"Gilneas has moved against Kul Tiras."

The proclamation was delivered with a surety that, by itself, was hard to doubt. That it had occurred when Kyle suddenly paused in the middle of briefing everyone about the orc culling, that he froze up and his eyes glowed for a moment, further reinforced his words as a fact, at least to Arthas' mind.

Kyle's court mage was equally convinced as well, frowning at his king with concern. "Did they…"

"The ship carrying Lord Admiral Daelin and Jaina was attacked," the mage-king elaborated, "Whether by luck or on purpose, I don't know. A small fleet, but the matter is being resolved." His eyes glowed again and he shook his head. "The Gilnean fleet is being crushed, light casualties on the Kul Tiran's part."

"The lord admiral?" Uther asked with little skepticism.

"Safe. As is Jaina." Kyle's lips quirked up into a smirk. "Heh. The precautions have proven useful…" The amusement quickly fled and he fixed Arthas and Uther with a more serious look. "Anyway, Gilneas seemed to have made their move. Any idea why they're hitting Kul Tiras instead of breaking into Lordaeron?"

Uther and his knights fell into a troubled and thoughtful silence for a moment. "Genn has always resented Kul Tiras' naval superiority," a paladin, Sir Gavinrad, offered.

"But he surely has reasons beyond pettiness," someone else countered.

"The borders of Lordaeron are more reinforced," Uther said with mild distaste. "Genn likely seeks a different method of having his kingdom hemmed in. If he seizes some islands from Kul Tiras, he could secure greater freedom of movement for Gilneas through the seas."

Arthas too soured at the sudden thought of corrupted Gilneans landing across Lordaeron's vast shores.

"Lordaeron's naval forces are still mustering; the realm's shorelines are long, beyond Gilneas there are still other threats from the seas that require a naval presence."

"So Gilneas launching an attack now is about the best time for them to do it?"

Uther nodded sourly. "Genn has used our caution to his advantage. We've been too focused on shoring up the land borders that it'd require significant reorganizing to redirect some legions to the nearest ports to be transferred to Kul Tiras."

Kyle frowned in thought before his eyes glowed again. "Give me a moment."

Beside him, Valoghan picked up the conversation for the Alteraci side. "How strong is Gilneas' fleet?"

Arthas answered, recalling his lessons. "The size of their fleet has always been smaller than Lordaeron and even Kul Tiras, but individually each ship carries significantly more firepower than any Alliance equivalent." The prince paused for a moment before deciding to admit to grim fact. It wasn't that much of a state secret anyway. "My father once said that Lordaeron's fleet is far too slow to engage Kul Tiras' ships on anything close to a fair fight, and far too weak to go up against Gilneas' one-on-one. Our advantage lies in our numbers."

The court mage hummed at that. "And if Gilneas has fallen to consorting with demons, numbers might not be enough…"

Arthas had to agree with that assessment. All it took was for a demon to infiltrate a ship as how it did back in the cathedral, or simply beguile unsuspecting sailors. Or they could conjure a plague similar to the Withering Plague, or simply summon more demons as was rumored to be happening in Quel'Thalas.

Just in time, Kyle's eyes returned to normal and he seemed to return to the present from wherever he'd gazed off to. The words that came from his mouth were far from reassuring. "While Lord Admiral Daelin's ship has escaped the battle with light damage, I can confirm that there are other Gilnean fleets headed for Kul Tiras from different approaches."

He gave a nod to Valoghan, who promptly conjured a scrying portal that looked out to the sea. Kyle's eyes glowed again, and the view quickly flew over the waves and fixed itself onto a clearly unnatural fog that had large bulky ships peeking out of its edges, whose sides were studded with closed gunport hatches. Arthas squinted as he noticed something.

A knight spoke up with disbelief. "Is that…?"

It was, the prince realized with disgust.

"They've tacked on bodies onto their ships' hulls," Kyle observed with distaste before turning to his court mage. "Could it be for a spell?"

