Opecoiler wrote:1: The Starfleet force sent to hold the communications relay on AR-558 is replaced by a company of US Marines with standard equipment. When the Defiant arrives several months later, what does it find?
Hopefully a blown-up comm relay and, more hopefully, Marines in hiding. Alternately, just Jem'Hadar.
I don't know the full loadout of a company of marines (primarily regarding ammo stores), but assuming they have a weapons platoon with them they'll have some nice toys starting off, up to and including
this _though the terrain there would make its use somewhat tricky).
However, after five months of frequent combat, these toys would probably be out of ammo.
That said, though, the Marines wouldn't last five months. The Starfleet force on AR-558 and the Jem'Hadar had rendered one another's tricorders useless via setting some up for intense jamming purposes. Without tricorders, the Marines would be in big trouble.
As examples, the Jem'Hadar could easily locate each individual and track their movements, meaning recon scouting could be a death sentence. Further, any attempt to set traps (a la Sisko's maneuver with the "Houdini" cloaked anti-personnel mines) or any sort of sensor apparatus would fail.
Worse yet, Marine forces would be hammered by the Houdinis with no hope of that ending. And, if the Jem'Hadar did attack, all they would need to do is to shroud themselves, thereby coming in completely cloaked. The Marines would be utterly unprepared for this.
Basically we've seen pieces of this in movie form . . . it's called "Predator".
Best case, the Marines blow the comm relay (if they can) and run like hell.
2: A simple squad vs. squad battle between a Starfleet security force and a modern US army squad. Both have their standard weapons. The battle takes place in a Vietnam-esque jungle.
My Star Trek Ground Combat page is basically a hugely expanded version of my response to a similarly silly
Canadian Army vs. Starfleet post. For your purposes, the second half or so is the most interesting.
3: Fistfight between Starfleet security guard and American soldier.
Could go either way, just as in any fight. Training helps, but is never a guarantor of victory.
The dictates of plot have sometimes shown Starfleet security officers getting stomped fairly easily, whereas other times they've either taken longer (e.g. the dude who Commodore Decker had trouble with) or won. We know the security chiefs are generally relatively badass (Yar, Worf, Tuvok) compared to who they've faced.
A generic American soldier gets significant hand-to-hand training, but not enough to constitute an instant asswhoop of everyone else on the planet. I'm not saying some chick who does Tae-Bo is gonna come in and stomp a soldier, but generic American soldiers
can lose in individual hand combat even against relatively untrained opponents, depending on situation.
So again, even if we assume that Starfleet security gets little more than Tae-Bo, it could go either way.