Chapter 180: The trial

Sobek was lying in the center of the square, while various dinosaurs were gathering around him who wished to witness the sentence. Sobek was certainly not the only one who was furious with Davies: many wanted to see the general torn to pieces. Buck, Carnopo and Apache tried to keep order, while Old Li lay beside Sobek. Since space in the square was limited, some dinosaurs had even climbed onto the roofs or hills of the sauropods to be able to watch. When Sobek saw Al return carrying two humans, he narrowed his eyes. He had asked Al to bring the soldiers there because he thought they should at least say goodbye to their general. However, not only had Al brought one soldier, but there was also a civilian. "What does this mean?" he asked Al as soon as Al approached him. "Only she wanted to come... and the man wanted to accompany her" the allosaurus explained. Sobek snorted, but decided to not investigate further. If the soldiers did not want to see their general's demise, their trouble; and if a civilian wanted to watch instead, well... it didn't change anything. "Let the trial begin!" he roared aloud. The doors of a building opened and two Austroraptors appeared, dragging General Davies by the arms. The man was in a very bad way: certainly the relatives of the victims had given him the sack. He had scratches and swellings everywhere and only a few shreds of clothes remained on him. He didn't seem to be able to walk on his own, a sign that he probably had both fractured kneecaps; nevertheless, he was awake. The dinosaurs roared furiously as they saw him. Many of them slammed their paws on the ground and unsheathed their claws. Probably, had it not been for their pack leader, they would have killed him on sight. The two austroraptors dragged Davies in front of Sobek and made him sit on a stool prepared for the occasion. The general seemed to be able to barely keep his head up, but despite that he did not take his gaze from Sobek. "General Davies, today I will decide your fate" Sobek announced. "The crimes you committed are the following ones. You have refused the peace we offered you, choosing war instead. You led an army into our territory, an act of unequivocal aggression. You sent your soldiers against us, forcing us into battle, and when things got bad for you you launched a poisonous gas on us, which not only killed thirty-two of our companions, but also killed every human being on the battlefield. As a result, you have also betrayed your own comrades. Finally, when the defeat was sealed, you tried to escape and evade your responsibilities. What's your defense?" A gasp emerged from Davies's half-open mouth. "My... defense...?" "Yes, general, your defense. What reasons do you provide for your behavior?" Sobek specified. Davies's body began to tremble, and the spinosaurus feared for a moment that the man was having a stroke, but his worries vanished when the unmistakable sound of laughter began to emerge from the general's throat. "I don't need to give any reasons!" Davies roared, looking Sobek in his eyes; despite the swellings, flames could be seen dancing in the general's pupils. "I am a high general of Odaria, I will not be judged by animals! You are nothing but beasts! And the beasts, when they don't know their place, are killed. You speak of peace, but you are the first to declare war on us. You say I led an army in your territory, but this is not your territory, it is the colony of Odaria! You say I forced you into battle, but you are the ones who attacked first. And as for the gas... do you really want me to believe that if you had a weapon, you wouldn't use it? Or that you wouldn't run away after losing a battle?". Davies nearly fell off the stool as he fidgeted. "Enough of this hypocrisy! You are nothing but animals who have forgotten that their place is in the forest. Here, and all over the world out there, humans are the ones in charge! And when humans know what happened here, you can rest assured that they will level every inch of this continent to exterminate you! Come on, what awaits me? Being devoured alive by a t-rex? Crushed by a sauropod? Or maybe being skewered by a stegosaurus tail? Go ahead, I wouldn't do this job if I had my life at heart. I am heartened to know that you will soon follow me to the grave!" The dinosaurs exploded furious after hearing the general's words. Their anger was even more evident and some of them tried to attack the general, being promptly stopped by Carnopo and Buck. The two humans who had come to watch became small at that scene, fearing that at any moment a carnage would begin. Sobek's roar restored calm. At the warning of their pack leader, the dinosaurs calmed down and went silent again, even if furious expressions remained painted on their faces. Sobek looked back at Davies. The general didn't take his eyes off him; he almost seemed to challenge him. Sobek knew that if he gave in to anger, the general would win. Davies wanted to die with the demonstration that dinosaurs were nothing but beasts and he aimed to infuriate them. No, Sobek would not have succumbed to his game. "If this is your defense, general Davies, allow