I have discovered that I role play with the cusomization. Basically it's based on Attitude. The more "By The Book" attitude, the less wild they dress. My Blademaster (yeah, I am not further into the game than promotion #2) is an Irish girl who is By The Book. She has full standard armor. By contrast my German grenadier is "Laid Back" and has quite a heavy custom outfit (still black though, still somewhat armored. No leather shorts and bra only).

...So; yes it worked to reload restart the game.
I know this is tutorial missions still (more ore less) and meant to be easy... But damn. The second mission was SO much easier than the first (before it bugged out). "Protect the device". I steamrolled everything in a matter of seconds.
It helps that you now know where the enemy's field of vision ends. Much easier to get absolutely as close as possible before going into overwatch.