With a squad of proper soldiers instead of rookies, we charge on our first real mission.
The objective is pretty close to the LZ, so time doesn't seem to be a problem, on the other hand, multiple pods close together are always a scary possibility.
After finding our first pod, we quickly discover the objective to be inside a factory which is across the street to a pre-destroyed house which will work perfectly as our Mupod perch.
The pod consists of a single trooper and a sectoid. Take out the trooper and the sectoid is no problem. My plan was to grenade then both, overwatch glitches and our ranger and then, if the trooper was alive, finish him off with mupod. We got lucky tho, as the grenade itself causes the 4 damage to kill the trooper.
Also, glitchesarecool exploded a car (and declared, afterward, "negative damage").
We swiftly ran torwards the factory and a single movement later, found our second pod, a more menancing one consisting of two troopers and an officer. Here, the dilemma becomes (thanks to my "no-cover playstyle") wheter to risk an attack or forfeit the grenadier's turn by defending.
The position of the officer and the trooper make the decision for me. Not only I can damage both with one grenade, but also open a way to the objective and leave them exposed. Our ranger lob a second grenade to finish off the trooper and leave the officer on one health.
Mupod takes the 89% shot at the trooper on the back and Glitches finish the officer off with a 77% shot. Two shots, high %s, any one of them fail tho, and an injury or worse is almost assured. Luckily, they make it.
After that, glitches hack the box and acquire the objective without drawing attention to the last group of enemies, who turned out to be two troopers and another sectoid.
The troopers, easily flanked, are easily killed, leaving a vulnerable sectoid whose death leads to a second flawless victory. Overall, pretty easy mission. Objective was close, good place to put our sniper, everyone landed their shots. If only all missions were like this.
Glitches level up and get the "oh god please finish that off before everything spirals out of control" protocol.