The road is level and clear as you drive along, and spirits are high as you begin up the mountain track that leads to the mining village. The road is treacherous and slow-going, even with the need for haste driving you onward; you don't reach the settlement until almost dusk (though the sky is brightly illuminated by the Ley Line that passes directly over the settlement). Upon arrival, you see that some legion units have already arrived, and others come almost immediately after your own. Of course, yours is the only SET, but the rank-and-file Legionnaires, coupled with the doughty dwarves, will doubtless make for a formidable force under your command.
As you alight from the vehicles, a particularly thin Legionnaire with Corporal's stripes comes running up, immediately identifying and saluting Artemeisia. "Ma'am! Corporal Reginald Montesque, reporting. We've had confirmation of multiple bandit raiders being successfully interdicted by teams on their way here; that should thin out the Cavalry numbers considerably. I have orders to turn command of the defenses over to you immediately." He looks visibly relieved to not be 'in charge' during the upcoming fight.
"My understanding is that we should expect the remaining bandits to assault the settlement starting around noon tomorrow. Even with the losses they've taken, they'll still outnumber us, but by much less of a margin. The full contingent from the Legion, unfortunately, won't arrive until sundown the day after that, so we'll have to hold the town until then."
Surrounding the settlement (really, 'village' is giving it more credit than is due) are a number of impromptu barricades, a scattered array of more serious spiked fences, and some trenches to slow down attackers, and people running hither and yon, all working diligently, but perhaps lacking focus. Cpl. Montesque lays out a map of the settlement, to give the commander a better idea of what she's looking at. It's a collection of homes and workshops, all built in a semi-circle against the mountain slope, surrounding the mine entrance. The impromptu defenses surround that, and go up onto the slope above the mine-entrance, forming a rough circle if viewed from above.
Artemeisia quickly identifies three 'zones'. The outer defenses, obviously, are being built up to hold the line as long as they can, but they lack time and materials to make a full-blown palisade. Inside that, it occurs to her that the defenders, if forced back, could make the bandits pay dearly fighting through the array of oddly shaped buildings that surround the mine entrance. Finally, as a last redoubt, the mine itself could be used if the defenders have been so heavily battered that they have no choice but to retreat. In the event of a complete disaster, further losses could be mitigated by abandoning the effort to save the settlement itself--have any survivors retreat into the mine, leaving the geodes near the entrance as easy pickings. Of course, that would constitute a complete failure, but it might spare the lives of some of the defenders.