[FFML] [SI] Chance of a Millenium 12

[Tannim Murphy]

Chapter 12 here at last!  I know you've all been waiting for it!

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, while World of Warcraft belongs to Blizzard.  Matt and Kyle belong to Tannim and Magus, respectively.

Xxxxx

"You know," Kyle said, grunting as she ducked to avoid
another low point in the cave. "We really had little reason
to split up."

"Captains orders," Sergeant Soerta briskly replied, torch
held high.

Holding back her initial reply, Kyle finally asked, "You've
worked with Captain Bitters before, then?"

Private Jenkins made a sound that could have been a laugh,
or an aborted sneeze.

"What was that, private?" Matt asked.

"It's Knight, er... Sergeant Soerta's story to tell, sirs,
not mine."

Kyle paused. "That's telling enough, right there. Run afoul
of our situationally-myopic mission commander, Sergeant?"

The Sergeants glowing eyes narrowed. "An officer of the
Alliance does not speak ill of her commanders, no matter how
questionable their actions may seem." She glanced around,
before turning to inspect the walls. "However, an enlistee
such as myself, might let slip that she would not be at all
upset to never have to work with the self-serving runt, ever
again."

Kyle sighed wearily. "Private, do you have anything to add?"

Leeroy shrugged his shoulders uncertainly. "I've got nothing
to say that I wouldn't want reported back to him. He's mean
if he thinks you don't like him."

"Kinda like how a chihuahua will bark at anything they
perceive bigger than them? I think we get the picture," Matt
noted sourly.

Jenkins nodded. "I don't rightly know what a chihuahua beast
is, but that sums up the Captain perfectly."

"Something to bring up with the general when we get back,
then," Kyle said.

"Not that you hadn't planned on doing that already anyway,"
Matt interjected.

Kyle smirked. "Yeah, well. More fuel to the fire."

"Whatever you say, sirs, you didn't hear from me." Jenkins
made a sign of the Light. "I'd rather be kept outta that
boar-stew, thank you very much."

Matt clapped a hand on Leeroy's shoulder and gave him a
reassuring smile. "Of course not, don't worry about it. The
Captain will get what he deserves, that's all."

"Listen!' Kyle said suddenly, staring ahead.

Matt strained his elven ears to tune out the ambient sound
of three people trying to be silent while wearing plate
armor. Kyle was already nearly impossible to hear. "Yeah, I
think- skittering?"

"Scourge Nerubians... We're not alone in here," Kyle hissed,
pulling her daggers free.

"Spiders. I hate spiders." Matt and the others copied the
motion and freed their weapons as well. "And giant, undead
spiders are the worst."

In moments, the faint sound gave way to the hissing, aliens
shrieks of the undead nerubians as they came barreling out
of the tunnel ahead like a water hose suddenly set to full
blast.

In the cramped caves, the four members of the scouting team
had left behind larger weapons for those that could be used
in close quarters, and as they stood shoulder to shoulder
against the onrushing tide of undead, they began the grisly
task of taking their foe apart, limb by limb by limb.

The Nerubian Scourge was a horrific combination of humanoid
and spider; often quite large, depending on the variant, and
all had what passed for faces sitting on top of disjointed
torsos. Many could cast some form of magic, while others
specialized in producing the strong, sticky strands that
made up their webs. Luckily, for the four in the scouting
party, those that they faced seemed as surprised (albeit
angry) to see them as they were.  As such most were lowly
workers; uncoordinated, weak, and easily killed. It was
still brutal work though, and the going was slow.

Matt and Leeroy set themselves up in front, a solid rock of
steel for the onrushing tide to break upon their shields as
they went to work with their swords and shouted spells.
Kyle, a whirling dervish with her daggers, seemingly
appeared everywhere at once, making attacks of opportunities
against any opponent that showed an opening. All the while
Soerta, wielding a mace almost the size of her head, made
sure that Matt and Jenkins were not flanked by pulping any
nerubian audacious enough to try to get behind them.

The four warriors made steady progress against the onrushing
horde until the stream of enemies slowed down to a mere
trickle, then stopped entirely. In the lull of fighting,
Soerta attempted to dislodge a particularly nasty piece of
chitin that had seemingly glued itself to her maul, while
the paladins spoke beneficial prayers to heal everyone's
minor injuries. Kyle shook an offensive layer of ichor and
chitin off her dagger with a grimace, refusing to wipe them
off on her pants. She'd learned the hard way just how
difficult it was to wash out undead insect guts.

"Well, that was easier than I thought!" Leeroy grinned.

"I doubt it, private," Kyle replied, frowning at the dark
caves ahead. Though faint, she could still hear the
skittering of many exoskeletal legs, and for a moment, a
hollow, insane laugh drifted up to them; the rallying cry of
geists. "Yeah, I'd say they're regrouping. Setting up a
place to ambush us up ahead, since this tunnel gives us too
much of an advantage."

