Chapter One
Escaping The War
Deepground. A top-secret military organization created by Shinra Electric Power Company headed from the secretive Mako Reactor Zero beneath the Shinra Headquarters. Originally the Deepground was a medical division for wounded SOLDIER members for them to recover and be back in tip-top shape to fight. Now it’s been turned into a secret prison for human experimentation to replace the existing SOLDIER program with stronger, unquestionably loyal candidates. Constructed and hidden from the world under the order of President Shinra to create an army of superhuman warriors without morality clouding their judgment. The only individuals who would come to be allowed to know of Deepground's existence at the time would be Heidegger, Scarlet, Professor Hojo, and President Shinra himself. This is the tale of one of Shinra’s superhuman experiments as she soon finds that her fight will continue even off the field of war.
It happened in what could be estimated as seconds. There Emma was, running through the midst of chaos on the battlefield between Shinra and Wutai. The field was riddled with bodies of both Wutai and Shinra Soldiers as the soldier of the deepground made her way through the battlefield. Dodge hail of bullets, magic, and explosions caused by either the machines being destroyed by the Wutai soldiers or the machines causing said explosions. Either way, it didn’t matter to her. Right now all she could think of was to get to the rendezvous point.
As she landed on the other side of the gap that led to the city, the sound of gunfire from Shinra soldiers and the local military echoed throughout the dead streets of Wutai. Clouds of dust rise from the ground and cover the area of the city in a thick fog. However, her helmet had the means to see through the smoke thanks to Shinra technology. Suddenly a bleep on her motion sensor, something was approaching from the street just up ahead. From what she could pick up from her helmet, it was the soldiers of Wutai
Taking cover behind a knocked-over and beaten vending machine, she hid hoping to have them pass by. She stayed motionless as they got close to her spot; she dared to look out after her initial glance from before. The green dots on her motion sensor in her hamlet showed them getting closer but not moving in any sort of flanking maneuver. Most likely they’re oblivious to her presence. As they moved closer to the vending machine, she began to feel anxiety and breathing began to get faster.
This wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened to her. But given how she’s more of a medical and support type soldier, stealth is not her forte for the most part. They seem to not take note of her as they pass her spot. From what she could see as they passed her, the Wutai soldiers weren’t the best geared and didn’t even have visors that had heat-seeking or anything to move through the fog. Hence why they were moving slowly, not tripping and getting injured trying to go faster or be caught by Shinra soldiers. It was unlikely they could see her unless they were skilled at sensing people without the use of materia. Simple soldiers would be blind to their surroundings without a drone or scouts. Neither of which this group showed.
Once they were far enough away and she was clear, she moved out of cover and began to move swiftly through the thick fog until she reached a clearer section of the city. She needed to reach the rendezvous point that had been set up on the far side of the city. For that, she needed to continue moving forward. Turning she moved down the streets of Wutai, after reaching the bridge connecting to the main street she took cover behind a building as more Wutai soldiers got closer. Unlike the previous group, they were moving in a well-ordered formation and had better armor. The group paused upon seeing their leader raise his hand as he spoke.
“We know you’re hiding, dog of Shinra. Come out now or else you will be killed.” He said which caused Emma to slowly move back away from the corner she was hiding behind. “Fine then.” With that, the soldier that was following him quickly pulled out a grenade from his belt and quickly tossed it over to where Emma was hiding. The deepground soldier’s eyes widened upon seeing this as she quickly barrels rolled out of the way as the grenade exploded. She was then spotted by the soldiers of Wutai who aimed their polearm weapons at her. In retaliation, she quickly pulled out an assault rifle from the holster on her back and aimed at the soldiers.
“So that’s what you look like?” said one of the male Wutai soldiers that looked at Emma up and down. From what he can tell, the female soldier was wearing a black long sleeve shirt, with shoulder armor on her right shoulder, a cloth wrapped around her waist, baggy pillow-like pants, metal boots, and a helmet with only one lens like eye on it. It was noticeable that parts of her getup were glowing. Specifically, the glowing blue lines on her arms, the abdomen area that runs underneath the armor chest plate she had on, the cloth part around her waist, her legs, and the toes of her boots. “Never seen this type of soldier before.”
