Stage 2 Day 10

It's only been 17 days since we started Experiment Drypto. We finished Stage 1 in 7 days, which was a shock to the Council, and the Chieftess. They were surprised to hear that we were ending the first stage so soon, so they all traveled over to East Station on the 7th day to see for themselves. I was able to demonstrate every single one of Takara's commands, excluding attack for obvious reasons, and the Chieftess even hand fed her through the fence in the paddock. Oliver's father called it a "spectacular show," and the rest of the Council members were in awe of Takara's obedience and willingness to follow a humans command.

Since then, however, Alaric has been threatening to talk to his mom about the experiment. He believes that since the Council and our Chieftess saw success first hand, that he can persuade her to allow the Commander to get more Dryptosaurus' for the experiment before we get to stage 3. Axia and I keep reminding him that Takara's deadline and the end of the experiment is classified information, and Commander Riley would likely be punished for telling us. For me, it's not just that though; if Alaric goes to the Chieftess, she'll probably find out eventually that I know about the Culling, and am in on trying to stop it. She'll find out soon enough, but now isn't the time.

The first part of stage 2 went by easily. I went into the paddock first, and we elected to bring everyone else in one at a time. Quincy, the most nervous, went first. Takara already liked him, so getting them acquainted was easy. Axia and Oliver both were excited to meet her, both of them quickly gaining Takara's trust through food and genuine interest in her behavior. Alaric was the only one I was worried about, but Takara didn't seem to really mind him. She didn't give him as much attention as the others, but she allowed him to get close enough to touch before beginning to just ignore him. It's better than aggression, I guess.

Now that we're halfway through Stage 2, things are starting to get a bit more testy. Yesterday, for the first time, we brought weapons into Takara's paddock. We kept them lowered at all times, but we could tell that the presence of them made her very antsy. She paced back and forth in front of us, despite me commanding her to "calm." That Command is simply to help calm her down if she starts to show any anxious behavior. She didn't get aggressive with us, even while our hands were on them, so we called it a successful day.

Since Takara still doesn't seem to like weapons after being shot at by her second handler, Commander Riley came up with a way to show her that we aren't a threat with weapons. Instead of spending the entirety of Stage 2 getting her to trust us, we're going to spend the last 11 days training her with weapons. None of us will ever point our weapons at her directly, but Commander Riley had someone make targets that will be hung around the top of the paddock for us to shoot at.

First, I'll go into the paddock with Takara. Axia, Alaric, Oliver and Quincy will all be given dart rifles and instructed to shoot at the targets. I'll be in the paddock to calm Takara while she, hopefully, begins to understand that it's not her that they're shooting at. My team will be safely on the opposite side of the metal fence while they shoot. At first, I won't have a rifle on me. We don't know how she'll react to guns shooting yet, so it's just best that I don't have one.

Once we're sure that Takara understands what's happening, I'll retrieve my gun from Alaric and shoot a target while inside of the paddock. This is the part that makes me nervous though, because the last time someone shot a gun inside of Takara's pen, she mauled them to death. It's a risk that we have to take though, otherwise stage 3 of the experiment will be pretty much impossible. We have to make sure that Takara doesn't kill any targets outside, unless she has to, so we have to be able to use our dart guns around her. She also needs to know when to stop attacking, which is something the experiment never got around to in the past due to the deaths of her Handlers.

We also decided that it may be a good idea to bring an Ankylosaur into the paddock at the end of stage 2. It'll be released into the paddock and the expectation is that Takara helps keep it away from us while we tranquilize it with our guns. This will determine, for sure, whether or not our furred dinosaur friend really can handle guns after her past experiences. This will also give us a chance to see if she can protect us before we bring in the Carnotaur in stage 3. She was too late to rescue Handler Keys, so it'll probably be good to have a little bit of training beforehand.

Overall, Commander Riley is happy with how the experiment is turning out so far, and so am I. We've had a few chances to talk alone since stage 1 and now I have a little bit of a better understanding on what's going on with the culling. The city only has enough space for 1,020,000 people, and we're at 1,035,000. After showing me the statistics and maps of the city, we can't build anymore homes inside of Viadon without sacrificing farm land. We're barely able to feed who we've got now with the excess, so that's not an option.

