From your LZ, follow along the southern edge of the map, taking out nearby Warrior bugs and bugholes. Fort Joe Smith is on a plateau, and there's a natural ramp on the eastern side of it. As you come up the ramp, reload your ammo, and go around the Hopper's Nest to the south. Stay outside the fort for now, and take out the bughole in the west side of that mound.
Now enter the fort and position your troopers just inside the eastern entrance. Don't trigger the green arrow yet. First, put Cap troopers on the gun in the northeast corner next to your strike team, and another on the gun in the middle partition. To do this, select a Cap trooper, put your pointer over the gun, and click when it turns into a green hand. Now select a third Cap trooper and send him to the gun way in the rear center of the fort. He will pass through the green arrow and trigger a bunch of bugholes. The trooper in the back can take care of the bughole there. Three bugholes will appear in front of the fort. Your Cap troopers on the guns will take care of the bugholes on the ends, but you'll need to select the rest of your team to take out the one in the middle, just in front of the entrance where they're standing.
You'll be informed of a new distress signal coming from the north. Assemble and heal your strike team in front of the fort, and head in that direction. When you can see a group of containers from a distance, stop and approach slowly. A tanker will appear. Kill it and its bughole, then continue towards the center of the crate formation.
Zach O'Neill and two other dudes in Combat Engineer suits will come out of one of the crates and ask you to rescue their family. This is easy. Just head to the Comms Center on your TAC map, and you'll trigger a couple of cut-scenes. When the family is reunited, a drop ship will be called for, and Colonel Holland will ask you to ignore other mission objectives and capture a bug. The civilians are safe, so go ahead. Take your strike team back towards the crates. Select the trooper with the Specimen-Capture device. To use it, make sure it's selected (you can't Mistake it when he's got it in his hands), and box-attack one of the flying green bugs. The targeted bug will become surrounded by a green sphere. Hit ALT + R or click the Capture Specimen icon in your HUD, and then click the bug when your pointer turns into a green double-down arrow. A ship will come down and pick up the bug.
Once that's done, you'll be cleared for retrieval. Now's a good time to sweep the rest of the map. The hoppers will attack if you move one of your troopers away from the rest of the team. The Hopper's Nest is invulnerable in this mission. Once the map is clear, head home.
This page last modified 2 May 2004