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[Playergamer]

Colonist's Side

"Wheels are down, and... engines off! We are officially on the ground, my friends! Welcome to Noul!"

You make your way past the cheering crowds, heading to the Bridge. You find the man in charge of Sensors, and demand a thermal scan. It reports large amounts of life, both flora and fauna in the surrounding area, but that was expected. After a few minutes of consideration, you open the doors, letting the 5000 men and women on board exit the ship for the first time in tens of thousands of years. The soldiers quickly establish a perimeter, while the engineers begin surveying the area and scientists start taking samples of the plant life. For about a week, you frolick, slowly beginning construction work on the outpost, although very little is done. Then, one day, that all changes.

After Action Report: Engagement, First of 6th, 22681 Standard.

At 0900 Local Time, Patrol Number 225, consisting of 8 men and 2 women, was standing by near the forest. The squad leader, following protocol, completed the daily to-do list, including a thermal scan. To his surprise, the scan uncovered over 200 figures standing at attention. The patrol slowly started to retreat from their posts, but, suddenly, the figures burst from the trees. 7 feet tall, covered in black chitin, and on four legs, the clawed figures chased after the patrol. Normal stun rounds were doing no damage, so the squad switched to AP. The large slugs tore through the alien's plates, but they quickly ran out of ammunition, and had to retreat. They managed to reach the temporary palisade and resupply, but had already lost 5 of their own. The aliens eventually retreated, losing around 30 of their own. One of the dead soldiers bodies disappeared, leaving nothing but a puddle of blood where they fell.

You stare at this report, stewing. The on-site biologists had completed an autopsy, and they have confirmed your fears. The creatures that attacked your men had no reproductive capabilities at all, meaning that they were either cloned, or, far more likely, they were like ants. Looks like you and your men are in for a bug-hunt.
Resources are mostly the same as in the Hub thread, although I forgot to add in the Clone Hub. Cloning is an experimental technology, only used by the military. Clones are, for the most part, stupid, but they can be used for manual labor and soldiers.

Spoiler: Current Resources (click to show/hide)

People:

2995 Soldiers:

1000 Workers:

500 Engineers:

500 Scientists:

Equipment:

3000 Rifles

20 APCs (Big, and armored. Carry 15 men each.)

2 Scouting Helicopters

Static Defense Set (Includes thermal-sensitive turrets, walls, and sandbags.)

Basic Construction Equipment (Few tools, fewer vehicles. Could probably build a house if given a week.)

The Arc (Basic Manufacturing Capabilities, Cramped Housing for all, and Small Lab.)

Makeshift Palisade. (Could be taken down quite easily by the Aliens, but it can hold them for a short time.)

[Parsely]

Double patrols, all perimeter guard units are to shoot to kill. Check routes to make sure no areas are uncovered and expand the perimeter for increased early warning capability. Keep the APCs with full troop loads on a constant low-alert standby as a fast-response team. Use the survivors of the attack to begin a tactical study on the enemy, and educate the rest of our forces on their capabilities. Inquire to the scientists about the similarity of the aliens to Terran ants, specifically about the extent of their tunnelling abilities, and whether or not they could use it offensively.

Can we get a brief description of the settlement's layout and our current defence makeup and doctrine? It'd also be nice if we had all the info on resources dumped into the OP rather than back on the hub thread.

[Playergamer]

The settlement is... not much, honestly. Little work has been done, due to people spending most of their time frolicking outside to make up for being locked up in a ship for thousands of years and hundreds of generations. The only construction that has been done is a makeshift palisade, which is currently all that stands between you and the aliens. Doctrine is relatively similar to current US doctrine, although it has changed a bit over time, due to technology and bureaucracy.

Spoiler: Doctrine (click to show/hide)

Attack: Focused on defeating the enemy, not destroying, and taking the momentum.

Defense: Focused on buying time, and setting up for an Attack.

Surprisingly similar to Starship Troopers, now that I think about it.

[Parsely]

Okay. Sounds fine to me, considering we're squishy hoomans running away is probably a good idea most of the time.

[griffinpup]

Have the scientists start studying the seismic activity/patterns of the planet in order to discover where their tunnels are and the extent of said tunnels on this planet.

Also, maybe we should start kicking settlement improvement into high gear.

[Parsely]

Have the scientists start studying the seismic activity/patterns of the planet in order to discover where their tunnels are and the extent of said tunnels on this planet.

