A Lesson in History

"Mom, I'm home!"

The sound of her son returning home from school gave Anna a much-needed wind down after cleaning up the backyard on her own. Really, how did Raizex came home 25 minutes later than usual?

"You're almost half an hour late, my boy. What did you do? Going shopping?"

Raizex waved his tail in discomfort, "I'm sorry, mom. I got detention at school."

"Why? Detention for what?"

"I failed my history test this morning. Don't ask how it happened," Raizex said, putting off his uniform and backpack and laid them hastily on the staircase railing before falling on a leather sofa, clad only in grey shorts. There was a new newspaper edition today. With his left paws already retracting its claws, the young dinosaur reached for the newspaper and opened its gadget section, apparently looking for the latest smartphone models.

His mother was displeased to see him being slothful and irresponsible. Letting out a loud sigh, she hissed "Good God, boy, put your things back where they belong! This is the living room, not your bedroom. Also, I don't care if your scales are already shined of not, you will put on some clothes or I will dress you like when you're a whelping."

"Crap. Alright, alright, I'll handle it."

"And make sure you study your lesson correctly tonight! You know what will happen if you fail your next test."

Under his mother's glare, and with a possible threat of not getting his favorite dish tonight, the young Indoraptor immediately scuttled at where his stuff was left cluttered.

He went upstairs to his bedroom to place his uniform and school items. His leather backpack went in shortly after.

Raizex then threw on some dark blue clothing that fitted better with his black scales and icy-blue stripe. Good thing the sleeves were not too long; Raizex never really liked long clothes.

Having done with his belongings, he went down to the living room to find Anna being outside, perhaps talking to the neighbors. Good timing, he thought, as he quickly crept to the sofa and the tabloid he previously left behind.

Hmm, there doesn't seem to be any new smartphone being released to the market this time, the young Indoraptor thought. Raizex then opened up several other pages, noting that the latest trends of the public seemed to involve space engineering, space colonization, spaceship designing, political ramifications of being a spacefaring species, and the prospect of meeting extraterrestrial life. Of course, it was; most of the world's renowned scientists and experts were being offered a chance to develop the colonists' lives on the frontier worlds, either to help establish a working wireless network or to determine what resources were mandatory to set up settlement camps before solid buildings could take shape.

At least one throwaway line indicated that the Indoraptor Union's Grand Fleet was going to expand its size and recruit more personnel, particularly those with a keen interest in working on large ships and intelligence gathering.

Raizex didn't know why but reading that one line made him grin widely.

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"So, what happened after the downfall of humanity, the 'Silence of the Earth', again?"

"Seventy-seven years after that, the first members of our species began to learn how to speak, read, write, and count."

He nodded, "And then another seventy years later, the smartest and wisest of them made a new calendar system."

"Almost correct, son. They started to count days, weeks, and even hours, but no true calendar system was made until a decade after. But even then, they, and by extension us, still relied on human calendar customary."

Writing down all the details was easy for Raizex. Memorizing what took place when and where was the hardest part. Thankfully, dinner was still four hours later, so Raizex had some opportunity to fix all of his notes and ask his mom whenever he forgot the lesson's details. Anna kindly extended her assistance in her free time, seeing that the house was already in order, more or less.

"At Year 19, the earliest Indoraptors acknowledged an official calendar system, learn human languages as the means to convey messages and construct a functional but primitive society..."

"Incorrect." His mother alerted from across the table, clicking her claws edgily.

"Pardon?"

"It wasn't a primitive society. Our earlier civilization could be explained as a mixture of... the Iron Age and the Medieval Age, if the terminologies are accurate, but it was indeed a functional culture. The old ones were able to replicate many kinds of metal and substances the humans once used, but they formulated new chemical substances, medicines, and technology that did not exist prior as well. This trend continued for centuries until Year 648 when the most intelligent Indoraptors successfully constructed their first calculators after fourteen failures. Computers only came into existence circa Year 825, not before."

"Okay, so... not primitive at all?" Brushing sound could be heard as the young dinosaur belligerently erased incorrect notes before adding the correct ones. The older Indoraptor poured herself a glass of water but hesitated to drink it.

"Not primitive, due to their knowledge being retrieved straight out of recovered human archives. The humans were definitely not 'primitive' if you look at their scientific advancement, that is. Their societal progress was... how do I put it, stunted?"

"As in refusing to welcome new ways of thinking?"

"Well, that too, but mostly due to xenophobia and greed."

