Walter listened to the two MechWarriors and could see a whole lot of nodding and silent agreement. Quite frankly, they were giving him a whole lot of headache, which was why he started stuffing his pipe when Alroy opened up and emptied his account of complaints. He could of course see where they were coming from, being the ones who had just suffered two casualties and a whole lot of damage. But they were acting like children. As the burly man was done with his account of whatever righteous fury the whole company felt, he lit the pipe and sighed heavily.<br/><br/>"That is all cute, really. But truth is you don't know shit about anything, Al." He paused for a moment just to see their reaction, blowing a plume of smoke up towards the ceiling. "You apparently are holding out on us, because I don't know about this fucking miracle of a telescope that lets you know everything about the enemy that you are about to face. Playing around with hindsight is a beautiful thing, but it makes you retarded with all the buts and ifs. You had no more idea than Perkins that this op would account for all those 'Mechs. Our numbers indicated a handful of Phracts in the compound, an Atlas with spiffy kits and some elites in unknown 'Mechs. That's the intel we were given, not the fucking intel we made up on the spot."<br/><br/>He let that sink in for a moment, puffing away as if he was in no hurry.<br/><br/>"It's not like you are the only ones suffering. If you think that, you are all as ignorant as kids and just as childish. Perks is asleep now after having worked with the electronic warfare team for fifty plus hours to disrupt planetwide communications and sensors so that your sorry asses didn't have to face down the whole fucking CCAF presence on the planet, not to mention their goddamn ASFs who were oblivious to our presence even as we blasted out of orbit. Speaking of which, one of our pilots nearly got his ass blown off when a SAM decided to explode beneath his cockpit, but last I saw him he was chuckling it off in the bay with his wingman. He's not getting any bonuses like you fancy-pants MechJocks but he's damn happy he survived that adventure and get to write home about it."<br/><br/>He paused once more, needing to get another kick of the tobacco before he continued.<br/><br/>"If you think you can point all the blame on Perkins for this you are damn wrong. I am to blame, Erich is to blame, you are all to blame! I have no damned idea why anyone of you thought it was a good idea to crash through the compound with the Assault Lance setting fire to the whole damned place when Recon could have sneaked in, found Varyag and got the heck out of there while Assault could have played Atlas-babysitter in the city. I know Erich gave the damn order, even though I had recommended against it, and I am sure to fill him a goddamn sock of it once he recovers. But if you think you can just sit here and chew out the only man who didn't even do anything wrong this whole time, think again assholes! Our next stop is Outreach and I don't give a rat's ass how many of you want to leave the company then and there, you are fucking welcome, I don't give a shit and I won't miss you. So if you want to go to Perkins and try to blame him for all of this, you are welcome to try. But know that<em>we</em>are the once to blame for the death of Yamina and Hiro, we are the ones to blame for putting Erich in the shitting wounded list and we alone are to blame for being so trigger happy as to shoot at two 'Mechs who show up neutral on the fucking sensors. I don't want to hear anymore shit from any of you until you admit your own fault in this mess and I don't want any of you trying to rip Perkins out of sleep before he's done, just to give him shit for what is mine and Erich's fault. If however you have to complain about it, I am right here. I am Company Commander, I am the one you are supposed to blame when we lose two damn fine MechWarriors!"<br/><br/>His voice had grown in a steady curve throughout the whole spiel and he now stood up with his fists white-knuckled against the table with his pipe sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He sighed heavily again, the neon words CRITICAL FAILURE: GAUSS RIFLE DAMAGED flashing before his eyes. He rubbed them and looked back up at the others.<br/><br/>"I take responsibility for their deaths, you hear. Don't go around trying to frame Perkins for that."<br/><br/>Another image flashed before him. Perkins sitting catatonic at the comms after a fifty hour shift, clenching a cold cup of coffee in his hands.<br/><br/>"I nearly killed them all, Walt..."<br/><br/>"Is anyone else feeling like they have the privilege of hindsight? Speak up now, because I won't have any more of it later on."