For years now, the Confederate States of Vinland have been in turmoil. This is because unlike the Gardarikian Federation and the Almagna Empire they were a democracy. And in democracies, when the people have something to say, they are free to say it.
President Monroe Bennett's conduct had been contested ever since he came to power, but it had been sporadic: a few protests here, a senator raising an issue there, nothing the head of state couldn't handle with a little. of gab. And when the gab wasn't enough, well, Bennett and his circle knew how to silence people.
However, since Queen Mackenzie had left the NMWA and founded the Eden Union, the protests had increased exponentially, as many people saw Eden Union as the answer to their problems. Bennett had tried to keep the population at bay as best he could, but as Eden Union grew and showed all its prosperity, calming the people became more and more difficult.
Bennett had seen his power become more and more fragil
That was the beginning of the end, the final blow to the NMWA. As had happened on Earth with the USSR, the international organization began to dismember itself piece by piece. Many nations had already begun to lose their faith in the NMWA, and the discovery of that secret was the last humiliation they were willing to endure.The Eden Union was able to withstand the impact of that news much better: Queen Mackenzie and President Palma managed to convince the people and nations who had kept silent about that news to avoid panic spreading and fear held back men from 'to act and rebel against the wrong government system that was the NMWA. Since their motives were understandable, the Eden Union chose to believe him, even though the Senate imposed fines on the Prettania Kingdom and the Republic of Meilong; after all, it was right that they paid at least a little. Furthermore, both Queen Mackenzie and President Palma revealed that they already had suitable countermeasures for atomic
Sobek hadn't foreseen that implication, but personally he didn't mind.On Earth, RE/SYST was an organization that existed only in the Salvation show. Sobek had taken into account that they could also exist in that universe since he had met Pauline Mackenzie, but he had preferred not to investigate: after all he did not care about them.However, cyber warfare was crucial to winning a war in the modern era. Drones, missiles, communications, everything was regulated by computers and systems. Having a group of experienced hackers on your side could make all the difference in an open fight.Sobek had no reason to fear RE/SYST: his weapons were not connected to any network and the precautions he could take against the NMWA could also work against RE/SYST. They had nothing to threaten him. However, they had a lot that could threaten the NMWA and, above all, the superpowers.A few months earlier, RE/SYST had announced the existence of atomic bombs to the world, a
In a barren wasteland, covered with rocks and completely red ground, two men were walking in heavy spacesuits. The wind lashed their bodies, kicking up the dust and if they weren't wearing protectors they probably would have felt a slight discomfort in their legs. They were looking at the view through their helmets. All they could see around them were red sand and distant mountains, and looking east they could watch the sun rise, a sun that from a terrestrial's perspective would have been remarkably small. And the same was true of any inhabitant of Eden.This is because Eden was actually more than fifty million miles away from the two men at the time. The two astronauts could see it: slightly suspended above the rising sun was a tiny ball of light, clearly a planet that reflected a lot of light thanks to its oceans.Liam observed the sunrise with a dreamy look. Even though they had arrived on planet Davis a few months ago, they still got lost in watching the sun rise o
The Gardarikian Federation was very, very large. If anyone had wanted to make a comparison with the Earth, it would have been roughly three times the size of Russia.This was certainly no cause for joy. In any world, the larger a nation was, the more difficult it was to manage it. Even with modern means and communications, it was much more preferable to have a small territory rather than a gigantic one. Furthermore, just like on Earth, a very large nation contained within itself very different peoples and cultures.Being able to manage and, above all, keep so many people with different religions, beliefs, cultures and educations good was tiring. Especially if those people had not willingly chosen to be part of that nation. As on Earth, most of the great nations of Eden were the result of constant wars and expansions. The Gardarikian Federation was no exception: hundreds of different peoples coexisted within it who had been independent for a long time and then had been
President Anoke and Emperor Wafner sat facing each other, completely alone in the room. Neither of them said a word; they simply mirrored each other in the eyes of the other.In the end it was Anoke who spoke. "I'm going to give up"Under normal circumstances, Wafner would have screamed at those words; but now he didn't seem to have the strength to get angry. "What do you mean?""You understood perfectly well. Face reality. We lost” Anoke replied. Five months had passed since the Gardarikian Federation had been torn apart by the rebel, and now the president was but a pathetic shadow of himself. "There is nothing we can do. My country is in the throes of riots and I have already suffered five attacks in the last few weeks, one of which was nearly fatal to me. All the nations that support us are overwhelmed by the rebellion and one after the other are collapsing. What's more, the economic crisis continues to worsen the situation”. The man sighed deeply
