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We figure out those arc reactors, dissect an alien, and create an arc reactor and everything else we need to capture an alien. Nice, productive period of time. And then...a new mission. Everyone except Castillo could come, but who is coming?

Operation Secret Skull
Veterans Emily King and Anastasaya Smirnova are joined by Maggie Hill of I need to get better at reading flags (although I can't find any information on what country has a blue flag with a white X on it) and Moshe Moshe of somewhere in Africa. Our briefing was "You'll be heading into Japan for the next one," which was incredibly helpful as it warned us that we need to be on guard for tentacle monsters and kaiju (and tentacled kaiju) in addition to the normal sectoids and thin men. Our mission: Stop a bomb from exploding. Pretty simple, I guess. Except for all the alien scum which will doubtlessly be crawling around trying to stop us.
We see "power nodes," which will be charging the "plasma bomb". Moshe and Hill head to the first one, while Smirnova and King head towards the second, figuring the rookies can handle the first. King spots a Sectoid, which promptly hides in a train car and begins Overwatching us. Hill disarms both like a champ before running into the train, getting shot at, and noting another sectoid and a thin man. Moshe runs directly through the train, glad that his armor is glass-proof, followed by King, who has the windows prebroken. I discover that I don't know how to use the Run And Gun skill Smirnova has, and that the thin man and the indoor sectoid both don't like Hill. I have her retreat out of the train due to having only one health thing left; she gets shot by the other sectoid (Overwatch) and manages to kill the first one. Moshe disarms another node before running to the next, right next to the thin man and discovering a couple (I think) more sectoids. Smirnov hurries to his defense, successfully running and gunning and critting. King disarms another node, hurries to the next on her level, and...sees the bomb. Smirnova disarms another node and shotguns a sectoid through a poor potted plant, King disables another power node before advancing towards the bomb. More nodes disabled by Hill, who really doesn't have much else to do since I'm keeping her out of the way in hopes that she does not die. Meanwhile, Moshe misses the last sectoid--again--before Smirnova simply runs up and presses her shotgun against its head. (And, to complete the mental image, you should probably know that I gave Smirnova pink hair before her first mission to make her distinctive. Because evidently shotgunning enemies at extreme close range isn't distinctive enough?) King disables the bomb, whoo.
A couple of Thin Men drop in. One shoots and critically woulds Hill as she moves along the train! Smirnova gets revenge with her last bullet. The other one gets missed with a frag grenade and shoots Moshe; two turns until he bleeds out. Smirnova and King both hit, the former a glancing blow with her pistol, the latter a blast with her shotgun.
One down; Moshe Moshe didn't make it. Smirnova (now with eight kills!) and King are promoted to Corporal. Hill is out of action for ten days. Nice deal for the rookies.

Life goes on. Two new laboratories go online. Carapace armor is developed, but we have only five out of the required ten engineers to make it. ("Couldn't we just have the engineers work twice as hard?" I ask. This nets me a dirty look. "I meant long," I say as an attempt to patch up, but I've already lost...) We begin analyzing weapon fragments, but those aliens begin abducting people before we can finish. There are three locations--Bloemfontein, Mumbai, and Ottowa. South Africa, India, and Canada are offering a sergeant (Heavy-class), four scientists, and a boost to funding, respectively...I suggest that we should construct another Skyranger soon so we can respond to more than one issue at once, getting dirty looks, before going to Mumbai due to higher panic levels in Asia (IIRC, given that we didn't rescue them there last time).

Operation Final Mist (Oh how I wish there wouldn't be any more mist).
Huang and Papa are joined by rookies Gaston Mercier of France and Hiroki Endo of Japan. Aside from Papa, they're all bald or nearly so. Funny how that worked out.
Mercier spots a couple sectoids around a green, prone-human-shaped thing who promptly run for cover. We are apparently on a rooftop, which makes total sense, especially given the bulk of the Skyranger. How does it even fly? That seems like it would require a huge waste of energy. Mercier climbs on top of a shipping container for a better spot and locates two more sectoids! If he survives the mission and I figure out how to unlock the nickname option, I'm nicknaming him Eagle-Eye, an especially good name since he killed a sectoid through said shipping container. Endo shoots but does not kill one of the first sectoids, which has the weird psychic glow. Huang finishes the second pair off, before Papa kills another. The second of the first pair shows up and shoots...someone successfully. (There are a bunch of people on that one wall. Good thing they don't have grenades.) The rookies split the last kill, and Huang takes position atop a shipping container. Papa quickly ascends up the building and hears something...odd. Papa investigates, everyone follows, Papa gets shot, and shoots back, hitting but not killing. Mercier follows suit, while Endo drops a story for a better shot and dispatches it. (The third bird gets the sectoid, I guess.) Huang joins the X-Com Parkour Team, while Papa shoots the last sectoid off the building, which brings his kill count (formerly one behind Smirnova) up to 9.
Papa got the nickname "Mr. Clean," which makes no sense, and was promoted to sergeant, which does. Mercier became an Assault, Endo a Heavy. Papa is out for eight days, Endo for five (attributed in part to botched parkour).

And I still don't know how to save...