Sergeant Soerta grumbled, "A troubling thought. If they're
being directed..." She trailed off, earning a nod from Kyle.
"You're right. There's something else down here calling the
shots. We're not just up against mindless undead aggression.
Stay alert."

It was, of course, at that moment that she heard a muffled,
aborted yelp from behind her. Kyle spun, just in time to see
the ichor-smeared greaves of the sergeant disappear into a
surprisingly well-hidden hole in the ceiling.

"... Matt. Did our sergeant just get pulled up into the
ceiling by bug-like monsters?" Kyle asked, flatly.

"Yes Kyle, she did." The man looked angry and perturbed, but
held his frustration in check as he couldn't really do
anything about it.

"Good. I was afraid I'd been knocked out and was mixing my
situation with my favorite movie. Hand me a grenade?"
Without taking her eyes off the hole, Kyle took the grenade,
a ball of green metal called 'fel-iron' with an explosive
middle and a quick burning fuse, and lit it on Soerta's
fallen torch.

"Wait! You're not going to-" Private Jenkins cried, even as
Kyle chucked the grenade into the hole and ran to hide
behind the two plate-wearers. There was a flash of light, a
surprisingly muffled boom, and suddenly the whole cave was
shuddering and chunks of rocks fell for a moment, before
everything fell calm again.

"How... How could you do that?" Jenkins asked, aghast.

Kyle frowned at him, wiping away some blood from a cut a
fallign rock had opened on her forehead. "Trust me. What she
had to look forward to was something I wouldn't wish on my
most hated enemy. I was doing her a favor."

"She's right. I'd hate to face Soerta's corpse on the field
of battle. Or even worse, a Sergeant-turned Death Knight,"
Matt supplied, softly.

Jenkins looked at the hole in the ceiling, now apparently
blocked by some fallen debris, and simply nodded. "Very
well. To come to such an end, though..." He knelt in prayer
for the fallen, before standing back up and frowning at
Matt. "Umm, sir? Why... Why did you call Commander Jaessica
'Kyle?'"

Matt glanced at Kyle, who shrugged back. "It's... a code,"
he finally said reluctantly.

"A... Code, sir?" Jenkins asked, skeptically.

"It's private, private," Kyle interrupted. "Without the
Sergeant, we're in a bit of a jam, We need to continue to
clear the cave ahead, but if they can enter this tunnel from
caves like the ones above us, they can circle back behind
us... which means clearing the way is pointless."

"And?" Matt prodded.  "Your point is?"

"MY POINT IS... that we should really head back and meet
with the bomb team. Seven will fare much better than three,"
Kyle growled. "Jenkins, lead the way, Matt will follow."

"And where will you be, ma'am?" Jenkins asked.

"I'm going to continue in, alone, and hopefully find a good
place to set that bomb. I'll catch back up," Kyle explained.

"Wait... you think it's a bad idea to run around in here
with only three of us... so you want to split us up even
more?" Matt asked, incredulously.

Kyle shrugged. "The path back should be fairly clear. And I
can turn invisible. Unless you can too, I think it's safe to
assume I'm better off alone."

At this point, Matt wanted to argue, but he'd already seen
Kyle in action over the intervening years to realize that
her claim was true. It had constantly astounded the man just
how easily she could sneak through enemy lines and appear
seemingly anywhere at will. It was also the best chance they
had of reaching the bomb site with at least a modicum of
forward intelligence.

"But sir!" Leeroy objected. "That's suicide!"

Matt put a hand on Jenkin's shoulder and shook his head.
"Don't worry about her, son. She can take care of herself."
He steered the lad away from their current position and back
towards the way they came, while Leeroy threw one last
uncertain glance back at Kyle before continuing down the
gloomy path.

With that, Kyle watched Matt disappear into the murky
darkness of the cave, waiting a moment for the glow of the
torch to fade around a corner, before shifting into stealth
and moving forward. Despite the utter lack of light sources,
the cave seemed dimly illuminated to the Night Elf, which
had been a pleasant surprise, back when it had been
discovered. Finding out that they (and he -now she-)had what
amounted to night-vision without the goggles was a welcome
addition to her arsenal. An addition that she now employed
to steer clear of whatever traps and foes lay in wait ahead.

Unfortunately, She'd only made a couple dozen meters worth
of progress when the clatter of armor moving quickly was
heard coming from behind her.

Pressing up against a wall, Kyle waited, unseen, until Matt
and Jenkins came into view, running as if the hounds of hell
were behind them. Unfortunately, that description was
somewhat applicable, as a trio of demonic dog-like beasts,
feet and head ablaze with magical fire, came around the
corner after them. Kyle cursed, Some things, like the
undead, she could hide from practically in plain sight. But
those demonic dogs had been reported before by scouts.
Reports that detailed an unwelcome ability to rogues
everywhere: detect invisibility.

