"Oh, that hurt." Annabelle said, rolling over to inspect what little remains of the table.

"Table took most of the explosion, the yanks know how to build some things right." she said getting to her feet, then reaches her hand down to help Aaron up.

"Yes, it would appear that they do." Aaron rubs his shoulder as he stands, that was the second time he'd landed hard on it, it was likely developing quite the bruise. "And that was quick thinking Annabelle. Well done." He peers towards where the bodies had been before the explosion. "Shall we see if they left any clues behind that might tell us who they are?"

The Fish Tank

Mike proceeded to viciously grab and start neck snapping the 2nd demon. Fortunately, he had the hang of it this time as the demon's neck snapped quickly and a good tasing from Lance wasn't necessary.

Both demons were dead an no more entered.  But unlike vampires, Miquot demons didn't turn to dust, so now they had two bodies to dispose of.  Dead Miquot demons made an awful stench, and The Fish Tank smelled bad enough already.


OCC: Fight's over, back to the episode thread.  Now clean up the bodies.  There's a dumpster out back.

Abandoned Building

Aaron and Annabelle begin to inspect the bodies of the now dead attackers. They are wearing all black, black mockneck shirts, black pants, even black socks.  No insignia of any kind of their clothes and a check for their back pockets indicates no wallets or identification of any kind.


Something about these guys is familiar to Aaron, something he remembers from watcher training.

"This doesn't look good." Aaron frowns down at what remains of the bodies. "They were members of the Order of Vienna. A human mercenary unit, set up around 80 years ago I believe. Their motto is 'Success of Death' and those who were upstairs will likely report their failure before killing themselves." It was at times like these that Aaron sometimes wished he had some glasses. It always seemed much easier to exude a sense of gravitas when expositing, if you could clean your glasses or take them off at a dramatic moment. "With luck though that should give us a day, maybe more, before another team arrives to figure out what their objective is. Or at least who might have hired them."

"Peachy. As if we don't have enough enemies as it is." Annabelle said stepping away from the human bodies after their examination was done.  She found the sight of human bodies unnerving, even though she was taught that encountering them would be a reality, although usually with two bite marks on their neck but otherwise unmarred.

"Aaron, did you notice they weren't shooting at us from the roof, they were more interested in the Buffybot . She hasn't been up and about long enough to build an enemies list.  Perhaps the mercenaries were hired by one of the original Buffy's old enemies and they attacked Ms. Bot, thinking she was the original."

"Yes no messes in here, lets get these smelly lumps out of here." Lance armed him self and grabbed his smokes. "Help get them to the door. We can dump then as soon as the sun goes down."

Mike got the bodies to the door...and there they'd have to wait, for the moment, till they could be brought to the sewers and disposed of more elegantly.

"Yes, of course. Well, since you made it outside without anyone shooting at you, it should be safe for us to return to our headquarters."

Annabelle steps out through the front entrance on her way back to The Fish Tank.  "Aaron has identified our assailants as a mercenary group whose members commit suicide in the event of failure." 

Several minutes later

Aaron, Annabelle, and Buffybot return to The Fish Tank without further incident.

"We're back, we.........good lord! What happened here!" Annabelle shouted, opening the back door and suddenly stopping short due to the demon bodies piled up in front of the door.

She stepped over the bodies and then got a closer look.  "Bright yellow flesh, they can only be Miquot demons. And.........oh God, that stench!  As if this place didn't smell bad enough already!"

Mike grins ruefully, "Well, they decided to attack. We decided to kill them. Anyways, the plan was to dump them in the sewer. Dumpsters are too close to our location. But since I can't do any dumping till the sun sets..."

Annabelle grabbed one of the demons by the ankles and started dragging him out the back door (you didn't think she was going to carry him and get demon blood on her clothes did you?) and towards the nearby man hole cover.

"Aaron, why don't you bring Michael and Lance up to speed on the mercenaries we encountered."

Aaron grimaces at the bodies that had appeared since they had been away. Maybe they would do better to find alternate accommodation? The Fish Tank seemed to attract the worst sorts. He nods as Annabelle starts to drag one of the bodies outside. "Yes. They're a group known as the Legion of Vienna. Apparently entirely human, they work for money rather than idealism as far as we know. Have a nasty habit of taking cyanide if they get injured or fail at their mission. Makes things damnably tricky when it comes to interrogating them... Oh and as mercenaries they have no issues with using military weapons and kit. The ones we came across were carrying some sort of assault rifles and grenades." Thinking that should cover all the salient points he waits to see if there are any questions. He might not have all the answers, but potentially a question might shake loose a memory.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:17, Thu 07 Jan 2016.

"Sounds like a an old squad I use to know. Money Money Money, no morals at all. Thankfully they were dealt with by karma. She is a bitch after all as they say."  He moves to help dispose of the other demon.

Buffybot assisting with one of the bodies. (Unlike Annabelle well Buffybot was more then ready to get her hands dirty. Too bad this place has no shower.) "Bad luck on the critters we always seem to get."Buffybot wanted to speed things along for Mike's sake. Still she seems to have an issue on those Vienna guys....
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Thu 07 Jan 2016.

"For their last gambit, one dropped a grenade, killing himself and hopefully us.  I don't think they're working for the mayor since they utilized such brazen and unsubtle attempts to dispose of us." Annabelle said as the demon bodies were dropped in the sewer.


"Now then before hit the sack, Aaron said something about fortifying the defenses of our headquarters.  If we want to proceed with that plan we'd best get to it, sunset is less than an hour away." she said heading back into The Fish Tank.

Aaron shakes his head regretfully. "There just isn't time for us to achieve anything particularly useful today. Maybe if we can actually get any sleep tonight then tomorrow we might be able to put some time into doing it properly."

Less than an hour later:

The sun has set.  The remaining vamp cops are now out in force looking for you.

Mike says, "So, general plan. Since fortification didn't happen, we need to NOT be here for any battles fought. The general idea is, they have to fan out looking for us. When they do, we want to pick them off, They will use their numbers if they can, but we don't have to let them, so we want to fight them in narrow corridors where ganging up is fairly impossible due to terrain."

Annabelle doesn't disagree.

"Sounds like a reasonable strategy.  We should find a tall building, or what passes for a tall building in this town with a good view of the landscape.  Then we can see them before they see us and possibly move on them if they separate into manageable numbers."

Aaron nods in agreement to both Mike's and Annabelle's suggestions. They were still the inferior force, so it was better to dictate the field of battle. "Annabelle, Bufybot. You seem to know the area best. Is there anywhere you would suggest we can go that offers a good vantage point?"

"I've only been here a tad longer than you have Aaron.  But, the roof of the high school building may be a suitable location.  It seems to be more or less in the center of town and is a tall building by Sunnydale standards."

Buffybot snaps her fingers. Something Annabelle said jogged her memory banks. "Of course! The high school! I remember plenty of dealing there and at night. The gym. the library aka media center. The roof might be a bit open and can offer a vantage point. But I recommend fighting within the building to limit enemy movement however. Maybe deal with the Turoks if any remain we can't forget about them!"

Hmmm.

"My main objection to the school is a lack of chokepoints. You'd almost have to lure them into the bathroom or something to get quarters cramped enough to favor the defenders."