Cleaners

The cleaners are a mysterious human group on the side of the aliens, committing acts of subterfuge to cover up the invasion and spread panic, along with actively hunting down the biggest threat to their alien masters' world domination: the Xenonauts. Cleaner soldiers make up the bulk of their forces and serve as the first enemies fought in the game, with missions and panic caused by cleaner activities having a large role in the early-to-mid game.

Background
Before contact with the aliens and the beginning of the invasion, the organization now known as the cleaners was a precursor to the Xenonauts focused on studying alien technology called EXDEF. Following their contact with the aliens, the organization was completely taken over and assimilated by the aliens, with all staff surgically implanted with mind control technology removing their free will.

Based in a secret facility in Greenland, the cleaners became a valuable asset to the invaders. The aliens used the cleaners to establish a global network through EXDEF's many front organizations to perform tasks that support the alien's agenda, including murdering anyone who tries to spread information about the aliens, and killing important political figures to forcibly continue the ongoing cold war. The cleaners operate in a cell structure making it difficult to compromise the entire organization, and they are shown to secretly control office buildings and harbors around the world as part of their operations.

The cleaners are also shown to be tasked with fighting the Xenonauts, as shown in the tutorial mission where they launch a full attack on their headquarters, forcing an evacuation.

Missions
At this phase of early access, cleaners only appear in a select few scripted missions.

Cleaner Operations
Until the capture of the cleaner's main base, cleaner activity will randomly create incidents that cause panic around the world. These events cannot be controlled or predicted and will steadily increase a region's panic overtime, potentially causing danger in places where panic is already high due to mission failure or UFO activity.

Trivia

 * The concept of a human faction like the Cleaners is completely original to Xenonauts 2, not appearing in the first Xenonauts game or X-COM: UFO Defense.