[Friction roll: [b]5[/b]. Once again the Aotrs scouting team avoids unwanted contact]

It's nightfall when you reach the alien camp. Even with the advantage of drones and long range scanners, this is a highly patrolled region in the mountains. It's an extremely defensible spot with lots of long, clear sight lines and so there's a sharp limit on how close you can get without revealing your presence. Still, though, the aliens do not seem to be expecting company and their defensive doctrine does not seem to take into account the assets available to the Aotrs.

Whatever else is happening with the aliens their logistics are galaxy class. Each shuttle that descends has its cargo attached externally in sphere-containers marked with the grav-drive >>> symbol, like clusters of grapes. With a series of gestures like an orchestral conductor, a serpentine officer is able to cause the entire cargo to detach in a single massive movement. The spheres then sort themselves into rows and columns, instantly forming a warehouse grid. Not only does this represent the equivalent of a modular AI-enabled storage warehouse but the storage containers are even arranged for secondary benefits: Walls of low-priority goods are used to form mobile exterior defenses for the base, while dangerous goods are stored in specially dug pits and covered with water. 

It's not just a specialist function either - proper OH&S, handling, labeling and storage is drilled down to the bones of everyone here. But more than the high level of competency on display, good logistics is a means that can be used to achieve a variety of ends: larger troop formations, more heavy vehicles, and so on. The overwhelming focus of, at least this stage of alien logistics, seems to be the establishment of infrastructure. A great deal of material is being sent out in order to construct more of the acceleration rings increasingly further away from the base - the relevant spheres are levitated up to a ring and when they pass through the gravity pulse sends them zooming away like a missile, reaching their destination in minutes.

Scans reveal two major points of interest in the base. Firstly, the aliens have constructed a number of extremely large versions of the curse spikes seen on their infantry. Firstly, an enormous tree is felled, stripped of bark, had several ritual preparations performed, and hauled into position. Then one of the aliens sits in meditation underneath it and using some unclear magic they project the curse on their soul into the dead wood. They have established eight of these massive spikes so far, along with a host of smaller ones. 

Secondly, the aliens are constructing a temple complex. This is no prefabricated structure - this is an intense labour involving primitive tools, local materials and highly skilled artisans. Work has begun on sculpting a trio of statues in the centre of the site, and small shuttles are crossing the planet to bring marble cut from various locations back to the base. Spiral pathways are laid and elegant gardens are being planted. At the rate this is going it will take weeks but its completion seems to be the central priority for all industry here. Seemingly, the primary purpose of the base entire seems to be to supply and defend the temple.

This observation gives you an extremely good idea of their numbers and composition - and they are substantial. The aliens have landed over 50,000 living beings, along with masses of material. There are some vehicles in use, mostly engineering and construction based, but no heavy armour. 30,000 of these soldiers are the canid legionnaires, and mostly these are dressed in the low-status drab blue colours - mainline combat troops who are doubling at most construction and engineering functions. 10,000 are various uncategorizables - more specialized bioforms of all kinds of shapes and sizes, auxiliary branches made to fulfill a variety of secondary functions. 5,000 are the snakelike aliens, predominately dressed in higher-status bright blues and operating in various leadership roles. And the remaining 5,000...

You've gotten so used to looking at blue that the bright yellow of their rubberized robes seems jarring in comparison. Despite their bright colour you almost miss them at first - their robes seem designed specifically to defeat sensors, ward against magic and conceal what's underneath, making them only really visible to direct optics. Visually, they are a strange and misshapen bunch - dozens of shapes and sizes, including one so large that it looks like a train engine with a yellow tarp thrown over the top. 

These have nothing to do with the others. Not with the temple, not with the spikes, not with the logistics. They are building a specialized hub half a kilometer removed from the base, in an even more defensible position further up the mountains, all under the cover of sensor-baffling material sheets. After getting so much information uncontested it's a surprise to learn that at least some of them understand how to keep a secret.

With complete strategic surprise, a lightning raid on the yellow position without engaging the main base is possible if desired. A covert infiltration will require specialized intelligence assets.