Still, Matt and Jenkins could easily dispatch the
four-legged creatures. That didn't explain why...

"Oh, shit," Kyle said, as a veritable horde of ghouls,
geists, zombies and nerubians rounded the corner as well.
With her stealth and the option to hide utterly out of the
question, Kyle dropped the technique, fading into sight just
ahead of Matt.

"Don't ask, just RUN!" Matt screamed.

As Kyle fell in beside them, he shouted "How the-"

"I SAID DON'T ASK!"

Kyle shut up and ran.

After a good couple minutes later (which felt a lot longer,
considering the terror of the moment) Kyle gasped between
breaths. "I think. There's an opening. Ahead!"

The light ahead seemed somewhat brighter, and even Jenkins
and Matt, unaccustomed to the darkness and requiring
torches, could tell that there was a light ahead. Then Kyle
realized what color it was and cursed. Pale blue. They were
headed into the underground Kingdom of the Nerubians,
utterly overrun with various undead.

Still, there might be some way out, or at least some way to
even the odds ahead.

Finally, they entered the cavern, a wide, bowl-shaped room
with steep upper walls of sculpted ice and stone. It would
have been beautiful, if not for the spider webs everywhere.
The center of the room was dominated by a structure shaped
like a twisted fantasy fortress, its architecture distinctly
nerubian in design, and on the very top of it, watching them
as they ran into the cave, was a huge beetle-like Nerubian.

Unfortunately, of a far more pressing concern was the fact
that their cave opened up on the cavern near the upper,
steep slope, and whatever staircase or bridge that had once
led inward was absent.

With a yelp, Kyle fell as her foot landed on nothing but air
mid-stride, and Matt and Jenkins hardly had time to react
before they too were falling.

The only saving grace was the majestically carved walls that
slowly curved in towards the walled ziggurat. There was a
lot of rolling, a lot of bruises, but the well carved stone
and it's gentle curve left them relatively unharmed.
Especially when they landed in the frigid, stinking pool of
standing water at the bottom of the cavern, forming a ring
around the room.

Kyle gagged on the putrid tasting water, coughing as she
fought back the urge to vomit, and she just knew she'd have
to get any cut treated soon, before infection set in. Matt
and Jenkins were slightly better off, protected in some way
by the thick metal armor they wore. They too rested in the
pool of water, but aside from what had seeped into the armor
through the joints, they were spared Kyle's fears and
disgust.

"Ahh, it appears our guests have arrived," a voice cried
out. Trying not to wobble on shaky feet, Kyle turned to look
up at the Nerubian she had spotted earlier. Unlike the
spider/centaur creatures that usually attacked, this was a
crypt-lord, a bloated scarab-beetle-like creature with no
true humanoid features. Which made it's echoing, alien voice
all the more unnerving, as it spoke accented (to the point
of sounding almost regal) English.

"What have we here?" it chittered. "Smells like a delicious
snack. ATTACK, MINIONS, AK-CHKCHKCHK-TA! BRING ME MY
DINNER!"

"I dunno, you look like you can stand to lose a few pounds,"
Matt replied snidely. All he got in reply was a string of
unintelligible angry hisses that did not sound
complementary.

The three of them braced themselves as the undead came at
them; a small party of skeletons that fell to their weapons
far faster than expected.

"Well... that was weak. Might as well work our way to the
top," Kyle said, kicking one of the skeletons at her feet.

"Work our... oh," Jenkins said, seeing another group of
undead coming towards them. As teams of undead came at them
from ahead, behind, and the sides, they worked their way
towards the staircase leading up to their enemy leader.

When they reached the base of the steps, the Nerubian
Crypt-Lord looked down at them and waved its chitinous limbs
in anger. "How can this be? I Am Anub'Zakak! Scourge Lord!
DIE MORTALS!"

Unfortunately for him, his opponents failed to die, instead
decimating the few scourge he had on the platform with him.
Those that tried to come up from behind where picked off as
they advanced, some taken apart by weapons, others roughly
shoved down the steps, where a precarious tumble would (and
did) result in broken bones.

Finally, they reached their objective, and without further
ado, began to assault the Crypt Lord. Jenkins and Matt held
its attention, their larger weapons smashing chitin and
knocking pointed exoskeletal feet out from under it, while
Kyle darted around the body, daggers whirling around her to
slice into leathery joints and stab into weakened cracks in
the armor to deliver noxious poisons to it's softer innards.

