Chapter Two: Midgar
Midgar loomed upon the horizon like a black and terrible fortress. It might have been more appealing were it not surrounded by a wasteland of dying earth. Trains could be seen coming in from all over. Most of them carried food supplies and materials to be sold in the city. It could no longer support itself on the land.
The city itself had two parts. The first was a huge plate, upon which was built bright spires. Beneath it was a sunless and drab slum, surrounded by walls.
Tifa's plan had worked perfectly.
Gongaga's reactor had been blown sky-high in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics. One which Cloud had seen from the train as they left. Now Shinra was moving troops into the area by the truckload. The lax defenses on the place had meant they'd made a clean getaway. And with the overcompensation, the next stage would be easier. The core difference was between trains in Midgar and trains going into Midgar.
Jessie Rasberry, beautiful with her hair tied into a ponytail, explained;
"See, you can't set up the kind of checking stations Shinra would like in foreign lands. The ninja villages want to be able to move covertly. But you can do it in Midgar.
"So, all the trains that are coming into Midgar can be checked at their arrival point. In our case, the No. 7 plate."
"And what makes you think they'll let us pass?" asked Cloud Strife, leaning against a wall. His sword was to one side.
"Everyone in the slums hates Shinra," said Barret. "Nobody ever talks to the police. They set up security measures on the trains that take people around to filter us out.
"But they can't do anything about who goes into the slums."
"Also," said Biggs, cleaning his gun. "Nobody goes into the slums because they want to."
"So what's the next step?" asked Cloud.
"Shinra corporation has a lot of money and a lot of power," said Barret. "But they ain't got no tactical sense. When they have a problem, they throw money at it until it goes away. If that doesn't work, they throw money at mercenaries until the problem is dead.
"It's what they did to North Corel and to Nibelheim and other places.
"If we hadn't blown that reactor, sooner or later, the Shinra would have done the same thing to Gongaga."
"So what's the next step?" asked Cloud.
"Shinra corporation lost a lot of money out there," said Barret. "So they'll spend a lot of troops to clamp down. Maybe check for an invasion or a takeover, and they'll spend even more money.
"We'll get into the slums unchecked. Once we do that, Avalanche is gonna hit the No. 7 reactor while the troops are being transferred."
"In the upper plate?" asked Cloud. "You're going to attract a lot of heat that way."
"Sure," said Jessie. "But if we manage to blow it up, it'll cost them a lot of money."
"Shinra has money to burn," replied Cloud.
"Not as much as you think," said Wedge. "Building a reactor takes a lot of money. And that reactor blowing up is going to attract a lot of negative attention. A lot of people are going to be waking up to what Shinra is doing.
"Fighting off that could cause them problems.
"And, it's not as simple as rebuilding the reactors. They also have to rebuild the machines nearby that got fried. Also, since they have to rebuild, they have to negotiate contracts and pay off judges.
"People don't like Shinra as much as they used to. It'll be a lot harder. Plus, moving all those troops will leave other areas weaker. We've got some friends who are looking for opportunities to get even."
"You know you're all going to die, right?" asked Cloud as they pulled into the station.
"Probably," said Barret, pulling aside the door to the cargo compartment. He leaped out into the shadowed view of the train graveyard. "Come one; we'll take a roundabout route."
Cloud stepped out and retrieved his Buster Sword first. Brushing a strand of hair from his eyes, he shrugged. "Why do you need me for this, anyway?"
"The next reactor is gonna be better guarded," said Jessie. "We're gonna need all the help we can get to wreck that one. You were in SOLDIER, after all."
"Yes, obviously," said Cloud.
He remembered the rush from the trees into the Gongaga, checking the clock again under cover of night. Then he remembered standing guard, waiting as everyone went in and set the charges. It had taken a lot of work, but they'd managed to do the job in less than ten minutes and get out. The charge went off, and they were long gone by the time it did.
One thing that his time in basic had taught him was discipline, and he'd been able to get these three skilled. The real problem was numbers, not people.
Then again, maybe it was people. It had been a long time since Nibelheim.
All around Cloud, he saw a graveyard of trains. A long time ago, Cloud had heard a theory that trains were the future. You went farther and farther ahead into your future when you got on a train. But if trains were the future, then this yard was perhaps symbolic of the world as a whole.
A graveyard of broken trains. You could repair them, but why bother when you could just assemble a new one? It would take care and love to fix these trains. And Shinra corporation had no love to give. And above, you could see the metal sky, supported only by a single, central pillar. And if you looked outward, there was only the wastes: the polluted sky and the train tracks leading from a good world to a hell. Granted, the Land of Rain had never exactly been fertile; that was why Shinra had appealed. There hadn't been a lot of fields to ruin.
But it didn't change the facts.
Mankind had once rushed toward the future.
Now they were there, and there was nothing left. There was no shining utopia or greater meaning at the end of the road of progress and profit. The great shining hope of the future had been a train to nowhere.
But neither could they go back.
Even if you were to make the journey back along the tracks to the old paths of wonder and religion, it did not matter. Science had defiled them too for the profit of a few obscenely rich men. The Mako springs, once wonders of the world, had been destroyed. Now they were replaced with reactors that did the job better.
Riding a chocobo took a lot of skill and a keen relationship with the animal. But a car could take you places faster with less work. Birds used to be the wonder of mankind.
Once, man looked up and saw a bird flying;
"Ah," said man. "If only it could be so."
