A tour group of several havenworlders, other galactics, and a few deathworlders were visiting an Emu farm and getting to pet the birds which were quite happily pecking pellets from open hands, visiting the young chicks, and seeing the hatchery. Then the humans grin, as a galactic mentions how gentle these birds are, and the humans tell of the Emu War, where these birds actually defeated the humans who want to war with them.
[AN: Gotta love final tallies like "Losses: 10K rounds, Dignity"]
Seeing birds like these, it was easy to believe that dinosaurs still existed. In a way, they did. They were just called 'birds' now. These ones were both impressive and tame. Their bulk was mostly in their legs and abdomens, and the rest of them were either lanky or covered in limp, stringy feathers.
Havenworlders could offer them food, and would not get harmed in the process. Then, they would learn that these gawky, unlikely beasts with brains no bigger than a walnut had once won a war against the Humans they shared a planet with. It had started, as most Deathworlder things did, with a war. A big one, with plenty of returning population that needed housing and occupation unrelated to killing people.
In those times, they needed food, and Australia had plenty of land worth farming. All went well until a drought forced the Emus to seek out greener pastures... like the crops growing under Human care. Military minds implemented military solutions and things went bad from worse.
Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi
Prompts remaining: 54 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!