From Monks to Warriors, Followers of the Palace Goddesses mobilize

Written by You "Rock" Thought

It would seem that the Followers of the Palace Goddesses (referred to as the FPG in future) haven't taken the NVA's aggression towards them lying down and have begun mobilizing into small groups/cells, interdicting and sabotaging "foreign" VC and NVA in areas around their temples/ former temples. Upon debriefing Guppys and Oddball after their return to Khe Sanh I believe Armiger may have run into one of these groups at the Mau Thoai temple, with a deceased member found to be carrying the ashes that were stored at the temple surrounded by a dozen dead NVA. 

At this time the FPG are considered a neutral party, only to be engaged if they attack friendly forces. Whether they know we have three of the ashes is unknown, however I would not mention this to them under no circumstances as this could spark a possible hostile reaction. Another thing of note is their apparent connection to the Spirit Beast that have been assisting Armiger at random over the last couple patrols. Whether they have a degree of control over them or using them to spy on our activities is unknown.

Unfortunately no photos were taken of the body that Armiger found, however other SOG and CIA teams have encountered these warriors in other parts of South Vietnam and along the 17th parallel interdicting NVA activity. They are dressed in religious chainmail armor, which seems to be made from some kind of metal-hybrid/alloy given that members have been seen tanking heavy machine gun fire to the chest and not being reduced to red mist. They wear a metal head band with what seems to be Vietnamese writing inscribed into it. In terms of weaponry they seem to use both NV and US equipment.

 Any pictures Armiger can get in future would help other SOG/CIA teams better PiD their movements around South Vietnam, hopefully giving us a better idea of what their overall objective is. Right now the CIAs trying to understand why the area around Khe Sanh was so important as to store the ashes of their supposed goddesses in one province.