Erich shrugged, having ignored the pain as the local anaesthetic had worn off during the layering of sutures, tissue glue, and more sutures. "Want the long story, or the short one?" He chuckled slightly, leaning back on the medical bed and stripping off the partially-destroyed remains of his shirt; Kara had cut away a sizeable chunk around the wound he had recieved, so the rest of the relatively cheap T-shirt was best used for rags anyhow.<br/><br/>He paused, then smiled slightly. "Long it is. Born on Odessa back around the turn of the millenium. Family wasn't much in the large scale of things, but we had enough money, and I had enough aptitude scores to get into the Nagelring. Graduated with Honours, was given a Griffon, which I lost in my First engagement when I got into a fistfight with an Atlas, got a Zeus to replace it, got stuck in the Twelfth Lyran Guard, and proceeded to beat the fuck out of Kuritans, Pirates, and, when we headed to the FWL border, slapped around House Marik for shits and giggles. Did that for nearly twenty years."<br/><br/>He smiled faintly then closed his eyes for a moment. "Commanded a Battalion by the time I was forty; you wouldn't believe it, but I'm older than I look. In one nasty fight my Zeus was savaged; ended up taking the enemy commander's Awesome as salvage after I blew out his cockpit with a lucky hit from the LRM-15 rack the Zeus had. Kept the Brick since; plays well with my fighting style."<br/><br/>His smile faded slowly as he spoke. "They're all dead, y'know. Thirty-five Men and Women, under my command, killed because some goddamned idiot REMF ordered the Regiment to attack the most-heavily fortified planet within one jump, because it'd make him have a chestful of medals for taking an enemy world. There were Ten regiments massing for a raid on Hesperus, so while we were torn apart, the REMF got all the credit for spoiling an attack on the Commonwealth's most important 'mech factories. I was given a fistful of 'wounded in action' medals, as I had been on the front lines in every fight as my Battalion had been ground to pieces. Then was court-martialed for the loss of a battalion. Got acquitted due to Battleroms showing that I had objected to the attack with no intel, no real purpose, and, most importantly, showed that the fucking asshole who had ordered the twelfth into that mess had relocated the Landing Zone until there was just a lance of us left."<br/><br/>His habitual scowl had returned, though it seemed that his face had been built for frowning. "I quit, naturally. Took my 'mech, my medals, and my massive pile of cash with me to Galatea, as this was before Outreach was the 'biggest, fanciest place for mercs, and Galatea was still the Mercenary's star. Met  'Ol Bones there; he was an asshole, but he cared for us like we were his family; the fact that I was a few years older than him didn't matter much; we fought hard, won hard, and partied hard; Walt took over when Bones got killed around two months back. He means well, but he's been nothing but an asshole ever since he took a nasty hit that scrambled his ability to Pilot a 'mech. Not like he knew how to use that Highlander very well. When you're loaded with LRMs and a Gauss rifle, you don't get into a kissing competition with an Autocannon Twenty."<br/><br/>Turning slightly, he picked up a spare datapad from near the medbay's bed, turning it on to examine the contents. "So, I'm the overall commander of all ground forces. Walt likes to put on airs and claim he's top dog, but until he pulls his head out of his ass, which might require a crowbar, he's just going to be loud and annoying. Perkins, the 'paymaster' for the company is former Comstar; he's a dab hand at aerospace, but likes to 'expense report' everything, including performance in the field. If he Learned to pilot a 'mech, or, even better sat in the hotseat through a firefight, he'll be able to understand why communication can break down, and things don't go as planned, but there's a higher chance of Satan kissing Bhudda. So, questions, comments, snarky observations? Heard most of 'em before, mind."