"Good, we are fucked. It was a pleasure to meet you all!"

Robert Oz had been ranting like a madman for more than half an hour, creating considerable discomfort for his son who tried in vain to calm him down. The other scientists were more composed, but still their eyes betrayed their concern.

Jocelyne couldn't blame them. All those people were convinced that if the dinosaurs had become intelligent humanity would have faced disaster; they had been convinced about it for many months, in Robert Oz's case for years. So now that she'd shown them satellite images of herds of dinosaurs all marching together in the same direction, there was no chance they would remain indifferent.

Ian Malcolm's voice calmed everyone's mind. "Let's all calm down, we mustn't jump to hasty conclusions. It is true, based on what we know and what is happening, the situation seems extremely dangerous. But that's not a good reason to panic. We have no certainties, only hypotheses, even if they are quite convincing. We must not forget how limited our understanding of this phenomenon is"

Jocelyne was somewhat surprised. Even though she knew that the professor Malcolm was a brilliant, charismatic and multi-graduated person, she was used to seeing him more as a nice guy who spoke out of turn. He rarely showed that deep, calculating side of himself. "Is this again the chaos theory?" she asked.

"Precisely. Scientists are used to seeing nature as a perfect system of cause and effect. But the tiniest variables cannot be predicted. And they can generate epochal changes. Even if the situation currently seems hopeless, there may be variables that we haven't considered that will lead to an entirely different outcome than what Dr. Oz assumed"

"Very enlightening, professor Malcolm. However, as scientists, it is our job to consider the most plausible hypotheses as valid, unless one of these variables that you mention appears" Mitch said.

"And unfortunately Dr. Oz's hypothesis is the most likely of all. Every form of life tends to eliminate competition. If another living thing were to reach our IQ, the only competition left to eliminate would be us" Alan said with a frown. "Look, many of the packs are multi-ethnic! Triceratops and stegosaurs marching together? It had never happened before. These herbivores are fiercely territorial, even in zoos they rarely get along. The only reason they should move together is to have a common enemy. And since all the packs are heading in the same direction, it is clear who this enemy is"

"They are marching towards our borders! They understood who their common enemy is!" Robert Oz exclaimed. "It's only a matter of time now. Don't delude yourself: when the attack will start, it will be devastating. It will something that humanity never faced before"

"We still have advantages over them" Sarah tried to say. "We have weapons, and..."

"Honey, I don't want to contradict you... but if I would be facing another civilization and I would be aware of its strengths, I wouldn't make a move until I figured out how to counter it. If the dinosaurs are gathering now it's because they know they can defeat us or at least stand up to us" Ian said. No one could find a reason to argue.

Jocelyne didn't know what to think. True, the humans had weapons, and demographically they outnumbered them… but Robert Oz had said time and time again that the Mother Cell could do incredible things. Perhaps even dinosaurs had learned to make weapons. Furthermore, any dinosaur, at least those that lived in the wild, knew how to fight. Humans, by contrast, were powerless unless receiving a good training.

If dinosaurs showed up on the borders of human nations armed, it was likely that a conflict would be very harsh and the victory very uncertain. Surely hundreds of millions of people would have lost their lives… and that was an optimistic estimate.

Suddenly Abe spoke for the first time since the meeting began: "We won't understand anything by continuing to talk. We can make a thousand hypotheses, but we will never be able to verify their authenticity only with words. So, let's do it. Tomorrow I will leave and I will try to get to the bottom of this mystery"

"You can't go to the forest. I can't provide you with men, not without my father's approval, and going there without an escort is suicide" Jocelyne stopped him immediately. "Even if all our assumptions turn out to be incorrect, dinosaurs and birds have already attacked several people who annoyed them around the world. Going deep into their territory would be no different than entering a cage with a tiger"

"You don't have to worry. I have a plan" Abe explained. "In a week, an expedition leaves Cartago with the aim of inspecting the new lands that will be colonized within the next few months. I will join them. They won't refuse two more arms. They will have weapons and defenses. Even if the dinosaurs are marching against our borders, they don't seem still organized or otherwise ready to start a conflict. If I were them, I'd avoid attracting attention, especially if people who find out about my existence have a chance to run away and tell what they saw"

Jocelyne had to admit that the reasoning made sense: all of the people who had been attacked over the past few weeks were either lone or in groups of no more than three people, and they weren't exactly properly armed. Faced with a larger and better armed group, anyone would have preferred to let them pass, since even by attacking them there would have been the possibility that someone would survive and reveal the existence of intelligent dinosaurs, or worse that photos or videos would be taken to testify to this. "Ok. You have my permission. I'll talk to my father and I'll convince him to give you some days of holiday"

"In that case I'll go with you" Jackson said, standing up, but Abe stopped him. "No. You have to stay here. If anything happens to me the young lady will need a trusted person by her side, and no offense to all of you, but apart from Jackson it's not like this bunch shines with bodybuilders"

Jackson gritted his teeth and snorted. He was silent for a moment, then nodded. "All right. But you have to come back"

Abe smiled. "Have I ever done the opposite?"

****************

In just few weeks after that speech, things in the pack changed for the better.

