Soldier

Soldiers are the basic human combat unit in the X-COM series. They can be outfitted with weapons, armor, and tools to aid them. As they complete combat missions they gain experience in the form of increased stats and rank. A squad of soldiers, possibly accompanied by tanks, is flown to a area of conflict and the soldiers kill/capture the aliens.

Soldiers in X-COM are not characters in a book. They are units in a combat simulator. They are a name, a picture, and some stats. They have no dialoge, no background, no inner-revelation on the nature of war. They are mortal. If one or all die, they will be replaced.

Other games spent vast amounts time in character development, telling you how important these people are, and why you should care about them. In X-Com you care about your troops because without them the enemy won't die. You feverently care about a few select troops because training another to that level would take months.

It's a STUB. Help out.