Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Warning! Think you know about dinosaurs?
Talking Dinosaur!
The Crew of the DSS Sauropod
Jurassic Quadrant Map
Chapter One: The Treasure Hunters
Chapter Two: Sinister Sentries
Chapter Three: Secrets in the Sand
Chapter Four: A T. Rex Trap
Chapter Five: The Test and the Terror
Chapter Six: Chilling Challenges
Chapter Seven: Win or Lose?
Chapter Eight: Deeper Trouble
Chapter Nine: The Power of Keprish
Chapter Ten: Menace in Mind
Chapter Eleven: Crashing Down
Also by Steve Cole
About the Author
Copyright
Meet Captain Teggs Stegosaur and the crew of the amazing spaceship DSS Sauropod as the Astrosaurs fight evil across the galaxy!
When a spooky stone pyramid is uncovered on the plant-eater planet of Sphinx II, the astrosaurs are drawn into double danger. As a T. rex army attacks from space, a terrifying force is stirring beneath the desert sands . . .
ALSO BY STEVE COLE:
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Gipsy, Arx and Iggy!
#1 Riddle of the Raptors
#2 The Hatching Horror
#3 The Seas of Doom
#4 The Mind-Swap Menace
#5 The Skies of Fear
#6 The Space Ghosts
#7 Day of the Dino-Droids
#8 The Terror-Bird Trap
#9 The Planet of Peril
#10 The Star Pirates
#11 The Claws of Christmas
#12 The Sun-Snatchers
#13 Revenge of the Fang
#14 The Carnivore Curse
#15 The Dreams of Dread
#16 The Robot Raiders
#17 The Twist of Time
#18 The Sabre-Tooth Secret
#19 The Forest of Evil
#20 Earth Attack!
#21 The T. Rex Invasion
#22 The Castle of Frankensaur
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Blink and Dutch at the Astrosaurs Academy!
#1 Destination: Danger!
#2 Contest Carnage!
#3 Terror Underground!
#4 Jungle Horror!
#5 Deadly Drama!
#6 Christmas Crisis!
#7 Volcano Invaders!
#8 Space Kidnap!
Meet the time-travelling cows!
#1 The Ter-moo-nators
#2 The Moo-my’s Curse
#3 The Roman Moo-stery
#4 The Wild West Moo-nster
#5 World War Moo
#6 The Battle for Christmoos
#7 The Pirate Moo-tiny
#8 The Moo-gic of Merlin
#9 The Victorian Moo-ders
#10 The Moo-lympic Games
#11 First Cows on the Moon
#12 The Viking Emoo-gency
If you can’t take the slime, don’t do the crime!
#1 The Fearsome Fists
#2 The Toxic Teeth
#3 The Cyber-Poos
#4 The Supernatural Squid
#5 The Killer Socks
#6 The Last-Chance Chicken
#7 The Alligator Army
#8 The Conquering Conks
Visit www.stevecolebooks.co.uk for fun, games, jokes, to meet the characters and much, much more!
THE T. REX INVASION
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17365 5
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2013
Text copyright © Steve Cole, 2012
Cover illustration by Dynamo Design © Random House Children’s Books, 2012
Map copyright © Charlie Fowkes, 2005
Interior illustrations by Woody Fox © Random House Children’s Books, 2012
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 9781849414036 2012
The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.randomhousechildrens.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
For Thomas Larkman –
winner of the Astrosaurs
Search For A Superfan
competition for his suggested
character, Tute
The dinosaurs . . .
Big, stupid, lumbering reptiles. Right?
All they did was eat, sleep and roar a bit. Right?
Died out millions of years ago when a big meteor struck the Earth. Right?
Wrong!
The dinosaurs weren’t stupid. They may have had small brains, but they used them well. They had big thoughts and big dreams.
By the time the meteor hit, the last dinosaurs had already left Earth for ever. Some breeds had discovered how to travel through space as early as the Triassic period, and were already enjoying a new life among the stars. No one has found evidence of dinosaur technology yet. But the first fossil bones were only unearthed in 1822, and new finds are being made all the time.
The proof is out there, buried in the ground.
And the dinosaurs live on, way out in space, even now. They’ve settled down in a place they call the Jurassic Quadrant and over the last sixty-five million years they’ve gone on evolving.
The dinosaurs we’ll be meeting are part of a special group called the Dinosaur Space Service.
Their job is to explore space, to go on exciting missions and to fight evil and protect the innocent!
These heroic herbivores are not just dinosaurs.
They are astrosaurs!
NOTE: The following story has been translated from secret Dinosaur Space Service records. Earthling dinosaur names are used throughout, although some changes have been made for easy reading. There’s even a guide to help you pronounce the dinosaur names on the next page.
How to say the prehistoric names in this book . . .
STEGOSAURUS –
STEG-oh-SORE-us
IGUANODON –
ig-WHA-noh-don
HADROSAUR –
HAD-roh-SORE
DIMORPHODON –
die-MORF-oh-don
TRICERATOPS –
try-SERRA-tops
EGYPTOSAURUS –
ee-JIP-toh-SORE-us
TYRANNOSAURUS REX –
tye-RAN-oh-SORE-us REX
Photo: RebeccaJudge.com
“Woo-hoooooooo!” yelled Captain Teggs Stegosaur, whizzing across the brilliant green ocean on a turbo-charged jet-ski. He laughed as a salty breeze blew all about him, soaking his red lifejacket. “I hate taking holidays – but I have to admit this is fun!”
“It sure is!” Iggy Tooth, a tough iguanodon, drew alongside him on another jet-ski – then turned sharply away. “Come on, Captain. Race you back to shore!”
Teggs whooshed away after him. He and Iggy were astrosaurs – dinosaur astronauts, more used to shooting through the stars than over the sea. But their incredible spaceship, the Sauropod, was in the Galactic Garage for its ten-billion-mile service. It would take five days to complete, and so the whole crew had been sent on leave. Teggs had chosen their destination – the holiday world of Sphinx II . . .
The wind whistled past the spines on Teggs’s back as he went even faster. But then the rockets on Iggy’s jet-ski flared crimson, and with a surge of super-speed sent him hurtling up onto the shore, where he skidded to a stop in the sand.
“The winner!” Iggy punched the air. “Although, to be fair, I might have tinkered with my jet-ski’s engines a little bit.”
Teggs grinned as he swept up onto the beach. “I’d expect nothing less from the Sauropod’s Chief Engineer!”
At the mention of their ship, Iggy sighed. “I wish I could’ve stayed on board and helped the space mechanics fix her up.”
“Don’t start that again, Iggy Tooth,” came a firm female voice from behind them. “You’re as bad as the captain. You could both use a holiday.”
“So you keep telling us!” Teggs smiled to see his communications officer, Gipsy Saurine, approaching with a tray of split-open coconuts. “Hi, Gipsy.”
“I thought you dino-racers might like a drink.” The stripy hadrosaur had swapped her usual red uniform for a blue swimsuit, and looked very relaxed. “So I brought coconut cocktails.”
“How kind.” Teggs quickly drained four coconuts, then swallowed the hard, hairy shells too. “Mmmm, delicious.”
Gipsy frowned. “I see your stomach isn’t taking a break!”