<div class="floatleft">(http://www.infinitelibraries.com/images/vanya.jpg)</div>"Sir." Ivan straightened, and lowered his notes, to look around the room. "I would go farther than Captains Erich and Ranna in identifying failure. I will simply start at one end of the chain of command and work my way through to the other in identifying what I observed." He took a breath - this was likely to get him branded the nail sticking out for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, it needed to be said, and more clearly than it had been. "Starting at the individual warriors, I saw a dismal performance, including myself in that. We had a short binary of 'Mechs against a full binary of vehicles. This should have been a massacre, not the protracted affair it turned into. This means that each and every one of us must improve as individual warrior."<br/><br/>Ivan paused, took a sip of water, and considered whether to continue. Now he was aiming for the officers and veterans... and in his view, they deserved it. Very well, then. Sometimes, a cub must take the initiative. "There was failure at the level of star command - Captain Erich mentioned that recon engaged, instead of pulling back, when they encountered the vehicle stars. With Starcom Ailis disabled, that failure maybe does not count against her - except for getting disabled that early in the engagement. Starcom Alroy compounded the error by only halfheartedly engaging, then by taking the bait and falling into the OpFor's trap. His words were, as I recall, that he knew Erich to be a strategist who planned for the unexpected. I am not convinced it would have been possible to surprise him, but going for the secondary target while skirting the primary, without removing the enemy's eyes and ears, strikes me as not the way to do so. There was no binary command to speak of, which is in and of itself a problem."<br/><br/>Another pause for breath. Ivan did not look at anyone in particular, as he finished his analysis. "Finally, there was no mission command to speak of beyond the first few minutes of the engagement. While perhaps intentional, I am not sure it should have been established early on there would be oversight from a command center. I do not believe we would have won if we had been better warriors individually. But to see such a complete breakdown at all levels worries me."<br/><br/>Ivan falls silent, considering the room. There was one more thing. "I would like to rebut another charge laid on our feet by Captain Erich, however. I cannot speak for anyone else in this, but I did not charge the Thunderbolt out of panic or breakdown. I attacked in that fashion because the manner of attack by the 'Mech force was that of a Trial of Annihilation. One does not request hegira when one is on the receiving end. One takes as many with oneself as is possible."