Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft or the characters, there in they are copyrighted by Blizzard entertainment. I do claim to own this story however as I submitted this to the blizzard creative writing contest this year.
The Final Moments of Mark Koiter
The young marine had been through much on the long campaign under marshal Raynor. Everyone had, he thought to himself as he was trying to force himself to get a few hours of sleep before his next twelve hours of manning the fourth bunker on the left flank of the forward command base. From the outside of the trench he heard the constant barrage of gunfire, bombs exploding, and the harsh squeals and shrieks of zerg being ripped apart over and over and they still kept coming. The raiders had a combat team of roughly a few thousand total which included the techs and support staff still on the Hyperion, they were barely a company but they fought just as well as any of the Dominion troopers. Most were former colonial militia, like Mark; from Mar Sara or other fringe worlds that the Dominion didn't give a rat's ass about when push came to shove. He had joined the raiders shortly after the day Raynor came to Blackwater Station, and saved his family and him from being sent to that dig site.
He contemplated still trying to force himself to sleep even with all the constant sounds of violence and war raging around him like a thunderstorm. He thought of how hard it was for him when he was just barely out of the boot camp for the local militia when the planet began open revolt. He met the former marshal again when the small town he was stationed at became under attack by the Dominion forces from the dig site. That was the first time he had actually seen combat before, but he managed to hold the line shoulder to shoulder with a man to him was a living legend despite what the papers and news tried to make him out to be. The people of Mar Sara did not forget how the Confederacy abandoned them to the zerg during the first war. At least Mark didn't, he remembered watching his neighbors be torn limb from limb while the streets were flooded with people desperately trying to make it to the starport for a faint hope of rescue.
He wanted to join the Sons of Korhal but being only fifteen and not really being fit for combat duty he was denied the chance to stand by his rescuers. His older brother Adam went off to war with them instead and in time they received a message over their home computer that he fell during the battle of Antiga Prime. Mark didn't take it well Adam always seemed confident in everything; he had a girl waiting for him to return to her a war hero. He missed the messages Adam would send him in particular about the former marshal whom he was serving under. He told Mark very little about what happened in the missions, but stated that for the moment he felt like he was on the right side making the world a brighter place. Raynor was treated like a traitor to the government when he did his best to save Blackwater Station. That meant nothing though to the Confederacy, and to Mark once he became eighteen and the recruiters came knocking at his door he was tempted to join the regular military, however his father told him that he could serve in the planetary militia. It was almost like the military except his orders came from the colony magistrate rather than the emperor. Mark didn't mind this and neither did his family due to the fact that he was still close to home and he would be able to help out at the farm when not on duty. The news that he was going to join the Raiders came hard for his little sister, mother, and father. He was their last son and they begged him to come with them to Meinhoff where fringe colonists were starting to head as soon as the zerg began to attack.
It was a tough thing to do when he told his parents that he had to go and at least try to make the world a better place. He had never stood up to them before, it was always 'yes sir' and 'no sir' even before the boot camp instructors hammered some ethics into him and other 'meat' as they called it. It turned out that had been the correct path as not long after reports began to trickle out about disease spreading in the colony and like with Mar Sara the Dominion just packed up shop and left. Just like the Confederates did when he was but a boy, but it was different now, he was nineteen, he was angry, and bitter for what the government his brother died to put into power did to them it was a spit in the face of everyone from their colony who took up arms in support of him during the rebellion. He found his family there, and despite his hopes that they were safe they were infested, and he felt not only alone but disillusioned by everything he thought this cause he was fighting for would be. He killed zerg without a second thought, but Meinhoff was the first time he ever really fired on human targets. He remembered throwing up not long after finding his father and trying to reason with him before he tripped and his gauss rifle went off nearly tearing the man in half from the volley. The commander shared some whiskey with him when it was over, he wasn't sure if it was pity or he figured someone old enough to fight and die should at least be able to get drunk on a pirate ship when either he could stay and fight and possibly die, or he could stay in a hole like a rat and hope the zerg, protoss, or the Dominion didn't kill him. Raynor gave him plenty of times to leave before Meinhoff, and he always said that his place was here, but afterwards he actually meant every word. This unit was all he had then, and if he had left he never would have met her.
