<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=212567.msg10444106#msg10444106">Quote from: vin26m on 01-09-2014, 22:21:40</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">How about if Sam were one of the first soldiers Riley met?  Maybe Riley exhausted herself fighting the aliens during the terror attack and Sam saved her?  <br/><br/>They have a bit of a bond, and Sam goes to check in on Riley in her bunk.  Now that Riley has gone through some initial training and will be accompanying Sam and the rest of the girls on the next mission, she's feel apprehensive and Sam helps her get her mind off that?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>That sounds good. There will have to be a time jump between the terror attack and them bonding though: Riley's pre-game arc is discovery > retrieval > training > deployment. Sam is unlikely to be around for retrieval, and given that the GM wants her psionic abilities to be kept under wraps, he'll probably veto her being present for her training.<br/><br/>> On a tangent here, but one explanation/cover for a barely trained rookie being on the squad could be that Riley is with 'Intelligence' or an R&D field agent. This has the advantage of being technically true (although she's the experiment, not the researcher) and explains why she's inept at combat.<br/><br/>Bear in mind that the terror mission Riley is discovered on is a failure; Sam could be the first XCOM soldier she meets when they come to clean up and properly assess the situation.