"And so we took another one"Jocelyne and Sobek were lying together in a clearing. The woman had brought a chess set and opened them in front of him, then they started playing. In reality only Jocelyne moved the pieces: since her claws were too big Sobek just said where he wanted the pieces to be moved, and she did it for him. But it was still a nice way to relax, and they both needed it.Two days earlier, the Gardarikian Federation had declared the independence of the four warring regions and its abandonment of the NMWA. The news had been welcomed with joy from all over the world: even if a new government was still to be formed, it was clear that the Federation was preparing to join the Eden Union.The title 'PRESIDENT ANOKE LEAVES THE NMWA' was printed in large letters in any newspaper, magazine or leaflet. The media wallowed in such news. Not only had the Gardarikian government surrendered to the rebellions, but another superpower had given in and left the NM
The weeks that followed were filled with changes.Even if President Anoke hadn't openly declared it, everyone knew that his was in effect a surrender. The defeat of one of the most powerful nations in the face of the new world order had changed the perspective of many people: now even the most skeptical could not help but understand that the great change was inevitable. If even a superpower had been forced to surrender, then who or what could hold back the advance of the new customs and the new society?The Gardarikian Federation wasn't like the Republic of Meilong or the Confederate States of Vinland, which had changed and joined the Eden Union voluntarily. This nation had fought against dinosaurs from the start and fiercely opposed any change. Therefore, its was a defeat in all respects. Faced with such a message, those people who hoped for change and believed in it became more confident in their ideology, while those who weren't sure that change was possible had to
Sinar was a nation that lay directly beneath the Empire's territory. Due to its latitude, the climate was rather temperate. In years gone by, that place would have been afflicted with year-round heat, and sometimes small dust storms would whip up into tornadoes. For those who didn't live in big cities, the temperature range was quite disturbing, with daytime sun bringing with it bursts of heat and nights bringing freezing cold. Despite this, however, the agricultural production of this nation was quite flourishing, since it was crossed by large rivers fed by a nearby mountain range which allowed farming even in those harsh conditions.However, recently the environment had started to change. The weather had grown cooler and the sand and parched earth were slowly giving way to meadows full of grass and flowers. If you looked closely, you could see the shoots of some bushes and trees that would one day grow tall and strong.Such changes were obviously due to the activity
It took Sobek a few moments before he realized he was back in the room where it all began. That room where time and space ceased to exist, and where everything and nothing seemed to have changed at the same time. He already knew where he had to go; walking through the infinitely large (or perhaps infinitely small) room, in a few minutes (or perhaps a few centuries, who knows) he reached the familiar armchair on which was seated a woman with white skin and light hair.God didn't even seem to move since she sent him to Eden. Even her expression didn't seem to have changed at all. She was still the same, beautiful and terrible at the same time, whose gaze was both magnetic and loving on him. “Welcome back, son,” she greeted him in her crystal clear voice.Sobek advanced on her. This time there wasn't an armchair waiting for him, but a large mattress wide enough to allow him to lie down. She lay back on it and gazed intently at God. Even now, after he'd grown i
On the continent of Maakanar, near a river that was once a typical spinosaurus nesting place, something immense could be seen. A huge creature was lying on its belly, but nevertheless it was so tall that its dorsal sail towered over the surrounding masts.Sobek was now thirty-three years old. To say he had grown into a behemoth was an understatement: he now measured 150 meters from head to tail and reached 45.6 meters in height. Even without activating the mutation he was now larger than Godzilla: the gigantic atomic reptile was a tiny lizard compared to him. All kaiju would be small compared to him. Even King Ghidorah would have been forced to acknowledge its superiority.In the last five years he had hardly moved. After the death of his last loyalist he returned to his birthplace and settled there. He ate what was provided to him from the [Personal Manger] and drank the water from the river. Otherwise, he remained calm, warming himself in the sun or admiring the star
After a few days Nefertiti settled at the lake together with her father and her last remaining uncle. With the help and indications of Sobek she built a comfortable nest and there she laid her egg.Thus began the brood. The female spinosaurus never moved from above her little egg, keeping it constantly warm. Sobek and Buck brought her food and water. When Nefertiti was hot, Sobek used her huge wing as a parasol and Buck fanned her with his tail. In the rare moments when it was cold, the two of her huddled to help her warm up.That routine went on for three months. Finally, at the end of the third month, a familiar clicking sound came from under Nefertiti's paws.The female spinosaurus reared up and looked down. A small crack was opening on the egg. With a smile she moved from above it. The crack widened more and more and finally a large piece of egg broke off, showing a lively green eye that stared intently at Nefertiti.“Hello, baby. I'm your mothe
