Most EFFECTIVE military training programs

[consequences]

One of the flamers gets grabbed. He convulsively pulls the trigger, hitting the guy with all the ammo. The ammo explodes, taking out at a rough guess, two additional squad members from the simultaneous flatlining with the explosion. How exactly is this not the xeno's fault?

Are you honestly no oblivious to safety protocols, you think "jerked the trigger" puts them in a better light then "freaked out." Where is your trigger finger if you are not ready to shoot, buddy? Here's a hint it's not on the trigger to prevent that exact accidental discharge problem, and if you aren't your training program is seriously lacking.

Just so we're clear, you're holding people responsible for shit they do while actively being grabbed. That's all I really need to know, you're a fucking moron.

That still doesn't get around that only went down that way because:
-They lackidasically went in there with zero forethought or planning of their own iniative. When the woman that has been in a bloody freeze capsule so long she doesn't know jack about any of the equipment is pointing out stuff from a cursory examination that's suddenly news to you, you are pathetic.
-They did the whole lets make a guy carry all the ammo business making him a walking grenade themselves. They set that up all by their lonesomes. Plus what kind of confidence they have in their guys does it speak to that they'd do it that way?

You remember how Burke didn't back Ripley up at all in her threat assessment, making her seem like a deranged nut? The only thing he actually backstopped her on was preventing the marines from causing a meltdown. Since Weyland Yutani put the mission together without including dedicated engineer support or any kind of technical advice apart from Burke, this failure goes far higher than the squad level where we see the marines operating.

One trustworthy guy to carry the ammo isn't unprecedented. Neither is confiscating magazines(or not issuing ammo in the first place) in situations where a single mistimed burst can kill everyone.

Nor does it get around the fact the Xeno only grabbed the guy while that was going down. It's not like it was nibbling on him or anything. You do also realize they only had like 10 guys, so rapidly losing 3 to use your number is not exactly a minor thing.

Four total. Grabbed, flamed, two from explosion. And if you honestly think that anyone is going to have fully conscious control of their actions while being yanked towards the ceiling by an armor plated killing machine, then I simply don't have words.

Then Sergeant Apone gets grabbed while Gorman's distracting him.

With most of his squad around him. To bad they were in disarray because the guy with the flamer freaked out and nailed the ammo guy, thereby allowing a opening for the Sargeant to get nailed thereby increasing the chaos. What part of arguably more damaging, got past you? Or are you arguing the Xenos were actually smart enough to know what a Sargeant is?

You mean all four remaining people, two of which are actively laying down pretty much continuous suppressive fire? And the xeno goes for the guy standing still without a weapon at ready, shocker.

The thing you seem to be trying to ignore is that after the immediate clusterfuck, the only additional casualties are caused by acid splash.

The two fuck-offs with the dropship weren't doing their job guarding the thing effectively, but it isn't like they left the thing unmanned.

What's with you and playing the way it would be almost understandable as if it would be the height of incompetance, while playing the height of incompetance if it's not. They were on a landing pad with barren terrain all around aka no real cover/concealment. If they'd locked down the ship and something had managed to get on board while they were off taking a piss or something it would be understandable that they didn't recognize it was there until it was too late. As is they don't really have a excuse.

Two people, not taking the threat particularly seriously because it's a lone civilian's word on what happened, to a bunch of other unarmed civilians. As I said, the two are fuckoff useless assholes, but the doctrine which kept two people on the bird isn't bad.

Miss the part where the Corporation was willing to let them all get eaten to get a specimen?

Miss the problem that to get a specimen somebody actually has to come back? Or did you think the Xeno would nicely call a shuttle down and fly the Sulaco back to Company, all by it's lonesome?

Burke's tactics are undoubtedly shitty(giving an override to Bishop to put the facehuggers in jars on the dropship, taking them up, and nuking the site from orbit then with all the marines and Ripley present to leave no witnesses strikes me as an immediate and practical way to achieve his goals). His inability to properly execute a sudden but inevitable betrayal still doesn't affect how the Marines were hung out to dry.

