VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE

SEARCH AND DESTROY

At 3 am in the morning, the factory grounds were almost completely empty, save for a few guards, his occasional passer-by and the small team of fourteen kindred, including Liz, all fully armed to destroy the Sabbat hideout situated in an abandoned warehouse. Their leader, a brujah who went by the name Tommy, was pacing about, itching for a fight. When Liz asked the only person who was willing to talk, a fairly short man with Asian features, who gave his name as Jeremy, about the man who loudly proclaimed himself as the leader, he told her that he was one of LaCroix's loudest- if not his most competent- supporters. Obviously the prince felt he had no further use for his loud, gun-toting ways, and was now going to dispatch him on a mission he had no chance of succeeding in. "He wants me gone too." He told her as they were going to the site of the operation via an SUV given to them by LaCroix. "He can't bear the thought of another Ventrue coming to his city and stealing the show, so he gave me this screw job. Says it's for my own good, that it'll help me learn how to work with other kindred, but I know that's a pile of bull." He sounded strangely calm, practically resigned in fact. "We're all going to die in this mission. We might succeed, but we will most certainly die." At first, she tried hard not to believe him, then she took a look at the rest of the crew. Some of them were probably younger than she was. They looked more like a bunch of college students cruising in the night than even a rookie team of arsonists. Some of them had almost no idea of the level of danger they were going to face, she could tell from their nervous chatter. The rest, who did know, stayed dead silent.

Shit. She thought.

Elizabeth looked long and hard at the enormous warehouse where they had been told the Sabbat were hiding, quietly realizing how they had managed to hide in that factory for so long without anyone noticing. According to one of her teammates, this place used to produce canned sardine. As such the storage facilities of the warehouse itself did not need to be very large. Thus the warehouse also had office rooms, a cafeteria and rooms for the security personnel who worked there. After the place had gone under the gove4rnment did not demolish the place- they intended to "repurpose" the place. Security personnel still patrolled the grounds, but it was crap work, and there wasn't really anything worthwhile to keep safe. Nonchalance was therefore the only natural outcome. This, she reasoned, was probably the main reason they had chosen this place; nobody would bother look for them here, and if someone did, it was easy to hide and wait them out.

Tommy parked the SUV a considerable distance away from the warehouse in order to avoid being detected. As they disembarked from the vehicle, Liz had one nagging question in her head- why would the Sabbat need to hide? She was sure the Sabbat did not obey the masquerade- the most sacred of the Traditions that barred the Children of Caine from revealing their true nature to the kine. As a matter of fact their whole thing was based around not hiding their true identity from humans. Well, Liz thought, no time to think about that.

"Alright ladies, listen up." Tommy boomed, surprising everyone and bringing their attention to him. He donned military fatigues and a baseball hat. He was obviously itching for a fight. "What we're gonna do is that we're gonna plant these plastic explosives in the warehouse." He gestured to the smallish, disk-like objects in the boot. "Hey, you there." He gestured to Liz. "You're gonna be the one to do it, since you're the only one small enough to fit in the air vents. You'll just get in, plant the bombs and get out. Got that?" Liz just looked at him silently for a while, then said "Sure, I got it." Almost sarcastically. "Alright then." Tommy's confidence seemed to have wavered after what Liz did. "Now, they might notice her as she's coming back. When that happens we'll fall on them and rain hell on those bastards!" His bravado had returned full time now. He was now carrying his AK-47 high up in the air. "Alright boys, get your gear and get ready, 'cause we're going to war."