“Could be a new type of soldier that Shinra made. Wouldn’t be surprised given the intel we got from our spies within the company.” Another soldier said as one of them was about to throw a shuriken at Emma. Before he could get a shot off, she aimed with her rifle and fired bullets into them. To her misfortune, the bullets only either grazed their skin or hit their non-vital areas on their body. That alerted the rest of the Wutai soldiers as they quickly charged at the deepground soldier As they charged at Emma, she quickly turned around and darted down the streets in an attempt to escape them.
“Attention all soldiers in the area!” cried out one of the Wutai Soldiers, “Surround her and take you as a hostage!”
“Yes sir!” They yelled before more began to join in on the chase. One the enemy quickly closed in on the other side of her and attempted to hit her in the face with the butt end of his weapon. Emma leaned back and grabbed the end of the weapon. Upon grabbing it, she quickly pulled her assault rifle, quickly fired bullets into his chest area, and killed him instantly. Ember then turned and tossed the dead Wutai soldier’s weapon at an oncoming soldier’s head and cut it clean off. A shot came off from a Wutai soldier from behind and nailed her in the shoulder with a throwing star, but the armor on her shoulder shielded her flesh and took the hit.
The deepground soldier gritted her teeth from the slight pain she felt from the force behind the throwing star as she brought her rifle up. She soon felt another throwing start hit her shoulder once again. Though in doing so, it did, however, screw up her shot and caused her to nail one of the enemies in the head.
“Shinra bastard! You’ll pay for that!” A female soldier yelled as she threw a grenade at Emma. The deepground soldier’s eyes widened as she jumped out of the way of the grenade just as it exploded unlike the last grenade, this was a more advanced grade of grenade and despite not getting blown to bits she was sent flying into a stone wall. Even with her helmet on, Emma’s ears ringing from the explosion set off, despite her helmet it was like everything was farther away and her movement was now slowed. The deepground soldier staggered to her feet and moved away from a parade of fireballs heading towards her location. The moment she exited the building she was sent flying into, she aimed and started to fire upon the enemy of Wutai as they quickly took cover.
“I don’t have time for this. I need to get to where the others are so we can put an end to this war.” She thought as her sensors picked up the Wutai soldiers surrounded her in a circle-like formation to block her path, but kept their distance. Emma quickly placed her rifle back onto her back holster before pulling out a slim-looking longsword that was the length of an adult human.
“You’re surrounded, dog. Give up now and we’ll let you live as our prisoner in our negotiation with Shinra to free their citizens.” The leader said as he aimed his weapon at her. “Don’t throw your life away for monsters like them. Better yet, why not join us?” He asked as it took Emma and the others by surprise. “We may not be able to pay you, but we can provide you with food and other means if you work for us.”
“...Tempting offer. But I can’t. Not unless you’re able to save my family from being killed by Shinra?” Emma asked as she noticed the leader of the squad lower his head slightly. “Not everyone has a choice in whether to work with Shinra or not. Especially if they pique their interest. So I’m going to have to decline your offer.”
“A pity then. Everyone! Kill the soldier. Make sure you take her gear once she’s dead!” He ordered as his squad quickly rushed Emma in an attempt to impale her with their weapons.
“Sorry, but I prefer not to have Heidegger or Hojo piss off at me and take it out of my paycheck!” Emma said as the blue and green materia in her sword glowed as lightning developed around her sword. She soon brought her sword up before impaling it into the ground as she let loose a Thundara spell upon them from the ground. From what she could tell, she was able to get all six Wutai soldiers, but their leader was able to escape as he jumped into the air at the last second.
