Chesapeake Bay, VA
November 5, 2016
Monday
(0100 Hours/1:00 A.M.)
After the first contact with the undead at Quel'Thalas, matters back home weren't that calm either.
Streamers from all around the world had kept their eyes glued onto the portal nonstop, even many of their fans had resorted to tagging along with any media mentioning the portal once media like Discord and Twitch were packed with so much viewers that those slowed down.
CNN News was on the shot.
"This is Anderson Cooper live from CNN. Here I am live in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, where a sizeable number of military forces have made their first step into what has been widely acknowledged as a portal, with the cutter Northland being first to respond earlier yesterday morning at around 6 A.M. and the portal has created an interesting side effect of glowing algal blooms."
"The US Navy had dispatched the destroyer USS Cole to be the first to enter, and so far there have been no updates on its whereabouts and status. Some viewers and users on Twitter and Instagram have voiced their growing concern of the Marines and Navy being lost on the other side."
"Here tonight we have Professor David Deutsch from the University of Oxford who is widely known for his contributions to the Many-Worlds theory, and he personally flew in from England to Chesapeake Bay. Professor?"
"Ah, yes. In all my years of research and study I would've never fathomed that I'd live to see concrete proof of the study that the late Hugh Everett formulated. This is simply the greatest find of the century."
"Quite the enthusiastic remark, professor. So, what are your thoughts on the portal?"
"The question of what's on the other side is what truly brought me here. I can only speculate on what is there, and if indeed the thought of a different world is true, then there is always an inherent risk of danger."
"What kind of danger?"
"There might be a chance that the other side has threats we may not be accustomed to, and I do pray the marine and naval forces are safe. God knows what they might be dealing with right now, and from what pop culture has given us, they might as well be fighting a dragon or an alien civilization. Also, to further up my point, when it comes to portals in their uncanny similarity to wormholes in terms of one dimension having a hole torn into it, there is the probability that the portal here may not stay open for long, and if indeed they are there, they will then be left stranded on that side, possibly forever."
"I- I see... Well, thank you for your time, professor. This is Anderson Cooper on scene."
HOLLYWOOD
California
Streamers were still eyeing on what was going on, having stopped their gaming sessions ever since yesterday at 7 A.M., eyes still glued to the portal. However, some had made the choice to get to Chesapeake Bay in person.
But, it was no question that some celebrities tried to cash in on the event. Distastefully by some. The Kardashians were attempting to do so but the mere presence of military forces would be a hassle, so they tried not to interfere for the moment.
However, many acclaimed people in the industry such as James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, George Lucas, Denis Villenueve, etc. were genuinely interested as the portal, like for Prof. David Deutsch, is a concrete evidence of one of the elements of sci-fi and fantasy.
Many have pondered on why the U.S. Government had decided to impulsively send in reinforcements from the Marines and Navy seemingly without intel.
The answer will be revealed in due time..... or maybe never.
FLASHBACK
The Navy SEAL, Reginald Finnegan, was given the secret directive by the Department of Defense relayed to him through Agent Dean Parker and Capt. McDaniel. They made sure the elves wouldn't openly mention of his departure by saying this meeting would change the outcome of future encounters with the Scourge and this information falling into the wrong hands could be catastrophic. All present within the captain's quarters swore to establish trust to each other and each were expected to uphold it and to make sure sensitive sessions like these shouldn't leave the room.
After the meeting, Reginald was ordered to make a covert return to the other side where the Marines and Navy waited on standby. The number of forces would be enough for him to be unseen by the news media and waited for the cover of dark to make him even more difficult to detect by prying eyes. He swam to the portal in his diving gear and entered the part where it was submerged and came out the other side.
What the general public didn't see was that underneath the portal, the USS Albany (SSN-753), a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, under the command of Cmdr. Roy L. Wilson, Jr. was given the task to wait for and retrieve the SEAL to be ferried straight to Washington, D.C. for reporting on what was on the other side.
The top hatch opened for entry, and was vented of seawater once he entered. The sub headed to the intended destination of a rather secluded part of the estuary where there was a nearby sewage drain leading out to sea.
