submarine

[Mercen-X]

You can use Steal Materia to retrieve Shinra Alpha (armor) from each of the soldiers.

shinra alpha armour sucks and i usually get it in a previous battle anyway but thanks for all your answers.(i prefer to take hostage instead of killing.)

Actually, you can only steal a Shinra Alpha from the Captain. You can steal two other Shinra Alphas in the Reactor, though, from the Underwater MPs (tan-uniformed guards).

In any case, it's totally possible to steal up to 99 Shinra Alphas from the Soldier: 1sts on the stairway before you fight Hojo in Midgar.

They're the soldiers who taught Cloud how to march during the first visit to Junon, and "Rufus's Welcoming Ceremony" plays when you fight them, and it's all very heartbreaking and god I just can't do it.

Exactly. That's the point of the victory move they mention if you do fight them. Like Kishi, I just take them hostage. You do get potential extra dialogue if you let them live; one basically says that he's glad to be a hostage, while the other notes that he's too incompetent to work the submarine. If I recall correctly, the Captain is at an angle where it's impossible to talk to him.

Um, yeah, I never said the reward was good, and yeah, I kind of had the feeling it was only the captain which makes it even more worthless. I only killed them in my first playthrough and it depressed me to hear the music. In fact, I reloaded that game and took them hostage instead. It's long since been erased but whatever.
Funny, I was depressed about killing these Shinra soldiers but felt nothing bearing witness to Aeris being skewered. Hmm.

Also if you lose the sub battle (by crashing your sub into all the mines and missiles) you'll kill off the soldiers anyway. I think you'd feel less depressed about killing the soldiers who guard the other sub. You can still take them hostage, in fact, I think you can take more of them hostage since they're all distracted by the dog (if you keep it). It's been a while since I tried.