Into the Fire

Into the Hellfire
Billy stared out the porthole of the zeppelin in horror. Just beyond the stubby wing, the engine hung, roaring like a beast in pain, spluttering and spitting sparks into the wind. As he watched, the sparks became a flame, at first small, and rapidly growing to engulf the entire engine, and shooting back into the wind. He tore his eyes away from the porthole and rapidly glanced around the cabin. His squad of human soldiers were sitting, backs to the hull on a long bench, facing their partners on this mission, a squad of dwarven soldiers. Both humans and dwarves were impassively sitting, and waiting. The dwarf right across from him was staring at him thoughtfully, but made no attempt to communicate.
The roar of the engines and the wind rushing past the hull of the zeppelin made it impossible to hear anything, anyway. Billy glanced back out the porthole. The metal of the engine pod was now soot stained and glowing red in places, but was still flaming, if anything, bigger than before. He turned again and grabbed a passing crew member, a gnome dressed in thick overalls, with a leather helmet and goggles up on his head. Since Billy couldn't speak gnomish, and the droning of the engines and the wind prevented talking anyway, he grabbed the gnomes arm and pointed urgently out the porthole. The gnome clambered onto the bench next to Billy, peered out the porthole, looked at back at him, grinned, gave a thumbs up, and continued on his way. Billy rolled his eyes. Gnomes. He glanced again at the dwarf across from him, a sergeant, by the look of his armor. Billy didn't read dwarven runes well enough to make out the name stenciled on his chest piece.
He glanced out at the engine again, and to his horror, it suddenly exploded, twisted on its mounts and fell from the zeppelin, dropping towards the scorched earth of the Hellfire Peninsula below. The zeppelin began to shudder, and with a sickening lurch, began to drop. The gnome crewmen, always moving fast, began tearing around the cabin, and popping and out of hatches at an almost supernatural speed. The pilots, located right in front of Billy in the cockpit, were also abuzz with activity. Their entire faces were covered with enormous goggles that glowed green in the front, and wires plugged their helmets into the instrument panels in front of them.
Billy looked to his left, and tapped his assistant squad leader on the leg, the armor on armor contact making a clacking that was more felt than heard. His assistant looked at him, a bit pale, but gave a thumbs up. The assistant then turned to check on the rest of the squad. Billy again looked at the dwarf across from him. The dwarf was taking the leather cover off of the biggest axe Billy had seen in a long time. He stared back, and then, surprisingly, he winked, and grinned widely. Billy grinned back, finding comfort that the dwarven soldiers weren't totally humorless.
Billy felt a tapping on his boot, and looked down. One of the pilots had twisted around in his seat and motioned Billy to lean over. When he did, the gnome yelled loudly next to his ear to be heard.
“ Ten minutes!”
Billy nodded confirmation to the gnomish pilot, and looked at the dwarf, and flashed ten fingers. The dwarf nodded, and turned to pass it along to his soldiers, as Billy did the same.
Meanwhile, a gnomish crewman, rushed to the back of the zeppelin, and flipped on a bright red lamp next to the closed ramp they had all entered several hours before. A hatchway opened forward, and three gnomes stepped out. These gnomes were clearly not part of the crew. They were clad head to toe in thick black leather armor, and had compact packs on their backs. Their goggles were up on their heads, and they were armed with a combination of daggers and short, vicious looking swords. One of the gnomes drew a dagger and was carefully dripping a liquid onto the blade. He spread it around and then swiftly re sheathed the dagger. Billy noticed the insignia on their left shoulder, a scarlet pair of crossed wrenches over a dark green silhouette of a cog. Surprised, Billy realized that these must be the famed Gnomish Infiltrators.
As he watched, they pulled their goggles over their eyes, and flipped a switch that made them glow red. The gnome at the far end of the cabin shot a fist in the air, and grabbed a lever next to him.
The gnome at the door pulled the lever, and the rear ramp dropped, exposing the aft portion of the cabin to air. The wind howled through the interior, louder than Billy thought was possible. He was suddenly very thankful for the thick leather straps securing him to the bench.
