The colonial marines are replaced by post-war UNSC Marines

[Elheru Aran]

It would explain their casual attitude to the deployment. Why bother with military discipline when all you have to do is shoot down some rampaging wildlife? 'Stand up fight' could certainly refer to colonial revolts rather than actual sentient alien species, or perhaps something more challenging like say flesh-eating pseudo-apes that are capable of coordinated hunting. But they've got technology for that-- motion trackers would be a major boon to hunting dangerous game-- and big guns (a smartgun could make hash of something along the lines of a gorilla).

And then they run into some *serious* wildlife, in some close quarters, with idiot leadership that hamstrings their ability to fight back, deliberately...

[TimothyC]

RE: Crew numbers

I just remembered That the RN's proposal for the new Black Swan class sloops would have had a core crew of just 8, plus those needed for the mission equipment, which certainly shows a drive to lower manning. Link, Page 2-7 (30)

[Sea Skimmer]

Ha! I see also in that document at 3-12 a note that on the Type 45 the RN had its best crew accommodations ever, and it was felt this contributed excessively to the ships size and cost. End result, that ship is to follow the specs of an attack submarine!

Built to commercial standards as much as possible in concept, and intended to remain outside the reach of enemy 'tactical weapons'. Probably a fair comparison indeed for doomloco.