Much to their annoyance, Anub'Karak was willing to give as
well as he got, and both Jenkins and Matt were forced to use
what healing spells they knew when a particularly
devastating hit made it past their shields, or Kyle failed
to properly dodge a flailing limb. After several minutes of
this, both parties were looking under the weather, but no
clear victor was yet apparent. That was when their fight was
interrupted.

LIGHT!

Silver light danced throughout the cavern. As quickly as it
began, the beams of light converged as one on the Crypt
Lord.

"AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEE!"

The monstrosity screamed as its hard carapace blackened and
smoked. With its attention off of them, Matt, Kyle and
Jenkins moved in for the kill. Before it could sufficiently
react, Matt and Jenkins began to pour their own magic on the
burnt area until it burst into flame; silver and gold flames
that crawled across its form until Anub'Zakak's entire body
was engulfed. Within moments, the Crypt Lord was on its
back, legs twitching in the air.

Kyle turned to look at where the glow had come from.

"SERENITY!" Matt shouted with a fierce grin.

The Queen of the Silver Millennium nodded down at her
friends, before holding her staff aloft once more. While the
three had carved a nasty swath through the undead on their
trek to Anub'Arak's platform, there were dozens more
scattered throughout the cavern, and the mindless undead
began to recover from the shock of Anub'Arak's death and
started to converge on the three living beings most visible
in the center of the cavern.

"Undead filth," she hissed, glaring at the mob around her
friends. Behind her, she heard Captain Bitters telling her
to stop drawing the horde's attention to them, but she
ignored him. Kyle and Matt were in danger, and she would not
fail them. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" Her words reverberated
in a resonant echo across the cavern, voice boosted by the
sheer power she was drawing together.

The glow from her staff returned, but unlike before, where
multiple bright beams illuminated the room like myriad
spotlights, this time a single beam inches wide lanced out,
searing into the walls and floor of the cavern as it darted
erratically around the room. Any undead caught in its path
exploded in a cloud of dust.

When the light stopped its motion and faded out, glowing
magic circles covered many exposed areas of the cavern.
Nodding once at the array before her, she knelt swiftly,
speaking in a low tone, in a language nobody present could
understand.

"I hereby claim this land In the name of the Moon;
Of Peace. Of Prosperity. Of Power.
For within these lands life the source of my rule; my
people.
For within these lands live that which is worth dying for.
For within these lands live those worth killing for."
For Peace, let no friend go wanting.
With Prosperity grant those who work upon the land full
bounty.
In Power shall the enemies of those who belong be swept
away.
The Sovereign of these lands demands it."

The magic circles flared once, the same silver light that
had shone from her staff reaching out of the very ground,
moments before an unseen force sent the remaining undead
flying. Outside, they might have survived, but underground,
the power that had swept them up deposited them into the
sides of the fortress with enough power to pulverize bone.
In a matter of seconds, the chamber was clear of moving
undead; only their rotting bodies sliding to a halt against
an unseen barrier that began where the edge of the magic
circle had been moments ago.

Xxxxx

"Nice shot, Highness!" Matt cheered. "Perfect timing, as
usual."

Serenity smiled back cheerfully. "Well, I couldn't let you
boys have all the fun."

"We could have taken them," Kyle muttered half-heartedly.
"We had 'em right were we wanted."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Right; surrounding us so we could
attack in all directions." The three gave a small laugh at
that, though Kyle and Matt's laughter was tinged with
relief. Serenity's arrival had been damnably well-timed.

Captain Bitters interrupted the moment with a loud
'harumph.' "If you three are done grinning like idiots,
we've got a bomb to place!" He looked particularly angry
that Kyle and Matt survived, where his hand-picked warrior
had not. "If you don't hurry up and finish helping me arm
the damn thing, I'll let the lot of you blow up with it!"

He began muttering as he stomped angrily down the rocky
slope towards the center of the room. "Couldnae even take
down a Crypt Lord on your own. You're all as useless as that
mush-for-brains Sergeant I sent with you three. Probably
fell on her own sword."

"Sergeant Soerta died on your orders, Captain!" Jenkins said
with a scowl.

"Watch yourself Private!" Captain Bitters replied, hotly.
"You're not much better than the space goat," he said,
before a boot sent him sprawling.

"The Sergeant is barely an hour dead, and you dare speak ill
of her?" Matt said softly, even as his eyes burned with
fury.

"Sergeant Seorta's family died when we crashed onto your
planet. Despite her grief, she chose to help the Alliance,
knowing it was for the greater good. And this is how you
treat her death?" Corporal Hartaz asked, the burly draenei's
face also showing barely-restrained rage.

Kyle, shot the captain a disgusted look, which was mirrored
by Serenity, before she placed a hand on the draenei's
shoulder. "She died clean, and is with her family now. She
will not be a puppet for the lich king, and I will
personally see to it that she is properly honored when we
return. The Captain, in this instance and many others,
speaks not for the alliance or even his own race."