He opened his eyes for a moment and he could see his reflection in the visor, he never thought he was much to look at. He had the look of his father except for his mother's raven colored hair. He looked like another far from home country boy just like anyone else in the unit. He saw a medic's power armor approach him and her visor popped open and she gave him a warm smile as he got up and opened his in turn.
"Miss me Mark?" She asked with a large grin.
"Always Daisy…" He smiled, she was a medivac pilot, and in Mark's opinion one of the best and most fearless women he had ever met. She was slender but had big brown eyes, matching hair, and always wore a smile. The other marines in his unit warned him about being nothing more than a grunt and getting the hots for the woman responsible for saving your ass. He loved her, and for the past two months they were married. He thought back to how it started as nothing more than a bet between to people. "Daisy…if I ever save your ass just one time, I'd ask you to marry me darling." He drawled out after his unit was picked up after securing the artifact from the protoss on Typhon XI. He was grateful not only had he survived one of the scariest encounters of his life but he had done so on a planet where the only direction to move was forward into the breach rather than flanking due to the fact that there was a large wall of fire behind them every step of the way.
She called back to him, "If that day ever happens, I might just say yes, now sit your butt on that damn seat and shut it."
That happened not much longer after than when the Raiders launched a heavy offensive against the UNN headquarters on Korhal. Her medivac was taking shots from a missile turret just outside of one of the towers. Her ship ended up being forced into an emergency landing with his team inside nearly six miles away from the target as the main force was already ahead of them. They were cutoff almost as soon as they forced the hatches open and climbed out onto the street. Daisy had a large piece of shrapnel in her leg Mark couldn't tell if the armor stopped it or just how bad she was but they laid her down along with two other injured marines and took stock of the situation. Daisy was placed in the middle of the group along with the two other injured soldiers, and he knew this would be tricky. He opened his comm. and called out over it. "Big Dog one, this is Romeo two-three, our medivac was shot down six miles away from target area, we have injured men here. I am requesting an evac before continuing our push to the tower on foot. How copy my transmission, over?"
"This is Big Dog one we are diverting team six to your position. Hold tight we aren't leaving you behind." Captain Horner stated quickly.
Their team of eight was now only six combat ready and his range finder picked up incoming hostiles closing fast. A large Dominion patrol of a Hellion and eight marines were already headed towards them. Mark ordered his squad to form up behind the wreckage using the debris as cover and they waited until the marines were starting a sweep for survivors. "Open fire!" Mark screamed as he raised himself up from the wreckage him and several others were hiding behind. He was shoulder to shoulder with several of his men and their rifles opened up on the four closest marines to their position. They were torn apart quickly by the hail of automatic gunfire before they could even react. The hellion turned it's turret towards the group and sprayed a flame jet at the two marines farthest from Koiter's position on the right side. The two men screamed as the flame engulfed them lapping at their suits and skin until they stopped moving. "Take out the Hellion!" He barked and his remaining team including the two wounded marines with possible concussions wobbled onto the firing line and joined in hammering the cockpit of the small scout car until the gas tank on the side of the flamethrower turret was pierced by several shots. The car exploded quickly and the remaining enemy marines began to fall back quickly down the street giving covering fire as they retreated from the crash site. Mark was not happy about this, he hated loosing men, and during the whole engagement he lost half his team already. Even the nanites Daisy used on the ones she could didn't save them from repeated bullet wounds and sheer shock trauma still present from the crash.
He knelt down next to Daisy still clutching her leg blood begining to flow from the wound where he helped to remove the elongated piece of metal and tossed it aside. "Hang on…" He muttered to her starting to help her with the emergency release locks for the suit.
"Not exactly how I pictured today going…" She grunted as he pulled her from the suit and cradled her examining the wound. She was in her usual jeans and tee shirt and she pulled at the belt she had on and tightly fastened it above the wound before applying enough nanites to seal the wound and heal most of the damage. She'd still need to see a doctor as good as nanomachines were they weren't a cure all.
Mark smiled at her as the distant engines of another medivac could be heard. "You know I saved your life right darling?" He chuckled.
She looked away, "Like I'd ever do anything like that…" She trailed off as the ship landed and two medics from team six came out of the ramp first. They carried off the dead and the fresh marines headed towards Mark. "Sergeant Koiter, we're here to join you and continue the push." One of the marines said.
