The things that were, that will never be

The night fell thick on the hunched and crowded shoulders of those surrounding the green fire at camp. Burning oil, the iron stench of blood and the grime of a hundred marches shrouded these men in the cold unrelenting darkness. They had badges, wore armor, and had walked this road before, they're soldiers, combat ready and combat drained. Watching the boiling water cooking what looked to be a bar of soap, the men could hardly wait to devour the night's rations. One Nutri-bar, and two small vitacrackers each. Thin menu, but their bodies would take all the calories it could burn. In their predicament, that meant double or triple the normal human intake. There were six of them around the fire, a shadow materialized out of the dark, took form as a man and became Captain Jordan Hull. Tall, dark, generally handsome and resonating authority the man sat down beside his men.
"Captain, good of you to join us. We were just discussing," a quick cough and a uncharacteristically girlish giggle from the left later, he continued, "the enemies 'weak' point."
The same man who was giggling stood up, extruded a painful sounding snort and promptly fell to the ground sending laughter to the mountains and back.
"Get up, garrulous fool!" Said a sever and steady older man.
"Jamison's right. Get up!" Said an equally sever much younger man.
"Alright, so what they have sex with their faces...big deal." Captain Hull explained.
The entire group, minus one ominous fellow, shed themselves of dignity and cried together in their diaphragm stretching roar.
"Children, children," said the single person among them who didn't crack a smile.
"You must understand," standing majestically, the image of a school teacher crooning over a classroom of frightened children appeared before them, "these creatures, these insectoids, will not be so easily reproved. We have this small area, a very small area, of this world as our own. We hold it. It takes months for new shipments to come in. Sometimes years. Where will we stand, a year from now, with the ragged bunch of impudent peons we've now? They are stronger than we think, we've underestimated them. Brewing right now there's a colony somewhere, I'll bet, a place they've wormed