Chapter Text
It took three weeks of PT for Kunsel to be dismiss from the Hospital, an apparently miraculous recovery time for standard humans, but relatively long for a SOLDIER. His dad drove him from the Hospital to the helicopter ride he'd be taking to Junon directly. He'd received his actual assignment mid drive.
M1-2-2D: Shinra Electric Power Company: Peacekeeping Troops: Junon Liaison (Deployment)
You will be deployed to Junon to smooth over the currently tense Security SOLDIER relations. Junon Does not have a native SOLDIER station so you are assigned to the Trooper barracks. You will report to General Hammer for further instructions.
Kunsel closed his PHS and dropped the hand holding it onto his lap. He looked out the car window as the Highway rushed by them.
"That was your mission assignment?" His dad asked from the driver's seat.
"Yeah. You already know?"
"Tell me anyway Selly."
Kunsel didn't sigh, he just did as he was told.
"I'm being deployed to Junon. I'm getting stashed in the Trooper barracks and will be reporting to a Junon Security General for my assignments to smooth out tensions that have risen between SOLDIER and Security.
"I am preliminarily annoyed at having so little information and frustrated that I will be bunking with kids that don't know my capabilities or required caloric intake.
"I do not look forward to the likelihood of dealing with others jealousy, nor do I look forward to the solitude. I accept these feelings. They are valid. They are also ill informed feelings and will likely change once I've had time to adjust."
Kunsel looked away from the highway and back over to his dad. He smiled proudly and knocked his shoulder into Kunsel's shoulder, "You'll do well Selly. There's no one better for the job."
Kunsel snorted, "Yeah. Wonder what happened to the last guy."
"Hmmm. There was no 'last guy.' It's a new position."
Kunsel frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. His dad briefly glanced at him with a smile then looked back at the road just as quickly.
"Dad. What did you do?"
His dad laughed, "I didn't have to do anything. I was actually aiming to get you medically retired when Veld said Director Lazard already had something in the works for you."
Kunsel crossed his arms over his chest which he knew his dad would raise an eyebrow at. Which he definitely did.
"Just be who you are Selly. Security will fall in line in no time," Kunsel Sr. attempted to reassure his son. Something Kunsel appreciated, but he wasn't really sure his dad was right. Mainly because his dad knew who he'd trained Kunsel to be, but he didn't actually know who Kunsel was. So he shrugged.
"Yeah. Maybe."
At least he'd get away from his dad for a while.
"I want three things to be very clear to you SOLDIER Third Class. One. Heidegger does not want you here. Two. I do not want you here. Three. My troops do not want you here. Do you understand S3C Kunsel?"
"Yes General," Kunsel nodded, standing at parade rest.
"Good. I accept that you are staying in the barracks. I accept that you're eating in the mess. I don't care what you do during the day. Besides that, just stay out of way. Now get out."
"Yes General," Kunsel repeated. He swiftly turned and walked out the door, ignoring the man muttering obscenities behind him.
That... That had gone about as well as he expected. Better really. He hadn't known what kind of tensions to expect, but that just seemed like generalized distaste for having to work with a different branch, not necessarily anything against SOLDIER itself. Only time and interacting with the troopers could really confirm that.
Which if he was limited to interacting in the barracks and the mess then he'd have to observe both for traffic analytics. He doubted he'd actually get access to internal assignments so he'd have to observe the quartermasters too. That was easily one to two weeks worth of work.
Two weeks which could very easily have been an hour or two if he'd actually been given any access... Any access at all.
But no. He'd have to figure out how this place ran before he could start figuring out what needed to be addressed and what exactly he was supposed to be really doing here.
Two and a half weeks of work actually... Not one or two. He'd very much underestimate just how big the operations in Junon were.
Two and a half weeks and zero communications from SOLDIER or Security. He could have been taking a vacation for all they seemed to care, but after his time in the hospital Kunsel had been downright bored.
On day one he'd realized why there were 'tensions' between Junon's Infantry and SOLDIER. It had been pretty easy to tell simply because of how many empty beds there were.
On day two he'd visited the library for the past few weeks worth of news papers and discovered that The entire 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Junon infantry had been completely wiped out in the same battle Kunsel nearly died in. Wutai and not Scarlett, was being blamed... But there were a few op eds Kunsel felt surprised to see actually made it to the presses blaming SOLDIER.
On day three he started keeping an eye on foot traffic in the mess.
On day four he quickly realized he needed to keep his helmet on. The troopers ignored the quiet SOLDIER reading a book in a helmet. They did not ignore a very deformed man showing off battle scars that any non enhanced human would have died from.
On days five through twelve he monitored traffic and gossip in the mess and the barracks. On days thirteen through eighteen he'd gotten an understanding of both weekend and weekday supply distributions.
