D.M.W.
A/N: I forgot to include a disclaimer for the song lyrics I used in the first chapter. I don't own Good Morning Starshine, but like VII, it makes me happy.
VII is getting a remake. Real talk, I knew an announcement about VII (its twentieth anniversary is coming up!) and I based DSE in part on E3. Heavily changed this chapter due to recent events. Unfortunately, this chapter focuses more on Enkidu than other characters.
Also, please extend your thoughts and prayers to the grieving community of Charleston, South Carolina.
Chapter Two: Machination
Enkidu rushed to bring up the live camera systems on the drones, as her seven machines raced for the nearest exit to the outdoors. The six drones were much faster and mobile than the heavy Antlion machine, however they were far more vulnerable and unable to do much beyond reconnaissance.
One by one, five of the cameras came online with ease, though with slight static and limited sound. The sixth was snowy, but she could still make out the livestream. Within seconds, the drones were through the main exit of the Tuesti Robotics Building to the main courtyard of the massive Shin-Ra Science University.
The Antlion entered the dusky, hazy courtyard from the southern most building, the Tuesti Robotics Building. The main courtyard was a large expanse of fertile yards and hedges, fountains, and statues dedicated to the entire Shin-Ra Science Department. It served largely as a traffic hub, as the expanse was ringed with the major halls, labs, and workshops of the main campus of the university.
Beyond the ring of the university, were twin student dorms and housing for the faculty, professors, and lab assistants. A little west of the university, on the very edge of the plate, sat the Sector 0 Mako Reactor. And far south of the main campus, lied the rest of Sector 0.
As for the campus itself, proceeding clockwise from the rectangular Tuesti Robotics building was;
the sprawling Scarlet Volatile Materials Research Center, followed by the Hollander Biological Sciences Labs, the Crescent World Histories and Mythologies Archives, the Hojo Humanity and Administrative Building, the massive, but rarely used Gast Memorial Lecture Hall (the northern most building of the entire university and practically positioned atop the very edge of the Sector 0 plate), the Bugenhagen Technical Research Building, and the largest building of them all, the Gast Life Sciences Building.
The first thing the drones picked up were a mess of creatures and Shin-Ra security members, flanked by the elite sweeper and head series.* The Hollander Biological Sciences Labs was the most secure facility on campus bar none. It contained all manner of beasts and monsters, particularly plant specimens such as razor weeds, cactuars, and marlboros. Their resilience was a great benefit to student experiments.
Indeed, there were four or five massive marlboro specimens flying out of a massive breach in the Hollander's western wall. They each took turns breathing their putrid stench down on anything that moved on the ground. Meanwhile, the razor weeds did their irritating magic draining ability, punctuated with their signature razor attacks.
The cactuars, on the other hand, had simply chosen to escape, scattering to the four winds.
The Shin-Ra security forces responded with heavy artillery fire, easily cutting down the numerous weeds. Most were careful to avoid the miasma of poison spread by the marlboros, but an unlucky few were bogged down by the weeds and were overtaken.
"A pity Carrot isn't here..." Enkidu muttered.
She paused and quickly typed in a command for Antlion. "Antlion, destroy the plant monsters."
Within seconds, the Antlion struck a massive blow to a group of clustered razor weeds, sending the offending flora flying back into Hollander and freeing two of the security force members. The Antlion gracefully rushed another trio of weeds, effectively mowing them down.
The sweeper series used the exact same tactics, though those robots had access to live artillery and worked in conjuction with the head models. The real benefit of robot forces were their immunity to ailments that would plague human forces and it showed. An additional plus was their capability could be reduced by up to 50% and the things were still capable of finishing off mid level opponents.
Their real failing however was vulnerability to magic and inability to adjust tactics. However, the Antlion, drones, and Doodle program could change that.
The Antlion, apparently satisfied with the dwindling number of weeds, began doing what it could against the flying marlboros. It jumped, gave itself a boost with the lift system, and smacked down one of the five hard. Enkidu couldn't help but remember that Antlion had no ammunition whatsoever, so essentially its dual guns were useless. It could still use its hydraulics to shift the weapon mounts, making a semi-effective blunt weapon with the guns though.
The grounded marlboro was then mobbed by three sweepers, two alert heads, and three Shin-ra security members. It was a grisly mess of tentacles and goo by the end.
Now that was a tactic Enkidu never programmed for Antlion. It seemed to be its basic blunt strike combined with it limited lift function. She was positive that lift had been disabled for use in battle. It simply consumed too much power for active use. In essence, Doodle was working as intended.
The rest of the marlboros were quickly overcome by suppressing fire from the longer ranged security forces. In due time, the monsters were pushed back into the Hollander building, out of the view of the drones. The entirety of the robotic security forces ringed the collapsed wall, while the humans presumably wrangled the surviving escaped monsters.
Enkidu quickly directed the drones to disperse around the blast areas. Containment was breached, but what happened?
She meticulously studied the six video streams. Four were dedicated to the east and west entrances, from which a steady stream of evacuated personnel and students. All wore white lab coats, coated in varying amounts of dust or dirt and some worryingly stained a deep red.
The other delivered aerial views of Hollander. She could see a number of security personnel and machinery amassing and heading to the Hollander building.
"I guess Shin-Ra Science University is going to need its Campus Communications Officer now," Enkidu almost groaned.
An hour of "I have no information", an hour of updates, and hour of clarification on the updates awaited her.
"Standby for manual mode," she typed quickly.
Enkidu rushed over to Hollander. The landscape was filled with smoke that stung her eyes and nose. The closer she got to the damaged building the louder it got. The area grew thick with security personnel, various mecha, and curious bystanders. It was almost deafening.
