Sentinel Selendra narrowed her eyes to peer through the thick mist of this balmy morning on the high seas. The sleek vessel she'd called home for the past two months glided smoothly along the still silver-blue water. For the last two months she, and the other members of the kaldorei crew had been exploring. The Cataclysm and the discovery of Pandaria proved to all of Azeroth that there was still much to be discovered.
The Evening Star was one of several vessels sent out by the Alliance to search for and discover new lands, forgotten places, and all things ancient. So far, though, they hadn't succeeded in finding much but water and fish. They had set out from Teldrassil, and sailed down the west coast of Kalimdor, then east. In another week or two, they'd come to Stormwind and dock for some much needed shore leave and to resupply before setting off again.
Personally, Selendra would have been more than happy to stay in Stormwind, rather than set sail again. She'd seen enough ocean for several life times, even for the long lives of the Night Elves. Today looked like it'd by another day of ocean watching, punctuated only by the dense fog and occasional fish.
Still, she could appreciate the importance of her duty. So much of her own people's history had been lost after the Sundering, and the events of the last decade continued to reveal more and more to this world then anyone would have thought possible. The existence of the Iron and flesh Vrykul in Northrend, and their under-water breathen, the Iron and Earthen Dwarves, the Wandering Isles, the ancient constructs of the Titans, and who knows what else.
That desire for discovery, for adventure, the feeling that something new and wonderful might be just over the horizon, was what had kept them going for so long. Such things can only drive a person for so long, and the kaldorei were not known for their desire for adventure and discovery. What they were known for was their keen eyes and sharp hearing, making them a natural choice for the Alliance.
All she, personally, was hoping to discover now was a hot bath and warm bed. The sun constantly beat on her skin, and the sea air made her feel sticky.
The wind today was especially cold, but it flew strong and in their favor. From what she could make out, the fog would lift soon as the sun rose ever higher in the sky. Low on the horizon now, she found herself at once glad and dreading its steady rise. While it meant they'd be able to navigate their way through uncharted waters with much less trepidation, it also meant she'd have to endure its beating rays up here in the crow's nest, as the humans had called it.
Still, it was a less stressful job then the deckhands had to endure. Below them, she could see her crewmates scrubbing the deck, moving crates hither and yon, fixing broken planks, and tying down anything that had come loose. The all-female crew of the Evening Star might have seemed strange to the other races of the Alliance, but it was typical for her people. The females of her race were tall compared to most other races and, despite their seemingly thin frames, their bodies were strong and resilient.
Selendra herself had fought in the Third War, holding the line at Nordrassil against the burning legion, and then again in Northrend against the Scourge. That had been enough for her, two wars and plenty of blood and death in both. Since becoming a part of the larger world, she'd lost her immortality, four teeth, gotten more scars then she cared to count, and lost far too many friends and loved ones.
Before the return of the Burning Legion during the Third War, she'd been a sister and a daughter. At the end of the war, she was neither. When the Lich King launched his attack on Orgrimar and Stormwind, she'd been a wife, aunt, and a sister again. By the time Arthas had fallen, she was a widow. Loss was still something she was adjusting to in her life, but she thought she was adjusting well. The deaths of her sisters, brother, and parents had shattered her perception of the world, but it had also given her a new found sense of strength and purpose.
Her family wasn't around to enjoy the world they'd died to help save, so she took it upon herself to live enough for all of them. When she'd met the man who would become her husband a year after the end of the war, she never would have thought she'd ever be able, or even willing, to fall in love with a human. Richard of Andorhal had won her heart faster than she ever would have imagined any man ever being able to do.
He was never one to shirk his duties, as a Paladin, a husband, or as a soldier for the Alliance. She chocked back the tears as she remembered the attack that had claimed his life. Even as Putress' vile plague killed everything and everyone at the Wrath Gate, he stood tall, ushering others to safety, and offering them the protection of the Light. In his final moments, he gave her a look of contentment, not one of fear. He knew he'd done his duty, and his suffering was over and he didn't want her to despair or fear.
She mourned him, she missed him, but she never lost herself. Even when the war drug on, even Deathwing re-appeared, even the ancient evils of the Shas made itself known, she never lost herself. She remembered him, and did what she knew he would have wanted; she lived. She lived and did her duty.
One day she might even find someone else to love. For now, though, she had to focus on doing her job, and having fun in-between her tasks. Who knows, maybe she might find herself a strapping, young, human to spend a few nights with at their next shore leave? Selendra was so lost in thought that she almost didn't hear the sound of another ship cutting through the water. She listened closer, trying to figure out where it was coming from, how fast it was, and its direction.
