The start of a new life.
Cracks began to splinter across the surface of the egg, It shook ever so slightly as the tiny creature inside fought to get out, thrashing against the brittle shell. Eventually, the cracks widened and widened, before shattering as the top of the egg was finally pushed away. The infant's slender neck unfurled as it broke the sac of viscous liquid that had kept it alive thus far.
The newly hatched dinosaur raised its head, feeling the warmth of the Cretaceous sun on its scales. Tentatively, it took its first ever look at the outside world, squinting against a sudden, intruding brightness. It struggled to focus its new eyes, to take in the desolate plains that stretched out under a brooding, stormy sky.
And that is where our story begins.
At Prehistoric Earth, construction crews were all over the place, constructing an incredibly large building; one that seemed big enough to house every single one of Prehistoric Earth's dinosaurs, with some crowding. In the distance, Kyle was barking orders at the workmen, like a drill sergeant, "Make sure that these walls are as strong as they can get! We don't want to take any chances!" Suddenly, a Jeep drove up the hill and Drew Luczynski got out. Smiling, he walked up to Kyle and asked, "How's the hurricane shelter going?" Kyle nodded, "Good, good; should be done pretty soon."
After both the tropical storm in the Jurassic and a realisation of where they were, it was decided that a hurricane shelter be built, to shelter the dinosaurs in case the island was ever hit by on. Drew smiled and said, "You might have to make it a bit bigger." Kyle raised an eyebrow and said "Why?" Drew, still smiling, said, "Because, today, I'm bringing back some of our biggest dinosaurs yet!" Kyle facepalmed; of course he was. Drew, seemingly unaware of his head keeper's dismay, added "Oh, and you'll also need to expand the aviary; it's not just giant land animals I'm after". Kyle facepalmed; of course he was. Drew turned round and walked back to the Jeep, lifting his walkie-talkie to call his team.
At the allosaur enclosure, Leon was continuing his work with Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. In the month since he had begun his training programme, he had successfully whistle-trained them. Today, he was working on training them so that they could respond to verbal commands. Leon, using a remote control, moved a dinosaur-shaped lure into the enclosure at high speed. As usual, the three allosaurs dived after the lure, pursuing it wherever it went. Eventually, Leon turned the lure into a wall, allowing the allosaurs to corner their "prey". The young male Drogon took a few steps, jaws open, towards it when, suddenly…. Leon yelled "Drogon, leave it!". Drogon stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him. Whilst this was happening, the young male Rhaegal advanced towards the lure, before Leon yelled, "Rhaegal, I see you! Eyes on me." In response to this statement, Viserion hissed, to which Leon responded with "Viserion, don't give me that shit! Stand down." After the three allosaurs hesitated for a few minutes, Leon threw them each a piece of meat; it was imperative that they be rewarded for, instead of immediately attacking the lure, to stop when he gave a verbal command. Suddenly, his walkie-talkie hissed into life and he picked it up, "What's up, Drew? There's another mission? Alright, the training session's finished anyway; I'll see you there in ten minutes".
Meanwhile, at Hell's Oceans, Jack was helping the vets check up on Thanatos, the big male Liopleurodon. Despite worries, the sixty-foot pilosaur had proven rather tolerant of the humans capering around his massive body, allowing the vets to give him a general health check. Jack turned to Yolanda and asked, "So, how is he?" Yolanda smiled and looked at Jack, "For the most part, he's getting better; he's gaining weight, the wounds on his stomach have healed and his physical condition has radically improved than from when you guys found him." With the check-up done, the divide on the holding tank was opened, allowing Thanatos to re-enter his tank.
As the sixty-foot pilosaur glided elegantly through the water, Jack was reminded of the other purpose of his visit; give Thanatos his morning feed. This was partly a training mechanism; Thanatos would associate swimming into his holding tank when a shift signal came with a food reward. Since he was their biggest predator thus far, Jack had to use a crane to drop a whole cow carcass in the water. Suddenly, a pair of nine-foot, crocodilian jaws grabbed the cow carcass, seconds after it landed, dragging it down to eat. Watching this, Jack chuckled, "Enjoy your breakfast, big guy." Suddenly, his walkie-talkie hissed into life and he picked it up, "What's up, fearless leader? There's another mission? Alright, we're done with Thanatos anyway; I'll see you there in five minutes".
At the Eustreptospondylus enclosure, Adrian was getting ready to feed the mid-sized theropods. Given the Eustreptospondylus' ecological niche as scavengers, some leftover meat from the other carnivores' meals had been thrown in the mix; the Eustreptospondylus were proving to be the perfect garbage disposals. Waste not, want not, he supposed. The benefits of this system were double; it not only fed the less fussy carnivores (the Eustreptospondylus, Coelophysis and Postosuchus), it also disposed of rotting meat (so long as it wasn't diseased) that might, otherwise, contaminate the other meat in the storeroom. Adrian dumped the meat into the Eustreptospondylus' enclosure, and the six carnivores dived on it, eagerly tearing it apart. As he was watching the spectacle, Adrian's walkie-talkie hissed into life. Raising it, he said "Hey Drew; what's going on? Another mission? I'm done with the Eustreptospondylus and I'm heading off now; I'll be there in a few minutes."
