You know how sometimes everything that could possibly wrong in a mission, does?
After losing the very squaddie I sent with my A-team to train and having the rest be banged up by Blazing Pinions and MEC grenades on a UFO raid, I thought it couldn't get any worse on the next mission, an Item Recovery, Operation Dawn Child.
Well, it didn't! In fact, I'm still giddy over how well it went. After surmounting the daunting task of crossing a road, basically the entire confrontation took place in an alleyway between three buildings, with the objective in the building to the far left.
Enemy dramatis personae: a MEC and an Advanced MEC plus a Stun Lancer on a walkie, presumably, in the alley, two sneks and a newly introduced Andromedon in the second floor of the closer building on the left. A wossizface Floater-guy and two Sectoids behind the window in the objective building.
Concealment is broken by Lt. 'Shakes', the combat hacker voted 2035's Most Likely To Be An ADVENT Mole Or Possibly The Notorious Hacker Anonymous subverting the weaker MEC and thusly waking up both the MEC and the Andromedon pods.
Enter the Sniper. With the tenderizing from the other squadmates, she kills both Vipers, the Advanced MEC, the Andromedon's first phase and half the second in a single turn, then proceeds to wipe out the entire reinforcement ship on her lonesome, while armed with a mag sniper rifle whereas the others have Plasma weapons.
Shakes overconfidently dashes into the objective building, waking up the Sectoids and getting Panic'd for her trouble, but she redeems herself by hacking the detonator and getting the +20 Hack skill bonus, while a Ranger, Taja 'Coyote' Gunda, cuts down all of the remaining enemies with an Arc Blade without taking any damage thanks to Untouchable.
Mission. Fucking. Accomplished. And wholly and completely legit, no gameplay mods, no savescum, not even an all-Colonel squad, though most were pretty high-level.