Repel a UCA attack on a colony

You quickly got dressed and made your way to the bridge. As you walked in the Captain, a pretty black haired almond eyed woman with obvious IAA ancestry, nodded at you as you approached the holo table in the middle of the room. The table lit up with a planet in the center details on the sides, two continents, mostly water. Slightly more carbon dioxide than nitrogen left from the terraforming. ESF population of 1000.

"This is ESF World 034, no formal name designation yet as we refused to call it Planet McPlanetface as a naming poll decided." You saw one of the watch stander pouting as they heard that. Obviously a supporter of the name. "Two weeks ago at 0345 Terran Zulu a United Colonies attack **** was detected leaving New Nicaragua. There were three possible targets, two of whom weren't us so we weren't going to make a move until we knew for sure. As of this morning an official call for battle has been made. As the planet is still only lightly populated the UCA was able to demand a simple ground engagement rather than the full G&S battle this would normally require." She explained. "Quite frankly there's going to be more soldiers on the ground than civilians." She paused as she shifted the image from the planet to an overview of the small town that had developed so far.

"Command has three objectives for you. 1, protect those civilians. If the enemy captures all of them, we lose. 2. Protect the town as much as possible and 3. Eliminate or rout all enemy forces. We're going to jump in a half hour and combat will begin in three days from now." She finished. She'd obviously been reading a prepared script but she knew how much you preferred the personal approach rather than just emailing it to you like some captains would have.

"Thanks Diane. Permission to go brief my officers?" You asked, technically you outranked her but as it was her ship she was the ultimate authority on board. Just leaving would have been considered rude, especially as you knew she would give her approval. Which she did a moment later with a nod. Turning around you left the bridge and made your way down to the war room, sending messages along the way to your senior officers letting them know to meet you there. It was going to be a long day.