MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries/Lancemates

Mercenaries adds the ability to recruit fellow mercenaries (called lancemates) to fight alongside you. While you can hire as many as you like and employ a mixture of both MechWarriors and AeroTech Pilots you can only take two into battle with you at any one time. Some missions only allow one or no lancemates, or do not allow the use of AeroTech.

The tables below list the names of lancemates, their craft (in the case of AeroTech pilots), their grades in gunnery and piloting (with A+ being the best and C being the worst), and their monthly salary. The lancemates available for hire will come and go as the game's timeline progresses, so be sure to hire the good ones when they show up (grades of B+ or higher); even if you've got a full lance it's good to have backups, because there's always a chance one will die in battle meaning you need a replacement.

MechWarriors
MechWarriors are the most useful, but also the most likely to fall in battle.

AeroTech Pilots
AeroTech pilots cost a lot more than MechWarriors but will probably die a lot less often. There are also far fewer missions you can use them on, meaning their value is more limited.