The cowled man shrugged a bit too nonchalantly at such a sight. "It would not be surprising, though to what purpose I cannot guess immediately."

Troubled murmurs arose within the tent. Not a few paladins around Arthas whispered oaths of vengeance for the mutilated victims. Uther was standing eerily silent and still, a sign that he was well and truly enraged as he glared at the scrying portal.

The view changed again, swooping over the troubled waves to home onto another fog-covered group of ships. And then another jarring shift that began to threaten Arthas with nauseating vertigo before finding another fleet. And then another. And another.

"I found six fleets in total," Kyle stated with a stony expression.

"By the Light," Sir Ballador interrupted, "have they sent their entire navy?"

The mage-king shrugged at the question. "I'm not sure. Haven't looked at Gilneas' ports yet."

"Even then, that's a considerable investment of ships," Uther finally said with dangerous softness. "Genn is leaving his own shores vulnerable." Arthas was sure he was not the only one wincing at the sheer venom the Lightbringer injected when he uttered the Gilnean king's name.

"He might be hoping to seize a quick victory with this surprise attack," Arthas offered, "overwhelm and capture Kul Tiras before dividing his navy to guard it and his kingdom."

"Even if he succeeds in surprising the Kul Tiran navy, Gilneas would see its forces spread thin trying to defend both their home and the island," Sir Gavinrad countered. "It doesn't make sense."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"They've fallen to demon worship," another paladin growled. "They've lost all sense to start with."

The tent fell silent after that, everyone grimly watching the fog-wreathed fleet pushing through the waves.

Kyle's eyes finally stopped glowing as he nodded to Valoghan, who gestured with a hand to split the scrying portal into six, each focused on a different fleet. "All of them seem to be headed straight for the capital island. At the speed they are moving, With the…with what I have right now, I could either attempt to intercept a couple of them to destroy them utterly, or harry each group until their survivors make landfall."

More silence followed for a few seconds before Uther spoke up, meeting Kyle's gaze with steely eyes. "Which would be most effective?"

Kyle thought over it for a moment before shrugging. "Harrying them might result in some lucky hits that could wipe out the entire battlegroup…but it could also mean that the reverse is true, that some hidden card or unforeseen event occurs that results in lighter than expected damage being dealt."

While Arthas didn't fully agree with the mage-king's point, what with Kyle's showing so far, a good number of paladins, including Uther, were nodding to the assessment.

"My preference is for guaranteed annihilation."

Uther nodded with decisive finality. "Then do so, your highness." He then turned to Valoghan. "If you could relay what has transpired to the other rulers of the Alliance?"

The authority that now emanated from Uther was palpable. Arthas felt a martial stirring that urged him to straighten his back and prepare to draw his weapon. This was the Uther of the Second War, a commander that led the Alliance forces against the Horde. For his part, Kyle didn't seem at all offended by the tone of address.

His court mage though glanced to his king, waiting for the nod from his liege before leaving the tent to prepare.

"The Alliance would need to convene a war council," Uther declared. "We've not any forces beyond King Kyle's to react to the sudden events, but decisive action must be taken."

Kyle raised a hand, which drew Uther to nod at him. "So… If I wanted to offer my forces to defend Kul Tiras, do I have to go through the Alliance, or do I just need to get the lord admiral's permission?"

"The latter," came the immediate reply. "I am sure that Lord Admiral Daelin would not refuse your assistance, especially with the aid you've already provided." Despite his righteous anger, a small smile formed on Uther's face. "I will say that having your constructs aiding in Kul Tiras' defense would be of significant aid, if they performed as they did in Stromgarde."

Kyle was smiling as he gave a nod, though it was wiped out by a sudden nervousness as if he realized something too late. "I better head back to Alterac first. I trust that Lordaeron can clean up what's left of the orcs?"

"Leave it to us, your highness," Uther answered with resolute nods all around. "We will purge the remaining encampments, and you have my word that the Knights of the Silver Hand will be there to aid in the defense of Kul Tiras, or the cleansing of Gilneas."