Also, maybe we should start kicking settlement improvement into high gear.

+1 Sounds good. Make some bigger masheen guns.

[Elfeater]

I would say set some engineers onto building radars/outposts, the outpost builders all being guarded of course.

[Mr. Strange]

Double patrols, all perimeter guard units are to shoot to kill. Check routes to make sure no areas are uncovered and expand the perimeter for increased early warning capability. Keep the APCs with full troop loads on a constant low-alert standby as a fast-response team. Use the survivors of the attack to begin a tactical study on the enemy, and educate the rest of our forces on their capabilities. Inquire to the scientists about the similarity of the aliens to Terran ants, specifically about the extent of their tunnelling abilities, and whether or not they could use it offensively.

+1 for this, but go easy on APCs, machines need lots of love and care if we want to keep them running untill we get some decent repair capabilities up. Solders for them and few hundred extra for base defence on constant standby is must though.

I would say set some engineers onto building radars/outposts, the outpost builders all being guarded of course.

Unless we get flying bugs that shouldn't be an issue, so -1 for that.

We should dedicate at least half of our workforce on improving our palisade, and instaling turrets on top of it, if possible. Rest should begin setting up farms for food production (because we need to get crops before we build our still  ). Our scientists/enqineers (which ever this falls under) should start working on getting us some mines, because nothing works as well as an early warning system as minefield. Some sort of (heat?) sensor system could do the job as well, if mines are too hard to build this early...

Question for Playergamer, do our turrets need to be installed in order to be used, or can they be loaded on our APCs and dropped with few solders and sandbags to make mobile firebase? Or better, installed on our APCs?

[Playergamer]

The turrets need to be bolted down before they can fire. It's a safety override built into the gun due to assorted accidents with guns opening fire during transport. The targeting system probably wouldn't be able to handle firing from a moving APC, but you can work on that.

[Elfeater]

Alright, well scratch radars for now, but outposts are still fairly important.

[Parsely]

So how long does the turret setup/takedown process take? They don't have IFF? What kind of weapons do our APCs have BTW? We could use them as mobile defences in a pinch. Dig firing pits that they could fire from until the enemy was about to overrun the position, then load up the infantry and throw it in reverse. Gunnin' an' runnin'.

go easy on APCs, machines need lots of love and care if we want to keep them running untill we get some decent repair capabilities up.

We should dedicate at least half of our workforce on improving our palisade, and instaling turrets on top of it, if possible. Rest should begin setting up farms for food production (because we need to get crops before we build our still  ). Our scientists/enqineers (which ever this falls under) should start working on getting us some mines, because nothing works as well as an early warning system as minefield. Some sort of (heat?) sensor system could do the job as well, if mines are too hard to build this early...

There's nothing wrong with keeping them all on standby. We're not going to commit them to every single conflict, but if we're in danger we won't spare any asset to stop the enemy.

+1 to all that. Automated early warning systems would let us cut down on manned patrols and keep more soldiers inside the walls, and just have periodic teams going through making sure everything is functioning and calibrated.

Alright, well scratch radars for now, but outposts are still fairly important.

Manned outposts would need a lot of manpower to be effective, and it's very likely they'd get overrun. We're fine with patrols for now. God forbid they try to make flying creatures. We'd be in serious trouble.

EDIT: That might be a good plan for traps later on. I doubt they could resist a massive assault on an isolated outpost with a few hundred guys in it. Bury some high explosives and bam!

[Playergamer]

They do have IFF, it's just very basic, and only recognizes organics, not vehicles. The process takes a couple of minutes for engineers under no pressure with tools, and about half an hour for a single person with no tools.

The APCs have a couple of mounted LMGs, but they are designed more for transport then combat.

[Parsely]

Cool.

[GiglameshDespair]

PTW

[Mr. Strange]

Manned outposts would need a lot of manpower to be effective, and it's very likely they'd get overrun. We're fine with patrols for now. God forbid they try to make flying creatures. We'd be in serious trouble.

EDIT: That might be a good plan for traps later on. I doubt they could resist a massive assault on an isolated outpost with a few hundred guys in it. Bury some high explosives and bam!

I got an idea: Automated outposts, full of traps. Surrounded by minefield. Explosive kind of traps, not the kind Kevak likes.
Now if we can arrange some air transports for quick evac...