Honestly, the only thing I can actually point at in regards to Perkins as a source of 'Dude, what the hell?' is the fact that, despite contracting reinforcements, he didn't tell Erich, who was in overall command on the ground. (Also, he damn well should be giving bonii to the aerojocks; a strafing or bombing run is pretty dangerous, even with the fact that most heavy Aerofighters have as much or more armour than most 'Mechs do)<br/><br/>For all his reputation of being someone impossible to please, it seems, to me, that Erich is probably the most laid-back of the command structure; Sure, he makes mistakes, but he couldn't have factored in the disappearance of one of the assault lance, nor the apparent ability of a backwater planet in Capellan territory to have mounted guardian ECM systems on every telephone pole in the urban area, or the apparent inability of Recon to use more than their eyes, or common sense.<br/><br/>The fact that an Assault 'mech ambushed the two 'mechs that should have ~always~ been moving at top speed can be blamed on the pilots thinking more on what they'd like to be doing once the mission is over; It's not Perkins', Walt's, or Erich's fault that the intel given (2 lances of 70-tonners, 1 lance of Assault, with one confirmed using Lostech) was completely out-of date.<br/><br/>Honestly, Recon would have been ~savaged~ if they had gone for the Research base; with a full battalion of enemy 'mechs within 2 kilometres of the base's walls, plus infantry support acting as early warning systems, plus a bunch of 2-ton dune buggies carrying 3 tons of weapons playing 'eye spy', There would have been no possible way for recon to sneak into the base and extract the frankenmech and its pilot, especially as the volume of firepower being thrown around would have been able to amputate limbs on anything lighter than 60 tons without notice.<br/><br/>What Erich hadn't considered was that the Enemy Assault Lance would attack southwards first, because, at that point the Recon lance had only destroyed a half-dozen buggies, and that's it, while the Assault lance had lit around half of the research base on fire by that point. (Eg; he was pulling the 'Designated Idiot' Ploy, as per paintball; Be as loud and as obnoxious as possible to cause the enemy force to focus on his location, while everyone else gets the job done.) So, really, if anyone wants to give out flak, they have to go up the chain of command, instead of howling for blood like a bunch of vampire babies.