I already posted this question somewhere else, but I thought I'd post it here as well

Just a thought, but is anyone on here aware of who our traditional foe is? I mean obviously xeno's, and occasionally predators, are portrayed as our usual foe, but neither of them are what provoked the necessity for the formation of this branch of service in 2101. If you refer to EU sources on the internet, it's often mentioned that USCM was at it's peak in 2165 during the Tientsin Campaign, but that was almost 15 years before the events of Aliens in 2179. Apart from a brief mention, is anyone on here more informed about who exactly they were fighting, and why? Info like this provides excellent inspiration for fanfiction stories, and perhaps airsoft battle reinactment.

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Corporal
William "Deadfly" Ridder
A08/TQ2.0.42141E1
U.S.S. Fremont
9th Battalion 31st Regiment
USCM Monarchs



"Is this gonna be a stand up fight sir or another bug hunt?"

The Fan Film "Drop Zone Copernicus" (which was never completed past principal photography) had Weyland-Yutani Mercenaries.

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USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

in an earlier script of Alien 3, they set up the idea that there was a large socialist government which was opposed to the United States in space.

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PFC Mike Rizzuto MVM
USS Blackhawk
3rd Batt 12th Regt

That government was (if I remember correctly) called The Union of Progressive Peoples. I think I saw somewhere on these forums that a comic-book series is being made on that unused script by William Gibson, and will feature The Union of Progressive Peoples.

I've heard all of those too, but what was the Tietsin Campaign about, and who exactly were we fighting? There should be Plenty of material in our history prior to that as well. I love Aliens, but what helps to provide clout to our individual persona, while in character, is to understand what provoked us to join the military, and more specifically, the USCM. Having a bit of history helps with that. As bad as resurrection may have been for some, or many of you, I remember reading in the behind the scenes book that the actors who played the pirates came up with their own back stories to help them out, the same way Lance Henrikson Bill Paxton, and others did so in James Cameron's vampire western "Near Dark."

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Corporal
William "Deadfly" Ridder
A08/TQ2.0.42141E1
U.S.S. Fremont
9th Battalion 31st Regiment
USCM Monarchs



"Is this gonna be a stand up fight sir or another bug hunt?"

Quick answer? We don’t know…yet.

As stated in posts above, it will likely be explained that the socialist government called the ‘Union of Progressive Peoples’ had a direct conflict of interest during the colonization to Tientsin. This is a common theme of war going back for as long as colonization has existed. Since people always fight over resources and land, we have every reason to believe that this is the basis for the campaign, at least in a general sense.

Once this narrative comes out, we’ll likely know more than we do. I hope it answers our questions while still being a broad enough narrative to include side issues/stories, like the one filmed for Drop Zone Copernicus. Until then, we’re left to guess, but we do know a little bit about Tientsin, or at the very least, the neighborhood of Tientsin.

Tientsin is a planet orbiting the binary star Muphrid (Eta Boötis/Giiese 534) in the Constellation Boötis (“ox-driver” in Latin) commonly called the ‘Herdsman’ or ‘Plowman’. Muphrid is visually located near the  fourth-brightest star in the night sky, the orange giant Arcturus. Coincidently, Arcturus is also the closest ‘stellar’ neighbor to Eta Boötis, as both stars are nearly identical in distance from Sol.

According to the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, Tientsin is designated as 8 Eta Bootis A III and was a disputed world in what became know as the Tientsin Campaign.

We know very little about Tientsin or the campaign of the same name. The confrontation is accepted as a ‘stand up fight’ (traditional warfare/direct confrontation of technology, weaponry and personnel). We know this, because the Colonial Marines deployed nearly a quarter of a million marines to Tientsin during the height of the conflict. Nothing is know about the opposing government or faction, but the fight was likely highly localized. This is not to say that neighboring worlds (especially worlds near the closest neighboring star Arcturus) were not involved.

I believe the traditional foe of the Colonial Marines are other human forces in almost all cases. Intelligent, armed, threatening forces that can return fire in a ‘stand up fight’. Hudson uses the term ‘bug hunt’, but he’s likely being dismissive about anything he doesn't consider 'real combat’, i.e., insignificant police actions, company conflicts, search and rescue, peacekeeping details, etc. It’s also been suggested that a ‘bug hunt’ could be the removal of an indigenous ‘pest’ species or non-human race, which may also be true, but it’s all speculative.

Reading the Colonial Marine Technical Manual I get the feeling that the large companies that operate the colonies aren't always as concerned about the welfare of their workers away from the public view on Earth as they should be. Also there is still competition between different companies and nations. The result of this is that insurgent groups will spring up either in response to poor treatment by the companies or because of agitation by a rival company or nation that is looking to disrupt their operations. The companies could use their own troops to put these down if they are caught early enough but the cost of maintaining a force large enough to defeat a larger insurgency, especially one that is supplied with modern military equipment by a rival would hurt a company's bottom line too much so in such cases they'll call in the marines instead.

As with Stephen, I imagined it'd have been a Halo-type situation where the marines were quelling rebellions or uprisings against the controllers of their various colonies - whether that was big business or governments.

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Pirates, greedy corporations, mercenaries, you name it. There's plenty of new resources in a universe with expanded space travel, and where there's new opportunities, there's always someone taking advantage of them and people. Many planets, colonies and research complexes don't have enough resources to guard themselves adequately, hence the USCM.

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"Awww, someone tell me that's a boot!

It's a boot!"

III drops