Kunsel's was shaking when he stepped out of the inn. His fingernails dug into the palms of his hands as his fist clenched in a vain attempt to contain his frustration. How could he have let them do this? Nearly a year he'd been following the militia's movements, only to have the company send him away at the crucial moment. It was such an obvious move, and he hadn't even thought of it.
Still, he wasn't completely beaten; Shinra had grossly underestimated the number of people involved in this. There had been about half a dozen SOLDIER deployments that morning, some legitimate, some… well, Kunsel refused to believe Shinra was so pushed for staff that they'd had to send second classes to perform routine mako reactor inspection checks.
Every mission was to be fronted by a man who had shared a 2nd class barracks with operative Zack Fair seven years ago. But there were far more people interested in this than Shinra realised. 3rd classes who had idolised Zack during his time at SOLDIER, 2nds who barely knew Zack but respected his integrity and optimistic attitude, and those like Kunsel who had fought alongside Zack, and had now reached the point of fighting the company itself to save their friend.
For almost a year now, people had banded together, called in favours, built up contacts, and passed on every scrap of information they could gather about two fugitives from Nibelheim. Nibelheim… the town in which Kunsel's friend had been "killed in action" almost five years ago whilst fixing a Mako reactor. Anyone who knew Zack knew he wasn't one to go down easily, and as a final mission the Nibelheim excursion couldn't have seemed more mundane. No one was quite sure exactly what had happened back then, but there were plenty of people at SOLDIER who were inclined doubt the official Shinra explanation.
It hadn't taken long for him to hear about the army's deployment: five maybe ten minutes after the troops had left Midgar. And it wasn't long until he realised that most of Zack's closest friends had been conveniently despatched on missions and assignments that would take them as far away from Midgar as Shinra could manage with a few hours notice.
It was sickening.
But Shinra had made a mistake in posting Kunsel with 2nd Class Luxiére Moreau. Shinra had no reason at all to connect Luxiére with Zack, but then, Shinra had no comprehension of Zack's influence within SOLDIER. Luxiére was naïve, but he would do anything to ensure Zack's safety, and once he'd been convinced that the situation couldn't be manipulated to gain their own promotions, as well as Zack's reprieve, he'd been prepared to accept whatever Kunsel suggested.
Whether the third classes who had accompanied the mission could be persuaded to ignore the departure of their mission leader was another matter. Perhaps blackmail and threats could be employed, or simply the promise of favours; it was a valuable thing to have the higher classes as allies. Either way, it was Luxiére's problem now. Kunsel had other things to worry about. With the support he had garnered amongst SOLDIER, it was hardly surprising that someone would notice such a large military deployment, but to find out where they were heading… that would need a member of the infantry.
Somewhere above the hills surrounding Midgar, a Shinra company helicopter swerved sharply away from its planned course.
"What're you…" And in a second, Reno saw what his comrade had noticed before him. "Oh. I guess they got there first, huh?"
They swooped in to get a closer look. It was quite a scene. Broken armour and weapons were strewn abandoned across the whole stretch of hillside, and the entire area was just littered with the corpses of Shinra infantrymen.
Reno gave a low whistle. "Lot of destruction for a couple a guys. I reckon someone's going to be pretty pissed."
Reno reached for the tannoy, but as if on cue, Cissnei's voice rang out through the speaker system. "Point 235 is clear. Anything at your side?"
Reno sighed and hit the tannoy button. "Yeah, Cissnei. The army have been here."
Silence.
Reno frowned. "Cissnei?"
At last the response came through, "Have you seen the targets?"
"No but there's no chance they survived this. There was a whole army against them. Besides, it'd take forever to find them amongst all these bodies."
"You need to check Reno. If they've escaped somehow they could still be out there, waiting to be ambushed by another platoon." Cissnei's tone was steely.
"Yeah but…"
"Check."
Reno shot Rude a look of frustration as they closed further in toward the scattered bodies. It was a terrible sight. Blood and mud and rain had run together on the ground making the once dry and dirty hill look like a marshland. And everywhere they looked were corpses. These were not clean kills like those delivered by the Turks, from a single gunshot or a snap to the neck. Each man was strewn with bullets wounds and gashes. They were battered and bloodied and twisted to reflect their final anguish. This was not an image of the subtlety of the Turks or the finesse of SOLDIER; this was a warfield.
They rounded the peak of the hill. Reno inhaled sharply. The battlefield extended right round the other side of the hill, and here, too, the ground was crowded with the bodies of fallen men.
"Geez. If they did escape, doesn't look like there'd be a platoon left to ambush them."
"Look" Rude grunted, pointing out into the chaos. A single black uniform lay amongst the throng of blue.
Reno grinned, "Gotta admire your eyesight man." He reached for the tannoy. "Alright Cissnei, we've found our guy. We were right: he didn't get away."
Once again, the line was quiet. When Cissnei finally did respond, her voice was shaky. "A…are you sure he's dead?"
"Cissnei, he got about twenty bullet holes in his chest" Reno snapped.
A thought struck Cissnei. Her heart began to race with a distant and sudden hope. "There were two fugitives."
"The other was an infantryman. Come on, Cissnei, what do you want us to do, start pulling the helmets off these guys."
"He's wearing a First Class uniform. If… if you've found the wrong one..."
"It's the genuine SOLDIER" Rude interjected. "I recognise him."
There was an almost imperceptible noise on the other end of the line. Reno frowned. "Cissnei?.... Cissnei!"
Only silence.
Frustrated, Reno reached for the tannoy once more. "Look Cissnei, we're going back. There's no way that grunt could have survived this, and he's not a threat to the company anyway. I'm calling Tseng. Head back to base."
"That's an order." Rude contributed.
Reno shot Rude an irritated look as they sped off towards Midgar. "That girl needs to get her head together" he complained, but even for the two of them, there was something deeply unpleasant about Shinra fighting Shinra.
Eventually, Reno reached for his phone. "I guess I gotta make a call" he sighed, punching numbers into his PHS.
"Reno" Tseng's voice greeted him on the other end of the line. "What's your status?"
"Mission failed. Sorry sir. The army's been here already."
Another silence. What was wrong with everyone today???
"Okay. Head back to headquarters" came Tseng's response at last.
"On our way."
"I assume we'll need clean up?"
"Yeah" Reno answered, thinking back to the battlefield. "Rain'll wash away most of the blood, but there's a lot of weapons and stuff that'll need taking care of."
"Of course" Tseng replied. "Go back to the headquarters and get some rest. Needless to say, I don't want a report on this one, and I'll be asking you to lead the clean up operation tomorrow morning. You'll find it easier once the bodies have gone."
"But sir…" Reno began; the prospect of wading through the battlefield in the early morning didn't much appeal to him.
"I'll make sure you have assistance from the Shinra army. But I need someone there to make sure that company standards are upheld. You will set off first thing tomorrow. In the meantime I want you to call Cissnei and tell her I have a job for her."
"Yes sir" replied Reno, deciding not to argue. Shutting the phone, he turned to Rude, annoyed. "I'm so sick of SOLDIER. About damn time they started dealing with their own problems."