me to point out that it isn't very efficient" Davies was surprised: he certainly didn't expect Sobek to respond calmly to his hurtful words. The other dinosaurs were also a bit stunned by that apparent calm. "You said we were the ones who declared war on you, but that is false. We immediately offered you peace. It was you humans who attacked first. And despite this, we have held back our fury and limited ourselves to taking the population of this city prisoner. And in this very square, I have offered you peace for the second time. I asked you to go down to negotiations. Do you want to deny it?" Davies gritted his teeth. "You have an entire city hostage. Yours wasn't a peace proposal, it was an ultimatum" "The ultimatum is nothing more than an aggressive form of peace proposal. When someone seek peace, there are always two sides and one of them is stronger than the other, and it can afford to make more aggressive demands. The ultimatum is nothing more than the extremeization of this concept, and occurs when someone has finished patience. You humans are false and therefore you call peace that reached between two parties with equal strength, ultimatum that reached when one side is stronger than the other. My people do not live with such subterfuges. I was in a position of absolute superiority and I exploited it; if you humans don't like it, then it's not my problem" "Don't try to turn the situation over. No matter how you look at it, taking a city hostage is an action for terrorists, not for peacemakers" "And what are terrorists if not soldiers fighting a war, even if on a smaller scale? Right war, wrong war, I don't care. You humans love to give things so many names, but here I only see two sides fighting for what they think is right. Or do you want me to believe that during your wars no one took any hostage?" Davies would have liked to argue, but he could find no arguments. To deny that humans had always taken hostages in order to stop wars earlier would have been a lie, but to admit it would have been to agree with Sobek. "Now let's move on to the second point. You say this is your country's territory. No, general: our people lived here long before your species appeared on this world. They walked in these lands, drank the water from the rivers that flowed there, ate the plants that grew there, and fought each other on this same ground. According to human laws, this land belongs to us by right, since I do not know that it is written somewhere that one must be human to claim the territory of one's ancestors. According to our laws, however, when a territory is conquered, it immediately belongs to its conqueror. Simply put, both from a human and dinosaur legal standpoint, this is our land, and you are the invaders. Therefore, your intrusion into our territory with an armed army is an act of aggression" Davies looked increasingly confused. He couldn't believe a dinosaur was beating him in oratory! Who the hell was that monster!? "As for the third point, you said we attacked first, but that is also false. 'Attacking' doesn't mean hitting the opponent with weapons. 'Attacking' means entering his territory with a clear aggressive intent and not lowering the crest even when he comes to hunt you. As soon as you saw us appear from behind the dunes, you ordered your army to advance, and this was clearly an attack. If you had sent an ambassador to us we would have been happy to seek a non-violent solution. Instead, you sent your armed troops to assault us. We have also been lenient to wait rather than respond to your attack right away; we were hoping you would change your mind. But if we had waited a little longer, we would have been within range of your tanks. If you didn't stop your army before we were seriously threatened and decided to fight back, then you can only blame yourself" Davies was not the only one to be left speechless: even the dinosaurs listened to their pack leader in raptures. Every word of him seemed to be perfectly calculated and fit for purpose. Within minutes, he was completely overturning every accusation of the general. "Then, you said we can't blame you for using a weapon, which is absolutely true. I would have used a powerful weapon to win the battle if I had had it. If I had used the gas only against us, and only for the purpose of winning, I couldn't have accused you of anything, despite my anger. But you see, you didn't just hit us with gas. You launched the gas on the entire battlefield, where there were also thousands of human beings. Those humans were in your service, Deavis, yet you chose to kill them. You have betrayed your own pack. For a boss, this is the worst of faults! A leader's role is to protect his pack, and instead you killed him! Besides, you didn't throw the gas to win the battle. The battle was already lost and you knew it. With us, your men would have died too. No, you threw that gas because you refused to accept defeat, and therefore you decided to poison your own army in order to lead at least some of us to the grave! You couldn't handle your failure, and you chose an easier, mean way. You told yourself that as long as any of us died, the victory would be