The player controls an unnamed CSAT SOFoperative. In spite of the government's siege, they have embarrassingly failed to retake Oreokastro from the insurgents after two weeks of fighting. To send a message to the insurgents and to cover for the AAF's incompetence, CSAT command have dispatched a three-man team of elite operators to call in an airstrike on the village.
There are no alternate pieces of equipment to choose from.
Objectives
Primary
(1) Clear Castle
(2) Reach Observation Post
(3) Identify All Targets
(4) Direct Air Strike
(5) Move to EXFIL
Optional
(6) Remain Unseen
(7) Don't Kill IDAP Worker!
Mandatory
Your team must survive
Do not destroy the IDAP camp
Avoid collateral damage/friendly fire
Do not leave the castle area
Walkthrough
Primary 1: Clear Castle
Insurgent positions.
You start off on a parachute and will land within walking distance of the Thronos Castle north of Oreokastro. Wait until your teammates also land, then make your way towards the castle and stop at about 200-300 metres away.
Go prone and order your two subordinates to do the same (make sure they're also in a good position before doing so). There are a total of seven insurgents that you need to eliminate. Pick your target carefully and assign your team members their own too.
There is no fixed order to follow but make sure you eliminate the insurgents in quick succession and don't allow any of the survivors to spot a dead body. Once all the insurgents are killed you can safely move in to secure the castle (don't forget the fighter watching the western corner of the castle).
Primary 2: Reach Observation Post
Move to the walls of the castle overlooking Oreokastro after eliminating all of the insurgents. Switch to your laser designator and look in the direction of the village.
Primary 3: Identify All Targets
There are a total of five targets of opportunity to mark. They are:
Three technicals parked along the main road into the village
A machine gunner; he's located just behind the three technicals but on the roof of a house
A sniper due south of the machine gunner's position, positioned above the water tower
The barricade itself; you should be able to spot several fighters garrisoned nearby
You must call out each of the respective targets before you can call in the airstrike. New "objectives" will pop up every time you identify one.
Primary 4: Direct Air Strike
Point your designator at the centre of the targets in-between the technicals and the carpenter's shop, and then open the Support Menu and call in the airstrike. The bomber will arrive shortly afterwards and take care of the rest (there is no need to continue lasing the target).
Primary 5: Move to EXFIL
Head straight for the extraction point once the cluster bomb hits (you'll see an LSV parked there). Mission complete.
Optional 6: Remain Unseen
To "complete" this objective, you must eliminate all the insurgents before moving to secure the OP without allowing a single one of them to raise the alarm - either because they saw one of their comrades' corpses, or your team was spotted visually/alerted to your gunfire.
However except for being spotted visually, you get a small grace period of about three seconds before your cover's blown (for every other situation). So make the most of your window of opportunity if you're "detected".
This can be quite difficult to do on your first try, so save before you open fire if you're not confident with being able to re-engage targets quickly with the Katiba Carbine.
Optional 7: Don't Kill IDAP Worker!
Despite the misleading objective name, there are actually two that must be identified in order for them to survive the airstrike; an aid worker on the far right (next to the church - look for a parked ambulance) and a doctor.
The doctor's location.
The IDAP doctor will be inside the building just to the south of the village. Look for a blue bench right next to a single-storey house.
He can be spotted with the designator's thermal vision but only just barely (as only his back is visible), so it's better to identify him with regular day or night vision instead. Once the doctor has left the house and moved far enough you can safely call in the airstrike.
Do make sure you wait for him to return to the church BEFORE calling in the bomber however, otherwise he will die in the airstrike!
Tips
To avoid detection early, you might want to prioritise taking out the three men near the parked van first. Unlike the other insurgents, one will always go on patrol throughout the castle after a short while and will eventually stumble onto a corpse if he isn't taken care of quickly.
You can eliminate all three simultaneously if you assign each of your team members one target BEFORE ordering them to Open Fire. Just remember to place them in a good position overlooking the insurgents; they can't shoot what they can't see.
Do be mindful of the insurgent inside the castle's walls. This particular fighter will always be standing guard over the northern archway but since his back is always turned, you can easily ambush him from behind rather than risk taking a bullet to face.
Trivia
If the player does not own the Apex expansion pack, the SOF team leader will be equipped with a regular set of black-coloured NVGs instead of camouflaged Compact NVGs. This has no gameplay effect however, as both NVGs will provide the same amount of peripheral vision regardless.
"CSAT" special forces.
It should be noted that the SOF team leader is specifically ranked as a Captain for this memory. His two subordinates likewise are ranked as Sergeant and Corporal, respectively.
The outro shows the three operatives observing their handiwork before revealing both the player's character and his subordinates' "true" identities.
Interestingly, the mission script file for the outro sequence was intended to fade-to-black instantly if the player had not completed either the main campaign or Apex Protocol in chronological order. The condition still remains in the script, but has been commented out and therefore does not prevent the player from seeing the real identities of the so-called "CSAT operatives".