He now knew the general supply requirements and rotations, albeit not the locations or routs for standard operations. He also knew almost all the major gossip regarding a significant portion of the NCOs.
There were significant holes in coverage from what he could tell and the next batch of recruits wouldn't be ready for another two and a half weeks... Even then it really should have been more like six. But Shinra needed the bodies, and as long as they followed orders, the COs really didn't need expertise or cohesion.
All in all, once that next batch came in 'tensions' would probably die down on their own.
He'd written a report and sent it back to Lazard saying as much on day fourteen. He'd still not heard anything. At that point Kunsel accepted he wasn't on a real mission, he was in a watered down Witness Protection program. Protection from Scarlet and protection from Science.
Where that actually left him... Well... On day eighteen he decided to start making friends with people he had the most black mail... Er... Heard the most gossip about.
Private Hale Parin - Born and raised in Under Junon. His mother was head housekeeper at the under junon inn and his dad was a deadbeat out of work fisherman too stuck in the old days to move on. Hale and his father were probably of no consequence but Hale's mother would likely be someone worth meeting. No one paid attention to the housekeepers.
Corporal Major Command - currently 17, but an orphan at 14, both parents died of mako overdose and he could have gone the same way, instead he'd decided get clean and screw the entire military command structure with his legal name, messing with a very old, very outdated database. The guy had way more permission than he should and no one could fix it... Not legally anyway. Sadly he didn't have the skills to make use of it but he could, and had gotten into places he shouldn't. Others had taken advantage of the mans unsuspecting access, Kunsel would rectify that as best he could... While also taking advantage of it.
Sergeant Annie Sholes - Annie's parents ran a bookshop in Kalm... Or they had anyway. Kalm had been blown to bits a year prior when her parents had been in Junon to visit her. Kunsel wasn't sure what had actually happened in Kalm, he just knew it wasn't what was officially reported.... And apparently so did Annie's parents who now had a new bookshop in Junon. That bookshop promoted... Free thinking books. He was almost positive the Turks were already keeping an eye on them, but it wouldn't be a bad connection to make.
Kunsel Started with Hale, he may have had the attitude that came with anyone who lived in under junon, but he was a newbie, he didn't have any connections to the lost infantries and he liked homemade food. Kunsel made nice and got himself invited for a weekend to meet the mom. Marie, Hales mom had him take his helmet off to get a good look at him. She believed his tale of being disgruntled with Shinra for sticking him out in Junon with ease.
That cemented under junon.
About a week later he visited the Sholes bookstore and bought something written by Bugenhagen. Annie 'caught' him reading it where he knew she would and no one else. The roof of the barracks.
That got him into the crows nest, a small village to the north that currently had a spark to become a much bigger thorn in Shinra's side than even he'd initially realized.
That unintentionally got him introduced to his third mark. The Corporal. He had no idea Annie was using him for access she didn't have yet, and Kunsel at his current rate hadn't planned on doing anything to actually revoke it, but he did nab the mans ID after he'd drunk a little too much.
Five weeks for a few hours worth of work.
Kunsel didn't get any sleep that night but he did get everything he needed.
Admittedly the extra weeks came with added advantage of making external contacts he wouldn't otherwise have. He wasn't complaining about that in the slightest.
He started with the most voracious gossips, told them that Heidegger was the one to chose those infantry groups from Junon but pulled the COs from Midgar because Junon's CO's had been dealing with a massive wildfire.
The second of the gossips he'd let slip that Junon had never changed their directional colors from the old republic because the database had never been fully converted. The Midgar COs had giving the direction to give forward and to the right in the battle, but Junon's troops thought that meant slowly forward.
To the third biggest gossip he mentioned that the guns were experimental and hadn't been fully tested.
On day 37 all three bits of information collided into a massive perfect storm.
On day 39 Kunsel stood in front of Lazard and Heidegger as they arrived to meet General Hammer.
Kunsel stood at attention and Lazard stopped briefly to address him, "Excellent work Kunsel."
"Thank you sir!"
"Yes, we'll be watching your career with great interest," Heidegger added before continuing on. Lazard huffed but reached out a hand, which Kunsel took and shook.
"Good to meet you face to face. Even better to know Sephiroth's intuition was not misplaced."
Kunsel tilted his head to the side not entirely sure what that meant. Lazard winked then clapped the back of his hand in their handshake before letting go and continued after Heidegger before Kunsel could ask.
The hell?
Kunsel relaxed when both directors were out of site, but he looked in the direction they'd gone with a sliver of apprehension he couldn't put a finger on.
He shook his head and thought about getting desert for breakfast as a reward for himself before he realized his dad had snuck up on him.
"Hey Selly."
Kunsel hung his head.
Or not.