur had acquiesced and completed their starting tasks.

After crafting several more spears, Harry noticed he was feeling weighed down. He checked his specimen implant as the other survivors called it and realized he had a couple of so-called "levels." He turned around and seeing Centurion busy, saw Moka standing nearby. He approached the pinkette, who turned when she heard him coming.

"Moka," He said, "After making the spears, I felt weighed down and after checking my implant, it showed that I had some "levels?"

Moka smiled gently, "So you want to know what to do with them. Very well, you see the little plus signs next to every statistic? That's how you apply 'levels.' It can be a bit confusing at first, so it is best to put a few 'levels' into weight, or more correctly, your carrying capacity. That will affect how much you can carry before being encumbered. After that, health, melee damage, crafting speed or stamina are all good choices. Everyone does it differently."

Harry quickly did so, and then realized he gained more engram points. He was then informed not to spend any points yet except on a water skin. After doing so, and wisely filling up the water skin, he heard Hedwig barking at something. As the group turned to look, the owl fluttered into the air, barking at a chest on the ground.

Curious, Harry approached. "Centurion! Take a look at this!" As he knelt down to touch it, the lid flew open and he could hear music has he held what looked like a hologram pad. There was writing on it.

Field Manual 31-581

Field Observations

By itself, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle RQ-7Y is hardly a concern. Though many of them can be found monitoring the empty streets in the abandoned city, they're not aggressive, and their offensive capabilities are limited.

If attacked, they rely on bursts from their thrusters to either take evasive maneuvers or ram the aggressor, and they have no real armaments to speak of. This makes obtaining intact processing cores and spare parts a trivial matter, and as a result we've constructed a number of our own.

Personal Use

Shifting some of our resources to focus on RQ-7Y construction has been more than worth the investment. I managed to turn our TEK binoculars into a remote-control system for them, and as a result our scouting teams have been able to cover more ground with far less risk. They simply deploy the RQ-7Y with a specialized grenade, then use its enhanced vision to scout ahead, scan for allied IFFs and track targets.

Just don't try to ride the damn thing. I didn't think I'd have to explain that considering how small it is, but three crashes later, here we are..."

~ Santiago

Centurion approached, and Harry was surprised to see that the elder tribe member didn't so much a flinch when he too activated the chest. "So, they made it this far, then," the man murmured. Centurion gestured for everyone to access the chest, pulling out a map and marking it. "Alright, everyone, gather and craft. Thatch walls, foundations, roofs, the works! This isn't going to be our camp, but I want everyone taking advantage of the boost while we can."

"Yes, chief!"

Just then, three loud hoots sounded out catching the group's attention. Hermione was quick on the draw, "Crookshanks! Seek!" The ginger sabertooth growled and took off through the brush as everyone else scrambled after him. After several minutes of scrambled over rocks and through brush they reached a street that the cat darted across.

They all skidded to a stop when Scott and Beth came into view standing at a strange terminal. There was a fountain nearby and the terminal itself was in a well cleared courtyard.

"Scott," Centurion said as he walked up, "What is it?"

"It says that it's called a city terminal. I think we can craft those TEK lizard things in it, as well as the drones. Here look." Scott began fiddling around with the terminal and a display came up with icons of the machines they saw so far.

"Hmmm. Element dust, electronics, oil, scrap metal. I bet we can get all of these things from the lampposts that dot the streets. But before we continue messing with this, we should get a camp set up."

Beth spoke up, "Centurion, there is also a folder for tames, but it is inaccessible right now. I bet those are the tames from the ARKs."

Centurion looked up, "I wouldn't doubt it. Let's try setting up a base camp first before trying to unlock any tames."

"Right, boss."

Harry then soon found himself put to work, helping the tribe build a large communal shelter. The girls were put to work building smaller workshop buildings under Moka and Kurumu's supervision, while Crookshanks and Hedwig kept watch with two other members of the tribe.

Soon enough they were finished, after the guards had dealt with two Utahraptor packs and some Dilo's, a campfire was built and the harvested meat was skewered and set to cooking while the resulting hide was spread out on the rooftops to dry a bit.

Everyone gathered around and after Daphne had made a rather pleasant discovery of a bamboo stand, cups were fashioned and they were all able to quickly set up and fill standing torches for light at night before settling down to eat.

Soon after their meal, night began to draw in and the torches were lit to help ward off some of the local wildlife. Then everyone retired to the shelter, a watch cycle was set and collapsed on the beds of leaves, and with the owl watching above the door, they slept.