"all the excitement I thought I once had for this field trip, is gone.." Cassandra, age 18, eventually muttered to her closest classmate whom she considered as a friend.

"what do you mean, it's beautiful out here!" Shana, age 20, countered and tilted her head. Cassandra was not pleased though, beautiful yes, it surely was, but having to hike for three hours in her 'Pink' slides while heaving up her large class sketchbook as well as her smaller, brand new one in a flimsy ugly bag in only shorts and a T-shirt as well as some thin knee high socks through the pouring rain? yeah, that wasn't gonna be great.

"its your own fault," Cristian Buyers, age 22, another classmate had said to them from the seat in front of the two girls, "you were unprepared!" if it were anyone else, Shana would have stuck up for Cassandra but Christian Buyers? there was no way. He has been Shana's crush since her freshmen year of high school, according to what she told Cassandra when they began hanging out more often than just classes. she just stared at Cristian sheepishly and turned back to Cassandra. "He's kinda got a point, Cass'." She watched them both and rolled her eyes as Christian almost seemed to puff up his chest in pride that someone was agreeing with him. Cassandra simply sighed and in her own head mumbled. 'I hate men..'

it was her own fault she didn't pack enough, there was a list that included sneakers and bug spray, but since her professor and also leader of the Rising Art club in their college, mentioned a bathing suit and towel and change of clothes, she had just assumed that they were going to the beach to draw people or shells or something. Something other than a three to five hour hike into the forests of wherever the fuck they were ... Shana frowned at her friends sudden Cynical mood and tried to think of something that could cheer her up. "You could always borrow my bug spray, Cass..." she smiled and poked her friend and classmate playfully, "and I mean, if we are paired up to be hiking buddies we could share an umbrella, and they probably have a clothing shop by the entrance that you might be able to buy sneakers from for the hike..?" Cassandra, who was lost in the moving trees that the travel bus passed at forty to fifty miles per hour, slowly looked up and half smiled. "Thanks." and began to stretch in the cushioned seat. "next year i'll be more prepared.." Shana smiled back and nodded. "yeah, i'll definitely make sure of it!" after a while they both became silent doing their own things to keep from dying of boredom on the trip there. Cassandra pulled out her new sketchbook to draw something on the first page, only to hesitate and put it back in her artbag and begin to daydream out of the window.. Shana watched a beauty blogger on YouTube while sneaking glances occasionally at Christian, who was somehow chatting with his friends in the class, all spread out all over the bus from his own seat.

...

It was Shana to shake Cassandra back into consciousness in what looked to be the middle of the night, the bright bus lights blinding her as soon as she opened her eyes, squinting and uncomfortably shifting out of her fuzzy blanket. she wearily watched Shana grab her things and nudged Cassie to do the same. She was still adjusting to the light and, at first didn't seem to get what Shana had said at first until she looked past her and saw the students all grab their things to exit the bus. they had finally reached their destination. Cassandra grabbed her belongings and art bag slowly, then reached down beside her seat to lift her suitcase from being propped up against he wall to its wheels and behind Shana's lead, began to empty out of the bus like the rests of the students. while walking down the isle she took her blanket from around her arm and rolled it up , hanging it around her neck before slinging her art bag over her shoulder and readjusting her grip on her half drunk 1 liter bottle of cherry coke. they droned down the isle quietly while wheeling their suitcase behind them as one by one, every student got off the travel bus and stepped onto the gravel of the parking lot. The sky was a foggy and dull navy, not pitch black but dark for sure, the clouds shadowing over the moon didn't help much at all either only showing partial light where the site lamps did not.

"what times is it?" she went to ask Shana, who was staring kind of blankly at the sight of Christian walking along by Angela, watching the two sharing a laugh together. Shana didn't turn around immediately, having what some would call a delayed reaction. She didn't come back down to earth until Cassandra had already pulled out her own phone from her bag and turn it on to look. As the bright piercing light of the cell phone switched on both the girls flinched and drew back a couple of inches away. Shana recovered faster than Cassandra did and dared to look once more when the automatic brightness dulled a little and answered.

"Its four thirty in the morning."

"what?" Cassandra did a double take at her lock screen and wrinkled her brows

"why the hell are we up?"

"The faster we set up camp, the faster they can split us up into hiking teams and start our project, I guess." Shana yawned and cracked her neck as she spoke. Cassandra looked at the time on her phone screen once more before making her own take on a gag or some other kind of noise of disgust, in which Shana had to look back at her to make sure she wasn't throwing up her own intestines. she chuckled and shook her head as the student professor called them to start heading to the campsite.

Shana breathed a sigh as she saw Cassandra stumble slightly in her slides.

"Hang in there C'….."

"Hang in there, C'"

Hang in there

it played back a couple of times in a loop inaudible some distance away from the campers who began trekking up the mountain in their pajamas with their luggage, whining and groaning behind their student professor while their main professor checked in with the resource center and then made a running jog to catch up with his students.

