Operation Deep Dive

Ashvenvale Region
Blackfathom Sector
1900 Hours

Moisture dripped from the ceiling of the cave here and there, the sound making an eerie echo up the stony corridors all around the party. The sandy floors of the tunnels combined with the strangely glowing phosphorescent plants clinging to the stones made walking difficult at best. Here and there ancient night elven Highborne ruins dotted the inside of the caverns, the smoother stones providing areas of relief from the difficult terrain with its hidden dangers. It was not clear what the original intent of the structures or the entire cave complex was, but the small group of Alliance soldiers gave it little thought as they neared their objective.

"Opening ahead. Target Alpha is likely within the chamber beyond," came Erawyn's voice over the comm system. The night elf had taken point and was currently guiding the party forward through the cavern. Belleri had rearguard, and between them a small line of warriors, magic users, and even a priestess walked cautiously behind the elven ranger.

Belleri nodded to herself as she heard Erawyn's voice through the tiny bell-shaped magic device she had attached to her ear. She responded, her voice being picked up and transmitted to the device via magic through the nose ring she wore, "I read you. No hostiles detected in the rear. Proceed with primary mission."

They had come to eliminate a cult leader that had been stirring trouble in the Ashenvale region. Although the Twilight's Hammer had mostly fallen, there were still pockets of their huge group all over Azeroth, and a few of these groups would need to be eliminated to ensure the security of Alliance territory as it began to focus on Horde aggression. Even as Belleri mentally reviewed their mission in her mind, Erawyn gave a hand signal and moved through the stone opening ahead into an ancient Highborne chamber beyond. The rest of the party walked slowly in behind her, with Belleri taking up a position near the doorway.

The chamber beyond was a large stone affair with four massive columns supporting the ceiling. In the center of the room a raised dais contained a statue of what was presumably Azshara in naga form, with several sacrificial plates laid out around it. Erawyn cautiously walked past the statue, her silver eyes darting around the room and checking for hostiles before nodding the all clear.

Never one to relax, even when in presumed safety, Belleri's eyes tracked the path of one of the men with them as the paladin approached the altar. Before she could shout a warning, the fool reached down and nudged one of the sacrificial plates. Immediately the object burst into unnatural flames as the wards on it flared into existence, and a rumbling sound filled the room as trap doors opened on either side of the chamber, spilling out dozens of raging sea creatures with cultist overseers behind them.

"Hostiles!" Belleri shouted, bringing her long rifle up. Even as she shouted, Erawyn sprang into action, her bow coming up and firing. The arrow made no sound as it buried itself in a charging turtle, even as the roar of Belleri's rifle filled the stone chamber. The rest of the party immediately scattered as the huge wave of creatures rushed over them.

In the center of the room, a vicious melee broke out as men and women attempted to battle creatures that outnumbered them more than three to one. Erawyn aided them as best she could, putting four of the things down before she was forced to nimbly retreat or risk being snapped in half by the claws and jaws of the swarming mass. Belleri provided covering fire from the doorway, each shot shattering the carapace or shell of one of the creatures as she attempted to clear space around the party.

Although their efforts were valiant, almost immediately a horrific cry rose up as one of the men was torn to shreds. A second cry followed soon after as the small Alliance force began to get devoured. In the middle of the melee, Belleri watched in disgust as one of her trained hunting foxes was picked up in massive claws and sheared in half. As the casualties began to mount, the morale of the party broke and a few of the combatants began to flee for the exit.

Belleri's rifle roared several more times, clearing the space around the fleeing men and women as best she could. Unfortunately, their pace was not fast enough and, aided by the cultists, the retreating alliance began to fall one by one. As Belleri looked on, the priestess in the party was struck in the back with a dart. She sank to the floor, her eyes glassy from some poison as one of the cultists dashed up to her, placing a glowing orb against her head. Magic flared and she began to twitch as her mind was overwhelmed by the spell. Belleri took aim down the barrel of her rifle and gently squeezed the trigger, sending a piece of lead through the cultist's eye. She was forced to repeat the action on the party's priestess as the woman rose up and charged one of her former comrades, shouting obscenities about the old gods as she stabbed a paladin in the back with her spellblade. Clearly the cult's power had grown in the black depths and the dwindling forces they had brought would be overwhelmed in moments.

"Fall back to rendezvous point beta!" came Erawyn's clipped comment through the comm. Although neither ranger was in charge of the group, both knew well enough when a situation was dire and how to extract themselves. They were trained in the art of self-preservation and guerrilla tactics.