Raizex raised his left eyebrow as he looked up, "But the humans hadn't found space aliens, had they?"

His mother shook her head offhandedly. "No, xenophobia here came from the fact that the primates of old evolved different skin colors as a response to living in diverse environments, as opposed to our uniformly black scales with brightly-colored stripes." She snorted a little and continued, "For approximately one thousand and seven hundred years or so, humanity waged war against each other out of prejudice of the others' ethnicity and skin color, as well as wanting to possess their opponents' wealth and resources. This irrational hatred sparked many great wars. As our most prominent historians already pointed out, the human calendar stopped counting when it hit the Human Year 2050, during which World War 3 ended after twenty years of chaos. Their most recent information archives went mysteriously missing thereafter, so we can't tell how they all died out and why."

"After that, one hundred and forty-seven years during the Silence of the Earth, the first of our elders began to develop sapience and self-awareness and brought about a new civilization on Earth. And it took six hundred years or more until we succeeded in replicating human-like social order."

A calm nod from Anna prompted Raizex to return his attention to his jumbled notes.

The female Indoraptor patiently oversaw her son's progress in reviewing and fixing everything he wrote in his book. At least there were still three hours' worth of free time before she had to prepare dinner.

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"Don't forget to wash your fangs tonight."

"Yes, mom."

"Don't forget to clean your paws after dinner."

"Yes, mom."

"If you want to go hang out tonight, be at home no later than 10 P.M., alright?"

"Are you still using the human clock, mom?"

"Well, considering that we are speaking in their tongue even after their disappearance, what's the difference?" Anna shrugged.

"Some of my schoolmates said human expressions can be weird and stupid at times."

Anna chuckled at her son's pouting. "Yeah, well, your old lady here never liked those kinds of sketchy younglings."

Dinner time was, to put it mildly, a time that Raizex loved to hate. On one side, Anna always made sure to provide sustenance that was both delicious and healthy, exactly the type of food Raizex needed in his 'teenage' years. On the other side, his mother tended to use this occasion to 'interrogate' him on his daytime activities. If it's a school day, Raizex would be questioned about his activities in and out of school. If it's weekend days, Raizex would be told to go help at his neighbor's garage... and later be questioned on what assistance he provided for the old and slightly forgetful Indoraptor's workplace. Really, sometimes Raizex wondered to himself if protective but hardworking mothers were also present during the time of the humans who came before.

"Oh yeah, I've been waiting to ask this; can I enlist in the Grand Fleet once I graduated school?"

Anna snapped her head at the question. "Why? As far as I know, neither they nor the colony planets looked for promising young boys like you; they already have many these days."

"You know, I wanted to see what space looks like. I wanted to know... to experience the journey between the stars, being far away from our home planet, and into the void. You know what I mean, mom?"

"If you are trying to get hooked up at some space clubs or forming a pirate group, I don't think you'll make it in one piece. Piracy and mercenary activities are thoroughly illegal for our species, remember? So did alcohol abuse," the displeased look on Anna's narrowing eyes shut her son up from thinking too much about life in space. Sure, the Grand Fleet had recruitment centers opened up in many places, looking for those who desired a chance to be the first of many to travel through space, but the administrators made a damn sure that nobody was going to abuse this opportunity by forming any illegal and unregulated organizations. Sadly (or not), such a decision outlawed illicit organizations as well. But of course, some individuals knew that rules were made to be broken.

"If anything, I'd be happy if you take studies on space farming or colony planning, like your dad. IT & Programming sector is already full of more qualified applicants, so maybe you can find a strategic position on colony management."

"Space farming? You want me to be a farmer like dad?" It was Raizex's turn to narrow his eyes.

"We Indoraptors may have evolved to be highly adaptive to every environment out there, but we still need to eat suitable foods. Do the colonists some favors and help them stay healthy and strong. Or maybe you can assist them in exploring potential landscapes to mine, farm, and build cities on. Maybe one day, our species will finally have futuristic cities, the likes of which only existed in human fantasies."

"Why don't I enlist as a soldier instead? That'll be cool, right?" Raizex suggested, eagerly chewing on his steak. His mother pondered about his request for a minute or so before shaking her head.

"What? Like a space super soldier? I don't think you'll make it out of their boot camp alive, boy."

Raizex growled in disbelief. This idea of being a simple farmer on their colony planet instead of doing some great things to assist the Union in achieving greatness might as well be a colossal joke.