Commander Riley says that if we get this experiment done quick enough, we'll be able to start rounding up Dryptosaurus' for further training. We can use Takara as a demonstration for the new dinosaurs and hope they'll follow suit. Along with that, we can start another breeding program and raise them like they did with Takara. That will give us even more chance of success. He says that our time with her has given him and his science team more information than they had ever gotten from other experiments. It's a major breakthrough and they really believe future dinosaurs will pass with help from us.

Once we get a few more successful experiments, Commander Riley hopes that the Chieftess will go ahead and approve the outposts and cancel the culling. It'll have to go through the Council as well, but we're sure they'll go for it since it'll save so many of our citizens. The only issue is that Damian Hunts didn't want us to expand the city. He didn't want us to mess with the environment or the wildlife anymore than we had to. That's why he made the city so big in the first place, and enacted laws to where we couldn't kill any animal unless it was necessary. Those rules might end up getting the small villages denied, but if that happens they'll intentionally kill 15,000 people. It's hard to believe that they wouldn't agree with the plan.

Alaric still doesn't like the idea of having a dinosaur with us outside of the fence. He understands and sees that we're making major progress, but he can't get over the fear that Takara might, at some point turn on us. He doesn't understand that the fate of 15,000 people rests on whether or not we can finish this experiment though, so I try to just ignore him. It's hard keeping all of this from my team mates, and makes me feel like a hypocrite but as Commander Riley has said to me several times... Alaric will go to his mother if he knows that lives are at stake. He proves it continuously by threatening to talk to his mother about the experiment. Until we pass this experiment and have a solution, he doesn't need to know and neither do the rest of my teammates.

For now, this experiment and Takara need to be my primary focus. We're on the 10th day of the Experiment now, and I'm really hoping it'll go well. This morning I fed Takara breakfast and went to eat with my teammates in the mess hall. After that, we all went to the weapons room to check out rifles for todays training. We are given empty tranquilizer darts to shoot the targets with as well then head to Takara's paddock to get started.

"I wonder where the Commander is," Axia says as we approach the paddock door, "He's usually waiting out here for us."

"Maybe he's busy getting the targets or something," Quincy replies before turning to look at me, "Are you sure you're going to be okay in there without us?"

"I don't have a choice, Q. I'm sure I'll be fine though. We have a pretty solid plan. No one inside of the paddock will shoot until Takara knows we're not aiming at her. Once she realizes that she's not in danger it'll be okay." I give him my best smile and then begin unlocking the metal door. "We'll show her the weapons through the fence first, since we're here before Commander Riley. I can't go in until he's here anyway." I add in as I push the door open and enter.

"Just know that if she does get aggressive, you won't have us to back you up." Alaric chides, "You'll only have the Elitists on the balcony. All of our darts are empty."

"I know, I'll be okay. That's why I won't have a weapon. She won't see me as a threat that way. I'll have you give me the weapon through the opening in the fence once I think she's ready for that." I reply, nodding my head as a way to reassure them all. Having to retrain Takara on whether or not guns are threats is a set back, really. The other Handlers didn't need to do that. Thankfully, it doesn't interfere with our schedule since we're already several days ahead.

Once I'm sure that no one else has any issues with the training we're doing today, I set my focus on Takara. As I turn to the fence, my furry companion is already making her way towards us. She stops a few feet from the fence, already eyeing the rifles we have with us. After sniffing the air for a moment, she takes a couple of more steps forward. Yesterday she did the same thing.

"Do you think you're going to be able to shoot in the paddock with her today?" Oliver asks, studying Takara closely as she tries to figure out what's going on.

"I'm not sure. We'll have to see. I may just have to hold it and not shoot." I shrug my shoulders and move closer to the fence. I slowly raise the rifle, keeping it aimed towards the ground to, hopefully, ease her as she inspects it.

Takara bends downwards to sniff the weapon, but immediately bares her teeth as she realizes what it is. A low, angry growl erupts from her throat and her eyes stay trained on it.

"Taka, eyes here." I command. As she looks at me the growling stops immediately. "Good," I turn to look at Oliver, "She doesn't seem to care that it's me holding it. She knows I'm not the threat. It's just like yesterday,"

"We don't know how she'll act without the fence between you if you shoot though," Alaric chides, crossing his arms over his chest.

