Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
Chapter 2: The River War
Disclaimer: Same as othersAuthor's Note: I cannot stress enough that if you have either not played Warcraft 3 or read the other chaps, read the other chapters!!! If you don't, confusion will flood into your mind, and I don't like confused readers because that leads to flames in reviews. On that note, flames are meant to cook food, not to cook authors and fanfics. I don't mind constructive criticism; in fact I gladly accept it. For those who have reviewed the prologue and Chapter 1, I thank you because without those reviews this chapter would never exist! Don't forget to review, and I hope you enjoy!
The smell of gunpowder filled the air. Dwarven Riflemen aimed their guns in anticipation. "FIRE AND DUCK!" yelled the Captain of the group. The Dwarves responded by firing in unison, and throwing themselves back into their makeshift mud trench. A few seconds later, cannons boomed from multiple yards in front of them, and the whistling cannon balls smashed twelve feet behind them, the ground erupting in flames. The Dwarves reloaded and fired once again into the distance.
"Captain, the mortar teams were suppose to have arrived 6 days ago, if they don't arrive now, the Orcs will escape down the river and into the Great Sea." Said one of the Dwarves in a scratchy voice, gun power found its way into his lungs long before.
"I am aware of the failure of our reinforcements to arrive, Buradin. You don't have to remind me every 2 hours. If the Orcs escape, they could reform the horde under their new Warchief. Thrall knows all of our tricks; this new sophisticated horde will be more deadly then before. That is why we must prevent them from regaining their past numbers. The Alliance and our people have sacrificed enough, and the only way to end it is to eradicate the Horde now and forever. When did I tell you to stop firing?! Those ships must be destroyed!" exclaimed the Captain.
"Yes Sir!" the Dwarves responded, and fired another round at the small fleet. As usual, the Juggernaughts and Destroyers returned fire, this time hitting only 8 feet in front of the trench.
"Move down if you want to see tomorrow!" yells. The Dwarves quickly fire one more round, and crawl further down the trench for their lives.
After crawling about 15 feet from their past positions, they hear the next bombardment hit. After securing their new position, they turn and find their last outpost on the trench was nothing more then a crater now. The troops prepare for fire another round, when the Captain commands
"Crawl to the bridge, we won't accomplish anything here." The Dwarves nod, then one of the rifles misfires and shoots straight into the air.
"CRAWL NOW!" The Captain yells and crawls with all his strength. Two Dwarves freeze from shock of the misfire, and don't keep up with the group. The Captain flaps his hands frantically to get them moving, then the next round from the ships hits. Dust blinds the group, and when it clears the two frightened Dwarves are nowhere to be seen.
After crawling for 15 minutes, the riflemen jump out of the trench and line up next to a bridge. The Captain comes out last and trips over a boulder in the black of night. He falls and rolls toward a 20-foot drop into the river. His troops grab him before he reaches the edge, and help him up. The Captain stands and pushes them away,
"Everyone but Buradin put their gun powder into pouches. After that, strap them to the bridge's main poles." The command is taken in swiftly, and Buradin stands quietly.
"Buradin, spread all the gun powder you have over the bridge, leave enough for one shot." The Captain snaps. Buradin quickly concentrates on the task. The Captain takes out a spyglass and looks up river. He notices the fleet of 4 Juggernaughts, 10 destroyers, and 12 transports have advanced down the river almost as fast as his troops crawled.
"Where are those mortar teams?! King Teranus must know that riflemen are no chance against Orc warships. We need cannons to fight cannons, not simple rifles. I doubt they realize that the Horde will settle somewhere out of our reach and return to conquer us all!" The Captain thought. After preparations, Buradin fires his lost shot at the bridge, and the troops duck as a wave of heat erupts from the exploding bridge. Using the spyglass, the Captain sees the remnants of the bridge successfully dammed the river.
"Good job men! We can only hope the Orcs will crash into the ruble, otherwise they will be free to escape. Everyone back to the trench, we must make every effort to ensure the Orcs don't see the dam or us".
The night sky lit up like day. "What the hell!?" the Captain asks. The troops look up and see a flare hanging over the trenches. He sees the 4 trenches. He notices the fourth, third, and second trenches are full of riflemen, but the first trench seems to have different dwarves. He notices they are shorter, and some of them have long red beards instead of white.