Belleri grunted out a single word into her comm, pulling herself behind the doorframe as another dart slammed into the stone where she'd been standing, "Confirmed."

As the human withdrew, Erawyn dashed forward, her hunting cat alongside her. The creature sacrificed itself by throwing its body over a huge snapping turtle that had been about to bite the elf, and she somersaulted over the wrestling pair and up onto the statue of Azshara, firing her bow even as she moved. In the chamber below, a cultist cried out as an arrow buried itself in her heart, falling dead to the floor. Two more arrows rained down even as several of the cultists broke off to chase Belleri through the opening. Of the rest of the party, there was no sign as a mass of howling, clacking creatures covered the floor where they had been.

Understanding that the battle was lost, Erawyn blended naturally into the shadows, using her bow sparingly now and only when a killing shot was assured. With the bulk of the cultists dead and only a few left chasing Belleri, the creatures below were busy feeding on the fallen, and became easy targets for the skilled archer. She crouched down on Azshara's head, using it as a platform to blast more of the creatures with her arrows, beginning to make progress on clearing the room.

In the hallway beyond, Belleri dashed across the sand, a tide of creatures and two cultists swarming out behind her. She skidded to a halt, her leather boots digging into the sand as she braced herself, her face a mask of determination. The rifle came up and the hallway began to be filled with the echoing roars as she fired, flashes of bright light from the muzzle illuminating the darkness.

One by one the creatures began to fall, their hard shells split open by flying metal death from the end of Belleri's gun. The human grimly continued firing, racking the action on the end of her custom built, dwarven and gnomish designed firearm. She had only fifteen rounds before needing to reload, and was quickly reaching her limit as the last of the creatures fell dead.

Behind them, the cultists rushed up and Belleri dodged backwards as one of them struck at her with a sword, the weapon narrowly missing her. Belleri brought her rifle in line and squeezed the trigger, the blast throwing the now very dead human back down the hall with a smoking crater in his chest. She lined the rifle up with the second cultist and again squeezed the trigger, but this time the gun's hammer fell on an empty chamber, and the cultist grinned as he realized she was out of ammunition.

"Time to die girl!" he laughed, rushing towards her. Belleri looked at him with disdain, reaching to her belt and pulling out a small hand pistol. She brought it up at arm's length, squeezing the trigger. The weapon was a specially designed emergency device, with a single charge in it. As Belleri activated it, it gave off a loud roar and filled the air in front of her with hundreds of non-lethal pellets. The small projectiles impacted all over the cultist's face and upper torso, leaving dozens of bloody little welts and causing him to flail around in pain, covering his face.

As the man tried to clean the blood from his eyes, Belleri reached to a belt pouch and began to expertly reload her weapon as quickly as possible. As the man managed to clear his eyesight, he looked up in time to see the butt of Belleri's rifle come down on his nose, knocking him to the ground.

"You will never stop us! The world and everything on it will be consumed in flames! You will obey the will of the Masters, and die for them!" the madman yelled from where he lay on the sand of the tunnel.

Belleri looked down at him, bringing the muzzle of her rifle in line with his chest. Her face had no emotion on it, but in her eyes he saw his death as she spoke in a deadly calm voice, "The Alliance has seen enough darkness. As we say in the Order, welcome to the dawn."

The tunnel echoed one more time with the roar of Belleri's weapon before utter stillness replaced the noise of combat. Here and there water dripped, the echoes almost peaceful. The ranger brought her gun up, the smoking muzzle pointing this way and that as she confirmed that all of the creatures and cultists had perished.

A brief howl echoed back up the hallway. It was the sound of something dying painfully. As it faded out, Belleri heard her comm crackle again with Erawyn's voice, "The main chamber is clear."

"Confirmed. Hallway is clear," Belleri responded in a professional tone. "What of our forces."

Erawyn's voice was equally calm as it was carried through the comm, "100% casualties."

Belleri let out a grunted curse and began to trot back up the hallway, "We'll need to proceed on our own then."

"Confirmed. I've rigged the door in here with explosives. We'll detonate them and take the target then proceed to extraction point zeta," the elf replied.

Belleri grinned as another roar filled the tunnel; the sound of explosives blowing away a locked door. She shouldered her rifle and broke into a swift trot.

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Hours later a human and an elf would emerge from one of the ruined highborne structures around the Zoram Strand, proceeding on foot towards a nearby clearing. The area would find itself troubled less by Twilight's Hammer leftovers in the months to come.