"How dare you presume-"

"HOW DARE YOU," Serenity shouted. Before Bitters could
recover, she leaned forward into his face, crystal blue eyes
boring into his like diamond drills. "You will proceed with
the preparations silently, or you will face a wrath unlike
any this planet has ever seen. Do you understand?" she said,
her voice dripping with contempt, even as it echoed with the
command of someone who had been and was at times still
considered a god in another world.

Captain Bitter's hindbrain was a lot more intelligent than
its fore. It recognized that if it wanted to continue living
with all its appendages in place, it needed to shut up and
start working. It was therefore with remarkable restraint,
and much surprise to the rest of the party, that he silently
stood up without further comment and motioned for his
detonation team to move forward. "Lets get this thing set up
and get out of here," he muttered. "The sooner we finish
this the sooner I can be rid of the lot of you."

Matt shrugged at Serenity, who was looking back at him with
a pained expression. "Well, I suppose that's about as big a
miracle as we could expect out of that guy," he quietly
whispered. "Maybe we'll actually be able to blow this joint
and go home."

"Where's technician Nobbs?" Kyle asked, looking around for
the diminutive technician. In the bustle of getting the bomb
onto the platform and ensuing argument, she'd missed the
fact that he wasn't present.

Serenity's frown was all the answer she needed.

"He died on the way in," Hartaz said. "He was... taken while
scouting," he explained, though his pained expression gave
Kyle reason to doubt that explanation. Serenity nodded,
though she didn't think that was truly accurate. The little
gnome had heard a noise a head, and unthinkingly run off to
investigate. The rest of the bombing team had arrived in
time to see the gnome torn asunder by a pack of geists that
scrambled off after a pair of ghouls. All of the scourge
seemed to be intent on chasing something, but a few had
broken off to attack them. Hartaz and Serenity had taken
care of most of then, Bitters keeping back "to protect the
bomb," until the path was clear once more. From that point
on, they'd encountered no more undead, and only after
arriving at the mouth of the cavern had they discovered why.

"Useless!" Bitters shouted. "Without me, this whole plan
would have fallen apart!" He grinned the vicious grin of a
bully that discovered an ounce of leverage against a weaker
opponent. "They'll give me my due, at least, when we return.
I'll be the hero!" He sniffed in distain as he turned his
back on the rest of the party and began tinkering with the
device. "Unless, of course, one of you knows how to operate
gnomish engineering? Ha! I thought not!"

Matt physically restrained Kyle from moving forward to
attack the dwarf's unprotected back. "Hey, he's working. Let
him have his moment of imagined glory."

"I'll shove his glory so far up his imagination he'll be
spitting rainbows and farting unicorns," Kyle muttered in
anger. With a huff she calmed down and backed off.
"Whatever. Lets just get out of here before-"

"Who dares lay claim to my lands?" An impossibly deep voice
ground out.

Kyle blinked as she recognized the sound. "Oh, come on out,
Arthas. If you're going to whine and bitch about this, you
might as well give us something to point and laugh at, as
well."

Captain Bitters started to gibber quietly. Everyone ignored
it, as a glowing orange-and-purple portal opened up and a
phantasmal Lich King stepped out of the summoned Death Gate.

"Oh, now that's just cheap. You send a mere shade?"

"Umm... Commander? Why are you antagonizing the most
powerful being on the planet?" Private Jenkins hissed.

"Because he's not."

"You think you are more powerful than I?" The Lich King
growled.

Kyle shrugged again. "I never said I was. But really, all
you do is tell corpses what to do. Whoop-de-friggin-do.
Nozdormu can travel through time. Five minutes, and he could
kill your mother before she even met your father.
Deathwing's minions still cause trouble, and everyone thinks
he's dead. Kil'jaden MADE you, and I'll bet if you two went
toe-to-toe, he'd wipe the floor with your face."

As she spoke, the blue glowing eyes of the Lich King
narrowed in anger with each example she gave.

"But you know what? It doesn't even matter. Sooner or later
you will fall. You're evil. It's just the way things work."

"Enough prattle. You will serve me in time, Night Elf. As
will all the other living things on this planet-"

"What about Outland?" Kyle interrupted.

"ALL WILL SERVE ME," the Lich King shouted.

"I'd serve you some turtle soup, but I don't know if you
have the taste buds to appreciate it," Matt commented wryly.

"ARGH!" The Lich King bellowed, shaking his phantasmal fist
at them all. "Your days are numbered mortals. Everyone dies.
And when you do, you will be mine."

"Oh, listen to the big bad. 'Everyone dies.' Tell me, moron;
what does that say about yourself?"

Arthas, who had started walking back to the Death Gate,
paused. "I am beyond death."

