Quote from: Necronomicon II on Jun 03, 2023, 01:56:45 AMOk puts on 'nerd cap' 😂 —
Keep in mind that when Hudson questions whether the operation will be another stand up fight or another "bug-hunt", bug-hunt can just be a term that pertains to sweep-and-clear operations without clear objectives. It's a play on "snipe hunt," a term that can be used to describe a purposeless task. It's possible they have encountered foreign fauna before but bug hunt doesn't necessarily mean literal bugs.
Also Burke is just following standard procedure, he has confirmation and live specimens that are valuable assets for the company labs, prior he wasn't certain there'd be more than a downed transmitter. As far as I can recall, the United Americas Allied Command, which the USCM are a part, wouldn't need Burke's permission to formally investigate lost contact of a colony, why would they? The Colonial Marine Corps' key responsibilities include serving as the forerunner in any significant war operation and maintaining security for all signatories of the United Americas as well as at all extraterrestrial colonies that are under its jurisdiction.¹
1 Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual
They have a logo in their drop ship and talk about "Arcturians". They also received Ripley's brief, which contained details on the facehugger and the alien.
In addition, "bug hunt" in the real world refers to literally looking for insects or defects in systems. In this case, the reference is clearly the former. Following Ripley's report, they look like large insects. That's why Marines were used, and heavily armed.
Why the complacency? From what I gathered, most of them don't like what they do, and some just want to end their service. But they don't call the shots: rather, they superiors do. That means the ff.
The company and government are partners in the terraforming project plus anything that can be gained from the rock; hence, mineral rights. The first has a stake in monetizing any discoveries, and the second in monetizing it. Ripley's and Ash's points in the first and second movie and Burke's points in the second make this very clear.
The alien ship location was known by the whole board and even Ripley, which means for Burke to have acted alone implies significant character flaws involving both. The flaw in Ripley actually appeared in the movie, when she bothered to ask the board to investigate the location, which is the only piece of evidence that would have allowed her to defend herself, too late. To make matters worse, she only found out that a colony had been on the rock for two decades only after the hearing, and accidentally, too, which means she didn't bother to do research on what happened to the rock and even the company and government the decades she was gone.
When one follows standard procedure and will use company labs, among others, then it becomes illogical to act alone, i.e., without knowledge from the company and the government.
Finally, about the point concerning the military acting independently, they would have been able to do so in this case following the storyline that Burke acted alone because that would have meant that only he bothered to have the site investigated and only he had communications with the colony. No one else knew. That would also mean that he had control of any military unit, i.e., they didn't have to ask him for permission to investigate what happened (as they wouldn't have known because only he had access to everything happening to the colony) but that he didn't have to ask permission from military higher-ups to commandeer a military unit.
One more point: Ripley pointed out later in the movie that the mission is under military jurisdiction, which meant that the military was calling the shots. Since Gorman was meeting with Burke, and since the military is part of the government that works with the company, then it's likely that Gorman was instructed by higher-ups in the military that works for the goverment to follow Burke. And following what Bishop said, Burke's instructions were to retrieve the facehuggers and prepare them to be brought to company labs, among others. It was only with Gorman and Apone out that Hicks was able to make decisions.
It's clear, then, that Burke didn't work alone, and that several in government and company were involved. He was to act as the front man and to manage everything, with the military via Gorman working for him.
