Soldier

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 enemies. 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 player is able to free roam. The next mission Cleaning House is unlocked.

Trivia

 * The first song heard in the game, during the opening cutscene, is "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner. It is also featured on the radio station Emotion 98.3. However, occasionaly the song will not play and the Emotion 98.3 radio station will restart and play from the beginning.
 * Notice Vic salutes Jerry, even though he is a sergeant. (Sergeants are not considered officers in the military, and hence are not to be saluted.)
 * The name of the mission might be a reference to the movie Soldier.
 * The skins that are used for the hitmen are the same from the hitmen that are after Toni Cipriani in No Son of Mine until Making Toni.
 * The dealer is not killed by the hitmen, he is programmed to drown shortly after the cutscene.
 * According to the BradyGames guide, the player would control Victor and shoot the gunmen himself instead of a cutscene playing. This was clearly changed in the final version of the game.
 * If Vic tries to obtain the boats used by the hitmen, they will explode, most likely to prevent the player from accessing locked areas.
 * Chronologically, this is the first mission in the 3D Era.
 * The Barracks OL that drops Vic off has a license plate of VC2 which could be referencing that this is the second GTA III era game to feature Vice City.