<strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"> Land Grab</span></strong><br/><br/>I-Day<br/><br/><strong>Earth</strong><br/><br/>The approaching force is visible to the naked eye in near darkness, everyone who bothers to look up can see it.  Those with telescopes and know where to look can see it in daylight.  Those who greeted the US Government announcement with derision turn to panicy accusation  Why weren’t we told earlier?  Who would have believed us, was the logical ignored response.  Official responses to public outcry and pleas for direction are hindered by the fact that across the globe Governments are bolting for cover.<br/><br/><br/><strong>An undisclosed location</strong><br/><br/><br/>“We have identified fifteen separate vehicles, Mr. President.”<br/><br/>“Only fifteen?  Not much of a force to go up against an entire planet.  How big are they?”<br/><br/>“That’s something we are arguing about, Sir.  In terms of volume, about forty thousand cubic meters, that’s in the range of the smaller cruisers built in WWII.  As to the mass, we get in the range of 3000 metric tons  But something just doesn’t feel right, Sir.”<br/><br/>“Why not?”<br/><br/>“We have no idea what they are using to maneuver.  Not rockets, but it doesn’t seem to be a reactionless drive they are emitting considerable amounts of ionized hydrogen, enough that we can actually get a radar return from the gas surrounding them when they change heading and velocity.”<br/><br/>“How many troops are aboard?”<br/><br/>“We can’t possibly say at this point.  We don’t know how much fuel they need to carry, we don[t know the minimum size of their essential machinery, we don’t know their life support requirements.  We do know that they will reach earth orbit well before the deadline set.  The Joint Chiefs are unanimous in their opinion that the assault will commence immediately upon arrival in orbit..”<br/><br/>“Attacking Laos.  Why the hell La- forget, I know, know way of knowing that.  The report and the photo from This Frenchmen and the Australian woman speculated as to why, but nobody knows.”<br/><br/>“They have made some very good guesses, Mr. President.  The photo, our analysts have been going nuts over it.  The figures aren’t human, look almost centauroid, but some of them appears to be bipedal albeit six limbed as well.  And the vehicle, one thing the best analysts  agree on is that it looks more like it was sculpted than assembled.”<br/><br/>“Sculpted.  Interesting choice of word.  Alright, an update has already been sent out to identify the probable attack site as Laos, hostile operations to begin lo later than 0600 Khe Sanh time.”<br/><br/>“Understood Mr. President.  Mr. President, regarding your decision to deploy-”<br/><br/>“Save it.  Sorry Admiral, that was a bit harsh.  The decision is made, the weapons are already en route to the country.  Not counting the devices present on 7th Fleet vessels, of course.”<br/><br/>“Yes Mr. President.  I wasn’t gainsaying you, sir.”<br/><br/>“I know. Whether or not to use them is another decision.  It may be the last important decision I ever make as President. “   A pause, then bleakly, “Hell, I may be the last American President.”<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Lang Vei, US Special Forces compound near the Laotion/South Vietnamese border</strong><br/><br/>The pre-dawn sky turns bright with  vertical lines arrowing straight down to end  in balls of fire and erupting earth.<br/><br/>“Jesus Christ, are those nukes?”<br/><br/>“No, too small, no hash on any radio frequencies, no electromagnetic effects.”<br/><br/>Save for these two lunatics, everybody else in in their fighting positions eating dirt.<br/><br/>“Those were conventional?”<br/><br/>“No, too big.”<br/><br/><br/><strong>Various RA-5 Vigilante recon birds at very high altitude just barely in South Vietnamese or Thai airspace.</strong><br/><br/>Laos is on fire.  Hundreds, literally hundreds of detonations across the country are recorded by the cameras and other sensor the jets carry.  What truly horrifies the pilots is the timing.  By all appearances, the strikes were so close to simultaneous as makes no mater.  One moment, a sleeping landscape.  The next, azure shafts of light in the air ending in burning pearls on the ground.<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Khe Sanh</strong><br/><br/>The sun in the east was preceded by one in the west.  Even the Marines are shaken, despite assurances from their officers, even from radiomen that what just happened was not a nuclear strike - there seems to be absolutey no radiation detected at all, not even radio interference - something sure as hell just happened.  Every conventional bomber in the world striking all at once might duplicate what they just saw hit Laos.  Might.<br/><br/>As a result there is a considerable disruption in perimeter security that takes a while for even Marine Sergeants to rectify.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Vientiane</strong><br/><br/>Nobody is sleeping in the capitol tonight.  Firefights - a surprisingly large number of Laotian soldiers have stayed at their posts - riots, milling citizens desperate for instruction and information from somebody, anybody all clog the streets.  Other than a few very juior officials, there is no national government presence in the capitol.<br/><br/>And then Hell erupts all across the land.  There are three strikes on the airport, but otherwise Vientiane is not attacked.  But all road junctures, rail lines and bridges just outside the city erupt in fireballs.  There are numerous others out in the countryside.<br/><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Individual info will be PM'd to each player very shortly. </div></div><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>