She couldn't see it, but her sharp hearing was enough for her to figure out the important information.
"Ship! Ship off the starboard hull!" The other members of the ship's crew sprang into action, preparing their defenses and to repel any boarders that might try and climb onto their ship. They had no way of knowing if the ship heading towards them was Alliance, a pirate vessel, a trading vessel or, most dangerous of all, a Horde ship.
"To arms, sisters! Prepare for boarders!" Captain Thessra shouted. Marines poured onto the upper decks, while the deck hands prepped the cannons. The seconds seemed to last forever as they waited. With any luck, the other ship would just sail right past them, and they'd be able to avoid any trouble. Her gut, however, told her that luck was not on their side. She heard the sound of something being launched, followed by an impact tremor that nearly knocked her from the observation post and the sound of shattering timbers.
"What hit us?" Captain Thessra shouted.
"It looks like...a hook of some kinds." Ensign Selanna shouted back.
A hook? Selendra wondered in her mind. Did the other ship think they'd hit a whale? Two more launches and impacts told her that it likely wasn't an accident. Selendra had to hold tight to the rails of her post as the entire vessel was pulled to its starboard side. The ship had just managed to right itself when it was given another, violent, pull. Two sailors fell over the side, futilely splashing around to stay above water.
"Woman overboard!" Others shouted. The deckhands hurried to gather enough rope to get them back on board. Before they were able to get a line down, the ship was pulled again. One poor sailor, barely old enough to take up arms, was struck by the ship. With a short but sharp scream, her body was smashed and drug under the waves. A red pool leeched up from beneath the gray water, the final marker of a young life cut too short.
The deck hands hurried even faster to get the other fallen night elf out of the water before she suffered a similar fate. Her sharp ears caught the sounds of several small objects cutting through the air. They landed on the deck with a thud, then were scrapped across the hard hood, leaving gouges in their wakes.
"More hooks?" She thought to herself. The mist was still thick, but she could make out that each had three, bent-back, prongs. "Grappling hooks!" The marines pulled with all their might to get their sister back on the ship before their enemies had a chance to pull themselves across the lines.
Another great have drug the ship further still. Now Salendra could make out the silhouette of another ship, unlike any she'd seen before. There were two masts on the deck, and the bow was slanted back, towards the deck. Dozens of orange lights appeared on the silhouette- bright pinpoints of flame.
"Incendiaries incoming!" Salendra shouted. She could hear the sounds of arrows being loosed, and the dull thud of ballistae. Not a one seemed to hit their mark, landing on the hull and deck of the vessel. All of them, except for one. She'd seen one round fly into the vessel, on the lower decks, right in the- "Brace your-!"
She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence before the magazine exploded, rocking the ship. She heard her sisters cry out in fear and agony. There had been at least three of her crewmates in the magazine when it had detonated, sorrowfully she realized that there would have been no way they could have survived. Bodies littered the deck of the ship, some managed to stumble back up, others writhed and moaned, some were missing parts. Some didn't move at all.
The ship was pulled one more time, close enough for Salendra to make out who was manning it. They were human, but not pirates or part of any human faction she was familiar with. Their armor was professional, divided into segmented bands and of a standard design. The ones not manning ballistae, or holding bows, paced around with large square shields. Several of her sisters were felled by the human's arrows before they had a chance to react. The marines readied shields, and the deck hands fetched their own bows and daggers. The let their own arrows fly, but shield-bearers stepped in front of their unguarded brethren, offering them shelter behind their large aegis.
"Ahoy!" One of the humans yelled. He stood in dark-purple armor, each segment trimmed in gold. A red cloak was draped over his left side. "I would discuss terms with your captain!" Thessra stepped forward, in a dangerously vulnerable position.
"I'm the captain! Identify yourselves!"
"I am Admiral Maxus of the fifth fleet of the United Republic!"
"I've never heard of such a human nation!" Thessra called back.
"That is irrelevant. Your forces are surrounded, and your ship aflame, lay down your weapons and surrender, and no more of your people shall be harmed."
"Yours is just one ship, and you caught us unawares! What makes you think we're so easy to defeat?!" The night elves all shouted in approval.
"Half of your ship is engulfed in fire, a giant hole leaves your mid and lower decks exposed, you've already lost many of your crew, and who ever said we are just one vessel?" The Admiral nodded to the man next to him, a man in plain, dull, white, robes. He made a few gestures, and the mist cleared. Salendra swallowed hard. The Admiral spoke truth, as she came to realize. His was not one vessel, there were another ten circling around them. "Last chance, elf. Surrender; or die."
Captain Thessra looked around at everything. There was no way they could win, or even fight. "You swear none of my crew will be harmed?" She asked.
