"The fleet is three hundred kilometers from the target"

"Optimal. No signs of retaliation from the dinosaurs?" Quaritch murmured, chewing his own saliva. "It is now impossible that they have not spotted us"

"It is probable, but they still do not act. Not even the marine reptiles are doing anything: our submarines confirm that there are no signs of life underwater" replied the man on the radio. "It seems they want to use our ultimatum to the last"

Quaritch sighed deeply. "Keep your eyes open. Don't be fooled: they are around there somewhere". He stared intently at the screens in front of him. "Let's move on to phase one. Let all the jets take off and bomb the coast"

As soon as his command reached the fleet, a flock of planes rose from the aircraft carriers. At least 150,000 jets lifted off the ships' decks and set off for the coast.

Three hundred kilometers was not a huge amount for jets that could fly at supersonic speeds. Most moved at 980 km/h, but there were also some special models that could reach 1100 km/h. With that speed they would have covered the distance in less than a quarter of an hour.

Ten minutes later the coast already seemed very close. In the distance you could see the forest and what remained of Cartago. "Ready to open fire!" was the order of Quaritch.

The jets prepared to fire, but suddenly a tiny object rose in the distance. A tiny white streak, clearly smoke, appeared from behind Cartago and moved towards the sky. At the same instant, the ovoid image appeared on the radar. "What the...?" the pilots murmured, not a little surprised, but what happened next surprised them even more.

Other objects began to lift off the ground and fly into the sky. The radars began to ring dangerously, a sign that they were approaching. And judging by their speed… they would soon catch up with them.

Quaritch gritted his teeth as he saw all those objects appear on the radar: "It's anti-aircraft! Evasive maneuvers! Get lost!" he yelled through the radios. His mind had exploded: Had the dinosaurs also obtained missiles? And if so, how powerful were they?

The jets moved rapidly out of the missile path; after all, those bombs were moving much slower than them. If the missiles had continued to fly, they would have simply passed through them and then they would have fallen into the ocean. However, as soon as the missiles reached the planes, they exploded in midair!

An immense ball of fire emerged from each missile; the bombs themselves disintegrated in an instant. The flames spread through the air in all directions at supersonic speed, covering tens of meters every second. Each fireball expanded for at least 300 meters, turning the gases into a white plasma. With a temperature of over a thousand degrees, the heat of the fireballs was sufficient to melt any aircraft that was within the radius of the explosion. Many planes were out of range of the fireballs, but their intense temperature warmed the surrounding air enough for the aircraft's delicate circuits to fry, causing countless jets to crash. In addition, the shock waves that were created expanded for hundreds of meters and collided against each other, generating even more jolts, destabilizing the planes that began to fall towards the ground; and because of the difference between hot and cold air, the air currents changed, preventing the jets from remaining suspended in the air and forcing them to make a makeshift landing on the sea.

Within seconds, of the 150,000 jets heading towards Cartago, more than 30,000 had been destroyed and at least 70,000 had been forced to land in the ocean.

Quaritch knew that there was only one bomb capable of unleashing such destruction: "Have they already figured out how to build thermobaric missiles!?" he exclaimed in a choked voice.

On Earth where Sobek came from, thermobaric missiles were considered the most powerful weapons after the nuclear bomb. The destruction they were able to unleash was less than that of the infernal atomic device. But on Eden, where humans had only recently begun experimenting with high-powered weapons and still hadn't discovered the nuclear bomb, the thermobaric missile could be considered the most powerful weapon ever built. In addition, the amount of oxygen on Eden was greater than that on Earth, so the fireball that a single missile could cause was even bigger and hotter.

Thermobaric missiles could generate a temperature such as to melt the silver, even if only for a few moments. While they weren't nearly as powerful as the atomic bomb, they were still capable of wreaking havoc on a large scale. There had been very little use of such weapons on Earth, thankfully, and Sobek hoped that even less would be used on Eden.

Quaritch sweated cold. If the dinosaurs knew how to build weapons of mass destruction, then they had a real chance to stand up to humans. Fortunately, their territory was too far from the two main continents, or they could already have bombed them. He hoped their weapons wouldn't have a greater range than theirs, or they'd be in trouble. "Retire!" he ordered them. "Let all the jets return back to the ships, and stop the fleet! We will need to regroup before attacking again. And order the cargo fleet bound for Beleriard to accelerate!"

Quaritch was not a general at all; he had a quick, calculating mind that could adapt to different situations. He knew that now the only chance of victory was to destroy the rival anti-aircraft before it could be used; ergo, they had to occupy Beleriard and fire their missiles before the dinosaurs noticed.

"Sir, many of the jets have been forced to land. What do we do?" one of the officers asked.

"Any aircraft that are still able to fly try to leave and return to the ships. For the rest of the rescue squads" Quaritch replied, but there was no time for any of his orders to be carried out. In an instant, thousands of points appeared on all radars.

Many of the people on the jets did not even understand what was going on before they crashed. An immense flock of pterosaurs had appeared out of nowhere and attacked the planes still in flight, splitting their wings and their nacelles with their powerful beaks. In the original plan Quaritch had planned an assault by the flying reptiles, but he was convinced that the numerical superiority and the increased speed of the jets were enough to overtake them; but now there were fewer than 50,000 jets left against over 300,000 pterosaurs, and of those 50,000 many had been destroyed by the surprise attack of the flying reptiles.

