it seems like not everyone likes the Cleaner Network idea where the main way to advance is just to capture more Cleaner Data on missions. Feel free to throw ideas out on this topic.
There's a problem with the cleaners in the narrative, many of the actions on the campaign map relate to disappearances of people trying to expose the aliens and increase panic i.e. journalists or politicians speaking up about the threat. So panic in the game is bad, but the cleaners are trying to cover up the aliens, reducing panic - so why are the cleaners bad in the narrative?
A better set of missions would be the cleaners being involved in regional actions to increase panic and division, for example the assassination of strong leaders, destruction of infrastructure, running misinformation centers - basically creating chaos to enable the alien take over. To counter these you could run missions to gather intel (similar to the existing ones), send covert operatives (a spying mechanic) into regions, discover Cleaners plans, have follow on missions to prevent assassinations/infrastructure attacks/misinformation campaigns. This would also allow you to "to reduce Panic in a specific region,"
The other issue with the Cleaners, is they don't feel entirely part of the game. Their purpose is unclear, their threat not entirely tangible. This is fine initially (when they're a shadowy group) but the story demands they become more opaque in motivation as you learn about them. A character or leader of the group would also help flesh them out. One massive benefit of the cleaners is you can have human foes and human conflict, but you need to have human characters (not faceless Agents) to do so. It felt a bit anti-climatic to find out the Cleaners were ALL just robots under alien control, at least have a few willing alien sycophants thrown into the mix, enemies we can empathise with but Characters (with traits, personalities and stories) we can hate all the more as a result. You want players to enjoy the Cleaners, make them something to be passionate about, not nameless foes. Make them the enemy within.
Give us a story, not just a faction.
This story works, but I'd like to see more emphasis on it in the game. The origin story of the current Xenonaughts isn't currently explained, could it be played out as a violent split from EXDEF (a tutorial to steal a dropship and flee to a new base could have drama). I'd love to see missions where you aim is to disrupt EXDEF black ops against governments (border attacks to prompt a war etc.) I'd also like to see a mechanic where anti EXDEF actions can bring regions back into the fold (missions to unmask EXDEF politicians).