Azeroth Eastern Kingdoms

Somewhere between Hearthglen and Strathholme

True to his word, Uther had them on the road shortly after dawn once John and Jaina had returned from orbit. The pair of them had cuddled for a while once she had woken up, but they didn’t linger long as they both needed to find a bed to at least get a little rest. It was the middle of the night when they landed, coming down outside of the town so as not to wake up the entire population. John shrank the dropship and pocketed it, causing Jaina to stare in wonder all over again. They held hands as they walked into the town, nodding at a few guards in passing, then returned to their room for the night. 

A large portion of Uther’s main force had arrived during the day when John had left with his Pelican and his stowaway on board, increasing their numbers well beyond what the Pelican could hold for quick transport. Over a dozen mounted knights and a couple junior paladins joined them, along with a mix of footmen, riflemen, priests and sorcerers, bringing their combined numbers to nearly a hundred. That didn’t include the supply wagons that followed behind, laden with grain they had brought in from a village to the west that was free of the corruption.

That there were too many people now for him to carry didn’t mean the Pelican didn’t get some use. He took Uther up in it, along with the scout Bimi, and the three of them started combing the Northern settlements. The result of this foray was troublesome. 

“Another village razed. That is the sixth one so far. Lad, I really am concerned about what we will find in Stratholme.” Uther said, surveying the destruction out the window. Many of these places were rather remote and would only get visitors a couple of times a year, so it could be months before anyone even knew that they had been wiped out. 

“Well, let’s do a flyover. If they are under attack, then we can aid them from up here, or I can loan you a couple of parachutes, and you can drop in to help.” John said, banking the Pelican towards the northern city at the centre of their concerns.

“HA! No, thank you. Lad, I don’t know how you convinced those boys to jump out of this contraption of yours, but I’m honest enough with myself to say that I could never do that. I’m terrified enough just sitting right here.” Uther said, laughing nervously behind him. 

“Seriously? The vaunted leader of the Knights of the Silver Hand is afraid of a little jump? I can’t wait to tell Jaina that later. You know she followed them out, too.” John said, teasing his old mentor. Though he whole heartedly agreed with him about not ever wanting to try it himself, he couldn’t resist jabbing him a little bit that a young woman was already willing to do it. 

“Right. Well…if the young lass could do it… *gulp*” He said, then trailed off. John didn’t bother mentioning that she floated down with magic, but he was a smart man; he would figure it out. Maybe.

The journey only took a few minutes, as John throttled the ship up a bit, causing Uther and Bimi to have a death grip on their armrest. He idly thought of bringing them to orbit as well, just to see the look of sheer terror on his Uncle’s face, but quickly squashed that idea. If something was happening, he might need to disembark these two to go and rally the city folk. That would be difficult if he had to scrape them off their chairs.

They made a fairly low pass over the city, the noise the ship made scaring animals and city folk alike. At a glance, it was easy to see the Scourge had not yet assaulted the city, though it did look like preparations were happening to defend against an attack. Peasants were building barriers along some streets to funnel attacks in certain directions, soldiers were conducting drills in the training grounds by the keep, and various other things one could expect from a people preparing for war.

“You said that the necromancer told you that something was going to be happening here, right?” John asked, not sure if he was seeing anything out of the ordinary. His new memories told him that this was all indeed normal preparations for a city about to come under siege. 

“Yes. Kel’Thuzad was his name. He said that his master, a demon named Mal’Ganis, was planning to cleanse these lands of the living and to seek out answers here if we needed further proof.” He said absently. He then nodded to himself as if he had come to a decision. “Fine, then I’ll play your game, necromancer. Lad, put us down outside of the keep. I’m going in there to find out from Magistraite Barthilas what is happening. In the meantime, can you two scout around for any undead forces? I want to know what our army is walking into here before they arrive.”

“Not a problem. Shouldn’t take us more than a couple of hours. You sure you want to go in there alone?” John said, moving the Pelican towards the keep. 

“I’m not sure of anything, Lad, but I am damn sure that if the demons are indeed returning, we need to rally the alliance to face the threat. Right now, we have three different sources telling us that their return is imminent, but they are all questionable, no offence to your visions. We need some proof that these undead are indeed the demons’ puppets to convince the powers that be to put the alliance back on a war footing.”

John just shook his head. He knew Lordaeron was the backbone of the Alliance’s military strength, but without the assistance of the mages of Dalaran, the dwarves of Khaz Modan and their forges in the city of Ironforge, and even the navy of Kul Tiras, they would be at a severe disadvantage against a demon backed force of the undead. Other nations were once part of the Alliance, such as the High Elves of Quel’Thalas, leaving shortly after the last war due to overtaxation policies the Alliance enacted and politics. The taxes were required to maintain security for the remaining orc settlements and the demongate, leaving the rebuilding nations cash strapped in the war’s aftermath. 

They would need to provide proof to bring these disgruntled nations back into the fold, else they may all fall piecemeal to the returning demons. 

