The main corporations involved in this escapade in the past are Trans Time, and Time to Time.
Trans Time:
The first and the largest corporation onto the scene. Also the one with the biggest ideas and the boldest plans.
Trans Time have two bases, one in the Cretaceous Period (the first base to be developed), and one in the Triassic.
This is a large affair. It has to be. Dinosaurs are herded here, where they are slaughtered, packaged and beamed up to a waiting world. All facilities to do with the handling and packaging of dinosaurs is done here, making the main HQ in the 21st Century a mere warehouse and controlling facility. The base takes up an area of several square kilometres, and contains dinosaur pens, warehousing, slaughter facilities, training grounds, crew quarters, garages and everything needed for the smooth running of the base and its operations. There is also a small town in this period ('Carver Town'), which is where employees can live and hang out.
The Rangers are the name given to the ground troops that actually do the hard work - the locating, the escorting and the cleaning up.
Spotters or trail beaters are the people responsible for finding the dinosaur herds. They then report back to the main base who send out the Rangers. The spotters then have to plot a route back to base, with more than one eye open for ambush sites, natural hazards, and anything that could make life difficult for the Rangers and their bounty. They are typically lightly equipped weapon wise, but are highly mobile. They generally operate in small groups consisting of a couple of motorbikes, a jeep and nearly always some sort of aircraft support, like a solar powered microplane.
The glamour of Trans Time. The rangers are generally referred to as the Cowboys of the Cretaceous, and their uniform does take more than a passing resemblance to the United States Cavalry of the old Wild West, but with the addition of large cowboy hats. The Rangers are the ones with the task of collecting the herds and then escorting them back to the base for slaughter.
To this end they are equipped with a couple of jeeps and motorbikes for recon, a couple of solar panelled microplanes for aerial support, and the Rangers themselves, who ride on horseback. It was found a while back that dinosaurs don't react well when they are around man made vehicles - the eggheads said it was something about the fact that the dinosaurs thought the vehicles were a threat, or didn't like the way they smelled, or any number of other reasons. So, after a few disastrous attempts to train some of the hadrosaurs as mounts, it was decided to import horses from the future to be the mount of the past, and now most Rangers ride them. Only the carnivorous dinosaurs have a point to make with that, and that's only because they want to eat them. So Rangers now ride horses, and are equipped with a plethora of hand weapons for self defence, and lassoes and electro lashes to herd the dinosaurs. Sometimes a jeep on a collision course with a dinosaur can get it's attention though.
Trans Time has a very strict policy when it comes to pollution and litter - they want none of it. Due to the fact that time travel is a brand new science, and only corporate scientists are studying it, and then not very hard, no one knows what effect on the time stream harvesting dinosaurs has. And how would you tell? Trans Time believe that a scandal could be caused if< a budding archaeologist were to uncover some tracks of man or find the fossilised remains of a wrecked vehicle millions of years before it's time. So to get round this, clean up squads were formed whose sole job it is to go after the Rangers and spotters and clean up any evidence of their passing. This is especially important around combat zones, and areas where tracks could be laid permanently. It is considered the boring job, but a job that has to be done. No one really wants to do it, and thus as an incentive for the squads to do a good job, Trans Time has been issuing bonuses for those that collect large amounts of potential time damaging material. Of course, it is quite easy to forge those same materials to get that bonus.
Still, the squads seem to be doing a good job, as no one has complained yet. Equipment wise, clean up squads are generally armed to the teeth as they have no air cover, but instead have to rely on foot transport, horses and the occasional jeep most fix leaves and branches behind to destroy their own tracks).
It should be noted that every piece of equipment used by Trans Time in all time zones (save anything of rifle cartridge size or smaller) has a 'bleeper' attached. This is a small device that basically just emits it's presence on a local frequency so that someone with a special tracker can home in on any piece of equipment that might have been dropped, thus making clean up duty actually slightly manageable. The bleeper itself weighs only about 1/5 of a pound, and it's internal batteries last for about a 12 hour period before needing recharging. It's range is 1 mile.
The main vehicle used by the Ranger teams is basically the ambiguous army surplus jeep (page 15 of the Military Vehicle Guide) with most of the electronics ripped out. Sometimes the gun is kept, although more times than not, it is replaced with a more easily available MG.
Stripped down Amerind motorbikes (page 9 of the Military Vehicle Guide) are the usual fair of two wheeled vehicles used for recon work.
Fully fledged combat vehicles aren't used often, although they can be seen patrolling the main base (along with state of the art hunter killer helicopters). It is the rare mission that actually sees them in action, and then usually only against major Time to Time targets. They follow the wide variety as the vehicles that the public in the 21st use, although all are OR versions without an exception.
Equipment used by the various Rangers depends on their role, but typically everyone is armed with small arms and larger calibre weaponry for use against the local animal life. This includes anything from gyrosluggers to old large bore hunting rifles.
Personal weapons aren't supplied by the corporation, and thus anyone is free to carry what they like.
Rangers on herd duty tend to also carry electro lashes - basically electrified whips - which, while causing no damage to the dinosaurs that they are used on, will get their attention, which hopefully may be enough to keep them under control and on the right path back to the slaughter houses.
Body armour is issued as standard!
The base here is one gigantic offshore platform, called Atlantis Station. It is exactly like the base in the Cretaceous, only catering to the needs of those that want seafood. It has the same types of facilities, just more compacted to fit the base. The main vehicles here are submarines, ranging from the small aqua duellist vehicles for base defence and shoal hunting, to large subs that are basically undersea trawlers. The base itself is run on a much tighter operation than the Cretaceous period.
Due to the low amount of dinosaurs in comparison to the Cretaceous, Trans Time have a small hotel resort built, but not yet operational, which they plan to rent rooms to wealthy individuals.