I look back towards Takara and sigh. Her eyes are still on me, which seems to be keeping her calm despite still being so close to the rifle. It's reassuring to know that, but Alaric is right. There's not going to be a way to know for sure if Takara is ready for me to shoot the gun in the paddock.

"We'll figure this out. We're already ahead of schedule by 3 days so we have some extra time before we have to start stage 3." Axia bounces on the balls of her feet as she talks, clearly excited to get going with todays training.

Finally, the metal door we came in through opens wide and Commander Riley comes in. "Sorry I'm late, I didn't have time to get the target flags last night so I had to make a trip into town." He laughs at himself before giving us all a good look over. "I see you already got your weapons. That makes things easier. I honestly expected that you all would forget."

"You're in a good mood today, Commander." Axia comments.

"Ah, yes. I got to see an old friend when I was in town. She's who made these for us." He takes one of the pieces of fabric hanging over his arm and shows it to us. On the front is a large red circle surrounding a green one in the middle to form a target. "If this works, we can use these long term in future experiments." He says, showing us how thick the fabric is by turning it sideways.

"You think she's his girlfriend?" Oliver whispers to Alaric.

"Probably," Alaric stifles a laugh, "It's hard to believe as old as he is though."

"Shut up," Quincy says quietly, giving the two a prominent frown. "You're both so rude." He's never been a fan of their humor.

"Are we ready to start then?" Axia says quickly, trying to divert attention away from Alaric and Oliver's giggling.

"I'll have our back up team hang the targets over the balcony railings while Lexa goes into the paddock. You'll each stand in a corner with rifles and aim at the targets opposite you. Don't hit Lexa or Takara," Commander Riley's voice is stern now, "All of you are at least decent shots, yeah?"

"Yeah," Alaric answers for the rest of us, "We were all in the top 100 of our class before we were chosen to become Elitists-in-Training, remember?"

"I just had to make sure," Our Commander nods, "Lexa will give you the signal to fire individually. We can't have you all shooting at once yet."

"In order to get Takara to look your way, I'll point, and then you'll shoot," I look around to each of my teammates. I'm skeptical about how this is going to work, but I know that without a weapon she shouldn't see me as a threat. This could also give me an opportunity to see if I can get her to stand down when hostiles are surrounding as well as prove to her that my teammates with weapons are not threats.

Commander Riley uses a radio to call a member of the balcony team down to get the target flags while I give my weapon to Alaric. "Alright I guess we're good to go then," He says as he takes the rifle from me, "Everyone get into position and when the flags are place we'll start."

Everyone heads to their respective corners of the paddock while I go into Takara's paddock. As I close the door behind me, Takara comes close and sniffs at me. I stay still as she does her routinely inspection and once she's done I move to the middle of the paddock. She hasn't shown any signs of aggression yet, but she also isn't paying attention to the guns that my teammates have.

"Taka, come." I say, gesturing for her to come to my side. As she makes her way over, the back up team comes through the doors on the balcony and begins hanging up the targets. While they're finishing up I turn to Takara and pet the fur on her neck gently. "You can do this," I know that my whispered motivational words won't really help soothe her, but it's the best I can do right now.

"All good!" One of the Elitists on the balcony yells out, gaining all of our attention.

"Alright, Lexa, whenever you're ready!" Commander Riley yells in return.

I take a deep breath and step away from Takara. "Eyes here." I command, smiling softly as the dinosaur immediately makes eye contact with me. "Team 5, aim at the targets!" I yell across the paddock.

In the far corner of the paddock behind Takara I see Axia's barrel peek through the edge of the fence until it's almost fully exposed. I can tell that Takara see's the same behind me by the low growl that begins to come from her. Takara quickly steps closer, startling me enough to take a few steps back. Before I can move too far away from her though, her tail wraps around my back and draws me closer to her. Her head hovers just over mine as she growls.

"That's a protective stance!" Oliver explains, immediately calming my nerves. "I've only ever seen animals do that with their young!"

I turn to face the way Takara is looking and glance up at her. She isn't baring her teeth like before, but the tip of her tail is moving from side to side as she inspects the possible threat in front of her. From the middle of the paddock, the barrels of the rifles do look to be aimed towards us, but I can see the slight tilt showing that they're pointed up at the targets.

