Chapter 15: Integration.

Ratchet had been transformed from a neutral trade and fishing post to a military encampment. Not just a military encampment. It contained races nobody thought would ever work together:

the goblins, one of the maddest races to ever grace to world of Azeroth.

The naga, mysterious snake creatures nobody had ever heard of or seen before a few years ago.

The humans, orcs, trolls and all the others that were present when Gadgetzan was overrun. Some of them have also given their support.

And of course the group of three humans, two orcs, one tauren, one raptor and of course the two raptors.

Officially Gazlowe was in charge of Ratchet, but since Jack had been the unofficial leader of the group send to gain allies he had become the unofficial leader of those that had pledged their support to The First Horde Army.

"Kor'el is going to have a hart attack when he sees us coming." Warrick said.

"He wanted allies, he can get allies." Jack continued. "Did all the goblin ships arrive yet?"

"Yes. The last one docked an hour ago." Nell answered.

"And the naga are all present?"

"Yessssssss. We are all here." Zalashi answered in his turn.

"Good. Then we can move the force to Crossroads."

Under directions of Jack the multiple races formed loose ranks, No Burning Blade had been sighted anywhere near the Barrens of late. As they marched to Crossroads no quarrels broke out. The naga kept to themselves and the goblins and others knew first hand how powerful the enemy was and that they might need the naga. Although the desert wasn't the naga's natural environment they did not ever appear to be more uncomfortable with the hot weather than the others.

Jack and his group were speeding ahead and they left Gazlowe to lead the army. They hoped to reach Crossroads before the army and explain matters to Kor'el and then show Kor'el what they had brought with them from Gadgetzan and the land around it called Tanaris.

After a few hours of marching, they didn't bother to fly, they topped the last hill. Before them lay The First Horde Army's base camp and Crossroads. The camp had expanded since they last saw it because of reinforcements. There was a completely knew part of the camp that seemed to house only undead. Even the undead saw the reason in helping the Horde out.

They entered the camp and Magmaradon still had the effect that everyone went out of the way. They had left Occulus at the army. Kor'el had noticed them and was now pushing through the crowd of reinforcements that had never seen such an odd group. Kor'el had been given new armour the signify his new rank, his custom made silver coloured armour reflected the sunlight and the huge shoulder pads seemed much to heavy for one person but Kor'el wore the armour as if it weighted nothing. To his side hung a brand new equally silver broadsword. Runes were engraved in the side that in battle glowed red. Kor'el had left the helm at his tent so his grey hair was visible.

"You have returned. Have you brought any with you?" Kor'el started.

"We have indeed brought the goblins of Gadgetzan. . . And others. . ." Jack answered.

"What others?"

"You will see. But they are a powerful force together. I can assure you of that."

"Will it be enough?"

"I don't know. . . Have you got any idea what we are up against?" Jack requested.

"Follow me to the command tent." Kor'el turned again and they were nearly blinded by an edge of the sliver armour reflecting light directly at them. Nonetheless they followed. When they reached the tent he gestured that they'd stand around the table that held all the maps. He took one depicting the whole of Kalimdor and sprawled it on the table. "We are here." He said while pointing on Crossroads near the eastern shore. "All scouts have already returned and the only place that has much higher amount of Burning Blade and demons than before is here." He pointed at a fortress picture almost at the western coast of Kalimdor. "Thunderaxe Fortress." He added.

"You mean the fortress was already there before all this started and that even then it was under their control?" Warrick asked

"Yes. But now they have expanded the whole facility beyond the original walls. And the old ones are now made of stone instead of wood, which they used to be."

"And this is the only place that holds more than the usual amount of Burning Blade?" Jack asked.

"Yes. According to the scout there are at least ten times more. Other scouts have reported that other strongholds have been deserted so they might be gathering all of their forces there."

"And this is bad?" Jack asked again.

"Quite bad. They have the advantage of walls if we attack them."

"But. . ." Jack began again. "If you do defeat them you wont have to worry about other Burning Blade since they will be weakened to what they used to be, possibly even more." Jack said.

Kor'el considered his words for a moment. "Take out the head and the whole body dies with it. . . At least we wont have problems with any Burning Blade armies if we succeed, but the individual groups will still haunt us."

"But it was like that before they started this campaign." Nell added. Nell's eyes suddenly grew a bit unfocused. The eyes became sharp again and he said: "The reinforcements have arrived."

He didn't have to say anything more. All of them barged through the entrance to the tent and they exited the army with a body guard for Kor'el trailing behind. At first they didn't see anything. "Uh. . . Nell, id don't see anything." Grisha began.

Nell pointed to the east and slightly to the south. "There!"

The first thing to jut up from the hill were a pair of wings, bronze wings. The head soon followed. Then the body and the tail. At the feet of the behemoth marched an army of goblins gnomes and naga. Occasionally others that were not the naga jutted above the gnomes and goblins. Gazlowe ran forward directly to the one in the shining armour.

"Kor'el? You are not the high Warlord."

"I am now." Gazlowe nodded in understanding. "What are you doing here Gazlowe?"

"That bunch. . ." He pointed at Jack and the rest. "Came by dragon-back to Ratchet and demanded that in the name of the high Warlord I would let the army in the city. Who is to turn down an order from the high Warlord? And when they planned to march out to here they went ahead and left me in charge of the army!"

Kor'el let his eyes sweep the ranks of all kinds of races. What he had dreamed of had become reality, not only the races of the horde collaborating in defeating a common foe, but others as well. Here and there he even saw humans in full armour or in robes walking among the gnomes. Humans! Joining in an effort of the Horde! "This is better than could ever have dreamed of. But. . . How are we going to make the two forces work together well? It is an undeniable fact that enmities will arise."

The lead naga suddenly slithered forward. "They told me that there would be a chancccce that it would be posssssible to help each other in thisssss. It ssssseemssss that if humansssss can have the ear of the high Warlord of the horde, than it must be possssible for the naga to work together with the horde." Zalashi told Kor'el.

Kor'el only nodded. "You are right. We will rest for one day and then move out to Thunderaxe Fortress."

Kor'el had explained to them that more Horde armies had been created to counter-act the threat. The first and the third armies would advance to the Desolace in which Thunderaxe lay. One would go through the south, through the Thousand Needles and Ferelas, that lay between Thousand Needles and Desolace, and the other army would take a shorter path along the north. But it would take them through mountain passes in which 'fast' travel wasn't possible. The First Horde Army would take the southern route because it was the more dangerous one and they had more forces.

That night the naga slept on the edge of the camp so no quarrels would break out. The next day everything was set in motion. Slowly the army formed lines, lines that were so wide that they seemed to go on until the horizon. Every single one there was armed to teeth as if expecting to be called to battle at any given moment. In truth it would take them some time to reach Ferelas, let alone Desolace. Some knew this and tried to relax, although they kept their armour on as well.

They hit a problem when they arrived at the great lifts that connected The Barrens and Thousand Needles. There were only two lifts, and they were not meant for a lot of traffic, and they needed to get those thirty thousand troops down.

"Palkor!" Kor'el called.

Magmaradon and Palkor had been aloft to 'keep the wings flexible' as Palkor had called it. Now they descended to Kor'el. "Yes. What is it?"

"Can the dragon transport some troops down?"

"Sure."

Kor'el hopefully looked at Occulus, who was laying against the side of a cliff, watching the mortals. Occulus saw his glance. "Are you expecting me to do the same?" He thundered. "I am a dragon of the bronze flight. Not a ferry."

"You should do as he asks." Nell cut in.

"What! Why!"

"Because it will allow us to reach our destination sooner, and then we will be able to get rid of the Burning Blade SOONER."

"Only because you ask as well." Occulus returned with annoyance in his thundering voice. And slowly got up as if he were very old, which he wasn't, relatively. He let his wings on the ground so the passengers could climb on. When his whole back had been loaded full he gently took of and dropped down the cliff where the army was re-gathering.

"How do you do that?" Jack asked of Nell as he walked up to him after seeing the bronze fly of with cargo.

"One day. . . I may just tell you. But not now, the time isn't right."

Jack's mind spun from the answer, what did Nell mean by the time isn't right?

Eventually a couple of spell casters began teleporting troops down, including Nell. With the help of the dragon and the spell casters it went much faster and smoother than expected. Within one day they had gathered the troops again and were able to march on to Ferelas, which lay to the northwest.

Days later they reached the borders of Feralas. The terrain began to chance from the dusty peak littered lands of the Thousand Needles to the jungles of Ferelas. The immensely thick trees stood high and let little air filter through the canopy. What air did filter through was partly absorbed by the ever present green mist that seemed to surround everything. Maybe it was just mist that looked green because of the green environment. Off the path and between the trees were a multitude of animals. There always seemed to be a animal in sight.

The narrower path forced them to march in lines of six, which made for a very long line. Again it seemed almost impossible to lay a road here, the animals and the fact that the terrain knew many hills made sure that building a road would be a huge endeavour. Here and there the road had been damaged by a tree that had fallen down and they had to go around it through the thick bush. Snakes and insects seemed to be a greater threat than the Burning Blade in this place.

