The young female tyrannosaur followed the scent of the carcass. With her were her two siblings; a male and a female. Clutchmates, they had struck out together as a coalition for mutual protection and hunting success. Now, they were sniffing out a familiar scent; a scent that might lead to food. The hunting had been meagre recently; any scent that might lead to food was a good one.

The trail ended at the carcass of an old Edmontosaurus; a casualty of the extended drought. The three practically salivated; this was enough meat to feed them for weeks. In a dying world you had to take what you could get. However, the three subadults paused. They could smell someone else coming.

Suddenly, there was a low growl and a gigantic Tyrannosaurus walked out of the mist. He was a male; however, he was bigger than any other tyrannosaur the three siblings had seen. His body was covered in scars; the relics of previous fights, with the most notable were the scars that disfigured one side of his face, and he walked with the slightest limp. His eyes were deep red; a sign of age. He walked towards the hadrosaur carcass, put one foot on it and snarled; an invitation to retreat.

Normally, mere posturing would have been sufficient; the three subadults would have backed off at this older male's superior strength. However, in this world, every carcass was something worth fighting over. Sometimes to the death.

Her brother made for the stranger's leg, hoping to catch him off guard and injure him. But you didn't get as old as the male had by being stupid. The old male lifted his foot and delivered a powerful kick to her brother's chest, sending him flying against some rocks, against which he impacted violently. He fell to the ground, dead; the blow had broken his neck.

The young female and her sister screeched in outrage at this, and her sister dived for the old male, jaws open. However, the old male had both size and experience on his side. The young female watched as he grabbed her sister by the neck and bit down. Her screeches wavered before she went limp. The male let go of her throat and threw her to the ground. She was dead; the bite had crushed her windpipe.

The young female, now the sole survivor, looked at the killed bodies of her siblings.

This sibling coalition had been temporary; an association of convenience. Soon would have come a time where the band would have disintegrated and the siblings gone to look for mates of their own. Her link to her siblings was tenuous. And yet she felt a strange and powerful loss. She looked back at the killer, now feasting on the dead hadrosaur, and turned and ran into the desert.

For the first time in her life, she was alone.

The large male watched her retreat. He did not begrudge her for it; nor would he waste effort pursuing the retreating female. What would have been the point? He had all he desired.

There had been nothing truly cruel in the male's actions. Killing the other two tyrannosaurs had not been done out of malice or sadism; the hadrosaur carcass was all he had been after. However, in a brutal world, you had to be brutal yourself. Every carcass was something worth fighting over; to the death, if necessary.

He returned to the dead hadrosaur and resumed feeding, putting the escaping survivor out of sight and out of mind. Besides, if there wasn't sufficient on the hadrosaur carcass, there were two untouched Tyrannosaurus carcasses to spare. In a dying world, any carcass was a potential food source.

All stories have a beginning…

Drew was sitting in his office, waiting for his team. This was the first time in literally ages that the whole team could go on the mission. Due to both the scale of the mission and the fact that no-one had any other commitments, it had been decided it was all hands on deck.

Suddenly, he heard someone clearing their throat and a voice saying "We're here, boss. He turned to see Leon Gilbertson, Cynthia Night, Adrian Sky (accompanied by Rhamphorynchus Keehar) and Jack and Alice Denham entering the room. "Where were you guys?", Drews asked, puzzled, "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago". In response, they rolled their eyes and Jack replied, "We all had things to do, that's why we were late. Anyway, what are we going after?"

Drew looked at them and cleared his throat, ""The Late Cretaceous oceans were home to a great diversity of marine animals," Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file. "These included some of the deadliest marine predators of all time; the place has even been called Hell's Aquarium. The best fossils of the time have been found in a place in Kansas called the Nioabra Shale, which happens to be one of the best marine fossil sites in the world. That's where we're going today. The Mariner's ready; we're ready to set off."