Kyle just smirked. "And that is why you fall. 'Arrogance
borne of ignorance,' as it were." She shrugged. "Farewell,
King of dust. We will not meet again."

The Lich King stepped into the gate, which collapsed behind
him. Kyle shook herself and then turned to the others.
"Okay, hurry the hell up. He's going to send everything he
can here, and we need to be gone when they arrive."

"Why would you antagonize him like that?" Serenity asked.

Kyle smirked. "Because as soon as that bomb goes off,
anything he sends our way that isn't destroyed will be
buried under a mountain, and out of the fight."

The others all suddenly looked more enthusiastic, aside from
Captain Bitters. "You've endangered our lives and the
mission! When we get back to base, I'm reporting you to the
general for-"

"You will report it to the King of Stormwind when you arrive
back in the Eastern Kingdoms, as per our prior arrangement.
Otherwise, you will report it to the Lich King, if he
manages to put you back together when this bomb blows your
body to pieces," Kyle spat, pointing her dagger at him.

He growled, but stayed silent before turning to the bomb and
pulling out a few bloodied sheets of paper. Matt glanced at
Serenity, who merely shook her head.

As the dwarf fiddled with the device as the paperwork
apparently told him to, Corporal Hartaz made his way over to
one of the many entrances to the cavern, before turning. "I
hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we're about to have
company!"

As he shouted this, he took a step back, even as a ghoul
launched itself at him. Falling back with the attack, the
ghoul found itself impaled upon his sword, a moment before
his shield truck it with enough force to crush its rotting
skull in. At that moment, the caves all around them began to
expel undead at a truly horiffic rate, and even with
Serenity's consecrating effect on the ground killing the
weakst ones in droves, more and more continued to enter the
room, until the dead bodies formed a barrier between the
still-moving undead and the ground that sought to kill them.

"That's got it. No stopping this thing from blowing up now!"
Captain Bitters cried as he stood back.

"Unless some undead manages to smash it to pieces," Matt
replied, even as he caught the swing of a nerubians forearm
on his shield and retaliated with a sword-thrust through the
chest. Being undead, the nerubian wasn't too injured by
this, until Matt channeled some of Elune's power into the
sword while it was still imbedded within the fiend. It gave
a raspy screech, before toppling onto its side.

Across the cavern, another shout, this one far more pained,
rang out, and the living people within the cave turned to
watch Hartaz get dragged down into a pile of ghouls,
skeletons, and more, swinging even as he was obscured by the
undead around him.

"Son of a bitch," Kyle said, even as she flicked her wrist
and embedded another of her throwing knives into the single
eye of an oncoming geist.

"Commander! There's too many of them!" Jenkens cried,
blacking up slowly so that the oncoming tide of undead
didn't flank him as they had Hartaz.

"Aye, lass. 'Tis only one thing we can do," Captain Bitters
said, trying hard to look like he was making a touch
decision. "As the Commander, you should stay behind and
prevent them from sabotaging this weapo-" He was cut off as
a rock bounced off his thick skull, thrown by an angry
looking Serenity.

"How dare you suggest any of us stay behind!" She said, even
as she unleashed another bolt of silvery magic that turned a
trio of undead to ash.

Kyle frowned, looking at the oncoming crowd of undead.
"Actually, he might be right... I think I underestimated
just how many undead he had down here."

"He could be gating them in, like he did earlier," Matt
supplied.

"Well then, Commander, are ye going to stay and do yer job?"
Captain Bitters said with a little smirk.

"Well, Captain, it was your idea, and your bomb. Maybe I
should make it an order?" Kyle sniped, wondering just how
she'd survive something meant to bring down a
(mostly-hollowed-out) mountain.

"I'll do it."

Everyone paused to look at Jenkins. He nodded, as if
reassuring himself, before looking Kyle in the eyes. "It's
the enlistees job to die for their officers, right, ma'am?"
Before anyone could refute it, he continued, "The Alliance
needs officers like you, Commander. You and the Lieutenant
and Lady Serenity."

"And me, laddie?" Bitters asked, hopefully.

Jenkins just laughed. "I don't trust you enough to protect
yourself, much less a weapon as important as this." As he
said that, he pointed to the bomb with his shield-hand,
before moving to step beside it.

Bitters growled and took a step forward, before he felt a
razor sharp blade press up against his throat. "The Private
is saying he'll die so that your worthless, useless carcass
can leave, and you're going to attack him?" Kyle hissed in
his ear. Bitters froze, before stepping back slowly. "Good
luck Private. Light be with you." Though insincere, Jenkins
nodded at the Captain, before turning to look at Matt and
Kyle.

