Nothing could ever prepare you for this, the ultimate hunting experience. You traverse the vast new world filled with prehistoric creatures from a time long past. With weaponry to flatten a mountain range, you begin your search. You feel a sense of dominance over your next kill, but then you come to an abrupt and haunting realization: You are outnumbered, outsmarted and the object of a deadly prehistoric creature's hunt. Running cannot help you this time; the hunter has become the hunted.


2384 CE

0139 hours

Manya Jungle Zone – Dinosaur Planet

The moist, humid air was alive with nightlife on the Dinosaur Planet. Insects never ceased their billions of songs and off in the distance a great predator bellowed a menacing roar. John Noonan put the night-vision scope of his 50. caliber sniper rifle to his eye and turned the safety off. Lying prone, high on the bluff, he had a good view of the patchy jungle below directly to the west. He saw nothing that had returned his hunting call, but he guessed there to be a male Spinosaurus somewhere within three hundred yards in the distance.

Yet his saw nothing but dark jungle.

Here and there the wind was playing tricks on him and his finger rested on the trigger a little too snuggly. Noonan calmed his breathing, reminding himself again he was down wind from the massive carnivore. He would surely spot it in time before it even knew he was there. And that would be the end of it. The hunter's goliath 12.7x99mm round would tear through the dinosaur's chest, taking the six ton male down instantly.

That is if he could find the damn beast.

He sounded the call again, the distinctive "challenge" roar of a male spinosaur. It was their mating season, and the males would be fighting each other off for the selection of the females. The jungle remained motionless save the wind amongst the black foliage. There was a thick rustle in the trees in the distance. For a few seconds the approaching sound grew louder, some hundred yards off. And then it stopped.

Noonan dug the rifle into his shoulder and scanned fiercely for the dinosaur to appear.

"Come on, show your face", he whispered.

There.

Slightly to the south, coming over a far off hill covered in trees.

A long, green crocodilian-like snout stretched out of the leaves as the beast rose from his quadruped posture to on its hind legs, revealing its height of what must have been forty-five feet at the top of the sail on its back. Its head alone was six feet long, large enough to swallow a man. Indeed, it was a truly menacing creature and the largest to walk the eerie planet. Ever so cautiously it showed itself to him, turning his way.

It started to approach.

Noonan exhaled slowly, preparing to shoot.

But suddenly he heard something off to his left where the bluff went down to a thick field of ferns and grass where he had come up.

A small rustle that hadn't been the wind. The distinctive breathing of a hunting predator.

Noonan dropped his rifle, trying his fastest to rise to his feet. Already he heard the velociraptor charging him and he cursed as he pried his sidearm – a standard 45. automatic – from its holster. The flashlight on the pistol switched on as soon as his figure touched the trigger revealing a six foot tall blood-red monstrosity, flying through the air with a mouth full of vicious teeth and two wicked dagger-like claws aiming to spear him down.

Noonan fired off the first shot as quickly as he could, followed by a second and third…and then a fourth and fifth. He'd hit the beast center mass, killing it with three of the slugs penetrating the heart and the other two in the lower throat.

Still the limp, dead raptor crashed into the hunter, putting him on his ass.

He knew he had to get up quickly. Raptors hunted in packs: there would be more on him in seconds likely. Since the dead raptor weighed little more than the average human, he cast the body off with ease. Gritting his teeth, his free hand reached for his hip pouch as he stood. He heard the sounds of movement coming up the slope.

They were coming.

Instantly a brilliant flash of red light erupted from the flare Noonan ignited. It hissed off sparks into the air and continued to hiss as it burned. Noonan had lost his natural night-vision in both of his eyes and the flash caught slightly blinded him at first. But he forced his eyes to adjust, holding the flare high and taking aim at the next raptor that would charge him.

But his plan worked. Two other raptors stopped dead in their tracks at the sight and sound of the flare, clearly agitated and frightened by it.

Noonan waved the flare at them, shooting at their feet. The raptors roared and then scattered down the slope and disappeared into the ferns.

Then he felt the ground shake and for the first time he remembered the spinosaur and just how close it had been.

Now he knew it was moving. Fast. Towards him.

Noonan threw the flare as hard as he could in the direction of the sound – the body of a predator crashing through the trees. He fell to his knees trying to find his 50. caliber in the grass, but his night-vision wasn't what it was a few moments ago. He looked up for a split second to see the half-shadowed body of the spinosaur fly past the burning flare some twenty yards away. He would have one shot…if he could find his rifle.

Finally a hand caught the barrel. Noonan picked the rifle up and put the stock to his shoulder. The spinosaur roared as it stomped up the short bluff: a mighty roar that nearly made Noonan's ear drums collapse. Had it not been for the roar he would have heard his shot echo in against the mountains behind him. The impact from the 50. caliber smacked into his shoulder and against his face and John Noonan fell to the ground losing consciousness with the fact that he knew he was going to die.