And, so, they headed to the portal site. When they got there, Leon and Drew were surprised to see Collete standing on the walkway; however, Jack simply smiled, "Dropped by to see me off?" Collete rolled her eyes, walked up to them and said, "I came to wish you good luck on the mission today." After a brief pause, she said, "All of you", as if to clarify that she wasn't meaning anyone specific. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. The team boarded the Ancient Mariner. As the boat headed towards the portal, Jack suddenly heard Collete shouting from the walkway, "Oh, and Jack? Promise me you'll be careful." Jack nodded to her, and the Ancient Mariner sailed through.

The Mariner emerged from the portal. The team looked out at the vista; they'd landed in a bay. The sea was calm, the tide was low and the waves lapped gently on a nearby beach; she could see the indistinct forms of creatures prowling the shoreline. There was no sound, aside from the lapping of the waves and the harsh calls of a distant pterosaur. It looked, for all in the world, like the coast of Patagonia; far from what it would look like over 75 million years in the future. It was a tranquil image of peace and serenity; the team stared out and sighed at the beautiful vista before them. Anyway, back to business. Drew turned to his team, "Before we head out into deep water, we're going to bring back some animals from the shallows; on the coast, I'm hoping we run into one animal in particular. Jack, Adrian, you're with me." Drew turned to Leon and said, "Leon, you're in charge until we get back."

The bird looked like a cross between a penguin and a loon, with the former's reduced wings and the latter's large, paddle-like feet. It was covered in dark grey feathers, with a lighter underbelly. The face was largely red and there was a large, yellow, toothy beak. Drew knew what it was immediately, "Hesperornis. A kind of flightless bird found in this area. They're flightless, like penguins, but they're not as cute." Jack asked, "Another question; how are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew smiled at him, "Oh, ye of little faith… I've got a plan. Jack… get the bait bag."

Following Drew's instructions, Jack grabbed the bait bag, filled with fish, and emptied some of it onto the lake shore. The birds sniffed the air, and dived towards the pile of fish with a speed that belied their ungainly appearance. When they had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal and the Hesperornis, moving as if a single entity, dived through the portal, into the present.

Jack, grinning wildly after the events, turned to Drew and asked, "Now, fearless leader, what do we do next?" Drew said, "We head back to the Mariner. Leon just called; apparently, they've seen something."

On the Mariner, Leon was explaining precisely what they had seen, "We saw an incredibly large patch of blood out in the shallows. We think some predator had a bit of a killing spree out there; it's probably attracted a lot of the coastal predators." Drew smirked, "Then we know where we're stopping off; Alice, you're with me."

The pair got into the lifeboat and sailed out towards the bloodbath. Grabbing a periscope, they looked into the water, to see what was going on. It was chaos; predators were swimming in all directions. Close to the source of the bloodbath, a small shark, only about six feet long, swam past. It looked like a miniature great white, with a grey back and a white underbelly. Drew nodded, "That's Squalicorax; a common kind of shark in this region.

The shark suddenly swam away, as a fish some twenty feet long swam past, with a dead Hesperornis in its mouth. Now, Drew and Alice were not ones to hold prejudice towards any animal, but the nicest way to describe the fish was "fantastically ugly". It had an upturned, bulldog-like face, with protruding, interlocking teeth; it had a long, muscular body and a forked tail, meaning that it was, probably a powerful swimmer. It had a small dorsal fin, a large pectoral fin and smaller back fins. It was a blue-black in colouration, with lighter stripes and a orange stripe running down the side and a grey underbelly. Drew chuckled, "That's Xiphactinus; face only a mother could love, eh?"

As the Xiphactinus swam off, another creature ghosted past the bloodbath; it was some thirteen feet long and had a sandy brown colouration. It had a vaguely crocodilian head and pointed, tooth-filled jaws. Its limbs were large flippers and the tail was long and fluked. Its body was long and vaguely serpentine. Alice turned to Drew, "I'm guessing that's a mosasaur." Drew nodded, "Yup. Halisaurus to be precise. Time for us to go down; the Hesperornis corpses are only going to keep them occupied for so long."