It had finally begun. After four months of waiting, finally a real fight was starting.

Dawson licked his lips maliciously. He was a mere Major who commanded a single wing of the huge imperial army. He was far from a high command position and knew next to nothing about the plans the Empire had in store, and he personally didn't even care. All he wanted was to be able to pull the trigger and put one bullet through as many dinosaur skulls as possible.

In anticipation of war, during those years, the Empire had implemented a strong policy of indoctrination of the population. The soldiers in particular had been adamant that dinosaurs were nothing more than worms that needed to be wiped off the face of the planet for their crime of daring to challenge sacred human supremacy.

As surreal as it sounded, it hadn't been difficult at all. Such indoctrination had occurred many times on the Earth from which Sobek came. Through the right words, a person could be persuaded to do the most brutal and cruel acts without flinching, and even believe that they were right. The clearest example was obviously Nazism, but it wasn't (unfortunately) the only one: religious fanaticism, the Crusades, American patriotism... indoctrinating people was extremely easy, especially if these people were in social and economic conditions difficult.

As powerful as the Empire was, it too had suffered from the naval blockade imposed by Sobek. Furthermore, the previous release of all the dinosaurs used for breeding and the renunciation of the colonization projects of the other continents had greatly weakened the previous economy. Inflation had risen and with it the number of desperate people. Wafner hadn't hesitated to use this to blame it all on the dinosaurs and accuse them of ruining everyone's lives. Within a short time, the population of the Empire had come to hate dinosaurs and even a real cult was born which aimed at their purge. Much like Hitler had done on Earth, Wafner had used all his rhetoric and that of his trusted men to create an ideology that saw human beings as the only creatures that had the right to live and all others as usurpers who were forcibly trying to control them.

Sobek had voluntarily impoverished the human world because he knew that then people would more accept the solution he would later propose. If you provided food to a starving person, then that person would follow you even if you were the previously most hated person. The problem was that this principle could also be applied by others. Sobek had used it to create the Eden Union, but Wafner had made it the backbone of his Empire's exterminating ideology.

So when the war broke out, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the army were more than happy to go and fight against the dinosaurs. Indeed, it could be said that they were looking forward to it. But the high command had held that truce steady for four months, which had been rather disappointing for them. Therefore, now that the real battle had finally begun, everyone was rejoicing at the thought that they could finally fight against the power usurpers of mankind. And Dawson was one of them.

He had been in the military from a young age, but he had rarely actually fought. There were no wars before, another demonstration of how much evil dinosaurs had brought on the world (at least from his point of view). After the dinosaurs had become intelligent, he had been one of the first to adhere to the new ideology, so much so that during one of the occasional fights between dinosaurs and humans he had snatched the skull from one of his enemies' corpses and now used it as a trophy.

"Men!" he roared in front of his soldiers. "The time has finally come! You all know what to do, and you also know that ours is the most important task in this battle! So make yourself count! For all those who kill at least ten of those bastards, there will be double rations tonight!"

"YES!" the soldiers cheered. The Major smiled as he stared at the enemy line. The roar of planes and helicopters passing overhead was almost deafening him, but it wasn't enough to keep him from hearing the cheers of his men.

Another officer came up behind him. "Major Dawson" he greeted.

"Colonel Boyce" Dawson replied. "My men are ready"

"It will be better, Major. Remember, you aren't allowed to fail. This plan has been studied for months and we only get one chance. I don't care how much it will cost you, you'll have to do it even if you sacrifice all your men" Boyce's man said, raising his voice to drown out the sound of explosions. In heaven the battle had already begun.

Dawson nodded. "I am aware of it, Colonel. Don't worry, we won't fail"

"It may be better. In that case, don't bother coming back" Boyce said, then he stared at the enemy lines from which several dinosaurs were starting to emerge. Many turrets began to be destroyed. "Here we are, it's time. Go!"

"Right away, Colonel. Did you hear, guys? Let's go!" Dawson exclaimed. The soldiers lined up and started marching. "Sergeant Ford!"

A boy of no more than twenty approached him. "Yes, Major?"

"In case I'll die, you will take charge. Make sure you find someone to do the same in case you'll die too!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good. Now let's go get the rat out of its hole!" Dawson exclaimed with a wicked gleam in his eye as he stared at a huge spinosaurus that was taking down one of the turrets. "We're lucky that the bastard always charges at the front!"

**********

After the initial dismay due to the sudden attack, Sobek had not hesitated and had started giving orders to start the counter-offensive. During those months he had been able to plan a strategy efficiently, so he already knew his way around.

There were three major forces in that battlefield: the first was the long-range turrets and missile launch emplacements. They were the most destructive force since they could strike very far and efficiently and destructively. Human technology had been able to create extremely fast and powerful turrets and missiles, but Sobek had the [Anti-aircraft system] on his side… and Pierce. The stegosaurus had identified the best points where to place an efficient anti-aircraft and during those months he had studied in detail the opposing force. So when the fight started, Pierce and his defense immediately started returning fire. Most of the missiles collided in the air in the middle of the ten kilometer long battlefield, generating flames that spread hundreds of meters; some of them managed to break through the defense, but thanks to the strong defenses designed by Eema they rarely managed to cause a large number of casualties or extensive damage to the fortifications.

The second major force was aviation. Planes and helicopters could fly over the enemy line and bomb from above. In the absence of an opposing air force, they would have decreed victory. However, Sobek had Apaches, which immediately went into action after seeing the enemy planes take off. The huge flock of birds, pterosaurs and even bats immediately engaged in a fierce battle in the skies.

The third major force was obviously the army. There was little to say here: the imperials were in large numbers and were equipped with high quality weapons, but the same was true for the dinosaurs who were also stronger, more agile and faster (at least in most cases). Buck, in command of the assault legion, had immediately launched himself against the enemy line with the assumption of breaking through it, followed by Carnopo who led the rest of the army in the attack.

Finally, the dinosaurs still had one advantage: [Teleportation]. Thanks to it, pterosaurs in the air could move quickly to dodge otherwise fatal blows and attack from behind, dinosaurs defending the trench could escape if a missile managed to overcome the flak, and dinosaurs facing the army could attack from multiple sides and retreat quickly if seriously wounded. In short, the dinosaurs seemed to have the absolute advantage. And in fact, after about ten minutes from the start of the battle, the enemy line had begun to retreat.

Victory seemed sure... but Sobek wasn't so calm about it.