Erich interjected quietly, but harshly. "And that is the point you so solvently made, Hiro; you broke off from your own lance to attack, solo, a force of unknown capability and quantity; if there had been a Buldog tank in support, you would have eaten a faceful of SRMs and a Large laser, instead of getting away with only light armour damage. The fact that this... 'Clan' was so overconfident as to attack a short company of 'mechs leaning towards the assault size, with only twenty-five troopers, regardless of how advanced their technology or armour is, is one of several reasons we got away with the only actual internal damage being a few heat sinks with bad coolant lines slagging themselves, and Walt getting rattled like a pea in a steel can. If you had followed your own advice, as provided by hindsight, you would have broken away from the fight and provided flanking fire to support your lancemates. But, that's in the past, and I'm too old to get into a proteacted shouting match over this."<br/><br/>He turned, looking at Yamina; the Locust pilot was fidgeting in her seat, and it was clear that the two recon lance pilots had been doing more than discussing tactics together. "The Majority of the unit followed orders and disengaged from the ambush in good order, laying down heavy fire to prevent any follow-up attacks. Those that were unable to, or incapable of disengaging, also performed admirably, as shown by the facts that Walt is still alive, and some ninety percent of the damage sustained was to armour plate."<br/><br/>He looked over the rest of the company, then pinched the bridge of his nose, staving off a headache. "Perkins; thanks for the dossier; we're going to have to pore over the databanks on the planet we're visitng too, so we can come up with some decent ideas about how to extract this engineer, and possibly his 'mech, once we arrive. Everyone else; remember this. I'm not trying to single you out because I'm a harsh old bastard that hates everyone, or because I'm the only Steiner national here, and a full half of you lot are Dracs. I have seen too many young guns get confident, start bragging, and get blown up to want to see you kids go through the same. That's why I'm going to make you suffer through the same training in regards to anti-mech infantry until I am certain that you could escape any point-blank range ambush with only your pride in tatters. I'm not in this for pep talks, or making you kids feel good about yourselves. I'm here to keep you alive, and as long as you listen to me, there's a very good chance that you'll be able to enter the 'Old mechwarrior Retirement Home' on your own two feet, instead of on stumps."<br/><br/>He swept his dark gaze across the room, looking at each Mechwarrior in turn, as if searching for understanding in their eyes or faces. "Meeting adjourned. Go get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."