Before leaving the submarine, Reginald was told to dress in a plain white T-shirt with trousers to not make himself known as a SEAL in the case of unforeseen detection (or in layman's terms, being seen by somebody that just randomly walks in on your rendezvous point), and to go inside the sewer and re-emerge from a spot hidden in plain sight where he would detour to a certain area in the vicinity to be picked up in a civilian vehicle.
Reginald didn't know about the onslaught of undead on the other side during his absence, and hoped he could go back once he was ordered to do so for the sake of his team.
END FLASHBACK
Quel'Thalas
Azeroth
(0300 Hours tracked for Earth Time)
Early Morning
Lylia, Zanavar, Yaeron, Lenara and Aurina were conversing with each other.
"Forgive me for not joining you all in battle. I made the choice to stay back on that metal ship conversing with the captain to both exchange more information. I will try to repay that." Lenara replied
"It's fine, sister. At least you were safe there. What kind of information did you exchange?" Aurina asked her sister
FLASHBACK
A few minutes before the undead onslaught the day before..
Capt. Rich McDaniel and Agent Parker were in the map room of the USS Cole.
"So, Lenara, if I recall, I wish to ask for more information. This information will be of great help to us both, as the Marine Corps has sent us reinforcements to make sure that any threat would not be able to, at least easily, reach our world." the captain asked
"Yes, but first, you will tell me what's on the other side that has your world's military forces sending a rather sizeable number to Quel'Thalas. I have questions for that, in fact." she made a condition
"Ma'am, the portal has opened right in front of my country's capitol. That alone is reason enough for the United States Government to send a contingent of Marines." the agent responded
"I see. Very well, what information do you ask of me?"
"Do you have any maps of this world? We need to know where we're going and what the players are in this dilemma we just got caught up in."
"All I have is the map of Quel'Thalas, captain. I hope it is enough."
"It's already a great deal of help on its own, Lenara. Now, I want you to tell your friends to come onboard later, as I have something to discuss that will only be between you, your friends, me, Agent Parker and Lt. Col. Christian. Let's get started on the map."
The captain pointed out Quel'Thalas's capital of Silvermoon, then Zul'Aman. All this information would be of use to the United States when planning to secure a foothold against the Scourge currently present.
"Alright, then. Would it be fair in return for me to ask for a map from your world?"
"Of course. Here."
She was given the World Map of Earth, and this alone surprised her a lot, to find out that where they came from was rather large. Then she was handed the map of the United States and the agent pointed out where the portal opened on Earth, which further added to her comprehension on why the United States sent the Marines.
"So, as usual, you keep your maps, we keep mine. Though you can always look at them here in the map room if you request it. Just making sure our intel doesn't fall into the hands of this world's enemies and vice versa." the captain reminded before each retrieved their maps
Then she heard a crewmember shout something about the Marines being attacked. That's when she rushed out of the room and onto the bridge.
"Captain! My companions are in danger! Please send me to them!"
"I can't risk you getting slaughtered while you're still safe here. I'll try to provide fire support from here."
"General quarters. General quarters. All hands man your battle stations!"
END FLASHBACK
"I see your point. After all, trust is ever the valuable commodity especially when it comes to our new allies, it seems." Aurina replied
"Now, I wonder what else their government is attempting to do." Yaeron thought
"As the captain and the agent pointed out, the portal opened right in front of their capitol, which only means that they will send more forces to secure their side by making sure none get past from here." Lenara added
"We will need to seek an audience with Prince Kael'thas for his approval in their stay here. Yes, they are foreign strangers to our lands, but a beneficial turn of events are just beyond the horizon. As we witnessed the day before, they are more than capable of holding out on their own against the Undead. Now as for the Amani, we may have to secure favor in requesting that they aid us in making sure they stay decimated or at least weakened." Lylia gave a suggestion
"Isn't that too much to ask of them?" Zanavar gave his voice to the conversation
"I understand the concerns, Zanavar. But, one thing at a time. We need to make sure we uphold that trust, or we may lose the chance to reclaim Quel'Thalas." Lenara responded
"With Ranger-General Sylvanas and Prince Kael'thas nowhere to be found, it is possible that they may have fallen to the undead." Aurina added
"All we have to worry about right now is our allies, in the sense that they succeed liberating Quel'Thalas. Something tells me that we should put our faith in them." Lenara said
The five high elves agreed on that statement, as they were barely lucky to have survived when they were separated from the others trying to escape the marauding undead for days on end, having stumbled onto the portal out of pure luck.
