The next mission, an abduction, takes place in Shanghai, since Asia is the only choice out of the three with terror levels above 1. Accompanying the Paits and Barmy is the sniper we recieved from the council mission, Sgt. Morgan.

Barmy now rocks the tag “Rhino”. Fitting.

Operation Silent Saviour? Maybe I shouldn’t have brought the rocket. Ah well. At least it’s a normal map this time. As the skyranger pulls up the aliens are nowhere to be seen, I guess they’re hiding inside. The squad advances forward and discovers two Sectoids hiding at the back of the store. Not to worry, I’ll get Ellie and Barmy to deal with it.

They move forward, taking up position either side of the door. Unfortunately, this triggers two more sectoids off to the far left. Ellie decides to take out the first group anyway, and kills one.

Sgt. Morgan decides to intervene, firing from outside. The bullet smashes the window apart, and hits the Sectoid in the throat.

One of the flanking sectoids fires at Ellie, blasting a hole in the building and dealing significant damage to Ellie.

Despite the injury, she swings her assault rifle around and guns the Sectoid down in response. Eric finishes off the other one.

Advancing into the building, the squad hears a sound from the back. Eric throws a grenade to the far wall. The explosion tears the side of the shop open, revealing two sectoids who flee behind a nearby truck. The squad moves into cover and Ellie drops a smoke grenade. One of the Sectoids mind-melds with the other, who advances forward but fails to hit anyone.

A few shots are exchanged. By this point the building is starting to become heavily damaged. The front Sectoid overwatches.

Barmy sprints forward, dodging the reaction shot, to the mind-melding sectoid, blasting it point blank. Both sectoids drop to the floor.

All in all this was quite a successful mission. Ellie is only injured for 6 day, which is impressive considering the damage she took.

Barmy has been promoted again, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. I just know the game’s going to snatch him away at a crucial point. Chrysalid ambush or something.

Research complete I get the memo from Vahlen that they want me to capture a live specimen, and begin production of a holding facility for when we do so.

In the mean time I put Vahlen’s team to work researching armour. Apparently capturing an alien requires very close range, so I’m not risking my troops dying if it fails.

I start scanning, and the first month ends. All in all the game has gone pretty well so far. No deaths and only a few major injuries.

Speaking of injuries, I check the officer training school and halve the recovery time, as well as increasing the squad size to five.

Bring it on, aliens!