Drew Luczynski was sitting in his office, waiting for his teammate to arrive. Suddenly, a voice sarcastically noted, "Well, I'm glad to see you starting without me". He turned to see Cynthia walking towards him, a smug expression on her face. "Where were you?", Drew asked, "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago". In response, she rolled her eyes and replied, "I needed to do something in the China section, s'all. Anyway, what are we going after today?".

Drew smiled at her. He could only take Cynthia on this mission; everyone else was busy either with general park duties or personal projects they wanted to see to fruition. For example, Leon was busy with the allosaurs and Jack was busy overseeing the integration of the juvenile Mei long into the park's group. Also, some Novum official was coming today to do an audit on the park; he'd left Nikolai to handle that. Back to the important stuff.

Drew reached into his pocket and showed her a picture of a small herbivorous dinosaur. At first glance, it looked like a miniature version of the Dryosaurus in Mesozoic Safaris. However, its tail was abnormally long and its eyes were proportionately larger, almost bugging out of its skull. Drew smiled, "This is Leaellynasaura"." Cynthia raised an eyebrow quizzically and said, "What's so special about it?" Drew smiled, "During the Cretaceous, dinosaurs were found all over the world," Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file. "Even at the South Pole; this was many millions of years before ice caps ever formed on it. This was little-studied until very recently; however, studies have found a wholly distinctive community of dinosaurs adapted to thrive in the unique weather conditions of the time, of which Leaellynasaura was just one." Cynthia smiled, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

And, so, they headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to Cynthia, who nodded. Drew nodded back and they entered through the portal, into the past.

As they left the portal, the first thing that hit the team was the cool air. They looked around to see where they had emerged and the sight was breath-taking. They had emerged in the middle of a large, tropical forest, with a canopy of podocarp and arucaria trees, a denser mid-canopy of ferns and cycads and a lush forest floor, covered in semi-dormant plants. Drew looked at his teammate and said, "This mustn't be long after winter; the plants are only just starting to photosynthesise again." He remembered reading about the bizzare climactic system of Cretaceous Antarctica on the info-packs; Cretaceous Antarctica, unlike the rest of the world at the time, had distinct seasons, with summers of 24-hour sunlight and winters of total darkness.

Suddenly, a bipedal, fast-moving shape moved through the forest, moving so fast it was practically a blur. As it moved through the undergrowth with a speed unrivalled, it briefly jumped onto a fallen podocarp tree, allowing Drew and Cynthia to see it in detail for the first time. It was slightly bigger than the Othnielosaurus back at the park, at about seven feet long, with much of that length being its long, stiff tail, and its entire body was covered with downy feathers; the feathers being reddish-brown with green stripes on the back, grading white on the underbelly. Another distinctive feature of it was its eyes; disproportionately large for its head, and which darted watchfully throughout the clearing, scanning for potential predators in the bushes. Suddenly, it turned to look at the two adventurers, squawked in alarm and tore back through the undergrowth, disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.

Drew and Cynthia looked at each other; they knew what this was. This was Leaellynasaura, their target species. And they knew what they had to do next. "Let's see where he's headed", Drew said, and they began walking down the trail the ornithopod had left.

Meanwhile, Nikolai was sitting in the meeting room and waiting for the Novum official who would be visiting today. He was standing alone; Drew had gone on his latest mission to the past today (total coincidence, he insisted) and had delegated the task to him. Nikolai rolled his eyes. Drew shirking his responsibilities; what else was new? Suddenly, his mind was brought back to reality by the sound of knocking on the door.

Walking up to it, Nikolai opened to find a tall, thin man wearing a business suit standing at the door. He had thinning hair, large glasses and a twitchy demeanour, and the sweat pouring down his skin showed that the heat was not agreeing with him. The man extended his hand and said, "I'm here for the, uh, safety audit. My name's Steve Woodward". Nikolai took it and said, "My name is Nikolai Koshkin. I'm the park's Head of Security." Woodward darted his eyes around the room, as if expecting someone else to pop out, "Where's Mr. Luczynski? Given he's in charge, I thought he'd want to be here…"

Nikolai rolled his eyes and said, "Sadly, Drew had what he considered to be greater priorities. However, most of the Deputy Keepers, who were involved in bringing back many of our animals, have remained. They can fill you in with anything the mission reports may have left out." Woodward smiled, "Well, where's our first stop?"

Meanwhile, back in Cretaceous Antarctica, following the Leaellynasaura was proving to be difficult, with Drew and Cynthia often encountering large logs and other obstacles that the little ornithopod had easily scaled, but the two humans were having difficulty with. Their hike through the forest was punctuated with brief glimpses of the Leaellynasaura they were following in the bushes as they walked. After about an hour's trekking, they reached a large clearing.

In the clearing, a group of Leaellynasaura, of all ages and sizes, were feeding on ferns, mosses and liverworts. Their motions were quick and precise, their heads bent low as they nosed through the undergrowth. One Leaellynasaura, however, was not feeding; rather, it was perched on a tree stump, erect on its back legs and balanced on its long, stiff tail. Its head darted around the clearing, alert of the slightest sound or movement. Drew knew immediately what his role was; he was a sentry, placed to warn of any approaching danger. So far, they were lucky; the sentry hadn't detected them. Or maybe he did see them, but didn't register them as a threat; after all, they had no reason to fear humans. It was an interesting thought tangent that some people had brought up a few times, but he'd never really considered until now. Drew pondered; what did these creatures make of the presence of humanity?

Suddenly, the sentry went rigid and turned his head, with lightning-fast reflexes, south-southwest and looked fixedly at the undergrowth. Drew was puzzled; he wasn't looking at them, so what could have alerted him? Drew's eyes widened; either, best case option, it was a rival clan of Leaellynsaura… or, worst case scenario, it was some sort of predator. The sentry suddenly squawked an alarm and the group went on edge as something large began crashing through the undergrowth. Drew and Cynthia looked at each other; whatever it was that had spooked them, they were about to encounter it.