I'm a spinosaurus with a System to raise a dinosaur army

In a mountain at least a hundred kilometers away from the battlefield there was a huge military base, hidden by several tons of rock that made it seem nothing more than a natural freak. Military bases like this were very common throughout the Empire. Their construction had begun following the Three Hundred Years War, as previous emperors were convinced that a second war would be inevitable in time. Apparently this prediction had turned out to be correct, with the difference that the war was not being fought against another nation, but against the rest of the fauna of the planet.

The Empire had used these bases for the most diverse military projects; their existence was so secret that only a small group of people knew about them. It was not marked on any map, there were no documents to appeal to, and any information that emerged was broadcast on a private radio channel accessible only to the emperor himself. They were virtually invisible to the eyes of any other nation, and apparently their secret had been so well guarded that even the dinosaur intelligence, which was capable of infiltrating any location, had been unable to locate them.

It was in bases like this that some of the Empire's newest weapons had been created: many bombs of mass destruction, pills capable of altering the human genome to mimic the abilities of dinosaurs, super-strong materials, and even huge advances in the field of robotics.

The people who worked inside these bases practically never saw the sun, and in the rare moments they went out they did so with the utmost discretion. They had no contact with the outside world, and even those in charge of the base received very fragmented information. Therefore, these people were unaware of Wafner's plans. Little did they know that Wafner had failed to kill Sobek. They didn't even know that all-out war had just broken out.

All they knew was that the emperor had finally given the order. It was time to initiate their part of their monarch's brilliant plan.

"The emperor has given the order" the chief of the base proclaimed. "To all soldiers, it's time. Today we will completely eliminate the dinosaur army. Start Protocol Omega!"

If they could, the soldiers would have cheered at their leader's words, but now was not the time. These soldiers were elite troops forged with iron discipline and strong mental conditioning. When a superior ordered them to do something, no matter how disgusting or pleasurable that thing was, they did it without batting an eye.

"Order the planes to prepare for takeoff! Remember, we will have to be quick and fast! If we lose even a second, the dinosaurs might be able to break the block!"

The military base was located underground, but still there was a gigantic hangar, so large as to contain at least eight military planes side by side. Five supersonic jets emerged from their pits and slowly approached the runway. Ahead of them the wall shook and an opening began to gape in the middle of the mountain, streaming sunlight into the base for the first time in years.

"Order 7-4-1 confirmed. Starting the Omega Protocol"

As soon as the opening was large enough, the jets accelerated one by one and rose into the air, flying towards the sky, then adjusted their trajectory and aimed for the battlefield several kilometers to the south.

These jets could fly 750 meters in a single second. It was a speed of 2700 km/h. It was almost twice the speed of sound. They were so fast that any observer on the ground would have barely had time to see five lightning-fast arrows darting from horizon to horizon, and only seconds later would come the roar that signaled they had broken the sound barrier.

"Here we are. Order 8-5-2 confirmed! Activate the block!"

On the battlefield, dinosaurs were rapidly gaining ground. Even without Sobek, their bites and claws scythed humans apart as if they were twigs. Victory seemed certain. But suddenly, something happened.

Strange lights appeared in the hills around the battlefield. Huge cylindrical structures emerged from the ground and began to emit a strange vibration. The entire battlefield was surrounded by these structures, each of them several kilometers away from the others.

The dinosaurs were quite dismayed by this sudden appearance, so much so that almost everyone stopped to have a look around. Obviously, none of them were liking this situation. It was an unknown, unknown situation, and it did not bode well.

Buck narrowed his eyes. "What's this?"

"I really have no idea" Carnopo said. "I propose to leave. I think humans are up to some strange tricks!"

"I agree. Everyone activate [Teleportation]!" Buck yelled.

Nothing happened.

The dinosaurs were silent for a few moments and tried again, but the ability didn't activate, even though they felt it was still there, it was as if something was blocking it.

Carnopo's face twitched as he realized what was happening. "No…" he whispered. "They found a way to stop us from using [Teleportation]!"

"It must be the same system they used to lock down the pack leader!" Buck exclaimed in a panic. "Soon! We must destroy those kind of towers immediately!"

During those four months, Wafner hadn't just waited for preparations to kill Sobek to be completed. He had come up with many other plans in the meantime. The first was, of course, the total destruction of the planet and the takeover of the colony on Davis.

However, Wafner didn't want the dinosaur army to remain intact. After all, the famous Mother Cell was in each of them: who could assure him that another dinosaur capable of evolution, like Sobek, would not appear among them? If he wanted to be sure of victory, he had to kill most of the large animals. And luckily, he had a way.