"Taka, relax." I say soothingly, reaching up to pet the fur behind her eyes. "It's okay." As the words leave my mouth, Takara's tail unwraps from in front of me, and I take a few steps forward and turn back towards her. I point to the corner behind her where Axia sits, and she promptly shoots into the target above the corner Takara is staring at.

The dart gets the dinosaurs attention, and she aggressively turns in the direction it came from. Takara let's out a loud, screeching roar as she see's Axia's rifle, a noise none of us have ever heard from her. She turns to look at each corner, and begins pacing as she realizes that we're surrounded. It's not really aggression that she's showing now, it's more like she's nervous.

I point to Oliver's corner now, and Takara looks that direction. As she looks, he shoots and the dart hits the target opposite him, sticking there. She turns to see where the dart hit, and slightly tilts her head to the side in confusion. She had expected the dart to hit her.

Next I point to Quincy, and she follows my gesture once again. Takara stops pacing now and steps a few feet towards the fence to get a better look. Q waits until she stops moving before firing his rifle, and this time her eyes follow the dart. As it hits the target behind me she roars lowly in my direction and then looks back at the rifle.

"She's doing her weird, happy chirps at me!" Quincy yells from the other side of Takara.

"Oliver, what do you think she's doing?" I look towards his corner. Takara has always preferred Quincy over the others, so it's no surprise that once she recognized him her aggression faded.

"She seems to be figuring it out quicker than I thought she would," He retorts, letting out a small laugh, "I can't believe how smart she is."

"I know, right?" I mutter in response, turning towards Takara once again. "Taka, come." I command her, happy to see that she is still listening well with what's going on. As she comes over to me, I reach out and pet the side of her face, "Good girl."

I point in Alaric's direction now, and he waits for Takara's attention before firing. This time, instead of following the dart she looks back at me for further command. She doesn't seem phased by the weapons shooting anymore.

"Alright, everyone go at once when I raise my hand. I think she understands that you're not shooting at her now." I say aloud. Now we just need to make sure she's not going to get startled. I quickly put my hand in the air and all four of my teammates fire at once.

As the darts fly over head Takara turns her head back and forth in an attempt to see where they're headed. She then looks back at me with her tilted to the side, like she's telling me that this is too easy. I watch her for a few moments, and smile as she trills at me.

"Okay, Alaric, give me the rifle please."

"Are you sure? We've only been at this for 10 minutes." He replies, hesitation clear in his voice.

"Taka, stay," I tell her, then begin walking towards the small closed door in the fence. "She's ready. I didn't think it'd be so quick either but I've got this."

Alaric unlatches the opening the in the fence as I approach, and quickly pushes my rifle through it. "Be safe. If she starts seeming aggressive, just drop it." He says lowly as I grab the weapon.

I nod and slowly turn back towards Takara. She still stands in the middle of the paddock but as soon as her eyes fall on the rifle she begins to slowly pace back and forth. "Taka, stand down. Calm." I command her, and immediately raise my weapon towards the target furthest from me. Without hesitation I pull the trigger, not wanting to give Takara a chance to believe I'm aiming at her.

Takara roars loudly as the dart fires from the rifle, but stays where she is anyway. I take a few more shots at the targets before beginning to move closer to her. As I grow nearer, she begins to growl angrily, baring her teeth as I reach out to touch her.

"I know you won't hurt me," I say soothingly, "I won't hurt you either." As my fingers touch the fur on her neck, her growling turns soft. "Good, now calm down. You know I didn't shoot at you, don't be dramatic." I slowly bend down to put the weapon on the floor, taking solace in the now gentle chirps coming from Takara. We'll have to work on this a bit more over the next few days before bringing in another dinosaur to train with, but I know now that she can do it. It'll take repetition to help her remember, but we'll be ready before the week is done.

The rest of the day is spent with me shooting targets in the paddock with Takara. She doesn't like to be in close range of those shooting yet, but I know that if we keep showing her that we aren't going to hurt her, she'll get it. I know that's a lot to expect for a dinosaur, but she's proven how smart she is. I don't think even think we've scratched the surface of her intelligence.