Chereads / Rise of the Dodo empire / Chapter 3 - Yep, for science!

Chapter 3 - Yep, for science!

[A few hours earlier - Dodo Nest]

Thousands of kilometers underground, there is a silent city, no light could be seen, no living being on the streets or inside the houses, it looks like a ghost city.

This, only in the surface, inside the largest building, in the center of the city, you can see inside a capsule the hologram of a sleeping dodo, around one meter tall, this dodo is the last dodo left awake, with the aim of waking up its fellows from stasis the moment the hated lizards returned to Earth or something unpredictable happened.

That special capsule was at the center of a circular room, in the walls of this room there are many devices and screens, showing the data that is collected from all over the planet.

Usually, the artificial dodo would remain motionless every day.

But today, something changed, the artificial dodo opened its eyes, and her voice could be heard throughout the building.

[Warning, anomaly detected,

Analysis in progress…

Unauthorized Celestial energy usage detected!

Unauthorized Mana usage detected!

Searching for the origin of the anomaly in progress…

Origin detected, compatible aura found in the database, origin: Mystical race_Dragons]

After completing the last sentence, a burst of energy could be felt coming from the main reactor, located under the monitoring room; All the lights in the building lighted up, all secondary systems turned on.

The voice of the artificial dodo returned, this time more lively, and with an excited tone.

[Mission complete - enemy detected,

Connecting with the main fleet, in progress…

Connection failed]

The last words were spoken without any emotion, the excited tone completely disappeared, and in the monitoring room, the hologram of the dodo had a shocked facial expression.

After a second where the artificial dodo thought about what to do, she continued talking.

[Unexpected problem detected,

Measures needed to resolve the issue require a greater level of authority,

It's necessary to wake the Dodo Matriarch from the stasis.]

Under the main reactor, there are huge rooms filled with capsules, inside which you can see the dodos.

In a separate room from the others, two more large and decorated capsules stand next to each other, but only the left one contains a dodo.

The lights in the capsule lighted up, and after a moment, the capsule opened, a dodo came out of the capsule, after taking a sad look at the capsule on the right, the dodo spoke.

"Report status"

[Unable to connect with the main fleet,

Presence of draconian aura detected on the surface,

Waiting for orders… ]

After hearing that, the Matriarch screamed enraged to the artificial dodo.

"What are you waiting for?! Wake up everyone, we are going to teach those damn lizards a lesson!"

The artificial dodo began the process of awakening all the dodo from stasis, while she was carrying out her orders, she also talked to the Matriarch again, this time, with a completely different tone.

[I knew you'd say that, by the way, I'm happy to see you, too, you know?]

Hearing these words, the Matriarch, paused just a moment before leaving the room and walking down the corridor, while the hologram of a dodo one meter tall appeared to her side.

The Matriarch rolled her eyes while replying

"There are thousands of dodos in this building, why don't you go talking with them? I'm sure that they will appreciate it a lot more than me"

The artificial dodo answered with a depressed tone

[Maybe, but no one of them dares to answer me honestly because all of them fear that my father will hear them…]

After a bit of time, walking, the Matriarch spoke again

"How long has it been? "

[Just a little less than sixty-six million years, this is a new record, let's have a party!]

The hologram replied happily, while the Matriarch mumbled

"Who the hell taught her to behave like that, it seems to speak to one of those useless unicorns…"

[Father talked about something like I should be self-taught and learn from what happens around me… there is a race right now on the planet, they call themselves humans, they're quite interesting, do you want to hear something about them?]

" Spare me please, I only got up a few minutes ago, you will tell me about them after taking our revenge on the damn lizards"

As they moved to the command quarters, located over the monitoring room, the other dodos, after waking up and learning of the situation, moved into their respective positions, or at least, the military officers, while the majority returned to their homes in the not-anymore-ghost-city.

Among the officers who made their way to the command quarters, one of them stood out for his height of 2.5 meters, he is the second-in-command of the dodo army, But since the first in command is currently far from the base, that means that he will have the honor of taking the long-awaited revenge.

He didn't bother to mask his excitement while running in the command room, after entering the room in high spirit, he froze on the spot when he realized that there was already someone within.

The Matriarch was shaking her head while whispering something about a hot-headed kid in the wrong position.

At her side, a beautiful hologram was giggling

"Commander Dodo at your service, Matriarch"

The Matriarch simply nodded while continuing to watch something in the monitors in front of her.

[It's been a long time, commander]

"Yes, princess"

While they were talking, the other officers entered the room and started greeting the Matriarch and the hologram, something interesting to note is the fact that a lot of the dodos called the hologram differently way, sometimes princess, future Matriarch and someone even called her young goddess.

Hearing him addressing her princess, the hologram nodded in satisfaction, while the Matriarch snorted while saying to the hologram.

"How come that anyone calls you with a different name, Annoying dodo?"

