Chapter Text
Moira Hart stood from the hotel balcony, staring at the main street illuminated by the full moon. However, she would not be enjoying the five star luxury resort for much longer. She thought of the task ahead of her. The heads of this “Jurassic World” had bought Moira and her comrades from Phoenix with a hefty payroll. The four mercenaries would be tasked with exterminating Isla Nublar of raptors.
Velociraptor Nublariensis was what they were known as by the scientific community. Apex predators born on the nearby Isla Sorna Dinosaur Preserve and shipped to Nublar to be used as theme park attraction. They escaped, along with every other dinosaur of Jurassic Park. The raptors possessed teeth, claws, speed and an almost human intelligence. They were responsible for the deaths of dozens, including her uncle, Robert Muldoon.
Moira took her gaze away from the park and back to her study table littered with notes and sketches, her laptop full of downloaded interviews and testimonies. She looked at photos of the beasts, studying their avian poise. “Like a six foot turkey”, she thought. She took one last look through her uncle’s journal, retrieved during a raid on the island several years ago. Skimming through the timeworn pages, she found the photo of herself and her uncle posing in front of a lion. She smiled and went to bed.
The next morning she joined the others downstairs for breakfast. Joseph Crane was the first she ran into. Crane was a tracker and woodsman at heart, finding even the most elusive beasts in almost any environment. Marcus and Jackson were arm wrestling for the last waffle, which Moira casually snatched. Marcus Tyler was an Air Force pilot gone AWOL and Jackson Stone is wanted in every country with an endangered species list for charges of poaching. The two simply gawked as Moira sat down with their waffle and proceeded to apply jam like the Brit she was. Moira Hart spent most of her childhood in the UK before moving to Botswana to become a park ranger like her uncle.
The Masrani and Ingen agents finally showed up to give a quick briefing of the mission. The four would be leading a squad of six ACU officers into a zone of the island known as the Restricted Area. Their primary directives were to destroy all raptors and their nests. There were 8 known nesting sites and possibly more. The estimated velociraptor population amounted to about 30, all of them no longer lysine-dependent thanks to the late Laura Sorkin The only other threats were Compsognathus. (The Rex had been rounded up several weeks prior.) The agents then handed out the team’s uniforms. They were now the highest ranking officers of the ACU.
Moira was anxious during the ride to the Restricted Area. Even though all lethal force would be used against the raptors, even then they were hard to kill. Their skulls and ribs were designed to protect against any impact. Like a bullet. When the 10 were at the drop off, they went over the plan and formation one more time before vanishing into the jungle. Crane and Stone took the lead, both being trackers. Minutes passed, then an hour, then two hours with no tracks, nests, or leads. Marcus proposed they take a break at the nearby clearing. Most of the team agreed, except Crane who was convinced this was a mistake. The nine of them relaxed while Crane kept watch. That was when Marcus vanished, pulled into the brush, followed by his scream. The rest instantly went on guard and lifted their guns. The foliage around them shook violently. There were more. They were being hunted. That was when officer after officer vanished. Moira glimpsed a reptilian eye and fired a warning shot. Then the raptors emerged. The jungle exploded in gunfire. They pounced on the remaining ACU, sickle claws easily puncturing armor and flesh. Crane was taken from the front, a slash running along his abdomen disemboweling the man. He collapsed holding his intestines. Jackson took down several of the beasts before his neck was snapped from behind. Only Moira remained. One raptor began walking toward her, larger than the others, with a scar along its blind left eye.The Alpha. Moira tried to take the shot but she couldn’t pull the trigger. It was jammed. The Alpha recognized this and knocked the wind out of Moira with a sprinting headbutt. She was on the ground now, unable to get up. A three clawed foot landed on her abdomen, sickle claw pinning her down. The other raptors remained quiet. This was the Alpha’s kill. A toothy maw opened up around her face. It had the decay-filled breath of a carnivore, scraps of flesh remaining in the nooks of each conical tooth. Then it snapped shut with the force of a vice grip, shaking Moira’s head with such violent force, her spinal cord tore in seconds. The Alpha released the head of the now deceased Moira Hart, leaving the neck at a disturbing ninety-degree angle. Not a single scrap of the squad’s flesh was eaten. The pack melted back into the jungle. They only killed for the sake of killing.