And how exactly does Hudson scream' I'm gonna be a mental casualty' anyway? Until people have seen combat, you really don't know who's going to fold or not.

When your mental fragility is such you're advertisizng it more or less 24/7 in how you walk and talk it's kind of obvious. The guy that can't shut up because he has to reassure himself every few minutes, and is jumpy enough to do things like empty a mag at Newt ain't exactly hiding it well bud. The DIs and DSs are kind of supposed to spot those types and weed them out, you know?

Seems as how you don't think he had Neon signs on him, straight from the script:

His first line:
HUDSON
This floor's freezing.

APONE
Christ. I never saw such a buncha old women. You want me to fetch your slippers, Hudson?

HUDSON
Would you, Sir?

Scene Two:
HUDSON
Hey, Vasquez...you ever been mistaken for a man?

VASQUEZ
No. Have you?

So from the get go what do we have? A POS that is incessantly whining and snarking at his comrades and superiors, in a way that's the real Neon sign. Exactly how much more obvious and disfunctional does he need to be before you think maybe this guy should never have been allowed in front line combat arms, consequences?

Wow, snark is a sure sign that someone will always have a nervous breakdown. That must be why Hudson dropped his weapon and huddled in a corner until the Aliens ate him in the Turbo FOG3 Championship Edition of Aliens with Hyperfighting that none of the rest of us ever saw.

Newsflash, soldiers will whine and snark exactly as much as they feel like and are allowed to by their superiors, it's not really an indication of how they'll act when the shit actually starts.

[Coyote]

Sorry, FOG, Hudson being snarky isn't enough of a red sign that he's going to crack. It just mean's he's a smart ass. An irritant, to be sure; the class clown... but not a guarantee he's going to crumple. He was pretty gung-ho in the lander ("Express elevator to hell... goin' down!") and we're given some hint that he's been on real drops before because he's immediately contrasted with the Lieutenant, who's cringing in panic.

Here were the problems with that mission:

They were going there to "check up on" the base, which had lost contact. They send plenty of ship in the form of the Sulaco, but yes, not enough people for what could obviously be an evacuation mission. A few more landers, especially SAR-equipped.

However, let's say they didn't really expect anything to be wrong-- political leadership is overconfident, or no one wants to have a big send-ff with more Marines because then questions are asked about the Company's track record of worker safety, etc. So they get there with the small squad they had, and find... utter devastation.

That should have been the hint that they were in over their heads. They should have either returned to the ship and waited for reinforcements (ideal and proper in real life; doesn't progress the plot though), or, secured the control room and fortified it and waited for reinforcements (not too bright, but more sensible than running around, crashing about). They decide to explore, but at that point they also should have put the gunship overhead, looking for trouble instead of leaving them to camp out.

They do, however, note that there are survivors in the reactor room. Okay, fine, go see them-- but again, another danger sign: they find obvious physical evidence of aliens (the "secretions") and press on, but once in the reactor room, where they can't fire, they should have turned around then & there. The problem they had was that their obviously idiot officer was urging them forward, with the understandable concern to accomplish the mission and get the survivors. Arguing against that, they have Ripley's stories (a panic-stricken civilian, which they initially dismiss) and some secretions. The fact that it's "scary" isn't much to stack against that. The NCO should have been the one to speak up if he had real reservations-- he didn't.

Once all hell broke loose, then we go back to what should have been plan A: take off and nuke the site from orbit. Which, they were in the process of doing when the lander crashed.

What I saw was a lot of over-confidence on the part of the troops, and a inexperienced, by-the-book officer who probably should have piloted a desk (and was being pushed by the Company guy-- the LT. was probably under orders to make the Company look good. Defense contracts, money, political contributions... anything could be involved). They dismissed the dangers of the aliens because they were "just animals" ("How can they turn the power off? They're animals!")