"It's been an honor serving with you two. In the little time
we worked together, I think I understood why the King
trusted you so." He turned to Serenity. "Lady Serenity,
these two obviously care about you a lot, from what I've
seen and heard. You yourself are a force to be reckoned
with. Would that I could do half the magic you could, we
might have all made it out of here. As it is..." He closed
his eyes and bowed his head, a short sigh escaping his lips
before a short prayer. He looked up then, renewed strength
in his eyes, as he glanced at everyone. "May the Light
continue to guide and protect you and yours. Go, sirs,
ma'am. I'll handle things here."

With that, Jenkins turned towards the oncoming crowd of
undead, before a shimmering field of energy surrounded him
and a pair of golden wings appeared behind him.

Kyle took a moment to salute the soldier, a move followed by
the others, before the four turned to run down the tunnel
they'd entered the cavern from.

"How much time does he have?' Kyle asked, not quite as
winded as before, since the dwarf had relatively small legs
compared to her.

"Four minutes or so. The note said it would explode with the
force of two-to-twenty kaituns of gnomish explosives,"
Bitters explained.

"What the hell's a 'kayton?" Serenity asked.

"It's on the note. Probably a gnomish word."

"Wait wait wait..." Kyle said, frowning. She did not like
what she was hearing. "Was that 'kaituns.' or 'k-tons?'"

"'kaituns!'" The dwarf cried.

"LETTER 'K' THEN 'TONS,' OR 'K-A-I-T-U-N-S?'" Kyle bellowed
as they ran.

"The letter then the word, lass! Why are you hollerin? Are
you trying to draw their attention!?"

"Matt-"

"I heard."

"Now would be a great time for some divine intervention,"
Kyle said, voice uncharacteristically weak.

"Kinda hard to pray and run at the same time."

"We're trying to outrun a nuke. Learn FAST."

Matt grunted before he took on a golden glow, much like
Jenkins had before.

Suddenly, the four of them found themselves speeding up, the
walls practically blurring as they raced out of the tunnel
at a far faster speed than was natural. "It worked!" Matt
cried out.

"You think?" Kyle snarked back, even as she saw the cave
ahead growing lighter.

"We're almost clear!" Bitters said, still unsure why they
were so worried. The bomb couldn't hurt them from this far
away.

Kyle was the first one out, but considering their speed, the
ghoul that had been waiting above the entrance only had time
to blink before all four had exited, and were on their way
down the hill towards the keep.

Spotting a rocky outcropping, Kyle veered towards it, and
ducked behind it, Matt and Serenity following. She hoped the
bomb wasn't as powerful as the upper projections had been,
but knew it would probably exceed them.

"Damn Gnomish engineers," Kyle muttered, before taking stock
of their location. "Serenity, this may seem undignified, but
trust me; I need you to lie down here," she pointed at a
shallow furrow in the ground at her feet. "Face-down, and
cover your head with your hands."

"I-" Serenity was about to protest, when she saw the look in
Kyle's eyes. Her friend was a few steps away from terrified.
Without saying anything, she got down on the cold ground and
covered her head. A moment later, she let out an undignified
squawk as two bodies got down on top of her, Her left
covered by Kyle, and her right covered by Matt, both of whom
were doing their best to cover her as completely as
possible.

"What are you three doing? This is no time for any of that!"
Bitters said, stepping out from behind the rocks to look at
the mountain. "There's undead coming!"

"I'll take my chances, now get down you moron! The mountain
is going to blow!" Kyle yelled, before apologizing to
Serenity and Matt, whose ears she had just shouted into.

"Ha! No bomb is that powerful. It'll bring that cavern down,
but I doubt the mountain will change that much. You're
nothing but a coward in the end, Commander!" Bitters
taunted, before turning around and heading towards the Keep.
With as much of a lead their goddess-given speed had granted
them, he should be safe within the keep long before the
majority of the scourge arrive.

Kyle took a moment to look back at the Captain, blissfully
wandering down towards the keep, before ducking her head
again. "Remember how I said the Horde build their base
within a rocky crater in the middle of the Borean Tundra?"

Matt and Serenity both "Mmmhmm"-ed in response.

"Currently, there is no crater..."

Before either could respond to that, the ground trembled,
and then HEAVED, and only their prone position kept them
from being thrown. As it was, they had the wind knocked out
of them, even as an earth-rending BOOM echoed throughout the
land, the sky darkening as tons of dirt and rock were thrown
into the air by the explosion.

Where once a mountain had stood, there was now a crater
ringed by the outer remnants of the mountain. What hadn't
been pulverized began its steady descent to the land below.
Kyle and Matt both winced and endured as rocks and other
hard bits of mountain and undead began falling on them, some
large enough to bruise. Thankfully, their position behind
the rocky outcropping kept the larger, deadlier pieces off
them.

