I wandered over to Meadran's island, so that he be there when I used my tokens. The Hero Token in particular was a cause for concern, and my thinking was that he would be able to help me talk to whoever showed up. 'Meadran which do you think I should use first, the Theme token or the Hero token?' I honestly wanted his input because I was really worried this would derail some of my plans.

'A new faction might allow for a broader selection of heroes. Though there is no guarantee, that is true either way. There is always the chance that you'll receive a Hero from an unrelated Theme. However, I can not foresee anything you do making much difference at this stage. Always remember, to the Company, rules are more like suggestions.' As calm and peaceful as always, even when introducing a troubling idea. It was a good thing to have someone so grounded for advice.

Hmm. I reached into my pocket and just grabbed the first thing that I could. That turned out to be the Theme token. If it just adds a new faction why is it called a "theme" token? Also how do I use it? The smooth and shiny Token, seemed to vibrate gently between my fingers.

[ Do you wish to use Theme token? Y/N ]

"Yes."

[ Rolling result... ]

[ You have obtained the Theme Warcraft's faction, Lordaeron ]

"Who or what the hell is Lordaeron? For that matter, what the fuck is Warcraft?"

'Ah, Warcraft is something I've heard members of the Company use to refer to versions of my world, Azeroth. It was a world that was home to many interesting creatures, such as the Kaldorei. As to the faction, they were... ' He paused as if to search his vast memory, 'Hmm yes, a faction of humans that lived across the sea on another continent. I vaguely remember them as being somewhat haughty and rude, also later they were one of the first kingdoms broken under the might of the Legion.' His pain was immense, I could feel the burning of Felfire and smell the scorched remains of my... his kin. He felt of terrible deep sadness.

"I'm so sorry Meadran." I tried to send thoughts of peace and comfort.

'It is alright, Young One. The past can not easily nor safely be changed. Which is even more troubling once you realize that somewhere, there are versions of my world that repelled the Burning Legion. Also versions of me exist, that still rest their roots in the slopes of Mount Hyjal. Of course, there are even versions of my world, where I did not exist at all.' An image of giant winged lizards, oh right, those would be dragons, with sandy colored scales. The feeling that they had played with forces they shouldn't have, one too many times.

There was now a box, resting on the ground in front of us. It was 2' cubed and seemed to be made of a smooth grey stone.

[ Please place box in desired location to start using this faction. ]

"So how does this help us? Will these Lordaeronians be useful?" Would they be magical Humans, perhaps. I really wanted that to be true. I could use some more magical instruction, or hell even someone to spitball ideas with.

'I'm uncertain what we will gain from them, but I do remember they had priests and mages. They also built well with stone and wood, though perhaps not as well as the Dwarves. But I worry that you won't be able to use them at all, since we seem unable to summon the Kaldorei or the Khalai.' Doubt filled his mental voice.

"They build with stone and wood, so probably low tech then?" I shook my head, no need to be a dick. "Well, there might be some advantages with that. We'd be less likely to be detected, while working, for one thing. Huh, wouldn't we be able to arm them with modern... no Khalai weapons and armor? Hmm." Well no sense in counting my chickens before they hatched. I might get nothing useful out of this new faction.

My hand reached back into my pocket to grab the Hero token. It began to buzz in my hand.

[ Do you wish to use Hero token? Y/N ]

"Yes."

[ You have obtained the Hero, James Eugene Raynor ]

"Howdy, Commander." He just appeared, a stocky well built guy, a little shorter than myself, with dark hair and eyes. His face was worn and rugged. Older than me, but I couldn't tell by how much. He was dressed in plain, simple looking clothes. He also had some type of armor laying beside him, which was next to a long ass, futuristic rifle of some kind. He was holding out his hand. I shook it.

"Call me Ryan, I don't feel like much of a commander." Plus, I really don't like being in charge.

He nodded, "Takes a big man to admit it. The name's James Raynor. Call me Jim." I could tell he didn't smile much, and that this man had seen some serious shit in his lifetime.

"Well, Jim, I don't know what info you have about our situation, but how about I give you the rundown and maybe you can tell me how you can help?" Please be a hyper competent badass, so that no one needs me anymore. Yeah, right.