The blasting away full-auto is the biggest discipline flaw with the Colonial Marines, and again, some of that can be attributed to the overconfident, swaggering-macho bravado they exhibited. I get the impression from the overall mood of the movie that humans in this 'verse haven't encountered many aliens of any sort, and those they did contact were probably either animals or easily bullied and dominated. The Marines weren't psychologically ready for something that could stand up to them, and that's political complacency reflected in training.

My take, anyway.

[Shroom Man 777]

Hudson was a good a soldier as any of them. He kept on fighting until they finally got a piece of him, after it was game over man, when they were coming out of the walls, the goddamned walls.

[Sidewinder]

What I saw was a lot of over-confidence on the part of the troops, and a inexperienced, by-the-book officer who probably should have piloted a desk (and was being pushed by the Company guy-- the LT. was probably under orders to make the Company look good. Defense contracts, money, political contributions... anything could be involved).

I had HUGE problems with the Company's plans on how to get a xenomorph sample, one of which was Burke's apparent attempt to get it on the cheap.

You are Carter J. Burke, corporate shark, who wants to get rich by acquiring a xenomorph sample for Weyland Yutani's bioweapons division. You know which planet the xenomorphs were first found on, based on the Nostromo's transmissions, Ash's report to the company, etc. What do you do?

For me, it's obvious. Hire mercenaries-- competent gunfighters who I can trust to keep their mouths shut-- to find the alien ship. Establish a fortified camp on LV-426 so the mercenaries can be resupplied, if necessary. If one or more of them get infected by a facehugger, put the merc in a cryo-tube to arrest the chestburster's development-- promise the other mercs that Weyland-Yutani will have a specialist remove the xenomorph and do everything they can to save the infected merc, preventing the others from rebelling-- and send the infected merc to a Weyland-Yutani lab.

If the entire merc team gets wiped out except for the ones guarding the resupply camp-- I'm not stupid enough to leave it undefended-- hire more mercs, have them study the dead mercs' transmissions/reports so they'll know what they need to know to succeed, and send them out.

Burke probably picked a green lt just so the lt didn't figure things out and demand a cut. Yes this is a reversal of my position earlier that soldiers can't be bribed, but thinking about it yes they can, they are human and Burke could have offered millions.

This was Burke's big mistake. He should've given a colonel a big patriotic speech about how a xenomorph-based bioweapon will ensure the US's continued superpower status AND a large bribe. The colonel would refer Burke to an EXPERIENCED officer-- preferably a captain-- who'd agree to help for the same patriotic reasons AND a percentage of the profits, e.g., Weyland-Yutani stock options.

If Ripley wants to leak data on the bioweapons project, the colonel and captain will tell their subordinates NOT to give supporting statements-- without further evidence, Ripley's leaking will be dismissed as a fruitcake's paranoid rantings.

[Samuel]

This one makes sense, as they are Palpatine's bodyguards and Palpatine is a jerk. Remember that even though he's a Sith Lord, he can't just flip out whenever he's in danger; it would blow his cover as an old and benevolent ex-senator.

If you have to waste 90 % of your best ub3r l33t commandos in order to get the bodyguards you want, it is at the very least wasteful. One visit by Vader at the facility had him kill the best guy for the [&convert=lulz]inspiration of the others[/lulz].

I'm not saying it's efficient. I'm saying that Palpatine wanted a few dozen or so ruthless bodyguards that would follow his orders to the letter, and he got them. Efficiency didn't matter to him.

There are methods that don't involve large scale fatalities. Brainwashing, mental reprogramming, basic stormtrooper training (they are supposed to be impossible to bribe and carry out atrocities the first time we see them).

The Imperial Cadre from In Fury Born and Path of the Fury would seem to fit the bill. I don't think it could be argued that the training is efficient (an empire with a population in the tens of trillions can't supply enough people to produce 40,000 of them), but they are effective. People don't get 80% of their company wiped out at the very start of their mission and yet fight their way through several thousand well equipped enemy soldiers, break their way into a heavily fortified compound, rescue the hostages and defeat a counterattack nine times their own strength after running out of ammo if they're being trained by chumps.

How do they defeat a larger group if they are out of ammo?