At Mesozoic Safaris, Alice had been called down with some of the security personnel in order to break up a territorial dispute between the Stegosaurus and Plateosaurus herds over the same spot on the watering hole. In case things came to worse, the security personnel were on standby with hosepipes to keep the dinosaurs away from each other. The dominant male plateosaur swished his arms from side to side, brandishing his massive claws. In response to this, the matriarch stegosaur stamped her foot, swished her spiky tail and bellowed at the plateosaurs. Eventually, the plateosaurs backed off, in the face of the larger, well-armoured herbivores. Alice sighed; this sort of thing had been going on for quite a while. Suddenly, her walkie-talkie hissed into life; she raised it and said, "Hey Drew; what's going on? Another mission? I'm heading off now; should be there in five minutes."
Not far away, Cynthia was helping train a Brachiosaurus. Despite worries, the giant sauropod had performed rather well; she blew a whistle and it had moved into its feeding stall. Cynthia tossed it some fern leaves as a reward. All the animals in Mesozoic Safaris had gone through similar procedures; making it easier for if they had to be transported for some reason (say, into the newly built hurricane shelter. The mechanism used was simple; the animals would associate moving into the holding pen when a shift signal came with a food reward. Suddenly, her walkie-talkie hissed into life. She raised it and said, "Boss?… Oh, hey, Drew! Another mission? On my way."
Ten minutes later, Drew was sitting in his office, along with Leon, Adrian, Jack and Alice, all of whom were bored. Leon was calmly flipping through the journal, Jack was looking at the celling (for no discernible reason) and tapping his feet impatiently, Alice was looking at her watch, whilst Adrian was looking out of the window. Suddenly, a voice sarcastically noted, "Well, I'm glad to see you starting without me". They turned to see Cynthia walking towards them, a smug expression on her face. "Where were you?", an puzzled Jack asked, "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago". In response, she rolled her eyes and replied, "I needed to talk to someone, s'all. Anyway, what are we going after?"
Drew looked at her suspiciously and cleared his throat, ""The Early Cretaceous was the age of giants" Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file, "with some of the largest animals ever to live, in both the land and the air existing". He briefly paused and continued, "For this mission, we are splitting the team; Cynthia and Leon are coming with me", he gestured to them, "to Argentina, 100 million years ago, to go after Argentinosaurus. Whereas you three", he gestured to Jack, Alice and Adrian, "are going to Brazil, 127 million years ago". He then proceeded to hand them a small journal and a remote. "As you know, you use the journal to identify any animals you see and, of course, you have a portal remote. You've also been given a small Cessna plane; that's at the portal site. Be careful and remember; no species left behind." Jack, Alice and Adrian gave him puzzled looks and Jack said "Boss… Why do we have a plane?" In response, Drew smiled knowingly and stated, "Oh, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
As Jack, Alice and Adrian left, Cynthia turned to Drew, "Are we sure leaving Jack in charge is a good idea?" Leon said, "I'd say he's done pretty damn well on the last couple of missions; also, why is it any of your concern?" Cynthia shrugged and said, rather enigmatically, "He lost the communicator on the last mission; also, he was feeding the Coelophysis before their escape and he didn't report a system error." Drew gave Cynthia and Leon a look, "I'm confident he can handle things; end of discussion."
At the portal site, an employee entered the first time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. After the portal's location and time had been entered. Drew put the portal remote in his pocket and, after making sure the remote was secured , he turned to Leon and Cynthia, who nodded at him. He nodded in turn, and they entered through the portal.
Afterwards, it was the Brazil team's turn. After the portal's location and time had been entered and the Cessna had been transported through the portal, Jack put the portal remote in his pocket and secured it. He turned to Alice and Adrian, who both gave him a thumbs-up. Jack returned their gestures and smiled at them and they went through the gleaming portal.
As they exited the portal, the team looked around to see where they had emerged and the sight was breath-taking. The white Cessna stood parked near them, as they looked out over a landscape of rocky outcrops and low-growing plants. The smell of salt on the wind indicated they'd emerged near the coast. Jack, Alice and Adrian chuckled; it looked like, of all things, the Isle of Skye. At the end of the long headland, they saw a large granite outcrop, jutting out into the deep blue of the ocean. Almost inaudibly, they could hear the honking cries of distant pterosaurs, coming from the granite outcrop. The team smiled at each other; they knew that was their first stop.
For the Argentina team conversely, the first thing that hit the three adventurers was the heat; whilst it wasn't as oppressive as the Jurassic drought, it was still pretty hot. They looked around and saw a large lake, with a small, patchy forest of cycads and conifer trees by it. Cynthia looked around, muttering "So where should we start?". "We look for signs of Argentinosaurus", Leon replied, "I reckon we sit by the lake and wait; on dry plains, watering holes are important." Drew breathed out and looked out at the near featureless vista, before turning back to look at his team. He noticed Leon and Cynthia both looking at him, eyes widened. Even more confusingly. they both took a step backwards, slowly and quietly. "Drew…", Leon muttered in shattered tones. Drew stared at them, confused; why were they acting so weirdly? Suddenly, he heard a low, throaty growl, Cynthia yelling at him to get down, before he felt her tackling him to the floor.