"Ha. Sounds like a plan." He almost grinned. Very grim seeming fella this Raynor. I started in on our story. I figured it was best to hold nothing back, his ass would be on the line too. He just listened stone faced for the hour and a half it took me to get through everything. He'd lit up a cigarette at one point, and started puffin'. I had no clue where he'd gotten it from and it looked hand rolled. Honestly, I couldn't tell a damned thing about what he was thinking.

When I was done he asked, "So this is Terra... Earth, or a version of it anyway?" He seemed amused. Perhaps a bit confused as well, I think. That damned blank expression of his was throwing off my ability to read him.

"Yeah, a pretty shitty version, but yes." I nodded. Wait, did that imply what I thought it did?

"Imagine that. Never thought I'd step foot on the ol' homeworld of Humanity." He almost chuckled. "Way I see it, I can help with raiding and keeping any troops you have in line. I might have some idea about defenses, once I've seen them. Lastly Hoss, I can tell you I've been there, but you ain't alone in this fight, not anymore." That was nice of him. Though a bit troubling that I seemed that out of my depth.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Also, I should probably be freaking out that he was an extraterrestrial human. I thought that was so fucking cool. He would later disabuse me of that notion. Life in his Sector had been harsh and violent.

My BTC started shaking.

[ You have been awarded a gift. Do you accept? Y/N ]

"Uh, yes?"

[ You have received the Power, Mana Sink. ]

Mana Sink was power that let me ground hostile spells, or excessive magic energies. That seemed... really pointless. At least for right now. Me, Lumi, Meadran, Faergin and the Wisps were the only users of magic. All of the magic on this planet came from here. Why would I need to ground out hostile spells? This gift was a dud, I guess. I tried not to be too disappointed, after all I didn't have any powers at all a moment ago. Something's better than nothing right?

I spent another few hours showing Jim around the Valley. "Well, the Protoss tech looks something like the stuff Tassadar used, which was different from what Artanis's army used. I never did learn too much about either one. So I can't help you much there, and the magic and nature shit flies right over my head. But I can tell, that you need an army fast, and the Protoss don't do fast, leastways not with building. So I'd say it was time to to see what this other faction... What did you say their name was, right, Lordaeron looks like."

The only problem with that was there was no more room in the Valley. The new forest covered every bit of available ground. Hmm. Maybe it was time to start building outside the valley.

We exited the cave and Jim looked upon the Badlands for the first time. He was unimpressed. I'd brought Jitters and Buzz and a dozen other Probes, whose data stores had been updated with the schematics for the new Pylons. I was hauling the stone box myself. I was nervous about using it. I'd no idea what trouble it might bring down on us.

I'd spotted something going on, far off in the distance, involving lots of vehicles. Well, mostly I saw the dust they were kicking up. I wondered what it could mean. As long as they stayed way over there, it was probably nothing for us to worry about. Staring at the dust up, Raynor actually chuckled, "This place doesn't look too different from the Diamondback Wastelands. Spittin' imagine of a dozen tired old frontier planets. The more you see, the more things seem the same." Yeah, he'd really been around the block.

I had the Probes, start warping in some of the new Pylons. Then I handed Raynor a brass bracelet embedded with crystal circuits, this would let friendly units operate inside the Pylon's stealth field without being tricked by it themselves. Though for some reason, I didn't yet understand, I didn't need a bracelet. But I didn't want to take the chance that Raynor would.

About half way down the mountain, I laid the box down on a gentle slope just to the side of the northern outflow canal. It would be somewhat close to the Valley entrance, and had a good view of the bridge area. There was also plenty of room to add buildings around it later, I hoped.

[ Do you want to use box containing Town Hall? Y/N ]

"Yes."

A large transparent image of a building appeared in front of me. I could control the image freely with my mind. Neat! I played with it for a while before settling on a final placement. The building itself rested on a raised foundation of stone blocks. Stone steps led up to the main entrance, which I had face the west. There was a tall clock tower was tucked in next to the entrance, it was made of stone with almost decorative wooden bracings. The small windows I could see were made of thick low quality glass, with heavy oaken shutters. The front door was thick iron reinforced wood. Interesting. Everything about this building spoke of durability and basic security.