34 heat signatures.

16 female and 18 male.

Only ten are armed.

three of them stood high in the trees looking down, clicking and growling to each other the new information as well as checking in with each other from when they had scouted out the area much earlier

"they won't prove to be as honorable trophies as the bad bloods and the hatchlings they stole." The middle beast growled calmly. "Stick to our mission, it will be best not to hunt them and alert them to our presence " he turned to his two teammates who clicked and growled back in their native tongue.

"they would look great on my wall anyway, i'll make sure to be discrete." said the one on his right with a low gurgle of a chuckle

"you could make a very nice footstool with all their puny skulls." the other purred.

"Mission first," the middle roared softly, "then when were done we will have plenty an hour for trophies."

"Last time I checked you weren't my Father" Salvak turned his head at the other blooded warrior.

"You never know, Salvak, I heard he gets around from time to time." X'ol clicked a chuckle.

"He's our exact age you moron" Salvak roared softly.

The unnamed middle beast watched the two quietly with partial regret, not really wanting to play big brother to his two other teammates but like him they both needed real mission experience. That should be enough to drive them.

It better be.

Salvak flipped open the up a panel on his gauntlet and tapped on the input screen.

"Squadron two has spotted one of the bad bloods, it seems that they have split up to hide the stolen hatchlings."

"What are they planning to do with the hatchlings?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"They could doom this entire planet if they're not careful.."

"As well as centuries of our research here."

"That's not the only thing they stolen either,"

Salvak and X'ol looked to their other teammate as he opened up the comm on his gauntlet, pulling up the entire list description.

they moved tree to tree swiftly in the direction of their last known coordinates. X'ol was the youngest blooded of the group, Salvak the second, and the unnamed beast the first of the group. X'ol's brothers and him all completed it together, no deaths although horribly wounded was his youngest brother so they assigned him with the research squadron and he's been excelling quiet well, his last holo-vid with X'ol showed him trying to build himself a new arm to combat for the one he'd lost in his free time.

"I'll be able to fight beside you once more"

His little brothers words filled his head and he jumped tree to tree seemingly faster.

His older brother was on a similar mission squad with his own close bonded team, according to their father, he's been taking trips back to homeworld to visit a specific female who wished him luck before they left on the mothership for their trial. He remembered her. he just hoped he kept his promise not to bare children until all brothers were mated for they could train their children together to work as a team and fight strong when divided before they would go on the same trial that they went not long ago.

They did not rest for the night and kept moving towards the coordinates, but to keep them awake this was how they entertained each other. However when it came time for Salvak and the Nameless blooded warrior to share their blood story, they were quiet in a painfully obvious way. X'ol knew this was because they had been either the sole survivors or lost one of their brethren or teammates so he didn't push it.

Their leader waved a hand and they all silenced and slowly came to a stop.

"We're in range." he growled softly through his mask.

"Activate thermo camouflage"

The two nodded behind their leader and opened up the panels in their gauntlets and started to type in something.

The camouflage emitted a low hum as the light bending technology faded softly just enough to hide their own body temperature from the bad blooded team.

"Be careful not to let your guard down," the team leader growled."

Salvak purred. "Tell that to the bad bloods."

X'ol shook any distractions away with the sway of his dreads. "Let's split up."

Salvak and their leader stared at him blankly

"We're stronger as a team."

"We would cover more ground." Salvak shrugged.

The leader quietly nodded and gestures for them both to circle the area carefully until they find the targets and notify them about any findings

This is how his team got wiped on his trial just a few years ago

One by one.

But this wasn't Trial

It was a lush forest where the bad bloods hid like little insects.

He would make sure to build a thick web and bite their heads off one by one.

A trophy out of a traitor.

And the skeletons of the hatchlings they stole for whatever evils they had planned for this world.

{A/N: hey guys, sorry for the long wait, I wanted chapter one to include Cassandra's diary entry occurrence but I'm saving that for the next chapter since there is quite a bit goin' on right now between both the Preddies and the campers but I'm trying to start their relationship sooner rather than later even though their romantic relationship will be more of a slow burn since I want them to start liking each other over the course of the story and not like 'lets do sum thangs after like the second chapter' (there's nothing wrong with those kinds of stories though). Anyways, thank you for being patient, its been pretty busy on my end but chapter two is already in the works so be sure to keep a look out. I got one review on my opening chapter and a couple of favorites and even follows so thank you so much and I'll try to be consistent with uploads as much as I can. another thing, I am a huge fan but I have only mainly seen the movies and not the comics, so I am sorry if any inaccuracies occur throughout the story. Most of this has nothing really to do with any of the storylines besides a few possible references. all of this is mostly off the top of my head and my own imagination with a little coffee in the mix too. see you next chapter.}