The Triassic base has it's own version of the Rangers of the Cretaceous, and they generally fulfil the same roles. Generally referred to as Sea Groups (although most of the divers refer to themselves as Aqua Rangers, a term that has yet to catch on), the groups generally have a much harder time of it than their land based brethren.
This is because the marine life here is much faster and much more suited to running rings round the subs.
A standard sea group consists of a Trans Time sub and two cybersaurs. This unit is the standard in everything that occurs, and it can be seen patrolling the seas against Time to Time excursion, defending against marauding sea life, and every other role that needs to be done, such as escort work.
The actual work of fishing is done by highly specialised trawler subs - huge affairs rivalling the late 20th century nuclear powered subs in size. These are responsible for all aspects of fishing, which they do with frightening efficiency, able to scoop up shoals of fish, sharks and nearly anything else that gets in the way.
They are generally unarmed in themselves, and thus nearly always have several patrol and escort vessels nearby.
These ships leave Atlantis station for days at a time, only coming back when their fish tanks are full, and then they dock with the station, unload, refuel and leave once more for the depths.
Cleanup crews have the worst of it in this era. If combat or accidents occur, then usually it happens at depths that the crews cannot get to. And besides, who actually wants to go diving in an area filled with lethal marine life? Thus cleanup duty is regarded as a rotten assignment, and one that isn't done to the best of anyone's ability.
It was found that the best form of defence against most marine predators was another marine predator. And thus the concept of the cybersaur was developed. As Ichthyosaurs are supposedly the forerunners of the dolphins, it was hoped that they would be smart enough to be trained to act as 'guard dogs'. Well, this wasn't the case, but it was found that by attaching a small cybernetic remote control device, they could be controlled, and quite easily too.
Thus the Cybersaur was born. Prehistoric animal mated with modern technology. And they work very well too, until the cyber unit is damaged, in which case the general option is to try and destroy the creature or run away.
Trans Time try and do everything possible back in the past. This includes the harvesting, slaughtering, packaging of dinosaurs, and the training of personnel.
However not everything can be done there, and a base in the future is also required. This facility includes recruitment and the main time travel generator. It is a fairly large affair (although by no means as large as the bases in the past), and it situated in the middle of the Kansas wastelands, so it does have to have a fairly large standing security force to deal with marauders
Trans Time is a large company, and requires large amounts of money to run. To supplement the selling of real meat, the company has a couple of other ways of making money. It runs sight seeing tours for select people, it runs game hunting and it is building a hotel in the Triassic. To sign up for these tours, you don't contact Trans Time, they contact you. Obviously they have to be very careful about who can know the secret and who can keep a secret. If they have the slightest doubt, then you won't go. As a result, trips for non employees are few and far between, but astronomical fees can be charged to the lucky few...
These are very limited when compared to the facilities in the past. This base is mainly an administrative establishment, containing warehouses of supplies to and from the past, and a training area for new recruits (although the actual recruiting and interviews take place well away from the area).
There is a huge rivalry between Trans Time and Time to Time. Each side are trying to find out as much as possible about the other, and to this end spying is employed very heavily. Time to Time know where the Trans Time bases are, and continually send a stream of spies, disguised as new recruits to them. Trans Time though have become very good at impostors and it's security staff make excellent spy hunters, and it is the are spy that actually makes it this far, although those that do are usually equally good at their profession, and thus a sort of cold war has built up between these two corps, although to date Trans Time hasn't gotten any information on where the Time to Time to base is...
Time To Time:
Trans Time is not sure how this company started up, nor who controls it (it is believed to be some employees of Trans Time, as they are the only ones with access and info to Time Travel, but nothing has been proven - spies are possible, but Trans Time has good spy hunting staff), but what is known is that they are proving to be a pain in the backside.
They are aggressive hunters, to the point where they fight Trans Time Rangers for their herds, causing many a stampede and loss of herd for both parties, and tend to have a shoot on sight policy regarding non Time to Time employees.
They also don't seem to care about destroying the past or leaving evidence behind (like lost equipment). All they do seem to care about is getting the herds and getting the meat. Unlike Trans Time, their main facilities seem to be up in the 21C, and thus all their bases in this period are temporary time travel bases. This means that they are safe from the prying eyes of Trans Time as they can shift their bases within a few hours.
Time to Time harvest dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period, and very aggressively too. They are most active in this period, with units sent to harvest dinosaurs and others sent to harass Trans Time. They use everything from planes and helicopters to motorcycles and attack vehicles to do this job. It is not known how many mobile time units they operate, but it rumoured to be about 2 or 3, all in separate locations of course.
In the Triassic period they are not so active however. Their goal here mainly seems to be the destruction of Trans Time property, but whether this is due to the fact that they don't have any experience in water operations or not is unknown. Certainly they seem to use more surface vessels than Trans Time, and near enough any submersibles they do own look like they have been swiped from a Trans Time depot.
Although according to some Trans Time 'experts' this is probably their testing period before they actively get involved in the fishing process.
Obviously the public don't know anything about the real operations of these companies, which allows Trans Time to sell products like "Bronto Burgers", "Fish Fingers - made with real Nothosaur!". In the public eye, Time to Time is a copycat corporation. Most people would say that the meat either isn't real meat at all, or is cloned. Either way, the products do sell.
Equally obvious, is the fact that the corporations have to be very careful how they handle things. An official enquiry would rapidly shut the entire company down, and bring about the wrath of eco-terrorists and other corporations wanting time travel technology. In this case, the corporations see eye to eye, as they know they wouldn't stand a chance. This means that the corps cannot do anything to get unwanted attention. So they don't buy military equipment, and large construction equipment (such as that needed to build the bases) is bought from lots of separate corporations in small units.