Mark looked at the men and then at Daisy before the pilot took her inside the ship, the other medic stood with them ready to follow them and keep pace. "Marry me!" He barked as the ramp was closing. Daisy gave a faint smile. "When will I get my answer to that important question?" He shouted as the ramp was nearly closed.
"When you come back to me, I'll tell you." She called back with a grin before groaning from pain as the wound had obviously reopened. The ramp closed and the ship took off quickly. Mark looked at the men and after snapping his visor back down. "Let's move!" He barked.
He had gotten the answer he wanted from her, but it wasn't immediate it took a few weeks while the commander was busy studying that weird crystal thing in the lab. They had been married, and Captain Horner seemed to be the only one who didn't joke about it as much. Mark figured it was because he got married because of a bet as well, he shook his head for a moment letting the good memories fade and returning to the bleak red dirtball they were on.
"Commander is planning a big operation with the general, seems we're almost ready for the last push." Daisy said as they walked side by side. Mark kept his rifle cradled in his hands as they walked together.
"Do you think this artifact thing is really going to do what they say?" Daisy asked as the sound of several Vikings opening up their auto cannons echoed through the camp. The shrieks of zerlings soon followed as Mark turned his head towards her and muttered.
"I think the commander believes in this a great deal, and that's all I really know to believe. He has lead us this far and we've come out on top, I think we should trust his judgment on this as well." Mark said to her in a flat tone. Most of the raiders could hear the tail end of the discussion as they assembled behind the discussion between commander Raynor, general Warfield, and the convict Tychus Findlay.
"We can deal with the nydus worms when they surface, but there ain't no way we can advance without air cover. We gotta take that platform down." Raynor stated in his usual commanding voice.
"We came all the way down here just to head back into space?" Tychus grumbled.
"I only wish I could go with you. Give 'em hell Raynor!" Warfield said enthusiastically. Mark couldn't tell if the general just enjoyed that the commander agreed with him, or he was trying to be a kiss ass. None of the raiders liked Warfield and with Raynor leading the strike team to the platform, Horner in space trying to keep what was left of the fleet organized, that meant 'ol Warfield would be charged with the holding of the forward base camp. Mark didn't trust that old windbag as far as he could throw him and even in his variation of the now standard issue CMC-230 hardskin that was a task he didn't think he would accomplish with much effect.
"The zerg fliers are using this old orbital platform as their base of operations." Warfield began as the adjutant displayed a combat map before the three, and Mark was able to glimpse it from afar just like everyone else who stood there awaiting orders. "It's actually made up of smaller platforms tethered together in geostationary orbit." Warfield began again. "The nests are too deep inside to destroy with a bombardment, but clearing the whole thing with ground forces will be costly."
Raynor finally spoke his mind already coming up with a plan. "Adjutant, what's keeping that thing in orbit? Has it got power?" He asked quickly.
A computerized head appeared and said in a neutral mechanized tone. "Affirmative, thermal readings indicate intense heat coming from the platform." The voice began. "Core temperatures are kept stable by a series of coolant towers, still operational despite the zerg infestation." It added shortly afterwards.
"Perfect, there's your answer general. We get onboard and destroy the coolant towers on each section." Raynor began enthusiastically. "The reactors will go critical and take care of the zerg for us."
"Excellent plan, you missed your calling Raynor, you would have made an outstanding staff officer." The general replied.
To that comment Raynor replied in his typical sarcastic cowboy approach. "I reckon I'm right where I'm meant to be, general. Now let's get saddled up and hit that platform." He turned and faced the tactical data one last time before addressing his men. "Kerrigan won't be giving us a second chance."
Mark nodded; the logic was sound enough, blow up a platform and then they own the air, and then push onto Kerrigan's stronghold with enough Battlecruisers, Wraiths, Vikings, and Banshees to pound these little critters into submission while the ground forces just focused on holding the line until the flyboys could support them. It would mean that the twenty-four hour shifts for the pilots would continue, which he felt for Daisy in that regard. She like everyone else was running on stimpacks, coffee, and anything else illegal or otherwise just to keep them going. Granted Daisy didn't do any of the hard drugs like crab, but she was taking several stimpacks a day and that worried him because that stuff was dangerous to her and worse yet it was addictive. Mark never touched the stuff sure the others called him a chicken for not doing so but he was smart enough to know that if the commander didn't use them in his combat suit there was a good reason not to. Raynor walked over to them and everyone snapped to attention as he activated the public comm. channel inside his suit. "Well, we're going to the final act; some of you folks have been with me since this thing got started. As some of you could overhear, we are going to send a strike team onto an orbital platform and take out enough of the zerg fliers to own the air. This means two things, while we are going to be using us to spearhead the charge make no mistake we are going to have to split the main body of our forces. This means that while we and several of the Dominion's battle squadrons are trying to take the platform out of commission, the rest of our forces will remain here to hold the base." He took a long breath. "I would like volunteers to step forward to help fill in the gaps within the lines we will be creating by doing this." Mark and several members of his squad stepped forward along with about fifty other marines.