"I do." The admiral answered back.
"It seems we have little choice; we surrender." She threw her sword down, the others followed suit. These humans quickly dropped boats into the water, pulling her sisters who had been thrown overboard out of the water, and the others were ushered off their burning vessel. Human mages worked their magics to put out the fires, letting the humans loot the ship before they filled it with water, scuttling the doomed vessel. Salendra had to admit, she felt sad to watch it go in such a way.
True to his word, none of the surviving Night Elves were killed outright, though they were all stripped and searched. It was a...humiliating process. Still, were she in the Admiral's position, she would probably do the same thing. Should one of her sisters managed to smuggle and blade and use it to kill a guard, she doubted he'd be as merciful to them then as he was now.
The wounded members of her crew were separated from the others, the healthy and uninjured members were shepherded down to the bottom decks, given simple garments, meant for human men, but they would suffice, and locked in small cells. They were each given a simple meal, and just enough light to see each other by.
An hour after they had been taken prisoner, two soldiers came and removed Captain Thessra, taking back up. Salendra watched them go, worried that it would be the last time she'd ever see her captain.
Admiral Maxus sat quietly, enjoying his meal, as the two legionnaires brought the elven captain into his quarters. "I doubt the shackles will be necessary." Maxus said without looking up from his plate. He heard the jingling of chains, and motioned for Captain Thessra to take a seat on the opposite end of the table. "You're probably hungry. Hard tack and cheese hardly satisfies."
Thessra didn't say anything. He could feel her eyes boring into him, but such a glare didn't bother him in the least. If she wasn't willing to accept his hospitality, then she could go hungry.
"If you think to win me over with some roast boar after what you did, you're sadly mistaken." She said.
"I have no desire to win you over. You can either eat, or you can go hungry, the choice is yours. Our theocratic systems tell us to offer to break bread with our enemies, it says nothing about trying to win them over."
"You attacked us unprovoked." She said, filling a plate. "If anything, you made us your enemies."
"Unprovoked?" He said, finally looking up. "You fly the blue and gold of the Alliance, your brazenly announced your loyalties to our enemies. That is provocation enough."
"How is flying a banner an act of provocation?"
"If you flew such a flag in Horde waters, you would not expect them to simply watch. Unlike the Horde, my people and the Alliance have been at war without so much as a ceasefire since before the fall of Stormwind in the First War." Maxus remembered the war. He was young then, just a sailor in the fleet of a ruler who's title had lost meaning, but he could still hear the sound of the war drums, see the tide of green cresting the hills, and smell the sulfar and death.
"I've never heard of the United Republic. Are you some rogue state, or a branch off of the Alliance with a chip on their shoulder?" Thessra asked, avoiding any sense of politeness and diplomacy.
"The second is the most accurate, but still far from the truth. We were once a proud member of the Alliance of Lordaeron. We forged our nation in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms. Then the Horde came. We fought them all our strength and ferocity. Our stalwart legionnaires held the orcs at bay for so long. Then we were betrayed."
"Betrayed?" She asked. He nodded.
"We had managed to hold the Horde back for months, but their numbers kept growing. King Terenas had promised to send all the forces the Alliance could muster to our aid. The sky glowed red on the night of the final battle. The orcs were a sea of green and black, all ferocity and demon fire. The charged on our legions, but that great wall of men and muscle held for so long. It was only a matter of time before they broke, though. No one line could have held against so much forever, but they did better than anyone would have ever thought.
"The battle lasted hours when we saw a glimmer of hope. The Alliance forces had been gathered on the horizon. Our men cheered, knowing that the orcs' next charge would catch them in a trap as the other Alliance forces flanked them. When the charge came, we expected the line of blue and white to hit them fast and hard. We gave the signal, waved our banners, even prayed. No counter charge ever came. As the line fell, brave legionnaires being hacked apart, the Alliance forces simply watched. Watched, even as the last men either fled back to the city or died.
"The Horde charged the fields, and laid siege to our city. The force of so many orcs and their cruel weaponry broke our defenses faster than anyone would have thought, and the green wave of death poured into the city. We got as many of our people as we could onto whatever ships we still had. Many innocent people were caught on the docks, cut down, gutted, their bodies desecrated. Many of our ships were sunk or over run, and still the Alliance just watched.
"Those of us that survived fled on the open ocean, headed as far from the Horde as we could, and as far from the Alliance that we knew had betrayed us as we could get."
"A harrowing story, if true." Thessra said.
"Believe what you want, you will see the truth soon enough, when we dock in Vasillica." Maxus said, taking a bite of roast boar. "Then you see what you're truly up against."