See, here is the problem, what if there are soldiers from a sci-fi universe that, say always fight in combat suits that have radios. They are trained to rely on them in most situations.

And what if the soldiers LOSE the radios, e.g., the radio fell out because the soldier carelessly left a pocket open; the radio antenna broke off because the soldier bumped into something; the radio gets shot or torn off in battle; or the radio becomes USELESS because of jamming, background radiation, or terrain (see dead zones)? If the soldiers are competent, they'd have backup forms of communication, like hand signals or something; at the very least, they'd have runners moving back and forth to deliver messages.

Depends. Life is cheap verses, you die. Others use backups. Others use magic gizmos that can't be jammed. Etc.

[Black Admiral]

The Imperial Cadre from In Fury Born and Path of the Fury would seem to fit the bill. I don't think it could be argued that the training is efficient (an empire with a population in the tens of trillions can't supply enough people to produce 40,000 of them), but they are effective. People don't get 80% of their company wiped out at the very start of their mission and yet fight their way through several thousand well equipped enemy soldiers, break their way into a heavily fortified compound, rescue the hostages and defeat a counterattack nine times their own strength after running out of ammo if they're being trained by chumps.

How do they defeat a larger group if they are out of ammo?

It was four-to-one odds, actually - fifty-two terrorists against eleven Cadre - and Charlie Company did have some ammunition left, but only for scavenged weapons; and one of the heavy weapons they'd salvaged blew up rather spectacularly with its first shot.

[Shadowtraveler]

There are methods that don't involve large scale fatalities. Brainwashing, mental reprogramming, basic stormtrooper training (they are supposed to be impossible to bribe and carry out atrocities the first time we see them).

While yes, there are probably more efficient methods of doing this, in this instance it doesn't matter too much because it's intentionally sadistic.

This is not like Freehold, where in order to get first-rate soldiers, they decide to be cartoonishly cruel and this magically gets results.

[SylasGaunt]

The Sulaco's marines had NONE of the goodies mentioned, i.e., artillery (I know they're useless indoors, but the shells can be used as IEDs to help defend the marines' position); ADDITIONAL armored vehicles to replace the wrecked APC; specialized personnel such as ADDITIONAL pilots (Bishop had to fly the spare dropship by remote, FROM THE GROUND, because the Sulaco didn't have a spare pilot onboard, playing video games or something while monitoring the radio in case the marines call for help), military police (onboard, to stop Vasquez from castrating Hudson for making an ass of himself; offboard, to keep an eye on Burke), and medics.

The USCMC has all of the above, but the mission in question wasn't the kind of operation that warrants heavy armor and artillery support. It was a small job, and one that burke deliberately kept small.. and of course as you mention most of it was indoors which generally rules out most forms of air and armor support.

[PainRack]

What about the USMC from Halo? Do we know what their training is like?

[Knife]

IMO, the only thing the Marines did wrong in Alien was fortify themselves inside, rather than a nice hill top outside so they'd have range on the little alien bastards.

[TheMuffinKing]

IMO, the only thing the Marines did wrong in Alien was fortify themselves inside, rather than a nice hill top outside so they'd have range on the little alien bastards.

The only problem I see with that is the weather. The Marines would be stranded outside with minimal defenses if this happens after the dropship crash, though regardless of this the weather conditions severely limit visual range. This is a bad prospect when IIRC the aliens didn't show up on infrared, which I think were the only sensors the Marines (per man) had that potentially mitigate this limitation. If they had a fully functioning APC and Dropship running CAP, then I think this would work. Of course with a dropship they wouldn't need to fortify anything planetside.

[Pulp Hero]

What about the USMC from Halo? Do we know what their training is like?

In the book Contact Harvest we see Marines training a local militia used a stripped down training program.

It looks like something fairly conventional, not too far off from modern military training except for the futuristic technology. I think the TTR(Tactical Training Rounds), which are rounds that are ballistically identical to real rounds, but splatter a target with knockout gas and cause the uniform to stiffen up are, would provide realistic training compared against modern MILES.