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EXTRACTING SPECIES PROFILE: INDORAPTOR

Species Name: Indoraptor

Scientific Name: Indominus raptus

Classification: Reptilian / Dinosaurian hybrid (artificial chimeric organism)

Homeworld: Earth Prime / Terra Prima, Sol system

Preferred Habitats: Continental, Tropical, Arid, Savanna, Alpine, Tundra

Lifespan: ~90 years

Length: 6.25 – 7.85 meters

Height: 1.8 - 2.2 meters

Weight: ~60 kilograms

Diet: Omnivore (formerly carnivorous)

Locomotion: Facultative bipedal

Ethics: Egalitarian, militaristic, materialistic

Species Attributes: Quick learners, excellent sense of smell and sight, physically strong, pack-oriented, adaptive, possesses natural weapons and tough scales, and nigh-invulnerability to traditional weaponry.

Overview:

Originally conceived as the ultimate bioweapon by the human race (Homo sapiens), the Indoraptor was cloned using an amalgamation of animals, both extant and extinct, with the explicit intent of replacing human soldiers with terrible, robust, and an unrelenting army of monsters.

In the 21st century, circa 1993, humanity was capable of using multiple classified methods to bring back extinct animals to be used for an array of purposes, including scientific research and entertainment. The most notable example being the establishment of an amusement/scientific park named Jurassic World which opened from 2005 until 2015. It was also the first witness of genetic engineering abuse, where a hybridized life form titled Indominus Rex rampaged through the park and killed dozens of visitors.

When word reached the masses worldwide that the extinct beasts (then named 'dinosaurs') could be used in warfare and terrorism purposes, research on genetics were hindered with the declaration of a constitution titled 'Gene Guard Act' which prohibited genetic engineering from being misused. Unfortunately, such a constitution only applied in the United States of America. With other nations left hanging on whether or not they should follow the US, mafia organizations and bioterrorists were able to smuggle DNA samples of resurrected dinosaurs out of the defunct amusement park.

Fast forward many years later, when World War 3 broke out between the US and China, rumors spread like wildfire about how both sides were seen unleashing cloned prehistoric beasts to massacre their opponents and innocents alike. These rumors were soon proven with the revelation of a frightening and powerful bioweapon referred to as 'Indoraptors'. These monsters were highly strong and adaptive, to the point of nigh-invulnerability. No known effective method had been discovered on how to safely eliminate the Indoraptors, and if there was, none managed to test it successfully.

But then something happened. At first, the bioterrorists noticed unusual behavior among the Indoraptors, predominantly being the capacity to disobey orders (both direct and indirect) and activities that appeared to be mating rituals.

This soon escalated into outright disobedience. With the Indoraptors evolving consciousness on their own, and their habit of laying highly-guarded eggs beyond their handlers' awareness, the humans in time lost control of the abominations. This in turn generated a snowball effect; the world war caused more and more humans to perish, while the cloned dinosaurs, hybrids, and Indoraptors were then left to breed and survive on their own, effectively causing the first intelligent and self-aware Indoraptors taking over the planet. The name 'Silence of the Earth' was coined by Doctor A. Z. Samus from the Hagalaz Institute to describe the world's condition for over a century without mankind or any sapient life to rule it.

One and a quarter millennia later, the artificial bioweapons managed to accomplish the impossible; founding a society on their own and succeeded where men did not; creating a stable, egalitarian civilization free of racism and discrimination, although they did fell into chaotic civil wars (Indoraptor Years 511, 802, and 1008 respectively). Their culture primarily used the English language as an 'accepted' lingua franca.

Their curiosity and creativity allowed them to advance more in science and engineering than their makers, unhampered by political leanings. In only seventy years (from Year 1058 to Year 1128) they finished assembling their first spaceships, equipped with crude antimatter drive engine, and blasted off to space to go further than before. Sol system was thoroughly mapped, its resources meticulously mined, and plans were drafted to colonize potentially habitable planets in a bid to declare an interstellar empire. The scientific community, some of them volunteered to expand the species' knowledge and information archives, engrossed itself in space-related topics, including the prospect of upgrading the antimatter drive technology.

Despite having a government structure comparable to a 'parliamentary democracy', ruled by an all-powerful Prime Minister, their influence does not allow then to dictate everything related to civilian life. Aspects such as education, economy, beliefs, and agriculture were maintained by the lesser Ministers, Chiefs and Admirals from the Grand Fleet's Admiralty Board, and Overseers selected from the best of Indoraptors.

As of now, Year 1260, four colonies had been founded on four different planets, with drafts on building military stations on strategic star systems under evaluation.