Daisy began but Mark held his hand and looked at her. "You'll be needed to ferry troops and supplies up there and you know it." She opened her mouth to protest. "This is just as important as what you'll have to do if our line breaks here we won't have enough troops left to push onto the main objective and victory." He whispered sternly to her. She looked away but took a step back into the main ranks her head hung low as if she knew he was right, but they had been together for so long it was like splitting up a team. Sure it was selfish, but she wanted to protect him and be there for him as much as he was for her. Raynor noticed the slight tussle in the back between the pilot and the marine but chose to ignore it as the volunteers made a line in front of the main body of raiders. "You boys, I can already tell are some of my very best troopers." He paused as Koiter's armor and glanced at him and made a guesture with his eyes back to the rest of the men. As if telling him one last time to reconsider and he wouldn't think any less of him. Koiter shook his head ever so slightly. Raynor gave a stiff nod and continued. "I'm counting on you all to keep this piece of fine real-estate nice and secure while we are away. Do you troopers get me?"
"We get you sir!" The men all barked in unison.
"You will be under the command of general Warfield until my return. Good luck to you boys…Goodluck to us all." He said. "As for the rest of you…get your gear packed and prepped we are leaving at 0400, dismissed!" He boomed, and the crew gave a salute before falling out. Mark looked for Daisy but it was clear she had already gone to her ship to be alone and away from him she was angry and he knew it was his fault. Mark went to the armory first getting as much ammunition as his suit would hold and then went towards the starport and began looking for his wife. He found her outside of her hardskin doing some light repairs on one of the engines on a blue medivac with a name and a small flower named, "Daisy's Deliveries." Mark laid his rifle down and approached her; she glanced up and said nothing. "Daisy….can you spare a minute?" He asked.
She looked up and glared and reached over for a monkey wrench and began to tighten a loose fitting on the engine again. "Honey…" He said in a sympathetic tone, again no reply without any reply or glance from her. "Baby, please talk to me, you have to leave in an hour." She took a deep breath and growled as she slowly hopped down wiping her hands with a cloth as she looked at him. "Yeah…" She said in a tone that did very little to hide her irritation.
"I'm sorry." He said to her as she looked up at him sighing deeply.
"Why are you doing this Mark?" She asked after a few moments of an uneasy silence. "You need to feel like more of a man than the rest of us or something? You just a big dumb adrenaline junkie now, off to get his kicks fighting the bugs?" She asked sternly.
"You know it isn't that…" He began before his wife cut him off.
"Just how many times have I saved your sorry ass, huh? Reckon I seemed to have lost count myself." She drawled out a little.
"Darling…I know it's true, but would you just let me finish." He pleaded.
"What you don't trust me or something anymore? You…."
"Daisy shut up and let me speak!" He barked at her midsentence she stiffened she had never seen him upset before she was clearly taken aback by this and he sighed. He hated yelling at people it wasn't something he enjoyed doing even when giving orders normally he preferred to be a quiet introverted person reading a holo book or listening to audio files on his fone. "Now, I know you are upset, but please look at this from the standpoint of the unit. You'll be needed more up there and you know it, if people get suit punctures up there, they'll die of decompression and vacuum exposure in a matter of moments. Medivacs are the only sure fire thing that can help them get patched up fast enough inside their suits." He said to her. "They'll need good pilots up there carrying fresh supplies from the support ships and men as well from the fleet and that's you sweetie. I'm a ground pounder; my feet belong on the dirt sweetie. The skies are yours." He said to her quickly and then added. "I'm scared too, but if they overrun this base you won't have anything to come back to, and…I just feel I'd make the most difference here is all." He looked at her pleading for her to be a little understanding. She looked off to the side for a moment then back up at him. "I…don't want to loose you." She said after awhile.