Wafner had predicted that without Sobek, the dinosaurs would be disorganized. Thanks to Old Li this scenario hadn't occurred, but in any case the result had not been very different: the dinosaurs had immediately attacked the imperial army. Basically, almost all the medium to large animals on the planet had gathered in one spot. He had done everything to draw them down there, moving almost all of his army to that one point.

In those four months, tests to mimic dinosaur capabilities, especially [Ambush], had paid off. A group of his handpicked soldiers had been able to move around the battlefield unnoticed and construct a teleportation block no different than the one he had used with Sobek on the Moon, except this one was much more great.

Now, the dinosaurs had no ability to teleport away. They were all there, stuck in that single spot on the planet. And without their pack leader to lead them, there was no chance they could block nukes. All the jets had to do now was bomb them. In one fell swoop, most of the planet's large fauna would have been wiped out.

Sure, there were plenty of other dinosaurs scattered around the world; however they did not have the same strength, charisma or intelligence as those on the battlefield. Sobek would not have sent inexperienced troops to fight. These animals would surely have been killed by nuclear fallout and the global winter that followed.

And the oceans… Wafner had chosen to ignore them. After all, even if the large animals of the sea had survived, they could not have posed a danger to humans on land. After all, only Sobek had shown significant changes in his biology, so even if a 'second Sobek' appeared among marine animals he could not have evolved them to walk on land. Wafner could have dealt with them later, assuming, of course, that they survived the disaster. Because of this, the imperial navy had received so little support: it was not important to win the battle at sea.

Wafner thought this was a perfect plan. The disappearance of the entire dinosaur army, and consequently also of all its most charismatic leaders, would have created an even greater power vacuum than the one left by Sobek which would have split dinosaur society even faster. The herd Sobek was so proud of would probably disband completely within a month. This combined with nuclear fallout and global winter would have spelled their total demise. By the time the Imperials returned to Eden after several decades, all medium to large lifeforms would have disappeared from the mainland. Even if a mouse had evolved, what would have changed by then? The Empire would completely exterminate the small survivors within months.

Even if Wafner had failed to kill Sobek and the Hellfire bombs had been lost, the chiefs of the secret military base could not know it. They had received the final order from the central commando and thus had started the plan to eliminate the dinosaur army.

Since they were in the thick of a battle, the dinosaurs had been unable to recognize [Supreme instinct]'s warnings, and now they could no longer escape. The turrets that controlled the teleport block were several kilometers away from the battlefield: no one could have run to them. Or at least, not before the jets arrived.

"Missiles fired. Expected impact: two minutes and thirty seconds on target"

From each plane, a small nuclear warhead was launched and traveled at supersonic speed towards the dinosaurs. Even though these were quite small nuclear bombs, all together they would have obliterated the dinosaurs completely. The imperial army? Who cared. All those soldiers would have been just more sacrifices. In Wafner's chessboard, they only served to lure the dinosaurs into a trap; then, they could die.

In the battlefield, the dinosaurs began to panic. Seeing this, even the imperial soldiers became frightened. Since the dinosaurs were winning, there was no way they were afraid of them. It was clear that something worse was coming. The officers tried activating their transporter devices, but found they had become useless. It wasn't hard to figure out what was going on.

"Abandon. They abandoned us…"

These soldiers had been indoctrinated for years to fight for the Empire. They were firm believers in the cause and were even ready to die for their nation. But now, the tables had turned. It wasn't the dinosaurs, but the Empire itself that was about to destroy them. In their eyes, it was as if the fairytale princess had suddenly turned into the evil queen.

Even the officers were shocked. They hadn't been warned about this at all. No one had told them anything. They were about to be left to die like animals for slaughter. Their faces foreshadowed their anger, resignation, despondency and despair.

"Sir, our helicopter can still fly! We can still…"

"You go. I will not abandon my men. Don't ask me to act like our 'beloved' emperor"

"But, sir…"

"I won't leave. My duty is to die with these soldiers. I will stay here and pray to God that it will have mercy on my soul. You go if you want; maybe a miracle will happen and you will find a helicopter fast enough to escape what is coming"

Everything could be said about these officers, but not that they lacked a sense of honour. Although they were in a rather high position in the military hierarchy, they lived and fought on the battlefield just like their men. It was inevitable that they became attached to them. They would not have abandoned them. Besides, even if they miraculously escaped, they would have nowhere to go: by now it had become clear to him that the Empire didn't care about them.

It was over.

"Carnopo" Buck whispered. "I want you to know that you are my best friend"

The carnotaur let out a half growl of discomfort. He was scared, but he was also angry. He hated his impotence. But he knew there was nothing he could do. "You too. It was good to fight alongside you… even if you make really awful jokes"

"I thought you liked them!"

"No one likes them, Buck. I dare you to find someone who understands them"

The t-rex giggled. "Seriously, are we laughing right now?"

