Quote Originally Posted by MasterOfMoogles View Post
Itami pretty much only had two choices here:
1) Open fire on the knights
2) Surrender

Only moments ago, he made the first peaceful treaty with the enemy. The last thing he wants to do is cause an incident by slaughtering the princesses' personal knight squad.
He very quickly had to make the decision, and decided that it would be better to just go with them back to the city and resolve the incident. That is the simplest option and nobody has to get hurt.
Then why did he go bat nuts and shout out commands for his squad to run away? Going back peacefully with all of his squad to resolve the misunderstanding is the safest option. Waving your hand around and screaming in a foreign language while at spear point, causing giant metal vehicles to suddenly move IS NOT a safe move.