"Think they have decent beer on this can?" Dietrich asks quietly. "Or am I going to be growing my own barley and hops?" He nodded in the direction of what passed for a mess hall on the DropShip - probably cramped quarters and all. "So, Clans. Cannot tell you much, I wasn't an officer. We ran into them out in the periphery. They demanded to know defenses, the Boss listed about half the unit. After a little while, they announced where they would land, and with what kind of numbers, not that their designations made a lot of sense to us. Boss decided to ambush them. We found out right quick that they got range, mobility and firepower on us. Give you an example, they got a 'Mech same weight class as my 'Hammer. Configuration seems variable, I saw two major variants fielded. One packs lasers the firepower and range of my PPCs and a pair of LRM-20 racks, the other packs a pair of PPCs and a bunch of short-range weapons, including homing SRMs. Moves about 10kph faster than my 'Hammer, 'bout half again the armor, I've seen their PPCs outrange ours by about half, and fire inside minimum range without feedback loops. Anyway, back to the observations. We fielded half the unit properly, waited for them to land. Boss had the other half arranged to fall on their backs. Clan types fought duel-style until our reinforcements came in. When the first shot was fired from behind, they all turned, methodically destroyed that entire half of the unit using concentrated firepower, and then did the same to the rest of us. Their boss told me to 'return and spread the word of what happens to traitors and dark caste.' Can't say I saw fit to argue, and in fairness to the tin-born, we /did/ attempt to betray him." Dietrich pauses for a moment. By that time, the trio is likely ensconced at one of the tables with a mug of liquid. "Figure they are fundamentally honorable - if you play them straight, they will just chew you up. Try to backstab them, maybe they will let one live as a warning. More likely, they will eradicate everyone."