Kyle seemed distracted as he nodded back, and Arthas couldn't help feeling some amusement as he picked up some of the mage-king's muttering as he left the tent.

"...the fuck do I make it not look like I'm making it a price for her hand…?"

*****

Observer 15 kept a relatively sedate pace as it shadowed the fog and the water-borne fleet hidden within it. With no sign of its targets having detected it, it relayed a torrent of information back about its assignment.

Eldritch though the fog might be to obscure more conventional senses, the observer had an advanced sensor array that included highly complex algorithms to form not-so-rough estimates about the hidden elements below.

From the average proximity between each visible ship, and the arrangement of humanoid heat signatures, it relayed back an approximation of twelve larger capital class ships, with at least thirty-one smaller escort vessels. Trying to formulate the outline for each ship's hull was trickier, but Observer 15 still managed to offer what its algorithm decided was the most likely arrangement of the fleet.

A message packet was pinged to the observer shortly after it relayed the relevant information back to the nexus command hub. Obeying the new instructions, Observer 15 increased the output to its anti-gravitic thrusters to gain some altitude, while adjusting its sensors to maintain coverage of its targets.

It took 9.62 local minutes later for the stealthed robot to receive the transponder pings of incoming friendly forces. It replied by confirming the fleet's current formation.

Approximately two local minutes later, the squadron of twelve scouts opened up with their photon blasters at nearly one local mile from the fleet. Observer 15's sensor suite picked up the storm of supercharged particles crashing into the ships at near-light speeds. A rash of heat blooms were picked up as the projectiles tore up wood, metal and flesh, which was used to further refine the observer's algorithm in defining the ships' presence within the fog.

Observer 15 picked up target lock signals as the storm of energized particles continued. The scouts were within half a mile when they each launched their antimatter missiles. Pairs of missiles quickly pierced the hulls of each capital ship before detonating. True to projections, the warheads, which were designed to breach and ruin harder materials like Zerg void-proofed carapace or Terran neosteel armor, proved to be more than sufficient in tearing their victims apart. With its auxiliary array, Observer 15 noted that a few large pieces from the primitive vessels' masts flew nearly half a mile up into the sky, and iron-clad prows were flung almost three times that distance across the waves. Several flailing bodies were tracked before they slammed into the surface of the sea with lethal force.

It instantly relayed the confirmation of the capital ships' destruction, and another salvo of missiles followed before the scouts shot past the fleet. Each missile found its way into the heart of the smaller escort ships, and two dozen fireballs bloomed.

Observer 15 immediately noted a decrease in the density of the obscuring fog, making target-finding significantly more sure. The squadron turned about in seconds, and with their last missiles the last of the escort ships were blasted into bits of broken wood and metal like the rest of their sister ships.

With hull kills being total, the scouts then made another pass across the bobbing wreckage field. Photon blasters fired again, strafing through the floating debris, shredding the struggling human forms Observer 15 picked out. The squadron made two more passes before the observer confirmed no further lifesigns were detected, and then they returned back to base to rearm.

Assuming the standard conditions, it would take approximately 42 minutes for the scouts to return to their starports, refill their missiles, and return to this region, where they would be assigned to the destruction of another fleet.

In the meantime, Observer 15 was reassigned to join in the surveillance of a landmass labeled 'Kul Tiras proper'. The task was to seek optimal areas for an incoming arbiter to conduct teleportation deployment. As it traveled to the island, it processed the data packets sent by other observers over the Kul Tiras island and began independent processing for picking out appropriate deployment zones that met the footprint area of four dozen dragoon walkers, twenty-three sentry combat support drones, thirteen reaver artillery units, and nine probe pioneer drones.

Like the other observers, Observer 15 did not have the capacity to process its owner's miscellaneous non-commands. Phrases like "I fucking hope Jaina softens her dad's view" did not parse within its system.