The only thing that I though was unusual (a this is more of a brainbug of military fiction) is that the trainees were given a lot of freedom of the training exercise is how to set up the defenses.

[Knife]

IMO, the only thing the Marines did wrong in Alien was fortify themselves inside, rather than a nice hill top outside so they'd have range on the little alien bastards.

The only problem I see with that is the weather. The Marines would be stranded outside with minimal defenses if this happens after the dropship crash, though regardless of this the weather conditions severely limit visual range. This is a bad prospect when IIRC the aliens didn't show up on infrared, which I think were the only sensors the Marines (per man) had that potentially mitigate this limitation. If they had a fully functioning APC and Dropship running CAP, then I think this would work. Of course with a dropship they wouldn't need to fortify anything planetside.

Didn't show up on IR but the auto cannon defense battery thingies sure detected them and did quite nicely. Add to that a perimeter with gernades rigged to blow with trip wire and even if you can't see them, you can lay down a PDF in the direction of the explosions. Use the fire from the automated guns are a PDF.

[consequences]

The trouble with that is that their ammo supplies were limited as hell. We also don't know how sensitive the defense guns would have been to severe atmospheric disturbances, since they apparently tracked motion.

[Knife]

The trouble with that is that their ammo supplies were limited as hell. We also don't know how sensitive the defense guns would have been to severe atmospheric disturbances, since they apparently tracked motion.

Ammo was the same as indoors. Being outdoors gives you range on them and a better chance at defense in depth. Inside you are limited to the choke points made by the structure. Out side you can set a perimeter, I also remember they have flares (or was that just cuz the second drop ship had em?) that would make nice booby traps too, to light up an approaching enemy.

Regurdless, rather have the range than the structure. Start engaging at max effective range with the weapons.

[Sidewinder]

Didn't show up on IR but the auto cannon defense battery thingies sure detected them and did quite nicely. Add to that a perimeter with gernades rigged to blow with trip wire and even if you can't see them, you can lay down a PDF in the direction of the explosions. Use the fire from the automated guns are a PDF.

IIRC, the marines' smart guns (GPMG analogues) and the automated turrets have integral motion detectors. 'Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual' even says the smart guns automatically aim themselves at targets the motion detectors detect, and the gunner just has to squeeze the trigger.

[consequences]

The trouble with that is that their ammo supplies were limited as hell. We also don't know how sensitive the defense guns would have been to severe atmospheric disturbances, since they apparently tracked motion.

Ammo was the same as indoors. Being outdoors gives you range on them and a better chance at defense in depth. Inside you are limited to the choke points made by the structure. Out side you can set a perimeter, I also remember they have flares (or was that just cuz the second drop ship had em?) that would make nice booby traps too, to light up an approaching enemy.

Regurdless, rather have the range than the structure. Start engaging at max effective range with the weapons.

But if you give the aliens more room to spread out and approach from all sides, the ammo they have probably isn't going to go as far, because of the lack of target density. With a single approach corridor, the bursts are much more likely to get more than one at a time.

And you just pulled a Weber, and didn't address the second part of my concern.

Personally, my inclination would have been to actually back up the defense guns with directed fire in the corridor(I know the SE showed one of the pairs, don't remember if they showed the second), which would have given the xenos a focus to keep moving in on instead of trying a flanking maneuver. With a potential 200 hostiles or so, and a total of five armed bodies(including the civilian and the pistol armed ossifer) backing up the four guns, you're probably screwed whichever way they come in. If they mass on one side, you've probably only got one gun turret that can engage, if they come from all sides, you've got maybe one pulse rifle backing up each turret, and that's presuming that one person can effectively cover a ninety degree arc. From the amount of ammo spent on the one can as a test, you might get eighty xenos with the gun turrets in the open.