Enkidu almost shook her head at the breach of protocol. In an emergency situation, all students were supposed to evacuate the campus and shelter in place at dormitory or home or business. There was always the possibility of another event occurring.
Her eyes flitted about looking for some sign of authority or at the very least a familiar face to cling to. Instead, all she saw were faceless enforcers and gawking millstones.
"Enkidu! Enkidu!"
"Fuhito!" She spun and spun and no matter the direction, she couldn't find her friend in the chaos.
Finally a pair of strong hands grabbed her panicked form in the twilight hour. She pulled the young man into a bear hug and was somewhat surprised when he hugged her back. Fuhito was usually so reserved. Polite, but reserved.
Fuhito slowly released her and whispered, "I am glad you're alright."
"Me too," she couldn't help but give him a small smile.
"Have you heard anything?"
"No, I was in Tuesti when it happened," she responded quickly, "knocked me off my feet. You?"
"I was in Gast," Fuhito answered, "I didn't feel much of anything, but I heard it."
"I don't know what's going on," Enkidu declared, "but stay by me, okay. We need to disperse the crowd."
Enkidu grabbed Fuhito's hand, and hurried closer to Hollander. In any given crisis, leadership, whether granted or assumed by force, was a difference maker. Security had acted quickly with containment, but they dropped the ball with handling the rapidly growing crowd and the distinct lack of medical aid being summoned.
She could easily wrest control of the area with Antlion's microphone, with the drones acting as amplifiers. Within seconds, she saw the Antlion still in formation with the sweepers as giant metal barriers. Fuhito hesitated at the sight of the large machine, but Enkidu urged him on.
Antlion went into a kneeling position on sight, which Enkidu boarded with ease and offering a helping hand to her friend. Enkidu took a deep breath, grabbing the small microphone hidden near the simple controls.
"Attention!" she roared.
Her voice boomed across the campus with surprising ease. Relative calm washed over the milling student body. "This is your student council Public Communications Officer, Enkidu!"
She paused again as more bystanders began to pay attention to her. "I know many of you are scared, concerned, and hurt. However, I want to remind you that we have procedures for a reason! This could potentially be a series of events!"
Once more, she paused. "I urge you to return to your homes, for your own safety and the safety of others!"
A few millers turned to leave. Fuhito shook his head and shouted to her, "These people are scared, you can't just reason with them. Scare them!"
Enkidu grit her teeth. The obvious question was how, but the answer hit her fast as lightning.
"If you people don't follow established protocol," she shouted, "this WILL go on your permanent record!"
That did the trick. Most of the student body began to disperse, though a few stayed. She flashed a fleeting smile Fuhito and turned to see the security forces in a flurry of activity. She turned to Fuhito who shrugged in response.
"What's going on?" Enkidu demanded.
"There's no need to panic!" A corporal shouted at her angrily. "Follow procedure and evacuate! No one has time to babysit."
"Can't argue that," Enkidu thought to herself, "but I can't just leave, I am responsible for acting as liaison between the student body and the university."
"I think they found something," Fuhito whispered to her in a hushed tone.
"You mean like..."
Fuhito nodded knowingly. "Its time to leave," he said firmly.
Enkidu wasn't sure what was going on, but she agreed with Fuhito. It was time to leave.
The next day, classes at Shin-Ra Science University were canceled. The university had been placed on lockdown shortly after Enkidu had escorted Fuhito home.
Enkidu spent most of the night well into the morning going back and forth between the university student council president and the university president on the phone. Mostly it the university president handing down talking points to spread among the students, which she in turn needed to give to the rest of the student council members.
And just as she preparing to wind down for the day, she heard a knock on the door of her dorm room. With a groan she wondered to the door and looked through the peephole to see a dark haired man, with slicked back hair, clad in a black suit.
"Yes," She greeted loudly.
"Miss Maria Robotnik," He greeted formally, "I am here on behalf of the official investigation of the events that happened on campus last night."
Something about the man told her his was not to be trifled with. Still she swung the door open with some amount of bravado and said, "Enkidu! I don't answer to that other name."
The man's eyes flickered briefly with amusement, but he entered the small dorm nonplussed by the statement. "Tseng of the Department of Administrative Research," he said evenly.
"Never heard of it. Can I see your badge?" Enkidu replied simply. "Your title is awfully specific, should I really be talking to you?"
The man quickly reached in his breast pocket to flash his credentials as requested. "As I am sure you're already aware of, there are some anomalies regarding the event. Its been decided that the responsibility of this investigation be given to my department."
Tseng was right. Between the reaction of the corporal the other night, the highly detailed talking points, and the involvement of this strange department, something was going on. Wouldn't this department Tseng belonged to be investigating employees of the company?
"So, the explosion of Hollander definitely wasn't an accident," she thought to herself quickly. "But the university has nothing of value. All the student projects are funded and supplied by Shin-Ra Electric Company. All the spending was handled the university's Treasury Department and all materials are distributed off campus at Shin-Ra headquarters by the Campus Public Security Division."
"Right," Enkidu said after a moment, still unsure. "What do you need?"
"Well, Miss Mar—Enkidu, I'd like to know what you saw and heard in regard to the event." The young man paused and added, "I am also told you deployed some sort of machine to scene. I'd like to see any data you recorded related to the event."
Enkidu hesitated. The handsome young man had chosen his words carefully.
"You want to see the data or destroy it?"
Tseng nodded and truthfully answered, "Both."
Enkidu fidgeted slightly. "Antlion is currently under lock and key at Tuesti. I don't feel entirely comfortable with you just activating it and going through my research. No offense."
Tseng nodded. "I am not offended. You've sunk many hours of your life into your project, its understandable. So long as you remain cooperative, I will be cooperative."
"Let's go," Enkidu stated. "I can tell you everything on the way to Tuesti."