yours, and you didn't give a damn about your comrades who suffered a horrible death at your hands. Do you think you are here to be executed only for the thirty-two deaths you caused our people? No, general. Your soldiers also demand justice!" The dinosaurs let out a slight growl. Though they were of different species, the laws of the pack were deeply ingrained in all of them, rigorously affirming that a leader never left his pack. A leader could be killed, deposed, removed or injured; but until that happened, he would defend the pack to death, even at the cost of his own life if necessary. For the dinosaurs, a leader who betrayed his own herd could only be a real demon, and had to be eliminated at any cost. "Finally, your last objection to my accusations. You asked me if I wouldn't have fled if the battle was lost. Well, I would have fled, but not alone. As pack leader, my duty is to protect every member of the pack still alive. I would never have left the battlefield if only one member of my people was left behind. You, on the other hand, have only thought about saving your skin. Many of your soldiers were still alive when you initiated your escape and were agonizing on the battlefield, intoxicated by the gas you had thrown yourself. Your role as pack leader was to go back and try to save as many survivors as possible, even at the cost of dying if necessary. Not only have you betrayed your soldiers, you have also abandoned them. You fought as a betrayer... and you fled betraying!" Davies had no words as Sobek spat out his sentence. All the while he had been holding the spinosaurus gaze, but suddenly he was unable to. The more Sobek spoke, the more an aura of power and authority seemed to form around him, and his words crushed the general's already weak willpower. "And finally... your other statement. Are we nothing but beasts to you? Well, we are. Just as you humans are. We are all part of the animal kingdom. Humans aren't some kind of chosen creature. Having a few more neurons doesn't put you on some sort of pillar. Should the beasts be killed when they do not know their place? So here in front of me I see nothing but a bald and angry primate who does not understand when to lower the crest. Are humans in charge out there? We are well aware of this, but this does not scare us. Your armies and your weapons do not scare us. Do you really think it brought my entire army to face yours? I didn't need it. My real army is much bigger. If the humans you appeal to do not agree to negotiate, then I will move against them myself. Few troops were enough to take down the army of an entire nation, and if it weren't for your sneaky trick we wouldn't have suffered a single casualty. Do you really think humanity can defeat us? Maybe, but to do so it will bleed so much that even if it wins, it will not be able to call that its victory" Sobek brought his muzzle close to Davies's face, almost touching him with his nostrils. "If humanity is as careful as I hope it is, there will be peace among our peoples. But regardless of whether the future that awaits us is one of peace or one of war, you will not see it. You, general Davies, represent everything that humanity has wrong: a pathetic traitor who plays with the lives of others and who does not hesitate to throw them away when he needs them. If there is to be peace among our peoples, then those like you must die". Sobek raised his head to the sky, while not taking his eyes off Davies. "I have listened to your defense, general Davies, and now I will pronounce your sentence. Each of the crimes I have listed has only one punishment, and that is death. Therefore, according to the law of retaliation, since you have betrayed your herd by killing it with gas, may the same fate be reserved for you!" Davies felt his heart sink. He expected to die, but he hoped it was a quick death. He was also ready to be eaten alive. But dying from nerve gas... was a terrifying death that would have scared anyone. The gas killed quickly, but that short time was a real hell. "Let the traitorous leader be led into a quarry and left at the bottom of it, then throw one of the human weapons at the bottom of it!" Sobek ordered. After the battle, the dinosaurs had recovered some remains of the human army, and among them there were still some spheres filled with nerve gas. "Let him die the same way he killed his comrades!" The dinosaurs roared in approval. While many of them hoped they could kill Davies personally, this sentence was satisfactory. Making the general suffer the same death as their comrades, friends and brothers was gratifying. The austroraptors rushed on Davies to drag him away, but they weren't the only ones. Despite Buck, Carnopo and Apache's attempts to restore calm, several dinosaurs and pterosaurs caught up with the general and joined the procession that carried him away. He was dragged through all the streets of the city and while this was happening the dinosaurs insulted him, spat on him, laughed at him and even wounded him with their tails or claws. The herd of dinosaurs poured out of Cartago towards the nearest quarry; they wanted to carry out the sentence as soon as possible.