Offshore near the portal lay the USS Wasp (LHD-1), witnessing the whole battle against the undead the entire night, providing extra AA Fire support from behind. In its cargo decks lay extra vehicles belong to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Super Cobras and Venoms, alongside Harrier II ground-attack aircraft. Helicopters like the Seahawk and Super Stallions were put in for general tasks and missions requiring extraction, as in the case for the Marine Raider Division with them.
Quel'Thalas
East of Fairbreeze Village
Two days prior to portal opening
(Earth time track: Friday, November 2, 2016)
Sylvanas was recently risen as a banshee courtesy of Frostmourne plunging above her heart and stealing her soul. She felt tormented and conflicted, hating what she had become yet being imprisoned in her mind under the Lich King's control.
As her ghastly ethereal form, she unwillingly slew more of her own fellow quel'dorei. As she looked at Silvermoon beyond the horizon, this only added to her anguish but her fight against being controlled by Ner'zhul was all for nought, as all she could do was watch as she now started to destroy the very place she swore to protect, in life.
As the Sunwell's energies had become corrupted by Kel'Thuzad's resurrection, she saw across the waters of Quel'Danas an anomalous event, where a bright pillar of light shot upwards to the skies, not knowing of the little hearthstone that had acted as its catalyst.
Two days later.....
As the Scourge mostly withdrew from Quel'Thalas, she stayed near the waters as the mindless banshee as she was, then saw a portal open on the seas in her view.
The portal took form, and in doing so, released a wave of powerful energies rippling outward that killed off the undead near the coast, but she then felt a forceful impact.
Sylvanas soon felt that she was being ripped asunder, and seemingly vanished.
She then woke up in an alarmed state, coughing from the pain of her wound and from the recent memories of being slained by Arthas and her soul being pulled out of her body. Sylvanas realized she was locked in a coffin of iron, and struggled to try to get out.
Nearby, an undead acolyte wondered why the coffin was moving, and headed to the pile of corpses beside it, and opened it out of curiosity. As soon as he opened it, the elven warrior sprung out in action, swiftly killing the undead servant with his own sacrificial dagger. The surrounding ghouls were alerted to her presence, and went on a frenzy to kill her.
She then decided that fighting wasn't the best course of action, and ran off into the woods to evade her pursuers. As the hours went by, she grew more and more weary evading the undead swarming around Quel'Thalas. Deciding to head to the sea to try and find a boat to escape on, she pressed onward despite the exhaustion and her wound from Frostmourne.
Hours later.....
Sylvanas was fortunate to immediately move out of sight when she saw a legion of undead forces heading towards the sea, which made her curious why and tried to follow them without being seen. Minutes later, she heard the all-so-familiar ambience of battle. Hearing sounds of gunfire, she immediately had the thought that the Kingdom of Lordaeron had come sending troops to help fight the Scourge.
From the woods, she then saw a sight that dispelled all her assumptions of Lordaeron helping.
A portal beyond the coast triggered her memory of seeing it form when she was still a banshee, and remembered how it came to be and on why she was back in her body. On the shore, she saw a small encampment of what looked like humans wearing strange-looking garments and equipment.
Witnessing their fight against the undead, she was impressed on them holding out despite their disadvantage in numbers. She beheld a frost wyrm falling to these humans' firepower, as the skies lit up with streaks of fiery yellow and burning red with said wyrm plummeting to the ground and being finished off as what she could understand as an artillery strike.
As the last of the undead were picked off, she heard their cries of victory. She decided to rest for the night, feeling safe from harm.
The next morning...
Current Earth time of November 5, 2016
She woke up starving and weakened, getting up to check on the humans. Spotting in their vicinity were five quel'dorei, this alerted her as she had not seen her people ever since she turned. Seeing that they were comfortably with the humans dressed in fabrics of dull, patterned green, she decided to take her chances and approach them, clutching the wound that was close to festering as she walked to the shore and out of the woods.
As Lylia, Aurina, Zanavar, Yaeron, and Lenara were conversing with each other, they sensed something and paid attention to an approaching figure.
"Wait, is that...."
"It's the Ranger-General!! She's alive!"