"We laugh in the face of death" Carnopo replied looking up at the sky. "It's not that bad. See you on the other side"

"You can rest assured that I will be able to find you, even if I have to rake through the afterlife an inch at a time!" Buck answered. "And when I find you I will torment you with my jokes for eternity!"

Carnopo smiled. "That would be fun" he whispered, then stopped.

Five dots had appeared in the sky and were speeding towards them. Everyone knew what it was. Instinctively, Carnopo and Buck approached each other as if physical contact could ease the fear a little.

In the sky, Apache was staring at the dots in the distance with a look of shame. When those strange towers appeared he had done everything to reach them in time, but they were too far away. He had failed. His job would be to provide air support by destroying threats the others couldn't stop, and he had failed. He turned his gaze slightly and stared at the huge flock behind him and also at some of the Imperial planes, which had stopped their attack and seemed unable to choose whether to flee or return to the ground to retrieve their comrades. "Guys, it was an honor to fly with you" he whispered.

Meanwhile, at the military base, the countdown continued. "One minute to detonation… wait, what!?"

Suddenly the unthinkable happened.

The missiles changed trajectory abruptly, bending ninety degrees. Instead of traveling south, they headed west. From the battlefield, humans and animals alike could see the missiles disappearing over the horizon in moments.

And then, there was a roar.

One of the towers that created the teleporter block was thrown off and fell on the Imperial army. A second followed a millisecond later, and then a third, a fourth, and so on. It was such a fast process that the dinosaurs could barely distinguish a gigantic figure that appeared and disappeared next to each tower.

Only when the last tower was torn down did the figure stop, and finally everyone was able to admire it in all its splendour. It was a gigantic spinosaurus 186 meters tall and almost 600 long, which towered over the spot where one of the towers had been just before and stared furiously at the battlefield. Shining armor covered him from head to toe, making him gleam in the sunlight like some kind of titan warrior of legend. He opened his jaws and his roar resounded for tens of kilometers.

It took a few seconds for Buck's voice to be heard: "The pack leader is back!"

In an instant the animals burst into a cry of joy. It didn't matter anymore about the bombs, it didn't matter anymore about death: suddenly, hope was back in their hearts as if it were a fire!

"It's back! It's back!"

"It's him! It's the pack leader!"

"SOBEK! SOBEK! SOBEK!"

In an instant it was clear to everyone what had just happened. Sobek had teleported along the path of the nuclear missiles before they entered the transporter block and used [Metal Mutation] to change their direction. Unlike the bomb that exploded over Frigeria, these missiles had a powerful engine, so it only took Sobek to exert his power for a mere instant and they would have continued on an entirely different trajectory. After that Sobek had activated [Mutation Ultimate] and had smashed every single tower that created the teleport block.

Seconds later, the detonation occurred. But it was already too far away.

A ballistic missile was traveling at about 6000 km/h. In thirty seconds those missiles had already traveled over 50 kilometers. And these bombs were not as powerful as the one that exploded on Frigeria; you could tell they were small explosives by comparison. Their range wasn't powerful enough.

When they exploded, a tiny sun appeared on the horizon, but from this distance it was rather faint. The dinosaurs barely perceived a few degrees increase in air temperature. Although the force of these bombs was sufficient to burn everything within a radius of at least 13 kilometers, the battlefield was almost four times as distant. A fire appeared on the horizon, but it was too far away to pose any danger.

When the shock wave then arrived, it was barely perceptible. 25 kilometers from the detonation, the shock wave had already become so weak that even a human being could have resisted it without problems. In addition, the surrounding area was very hilly, which limited the movement of the air. When it arrived, the shock wave felt like nothing more than a slight movement of air.

The dinosaurs watched the scene, waiting a few minutes to understand if something would happen, then when they realized they were safe they exploded in a cry of joy. Again the chorus "SOBEK! SOBEK! SOBEK!" resounded across the plain.

Sobek grit his teeth. His eyes gleamed with blind fury. Not only had he been mauled by Wafner and nearly killed, but when he woke up he was told the world was on the verge of collapse. All the anger he felt towards Wafner was surging like a hurricane, erasing any shred of pity in his heart.

He looked at the pterosaurs and switched to all of them [Radiation absorption], then activated the mind sharing ability of the [Contract]. In an instant, his voice echoed in the mind of any dinosaur present: "Apache, divide your subordinates! Half go clean up the nuclear fallout, the other half take out any remaining aircraft immediately and then follow the missile trails back to where they came from, and burn it to the ground! As for everyone else, FOLLOW ME AND END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Sobek teleported again and appeared in the middle of the battlefield, charging like a beast against the imperial army. In an instant, the dinosaurs followed him like a huge living wave. And for the imperials, who believed they had escaped the atomic bomb, there was no longer any way out.