Unfortunately, not everyone had listened to Kyle's advice.
Captain Bitters was only halfway to the keep when the bomb
went off, and the lurch as the shockwave passed under his
feet had tossed him to the ground a moment before the blast
began to rain rocks on him. "Ha-ha! A little rock won't hurt
me! I'm a Dwarf! The Earth itself yields to my kind like..."
He trailed off as he spotted a boulder the size of a large
house appear through the dirt and dust in the air heading
straight for him.

Before he could say anything else it landed, putting an end
to the Captain, even as it rolled down the mountain towards
the keep. When it finally stopped a hole had been knocked in
the right side of the outer wall, but no damage had been
done to the actual Keep itself.

Kyle and Matt waited a few minutes before climbing to their
feet. Bits of rock and dirt were still raining down around
them sporadically, but the loud thuds and shudders had
stopped a while back.

"Well... lets not do that again, okay?" Kyle asked, as he
helped Serenity to her feet. Serenity's robes were dirtied
in the front where she had lain on the ground, and she tried
wiping some of it off before giving up as she managed to
smear it around and make it worse.

Kyle's backside was covered in dirt as well, and every time
she moved, dirt, dust and small pebbles rained out of the
folds, creases and joints in the heavy leather. Matt,
wearing plate, managed to brush the majority of the dirt
away with a swipe of his cape, before turning to look at
Kyle.

"So... The Horde are going to... Build their base in that?"

Kyle shrugged. "Looks that way. At least my memory of the
geography wasn't as wrong as I had thought."

"So it would seem. Still, next time you find yourself
questioning your memory like that, please let us know,"
Serenity said, frowning at the thought of how much work it
would take to get the mud out of her robes. Up here in
Northrend, even the nobles had to do their own laundry.

"I suppose we should find the Captain and return to base,"
Kyle said, frowning down at the Keep. "Damn..."

"What?" Matt asked.

"There's a huge hole in the wall. I guess even the keep
wasn't far enough away to avoid damage," Kyle explained.

"I hope the guards on duty weren't hurt," Matt muttered,
obviously worried.

"Only one way to find out. We need to report in," Kyle said
as she began picking her way through the field of debris.

"We also need to report Sergeant Soerta's death, as well as
Technician Nobbs, Corporal Hartaz, and... Private Jenkins."

Kyle paused, before shaking as she stifled a laugh that
threatened to escape her. "Private Leeroy Jenkins," she
said, before snorting. "Despite all my fears, he lived
longer than the others..."

"And was damn heroic, in the end," Matt reminded her with a
frown.

Kyle nodded, her mirthful grin replaced with a wistful one.
"He did die a hero. How many scourge do you think he held
off for us to escape and the bomb to destroy?"

"More than we'll probably ever care to know," Serenity said.

"Sounds about right," Kyle muttered, before grinning again.
"Of all the things to have been wrong about..." She sighed.
"You did good, Jenkins. Godspeed."

She paused, before turning around and looking at the ground
she'd just stepped on. "Ugh. I think I found the Captain."

Matt, crouching over an impressively deep crater about
twenty feet back, nodded. "I think I did, too."

Serenity looked between the two, before clearing her throat.
"I suppose we should bring him back to be buried properly,
like the others..."

Kyle shook her head, looking at the wet mess in clothing she
was standing beside. "If I were a guy right now, I'm not so
sure I wouldn't be relieving myself on him... as it stands,
I just survived a close encounter with a nuke. I'm afraid I
don't have the energy to..." Kyle trailed off as she stared
at the mess some more. "Hmm. Bottle him up, I suppose."

"Should we say something?" Matt asked.

"Here lies Captain Bitters. He died so that others may live
in peace," Kyle snarked.

"I like it." Serenity said.

"That works," Matt added, before straightening up. The mess
he'd found was not something wanted to stare at too long. It
would make eating a bit difficult. "Better than he deserved,
anyway."

Kyle stretched lazily as the activities of the day caught up
to her, and the fatigue adrenaline had been keeping at bay
finally set in. "Well, lets hurry back and report in. I
can't wait to leave this place behind us."

Serenity and Matt nodded in agreement as the three headed
off towards the keep at a slightly more sedate pace. Behind
them, the remains of the small mountain smoked and sizzled
as it settled into the crater that remained.

Xxxxx

Author's Notes (Magus): Sorry about the delay. Work changed
on me. Hours. Job Security. Whether I have any employees
under me at all. Great way to ruin the writing mood. Or a
sleep schedule. Or Timely car payments.

Anyway. Here's the new chapter. Up above. Hope you enjoyed
it.

Author's Notes (Tannim): It also didn't help that I got a
new job working for the US Census, and all my hours are in
the evening. At any rate, we're excited that we've got only
a couple of chapters left in Azeroth. And don't let Magus
fool you, he's been working hard on this and future
chapters, despite his troubles.

Anyway, let us know what you think about the story so far!