The pilots used their increased speed to get away and open fire; the jets were equipped with several types of automatic machine guns that could fire thousands of rounds per minute. If the pterosaurs had been the same as a year earlier, thousands would have fallen in that attack; but now, things were very different!

Not only did the pterosaurs have [Reinforced skin], which alone allowed them to withstand a pressure of 30 tons, but their armor improved defense by 400%. which meant that the flying reptiles could safely withstand a pressure of 120 tons, much higher than any general projectile ever could. And indeed, machine gun bullets that would normally have pierced a wall bounced off them as if they were rubber.

On the contrary, the pterosaurs could leisurely exploit their most powerful weapon: while the planes tried in vain to kill them, the flying reptiles opened their mouths and unleashed the power of [Devastating roar]. The jets were too far and too fast and could easily dodge the sonic wave, but its use alone had shown that the pterosaurs were far from being very aggressive.

Seeing that they couldn't do anything to him, the jets listened to the general's orders and retreated to the ships. After all, there was no way the pterosaurs could reach them: the wings of flying reptiles could not beat a combustion engine at speed. However, the pterosaurs did not intend to chase them: they abandoned the attack on the jets and dived towards the planes that had landed in the ocean. At the same instant, the water began to boil and thousands of marine reptiles emerged from the depths, grabbing the landed planes with their jaws and dragging them underwater.

Attacked from above by pterosaurs and from below by marine reptiles, the soldiers aboard the planes had nowhere to take refuge. Very soon, the waters turned red. Most of them dived into the water and attempted to swim to the coast, but the marine reptiles were unwilling to let them go and tore them apart with their teeth. Only a few lucky ones managed to reach the coast, but their relief did not last long: many dinosaurs in fact appeared from the thick of the trees and attacked them. Only a miracle could have saved someone.

Seeing the situation Quaritch immediately ordered the rescue teams to be withdrawn. By now it was impossible to save those men: the rescuers would never arrive in time. Quaritch would not have risked the lives of other soldiers to save those already dead. If only they had a long-range weapon, Quaritch would have used it to at least eliminate a few enemies... but since humans had begun to arm themselves effectively and invent new weapons for only a year, they hadn't had time. to install long-range weapons on ships: aircraft carriers had no chance of hitting a target more than 300 km away.

In less than ten minutes, the massacre was completed. At that point the marine reptiles sank and the dinosaurs disappeared into the forest, while the pterosaurs flew past the trees and disappeared. If it hadn't been for the huge bloodstain on the ocean and the remains of thousands of aircraft, no one would have suspected that something had happened.

"Sir, the fleet awaits orders. What are we doing?" an officer asked.

"Order them to stay in position. Don't go forward and keep your eyes open" Quaritch replied. "We cannot withdraw or we would divert their attention. We have to keep them focused on us until..."

The radar chirped again, signaling the arrival of something at great speed. Quaritch felt his blood freeze as he saw another missile emerge from Marsala, but this time heading much higher, a sign that he was making a much wider trajectory. And the target… was the fleet!

It was unlikely that a thermobaric missile could shoot down even a single ship unless it hit the hull, but if the dinosaurs dropped thousands of missiles then the fleet would be shattered. Fortunately, however, the thermobaric missile flew over the fleet and then exploded into the air, generating a fireball clearly visible from sea level. It was so high that when the shock wave reached the ships the soldiers on them barely felt the air shift.

Quaritch was not foolish enough to believe that the missile had exploded in the air by mistake. That was a warning. "Counterorder!" he exclaimed. "Order the ships to move south, following the coast line. Give the dinosaurs the impression that you are retreating, but keep them focused on you!"

The ships promptly obeyed and moved diagonally, parallel to the coast. Quaritch waited, but no other missiles were launched. He breathed a sigh of relief: he knew that the dinosaurs were still controlling them, it was unlikely that they would stop keeping an eye on them before they disappeared from their field of vision, but until they launched more attacks the fleet was safe. If this stalemate persisted, the other fleet could easily have invaded Beleriard.

Unbeknownst to Quaritch, Sobek was also keeping an eye on the situation via the mind-sharing feature of the [Contract]. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the fleet had stopped advancing.

Sobek had a limited number of high-powered missiles at his disposal: he would never be able to shoot down the entire fleet. If humans had chosen to continue with the attack, even with the combination of missiles, pterosaurs and marine reptiles, it would eventually lead to a land battle. And if that had happened, not only would the outcome have been uncertain, but regardless of the outcome, many dinosaurs would have died. Sobek absolutely wanted to avoid that predicament, so he had opted for an intimidating attack, so that the humans would withdraw at least for the moment.

Humans didn't know how many missiles the dinosaurs possessed. Which meant that even one thermobaric missile was enough to scare them, because there could be many more. So, as long as they didn't have a clearer idea, they wouldn't attack. Sobek did not care that the fleet moved along the coast: until it remained within a radius of 5,500 km, it could always launch another missile if they tried not to stay in their place.

Rather, he now had to worry about the other side of the human plan.