One of the troops yells, "Our mortar team brethren have arrived! We can finally stop the fleet!" The Captain's hopes rise, then he realizes where the flare came from. The first and second trenches explode in fury with mud and dust filling the air as the entire Orcish fleet bombards them. The troops' hopes go up in smoke along with their mortar team reinforcements.
The dust cloud from the last cannon round reaches the group's position.
The Captain hears something trudging through the mud and commands, "Halt and reveal yourselves!" The plotting of feet stops and voices respond
"We are the only survives of your reinforcements. The two of us and a cracked mortar."
"Finally, what took you Dwarves so long? You and your fellow teams were supposed to have arrived six days ago!"
"We encountered some problems, trolls raided our caravan, and it took us two days to recover the supplies that were spread all over the roads and reorganize."
"At least you two made it, do you think your cannon can still fire with the crack in it?"
"Yes, if we cover it in some solid rocks, they should be able to stabilize and fill the crack. There is a chance of a misfire, we attempted to clear some rocks out of the mortar, but some have been fused to the metal. I say we have a 40% chance of it firing correctly." One of the team members responded. The dust clearing, the Captain motions for the team to come and setup. Some of the riflemen are sent to find boulders, while the team attempts to clear the rest of the debris out of the mortar. The riflemen return with large granite rocks, and cover the mortar with them. As one of the Dwarves loads the mortar with a shot, the other calculates the closest Juggernaught's distance, and what trajectory to use. He motions to the other member, and he puts rocks under the mortar to raise it. After careful repositioning, the Dwarf with the spyglass motions for the rest to step back.
"FIRE!" he yells, and the other dwarf lights the fuse leading toward the inner mortar chamber.
"Warchief! I saw a large explosion just 30 feet down river, and heard some screams that sounded like Dwarves." The heavily scarred Grunt informed the extremely muscular Orc.
Thrall yelled to the crew of the Juggernaught, "Fire a flare down river, if any mortar teams survived our bombardments, we must destroy them now before they kill us!" Two sailors turned the flare cannon at the front of the ship down river, loaded, and fired a flare. The ground beneath lit up. Thrall observed the remnants of a cannon with two Dwarves half buried under rocks near by the cannon pieces. He also saw a group of riflemen and a Human Captain running further downstream. While turning to give orders, he spots the rubbish from the bridge explosion.
"Open the ports for the front cannons, I want the riflemen troops to be killed, and then the debris cleared!" Thrall orders. A line of grunts conveys the order to the lower decks. 6 doors are opened form the front of the ship, and cannons are moved to the entrance. One Grunt standing in front of the flare cannon conveys the coordinates of the moving troops, and the cannons move accordingly. After calculation, the cannons fire their explosive rounds. The rounds are moved by the wind and hit the riverside beside the riflemen. The riverside caves in, and the riflemen along with their captain fall into the deep river.
The cannons reload and fire their last explosive round into the water beside the collapsed riverside. Bodies float to the top, and remain motionless. "I want all cannons to fire, front cannons clear the debris, and side ones shell the trenches!" Thrall commands. A peon sitting in the crow's nest of the Juggernaught uses flag signals to communicate the order to bombard to all the ships. All cannons open fire, and the riversides become massive craters, smoke rising fast from the collapsed trenches. The front cannons open fire, and the debris is broken up and floats down the river.
"Our victory is almost assured men, continue to bombard, if we come into further danger, we can return to our camp upstream! Use all ammunition to destroy the riverside!" Orders Thrall. The ships slowly make their way into the mouth of the Great Sea, leaving a mutilated river in their fight for freedom. "Finally, we can search for a new homeland, the large island of Undermine should lie southwest of here. We shall settle and establish a new Orcish Kingdom there. Only then can the humans respect that we are a permanent species on this world!" Thrall says.
After a week of fighting, the fleet has made its way out of Human Territory. The Undead begin to setup their base unknowingly, preparing for their first step in the invasion of the Human Lands. Will the humans be able to repel the Undead Army, and will the Orcs be successful in the settlement of the large island Continent of Undermine? Stay tuned to find out! Don't forget to review!