He looked at her and smiled trying to reassure her. "You won't, we're going to go to Haven, settle down, and raise a family just like we talked about. After we helped them with that zerg virus I'm sure the doctor Hanson would welcome us with open arms."
"Mark…I have something to tell you…" She said her hands twitching and Mark wondered if that meant she was going through a slight withdrawal of the stims. "If it's about the stimpacks, then I don't want to hear it, you know where I stand on it and I really hope you kick that habit." He said and she smiled but shook her head.
"It's not about that, and I'm trying trust me I haven't had one all day…I found out something that kind of scares me though." Mark pressed the release locks for his suit and slowly climbed out of it and hopped down in front of her. She was about half a head taller than him and he looked up at her and smiled as he asked.
"Like what?" He asked as she smiled and grabbed his hand and led him inside the belly of her ship. It was cramped already from gear and supplies already loaded but he smiled as they sat down on a series of long crates. She squeezed his hand for a long time and then looked at him biting her bottom lip until someone yelled into the hatch. "Final flight checks are in fifteen!" The mechanic barked.
"Yeah, no problem, we'll be ready by then!" She barked back before walking over and pressing the button that raised the ramp and sealed it before walking back over to Mark. "Sorry, where were we?" She asked a little nervously. Mark figured he knew what she was going to ask and pulled her close to him and kissed her. "Something about we've got fifteen minutes warrant officer." He whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You better make 'em good ones sergeant." She mused. This was what Mark figured she meant as soon they were fixing their clothes as the ramp came down again and then double checking each other's suits. She looked at him for awhile then said. "Mark…about what I said."
"Water under the bridge right, I'll see you when you get back and you can tell me what you wanted then okay." He said as marines were already starting to enter her ship. "Go…" He said with a smile.
Daisy patted his shoulder with her hand and took off towards the cockpit. After getting inside Mark picked his rifle back up and watched her slowly start up the engines. She blew him a kiss as she took off and Mark waved and watched the ship slowly slip away into the sky. He sighed for a moment and then began to double time it to the rally point. His suit was already pinging for him. He found himself soon shoulder to shoulder with most of his squad along with Dominion troopers holding the left trench and bunker cluster under a captain by the name of Fuller designated Romeo squad. Mark never had much to say to anyone, other than the men he was leading mostly what he did was move back and forth between the twenty or so people he was leading and make sure they had enough bullets to go around. Finally, he raised himself to a firing position and lowered his rifle as the line was stable enough and snapped his visor down and stared at the wave of orange creatures of various sizes screaming as they charged. Like a tidal wave of fury and rage they were coming at them, he barked over the channel. "Squad two pick your targets….wait until they get into range….engage hostile targets as they appear, you are weapons free!" He screamed as the bunkers kept spraying overlapping fire with the men in the trenches. He and the men to his right and left opened up on anything and everything they could see. He couldn't help but wonder if the operation was going any better in orbit, at least the fliers had mostly retreated most likely to defend the platform. He didn't have time to contemplate this however as the motions of aiming, firing, and reloading were all he was concerned with at the moment. It was almost enjoyable not having to really aim down range and know your shots hit something every time, but at the same time it was terrifying none the less. The zerg had one thing the terrans were certainly running short of and that was numbers. The channel finally clicked open and Warfield's voice boomed over it. "The center line is taking intense pressure if we do not push the zerg back, we are in extreme danger of having the flanks cut off and broken. I want the right and left trench lines to pincer the zerg advance along with a push from the central line and drive them off the hill!" Koiter looked over to his left and right and several of his men were thinking the same thing he was, that it was madness. The resoc Dominion troopers seemed almost happy about walking into a crossfire from the zerg. Captain Fuller's voice crackled over the channel, "Understood general, squads Echo through Romeo prepare to go over the top and push towards the center of our lines!" Koiter took a deep breath and looked at his men and qued over their channel. "It has been the greatest honor in my life serving with you all."