[Maybe because father called me "Sugar" and I hate anyone who calls me like that]

"... He sure is worth the title of Dodo God… Just the best dodo could find a horrible name like that for his daughter"

While "Sugar" almost burst out crying, the Matriarch decided that the time to do the important things has come.

"Annoying Dodo, do a complete report about the situation"

[Yes, we've found traces about the use of mana and Celestial energy in this coordinates]

She started her report while pointing at a red dot in north Italy.

[We've calculated that in a few hours, a portal connected with the plane dimension of the dragons should open there.]

After that, she continued speaking pointed at another monitor on the side

[Unfortunately, the main fleet isn't here, when father left, he took with himself the majority of the weapons, not that we haven't weapons, don't get me wrong, we have still enough weapons and ammunition to exterminate a mythical race or two]

A cruel smile appeared on every dodo in the room, already thinking about the sweet taste of revenge.

The first dodo to talk was the commander

"Well, we've already the weapons and a target, we can just let them come and exterminate them all… I've always wanted to taste a dragon… So, everyone thinks like me, right?"

Every dodo in the room nodded, even the Matriarch.

At that moment the hologram decided to shatter their dreams.

[Geniuses, how do you think to survive against the other races without half of our weapons and without the resources to produce other ammunition?]

Silence, for a whole minute, no one dared to make any noise.

After that minute where every one of them searched for a way to get revenge without dying in a very, very bad way passed, the Matriarch talked first

"Unfortunately, she is right…"

Some officers began to cry, while others, as the commander, looked at the hologram as if she was a traitor shaking their heads.

[However, I have a plan on how to kick their ass and send them back their plane dimension]

This time, a cruel smile appeared on her face, while the dodos looked at her as if she was a ray of light in the darkness.

"Princess, I knew you wouldn't abandon us."

Said the commander as a tear came down from his right eye.

"Okey, stop with this nonsense and explain to us your plan" The Matriarch interrupted the heartwarming scene mercilessly.

[This little toy over there has been in the space without doing nothing for so long that he will probably have already forgotten what its purpose was from the start by now, I think we should test it. Purely for scientific purposes, of course]

She said while pointing the image of an "Orbital Ray of death and destruction"

Every dodo, naturally, agreed with her.

[That is settled then, I'll prepare the toy, see you later] Her voice could be heard as the hologram had already disappeared.

Around four hours later, they were gathered on the command room once again

[The new toy is ready to bring glory to his name and clarify a lot of our doubts about orbital weapons… That is an important day for science!]

"Yep, for the science!"

The dodos replied almost in chorus.

While the hologram and the other dodo continued saying nonsense about the science, the Matriarch focused completely on the monitors in front of her.

"It should start in a few minutes"

Hearing her, everyone turned serious, after all, they knew their priorities, and they wouldn't allow any mistakes for any reason.

The formation of the vortex composed of mana and Celestial energy began.

That vision caused quite a lot of shock to the dodos, this was the first time in millions of years that the mana appeared naturally in this sector after the "fall".

While observing the phenomenon, they understood one thing, whatever is going to happen today, life in this sector will surely change again.

The mana appeared out of thin air in the area around the vortex, after that, it was forcefully dragged toward the vortex and condensed there, as if welcoming and trying to help whatever was on the other side to getting back to Earth.

"Everything is ready, right?"

Asked the Matriarch with a serious face

[Yes, everything is going as predicted and we're ready to fire at any moment, we will strike when the portal will be at his peak of power so that the backlash on the other side will be stronger and they will think twice about trying something funny again in the future.]

Everyone waited patiently until the right moment arrived. And when the right moment arrived…

An evil smile appeared on the hologram face as she sent the order.

Not even a second later, The Ray of death and destruction hit the vortex in the center.

After an instant where the time seemed to stop, the vortex, the storm, and the whole mana, and Celestial energy around the area was forcefully compacted at the center of the vortex in a golden dot.

At this moment, however, something unbelievable happened. A new burst of power was detected some kilometers away from the vortex.

"He's mutated!? How!?" the Matriarch yelled as she looked at the poor man.

'tch… Such a waste of talent… If he hadn't been there at the time, he would surely have become one of the strongest representatives of his race… If he hadn't been there at this time, he would surely have become one of the strongest representatives of his race... '. she thought

When the golden dot exploded and killed him, she was watching as something even more unbelievable happened, the power of the explosion seemed to trigger something within the kid, allowing him to mutate too.

' this… I should have allowed the Annoying dodo to tell me more about those humans…'

After the explosion, everything turned silent, all the dodos were watching the kid with a lot of interest.

When he woke up, they realized how bad his body condition was He was clearly in pain from every spot of his body, and he couldn't even breathe properly.

' tch… Such a waste of talent… He will surely die unless someone… '

"Tell me, Annoying dodo, do you want a pet?"

the Matriarch asked with a smile

When the hologram realized the meaning behind it, she answered with a radiant smile.

[Of course, I would really appreciate it! ]

She immediately ordered one of her subordinates to take a certain pet.