First, Sobek created countless weapons. Since he had no shortage of bonus money, he could mass-produce it like an assembly line. Uniting the dinosaurs, creating a safe area, building a fortification and forming strong loyalties with some of his subordinates had granted him an incredible increase in bonus money that he had never seen: from just over 2 million he had since had evolved for the third time, now they had risen to almost 10 million. Since the most expensive weapons costed just 1,000 bonus money, then he could create over 10,000 weapons. And since the bonus money continued to steadily increase as the days went by, Sobek was confident he could hit the 50,000 within a few months.

Of course, to an unwilling eye they could appear few, since they weren't even enough to completely arm his army, but in truth they were even too many. This is because dinosaurs were already war machines in themselves. The weapons only served to eliminate the most dangerous targets, such as tanks or cannons; once the ranged ones were eliminated, nothing would have stopped a charge of dinosaurs, especially if adequately protected by armor. Sobek therefore had limited himself for the moment to creating only 3,000 weapons that he had entrusted to Buck's legion, which had been expanded and therefore had enough dinosaurs to carry them all; they would become his marksmen.

Sobek would have preferred to fully arm his army, but that was impossible with the current bonus money. However, he was pretty sure that after winning a few battles, the bonus money in his possession would skyrocket. After all, the System was created specifically to help him in that war.

Buck had officially taken command of the Assault Legion, and as such the troops under him had reached the extraordinary number of 12,000 troops. They had been carefully selected by Sobek to create a real attacking legion. 3,000 of those dinosaurs had been equipped with weapons and would have gone to form cover fire; they were mainly small dinosaurs with excellent eyesight, thanks to which they could hit targets at a long distance. Together with them were some sauropods who had the task of carrying heavier weapons such as missiles. The rest of the legion was instead composed of dinosaurs of medium and large size: in the front line were the ceratopsids, which were suitable for charging against the enemy. When the Neanderthals finished their task, Sobek would equip them with armor so the bullets couldn't scratch them. Behind them came the tyrannosaurs and other large carnivores; Sobek had endowed them with 500 shields; their size was more than enough to protect the dinosaurs behind them. Soon after there were stegosaurids, parasaurolophs, choritosaurs and other dinosaurs who were tasked with cleaning up after the first charge passed.

In addition to the assault legion, Sobek had created five other legions, smaller than the original: each of them had 'only' 7,500 soldiers. They would serve as lateral support, imprisoning the enemy in a 'cage' while the assault legion attacked, thus preventing them from dispersing. They too were equipped with shields, but they had a minimum number of weapons: this is because they did not actually serve to fight, but only to close every escape route of the enemy.

With this organization, these six legions could effortlessly exterminate an army of over 100,000 humans with minimal casualties.

These, however, would only be the vanguard of Sobek's army. The six legions counted nearly all the dinosaurs Sobek had managed to recruit before making his speech and declaring war on humanity; but in the weeks that followed, countless dinosaurs had come to join him. The pterosaurs following his command had flown across the continent calling any dinosaur to join the cause. Initially the dinosaurs that had arrived were only those that were in the surrounding area, but soon they arrived in the thousands. The distances did not scare the dinosaurs: many animals made enormous migrations during their life, and among them were many species of dinosaurs. Sobek knew from the pterosaur reconnaissance that huge herds were all converging towards the lake, even if they were on the other side of the continent. Flying in the sky you could see herds of hundreds of sauropods and masses of thousands of ceratopsids and stegosaurids. It would take months, but they would all arrive.

Within a month of his proclamation, Sobek had seen the size of his army soar from 500,000 to over 2,000,000 in just few weeks. Once all the dinosaurs across the continent came together they would reach the titanic figure of ten billion. Obviously at least 70% of them would have been small-medium size, not giants, but they were still quite dangerous.

However, he hadn't yet implemented the new troops in his army: this is because like his initial pack they too had to learn to fight and work together. Carnopo and Al had become the new teachers, since they had already done a good job recruiting. Thanks to their help, Sobek's military power grew day by day.

Sobek was also preparing the ground for war. Even though he was aiming for an offensive, he couldn't rule out that humans would force them to retreat and play on the defensive. He had therefore begun to create a real fortification of the continent.

Thanks to the pterosaurs he knew that the coasts both north and south followed a precise pattern: for about a thousand or two thousand kilometers from the colony of Odaria they were low and sandy, but later they were composed almost exclusively of jagged cliffs for thousands of kilometers. It was impossible for a ship to land on those shores. Consequently, in order to invade the continental hinterland, humans would have had to pass on foot, or in any case on vehicles. Even though they had planes, there was nowhere in the forest to land safely, and the helicopters could easily be shot down by the pterosaurs.

Being protected from both the sea and the sky, Sobek had decided to create a defensive line. He had built two more outposts besides the main one: one to the north, in the middle of the mountains, and the other to the south, on a small plateau. Although each outpost was at least five hundred kilometers away from each other, the dinosaur patrols could easily cover the distances and seal the passage completely. In addition, the road had been barred with traps, ditches and fortifications. If humans had forced them to retreat, the dinosaurs could have repulsed them anyway, provided the humans didn't bombard them from above with napalm... but it didn't exist yet.

Sobek was grateful that the forest existed and that it was so dense: thanks to it, human satellites could not see them. However, he knew that the secret of their existence would not last long. Had he been lucky enough, he would have been able to hide the pack for another year, enough time for all the dinosaurs on the continent to catch up with him and develop into an efficient army. Unfortunately, however, luck had never been on his side... or more simply God loved to make fun of him.