He stopped that line of thought. While he was positive that there were indeed demons coming due to his visions and the fact that Alec said these worlds are almost all under the threat of conflict, he wasn’t going to convince anyone of the threat without providing proof.

These new memories are really giving me a better idea of what is going on in this world, but I still don’t like how it makes me feel. At least I can finally separate them from my original memories.

He brought the Pelican over to the courtyard near the keep and hit a button on the console to activate the Pelican’s external speaker. “This is Prince John Menethil and Lord Uther the Lightbringer. Clear a path so I can land this contraption. And you with the rifle, stop shooting at us, else I will delete you and everything twenty paces around you.” He said, adding that last when a bullet ricocheted off the cockpit canopy. 

“We really need to paint our colours on this thing at some point or something. I can’t imagine what the royal guard would do if you showed up back at the castle.” Uther said, then looked at John. “You weren’t actually going to kill that man, were you?”

“No. The Pelican has a fair amount of armour, but I don’t know if I can repair it if it gets damaged. I would rather not find out the hard way due to friendly fire.” 

He might be able to bring it to Infinite Frontiers and have Chris repair it, or even upgrade it, if it even survived whatever damage it took. Another thing to add to that pile of notes he had been accumulating. 

Uther grunted in agreement, understanding that this asset was probably worth more than a thousand men to the defence of the kingdom and shouldn’t be damaged if it could be helped. He disembarked, leaving John and Bimi to their scouting mission.

“Oi, Laddie, can ye fly this thing slower this time? I swear me balls were in me throat when ye sped ‘er up earlier.” Bimi said when they were alone.

“You sure? I was thinking of taking you for a spin up to The Great Dark Beyond. I tell ya, you haven’t seen Azeroth until you have seen it from space.” John replied with a smirk, firing up the Pelican’s engines and taking off. 

“The-The-The… Great Dark Beyond… Ahh!” The scout stuttered, then passed out behind him.

“Huh? I thought dwarves were made of sterner stuff than that.” He mused to himself.

That Night

Alliance force marching on Stratholme

John rolled out some bedding he scavenged from the supply convoy on the deck of the Pelican’s bridge. He was intending to sleep here instead of in a tent on the ground outside. The implication was that he could respond more quickly if the undead attacked the camp. Which was true enough, but he had two other very important reasons to sleep inside the cockpit instead of outside in a tent.

It was muggy outside, and he just didn’t want to deal with the mosquitoes.

Sorry guys, I am using my prince privileges tonight. I need the rest incase we have a battle tomorrow. I don’t want to have another episode.

Using one of the consoles, he darkened the cockpit windows and dimmed the lights. He had a quick wipe down earlier, using a bucket of lukewarm water and a cloth to clean himself off as best he could. He almost broke out his housing gatcha for everyone, but thought better of it. He wanted to see exactly what was inside that place first before he brought anyone inside. Having a hundred of his men combing through a potential sex den didn’t seem like a good idea for his image as a Paladin Prince. 

Uther remained in Stratholme, the city being the headquarters of the Knights of the Silver Hand; he would continue preparations for a potential battle and help the refugees that continued to stream into the city. John’s and Bimi’s scouting mission had turned up empty handed, which made the necromancer’s words somewhat suspect. Uther was wondering if this was just a diversion, and their real target was elsewhere, but without any other leads, they would continue to prepare. In the meantime, he turned over command of their forces to John and was expecting them to arrive in two days. 

John was considering just loading people up in the Pelican and making a few short trips, but that would leave the supply wagons undefended. They could load the supplies into the Pelican, but it would mean abandoning the carts, which wouldn’t do them any good if John had to take the Pelican elsewhere, or if it got damaged. To be sure, it was an awesome tool in this world, but he had to be realistic with it. He couldn’t be everywhere and do everything. 

I should actually train up someone else to fly it. When I become King, I won’t be able to keep doing sorties with The Alphabets. With its advanced technology, it could be considered an almost strategic asset in this world, with its ability to drop soldiers behind enemy defences with near impunity. Not to mention the firepower of that autocannon. I’ll talk with Eh about it soon. 

He lay down on the pad he had rolled out, quite happy his back was fixed now; he wasn’t sure he would be able to stand up in the morning if it wasn’t. 

He was going to offer Jaina to join him, but she was busy working with the army’s sorceresses outside the camp, so he didn’t get a chance to talk with her after he came up with this brilliant idea. He was a little sad about that, but it couldn’t be helped. He was getting tired and was trying to curb his reliance on Substance X to keep him running. Just because he was awake when he used it didn’t mean it was good for his weakened brain over long periods. He was beginning to think it was exacerbating his issues. 

He closed his eyes and was almost asleep when the cockpit door slid open, and the mage in question burst into the room. 

“John, wake up. There is someone here you need to meet!” She said loudly, coming over to his side.

“What? Who?” He said groggily, trying to wake up.

“The Prophet.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep