A/N: Well, took longer than expected, but here we go.
With the help of the "bio farms", Sylvanas was able to create a for Zerg small base of operation. Due to a lag of vespene gas or a substitute, she focused on giving birth mostly to Zerglings. The base near Silvermoon was officially lost. Just a day after the capture of the human villages, her former High Elf brothers and sisters burned the old Zerg base to the ground, however not without catching a few live specimen for future studies. Sylvanas was okay with this, seeing no negative outcome from this.
In terms of invading Lordaeron, Sylvanas was ready after a day. It certainly helped that Zerg could be born within minutes or seconds in case of the Zerglings. The only reasons Terrans and Protoss could hold their own against the Zerg, was because both were very advanced technological races. The races on Azeroth could not compare to those. Sure they had magic, but so far that hadn't brought anyone off the planet. Actually, that was wrong, magic did bring people off the planet already, namely the mysterious homeworld of the Orks, but that required an insane amount of magic on both ends, not to mention that one had to actually find the world they wanted to connect with the other. Space travel may take longer, but it was definitely safer and more cost efficient.
But right now, the Hive Queen of Azeroth could only dream about space travel. After traveling through the dead lands of the humans, her army had finally come close to the capital. Considering that most of the army was missing, the city was still heavily fortified. The former guard had been reborn and was now patrolling the perimeters, as well as standing guard on the walls. Former citizens were now Ghouls and Zombies equipped with claws and swords alike. Additionally, the streets were packed with Nerubians, Necromancers, and even a few Banshees. No doubt those were Sylvanas former sisters, now forced to serve the fallen prince. The Queen promised silently to free them soon.
She turned her attention back to her army, which was quite busy burrowing their way through the ground, trying to find a way into the infamous Undercity. In all actuality, it wasn't really a city, but rather a prison. A prison that had the size of a city, thus the name. For generations, the human kings of Lordaeron threw murderers, war prisoners, and political enemies in there. There was only one successful escape attempt, that being of the late Horde Warchief Doomhammer. The Alliance never managed to capture the Orc again. Whether he was still alive or died in the wilds, no one knows. If he was still alive, Sylvanas would simply corrupt him. From the reports she had read, Doomhammer was considered a master strategist, at least by those that didn't let their stereotypical opinions of Orcs blind them. So really, adding him to swarm was a no-brainer, considering the stunts he managed to pull off.
The Queen was pulled out of her thoughts when she received a mental image from one of the Hydralisks. The swarm had managed to break through the walls and into what appeared to be an empty prison cell. A considerable huge, empty prison cell with rusty shackles hanging from the walls. The prison bars were just as rusty from decades of neglect, some were even missing. Most likely those had been removed from prisoners formerly or maybe still living in the Undercity. There was a high possibility that the place had been overrun by the undead.
Sylvanas ordered her Zerg to storm the underground and kill everything that got in their way. As usual, the Zerg obediently followed their queen's orders and immediately started to run rampant in the tunnels under the capital. It surprisingly didn't take long until the Zerg faced the first opposition. Sylvanas raised an eyebrow when she received mental reports of bigger than usual spiders, Gnolls, even some still alive prisoners fighting back against the Zerg wave, the latter using whatever crude weapon they could get their hands on. The Queen of the swarm pretty much ignored the happenings in the underground. The entrance to the Undercity was secured, her Zerg steadily going down and digging, even more, tunnels to breach the walls. Speaking off tunnels, Sylvanas made a mental note to finally establish a Nydus Network as soon as she was done here. Having one now would have made things much easier.
Taking her attention away from the seemingly endless stream of Zerg, the Queen refocused her attention to the Mutalisks in the skies, who of course couldn't possibly help out with the invasion of the underground. However, that didn't mean they were completely useless, quite the opposite actually. Sylvanas flexed her wings for a few moments, before heading off into the sky and flying in the direction of the castle. The Mutalisks were following her immediately, making it look like there was a giant bat in the sky, which was leading a swarm of smaller bats somewhere, similar to how birds traveled between seasons. However, as we know, this was not a group of birds migrating, this was actually a distraction attack.
In order to delay the discovery of the main force as long as possible, Sylvanas decided to distract the enemy via an attack coming from the air. Air warfare was still a completely new thing in Azeroth. Lordaeron hadn't been built with airstrikes and the like in mind. Behind the city was a mountain range, another was next to a lake. Both sides were perfectly protected from ground based attacks due to the land structure. However, both of those things didn't protect the city from Sylvanas and her Mutalisks.
The Queen's plan was as follows. She and half of her Mutalisks would attack the city from directly from the front and cause a little chaos, which in return would alert the local defenders. Once they got the attention of the undead, two other groups of Mutalisks would bombard the city, namely from the positions that were previously mentioned. A simple tactic, when you broke it down, but then again, who would expect an attack coming from the sky? Gyrocopters were expensive and took a lot of time to make, Gargoyles came all the way from Northrend and were only briefly seen by the human forces. And why would the undead expect their own troops attacking themselves? And finally, it has been years since an Orc Dragonrider had been spotted anywhere.
As such, the skeletal archers were taken completely off guard, when Sylvanas dive-bombed onto the wall, perfectly destroying that junction. The Mutalisks followed immediately, focusing their glave wurms on the mindless zombies running around the streets. The few Necromancers left behind immediately sounded the alarm, although "immediately" is to interpret as Sylvanas had enough time to release a huge amount of psi energy inside one of the towers. The resulting explosion caused said tower to collapse. This display of power was mainly there to make sure every defender in the city was alerted to her presence. And it worked.
For a while, Sylvanas allowed herself to get lost in the bloodlust, ripping and tearing apart each and every undead, be they man, woman or even children. Her claws easily ripped rotten flesh apart, tore through bones or sometimes she would use her psionic powers to for example let a bunch of bones fly high into the sky, collected them all together into one giant ball and threw them right at a group of enemies. If she had known the sport, the Queen might have played bowling with the ball and the zombies. She certainly had the time, seeing as her armor was impenetrable for both the weapons and the weak magic spells the Necromancers were able to cast. One might wonder how they got chosen to be part of the surge in the first place. But then again, a master magician could always use someone who cleaned up his desk, someone who didn't leave a drool of gray and green slime behind. Sylvanas didn't mind the weak opponents. She was having the time of her life, releasing much pent up stress.
Her Mutalisks were doing their part as well. The arrows of both archers and crossbow users didn't even reach the high up flying Zergs. As for magic, well, the carapace and sometimes the flesh underneath got a little bit burned, but mostly the Mutalisks were too fast to be even hit by spells. As for instantly hitting spells, like corruption, it did only so much against the highly evolved regeneration abilities of the Zerg.
Still, there were a lot of undead soldiers present in the city, even if it paled compared to Arthas' personal army. But it didn't take long for Sylvanas to find herself surrounded by growing piles of defeated enemies. It wasn't like their corpses were going to disappear in a matter of seconds, although some of the zombies were so rotten, one might have expected just that to happen. As such, Sylvanas mentally ordered the two groups of Mutalisks, who at this point were waiting above the clouds, to come down and the city from the two supposedly easiest to defend spots.
It took about a minute or two, but almost simultaneously buildings were bombarded by the Mutalisks. The Necromancers shouted orders, but they pretty much got lost under the shrieks the Mutalisks let out, as they continued their non-stop attack on the enemy ground forces and buildings, while Sylvanas continued to enjoy herself on the ground. However something was nagging in the back of her mind for quite some time now and after ripping a head off a black magician and kicking it against another magician, when she decided to head into the sky and away from the carnage. As she surveyed the battlefield, she finally noticed what was bothering her: where the hell were the Ziggurats? They were essential defensive structures to the Undead and highly effective ones at that. Sylvanas herself had been shot a couple of times by those things and was only still alive because back then she had her highly enchanted armor. Yeah, it kind of exposed her belly button, but the enchanters luckily thought this one through and gave her entire body magical protection.
