Take the average Psychology book; People are scared of what they can't see, Colours akin to blood, things with more legs than four, and things with lots of sharp teeth.<br/><br/>So, combine them all, plus use some audio 'triggers' to make the 'mech sound more like an Overly-large Scorpion than a machine, and you have a perfect example of what can cause fear just by walking by at midnight.<br/><br/>In Infrared, and Night-vision it's potentially worse. With IR, every time the main gun fires, there's a Plume of white-hot exhaust gases from the gun barrel, and all the Heat sinks mounted on the 'Mech's spine open up and vent all the excess engine and internal heat at the same time, which creates a reddish plume of heat energy that underlights the length of the gun. Imagine seeing a faint outline of cool metal with some heat at the joints, followed by a flash of heat followed by a 'spine plume' of heat running twenty feet. Definitely not something that looks like a Conventional machine.<br/><br/>With NVG, one can see the 'mech, as well as the Foil-lined Shark Grin beneath the Cockpit screen, but, once that big-ass cannon fires, well, if you've seen the slow-motion of a gun firing, you know how the muzzle flash works. Imagine that with a gun whose muzzle is big enough to Fit your head into, and well, NVG goggles suddenly becomes 'oh, god! I'm blind!'<br/><br/>EDIT:<br/><br/>Regarding today's post; Yes, Jal went through basic training. No, she Did NOT get good marks in the shooting tests. She can load, unload, and strip a weapon to its component parts, then rebuild it perfectly while blindfolded, but, give her a rifle, and a 100-yard range, and she'll be lucky to hit the target once in 20 shots. Fir a pistol, and a 35-yard range, it's about one in every 8 shots.