As I've been playing X-COM games, I have come to notice how many soldiers go through our squads, especially on higher difficulties. Most of them we meet only for a mission or a few at best. The ways they died may seem silly sometimes (throwing a grenade into the wall next to you or getting shot by your teammate for example), but we have to remember that they are all humans with all the imperfections humans come with, and above all their fears, and fighting a superior enemy you do not even understand is difficult indeed. They are separated from their families and friends, with no contact with the outside wall, apart from the rare terror missions. Despite all this they all fought courageously to defend this piece of rock we call Earth from alien scum.

Your names shall not be forgotten, brave paladins... Salute!

A moment of silence please.

...

We shall now read the names of the first soldiers we lost:

TFTD:

Mission 1

Klaus Faerber - killed by a reaction shot from an Aquatoid
Yuri Bulakov - died the same way from another Aquatoid

Grigoriy Kurkenko, Gerhard Unger, Greg Garnier, Christel Zander, Nikolai Partonov and Krug Moschievs - died trying to eliminate the two Aquatoids fortified in the sub.

I will update this post or thread with other soldiers, and although it starts with soldiers from TFTD, feel free to post the names of the ones you lost, no matter the game.

If you know their background stories, please post them for those of us who don't know them.

Viktor Harrison (I think it was Viktor... began with a V...) - mission 1 on Superhuman against aquatoids.

Brave Mr V. Harrison emerged from the Triton with the rest of the squad, but was far more cautious than his comrades who were eager to eradicate the little green foe.

Four turns into the mission and Viktor is alone. Throwing two magna-blast grenades in two separate turns he wipes out three Aquatoids.

Whilst picking about the corspe of a downed alien, he feels three sonic pistol shots fly overhead. Turning round he spots an Aquatoid within three metres and kills it.

Viktor is astounded as this completed the map and he earned the title of Last Man Standing.


Unfortunately he copped it by being the first to set foot out of the sub on mission 2 and got shot long range.


Brave Viktor, I shall miss ye!

Okay, I'am on a terro mission, lobsterman.

The whole squad battles from about 21 turns before realising that they don't have any ammo left, well exept one of my soliers, or should I say soldiorete. Karin Ulbrickht stands at a tower (Those with a little room and a door) And shots lobstermen but some sneaky bastard gets up and makes her panic and she walks of the edge straight down for 4 levels and dies from the fall. (No armor)

And I abort the mission because of sonic pulser sniping that the last lobsterman gives to my men.

Two come to mind:

The first was a young Sergeant, in the early X-Com days. A heavy weapons expert, he was equipped with an Auto-Cannon. While retrieving a UFO on a farm, he was ordered to smoke out a suspected alien in a stable. He fired off three rounds of incendiary, of which one lit a wheat field on fire, and the other two struck a stone wall---directly in front of the Sergeant. The Seargen promptly dropped his weapon as he went up in a blze of phosphor. Running around, weaponless, he subsequently set a barn on fire, until he collapsed unconsious. He woke briefly, only to die from his wounds.

We had a closed casket ceremony for that one.

The second was a Rookie on his first UFO assault. Taking point at the entrance to the medium sized scout, he was thrown a high explosive package. He picked it up, and charged inside, only to find four SEctoid staring at him, plus an intact power source. Deeming it impossible to save the power source, he threw down the explosve package. Unfortunately, he did not have enough time to escape. The Rookie was awarded a post-humous medal of honour for his sacrifice, which saved the lives of the entire breaching team. Unfortunately, his remains were removed from the smoking hull of the UFO with a fire hose.

Captain Melanie Unger, 2 Commanders, names forgotten, but somewhere

Squad of 10 was poised to breach the entry way into the second part of a base with sufficient TU's for reaction fire. A Tasoth came out and took a few sonic cannons to the chest and dropped. sadly, the door was still open, a DP missile came through and the captain, with the two commanders next to her were instantly turned into pink mist. All the surrounding troops were injured.


I immediately scrubbed the mission and reloaded the save point, since my base busting squad were my top ranking officers (captain, commanders, lieutenants only). Sadly, the only save was after I unloaded the triton in the first turn.

wouldn't you turn back the clock as well to save your captain and the other hi ranking officers?

That's what I really like about the X-Com games. You get random, unique soldiers with different names (admittedly, quite a lot of siblings end up serving together) and watch them get more experienced, receive promotions, play hero and survive close calls. I really do feel regret when one of my veterans dies.

RIP
Captain Mikhailov
Mobile Infantry Squad 3
Killed by a Sectoid sniper, December 2000, North Africa

The soldiers decided it would be fun if they had a shootout with eachother, last man standing wins (I was bored xD). Then the last man got left behind.

Rest in peace, man!

Dave Bradley, taking out 3 Cyberdisks despite being heavily wounded in the fight. Killed by the death explosion of the last disk.

All members of Skyranger-1 which wanted to defend Rome from a terror attack and got wiped out in the second turn by a Blaster Bomb entering the Skyranger. I truly wish that thing had a door