Back to the situation at hand, why the capital had so lackluster defenses. Sure the garrison was numerous, compared to the ones the elves had. But still, even a few of those static defenses would have made Sylvanas life that much harder. As enjoyable as this convenience was, it had to mean something. Arthas was impulsive, but far from a fool. He wouldn't leave his own capital so lackluster defended without a good reason. Either he thought the undead army present would be enough to defend the capital, a reasonable thought considering the undead controlled most of the local territories or something else prevented Arthas from properly investing in home defenses. Whatever the reason, Sylvanas didn't have enough information to figure out this puzzle. She could speculate, but there was literally a battle going on beneath and another time beneath her feet. Before she could return to battle, however, Sylvanas received a mental image from a few of the Zerg underground. They had found Orcs. Orcs, who found a hidden gold lode and were digging up as much as they possibly could. Immediately Sylvanas ordered her Zerg to capture those Orcs alive and bring them back to the surface. Afterward, she literally dived back into the fight, wondering how good she would do at the sport called baseball and how she could possibly mimic this Terran sport.
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Veice and Zaath watched with curiosity, as unconscious and heavily injured Orcs were carried out of the caves by the Drones and then "stored" into the Overlords to be used for later. Zaath counted at least ten grunts and fifteen peons.
"That was a pretty bold move from the Orcs. Digging gold from directly under the humans' noses." Zaath commented, crossing all of his arms.
"They must have a settlement somewhere in the mountains," Veice stated, putting a hand under her chin. "Either that or this was a rogue group, acting on their own accord."
"I go with the first theory." Zaath opted his opinion. "Orcs lean very heavily on honor, even those under demon influence. If they're rogue then it must have been an entire clan that decided to leave the main horde after the last war. Wouldn't surprise me. I've hunted those things for years after the war. That one time we managed to capture an entire clan, although clan is a generous calling. There was barely anyone left in that particular clan after they suffered heavy losses during the battle of Lordaeron city. I think some of them were even glad to be put in refugee camps and that's saying something if an Orc of all creatures is happy to be captured."
"Under the right circumstances, everyone can be broken." Veice sighed. "In the grand scheme of things, our tiny wars are meaningless compared to the systems falling and rising within the Koprulu sector. If we don't secure this planet soon, I'm afraid our entire rebirth was all for naught."
"Hey, why are you so melodramatic all of the sudden?" Zaath asked, a little surprised. "Azeroth is pretty far away from the Koprulu Sector and so far, only the Queen of Blades knows about us. We're probably not even on her high priority list, because of the constant skirmishes between her broods, the Protoss and the Terrans. Plus, we have something none of those races have: magic."
"We could easily subject this planet without magic." Veice retorted.
Zaath silently scoffed. "I'm getting sick of this depressing talk already. I think I'm going on a little patrol and make sure we aren't cut off from our supply lines." The male Zerg did as he said, leaving Veice alone behind to guard the makeshift entrance to the Undercity. Why her Queen decided to leave her behind in the first place, was beyond the Zerg woman. The area was secured, small patrols having dealt with some stray undead forces and some unfortunate thieves. Really, Veice would be of better use at the front, but she wasn't the one calling the shots. And she knew better than to go against orders. Not that she had much of a choice now since it was written in her very genetics to not disobey her Queen under any circumstances.
Having nothing better to do, Veice took a Zergling aside and decided to study it as much as possible with no lab equipment and only magic available.
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While Sylvanas and her troops were busy cleaning out the undead of Lordaeron, the High Elves were facing challenges of their own. One of the biggest without a doubt was the rejuvenation of the now dead land, which consisted of a straight line going through their lands. Not only that, but there were still undead stragglers left behind, some having barricaded themselves in the deserted villages, not to mention the traitor Dar'Khan had disappeared without a trace, either hiding somewhere or having retreated from the lands with the fallen prince and his army. Finally, the general public still demanded answers from the High Council and the crown about the insectoid demons, who first wrecked the plaza and then all of the sudden helped out against the undead invaders. Without the shadow of a doubt, the High King was one busy elf these days, who felt like his age had doubled over the past couple of weeks.
Luckily Prince Kael'Thas had returned from Dalaran and was helping out wherever he was needed, be it securing the Eversong Woods once again or helping his father with simple paperwork. Right now, he was doing the latter.
