heh, I'd avoid the Special forces alarm post like the plague. I never cared about them in the past, but now they're lethal. I would personally try to take that cluster of 4 mk IV as quickly as possible. Unless one of them borders the special forces alarm, in which case I would try to assinate it and reload the game until it doesn't trigger. Well, I would only do that in high dif games, but I know that's all you play.
I'd get the ARS and Bombard fab fast and hope I won't get cuddly hugged in the process.
I've learned not to alert mk IV worlds on dif 9/9 for too long. If I have to take a mk IV world that borders another mk IV world, I automatically take that one too (or place a Warp Jammer but that's too costy for early game knowledge).