XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Mission 2 - Operation Burning Smoke

We landed in Miami at nearly three in the morning. This should mean that civilians are in bed, blissfully unaware of what is going on in their town. There, thankfully, won't be any chance of civilian casualties. 

Basically, our objectives were: kill all aliens, come home.

Bradford still held my hand for the first half of the mission. He first sent my fellow Scot, Rookie Hunter, into that building.

This method of opening doors may be quieter, and thus preventing the enemy from knowing where we are, but it's nowhere near as fun as kicking doors in. Sadly, this is a time of war, not for play.

Another piece of advice Bradford gave me was to send certain soldiers onto elevated surfaces.

Not only did it help us scout out the area and find two future corpses, but it gave Squaddie Vargas some combat benefits...

This alien made the mistake of firing at Vargas. It made the even bigger mistake of missing. This is how Vargas deals with this level of stupidity...

One alien down.

Rookie Hunter here showed off one of the abilities available to all soldiers, regardless of class - Hunker Down. This is a defensive ability that will turn a "half-shield" of cover into a full shield - with the added bonus of critical hits being completely nulled. It can be very useful if a soldier is near death, it could give them a better chance of coming back alive.

I had almost ordered Hunter to do this, but Roux got the honour of throwing a grenade at the alien - granting him his first kill.

After a few more rounds, our Belgian, Rookie Verhoeven, catches sight of our next target...

Sadly, it's way out of firing range.

Alas, moving closer spooked the aliens into hiding into this building. This easily collapsible building. If only we had a rocket...

The aliens did something weird here, Dr. Vahlen suggested that the two aliens merged their minds or something? I'm still not sure, but it did make the target of the merge more powerful.

Thankfully, it didn't make it any more accurate. Not a single shot from one of these fellas hit any of our soldiers. The latter two images do show off the "Overwatch" ability - anyone that runs into their line of sight will be subjected to a round of fire. Our soldiers can use it too - it is very useful when defending a certain area. It is less accurate than usual, but it can be devastating to our enemies if luck is on our side.

As I mentioned in the last entry, Alejandro Vargas' promotion means he can now carry a rocket launcher. So it's time to perform an experiment - what happens to aliens when a rocket hits them?

Huh, they die. Well, I think that test was very conclusive, but I think we need to run more tests. Maybe, one or two or eighty more?

Easy enough mission, though I don't expect the rest of them to be this easy. Still, I think our squad has earned a few day's break.

Mission Stats

Alejandro Vargas - 3 kills (2 missions, 4 kills)

Victor Roux - 1 kill (1 mission, 1 kill)

Scottie Hunter - 0 kills (1 mission, 0 kills)

Amber Verhoeven - 0 kills