"It doesn't appear like food is going to be a problem for some time. The food storages we constructed after the Orc invasion are paying off." the son informed his father, before picking up another piece of paper. "Our mages are having trouble finding out just how this...plague" Kael spit out the word "is working." He shook his head, sadly. "From the looks of things, we'll need to cultivate more land, if we don't find a solution soon. But in order to do that, we need…"
"...people." Kael's father finished, letting out a tired sigh. The old man leaned back in his chair, taking a sip from the over-decorated wine glass. "We have lost so many...how is the search for survivors going along?"
It was Kael's turn to let out a tired sigh. "Not good." The younger elf put down the piece of paper and looked picked out another one of the many sprayed across the desk of his father. "We're constantly receiving reports of more undead stragglers left behind. The corpses that have been found cannot even be returned to the families or else we risk them rising once again. The Rangers have orders to burn them upon sight. To make matters worse, the Trolls are seizing the opportunity and are attacking our weakened borders. The few troops we have left are busy holding them back, thinning out our resources even more."
"I see." the high king spoke sadly. "I have ruled for many years and I can say without the shadow of a doubt that this is the direst situation our folk is facing in our entire history."
"If only I had been here…"
"Stop blaming yourself, my son." High King Anasterian looked into his son's eyes. "The past is in the past. If we could go back in time, the High Elves would be supreme rulers over all of Azeroth. Ha, ha, ha." the old elf laughed over his own joke. "The only thing we can do is learn from our mistakes and live on. Don't think about what you could have done. Focus on what you can do or else you'll be just left behind."
"You're right, father. I'm sorry." Kael'Thas let his head hung low.
"Don't worry about it." the old elf waved off. "We're the ones the people look up to. We need to give them hope in those dark times and seeing us worry just makes them worry. So, back to the matter at hand, can we hope to receive support from Dalaran?"
"As much as they can spare." Kael'Thas replied. "The council decided to fortify its defenses, as they expect the undead to attack any day. Arthas made it clear that he was after the Sunwell. Now that this has been denied to him, the mages suspected he will go after the next best source of magic available. For what he needs this vast amount of magic is unclear at this point, but seeing the amount of control he already has over the undead, it undoubtedly has something to do with them."
"Hmm, troublesome times indeed. No matter what Arthas is planning, we cannot allow him to gain any more magic than he already possesses. But then again, there is not much we can do at the moment." Anasterian sighed once again and looked at the casualty report lying on his desk. It wasn't even a final number.
"That damn human. When I get my fingers on him…" Kael'Thas grumbled something under his breath.
"He's out of our reach. For now, let's focus our efforts here. Have our mages made any headway in their study of those new creatures, those Zerg?"
Kael suppressed his anger and quickly searched for the right report. "Not much, I'm afraid. The Zerg are an enigma in themselves. How Sylvanas even stumbled upon them is a complete mystery. Outside of the one...nest she told us about, we couldn't find any traces of those insects. The nest was abandoned and we decided to burn it to the ground, just to be sure. This is almost as disturbing as the sudden appearance of the undead. Just what is going on?"
"I don't know, son. I honestly don't know. These past years have not been kind to us. A considerable amount of the high council wants Sylvanas dead so that she won't be a threat to us."
"I cannot blame them for thinking this way." Kael opined.
"Some even go as far as thinking Sylvanas tapped into some long forgotten dark magic and summoned those demons to Azeroth, as a desperate attempt to protect our lands in exchange for her soul. This is just one of the many theories I had to listen to these past days, one more outlandish than the other. I had hoped if our mages gained some insight in the Zerg, we might finally find some true answers. Whatever the case, Sylvanas saved our lives and now is out there with her own army, hunting down the fallen prince of Lordaeron."
"Do you believe she can be reasoned with?" the elven prince asked.
"Well, when I last spoke to her, it didn't appear like she had lost her soul. However, I am rather hesitant towards the idea of having a diplomatic relationship of any kind with our poor former general. We do not know what really happened to her. For all we know, this is one gigantic scheme, orchestrated by a demon or some other dark being." The old elf rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming.
"The world is about to change, my son. We need to treat the ground very carefully. Else I am afraid we face the extinction of our people."
