Before we do anything, our soldiers are waiting to be promoted.
[CENTRAL] Our snipers specialize in dealing massive amounts of damage from afar, but without sufficient training, they're vulnerable in close combat situations.
Introducing my favorite class in the game. They can be a bitch to train, but not as hard as the support class. Once they get up there, they are absolutely invaluable in a fight, as they can do massive amounts of damage with deadly accuracy from all the way across the field. You can also configure them to be faster and more close-range proficient, but who cares?
[CENTRAL] The heavy weapons specialist provides a crucial service to the team. With a rocket launcher in tow, they're our demolitions experts.
Next up is my second favorite class. Heavies are the ones you want to give the biggest armor and weapons to. They use an LMG and are the only class that cannot equip pistols, since that slot is used by their rocket launcher. They are the meat shield, and they tend to draw the most aggro, so don't be surprised if this is the class we lose the most of.
[CENTRAL] Just like it sounds, the support class gives that intangible edge our squads need; They make everyone around them better.
Supports are our combat medics and our buff-masters. Their smoke grenades don't take up a slot, either, and eventually they get an ability that grants them two equipment slots. this class is the hardest to rank up, because they'll usually be in the back and not killing things. Once they get up in the ranks, though, they can be very handy to have around.
There's one more class we haven't seen yet, but nobody got promoted to it because Ray never got promoted. Promotion class is random, with more of a chance to get a class you have less of, so we'll probably see the Assault class after our next mission.
As for research, we're going with the only thing we can research at the moment, given that I blew up too many weapon fragments to do any of the others.
Xeno-Biology allows us to make arc throwers and an alien containment facility, for the capture and housing of live aliens, respectively. Why would we want to do that? You'll find out in the next cutscene.
Every time I complete a new research project, I'll post a link to the wiki page, and give a brief description of what it does, as shown above.
For building projects, we're going to make 4 medikits and a satellite.
These are the only things that we can produce for now, since we still have to research the arc thrower. Medikits are produced instantly, as are most weapons and armor. The satellite takes a whopping 20 days to finish, but that's OK, because we won't be able to use it until we build another Satellite Uplink.
Anyway, we're wanted in Mission Control, because something's going down.
[CENTRAL] Commander, we've picked up multiple requests for assistance. Abductions in progress are marked on the Hologlobe.
As you can see, we have three different abduction sites to choose from. Each one will give us either money, engineers, scientists, or an experienced soldier. Since we can't be in two places at once, (..For some reason. Seriously, just make another Skyranger! We have the manpower for it!) we have to pick one, and just let the other two happen. We'll get a bonus from the country we help, as well as reduce panic in it and the surrounding countries, but the two we leave will gain two panic, and every adjacent country will gain one. If a country has 5 panic at the end of a month, it will leave the council permanently. If eight countries secede, it's game over. In addition to completing operations, we can also launch a satellite over a country, for a panic reduction of two.
Alright, enough explaining. Time to get to the action! Normally this is where I would take a vote on which country to help, but I wanted to keep this moving along, so we're going with the one that gives me four scientists, which is coincidentally right next to our base!
Pose as a team, BECAUSE SHIT JUST GOT REAL.[MISSION LOG - OPERATION SEVERED FLAME][ROBINSON] Severed Flame? Who comes up with these names?
[CENTRAL] Er... Fredricks, ma'am.
[ROBINSON] Tell Fredricks he's fired if he doesn't start coming up with better names.
[BIG SKY] Central, this is Big Sky. Strike team is touching down now. Standing by for your orders.
[CENTRAL] Roger, Big Sky. Reading you five-by-five. StrikeOne has the green light for deployment.
[SQ SOKOLOV] Hostiles spotted. Lining up a shot.
[SQ SOKOLOV] Bad shot. Target is still standing.
(...And Damage Roulette rears its ugly head. I don't know if you can read it, but that says 1 damage. Explosives are going to be our only sure-fire kills, I'm afraid.)
[SQ KENNEDY] AUGH! TH-THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!
[ROBINSON] Calm the hell down, rookie! You're just going to get yourself shot again!
[SQ SOKOLOV] *hyperventilating*
[ROBINSON] She gets shot once and it's like it's the end of the world...
[SQ SOKOLOV] Bad shot.
[ROBINSON] We gave you that rifle because we assumed you could shoot with it. Do we need to take it away from you?
[SQ SOKOLOV] N-no ma'am. I'll do better next time, ma'am...
[SQ MUTSUDA] Hehe... Get ready for a big boom!
[SQ MUTSUDA] AHAHA! DIE! DIE!
[ROBINSON] Mutsuda, try not to cause
too much collateral.
[SQ KENNEDY] One more. I-I think I've got it.
[RK RAY] Good shot. Target down.
[ROBINSON] Wow, rookie, you were actually useful. Looks like it's all clear down there. Come one back, StrikeOne.
[END]So that was a smashing success.
Now for one last thing. The minute Xeno-Biology finishes researching, we get a cutscene.
[CUTSCENE - YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?]