I'd like to take a moment of silence to honor Squaddie Halverson.
After his initial stint back when Thin Men were the biggest threat XCOM faced, Halverson was handed a sniper rifle and was unceremoniously tossed back into the reserve after the wounded elites went back in action. Now, history seemed to be repeating itself. Several veterans were wounded after an encounter with Heavy Floater grenades. Poor Honor took two to the face on that mission, and two other squad members, including Hellsing, were wounded. After an Abductor UFO was shot down in Russia, Halverson found himself at the top of the waitlist, and was sent into battle carrying nothing but basic equipment...and an Arc Launcher.
The battle to enter the UFO was fierce. With lasers and plasma and rockets flying every which-way, Halverson calmly waited for his moment to shine.
And then the moment came. Two Heavy Floaters soared in through a hole in the roof. One landed right next to Halverson. A barrage of firepower killed one and knocked the one next to Halverson to just a single HP. He was too close to use his sniper rifle, and even at that close range I didn't trust his pistol odds. So he calmly took out his stunner, noticed that he only had a 70% chance to pull this off...and pulled the trigger. The alien fell to the floor, twitching and unconscious.
But before he could celebrate his victory, before any of the seasoned elites could praise him...plasma fire gunned him down just a fraction of a second later. None of the other soldiers were in a position to see the shooter, and they were shocked by how quickly his life took a turn for the worse.
Squaddie Halverson marched into battle against things that would break a common man. He witnessed mind powers and weapons great enough to destroy tanks. He stood nose-to-nose with a cybernetically-rebuilt, rage-filled monster from beyond the stars, and took it down. He never, ever panicked.
Never forget. ( '.')7