We've actually been doing RESEARCH as well.
First, we need to capture aliens alive probably. We're not interested in long-term storage. (Another difference from the original X-COM, where you could build a POW Camp in your basement.) However we do want live bodies for interrogation, if possible, and for biological and chemical weapons checking. It'd be nice, though not likely, if we can find a toxin that works on them but not humans. So we need to store aliens. Briefly.
Second, capturing them alive means coming up with a way to subdue them, and while Sectoids are pretty useless without a gun we can't rely on everyone being so inept. Hence the Arc Thrower. Unfortunately, we're broke, so we can only build two of them.
We're also working on putting together both the alien gear we've got, and the fact we have access to advanced research from every major power on Earth, so we have a lot of interesting bits of technology we could put together. We'll be passing a lot of the DARPA and equivalent agencies' stuff it off to the engineering team for examination and possible deployment...once we have the money. We did manage to build some weapons enhancements, but we need a dedicated facility to pursue this further and we can't pay for that quite yet.
And the Council calls. Alien incursion reported in France. One of our major civilian backers, a General Dynamics executive named Thomas Hutch, is in the strike zone. He was in France conducting talks with the local government about the importance of the HLPX-COM project and we are going in to get him out alive; we look after our friends. Given the importance of the mission, and the fact our wounded are back to battery, we'll be deploying Scourge of Ages, Esarai, Talon 1024, and Pred The Penguin rather than giving any rookies field experience. (Sorry folks.) Scourge and Talon will carry the Arc Thrower prototypes. Pred will be field-testing the new SCOPE computer-assisted targeting module for our Sniper Rifles.
Here's our person to keep safe. Problem: there are Sectoids on the other side of the road with an elevated position.
See?
Also a Thin Man turned up and flanked Pred as he moved to provide cover. And killed him. We're going into the ****ter early on this one.
Esarai makes a run for Mr. Hutch, evading fire on the way. Only it's not Mister Hutch, just his security people. He pulled a runner while they were pinned down by the aliens. Now they're out of ammo and have their thumbs up their butts since they can't move without getting gunned down.
Talon closes on the Thin Man which killed Pred, ducking as it fires back.
Esarai wasn't as lucky and took some plasma from two of the Sectoids. He's actually pretty badly hurt.
Talon meanwhile kills the Thin Man.
Esarai runs for more cover, evading more shots.
He also finds another alien which Scourge brings down. Meanwhile, somewhere off in the darkness, an alien for some reason fires at a car it's standing next to and then blows up along with the car the next turn. No I don't know either.
Esarai and Talon combine fire to kill a Thin Man which just dropped in. Talon experiences the rare joy of being the one who killsteals Esarai.
One of the Sectoids across the street has, actually pretty cleverly, moved to flank Scourge and shoots him, but Scourge survives and repositions, then returns fire, killing it.
The last remaining Sectoid has set up to cover the stairway. We can't get Hutch, or ourselves, back to the Skyranger. Well, unless Scourge just blows its ass up with a rocket.
Two more Thin Men drop out of the sky and Overwatch, literally to either side of Hutch. (Are you
trying to **** with me, game?)
Talon, however, takes one out instantly with a reaction shot. As our turn opens, the other also goes down to Talon.
(I'm surprised at this moment to abruptly recognize him speaking in the dulcet tones of Ashley Williams.)
Mission complete. No opportunities for capture presented themselves, and the team was badly shot up just completing our normal objectives.
Frankly, it is only by the grace of the random number god that we didn't wipe here. One more hit to anybody hurt would probably have left us without enough guns to win through, and if Scourge hadn't made a low-probability shot to gun down the Sectoid he was fighting on the bridge we would have had a long, inconclusive fire duel at the stairs with plenty of chances to kill another one of our troops.