Emma quickly pulled herself from out of the ground as she quickly deflected a Fira spell off to the side before blocking the leader’s polearm from colliding with her head. The two staggered in trying to dominate over the other, but the deepground soldier was having problems keeping her footing. She quickly moved her sword down as she felt the blade part of the polearm slide off her sword, giving her the chance to lunge towards him and impale her sword through his heart. Though upon trying to do so, she felt her blade bounce off of the leader’s chest plate as the deepground soldier staggered backward.
The leader took notice of this as he quickly spun his polearm around in a spinning motion before hitting her side with the blade part of his weapon. Emma gritted her teeth from the pain she felt from the force behind the swing as she was sent off tumbling off to the side. The girl quickly recovered once she felt herself stopping, but was soon sent flying backward by the butt end of his polearm. Emma felt herself being sent through the window of a nearby building and crashed onto what she could guess was a slot machine. Upon hitting it, the slots on the machine spun for a good few seconds before stopping on all lucky seven as Gil spilled out from it onto her.
“I’ll have to make a mental note to come back to this place after we win this.” Emma thought as she pulled herself up. Once she was standing her sensors picked up the squad leader heading her way. “And of course, he’s after me. I don’t have time for this.” The fire began to flow into her hands as she kneels and slams her fist into the ground. Once it made an impact with the carpet, it soon burst into flames before covering the rest of the area like a flood.
“Hiding behind the flames won’t help you!” The man said before taking a deep breath and unleashing a flood of blue-colored bubbles into the building. Emma’s eyes widened upon seeing this as she was once again sent flying backward through the wall behind her and out into the opening. The deepground soldier tumbles backward before quickly recovering and using her sword to stop herself from sliding backward.
“There’s no hope of you winning. Give up now and I won’t have to kill you.” The leader said before walking carefully towards Emma. The moment the deepground soldier noticed the Wutai Soldiers that she thought were killed regrouping towards their leader.
“You have got to be kidding me!?” Emma thought as she slowly backed away from the group cornering her. Though in doing so, she almost lost her footing as she felt herself slipping a bit. Catching herself, she soon looked behind herself to see that there was an empty chasm behind her. “And it just keeps getting worse.”
“This is your last chance. Surrender now and we’ll let you live.”
“Again, not an option in my chasm,” Emma said before raising her sword at the soldiers of Wutai. “I told you before. Unless you can save my family, then I have nothing else to say.”
“Then I am sorry for doing this.” The leader ordered his squad to back away. Once they were at a safe distance, the leader’s weapon began to glow with a light blue aura forming on the blade part of the polearm. The man soon tossed his weapon up into the air as Emma looked up to see him grabbing it and descending towards the ground. His weapon is soon impaled into the ground. There was the sound of earth crackling as the ground around Emma erupted as the leader used Quakaga and sent her flying off the ground and into the darkness of the chasm. As the leader watched Emma fall into the chasm, he turned his attention towards his squad. “Three of you go down there and see if she’s alive. If she’s dead, retrieve the armor, weapons, and materia that she has on her.” He ordered, as the other Wutai soldiers scattered, and headed down into the chasm. While the Wutai soldiers were busy making preparations to head into the chasm, Emma was currently falling through the darkness of the chasm. The deepground soldier’s mind was racing a mile a second to figure her way to survive the fall.
“Emma Rosemary, age thirty-nine, born in a small town in Midgar. Her career was to grow up to be a scientist for Shinra to try to make the city of Midgar a better place until she was made into a super-soldier and thrown off of a cliff! That’s right! No heroic death! No fighting evil monsters! Death by falling!” Emma yelled as she was frantically trying to figure out a way to escape her sudden death. “This is crap! I didn’t go through all that training just to end up dead!” She said before an idea appeared in her head. Emma quickly recovered from her spinning fall as raised her hand downwards. Soon a green aura developed her hand before covering her body.
“Please let this experimental materia work. Escape!” She yelled as a portal appeared below her. The deepground soldier closed her eyes due to a flash from the magic she cast before her vision faded into darkness.