[SylasGaunt]

Personally, my inclination would have been to actually back up the defense guns with directed fire in the corridor(I know the SE showed one of the pairs, don't remember if they showed the second), which would have given the xenos a focus to keep moving in on instead of trying a flanking maneuver. With a potential 200 hostiles or so, and a total of five armed bodies(including the civilian and the pistol armed ossifer) backing up the four guns, you're probably screwed whichever way they come in. If they mass on one side, you've probably only got one gun turret that can engage, if they come from all sides, you've got maybe one pulse rifle backing up each turret, and that's presuming that one person can effectively cover a ninety degree arc. From the amount of ammo spent on the one can as a test, you might get eighty xenos with the gun turrets in the open.

IIRC the aliens overran the first pair of guns after running them out of ammo and broke off their attack on the second pair just before they ran dry.

[Sea Skimmer]

Ammo was the same as indoors. Being outdoors gives you range on them and a better chance at defense in depth. Inside you are limited to the choke points made by the structure. Out side you can set a perimeter, I also remember they have flares (or was that just cuz the second drop ship had em?) that would make nice booby traps too, to light up an approaching enemy.

Regurdless, rather have the range than the structure. Start engaging at max effective range with the weapons.

They clearly didn’t have enough ammo to kill all the aliens. The sentry guns fired down to just 15 rounds left in one gun, and they only had about 50 rounds per rifle, and there was never a shortage of attackers even after they’d fired all that off. In that situation going outdoors is total suicide, the aliens can attack from all directions, and firing at long range will just mean less effective gunfire. At least indoors they have narrow killing zones when one round could go through multiple aliens.

[Knife]

Ammo was the same as indoors. Being outdoors gives you range on them and a better chance at defense in depth. Inside you are limited to the choke points made by the structure. Out side you can set a perimeter, I also remember they have flares (or was that just cuz the second drop ship had em?) that would make nice booby traps too, to light up an approaching enemy.

Regurdless, rather have the range than the structure. Start engaging at max effective range with the weapons.

They clearly didn’t have enough ammo to kill all the aliens. The sentry guns fired down to just 15 rounds left in one gun, and they only had about 50 rounds per rifle, and there was never a shortage of attackers even after they’d fired all that off. In that situation going outdoors is total suicide, the aliens can attack from all directions, and firing at long range will just mean less effective gunfire. At least indoors they have narrow killing zones when one round could go through multiple aliens.

Uhm, yeah. Obviously due to being outdoors, the aliens will massively alter their tactics and do multiple avenues of approach so the Marines can't engage them. Yeah, they've shown that level of sophistication. Gotcha.

Also, since the the guns fire armor piercing, explosive bullets, they obviously can't penetrate and kill multiple and/or be an multiplier to and be an area effect weapon. Wouldn't want more than one squishy alien engaged in enfilade with ranged weapons.

[Shadowtraveler]

Uhm, yeah. Obviously due to being outdoors, the aliens will massively alter their tactics and do multiple avenues of approach so the Marines can't engage them. Yeah, they've shown that level of sophistication. Gotcha.

In hindsight that may be true, but at the time they just got massively amushed by something they couldn't see reliably and which killed most of their squad. Forting on a hill with magically aquirred knowledge that they'll attack only from one side with seven people, four of which are in any condition to wield a weapon, is not a sound idea.

Also, since the the guns fire armor piercing, explosive bullets, they obviously can't penetrate and kill multiple and/or be an multiplier to and be an area effect weapon. Wouldn't want more than one squishy alien engaged in enfilade with ranged weapons.

Wouldn't that have applied to the sentry guns as well, though? I don't have the USCMC technical manual, but if they can jam 99 10mm rounds into the Pulse Rifle, then they could do the same with the sentry guns.

[SylasGaunt]

Uhm, yeah. Obviously due to being outdoors, the aliens will massively alter their tactics and do multiple avenues of approach so the Marines can't engage them. Yeah, they've shown that level of sophistication. Gotcha.

Uhm, they actually. Look at the control room assault where the aliens were coming at the marines through both the floor and ceiling. We see Gorman and Vasquez also get cut off and surrounded in the vents (with of course another alien ambushing Vasquez from above). Coming at a target from multiple directions is fairly common among predators that work in groups.

