Why Must the Awesome Die Quick?!

[Shadow Raptor]

Originally Posted by Mother

I dunno about that man, sometimes doing a good job and being a smart soldier is not following orders. Especially bullshit ones.

Also, what experience did he have that he has to wait for Gorman to give the order to pull out? "Say again all after incinerators". Poor soldiering.

True enough, he should have improvised after more or less hearing Gorman order the retreat instead of following it to the letter.

I honestly wouldn't say it was poor soldiering; its his job to follow orders as he gets them. But getting orders could wait until he was in a safe spot, or at the very least covered by another Marine. The reason could be that like his Marines; he was scared shitless. The Xenomorph ambush wouldn't have been anything like he would have encountered; and within the first few seconds, he lost over a quarter of his squad.

Not to mention that Gorman was new, this wasn't his squad. I recall reading somewhere that Apone and his soldiers "wore out" at least two previous CO's. If that was true, theres a good chance that bieng the ranking NCM of the squad, Apone got some serious shit for it. Disobeying orders too much from your CO's could warrent a demotion or even worse disiplinary action. Apone could have been "restricted" with what he could do,(granted the Marines Command might forgive him in this case), but he couldn't know that.

Again, I think he did a good job with his Marines, kept them in line, and splitting the squads wisely into seperate section. I think that just the surprise in which the attack came, and the means it was carried out may have made Apone uncertain, or there was something else we don't know about him.

[Rokassan]

True. In the end they had no clue as to what was coming. Those Aliens are no joke. It wasnt a bunch of Ewoks or E.T..

[Guirec]

Wasn't Gorman ordering a retreat when he said "I want you to lay down suppressive fire with the incinerators and fall back by squads"?

Apone just didn't copy the message. He died while Gorman was repeating it. The whole thing was over in a flash. What was the poor soldiering, that Gorman's message was too long/too late coming? Not that I disagree, I just would like clarification.

[Pvt. Jim Barber]

Perhaps. Even for Apone, I think he was actually getting scared trying to hear Gorman's orders over the radio.

I wish he hadn't died man, he was my favorite character...