They expected to come across the ruins of an outpost called camp Mojache. The outpost had been situated in Ferelas and would probably have fallen victim to the Burning Blade. But instead of a ruin they found a heavily fortified Mojache. The tauren that guarded the post all had grim looks on them and none was without damaged weapons and armour. Against all odds the defenders of Mojache had withstand all attacks. Many had died while defending but more were injured. Here and there bodies still lay on the ground. The original leader, an orcish female had died two attacks ago, the leader of the post told Kor'el. Now all that stood to defend Mojache with its many wounded was a group of two hundred tauren, trolls, orcs and a vast minority of undead.

Some of the defenders nearly hugged all the soldiers of the army in relieve. Others stood by with worried looks while they watched fresh soldiers pass trough. They were rightly worried, they had seen the destruction first hand. They didn't seem so surprised to see races that were not among the alliance in the ranks of the army, some had even been hoping that some enmities could be set aside. The current leader told them that the post was the last horde town they would see if they decided to pass through. A single troll had made his way to Mojache weeks before with the message that the town on the coast in The Desolace had been destroyed utterly. Not long after that the troll had died of his infected wounds.

This was news Kor'el had expected. The village had been very close to Thunderaxe. He left some soldiers to help further fortify Mojache and tend to the wounded. After one day of rest in and around Mojache they marched on again. Slowly the path turned north to Desolace. At one point they marched on the edge of a cliff. The sea was far below them, almost inviting them to jump down. No did however.

Without any problems they marched into the Desolace. Desolace was exactly as the name suggested: desolate. Everything seemed to be grey. At the border between Ferelas and Desolace they made camp and fortified their position. It was there that enmity began to poke it's ugly head through the sand. As night fell angry voices arose in the camp.

"What is going on here?" One of the division commanders asked of the two that had just been taken apart, a orc and a naga.

"I did nothing. He came at me from behind." The naga said.

"You insult us by your very presence vile creature." The orc returned.

Another naga lunched for the orc and another fight broke out. The orc went down and began to struggle. More orcs entered the fray and in the beginning only tried to take them apart, but one was hit by an uncoordinated swing of the naga's tail and began to turn on the naga. The others were dragged into the fight as well. Within moments the area seemed to be one big bar fight. Jack and his friends arrived at the scene but did not quite know what to do. Instead of one of them doing anything, another spell caster cast a light source that momentarily blinded all.

The fighting stopped and all seemed to have sobered up instantly. "What is this!" The voice of Kor'el rang through the air. "Have we come all this way just to fight each other two days away from Thunderaxe fortress? Everybody, get some sleep and. . ."

He was cut of by the voice of one of the guards. "CENTAUR!"

A small army of centaur was coming their way. They numbered maybe two thousand at best, hardly an amount to try to attack an army of thirty thousand. Indeed they didn't advance all the way until the army's lines. They stopped and the lead centaur raised a long stick with a white flag on top of it. Kor'el saw it and gathered Jack, his friends and a group of bodyguards. The group moved out to meet the centaur leader.

The centaur were dispatching a group as well, at the head was the leader of course. When they got close enough to see the details of each others faces the lead centaur suddenly stopped, frozen in place. "This cant be." Jack said adding to the scene. The lead centaur tried to back but was stopped by his fellows. "You!" Jack called to the centaur. "What is your problem?"

"Right now, you are problem. But short time ago it was orcs at big fortress to north." Came the troubled voice of Kir'zas.

"What do you want, Kir'zas?" Jack asked again.

"Refuge from those that hunt me and those you see." The split-hoofed centaur explained.

"Do you know the centaur rank high on the hordes list of enemies?" Kor'el asked.

Kir'zas nodded. "But right now both have big enemy."

To himself Kor'el muttered: "At least someone has the right attitude." Aloud he said: "What do you bring that might aid in bringing down the fortress?"

"Two thousand centaur."

"You said they were hunting you." Kor'el said switching subjects slightly.

"They attacked camp while ago. Gathered as many as could and tried get out. Had four thousand when began, lost two thousand since."

Kor'el looked to Jack who evidently knew the centaur that stood before. Jack just pulled up his shoulders and left it to Kor'el to decide. "Okay. You can stay at the camp, but we will expect you to help in bringing down the fortress."

"You here to bring down fortress? We help." He said something in the centaur language and cheers arose amongst the centaur. "We help if that is plan."

The fact that the centaur had asked refuge amongst their sworn enemies so they could be relatively save from their other enemy roused some unease among the ranks. It began to sink in with most of the army that they were indeed going up against an enemy that may not be defeated by what they had here. Suddenly most enmities were forgotten. Although there was still unease when a human passed a few orcs. But no fights broke out anymore.

The army seemed to be ready for the siege.

But would it be enough.