The impression I got from the battle in the hive was that they were being attacked from multiple sides there as well.

There are of course other factors to consider.. like food, weather, oh and the nightfall of course. Remember the planet is still in the process of being terraformed and they've got quite a long wait ahead of them and I don't think I recall the weather being anything but shitty.

[Bilbo]

Then again, with overt Corporate fucking around, I really don't think we can fault the Marines for bitching that their new CO (what happened to their old one) is some inexperienced corporate stooge.

There were a lot of things wrong with the whole mission in Aliens, but I can't fault the troopers for it. A lot of it was due to Corporate fucking around and higher-up decisions the grunts had no say in. Isn't it supposed to be an allegory for the Vietnam War, but with acid-bleeding aliens instead of Charlies?

As for the lack of heavy ground artillery, it's not easy to bring tanks and crap aboard a space craft. Tanks and howitzers are heavy, and their mission was a relatively light reconnaissance one - the James Cameron equivalent of sending an Away Team of Redshirts to scope around with quadrucorder. At least in the Aliens-verse, their equivalent of Redshirts with quadrucorders come with APCs and gunships and heavy machine guns and stuff.

And those gunships were heavily armed. Just look at it TRANSFORM midair and have wings with obscene quantities of missile pods flip out of its fuselage!

The marines were screwed by three things. First they had what was pretty obviously a corporate stooge for a LT like you said. Second they had no backup crew what so ever on the ship. Third they had such a small group that they could not have a detachment to guard the landed dropship. All that was there was the pilot and her little bitch who gets eaten offscreen. Either there should have been a 5 man squad dedicated to covering the dropship or after they did that nice 1/2 second handing to drop the APC the dropship should have stayed in air the entire time. But I guess the pilot was too busy looking cool in her mirrored sunglasses while landing on a very dimly illuminated planet to use her brain.

[Bilbo]

One of the flamers gets grabbed. He convulsively pulls the trigger, hitting the guy with all the ammo. The ammo explodes, taking out at a rough guess, two additional squad members from the simultaneous flatlining with the explosion. How exactly is this not the xeno's fault?

Are you honestly no oblivious to safety protocols, you think "jerked the trigger" puts them in a better light then "freaked out." Where is your trigger finger if you are not ready to shoot, buddy? Here's a hint it's not on the trigger to prevent that exact accidental discharge problem, and if you aren't your training program is seriously lacking.

Just so we're clear, you're holding people responsible for shit they do while actively being grabbed. That's all I really need to know, you're a fucking moron.

No he is pointing out that the marine in question was holding his weapon wrong long before he was grabbed which is what caused him to torch his buddies when he was grabbed. If he had kept his finger OUTSIDE the trigger guard which is how you are supposed to hold a weapon every second of every day except when you are pulling said trigger this would not have happened.

Guess that makes you the fucking moron.

[Bilbo]

Sorry, FOG, Hudson being snarky isn't enough of a red sign that he's going to crack. It just mean's he's a smart ass. An irritant, to be sure; the class clown... but not a guarantee he's going to crumple. He was pretty gung-ho in the lander ("Express elevator to hell... goin' down!") and we're given some hint that he's been on real drops before because he's immediately contrasted with the Lieutenant, who's cringing in panic.

Here were the problems with that mission:

They were going there to "check up on" the base, which had lost contact. They send plenty of ship in the form of the Sulaco, but yes, not enough people for what could obviously be an evacuation mission. A few more landers, especially SAR-equipped.

However, let's say they didn't really expect anything to be wrong-- political leadership is overconfident, or no one wants to have a big send-ff with more Marines because then questions are asked about the Company's track record of worker safety, etc. So they get there with the small squad they had, and find... utter devastation.

Burke knew better. As soon as he got out of the briefing where they threw Ripley to the dogs he ordered the colony to investigate the alien ship. Right after that the colony goes offline.

The rest of the company probably didnt know because I bet Burke never told them he did this but he at least knew and he still allowed a way undersized force to be sent.