One of the privates chimed in. "The honor was ours sarge…"
"Fix….bayonets!" Koiter barked as the long blade extended from his troops rifles as well as his own. He took a deep breath and simply waited for the order to be given. A red suited trooper stood beside him. "Follow me! Charge!" Fuller barked over the section's channel and climbing over the top and waving people forward before firing into the swarm. Koiter and his men gave a bellowing yell as the small trickle of blue armors followed close behind the captain and his resoc marines. It was chaos Fuller went down almost thirteen feet from the line as a hydralisk peppered him with spines before it was shreaded by a hail of gunfire as Koiter and the other leaders kept urging the people forward. It was terrible having to face the zerg on two fronts but for the first time that he knew of the zerg lines were actually starting to flounder from the very small but extremely enthusiastic infantry assault. Seige tanks lobbed rounds ahead and to the right of them doing their best to give the men breathing room as they kept pushing towards the rally point. Koiter watched as men dropped like flies around him but they kept pushing some men fighting in close combat others just slamming zerlings and hydralisks with round after round until they stopped moving.
Finally, the unexpected happened the zerg began to pull back just as the terran ground forces finally met just a few hundred yards in front of the bunkers. Koiter was breathing heavily and looked around as cheers erupted as a bright light shown from orbit, they had done it the platform was destroyed. Koiter then felt a rumbling beneath him, and slowly the cheers died down. "Fall back!" He barked over the sections channel. "Fall back! Incoming Nydus…" He was cut off as the massive tunneling zerg burst from nearby throwing him into the central trench. He grunted his suit was already giving him some painkillers and registered several broken ribs. He heard the shrieks of men running towards him being cut down and still fighting towards their own lines. He grunted struggling to get to his feet when he noticed a marine get pinned by a zerling while firing his weapon wildly the arm dropped towards his direction he heard the sound of shattering glass and his head rocked back and his body slumped back against the wall. The world had gone dark as the only sound his suit made now was that of a solid flatline. Aboard the Hyperion the adjutant added a name to the people currently lost it read: M. Kioter 20-05-54 service number A-02-8XTR-104 blood type O- status: KIA.
In time the commander returned and slowly went over to the suit as it did what rarely happened on Char it rained and removed the dogtag. The body made a limp jerk then remained limp and still. He clutched it in his armored fist knowing another good man was led to his death by him. He gave a speech which the body couldn't hear and most likely it was simply to try and reaffirm Raynor's belief in himself that people still were willing to follow him even into the jaws of certain death. Slowly, Daisy was scanning the lines looking around wide eyed as Raynor slowly approached her holding something in his hand. He held his hand out to her and opened it; she put hers up waving it away after looking down at it. "Nahuh…" She said defiantly. Raynor said nothing as he kept his hand there. She kept looking away then back again tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Nahuh…." Raynor placed the tags in her hand and hugged her armored form as she began to cry. "Nahuh…please….no!" She pleaded as the tears flowed freely from her face.
Days passed as the dead were loaded up and the fleet prepared to make a jump away from Char. The dead raiders were laid out in the armory all four hundred and eighty-seven. Compared to the Dominion who lost whole divisions the raiders got off easy but each loss was felt. Captain Horner made a speech as the burial detail began and flags were folded and placed inside the coffins. The marines in powered suits carried the coffins one by one to the launch catapult. A final flag was folded up and handed to Captain Horner as the metal coffins labeled M. Koiter and T. Findlay came to be loaded. He turned to the pilot in her dress uniform a slight bulge on her stomach was beginning to show meaning her secret was that she was indeed already carrying Mark's child.
"On behalf of commander Raynor, myself, and the hopes of a brighter future I present you with this flag." Matt took a deep breath. "He…he was a good man, and we all share your loss." He said as she looked at him still sobbing he saluted her and she forced herself to return it. He did an about face and saluted the coffin, soon the marines whom some of which Koiter had personally led carried him along with the convict Tychus to be loaded onto the catapult and sent into space.
Daisy watched as the coffins were launched out into the void wondering if it was all worth it. She looked up near one of the elevators and saw Jim and the former queen of blades beside him holding his hand. She placed her hand gently over the bulge on her stomach as she felt a kick for the first time already knowing she'd name him after his father in a way to carry on his spirit. More people would die in this war, but this brighter future everyone was trying to see would be paid for by blood, and sadly it was the blood of good people who didn't deserve death the regular soldier, whose tails are never usually heard of in history. History vids just show the battles, what the commanders did, or the survivors who were always labeled as heroes. The real heroes are the soldiers who never make it home, and die doing their jobs as best as they can, in the hopes of making the world brighter for the people who matter most to them, their families and children.