After seeing Night City, the Town Hall was a breath of fresh air. It's simple design was calming and spoke of stability.

An armored man walked out of the building. He had brown hair in a kind of flattop with a mustache and a strip of a beard. He looked battle-hardened, a fact emphasized by that heavy armor, which was some form of plate mail. He was also carrying an oversized spiked mace. His blue and yellow, likely supposed to be gold, tabard was emblazoned with a heavily stylized letter. Supposedly an "L" but it really didn't look like one to me. This man looked around bewildered.

"Where the devil am I? Where did everyone go? Probably some cursed Mage playing a prank again." His voice was rough from years of yelling out orders. His stance indicated that he was more than ready to use that giant mace.

Oh right, I guess the Pylons had finished while I was playing around with the building's placement. "Here take this bracelet." Waving one of the brass rings at him. Which, of course, didn't work. That proved that the cloaking field mitigated sound. Good to know. I quickly slapped the bracelet on him before he could react. He had no particular speed. Which was good, because my shield ended up deflecting his brutal mace's head upwards after he struck at me. He was left blinking in confusion. A state that caused him to stare at us for a whole minute, sweat popped out all over his forehead. Then he knelt. "Sorry, My Lord! I didn't see you there!"

"It's alright. That's the point. Please stand up. I'm Ryan, and you are?" I waved his attack away. After all no harm, no foul, right?

"I'm Marshal Dughan formerly of Stormwind, now in service to Lordaeron and yourself, Lord Ryan." He performed a quick salute with his right fist smashing over his heart. His armor rang with the impact.

"Do you know your purpose here Marshal?" He was way too uptight, and his mannerisms would likely get old quick.

He went still for a few minutes. "My lord, I am to assist in the running of this town, and see to it's defense." So he already came with a basic idea of what he needed to do. I could work with that.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I need you to do. Welcome aboard, Dughan. We have a lot of work to get done." I then walked over and touched the Town Hall.

My BTC shook.

[ Adjusting... ]

[ Town Hall has been added to the Great Tree Network.

Options:

Choose Class

Raise Level

Summon Peasant (Builder)

Summon Peasant (Farmer)

Summon Peasant (Laborer) ]

I immediately queued up one of each type of Peasant. Not only to have more hands to help with work, but because I was starting to realize I needed people I could trust near at hand. Some deeper instinct told me that these people would never betray me. A few minutes later three people came out of the Town Hall. Two men and one woman. They wore simple homespun clothes dyed in muted shades of blue. I had Buzz put bracelets on them, this time. They were shortly looking around in confusion and wonder. Then they saw me

They knelt low to the ground, which made me deeply uncomfortable. "Milord. We are here to work." I sighed. Who'd ever wanted this shit? I had things that needed to get done. What I didn't need was people fawning all over me.

"Stand please. It's good to see such capable folk arrive. We need to build a town, starting with farms. Tell me what we need to get them ready." They bowed. That was really going to get old quick. I could hear Raynor actually laughing behind me somewhere.

"We would need much wood and stone, milord." One man said.

"Large stocks of seed and livestock animals, milord." The woman said.

"A warehouse for storage, and then several quarries and lumbermills, milord." The other man spoke up.

Then Jim took the opportunity to step forward, "Ryan how 'bout you let me handle this. I've worked a few farms in my day. Even worked on getting a settlement or two up and running. You can mosey over to that store you mentioned earlier and get buy seed stock as well as some animals and feed. Oh, and bring a few more of those bracelets." Thanks Jim, that's a big help. He was already making himself indispensable.

"Alright, better than me getting in the way. Jim, I'll leave them in your hands. Marshal Dughan, please take directions from Jim when I'm not around." Yeah, I'd have to learn about everything they were doing later. But for right now, I was sick of being lordified. Is that a word? Well, I say it is now.

Dughan gave me another ringing salute, "As you wish, My Lord." He turned attentively towards Raynor. While I was walking away, I heard them already chatting like old army buddies. Was it an soldier thing?

As I continued the long trek back to the Company Store, I couldn't help but wonder what classes the Town Hall would give me.