Soldier

"Vic Vance reporting for duty, sir!"

- Victor Vance

Soldier is the first storyline mission in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories given to protagonist Victor Vance by army sergeant Jerry Martinez from his office at the Fort Baxter Air Base in Vice City.

Mission
Victor arrives at the Fort Baxter Air Base by a Barracks OL and meets his new sergeant, Jerry Martinez. Jerry tells him the real opportunity to make money however Victor refuses to go through any trouble. Jerry then tells him to get over to Escobar International Airport and pick up a package for him. Victor, outside, is handed a pager and on a Streetfighter makes it to the airport. When meeting the dealer with the package, however, hitmen are following and attacking them. Victor starts shooting at the hitmen but the Marquis is set on fire. The dealer's hookers both die in the explosion and the dealer drowns as Victor manage to escape and swim to shore while avoiding gunfire from the hitmen. Victor goes back to his barracks inside the base and hides the drugs there.

Mission Objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
 * Take Sgt. Martinez's bike.
 * Go to the V.I.P. terminal at the airport.
 * Swim to shore.
 * Return to Fort Baxter.
 * Take the package to your barracks.

Reward
The reward for completing this mission is $50 and the mission Cleaning House is unlocked. The player can also explore the Mainland area of Vice City, save their game at the Barracks Safehouse and receive pager messages.

Trivia

 * When a new game is started, the radio will be tuned to Emotion 98.3 and will be playing "" by . However, this will not always be the case; sometimes the radio will reset itself and play the audio file from the beginning. In this instance, "" by will play instead.
 * This is chronologically the first mission in the 3D Universe by plot order.
 * Victor should not be saluting Jerry, because Jerry is a sergeant (Sergeants are not considered officers in the military, and hence are not to be saluted). However, soldiers are told in military conduct training that they must salute a major Non-Commissioned-Officer under a situation if applicable. Also, ranks below sergeant are not required to address sergeants as "Sir". Only Warrant Officers and Commissioned officers should be addressed as "Sir".
 * The Barracks OL that drops Vic off has a license plate of VC2, which could be a reference to the fact that this is the second 3D Universe game to feature Vice City.
 * The soldier that greets the Barracks OL does not use the soldier model used at Fort Baxter Air Base, but the model that is seen during a six-star wanted level.
 * Though the player is instructed to use the Streetfighter, they may also choose to get on and then get off to use a different mode of transport
 * Right after Victor has jumped clear from the exploding Marquis, he acquires a pistol, but doesn't have the M16 anymore.
 * Victor is immune to bullets when attacked by the hitmen on the PS2 version and the Japanese PSP version, most likely for balancing purposes, but he isn't immune to melee attacks by the gun wielding hitmen. On the other PSP versions, however, Vic takes damage as usual, making this mission harder as you cannot attack from the water and most likely have no body armor.
 * When the player lets Victor climb aboard one of the boats driven by the hitmen, the one behind the wheel will get out and jump in the water and just stays afloat.
 * To prevent the player from using the attackers' boats, it is given a minimal amount of health and a special hitbox so it will start burning when the two hitmen wielding M16 rifles are killed and Vic cannot get into the boats when they are intact.
 * The hitmen kill three people: Jerry's contact, and the two sex workers on the boat. However, the stats show only one person killed by others. Furthermore, the two sexworkers can be killed by either the fire, gunshots or the explosion afterwards.

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