The gnome at the end, now standing next to the open tail ramp, shot a thumb in the air, and the scarlet light next to him turned green. The gnomish infiltrators charged at the door at a dead run, and lept out into space, without even pausing. The soldiers, dwarven and human alike, looked shocked. Billy, knowing gnomes, was not surprised. They were neither stupid, nor suicidal, and they ALWAYS had a trick up their sleeves.
Again the tapping on his boot from the co-pilot. The gnome held up five fingers. Billy nodded.
He flashed five fingers to the dwarf across from him, and passed it to his assistant.
Suddenly, the zeppelin lurched left, throwing Billy forward against the strap, and then curved to the right very hard, making him feel like he was laying on his back. There were flashed from outside of the portholes now, orange and white flashes that light the interior of the cabin with a chalky white light.
Suddenly, there was a feeling of falling, a screech of twisting metal, a jolt and a loud crash, and then, out the back ramp door, Billy could see the ground.
The gnome at the back door was screaming, loudly, in common, “ GO, GO, GO!”.
Billy wrenched off his straps, pulled his shield out from under the seat, and followed his squad out, hurling himself through the ramp door, hitting the ground right next to the dwarf from across the aisle.
Billy rolled over just in time to see the zeppelin fire up its three remaining engines. With a roar, and a screeching of metal, the captured zeppelin left the ground, clearing Billy's view of what lay in front of him.
He and the fourteen Alliance warriors stood in the center of a Horde encampment. The keep loomed behind him. The walls, a ways off, with guard towers at all four corners, enclosed all around. A gate in the massive wall, closed. In between the Alliance soldiers and the gate stood about forty orcish warriors, looking shocked.
Billy grinned. Now THIS was something he could get into. He stood up and drew his sword. Glancing at the sky, he noticed the smoking zeppelin coming around again, aiming at the courtyard where they stood. It's speed was rapidly increasing, and Billy thought he saw something falling out of the back ramp, and drifting in the winds. The zeppelin continued to accelerate, roaring yards over their heads and smashing right into the keep behind them, exploding with tremendous force, bowling all the soldiers over again.
The orcish officers were shouting, getting their troops into a tight square, and preparing, as Billy knew from experience, to let the archers on the walls shower arrows down on the intruders in the perimeter. Again, Billy grinned. He knew how to deal with arrows. But, before he could move, the dwarven soldiers charged, axes raised, screaming at the top of their lungs “ FOR KHAZ MODAN”.
Leading them was the dwarven sergeant, an axe in each hand, and blood in his eyes.
Billy turned to the human warriors, and roared “ COME ON YOU SISSIES! YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?” ,and charged into the fray.
The fight was short, and merciless. The orcs of Hellfire gave no quarter, and expected none. After the fighting Billy took off his helmet and wiped the sweat off of his brow, and sat on a toppled piece of the orcish keep. He needed some water in a bad way, and his shield arm was numb. He looked up at the crunching of approaching boots. The dwarven sergeant was approaching, his massive axe slung nonchalantly over one shoulder, armor scratched, bloody, and in a few places, still smoking.
“Ye fight well, Human.” He stated, in the thick brogue of Ironforge.
“Thanks. You boys did a damn fine job yourselves.”
“Ach, tis child's play. I will tell ye though, I could've gone without tha bloody zeppelin ride”
“ I hear that” Billy rolled his shoulders, feeling the sore muscles.
The dwarf looked at his speculatively, and then unhooked a canteen from his belt and held it out.
Billy took it, unscrewed the cap, and took a large drink, and almost choked. It wasn't water, but strong dwarven brandy. He swallowed it, eyes burning, and handed the canteen back.
The dwarf laughed. He leaned close, and stared at Billy's face.
“You and me, I ca' tell, are two of a kind.”
He extended an armored hand. “ Thogrum of Ironforge, at yer service.” Billy grinned, and clasped his hand in return. “ My name's Billy. Billy Wallace, and you know, I think you are right. ”