Alien Surgery

Alien Surgery is an alien artifact in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

In-Game Description[]

“	Although rudimentary in appearance, this device must play some role in the alien's unconscionable experiments on the human captives housed here.	”
– Gray Market description

Alien Surgery artifacts can be recovered following the successful completion of missions involving an Abductor or Supply Barge, and at the Alien Base during the assault mission.

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This artifact is not required for any manufacturing, research, or Foundry projects, and can be sold freely.

Some Alien Surgery artifacts are found containing human captives, both male and female. Their heads and feet are enclosed by the device, while the rest of their bodies are visible. The captives' arms move, perhaps indicating that they are still alive, however, they cannot be rescued or interacted with in any way.
These devices can be damaged, lowering their value at the Gray Market.

In the original UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994), Alien Surgery consists of laser cutters that are used to extract desirable body parts from cattle and other subjects, for nutritional or genetic purposes. A tube is used to siphon blood into a nearby trough and a cattle carcass can be seen. This is a reference to cattle mutilations that some people believe are caused by aliens.