Now it was so, and flying was no longer special. The custom-designed airships that had been a source of wonder were no more. They were replaced by mass transit systems that could be easily regulated. The customs were miserable; the quarters were cramped.
As for the airships, what of the airships?
The majesty of Setzer, the sky pirate, was no more. People who owned private airships didn't use them to rescue damsels or raid castles. They used them to take cruises from one luxury resort to another. As a point of fact, most of the super-rich that had come about in Shinra's reign didn't use them.
They bought an airship as a status symbol, as a way of making themselves feel special. Meanwhile, everyone else died of poisoned water or were murdered. Simply because it was more convenient than not murdering them, entire forests were laid to waste as vast lands were strip-mined for every last bit they could get.
Cloud looked up. He wondered how the world would react if a meteor descended and killed everyone here.
Getting killed by a meteor might be a relief.
The promises of religion weren't coming true anytime soon. The humanist utopia had never been anything but a fantasy. And even if the world could be fixed, Cloud wasn't sure he wanted to live in it. A self-destructive final bloodbath might be preferable to the inevitable slide into nothingness.
But, in the end, they got to the Seventh Heaven.
And so it was that Cloud saw Tifa Lockhart again for the time in days.
It was uh...
Breathtaking.
Tifa Lockhart could be described as a supermodel. Assuming you wanted to raise the bar so high that no one would ever be able to reach it. She had long, brown, lustrous hair, tied up behind her with a red bow. Her hips were wide, very wide, and her waist was thin, while her legs were long and toned. Her eyes were red and bright, and her skin was without imperfection.
Oh, and also, she had absolutely gigantic breasts, and you had to keep your eyes off them, or you'd get locked on. Oh damn, he had, so he moved away from her immense cleavage and focused on what she was doing. At present, she was cooking hamburgers at the bar while other people were drinking and eating.
Looking back, she saw them and smiled.
"Everyone," said Tifa. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to shut down early. Something has come up. I'm going to put some tables outside so you can finish your meals in peace.
"Feel free to use the radio, but please remember to put it all by the door when you're done. Cloud, Barret, could you and the others please help me put these out."
Cloud reluctantly took a folding chair and took it out with the others. Pretty soon, they'd put out a radio and chairs. As he came back, he looked at her. "Are you sure someone won't snatch it?"
"Of course they won't, Cloud," said Tifa. "They are good people, I'm sure."
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you easily destroy them, all would it?" asked Cloud.
"Well, it might have something to do with it," admitted Tifa. "How did it go?"
"What is this, a field trip?" asked Cloud. "We blew up a Mako Reactor and shut down the power grid for the entire region of Gongaga. The explosion probably blew a bunch of innocent civilians to bits."
"Did you get caught?" asked Tifa.
"No," said Cloud. "The guards pulled out the second they saw us coming. We made a clean getaway without seeing anything.
"I really don't feel like I paid you back yet."
"Well, that's unfortunate, but this is a war, and the planet is dying," said Tifa. "Still, I'm glad you'll still be with us. The next one is going to be a lot harder. Feeling up to it?"
"Obviously," said Cloud. "What's the next target?"
"Not here," said Tifa. "Barret should explain everything where it's safe."
Barret and the others got back. Immediately they moved over to a pinball machine in the corner. A few movements on it, and it shifted downward.
"A pinball machine?" asked Cloud. "Really."
"Most people who come to this bar don't do it for pinball," said Tifa, stretching in a wave that sent her bosom bouncing.
"Fair enough," said Cloud. "Are you coming?"
"I'm not involved in the operation," said Tifa. "And the 7th Heaven is still good cover for our operations. Barret is the one who developed the tactical plan. I haven't looked at any of the data for that stage of the operation.
"It'll make it easier if I get interrogated by a Yamanaka."
"Fine," said Cloud. "When are you going to start joining operations?"
"When my presence is more useful in the field than here," said Tifa.
Cloud nodded and went over to the pinball machine. Then he pressed a few buttons, and it descended. Barret was below in what looked to be a command room. He was shuffling through papers as he did so.
"Took your sweet time, did ya?" asked Barret.
"I was working out the details of my contract with Tifa," said Cloud. "I'm on for another mission."
"Good," said Barret. "Then here's the job." And he tossed him a pamphlet. "Figure out how to do it on your own. If you need anything, tell me."
Cloud opened the scroll and read through it. "The water supply?
"You want to put a pathogen into the water supply of Midgar. Why? And why this one? Do you know what the kill rate on this kind of pathogen is?"
"Exactly what we need it to be," said Barret. "I've got the exact dose necessary, and Wedge wrote up the ideal place."
"This place is probably going to be very well-guarded," said Cloud. "The water treatment plants for Midgar have the water for everyone in it. Why would you want to waste my skills on a useless gesture like this?
"It's not going to do you any good."
"Because you aren't part of the group," said Biggs. "See, if one of us does it, everyone in the slums will know we did it. The various criminal groups that own the districts will trace the job to us.
"We'll be culpable for what happens next."
"Why would they care?" asked Cloud. "This isn't going to do anything."
"But it could do something if there was a different pathogen," said Barret. "The point of the operation is making the Shinra afraid. And people will do anything when they are afraid.
"And I know what they'll do.
"You want to know more; stick around for the next mission."
"Fine, have it your way," said Cloud. "But I expect to be well-paid for the next operation."
How the hell was Barret Wallace going to bring down the Shinra Corporation with orange juice?