<strong>The Observation Post</strong><br/><br/>Agent Mackenzie, Sergeant Fields, Corporal Blacke<br/><br/>"Gunny!"  A yell from the radioman "Crackpot says we should check something out abut a hundered meteres Northeast, says it's a weird patch of ground!"<br/><br/>One of the marine fireteam leaders shoots Fields a look as he points NE,   Fields has three 4 man teams with him.<br/><br/>Blacke finally is able to put his finger on something that has been nagging at him:  There are remarkably few bullet strikes on the observation post.  A firefight in darkness, the place should be riddled with them, with more on the ground around the low dugout, and the trees behind and around it.  It isn't that way at all.  In fact... the impacts are tightly clustered at various places.  Almost as though the attackers had known exactly where the NVA troops were sitting and standing.  which brings something else to his notice.  The strikes are relatively small, like M-16 rounds.  The post is not a fortified bunker, but the walls were certainly strong enough to stop assault rifle fire.  But these rounds had punched right through the walls to their targets.<br/><br/>Fields has already noted that there are very few AK-47 shell casings to be found.  Whatever happened was short and intense.<br/><br/>Mackenzie finds something in a corner.  A bullet, flattened and deformed.  He has seen bullets like it, bullets that had hit armor plate.  A quick search finds a few more.A few moments of observation and calculation and he decides that they had been fired probably by one man at a target coming through the main door.<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>The Chopper</strong><br/><br/>1LT Browers<br/><br/>The copilot gives Browers a nervous glance, then focuses his attention on his instruments and their surroundings.  He's a good kid, has potential  Browers is a little uneasy.  There is a, a smell in the air, is the best way he can put it.<br/><br/>Flicker of movement on the ground grabs his attention.  Several figures northeast of the the odd patch of ground and heading towards it.  A closer looks reveals four asian men with packs, A large heavily armed white man in the rear, a smaller white figure with yellow hair in front.  Crackpot grins.  Gren Crevacoeur and Tex,  real name unknown.  The list of people who would be crazy enough to run a load of smack through an active combat zone is surprisingly long.  The list of those good enough to succeed is much shorter.  The diminutive frenchwoman is at the top of both.  Gren looks up at the chopper and waves, she and her men are making no effort at concealment.<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Vientiane and surrounding area</strong><br/><br/>Etienne Gervais<br/><br/>It could have been a pleasant afternoon visiting old sights with an old friend.  On one level it is, on another level it is quite disturbing.  The sights marked on the map by Moua Tou are precisely the sort of targets that would paralyze movement throughout the country.  The sights visited around Vientiane, taking out those would isolate the city.  But Vienetiane is practically on the border with Thailand.  Something about the target pattern is unusual.  The scope, for one thing.  there doesn't seem to be any focus.It can be assumed that for every supposed scout seen, several more were not noticed.  From the pattern observed it looks like literally everything, every crossroad, every bridge, every tunnel is a target.  The sheeer scale of the possible attack is breathtaking.  The Americans can't do it, Etienne decides.  The 101st, the 82, the 1st Cav, all in theater USAF and USN air assets all acting together with a massive ground invasion in support  might have the juice to pull this off.  But the 82nd isn't in SE Asia, and preparations of the scale needed could not have been hidden.<br/><br/><br/>