In balanced view of aliens

1) They had poor SOP or didn't follow it by not scouting better ahead of
time. They had hubris working against them - they are colonial marines,
and no bug will mess with them. 2) The Sulako should not mount only ortillery
that can be used 100km
from the unit - they need close support guns if they are that small and
that isolated. So yes they should have got support once they got
outside, but I think they wouldn't have much to shoot at - the aliens
came over in a tunnel and they dare not risk bombing the powerplant or they
die too. 3) Always leave 1 human behind on board. 4) Cashier sergeants who'll
collect up all the ammo from their men. Or not buck idiot orders from a newbie
Lt. 5) Use the GUNS on the APC. 6) The minute you can't use your main weapons
(10mm Saboted Light Armour Piercing if I recall) or the grenades, or the
smartguns, GET OUT. Do not go further into the complex. You can't fight. 7)
When your comms start to go, GET OUT. 8) Nuke the place from orbit (see the
comment on fire support). Though (sadly) the Sulako may only have been armed
with class 1 and 2 bats for defence, no ortillery. But I think it was meant to
have some. 9) More Marines! Too small of a force to deploy by itself.
10) Idiots - don't land your VTOL on the site! Keep it hovering or at
least locked up. Keeping the ramp down.... sheesh. And having no internal
cameras in the VTOL..... 11) Sentry guns are great. Don't cut them out of the
movie.....

The Colonial Marines were ego-loaded boneheads lead by a hopeless dolt
with a spineless Sergeant under him. Sigourney had more brains than the group
of them! But, OTOH, supposedly they were the best and rarely tested. So
arrogance might set in. The aliens were supposed to be smart, dangerous, and
oh so sneaky.

As for the cryosleep angle, we've seen that in the FT universe, that would be
the normal shipping method for Jarheads. As fish sticks. The lucky ones might
get rotated awake as ship's troops. But as a rule, the mass ratio of 4:1 for
an active vs frozen dude, plus supply usage, would dictate cold sleep.

Anyone who plays traveller will remember the odds of not coming out of a cold
sleep berth.... <shudder>

All in all, I loved Aliens though. It was.... a fun movie.

> On Sat, Sep 25, 1999 at 04:22:38AM -0400, Thomas of Estoria wrote:

Good troops don't get cocky. Good troops know there's always someone out there
better than them.