>pic from last thread The fuck am I looking at here?
Bentley Harris
She seems from macross, the first one, the Sub-captain. With a Valkirie laser as a body.
Noah Reyes
Infantry belong on mercenary TO&E, even if not on the table top, because vagabond space warlords need security ops even more than run of the mill star armies. The outsize combat power of Mechs is the key asset and liability of the mercenary unit, because if it's valuable enough to pay for, its valuable enough to steal. Given the FASAnomic parameters of mech production, the fastest way to acquire more than a single mech is hire mercenaries, replace their unreliable personnel with your own mech warriors, and sort out the MRBC later. Infantry platoons have a pretty narrow role in the Thirty-First Century, but stopping Gundamjacks cold is very much in their wheelhouse. Soldiers tramping across the stars might accept hiring wogs to be stevedores, cooks, carpenters, clerks, and motorpool staff, but guarding the major capital equipment is a job for professionals you can actually trust. To my mind, mercenary troops would specialize in military police & intellegence/counterintellegence roles after the obligatory reconnaissance and forward observation training, because most mercs operate in only mildly friendly territory. Anti-mech infantry are a very narrow application tool that few units would ever need, unlike guys who's sole occupation is stepping on the larcenous dreams of aspiring Mule joyriders.
Daniel Perez
Gunpod. The VF-1s mount the lasers in their heads.
Xavier Campbell
True.
Bentley Roberts
Beyond safeguarding un-piloted mechs and grounded aerospace craft, security troops can cover something else near and dear to mercenary leaders, key personnel. A lot of BT novels feature out-of-mech shenanigans by Ace mechwarriors and senior officers. While it is highly entertaining, and frequently plot necessary, dangerous hi-jinx are a poor business practice for a service industry that depends on specialized skilled labor. Officers and talented pilots should have a retainer of bodyguards to ward off assassination, capture, and suicidal daring-do. Not all mechwarriors need a permanent side party but having one lends an appropriate dignity to a sellsword officer. I don't believe that just because the space aristocracy rides into battle inside the heads of 12m tall metal giants that they should have to do without the services of bat men, aides de camp, buglers, color-bearers, signalmen, heralds, runners, adjutants, stewards, and other martial attendants when they are dismounted and infantry troops provide bodies to fill those types of roles.
Sebastian Sanchez
Always have a platoon or two of infantry for base security, at the least.
