As they returned Sobek was approached by Buck. "I don't understand. Why did we release the prisoners?"
"To prove that we aren't barbarians" Sobek explained.
"And is it important?"
"Not at the moment. But in the future it will be. When we take the city we will have to maintain order and discipline. Also we will soon have to go down to negotiations. It'll be easier if humans don't see us as killer monsters"
Sobek knew he was playing a dangerous and extremely delicate game. He couldn't afford any mistakes. He needed humans to fear him, but he also need that they see him as a creature they could reason with. Only then would he be able to buy enough time to complete the formation of his army.
And for this to happen, for this delicate balance between fear and respect to be achieved, several steps were needed. Sobek had built a big stage and had only finished the first scene for now. There was so much more to do. Even so, though, the payoffs were showing
Three days. It had only been three days since Abe had left to investigate, and the world around Jocelyne seemed to be collapsing every second more.First, that strange feeling that there was a storm coming had haunted her, preventing her from sleeping. And now she, in spite of herself, knew that feeling was more than justified. She didn't know how she had sensed the incoming disaster, perhaps the time spent alone in the forest had awakened in her some sort of primal instinct that allowed her to perceive the dangers, but still she would have much preferred to discover that she was wrong.After that fateful night, Abe had called her. Actually, he had called Jackson, but of course he had later informed her as well. And so she had received proof of her theories. Dinosaurs were getting intelligent.Not only they were getting intelligent, they were building a civilization. Dozens of different species collaborated, and by the time they painted their faces it was likely
The modest army of Cartago left towards the late evening. The sun was already setting over the mountains, but this wasn't a problem for humans: they had night vision goggles that allowed them to see at night. In reality, the darkness worked in their favor: the traps would have been less visible. The army they had managed to put together did not even number five thousand men and had very few vehicles. They didn't even have a tank. Even though they were outnumbered, the dinosaurs outweighed them in terms of strength. As militia chief Kemp understood, the only hope for humans was to lead the dinosaurs into unfavorable terrain and bomb them from above and below. As soon as they reached the quarry, they began placing explosives. They had brought several blocks of C4. If they had managed to lure the dinosaurs into the quarry, they would have buried them under several meters of rock. By the time they finished setting the trap, it was dark at night: the full moon was already high in the sk
"No explosion" Malcolm muttered. “And not even communications from Kemp. Something must have happened"Dreyfus just nodded as he continued to massage his hands. The old mayor knew something must have gone wrong.According to the plan, the soldiers were to blow up the quarry with the dinosaurs inside and bury them under thirty-five meters of rock. A simple, quick and clean work. However, no explosion had yet occurred despite the troops had been gone for a few hours. The quarry wasn't too far away, so the bang should have been heard in the city. But no sound had violated the peace of the night, and Kemp's radio silence didn't help to decrease Dreyfus’s anxiety.“I will issue an evacuation order. We'll take refuge in the sewers” the mayor said, raising his head. "They are underground and many of the vents are narrow. They are made of reinforced concrete and protected by several meters of earth and rock, so they won't be able to break through
Nothing was able to stop the dinosaurs.Dreyfus had assembled the few remaining soldiers and several civilians to form a resistance, but it had been useless. The dinosaurs were too many and too powerful. The useless defense collapsed in a few minutes. Dreyfus was barely able to retreat, but he did not go far: the dinosaurs captured him shortly after.The inhabitants of Cartago had no escape. Unlike dinosaurs, humans weren't designed to fight. Without weapons and proper training, they were helpless. They also made a lot of noise, their scent could be heard miles away, and panicked with astonishing speed, which prevented them from running away or hiding. For the dinosaurs, capturing them was as easy as drinking a glass of water.In just an hour, a city of more than one million inhabitants was completely conquered. Humans were far superior in numbers, but they weren't warriors: from a civilian point of view, they had no choice but to bow their heads and surrender t
As Sobek had predicted, his 'stunt' didn't go unnoticed. The internet was a powerful means of communication and allowed people to talk to each other even while they were on opposite sides of the planet. Before the sun had even risen, hundreds and hundreds of videos had appeared throughout Odaria showing a mass assault of talking dinosaurs. And not only in Odaria: in fact, in Cartago there were also people from other parts of the world. Numerous foreign businessmen and investors were in the area at the time of the attack, and their Internet was not bound by Odaria's restrictions. Of course, very few people believed the images they saw. The vast majority were convinced that they were fake videos. The Odaria government did not hesitate to use that excuse to deflect suspicion. The nation's leading heads of state feared in the enormous economic consequences that would follow the discovery of intelligent dinosaurs. So, to avoid the scandal, they passed off the videos as a misunderstanding
Let's jump back a few days. After that eventful night, Malcolm had been dragged into Victory Square, a square a few hundred meters from the city center. The dinosaurs had removed fountains, trees, monuments and any other objects, leaving only the asphalt and the sidewalk. They didn't seem to have much regard for historical places: Malcolm wondered if they even knew what they were and what they meant. After having 'cleaned up' the entire area, they had left the humans there and barricaded all the streets that gave onto the square. They had given him nothing but a blanket. Nobody complained: people were too scared to ask for mattresses. Many, however, struggled to sleep on the hard ground, and there had been a sort of race to grab the less gravelly parts of the square. Malcolm initially thought that the dinosaurs had left them like this out of revenge, but then he realized that they had no intention of harming them: from their looks it was evident that they were quite confused by human
Abe hadn't slept for even a second that night. He was used to sleeping in the worst places and on the hardest surfaces, but he couldn't relax with all the anxiety he had. His survival instinct, hardened to the max by his soldier training, kept his senses alert to detect even the slightest threat. Despite having spent a sleepless night, however, he didn't feel the slightest tiredness; probably all the adrenaline he had in his body was charging him as if it were a battery. He wondered how Jackson would react knowing what had happened. He hoped he didn't go crazy and do something extremely stupid. In his mind, his friend and brother bravely (and very foolishly) rushed to Cartago to save him, challenging hundreds of dinosaurs alone. Abe tried to convince himself that this would never happen, but in his heart he knew that was something Jackson would do. Abe unfortunately had no way to contact him and tell him to not do anything that could kill him. He couldn't even let him know that he wa
Sobek had made the central square his headquarters. He hadn't moved from there since the city was taken. Even after two days, he had not returned to the forest.He wasn't the only one, of course. Many dinosaurs had built a bed inside the city. Although they disliked the hard, asphalted terrain, very different from the soft, comfortable forest ground, they understood that they would not go away anytime soon. Most of the dinosaurs had chosen to settle near Sobek, remaining in the central square.Sobek was placidly sunbathing when a throaty sound called him back. The spinosaurus opened its eyes to see Apache land in front of him. "What news do you bring me from the front?" he asked him.After taking control of the colony, Sobek had ordered all small pterosaurs to head into the mountains on the border and report any movement from humans. Some large pterosaurs such as Apache acted as spokespersons, using [Ambush] to avoid being noticed by humans. In fact, Sobek did n
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