Time had passed again. Sobek couldn't even figure out how much time had actually passed now. One year? Two? Maybe three? He didn't know.After his retirement, Sobek had gone deep into the forest of Maakanar. It was hard for him to move his huge body through the trees and very often ended up destroying them: his passage was evident as a trail of uprooted trunks was always behind him. He had moved permanently to the lake where he had met Buck and where he had established his first army. And he hadn't gone there alone.Carnopo and Buck had joined him just a month after his departure. They, too, had decided they'd had enough and abandoned their roles entirely. After all, in the new world there was no longer a need for either an army commander or one of the shock legion. Now there was peace, and the old war veterans had no reason to try to find their place in their world. So they had decided to do what they had always done: follow their pack leader.The trio spent th
Another year had passed. In Sobek's eyes, time seemed to have begun to flow more rapidly. The months and weeks all passed almost the same and in a flash the morning turned into evening.Humanity had continued its advance. By now, Aphrodites had been fully colonized. Whole cities had sprung up on it and millions of settlers had begun to live there. Davis had now reached more than a billion inhabitants and Hermes now owned thousands of mining establishments.Thanks to teleportation technology it was so advanced that traveling between planets was even easier than going from one city to another. Since energy and material consumption were now no longer a concern thanks to solar panels on Hermes and mining plants on asteroids, everyone had a portable teleportation device. By now, being hired to work a mine on an asteroid was no different than being hired to work at the local convenience store.Colonies on the moons of Leviathan and Behemoth had multiplied, providing e
More time, more changes. In just one year, many things had changed.Nefertiti had assumed control of the entire astrophysics division of the dinosaur pack, effectively acting as acting pack leader for them. After the first shared mission, she had begun to promote more policies of integration and union between humans and animals. She had facilitated interspecies interspace operations, sending animals and humans to work together in the new worlds to be colonized. Furthermore, there was still much to colonize, as human attention was slowly shifting beyond the outer Solar System to the dwarf planets and comets of the Oort Cloud.The work was not cheap and with it the possibilities of working together. With the Dyson Sphere nearing completion, energy was no longer an issue. After determining which moons to colonize, the Eden Union had begun an intensive mining program in the asteroids of the main belt in order to be able to build huge lenses to capture the sunlight and also
One more year, more innovations. The more time passed, the more progress seemed to accelerate. It was like a speeding train that multiplied its speed every second: first slow, then faster and faster, until it turned into a giant projectile.Sobek knew that progress was bound to accelerate more and more, after all it was his nature. For each new discovery, countless doors open. And every door leads to other doors. This was the nature of progress. It was no coincidence that it took humanity less than two hundred years to go from horses to aircraft capable of leaving the orbit of their home planet.He recalled that on Earth, where he came from, progress had become so fast in the 21st century that it was enough to be born even a generation later or further back to find oneself in a completely different world. While in 1990 the main communication system was the satellite phone, in 2020 people used social networks for the most disparate things. While in 1990 movies were watc
More time had passed. This time it was a year… or maybe a year and a half? I don't know. Not that it mattered much, actually.The world's attention to the inner solar system was gradually waning. Now that three planets had been terraformed, even if one of them still wasn't enough, and Hermes had become a stable colony that was continuously producing large panels of glass that joined in the orbit of the Sun to form the Dyson Sphere, the humanity was beginning to anticipate new challenges. From the inner solar system it was time to move to the outer solar system.Although some colony outposts were already present on some moons of Behemoth, they could not be defined as true colonies. However, now that energy consumption was no longer a problem thanks to the Dyson Sphere, which although not completed already released enormous amounts of energy, the Eden Union decided to start an exploration program of the entire outer solar system, or at least of the space between B
Two more years had passed. The advance of humanity towards the stars continued inexorably.The hypotheses of the scientists had proved to be correct: using a combination of gravity control technology and energy obtained from the Dyson sphere, although still incomplete, they had managed to accelerate the rotation of Aphrodites. The planet was slowly accelerating, though not too fast. There was generally talk of an hour each week. At this speed there was no risk of destroying the infrastructure already present on the planet. Yes two years, the rotation period had gone from 2082 hours to 1978 hours. Continuing at this rate, it was expected to reach 24 hours in 'just' another 38 years.Once this process was completed, the huge orbiting mirrors could finally be taken off. The day/night cycle would no longer be artificially determined and there would no longer be the risk that something would go wrong due to the impact of a micrometeorite. In addition, the accelerated rotati