“Victory! For the Horde!” Jarigise bellowed, his voice booming through the ravaged Exodar. He could have almost jumped for joy. Phase one was complete! The Exodar was his!

          But… something was amiss. He looked at Thrall and Vol’jin. Their battle scars were clear, their sorrow obvious. Oh, right, he thought, Cairne and Lor’themar. Well, my victory will come at a cost. “I’ll have a group send Cairne and Lor’themar’s bodies to Orgrimmar. They will be given the grandest funeral procession possible.”

          “Thank you, Grand Warlock,” Thrall responded, looking up slightly. “Will you accompany us?”

          “Unfortunately, no. I’m going to make sure the Exodar is clear. I don’t think we’ve killed everyone in here.”

          “Very well.” With that, he and Vol’jin walked down the platform. Jarigise gestured to a few guards, who ran after them in search of the bodies.

          “Grand Warlock. Do you really care for the casualties, or are you trying to get in Thrall’s good books?”

          He turned to his queen. “There will be costs for this battle. Unfortunately, some of them will be severe. But I assure you, it is for the best for our people.”

          Sylvanas nodded, looking over the ruined ship. “What now?”

          “I’ll send for peons from Orgrimmar. Every able-bodied worker, engineer, and mage will get down here and start rebuilding, improving. With the knowledge we’ll get from the enslaved draenei, we’ll learn the secrets of naaru technology. This time a few years from now, this old ship will be ready to travel again.”

          “And from this ship,” Sylvanas said, grinning for the first time Jarigise had ever seen, “we will sow utter terror across the Great Dark.”

          Jarigise nodded. “The perfect kingdom… I can see it already.”

          “I’ll look for any survivors. It sounds like this thing needs to go off without a hitch.”

          “Thank you. Keep an eye out for that damnable hunter who hit me with this arrow,” he said, holding out the arrow that had, minutes earlier, been embedded in his arm. “He’s probably gone by now, but if not…”

          She nodded and walked down the ramp. Haaghun stood next to Jarigise. “Master. You said there were two major reasons to invade the Exodar. What was the second?”

          The warlock looked around, making sure no one was listening. “Research.”

          “Research? Of what kind?”

          “I believe the draenei have made an important discovery regarding fel energy. Possibly an infinite source. If I found this source, I’d be invincible. We just need to look for the area they would have this knowledge in.

          “May I suggest the Vault of Lights? I saw they have holographic projectors there that give information on demons. Maybe their research is inside those projectors, or else in the Vault somewhere.”

          “Good idea. Let’s go,” he said. The two stepped off the platform, and Haaghun kicked Velen’s body off as he left.

          Arriving in the Vault of Lights, dead draenei littered the ground, much like everywhere else. The projectors seemed slightly damaged, but otherwise functioned well. “They wouldn’t have it in the projectors,” Jarigise said, “otherwise they would be giving away information about the source. There must be a room around here with their studies. Possibly hidden.”
          Something this important would have to be well guarded and close to someone who would not dare delve into it. Someone like…

          Jarigise walked up the stairs to Velen’s throne-platform. Pushing a staff out of the way, he began looking through the books stacked nearby. After a minute, he found there was nothing in them of use. “Damn. Haaghun, did you find anything?”

          “Not yet. Wait… this crystal seems different from the others in here.” Jarigise looked in his direction and saw a huge crystal, much like the ones on the top of the ship and within its doors. Something about it seemed… off.

          Haaghun pulled out his maul and smacked it. It vibrated severely, but didn’t crack. Jarigise held his hands to his side and threw a shadow bolt at it. To his shock, the crystal absorbed it, but did nothing else.

          “It absorbs magic. Maybe it needs it to do anything,” Haaghun said.

          “Then it wouldn’t budge using shadow magic, they don’t use that for the most part. Maybe…”

          Of course. He grabbed the staff he had knocked off Velen’s platform and pointed it at the crystal. Suddenly a blinding ray of light shot from the tip and hit the crystal. The massive gem vibrated so intensely that Jarigise had to cover his ears, and to his amazement, it began to crack in the bottom base. After a moment, the cracks shattered, revealing a path to… another room?

          He stepped through the crystal tunnel to the room. A number of books – no, journals – were stacked in the room, a quill on top. Pushing the quill off, Jarigise began to read the journal entries. “None of this is important,” he said, tossing one book aside and reaching for another. He continued to flip the pages and was about to toss it away when something caught his eye. Reading a few words, his mouth started to curl into a smile…

NOTES:

Well, now you know the jist of the whole evil plot here. Get the big starship running again and start conquering the universe with it. How cliche. This one will be different from a lot of others. Remember, this story here's gonna break pretty much every basic story rule, so be ready for damn near anything.

Other than that, there's... not a lot for me to comment on. A couple chapters from now you'll find out what the "infinite fel source" is, and the story will really get rolling from there.

... Oddly enough, I have the beginning, beginning-of-the-middle, and the end all planned out. It's what happens in between that's gonna throw me for a loop.