They ran to her, seeing her injuries as a critical danger to her life. She was about to stumble but they helped her up.
"Help! Help! We need a healer!!!!"
The nearby marines saw that and immediately alerted the navy corpsmen on station to aid the elves. They ran to her with a stretcher.
"We have an injured woman! Her wounds look life-threatening! Please place her on the stretcher so that we can carry her to the medical treatment facility!"
The corpsmen and the elves slowly placed her on the stretcher and carried her off to the medical facility. Nearby marines saw the commotion and wondered why an elf was on a stretcher. Inside a tent designated as the facility, the medical staff immediately prepared bottles of antiseptics such as chlorhexidine, iodine, and alcohol as Sylvanas was lowered onto an operating table.
"Okay, I'm Chief Ava Schmidt, and I'll be your corpsman for today, so please relax as we tend to your wound." the corpsman said to Sylvanas as she prepared her gloves
Sylvanas felt unfamiliar in this environment, and felt the urge to try to get up despite being in a weakened state.
"Let's see... her injuries look severe. A major puncture wound just above the heart, most likely from a bladed weapon. Symptoms of dehydration and starvation detected, with considerable blood loss. LR IV recommended."
Chief Schmidt then took a cotton swab to clean the area for the IV insertion into Sylvanas's median vein on the forearm while the assistant corpsmen prepared the IV. As the double-tube butterfly needle penetrated her skin, she groaned from the pain.
This alerted the elves, thinking that the Ranger-General was being hurt.
"Relax. This is standard procedure." Chief Schmidt told them
"What are they doing to her?" Lenara asked
"I'm just injecting a solution to help her recover from dehydration and blood loss. Plus, I'll have to operate on her wound to make sure it doesn't start to suffer necrosis from being untreated, so she has to be anesthesized and sedated to keep her from feeling any sort of pain."
Remembering that these humans didn't have healing magic or any magic at all, all they could do is watch both in intrigue and nervousness as they weren't familiar on how they healed their injured.
"Okay.... now, you'll be asleep for the moment as we operate on your wound. Don't worry, it'll be over as soon as you wake up."
A syringe containing propofol was inserted into the tube connected to the needle. Sylvanas started to feel like she was blacking out as soon as the anesthetic IV was injected on the other tube, her hearing and vision fading out. As time went by, they sanitized the sword wound and checked for more unseen injuries inside it just to make sure before they'd sew it shut.
With the wound being a relatively clean puncture, they flushed it with an antiseptic saline solution to kill any harmful microbes that may have started to take root and to clean out the old blood to prevent internal clotting. After it was drained, sutures were put in place and clotting powder was applied to help the healing process. Finally, a gauze was put over the wound.
The five quel'dorei then asked to watch over her in her sedated state, as they were familiar with who she was. They had hidden the fact that they were starting to suffer a form of deterioration due to Kel'Thuzad's resurrection ritual poisoning the Sunwell with dark energies, and wanted to solve that problem with the help of the USMC and the USN. They would address that as soon as the Ranger-General wakes up and recovers.
Lordaeron-Quel'Thalas Border
Silverpine Forest
Days prior, upon hearing of Quel'Thalas being ransacked by the Scourge, Prince Kael'thas immediately left Dalaran and headed back to Silvermoon after lashing out at Jaina Proudmoore for choosing Arthas over him and for choosing a monster as the latter attempted to console him.
He had reached the border and immediately found opposition against remnants of the Scourge that stayed behind. He would fight to get back to his homeland.
Washington, D.C.
Pentagon
Briefing Room
(0730 Hours/7:30 AM)
"So, when will the diplomatic arrangements start?"
"As soon as we gather more intel on these... elves? Correct me if I'm wrong. I want more intel on their leadership and on how we can get to them."
"As recent reports indicate, there is possibly still a danger of more of those undead around."
"Very well, we shall relay the order to advance and help these elves right down to their seat of government. Elimination of hostile enemy forces are a priority to make the process easier and faster. Two birds with one stone, ladies and gentlemen. We get rid of their enemies, the more they'll be willing to listen to us."
"Agreed."
"This meeting is adjourned."
Well, I made this chapter real long to compensate for my absence from this work for around two years now. Stay tuned! Comments are more than welcome, by the way. Until then, enjoy.