What do I need to do in order to hold back a certain encounter at their base until they have been picked up/transported by a pelican to a central battlefield. After I unload them from the pelican using a "flashlight" script, I want them to move to their firing positions around the central battlefield.

I am trying to do this with both marine and elite reserve forces using pelicans and phantoms.

Make an AI encounter with their firing positions back at base, and another encounter at the battlefield. When you unload the AI from the pelican, use

(ai_migrate [FIRST AI ENCOUNTER] [AI ENCOUNTER WITH FIRING POSITIONS ON BATTLEFIELD])

So, I can automate this in my script file to migrate after unloading from the pelican?

So here is my script:

(script continuous empty_marinepelican1
	(begin
		(if
			(and
				(= (unit_get_current_flashlight_state mp1) true)									(= (vehicle_test_seat mp1 W-driver (unit (list_get (players) 0))) true)
			)
			(begin
				(vehicle_unload mp1 P-riderLF)
				(vehicle_unload mp1 P-riderRF)
				(vehicle_unload mp1 P-passenger)
				(vehicle_unload mp1 P-sniper)
				(unit_enter_vehicle (unit (list_get (players) 0)) mp1 W-driver)
				(unit_set_desired_flashlight_state mp1 false)
			)
		)
	)
)

Do I add the "migrate script" after

(unit_set_desired_flashlight_state mp1 false)

or in a separate script?

First off, you don't need an (and command in your continuous script, as you only have one condition. As for adding in the migrate command, you would add it directly after the AI get out of the pelican, so probably after the last vehicle_unload command, or the unit_enter_vehicle command. However, these commands execute rather quickly, so no matter where you added it, it would probably seem the same.

Working great...have marines dropping out of the Pelicans as well as Kestrels on command.

Glad to know it works :)

I made the battlefield encounter empty with 0 input for min and max actors.

Looks like your map would turn out to be cool. whats the name of it?